Greg Olsen is Coaching a New Generation of Glue Guys - [Glue Guys, EP. 58]

If the result of the game's not good, we can live with that because that's going to be the nature of sport. Whatever role you have on your team in the moment, maximize that role to its fullest. And if you do that, you're a success.

I keep a running list of people that I think are glue guys, you know, like, again, it would be amazing to talk to and fun to talk to and who I think we could learn something from. And you know, I've been lucky enough to know you a long time, but you're like, you're like the third or fourth name that I wrote down on my list, right? And again, you're, you're so busy, right? You have so many amazing things going on. So it was like, hard. I'm so glad this worked out that we get to chop it up because I've like, obviously I've followed your entire career. I love listening to you on Sundays. But even more, I love everything you're doing at you think. Like, I, I love getting all the sound bites about you coaching your son in middle school with freaking Luke Keighley and Jonathan Stewart. Like, I think there's for. We talk a lot about like having obviously we have kids and navigating kind of the youth sports world. That's crazy. Especially this for profit world and specializing and all this crazy kind of nonsense that out there is out there. And I think you offer such, like, good perspective on, on that entire area. So I think for anybody with kids that's in the middle of it, like, we all are, like, they got it. They got to come check out what you're doing because I think it's again, such great perspective. But I guess I want to start there because I know a lot of this comes from your dad and we talk about our dads a lot too. And your dad was your coach and now you're coaching with him, which I think is amazing. And I guess what was that like for you as a high school kid, having your dad as a coach? Was it. I mean, obviously you look back at, on it fondly now, but was it always that way?

Yeah, you know, I think you always look back on it different than how you view it the moment. Right? It's like that, that really hard teacher that taught you, you know, calculus, and you look back into the time you're a high school senior, like, this sucks. Why am I doing this? And then you look back and you're like, man, like, what a gift, right? Like, what an unbelievable opportunity and a gift to, to have such exposure and that's how I view my childhood. That's how I view my introduction to sports. If you looked up like traditional old school, high school football coach, that was my dad's program. It was a public high school in New Jersey. He took the job the year I was born, so 1985, and he retired in 2013. When my youngest brother, there's three boys, my youngest brother went off to college in 13 and he retired and he coached well over 40 years. And it was discipline, toughness, accountability. It was a 12 month around the clock. We were doing, you know, we had a weight room before, like high schools had weight rooms. And there was really no, like, off season. Like we were doing summer workouts, offseason workouts. If you had a basketball game in the afternoon, 6am he'd unlock the door and like the six football kids that were on the basketball team would get their lift in before school. Like, it was a true around the clock, around the calendar commitment. And it's all I ever knew, you know. So when I went off to college, granted, the players were bigger, the players were better. Hard wasn't new to me. Being coached wasn't new to me. Being yelled at wasn't new to me. Like, it was just, it was the environment in which we were raised. It was the environment in which I learned to compete. It was the environment. I learned what football really looked like from a toughness and an attitude. So it's all the core fundamental values that I used throughout my entire career. And now we spend weekdays coaching seventh and eighth grade football with, you know, you mentioned Luke and Stu, and my dad's been doing it with me for four years now. And we argue and we fight and we yell at each other and he tells me, you NFL guys think you know everything. And at the end of the day, we, we get the kids ready to play and it's an absolute blast. But yeah, I've been, I've said it to anyone who's asked, like, the core foundation of everything I've built my career on, everything that I've done is all from that early exposure to his high school program. From the water boy until I was the senior captain. Everything in between was, is what shaped the way I approach the game. And I'm very, thank. I look back on it very fondly with just a lot of gratitude.

Has he mellowed at all for the, for the middle schoolers? Or is he, is he still, is he still hold a standard?

Yeah, no, it's a good. I always joke, like I say to my mom, you know, because she loves Eddie coaches, because she's like, get him. If it was up to my mom, we would play 30. It would be a 12 month calendar of high school, of middle school football. Because now the season's over and now he's just home and he, you know, wants to renovate the kitchen for the 10th time because he's got that, like, obsessive brain that, like, has to have something. Yeah, I would say he's mellowed a little bit. I think some of his tactics and antics early on, you know, in the late 80s, early 90s, are probably not probably allowed by today's standards. I always joke, like, he'd be. If he took over high school, he'd be fired in like two days to grab the kid. No patience for nonsense. Yeah. Like, you know, remember back when, like, janitors had like, rings of keys?

Yeah.

Remember? And like, was on, like. And people, like, had lanyards, you know. Well, he was the dean of, dean of students, athletic director, coach. He was like a hundred different jobs at different times. So he had a key to every door in the entire high school. So over 20 years, that keychain was this big man. He would whip that out of his. He would whip that out of his pocket, hit you in the helmet with it. I mean, the things I look back on, I'm like, yeah, thankfully he doesn't do any of that to the middle school boys, but he's still demanding. He still holds them to high standards. He has no patience for kids that miss practice. Like all those old school kind of beliefs that we all grew up around that we were just accustomed to as young kids. It's not so much the case everywhere anymore. So we make it a point to make that a big element of our program.

How has it been for you to flip it now to you coaching your kids? Shane and I. Shane's coaching his son now. I've coached my kids a little bit. Nothing like being the head middle school tackle football coach. But yeah, that's.

Alex, there's not. Not everyone's cut out for that.

I know. It's a unique dynamic though, right? Like, what have you learned so far? Not only about being a coach for an entire team and obviously your. Your style, but obviously your kids being involved as well and being a dad in that. In that role.

Yeah. Well, first off, I'm a little disappointed that Shane decides to move to Charlotte and it doesn't even consider bringing his kids to our school, which is like a half mile down the street. So that's a conversation for later in the pod. But that pisses me off because his. We would have had your kid out there playing football. He wouldn't even want to see a basketball when I was done with him. But, but no, it, it is a, it is a very interesting dynamic coaching a team that your kid is on. And again, I look back to how my dad approached it when. So I had an older brother. Both my brothers were quarterbacks. My older brother was only one year ahead of me. So, like, his senior year, he's being recruited by everyone. I was the junior, you know, tight end. He went to Notre Dame to play quarterback and then ended his career at Virginia. So we were super close. My, my younger brother's 10 years behind me, but, like, me and my older brother came up through my dad's program from waterboy all the way up till playing, and there was a lot of conversation around town, like, all right, the Olson boys are eventually going to play for their old man. Like, what's that going to look like? Like, what's that like for the other kids on the team? And my dad told my brother, before he ever stepped foot as a freshman on campus, he says, I'm just going to let you know right now, if there is a tie, I'm going to err on the side of being harder on you than I need to be. Because if I, if I'm going to earn the trust of these other parents that I can come down on their kid, hold their kid accountable, coach their kid, if I don't show that I'm willing to do it even more so to my own kids, I lose all credibility. Everything that I've built in this program for the last 20 years falls to the wayside because now my two boys for the first time are in it. So we knew what we signed up for and that we were, you know, 15 years old when he's having that conversation with us. So we kind of carry a little of that element to our program, right? Like, I had a seventh, my first year, we took over. My older son's a quarterback and he's a seventh grader, but we had an eighth grade quarterback who was the backup seventh grade quarterback the year prior to us taking over. And, you know, everyone's like, oh, is Tate could be the quarterback? I'm like, no, he's going to be the backup quarterback and he's going to be the seventh grade quarterback. Because it is not fair to that eighth grade quarterback, whoever's better. That's not even the point. If it was even close, the eighth Grade quarterback was going to be the quarterback because our first move of taking over this team couldn't be. Hey, everyone, get out of the way. Here come the Olson boys. And we got to make sure they're in position. We can't coach a team that way. We can't run a program. We'll have no credibility, no trust of the family. So our kids get it hard. Our kids are held to a high standard. If we're going to single a kid out, we're going to single our kids out. Not when they do great, when they're wrong. Because if I can. If I can point out my kid doesn't carry out his fake on his backside of his drop after he hands the ball off. And now I jump the star running back. No one's ever going to accuse me. Well, you got on me for not carrying out my fake. But what about your kid? Like, there's never any misconceptions on our team whether our kids get coached hard or not. And it's just the way it is.

What does your son call you? Did you ever have that discussion? He calls you dad.

He calls me dad? Yeah.

Yeah.

It's funny you say that, cuz growing up it was always so weird in the locker room, like, everyone was called dad.

Coach, it's so weird.

We always refer to dad as dad. Like even in practice. We did. I. It was so weird for me to like, like, hey, Coach, I don't know, like, I guess everyone has their thing. We always just referred to my dad as Dad. I still like yell across the practice because he can't hear. I'm like, dad. The kids on the team call my dad Nampa because that's what our kids call him. So like, he's Coach Nampa. The parents call him Nampa. The other. Like everyone around the entire school just refers to Nampa and they know exactly who he is. But yeah, my, my kids call Nampa and. But so do the other kids. So I guess, yeah, that's a win. The same thing.

That's a win. We never. No, it's hard. My son, we never talked about, like, what he's going to call me. All right.

Yeah. What does he say? What does he.

So I jumped on coaching staff this year. I'm assistant coach at Providence Day High School. And we just never, we never discussed it. Usually he would just say, hey, hey, hey, what do I do, do here? Well, there was one practice where he couldn't get my attention and I didn't respond to him. And he goes, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey. Coach. And I look over, so I'm like, okay, so it's coach. It's coach.

But it was.

You know, I'm glad he did that. It did. It did.

He was confused. Everyone calls me Coach Shane.

Yeah. Coach Batty.

It's funny, it's kind of like teachers. I don't know if you guys have found this, but, like, you know when you're little and you call your teacher by like her Ms. First Name.

Yeah, yeah.

And then there's like a weird age and then it becomes like their last name.

Yeah.

It's kind of the same thing in coaching. Like, I've always been Coach Greg. So, like everyone just calls me Coach Greg and it's never even dawned on me. But then when you're around the high school kids, it's Coach Olson.

Yeah.

So there's like this weird, like, line of differentiation between like the younger kids, they call you by your first name and then the older kids call you by their last name. I've always found that very interesting.

It is, it is. Alex, you're going to. You're going to love it.

You're going to.

It's only a matter of time, all right, before you get roped into this wonderful world. And it is.

Hey, we gotta get like an exhibition between you and Matt Carroll. Like a three point contest. No, Matt. So. So Shane's coaching at Providence Day High School, which is. They have a great athletic program. They're like a half mile down the street from Charlotte Christian, where we go. And Matt Carroll, who's a really dear buddy of mine, lives across the street, his son is a junior at Charlotte Christian and he just joined the staff officially as an assistant varsity coach this season as well. So, like, I feel like at halftime, like you guys gotta have like a three point contest or something. Like the winning team gets an extra couple points.

Yeah. Matty played for the. For many years, played for the Bobcats here in town. So I put against Matty C. Maddy C. Can still shoot much better than I can. He can still shoot it like riding the bike.

Shoot. We this summer, I mean, he literally lives behind us and he has like a half court sport court. So this summer me and my two boys and then he's got two boys and two girls. So our kids play basketball all the time together. They're all kind of overlapped the same age, but we would do like three on three runs in the summer in their backyard and it was competitive. Like, me and Matt would guard each other, my oldest would guard his oldest and so on. And so Forth. And I don't know if in 10 games we've played, if he's missed more than three shots. It's unbelievable.

It's like riding a bike. Alex. Alex saw the game, you know, saw, saw the commission come out of retirement this summer. I haven't played in 10 years. 10 years. My last game was NBA Finals against The Spurs, Game 5. That was the last time I crossed half court. I knew I was retiring, took the jersey off, and I said, you know what? I reached all my goals. I'm good. I don't, I don't, I don't ever need to play again. But I was, I was called out of retirement. There was a glue guys basketball game with the CEO of Walmart, of all people, who said, we, you know, we'll come on your podcast, but the only stipulation is you have to come out to Bentonville and play in my pickup game. And so for the good of the glue guys, I, I strapped it on and went out and, you know, Alex got a glimpse of, of former glory.

How'd you do?

I didn't get one every game. I didn't get hurt, which I am more proud of than, than winning every game, right.

The last to do, like, men's run at school. And then I became, like, so obsessed with not blowing out my Achilles, and I'm, like, so nervous about going back to it.

Well, we are, we already have one Ravi, obviously, who's bummed he's not here. He, he already, he's blown out his Achilles.

I fear in life. Yeah.

And Greg, I have to be very clear, like, I have no game in basketball, but I'm like a guy you want on your team. I'm gonna work, I'm gonna outwork everybody. I'm gonna get to every 50, 50 ball. I'm gonna be diving on the ground. You finished.

You were a great finisher. You're a great finisher, Alex. I was impressed, actually. You, you, you know, you know Shane's.

Team, and he, he didn't miss. I'm much. Greg, I'm just going to say this.

So let me ask you this. So, Shane, you get called out, you get called out of retirement for this. Give me, like, the lead up. The weeks leading up to this. Are we buying, like, are we using old shoes from the NBA finals? We buying new shoes? Are you in the, are you in the gym, like, having your kid, like, back you down, like, try to, like, what are we doing? Preparing for this game?

No, a lot of stretching. A lot of stretching. All right. I, I, you Know you're not lying.

About the Achilles loading his. He's loading every tendon. He.

I just don't want to lose a year to an Achilles. I don't like. It's a golf season, you know, I only have so many good golf seasons left, and so, like, a lot of stretching. I didn't shoot a basketball at all. Like, I get out and mess around with the kids every now and then and still shoot the rock a little bit. But I wore a Chinese basketball shoe for 10 years, a shoe called Peak. And so there was actually an article. They listed all of the players who have shoes, and of all the players that ever played in the NBA, I have the sixth most shoes named after me out of everybody. All right? Now, they're all made in China and a brand called Peak, but that's a pretty. A pretty strange list to be a part of. So I dusted off an old pair.

Of peaks, and you never apologize for an Attaboy.

The badier, the badier. Ace the bat. I call them the bad ears. And, you know, just limbered up, man. I limbered up and I just did not try to move too fast. I didn't try to go after too many rebounds. I stayed in my lane and just used my length and be a facilitator.

When I would do those men's games, I would tell myself, going into the gym, like, don't jump around a bunch of guys. If you're under the rim, just stay feet on the ground. If you don't get the rebound, who cares? So I would like mental my. I would like, prepare myself five minutes into the game and all bets are off, right? Like, you're jumping, you're diving, you're boxing guys out, you're Fallon. I broke. I split a guy's lip open going on a fast break. That was bad.

That's the problem, though. We know each. We know ourselves too well.

Hard to not.

My last pickup game that I had played prior to this was my last year with the Niners. And we were playing because you remember, like, the lockout. It was kind of right after the lockout. So we were spending all this time in the off season together and didn't have anything to do. And the Niners, we went and played some pickup basketball games because we were at San Jose State's campus. And so after we'd lift and run, we would go, go hoop a little bit. And I, again, I suck at hooping. And I, I. Last time I played a pickup basketball game, I found myself in the ER because I Got headbutted by Patrick Willis. Right. Playing too hard. He put his head down, going to lane, and just. I ate one in the mouth. My tooth. Put my tooth through my lip and in. In the emergency room. And that was my last memory. And the same thing. I hadn't touched it. And so.

Been there.

Yeah. Yeah.

A football player is probably the third strongest basketball player I ever played against. Okay, so Shaq playing a Shaq. Shaq was the strongest man I've ever like, like, come in contact with. Okay. After him was Yao Ming. I mean, Yao Ming was ginormous. I played with him five years. Number three, in terms of just raw strength. Panther great Julius Peppers. That dude is a man. He is a man, and he was a man amongst men in college. I played against him in College of Carolina, and that guy was an oak tree. It is an absolute. I'll never forget it.

So I went on my best Julius. My first time ever seeing Julius Peppers, the human being who was my teammate both in Chicago and in Carolina. I was his teammate twice. But first time I ever saw Julius, I was on, like, a. My older brother was on a junior. Like, back then they used to do, like, junior days where, like, you would go in the winter as underclassmen. They weren't like, official visits, but you were allowed on campus. So they would do junior days. So I was probably a. I was either a freshman or a sophomore. And it was at Virginia, and they were. And they would have us to the basketball games because it was in the winter and they were hosting North Carolina and Virginia. This was like early 2000s. They had some good teams. And all of a sudden there's this dude playing there. And so this was maybe like 99, 2000 type time. So Pep was probably a freshman or a sophomore. And there is this big ass, muscular six. Six, big, strong, physical guy. And I remember one of the football coaches being like, yeah, so that's Julius Peppers. He actually plays on the football team. And I was like, really? He plays football? Like, that was so hard to believe that he played football and basketball at a school like that. He was a man amongst boys. It's literally the best way to phrase it. He was the biggest guy dunking on guys, defending, and he was like 19 years old. He was. However the hell old he was, he was a man child. And then I feel like he just kept getting bigger every time I saw him. Yes.

I'll never forget the first time I saw him on the field. And it was like, oh, my God, they make you.

And then you saw him the next year on the field, and he was somehow three inches taller.

The guy.

I swear, the guy grew three inches every to every year of his career. He finished at six. At seven foot six, the guy's a monster.

Is he a top five athlete you. You saw during your time?

Oh, just pure athlete. Yeah.

Yeah.

I mean, because I bet when he was playing ball in college, he probably weighed. So what was he, 6, 6, 6, 5, 6, 6? He was probably 2, 265th in college. Young. He was probably like 240, 250.

Yep.

He played in the NFL at 290, 285. I mean, he was. Oh, and he could jump and he could run. He could catch. Yeah, he. There are not many dudes like Pat.

No, my favorite. My favorite Julius Pepper story is we were playing him again, going back early in my career with the Niners. And so Joe Staley's the left tackle. And then again, I just remember, like, you'd break the huddle and walk to the line, right? And the D. Linemen are still standing up, and you would, like, look, and this guy's, like, towering over you over there. And like, again, it's the NFL. Everybody's big, but you're like, oh, my God, this guy's an anomaly. Like, you know, and I'll never forget, we're. It was, like, early in the game, and so Staley's blocking, and Staley's a good player, like, you know, obviously really good player. And our left guard was Alex Boone, who was the biggest shit talker. And he was, you know, kind of like a, you know, little. Always took it to the echo of the whistle, if you know what I mean. And so. And it's like the first series, we're driving down the field, and after a play, Joe. Joe Staley and Alex Boone are, like, getting into it with each other, right? And I'm like, what the fuck's going on? Like, why are they, like, you know, why are they fighting with each other? And come to find. Find out, like, Boone was talking crap to Julius Peppers. Like, so here's the guard talking crap to the defensive end, and Staley, like, cold talked him. And it's like, dude, you don't have to block this guy all game. Stop talking to him. I'll never. I don't know.

King of that dude. Like, Cam. Cam would do that. Cam would be talking to Donna Can Sue. Oh. And he'd be talking Aaron Donald.

Yeah.

And we're like, dude, would you stop? These guys are.

Let the guys kill us. Yeah. Don't wake up the giant man. Just let him.

Yeah, just tell them how great they are.

Tell them up.

Keep them happy. Shane, I do want to ask you something.

Yeah.

So you're at. I walk into the gym at PD and you're coaching varsity basketball. Like, give me your role. Like, give me. Are you loud? Are you the guy in the corner? Are you like, are you, like, what are. Give me an idea of what kind of a youth coach are you?

You know, that's a great question. I like to be someone who's always under control, okay? So Coach K said his best trait and Coach K was a madman, but he said, when the pressure is the highest, I want to be the calmest person in the gym. Okay? And because that gives your team amazing strength. So I took that to heart. And so as a player, I was always very calm and things were hairy. So I try to take a calmness to the court. I am like a stickler for like fundamentals, okay. And so it drives me crazy that most kids today don't know the proper angle to screen, okay? They don't know the footwork to post up. They don't know how to, how to do a simple post pass, fake a pass, make a pass, right? And so I find myself, you know, really, really trying to get back to the basics of, of like, what wins. And I tell these guys, like, trust me, trust me, this is what I did, I did against Carmelo Anthony, okay? If it worked against Carmelo Anthony, and it's not fancy, but you got to do it this way. And if you don't, you know, good luck and God bless. And so, you know, most of the time I think my guys listen to me. Every now and then they give me the stink eye. Like, I don't think I'd say it, I'm like, no, dude, trust me, just trust me.

You coach said trust me. My AU coach told me I didn't have to do that coach.

Exactly, exactly, exactly. So I tried to be the voice.

Of.

I guess, reason. And we have a great staff that is very collaborative. And so I just try to give them things. I know that maybe high school kids will struggle with another team. I try to teach them about habits. You know, I had so many great coaches talk to me about habits and just doing the simple things every single time. Keep it simple, keep it simple, keep it simple, keep it simple. You know, because I'm sure you deal with this every day with your kids. All they see is spectacular and fancy and the one handed grabs and all the, all the crazy plays. And that's, we all know that you know, the basics win. The basics win. And the elimination of mistakes is what actually wins you games. And try to tell them if you win, you will get your shine, you will get your social media love, you'll get your Instagram posts, you know, but you got to win and you win by being simple. And that's probably the most frustrating message that is it's hard to get across to young kids today. Just keep it simple, stupid.

The most stressful part, but the best part about like coaching football with the young kids is all so many of the teams we're going to play against, like especially at the middle school, but even in high school football everybody is like a, my dad says like everybody's been to too many clinics. Like, that's like my dad's like old school way of saying. He's like, all these guys want to talk like it's a clinic and we're in elaborate coverages and we're going to change strengths and we're going to play to the boundary like offensive for. And they all like want to overcomplicate. It's scheme, scheme, scheme, scheme. But I'll tell you what, what we, the last couple of years, man, like we spend 99% of our time with the young kids, like on defense. Say, like we are going to set edges, we are going to understand gap control, we're going to be in great stances, we are going to play in great leverage and like we're going to teach them how to tackle, we're going to teach them which hip to tackle. We're not just trying to tackle the guy with the ball, we're to trying, we're trying to tackle half of him and like, dude, the advantage you can gain. So like Shane saying this about basketball, which obviously I don't know as well but like it's all the same. Yeah. The advantage you can gain in youth football by just teaching kids how to get in a good stance, getting good alignment, understanding what their gaps are, understanding which foot to step with, where to put their hat, all those things that we all take for granted. You'll win 95% of your games if you just focus on that. I don't care what play you drop. And it's, it's such a lost art in youth sports nowadays because all the people that we talk to on you think, you know, we had Tony Vitello and which was interesting because he had just left after we talked to him from Tennessee to go take the job with the Giants, like whether it's baseball, basketball, football. Like, at the youth level. It's games, it's highlights, it's flash, it's plays, it's scheme. And there's such little technique, fundamental habits. How do we warm up? How do we do layup lines? How do we do in and out in baseball? How do we do pat and go in football? Like, no one spends any time on that. And I think if people realized how much that would move the needle, they'd be shocked.

Well, yeah, I mean, Shane, you talked about, like, being calm in the biggest moments. Like, I think that's the hardest part in flipping it to what you're saying. Greg is like, as a coach, I think, not having as much control in the game. Like, I was so used to those same big moments, like, you're the quarterback. Like, it was actually much easier to be calm because I knew I had. I had more influence over, like, the outcome. Right? Like, again, like, I. I was out there with the ball in my hands. And then as a coach, I think it's like, it's being comfortable letting go of that. And I think what most people do is do it exactly. What you're saying is, like, over coach, right? And it's. I. I've even, you know, like, found it sometimes, like, you. You feel like you got to do more. Like, I got to come up with this elaborate scheme or come up with this crazy play, right? And I can't just. You know what I'm saying? Like, you can't just keep it simple, Shane, to your point, right, like, you can't just coach leverage and, and, and, and stance and position. Do you know what I'm saying? Like, where are your eyes? Right? Like, again, those, like, little discipline things, because you almost sometimes feel like, well, guy, I got to be doing more, right? And I think sometimes the hard part, the instances when I've been out there, like, you'll have, like, even this will be, like, my son's flag football game, and you'll have, like, four coaches on the sideline all screaming at nine kids, and they're all, you know, it's a thousand pieces of advice, and it's like.

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.

Like, this is just chaos, and no one's digesting any of this, and it's not helping us, right?

Like, you know, wouldn't you agree, though, that most people would be shocked at how often your coaches in film and in practice talk about, like, the most basic plays, right? Like, setting the edge, right? And, like, so much, like, we didn't talk about fancy stuff in film you talk about like screening angles, right? You talk about, you know, passing angles, right? You're talking about balance, you know, like this most unsexy things. And in like the most sexy sports that, you know, no one has any idea that it's always about basics.

Shane, I don't think you could be more right because like, you know this like in the NFL, I think people would be shocked sometimes if they heard like the coaching that goes on. And I would always tell the story. Like my first several years in the league, like if I threw a slant and the ball was behind the receiver, the coaching point was like, get it out in front, right? And like if I threw a ball high, it was like, get it down, you know, and it's like, no shit. Like, you know what I'm saying? Like I, I knew it before you and that's not helping me either. And then I'll never forget, like when I went to Kansas City and Jim Harbaugh had the same thing. But when I got to Kansas City with Andy, it like really magnified. And I've said this about him, like, I think he would have been the greatest high school gym coach maybe ever. Like, that he could coach any sport, like any position. But he was the first guy. Like I would throw a ball high and he'd be like, well, like Shane's point, he'd be like, well, look at your, look at your stance. Like, I think you were a little wide here and, and I think maybe you, you had, you took like a little too big of a stride and so maybe we get a little more knee bend and just kind of like get in that natural athletic position, you know what I'm saying? Or like maybe you were a little tall here and stiff and like it was to Shane's point, it was like, literally it would be like coaching points you would give to a 8 year old. Right?

And again, actually, yeah, every level of coaching is the exact same. The shit that Luke and I are yelling at the kids when we're trying to coach seventh and eighth grade defense is the exact same coaching points the good coaches are trying to give Pro Bowlers.

Yep.

It's all the same. We got to get lined up, we got to communicate. You're not staying in your gap, your eyes are in the wrong spot. You and, and the point about like yelling, because my play style as a player and my coaching style are very different. When I was a player, I was like not an emotional player. I mean, I would get excited every now and then, but like, wasn't a Celebrator wasn't a yelling screamer. Wasn't gonna give, like, big emotion, you know, big catch. I wasn't gonna get up and, like, flex and scream. Like, I just was not an emotional player. Like, I was pretty level throughout the entire game, mostly because I was exhausted. But as a coach, I'm way more emotional. I'm way more demonstrative. There's a lot more communication, a lot more talking. But what I've learned is, like, you can be loud and you can be boisterous, but you have to give them solutions. You have to give them. It can't just be. We gotta tackle better. You missed that tackle. Tackle them like, you know, go get them. Go get them. Yeah.

What?

I don't know, Coach. I'm trying, but, like, I don't know what that means. So to your point, what I've learned is, like, when you are yelling instruction, it's got to be very specific. Alex, Alex, you're tackling the wrong hip. You have the inside hip like that. They can compute, you know, Shane, you are the edge player. Stay outside. That's not your tackle to make in there. Like, that they can digest. So, like, you have to be very purposeful what you are yelling out. Because if you're just yelling, come on, defense, stop them. You've got to be better. You've got to know rebound.

You got to rebound the basketball.

Yeah. Somebody rabbit grab it.

Don't turn the ball over.

Yeah, right.

But, like, I'm wrong side of help defense on the backside. So I'm not. Not. I'm not in position for the long rebound. Like, help me. Where's my space? Where's my positioning on the court? Give them solutions. You could be loud. Some people are quiet. Some people. There's a lot of ways to deliver the message, but you got to give them a message that they can process, digest, and they know exactly what you're talking about. Because it's the same language you use in film. It's the same language you use an individual. It's the same language you use in practice. And then it has to be the same language on game day so that everyone understands exactly what point is being is trying to be made.

Yeah. Is. Is Luke Kuechley still calling out plays from the sideline? Is he, like, calling out offensive plays?

Dude, I mean, when we go and meet. So we go meet. The season's over now, but, like, when we go meet on, like, Monday or Tuesday morning, we'll go meet for breakfast. Like most Mondays, we'll meet for, like, Breakfast or lunch, just to get like, what's our defensive game plan for, you know, Wednesday or Thursday's game? He'll open up the same notebook he had when he was a player. It's one of those notebooks, when you open it on the left side is like, they have the center, two guards, and two tackles, like, templates of formations and the boxes. And then on the right, it's just like a notebook, like lined paper to, like, write notes down. It's the same notebook he had for his entire career that was filled with information, cues, reminders, tips. And he has that broken down for Providence Day's middle school football team. And we're getting ready to play them, and it's like, hey, offset back when he's away to the boundary, it's going to be count. But, like, and we sit there and we're like, all right, who's their best players? How do we take him away? What's our best way? And then we'll rip it up. We'll be like, there's no way we can get the kids to do this. What's the next best option? And. And, you know, it gets to the point where it's like, it's not what we know, right? Like, it's what we can get the kids to know and execute in real time. So that's the fun process. But, yeah, he has notebooks of information. If I called him right now and said, hey, send me over what we played Providence Day. Send me over, you know, what notes we had on their running back and their quarterback and who their best lineman was and how we were going to defend, you know what? He would have reams of information of paper. And it played out exactly in the game the way we said.

Shane, this guy would call out plays like no other. I was like, amazing. I mean, and he knew what was coming. Like, unbelievable player. It was ridiculous. There's a funny story about Luke. Greg. I've only been apologized to twice in six. I played 16 years in the NFL. Again, like, you get hit, you know, I don't even know how many thousands of times I've been apologies. I've been apologized to twice for getting hit too hard. One of them was Luke. Luke and Troy Polamalu are the two people that hit me so hard. Hit me so hard. They both apologized to me as they helped me up.

Well, that was Luke. He would kill you. He was an absolute sociopath, serial killer. And then the second the play was over, he would, like, go get you your water bottle if you dropped your towel. He would pick it up like, Luke would be. Like, Luke had made his fifth Pro Bowl. He was rookie of the year and defensive player of the year. And, like, you'd walk into the cafeteria and he's, like, taking the trash out, and he's, like, wiping down the tables for the lunch ladies. And we're like. And it got to the point where just, like, that's Luke. Like, it's just who he is. He is the nicest, kindest, selfless guy you'll ever meet, but he's also, like, in just incredibly violent and played hard and competitive. His on the field, off the field contrast might be the biggest of any guy I've ever been around. He was a killer. Like, violent, competitive killer. And then the second the game is over, he's. He's cleaning up the locker room and, like, throwing everybody's tape in the garbage can.

Glue guy. Glue guy. Real.

He would be a great glue guy. He. I mean, he's going to be a Hall of Famer. Yes, but, like, he was a glue guy from, like, a culture standpoint. No question.

Greg, to flip it to you again, your team that again, you coach with, with Luke and Jonathan and your dad. And I'm so fascinated by this because I think obviously a lot of youth sports, especially in that zone, that middle school zone, you know, it's different. Some kids hitting puberty, some not. There are different levels. But, like, what are the things that you stand for, like, as a program? Like, what. What are the core things you're trying to get done? Obviously, being competitive and winning is a part of this and it's a balance. But is it the priority? Right. You're dealing with parents and kids want to win inherently. Right. Like, these are kids that are competitive. But, like, how, when you think about building this program, building the culture, the things you're trying to communicate and. Or teach, you know, and again, outside of, obviously, the fundamentals of football, but, like, how do you view that, like, again, are those things that you guys talk about as a staff?

Yeah, we talk about it with the kids ad nauseum. We preach it to the. We preach it to the kids. We preach it before and after practice. It's ingrained in everything we do. Like, we communicate it to the parents at the meeting in the spring before you ever come out for our team in the summer. The things we have a few core, like, philosophies, but, like, the way we value winning and the way we present it to the families and the way we ingrain it is. We always talk about winning. As being a byproduct of everything that we do. We are gonna win a lot of games. We don't ever set the goal of the season, good or bad, based and determine based on the amount of games that we win. We could, we could win a game and we, we're not happy after the game and our post game huddle and we're gonna let these kids know it. And there's been games where we haven't always won. I mean we've won most of our, we've won 15 in a row in middle school football, but in other sports we've lost. But my point is like winning is a byproduct of everything we do, right? So it's a byproduct of let's get out here on time after school. It's a byproduct of when we have summer workouts all summer long. You're expected to be here at 8 in the morning. And yes, it's a sacrifice and yes, and we're asking a lot of you guys but like this is what it takes. And we are going to do from how we weight train to how we act in the classroom, to how we practice, our practice habits, the way we respond to coaching, the way we respond to our teammates. Like we are going to hyper focus on everything we do from which foot we step with, to how we warm up, to how we coach our warmup, first practice, first off season workout. We coach our work, our warmup. And this is the warmup we use before a walkthrough and it's the warmup we use before a summer workout and it's the walkthrough before the championship game at the end of the season. It never changes. We coach that like we try to implement as many positive habits along the entire season and along the entire year leading up that once it gets to the scoreboard, 99% of the time that scoreboard is going to go in our favor. If we do all of these things leading up to it and we just beat them over the head with that approach. We tell that we've said it, the kids are probably tired of hearing it. We don't coach the scoreboard when that game's 30 to nothing, get ready to be coached even harder than you've ever coached because I can't let you all of a sudden tackle the wrong hip and step with the wrong foot. But coach, it's 38 nothing yet. And then next week I got to spend all week undoing all these bad habits and the next game's not going to be 38, nothing. And that bad stuff step is going to get us beat. So, like, it's about process. It's about all the. That we all would roll our eyes about. And you heard in these coaches, it sounds like coach speak, man. That's just what it takes. Like, there is no other way. It's work. We really stress compete. Like, compete is at the corner of everything we do. We break it down every practice, every weight room session, we're going to compete. We're going to compete with ourselves. We're going to compete at practice with our teammates. We. We are going to be incredibly violent. We are going to be physical. We teach a very physical, violent brand of young football. And a lot of teams are not used to it. A lot of teams are very uncomfortable with it. They spend the whole summer doing seven on seven, and they're in shotgun, four and five wide. And we say, okay, but when you play us, we are going to. Within the confines of the rules. And we're not cheap, we're not dirty. We have. But we are going to be incredibly violent with how we tackle and how we strike and. And how we dislodge the ball. Like, all of the elements of the game that we all know and love. Like, we're going to teach that at the young age. So, like, we stress all those things and we've had a lot of success. We've got good players, but we also are going to play a brand that maybe other kids at this age are just not really either being coached to play or they're not willing to play it yet.

This is like Bill Walsh right here. The score takes care of itself.

Score takes care of itself. And you know what? It's even. Especially true at the young age.

Yeah.

Because, man, I. I could give you story after story. We did two years of Pop Warner. We went down to Florida with a bunch of fifth graders a couple years ago for the Pop Warner national title. And we got our doors blown off by a team from Pennsylvania, but we beat a team from California, and then we got our doors blown off. They were just better than us. But, like, we've seen it now at different ages along the way. If you just pour into these kids a level of, like, discipline and fundamentals and violence and physicality, like, how far they throw the ball, how fast they run, how tall they are, like, it doesn't matter. That's all going to come out in the wash over the next four years. The big kids now are not going to be the big kids. The small kids now are going to be the big kids. It just it all at this young age. Like, the physical journey is not nearly over. So we don't even worry about that. Like, we just pour into all the shit that takes no skill, takes no size, no strength. And then if you do that year over year and you stack it over time and then add the physical component to the sport, those kids have a chance to be really good high school and, you know, college, eventually players are.

The parents responsive to this. And then I think on that flip note, like, this, this is tough coaching, right? Like, this is what this sounds like. This is again, like what we, we all grew up on, right? Like having kind of, you know, high standard coaching that was direct and hard, you know, But I think there's almost a day and it's even into high school sports now. And especially college, though, like, in some ways those days are, are numbered, right? Like, because if you're, if you're a tough, direct coach and a kid's hearing something he doesn't want to hear, like, I mean, the culture today is like, I'm gonna get, I'm gonna go find a new school, you know, like, and again, what's happening? I'm gonna leave, right? And so how do you again. And I don't, I don't think it's great. I, I was the same way. Like, I've talked about this all the time. Like Urban Meyer. I hated being in the same room with Urban Meyer for the first six months I was with him. I mean, it was so uncomfortable. He challenged you in every way. I did. I, I hated it. I hated it. But I look back and like, it obviously drastically changed my life, you know, and again, how lucky I was for it. But those days are gone. Like, I don't think he, I don't know if he could coach in college right now. Right? Like, I just, I don't know if it works, you know, telling a bunch of 18 and 19 year olds some stuff they don't want to hear. I think they'd be out of it.

Yeah. Here's what I would hope and I would expect maybe not to every single one, but we had, say, 50 kids on our team this year. My hope and expectation would be everyone always focuses on, like, is it hard? Yes. Are we demanding? Yes. Are we? Yes. But I think if you asked every one of those kids, do these coaches love and care and pour into you, I think they would go, oh, my God, absolutely. So I think hard for the sake of hard and being mean is very different than high standards. High accountability from the. From the stance of like, I love you, I believe in you. You're better than what you're showing. Trust me. Like, from a level of trust and love, I'm going to pull out of you what you don't even think is possible. And then all of a sudden, they start seeing the growth. And once you have them there, you got them. You could tell them to jump over the school building and they'll do it. But in the beginning, it does. There is a defense mechanism, right, because they're not accustomed to it. They're not. That's not how their baseball coach coaches them. That's not how they're basketball, you know, lacrosse, basketball, whatever. Like, so at the beginning, there. There is a little bit of like a what are we doing here? But very quickly, these kids realize we have nobody quit in two years. We haven't had anybody quit. Like, these kids love it. They just don't know it until you give it to them. Like, they want to be poured into. They want to have success. They want to be counted on. They want a role, they want to play. And it's like, all right, you want to play. This is what you need to do every single day. And if you're willing to do it, I'll do it with you. But if you're not willing to do it, you're going to stand on the sideline. And, man, when they start connecting the process to the end result and they walk off the field after a win and guys are telling them, great job, and man, they stand a little taller, they're a little prouder, their voice gets a little deeper. Like, you can just see them grow and expand and. Yeah. Does every parent love it? Probably not. In today's world, you're never going to make everyone happy. We over communicate to our families, we over communicate our message to the boys, to the families. You never wonder where you stand. You never wonder what Coach Olson thinks of you. Like, you know exactly the expectations, you know exactly your role. And if you want that role to grow, here's what you need to do. And if you don't do it, your role might shrink. And I think everyone goes, you know what? I know what I'm getting into. It's fair, it's even. Everyone is treated the same. And at the end of the day, these coaches love, eat, breathe, stress with these kids, almost like to an unhealthy degree of how much we, like, live and die with their success and failures. And I think the parents go, you know what? The kid I got back Six months later was a better version of my young son. I'm all in.

How do you undo the damage that social media does to your team? So they go home and they, all they see is curated. Me, me, me, me, me. Look how perfect everything is, right? And that's like the opposite message that you're teaching every single day. That, no, that's not real. This is, it's about work, it's about toughness, it's about grit, it's about getting, you know, hit and getting up and getting up and getting up. So how do you, how do you combat the evils of social media to your, to your guys?

It's hard. I mean we go through it with our own three kids in our house, right? I got an eighth grade son and I got twin seventh graders, boy, girl, twins. So like we're right in that middle school adolescence, very easily influenced. So we're living that in our home as just parents. And then, then I got to take 50 boys and that are all seventh and eighth graders. And now so you're, you're magnifying it, you know, 15 fold. So it's, it's a challenge. I think the message we, we try and everything that we do is to try to combat that organically through. Yes, you scored the touchdown, but we're going to send all of our attention in film study on Sunday or Monday night. We're going to send it to the left guard, the wide receiver who got his block. We call out, we have like a sideline award for like what kid that's on the sideline following a touchdown. I'll stop the film and I'll say, all right, everybody pick out on the sideline who, who was the happiest for the team. And they'd be like, oh, it was Johnny, it was Joe, it was Tate, you know, whoever. And I say, guys, that right there is every bit as valuable as the kid who just ran for his third touchdown. This is so much bigger than you. This is more important than your touchdown. It's more important than your receiving yards. It's to what Shane's point before like high tide raises all ships. If you have team collective success and that environment is a positive one that everyone wants to be around, there is plenty of credit to go around. We've all seen the teams that stink and they got a couple star players. Those star players are never as heralded as the good players on the good teams. So like we really try and it's hard. Everyone wants to post the game winning touchdown, their highlights, their runs, the Kids now, like, have a photographer that comes to games and within 20 minutes of the game being over, they got sayings and they got hashtag memes. And I try not to over coach everything. So I kind of like let them do their thing. They're not allowed to post a video. They could post like still video pictures. I don't let them post a video of what we do. But like, it's a give and take. Living in this world, like, you have to lean into it. That's why we kind of took it on our own to do our little clips of our sidelines. Like, we had our sidelines mic'd up and videoed for all of our games. So at least we were controlling it. But the kids love it. You kind of got to lean into a little bit of this society or else the kid, you're going to push the kids away from you. So we meet them halfway to a degree. But like, we are never going to put a player over the team. We are never going to highlight the star player over the kid who's doing all the dirty work. If anything, we flip it and then I'll pull the star players over to the side, the leaders of the team, and I'll say, hey, you guys understand why I coach you harder than the other kids, right? It's because that like, so I'll have some of those private conversations with the kids who everyone knows are the really good kids. And they know I'm going to be hard as hell on you in team meeting. And you just got to sit there and yes, sir, me. Because if I can do that to you, can you imagine how good I can get the rest of these kids? And no matter how good you are, you're only as good as those five seventh and eighth grade linemen blocking for you. So we need them to feel believed in. We need them to feel empowered. We need the best versions of them if you are going to run for a bunch of touchdowns. So the communication, the direct nature of it, they're old enough to start processing that and they go, yeah, yeah, coach, no, I'm good. Yeah, you can coach me. You can coach me because I need the left guard to block. You know what I mean? Like, and it, it builds over time. And I think that's the fun of it. Like, that's the part of it that I love the most.

How do you, how do you treat your, your son's expectations? We talk about that with, you know, Alex's son is, is a freshman quarterback following in Pop's footsteps. You know, my son's 6, 8 and dunking the basketball. So we, we talk about just as, as dad. So how do you step away from being coach Coach Greg to being dad and setting the expectation for your, for your kids?

It's hard and I probably don't do as good a job of it as I should. There's a lot of moments of like reflection where I'm like every once in a while, as much as I'm signing up to coach all of these kids and get them all better. Like I am a dad, right? Like I do have an obligation to my three kids to get them to be the best versions of themselves and not get lost. And I'm spending so much time and energy trying to put this 50 man team together. But I'm also a dad. Like I also got to make sure my kids are being developed accordingly or this is not worth any of our time. So that's a hard balance that I don't always probably get right. There's probably moments where I over swing the pendulum and I come down too hard on them. I'm like trying to prove a point and like it'll come at their disposal as opposed to it probably wasn't their fault. But like it's easy to yell at your own kid because you don't got to answer to anybody. So like there's times we probably haven't handled all of that correctly. But as far as like messaging in our house, like we don't discuss being college athletes. We don't discuss being the best player on the team. We don't, we never discuss any of those when I go to their, you know, so my, my, my eighth grade son and my seventh grade daughter are on the school basketball teams at Christmas Christian. And like I'm not involved with the teams. I'll go pick them up 20 minutes early and just watch the end of practice or whatnot every once in a while. And I say I don't. It's not about how many baskets you score in the car. It's like, did you run back on defense when you dribbled it off your foot? Did you hang your head and walk back or did you sprint back and catch the guy in the fast break? How many rebounds did you get? How many, how many balls did you steal? Like we're going to preach effort. We're going to preach process. We're going to preach like, hey dad, I couldn't make a basket. Well, I don't know. The last time I saw you shoot in the, in the backyard. Like, what makes you think you're gonna score. Like, you know, I went 0 for 3 in my game, and I want to have a pity party after baseball. And I'm like, well, we got a batting cage in the basement. When was the last time did you use it? And if the answer is yes, and you put the work in and you got your shots up and you went out and did your ball handling, and whatever season it is, like, if the result of the game's not good, we can live with that, because that's going to be the nature of sport. But I have no patience for, like, oh, my God, I didn't play good. Oh, coach didn't start me. I got moved out of the lineup. Well, my first question is, well, what work did you do to expect a better result? So, like, I am all up to them about, like, put the work in. Work your ass off. Put all the skill. And then whatever role you have on your team in the moment, maximize that role to its fillest. And then once you do that, hopefully your coach can recognize you and maybe your role will grow to the next level. To the next level. And if you just do that forever, like we say in our house, like, just get better forever, like, however long that is, who knows? But just keep. Get better indefinitely, and let's see how good you can get. And if you do that, you're a success. And you might never play past jv, you might not play past varsity, or you might become a pro. Who knows? Success is not based on the outcome. Success is based on, did you maximize everything you were born with? Your size, your athleticism, your. Whatever your talent is? Did you maximize that? And if the answer is yes, whatever the end of your journey is, is great. Like, you don't have to be a success just because you got a college scholarship. Maybe that wasn't in your cards, but you were a hell of a high school player. That's success in my mind. And that's how we try to preach it. But that's hard. Like, that's not how kids look at success. They look at success. How many points did I score? How many hits did I get? How many touchdowns did I throw? And it's. That's a hard one to fight when I'm preaching, like, habits warm up. Did you stretch? How was your pregame routine? What did you eat? What did you sleep? And you're like, dad, why does that matter? I scored 20. And I'm like, because you're not always going to score 20.

Yep.

So, like, we just see it very different than how the young Kids do the hard part.

I think, with us three that's unique is our kids all walk around. Like, again, I talk about expectations. Like, when I started playing quarterback as a freshman in high school, like, I had no expectations for myself. Nobody had any expectations for me. Like, again, I was just trying to be the freshman quarterback. Like, and it was nice because it kept it very, like, you know, in the moment, all our kids hear buzz, right? Like, I mean, could you imagine your last name is Badier and you're on a basketball court, right? Like, everybody knows who you are. Like, you're. Hey, that's Craig Olson's kid, right? Like, his dad played 14 years in the NFL. Like, you know, I'm saying, like, there. And none of that. It is what it is, right? Like, that's not changing. But those are things that our. Our kids, I do think deal with. And I. And I have no idea the best way to handle it as a parent, as a dad. Right. Like, again, helping them navigate that, because, again, it was. No, I didn't. It's not what we necessarily grew up with, you know, and so that's something that I struggle with. And I don't even know if there's a question posed there, but, like, it's just something that, like, again, weighs on me as my son starts his freshman journey and again wants to play qb.

Oh, makes total sense. And that's why when all. When all hits the fan and there's distraction and there's out, as hard as this is, like, and again, I learned this probably the hard way just through years of playing and having bad games and good games and good seasons and bad seasons and everything in between. Like, if you just go back to just focus on the work, like, all of the energy is the work, and if. And again, at 40 is a lot different than at 13, where, like, did you hear that the eighth grader down the street got his first offer from Syracuse? Like, that's real. Yes, that's real. And Shane said it before, like, kids are transferring. We got kids in Charlotte that are transferring mid football season. We have kids that are starting as quarterbacks in public schools in North Carolina. And after week six, their team's not doing so hot, and they're starting the next Friday night for a different team. It's batshit crazy. I say all of that true, but I. Oh, it's 100% happening all over North Carolina. It's a disaster. But anyway, I say all of that to say, like, if we can ground our kids in the moment of work, I have an 8th grade son right now who's 5 7, and he walks out of these 14U travel baseball tournaments. And his team is pretty competitive and they travel and play and like, everyone's like, oh, which one's your kid? And there's the six one kid and there's the 14 year old who's. And I'm like, and my kid walks out and he's like, dad, I don't get it. Like, all these other kids are 4 inches taller than their dad. And you're big and mom's big. I said, buddy, this is not a race to 13 years old.

Yes, exactly.

Like, this is not a race to see who's the best 8th grade basketball player.

No prize for it.

Dude, I'm just, you got to trust me on this because I know right now you're living and dying, looking around, saying, I don't have what they. Dude, you got to maximize your gifts. You need to maximize your opportunities, your access, your everything that's in your control. Develop the hell out of those skills. And one day, if you're 6:2 and you're 6:3, you're gonna be just fine. But it's just so hard to get them to not compare themselves to their peers. Especially nowadays when it's so easy. Like when we grew up, you just compared yourself to the best player of the other team in town. These kids can compare themselves to every eighth grade player in the entire country in five minutes. It's just very different.

Well, Greg, our traditional last question on Glue Guys is we celebrate all the people kind of behind the scenes that keep it all together. Like you said earlier, Keecley, ultimate glue guy. You're a glue guy. Who are the glue guys and gals and glue people in your life?

Well, my wife for sure. I mean, she's dealt with. We met in college, you know, we were dating our freshman year in college. We met pretty early on, dated throughout college, moved to Chicago when I got drafted, got married and, you know, had kids. And so we've been on this whole thing from the beginning. She's been with me in college when I thought I was going to be a first round pick. She's been with me in college when I didn't know if I was ever going to even play on the scout team, you know, days coming home after I dropped like two balls against Florida State and the season opener, saying, holy shit, I'm never gonna play ever again. And like, you're sitting in a dorm room like, so she's been with me through all of these ups and Downs and great career moments and bad career moments and my craziness. And she's still dealing with my craziness now as I'm, like, obsessing over football or baseball. And I'm. And I always say to her, like, oh, man, only one more game of football and then I'm done. And I'm gonna have so much time. And she looks at me, she's like, you're gonna find something else to obsess about. Like, you're right. But, like, so she, I mean, she makes it all go. So that's like the easy one in our family. Like, we're not doing any of this. The life we've lived, the things we get to do. I'm gonna. After I'm done with you guys, I'm gonna go spend the next four hours at school coaching varsity football with kids, and not even any of my kids are on. And she's gonna be driving kids back and forth from practice like, it's. The only way it works is to have everybody on the same page and support it. So that's. That's an easy answer. Great.

Can we, can we, can I fib on this? Can we, can we go one more? I've always wanted to know this, and this is awesome.

Yeah.

Okay. If you're from New Jersey.

Right?

Right. And again, like, yeah, talk the story of your dad coaching you and hard and your brother, you know, throwing you touchdowns. And I'm like, I really want to know the real answer. No. Bullshit. How did you end up at the University of Miami? Because I, I. To me, I know you. Like, there was Notre Dame maybe in the picture there early. Like, there are so many schools where I feel like, you know, it. Again, like, not that my. Nothing wrong with Miami, Greg, but, you know, the University of Miami.

How have, have you been to Coral Gables, Alex? I lived in Coral gables for, for 10 years. All right? I dare you to walk through the campus of, of the U and not be like, hm, this is an interesting place. So I, you know, I don't know Greg's answers, but I've walked, I've walked my dog through the campus. It's a beautiful campus. It's, it's. The weather's perfect. We got palm trees. Like, it's not that. It's not that crazy. Not that crazy.

Well, I, I agree with Shane in that regard. So the story is pretty interesting. So I am a rising sophomore. My brother's a rising junior. So this is the summer. Summer going into my sophomore year. I've never even played varsity Football yet. So at our high school back home, we had a freshman only team. So freshmen only played ninth graders. It didn't matter how good you were. My dad, if you were a ninth grader, you had your own two coaches, you had your own locker room, own practice, and you played. You were completely your own team. And then 10th through 12th graders, between them, you would play a sophomore game, a JV game, and a varsity game. So we would play four games every week. And it was just part of the development of the program and getting kids time and whatnot. So this was the summer going into my sophomore year, the hope was that I was going to find somewhere to play varsity. My brother was going to be the quarterback, and my dad, Greg Sciano went to Ramapo High School in Northern New Jersey, which was like the bitter rival. It's where Chris Simms went. They had some really good players over the years in Northern Jersey. So Greg played against my dad. My dad was the coach and Greg was the player at Ramapo. So fast forward, Greg's now the defensive coordinator for Butch Davis at the University of Miami. So they were Alabama, Georgia, Ohio State of the early 2000s. So my junior year, they won the national title. My senior year, they lost the national title. But anyway, so going into my sophomore year, my dad takes us down to the University of Miami football camp as, like the first time we really got to see football outside of our comfort zone. Kids from all over the country, very different, very different kind of landscape. But back then, it was not like this one day camp. Pop in, take pictures, put on the chain, and then go off to the next school. We were there Monday through Friday, multiple practices, slept in the dorms, ate in the cafeteria, walked. It was like true football camp, true camp that we all know as kids. And leaving that camp, they were the first school to offer me and my brother. So they offered us. And fast forward Butch leaves to Butch leaves. Larry Coker takes over. They go on an unbelievable run. So, like, I always just loved Miami. I was a tight end, shocky Bubba Franks. Like, it was the really the only school in the country that was playing like real ball with the tight end. They were real innovative, they had the best players. And it just always connected with me. There was something about the energy, there was something about the kids that went there that I loved it. And then fast forward years later, they were one of my favorites. But I ended up going. My brother went to University of Notre Dame. So my senior year in high school, we would play on Friday nights. My parents would drive us out to South Bend. We'd watch him. I knew all the kids on the team, and I just experienced South Bend and Notre Dame, they had a great season under Tyrone Willingham. And I was like, you know what? Like, I love Miami, but I like Notre Dame enough that to play with my brother be, you know, he's the quarterback. My parents could come watch us. Like, that sounds special. So I enrolled there, signed my letter of intent, lasted like two months of summer workouts. Training camp ended. My brother decides to transfer to Virginia. And I'm like, I just got here. Like, what the. You know, like, packed up my car. My dad called. Larry Coker at the time was the head coach and said, hey, if you still have a scholarship, Greg's gonna, Greg's gonna leave Notre Dame. It just didn't work out. It's not where he wants to be. Larry said, done. I drove home, waited three days for the clearinghouse and ended up at Miami. And you know, the best thing about going to Miami was if you would have told me that I was ever going to play at Miami my freshman year, let alone play 14 years in the NFL, I would have said you were nuts. Right? Like that locker room that I walked into. You talk about ultra competitive. You talk about some real like alpha dudes in that locker room. If you're. Yeah, Frank Gore is the my guy backup. You know, our. My senior year, our four running backs were in high school, I'm saying, but in at Miami was Frank Gore, Clinton Portis, Willis McGahey. And they moved Najee Davenport and Willis McGee to fullback because Willis was the third string tailback behind Clinton and, and Frank, like we, my. I walk out scout team, my first ever day. There's. And we break the huddle and we were going to beat Florida. We were getting ready to play. The University of Florida was the first game I ever saw in live at Miami because I missed our opener. So I get there, I'm on the scout team, we break the huddle. It's Antrell Roll, Sean Taylor, Jonathan vilma, Vince Wilfork, D.J. williams. Kelly Jennings was a first round pick a couple years later. Like, I never thought in a million years that I would play there. But like the level of competition, the type of athlete, the type of just guys that they were, was the best thing for me because if I could make it in that locker room and make it in that environment, nothing in the NFL ever scared me. Nothing was ever going to be too big. And I learned a lot about figuring out a way to play if you were inferior Talent wise. I learned that very quickly that if I was going to get on the field, I was going to have to do shit these other guys weren't willing to do. And that was probably my only way to get on the field.

I tried to tell my son the two schools like back in the day was like, it was Miami and sc. I'm like, you don't you guys. All they know is Ohio State and Alabama at this point, you know.

Yeah, it was just the culture, the competition every single day, the talent on the field. You know. My, my freshman year at Miami, I redshirted. I obviously didn't play, but we set the record for having. We had six first round draft picks my freshman year. So on that, the first ever team that I ever was on, on that practice field on any given day, we had six first rounders in one year. And that's not including Antrell Roll, who was a first round pick. Kelly Jennings, who was a first round pick. I became a first round pick. John Beeson was a first round pick. Merriweather was a first round pick. I mean we probably over the next couple years we probably had 15 first round picks all on the field at the same time. It was, it was pretty cool, crazy.