March 2, 2025 • 45 mins
Doug is joined by Kansas head football coach Lance Leipold as he is in his fifth year with the Jayhawks. Doug and him talk about what the last four years have been like as Coach Leipold took over a bad football program in the middle of the pandemic. Doug and Coach discuss the leadership qualities it takes to turn a program around and compete in the modern world of college athletics.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
Hey, what a welcome, and I'm Doug Gottlieb and this
is All Ball. I'll talk a little bit about my
experience in college hoops and some of these articles that
are that are coming out, which is interesting, and then
we'll get you a very special All Ball guest. Our
All Ball guest is actually a head college football coach
(00:28):
and a really really good one, and I just think
that his journey, his story. Lanthley pulls our guest on
these next two All Ball pods. I just think we
can all if you're a sports fan. I mean, that's
what All balls about. This is kind of deep dive
inside sports, and a lot of it for me is
(00:50):
as you guys know, I use it to learn. It's
like it's like a professional I don't know, consulting hour
or so. So Lanceley pulls our guest on this version
of All Ball. At the time of this recording, we've
just won our second conference game, and obviously a lot
(01:12):
of the weight has been lifted off our players back,
some off of my back, and now that we've gotten
to four wins on the season, we still have one
more home game before we head on the road to
begin the Horizon League Tournament. And as we've told people, hey.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
There's.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
We have eleven games left, you know, on our schedule,
actually still twelve games left, I guess, right, right, because
one and then you got to win four games to
win the conference tournament, and then we'd have to win
seven games to win the NCAA tournament. So it's still
some meat on the bone out there for us. But
there is something really special about a group coming together
(01:53):
when so many have frayed apart. And I would guess
if you listened to this podcast, you like my work,
whether you like me personally, and I just I think
it's really really interesting in many ways. The misperception of
what we do on pods, what we do on radio.
(02:15):
You know, it's like even the lebron Bronnie take, like
I'm not some fucking hot take artist, right. And my
analysis of Bronnie going back to high school was I
thought it'd be a damn good college player. He was
not a McDonald's All American. He wasn't close. Nobody thought that.
Nobody thought that. And then at USC he'd looked like
(02:38):
a freshman. And my advice was, go play a duquane
for one of your best friends. Have a great college
career and if then you want to play in the
NBA and you know your dad can help you, like great,
But the shoehorning him in JJ Reddick saying he's you know,
he's earned all of this, like all of that, it's
just so fake. It's like one of those don't you
(02:59):
have real friends that you're like, I don't know if
I like this now to look for Lebron's Lebron's credit,
like maybe he doesn't care what anybody thinks. This is
he wants to do what he wants to do and
what better way to end your NBA career? And I
would be surprised if he wants to have Bryce play
with him.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
Now.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
Bryce is not nearly this accomplished as Brownie, and you
know he's going to Arizona. I don't see him playing
very much in Arizona. But maybe the plan there is
don't worry about it, go there for a year. Come
and dad wants to play for two years. Then you'll
play with both your boys. And there is something really
cool about like I'm playing in the NBA and watching
(03:35):
my sons grow up, Like that's very cool. But what
it doesn't say is, hey, we want to win championships
when they take up roster spots of guys that you
need because they're not capable of playing. But none of
it is like hot, Like a hot take to me
is like an out of nowhere something that is not
(03:57):
so over the top in terms of a statement that
that it's it's not based upon real life. You know,
it's like, uh, what is the We had somebody on
Fox Sports Radio say that, like when Lamar Jackson was
in a contract kind on a dispute or whatever with
(04:18):
with the Baltimore Evens, Like mar Will never played for
the Baltimore Evens. Again, it was a couple of years ago.
He's playing for the Baltimore Evens. Like, do you have
any factual information to that? No, if not, that's a
hot take. So the misperception of how we do what
we do, Like I'm not gonna say I'm milk toast.
I have opinions, but they're all based upon sports, and
they're all relatively reasonable, I think. But the part that
(04:46):
I don't know I take the most pride in first
is I have a team. We lost twenty two games
in a row. It doesn't it doesn't seem possible we did,
and yet we kept him together, kept him fighting, and
they're closer now than they've ever been. There a really,
really good group of kids. So I take great pride
in like I had. There was one article that was
(05:06):
written that said we didn't have great culture, and it
was from somebody who had never been to Green Bay,
never been to a game, hadn't seen my team or whatever, like, hey,
we we had some growing up to do as a staff,
as a roster, as a program, but we have grown
up and that I would challenge anybody to be around
(05:27):
our group and think we don't have good culture.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
We have great culture.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
And then we have a really young group. But the
part I take most pride in is and I think
they're out of a place of honesty because they don't
have to. But coach is pulling you aside, saying because
you're doing a good job, because they're getting better, which
means they think we know what we're doing. And I
don't care about outside noise of people on social media.
(05:53):
I actually don't really care about media people because not
the analysts, but most of the media people. They weren't athletes,
they weren't coaches, they haven't really been inside it. They
don't actually know shit either. But people that matter that
watch the games and they're like, oh, getting better or
not getting better and alfer hous feedback, those are the
ones I take most pride in because they're giving good
(06:16):
feedback that we are getting better.
Speaker 3 (06:17):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Doug Gottlieb
Show weekdays at three pm Eastern noon Pacific on Fox
Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
But part of my professional development series is reaching out
to people who I am fascinated with what they've been
able to do at different places, how they've been able
to build it going through good years, bad years, tough
places to coach. And our guest this week is Lanslee Poll.
When you hear his story, you'd be like, wow, that's
crazy crazy. He was a Division III player, Division three coach.
(06:51):
He did have some Division one, Division two opportunities and
did some other things, but at the end of the day,
he was at Whitewater and could have been just a
legendary Whitewater and coach there for his entire life. But
instead he took a shot on building it at Buffalo
and then eventually now at Kansas, and he's done some
remarkable things. So let's catch up with the head coach
of the Kansas Jayhawks and Football, Lance Sleepold. I'm Doug Gottlieb.
(07:16):
This is All Ball and welcome in this version of
All Ball is our part two of Lance Sleepold. He's
a head coach at Kansas Football. And in this portion
of our discussion, we'll get to KU, right, what was
it like to take over, how you built it, how
you've been able to build, what feels like it's sustainable.
And first we'll get to why take the KU job?
(07:39):
Why leave Buffalo after he had built that one? So
we'll get to all that. A little basketball within this is,
you know, we talk a lot about my college team,
and we can talk about the journey and what Championship
Week is like, because that comes up this coming week
and we'll start our journey on Tuesday. That'll be the
(08:00):
first game in the Horizon League Tournament. Of course, those
are hom sides first two rounds or home sites. We
did not get a buy obviously, were the last seed,
so we'll play the sixth seed on the road, and
then if we win, we played the one seed on
the road, which is Robert Morris. But I do think
before we depart from the NBA because that's March. We
like forget about the NBA for a month. You know,
(08:23):
the most underdiscussed portion of the Luca trade is that
Anthony Davis. He's not Luca. I think Luca's awesome. I
think Luca's the best offensive player in the league. But
Anthony Davis was pretty special and I may have even
underrated him, undersold him for most of his career and
(08:44):
the last year and a half that he's been healthy
with the Lakers and you go back to win they
won the championship. I mean, he's he's a motherfucker. He's
a motherfucker. So I'm personally excited to see what that
group looks like when he gets healthy, because now you
have Kyrie, remember you're gonna have Derek Lively and what's
(09:09):
the kid from Arkansas defending the rim? And that allows
Anthony Davis to play mostly the four, and man, I
mean he just killed dudes. So excited to see what
it looks like. And it's like the least discussed portion
of the trade is you know, Anthony Davis is really
really good. I still think the Mavericks need a point guard.
Kyrie's not really a point guard, but there should be
(09:32):
incredible defensively, and they do have a lot of shooting,
and they do have riom protection and they were in
the NBA finals last year. All right, let's get back
to some football discussion. Why would you leave your first
Division one job a couple of years in to go
take on the Kansas football issue. Kansas football has been
(09:53):
good like two years in the past thirty Why would
Lance Leopold do it? And how has he turned this
sing around? And what was that first year like when
they won two games? Let's get to that discussion right
now with Landsleep. He's the head coach of the Kansas Jayhawks.
And we always joked in the Big Twelve and those
(10:17):
of you who listen to the pod, no, I'm a
Big twelve alum. I haven't played oklhand State that wait till
Kansas goes Division one and football. We used to joke,
right because KU for the life of my existence within
the Oklahoma State family, which is nineteen ninety seven until now,
there was a like a two or three year spurt
there where they were really competitive and obviously, you know,
(10:40):
you talk about competing for an Orange Bowl, but outside
of that, the stadium hadn't been updated and it just
didn't feel like at the level of the rest of
the league. With all that changed when our guest in
today's pod took over. He's the head coach, and he's
taken Kansas not only to consistent success in the Big Twelve,
but so much so. New stadium is right on the horizon,
(11:03):
and everyone I think used Kansas football at a completetive
and Mighty's Lance Leopold. He joins us now on the
All Ball podcast.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
Let's start with.
Speaker 1 (11:13):
You before you took over the job. And I usually
like to go in chronological order and start with growing
up in Wisconsin. We'll get to that. But when you
were a Division three head coach at Whitewater, your alma mater,
did you ever think about Kansas football in reality?
Speaker 2 (11:31):
No, no, Doug, not at all. I had spent ten
of the previous thirteen years in Omaha, Nebraska coaching Division
two ball. I think when I went to Whitewater, my
wife's from Omaha. I thought, if there was ever another move,
maybe the coach that i'd worked for all that time,
when he retired, maybe I'd be a Division two head coach.
(11:51):
There wasn't any big grand plan to try to be
an FBS head coach in the MAC or the Big
twelve or anything. I think I'm probably living a when
you really look at it, Oh, no question.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
But I mean even when you thought of Big twelve,
like Kansas was so far down the list of schools
that you'd want to talk about. You know, it's like,
I know, you worked in Nebraska for a little bit,
like Nebraska, like Okay, that was that's big time college football.
Oklahoma it's big time college football. And then and then
there's Kansas. It's very unique that you take over at
(12:25):
Kansas and you stay at a Kansas when you've got success.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
Right well, you know, I joked. I joked as we
were having success in the twenty two and twenty three
season that sometimes our communications staff would you know, they
give you those little tidbits before you do an interview
about this is the first time since whatever year and
whatever time that something had been accomplished and some of
those things had gone back into the nineteen thirties or something.
(12:52):
I said, if I really would have done a good
job doing my research, I probably would have interviewed for
the job. But there were some things there, and there's
some tough times, but you know, the things that really
aligned well of opportunity. You know, when we went into Buffalo,
we took on a rebuilding project, and you know, we've
always felt that, whether it be a Division III or
(13:12):
in the MAC, that we could assemble a staff and
build a program and maintain consistency. And that's what we've
been striving for. And now that you know we've been
able to have success, we have commitment, we have new
things on the horizon, and in this new era of
college athletics, I think anybody has a chance in any
given year.
Speaker 1 (13:34):
I completely agree with you. Let's start back going to college.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
Right.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
You went to Whitewater's Division III program. What was it
like for you in terms of deciding on a school
growing up in Wisconsin?
Speaker 2 (13:44):
Well, you know, I grew up my parents went to Whitewater,
my sister went to everybody. I grew up about fifteen
minutes from Whitewater. I originally was going to go to
Western Michigan and then my mother had been diagnosed with
cancer that summer and decided to kind of re reevaluate,
stay closer a home. Had a lot of good friends there.
You know. The unique thing about Division three athletics and
(14:07):
maybe you see it a little bit in your time
Dow in Green Bay is that the Division three state
schools in Wisconsin probably play a Division two type level
of athletics. Based on that, there's really not Division two
athletics in in Wisconsin. There's not FCS football, so there's
a good, good brand of football there. So kind of
went there and after after college, decided I wanted to
(14:30):
try to explore the coaching route. About nineteen ninety out
a chance to meet Barry Alvarez at the State Coaches
Clinic in Madison, and was fortunate to get hired as
a graduate assistant after his first year and be part
of that building process and from the ninety one ninety
two ninety three seasons.
Speaker 1 (14:51):
Okay, well, let's let's go back to what were you
like as a player?
Speaker 2 (14:56):
You know, I don't know. I was probably if I
look at it, probably drive myself crazy as a coach.
Probably I probably had a decent arm. I had pretty
good mobility. Not the fastest guy, but I could avoid
a rush. Probably didn't have enough pocket patients in my
early days.
Speaker 1 (15:12):
But you guys run it like this is eighties, you
guys running power high.
Speaker 2 (15:16):
Yeah, we will go back then. It was some power
eyes of my senior year of high school. After our
first four games we struggled, and the head coach kind
of abandoned that. We actually went to the shotgun and
and uh and and when four receivers start spreading some
things out and we started evolved to that in my
junior year, my first full year as a starter. And
at Whitewater there's a game against River Falls. We threw
(15:39):
fifty seven times, so there were some times that we
had chance to air it out. But yeah, that football
back then in the eighties versus what we see now
is completely different.
Speaker 1 (15:49):
Whitewater's biggest rival.
Speaker 2 (15:50):
Is here Lacrosse Wisconsin Cross was always the rival, still
is to this day, and it's good, healthy rivalry of
two good programs.
Speaker 1 (16:03):
How far what's the distance between the two places, the.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
Two and a half maybe something like that, you know
what each side of the state there on the on
the border over there on on the on the western side.
But uh, you know, I think just the way that
league set up, you know a lot of a lot
of competitive people about both schools have good education programs,
and you know a lot of back in the back
in the seventies eighties, a lot of a lot of
(16:28):
guys that want to be teachers and coaches that end
up in the state went to those schools, so it
is always very competitive.
Speaker 1 (16:35):
We got to have that conversation. Do people I have
one kid who wants to be a coach, but do
kids still want to be coaches? Does anybody go like, hey,
I just I just want.
Speaker 2 (16:45):
To be a coach? Well, yeah, I think we have
to worry about today. Sometimes at this level, you got
to make sure people want to coach for the right
reason and making impacts and and love of the game.
I think, you know, at our levels now, the money's
the money is excellent, and sometimes you got to make
sure that you're going to go into it. And you know,
I say to some of our younger coaches now that
(17:06):
I'm on the older side of things about paying your
dues and a lot of times about you know, having
to you know, do do some of the things of
lining fields and doing laundry and doing things at the
smaller college level sometimes right now, you know, some some
people want to be coordinators before their even position coaches.
So I think there is I think there's people that
(17:27):
love the game and do some things. But like you're saying,
is I think sometimes guys dip their toes in the
water and I find out that there's a lot of
hours and a lot of things go into it, and
just showing up for practicing games right.
Speaker 1 (17:41):
Well, they also think what the head coach at the
high major level makes is uh, it's a quick transition
to that which you remember once you mad your first year,
you get down to college and your quarterback coach at
your all the monor so, by the way, that had
to be awkward because there's a lot of guys you're
coaching who you had played with previously.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
Yeah, I didn't, you know. At first, I kind of
skipped a little bit of story. I was going to
go into law enforcement. I was taking the state exams
to be a police officer and things like.
Speaker 1 (18:10):
State police or local police as well.
Speaker 2 (18:13):
It was more I just wanted to kind of get
into law for so I was taking state exams for
different police departments and around the state. I actually ended
up in my hometown working part time and went to
the academy. Part what were you doing? Hold on, what
were you what were you doing part time? Back then
they let you in a squad car. I was like,
(18:33):
you know, well, you were a part time with the police. Yeah,
and I was going to Yeah, back then, it was
almost like you know, one bullet Barney Fife and they
give you a car and you're kind of shadowing with people.
And I would I would do these the segments of
the academy at Waukee Shaw Tech and and they're outside
of Milwaukee and and and do some things. But but
(18:55):
I didn't have any full time gig. As Paul Camp
rolled around, and I went down and talked to my
former head coach, Bob Breswitz, and he's like, hey, if
you if you want to come hang out and help
coach Camp, you can. And I went down there and
start helping and I never left. And I think you're
kind of saying, what do you get paid and stuff?
I think I got five hundred dollars my first year.
(19:16):
And I tell people this all the time, Doug is
I never made over fifteen thousand dollars until I was
thirty years old. And it's it's been a long it
was a long ride, and and you know.
Speaker 1 (19:29):
You'd have to apologize to nobody coach zero zero people
you have to apologize to here, So why keep doing
the coaching and not go to law enforcement? Were you
a mad top. That was that your problem?
Speaker 2 (19:43):
Well, I'll tell you it was twofold one. It was
hard to get full time employment just going through all
the state exams and the procedures at the time. But
you know, even back in my in my small hometown,
you know a lot of those things. In those I
was the only person in the department, even as part time,
that had a college degree. But yet it was seniority based.
And and I'm working third shift. A lot usually was
(20:07):
just filling shifts. There would be vacations, and you know,
a guy take a week or two whatever, or somebody
goes to the academy for some special training, and and
then somebody does a fill in, and the guys working
third shift want to work second or first. So and
then there's one night in a small town of about
six thousand people at the time where a car hasn't
gone by in three hours and I and I'm sitting
(20:30):
there thinking to myself, I thought I went to college,
not to work third shift. Yeah, and I and instead
of going home and sleeping right after my shift was done,
I drove back to Whitewater and I got an application
to graduate school.
Speaker 1 (20:45):
So you go to graduate school and you're a grad coach.
Speaker 2 (20:48):
What was the experience like, Yeah, you know, I was
a graduate. I was a grad coach at at Whitewater
for a bit and doing my I kind of took us.
And then I took a job in a small private
school in Nebraska where I think, you know, you've gone
through your father to coach. You take those small jobs.
And I was running a dorm and coaching football and
doing intermarals and actually learned a lot through that experience.
(21:11):
And then I went back to Whitewater finished my masters.
Speaker 1 (21:14):
But don't don't skip over create Nebraska, now, I don't
skip out. So okay, So your two years in grad
school and you're coaching quarterbacks, wide receivers, your own manor
how did how did doan job come to be?
Speaker 2 (21:29):
Well, one of my best friends of this day, who's
actually was Roger Hughes, who's the coach that was end
up being the head coach at Princeton. He started the
program back up at Stetson. He's actually now the president
of Doan University. From football coach to president like a
Jim Tressel. But we worked together in nineteen eighty eight
in Whitewater and we became really good friends and that
(21:52):
was his alma mater, and he kind of connected me
with the head coach. He knew I wanted to try
to move up levels, but he told me, Lance, you've
been at Whitewater too long. You need to go to
experience something else. And he was one hundred percent right.
So I went and I and I did it, and
you know, it was again a good learning experience.
Speaker 3 (22:12):
Okay, give me one thing.
Speaker 1 (22:13):
One memory of coaching at Doan and Create Nebraska.
Speaker 2 (22:18):
Okay, Well, I remember, like we had this small, small
stadiums and you know they're shared with high schools, and
you know, we're fortunate at white Water. I have good
facilities and stuff. And we have this little press box
there and at the at the school and I asked
the guy one of the I asked the secondary coach.
I said, so, what side of the press box are
we on? And he said, we're on top of the
(22:39):
press box. I go, what do you mean we're on
top of the press but he goes, yeah, we sit
on folding chairs on top of the press box. So
my parents had come down to watch me coach my
first game, and here I come walking up the stands
with a folding chair and I had to carry the
folding chair up the ladder to go coach. And I'm like, here,
I am a big time college, big time inn Ai coach,
(23:00):
here carrying a carrying a chair up a ladder right
before kickoff.
Speaker 1 (23:05):
What'd your parents say?
Speaker 2 (23:07):
Yeah? Then, you know they you know, it's one of
those things where your parents are waiting for you to
find direction and get a job and kind of get
on it, you know, find it. But they they knew
from my time at Whitewater that it was something I
was passionate about and wanted to do, and they were
very supportive through the years.
Speaker 1 (23:26):
Yeah, my dad, he loved to tell the story that
his first college job he was a he was a
high school coach. He replaced Huge Brown at fair Lawn
High School in New Jersey. That was his first job,
and then he was at Dylanvale, Ohio. He went to
Ohio State John Howich, he was a JV player, John
(23:46):
Hawichack Bob Knight. Those guys were star varsity players and
Hondo helped him get a job close to his hometown
in Dylonville, Ohio. Then he was at Colorado Springs High School.
Speaker 2 (23:57):
For a year.
Speaker 1 (23:57):
Then he was at Death Valley High School where he
drove the school bus, picked kids up, had had taught history,
had basketball practice, drove the kids home. The all timer.
Speaker 2 (24:08):
Right.
Speaker 1 (24:09):
And then when his first college job was at Quinnipiac,
which is now Division one, was then an AIA and
he was the freshman head coach, the varsity assistant, the
head soccer coach, and the head golf coach. And he'd
never hit a golf ball. He knew nothing about soccer.
And so he learned about soccer by buying a begetting
a uh, checking out a book at the library. And
(24:30):
then he had to learn to line in the field
and he learned.
Speaker 2 (24:32):
All the rules of soccer. That that's how he did.
Had no idea, and that's that's what you did back
in the day, and and and they and he loved
every minute of it.
Speaker 1 (24:41):
Probably no question, no question, never a bat, never a
bad word said about Burt Kahn or Quinnipiac or or
or anything. Okay, So but one year was enough. You're like,
I'm out, I got to go back home.
Speaker 2 (24:52):
Yeah it was. You know. Bob Breuswiz, head coach at Whitewater,
asked me to come back and help him, uh run
the offense, they had taken a dip, and uh so
I went back, finished up and and and completed my masters.
And then and then I had a chance to, like
like I said, to meet Barry Alvarez that spring, and
and uh so I started driving up the Madison a
(25:13):
lot during during spring practice. And finally, after about my
fourth trip, he he asked me what I had gone
and I said, well, I really like to be in
Madison and he said, well, as far as I'm concerned,
you got the job if you wanted. So it ended
up being the life changing, uh opportunity for me.
Speaker 1 (25:30):
Okay, but when you got there again, help me out
if I'm wrong. The year before you got there, they
were terrible, right, that was very his first year they
were one in ten, Yes, sir, yes, sir, yep. So,
so what was what was? Because Barry Avas now is
like a godfather, right, it's just the ring. This guy's
done everything. What was he like then?
Speaker 2 (25:53):
No? Again, extremely confident and confident in the plan that
they could get it done. I mean there were times
where I'm sure was you know, things could waiver a
little bit, but he had such an excellent staff, Dan McCartney,
who ended up being a head coach. You know j Norbel,
the current head coach at Colorado State, Brad Schilders, who
was the NFL head coach, Bill Callahan. You know there's
(26:15):
some I look back the coach Bill Callahan. Yeah, yeah,
Like Bill was head coach of the Raiders Nebraska, but
he's probably the best offensive line coach that there is.
And I look back at just the opportunity, the people
I sat in the room with and just listened to
about football and experiences. But we're five and six the
first the next year, five and six the next year,
(26:38):
then we won the Big Ten and won that first
Rose Bowl. But watching it come together and watching his confidence,
the work ethic of the of the staff, all those
things were because you know, he always referred to things
between really three people. He talked about Bob Devanny, who
he played for at Nebraska. He talked about Lou Holtz,
and he talked about Hayden Fry, and he talked about
(26:59):
those people and what they were able to do in
building programs. I was always a great foundation. But as
you know, Barry had a plan and he was awful
confident in how he did and stuck to it.
Speaker 3 (27:11):
Be sure to catch live editions of the Doug Gottlieb
Show weekdays at three pm Eastern noon Pacific on Fox
Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (27:21):
Okay, let's talk about the nineteen ninety three Rose Bowl team,
right where he had Daryl Belvill, who's been an outstanding offense,
the coordinator in the NFL, is the quarterback. What did
you know? And that's a weird year too, because actually
the only loss in the year was to Minnesota, right
of all teams back when they played in the Dome. Right,
(27:44):
you've been around there a couple of years. Did you
know that that team was going to be something special?
Speaker 2 (27:48):
Well, if I'd back it up the year before, Doug
was we're five and five, and if we beat Northwestern
last game of the year, we're going to go to
one of them. We're either going to go to the
free eat them bull or I forgot the other one.
And we were driving down to kick a game winning
field goal and we end up fumbling. And it was
(28:10):
heartbreaking loss because we really looked at as that going
to be the year that we could we could kind
of take take the leap into Bowld thing. But we
knew we had enough coming back and there was enough
things that we could get off to a good start.
The pieces were in place, there was enough returning talent,
and there was a good confidence to win it all.
Probably not, but you know, we we had that stretch
(28:31):
where we we upset Michigan, we we tie Ohio State,
and the place was rocking. And then we had to
go to Tokyo, Japan to play the last regular season
game to to to clinch the Rose Bowl berth against
Michigan State.
Speaker 1 (28:46):
That's crazy, Okay, So then what's next? Like, what what
is it like to then be a part of this
meteoric rise at Wisconsin. You're from Wisconsin and you have
all of these different other future head coaches that when
you go to Rosebull you know it works. You're dealing
with it. In the last couple of years, everybody plucks
guys off staff. What were your conversations with coach al
(29:10):
res like and how did it affect your plan?
Speaker 2 (29:13):
Well, you know, at that time, you know, there were
starting to be rumbles about a few guys being involved
with stuff. Actually, the job I ended up taking it
opened up while we were at the Rose Bowl, and
I'll always be grateful for Barry Is. We're in a
staff meeting, and Pat Burns is a gentleman I worked
for for a long time to brask Omaha. He said
to Jim Hubert are running back coach at the time,
(29:35):
that hey, did you see that that Pat got the
Omaha job? And Barry's wife is from Omaha. And he's like,
that could be a good job. And Jim's like, yeah,
I'm gonna try to get Lance in on that. And
then Barry goes, we're gonna call it right after this meeting,
So so you know, coach made phone call, try to
help me out there. I think that it was about
a year away before the guys really started and Dan
(29:56):
McCartney got the Iowa State job, and and and and
Brad Childers went to the NFL, and then Bill followed
shortly thereafter. You know, there's a lot of rumbles, a
lot of things going and and and guys you could
see were starting to get their plan to take the
next career move. Coach Alvarez was mentioned for NFL jobs
as well as others. So it's probably the first time
(30:18):
you got to you got to just keep your head down,
keep working hard. You know, there was an opportunity for
to stay and work behind the scenes and in some ways,
but I wanted to I wanted to coach and coach
a position. So it worked out for me to make
the move to Omaha.
Speaker 1 (30:35):
When you went to UH Nebraska, you were at Nebraska
for two years? Is that Solos?
Speaker 2 (30:41):
Yeah? It was Frank Solis. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:43):
Why why didn't they embrace him?
Speaker 2 (30:49):
You know? I I think, you know, expectations, the game
was slowly changing a little bit. There was a dip,
you know, sustaining as you know most places, to play
at such a high level for such a long time
is very difficult. I think, you know, taking over for
a legendary coach, there was things probably in the staff
that he kept everybody that up until for a couple
(31:13):
of years, and then he made changes. It was when
he was forced to make changes and they won nine
games that year and then let him go even after
he made the staff changes. I just think there were
some things that after it dipped. I think the new
athletic director came in and wanted to hire his own person,
and a lot of times coaches can fall victim of that.
(31:36):
I think when Frank gave up the play calling and
just focused on being a head coach, I think he
really became a good head coach, and I think his
success at Ohio really showed that as well. In a
very difficult situation as well. But it was unfortunate because
Frank's a very good man. He's become a good friend
through our time in the MAC together. Have great respect
(31:57):
for him, and he probably gave me an opportunity that
has definitely helped me my career.
Speaker 1 (32:01):
Two thousand and seven, your life life changed, right, Uh?
Your all the matter the job came open. What do
you remember about the process in job coming open and
getting it?
Speaker 2 (32:15):
Well, you know I knew that that. You know, coach
Breswis had told me that he was going to be
stepping down. They announced it before the year. I had
a chance to have an informal conversation with athletic director
Paul Plinsky. And then then when the job officially opened,
they were still in the playoffs. They're making a deep run.
(32:36):
They called set up the interview right before Christmas went
the whitewater did it. Didn't really know where it was
going to land for me, my wife and I. We
went out to Denver to see my wife's sister and
family and why we're coming back, and then so Shortly
thereafter I got the call and was offered the job,
(32:56):
and it was definitely life changing.
Speaker 1 (33:00):
What what's so, what was the first or when you've
been in a place as long as you had been
at Whitewater some player, an assistant coach, but now you
roll back into town as the head coach, what's that
experience like?
Speaker 2 (33:13):
Well, it's it's mixed emotions because you know, there's things
that you want to put you know, and I'm sure
you've done it as a head coach. Are are certain things
that you want to you want to do because you
believe in them, and if you aways wanted to do it,
white Water is still had success and there's there sometimes
you know too much about some things that you want
to just change. And then there's but there's things that
(33:35):
you got to keep in respect tradition, There's there's some uniqueness.
So so finding the blend of all of that was
probably difficult. You know, you don't have a full staff
of full time people. You don't have you know, embracing
how to do that, how to how to put a
staff together. Not everybody elected to stay all those things,
(33:57):
so there's a it was a whirlwind there of a
of of some things in that very first year, and
then they had played at at a high level. They're
the two previous years. Still, it was it was taking
over something with high expectations as well.
Speaker 1 (34:15):
When you finished under and you finished underfeated a couple
of years, what are those seasons like? Because it's such
a different experience than, for example, when you take over Buffalo,
where you take over ku where. And this has probably
been the hardest part for me. Obviously we went on
a terrible losing streak, right, But you know, when you're
when the expectations are to win and now you're like
(34:37):
winning every game, you know, winning every game? What is
that like from a coaching perspective in terms of managing
I don't I would say like coaching anxiety because you
now you're everything. You're running right, what's that? What's that like?
Speaker 2 (34:54):
Yeah, that's a great question and probably one I don't
get asked very often. But you're right because you know
the anxiety, and you know anxiety could be you know,
sometimes it's self induced pressure because you feel it mounting
and the games you should win versus the ones that
you know are going to be dogfights. All those different
things of not letting it down, not letting it slip away.
(35:16):
But you've got to find the balance of you can
you can't keep everybody locked in twenty four set, you know,
and be so tight that you don't play your best.
And I do think it's you've got to stick to
your routines. You've got to go through your process. You've
got to keep your group competing. You've got to find
(35:36):
ways to balance practice. And you know, the thing that
I probably had to learn along the way is it's
okay to be confident and talk about expecting to win
and going out and playing with a confidence and swagger,
but yet keep them hungry at the same time. And
that was probably the balances of you know, we went
I think, you know, we won like forty six games
(35:58):
in a row and it was like the fis longest
win streak. And you're like, and I'll never forget. Like
when we lost, my son was our son was really young,
and he cried more than any any player because he
hadn't seen us lose. And I'm like, you know, son,
you got to accept losing sometimes too, you know. But
it's it's a different type of anxiety of going through it.
(36:19):
But I think when when when you have a good staff,
and they're you're making sure that within your staff meetings
that you're checking the boxes, we're covering the details, we're
practicing at a level of expectation that we're going to
win games, and uh, you know, we go through it
in such a way.
Speaker 1 (36:39):
Okay, whileave it's your own manor you can put up
ten eleven wins a year, you have, you have one
year we lost three games at one right the rest
it's you know, forty six game wins streak, no losses,
like it's your You're from Wisconsin, You're a legend, you know,
Wisconsin Hall of Fame for everything. Why do you even
(37:02):
take a Buffalo job?
Speaker 2 (37:05):
Multiple reasons. One is you almost what you pretty much asked.
I remember somebody sent me a clip of an article
that when we were seven and three. It said Whitewater
coming off a disastrous seven and three season. And I think,
and I think, as you said that that anxiety and
(37:26):
that presser, I didn't I don't think I was enjoying
it as much as I probably should have or should
have at that time. And I also looked at my career.
Of the one we really didn't touch on is when
I went to Nebraska, Omaha. We took over a very
similar down program that had really struggled, and we we
went one in ten, three and eight and ten and two. Wow.
(37:51):
And I really found that just like a little bit
of that time at going into Wisconsin and doing those things,
I really found that Doug to be and and I
think you'll you'll you're gonna feel the same way when
when when things turned for you and your program is
that is very gratifying.
Speaker 1 (38:07):
That is Oh, it's it's amazing you bring that up
because it's I actually said this to Jordan McKay's my assistant.
He's from Kacana, And I remember our first game we
actually end up winning the game, and I said, hey,
we're you know, they go through intros. It takes forever.
And I just said, hey, I want you to look
at the stands now and then remember this conversation in
(38:29):
a couple of years. And yeah, and and you know,
like our program, like any program, every kid's not gonna
be back, even the ones with eligibility. But to the
ones who are, like, I'm so excited for them to
have been through this because and I'm and I wonder
if you feel this way, like, look we're we I
(38:53):
had four freshmen and a sophomore out there against Youngstown
and we nearly won the game last week, right, And
and I know that I've I had a lot to learn,
never having been a college coach previously, but trying to
take this on with this amount of youth, being this
experienced my staffs relatively in experience, I've had to learn.
Speaker 2 (39:14):
To be an.
Speaker 1 (39:16):
Exemplary coach just to be competitive. Right when you call
a time out in terms of manipulating it so we
get the double timeouts we wanted to be more like
eight thirty or more. So then one more dead ball,
we get another time out, give our team more rest.
You know how we foul intentionally to get to the
TV timeouts. We try every little analytic trick we can,
(39:38):
because you know, we're we had to move some big things,
but now we're to try we got to win on
some of the margins. I would guess that your experience
at Omaha and which helped you at Buffalo, is you
become so much better a coach. And yes, I do
think that there's that false hope of show up, win
(39:59):
a bunch of games, and know that to build it
and build sustainable you kind of got to go through
the other stuff first, right, and you're one.
Speaker 2 (40:07):
Hundred percent right on that stuff, and when you do,
it's very gratifying. And like I said, I could have stayed,
as you alluded to it. You know, when I interviewed
for the job, there was a concern I would leave.
I said my goal there was there were two coaches
in over fifty years. I said, my goal was that
(40:27):
there'd be three coaches in seventy five years. I really thought,
I really thought I was going there to stay. But
then there was something always kind of you know, in
the back of my mind about taking something that's down
and building it up and something that And after that
seven and three season, I really thought that maybe expectations
(40:48):
at Whitewater were going to get to more of a
realistic type level, and that you know, we could win
the league maybe once out every three years, maybe take
second another year, make the playoffs two out of three years,
and I think that would be you know, running a
good program. And then we went undefeated right away the
next season, and it was like right back to these
(41:10):
undefeated expectations. So it was different and and and then
out of the clear blue it was it was in
October when when Buffalo Danny White, now the athletic director
at Tennessee was was the athletic director at Buffalo, and
he let go of the coach at early in October,
(41:31):
and they reached out in late October about interest, and
it was and to me, it was like from going
from Division three to the MAC is pretty unheard of,
and it was going to be an opportunity probably too
good to pass up, you know, in career wise for
my family and a lot of different things. So you know,
we we we kept going in that route.
Speaker 1 (41:55):
What was it like when you get there?
Speaker 2 (41:57):
I'd never been you know, I drove through like Aggara
Falls on a vacation once. You know, I've never been
to New York. I've never really been out east. It
was different Rob Ianella, who's our general manager here now.
Rob had coached at at Acker and he'd been at
Wisconsin with Barry. He'd been Notre Dame Arizona. Rob been
there long. He had been in the MAC and Rob
(42:18):
I was trying to convince Rob to come be associate
head coach and receiver coach, and he was I was
flying back and forth. You had finishing the whitewater season.
And Rob would come in and work Tuesday through Friday,
and I'd work Sunday through Tuesday morning. And I remember
calling him and I said, well, what do you think
and and he's like whatever, and he goes, did they
(42:42):
show you the locker room when you were here? Because
you know, Dougie, you know a lot of times you
don't get a chance to see the places when you
accept the job. You're you're accepting them before you you know,
before you even get there. Well, then I go there
for the press conference and and then he goes me,
did they show you the locker room? And I'm like,
you know what, I don't think they did. And then
(43:02):
he goes, did they show you the weight room? And
I'm like, well, as a matter of fact, they didn't.
I go why and he goes, we got a lot
of work to do, and uh. So, you know, you
find out some things you learn learn a lot. I
think for me, going from a Division III staff to
an FBS staff with with nine assistant coaches then to
(43:24):
be ten your equipment people are around your video, I
had to I had to get a lot better at
disseminating information consistently to a bigger staff and learning those things,
walking into a lot of different high schools than ever before,
traveling a lot more than for it was there was
a lot of learning going on, but one that I
know that we embraced as a staff. And and again
(43:47):
we won five games the first year. In the second year,
and and Danny White told me, he said, we'll be
okay for one year, he goes, but then there's going
to be a big dip. And sure enough we we
we had that big dip, and that got pretty tough
for a while, but then we bounced back.
Speaker 1 (44:03):
What it was the toughest So how bad was a
dep I'm sorry, how bad was a dip?
Speaker 2 (44:08):
We're two and ten, you know, morale, We had a
lot of guys leave the program. I'll tell you. The
toughest thing was as we headed into that season in
twenty sixteen, after one of our first workouts and actually
it was one of our first big conditioning workouts in February,
(44:30):
we had a player collapse and ended up passing away
and and learned a lot about being a head coach
and trying to keep a team together and doing some
things and keeping the right things in perspective, and and
you know, I knew it would be a tough year
on the field, but all that considered it, it was.
It was definitely one of the tougher times of my career.
(44:54):
I'm still pretty close with the family and uh and
that's one of our goes. But but the young man
was such a fine young man and such a team
player and such a great person that that program is
still carried on his name and legacy and it's been
an inspiration that helped us get the program going in
an a good directions. So you know, there's a lot
(45:17):
there and you know, a lot of growing from a
lot of different people.
Speaker 1 (45:22):
All Right, that's it for part one of our discussion
with coach Leopold. Tune in for part two. Remember to
listen to the radio show every day three to five
Eastern twelve two Pacific, Fox Sports Radio, iHeartRadio app. I'm
Doug Gotlie
Hey, what a welcome, and I'm Doug Gottlieb and this
is All Ball. I'll talk a little bit about my
experience in college hoops and some of these articles that
are that are coming out, which is interesting, and then
we'll get you a very special All Ball guest. Our
All Ball guest is actually a head college football coach
(00:28):
and a really really good one, and I just think
that his journey, his story. Lanthley pulls our guest on
these next two All Ball pods. I just think we
can all if you're a sports fan. I mean, that's
what All balls about. This is kind of deep dive
inside sports, and a lot of it for me is
(00:50):
as you guys know, I use it to learn. It's
like it's like a professional I don't know, consulting hour
or so. So Lanceley pulls our guest on this version
of All Ball. At the time of this recording, we've
just won our second conference game, and obviously a lot
(01:12):
of the weight has been lifted off our players back,
some off of my back, and now that we've gotten
to four wins on the season, we still have one
more home game before we head on the road to
begin the Horizon League Tournament. And as we've told people, hey.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
There's.
Speaker 1 (01:29):
We have eleven games left, you know, on our schedule,
actually still twelve games left, I guess, right, right, because
one and then you got to win four games to
win the conference tournament, and then we'd have to win
seven games to win the NCAA tournament. So it's still
some meat on the bone out there for us. But
there is something really special about a group coming together
(01:53):
when so many have frayed apart. And I would guess
if you listened to this podcast, you like my work,
whether you like me personally, and I just I think
it's really really interesting in many ways. The misperception of
what we do on pods, what we do on radio.
(02:15):
You know, it's like even the lebron Bronnie take, like
I'm not some fucking hot take artist, right. And my
analysis of Bronnie going back to high school was I
thought it'd be a damn good college player. He was
not a McDonald's All American. He wasn't close. Nobody thought that.
Nobody thought that. And then at USC he'd looked like
(02:38):
a freshman. And my advice was, go play a duquane
for one of your best friends. Have a great college
career and if then you want to play in the
NBA and you know your dad can help you, like great,
But the shoehorning him in JJ Reddick saying he's you know,
he's earned all of this, like all of that, it's
just so fake. It's like one of those don't you
(02:59):
have real friends that you're like, I don't know if
I like this now to look for Lebron's Lebron's credit,
like maybe he doesn't care what anybody thinks. This is
he wants to do what he wants to do and
what better way to end your NBA career? And I
would be surprised if he wants to have Bryce play
with him.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
Now.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
Bryce is not nearly this accomplished as Brownie, and you
know he's going to Arizona. I don't see him playing
very much in Arizona. But maybe the plan there is
don't worry about it, go there for a year. Come
and dad wants to play for two years. Then you'll
play with both your boys. And there is something really
cool about like I'm playing in the NBA and watching
(03:35):
my sons grow up, Like that's very cool. But what
it doesn't say is, hey, we want to win championships
when they take up roster spots of guys that you
need because they're not capable of playing. But none of
it is like hot, Like a hot take to me
is like an out of nowhere something that is not
(03:57):
so over the top in terms of a statement that
that it's it's not based upon real life. You know,
it's like, uh, what is the We had somebody on
Fox Sports Radio say that, like when Lamar Jackson was
in a contract kind on a dispute or whatever with
(04:18):
with the Baltimore Evens, Like mar Will never played for
the Baltimore Evens. Again, it was a couple of years ago.
He's playing for the Baltimore Evens. Like, do you have
any factual information to that? No, if not, that's a
hot take. So the misperception of how we do what
we do, Like I'm not gonna say I'm milk toast.
I have opinions, but they're all based upon sports, and
they're all relatively reasonable, I think. But the part that
(04:46):
I don't know I take the most pride in first
is I have a team. We lost twenty two games
in a row. It doesn't it doesn't seem possible we did,
and yet we kept him together, kept him fighting, and
they're closer now than they've ever been. There a really,
really good group of kids. So I take great pride
in like I had. There was one article that was
(05:06):
written that said we didn't have great culture, and it
was from somebody who had never been to Green Bay,
never been to a game, hadn't seen my team or whatever, like, hey,
we we had some growing up to do as a staff,
as a roster, as a program, but we have grown
up and that I would challenge anybody to be around
(05:27):
our group and think we don't have good culture.
Speaker 2 (05:29):
We have great culture.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
And then we have a really young group. But the
part I take most pride in is and I think
they're out of a place of honesty because they don't
have to. But coach is pulling you aside, saying because
you're doing a good job, because they're getting better, which
means they think we know what we're doing. And I
don't care about outside noise of people on social media.
(05:53):
I actually don't really care about media people because not
the analysts, but most of the media people. They weren't athletes,
they weren't coaches, they haven't really been inside it. They
don't actually know shit either. But people that matter that
watch the games and they're like, oh, getting better or
not getting better and alfer hous feedback, those are the
ones I take most pride in because they're giving good
(06:16):
feedback that we are getting better.
Speaker 3 (06:17):
Be sure to catch live editions of The Doug Gottlieb
Show weekdays at three pm Eastern noon Pacific on Fox
Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
But part of my professional development series is reaching out
to people who I am fascinated with what they've been
able to do at different places, how they've been able
to build it going through good years, bad years, tough
places to coach. And our guest this week is Lanslee Poll.
When you hear his story, you'd be like, wow, that's
crazy crazy. He was a Division III player, Division three coach.
(06:51):
He did have some Division one, Division two opportunities and
did some other things, but at the end of the day,
he was at Whitewater and could have been just a
legendary Whitewater and coach there for his entire life. But
instead he took a shot on building it at Buffalo
and then eventually now at Kansas, and he's done some
remarkable things. So let's catch up with the head coach
of the Kansas Jayhawks and Football, Lance Sleepold. I'm Doug Gottlieb.
(07:16):
This is All Ball and welcome in this version of
All Ball is our part two of Lance Sleepold. He's
a head coach at Kansas Football. And in this portion
of our discussion, we'll get to KU, right, what was
it like to take over, how you built it, how
you've been able to build, what feels like it's sustainable.
And first we'll get to why take the KU job?
(07:39):
Why leave Buffalo after he had built that one? So
we'll get to all that. A little basketball within this is,
you know, we talk a lot about my college team,
and we can talk about the journey and what Championship
Week is like, because that comes up this coming week
and we'll start our journey on Tuesday. That'll be the
(08:00):
first game in the Horizon League Tournament. Of course, those
are hom sides first two rounds or home sites. We
did not get a buy obviously, were the last seed,
so we'll play the sixth seed on the road, and
then if we win, we played the one seed on
the road, which is Robert Morris. But I do think
before we depart from the NBA because that's March. We
like forget about the NBA for a month. You know,
(08:23):
the most underdiscussed portion of the Luca trade is that
Anthony Davis. He's not Luca. I think Luca's awesome. I
think Luca's the best offensive player in the league. But
Anthony Davis was pretty special and I may have even
underrated him, undersold him for most of his career and
(08:44):
the last year and a half that he's been healthy
with the Lakers and you go back to win they
won the championship. I mean, he's he's a motherfucker. He's
a motherfucker. So I'm personally excited to see what that
group looks like when he gets healthy, because now you
have Kyrie, remember you're gonna have Derek Lively and what's
(09:09):
the kid from Arkansas defending the rim? And that allows
Anthony Davis to play mostly the four, and man, I
mean he just killed dudes. So excited to see what
it looks like. And it's like the least discussed portion
of the trade is you know, Anthony Davis is really
really good. I still think the Mavericks need a point guard.
Kyrie's not really a point guard, but there should be
(09:32):
incredible defensively, and they do have a lot of shooting,
and they do have riom protection and they were in
the NBA finals last year. All right, let's get back
to some football discussion. Why would you leave your first
Division one job a couple of years in to go
take on the Kansas football issue. Kansas football has been
(09:53):
good like two years in the past thirty Why would
Lance Leopold do it? And how has he turned this
sing around? And what was that first year like when
they won two games? Let's get to that discussion right
now with Landsleep. He's the head coach of the Kansas Jayhawks.
And we always joked in the Big Twelve and those
(10:17):
of you who listen to the pod, no, I'm a
Big twelve alum. I haven't played oklhand State that wait till
Kansas goes Division one and football. We used to joke,
right because KU for the life of my existence within
the Oklahoma State family, which is nineteen ninety seven until now,
there was a like a two or three year spurt
there where they were really competitive and obviously, you know,
(10:40):
you talk about competing for an Orange Bowl, but outside
of that, the stadium hadn't been updated and it just
didn't feel like at the level of the rest of
the league. With all that changed when our guest in
today's pod took over. He's the head coach, and he's
taken Kansas not only to consistent success in the Big Twelve,
but so much so. New stadium is right on the horizon,
(11:03):
and everyone I think used Kansas football at a completetive
and Mighty's Lance Leopold. He joins us now on the
All Ball podcast.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
Let's start with.
Speaker 1 (11:13):
You before you took over the job. And I usually
like to go in chronological order and start with growing
up in Wisconsin. We'll get to that. But when you
were a Division three head coach at Whitewater, your alma mater,
did you ever think about Kansas football in reality?
Speaker 2 (11:31):
No, no, Doug, not at all. I had spent ten
of the previous thirteen years in Omaha, Nebraska coaching Division
two ball. I think when I went to Whitewater, my
wife's from Omaha. I thought, if there was ever another move,
maybe the coach that i'd worked for all that time,
when he retired, maybe I'd be a Division two head coach.
(11:51):
There wasn't any big grand plan to try to be
an FBS head coach in the MAC or the Big
twelve or anything. I think I'm probably living a when
you really look at it, Oh, no question.
Speaker 1 (12:02):
But I mean even when you thought of Big twelve,
like Kansas was so far down the list of schools
that you'd want to talk about. You know, it's like,
I know, you worked in Nebraska for a little bit,
like Nebraska, like Okay, that was that's big time college football.
Oklahoma it's big time college football. And then and then
there's Kansas. It's very unique that you take over at
(12:25):
Kansas and you stay at a Kansas when you've got success.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
Right well, you know, I joked. I joked as we
were having success in the twenty two and twenty three
season that sometimes our communications staff would you know, they
give you those little tidbits before you do an interview
about this is the first time since whatever year and
whatever time that something had been accomplished and some of
those things had gone back into the nineteen thirties or something.
(12:52):
I said, if I really would have done a good
job doing my research, I probably would have interviewed for
the job. But there were some things there, and there's
some tough times, but you know, the things that really
aligned well of opportunity. You know, when we went into Buffalo,
we took on a rebuilding project, and you know, we've
always felt that, whether it be a Division III or
(13:12):
in the MAC, that we could assemble a staff and
build a program and maintain consistency. And that's what we've
been striving for. And now that you know we've been
able to have success, we have commitment, we have new
things on the horizon, and in this new era of
college athletics, I think anybody has a chance in any
given year.
Speaker 1 (13:34):
I completely agree with you. Let's start back going to college.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
Right.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
You went to Whitewater's Division III program. What was it
like for you in terms of deciding on a school
growing up in Wisconsin?
Speaker 2 (13:44):
Well, you know, I grew up my parents went to Whitewater,
my sister went to everybody. I grew up about fifteen
minutes from Whitewater. I originally was going to go to
Western Michigan and then my mother had been diagnosed with
cancer that summer and decided to kind of re reevaluate,
stay closer a home. Had a lot of good friends there.
You know. The unique thing about Division three athletics and
(14:07):
maybe you see it a little bit in your time
Dow in Green Bay is that the Division three state
schools in Wisconsin probably play a Division two type level
of athletics. Based on that, there's really not Division two
athletics in in Wisconsin. There's not FCS football, so there's
a good, good brand of football there. So kind of
went there and after after college, decided I wanted to
(14:30):
try to explore the coaching route. About nineteen ninety out
a chance to meet Barry Alvarez at the State Coaches
Clinic in Madison, and was fortunate to get hired as
a graduate assistant after his first year and be part
of that building process and from the ninety one ninety
two ninety three seasons.
Speaker 1 (14:51):
Okay, well, let's let's go back to what were you
like as a player?
Speaker 2 (14:56):
You know, I don't know. I was probably if I
look at it, probably drive myself crazy as a coach.
Probably I probably had a decent arm. I had pretty
good mobility. Not the fastest guy, but I could avoid
a rush. Probably didn't have enough pocket patients in my
early days.
Speaker 1 (15:12):
But you guys run it like this is eighties, you
guys running power high.
Speaker 2 (15:16):
Yeah, we will go back then. It was some power
eyes of my senior year of high school. After our
first four games we struggled, and the head coach kind
of abandoned that. We actually went to the shotgun and
and uh and and when four receivers start spreading some
things out and we started evolved to that in my
junior year, my first full year as a starter. And
at Whitewater there's a game against River Falls. We threw
(15:39):
fifty seven times, so there were some times that we
had chance to air it out. But yeah, that football
back then in the eighties versus what we see now
is completely different.
Speaker 1 (15:49):
Whitewater's biggest rival.
Speaker 2 (15:50):
Is here Lacrosse Wisconsin Cross was always the rival, still
is to this day, and it's good, healthy rivalry of
two good programs.
Speaker 1 (16:03):
How far what's the distance between the two places, the.
Speaker 2 (16:06):
Two and a half maybe something like that, you know
what each side of the state there on the on
the border over there on on the on the western side.
But uh, you know, I think just the way that
league set up, you know a lot of a lot
of competitive people about both schools have good education programs,
and you know a lot of back in the back
in the seventies eighties, a lot of a lot of
(16:28):
guys that want to be teachers and coaches that end
up in the state went to those schools, so it
is always very competitive.
Speaker 1 (16:35):
We got to have that conversation. Do people I have
one kid who wants to be a coach, but do
kids still want to be coaches? Does anybody go like, hey,
I just I just want.
Speaker 2 (16:45):
To be a coach? Well, yeah, I think we have
to worry about today. Sometimes at this level, you got
to make sure people want to coach for the right
reason and making impacts and and love of the game.
I think, you know, at our levels now, the money's
the money is excellent, and sometimes you got to make
sure that you're going to go into it. And you know,
I say to some of our younger coaches now that
(17:06):
I'm on the older side of things about paying your
dues and a lot of times about you know, having
to you know, do do some of the things of
lining fields and doing laundry and doing things at the
smaller college level sometimes right now, you know, some some
people want to be coordinators before their even position coaches.
So I think there is I think there's people that
(17:27):
love the game and do some things. But like you're saying,
is I think sometimes guys dip their toes in the
water and I find out that there's a lot of
hours and a lot of things go into it, and
just showing up for practicing games right.
Speaker 1 (17:41):
Well, they also think what the head coach at the
high major level makes is uh, it's a quick transition
to that which you remember once you mad your first year,
you get down to college and your quarterback coach at
your all the monor so, by the way, that had
to be awkward because there's a lot of guys you're
coaching who you had played with previously.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
Yeah, I didn't, you know. At first, I kind of
skipped a little bit of story. I was going to
go into law enforcement. I was taking the state exams
to be a police officer and things like.
Speaker 1 (18:10):
State police or local police as well.
Speaker 2 (18:13):
It was more I just wanted to kind of get
into law for so I was taking state exams for
different police departments and around the state. I actually ended
up in my hometown working part time and went to
the academy. Part what were you doing? Hold on, what
were you what were you doing part time? Back then
they let you in a squad car. I was like,
(18:33):
you know, well, you were a part time with the police. Yeah,
and I was going to Yeah, back then, it was
almost like you know, one bullet Barney Fife and they
give you a car and you're kind of shadowing with people.
And I would I would do these the segments of
the academy at Waukee Shaw Tech and and they're outside
of Milwaukee and and and do some things. But but
(18:55):
I didn't have any full time gig. As Paul Camp
rolled around, and I went down and talked to my
former head coach, Bob Breswitz, and he's like, hey, if
you if you want to come hang out and help
coach Camp, you can. And I went down there and
start helping and I never left. And I think you're
kind of saying, what do you get paid and stuff?
I think I got five hundred dollars my first year.
(19:16):
And I tell people this all the time, Doug is
I never made over fifteen thousand dollars until I was
thirty years old. And it's it's been a long it
was a long ride, and and you know.
Speaker 1 (19:29):
You'd have to apologize to nobody coach zero zero people
you have to apologize to here, So why keep doing
the coaching and not go to law enforcement? Were you
a mad top. That was that your problem?
Speaker 2 (19:43):
Well, I'll tell you it was twofold one. It was
hard to get full time employment just going through all
the state exams and the procedures at the time. But
you know, even back in my in my small hometown,
you know a lot of those things. In those I
was the only person in the department, even as part time,
that had a college degree. But yet it was seniority based.
And and I'm working third shift. A lot usually was
(20:07):
just filling shifts. There would be vacations, and you know,
a guy take a week or two whatever, or somebody
goes to the academy for some special training, and and
then somebody does a fill in, and the guys working
third shift want to work second or first. So and
then there's one night in a small town of about
six thousand people at the time where a car hasn't
gone by in three hours and I and I'm sitting
(20:30):
there thinking to myself, I thought I went to college,
not to work third shift. Yeah, and I and instead
of going home and sleeping right after my shift was done,
I drove back to Whitewater and I got an application
to graduate school.
Speaker 1 (20:45):
So you go to graduate school and you're a grad coach.
Speaker 2 (20:48):
What was the experience like, Yeah, you know, I was
a graduate. I was a grad coach at at Whitewater
for a bit and doing my I kind of took us.
And then I took a job in a small private
school in Nebraska where I think, you know, you've gone
through your father to coach. You take those small jobs.
And I was running a dorm and coaching football and
doing intermarals and actually learned a lot through that experience.
(21:11):
And then I went back to Whitewater finished my masters.
Speaker 1 (21:14):
But don't don't skip over create Nebraska, now, I don't
skip out. So okay, So your two years in grad
school and you're coaching quarterbacks, wide receivers, your own manor
how did how did doan job come to be?
Speaker 2 (21:29):
Well, one of my best friends of this day, who's
actually was Roger Hughes, who's the coach that was end
up being the head coach at Princeton. He started the
program back up at Stetson. He's actually now the president
of Doan University. From football coach to president like a
Jim Tressel. But we worked together in nineteen eighty eight
in Whitewater and we became really good friends and that
(21:52):
was his alma mater, and he kind of connected me
with the head coach. He knew I wanted to try
to move up levels, but he told me, Lance, you've
been at Whitewater too long. You need to go to
experience something else. And he was one hundred percent right.
So I went and I and I did it, and
you know, it was again a good learning experience.
Speaker 3 (22:12):
Okay, give me one thing.
Speaker 1 (22:13):
One memory of coaching at Doan and Create Nebraska.
Speaker 2 (22:18):
Okay, Well, I remember, like we had this small, small
stadiums and you know they're shared with high schools, and
you know, we're fortunate at white Water. I have good
facilities and stuff. And we have this little press box
there and at the at the school and I asked
the guy one of the I asked the secondary coach.
I said, so, what side of the press box are
we on? And he said, we're on top of the
(22:39):
press box. I go, what do you mean we're on
top of the press but he goes, yeah, we sit
on folding chairs on top of the press box. So
my parents had come down to watch me coach my
first game, and here I come walking up the stands
with a folding chair and I had to carry the
folding chair up the ladder to go coach. And I'm like, here,
I am a big time college, big time inn Ai coach,
(23:00):
here carrying a carrying a chair up a ladder right
before kickoff.
Speaker 1 (23:05):
What'd your parents say?
Speaker 2 (23:07):
Yeah? Then, you know they you know, it's one of
those things where your parents are waiting for you to
find direction and get a job and kind of get
on it, you know, find it. But they they knew
from my time at Whitewater that it was something I
was passionate about and wanted to do, and they were
very supportive through the years.
Speaker 1 (23:26):
Yeah, my dad, he loved to tell the story that
his first college job he was a he was a
high school coach. He replaced Huge Brown at fair Lawn
High School in New Jersey. That was his first job,
and then he was at Dylanvale, Ohio. He went to
Ohio State John Howich, he was a JV player, John
(23:46):
Hawichack Bob Knight. Those guys were star varsity players and
Hondo helped him get a job close to his hometown
in Dylonville, Ohio. Then he was at Colorado Springs High School.
Speaker 2 (23:57):
For a year.
Speaker 1 (23:57):
Then he was at Death Valley High School where he
drove the school bus, picked kids up, had had taught history,
had basketball practice, drove the kids home. The all timer.
Speaker 2 (24:08):
Right.
Speaker 1 (24:09):
And then when his first college job was at Quinnipiac,
which is now Division one, was then an AIA and
he was the freshman head coach, the varsity assistant, the
head soccer coach, and the head golf coach. And he'd
never hit a golf ball. He knew nothing about soccer.
And so he learned about soccer by buying a begetting
a uh, checking out a book at the library. And
(24:30):
then he had to learn to line in the field
and he learned.
Speaker 2 (24:32):
All the rules of soccer. That that's how he did.
Had no idea, and that's that's what you did back
in the day, and and and they and he loved
every minute of it.
Speaker 1 (24:41):
Probably no question, no question, never a bat, never a
bad word said about Burt Kahn or Quinnipiac or or
or anything. Okay, So but one year was enough. You're like,
I'm out, I got to go back home.
Speaker 2 (24:52):
Yeah it was. You know. Bob Breuswiz, head coach at Whitewater,
asked me to come back and help him, uh run
the offense, they had taken a dip, and uh so
I went back, finished up and and and completed my masters.
And then and then I had a chance to, like
like I said, to meet Barry Alvarez that spring, and
and uh so I started driving up the Madison a
(25:13):
lot during during spring practice. And finally, after about my
fourth trip, he he asked me what I had gone
and I said, well, I really like to be in
Madison and he said, well, as far as I'm concerned,
you got the job if you wanted. So it ended
up being the life changing, uh opportunity for me.
Speaker 1 (25:30):
Okay, but when you got there again, help me out
if I'm wrong. The year before you got there, they
were terrible, right, that was very his first year they
were one in ten, Yes, sir, yes, sir, yep. So,
so what was what was? Because Barry Avas now is
like a godfather, right, it's just the ring. This guy's
done everything. What was he like then?
Speaker 2 (25:53):
No? Again, extremely confident and confident in the plan that
they could get it done. I mean there were times
where I'm sure was you know, things could waiver a
little bit, but he had such an excellent staff, Dan McCartney,
who ended up being a head coach. You know j Norbel,
the current head coach at Colorado State, Brad Schilders, who
was the NFL head coach, Bill Callahan. You know there's
(26:15):
some I look back the coach Bill Callahan. Yeah, yeah,
Like Bill was head coach of the Raiders Nebraska, but
he's probably the best offensive line coach that there is.
And I look back at just the opportunity, the people
I sat in the room with and just listened to
about football and experiences. But we're five and six the
first the next year, five and six the next year,
(26:38):
then we won the Big Ten and won that first
Rose Bowl. But watching it come together and watching his confidence,
the work ethic of the of the staff, all those
things were because you know, he always referred to things
between really three people. He talked about Bob Devanny, who
he played for at Nebraska. He talked about Lou Holtz,
and he talked about Hayden Fry, and he talked about
(26:59):
those people and what they were able to do in
building programs. I was always a great foundation. But as
you know, Barry had a plan and he was awful
confident in how he did and stuck to it.
Speaker 3 (27:11):
Be sure to catch live editions of the Doug Gottlieb
Show weekdays at three pm Eastern noon Pacific on Fox
Sports Radio and the iHeartRadio app.
Speaker 1 (27:21):
Okay, let's talk about the nineteen ninety three Rose Bowl team,
right where he had Daryl Belvill, who's been an outstanding offense,
the coordinator in the NFL, is the quarterback. What did
you know? And that's a weird year too, because actually
the only loss in the year was to Minnesota, right
of all teams back when they played in the Dome. Right,
(27:44):
you've been around there a couple of years. Did you
know that that team was going to be something special?
Speaker 2 (27:48):
Well, if I'd back it up the year before, Doug
was we're five and five, and if we beat Northwestern
last game of the year, we're going to go to
one of them. We're either going to go to the
free eat them bull or I forgot the other one.
And we were driving down to kick a game winning
field goal and we end up fumbling. And it was
(28:10):
heartbreaking loss because we really looked at as that going
to be the year that we could we could kind
of take take the leap into Bowld thing. But we
knew we had enough coming back and there was enough
things that we could get off to a good start.
The pieces were in place, there was enough returning talent,
and there was a good confidence to win it all.
Probably not, but you know, we we had that stretch
(28:31):
where we we upset Michigan, we we tie Ohio State,
and the place was rocking. And then we had to
go to Tokyo, Japan to play the last regular season
game to to to clinch the Rose Bowl berth against
Michigan State.
Speaker 1 (28:46):
That's crazy, Okay, So then what's next? Like, what what
is it like to then be a part of this
meteoric rise at Wisconsin. You're from Wisconsin and you have
all of these different other future head coaches that when
you go to Rosebull you know it works. You're dealing
with it. In the last couple of years, everybody plucks
guys off staff. What were your conversations with coach al
(29:10):
res like and how did it affect your plan?
Speaker 2 (29:13):
Well, you know, at that time, you know, there were
starting to be rumbles about a few guys being involved
with stuff. Actually, the job I ended up taking it
opened up while we were at the Rose Bowl, and
I'll always be grateful for Barry Is. We're in a
staff meeting, and Pat Burns is a gentleman I worked
for for a long time to brask Omaha. He said
to Jim Hubert are running back coach at the time,
(29:35):
that hey, did you see that that Pat got the
Omaha job? And Barry's wife is from Omaha. And he's like,
that could be a good job. And Jim's like, yeah,
I'm gonna try to get Lance in on that. And
then Barry goes, we're gonna call it right after this meeting,
So so you know, coach made phone call, try to
help me out there. I think that it was about
a year away before the guys really started and Dan
(29:56):
McCartney got the Iowa State job, and and and and
Brad Childers went to the NFL, and then Bill followed
shortly thereafter. You know, there's a lot of rumbles, a
lot of things going and and and guys you could
see were starting to get their plan to take the
next career move. Coach Alvarez was mentioned for NFL jobs
as well as others. So it's probably the first time
(30:18):
you got to you got to just keep your head down,
keep working hard. You know, there was an opportunity for
to stay and work behind the scenes and in some ways,
but I wanted to I wanted to coach and coach
a position. So it worked out for me to make
the move to Omaha.
Speaker 1 (30:35):
When you went to UH Nebraska, you were at Nebraska
for two years? Is that Solos?
Speaker 2 (30:41):
Yeah? It was Frank Solis. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:43):
Why why didn't they embrace him?
Speaker 2 (30:49):
You know? I I think, you know, expectations, the game
was slowly changing a little bit. There was a dip,
you know, sustaining as you know most places, to play
at such a high level for such a long time
is very difficult. I think, you know, taking over for
a legendary coach, there was things probably in the staff
that he kept everybody that up until for a couple
(31:13):
of years, and then he made changes. It was when
he was forced to make changes and they won nine
games that year and then let him go even after
he made the staff changes. I just think there were
some things that after it dipped. I think the new
athletic director came in and wanted to hire his own person,
and a lot of times coaches can fall victim of that.
(31:36):
I think when Frank gave up the play calling and
just focused on being a head coach, I think he
really became a good head coach, and I think his
success at Ohio really showed that as well. In a
very difficult situation as well. But it was unfortunate because
Frank's a very good man. He's become a good friend
through our time in the MAC together. Have great respect
(31:57):
for him, and he probably gave me an opportunity that
has definitely helped me my career.
Speaker 1 (32:01):
Two thousand and seven, your life life changed, right, Uh?
Your all the matter the job came open. What do
you remember about the process in job coming open and
getting it?
Speaker 2 (32:15):
Well, you know I knew that that. You know, coach
Breswis had told me that he was going to be
stepping down. They announced it before the year. I had
a chance to have an informal conversation with athletic director
Paul Plinsky. And then then when the job officially opened,
they were still in the playoffs. They're making a deep run.
(32:36):
They called set up the interview right before Christmas went
the whitewater did it. Didn't really know where it was
going to land for me, my wife and I. We
went out to Denver to see my wife's sister and
family and why we're coming back, and then so Shortly
thereafter I got the call and was offered the job,
(32:56):
and it was definitely life changing.
Speaker 1 (33:00):
What what's so, what was the first or when you've
been in a place as long as you had been
at Whitewater some player, an assistant coach, but now you
roll back into town as the head coach, what's that
experience like?
Speaker 2 (33:13):
Well, it's it's mixed emotions because you know, there's things
that you want to put you know, and I'm sure
you've done it as a head coach. Are are certain things
that you want to you want to do because you
believe in them, and if you aways wanted to do it,
white Water is still had success and there's there sometimes
you know too much about some things that you want
to just change. And then there's but there's things that
(33:35):
you got to keep in respect tradition, There's there's some uniqueness.
So so finding the blend of all of that was
probably difficult. You know, you don't have a full staff
of full time people. You don't have you know, embracing
how to do that, how to how to put a
staff together. Not everybody elected to stay all those things,
(33:57):
so there's a it was a whirlwind there of a
of of some things in that very first year, and
then they had played at at a high level. They're
the two previous years. Still, it was it was taking
over something with high expectations as well.
Speaker 1 (34:15):
When you finished under and you finished underfeated a couple
of years, what are those seasons like? Because it's such
a different experience than, for example, when you take over Buffalo,
where you take over ku where. And this has probably
been the hardest part for me. Obviously we went on
a terrible losing streak, right, But you know, when you're
when the expectations are to win and now you're like
(34:37):
winning every game, you know, winning every game? What is
that like from a coaching perspective in terms of managing
I don't I would say like coaching anxiety because you
now you're everything. You're running right, what's that? What's that like?
Speaker 2 (34:54):
Yeah, that's a great question and probably one I don't
get asked very often. But you're right because you know
the anxiety, and you know anxiety could be you know,
sometimes it's self induced pressure because you feel it mounting
and the games you should win versus the ones that
you know are going to be dogfights. All those different
things of not letting it down, not letting it slip away.
(35:16):
But you've got to find the balance of you can
you can't keep everybody locked in twenty four set, you know,
and be so tight that you don't play your best.
And I do think it's you've got to stick to
your routines. You've got to go through your process. You've
got to keep your group competing. You've got to find
(35:36):
ways to balance practice. And you know, the thing that
I probably had to learn along the way is it's
okay to be confident and talk about expecting to win
and going out and playing with a confidence and swagger,
but yet keep them hungry at the same time. And
that was probably the balances of you know, we went
I think, you know, we won like forty six games
(35:58):
in a row and it was like the fis longest
win streak. And you're like, and I'll never forget. Like
when we lost, my son was our son was really young,
and he cried more than any any player because he
hadn't seen us lose. And I'm like, you know, son,
you got to accept losing sometimes too, you know. But
it's it's a different type of anxiety of going through it.
(36:19):
But I think when when when you have a good staff,
and they're you're making sure that within your staff meetings
that you're checking the boxes, we're covering the details, we're
practicing at a level of expectation that we're going to
win games, and uh, you know, we go through it
in such a way.
Speaker 1 (36:39):
Okay, whileave it's your own manor you can put up
ten eleven wins a year, you have, you have one
year we lost three games at one right the rest
it's you know, forty six game wins streak, no losses,
like it's your You're from Wisconsin, You're a legend, you know,
Wisconsin Hall of Fame for everything. Why do you even
(37:02):
take a Buffalo job?
Speaker 2 (37:05):
Multiple reasons. One is you almost what you pretty much asked.
I remember somebody sent me a clip of an article
that when we were seven and three. It said Whitewater
coming off a disastrous seven and three season. And I think,
and I think, as you said that that anxiety and
(37:26):
that presser, I didn't I don't think I was enjoying
it as much as I probably should have or should
have at that time. And I also looked at my career.
Of the one we really didn't touch on is when
I went to Nebraska, Omaha. We took over a very
similar down program that had really struggled, and we we
went one in ten, three and eight and ten and two. Wow.
(37:51):
And I really found that just like a little bit
of that time at going into Wisconsin and doing those things,
I really found that Doug to be and and I
think you'll you'll you're gonna feel the same way when
when when things turned for you and your program is
that is very gratifying.
Speaker 1 (38:07):
That is Oh, it's it's amazing you bring that up
because it's I actually said this to Jordan McKay's my assistant.
He's from Kacana, And I remember our first game we
actually end up winning the game, and I said, hey,
we're you know, they go through intros. It takes forever.
And I just said, hey, I want you to look
at the stands now and then remember this conversation in
(38:29):
a couple of years. And yeah, and and you know,
like our program, like any program, every kid's not gonna
be back, even the ones with eligibility. But to the
ones who are, like, I'm so excited for them to
have been through this because and I'm and I wonder
if you feel this way, like, look we're we I
(38:53):
had four freshmen and a sophomore out there against Youngstown
and we nearly won the game last week, right, And
and I know that I've I had a lot to learn,
never having been a college coach previously, but trying to
take this on with this amount of youth, being this
experienced my staffs relatively in experience, I've had to learn.
Speaker 2 (39:14):
To be an.
Speaker 1 (39:16):
Exemplary coach just to be competitive. Right when you call
a time out in terms of manipulating it so we
get the double timeouts we wanted to be more like
eight thirty or more. So then one more dead ball,
we get another time out, give our team more rest.
You know how we foul intentionally to get to the
TV timeouts. We try every little analytic trick we can,
(39:38):
because you know, we're we had to move some big things,
but now we're to try we got to win on
some of the margins. I would guess that your experience
at Omaha and which helped you at Buffalo, is you
become so much better a coach. And yes, I do
think that there's that false hope of show up, win
(39:59):
a bunch of games, and know that to build it
and build sustainable you kind of got to go through
the other stuff first, right, and you're one.
Speaker 2 (40:07):
Hundred percent right on that stuff, and when you do,
it's very gratifying. And like I said, I could have stayed,
as you alluded to it. You know, when I interviewed
for the job, there was a concern I would leave.
I said my goal there was there were two coaches
in over fifty years. I said, my goal was that
(40:27):
there'd be three coaches in seventy five years. I really thought,
I really thought I was going there to stay. But
then there was something always kind of you know, in
the back of my mind about taking something that's down
and building it up and something that And after that
seven and three season, I really thought that maybe expectations
(40:48):
at Whitewater were going to get to more of a
realistic type level, and that you know, we could win
the league maybe once out every three years, maybe take
second another year, make the playoffs two out of three years,
and I think that would be you know, running a
good program. And then we went undefeated right away the
next season, and it was like right back to these
(41:10):
undefeated expectations. So it was different and and and then
out of the clear blue it was it was in
October when when Buffalo Danny White, now the athletic director
at Tennessee was was the athletic director at Buffalo, and
he let go of the coach at early in October,
(41:31):
and they reached out in late October about interest, and
it was and to me, it was like from going
from Division three to the MAC is pretty unheard of,
and it was going to be an opportunity probably too
good to pass up, you know, in career wise for
my family and a lot of different things. So you know,
we we we kept going in that route.
Speaker 1 (41:55):
What was it like when you get there?
Speaker 2 (41:57):
I'd never been you know, I drove through like Aggara
Falls on a vacation once. You know, I've never been
to New York. I've never really been out east. It
was different Rob Ianella, who's our general manager here now.
Rob had coached at at Acker and he'd been at
Wisconsin with Barry. He'd been Notre Dame Arizona. Rob been
there long. He had been in the MAC and Rob
(42:18):
I was trying to convince Rob to come be associate
head coach and receiver coach, and he was I was
flying back and forth. You had finishing the whitewater season.
And Rob would come in and work Tuesday through Friday,
and I'd work Sunday through Tuesday morning. And I remember
calling him and I said, well, what do you think
and and he's like whatever, and he goes, did they
(42:42):
show you the locker room when you were here? Because
you know, Dougie, you know a lot of times you
don't get a chance to see the places when you
accept the job. You're you're accepting them before you you know,
before you even get there. Well, then I go there
for the press conference and and then he goes me,
did they show you the locker room? And I'm like,
you know what, I don't think they did. And then
(43:02):
he goes, did they show you the weight room? And
I'm like, well, as a matter of fact, they didn't.
I go why and he goes, we got a lot
of work to do, and uh. So, you know, you
find out some things you learn learn a lot. I
think for me, going from a Division III staff to
an FBS staff with with nine assistant coaches then to
(43:24):
be ten your equipment people are around your video, I
had to I had to get a lot better at
disseminating information consistently to a bigger staff and learning those things,
walking into a lot of different high schools than ever before,
traveling a lot more than for it was there was
a lot of learning going on, but one that I
know that we embraced as a staff. And and again
(43:47):
we won five games the first year. In the second year,
and and Danny White told me, he said, we'll be
okay for one year, he goes, but then there's going
to be a big dip. And sure enough we we
we had that big dip, and that got pretty tough
for a while, but then we bounced back.
Speaker 1 (44:03):
What it was the toughest So how bad was a
dep I'm sorry, how bad was a dip?
Speaker 2 (44:08):
We're two and ten, you know, morale, We had a
lot of guys leave the program. I'll tell you. The
toughest thing was as we headed into that season in
twenty sixteen, after one of our first workouts and actually
it was one of our first big conditioning workouts in February,
(44:30):
we had a player collapse and ended up passing away
and and learned a lot about being a head coach
and trying to keep a team together and doing some
things and keeping the right things in perspective, and and
you know, I knew it would be a tough year
on the field, but all that considered it, it was.
It was definitely one of the tougher times of my career.
(44:54):
I'm still pretty close with the family and uh and
that's one of our goes. But but the young man
was such a fine young man and such a team
player and such a great person that that program is
still carried on his name and legacy and it's been
an inspiration that helped us get the program going in
an a good directions. So you know, there's a lot
(45:17):
there and you know, a lot of growing from a
lot of different people.
Speaker 1 (45:22):
All Right, that's it for part one of our discussion
with coach Leopold. Tune in for part two. Remember to
listen to the radio show every day three to five
Eastern twelve two Pacific, Fox Sports Radio, iHeartRadio app. I'm
Doug Gotlie
Host
Doug Gottlieb
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