Inside The Burrow 2024 Ep 20 FAU Football Coach Tom Herman

Intro [Music] th St tou touchdown what's going on owls fans welcome back to the inside the bur podcast I am your host Kevin Fielder joined alongside two new faces to the show first of all Mike Birdman Mike how you doing today I am awesome happy to be here uh and then a face that is familiar to FAU fans uh not on the show but of course I'm sure everyone knows head football coach Tom Herman coach how you doing hey guys go Birdman good to see you good to see you coach I think there's probably no better place to start you've been in boa rone Living in Boca Raton probably for about 16 months at this point how has boka been to you you know I'm sure there's been some learning curves but how was you know the been awesome my my family loves living here my wife uh absolutely loves living here um you know we bought a bit of a fix upper uh that is on a canal though so we're we're doing the whole going to live on the water bought a Jet Ski and uh Wave Runner excuse me wave runner don't wor so Yamaha short there uh but no it's been a blast we're finally getting the house kind of livable um where there's not workers coming in and out every day maybe every other day now so uh it it feels good it feels like home and uh you know the surrounding area is just I mean there's no better word Than Paradise and and I I know it gets used a lot to describe our programs and athletic department but I don't have a better one it it is absolutely something that having lived in many places uh moved my family six times 11 years uh in in one span and and so this is by far the It Takes the Cake for sure as to where um you know we we've had to call home for sure in in my journey and our journey I uh I moved down to bokeh about 20 years ago now with the uh the idea that I was just coming down to go to college and um in state yeah I met my wife and stay and shout out to Katie right um yeah no doubt yep um it's uh it's an awesome place to live uh what what don't you like about bokeh is there anything south Florida no I you know I love the um all the Melting Pot that that South Florida is the different uh cultures and ethnicities and languages and and and Cuisine I mean you name it you can get it here I I would say I mean it's it's hard to say a downside because the upsides are all so much better than the upsides of anywhere else I've lived but you know if if uh Mother Nature could turn dial down June July and August down just a little bit that that would be that would be nice but other than that you know it's it's hard to complain about June July and August when we're sitting here in January having you know donor dinners outside and the rest of the country is is freezing to death so um I I'll choose my three months over the the three months in Iowa per se or or anywhere like that you know I'm glad you I'm glad you said Cuisine um because it is definitely a Melting Pot and you and I both kind of live in the same neighborhood we're in East boka you're a little bit more East than me which is uh which is fine um but where's your favorite place to eat man I know we the other day we were talking about like uh what was it Artur arturos over there and Renzo and what's your spot you know I'm I'm one of the few really my whole family in the in the house we not big Seafood people uh I like shellfish but I'm allergic to shrimp so it's a long story but um so we we like the Italian food you said arturos we Renzo we we can walk to from our house Bella amichi in the Public's uh uh uh little shopping center there has great pizza great uh fresh made cheesecake so uh we we've uh we fancied quite a few you know know if you want to go out with with the wife you know the meat market I love a nice nice steak that that's been really really good but um I've also got a 10y old and a 16y old so there's a lot of Chick-fil-A in McDonald's yeah you can eat that wherever you are in the country always what about pizza what's your pizza spot what's that what's your pizza spot there's like Bella Mei yeah probably Bella Mei for sure yeah that's pretty I've heard that one's pretty good I I haven't been to that one uh for pizza but yeah I I've definitely heard that one um Brian White our athletic director is a big pizza guy too you know what his spot is where Domino's no way I'm gonna pretend you didn't say that like he perform shout out to him because he he actually hacked it for me he hacked the app for me and he told because I'm I when I'm in a pinch it's Domino's too and um ah he gets the deep dish well done with the pepperoni on it and when you it well done it changes the whole thing so you know it's still dominoes right like I mean it's still dominoes well done like make it crispier or something yeah it's the top probably gonna it's probably gonna kill me for for shouting him like that but yeah yeah no no no coach they can become an official sponsor and then I'll I'll well all you that yeah exactly now now coach I do have to ask I feel like it's a a write of Passage down here uh what's your Pub sub or what's the what's the goto if you're getting a pub sub I I feel I'm a club you know guy I I like you know roast beef turkey some bacon and uh so not nothing extravagant you're not a a chicken tender tossed a buffalo sauce like half the half the community feels like it is Favorite 80s movies no no if I'm going to go get a sandwich I'm gonna get a sandwich if I'm gonna go get wings I'm Gonna Get You know well he comes you gotta remember Tom comes from like Texas right yeah like we a lot of meat eating there right all the lot of me eating and steak and all that all that stuff oh yeah brisket brisket for sure brisket for sure so I'm I'm sure that's um that's part of part of uh part of his repertoire of of food oh yeah but um so we we got some other questions for you here because I think it's important that um Al gets to gets to know Tom Herman a little bit better than Tom Herman the football coach because we all know that Tom Herman is one of the best football coaches in the country um you were a kid in the 80s a little bit older than me a few years right growing up in the 80s what was your go-to 80s movie because I was having this conversation with somebody the other day and there there's a lot of Classics that just don't hit like they used to right in the yeah it's it's funny that you say that cuz we we make our kids or have made our kids Growing Up watch all of those and so I can I I'll just kind of spout out some of the ones we we've had them watch uh Breakfast Club pretty all the John Hughes movies Ferris bu's day off uh they've watched those I'm trying to think Karate Kid the original uh is is a a really good one um and then we get in the silly ones we made them watch you know uh license to drive we've watched uh weekend at Bernie's I think uh mannequin you know that was weird science Weird Science was was uh Weird Science a fan favorite here here at the house so th those are all really good ones for sure yeah I watched I watched klin not too long ago and it was completely is great he here's a lesser known one early Valk hilmer role uh Was Real Genius in fact that was a that college that was a f that was an awesome great movie right yeah that was that was crazy was that the one where the popcorn the popcorn professor's house at the end yeah yeah yeah incredi Inc I feel like I I feel like I'm slightly out of place in this conf that I was born in the 2000s so I I have watched some of those movies though let's let's be clear I have I I have not your parents like like me yes absolutely ex exactly what about what about video games you look like an NES Nintendo guy right I was never you know I I was in of the age of ab and up down left right when the controllers got to be I need all five fingers and I gotta I gotta do this with like a joystick and all that and I got 17 buttons on top I it was it was adios for video games for me I I I couldn't I couldn't compete but uh I do remember having a a heck of a time in college uh we used to play Sega Genesis NHL hockey I think it was 93 with Jeremy ronic and the Blackhawks were really good the Kings with Gretzky uh they were really good so but once the controller got got past start select ab and I'm the same the pad to go up down left right that that that's when they lost me I still have my original Nintendo system in the box from back in the day with the gun with the gun with the zapper yep still has the Walmart price tag $99 on it and uh once in a while my brothers and I we bust it out and we play Donkey Kong 99 kind of like that's gonna be worth something someday I played Pitfall I I I think I played Pitfall till it got to I had my mom take like a Polaroid and you you could mail it in once you got to 99,999 999 and because the game like stopped stopped yeah it malfunction that's it so I I think I had my mom take a picture and send it in I got something for you or something like that that's hilarious now now coach uh I am a Best BBQ in Texas barbecue uh I guess connoisseur is probably the best word right like whenever I go to these places uh particularly in the midwest yeah I I know the the camera uh adds some things but you you're not buying mediums at the store I I noticed that Kevin no I am not um uh but uh I feel like there is a large debate as to what the perfect barbecue order is um because everyone's got an opinion on barbecue it feels like uh so I guess if you're going back to Texas what is uh I guess the the meats and the the sides that you order I I don't know they do it in Texas so much is it the two meats and the three sides or do they yeah yeah they they do all that I'm a I'm a brisket uh and ribs guy if I'm going to go I'm not I'm not going to a barbecue joint to get chicken I'm not going to a Barbe but some pork I I like a good pulled pork sandwich uh but I'm going to go to get brisket and I'm going to go to get ribs and uh then the the sides for me I'm not a SLO guy I'm not a potato salad guy um so I'm I'm really usually baked beans and if they got good green beans I I I I go with some green beans too I feel like you could tell you could tell um uh good barbecue place based on the ribs and brisket right off the bat yeah that's all you need when we were yeah that's all you need when we were in Houston's I actually talked to smid aush when we were out there and he sent us to Pinkerton oh did you go yeah we went to Pinkerton one of the best in the whole state that place slaps is that the term Kevin slaps yeah I I I think that's what it was lit it was lit was it lit yeah that was honestly the best brisket I've had in my life hands down it was like a like a hole in the wall like Shack kind of like looked like it was going to fall down but man that was that that was the best barbecue I've had in my life and I can't wait to go back to try to go back to Pinkerton and try something else there we actually funny story we actually went with Ellie Baldwin oh there you go it was um it was Ed firstday and who paid I can't say but not you no no we were it was his birthday so we took care of him um Katie did actually oh there you go yeah so it it was um it was a lot of fun but Pinkerton was awesome and if anybody could learn anything from barbecue that's where they got to go to school no doubt yeah yeah for sure 100% unfortunately when we went it was closed so we didn't we didn't time that right yeah we we tried to go and we were like uh I think it was the day after the final four and we were still in town so we go okay let's just go get barbecue right like there's let's I mean you're going to have to go eventually so we went and drove by and they go go oh it's closed and I looked I was incredibly disappointed because I heard that's definitely disappointed but the good thing about Houston is and barbecue you could probably just go down the street and there's almost right but baked beans were I remember the baked beans specifically being like out of control good and it's it's amazing how barbecue places can like how they do the beans right it all starts with like a can of beans right and just simmer it sugar in it yeah unbelievable uh coach you know uh Austin Texas is not quite bokeh but what's one What he misses about Austin thing you miss about Austin that I guess like if you could transport it to bokeh uh you know on like a ship or something what what would that one thing be that you wish had that Texas has but that's that's a bit of a loaded question because my daughter just finished her sophomore year at the University of Texas so my my answer would be to bring my daughter to me um from Austin to here she was visiting for Mother's Day weekend and um it it was great to see her but I I understand your question it's not to for me to gush about my daughter um what would one thing that um does the money University of Texas Athletics count I don't I don't think that's that's not count that's not what that's not what you were looking for either um we can count it though if you want we enjoyed um probably the live music scene um would would be my answer you know I you know bokeh is a much different town but uh I know my kids all kind of almost grew up you know on a Saturday you know go to go downtown and kind of spend the day listening to good music stuff like that so uh that that's one thing that would be nice to have I think it would be cool to take to take like you said the live music take all take Sixth Street completely uproot the whole thing like take a a knife and just cut underneath it and put it on a ship and bring it and replace it with 20th Street there you go yeah right that' be great we we've been looking for a a College hub yeah just do that that'd be that would be amazing I know and boa trust me I bokeh 20 years ago when I got here is completely different now than it was back then it is there's like a hundred times more people living here their condos going up everywhere there's more bars and tons more restaurants a lot of like it bokeh is like going through like this I don't want to say gentrification but it's like going through like this almost like a Revival right like it's it's turning really it's really turning I mean all you got to do is look they you know they're adding a high school or they added a high school recently and I think there's plans to add another one too so I mean it's it's definitely growing it's incredible I'm excited to see like what happens in the next like 15 20 years with not only the university and everything but just just the whole bokeh area in general like is it going to be like a smaller Fort laurdale like there hope it doesn't get that big I know I don't know maybe the downtown Los Solis area the way Meisner is building up and they're building up those back Streets back behind there it's it's it's really it's really incredible it's like non-stop building yeah it's hard to believe that there's like a person to go in every one of those condos you know somebody gonna buy it right when you go down to Fort Lauderdale and you look at the uh the marina with all the Yachts there's a person that owns every one of those it's it's out of control if you think about really the money and everything that that that's out there it's it's wild it was weird because I was driving down probably two or three Favorite coach in football history weeks ago and you know I drive uh where was it like military Yamato area I just driving by and I go oh wow that's new apartment building that was built in the last the corner yeah go I go oh cool so they just built that randomly uh and I I I do not live in boo right I live probably about 30 45 minutes north so I'm not quite in that area but you know I I frequented that area so I you drive by and it feels like every day there's a new apartment complex being built I as you mentioned like who the heck is living there because I I struggle to believe there are that many people who are moving to boka but I guess there are that many and the real estate markets out of control right now it's like we had to buy a home last summer brother oh yeah yeah yeah you know you know yep you were not the first coach to complain about that either let's be clear oh yeah sure you won't be the last either coach let's get into little football stuff I guess right yeah I guess we do have to talk about football is that why I'm on here I didn't know I thought it was just yeah I guess question my my question that I had for you was who is your favorite coach in football history if you had to like think of a coach that you modeled yourself after or somebody that really inspired you to become a football coach who was that person well two two High School coaches um you know I'm the only child of a single mom uh my my real dad died in in what could be called a homeless shelter when he was 52 years old and uh so coaches kind of raised me so I I had two coaches in high school my head coach uh Stan quna uh and my receivers coach bre Snider uh both those men a very important time in my life uh had a even bigger impact on on me than than they probably even know uh to this day uh and then as far as my career I you know Greg Davis my longtime offense coordinator at University of Texas then uh University of Iowa uh was certainly a mentor of mine and and someone that I lean on to this day you know he's retired living in Dallas living his best life but um I still call today and I call him Coach and he calls me young Tom and uh which kind of makes a 49y old dude feel good you know and uh and then just from afar a little you know uh bill bellich came and and spoke at our high school clinic and I had him come in a few hours ahead of time and just kind of kind of open for him with my coaching staff and it was good to see him obviously learn from him and pick his brain but to see him kind of with the shield down a little bit and and be behind the curtain uh really good dude and you know we talked a couple times a year and uh i' I've leaned on him for for some stuff too so th those have been some some impactful guys for sure best coach of all time who is it college or Pro do both well College it's Nick sabbin and pro it's Bill bellich good and I don't think anybody can argue with that no I can't you can't no I can't absolutely cannot how do you how do you argue that no that's good I I I cannot sit here with a with a rightful conscious and debate that Nick Sabin or Bill b are not the greatest coaches of their respective Fields I I feel like I would be doing a disservice to the industry if I sat here well and you you want to make sure you don't have recency bias right and you want to make sure that you're being as objective as as possible when asked that question it's a very obviously subjective question uh so but it's hard to argue with national championships at two different schools and uh however many total and then however many total World Championships coach belich has I I think Hardware a lot in our business you know now now coach how blindsided were you when Sabin decided to retire because I feel like everyone else was like oh my this is happening and I I don't know really everyone you know I wasn't surprised I mean I didn't know it was coming certainly but I when I heard the news it didn't take me back you know a back by by any stretch I I think you know a lot of people I I think he's like 67 68 years old I mean he's almost 70 and I know this if if I'm still on the sideline at 68 years old you guys call Moulder and and Scully at the xfiles and and you let them know that aliens have landed and they have taken over Tom Herman's body because I just especially I I think coach saving I mean I don't want to put words in his mouth but you know at at this point in his life and career doesn't want to deal with all the crap that that we got to deal with nowadays that was different than even five years ago and so I think you know the state of college football and his age and um you know years on the job kind of converged uh at this time you you mentioned the different Biggest change in coaching calendar and I think it's so unique the way that it works now nowadays where it feels like you're always recruiting whether you're recruiting your own team or recruiting through the portal or through High School uh I guess you sort of jumped in at FAU sort of as that was beginning to heat up a little bit more so sort of what was the biggest thing that you learned about I guess the new calendar and the new process of recruiting your own team recruiting the portal I mean everything that goes into being a coach nowadays compared to as you mentioned five years ago yeah I I think I learned um you know one you you you can sit and complain about it um and get left behind and get fired and complain all the way to the unemployment line you know because the Train's not stopping for guys that complain you know and we need we need to adapt um and but you you I'm going to speak out of both sides of my mouth for a second because I I also feel like um you know there there's only 132 of these jobs in the world on the planet 132 division one FBS head coaching jobs and we had five guys that were sitting acting division one head football coaches quit that job and just say I've had enough I want to go do something else in football and I know that shouldn't scare anybody millionaires make really bad victims I get all of that but it's not about them or about us it's about the sport and and where it's headed that it it's so untenable that that guys making hundreds and hundreds if not millions of dollars or just say you know what f it I'm I'm done just let me go coordinate somewhere or coach a position and not have to deal with playing golf and uh trying to raise money for nil and and all that stuff so uh my two years off was probably the two years years that that saw some of the most change in college football so so getting back in um is definitely a different landscape but I think you know if you want to recruit your players win you know that that's what that's what we got to do uh players are are willing to put up with a lot if if they're they're winning trophies and rings and and having really fun Saturday nights um they're willing to put up with you know $50,000 less of nil money or or this that or the other uh if if you can show you're going to develop them on and off the field that they're going to win uh and that they're GNA going to have a great experience doing it and so you know we we trust our plan our way of doing it and I think the guys that are here the the the greatest thing that the only maybe good thing about the transfer portal that that really doesn't get talked about is they also when they gave the players um the freedom of the transfer portal uh they they also kind of lessen the restrictions on us head coaches in terms of roster management too and and our ability to to shave a guy off the roster if if need be and so you know that that comes with the territory that that the players wanted more um to be treated you know less like contract laborers and and more like um you know a free enterprise well in a free enterprise you can get fired for any reason too and so um that has allowed us I I know in year one uh it it was tough you know we this first time I hadn't gone to a bowl game and I can't remember um first time not having a winning season as a head coach uh but I I through a lot of soul searching too over Christmas break especially you know I realized when having done this now three times when we took over at Houston that was an eight- win team had just come off the the largest comeback in Bowl history to win a game in in the bowl game and so they they weren't far away and we put some finishing touches on it and you know went 13 and one in the first year beat Florida state in the Peach Bowl you know like 14 or 17 held dvin cooked like 29 yards on 31 carries or something ridiculous I mean it was a hell of a night we had a great team uh but it again it it was in the process of being built by the previous staff and uh you fast forward it's taking over at Texas you know they've been playing football there 120 years and we took over for a three-year stretch that saw the only threee three straight years of losing in that 120 year history and so uh there was a lot of crud if you will locker room and we sweeped by with six wins in that first year and year two was really you know kind of when things started uh turning well you know we won 10 games we beat Oklahoma we we beat Georgia in the in the Sugar Bowl you know ranked fifth in the country and so I had to remind myself that when you take over a program that there Mo everyone in that locker room save for a transfer they've never gone to a bowl game wearing an FAU uniform um they don't know what it takes they don't they've been uh you know really bad habits are continually reinforced and so you've got to clean that out and so I go back to my original point about the transfer portal we had our team meeting in January and I I I looked at them and I said guys this is awesome because every single one of you that's sitting here could have chosen to go somewhere else this Christmas break um but yet you chose here after having all you veterans having been around us for a year now you chose us over all other 131 schools and guess what we chose you because there's guys that aren't sitting next to you that not by their choice but by ours are no longer part of this program too and so there's no more well I didn't sign up to play for this coach and there's no more well I didn't recruit this kid like we're in this together from from this point forward and uh that was a really good feeling and it's been phenomenal offseason in terms of just the I I mean my phone hasn't rang maybe 10% of what it did this time last year just from issues and just issues that head coaches have to deal with and so it's been a nice year to offseason for sure I think it's really interesting the the whole dynamic with the transfer port and and I mean it's it's football and FAU fans it's basketball it's every sport right and it's it's funny watching how the average fan or like an FAU fan or any fan of any University really is like reacting to players leaving and and wanting to be at a different school and I'm just like wow man like I'm a very loyal person um with sports teams you know like and friends and everything else I'm I'm I'm a loyal person and you know if you're my friend that's it we ride we ride or die if my my team that's it one one team I'm not out there like rooting for Old Miss because Lane kein left you know or or whatever you know it's it's FAU and people who know me know it's like Mike's an FAU fan obviously like look at my office yeah I'd say I'd say you're pretty fanned out there I'm fanned out I like that autograph helmet by the way which one oh are they all from me yeah yeah except for this one's got Chris Carter on it somewhere this one here I got you saw it from some kid named Carter I got a Shelly one up there um and some other and some other cool stuff but um that it's funny like when you talk to when you talk to fans about like about the transfer portal and they're like oh my gosh this player is leaving this player is going in the transfer portal and he's gonna go to wherever you know it it doesn't matter but if they don't want to be here how do you expect them to want to play to win and and really be invested completely in the program right like if they're thinking about leaving for money or for for whatever reason I let him go there's another I think you you never you never want a Mal content on your team for sure right exactly I've told people since the day I got into coaching you know fans want you to sign every recruit that you recruit right they they never want you to lose one and and I've heard this phrase I can't tell you how many times well I can't believe you couldn't convince Johnny to go to our school and I'm like my my job is not to convince anybody of anything my job is to inform them tell them what we're about show them that develop a relationship with them and then I I I tell guys when I'm recruiting a kid out of high school like other than the woman you're going to marry this is the most important decision you'll ever ever make as a man and you're going to need a lot of input because your your frontal cortex isn't even fully formed yet right so God unfortunately you you've been the way Society works is you you get put in this situation where you've got to make this humongous decision and yet you're not even equipped emotionally or you know intellectually to to even make that kind of decision and so but whatever that decision is made much like a kid leap like I wish you nothing but the best man because even like you said When the Thought comes in there the the it permeates and that's the scary thing because it used to be when the portal at least for a couple years and I remember Luke fickle at Wisconsin him and I talking about this like he said excuse me and I agreed with him like the hardest workers on our team were the guys that have already transferred you know why because they couldn't go anywhere without sitting out a second time well and that made sense well now it's you got every kid looking over their shoulder and listening to every chirp because there's there there's dollars attached to it you know and and it's hard to stop and you hope you create an experience uh enjoyable enough that that you can overcome those things yeah yeah let's go ahead let's let's shift over to I guess High school recruiting High School recruiting now because the transfer portal obviously has an impact on how teams approach High School recruiting and you know I guess your your staff and you are fortunate to be coaching in such an area where it feel like you drive two minutes away from campus and you've got three high schools producing D1 talents so you know H how do you guys sort of balance High School recruiting with the portal and you know finding the the guys in Palm Beach County Dade and uh Broward who are you know FAU talents and recruiting them to come here as opposed to I guess leaving the state because you know we we've seen a lot of those guys leave the state as as well well it it was a big reason uh I took this job uh was its location you know the administration uh was great and and we got a championship team there but um and not the location because we're 1.8 miles from the beach location because we're smack dab in the middle of one of the uh hottest beds there there is in in terms of high school recruiting and so when you're that close to home when uh now hopefully we you know we signed Ed Oliver at at Houston a five star still the only five star to sign at a group of five school and um you know he was proof you can stay home and three years later Ed was the ninth pick in the draft you know if if Ed had gone to Alabama he wasn't going to get drafted any higher than that you know and so we we we wanted to make a big time emphasis in signing uh high school players I think we signed the second most high school players of of any team in our conference uh you know this conference has gone huge huge in the the transfer portal but quite quite honestly as we're kind of getting our Collective off the ground and running too and our our financial support of of this endeavor uh freshmen are cheaper you know and you know now we know we're going to have to pay the good ones at at some point you know uh much like you know we don't want to develop the leading receiver in the country and then lose him to to another school like we did this past season and so um so we know there's got to be compensation at some point but uh we we want those guys around we want them uh we want to develop them and then we feel like like I said those relationships when it does come time to have those talks those relationships are cemented enough and hopefully a couple years from now we're to the point where you know our backing is such that it becomes a a non-issue you know for our great players to even even want to leave and that's kind of our plan but in the meantime we got to win in order to execute it because it's a it's a pretty long range plan you know you're talking four or five years for some of these uh freshmen to get developed uh because we we did something pretty unique you know uh I thought it was important that every High School uh commit that committed to the previous staff that that we we went ahead and honored that you know I I I to me you commit to a university you you don't commit to a staff and so you know this this is really our first class um and we're going to have to fill holes here year in and year out with some transfers and and we get that but once we get the ship kind of red and and steady and and not always in flux hopefully uh we can do that I I think you'll see more and more that High School number even grow I miss the um I miss the days of like Message to FAU fans the best player in in Texas goes to Texas and you know and he stays there at the University for four or five years and and graduates then goes to the NFL I I miss those days but that those days seem to be behind us we don't know if they're coming back you know with with the new with the new rules and the nil and the collectives and everything coach if you have a message for the alumni and the fans and all the supporters of the program uh regarding the importance of the collective what what would it be well I think now more than ever our fans and our supporters directly impact wins and losses I mean there there there's no better I say all the time you can resurrect Vince Lombardi you can bring s and bich out of retirement and put them all in the same staff and if they're coaching C Level players and they're playing a level players there's not a whole lot they can do and so the name of the game is about uh player retention and player acquisition and in today's day and age uh you got to have money to be able to to operate that way and uh millions and millions of dollars to be quite quite Frank with you and uh it's the way of the world of college football and so uh we we need our fans like you you asked um I I think the answer is twofold one the future is really bright we've got a great thing going we've got a great Collective set up uh we're spending good money this season going into the 24 season uh but we're not spending the most in our conference um You probably middle of the pack and so if if we want to be elite we want to compete for championships we need to spend um like Elite championship teams do and um I think our our fans thus far have heated that call and and I think we'll continue to do that I I I believe you when you say the future is bright I I definitely feel it uh we've had a lot of being an FAU fan the past 20 years has been tough sometimes and I go back I go back I'm a Shelly guy I was really close to him I wouldn't have graduated college if it wasn't for him and I definitely wouldn't have married my wife if it wasn't for Howard he actually he's when he met her he's like marry that girl I said okay um and here we are um You probably said yes sir yeah yes sir honestly he scared the crap out of me um but I but I love him so much um but the the future is bright Future of FAU Football I I feel like you know we had since Howard you know we had we had some good years with kein but everybody knew that that was going to be shortlived because you know it was Lane kein um and we were kind of like waiting it out for him to leave um but but I feel like you know you have a plan for for the future here at FAU what are some of the things that we we should be excited about for this season and and you know Seasons coming up what do you think well I I think one yeah long term th this is this can this will go as far as our support and administration allow it to you know and um it is really really exciting because of that recruiting base because of the new facilities that we have um and we could use an indoor turf field uh it rains a lot uh in South Florida and lightning comes with that rain uh but I I think the future is bright be because of that I think what to expect is um you know I I go back to compare us to last year's team this year coming up and we were one in five in one score games last season or last year's team was and that told me a couple things one last year's team had the talent requisite to be in six of you know one score game be in those games in the fourth quarter but not enough to kind of be the the Tipping Point that that sets them over the edge and at the end of the day it's talent and culture right those are the two big things and we had a culture that kept us in games that probably we were out talented uh you know in Champagne Illinois you know that that's a six-point game I I don't think they're going to want to schedule us anymore but we're so close to winning that game but either one of our talent and our culture was good but not Elite right and and couldn't couldn't overcome a lot of that uh stuff so in short an answer we've improved the talent and uh by developing the players that that stuck around and by going out and getting new players uh and we've improved the culture uh in the same way we we've recruited to our kind of guy to steal a phrase from from Coach Peterson at Washington he calls him okg he our kind of guy um and I I just think when when you have that in combination usually really good things happen guys I got I got time for one more I know this isn't live I'll ask the last one and we we'll end it on a fun note uh back in Houston you you wore those Diamond grills yeah I The Grill think the AAC Conference Championship win is that probably the right timeline uh sort of what's the story behind those and it's a great story what's that do do you still have them or are they oh absolutely they're in my ring box yeah I we were supped to do this uh interview in my office I show to you but I got caught up late at an nil fundraising golf outing so um anyways no I I I get to Houston take over the team and they're going to introduce us me as the head coach in the team as the Bowl champion whatever at a basketball game and I'm walking over there and we got a little slot receiver Demarcus SS and I he was wearing a grill and I said da uh you got a grill on man I thought it was just good good way for me to get to know a player that's supposed to be pretty good that as a head co new head coach I should probably get to know and he goes yeah coach you know especially down here in Houston man a lot of people got grills and he Chuckles and he says you should get a grill coach I okay here's a connection moment I said you know what da and this is in February now I said if we win the conference Championship I'll get a grill he says okay Coach BET right and so fast forward to December I thought nothing of it the entire year you fast forward to December and it's like Wednesday of practice week getting ready to play temp Matt rule in Temple for the conference Championship game and after practice Da comes up to me he goes you know what this week is coach right I said yeah it's championship week dude chance to go to you know New Year six game the whole night he goes no it's Grill week and so uh he reminded me that day that if they won the game I was going to get a grill we obviously won and uh I formed a grill committee to design it and it's got uh it's tops and bottoms uh diamonds on top with uh uh in ruby red and rubies on the two front teeth and then th in rubies on the two bottom teeth for Tom Herman so real Stones real Stones real diam yeah I think it's worth wall and TV Johnny D you know fit me for it uh it's an original I it's worth a lot of money it's not cheap I'm sure but Paul Paul Wall shout I know Paul's watching this podcast PA and Johnny Dang thank you you guys hooked me up it was a hell of a deal uh and it's something that I'll cherish forever Paul Wall is a huge Kevin Fielder fan oh yeah we talk every day clearly he might not be awake at this point in the afternoon coach appreciate a bunch for hopping on and you know I guess going a little longer than expected as the only coach I guess in the americ to own a grill we can't confirm that but I I feel like that's a pretty safe assum uh maybe Dion might have one yeah Dion's probably got onee Prime probably has one that's the only other guy I could think of right good company you're in good yeah yeah coach coach appreciate a bunch for hopping on I speak for everyone on the podcast for saying uh appreciate it and of course uh go owls all right guys thanks go house [Music] [Music]