Walking 'Strong Podcast: Rhett Lashlee’s Origin Story - From High School Phenom to SMU head coach

hey everybody I'm Lauren Lashley and today I have the special honor of introducing a very special guest he is a husband incredible father to four crazy kiddos um but he's also the head football coach of your SMU Mustangs Rett Lashley and then you know our host Billy embody and Bill Armstrong for the walking strong podcast and we're coming to you from coach lashley's office and as you can see behind us we've got some of smu's great on the wall behind us and he's had the opportunity to coach some of these guys so anyways I'm going to give it to youall now this is the on the Pony Express podcast hosted by Billy embody brought to you by epic estate wines walking strong on the Pony Express a weekly segment with SMU Alum owner Bitner of Epic estate wines Bill Armstrong epic estate wines world class wines from paser Wine Country learn more epic EP epic wines.com and now your host and now your host [Music] ody I love it very good that was just a great introduction best introduction I've ever gotten it's prob might have been better than you deserved I got to say 100% 100% better than I all right we're gonna drink some wine and I I want to billly can I just like shark yeah so what I'm really psyched about today and this is for Mustang Nation because it's because everybody always asks Rhett the same questions you know what's the season going to be like what's the season going to be like you know how fall Camp you know who's injured you know how's recruiting going tell me about the transfer portal blah blah blah but I don't think Mustang Nation knows your backstory I mean they know briefly your backstory about when you were Hero's office coordinator they went to M then you came back but I mean you you were kind of the real deal when you were growing up I mean okay so uh tell me about grew up in Northwest Arkansas little town called Springdale Y which is not far from fville they run into each other they run into each other and you met your wife who was in Rogers you met her at at Arkansas yeah and uh and then but you went to was it Shiloh Christian Academy MH so uh like a k through2 private school yep and uh what's that it wasn't when I went there I went in kindergarten we never won a state championship now we got double digit state championships well see I love that but theam well G showed up so uh when did you when did you realize you were like this a really good by the way this is the only Ros I drink and it's the best thank you so much so great um it's a good question um not good at answering that too much so I did I grew up in Springdale and if you're familiar with Northwest Arkansas fatal Springdale Rogers bville they all run together bville is where Walmart is I actually was born at the fille hospital but I grew up in Rogers for six years okay my parents forc when I was three my mother remarried who I consider my dad Phil who you've met and he lived in Springdale so we moved to Springdale when I was seven and so I just played every sport there was I don't know if that's any good or not but I love playing I love competing so then you really didn't play much football until sixth grade like there was kanan's kids day you play two games first through fifth grade well sixth grade comes sixth and seventh grades Youth Center football and Springdale was a football town like Springdale high school was the traditional power in the state of Arkansas right old traditional a w but that's the big Public School the big public school that's where yes where um we'll get to probably in a minute but so they're having the draft for sixth and seventh grade football league the youth center league and I'm a sixth grader and I didn't know it at the time you asked the question I guess I was one of the few kids who could really throw it in the city because I got drafted first as a sixth grader only because I could throw at it's a sixth gr and you know that was probably the first time I got some confidence like oh maybe I can throw I didn't you know and so I played that year I don't know if it was any good then go to seventh grade well I'm at Shiloh Shiloh first started playing football in the seventh grade that year so instead of playing the youth center League again I was going to play for my school and that so happened to be the same year that a guy named Gus maon came to be the head coach at Shiloh and a guy named Chris Wood came to be the junior high coach in his OC and so I hit it off with honestly Chris first because he was going to coach seventh through ninth grade football and I'll just never forget we were out throwing uh on the side at a high school 7 on seven one day and me and some of the guys were throwing and they're like man you can really throw it you throw it well and you know by eth grade we were running no huddle and throwing it around and no kidding um yeah I mean you know you gain a little confidence so Gus that's what did for you he he taught you that wide open style you know Pro Set every time shotgun yeah so Gus miles on chriswood they they are probably the two biggest reasons I coach and they still confidence in me as a young kid now look as an eighth and nth grade back then eth and nth grade was Junior High they played together at least in Arkansas so I was the backup I was the eighth grader I was the backup to a ninth grader second game of the year he tears his ACL so I get thrown in there and I'm scared to death huh like these dudes on the other side like had beards and stuff and I didn't have facial hair of course yeah and in the same game our running back broke his leg so my buddy Nick Floyd has to jump in as a running back so two eighth graders in the backfield on a ninth grade game and we're just like and we had to grow up fast and we ended up going six and two the rest of the way after that game we got destroyed but then we played well which then led us into our ninth grade year where we went undefeated and that was probably the first time that the confidence really grew going into high school where then I was competing as a sophomore to be the starter on the VAR the team which by the way your high school statistics nobody really knows this but they're phenomenal still the number one record in Arkansas I think he had 171 touchdown passes as a sophomore you threw for like 675 yards in one game or something I mean that's still like maybe top 10 nationally ever yeah and uh then you went to the state championship three years in a row won two of the three your record is a high school quarterback 43 and two I still I think still is the Arkansas record so I mean that's really spectacular and it was it like were you just tossing the ball every play we were we were I threw it 71 c times in a game twice no way 71 times once as a sophomore once as a senior the game I threw for 672 which at the time was the national record it was we did throw it 71 times and we weren't stopping them so we won 70 to 64 in in the quarterfinals it really did someone asked me after we beat Houston 7763 have you ever been a game like this I'm like well kind of one time you know and um but we did we we had a fun wide openen offense nobody was no huddling there was Gus in Arkansas there was Art BRS in Texas and that was really it and um and so to get to be a part as a player was fun it makes you love the game it's exciting um and we did we threw it all became a big deal they took we went to five straight state championship games and you know one um like you said two out of three my three years just had the best memories in the world and we did though we had great we didn't have a lot of college players we just had great dudes that we we had a good team and and did yeah I mean 171 touchdowns at the time it was really cool I think quarterfinals of my senior year I we threw that one which broke the National Record at the time now Chris Elite came by a few years later and broke it but I'll say he started as a freshman so okay okay but records are made to be broken but word of note though and they're going to take a timeout here on the field and hold red Lashley up as he has just tied the national career touchdown record broken it right you said we tied it last time that would be six if it's six it breaks it this is six he he broke it he broke it then right there let's just listen to the crowd Michael they've seen a lot of good football at the field of Champions Michael and I'll tell you what it doesn't get any better than red Lashley I tell you what unbelievable un believable Austin and he did it in a in a performance in the first half where he has gone 10 for 10 with six touchdown passes three minutes to go here in the uh the end of the first half just I've never seen anything like it four touchdown passes were oneplay series Michael grab that one well and that was such a beautiful catch by James schisler but so think about that I mean you're you're coming out of high school and do were you always going to go to Arkansas was that just like you know I don't know so I I I mean I grew up in Arkansas and if you grew up in Arkansas you want to play Arkansas right so that was home and it would have probably been hard not to but you know after junior year you're starting to go to to Georgia and Oklahoma and Tennessee on these recruiting visits and you're like okay you want to see what it's like just like kids do today sure U but yeah Arkansas was probably always in the back of your mind and um who would be who would have been your you think your your second choice if you well ironically two schools I liked and I don't I couldn't tell you why I thought were Auburn in Miami Tommy tuberville an Arkansas guy was at Auburn and B Davis was at Miami well Butch Davis's dad lived on the springo country club golf course Butch Davis went to springo high school okay my dad knows like so like there's all these connections him and John Tyson Tyson Foods went to high school together wow so you're going well yeah I'm Tyson Foods is at a spring deal right so bville Arkansas Walmart right there so I mean in a way it's just like you know Powerhouse so you like those Place well Gus left after my junior year and went to Spring to high school a big Public School chriswood became our head coach was that was that like Sunny dyes going to uh to TCU and it was it was it was tough and and I had a chance to go with him but at the end day I had all my guys that were going to be in my senior class I wanted to play with him and we were playing Springdale we had played them my junior year at Springdale and tied them they didn't have overtime in non-conference it was a big deal in the little private school tied the big bad Springdale and so the next year we played him in Razorback stadium and at the time it set the record the state record for the the largest crowd to ever watch a high school game and it I remember it because it was the Monday night it ended up being 911 was the next day so it was literally 910 01 wow and we're knock knocked you right off the front page so we're playing Springdale yeah in Razer stadium and Gus is their coach now huh and I had several schools there to watch it was a big deal and uh we just had a big game the first week of the season and I'm playing defense that game because I mean I'm calling out all Gus's plays because you know we know him and and I forget we were up we were ahead um seven to nothing and they run a reverse and I go to tackle the guy my shoulder pops out my throwing shoulder that's the first time that ever happened first time it had happened game two of my senior year so I run off the sidelines my arms dangling you whatever the guy puts it back in he's like don't move he turns around I pick up a ball and try to throw it because I'm stubborn comes out again he puts it back in and goes okay don't move and I was like so I we get the half time I can't I can't I can't throw so I play the rest of the game on defense mad we end up losing 21 to 14 wow and and that kind of start and that was on a Monday we actually had another game on Friday night and so we go all through the week it was I mean the next day was 911 it was terrible we get to the game we actually had the game I don't remember why on Friday night and and I'm not dressed out for the first time I'm like I don't know how I'm not playing but I I dislocated my throwing shoulder well we're getting beat um like 35 to nothing like that which we didn't lose much so I got ticked went in put my uniform on came out in the second half and somehow adrenaline could throw we ended up losing like 50 something to 35 five touchdown passes the second half and so at that point what I realized for the next five weeks I didn't practice and I just showed up on Friday night and played the game and wow and then what happened was you know your body's weird it wouldn't come out anymore so it got to where then all a sudden I could practice we get into the state playoffs we get all the way to the semi-finals senior year uh we beat a team at home 21 to nothing to go to state championship game well in that game I'm running out of bounds and a guy hits me late pop my shoulder out again semi-finals don't play the rest of the game but we win we're in the state champion game last game you know but doctors can do miracles to ease the pain and I played and we won and but my shoulder came out four times so I had to have it fixed after the season wow didn't get to play basketball any of that stuff seni year how when you when you got to the next level how did that impact just your mindset like knowing that that's that's there I mean like that happened to me in my final game in high school too and it y it's a I probably didn't do any any good by playing through it but hey the doctor did a good job fixing it and and so I go to Arkansas and I show up in August for for fall Camp as a true freshman well I'm still in rehab I'm not even fully cleared and it did a couple things one I tried to come back too fast I tried to throw which messed up some fundamentals and so what I did for the first time honestly is I lost confidence for the first time in my career I'd always been pretty confidence and i' like man I can't do what I want to do I can't do it how I like to do so so um and that there's a pretty good guy ahead of me probably would have played anyways Matt Jones he was pretty athletic pretty good player 66 ran a 4440 easily and he end up going into the NFL as a wide receiver but but you were backing him up as a quarterback he was such a talented player and good friend then for Smith kid right he and yeah he played basketball for Arkansas he played football for Arkansas at quarterback and then went to the NFL to play receiver like yeah with no big deal and and didn't really have to try to be really good and so uh but that you know I grew up always wanting to coach I grew up watching Bill Walsh and Joe Montana and I I grew up watching Bobby balen in his prime at Florida State and uh in the 90s and I knew if I ever stopped playing I wanton to coach I thought I did my dad Phil had been a coach before you go to Coach did did you think that you I mean like every high school kid thinking I'm going to go to the pros I was going to be Joe Montana going to be Joe Montana no you know I was a kid who played in the living room played in the backyard my monana jersey made my dad Jerry Rice running RS you're 171 touchdown pass and I was going to go to Florida State honestly that's probably Florida State's probably the one school I know didn't say earlier that at the time it sounds weird now because I don't feel that way now for a lot of reasons that I was because I grew up I grew up loving Bobby Bowen and Mark Rick oh be darn and uh but that all ended and I don't know if I would have anyways but it definitely end with the shoulder deal so uh because it does ites it's such a fine line for these awesome athletes you know where they're just like going going going you look at the guys behind us did you just use me an awesome athlete in the same sentence is an implication or were you just talking about these guys I was actually thinking about myself when I said that but then you know somehow okay my bad I misund I knew you I knew you could been talking about but you look at these guys behind you you know none of them ever really got hurt really badly you know it's just like you know you look at Shane you look at Pro Xavier I mean you know and then but it's it's a fine line between all of a sudden it your career is just going to change with a with a hit it's like life though right you can't control what happens to doubt and and sometimes certain things happen and it Alters the course and at the moment you may not know why and then later you look back and go okay I can get it when sorry when when you were at Arkansas and you you know realized Matt Jones Matt Jones did you start taking that path towards hey I know see the where where I played the first three years and I had a chance to stay as a backup be the holder and do all that kind of stuff got in a couple games like Mississippi State Tulsa I can't remember all and it was like man you know when you're a competitor and like I told you I'd lost confidence I could finish one more year I could go into coaching and I don't know if I had to do over again I might have finished the last year but after the season I'd say you know what I'm going to go get into coaching and that's when I went my last year and coached quarterbacks for Gus at Springdale High School um and then I graduated so he he hadn't gone into the college he would know and I graduated that next year he gets hired to be the OC at Arkansas well Houston nut and Gus so then they hired me as their GA and and that's how I was able to get into college coaching so what when you say ga I mean tell everybody in the world you know what a g exactly a g it's a graduate assistant it's it's for lack of a better word basically almost an unpaid intern an unpaid intern you get your school paid for but you have to go to school and work uh like I don't know 607 the hour a week job and you're going to get paid $10,000 for the year wow and you're uh how many G would on on on the team at that time you got one offensive and one defensive GA now you can have two of each so but you know that but when you get a ga job you know that's like that's a fast track into coach well believe it or not you think about like this back then there was 120 something division one head football coaches and there was also 12 something offensive gas it was exactly the same it was that rare okay so now the job didn't pay as well and it wasn't quite as glorious but it was that hard to get them and I would not have gotten it had I not played for Houston and played for Gus and had those connections got it the list of applicants would have been pretty high and I probably wasn't that qualified because think about it think about all the kids that want to become a ga you know that's the best way to get in yeah that's entry level into the coaching world at the Collegiate level okay so you're I'm sorry Billy no no you're good did did you really keep up and and say all right just like you calling him and keeping in contact with him like that and and knowing again that you're were going to maybe go into that route just for guys that are are looking right across their yeah I didn't know if the Gus would get into college or not I mean you know fortunately I had the relationship with Coach nut and his staff obviously Gus my high school coach had been just right down the road those last three or four years but yeah I mean the the best thing you can do to get it it's it's who you know not what you know which is kind of life it is but it's that way in college coaching or anything and so just no different today when I go to hire a ga like it's usually either someone I know someone who I know really well who's trust them or someone who's played for me you know same thing with our coaches and so um you know a lot of times I would tell guys if they want to play college ball even if you're a walk-on one you get to learn what it's like to be a player you understand the life you understand what it's like and then you develop that network of college coaches that one day and if if you do a good job say hey yeah I'd love to hire him well good point I mean our two offensive G right now both played here yeah Parker Stone and Tay Robinson yeah when their careers ended to injuries they got into coaching yeah another uh Bill Walsh sa John guden kind of told me the same thing I played with his son in high school and he said if you want to go into coaching one day you finish it out and and make those contacts of yeah really important stuff y all right so then you begin your Vagabond life so you're now GA you're not going to the to the NFL you know you're not going to be the next Tom Brady or the you know um you're now a g a and it's been Vagabond you know life for you I mean you've been nine coaching gigs in 20 years something like that yeah yeah I mean I feel sorry for your wife well we skipped the best part so sophomore year of college I got a little distracted well I think my wife was on the open market we're gonna we're gonna put some pictures on this uh sophomore year my wife became available and in astronomy class September of sophomore year I said why not astronomy and the Stars aligned if you know what I'm saying and R Lashley Capricorn she happened she happened to come into a 200 person class we don't have them that big here at SMU but we did there and just she didn't sit by me but I was you this was her friend and she sat right here and I realized real quickly her former boyfriend was in a class she wasn't sitting by him so I thought that's weird that was that that was found a way to work that into an early Walton boy no you're to the Walton boys we're sorry um but they're jealous of you to this day they don't have quite the stock I have I know um anyways so I worked in quickly to the it's an hour and a half class like by the way you had to when you're growing up in Ed Shiloh and I've seen pictures of Lauren you you had to have known in high schol I did actually see you know so my best friend just want to I mean Rogers is 70,000 my best friend my best friend clay who's a year older than us went to Rogers and his senior year our junior year he's like hey they weren't dating they were just friends but he goes hey I'm taking the smoking hot girl to prom I'm like really he shows he go Len Lee showed the picture la lee you're not lying bro you know la le and that's the first time I knew who she was now supposedly she had known who I was for a while well see I we don't need to go down that too long how do you be in a little small town and not know about the guy who's thrown for 672 yards in a game you know she clearly loves athletes um so I known of her right but there's a bit of an alliteration of Lauren Lee lle yeah we just added the last name she didn't have to even lose it she just added I think it's great um but talk into becoming like almost like you know like an Air Force brat or you know well that wasn't what I led with I didn't sell I'm going to be I sold with everything else made her fall for the Trap we started dating magic magic mik came out she just couldn't resist and so she knew that okay go through sophomore year junior year we're s we're gonna get married great we got engaged right as we graduated senior year but then I was going to GA and so she didn't really know what that meant yet so we were hell I didn't know until a minute ago that's true so so my first Year's GA we were engaged in 06 Arkansas we had Derek McFadden Felix Jones pton Hills we 10 and two we won the SEC West we're playing Timbo and urban Meer in Florida in the championship game coaching stuff's easy you know and we're getting married in April after the season she didn't know yet ah you kind of like yeah the meal switch it's great honey only been in the fridge an hour could have married a billionaire go with this G this kind of a mercy thing here anyway I just love it I'm sorry I I just that's true I I worked my ass off to get Lauren to join this podcast and she just she introduced this so everyone could know that I can recruit so uh let's let's talk let's talk about our journey so now we're at GA and uh Gus leads to go to Tulsa right yeah so we had the 06 season um for a lot of reasons Gus he got offered a job to be the OC at Tulsa which kind of a step down but he was going to get a chance to run his offense the way he wanted to college level he knew the head coach he' been a high school coach and so he's going and I got offered the opportunity to go as a ga at 23 second year and Coach the running backs which back then was a really big deal I mean G don't usually coach positions but it's also they didn't have a full assortment of coaches so it was going to be a you're going to get paid like a g but you get to coach like a paid coach that's a big deal at that age went over with him did the whole deal long story short spent one day over there met the head coach all that and and there was just something in my gut as we were driving back to Northwest Arkansas that just said no and it made no sense to me I still can't tell you why other than my gut said this is not it told him I don't think I'm going to do it he wasn't real happy said think about it took a few days I labored I talked to my dad my friends everyone I knew um because it was it was basically I was ending my opportunity to be a college coach if I say no to this it's so hard to get by the way that was a really bold move I mean for you to say that because you were getting out and you were out for three years I didn't really want out three years yeah I didn't really want out but I I I I knew okay once I do this it's so hard to get in I'm burning the only bridge I have I'm probably never doing this again but at the end of the day the the gut feeling I had was so strong just said not no but absolutely not I'll be darn so I said no and then a few days later realized I got to get a job which was challenging to to absorb that but I'll say this it ended up being the best thing that ever happen happened cuz we this was in febru January or February we get married in April and the first two years of our marriage basically 22 months I'm not a college coach so we weren't Army brats for your analogy earlier we we did the whole you had normal job and we had weekends off and like we just figured out how to be Newly Weds we got a dog you know we got a second dog like and a precursor to a kid you got to test drive it with a dog and I found a way to get a job doing a Sports Marketing deal and a Magazine with my my former brother-in-law and like we you know we were making enough money to like have a house we weren't rolling it but we were okay and and I realized six months were staying in sports because it was I stay in sports to state of Arkansas I was doing stuff and I knew a lot of people but six months in I knew man now Gus wasn't real happy with me we didn't talk for about three months oh no kidding he did call me later in May and said hey I just want you to know you made the right decision the scenario here would have been good so who knows had I have done that would we have stay in college coaching or would it have driven us out you know with that experience so your gut was telling you the truth I guess it worked out and uh but I still at this point don't know so after a year and a half out I'm like I got a coach I'm driving her crazy she's like you got a coach okay so I was going to go coach for my other coach Chris Wood who was a head high school coach at Springdale Harbor then she knew you were missing uh the game the boys or what what was or all well at the time I don't think I knew but coaching's my calling that's what I was me to do I don't know why that's what I was meant to do and uh me I have an idea why now but at the time I didn't know why so I was already working on how do I get I didn't have a teaching certificate I got a marketing degree from the Sam Walton College of Business ironically and like is it really Sam Walton College business and so and you could say ooh Pig suie so you're like you're super popular in AR right exactly and so could you do that call The Hop I will not do that I work at go Mustangs so um thought I would try so I was working it out to how do I get you could do some things to get certified where I could coach for Chris at harber and it was after Gus's second year till so they have back-to-back number one offenses in the country and he gets the Auburn OC job and he calls me and goes hey do you want to go and I said yes he was like should you ask your wife I'm like she'll be good but yes and uh and so she was and she knew and that's when we loaded up and went down to Auburn in 2009 with our two dogs and uh no kids yet can't I was a ga again now so you know I skipped two years so what could have been a maybe a faster track I did get set back there but it worked out and and I knew at that point though I knew no matter how hard it is or the situation it's what I'm called to do she knew that we're called to do it together and so uh that's true love I mean I it's just it's just a fantastic story she still didn't know were going to move like 10 times I don't think I get it but you know you know kind of got a little better it seemed like for us almost all of our moves have been positive moves so that's helped I mean sorry Billy interrupting you no you're good you you talked about some of the people you called when when you're driving back and you know after you made that decision the support system you have around you just talk about that and how important it is not necessarily maybe even it's important all the time but when you're a young coach and you go through those those real tough days of I don't know if this is going to work how important are those people well you have your coaching mentors at the time Gus was one of those and that was a guy I was in telling no so I couldn't really call him right uh you go through different stages of your life at that time I was so young I had mentors Jimmy Dykes who calls basketball games for ESPN he was the ad that hired Gus at Shiloh he was one Ronnie Floyd which was a pastor in the area that his kids played with me like I called some other my dad like I sought the wisdom but I'll tell you to your point more direct you have your coaching mentors and Friends uh but you have to have a circle of guys in your life and I was fortunate I had four or five guys I went to high school with that were just studs and at that time they were there for me now we've gone out and around they're still on my life but I have four or five other friends um almost like a flock of dudes we call them the flock actually like they stay with you yeah yeah the flock you know what I mean and I'm Magic Mike in the flock by way no I really am I know I know I really am the picture I mean they all we all have nicknames and I'm no Li and that's my Alias so let's get that let let be no confusion nous right now this is he's definitely worried about me and uh but you have to have those guys whether you're a football coach a wild catter you know whether you're doing podcasts and covering sports for um recruiting services and all the things you do you have to have people in your life spe specifically as men guys that you can lean on at times that'll either tell you the things you need to hear when you're out of line or that you can bounce things off to agree with you and so I've had those now that's also why I coach because the men in my life my dad Gus Chris some of my college coaches they impacted me but others the way I saw they impacted them that's why I wanted to coach because okay I get to do what I love to do um I get it's awesome like who wouldn't want to be a college or whatever coach if you can but you do you impact so many guys and you don't know at the time but then now I've done long enough 17 years like the calls you get and the guys that come back and just like some of these guys up here when they just give you a hug and say I love you coach like that's it was it was all worth it for that yeah you know and so I get it you get to you get to try to pay that back to them like others did for you MH I think it's it's brilliant I mean you look at some of these kids on theb football team I can tell they're not going to go in the NFL but they want to stay in in the game and they want to coach or whatever I think I think uh my boy prochet is once he gets out the NFL I think he he told me he's taking my job no he has he said hey have fun but just so you know when I'm done I'm being I was like okay like that doesn't sound at all like James brochet I like how about we like tag team this thing you know what I mean I'm sure James will be okay with that um he wants to take over my wi you know what it is it's it's yeah he's got high I love that I love that you know what it is a lot of the reason we do it is you learn so much through the game of football that's what people don't understand it's a sport and it I'm a teacher and to your point to some degree a mentor and a leader of men if you will but people did that for me but the sport you learned so much in tangible qualities that help you in life that you didn't even know you were learning when you did you don't know you're learning how uh you know hard work and discipline how to overcome adversity and uh how to compete how to win how to lose you know we don't allow people to lose anymore um you don't know that you're learning what it's like to be on a team to be there for a teammate to have to rely on other people and I could go on and on and on about the things you learn and sometimes you don't even know you learn them till later in life and you're just like how do I know how do I know that I agree with that and I think that's why so many guys they may tell you I don't know why I want to coach I just do because they know what the game did for them personally and they want to stay connected to that I love it I love it so um let's just quickly rapid fire go through your uh 10 SP 10 stay so Auburn s sford Sanford where where's Sanford anyway Birmingham just right up the road oh it is okay Sanford Arkansas State Arkansas State back to Auburn Auburn again Yukon for a year Yukon seems like Exile yeah that seems weird like a year in the wilderness it seems like a weird everybody's got to have an outlier that seems like an out I'm looking at your like I'm like what it was really random but you know what it ended up being one of the best 11 months for our family in our journey but then we got the day I went out and had to use a snowblower which is a snow lawn mower on 18 Ines of snow in the driveway I came back in took the gloves off said babe we're getting South fortunately a few weeks later sunny and I had the same agents at the time I got a call and I was in Dallas ATU oh so you had the same agents that helped y because we knew of each other we had met before but we never worked together so got to SMU for two went to Miami and and was a very sad day for me when you took that job at Miami but I knew we couldn't keep you because you know we hadn't really bought into the we're going to make SMU great again and they offer they they offered you like double is OC people don't I don't know if people really know what a hard day that was for us because at that point we had moved so much and we kind of a rule don't mess up happy and like we were happy we weren't chasing things at that time I mean look I got by 2013 I'd had I'd been able to coach in two national championship games like i' been on we've been on a lot of great stages a lot of Iron Bowls if you will and all these things like we weren't chasing that and we were so happier we had just won 10 games this guy was coming back yep and we're like man we're happy set so many records offens we thought we were going to be good again and so we had actually for about a month said no we turned down a few other opportunities aren we were talking about at the moment but but Manny had kept trying at Mi like no we're not interested eventually got to work come check it out we did it ended up being something that just for our family we had to do we didn't want to though like we had tears the day that I had to con say hey we're leaving I had tears that day too because we' had we didn't I mean our two years here were great and now and I'd be lying if when you leave you don't leave going okay we're going to go here it is a great prestigious school and a great opportunity but in the back of your mind you're going I do want to be a head coach someday there's not a better place than SMU from wherever we've been maybe maybe you leave and maybe one day that opportunity happens and I mean despite all despite all of the drama that happened with SUNY night in the back of my mind I always knew that if we weren't going to get into a P5 he was probably G to always like to trade up and that's why I specifically kept in contact with you while you left and I don't do that with almost nobody and uh but I mean you have SMU written all over you your wife your kids when you left I go man I got to keep my toe in the water with I grew up in Arkansas and the state of Texas is like this football lore right all know high school and college so you're like only thing better than Arkansas football is definitely Texas right like how do we get there you you said when you guys left I think he said either I'll see you again or hope to see you again something something to that effect you did an awesome job of not burning any Bridges because there's a number of guys that leave you know you kind of go well you know they burned the bridge they burn the harbor you know they nuke they nuke everything and my dad always coaches you know the old saying leave with your boots clean yeah and um we try to is that actually an Arkansas saying never that's where I learned it you know that's how you try probably John Wayne saying you know I always like John Wayne saying you know walk slow talk low and carry a big stick I like that one too so always felt that way in oil business because you know I've DRT a lot of dry holes in my career and I always my wife and I know this story it's like you want your partners thinking even after you you have a big disappointment it wasn't a good deal it didn't work out but I was treated Fair and I always think a lot of people are successful and any of us you know can get lucky every now and then or just have a good year it's like when you leave places do you leave it better than you found it no and we've always tried to you want to leave a place to go man we did our best we left it better than when we found it and to your point hopefully people want you to come back y you you've always taken up for SMU when you OC I remember a couple things about attendance maybe and and you've always been pushing this program in this University forward in the ways that you [Music] could how do you get to the point as a coach where you're doing that and it's not just a job maybe yeah um well my personality the way I'm wired is just kind of what I believe I don't see things for what they're not I see them for what they are I don't want to get bogged down on what's not there or what we don't have now you got to be aware I'm not I'm not being Pana with that deal but like you're just wasting time and energy if all you do is think about what isn't there what what you don't have it's like no what do we have how do we take what we have and make it great and if you do that then you can grow and get better and so um what can we be yeah what can we so so what I didn't you know yes you take hey well you hear oh nobody's coming to the games or you're not in the power conference yeah those are all real fine but you you get to a place everywhere you go and you go okay why hasn't it been working or what is lacking and I remember being here think like there's really nothing I mean yes the power conference piece ultimately is a big deal MH so you leave and when you come back I remember people like well I think I got asked the night in front of the committee that Sunday night before I officially got off of the job after we had flown in from Miami it's like that was fun picking that was really fun picking one way flights pick the family up they flying back they had these nerds on online that were like one oh my God you know the jet flew to Miami and it's flying back you know your tail number my tail number and everything well so I remember getting asked like hey we've had this coach come and then leave and we've had this coach come and then leave and you do you tell us you're not leaving like well I can't tell you I'm not I mean right if I told the I can't tell the future so I'm not going to tell a lie but what I can tell you like why why why you like well here's what I see I've been here so that helps and I know what we have here and I have a vision of man how cool would it be to win a championship at SMU how cool would it be to be the head coach at SMU when we win a championship going to a brand new facility that I had an idea was going to be built in oh and we go into a power conference someday now did I know it was all going to happen in two and a half years no but you got to have that Vision you got to have the goal and everyone else did but like how cool would that be to go be a part of that yeah and to me that's what excites me the building the the doing exciting things at a place like this that can do all those things has done it before and hopefully we're going to be doing it again well we we specifically picked this location because this is the last week in this piece of crap office of your I mean I mean your your new office the bathroom is bigger than this office well it has a bathroom we don't have you know we don't have a bathroom on our Hall here so but it's like I was I was I gave the ACC Network guys a tour of it and they came into your office and they like going is this like the school Lounge I mean it just hey we got to make come Inuit are coming in going do I want to go here or there like you want to go here all right well listen I I we we're just probably going on too long so Mustang Nation I wanted you to hear that backstory about red do we have anything else than we could do it for an hour and a other than I know I know billyon wanted to say what is it like around the the Lashley house at night because you know it's a zoo and I will say this everyone got to see her introduce the podcast uhuh uh my wife is incredible she's a smoke show and incredible both she she's very attractive but she's amazing she's the leader of our family our home our kiddos she has a fifth kid he's right here um she's the boss but no the cool thing is we do it together she loves you know all I mean what I think she thought she was going to do is like go to Africa and build orphanages and then she realized no wait I'm going to be a head uh well ball coach's wife but what she didn't realize is she gets over a hundred kids every year to get the point of their Liv and she loves every one of them call M Lashley and she gives them hugs and so I'm super blessed to get to do it with her which is fun and we couldn't be any happier it's so fun to see your kids at practice and I understand your boys are like totally into like fantasy football and you know just like don't you have like draft on oh yeah they want a fantasy football they're kind of going out called them harri and Lloyd for a long time my God they're almost 14 going to eighth grade it's not cool anymore so I can't yeah and they're growing up what what what kind of uh coach dad are you I know I know I've not been a good coach dad because I've tried to not push it on them yeah but they don't act like coach's kid which is kind of embarrassing as a coach but they're playing because they want to play not cuz I've made them that's good and now they're starting to like it and want to be around and actually go hey will you help me with this I'm like are you sure I can I might know what I'm doing so okay and um it's been fun it's just fun to watch him like I said I I don't know if they're gonna go be Tom Brady or Patrick Mahomes yeah but I wanted to have those same life experiences I got to have yeah no kidding well listen Billy this is great and Rett I mean I really appreciate you open up your kind of this old bag of memories and I didn't I didn't ask you any questions about how are we going to do this year or you know yeah are you about to end with one no I not Mustang Nations you're waiting for that but you're not going to get up for me so uh I love it because finally got to be on this I've seen so many of the podcasts oh they're good man I think we're send them to me every week me we have dozens of fans you know and so uh we got I think number want clearly yes Clearly Now Billy's gonna edit out one of the greatest lines I've ever had on our podcast and it might have gotten kick me off the board ifu wins the ACC this year he might relase as a deal anyways thank you for doing this absolutely I really appreciate it so F Absolut K Billy hey for Rett Lashley Bill Armstrong and Billy ody another edition of The Walking strong podcast wrapped up right now thanks for tuning in thanks for listening to the on the Pony Express podcast with Billy embody follow us on your socials on x SMU on3 and on Instagram @ on3 SMU and keep it locked to on theep Pony express.com for more coverage