We're in warm-ups at the Orange Bowl and a year prior to that I was coaching at Maran University in a playoff game. I don't know was it like one door closes another door opens. Did not get it done and we got fired. I might have stayed there for four or five more years and never got a head coaching opportunity cuz I had that job I would not have left for Butler. What was the biggest shock to you? We won the MAC and they didn't hire me.
I mean continuity roster is one thing. Coaching is massive. 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 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, we keep the head coaches rolling. We had coach Kevin Lynch who spent a lot of time here at Ball State.
And now we got the guy who came from Butler to Ball State, coach Mike Uremovich, born in Gary, went to Purdue. He's been coaching since 1996 where he started his career at McCutchen High School. Yep. How about that? And in Lafayette, we're pleased to welcome on head coach of the Ball State Cardinals, Mike Yurmovich. Coach, you appreciate you making some time.
Thanks for having me. In the midst of football season, you ready to get going? We are fired up. We got about I think 10 days till training camp starts something like that. Coaches are all back from vacation and uh it's exciting time of year. That's really cool stuff.
I want to talk about your journey to get to where you are today. What makes you unique great fit for this podcast is the journey began in Indiana growing up in Gary. Talk me through what it was like your youth and what kind of wanted you wanted to pursue coaching, how you got interested in it and just growing up in Gary, Indiana. Yeah, I was born in Indiana. I grew up in Illinois. Okay.
But all my family is from northwest Indiana. They live in Marville and Balpo. Yeah. The region. So I was born there. And then my dad uh was working in oil industry in in the refineries near Joliet, Illinois, Lamont, Illinois.
So we moved to a small town called Manhattan, Illinois. Okay. 2,000 people and uh lived there and then in high school ended up moving to New Lennox, Illinois and and went to Province Catholic High School. But I I always knew I wanted to coach. Just something I I had great youth coaches. They got me excited about football and I had some really really good high school coaches that kind of sold me on that's what I wanted to do and and saw the impact they had on me and my brother and some of the other kids that I played football with and figured I want to do that.
I thought I'd be a high school coach. That was my goal for a long time. Yeah. And and that's kind of where it started. Before we get there though, you go end up going to Purdue. Y did you play football at Purdue?
I tried to walk on. The try out was about 15 minutes and I think they took a look at me and said, "You don't have a chance to play here." And I never thought I would play there. I just wanted to walk on because I'd asked my high school coach, "Hey, I want to coach college football." And he said, "You have to go play division one football." And it was completely wrong because I got into coaching and there's guys from D3 and high schools all over the place.
But ended up working out. I didn't I didn't make the team obviously, but um took a football class over there and and Don Ker was the head coach at McCutchen and he came in to speak at the class and I talked to him afterwards and he ended up hiring me to coach his varsity defensive backs and receivers. Um, and I was 19 or 20 years old. So, I was barely older than the kids I was coaching, but it was a great experience. That's really cool. What was your experience like at Purdue?
So, you're born in Indiana, you go to Illinois, you're back in Indiana. What was your experience like in West Lafayette? I I really enjoy my time at Purdue. You know, people I'm not that big of a Purdue football fan because I never got to go to the games because I was always coaching and on Saturdays we were working. So, um I'm a Purdue basketball fan because I got to go to some of those. But I I spent two years at McCutchen and then coach Ker took a job at Purdue to be on staff at Purdue.
Really? And um I wanted to continue to coach. So this is going to sound complicated, but I transferred to Purdue Calumett, which is up there near Joliet. Yep. And I went and coached high school football at my old high school. And then I transferred back to Purdue West Lafayette for the spring.
Then transferred back up to Calumat for the next fall and then back down to Purdue Lafayette for the spring to graduate. So, I transferred a bunch, but I got to keep coaching. All so you could keep coaching. What was coaching high school football? That was kind of your first taste. What even to this day, maybe did you take from that experience?
Because I mean, like you said, it's kind of a unique path. A lot of guys, you know, they could be a GA if they went to a big school or something like that. But you coach in Indiana, McCutchen High School in Illinois at your alma mater. Yep. What What was that kind of like just getting your feet wet for those three, four years? I was really lucky.
You know, coach Ker had been at Purdue at one time before he was at McCutchen. So, he ran it like a like a college program and I was blessed that I got into that and re really saw how much work it requires to get a football team ready. How you got to care about kids, how you got to coach kids. And then when I went to Providence, they they were in the midst of winning several state championships in a row in Illinois. And my head coach, Coach Sephner, who I got to then work for, he ended up being the winningest coach in the history of the state when he retired. So being able to be a part of that and and playoff runs and championship game runs and and watch the way that that he ran the program.
You know, you see so much more when you're a coach as a player, you think you know, but you don't know until you get there and see how he organized it and the emphasis he put on offensive and defensive line play and and the things that I still still do today. Yeah. What what's high school football like in Illinois around that Chicago land area? Man, I I I mean I'm biased because I'm from up there. Um, but I do think it's some of the best in the country between the Chicago Catholic League and then the north side teams you have in IND in Illinois. It's really good and and Indiana football from the time I started co coaching college until now has gotten better and better and better every year.
And there's a really bunch of really good teams in the state of Indiana as well, especially obviously around Indianapolis. But you know that I would say the top five, six, 10 schools in Indianapolis and Indiana are really right up there with the top five, six, 10 schools in Illinois. The difference is there's probably 30 Illinois schools just because of the the population. The size has nothing to do with the player or the coaching. It's just there's just more schools. How big is Providence Catholic High School?
We were five out of six classes back then. We were 5A. So pretty big. Yeah. Well, they weren't that big, but in Illinois, I think they just started doing this in Indiana relatively. I don't know, five, six, seven years ago, but they bump you up with success.
I see. So, and we were a Catholic school, so they penalized you for that, too. So [laughter] they were normally like a 2 or 3A school but had to play 5A football. Okay. And do you have to qualify for the playoffs in Illinois? Okay.
You do. Yeah. Some Indiana people rough. You know, everybody makes it in Indiana. People get a little been out of shape about that. When I got to Indiana, I was totally against that when I heard that.
But then having coached in Indiana, I I think it's a great rule. Yeah. Because now two things. You can go schedule whoever you want. You know, in Illinois, the top teams can't get games scheduled because nobody will play them because they got to win to make the playoffs. Is there like a how do they system wins gets you in?
Okay. Five and four, they they talk playoff points and all that. You're not guaranteed to get in. But in Indiana, you got and my one son went to Cathedral, you know, and they're playing Center Grove. They're playing all these guys to get ready for the playoffs. M and if you got a young football team or have some guys get injured, you're still preparing for something at the end of the year to go try to win in a sectional or regional, you know, if you're in Illinois and you start off one and four.
I mean, you can lose your kids cuz you're probably not going to make the playoffs, you know. So, I do like that everybody gets in and they just play one less regular season game, right? That's interesting. That that reminds me of the uh 2005 Northwood Panthers, went into the playoffs 3-6, rattled off all these wins, beat Chitaard in the state championship 7 nothing. Yeah, that team wouldn't have got to do that now. Exactly.
It's a great story, right? Uh okay, so you you get your feet wet in high school football. Obviously, I bet it's starting to really you're really starting to really get into it, rise through the ranks, and you get your first opportunity at the college level. How did that work? Because it this is it located in it's in Lyall, Illinois. It's Benedictton University.
So, it's uh about half hour from where I I grew up at. Okay. So, you probably had some connections there and got your first taste of college football. It was actually a connection I had through McCutchen. Uh one of the guys, Jamie Sailors, had been in college. He was now coaching high school again and he knew the head coach, the new head coach at Benedictton.
And uh I got to know him through going to some clinics and I interviewed for the receiver job there. And they paid me 24 $2,500 to be the receiver coach. And I work in the fitness center 5:45 in the morning until 8. Let all the old people in to walk around the track and I'd get to go to football meetings. So that's how I paid my rent. Okay.
I love it. And then you get your your kind of real baptism Northern Illinois GA. Now I see here you have your masters from Northern Illinois. Was that part of the Okay. So how was that experience? Because you're getting a sweet master's degree D1 football.
How was that? It was great. It was awesome. I was at a I was coaching at Benedictton at the time and it was I had finished we had finished our first season there and we were out spring recruiting and this is just how things work. It's crazy but coaching there was this recruiting fair at Lamont High School. They still have it to this day but it was one of the first ones they had and our head coach is like man I you know I don't know if we need to go to this thing.
It's the first time they're doing it you know and I said I'll go. I said I used to live over there. I I'll go over there. I see some of these high school coaches. So, I go and I run into a guy named Scott Schaefer who's the defensive coordinator at Northern Illinois and we're just talking. We're just talking football and then we do our little thing and we sit down at the end of it and we're eating and we start talking more and then he just says, "Hey, would you ever think about being a GA?"
I said, "Well, yeah, I don't I mean, I'd love to, but you know," he's like, "Well, we had a guy just leave. You know, if you're interested in it, it's going to be half video coordinator, right, and half with the defense." And I said, "Yeah, I'd love to do that." Well, so he called me the next day and said, "Can you be here tomorrow for an interview?" Wow. And I went and interviewed with Coach Novak and he offered me the job and I moved like 24 hours later up there into an apartment.
So yeah, you get to that was a great coaching staff that I was on. I mean, some of the guys that were on that staff, I mean, our linebacker coach was Pat Narduzi, coach at Pit. Scott Schaefer was our DC and he was head coach at Syracuse at one time. Yep. Dan Roshar was the guy that I ended up ultimately gaing for and he said the old line coach for the Bears. Matt Matt Canada was our quarterback's coach who was an NFL OC.
Um our old our the next line coach we had was Sam Pitman who became the head coach at Arkansas. No way. George McDonald, the receiver coach at LSU now was our receiver coach. Wow. Daryl Funk came in and worked with the tight ends and he ended up, you know, coaching at Michigan and BYU. So these guys were all really young.
Just like their first division one job. Yeah. And uh that program coach Novak inherited was was really really bad. They had to set the record for the most losses in a row in division one college football. Our facilities were absolutely terrible. That's not the case anymore.
No. It was I mean it was as bad as it could it could be. Wow. Um the off like we had a staff room like this and the defensive staff met over there. Yeah. And the only way you could get to the defensive staff room was to walk through the offensive staff room.
So you'd be meeting and guys would have to be I mean it was really bad. And I was lucky because I got to be there for two years for coach Novak and they were both six win seasons and he just just kind of turned the turn the corner. I had very little to do with it. I was just there to learn and help. It was fun to watch it. You know what I mean?
How much did you learn? I mean, first of all, just just getting that opportunity. You had to be pumped. And then to to learn from all those guys who've gone on to do I mean, we're talking elite football knowledge in those rooms. Yeah, it was. And I forgot a couple guys, too.
I probably they won't listen to this, but if they do, they're all too old now to do podcasts, but if they if they did, they'd be pissed. I forgot them. But I I I mean, the thing I always took away from it was coach Novak no excuses of why we can't win here. Yeah. And he put a huge emphasis on recruiting of getting guys that he wanted to coach that fit the program. Yeah.
you know, and and he would it would drive the assistants nuts sometimes because they'd want to take a guy and he just said, "Nope, you know, I just he's not a good enough student." Or, "Hey, I know he can run a jump, but in my office, he really wasn't looking me in the eye." And he I mean, he he was like that with every kid. And a lot of those kids, we were their only offer, you know, like PJ Fleck was playing for us then. Really, we were his only The only offer he had was Northern Illinois. Wow.
But that kid was going to come, well, he's not a kid anymore, but he would come in and work his tail off. Exactly. Right. Yeah. And so it was a bunch of kids like that and then as Northern started winning then obviously they were getting better. I mean they had a million guys on that team that we were the only offer they had.
Wow. You know that's you never deviate from your standard. No. That's this is I mean like I know and our coaches we've all been together which is great but we all know what type of player we do better with handling as well, right? You know. Yeah.
I know what kids I like to coach. I know what character I want them to have. I know what families I want them to come from. And um we just had more success with those guys, you know. What's college PJ Fleck like? He was a little wilder than he is now.
[laughter] Yeah. He's a good football tough tough player. Yeah, tough player. I mean, he ended up I think going to the ners or something out of right college. I don't know how long he played in the NFL, but the mere fact that he made it on a on a practice field in the NFL tells you how good of a worker he was. Cuz I'm not taking away from his athletic ability, but he is not the prototypical NFL player.
No. Just great effort, great energy, tough. Yeah. So, so you're not shocked of his coaching success. No, that's really cool. Okay.
So, you [clears throat] get your GA at Northern Illinois or your G Northern Illinois. You get that experience and then you just kind of work your way up and your first head coaching position. St. Francis is in Illinois. So, you're kind of working your way through the state through the state at this point. Okay.
And uh you're there from 2005 to 2011. First opportunity as a head coach. you know it didn't two and nine one and nine three and eight but at the end of it all 10 and three in NIA quarterfinal ranked eighth I imagine you got your masters in building a program yeah I was 28 years old and uh it was that was in my hometown and I when I got farther with the interview process I called three people that I really trust and all three of them said do not take the job but I wanted to be a head coach um I knew that they had potential there they had been good at one time but they they were really really down at that point. And you're right, you rattled off the records. The difference between that and when I got to Butler is there was no transfer portal. Right.
So that first team that went seven and four. Well, that was our first recruiting class. That was four years of players. You you had to get in 30 freshman, 30 freshman, 30 freshman and work with them. Yeah. And uh that taught me a lot that job, man.
It was uh great learning experience. And when you're an NI head coach, I mean, you're you're the head coach, you're coordinating the travel, you're doing the budget. When we stopped on road trips, I was the tomato guy giving out the sandwiches because we couldn't get the stuff on the sandwiches because they'd get soggy. So, you'd [laughter] have turkey sandwiches, some guy would have the lettuce, some guy would have the mayo. I usually had the tomatoes. Like, you're doing everything, right?
You know, and uh it's a small staff. I think I Well, I know right now I had two full-time coaches, myself, two gas, and then like four part-time guys that were doing what I did at Benedictton. Yeah. You know, for 2500 bucks. And one of those part-time guys is now the head coach at Pit State. Oh, is that right?
Yeah. One of those part-time guys is the head coach at Culver Stockton. So, we had a bunch of really good young coaches come through there. Yeah. Sounds like you've been able to cross paths with a lot of talented people who are just trying to cut their teeth just like you. And I imagine just learning from them and you all took things from each other and that was really beneficial for you.
I It was. And I'd always I'd always air on the side and I learned this from Coach Novak because he specifically told it to me this way, but if we have a position open, I want to get the best coach I can get. All right. But I'm always going to take a young, hungry guy. Yeah. That's going to show up and be excited to be at that level as opposed to an older guy that might, let's say I got a job open tomorrow and hope I don't cuz our whole staff came back, right?
But, and this is not set in stone, but you take a guy that's at an FCS school or division 2 school. He shows up here and he sees everything and he's excited about everything that we have. Yeah. You hire a guy that just got fired at Ohio State, all he's going to see is what we don't have, right? And try to get to the next. It's not his fault.
He's just he's accustomed to having other stuff, right? You know, so you know, I do like young hungry coaches on their way up and I don't want them here forever. I want them to move on with their career, right? I want them to do it the right way. I don't want them to leave here for another max school. You know what I mean?
But if they're here a couple years and they get an opportunity to go to the Big 10, I'll I'll help get them the job if I can. Absolutely. Because people have helped me. You know, that's cool. Coaching has a way of coming around, you know? I mean, all you guys It's really impressive to see the different paths and everything.
How how difficult? I mean, you're 28 when you get this job. How difficult is, you know, six wins in three years. Was there a lot of soulsearching during that time or you you knew the vision, though? We lost 16 games in a row over a two-year period. And you want to talk about a long year.
You know what I mean? You lose eight in a row and then you pour everything you possibly have into it. You recruit, you develop, you bring all these kids in, then you lose the first eight the next year. Yeah. Yeah. That's tough.
Yeah. I imagine. Especially as a late 20s. Yeah. And you can't you have to believe in your that doesn't mean we don't look at what we do. Okay.
We self scout everything we do. We have a recruiting visit. We come in here on Monday and I say what was good, what was bad, how can we always trying to get better. Yeah. But you can't just We had a plan and you can't just throw it all out because you're not getting the results you want if you believe in it. So it was very challenging.
Yeah. um for me and and our staff and obviously we got through it and had a good year and then had a little blip there and then had two more good years and ended up winning the conference and losing to we beat Morningside in the first round of the playoffs. Beat Georgia State in the Georgia Dome that year. Really? Yeah. With an NI roster.
How about that? That was fun. And then we lost to Marian. And I can't remember if they won the national championship that year or the next year. Okay. But yeah, I mean, how gratifying in 2011 after all this, 10 and three, I'm seeing ranked eighth in the nation.
That was awesome. Yeah. What's that feel like? When you look back, you're probably laughing at yourself in 2005. Well, I wish this is the way it is with coaching. I wish I would have enjoyed it more.
But as soon as that season was over, I was just pissed that we lost the playoff game and wanted to figure out a way to try to win the national championship. You know what I mean? Yeah. I never really, I'm be honest with you, I don't remember like celebrating it that much because you're just getting ready for the next thing. You know what I mean? And when you fall in love with the journey and the process, it's always the next thing, the next thing, the next thing.
It's the gift and curse of coaching, I imagine, right? Okay. You find your way back to Northern Illinois, a place you're familiar with. And I imagine this was a very, very, very fun season. Dave Doran, Jordan Lynch, y and uh one lost team. Yep.
Take me through getting back to Northern Illinois and then the success you had that season. So Dave um I had known Dave the year before and he got the job at Northern and Matt Canada was his OC at that time too. Got it. Um Matt they had a good year. They won the MAC. Matt left to go to Wisconsin.
A couple other coaches left and and Dave reached out to me and said, "Hey, you know, what do you think about being our special teams coordinator coaching our running backs?" And I was excited about it obviously. So um my family and I moved to Sycamore right next to the Calb there. Yeah. And we lost to Iowa by a point in Soldier Field and then won every other game we played the rest of the year until the Orange Bowl. Unreal.
Then you got to think now, so we're in warm-ups at the Orange Bowl. And a year prior to that, I was coaching at Marian University in a playoff game, you know what [laughter] I mean? Like, and now I'm in and we're coaching in the Orange Bowl. It's a crazy 12 months, 11 months. Yeah. Actually, I think I was only really there eight months, honestly, because by the time I got hired, it was I believe it was in Well, I know what it was.
It was in January because I was there for the signing day. Yeah. So, I got hired in January. Yeah. Late January. What a year.
I mean, a point to Iowa. You win every other game. What I mean, Jordan Lynch, what can you say? He's I mean, he's I don't know if you know, he's head coach at Mount Carmel High School in Chicago right now. They've won for I still talk to him all the time. Really great kid.
Um toughest player I've ever coached. Um and the next year he ended up being a Heisman finalist. That's right. Um but tough tough kid. Yeah. Yeah, I mean I remember we played a game out here against Ball State that was tight and he ended up breaking a long one in the fourth quarter that kind of put it away for us on a third down, but um you just knew you're in every game with him and had a shot and honestly we should have beat Iowa.
We we had a we had a costly mistake in that game and and a breakdown on a defensive play that I mean we should have beat them that day. Yeah, that's I mean Jordan Lynch, you don't you don't get players like Jordan Lynch anymore in this era of college football, right? I mean just what a year. Unbelievable success. Coach Dorne gets the job at NC State and you follow him there O line coach. Now you're I mean again we're talking about a four-year stretch.
You're coaching against Marion in a playoff game. Now you're at a power five school. I mean that's crazy. It is crazy. So what was that experience like for you? It was awesome.
It was awesome. I I've been a line coach most of my career. Um obviously I've had other positions that I've coached. Um, but to coach the O line and coach Baro, a line coach who's our O line coach here currently, played for me there. Joe Tuni, who just won the offensive lineman of the year award in the NFL, played for me there for three years. We had a bunch of good guys go through there.
We had a I mean, we had fun. We had Jacobe Brassette was one of our quarterbacks. We had Nahm Hines was one of our running backs. Really? Chub, the DN was on the team. I mean, no way.
We had We had a really rough first year there. We won, I think, three games. Yeah. Um, I think it was three. I don't I'm trying to block it out, but I know we didn't win an ACC game, right? Yeah.
Three and nine that first year. So, but again, Dave had a plan and he stuck to it and we had some injuries and things like that. And then next year we come out, win a bunch of games. Following year, we we win more. We end up losing them uh Mississippi State and um in in the bowl game, Dak Prescott and I can't remember they had a real good D end. Um [clears throat] but that was a great to see him come in new and and build a program at that level, right?
you know, cuz that's even different than northern, just the stuff that goes into it and everything. So, there's levels to this. Yeah. And Dave was great cuz he he knew I wanted to be head coach again. So, he'd go out of his way to share stuff with me or teach teach me things that I necessarily didn't need to know, but Yeah. He knew that I wanted to be head coach again.
What was the biggest thing you took away from Coach Doran? Cuz that's quite a rise. He is super super super intelligent, dude. Yeah. Okay. And he is he has as much fun as anybody.
Yeah. But that when it's time to do business, yeah, you're not joking around. You're getting everything done right. And when it's time to have fun, we have more we had some of the team meetings there. Some of the stuff they do is hilarious and all that, but when it was time to go, it was time to go and he had a plan and we're going to stick to the plan. Yeah.
And he's still there. I mean, he's still doing his thing. It's that's good stuff. I mean, what what a guy to learn from. I mean, you were talking about guys you interacted with. I mean, Pat Darduzi jumps off the page.
Dave Doran jumps off the page. What led to you going back to Northern Illinois? So, full disclosure, being honest with you, yeah, I wanted to be a head coach, of course. Rod Kerry, when we went to NC State, Rod took over for Dave and had won the MAC once, I think once, and played in the title game another year. Um, and I knew I have friends with him. I still talk to him this day.
And he I knew he was going to be trying to leave Northern and I wanted to be the head coach at Northern. I love it. So, I went back there to be the offensive coordinator. Um, with full plan being that we would win a bunch of I'd help Rod win a bunch of games and he would leave and hopefully I could be the head coach, right? You know, so I went back to Northern. We won a bunch of games.
We won the MAC. Uh, he got offered the um Temple job. Yeah. And they didn't hire me. So, I see that happens. Who' they go with?
They went with Thomas Hammock. Thomas Hammock, who just recently left to be the running back's coach for Seattle Seahawks, I believe. So, uh, that's a teaching moment, though, I imagine. Yeah. Well, what what did you glean from that? Because, of course, that's disappointing.
Yeah, I didn't go I, you know, you always want to have long-term goals. It wasn't something I thought about every day when I was there. Like, I just wanted to help Rod win and win the MAC and but that is the reason why I went there. You know what I mean? Cuz I had a great situation at Northern at NC State. I loved working for Dave.
I had a good position group coming back. Like, it was all set up. But um went back there and like I said, we end up winning the MAC the last year and and Rod got the temple job. And to Rod's credit, Rod knew the whole like he part of the things he talked to me about was, "Hey, come back here, get the offense going." Yeah. And you know, we'll see what happens.
See what happens. You know, and so when he did get the temple job, he was great because it's not always like this in this profession. You know, a lot of times a coach will say, "Okay, you might want to get this job or not, but are you coming with me or not?" Right? You know what I mean? He's got to know.
He's got to go do his, you know, he's got to get Temple right now, you know. And he said, "You got the jobs, the offensive coordinator at Temple. Go try to get the Northern job." And so he gave me three weeks to go through the whole interview process and get everything. And I got down to the end of it and they didn't hire me. And that's they can pick who they want.
You know what I mean? Right. And so they told me on a Thursday, I think it was a Thursday, they called and said, "Hey, we're we're going to hire somebody else." And then Saturday I was on a on a plane to Philly and Yeah. started coaching at Temple. and you turned the page there and and now you're the co-OCC at Temple.
What's that experience like? It kind of out of where you've built most of your career on the East Coast now. Yeah. Well, it's a different place to recruit at for sure and and obviously Pennsylvania high school football. It's good and so is New Jersey and so is New York and um there I mean Virginia there's good players all up and down East Coast. Um, but Tempo is a program that is very similar to Northern Illinois in that they had made a living off of the only offer to this kid, developing these guys, finding these guys, and that formula worked for Tempo for a while.
I know they had some up and downs, but they had some really good football teams come through there when Rule was there and then some of these other guys. We got there and there's no excuse. We're all I'm just as responsible for it as anybody else. We did not get it done and we got fired, okay, as a staff. All right. But it was terrible timing because it was right when the Portal happened.
Oh. So, I mean, we our first year I think we won eight games there, nine games. Yeah. Um, but we lost a bunch of guys to the Portal. I see. Then CO hits and there's no worse place in the world to be than Philadelphia with CO with the restrictions they put on us and we couldn't practice.
Our first game, I think, was against Navy and it was their fifth game cuz they wouldn't let us play any of these non-conference games, right? So, we have a terrible 2020 and then more guys leave and we didn't get it done the next year. So, it ultimately, you know, the coaches are responsible for it, but it was bad timing of course. I I can't remember the number so I don't want to say it wrong, but I think there was five or six guys that we'd had on the roster in 21 that were NFL draft picks really that ended up going to the portal. That's not only learning and like readjusting to what the transfer portal and this new new rules and everything means, but then throw co in. Yeah.
I mean, it was tough. That's tough. Everybody else had to deal with co too. It just we It just was is what it is. It didn't We didn't get it done. No, I get it.
I get it. And to your point on uh Temple, I mean, we're talking like Al Golden and Steve Adazio and Matt Rule, Jeff Collins. I mean, my goodness, those guys all solid. Yes. And in a row, you know, but then the model changed. So now when you did find a kid out of New Jersey that was completely underrecruited and he comes in and red shirts and then starts as a red shirt freshman, he's leaving.
Yeah. Yeah. that that he's not staying and you know. So that just is what it is. It is what it is. But spring's a new beginning.
You find yourself at Butler and you're the head coach. So was it a I don't know. Was it like one door closes and another door opens? And I imagine that was very appetizing for you and a place you're familiar with kind of in Indianapolis to the Illinois right there. How did that work that Butler was right for you? I kind of had a decision to make professionally like what did I want to do?
You know, I we we're out you're out of work as a coach. You're fired, you know. Yeah. and you're looking for a job. And so I talked to a bunch of my buddies that were in the MAT conference and I maybe could have had a couple opportunities there to go be a coordinator, position coach. Um I had a couple guys I talked to at the Power Five level, one as a position coach and one of them was serious, the other one I don't think I really would have had a shot at.
Yeah. And then um somebody called me, hey, would you be interested in the Butler job? And I said, well, yeah, I would. And I was interested and and I was considering it, but it wasn't until after I interviewed for it on the phone the second time and then I was getting ready to fly out there, you know, a couple days later and uh the more I thought about it and the more I talked about with my wife. Of those three things I mentioned, Butler by far paid the least out of all of them. Yeah, that's not surprising.
And I've never made a decision for money. You know, I left NC State for NIU for way less money. I just but um my wife finally like my you love being a head coach. Go run your go run your own program. You control your own destiny. And and I thought about I said yeah and if I go and I coach at Butler for 25 years as a head coach and I get to run a program how I want I'm good.
That's awesome. Like I was I didn't take it thinking I was going to be out of there anytime soon. I took it cuz I thought it would take a while to get them turned around. Yeah. And I did like the area and it was closer to our family. My wife's family is from Chicago.
Oh, nice. And uh we went in there with every intention of being there for a long time and you know, we got it going quicker than we thought we would. You sure did. 7 7 and four, 7-4, 9 and three. It's not an easy place to win. I It really isn't.
There's different challenges that come with being in the FCS and that conference specifically. What allowed you guys to have success that you had? We had we walked into some good players that really fit us um on both sides of the ball. I was very lucky. I got the defense, our defense coordinator here, Jeff Nolles, and I have been together at a million different schools. I was able to hire him.
I was able to hire Coach Bar, Coach Chase, a bunch of these guys that quote unquote were a little maybe overqualified to be there, but they all wanted to help turn it around with me, of course. But the best thing that we did is we we really got after the portal and and Butler is an easy sell in the portal because and we did a really good job in the Ivy League because those kids can't red shirt. So they would play their four years in the Ivy League, have one year left, and if they didn't play as a freshman, it counts as a red shirt, even though the Ivy League didn't do it. So they'd have two years to come get a master's degree at Butler. Nice. And so those kids were interested in the academic part of Butler along with the high school kids we recruited.
I mean, the school, my daughter goes there. Okay. The school sells itself. It absolutely does. We never had a guy visit that didn't want to come. It's just whether they could afford it and all of those other It's a beautiful place.
It is. It's I'm paying tuition now. I know. I know how expensive it is. It used to be free. [laughter] Yeah.
Oh man. But it's a great school. I mean, you bring a kid on a Saturday in December or January to Hinkle Fieldhouse and watch him play Villanova and then they go hang out in Broadripple. Like, you're going to get that kid. Yeah. You know, so we did really well recruiting there.
And the portal is what allowed us to turn it around quickly. The Ivy League piece is really interesting because that's where having a prestigious academic institution is so crucial. And those kids were used to paying some tuition. Yeah. You know what I mean? So, it wasn't the sticker shock of you mean I got to pay for this?
You know, I would just get in my car and I'd drive all the way out to I'd start on the north side or the southside and I just drive the Ivy League [laughter] and meet with all the kids who are in the portal. Wow. I mean, I met in the basement of a fraternity house. I met a guy at a Starbucks. I mean, wherever I could get to sit down with them and say, "Hey, come on out here and just look at this place." And you know, and we we did really well there.
That's so interesting. I would have never thought that. What a what a east coast trip for you looking at all these historic Ivy League sports, but it was in December and January. I mean, it was kind of brutal. [laughter] Okay, got it. Maybe not as picturesque as maybe the fall or summertime or something.
That's really cool. But it was still cool going all those camp. I'd never been in most of those campuses, you know? Those are like bucket list places for people to go. But what what did it mean to you to finally after, you know, 11 12 years be a head coach again after all this awesome experience you have under Doran, under Carrie, you know, controlling the offenses, getting high level division one experience, and now you can have full control of your program. It was great.
It was great. Um, I enjoy being the head coach. I enjoy putting the staff together. I enjoy making the schedule. Pete, our operations guy, always laughs at me. He said is I'm the only division one head football coach that actually does the daily schedule myself cuz I I want to know when stuff is.
You know what I mean? I want to have it all planned out and I enjoy the relationships you can have with everybody on the team. You know, when you're a coordinator, you get to know the offense of guys and you know your position group really well. But when you're the head coach, you really are involved in the recruitment of every kid on the team. You meet their parents, you meet their family, you meet their girlfriend, um you you know, you get to interact with everybody. Um, and that's something I really enjoy and I I enjoy u setting the direction of our team and setting the message we're trying to give, you know, and so I was really really excited about it.
And probably the best thing ever happened to me maybe was not getting that northern job because then I had some more experience of being an assistant and and experienced some other things. Yeah. You can look you can look back at that now and say, "Okay, that happened for a reason." Yeah. Right. Yeah.
And the same thing was getting fired at Temple because if we'd have kept winning at Temple and we' have turned it around or they gave us one more year, not nothing would have been wrong with it cuz I enjoyed it there and I liked the kids and we loved where we lived. But I might have stayed there for a coordinator four or five more years and never got a head coaching opportunity. Right. I mean it had that job I would not have left for the Butler head coaching job, right? And it's so I mean timing has to be so perfect when it comes to getting your head coaching opportunity at a level like this. What what's a misconception or something that people might be surprised to know about coaching at the FCS level, particularly Butler?
I think that, you know, it was I'm not going to say the school, but when I first got to Butler my first spring, okay, I went to a local high school here that's really good. All right. To watch them practice. Yeah. And after the practice, the coach sent me three kids to talk to. They were all good students.
They weren't nearly good enough for us to play with at at Butler and in the league. I've been watching film all offseason. Yeah. And I up to him. I said, "Coach, I appreciate your time with those three guys." I said, "But" and I pointed three.
I said, "Those are the three kids I want to talk to." He said, "Yeah, they're they're they're not they're not they're not Butler guys because the perception around here was that it wasn't that good of football because they hadn't been winning, right? It was non-scolarship, right? And all these other things." And by my third year of going to that school, I was getting to talk to his starting quarterback and his best players because I had to prove to him that we were good, right? You know, and that and then when the portal happened and guys started transferring in, not just from the Ivy League, but we did get some division one transfers there, the coaches realized, okay, that that football is pretty good.
Yeah. You know what I mean? And like we went and beat Murray State. And I know they weren't a great team that year or anything like that and they'll get better, but that's a Missouri Valley Football Conference school that we went and beat. Yeah. you know, that's impressive.
It's like somebody from the Mat going and beating somebody in the SEC. I don't care if it's a last place team in the SEC. Yeah. NVC is different. It's good football. Absolutely.
You know, so um that was the misconception is we had to I had to be deliberate about getting into these high schools and educating the coaches on like what type of caliber player we wanted, right? And how you I mean it was on you to change that perception. And then, you know, two years later, that had to be like, "All right, proof of concept." Like, "This is what I set out to do and I accomplished it." That had to feel good. Yeah, it did.
It did. I just That last year I wish I think we could have won every game we played that year, but the last one, just the last game against Presbyterian would have been a great one to win. And they were really, really good. And they were really good last year. Um, but that had got us to 10 wins for the first time in the history of Butler football. And really, playing football so long at Butler, it's hard to do anything for the first time.
Yeah. you know, 1893 I heard that was that what Lynch told you. I think that's what Lynch told me. He would know. He would know. So that would have been a I don't that for it's not for me.
I wish those kids would have got that 10th win so when they come back in 30 years now I hope Lynch breaks it. I hope they they win 10, 11, 12 games, you know what I mean? He's a great guy and he'll do a great job there. Yeah. No question. I mean we're talking a 10-point loss to Drake, seven to Dayton, and three to Presbyterian.
I mean we're we're talking three possessions away. I know, man. That's Sorry. Yeah, [laughter] that's awesome though. I mean again the like you said the perception of Butler football isn't that and just just gratifying for you. I mean maybe like if you're thinking to yourself like this is a place that not historically good at football and and you know we came in here we won nine games like that that that's a serious proof of concept.
Then Ball State comes calling. How did that opportunity come to be? You said you were totally fine staying at Butler. you you had this place rolling, but you know, back in the MAC as a head coach, something that you know, we talked about you you wanted to do was a goal of yours. So, I imagine this was like Yeah, it was awesome. Jumping at this.
It was awesome. They um I was familiar with it because I had come up here for spring practice and I knew Colin Johnson. I went to high school with him. Oh, he coached me at Depal. He recruited me at Depal High School with him. I knew Lynch.
Coach New was always great whenever we'd come up here because just being at Butler, I'd come here for spring practices and all that stuff all the time and I had seen all of it and coached here as an as an opponent, you know, and then Jeff Nolles, our defensive coordinator, he left prior to my last season at Butler to come here to be the defensive coordinator. So, he was here, you know, and when they made the change with coach New, I called Jeff. I said, "Hey, you know, what do you think about that job?" He's like, "Dude, it's" He goes, "No different than St. Francis or Butler." He's like, "You [laughter] know, you should, you know, try to try to get it."
Yeah. And so towards the end of the season, um, you know, they reached out and went through the interview process and I I was not looking for a job. The previous year there was two FCS opportunities that were scholarship type schools that would have looked better on paper or whatever, but it had been moving to somewhere I didn't want to move and other stuff and one was out west, but one was in [clears throat] the south. Okay. And uh, and I told my wife, she's like, "This would be perfect." You know what I mean?
And so, um, went through the process and got offered the job and I got a daughter at Butler. I got a son that's at Purdue. And then I got a a son that's going to be a sophomore at Garren Catholic. Okay. And so, for us, for me to be able to get my dream of being a division one football coach and my son not have to move. I think he's been in five schools.
Yeah. So, we we're living in Westfield and we just moved to Fisers. Okay. And so, I got 37 38 minute drive every day, which I don't mind because in the morning I'm writing stuff down. on the way home I'm making recruiting calls. Yeah.
And then he's only 20 minutes from high school. He really he went to St. Maria Gretti on the north side and had a great group of kids in the neighborhood. He liked great all that grade school was going to to Gearan. Yeah. And he was relieved that when we told him we were moving cuz whenever we say everybody got to sit down at the kitchen table, they know my daughter usually starts crying.
Oh man. Cuz she knows we're moving, you know. And so I said everybody at the kitchen table. I said, you know, your dad's going to take a new job. And I just looking at him cuz I, you know, I knew. and he just put his head down.
I said, "We don't have to move." He's like, "Where are we going?" Yeah. I said, "Ball State." And the first thing he said is, "We can go to bowl games again." Because the kids love bowl games cuz they get all the the crap they give them and it's like a three-day vacation, you know?
I said, "Yeah, we can go to bowl games again." That's awesome. And you'll be going to bowl games. That's the plan, man. That That's awesome. And and I before we get more into the Ball State thing, like you've been a lot of places and and the family thing does come into play and you got to have you got to have a stable stability at home.
To to say that to him and for him to react positively and like after all these years for that to to be a a positive conversation that had to feel good. It did. It did. And it's tough, man. My wife's amazing woman and she done a great job of managing it because when you're a coach, you get the job and you leave and [snorts] she's stuck there to clean it all up because you got to start working and she's dealing with the kids who aren't happy about it. They understand.
My kids are great, but they're also human. Of course, they got friends and they don't want to leave. And um you know, to the point where when we got fired at Temple and we came to Butler, my daughter stayed back for her senior year in New Jersey. M um with a good friend of my wife, her name's Angel actually, which is a great name. Um they were in Bible study together and Katie was talking about, hey, you know, might get fired and then a couple months weeks later, hey, yeah, he took a job at Butler and Ella's really pushing back. She doesn't want to go.
And about another week of it, and Angel's like, just have her live with me. Wow. Cuz Angel's daughter had left for college and she was at home with her husband and that was it. And Ella ended up moving in there for her senior year. So that's cool. That was and then we thought she was gonna go to Villanova but I think being out there a year she ends up at Butler which is which is great.
Yeah. But to your point it's challenging of course it's tough for the wife and kids. I mean you're human too. Yeah. you know, as much as you want to get so excited like when you started I I'm excited to come to work every day, but when you have a new opportunity, you know, you're it's poor on my part. Poor parenting and poor husband, but like you know, you you go, you're ready and you are living in the office cuz you got to meet your players and recruit like you're you're so tied up in what you're doing work-wise for 16 hours a day.
Yeah. It sounds bad, but you just you don't think about it as much as you should. Well, you you can't, right? To be good at I mean truly to be good at this, you can't. Unfortunately, you have to you have to compartmentalize. You got to have an unbelievable family.
It sounds like you got great great woman, great kids at home. So, that that makes it easy. Well, that's awesome. That that's a really cool story. And I mean, I imagine for you the feeling was, "All right, I'm here in the MAC and we're ready to rock." Yeah, it's awesome.
And we got to You just got like I said, the kids are happy. I got two of them that are close. And um we got a great staff. We're the only staff in the MAC that has all their coaches coming back. So, everybody that was here last year, came back for another year, and I told them when we when we started here last year, I said, "Guys, I I want two or three years out of you." Um, I don't want you here forever, but I want you to come here for six months either.
Now, we're going to get it turned around. We can't have revolving door to our coaches here either. And even though they all said it, as you know how it is, loyalty is hard to come by. People say stuff to get a job and Oh, yeah. then they leave. We did not have that, which is great.
That's hu I mean, continuity and coaching. I mean, we can talk roster is one thing, but coaching it's it's massive. Yep. I mean, there's no question about it. By the way, I was talking to Ke Co Coach Lynch and I didn't realize Colin Johnson was at Ohio for Do you know this? He was at Ohio for three weeks and then Michigan State.
How crazy is that? I'm happy for him. I love that guy. He's the best. Oh, that's so cool. Okay, so what was the biggest shock to you?
Maybe there wasn't a shock per se, but something that maybe surprised you or an adjustment probably a better term going from Butler FCS to Ball State in the MAC. I imagine it's a different level there. The biggest thing for me and I'd coached in the MAC before, id coached in ACC. Like a lot of people say, well, you know, how are you? Like one of the interview questions, well, you know, do you think you can recruit, you know, in the MAC after you've been recruited at Butler? Yeah, because it's just a different pool of people.
You know what I mean? But you're the biggest challenge and I'm getting better at this is it's the first time when I was a head coach that I have I have a strength coach and he's got two assistants. We have a training room set. We have equipment manager set. like a Butler had an equipment manager and I had a strength coach, but I didn't I had one ops person. Yeah.
I didn't have three. I didn't have a GM. I didn't have So, I have to learn how to delegate better. And then the first time through though, I want to be involved in everything. So, like the first all the whole that's why this year is going to be so much more enjoyable for me is the first time through everything you're setting it all up from even with the equipment guy. I want to see the t-shirts.
I want to see the design of the t-shirt. Yeah. Yeah. I like that. Good for next year. Like I want to know all of it, especially when you're setting it up.
Yeah. But now like we had a youth camp the other day. We had like 78 kids out here. I didn't do anything with it. I gave my input then I showed up and I coached the whole camp. But last year I'd have been really involved in trying to right and I'm not micromanaging anybody.
I just I want to get it set up how we want to get it set up and then you can do your job. I totally like defense. I don't go in the defensive room. I trust nulls. I don't give you know what I mean. But like the first year I worked with Jeff and I was like, "Coach, defense coordinator."
I was, "Okay, this is how I kind of want to play defense. It's yours, but this is how we're going to practice." Like, so that's been the thing for me is it's been nice to have all of these other people that can help run your program. They trust, you know? Yeah. They like Pete Rolley, our ops guy, he's one of the best in the country, and I was with him at Northern and at NC State.
And I don't ever worry about anything with travel ever. Yeah. But the first year he's sending me, okay, now what time do you like to get to the hotel on Friday? You know, I want to do their 5. I want to eat at 6:00. I want to have the kids uh do Bible study at 7:15, 7:30.
So, like, you're setting all that up. Now, it's all good for the year. You can just figure it out. You're thinking back to your St. Francis t like, man, I used to [laughter] I used to schedule all of this. This is insane.
Schedule it all. And then back then, we weren't catering into the hotel. We were going to Golden Corral or something [laughter] like that. And I'd talk one golden cra down against another one to try to save 50 cents a person. I mean, it was Oh, man. Kids are getting food, boys.
Said they'll do 750. If you can do it for seven, I'll come to you. And I'll do breakfast with you. That is fantastic. That's good stuff. I mean, how good does that feel?
Cuz you're right, it's kind of like nerve-wracking. Okay, I'm going to relinquish control here, but then it goes well, you trust them, and it's just one more thing off your Yeah, I don't mind. Like I said, I I have zero issue having the people do it. It's just the first time through is setting it up. But it does feel good to know that like I don't worry about our training room. I don't worry about our equipment room.
I don't worry about our weight room. You know, like we meet enough as a staff to make sure we're all on the same page having the same messages. But I always want to hire every single person in this building should be way better at the job they're doing than I could do it. You know what I mean? I'm not I want smarter people than me around me doing all of this stuff. That is a trait of any successful coach I've ever talked to.
Yeah. And some people don't like that. You know what I mean? Like our line coach, I've coached line forever and coach Bar is a better align coach right now than I was at any time in my career. And I'm not threatened by that at all. I'm excited about it.
Yeah. You know what I mean? Cuz I want the best people I can get in the building 100%. And you empower them and it makes them happy and ready to come to work. I bet you know and that's exactly what you want to turn this thing around. Okay.
obviously and I mean and we talked about it at Butler and kind of talked about with coach Lynch kind of this this NIL transfer portal thing. I'm wondering where you fall. Does it does it create a cumulative push down effect where it actually maybe benefits a place in the MAC conference or is this making it way more challenging for you in this current state? I think it's making it way more challenging for everybody. I would say that's even more challenging for Notre Dame and Ohio State. Um just because the uncertainty that it creates with your roster, you know.
Um so I I the one thing I will say a lot of things I don't like that have changed, but the biggest thing they did with getting rid of the spring portal window was huge. Okay. Because last year we had 18 kids come and go after spring ball, multiple starters, and then the guys that are coming in to replace the guys that leave, they don't know anything. So, you're in June and July trying to get them ready for camp. Yeah. That was one thing they did that was smart when we had our team meeting on January 4th or whatever it was.
Everybody in that room was going to be with us all fall. That's good. Which better for the student athlete, too, because they're not going into spring ball with one toe in the water being like, uh, maybe I'll leave. Like, hey, man, you're here, right? You know, so we've really tried to focus on two things. We are going to be a high school developmental program.
Okay. We are going to recruit high school players. We're going to develop them. And if they're so good that they get to leave, well, and we got 10 of them leaving a year, then we must be doing something right. Right. You know what I'm saying?
So, I don't sit here and worry about if a guy's gonna leave or not, right? We're also going to attack the portal to replace needs and strength and strengths that we have. But in that regard, it really it is a one-year team. Yeah. I mean, you started in January. We're going to coach our butts off all the way till our last game of the year is over.
All right. that I'm gonna meet with every kid. And in my office, I got the depth chart. I'm gonna take five or six names off. Hopefully, it's not a lot. Yeah.
Gonna add the high school commits that we got and say, "All right, what do we need to get now?" Yeah. And then it's it's just for one more year. Yeah. You know, and culture, I imagine, I mean, you you know yourself and you know what kind of program you want that's been with you forever. But knowing that information that it's possibly a one-year team, I imagine it's I don't know.
Is it more difficult? it culture is just becomes way more important in my opinion. Yeah. I just think Yeah. And you have to be maybe even more deliberate than you were in the past to like overemphasize these are the standards. This is how we practice.
This is how we finish. This is you're expected to go to class, you know. Um and we're never perfect in recruiting. Nobody is. But obviously in the high school recruitment, you got a year and a half with these guys. You you're going to see them when they're juniors.
You're doing all that. That portal recruitment is like speed dating. [laughter] So we really now it's not 100% okay so it's not 100%. But a vast majority of the guys that we've taken out of the portal we either recruited the first time whether we were at Butler didn't get them. We got two DBs that coach recruited coach Smith recruited when he was at Kennesaw. Yeah.
Okay. We got a transfer that was coached by one of these guys somewhere else. Like we have to have some background knowledge on this guy more than just he can run and jump. Like we want to know if we really know his high school coach really well or we recruited him the first time or we know his position coach. Like we got a D lineman that came in here from Pit that his the Dline coach at Pit was my roommate when we were gas. Like I know when I call him he's going to tell me the truth on he's not going to just say whatever.
Like he's going to I called him on multiple other guys that left and he's like you don't want to coach that guy. Okay. That's all I need to know. Yeah. So you got to put a lot of work in in a short period of time. But we won't take a guy out of the portal unless we've at least talked to his high school coach, his position coach, his college head coach, anybody else we can talk to.
That's huge to try to figure it out. Well, I mean, and two, I mean, I've heard so many coaches say this. I mean, you because if you don't do your due diligence and you get a guy in, especially at a premier position, and not to mention, you might be paying him with NIL and he's not who you thought he was. I mean, you're So, Yep. Right. I mean, you got to do your due diligence.
One bad player can really poison your locker. and just the wrong type of mentality or kid or selfishness and and we don't have much NIL money here. So, we can't afford to miss. Yeah. Yeah. You know what I mean?
And I know that the big big big big schools can't either, but they got more wiggle room with the amount of resources they have. They can stack guys up a little bit. We can't do that, right? That's so interesting. And I just I always wonder how the because like you said it's challenging for the power five schools but these for lack of a better term mid- major conferences. How does that it gets even more challenging I imagine.
So it's interesting. I mean you just really got to do your due diligence. All right. Year one Ball State 4 and eight. We're we're climbing the ladder here. We're getting better each and every day.
What what did you learn your first year coaching these guys and establishing your program again at the MAC level and then you know leading to some excitement this year? Yeah, we learned a lot last year. Uh we learned about our roster, you know what I mean? You form opinions on your players in practice and it's really important and then you go through training camp, but we learned about our roster and we're able to to have a significant amount of the guys that we wanted to come back. We were able to retain them, which is a big deal cuz a guy you got coming back is going to be way better than some guy coming in, even if he's a little better than he is, cuz he's in year two of learning your offense or defense or special teams, right? Um, we also got to play a full schedule in the MAC and see what the MAC football is like now.
And it's a little different than it was. Sure. Um, and we we learned a lot as a staff as to what we felt we needed to do to be able to be more successful in the MAC. And we tried to address those needs in the portal. First and foremost, we had to get faster. Yeah.
Um, across the board and we did. We got faster across the board at every position. And you can see it when we practice and I'm excited to see it on Saturdays when we play this year. Yeah. But we're much faster football team than we're last year. Ohio Stadium first game.
Yep. How are we feeling about that? That's going to be fun. It'll be fun. I mean, it's a great opportunity to go play. I hope they're ranked number one because I probably I mean, I've watched our first four opponents all summer and I haven't if they're not number one, I want to see who is because they are extremely talented football team with a lot of guys coming back with a really really good coaching staff.
Yeah. No, no question. You look at I don't want to talk about them all day, but you look at [laughter] sustained excellence, right? I know their fans are crazy, but who who's played better football the last 10 years than them consistently? That's what I'm saying. You have these other teams pop up and down and they're always in the national championship hunt every year and it's hard to win the damn thing and that's why they don't win it every year.
Yeah. But you look over a 10ear span. I don't know who's been more successful consistently truly than Ohio State. Yeah, it's it's impressive to watch. I also love this middle of the year October 10th Northwestern. You don't see that in the new stadium.
They they they they open it at the Friday night before against state and then we're the second game in there. Okay, that's pretty sweet. But you don't you don't see this often in the middle of the year like this. That's cool. I imagine that's like a that's a measuring stick. It it is.
It is. I mean, we're trying to get better every week. And I know this is sounds like coach talk, but we'll treat that game just like Ohio State, just like Toledo, just like Kent State, just like everybody else we play. But it is kind of unique that you got a a mid-season non-conference game. That's my point here. Yeah, that's that's kind of cool right there.
The thing about it that's going to be tough, we play eight in a row without a buy. Oh, so you'd like to have the buy earlier. I know after week eight, whenever that is. Um, it leads into a match week. Oh, yeah. Okay.
I'm actually happy you mentioned maction. How we how we like match Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday night. I don't mind it. I I just like being the road team in maction. Way better than the home team, believe it or not. Really?
Why is that? Because when you're at home, the kids are got to go to class in the morning of the game. Okay. And when you're And the crowds traditionally aren't great. I get it. So if you got four home games and four road games, I'd rather have my road games be matching games or they don't have as many people there in my home games on Saturdays, right?
When it's players love it. It's on national TV. I know. I mean, it I love matching. I mean, if if I'm we're not playing and there's a game on, I'm watching it, of course. I mean, so it's great for our guys.
They they really enjoy them. Some of the craziest plays you'll ever see happening. Oh, it's nuts. It's nuts, right? Like it's it's just awesome. I just love that the conference does that.
You're right. It's a great billboard for MAC football and it's just something so unique to every other uh nonp power four conference in college football. Okay. So, you have a fair amount of indie guys on on your roster. How do you like recruiting Indianapolis? Indianapolis, like I said, the high school football Indianapolis is as good as it's ever been and it's gotten better and better over the last 10, 15 years.
Yeah. Um we got a lot of Most of our team right now is from Indiana, Ohio. We have a decent amount of Chicago kids. Nice. Um, we have decent contingent from Kentucky and then the rest of them are from all over with the portal, right? Eventually, well, we always start in Indiana.
That's where we start. The roots run deep in Illinois still for you. Yeah. And we got four or five coaches on our staff that are from Illinois. Okay, cool. Um, so we've done well recruiting up there and got some guys in this first, you know, this first class.
This freshman that this year is the first full Yeah. class we had to be able to recruit the whole thing and there's several kids from Illinois in there. That's awesome. This has been great, coach. I mean, how are you? I imagine you're itching.
You're itching. I'm excited. It's what I spend all summer and the coaches go on vacation for five weeks and I take the fourth off, but then those couple weeks after that, I'm getting way ahead of all this, you know, training camp installs and all this stuff. But I almost wish I didn't do it cuz now I'm done with all of it. I'm just sitting around waiting for practice to start. You know what I mean?
And I end up want to tweak more things than I should. I should just put it down. But just get ready to rock. We're excited, man. We had a really good summer with our kids. Yeah.
Yeah, they really came together as a team and I'm excited to watch them play. Do you like living in Indiana? I do. I love it. The suburbs are awesome of Indiana. It's the best.
They are. Is the best. We My wife, we've been all over. This is her favorite spot she's ever lived. Really? Yeah.
She loved Westfield and she likes Fisers um even more. And like I said, I I enjoy it. It's, you know, there's a lot of stuff to do. And I like my great college town and that that's what you want. Bell game coming here. Yeah.
Yeah. There's guys walking around here today. I just That's what I heard. I heard they they heard I was coming, I guess. [laughter] Uh, all right. Excited about that?
I think it's going to be great. Yeah, truly. I'm going to go to the first half cuz we don't play till that Tuesday. Okay. So, we'll come in that morning and work and I'm going to take a break with the staff and we're going to go down there and just enjoy football for a half. It's the best.
We don't get to do it. I'm telling you, it's one of the hidden gems of college football, primarily in Indiana. But it's a b to me, it's a bucket list thing. It's just so niche. It's it's wonderful. I just hope that it's such a success here.
They just keep having it here every year because it's kind they can sell way more tickets here. Exactly. You know, they they sell out of 10,000 tickets in 40 minutes now. They don't have to turn anyone away. We're trying to get him to sell out. We'll see.
I don't know. That might be pushing it, but 15K plus. Absolutely. For sure. Absolutely. All right, coach.
Last thing again, this has been great. What makes sports special in Indiana? Well, I know just from being around recruiting and I got out on the road way more at Butler than I've been able to now because they have different rules and head coaches can go out. All right. But there are some of the best coaches in in the state in the country that I've ever been around are coaching in high school football right now. Really?
And and you look at I mean some of the national awards they getting and the players that are being produced out of these programs, you know, it's unbelievable the quality of coaching that's going on and that's why the football's getting better and better. And then all the way down to the youth organization. My boys played CIO everything. Yeah. They played CIO football, volleyball, they were wrestlers, basketball, they did all of it. and and it is India is a sports town and is a sports city.
You know, from all the events that come through Indianapolis, um you know, it's fun how invested everybody is in whether it's IU or Purdue or Indiana Wesland or Depal or Waw Bash or Butler or Ball State or Notre Dame. Like it it's a it's a big deal around here. So, it's fun to be coaching in that. Yeah. When and when success comes, people buy in, man. I've never seen Indianapolis like it was when the Pacers went to the finals.
I mean, IU fans were coming out of the woodwork like I've never seen. It was incredible. And I I imagine it'd be that way for for any of our teams around this area if they were to have success. And I imagine that's motivate like you need more motivation, right? Motivation for you, right? That's the plan here.
I I've coached as an opponent here when Ball State was really good and they they'd fill the place up and it was a great environment and that's we're trying to get back to and I said I've seen it done before here so we can do it. That's awesome. Coach, you this has been awesome. Thank you so much for your time. and we wish you the best of luck this season. That's Mikey Removich, head coach of Ball State football.
We'll see how the Cardinals do this upcoming season. Get in Sports continues to deliver. Keep listening.