Why One of College Football’s Oldest Rivalries Is Moving

D3 football is not easy. Come watch a game. The football is not easy. The school's not easy. They get punched in the face. They get right back up and they do it again.

But that's what makes you who you are. Only player in AFL and AF2 history [music] to win rookie of the year in backtoback seasons. How about that? You've been able to rattle off so many conference [music] championships and really take the DEPA standard for football to [music] this next level. Coach Brett Dietz, where will the 2026 Monell [music] be played? Good morning, good afternoon, good evening, wherever you are, however you may be listening.

Thanks for tuning in to the Get Indiana podcast network. My name is Dominic Miranda and I've been covering sports for nearly a decade. Most of which right here in Indianapolis. This is the Get In Sports podcast. We're going to be covering everything in the Hooser State, high school, college, pro, in the sports capital of the universe in the greatest state on [music] planet Earth. Thanks so much for coming on this journey with us.

Let's get into it. On today's episode of Get in Sports and what a special episode it is. We have a very prestigious guest, one near and dear to Nate Spangle and I's heart. He's going into his seventh season as head football coach at Nate N's alma mater, the Dep Tigers. A sterling 51-9 record at [music] the helm in that time span. By the end of this episode, he will tell us and we will know.

The location of the 2026 Monan Bell Classic between Depal and Waw Bash, the oldest college football rivalry in Indiana, one of the oldest in the nation. We're pleased to welcome on to Get In Sports, Coach Brett Dietz. Coach, thanks for joining us. We're happy to have you here finally. Hey, a big fan. [laughter] Nice to be in the studio.

This I feel famous here. He he walks in and is like, "What is this place?" like is this it's like it is just uh it is it is a place where a ton of fun happens. I am going to I'm going to go out on a limb and I'm going to guess when you got the the job as the head football coach for for DEPA I don't know seven years ago. I don't know if you ever thought that you'd be sitting in a studio with Dom and I reminiscing on old football uh stories but here we are. This is great.

Well, I knew you guys would do something special and and here we are. He was like, "Yeah, I saw I saw how they took their talents after football and put them to good use, right? Like maybe not so talented while with the football team. People forget, but uh I mean, excellent uh sideline uh locker room guys. Great teammates. Great teammates.

[laughter] Half ACL later." And here we are. Uh but yeah, coach, this is great. I know we wanted to have you on for a while and this is and like I said, stick around for the end of the episode cuz we're going to have some breaking news where the 2026 Monon Bell game will be played. But before we get into this and kind of talk about how you ended up in Green Castle and the awesome success DEPAW has had since you've been a part of this really since 2010. But Depal means a lot to us, especially Depal football and a lot of our friends and a lot of our network obviously comes from Depa and Indianapolis and the like.

But what is it about campus? What is it about the athletics, the vibe, everything associated with DEPA before we get into kind of your upbringing and everything like that that means most to you and specifically being the head coach, the steward of Depal football? I think first and foremost anytime you talk to somebody about Depal, the most successful part and and the best part about Depal is the people. Yeah. And I I think that's something that that I fell in love with when I got involved with Depal, you know, in 2010. um not just the people that that are there but the alumni, the passion that comes out from Depal.

Uh the history of tradition obviously there's been a great coaching uh tradition there with Nick Morosis and and everybody else before and after that uh with Bill Lynch obviously being a big mentor of mine. Um you know it's just about the people make it such a special place and uh the alums that you guys are a part of now like it's it's bigger and better than than anybody else in Indiana. So um it's a special place and and you feel it when you're there. Sometimes it's hard to put into words, but uh when you know it, you feel it. And uh I certainly felt it in 2010. I started full-time in 2011 there and and haven't left since.

So obviously, it's a place near and dear to my heart as well. Took one visit for me, literally. Right. I mean, it was just something special. Not even an overnight visit. I was thinking I didn't even overnight there.

And then that was just like icing on the cake. It took 4 hours for my dad to and I to get down cuz there was it was a snowstorm. It's nice. Yeah. But it was awesome. I mean, like you said, Depa, we just love it.

And so to have you on, this is this is great. And uh just being the head coach, I mean, I just know that means a lot. But I think that this is an interesting piece. We're alumni. We went through that, but you are not an alumni of DEPA. And I think that we have been blessed at DEPA with a mixture of both alumni that come back and feel a service and and you know, go work at the university, but also people who discover it more in their professional setting.

Your story with uh D3 football doesn't start in Greencastle. It starts down on the Ohio River, right? Growing up. You're not from the state of Indiana originally. Coington Catholic. Is that right?

Hall of Fame Hall of Famer there, I just like to say. But that's like Ohio, Indiana, northern Northern Tip of Kentucky. Yeah, we call it Northern Kentucky. Yeah, it's uh you know, I'm only 10 minutes from the Cincinnati Red Stadium. Um Oh, wow. And so we're, you know, I'm call ourselves kind of Cincinnati, but we're definitely Northern Kentucky inside the loop of 275.

Covington's like a cool area like the downtown Coington area. It really is. We We have We have familiarity with that. Yeah. Shout out to our boy Jake Weber during our time. Jake Weber.

Yeah. He's only down Coington. Um but then you end up going and playing a ton of sports at Handover, correct? Yes. So what was it about Handover, Indiana's oldest private college, by the way? Don't know if you knew that, but uh I'm seeing football.

We know football, but I'm seeing basketball, baseball, and golf also. Yeah. What what uh at Covenant Catholic, I played uh three sports, football, uh basketball, baseball, the big three. Um and uh you know, I graduated in 2000, so in the late 90s, like there was still a lot of people doing a lot of sports. Um but I I was one of the only ones that did all three um kind of there, the big three at least. Um, and so I my first love was baseball.

U, but then fell in love with football pretty quickly around sixth grade and and uh basketball is what my dad played. My dad played a little bit in college. So, um, you know, basketball was always there, too. So, I whatever season I was in, that was my my favorite, right? I I just fell in love with each one. Um, but obviously being a quarterback, I got to play um a little bit as a you know, growing up, but really junior year is when I started and, you know, got some attention.

Then the handover is doing great. I mean, we were they were going to the national playoffs and uh what really attracted to me is is they threw the ball all the time. I mean, uh Wayne Perry was the head coach, Mike Leonard, who's now the head coach at Franklin, he was the the offensive coordinator, and they were chucking it. I mean, uh Chris Stormer was was a quarterback there, Terry Peebles was a quarterback there, and they were just throwing up numbers all over the place. And coming from a high school that kind of like to run the ball a little bit more than I liked, uh that was really attractive to me. And so, gorgeous campus.

Uh, but again, it comes back to the people, you know, Coach Perry, uh, but really Mike Leonard, you know, built a relationship with me and and it was only about an hour from my house, right? So, it was, uh, my my first taste into Indiana and all these kids coming from Indiana high schools. I didn't know where anything was. Uh, and so I I know Indiana now better than I know Kentucky. But, um, but that's why it was was for me uh, for Hanover. And so, I I went there to play football um, and to play a little bit of baseball.

And, um, I played a couple years of baseball there. Um, and then sometime during my sophomore year baseball season, I wasn't playing and I I end up playing golf with some of my fraternity brothers. And uh, they said, "Hey man, you're pretty good at golf. You should play for the team." I said, "Well, what's that like? What's practice like?

How much does it cost?" They're like, "You're at practice right now." We're just playing golf. And they're like, "It doesn't cost anything to play." And I was like, "Uh, free golf. Sign me up."

[laughter] You're at practice right now. That's awesome. Yeah. So, Peter Pukan was the the head coach and he was uh just a volleyball coach and uh he got assigned to be the golf coach after the other golf coach left. So, I I talked to him. I was like, "Hey, uh these guys say I can I can play."

So, what's it take? He's like, "Come on." Were you a scorer? Like, did you score for handover in like a varsity golf match? So, my so sophomore year is when in the spring when I decided, hey, I may try to do this next year. Um, and then I end up being the fourman my junior year and then the twoman my senior year.

Dang. So, here's my college golf story. I I have very little regrets in in anything that I've done. I I love playing all the sports and stuff, but um heading into the conference tournament, the Heartland Conference, there is a two-day tournament at the time. Now, it may be four, but the time it was a two-day tournament, but there was a Canadian League try out that I had the Sunday of of the conference tournament. And uh it was the one I got invited to.

I thought it was more of a private workout. ended up not being that. Um, and so I actually was in like sixth place after Saturday. Uh, shot 74 on Saturday and I withdrew from the tournament. It was a plan withdrawal, but they they had a sub come in for me. It was approved by the commissioner and stuff and and uh so I withdrew from that tournament um and went to the community league workout.

Was a waste of time. I should have stayed and finished my conference golf tournament. I wouldn't have won the tournament. The guy that won shot like 70 68 or something, but still could have been all conference in the mix, you know. Wait, so that's awesome. So you were the starting quarterback for him over how how many years?

Uh, two two years. Two and a half. We did the two quarterback system my sophomore year with uh current Weebo head coach Justin P. Really? So he was a Speedway guy. He was a teammate of mine and still really good friends to this day.

So starting quarterback there. Then did you did you get time uh for the basketball team? Uh I only played my junior year and they had uh there was only two guys uh they had one senior um Derek Clevenger and Thaad McCracken from Bedford North Lawrence. He was he was the only junior and everybody else was sophomores and freshman. And so the assistant coach came up to me and said, "Hey, you know, would you consider playing basketball? We want, you know, a leader.

We want somebody that's a little bit older to kind of help join." And and uh so I only played my junior year, but I joined the team. I warmed the bench mostly. Uh got to play a little bit here and there, but we were phenomen I mean we went all the way to the Sweet 16 that year really um with basically two upper classmen and a bunch of freshman sophomores that were rag tag bunch. So but you scored a basket. I scored a basket.

So he threw a touchdown, scored a basket, was uh the four the two man for the golf team. And did you ever pitch an inning or did you ever like play I played third base for hit a home? Did you did you get a hit? No homers. Get a hit though. I don't think so.

Not in a varsity game. Did we record an inning though? In a varsity game. Got some PT. I mean, dude, like that's insane. That is awesome.

So, I want to go before we kind of keep going on the story cuz it takes you all across North America, which is super cool. But I want to know in the world today where everyone is specialized, like you you're not going to make it to the next level unless you dedicate your whole life to this one thing. This is a guy who played four college sports for goodness gracious. What do you think about that? Is that narrative legit uh for you on the recruiting side? Do you like guys that are just specialized?

How do you think about that? I think everybody's different. Um you know, everybody's got different skill sets. Um I do like guys that play multiple sports when we recruit them. Um just cuz I I want competitors. I want guys that want to compete.

Um and I think it can you you know I I I became a better quarterback because I had a limited role on the basketball team, right? I I had to play a different role. Um, you know, baseball brought a different skill set. Golf obviously brings a different mental mindset. You know, you can have the easiest hole in the world and literally get punched in the face, right? But you make a bogey, make a double bogey, is the round over, we leaving, right?

You know, or just like when you throw an interception in football, like you know, the next play could be the best play of your entire career. Got hit a hole in one on the next shot. Yeah. But you have to have the mental mindset to be able to get over that. And so I think that comes in waves. I think playing all that sports helped me be a better quarterback, helped me get put in different situations, especially once I got out of college and I got into, you know, the pro and semi-pro ranks.

Like it all those experiences kind of add up to to who you are and the mental makeup and and kind of shaped who I am today. Really, that's a really good question and a really good answer because I I can't stand the specialization and especially when they're like 11 years old or something like let them play. Let them play whatever they want to play. Let him play all the sports. But how about handover being how about handover being like good at everything. By the way, when you were It sounds like it.

You said sweet 16. I have I have heard I have heard rumors. Is there a statue on campus for Brett Dietz? Oh, no way. There's no statue. Absolutely not.

Not no statue. Not yet. Not yet. I mean, come on. Well, we even talk about Okay, talk about like the golf mindset. Uh Don, put in your notes here.

I think I want to talk about this. uh your final game as a as a quarterback. I was I have to talk about this. Can I Can I talk about Yeah, it's insane. Okay, first of all, 2002 unbeaten season, fell to Wittenberg in the playoffs, but still unbeaten season. Yep.

Pretty impressive. Your junior year. Okay, but then senior season, this is the one. 8 and3 record, first round playoff loss to Bald Baldwin Wallace. You set a division three playoff record for completions and attempts going 46 for 78, 520 yards, four TDs, and four picks. What do you [laughter] what do you remember the four picks in there?

Sorry. Well, you talk about what do you remember about that game? So, um let's let's rewind. So, Mike Leonard left after my freshman year to take over Franklin. He's had a great career as a coach at Franklin. Uh then we hired a former uh record setter at handover named Terry Peebles who's now the head coach at Deli.

I believe he used to be at Harrison. Um just took a new job. Um he he was our offensive coordinator. When he came in, I first met with him. He goes, "Hey, let's I want to shatter every single one of our records [laughter] that and I was like, "Sign me up. That's why I came here.

Like I came here to chuck the ball." Um and so we we threw a lot of passes uh that season. Um, and I think we're we're that season maybe still in the record book for for NCAA too as far as, you know, attempts and completions and stuff. So, we we just chucked the ball the way around. And so, we we were pretty good. Uh, we were a little bit better as a as a whole team uh our junior year, but senior year, uh, we were really chucking it around.

And, uh, that that what I remember about that game is we played on astroturf and Baldwin Boss was so fast. Their defense was so fast on that astroturf and I'd have like windows that I thought were open that were open all season and I would let it go in that window and all of a sudden it get shut and closed that safety would break on it and so um my my roommate I think ended up having a setting a record too a handover record. I think he had 238 of those yards receiving really. Well I mean 78 attempts. Yeah. Did you run the ball at all?

There couldn't have been. I mean uh we probably gave it to Adam Stevenson a couple times here or there but keep them honest. Dude, this is what I'm curious though at like was it touchdown pick touch like after you get to like the third interception. Is there ever like a a confidence thing of like I don't know if I should throw this anymore? I I think that all goes back to the mindset. I mean it was it could have been my last game ever, right?

And so obviously at the end you start pressing, right? You get down a couple scores and you're just trying to chuck it deep and stuff. So, um I don't remember exactly the details about that game, but um I know we were in it early and kind of back and forth and then they kind of pulled away towards the end. So, um but that's all I knew. Like I I I was one of those guys and again I I coach maybe a little bit different than I played, but you know I I used to say think like if if you're not throwing any interceptions, you're probably not taking enough chances, right? So, I see some guys that, you know, the guy followed in Finland.

I think he threw like 28 touchdowns and zero interceptions and I was like, he probably wouldn't take any chances. Um, and so I probably was a little too careless with the ball. I love it. I love it. But I was definitely trying to put it. And so for maybe every one of those interceptions I I threw, maybe there's two, three passes that were near interceptions that ended up going for touchdowns or something like that.

So that's just a little bit how we played. Well, the other piece is you you get to the end of your collegiate football career and this is this is D3 football. A lot of times that's the end of it. You know, you go on and you're going to be a you know, in finance somewhere, commercial real estate, you're in a sales gig, but for you, you really pursued football as a career. And before being a coach, the idea was you you played as long as you could on that side of things. How does a D3 player end up getting a shot playing professional football?

Great question. You know, I was uh going into my senior year like I was I was all bought in uh all football and and I had done some internship uh with media. I was communication major like you guys and and honestly if this stuff was around when I I might be doing what you guys are doing. Uh but we had limited opportunities in in radio. Um and I wanted to get into radio. I had done the TV thing at handover and so um you know my my roommate ended up you know being a a broadcaster and and did some video stuff but I I I didn't have like that set thing of what I was going to do when I graduated.

So you know January February um after our season was over Terry Peebles had played in Germany so he came over and said hey there's some teams that are interested in you because we put up a ton of numbers. So, um, talked with the family and and talked to a couple teams and and found this team in Finland that was coming off a really good season that, you know, had a good relationship with the coaches. They spoke English well, right? Uh, heard it was a really cool town in a in a city that I in a country I've never heard of or been to in Turku, Finland. And and uh said, "Let's let's do it. When I'm when am I going to have a chance to to do this ever again?"

So, pulled the trigger uh went over there to to Turku, Finland, and and did it. I end up going with a a college teammate of mine, uh, Scott Power, um, who played at at Bent Central here and and, uh, end up coming playing at handover with me and stuff. And so we went over there. Um, I I love Finland. It was it was awesome, awesome town. And, and, uh, 98% of the population speaks English over there.

And Oh, that's huge. Um, they all know Finnish, Swedish, and English. Uh, and so they were great people. Um, and so they love the game of football over there. like any any place you go in Europe, you know, I just took the in 2023, we took the Depal football team over to Italy, right? So all those European towns there there's a section of people that absolutely love football.

They just didn't weren't raised in it, right? So the the skill level isn't quite there. The experience isn't quite there. And that's how it was in Finland. Like those guys love football. They'd stay up late in the night.

Uh they record Monday Night Football and watch it Tuesday night in the bar and things like that. That's sick. That is awesome. that there's there's a a section of people in all those European towns that just love American football and you have to call it American football over there, right? Um yeah, as we recently found out. I was I learned that during the World Cup.

That's the the football soccer American football thing. I I've heard uh Finland's happiest [clears throat] place on earth. Can you confirm that? That's what they say. They are uh you know, I was only over there in the summer, which was when all the daylight is, right? They said it can get uh you know can get definitely dark uh uh literally you know in the sky when it when it gets dark.

Uh dude I have no idea like I couldn't have pointed Fin. I just looked it up. It's a Nordic. It is it is up there. It is way up there. So that makes sense that they speak Swedish.

Okay this makes sense now when I'm looking at the geography. Another thing I mean you kind of mentioned it. You're like just outside the Arctic Circle. That's what I'm saying. In my uh experience just traveling like these Europeans, they know so many languages. I feel like we we're just it's I almost feel I need to know more than one language because everyone over there speaks multiple.

Oh yeah. And I'm Was that a worry for you the language barrier when you went over there first before kind of knowing? I mean before I talked to the coaches over there I'm like what? Oh they speak Finn. I don't know any f like how am I going to communicate right? Like do you say hike?

like do you have is there like a finish word that I on two on two do that that was really cool actually that's a really cool thing because you know when we'd be in the huddle or they'd be talking on the sidelines they talking to each other and finish and I'm just standing there like I'm the quarterback like and then they would look to me and then explain what we're talking about in English. You're on a need to know basically. Exactly. And it was like kind of makes it I kind of got to wait till they they would like figure something out and then they would come talk to me. It was like I was I had to let them work it out themselves [laughter] and things like that. But I only ran into one person over there that that didn't speak English and it was like a guy in his 90s, right?

That that didn't speak English. But they'll start talking to you in in Finnish and I you just got used to saying, you know, hey, I only speak English. You know, when you could say it in your the broken finish that you knew and then they'd be, oh, and then they start talking to you in English. So that's so cool. Really cool people to start your career there. I mean, just what a welcome into adulthood.

that I feel like that's just such a cool experience that not a lot of people get. And then you kind of go on in your career. I mean, we're talking AFL, AF2, indoor football. You may need to explain the difference to us on these cuz this is like a different time when I mean, I don't know too much about like the development and the levels of football now, but I know that this was like a big a bigger thing. Arena football was bigger in the 2000s, right? Yep.

So when I was in college, I actually went to my first arena football game and that was here in Indianapolis, the Indiana Firebirds. And um you know, I I got to watch it and see it. It was funny watching that game. I fell in love with it because it's such a quarterback driven league. Um and so I I fell in love with it being being such quarterback oriented and stuff like that. And so, you know, and then I I watched it.

I went back to college and did that. Didn't think about arena football too much, but at the time it was on NBC, it was on ESPN. Like they had they had two video they put out two video games. You know5 06 07. Wait, could we go back or wait? Are you in Are you in the video game?

I'm in one of the games. We [laughter] might need to go get the game. Yeah, we got to do that. Um but it was you know the top quarterback at the time was Tony Graciani and he was making 170 180 a year and you really work about the seasons last about five months. So I was like man I could if I can get to that. So when I started playing arena football in 2005 in Cincinnati, that was in the National Indoor Football League.

That was just kind of like a minor league thing. I mean, I was like, "This is awesome. If I can keep doing this, and you know, I was still having jobs on the side in the offseason stuff, but if I can keep doing this and I can make it to that level, like you could make a living for yourself for sure." Um, especially if you became that. And so was I ever trying to make it? Yeah, NFL would have been great, but that's such a hard thing to get into, especially coming from where I was coming from.

But I I saw a different path, a different level. Um, and Arena Football was a kind of a niche sport. Uh, but it was on ESPN, it was on NBC, you know, we had a great players union, the Arena Football League. So, um, there was benefits there. You can make money. And so, that's kind of what what I kind of set my goal on um, to do that.

And so, I played in in Cincinnati in 2005. Um, I got signed to that league, the the Tampa Bay Storm in 2006. Um, and that was the that was like the pinnacle league. Yeah. The Tampa Bay Storm is like arena football. Yeah.

They just signed me to the practice squad and they had two veterans. You know, in arena football, you only dress 20 guys. That's it. 20 guys. Dress 20. Dress 20.

That's interesting. So, that was uh Iron Man football, right? So, you know, the receivers also have to play DBs and there was only a couple people that that didn't have to play both ways. obviously the quarterback being one of them, but um but there's two vets on the on the team and I knew those guys were going to address the whole time and so I didn't want to sit around just not getting better. So I chose to leave. I went down to Louisville, played for the Louisville Fire.

Um Adam Shackleford was was our offensive coordinator. I had a great relationship with him. Um and so I ended up winning rookie of the year in that league and that was called the Arena Football 2 league. Uh the AF2. Um, so I did that and then the next season I I kind of hopped around to a couple teams from Chicago to Kansas City. Um, even signed in Spokam but never went there and that was all within like two months of each other.

I see. And then Tampa resigned me um kind of middle of the year. Um, we were like one and five, one and six at the time. One and six I see right here. Came to them on the by-week and then we ended up winning like eight straight or seven or eight straight. Um, made it from Wait, so you go from you were the practice squad with them and then what happened?

What happened to the vets? They got hurt. They got injured. Shane Stafford and Pat O'Hara. Shane Stafford went to a different team. Pat O'Hara ended went to the coaching staff.

And so they signed two vets, uh, two veterans. Um, and so they ended up benching one, John Cleo, who's still a good friend to this day. And then Stony Case was was the backup. And so after they benched John, Stony played, hurt his shoulder. So John came back in, and that's when they signed me to come in to um kind of be his backup and and to wait till I was ready to go. and and then the first game that I dressed for Tampa when I came back the second time in 2007, John ended up breaking his wrist the first quarter.

So I was only there for about a week before I end up playing a game. But I knew the offense from the year before. Arena offense isn't as complicated as outdoor offense. Um I see. And so I was already I had the best week of practice I've ever had in my entire life that first week uh before I got to play my my first game in the Arena Football League, the actual the big league. Um and so we end up winning that game.

He beat uh the Columbus Destroyers in that game. They end up winning the championship uh several months later, but uh we kind of went on a tear after that. And that was a really cool to be part of a a turnaround of uh you know, there's a team that was very talented, but we just weren't having some success being one and six. And you know, I came in and provided a little bit of stability uh there. And uh wasn't quite a leader on the team yet. I was still the new kid on the block and just trying to to do my own job.

And to watch that team have a great turnaround and to watch everybody's spirit rise and we kind of got on a roll and momentum and and uh that was a really really fun team and and experience to be a part of for sure. That's so awesome. I mean one and six and then I see here 8 and one in a playoff birth and you had mentioned with Louisville Spalding AF2 Spalding rookie of the year then named co-ookie of the year the AFL is that correct? So, all this to say, coach, only player in AFL and AF2 history to win rookie of the year in back-to-back seasons, 2006, 2007. Hey, come on now. How about that?

That's pretty cool right there. So, at then at some point, uh, you see the writing on the wall and things start to realize that maybe the playing career is not where your future lies and it's time to start thinking about what else you're going to do. Where was the moment where you realized that it was time to hang up the cleats and pick up the clipboard? That's that's a great question because uh 2007 we're still rocking and rolling. Uh I signed a new contract in the offseason between 0708 a three-year deal. It was awesome.

We were excited. Like are you actually making money? Like do you have do you still have like are you working on a golf course on the side or are you like hey I have a career now. Once I got to that, once I signed my new contract, uh, and that I was, yeah, that would became my full time. Full-time job. Okay.

That cuz I do think that's a point. We've had like other athletes in different sports from rugby to soccer and it's like, hey, I'm driving Uber on the side. Again, Uber wasn't around then, but it's like I'm doing something to sustain this lifestyle hoping for my chance at the big leagues, but like this is a time, okay, you're you have a career, you have like a a salary coming in, players union, the whole nine yards. Yeah. So, in in the NFL, uh, Arena 2 and what's like around like Fisher Freight, like those guys are making I mean, we we in Arena 2 in 2006, you're making $200 a game with a $50 win bonus. How about that [laughter] 50 bucks if you win, right?

That's before taxes, right? That's awesome. You are working on the side, right? But you're the the team provides housing, right? They're getting food sponsorships, so you don't have to pay for that stuff. You're not making any money.

You're just again looking for that next opportunity. and I was young and and had support of my parents and and all that stuff. And so, um, you know, you're just making ends meet and and hoping for a chance. And for me, it wasn't like, hey, NFL or bust. I was like, man, if I can make it to the Arena League, you can get on active roster, man, you can make this a career out of yourself. So, I mean, you get to you said the the pinnacle player was making over 100,000, 175,000.

You're chilling. So, league minimum in 2007 was about $30,000. Um, about that for those five months. So you do that for that five months and then you have you know the rest seven months to kind of get a job or you know do whatever you want. And it's like it's 2007 2008 that time frame you know you make 30 grand in five months you got seven months to make another 30 grand 60 grand a year you're like a couple years out of college that ain't bad. Yeah.

So I I I didn't do that much cuz that offseason I signed a new contract. So, um, so that then it became definitely my full-time job after that year. And then we played one more year in 2008 and then that's when the 0809 credit crisis happened and so league went to bankruptcy around Christmas uh before the '09 season. So there was no09 season. So then I got that's when I had to start finding another thing to do. So I got into banking.

I started working at Fifth Third Bank full-time and then after that uh So that stinks that it wasn't even your decision. It wasn't like you ever had to be like, "Oh, I'm not playing well anymore." It's like you're kind of just like, "Hey, I was just going to say this is coming off the heels of a phenomenal 2007." So, yeah. So, so we did play one more season in08, so I got one more year on the good contract. Um, and then Yeah.

And then it was just like when the league went into bankruptcy, the whole players union that those all the arena football players that had worked so hard years to build up and to bargain and do all this stuff just was like deleted, gone, nothing. And so everybody lost contract. So a lot of those guys, especially the older guys immediately got into different careers and things like that. And so I was working in banking. Um and pretty quickly after the bankruptcy happened, a new company came and bought it, a single entity, and they brought it back. Uh not making it nearly as you as you could make before, but most of our Tampa team was still coming back.

So they convinced me to come back one more year. So I told them, hey, I'm only going to play one more year. I still got to work at the bank on the side. So we practice in the evening. So, I worked was still working kind of full-time in the morning, practicing the evening, um, just to play one more year in 2010 because, like you said, I felt like I was playing some of the best football my life and the carpet got ripped out from under you. So, I played one more year in 2010.

Um, and it was during that time uh, that I I I knew from Tampa I was going to go back to Indie. So, I ended up transferring Fifth Third Banks uh, up to here in Indie. Um, and so at that time during that 2010 season, I got a call from one of my buddies, actually the buddy I played in in Europe with, he said, "Hey, I got a call from from a coach I know at DEPA, and he they're looking for a part-time receivers's coach." And I told him, "You're interested." I said, "Well, why would you tell him that? I don't I don't want to go into coaching."

He said, "Well, I did that. Why would you not want to do that?" So, I was like, "All right, well, I'll I'll look into it." So, I was like, "Yeah." because I coached when I had these off seasons of 05 and 06 and 07, you know, I was I was coaching because I was staying in shape, but I wanted to stay around the game. So, my first couple years, like right when I got out of handover, the next year I I volunteered at CVCAF.

Um then I in ' 06 I uh was a assistant at Cascade High School. Nice. Here. Um in 2007, the offseason there, I uh helped at Marion. That was Marian's first year in '07. Yeah.

I was the assistant to the assistant defensive back coach. Uh, so I did that. So I had some coaching in my background and I I just didn't know what it would look like being a full-time guy. So I accepted that job at DePon, a part-time role in 2010. Um, so I transferred back here. I was working at uh in Brownsburg, Fifth Third Bank.

And then at lunch I would leave and I'd drive an hour out to Greencastle uh to be a part-time receivers's coach. Um, and that was with with Robbie Long was the head coach at that time. coached it, loved the school, but still didn't know what DEPAL was like I know now really until the next year because the next year I I became full-time in about March of 2011. Um, I became full-time and that's when I started learning a lot more about Depal, understanding a lot more about campus dynamics as I became full-time there. So, I left the bank in in March of 2011 to do it full-time um in 2011. I haven't left since.

Was that hard going from like a career like a finance career? you're in banking like you're going to figure out your way to a very successful life and a pension and maybe not pension but a retirement fund stable maybe yeah it's going to be stable you can support family the whole nine yards to go and say all right I'm going to be a division three uh assistant coach assistant coach where I I can't imagine that it is extremely lucrative at the time it was one of the easiest decisions I've ever made in my life really that's how much I hated the banking that's how much I hated going to some place and doing the same thing every single day. Once I found out what the coaching was and what the offseason was, I I I really like the balance of coaching, especially in college. You're very intense obviously from August 1 till for us it was December 5th this past year. It's football all day every day. It was not it was not December 5th when it was whatever the belt like November 14th.

It was like and it was great. It was like it ends and the mode on Bell you win the game and then the season's over and it was spectacular. December 5th is that's a long time. Yeah. So that's all day every day, right? That's that's coaching football.

I don't care if you're at Cascade High School, if you're Colts, like if you're in season, you're in season, right? It's long hours and stuff like that. But in college, once you get done with that, you you turn the page into like recruiting and then then it becomes recruiting world. And that's what we end up doing a ton of stuff in recruiting. Get to know families, get to know kids, bringing them on campus, visiting schools. It's not the same thing every day, right?

And then you do the recruiting. you pretty much get your class and then all of a sudden spring ball comes. So then you're back to practicing again. So now we're back doing football stuff. Um and so that's what I really like about about coaching in college full-time. You mentioned that Depal was the place for you and you learned more about it and you've been there ever since, you know, 2010 and then full-time in 2011.

What made Depal the right place for you? And what did you learn that you're like, I don't want to leave? one, I I am not the person to point to to say, "Hey, this is exactly the footprint or this is the the model of how you get into college coaching, right? It it was something that I did. Um I tried to not do coaching specifically. I was looking for other careers and then I I found my way back into it.

But once I got to Depal and got to know the school and and and there's a specific conversation I remember having with quarterback Ethan Schwar, you know, he had torn his ACL unfortunately early in that 2011 season and it was a couple days after he really tore his ACL. He said, "Hey coach, I just want to let you know um in a couple weeks I'm going to miss a couple practices." Now, he tore his ACL season's done, but he was helping me coach, right? And so, he was just kind of giving me a heads up. I said, "Okay, you know, what are you doing?" He goes, "I have two job interviews I'm going to."

And I'm like, "Job interviews? I'm thinking it's it's October." Like, "What do you what are you going to a job interview in October? You don't graduate till May, right?" He's like, "Oh, this is for when I graduate in May. This is like postgrad."

I was like, "That's the weirdest thing ever." Like, I didn't understand that. And so anyway, he gets back uh he gets back and he ended up getting offered both jobs, right? And uh you know, through conversations this that and the other, he gave me an idea of how much money he's going to be making. I was floored at how much money he was going to be making as a 22-year-old college graduate out of Depal. And I'm sitting there like we talked about like I'm not making much money sitting there [laughter] and I'm 28 29 and I'm like wait this kid here is and I'm like dude why why do you not think this is a big deal?

like this is like life-changing money. And he said, "Yeah, but Johnny's got this and Nolan's got this." And I these were kids that already had accepted full-time jobs in the fall of their senior year. And I had no idea. And and it just became, well, that was just the norm. That's just what people did.

So why would I freak out about mine? Because this is I'm just doing what everybody else does here. And I was like, man, I did not get that. And then I then I'm asking, dude, how'd you do that? Like tell me the story. Well, then he started talking about his internships and getting connected with alumni and all of a sudden it led to management fellows and media fellows and and this whole underworld of like yes, these kids are pouring our hearts out for us on the football field and that's what how we know them, but once you start to get to know them off the field, like they're very driven off the field as well.

They're very driven academically, but more importantly, they're very driven career-wise. And you you find out, I mean, we have over 50% of our roster is doing an internship this summer right now. Yeah. And so you find out that these kids aren't one level, one d uh dimension athletes. Yeah. The kids that we get at Depal are are yes, they care a lot about football and they want to continue their football career, but they also are motivated academically.

They also want to get great jobs and great careers. And so you get this very balanced dynamic and and uh you know there's a lot of other D3 schools I think but I think the Paul kids like we can attract and get some of the best of the best here. We've talked about this that to this day. I mean, we were just at Brooks Hep's wedding and you look around at the guys that you continue to be really good friends with and I'm talking to Spangle. I'm like, man, all all of them are successful. Every single one of them are doing what they want to do.

We love their spouse, you know, girlfriend, fiance, wife, whatever, and have all done what they should be doing in life. Like, it's awesome. It's the sales pitch for higher [clears throat] education. Like if you're if you're just going somewhere for the certificate or the degree or like the piece of paper, there's probably a better option. Yeah. But if you want to surround yourself with people that want to be winners in whatever field, again, I said this before, but like whether that's nonprofit education, philanthropy, whether that's, you know, on the business side of things, the coaching side of things, athletics, like it you're hardressed to find a better place to just surround yourself with people who want to win in whatever the thing is that they want to win at.

And that's what I love about it. And you can't replace that with AI. You can't replace that with an online degree program. It's just like being in a space like a physical melting pot of people who want to win. Yeah. You pay for the network almost, right?

I mean, it's an experience. And the alum are so willing to help you too, whatever you got to do. That's one of my biggest frustrations are people are like, well, I could go to, you know, this D2 or NIA school and there's going to be a scholarship for me. And it's like, totally. If that's what you're thinking about, that might be the right choice for you. But if if you're looking for this, it's just a different experience.

Yeah. And what are you looking for? Yeah. Right. And so I ask all our recruits like, "What's important to you?" Like, "What are you looking for?"

Right? And some people are looking for a football immersive, that's all they want to do is this, that, and the other and school's going to punch you in the face if you're not ready, right, at the ball. So, we're looking for for kind of the best of of of all the worlds. And I see and I sorry to cut you off, but some people think and I'm not saying everybody, but some people think, "Oh, D3, why would you even do that? Like that's a waste of time, you know, but it it's it's part of what you learn. It's experience."

It's not easy. D3 football is not easy. Come watch a game. It it is it is not not anybody can do this, right? The football is not easy. The school's not easy, right?

It it's But that's what makes you who you are. That that's what makes people successful. So when they get out in the real world, they get punched in the face. They get right back up and they do it again. I mean, think of the kids you get. I mean, some of them are the best at their high schools in Indie, Chicago, St.

Louis, Cincinnati, and just maybe aren't big or tall enough to go D2, D1, but are st or studs. I I still remember it. So, it was the summer after my senior year of high school. I get a call from Coach De and he's like, "We're pretty thin at defensive back. Like, we're looking for a few people to make the the jump." And team guy, I was like pretty good at Triton.

One a one a school, 13 kids on our varsity team. Like I was like, "Oh yeah." And I'm such a team guy. Anything you need, coach, I'll do it. Anything. So I switch over to corner.

Literally first day, first practice, never played corner. Not fast, not built for that position at all. And I get mossed on the first one-on-one. Walking back to the line, I knew I was never going to play a snap. Like I knew that instantly I was never going to play a snap. And I was like, "Oh, you say it's just D3."

And it was like, dude, it was different. Like you got the guys from Cathedral and the guys from Center Grove and the guys from the Chicagoland area. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. Get players. These guys are studs. They're teammates with guys who do go D1 and that's who they're practicing against every day.

These high schools in Indie and you know Chicago, St. Louis are run like small colleges as well. Like not what we're getting at Northwood and Triton I don't think. But okay, coach, you have been able to work under a guy like Bill Lynch. You mentioned Mike Leonard which is a really interesting piece by the way pre Franklin. Yep.

Awesome career. Michael Leonard. And then like wait and then he was at Franklin was like a Hall of Famer and then came back to Franklin 24. Recently came back. Yeah. Retired for about five years and then yeah, just needed it.

The old call that the Bill Snyder there. Uh but did you always know you wanted to be a head coach or is that something as you kept coaching you're like okay like I I could do this? You don't know what goes into it right until you you do that. So, uh, no, I I just want to call the plays, you know, and I just want to be an offense corner and do this and do that, right? But but it's not until you you do that and you get in there and you do it and you find out what what's what's in and that you don't know if you can do it until you do it, right? That's that's true of anything.

But, um, I knew I wanted to challenge myself. I I love Depal and and, uh, and and I felt like I had gotten to the point as my offensive coordinator days at Depal were coming to an end in 2019 that that I was ready for something different. And I didn't know Coach Lynch was going to retire. a couple days later. Uh but he ended up retiring like uh two days after the Monon Bell game in 2019. Um and uh then I threw my hat in the ring and and interviewed and you know hell that's a that was a Gavin Ritter, right?

That was a Gavin Ritter. That was a [clears throat] Gavin Ritter touchdown the sideline. Chase Andrews Gavin Ritter the snow game too. Like there was just a random popup snowstorm, right? No, that was uh a different year. 22 different year.

Okay. This is the This We weren't You probably weren't there. Were you there? Uh I was at 2019. This was our first year after we graduated. I was not at the snow game.

Oh, the snow game. That was like 52 nothing or something like that. That one was crazy. But this was the year uh Gavin Ritter down the sideline. Insane play. I was there for that one.

That one was wild. And then yeah, couple days later, Coach Lynch Coach Lynch retires. Uh and so that was on Tuesday. Coach Lynch retired on a Tuesday. And on Wednesday, Mike Leonard retired. really both at the same time.

And so those are both two places that if I wanted to stay in Indie were programs that I had my eye on of like, hey, I'd love to throw my hat in the ring to to possibly be the head coach. And both of them happened within a day of each other. Were you were you interested in Franklin or Yeah, I applied for both. Really? And I was going through uh the Franklin process and the Depal process basically simultaneously. Wow.

Was it was it to in your mind though if Depal offered was that I mean or was it going to be a difficult decision if No, I mean I knew Depal like I like I said I had fallen in love with Depal. Um so I mean that's no slight to Franklin. I just was so familiar with Depal and loved it and and had a lot of familiarity with it. So um that would have been my first choice. Yeah. Well, you end up getting the head coaching job at Depal and I mean I would just say over the past six years was that you would have gotten in 2019.

Yes. January of 2020. So January of 2020 co and I mean since then you talk about conference championships on conference championships. You talk about tournament appearances, tournament wins. Like it has been a heck of a six years thus far. Uh well five seasons.

Six Six years. five seasons going into his seventh year. Yeah. Is that right? Talk to me about what's been the difference. How have you been able to rattle off so many conference championships and really take the DEPA standard for football to this next level because yeah, Bill Lynch definitely steadied the ship, right?

It was constant 8 and2, you know, maybe falling to a mix of throw Dennis, Whittenberg, Waw Bash in there, but now it's like we are the hunters. It feels like every coach I've had has been influenced me in one way or another, but but no doubt having those six, seven years under coach Lynch made me who I am today. Um, and so he he's he's still a great mentor uh to me. And I, you know, especially in those first couple years, I was like, what would Lynch do? What would Lynch do? Especially in those those first few years as you're getting your feet wet and stuff like that.

So, um, I mean, you you can't talk about the success we've had without the foundation that we started with, right? And I was kind of part of that 10 years as being an assistant coach. That was a cheat sheet that I had. I had known Depal for 10 years, so I knew uh the guys it took to be successful, you know, I knew the conference. Like I I had a lot under my belt. Um what was I want to know what a big lesson like if you thought about the the biggest lesson maybe a couple lessons that you learned from coach Bill Lynch, what would that be?

They're they're not just athletes. We're not just raceh horses like they're people, right? Like you have to treat people with respect. You have to treat people the right way. And if you do that, then you get the performance out of them. It's not the other way around.

You don't get the performance out of them first and then oh because you've done something for me. Then I do that. You've like earned my right to treat you as a person. And I think when you you watch pro football and it's this that and the other. You sign the you know you do all this and you do all that that you know it's about it comes down to relationships. It comes down to people.

And I think that's the the theme of this podcast, right? And if you ask hey how did you guys get so successful? Just surround yourself with great people. you know, you have some decisions to make when you become a head coach, especially um if you're taking over a place, right? Uh for me, I was the offensive coordinator, but Coach Lynch was still on offense, so I I still had somebody under me kind of on offense. I mean, I could have said, "Hey, I'm the head coach now.

I'm going to hire a bunch of young guys that just graduated. I'm going to teach them everything we know. Nobody will ever say no to me." Yeah. Right. I'm I want a bunch of yesmen below me.

I'm going to teach you everything I know. And I'm going to call the plays. I'm going to do this. I'm I can do it all. I made the decision if I'm trying to be the dumbest guy in the room. If I can hire and I can recruit a bunch of people that are great people that are masters of their craft that that can do that, then I I can just manage it all.

Right. And so we ended up making some great hires, some great recruiters. We had people that believed in the vision of what we were doing. Um and and it started with people. There there's not a magic thing. In 2017, uh we lost Simone on Bell.

We end up fumbling, you know, inside the 10 yard line with a few minutes to go. Yeah. Um, remember that one? So, we we're not that far away from that, right? I I mean, we won it in 2019, you know, that we won the Monomon Bell in 2019, although we had lost some games earlier. Like, we weren't very far off.

So, there wasn't one or two things that we needed to change that were big things that we just needed to change. If we do this, this will be great. I thought, man, if we could just change a little bit of a little bit here and there, you know, just look in the corners of the room and and clean up the corners of the room, make make some some little changes here or there, that that's going to end up being a big difference for us. And so, another thing that was a big part of my me was co, right? So, I took over in January 2020. You know, we're supposed to play 6, eight months, seven months later, right?

And so I had another whole year because we canceled that season to help change the culture, to help change some attitudes, to help change some the way we did things. And so the kids didn't know if we were changing it because I wanted to change it from the way me and coach Lynch did it or if we had to change it because of co it was just something new and we rallied around again. We had the right people here at the right time and then it just took off after that. That's that's awesome. I I can't imagine two better guys to learn from than Bill Lynch and Mike Leonard as far as division 3 football in Indiana specifically. Right, dude.

The people that go through coach Leonard's program, I know we've harped I've had coach Lynch as a previous guest at the podcast. Like he's got his coaching tree and just his the people who've played under coach Leonard also rever him in the same exact way like an awesome just leader of men. Yeah. at I just want to say again 51 and nine since coach deeds has taken over at DPA and we certainly are very proud of yeah to be associated with DPA and DPA football and there's so many others right Nick Morocus was still around almost every day from 2010 to 2017 was the last season he kind of retired from that coach Raha was there the whole time man there there's a lot of people that influence along the way that aren't this the head coaches you know [clears throat] I love that I still remember coach Raha he was the iconic punt Hot, [laughter] dude. Uh, iconic. Total legend.

Who was your head coach at handover? Sorry. Wayne Perry. Wayne Perry. Yep. Okay.

Wayne Perry. He still lives down there in handover, does he? Wow. That's cool. Right on the river. Okay.

Uh, I do want to talk about Well, before we wrap this up and we get to the 2026 Monell game, I just want to talk about a few of your proudest moments since taking over as head coach. If you had to look back and say, man, how far we've come since January of 2020, are there moments that stick out in your head that that are just like uh you know, highs of this journey thus far? Yeah, I think the snow game um in 2022 because that was for a conference championship. Um and yet you got Coach De pissed off. He came out in the end zone said, "Stop throwing snowballs." I will always I was watching that one on my phone down in Florida.

Oh, I thought you were in there. You were in there throwing snowballs. let me know no snowballs. That was iconic out of coach deeds cuz in 2021 we had won the championship but we didn't win the Monon Bell game. Um and so that kind of left a tarnish dude that was is that the blown 21 nothing. So we we learned a lot from that.

I think every loss we've had I've learned a ton of lessons but 2022 we were determined. We we wanted to to prove that the 2021 championship was not a fluke. And so we got to the Monon Bell game and that was for a championship. like we had to win that to win the championship to go back to the playoffs. A lot of adversity with the snow hovering and and coming and uh we we played one of our best games, you know, we blew them out that game and and I think that was something at the end of that game when you know it's you know, you score the last touchdown, you're like, man, this is pretty sweet. Like this we we've taken a big step forward.

Yeah. Um as a program. Um another one I think was that 2021 year we had won the championship. Um we end up beating Rose Hullman to be win the first kind of playoff game in school history. Went to the Sweet 16 and lost 45 nothing to Whitewater. Yeah.

Um and got blown out even though Chase only had one knee and we had we're playing some injured guys. But still standing on that field pretty defeated of like, hey, we've had the best season in school history and just got blown out 45 nothing. We still got a long way to go. Um to then 5 years later, completely different team. And there wasn't one kid on that team in 2021 that was on our team this past year in 2025 and getting the draw of getting Whitewater uh in the in the round of 32 and being like, "Oh my gosh, we got to go back up there and you just 40 you just see the scoreboard 45 nothing in your head and to go up there and to get that win this year again back in the snow." Um was just another huge step forward as a program of like, okay, we are still getting better, right?

We we haven't peaked, we're still getting better. Again, it was a whole new roster. So, we're we're certainly happy with the success we have, but we're not satisfied with where we're at as a program. We want to keep getting better and better. Um, and that's what what our mission is. I got to tell you, beating Wisconsin Whitewater, what a feeling.

And before before you say what you're going to say, uh, you were at the John's Hopkins game with us, right? I didn't go to go to that one. That is one I will not ever forget because that was to get to the the eight the final eight, right? And uh I don't know, maybe we should have a word with the clock operator. But that was that what a game. What a game that was.

I I was I was so mad, dude. I remember watching that and it was like what went wrong in the I do think you know from my beginning of knowing of Depal football like the the Super Bowl is to win the Mon Bell game. Like the the greatest thing if a season is successful or not successful does not matter about it did not historically matter about playoff births or national championships. It's just the Monon Bell game and it's still matters so much and it's still I would argue probably the most important thing but like the fact that a national championship and like being ranked and like all of these new found like oh our eyes are opened up to the possibilities of the ball football like I think it's pretty cool. I think the most impressive thing we could say and the best compliment I think coach would agree of his tenure is the standard now is making the playoffs, advancing in the playoffs and winning the bell game is kind of it need that that's very necessary needs to happen but the standard being now we're not done playing until December that's very impressive and I think that's like you said very happy but not satisfied.

I mean, moving that goalpost to where it is now is very impressive. It doesn't have to be an or. It can be an and. Yeah, right. The Mona Bell can be very important and it can be important to to win the championship and go into the playoffs. You can have both.

I I will travel to a national championship. I will go I will wherever it is, I'm there. I'm there 100%. That's not even a question. Absolutely going. Well, the interesting piece is, you know, around the increased success is the increase of funding in facilities.

And one big thing that's happening right now is there's a huge renovation happening at Blackstock for this new facility. I believe the number is 80 million I believe. Is that true? Um supposed to be Did we uh did we play a part number Dom came on the show and said he's been to high schools that had better facilities. It wasn't even a shot. And now all of a sudden there's a new $80 million facility being built.

Talk to us about what we can expect in the new Blackstock renovation, what that's going to look like and the timeline on that. It's going to be awesome. It's it's a dream dream come true for for any DEPAL future athlete, but also for the alums and and what everybody has to understand of like this is not just happen out of the blue. This is a foundation. Um it's a product. You did not trigger this.

It's not your fault. We really wanted to to make it to design it where it's going to affect the athletes every single day or every single week that they're they're at Depal. So, um it's going to have five new locker rooms in it. Um you know, football, baseball, men's track and field/cross country on the men's side. It'll have softball um and women's uh track and cross country on on the women's side. We'll have a state-of-the-art training room in there on the first floor.

Um we'll have, you know, three different below ground pools in there for hot tub, cold tub, rehab. like it's it's going to be something very serious there. There's going to be a recovery room in there. Um all the athletic trainers will move out there permanently. That's that's how big that that part's going to be. Uh there'll be a 7,500 ft um student athlete only weight room out there on the first floor.

That's necessary. I like that. So that's going to give us everything we need out there from a training perspective. But again, not just football. It's it's all depth, right? So basketball wants to go out there and do a workout, they can do it, right?

I do think that was a piece of having a varsity weight room that is important. A place where you could just, you know, maybe crank up some heavy metal and lift some heavy weights. Like I think that's just a move. Well, during our workouts, just, you know, and this wasn't a massive deal or anything, but just like the general public also being involved. You've got Brief Steinbricker over there on the on the [laughter] recumbent bicycle and you're trying to like hit a smelling salt and get fired up. Like it's it's not the easiest, you know?

Yeah. I mean, we have great facilities right now, but this is just going to make it even better, right? So, it's about improving the student athlete experience. And and then upstairs, we're going to have tons of meeting rooms up there, big space. We can finally have a full team meeting room uh that's not in the music building. So, um we're really excited about that.

I think it's going to give us everything we need there to, again, a facility won't won't bring you championships, right? But it certainly can help, right? It's it becomes a tool uh as part of your tool belt to help you get there. So, um, from a players having a home out there in a locker room to recovery to to training, uh, to fitness to to getting educated, meeting rooms, stuff, there'll be social spaces in there. I mean, $80 million is going to get you a lot. Yeah.

Um, and so we're we're excited to have this. This will be a two-year project from basically right now. Um, so we've already started construction on it. We have a construction cam. You can go and watch the progress of it. Uh, but we're looking at at opening uh fall 2028.

So, man, um we'll be offline football-wise for for two seasons. We'll still play most of our home games um at home in Blackstock. We're just going to build temporary um just like we do for the Monon Bell game. We'll have a temporary press box on the other side. We'll have temporary stands on the other side. I see.

Uh next year to play four of our home games over there. I didn't know that. That you can Okay, you can still play just temporary stands there for home game. I didn't know that. It's going to be crazy that they're going to be literally building a stadium while [laughter] 20 yards from our turf from where we're placed. Well, I guess.

Okay. So, the field's untouched. Okay. Yeah. So, the field, the track will be untouched. They'll just have construction fence.

They'll work right up to that construction fence and we'll still be able to play, practice, everything we want on our on our field. I'm on the live cam. I guess that's I don't see dirt being moved. That's what I I didn't understand. But you don't see Black Sock Stadium anymore. It's gone.

It is totally gone. I just conceptualized that the field wasn't also being okay that I see I see now they're literally just they knocked down Black Sox Stadium. They're going to rebuild in that same footprint and then a little bit more to the north and a little bit more to the west. Still called Black Stock Stadium. Uh yeah, I think the official name is Black Sox Stadium and Performance Center. That's right.

Or something to Yes. All right. It is time now for what you all have been waiting for, the announcement of where the 2026 Monan Bell game will be played. As we discussed, Black Sock Stadium under renovation will not be ready until 2028. It provided the rarest of opportunities, a neutral sight Monan Bell Classic. So, the man with a plan, Coach Brett Dietz of the Depal Football Tigers, where will the 2026 Monan Bell be played?

We will be playing at Schuman Stadium at Ball State. All right, there we go. No, I love this. I love this because it's interesting. Playing at Schuman Stadium in Ball State lets the opportunity to host the biggest Monanon Bell game in history. I believe the capacity in my 22,500.

I think the largest attended Monon Bell game is 11,700 something around there. Oh, so big. We have the opportunity to host a neutral sight game in Muny and to make it absolutely insane. Kind of like a bowl game feel. I think that's what Stevie Baker Watson is after here. commit a weekend to Munie.

Friday night you'll have some alumni activities for both Depal and Waw Bash and just there's going to be no saying no to tickets. Yeah. 12,000 tickets sold out in what 42 minutes a year ago. Was that the number? 42 minutes is when we sold out. I almost didn't get tickets last year.

I was I was I had to use my connections to to to get a ticket on the deposit side. But I think this is the biggest opportunity in Monon Bell game history. Do not look at this as, "Oh man, we it can't be on campus." Look at this as this will be the highest attended Monan Bell game ever. Yeah. I mean, they sold out all the tickets in 40 Was it 42 minutes?

42 minutes. Which is wild. And the idea, dude, we're host something Friday night. We go out there. We headed to Muny. Get the alumni together at the Is it the Chug?

I think the local bar is the Chug. Yeah, the Chug. We're all hitting up the Chug on Friday night. Maybe Coach Deets swings by before bed, gives a little hand wave. Yeah. Come on.

We sing the fight song and then and then we get down to business. I think it'll be awesome. I love the idea of really letting everyone go and like convincing everyone to go. Again, it's 22,000 seats. What do you think of all this? Yeah, I mean, we're we're in an extraordinary time.

It it can lead to extraordinary circumstances, too, right? Like I think yes, there's there's nothing better than playing on campus, right, at Depal uh for this this game, but we can't do that, right? we're we're out of a a stadium for for two seasons. So, um so le let's create a a cool opportunity. Let's create a unique opportunity where we can do do something still make it very Monon Bellesque, but let's just do it in a different venue and give it a little bit of of a different feel. You know, I'm always constantly looking at it from our student athletes perspective.

Yeah. Right. They they're fired up. They will want to do it in a stadium like this. I I I think Ball State I think a MACt type stadium provides a bigger venue will allow more people to come in. We're not doing it at Ball State to set a record, right?

But that ends up becoming one of those opportunities, but I think it it's going to create an awesome atmosphere. I I've seen a game at Ball State when we were on our our buy, you know, I went up and watched coach Colin Johnson, one of my dear friends, be interim head coach there. U there's no track there, so you really do feel on top of them um there at Ball State. I think it's a great size. I think it's a great stadium. I think we can we can pack it out.

I think as many W bash fans and Depal fans can come. And I think what's special is I know there's people that have been wanting to come to the Monell game. But when the tickets sell out in 30 minutes, they they can't get tickets. They can't get access. I only get access to so many ticket. Like I I I don't have random stacks of tickets I can hand out.

All of a sudden, it's like the the third string guy who never played a varsity down is texting coach De's like, "Yo, can you get me on the list?" He's like, "No, I get you and your brother on the list." Literally, Gabe Quigley was our all-American tight end the year before and he did not get out of the queue to get a ticket. Did not get out of the queue to get a ticket. That's unreal. Um, what an opportunity though.

What an opportunity. And so, I don't want people to wait around and, you know, we can buy a ticket later. Like, buy tickets now. Yeah. Like, get them when you can. I think they'll go on sale in September.

But, um, I think this has an opportunity to be a a different kind of chapter in the Monon Bell. And it's still going to be very Monan Bell, right? I know it's in Muny, but um once you're in the atmosphere, once the game gets going, um it has a chance to be one of the coolest things, uh we've ever done. So, um I I think our guys are going to be excited about it. I think our staff's excited, but I think it creates a unique opportunity. Yes, we don't want to always do it at at a neutral site, um and things like that.

I mean, we looked at a lot of different places, instate, out of state. Can we talk about that? Yeah. What were the different options and what kind of uh Yeah. Where all did you guys look at potentially hosting? What was the rubric for the paw?

Maybe people might be remember when I had both presidents on uh before the bell game last year. I gave them plenty of options. And Schuman Stadium was one of the options that we got. Shout out to Brooks. He gave it to me first. Uh I do have to say he did give it to me first.

But we presented that as an option. And and I do remember I think Dr. White said, "Huh, I don't know if we've thought about that one." Yeah, she [clears throat] played it. She played me. I got it.

But where all did you guys check out? I I think we didn't leave anything off the table. I mean, we we were outside the box. So, obviously, the first thing that people always talk about is let's go to Lucas Oil, right? Okay, that that's great. Uh they got a band competition there.

It's booked every the same weekend every year. Like, they make so much money like that's not an option, right? So, then we look at different places. We looked at the Indianapolis Indians, right? That would have been a they're doing some renovations to their stadium. Like that would have been that would have been cool.

Victory Field. That could have been a fun one. I mean, we even looked at going some other places where we're literally building a stadium on site. No, that episode of Friday Night Lights, they bring everything where maybe could have that happened like Grant Park, right? Or something like a place like that where they could build us like temporary state and just make it for that one unique thing. And so, we looked at a lot of different places.

Was Ross Aid was Ross Aid at Purdue in Lafayette ever on the I'm not I haven't been in all those conversations so I'm not sure. Well, one big one that I think people are him and Han about was it was kind of come came down between Muny and and Butler. Like those were kind of like the two final. And while I think Muny is or while I think Butler is cool because it's centrally located to a ton of Dep Wabash alumni, it is not a very big the Butler Bowl is smaller than our typical uh Mon Bell setup. So if it sold out in 42 minutes in Crawford'sville or Green Gas, so it's going to sell out in 12 minutes at Butler. Essentially, even less people would get to go.

And I don't think that's the goal here. I I would say a lot of stadiums we looked at, there were limitations on what we could do um from that standpoint. And so we certainly don't want to limit opportunities for people to be able to to see games and things like that. So I I I think there's a lot that goes into this, right? A lot of things that go into this. a lot of different stadiums could be a possibility.

And I think a lot of people talking to, you know, just what I hear is not ready for what a what a Mona Bell game is, how many security officers, how many police officers to ensure the safety of everybody there. Like some of these schools were blown away by the amount of of staff and people that we have to run this game. And and I think some of them weren't weren't really love the idea of hosting it, but once you get into the minutia of what it actually takes to do that, they're like, I'm not sure if this is going to be the right right thing for us. So, I think within Ball State, there's enough infrastructure there. There's enough tailgating there. Uh the ticket system isn't going to fail.

I I think um we can use a lot of their resources. Um and I think it it may be a perfect fit for us for for this exact situation. So, I'm I'm really excited um about it. I just don't like that Ball State's core color is red and there's going to be a lot of red um in the stadium. But um I I think you know we know people at Butler. Uh coach U has been awesome uh for us.

Coach Rory Manoring our former defensive coordinator is is now their safeties coach there. So uh we have some connections up there. Um always have with Ball State. So I think it's going to feel like a home game for us. This Monon Bell game classic Brett Dietz approved. Love to hear that.

And I just think [clears throat] again this is we're going to look back on this year and not remember oh man it wasn't on Depos campus. It's going to be we're going to look back and say what an unforgettable oneoff Monon Bell game at a neutral site and what a weekend we had. Yeah. And what a what an attended game this was for both schools, both teams. I have committed. We're committing our friend group.

We're committing everyone that we know. I'm going to my Friday. We're going to hang out. We're going to do some sort of alumni event Friday night. We'll do wake up early, tailgate the whole day. Like it's gonna be a spectacle and we're gonna have a little bit of the Muny magic, baby.

Let's go. Are we gonna get a a Get Indiana live podcast? I think we definitely need to do that. Absolutely. We could we could talk about a little college game day situation. All right.

I would do that 100%. If you think we should do a college game day at Schuman Stadium for the 2026 Monan Bell game, put in the comments and tell Nate and I. We'll even let one we'll bring one Waw Bash spokesperson. If there is a media personality from Waw Bash, we'll put three people, maybe four people on the call and do a live podcast. We'll be even. It'll be fun.

Uh our intern's actually from Waw Bash. That's true. That's true. And he's not here today. How interesting [laughter] is that? Maybe not the same work ethic as the ball.

Oh my gosh. No, I love it. The 2026 Monon Bell game is going to be hosted at Schuman Stadium in Muny at Ball State. 22,500 people capacity. It's going to be electric. I can't wait.

Dom, Coach Dietz, it's going to be electric and I'm I'm pretty pumped up about it. I am so excited for this. I think this was the perfect place for this game to be hosted. All the minds got into the stakeholders got into a room, made this happen. Coach Dietz is is pumped up about it. I think it's I just I'm I'm very excited about it.

So the final piece we're going to ask here is one piece that when you have a coach on a large portion of the listenership is going to be your previous players. And as we round out and land this episode, if you could go back and you could talk and share advice, wisdom, words to your previous players over the past, oh my gosh, 15 16 seasons, what would you hope your players have taken away from you or a lesson or anything like that? I I think if I'm talking to the former players, like they are all part of this, right? They they are all part of the success. Just because we didn't have a record when you were here and we have a great record now doesn't mean that your team wasn't a success. Like it's all building blocks.

It's all foundation. Um like even so much to to have something, you know, like this new facility, right? Like they're all part of the program. You know, we challenge everybody that comes in our program to leave this place better than you found it, right? And so we wouldn't have started in the place we did if it wasn't for, you know, you and Don, right? Everything is a build.

You guys are a part of us. We remember you guys. We see you. We love seeing you guys be successful. Um, and you guys are are just as much as part of this. We we talk a lot about the past in our program.

We're very proud of our past here at Depal. Um, and so us having success now, like we don't look at that as like, oh, we're so much better than what we were before. Like, dude, it's all part of a building process. like we couldn't be where we are now if it wasn't for the players that that have come in the past. And so, um, we're really excited for all the support that we get. I mean, we hear from a lot of alums.

We love hearing from our alums and love seeing them back at games and get excited and get hyped. And so, um, you know, you guys were a big part of that and big part of me and and and my development to to get us where we are here today. Yeah. Deps the world to us. The Monan Bell game means the world to us. Final thing for me is you got your first taste of the Hooser State in Indiana and college at handover.

You've co your whole coaching career has been in Indiana from Cascade Marian to PA to you. What makes sports so special in Indiana? I think it's a great sports state. I I think it helps that Indianapolis is right here in the center of the state and you get you know it's very centrally located. I think the city does a great job supporting uh you know big-time events and obviously every event they do here in Indie um is really well done. The airport's close, one of the best airports in the entire United States.

I think that's a part of it. Like I think every aspect, it's not just one thing. Every aspect kind of adds up. Um to be in a great experience for the fans, for the players, um and it's just a great sports town. Uh because we do it really well here. Couldn't agree more.

Nate Spangle, you got anything else for coach? He's been great. This has been fun. It has been fun. I know where the Monan Bell game's happening. We we we know why Depal has been so successful.

The only thing I'll say is I'm sad to hear that there are no more spicy chicken Thursdays at the Dell House. Oh wow. It was always a pleasure, right, when you would come through. Yeah, I I I used to go all the time. Maybe not every Thursday. I don't know if it's every Thursday anymore, but I I just remember you'd like come down after after a Wednesday night, you like little sleep in the eye.

Yeah. You like stumble into the and say, "There's Coach De spicy chicken Thursday. Let's go." If you do the live podcast, can we get you an old number 36 jersey [laughter] and get you an old 25 jersey? People forget I you guys can wear them while you're I co-sign the live pod at the Mon. All right, I'm there.

Especially this specific Mon and maybe what if we start something we do every year, you know? We just need a sponsor to come in and we'll do the field goal thing and we'll give away like $15,000 to somebody if you're a sponsor if they can hit a 35 yard kick. Yeah, I love it. This has been great. Yep. So much fun and we'll talk to you soon, coach.

Thanks.