1-on-1 with DP – 93.7 The Ticket KNTK - Coach Ron Brown - 3/15/2024

Episode Date: March 16, 2024

Coach Ron Brown - 3/15/2024Advertising 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 couple Chevrolet GMC Studios. Here is your host, Derek Pearson. Brought you by Mary Ellen's Food for the Soul. On 93-7 The Ticket and the Ticketfm.com. Happy Friday. Congratulations, you made it. You got through that journey of yours this week.

You got through the friction. You got through the friction. the drama, you made it. It is time for you to take a deep breath and exhale. You made it to Friday, the dawn of it. You did your thing. Well done. Well done.

Well done. 402, 464, 5685. Sarder-Hamond, text on you want to join in? You want to be heard? Listen, it's a great one to be heard because on the text on tonight, you get to text in, ask questions to. The word, is overused.

The legend. Coach. Ron. Brown. How? How are you? How are you? I'm so deep.

I have the loud. He's like, who is he talking about? I keep saying, I'm not a legend. Well, here's the thing. Here's what I know to be true.

That in times of chaos, there's long lines of and lessons learned. And you have been through the fire, you have walked on heated stone, you have gone through the cold days and nights, you have gotten through the darkest days of Nebraska athletics and gotten to the brightest.

If a thing can happen in this athletic department, you have seen it, and you have talked people through it. You let them through it, and you did it when people didn't know that you were the voice of leadership. They didn't know when it was your hand that opened up to people, to young people, who were often lost, misdirected, misguided, misplaced. And in a chaotic world, they reached out their hand to Coach Brown. And Coach Brown gave them wisdom, he gave them love.

He gave them direction. All of that is the statement of truth, and that is some legendary stuff, Coach. Well, first of all, thank you for your voted confidence, DP. I appreciate that. I thought I've seen it all, but I obviously haven't. And I would say that, you know, I've come up with a little bit of a foundational saying for me here in the last few years. I need to be heavy on the truth and light on my feet. keep it moving

keep it moving yeah and I really think that life is like that you know sometimes we think everything's just the same it's all mundane this that and the other but then all of a sudden boom we hit a we hit a pothole

and the wheel flies off and everything else and then you realize you know this has happened more than once and it will continue to happen and I think we are to a degree called to be heavy on the truth and light on our feet and if we're not then the fall hurts even more and it takes a little longer to get back up well

you fall more lightly than most because you have a foundation to work from you're you've got a solid core to work from and i think that gets missed like people think that okay when drama happens uh how you bounce back and recall from it but look your foundation is good because you know why you're here you know what your mission is you know what you're doing and why you do it. You know, there's a Bible verse that says, keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it come the issues of life.

And I'm beginning to see in my older age here that things don't work outside in. They really work inside out. And what's, you know, it's, again, that car that's sitting in the driveway that looks good, it looks like it goes fast. It's beautiful,

but you better look under the hood to make sure there's an engine in there that can run. And be careful what gas you're putting in it. That's a good one. Right? They tell you, check the car back. You better know who really owned it. That's right. You better understand who made decisions about that car before you got it.

Because a lot of what happened to you. is the kind of confusion between the people, the process and the purpose that in the athletic department, and the people who listen to this show and this station are fans of the games and the people who play them. They're fans of the game and the people who play them.

And then what you hope is that the people who are leading them, are as good of heart and character as they are about what they love and who they love. You want coaches and leadership to love on the young people in their charge the way you do. Well, again, I'm thankful for the opportunity to even be here. I love the state. I love the mission of sports. and the fact that the Lord put me in there,

I don't even think I had a say in it. I think I just have always loved Ball since I was just a little boy. You know what I mean? You know, so much, obviously, of what goes on in our life is God ordained, I believe. But, you know, I think my desire, D.P., really is to be a pointer and not, you know,

I'm not a source. I'm just hopefully a conduit of the source and a pointer of the directions that, you know, to the best of my ability we can see at that moment, just nuggets of wisdom, which for me comes from my relationship with the Lord and my study in his word. You said a thing, and before the show, you were talking to my wife, Rebecca, and her dad is one of the greatest human beings I've ever known. And he gave me a thing, and I use the quote all the time.

He says, if you're looking for me, don't miss me, look forward and up because that's where everything good is. And when I reach a point of friction, I have to use that thing, the good thing, to propel me forward and up. If I don't know which way to go, go forward and up. That should be the mission. That should be the task. That should be the purpose.

I like that. I like that saying, but look forward and up. In fact, you know what it reminded me of? I was sharing this with my wife if they actually made. I did what my basketball coach did for me in the sixth grade. He said, look, son, you've got an opportunity maybe to be a good player. So what he did is he, his first basketball present to me wasn't even a ball. It was a pair of glasses.

He had a pair of sunglasses. He punched out the glass, and he put tape on the bottom of the glass. And he said, put these on, and here's a ball, and I start dribbling. Well, I was used to dribbling with my head down looking at the ball. And he said, look, can you see the ball? He said, I can't see the ball. I said, coach, I need to see the ball. He said, no, you don't.

That's the problem. You're dribbling the ball and you're missing a good ball game, man. So get your eyes up. And I believe that's true in life. I believe that when your eyes are constantly down here on planet Earth, and you're making comparisons, and you're always battling other people for rebound position, and compare, you know, this, I need that, I need what he's got, and what about me, and I'm in my feelings, and what about me?

And it's all of that. I realize that my eyes need to be up. They need to be at the Lord, and that's where my help comes from. And then it's like putting on the oxygen mass, I can now breathe well enough maybe to help somebody else. Through all of that, right? That the vision, and this week has been a weird week. There's no other way to say that, to describe. this week.

Chaotic. There are some folks who felt some pain, found some questions. And I thought it was important for this station to point. To point

that don't forget the young people who you cheer for. Don't forget the people who get you to reach in your pocket and buy tickets for you to take your time, spend your gas money, come to Memorial State and PBA, the Vanney Center.

Don't forget the coaches that love the fans, the way the fans love them. You'll get caught up in the policy and the politics. But my coaching mission has always been never choose the game over the people. and if we work from that, it's how we get through that any player that comes to you is a person before he's a player. And if you don't acknowledge that, then you cannot have an authentic conversation with him.

Your truth doesn't matter if you don't acknowledge him as a person before you acknowledge him as a player. Is that a statement of truth or not? Absolutely. And I love what you said. You said it isn't just getting through. It's how we get through. You know, we like to check off the box I got through.

Yeah. But you know what? It's like that movie, I think it was Braveheart, where William Wallace says, I want to die well. I want to die well. Life does not guarantee that everything's going to fall into your lap. And you're going to live, you're going to die, you're going to have many days of living and dying,

hiring and firing, staying and leaving. And it's going to, it's going to, but there's, there is a, a how you do those things with. It's not the quantity of something or the frequency of something or the fact that something just happened. It is the quality of your response. It's the quality of how you deal with that situation. It's, and I'm convinced, DP, more than ever now, because we can't control everything, we are very response-oriented.

And so if the response can be very good or it can be very bad, and very bad responses lead to all kinds of poor issues down the road, a great response gives you the best chance for rebound. It's necessary. Yes. It's necessary. And again, if you're out there listening, you have a question for Coach Brown, just put it on the text line.

I'll read it to them. We'll get through it. But there's a big part in the thing that you just said, because how you get through. through. You know, I have friends that I talk you, you have to grow through what you go through. You can't just get through. You have to grow through it. And that friction is required for growth. So that when you, if you're trying to change your situation and circumstance, you have to change. You can't just expect it. You can't just want it. And to expect better from yourself, you have to ask better of yourself.

So the University of Nebraska Athletic Department and the university itself reached a point of friction and frustration this week. And you can talk about the individual people. You can talk about the groups. I think the way to make sure that this never happens again is to go back to the beginning and tell me what is most important. What is most important? What is the purpose of the universe? What's the purpose of the athletic department? What is the purpose of the coaches and leaders, the grownups in the room?

Because the grownups in the room, you say you can roll black family. They'll tell you the grownups get to set the temperature in the room. You touch my thermostat. We've grabbed my fight. Right? So the leadership gets to set the temperature of the room. Coach, what can be done? What do you say to Husker Nation today?

on a Friday after the week that they've had. You're going to point to them to give them something else to focus on. Instead of the drama, instead of the chaos, what do you say to Husker Nation to make them heal, feel better, kind of change their focus, get their eyes to a newer, better, greater thing? Well, you know, I wish it would be congruous with everyone. a one statement, a one size fits all, probably doesn't. But, you know, to live in the woulda, could, or shoulda,

is a, it's just a, that's an endless, um, uh, empty route to go. And, and so I, I, you know, I, my, my whole thing is, is that I've got all that I need. I've got all that I need to live. rightly before God and maximize the ability, talent, and situation that he's given me. So I can live circumstance free and not circumstance based. If I have to rely on this person staying or leaving or this happening financially or this happening even in the weather, if I have to just kind of govern all that and make all that happen,

I'll go out of my mind, D.P., we'll fail, and we do fail. But when I can trust the Lord God with all of that stuff, every little thing in my life, no matter what happens, now I can do some bloody living. Like the living part, our humanity is based on us being flawed at our core. You can't help it. It wasn't, you can't outgrow your makeup in the origin.

but what you can do, what you choose, and who you surround yourself with, and how you're active in it, what you actually do? What is the thing that when you get up and you say, you know what, it's another day. I live by, I have a shirt in my closet that I never wear,

but I see it all the time. And it says, I'm undefeated. I've never faced a thing or a day that beat. and we carry stress and fear with us. But when I wake up every day, I say thank you because it's another one. And that's all I can ask for is one more day. And so I say thank you because it's another day. The thing that stressed me yesterday didn't get me.

So you learn after a while, what am I afraid of? like it's what is your thing that helps you get up in the morning and go i think what i need to do every day and i know not everybody would agree with me but you know what i'm i'm not here i'm not i'm not here to to recruit anybody right but i would say that i need to dust off the scoreboard every day and what i mean by that what i mean by that d p is that i cannot force anyone to believe what I believe or anyone to believe in who they should believe in my opinion. But one thing I can do is that I can be a part of dusting off the scoreboard so that everybody can see who's the winner and who's the loser. And when I do that, I realize that God is the winner

and I am the loser. And people don't like to hear that. But you know what, man? The Bible says if a man will lose his life for the sake of Christ, he will gain it. He will win it. And so that's why, like I said, I prefaced this statement with not everybody's going to believe this. But you ask me what I do, what I believe, and I have to be honest about what I believe.

This is your hour, sir. This is your hour speaking how you speak it. So it's not user-friendly, but, you know, there's another verse in the Bible on Philippians 4.3, 13 that says, I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength. And that verse sometimes gets thrown out of whack, I think out of context, DP, but really what it means is that I can bear up under anything with the strength of Christ. So whatever gets slapped on me, another weight, another this, another that, and it seems like I couldn't take another five pounds of weight on me.

Here comes 15 more. But because of Christ, I can bear up under it. That's who gives me the strength to do it. That's why I get my strength. On my own, I can't do it. But that's the thing. Like in a week of difficulty, this community and the people who love Husker athletics and they love Lincoln and they love Nebraska, they took, they had to look in the mirror and reassess everything that they loved and cared about and then have to figure out how to get through. And there was, I was on a speaker's group this Monday, but believe it was. And I said I had found a new life hack, which meant that I needed to fall in love with my day every day, as it is. I had to fall in love with my day as it is every day that some days

I'm going to be a bit disheveled. I'm going to be a little bit weaker. Some days I'm going to pick the wrong outfit. I'm going to trip walking down the street. I'm going to eat the wrong thing. I'm going to have the wrong craving. But if it was given, to me in full, it's a pretty amazing day once I accept that it's my day. Yeah. And you're talking about that friction that happens during the course of a day. I think one of the great challenges of life that we should all, that we should all take part in, is turning the friction into traction.

if that takes place then actually what was meant as evil or bad turns into the leverage for good it's actual fuel that's exactly it's the actual fuel and I said that because listen at a time where Husker athletics you're you've had a great weekend last week and women's basketball they surpassed

any expectation by making it to the championship tournament championship. The men are having the greatest season they've had since 19, you know, 94, 95, 96, 97. They got a chance to do something pretty exceptional this weekend and next. Baseball, RPI off the chart. You've got the best softball player in the country wearing the scarlet and cream. Mark Manning and the hut wrestling team sitting third in the big 10, fifth in the country. You've got some amazing stories.

some amazing young people, some great leaders, some great coaches that you would put this coaching, if you lined up the coaches at Nebraska and had them face to face to any program in the country, you're pretty comfortable in the good people that represent you. Don't get lost in somebody else's foolishness and some other distraction. It's good to see that some things need to change. You know, I remember years ago, D.P. When I got really low here in the football department. In fact, it was 1990.

And when I got here in 1987, we were a top 10 team. We won most all of our games, but we would always lose either to Oklahoma at the end of the year. and then to Miami and the bowl game or some one of those great Florida teams or what have you. And so people were always a little bit down in the mouth, even though we were 11 and 1 or 10 and 2 or whatever it was. But we were usually the top 10 team, but in 1990 we lost to Georgia Tech in the Citrus Bowl.

And we had lost prior to that to, we lost to Colorado late in the season. and a game here that we, and then we went down in Oklahoma and lost to them. So everybody was down on us. And I remember, I never thought I would hear this. We finished number 24 in the country that year. Coach Osborne,

we all came into the office, getting ready to go out recruiting and all this, and Coach Osborne said, listen, boys, he said, if you guys need to go and get jobs, you probably ought to do it. He says,

because there's a good chance we'll get fired. and we all sat there and just looked at each other. And we just shook our heads because none of us could believe it. You know, some of those, and I was a young guy, but Solich and Teneper and Young and McBride and Darlington. You know, all those guys, they were all sitting there. And everybody just was hard mouth, kind of quiet. But you know what? Nobody left.

And you know what? Coach Osborne turned that friction into traction. In other words, we started the union. community council then. There was some bursts that came out of the death. There was a death and there was resurrection. Amen. And that program was never the same after that.

Now, we didn't automatically start winning national championships, but there was a recovery. You had to go through that. We had to go through that. We had to go through that stuff. It was low. It was dark. It was like, you know what? Is there anywhere else that we can be used and people will appreciate it?

Because even though we were nine and three that year, finishing 20, fourth in the nation, it didn't meet the standard that people wanted from us. They wanted us to be national champions, and we hadn't done that yet. So nine and three would sound pretty good for a lot of teams. For most. But for us, it was a downer. But what I loved was, we talked about this already today. Coach, I was born's response. It wasn't, I give up. He was gracious enough to tell us the truth and said, if you guys need to leave, I understand it. I'm not going to sit here and try to hold on to you. but we're going to be circumstance-free here. And I loved what took place.

And within a couple years, DP, we're in the national championship game, and then we've soared for three national titles in the next four years. And you said it, we needed to go through that to launch it. So sometimes what looks bad is the very, that friction is the very traction that you need to really maximize your God-given talent. This is how I know that you having voice on this station is so vital because all of the journeys and stories and lessons learned sometimes need a reminder. Sometimes it needs to be echoed and bellied and just bellowed at the top of the long day. You know what?

Growth requires friction. It just does. And this is just one of those moments. I don't think Husker Nation is weak enough to be succumbed by this week's friction. I think, as we said, you use it, you find a way to propel. Hopefully, forward and up is where we go. We'll take questions for Coach Brown, and we'll talk a little bit more about this week because this week requires that Coach Brown give us some guidance.

And he said, we need for him to point us in the next direction. We'll be right back. You're listening to One-on-One with DP. Brought you by Mary Ellen's Food for the Soul on 937 the Ticket and the Ticketfm.com. Coach Ron Brown is with us. One, one on a Friday. Trying to give you some nourishment

and some food to take it to your weekend. You know, it makes you feel better. If you eat good food, you feel better. And so Coach Brad is giving you some nuggets. You know what makes you hungry, DP? What's that? Eating, man. You got to eat, man.

That's what you do. makes you hungry. You know, the folks here, Husker Nation has gone through a week. It is a week. Coach, can I ask you what, when a young, when a football player comes to you and says, coach, I'm struggling. I'm struggling. How are you able to put down everything else to simply say, I'm here for you? Well, I think you literally do have to put down everything else for you because that's exactly what I told is mom and dad when we're recruiting them. Integrity says that integrity means it comes from the root word integer which means we're not fractions. We're not partial. We are whole numbers. One is a whole number cannot be divided. So what

one thinks, what is, it should be what one says, should be what one does, should be what one is. And so all of that is a connection. And so when we fragment that, when we are partial, when we tell a kid something that really isn't true, that's a lack of integrity. And so integrity is huge and it probably, as much as anything else, breaks the backs of relationships. It's the it's the bendability. You know, it's the difference between a cheerleader and an umpire. And this is not an affront on cheerleaders, but cheerleaders are going to cheer.

Think about this. If you, if an umpire makes a bad call and it goes in favor of the cheerleading team, they're going to be chairing. They're on cheer. So there's a role for cheerleaders, but umpires can't be cheerleaders. An umpire has to be an integrist man or woman that calls, balls and strikes. You got to call a good game in life. And so the balls and strikes are not just

behind home plate. They're in everything we do on our jobs, off our jobs, in the recruiting, how we're dealing with in the athletic department, what we say, what we do, what we think. It's all about that. Coach, is it true that everything in sports? So let's talk about, you know, programs that you've been a part of. That everything is either coached or allowed. Yeah. Yeah, we used to have a sign up in our offices that said whatever you see on film is either coached or allowed. And so that was always convicting because I think so many times we want to take that index finger

when something goes wrong or we want to point it at somebody. But we need to bring back the thumb and point the thumb in a lot of situations. That's so good. That is so good. That is so good. You know what? Like, put that on a shirt. That needs to be on a shirt.

Like, let's bring back the thumb. When I think of the index finger, I think of that on the Wizard of Oz, at which with that boning long finger that shit. Yeah, yeah. Pointing it at people. Less fingertip more thumb. There you go. There's a thing.

There's a thing that found me today. And it's a Walt Whitman quote, but it's also actually I think it's in the system Ben if you would look in the system under but probably under old school but there's the thing that it's Walt Whitman and uh Ted Lasso is a is a TV show about a coach who goes over to Britain and in that Ted Lasso says a thing that stopped me in my tracks because I felt it for Husker fans going through this week and it says be curious not judgmental. And he then proceeds to tell the story of how he's often not seen.

People see him less than he is because they aren't curious to ask who he actually is. And I went, oh, I felt that. Like I felt I received that. That we spend a lot of time as fans judging situations. circumstance that we're not familiar with or not connected to. We should be curious about the things that are good in Nebraska athletics. We should be curious about the things that need changing. Ben, if you would, go ahead and play that.

I think it's in the system. Guys have underestimated me my entire life. And for years, I never understood why. I used to really bother me. But then one day I was driving my little boy to school, and I saw this quote by Walt Whitman. painted on the wall there, it said, be curious, not judgmental.

I like that. So I get back in my car and I'm driving to work, and all of a sudden it hits me. All them fellas that used to belittle me, not a single one of them were curious. You know, they thought they had everything all figured out, and so they judged everything, and they judged everyone. And I realized that they're underestimated me

who I was had nothing to do with it. Because if they were curious, they would ask questions. You know? Questions like, have you played a lot of darts, Ted? Which I would have answered, yes, sir. Every Sunday afternoon at a sports bar with my father from age 10 to all 16 when he passed away. Barbecue sauce. Like, we all have that thing, right, where somebody challenged him to a darts contest for something important.

thinking as he pulls out his own dart set that this dude can't be where I am. And it was not curious enough to ask first. Hey, you play darts? Are you good at darts? Yeah. And to imagine, right? Coach Brown, that there are young people that come to you on a regular basis, not to be judged by you,

but to be curious by you. They need for you to come to Coach Brown and say, hey, hey, Coach Brown, how are you doing it, Dave? Knowing that you're going to say, what's going on with you?

You know, that is so true. And you know what it reminds me of? And I don't know if I've shared this story with you before DP, but years ago, I was recruiting probably about 10 years ago when he was still in high school, maybe 12 years ago.

Christian McCaffery, of course, was the offensive player of the year in the National Football League this year. He had a great year, and it's really played well in the NFL. Had a great college career. But I was recruiting Christian, knowing that mom and dad went to Stanford,

and Stanford was on him hard. He eventually went to Stanford, but while we were going through the recruiting process, I was coaching the running backs here, and he said, Coach Brown, he said, why do you keep calling me? Why do you keep coming by my school? why do you keep recruiting me?

He says, you know, I said, because I think you're a terrific player. He goes, really? I said, yes. And I said, why do you keep being interested? Why do you keep picking up the phone? I'm calling. And this is what he said. He said, coach, everybody thinks because I'm a white running back, I can't make it.

And he said, you know what? He said, you not only have told me that I could be good, but he said, I see you playing Rex Burkhead at Nebraska. And he says, you know what? That gives me hope. It makes me feel like you're not just looking at me and assuming you're curious, coach, so to speak, is what he was saying without saying it.

Coach. Rather than judging him on the color of the skin, whether he could run a football or not. So you know what? Everybody knows now that boy can run the football. Yeah, you miss the phrase that Joe Gibbs, great Joe Gibbs from Washington, and he said, it's my job as a coach to be present.

to be present for anybody, any situation in any circumstance. I have to be present. So if I'm seeing, if I'm evaluating a player, I can't look at that player for anything other than what that player applies to me. If I'm talking to a coach and I may have to hire somebody, I can't judge him by the last coach. I have to look at him and say, can you do this thing for me that I need done?

are you capable of doing the thing? Are you willing to do, right? The curiosity says, not only am I going to talk to you about it, but I'm going to go into some detail and depth about it specific to you. And it's just, like I think coaches miss it, great coaches, and I think a big part of your longevity is that you have a point of contact, but you still remain present. Well, well, thank you.

but, you know, the only bad thing about that whole thing is he didn't come to Nebraska. Well, the little brother came. The little brother came out of here, yeah. The little brother came, so listen, sometimes you get fruit later on from a siege of planet. It was going to be hard to beat out Stanford when mom and dad went there. Oh, man.

But you know what? It's just sad that there's so much of that, not only in life, but, you know, we see it in the sports area all the time. And being able to break all that stuff up, and pour love into people and that judgmental, stereotypical, I know what that guy can do or can't do

without going and asking the questions and taking true inventory and getting in the paint with that young man or young lady, that's what's important. It was a conversation Ben and I had in the last hour because for a young man that decides

he wants to go to school to better his place and it's the thing that he loves and if I don't ask him why. I've done him a huge disservice. And it's important. And I appreciate the fact that as I told him, his parents came in when he first started interning here. And we chopped it up.

Question for you. So my question for them is, and Coach Brown is, as a leader of young men, how do you connect with young men when they have no faith? Well, there's something that I require. more than faith for them to have faith. And that is, I require from me love to them. No matter what, no matter where they are, I've asked the Lord to help me to love those young men and to find ways to love them and put my arms around them.

And it comes in a variety of forms. It comes from firmness, it comes from tenderness, It comes from asking questions. It comes from visiting their homes and getting on the phone with their parents and doing things with them off the field. I mean, it's just a variety of things. I wish we could give. There's a long laundry list, but I have to be willing to, again, die to myself. And that opens up the door for me to love on them.

But if I'm in my feelings, I'll do a poor job. It is spectacular to know and to hear. that yes, there are people in the athletic department, specifically in the football program, who are there for good. And I, listen, I've said this to the text line, some folks want to get on and get angry, you can be venomous, and I say, listen,

no matter how you feel, we can both decide to meet it good. And where we go from there is much easier and better than that. We'll throw it to break. I got one more question before you. you, they're asking for your opinion, your own personal opinion. You cannot be wrong in your personal opinion of Trevalu. And I'll let you speak on him because you deserve the right to say what you want to say today.

So Coach Brown will give us that when we come back to one-on-one. You're listening to One-on-One-on-one with DP, sponsored by Mary Ellen's Food for the Soul on 93-7, The Ticket and the Ticketfm.com. One Nation under a group. That's Husker Nation. One Nation, one Husker Nation under a group. Look, if it ain't for all of us, it shouldn't be for any of. Just come be simple with it. Ben, we have a text.

Yeah, can you read it, please? Yeah, Textor as a Coach Brown story. They said, back in 2000, we were in Lincoln to play in the Class D1 State Championship game. It was a Thursday, and the Huskers were walking past as they had just finished practice. I recognized coach, but for some reason I said, Turner Gill. He stuck out his hand and said,

Ron Brown, nice to meet you. It is a funny thing. Like how many times in Lincoln, I get asked if I'm somebody else. Coach, I know you must get it a lot. Yeah, I've got it over the years a little bit. But, you know, it's a, it's all right, man. Coach, we were asked for your opinion,

your words on Treve Alper's. Whatever you want to say about it, you have earned the right to do so. Well, I love Trevor Albers. I go way back with Trev. Coach Osborne, John Melton, and myself were at Trev's house. I think it was in 1988. I think he was probably 17 years old, the day he committed to us.

Mom and dad were on the couch. We were up there in Iowa. We were thrilled. He was a great player in high school. We knew we were getting somebody special. But, you know, what I saw there was just a real strong family. There was, you know, it was way more substance than style. It wasn't about, you know, you got to do this for me, you got to do that for me. He really was grounded with some really good things. And his dear mom, I know, has passed.

I've been with his dad this year. I've got a chance to speak to his dad a couple. two or three times and love his dad. Trev, when he played here from time to time, we had some good talks. I'm giving you this history because you were talking about it earlier. We can all make fast judgments, quick draw, gun smoke, you know, the rifle man, fast draws and shoot somebody down. But I'm talking curiously now.

I'm looking at the breadth of this. and I'm just going back on my history with Trev. I remember he went on to playing the National Football League. I know he had injury and it's kind of short in his career. Very talented guys. An academic All-American. Went and worked for ESPN, I believe, for a while. I remember when he left ESPN, he ended up calling me.

I was one of the guys he probably talked to. And he kind of told me some of the reasons and just what he was thinking through. You know, I appreciated that. I felt like he always wanted to talk things through, and he wasn't just a quick, you know, rash kind of a guy. But I would say that the way I'm looking at this is that I love Triv. Man, listen, we're all in our curiosity, we're not going to have all our questions answered. I don't really know all the answers.

I haven't talked to him about this. So I'm not going to point that finger of judgment, that index finger. I'm going to point the thumb and say, Ron Brown, you'll make sure, no matter how you feel right now, because I would love them to stay. But even if I don't know all the answers, I'm not going to throw that finger of judgment out there because I don't know all the answers. And so I'm going to go back to me, thumbs pointed at me, saying, how are you going to respond?

And are you going to jump on the bandwagon and just kind of listen to everybody and be like Punch his pilot and just, you know, decide I'm going to do this because I want to please the crowd. Just nod my head and no, I'm going to sit back and listen. I don't know enough to make any further judgment other than I love him. I'm at least ought to assume that he has prayerfully gone through this with his wife and family. and the people that he needed to connect with and made a decision. And other than that, I mean, I wouldn't want to be treated any other way.

Love your neighbor as yourself. I would not want to be treated as if I was a criminal because I had to make a tough decision. Without, first of all, there being some real dialogue, if it's any of their business. It's all that is. that the humanity side of it is the man that you are knows the man that he is. You've built a relationship. Those experiences can't be taken away. Whatever situation and circumstances exist, we can go forward and we can go up.

You know, DP, like I said earlier, heavy on the truth, light on my feet. I mean, I can wish, I can hope for things. and I would say that probably, of all the things in my life, I would say probably 80% of all the things that I've hoped for have never happened. And things that I hoped wouldn't happen happened. But the 20%, man, I can live with, man. I'm excited about that 20%. Something good.

I say it all the time. University ain't never wrong. It gave me some things that I needed and it kept away from things I want. You know, Coach Osmond used to say this, DP, he said, look, maybe we made a mistake in that recruit. He's here now. Let's make sure it's not a mistake. Got to go forward.

Let's turn the deal going forward here like you're saying, and we're going to make it a right decision. If they ended up here, it was a right decision because they got better for it. Coach, we'll do it again next week. Appreciate you. Much respect. Thank you. All of.

Appreciate you. Thanks for the nuggets. Good stuff. Ben, thank you for doing what you do, young man. We know the Norrie's coming up later. ticket weeknights. Stay tuned. Don't go anywhere.

Have a safe Friday night. Love yourself. Then love the next one.