1-on-1 with DP – 93.7 The Ticket KNTK - Barry Thompson (Fairfax Football Academy): May 19th, 10am

Episode Date: May 19, 2022

Got one of his kids into the professional ranks in footballAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

It's time to go one-on-one with D.P. Coming at you live from the Coppull Chevrolet GMC Studios. Here is your host, Derek Pearson, presented by Beatrice Bakery, on 93-7 The Ticket and the Ticketfm.com. Settle in. Buckle up, get something to drink, something to nibble on. Let's turn your brain on a little bit. We're going to ask for your help.

We're going to ask for your end. your inclusion and your opinion on how to get things right. And no matter what level of athletics we're talking about, immoral, recreation, varsity, collegiate, whatever professional. A thing has become more apparent to me along the way. that we need to be more purposeful and more focused on the important things. And the only problem is we have not determined what those important things are. There is a way for success to be had at all levels of sports, no matter the sport,

no matter of people involved. I want to get closer to that. I want to get closer to what actually makes things work. What makes things right? What makes things better? What make things best? People will take some of the conversation that money leads to success. No, money highlights the good and or bad in you.

If you take a bundle of cash and give it to a good person with good foundation, they will do good things with it for everyone. If you take a bundle of cash and give it to a bad person without traits and good qualities, they will do bad things with it and become selfish in it. Those are the rules. And whether it's sports or business or otherwise, and sports is becoming more business. out loud, transparent, visible, conscious, focused.

So we'll have this discussion. And the best way to get to that is to figure out the things that are most important in what we do. I've got a good co-pilot for this hour, brought to you by an ambitious lecture. And thank Joe Davis for making this hour of sports radio conversation happen. And because of that, we get to be able. bring him in on the Honda-Lincoln hotline. Let's give this man his music. The autumn wind is a pirate.

Blustering in from sea with a rollicking song he sweeps along, swaggering boisterously. His face is weather-beaten. He wears a hooded sash with a silver hat about his head and a bristling black mustache. He growls as he storms the country, a villain big and bold.

And the trees all shake and quiver and quake as he robs them of their gold. The autumn win is a raider, pillaging just for fun. He'll knock you round and upside down and laugh when he's conquered and won. Let's bring him in, Coach Barry Thompson. B-T, what's happening, man? Man, it's all good on the wood. Just got off the field. Thursday is a great day for me.

You know, I get out of the field early and then, you know, get to talk to you for an hour. It's, you know, some people wait for Friday. This is my Friday. I really enjoy it. Man, you are appreciated. It is, man. Again, there's value in it.

Folks here have figured out the value in it. And want to help sponsor this thing and take care of to make sure you get something for the work that you do. And it is appreciated. and thank you, ambition to lecture. Yeah, man, good folks along the way with that. I do want to wish Cassie Davis. Congratulations on her graduation from Norris

and off to do great things for this world and to us. So let's do that. We were having the conversation. Of course, Dick Saban, I don't want to bury a lead. Let's give congratulations to young Guy Meyer. Let's give congratulations to Fairfax Football Academy. You got one to be a professional, and that's great work. Yeah, he signed his contract yesterday, and I told I've got about four more quarterbacks.

I told them they're next, and we work with a really talented group of receivers that are going all over the place, and I told them that they're next, too. So it was good to see one of the tried to sign his contract and get his equipment, you know, all the excitement that goes to that stuff. But he got down to work yesterday. I talked to him last night, and he was sitting back, you know, formations and plays and protections. He'd already sat with the starter,

and they have a two quarterback system. He sat with both quarterbacks, and he's going through his first meetings today, and, you know, breakfast meeting, team meeting, offensive meeting. They'll have a new practice, a lift, and then he'll try to figure out what it means to become a professional quarterback.

very happy form. Congratulations to Guy Meyer. Again, New Jersey Generals. And I don't want to bury the fact that the accomplishment can also be measured by the length of the journey to get there. Yeah. Right? That it identifies that there is a way for you, no matter who you are, where you are,

what your current circumstance or consequence, to get to where, to a higher level. guy didn't go the traditional path. He didn't go to a Power 5 school. He didn't get the high ratings. He simply got to work and had to good people around him. But let's talk about how far the journey is because that lets us have the next conversation I want to have. How far did he go to get to where he just arrived? There was a while ago, I think that kind of describing to the audience, probably familiar.

There was a meme that was going around a long time ago or not a few years ago. and it was of a graph. And it started at the corner of the graph, like at the zero-zero point. And it went straight at a 45-degree angle upward. And it says that part said what people think success looks like. And then right next to it was another graph that started to zero-zero-zero point. But it did not take the straight 45-degree climb. It went, you know, backwards and up and went curly twos and this and that.

But all the time, it was slowly moving up. And I think, and they said that's what success really looks like. And I think in a nutshell, that's it for Guy. I mean, you know, he, forget the high school years. He enters high school. He's 5'2, weighs 100 pounds. And, you know, so who's thinking anything, but maybe him. Right.

He exits. He's 6, 4, 6.5. He's still really thin. in between learning disability. Never a bad kid, but just never took school seriously. So there he's sitting there talented, and he doesn't have the grades. So off to Juko, you go. Well, most of the time when you go to Juko, you leverage that in to, you know,

division, you know, FCS or FDF or he doesn't. He goes to another Juko. And then, okay, so the second Juko, you're going to leverage that into something. You know, he doesn't. He goes Division II. So he does well there. He does well at Neo, does well at Charleston. But then to make it even tougher,

he ends his career at Charleston without the three things that most guys who get started on this path need. You need an agent. You need to have a pro day. And if all possible, you get into a senior bowl game. Well, he leaves school with his degree, but he doesn't leave with any other three things. Right.

So he literally just declares himself draft eligible. And I should tell you something. I think we're going to get into this idea of vision. But he declares himself draft eligible. And he's moving and looking and searching. And the first thing gets this guy from National Scouting Combine kind of find out where he is. And they offer to kind of help him get to the Combine to Indianapolis.

As he gets that lined up, he's poking around with asking around. and we land on a very, very, just a absolute perfect agent for him. We call him J.O. at GHG Sports, and he's a guy who specializes in handling the guys that fill out these rosters from small schools. So he knows how this works. So we landed the perfect spot. Eventually he gets a pro day, and then he gets to work. It costs money to train, right?

Normally you ship belt to something. You don't have that type of budget. So the training part took place with me and a guy named Josh Chamberlain at Accelerate. So he had his own kind of team there. And that was the team that we made work. He crushed the combine. He scored the highest that they had tested in 11 years. So the people started talking about them.

And then he goes down to another combine called ANC that was timed right after all the scouts finished their pro days. And there were a few guys around the Atlanta area. and he crushed it again. And luckily, the director of player personnel, I get it wrong, but a higher up in the USFL pulled them aside and said, I'm putting you on this list, whatever that meant. But it was something to admit again.

And then it's patient because the alouettes are calling and the XFL likes them, and you're sitting there and you're going almost a year without playing football. And so now you're starting to think, okay, well, these things should happen, but I don't want to go with your football. It's just not good. Right. So now you're looking at the arena and stuff, and all of a sudden, when he's going to another workout, the phone rings. And it's the general manager of the general. And he says, we're making a roster change. They're expanding all the rosters by five people.

As soon as that's done, I'm bringing you down. It's guaranteed. And he's off and running. A lot in that story. And I think that league's full of them. There's another guy named Vlad Lee, who I've known since he was an 11 quarterback. And he has a phenomenal story. So it's not uncommon.

It's more common than people think. But it takes a vision. It takes showing up every day. You have to have a plan. You have to have access to expertise. And you have to have some patience and obviously a little bit of life. It's all of that stuff, Barry, and when there's like here Nebraska, you're talking about a blue blood program where this stuff matters. And they were blessed, right, to have two of the greats to ever do it carry a 30-year block of time, right?

And you assume that everybody has what they have because for a generation of Husker fans, that's all they know is a high level. success, right? That's what you think. You think, hey, Bob DeVanis and Tom Osmerens fall off the trees. And they're easy to get to. And you can, you can expect that kind of level of greatness from everybody. But we missed the thing that they both had. And I said you, the standard of the program then wasn't talent. It was the leadership and talent. And in order to get back to that, they're going to have to assess how it is. they're going to do business and what they expect from them. So I asked RICO the question.

I asked Mark the question. They both came up with different answers. And I can't wait to have you give you your five on this thing. But I ask because for all the talent in the world, you got to have a coach. You got to have a coach. Yeah. Right? Yeah.

But most people never ask what is a coach? And amongst that, what are the five things that make each coach, each great coach, great. What is the thing? And without that, as a fan, you have no idea what you're cheering for or what to expect. Like there's no accountability without those things, right? If you don't know what your leadership is, no matter what resources you put behind it, you still, it is the pool. I'll ask you. I'm sorry,

you perfectly described me as the Raider fan. Right? I'm just a Raider fan. I don't know what I'm cheering for other than the Raiders, right? Yeah, yeah. Then you got to ask, because at some point you've got to ask the question.

And for Husker fans, and what we both want for Husker fans is to get their true value and true work. Like for the work being done within the program to match the fanaticism and passion of the fan base. they deserve right so if I asked you

sir five things that will probably appear or be apparent in a great coach I think there might be three for me okay and we'll probably get the five

but there is absolutely no zero leadership without vision that you can stop there if the person in charge doesn't have a firm picture in their head of where this is going, who's going to follow you?

Nobody. So there is absolutely no leadership without vision. The other thing that when you look at coaches that makes them good, they are great managers of people. And so now from there, you can. construct a long list of, you know, things about integrity and caring about people and, you know, how they manage it. They were all going to do it different.

But they are great managers of people. You look at situations. Go back and stand in it. So you look at the Bulls when Michael was there, right? Doug Collins is a fine coach. So Jackson comes in. and you got to see close up through 30 for 30 how he managed those people

how he managed that whole thing there was little discussion about the triangle and that whole piece these are people that are involved and why would somebody as gifted as Michael follows somebody like Phil right

you look at the Lakers before Phil got there Kobe and Shaq were there. Del Harris is a fine coach, right? But Phil gets there, and he knows how to manage those two personalities. Pat Riley had done it over and again. These guys do not grow on trees. They don't.

They're great coaches. You go back to everybody's fond of the Patriots now, but you've got to remember, Belichick went to Cleveland, and that thing didn't work out with a lot of good coaches, learn lessons from it, and then, you know, they go, he signs with the jets and says no, and then he goes to New England. And New England was not good. They were not good. But here he is.

He steps in. He has a vision of how this is going to operate. And however he does it, he manages all those coaches and he manages all those people, and those people work together and they're winning. So no vision without leadership, no leadership without vision. so the coach has got to have vision. He's just got to be a great measure of people. And those, those are just the really important things.

I mean, I'm just trying to, obviously, if you're a great measure of people, you have to be honest, right? You have to be accountable. You have to have integrity, right? You have to know what you're doing, right? If you don't know what you're doing, you know, people aren't going to follow you. You have to have expertise, right? You have to be able to delegate.

you know, you have to be growing people all over. You've got to be a great problem solver, right? The higher up than the authority that you get in coaching, the less you're coaching. The more you're just solving problems. Barry, let me give you the two. So we have some folks. And again, text line, you guys can add to the conversation and different folks.

So RICO came up with integrity, knowledge, people management, being able to recruit, and then actually, knowing how to win. Mark came up with knowledge of the game, ability to teach, relate to the players beyond the game, ability to motivate, self-awareness, humility, to fill deficiencies.

Those spaces, right, if we get to common ground in that, and we get caught up with all the distraction, right? We get caught up with all the minutia of fantasy numbers and, you know, win over raid and all the other stuff. But all of those are

just simply the pimple. to the diet and clean or living. All of that is just, those are just, those are symptoms and not the cause. So the word that I want you to focus on and think about here, well, I'm going to throw it to break, but I want to give you time to think about these two words. A coach's ability to learn and a coach's curiosity.

Think about those two things. We will talk about that in the greatness as a coach. When we come back, Barry Thompson joins us here for this hour of one-on-one. Download our app by searching 93.7, The Ticket, in your app store. You're listening to One-on-One with DP on 937 The Ticket in the Ticketfm.com.