New San Jose State Head Coach Ken Niumatalolo

we did things the right way and so I was at peace I wasn't I didn't have anything to hide maybe we could have won more games and maybe I could have did a I know I could have done a better job coaching but we didn't cheat that's probably the thing I was at most at peace with that I could if I had to retire I was okay with it because I feel like the Integrity of my family name was intact coach coming from UCLA obviously they're in I Collective you know what Chase Griffin and other guys have been doing outstanding so what did you kind of take from that and how are you plan on kind of implementing that at San Jose State since you know it's in the Bay Area there a lot of tech money up there how's that process been for I learned a lot from I didn't realize you knew him Chase is awesome young man but uh learned a lot from him learned a lot about the nil and to be honest I didn't realize that last year was the best job that I could ever had to get me prepared for this job being at UCLA last year was awesome for me learning from Chip Kelly I got to sit back and watch how he handled the portal watched how we did nil or just all of it just recruiting just how we did everything and watching um guys like chase you know did things um I still remember there's one meeting that he was coming a little bit late to and I'm like where you been and he was meeting with some bankers you know I mean just in in Los Angeles I said man that was awesome I said brother you're going to be be the owner of the Rams and you know when you get older but those kind of opportunities for the players is awesome um there's some other stuff in nil you know those that have more money than us is going to going to be a little bit difficult to contend with but we'll do what offer whatever we have to help these guys the best we can but we have what we have you know what I mean um you know if we have a onec car garage and there might be some other guys with four car garages I mean if we can't increase our garage we can't and we just try to make our onecar garages as nice as it can be with the whole your experience how do you kind of to the line of making sure this team has you know certain character about itself before and after vers hits like as far as the identity of the team with you know you've had Navy you know what it means to be disciplined and all that so how do you kind of balance what this team is and what its character and identity needs to be yes there's no balance in that there's no balance in character uh you hold people accountable I'm a firm believer that just part of leadership is you hold people accountable with that said I don't believe you have to MF kids to coach them harder I had been doing this a long time and I and some of the greatest compliments I got As a head coach were people come in like hey man coach I've been to a lot of practices but I haven't been to a practice right didn't here A bunch of f bombs probably one of the greatest compliments I feel like I've ever gotten and so character is character you you don't you make make sure guys do what they're supposed to be where it's supposed to be where what they're supposed to be be on time and that part of it like people asking what are stuff you can take from Navy and talk about the offense stuff like that those are the kind of things in just being a team that is tough gritty hard noos that we're going to be hard out I saw we're were ranked which is awesome but I can guarantee you we're going to be hard out you know what I mean and just we're going to be a team that's going to come and fight you tooth and nail to the end so all those things about character Towing the line those are things that I would never compromise on CU I feel like those are things not only will help these guys be better players because it's going to help you in life if you don't pay your power it's going to turn off your power you know what I mean your power so helping these guys recognize rules and being on time doing these things sometimes they don't recognize why we're doing it yes this help us to be accountable and when games but also helps your life to do things right is there an identity so I got a couple of questions uh first one is obviously you haven't played W in a while I know you were involved with unlb um so it's probably been a while uh what do you expect to R to W me this year being a new head coach at you know San Jose State well um I played there a few times you know at unv and at at um Hawaii that's a tough place to play and so that's going to be a tough place um you know Craig did a great job there J's going to do a great job too and so I that anybody with in this league that knows anything about the M West would tell you how tough a place and how tough a team Wyoming is year in and year out so my second part of that question is uh what do you plan on doing um to you know obviously the seven 7220 you know altitude the highest you know FBS stadium in the country uh what do you do to prepare going from from San Jose up to that over a mile above where where you guys train at believe me I was at Navy for many years and we had the same thing with Air Force so I tried everything tried everything and just all the different things leave a certain time leave there hydrate you know take these pills and just um we just try to do best we can I mean I don't I don't think you can't prepare for it you just do the best you can and just go there and play as hard as you can and I mean the altitude is the altitude and it is tough it's hard and so I I found over the years that um gu for when our when we had a good team we were able to win when we weren't we didn't win and but that environment is tough tough environment than coach speaking of strategy uh you mentioned Craig coming in with his offense and you kind of seeding to him how much of your prolific option attack are might you sprinkle in unless he wants to it's all it's up up to him okay but I'm not going to tell him him because what I don't want to do is I don't want to give him so much things it's kind of like this guy has this great recipe I don't want to start adding you know tell from I don't want to add fak when hey just don't put any that you know just just stay away from his to stay away from his menu you know what I mean so I'm going to allow him to do things um but if he ask hey coach I saw you did this what about this and then I'll I'll tell him that but I don't want to mess with this deal you know what I mean he knows what he's doing and I don't want to mess with it he has a good recipe okay and my last question question you mentioned you know being a head coach you're more more of a CEO not just ex's and O's when along your coaching Journey did you realize that and embrace it as opposed to some coaches who are kind of anti that yeah I don't know for other people but I feel like that's always been part of the job you wear so many hats I mean sometimes you call somebody's coming in there you're talking football somebody's coming here broke up with his girlfriend you come in there somebody you know their mom passed away so you go from a counselor to a coach to somebody crying on your shoulder I mean there's just you become a you know a mental health person now it's changed nowadays because we actually hire people to help us with that but I've been in this game so long that you you are a CEO and you do all those things but football is a big part of it I just feel like you got to be able to do all of it but I think the other key is you got to be who you are and some guys like hey I want to stay to the football mostly football which is also most CEO but the way I've kind of done things I've kind of done a lot of it a lot of different things um but I'm a allow guys to do their deal I'm more of teach people principles and let them govern themselves you know don't try to micromanage too much just tell guys hey this is way I want to do things and let them go and run awesome thank you k you probably talked about it the new FC Craig and stuff ties to Hawaii are you guys going to I'm not going to say be a mirror image of them but similar style it will be yeah it'll be summer I mean it's you do your own yeah I mean you know I guess kind of what you know Craig was at Hawaii with Rollo similar to that but he's in in that time he's also added a few more stuff that he did at Utah Tech and stuff he picked up at you Texas State he that Washington State too but yeah that's probably long so you know your history at Navy running the option the games are shorter you know because you run the clock different things now the games are going to be longer you know what I mean there's going to be more plays so does that impact maybe how you may call a game offensively or defensively knowing you am I making no I mean I that's a great question I've spent a lot of time if there's anything I'm letting Craig run this offense but if there's anything we talked about is game management right so those are the kind of things I've Tred to talk about just because there one of our formulas at at the at any service schu what we did at Navy just trying to limit the time that the other guys had the ball I mean just keep them off the field um I mean I'm not a rocket science but it's pretty simple the heart they can't score if they're on the sidelines right you know what I mean so try to keep them on the sidelines but with that said you know what we're going to do we're going to throw the ball more but I'm also not we're not going to throw the ball 80 times you know what I mean we recognize that and I recognize that you got to run the ball and there's some places in this conference that maybe there's going the weather is not is not going to be uh so conducive to throwing the football and you got to be able to run the football so having some diversity there to making sure that you can run the football when you need to um to be able to get the short guards to be able to run the ball um so all this stuff are so I'm not real familiar with what he did at Hawaii but are they were they like we want to get up and snap the ball you know multiple temples immediate or you just we going to we're going to snap the ball when we're ready we're not going to rush this thing and kind of a combination I think I think you have to be multi defense yeah I I think you have to be able a temple and be able to do that but you also have to be able to slow the game down when you need to you know people call it four minute offense yeah you know which at Navy we're always a form just keep them off the field but youve got to be able to do that that's all a part of it so and then one last thing going to UCLA how what did you gain from that experience that can help you now when your back is a head invaluable it was the best place when after the Navy situation I wasn't really sure what I was going to do I told people I thought I was going to get into TV and I had several interviews with networks and I never got a second interview so I recognized that was out uh had to lose some weight to I guess or whatever I don't know but anyways um and I wasn't really sure what I was going to do but going there and looking back at it now at UCLA is the best thing I could ever done cuz Chip Kelly was good to me I I really didn't do anything he allowed me to observe be at any meeting I wanted to do was at practice travel I did everything and he and I if I had questions I would go and S and talk with them we discuss things that only I kind of feel like only head coaches could talk about right stuff that we' only see things that I look at cuz when I went to practice um you know I was telling something about something I saw this in your drills when did you see that but when your head coach you watch everything when you go at practice you are looking at everything people's feet or far your drills are how long your drills are where the balls are placed what side of the sidelines are put on where the cameras at you know how the grasses cut um this year you know we had some geese problem with our grass there too a lot of geese coming on there so we had to put coyotes on you know fake coyotes on the field and one day they forgot to put our Coyotes out and the geese came back but yeah those are the things you have to think about as a head coach bre at you I learned a lot from Chip just you know it was inv valid I wouldn't be ready for this job cuz I learned about portal nil recruiting you kind of help fake coyotes the coyote Happ at how many fake coyotes you got I think we got four of them so you got names for them or anything uh we actually I think we did have some names for them where are they now uh they're in the shed they're in the shed so you got to put them out every day or just a certain time of the year uh at night but I mean like all yeah they come out those Gees they're pretty smart though if you don't move them around they recognize like that thing's fake so one morning I was trying to throw softballs at it to try in the morning to try to get them out of there but that didn't work um did you have I do yeah oh this my last one how surprised to read chipio State um I I guess I would say I was surprised but not that much um Chip's a football coach yeah he's a I mean he wants to coach and he's the smartest football coach been around I mean his his mind I mean he can recall things like he recalls stuff of our games that I forgot about when as that Navy remember that game in 2000 whatever you guys did this I'm how you remember that and so he's um he's a he's a football sub mean he's a football and he just wants to coach ball I don't and this and again this is me and I I I don't think chip wants to do all the stuff you know I mean the all the other stuff not a CO I mean coach yeah it's Chang and I realized that coming here that's why I knew I had to hire strong coordinators they were going to do this and I could go do nil and different things like that that's one I promise did was Chip calling out plays at UA the end okay y all right did you just talk about the type of culture that you're trying to build and what you want this new era of Spar yeah I mean it's to me it's always kind of been simple my culture has always been a family oriented you know just a l Spirit you know from Hawaii you know family Orient stuff um it's kind of we did at at Navy same thing and building the culture was for me is probably one of I don't know if the right word but probably the of the job is probably the easier thing for me cuz I feel I just just I just had to be me I mean cuz kids see to I that stuff you try to put fake stuff on they see right through that stuff I know as a player I mean that was the same thing so I knew I had to be authentic and the culture we're going to be just a family culture you know just being from Hawaii we're family oriented we eat a lot so we had a lot of family gathering of you eat together as a team do a lot of things together as a team and just try to create a culture of a family you just talk about the the quarterback battle was in that spot for the last several years but yeah so right now it's between Walker EMT and Xavier Walker and Emitt were there this spring uh we just got Xavier he just got recruited there he was um uh know he's familiar with Coach th's offense so that might help him even though he wasn't there spring practice uh but those two guys EMT and and Walker were there doing spring practice they did a good job and I'm excited I'm excited to see whoever comes out of it is going to be a really good quarterback whoever comes out of that three-headed battle three-headed monster battle is going to be a really good quarter with uh you bring up family uh working boyy your son once committed to to be in Bronco uh what do you remember about that and why did you obviously at some point in time you know uh encourage that decision well uh you know it was a it was awesome experience for my son coach Avalos you know was his you know was his position coach so I got to know coach you know he was awesome to my son he had a great time on his visit and he committed there and I think he was super excited about going there and and for some reason he had to change of mind you know had to change of heart and um you know you know parts of me as a dad are kind of to like go to boys you got a scholarship there what you're going to go to what you're going to Utah to walk on just why don't you go there but you know you kind of learn as a parent you let PE you know you let your kids walk their own path um he loved his time at at Utah but there are times when he you know he'd see certain guys playing like oh Dad I was on a visit with him you know what I mean look at how well he's done and so he had nothing but bad bad uh excuse me nothing but good things to say about Boise he didn't have anything bad to say about Boise the coaches or it had nothing to do that it was just a feeling he had he just felt like he was supposed to go to Utah but it it wasn't because of boy he just felt like something was calling them to youah do you have any impression The Voice football program uh really really good I mean they haven't changed they're always I feel like they're they're always not not only one of the best football programs in our conference but in the in the country and that's been you know for so long you know I mean Coach Peterson even before that you know I mean they they've been so good for so long um Co Spencer is going to do an awesome job you know I mean I was at UCLA last year and I saw I mean they're really really good team you know I mean so I got I got to see them firsthand and um they've always in my mind I've always kind of felt like they've done things the right way when I was an assistant coach at Navy I feel like I was always going against them in recruiting and I kind of prided myself as far as um evaluating talent maybe this is back in the early late early 2000s and I was proud of myself in you know evaluating talents that maybe not everybody was recruiting but no I'm not saying they came to me but I'd offer who else you well Boise's offer Boise found you too like and they probably end up going to Boise but I ALS but I also knew if I offered somebody and Boise offered it I was on the right gu cuz I feel like they didn't worry about stars and recruiting Stars I feel like they just they recruited off what they saw you know what I mean and so yeah really good program one more for me um talking with Nick yesterday I think we all kind of had the thought when you got hired here is oh are they going to run the triple option and Nick said there was a little bit of moment of maybe internal Panic where they were texting each other as a wide receiver and stuff like that so in an era where you can lose the whole rer rep like how important was it to you know expedite that communication like no no this is what we're going to do yeah it's how and I was telling someone in this profession like somebody asked oh did you apply for S job there's no applying for head coaching job they happen like that like I I believe and I'm getting I know I'm getting days mixed up but I think I was recruiting for UCLA on a Thursday I got a text early that morning you interested in s j state job for my my agent I said yeah I mean later that day I was talking to ad later that day I was on the zoom call I think within the next day I was interviewing and so what I guess I'm trying to say I had to already have a in plan a plan in place if I was going to get another job so I knew what I was going to do cuz I knew those questions are going to come up what are you going to run so I had to have all I already knew who I was going to hire so I had to act quickly like you said to make sure some of that stuff you know didn't get lost that's one question on on um nil something that you lived through at Navy obviously the service Academy members aren't eligible for nil but yet you see like the Arm Forces marketing using like Yukon Basketball they're using other student athletes from other schools and I don't know if you experienced it as much two years ago but but would that be a bit of a frustration to have to coach through that now and should they be eligible for well that's up to the government I you know I would hope they'd be able to get something I guess the government still is like hey they their Nils on the back end you know those guys I was there for 25 years and all the guys that I've coached are all doing well in life you know they end up getting once they get out they get great careers and so I guess it is what it is last one so you've been in withy for so long did you ever identify yourself as a service scy coach and has that identity shift have you had to kind of recalibrate in your mind yeah uh not me I mean maybe people looked at me that way I mean I was um some people ask if I was was in the in the military am am I in the military CU um no they would they would definitely they could not get me in the military they I'd have to lose a lot of weight but um no I mean just I didn't really I looked at myself as a guy developer of people and if they looked at me as a you know military coach I me but I it hasn't been an adjustment for me