1-on-1 with DP – 93.7 The Ticket KNTK - Coach Ron Brown (Director of Player Support & Outreach at Nebraska) - February 19th, 2025

Episode Date: February 20, 2025

Coach Ron Brown (Director of Player Support & Outreach at Nebraska) - February 19th, 2025Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Live from the heart of Lincoln America. Welcome to Ticket Weeknights. On 937 The Ticket and the Ticket FM.com. On a ridiculously cold, Lincoln, Nebraska night, we're going to have a special edition for you. D.P. Harrison Arons running the board. We've got the legend with us. The Sartner Havenatheaval text line, 402-664-5-6-85.

If you want to be a part of what we're doing, send a what's up. Put your comments, your questions in the chat, and we'll get to it. You can follow us on all the streams, Facebook, YouTube, X, and Allo Channel 961. So if you want to be a part and if you want to get fancy, jump on over to Amazon Prime because they, you know, they like us too. So that's what we're going to do. But let me bring him in because some of the best conversations come from authentic wise people, people who actually care about the things that come out of their mouth.

And not everybody does. Not everybody really, you know, we miss some stuff along the way. But he is the director of player support in our reach. The University of Nebraska, he is the legend. Coach Ron Brown. Coach, thank you for doing this tonight. It's an honor, D.P. I'm honored to be on with you.

Man, you're a nightbird. That's my bedtime, man. But this was the day. thing that we said, you know, you and I were talking and we said, okay, if we want to, if we want to do this, when can we do it? And based on schedules and otherwise, this is the time we could do it. And so we figure, you know, we'll do tonight and then we'll do Saturday morning. We'll just chop it up. And there's no, here's the thing about great conversations. And that's the kind of radio I really enjoy doing this conversational radio. I don't have to get into hot takes or current news or

any of that stuff, that sometimes just in this thing that is sports and education and life teaches us constantly. And the wisest people are people who are open to lessons, right? Being able to capture lessons in the moment. And you and I were talking the other day and I was sharing some news that there were some folks that asked me to capture the lessons that I've learned in the lifetime as a coach. and that's humbling to have somebody ask your opinion on it. Yeah.

But then you and I were having that conversation. And I said, man, if I really want to share the lessons of a coach, the things that we learn over the course of our lives, whether it be on the field, away from the field or otherwise, that's the real good stuff. And that's the stuff that happened. So I'll ask you this first thing that if I ask you, if I ask you, asked you to say the thing that you learned first, that let you know and believe that coaching was in your heart. When did you know or what, you know, for me, it was a player. It was a young man that asked me, hey, DP, can you help me?

Like, I want to be good at this. Can you help me? And I was, there was a feeling. Like, and it was, it was palpable, the reaction that, oh, well, yeah. Yeah, yeah, I'll help you. And there are some questions that came from that. But for you, when did you, when did that thing happen? What was the lesson?

What was the fork in the road? Well, let me say this. I want to get to that. Okay. But I'll start with this, that as I look back at it all now, after, you know, 40 plus years of coaching, I would say one of the blessed things that I've had the privilege of is to be, being a good seat. It's nothing like having a good seat.

You know what I'm saying? Where you can watch over the years and observe and take notes and take mental notes and written notes and put it all together. And sometimes you have to act retroactively. Sometimes I have to look back now, you know, now that I'm 40 years into it, looking back on it now I can give you a better answer. Yeah. My better answer is I would say.

it really hit me. You know, I had to get talked into coaching, but it really hit me when I was coaching here in 1987. Coach I was born hired me from my alma mater, Brown University, and I felt like I was in way over my head. I was by far the youngest coach. I had just turned 30, and back then that was very young to be start, particularly at a veteran place like this, man.

I had some veteran guys, and I just felt like I didn't know anything. Plus, I was going to be coaching positions that I'd never coached before. I was a defensive player throughout my life, and I was coaching defensive backs in the Ivy League. Then Coach Osborne hires me to coach the receivers, the wide receivers, the tight ends, and the wingbacks. And I'm like, what in the world?

I'm weighing over my head. But it really hit me, DP, when we had a player named Richard Bell. And Richard Bell was a kid from Altadena, Pasadena, Pasadena One of the dinas in California It's all the California right Rough area Yeah

And Richard really had a tough start In life In fact somebody very important in his life Somebody in the educational system told him You'll never graduate man You're not you're too dumb And you know what man

You're a good athlete But you know you're probably not going to graduate And that particular person told some of our coaches that So here I was now, getting ready to coach Richard. And Richard came to me when I first got here, and he said, Coach Brown, he said, I need help. I said, Coach, Richard, we're going to have meetings. He said, no, no, coach, I need help with school.

I really don't know phonics. I don't know how to sound out words. I don't know very many words. I don't have much of a vocabulary. And he said, coach, can you help me? and I thought, what? I thought I was coaching football. But see, here's the deal.

I got together with Richard every night. We went through the dictionary, and we took an A word one night, and then it was the B word the next night, and we got together after every practice at night, after dinner, and we sat down and we just went through words. And you know what, D.P.,

that was a humbling thing for me. It probably was humbling for him. but it was it was the most perfect thing that I could have been asked to do at that time to really help me understand who is a coach what is a coach and who you were going to be in it absolutely who you were going to be in it it I try to explain to people that the lessons of coaching happened in such a full ridiculous volume right and at a speed of its own and I made their choice in my high school career that we kept running into those situations where the Richards were there, these schools, and they would whisper to you, they coach.

There is such a huge responsibility for that, for that moment, to handle it right, and to have the right person in place. I'm applauding every kid that went to you, that got to you, but I'm afraid for all the kids that didn't. Right? All the kids who didn't have a Ron Brown to whisper to. And a part of the book I was going to write, it's those in the corner moments.

Hey, coach, can I talk to you? Yeah. Because right after that, either some magic happens or some real witchcraft, depending on where, right? That the magic happens when there's a good person in the corner. That's not always the case. and we miss that sometimes.

And often as being the good coach, you have to correct the pain and aches and hurts and holes in the soul of something somebody else, some other adult caused. Yeah. Yeah. And you know, I would say this. The real, the real,

the real exciting part for me initially was well Richard went on to get his diploma Richard went on to be a mid-round draft pick by the Pittsburgh Steelers he was a fifth string wingback when I first got here he ended up starting in a year and he ended up being drafted in the NFL

and playing for the Pittsburgh Steelers for a couple to a few years he is on the Los Angeles Police Department for the last number of years He had a wonderful family, great Christian kid. His son played for the University of Colorado. You know what? You look back at all of that.

But honestly, D.P., I think the real thing that I'm most important, I mean, most excited about for him, is that he was counted out. He was dead and there was like a resurrection form. I was just one of the instruments, one of the instruments that God used to help. But the reality of it was is that that kid took off. In fact, not only that, here's the thing I was most proud of him about. And this is where, and I'm going way back to the basics of coaching,

because we're thinking about it, I've got to be a guru here, I've got to do this, I've got to accomplish this. I've won all these awards. No, it is in the, its greatness is made in empty stadiums. It's only revealed in a full stadium. And Richard Bell was willing to go to the empty stadium and to learn all those things. And you know what he would do at every – I gave a test to all the receivers on Thursday before every game. Richard insisted, coach, would you let me pass out the paper and pencils?

And, you know, we didn't have – we didn't have all this technology. Right. But he's like, I want to be the guy doing that. I have – you know what? That was that introduction to coaching at Nebraska football for me was the humility that I needed. I needed that, I think more than Richard do, honestly. We always do as coaches.

We always, like, listen, you know, you mentioned Coach Osborne and his work, his vision, he and Nancy Osborne's vision for teammates and, you know, the mentoring, and that he went into. into his own backyard to pull people to do this thing. And all of it is, well, can you do this for these kids, not realizing that every single teammate mentor gets as much from it or more than the young people that they're in charge of, right?

That they're sitting there across the table from. You know, I can speak to that. But it led me to ask, to be curious, walk me through the first conversation with Coach Osborne about you becoming a coach on his staff, because that's got to be mind-blowing. Hey, wait a minute. You know, the phone rings.

And it's Tom Osborne. Yeah. Well, that was crazy because I'm coaching at Brown University. And I'm the rookie coach at Brown. And my head coach is ripping me a new one every single day. Nothing's good enough. And I just thought the guy hated me. And yet he kept me on for a couple years there.

And then when Coach Osborne, evidently called one day. I was sick in bed. I was down in Arkansas recruiting for Brown University, trying to get some Ivy League kids out of Arkansas. Hello. Hey. And I'm laying in bed,

and our head coach from Brown calls me, and he says, hey, by the way, Tom Osborne called for you today. I said, who? What? I said,

you're talking about that famous head coach at Nebraska called for me? That dude. The guy you're always yelling at that can do nothing. nothing right. And he said, yeah, he said he wanted to see if you could, would be a candidate for the receiver job. But I told them, you were not. You, you're a defensive back coach. You're too young. You're too sensitive. And you're just not ready for that yet. And that was the

end of that. So I said, you know what? I'm going to call Coach Osborne myself. So I called up the officer at the University of Nebraska from that little town I was in an art. Arkansas, laying in bed in a hotel sick. And I said, could I get Coach I was on the phone? And Marilyn Winneger, who was his secretary, said, sure, we'll put Coach Osmond on. And Coach Osmond got on the phone with me. He said, yeah, he says, I've heard about you, Ron.

And he said, I'm, you know, thinking about you might be interested in this job. I said, coach, I'm very interested. I sent a resume that day. And they brought me in for an interview. And so I was here for a portion of the day. and Coach Osborne took me back to the airport, and he said, well, we'll let you know here and probably in a few days.

So I'm down there and now in Tennessee recruiting for Brown University, and I get to a pay phone. He says, why don't you call at me and when you get a chance? And so I called him. And he said, well, Ron, he said, I think I'd like to, I'd like to possibly, you know, but he says we got another guy named Turner Gill who played for me

and Turner was a great quarterback here and I said yeah I know who he is and I said to myself ain't no way I'm getting this job and he said but Turner wants to play in the you know he's playing Canadian League football and baseball and he's doing some things so give me the weekend and we'll figure it out so I said man I got no chance so I waited called him up on a Sunday that same weekend. And he said, well, Ron, he said, you know, Turner wants to give baseball another world here.

And he says, if you'd like, he said, I'd sure like to hire you as the receiver's coach. I don't think you heard from me for a minute because I just dropped the phone. And anyhow, you offered me a job. And that was very exciting. But when I got here, the moment I got here, he said, he took my wife, Nancy took

my wife, and they went off somewhere, and he said, we're getting in a private airplane, and we're going down to Louisiana. He said, we've got to go see a guy named Mickey Joseph, and we got to go see Reggie Cooper and all these guys that had eventually come here. And on that private plane that I was with him, I asked him, I said, Coach Osborne, why in the world did you hire me? I said, my coach gave you a horrible recommendation. He told me that he said, I wasn't ready for it, that I was too sensitive and coached on the other side of the ball. Why in the world did you hire me? He said, well, Ron, he said, that was such a bad recommendation.

I figured the guy must really like you and didn't want to lose you. So I figured you must have been pretty good. You know, as it happens, right? And in those situations, you kind of use it as fuel, right? that okay this this I need to make this guy regret how he treated me right like I'm I'm I'm good enough for Tom Brown for coach Osborne and the Huskers hey you have a good time back there in the Ivy League I want to ask you about that because the recruiting that is that that that happens at a program like Nebraska especially in the 80s 90s etc versus

The Ivy League. It's a different world. It is, but I'll tell you what. I'll tell you what I was best prepared for when I got here. Recruiting. Man, I'm going to tell you what. In the Ivy League, we had to recruit all over the country. We had to do all the grade checking and the, you know,

and you didn't give, we didn't have athletic scholarships to give. Right. So we had to work out financial aid packages. And I had to hustle all over the country. I was so well prepared to recruit when I got here. Recruiting was actually a lot easier. You had scholarships. You were in the hunt with great players.

And I didn't have as big of a region. You also didn't have as recruiting for Nebraska is recruiting in the Pacific Ocean. It's fishing in the Pacific Ocean. Listen, you can be specialized. The Ivy League requires a whole deal. different thing because one, no scholarship, two, all the things that were going on, especially in that age. And then finally, people that can qualify academically to get into those schools and not fail. Right? And then to be able to play the kind of football that's going to be played

in the Ivy League. I would imagine that the recruiting process, at least the weeding out process, is different. It was different. And you heard no a lot. And you didn't hear no from the kid in the Ivy League. You heard no from the admissions director. You know what I'm saying? Nope. It's like, nope, he ain't. Hey, but he's fifth in his class. All right, we've got, so, you know, that was, that was the hard part. But when I got here, I was really ready, because I had a work ethic. I had a high work ethic. And that, that really served me well here in the recruiting area for a number of years.

See, and it's funny because as you say that, I would think that most people who are familiar with you would put that on the high list of things for Coach Ron Brown. Yeah, the work ethic. You may be the most disciplined coach at a powerful school football program that I've ever been around. That is a huge thing. Rashon the other day when you came in, he was joking. Well, Coach Brown hasn't changed his diet in forever, right? And we understand that.

Like, I can look at you and go, yeah, that's probably. statement of truth. So first of all, I'm going to ask you to pull back the curtain of Coach Ron Brown. What is the diet? Because listen, you have the fountain of youth in full. So help us mere mortals who are trying to figure out how are we going to go through this. What is the Ron Brown diet. What keeps this thing working for you? Well, you know, I used to be a sloppy eater growing up. And I came from a home where we just, we didn't think about all those things. We didn't, we weren't, my folks weren't really well educated and didn't know, you know, this, that, and the other about all the different food types. So we didn't think about it much. But actually, this is

how friction turns into traction. I had a, I had normally, I'm normally a, I'm normally a, have lean muscle mass and and not you know some people just have different body types yeah i was always i was always pretty lean but um when i got here um it probably was within a number several years uh we uh they one day that we got a health checks up checkups all these assistant coaches got free health checks and physicals and i got a call the next day and they said mr brown uh you have a major problem with your heart and your arteries, and we need you to get down here real fast. So I went down, I said, what?

I feel great. I don't, you know, I've never had any issues like this. And they discovered that I had some, a bunch of junk in my heart and high cholesterol. And they said, you're a candidate for a major heart surgery unless you change some things. So that's where the friction turned into traction. I mean, I always worked out a lot.

Six days a week, take one day a week off, work out hard, still do. But that's when I started to really change. And I got away from a lot of saturated fats and, you know, introduced more fruits and greens and all the good stuff. And I stayed away from the fat stuff and a lot of carbs. So that's how I eat now. And I've continued to do that for the last 30-something years. It shows, and it lands, right? It matters, and I would think that with the young people that are in your charge

and under your watch, that it is important to have a coach who mimics the things that he's asking of them. Yeah, you know, I do believe that, DP. And I know it's not easy, particularly as you get old. I'm 68 years old now, and some of those habits are hard. But you know, I had a great, my dad was one of the most disciplined men I've ever seen. Now, not so much of what he ate and what he drank and all that, but with work. I mean, we refused, we had very little money.

He refused to go on welfare. He took five jobs on it one time, and he just worked and worked and worked so that we could pay bills and do normal things. that families would do to support us. And I saw all that discipline. I saw the hard work. That man was not opposed to hard work. And I think that's really that got all over me.

And I've always, it's always hit me that, you know what? I'm going to outwork you. In recruiting, I'm not going to let that assistant coach for that school outwork me. I mean, I remember I was recruiting Mike Brown one time out of Arizona. and it had 100 scholarship offers. And it came down to us and maybe Florida, USC, and his dad was living in Florida. He was living in Arizona.

And the rules say that if you're going to visit mom or somebody in your family and the kid, one day a week, you'd have to do it all in the same day. He said, and I realized nobody had visited his dad out there. And that was really important to him. So I went to his school, like it was on a Thursday morning, his school in Arizona and Phoenix, and I hopped a plane and flew all the way to Tallahassee, Florida,

where his dad did. I mean, I was war out, but I got to dad by 10 o'clock that night, and I got to see both. And no other school was willing to do that. And Mike Brown told me at the end. He said, Coach, you're the only one willing to go see my dad. You know. Honestly, there's so many, and I got it from the other side.

where you would have players who were being recruited and they ask, hey, coach, what do I need to look for? Do you mind being in the room? Do you mind being on the call? And all of those things come to play, what I'd like to do, we'll take a break. When we come back, Coach, I need to ask you about the rules of recruiting,

because for you, 40 years of all over this country, different position groups, different styles of play, right? We've gone from the run, game run centric to the spread to all sorts of things and there are certain things that fall into play and so i want to ask you the rules the most important things when you go into a house into those situations those things that come to play and the character things that you're looking for because the five-star system recruits will tell you some things but they may not tell you all the things that you want to know so we'll talk about that with coach brown on the ticket we'll be

right back Back to the ticket weeknights on 937 the ticket and the ticket FM.com. Appreciate you hanging out with us on our Wednesday night. And I know that you'll probably hear this in a replay at some point throughout the course of the week. Because it is the legend Ron Brown, coaches with us and breaking it down for us. You mentioned recruiting. And I, Harrison and I have had this conversation with some of my coaching buddies from around the country.

and I am always amazed that we fall so much in love with the physical side that we miss the other stuff. Right, that, and depending on the program and the coach, we all recruit a certain kind of way. So I'll ask you, do you recruit to people similar to you in your makeup, in your work ethic? Or do you recruit to the sister? Well, that's a good question. You know, I'm going to give you, I'm going to use an example. Okay. Years ago we had a kid here who played for us named Tyrone Leggett.

Tyrone was a kid out of Columbia, South Carolina, who was the maybe 100 meter champion in South Carolina. I remember Danny Ford and Joe Morrison. Danny Ford was the head coach at Clemson. Joe Morrison was the head coach at South Carolina back then in the 80s. And they weren't, they didn't offer. from him. And so I was talking, Frank Solich and I were both looking at this kid, Tyrone Legate, and we were thinking, man, his kid, he could be a receiver, could be a running back, he could be a

DB, but we liked him. And we didn't do, you know, the old-fashioned Notre Dame thing where we were, you know, just going off of hearsay and so forth. We really watched kids. We watched every play. We didn't just watch a highlight tape. We watched all the little things that he did. And, and, and, And that's how thorough we wanted to be. Well, anyhow, we went to Coach Osmore. We said, we liked Tyrone to get. He goes, well, who else is recruiting him? Is South Carolina recruiting him?

Clemson recruiting him? Well, no, coach. It's just us and, you know, like Furman. He goes, what? He says, something must be wrong, guys, because not recruit him. But here's the part I love about Coach Osmore. Coach Osmond said, well, go check it out. So I went down there, and I went over to University of the University of the,

I talked to those two head coaches, Danny Ford and the head coach at South Carolina, Joe Morrison. And I said, how come you guys aren't recruiting Tyrone to get? This guy's a hundred meter champion in South Carolina, which has got a lot of speed. And what's wrong with this kid? They said, he's kind of small. He's a little skinny. But, you know, honestly, D.P., he had broad shoulders, and he was tapered down. He was lean.

But you could see in our weight program, we could put some meat. on that kid and if he maintain, in fact, increases his speed, he'll be special. Well, anyhow, it came down to signing date and we're still debating and the kid really likes us because nobody else is really recruiting him.

And so we said, Coach I was born, can we go with this? And he goes, well, and he goes, yeah, okay, you guys go for it. And we did. We ended up signing the kid. It was just us and Furman. And that kid ended up playing as a true freshman. he went on to have three great years

and was a third round draft pick with the New Orleans Saints and played a number of years in the NFL and you know what? I just look back on that and say I love, I think what, so the answer to the question is whether it's my, he fits me or he fits our system,

do we do a thorough job in looking at a player and being able to sense his maximum potential? and can we look past all the other ratings and how everybody else views them and do we have our own eyes for a kid? Do we have we developed our own systematic eyes to see now that's a kid who could be really good for us and Tyrone Leggett clearly was that guy.

It's always interesting that to become a coach, you have to use a word that I love, which is friction. And the friction turns a player into, a coach who either coaches the way that he wanted to be coached or the way that he hopes nobody else is ever coached, right? Like he wants, you know what, I'm not going to coach the way I was coached. That wasn't good for me. So I'm going to become a coach and I'm going to correct some things.

Or, you know what? That was the ideal. That was the ideal. Which way works for you? Well, honestly, DP, the only thing that I, I'm. I knew and I was teaming with Frank Solich in this, who was very much like me. And maybe you can call us old school, whatever it was. But we weren't going to go off of a highlight tape.

And we were not going to go off of hype. We were going to look at all the little things he did. We watched 10 games of his senior year. Now, that's almost unheard of now because kids are getting offered after their freshman year. But we waited all the way to the kid's senior year. And we watched 10 games, full games. And we watch every single play, both sides of the ball. Every snack.

Everything. We found out everything about them exactly as times, this, that, and the other, and we went down there, looked at him, and it was a business decision. I mean, I can say we were thorough about that. It could have been a bust. It wasn't. I looked back on it, and I say, thank God we had men in our program that were willing in those, because we weren't getting a lot of five-star guys and all that.

We had to get the two-star guy that was going to be a four-star guy before he looked. left. And we had to see him developing and growing. And that's what I really appreciated in the recruiting process. I would imagine that in the space that technology advances some things. But sometimes technology is a disadvantage because you can get comfortable. And you can, you know what, because more players have access to you as a coach, because of social media, email, etc. They know how to find you now. Like it's all over the internet.

They know how to get to Coach Brown at Nebraska. But it also means in the same for high school coaches. Parents, they know how to get to you. But the flooding of it seems like it would get in the way of you being focused on your quality. You know what you're looking for. But now the traffic is you've taken O Street and now you've turned in the I-80. and you've got to pick a luxury car speeding by now instead of, oh, there's only 10 cars for me to look at,

I can give them more. How do you handle technology and the fact that so many people want the eyes of Coach Ron Brown at the same time? Well, I just don't think technology can replace human eyes. I just don't think so. And I think sometimes we start comparing all that. hopefully it can enhance it, it can enhance and speed up the process or add more to the process. You know, oh, there's more games we can get at such and such a time.

But you still, you know, the eyes for it and meeting the young man and sitting down with his folks and making calls and being thorough that way. That's all. I mean, there's just nothing like the hard work of it. And I tell you, I always had to. attitude that like during 9-11 right after 9-11 everybody was afraid to go up in an airplane and so i'm recruiting isaiah flewellyn from germany of all places it came down to us in maryland and and maryland refused to get in the plane and go go over to germany to see them i not only

went over now here i am now d p this is not a good it's not a good time of the of that part of the world right that right time era right for a brown man with a bald head and walking around airports in Europe how about that I got stopped every five hundred feet how about that what are you doing yeah what are you doing what are you doing man oh man but I went over three times I went over three times to get that kid and I just and I'm you know I'm not trying to brag I'm just simply saying I'm trying to prove the point because there have been times I've been outworked. Not very many, and I always said to myself,

I don't ever want that to happen again. But I had a fury inside of me that said, Marilyn, you ain't outworking me. You two chicken to get into an airplane to go get that kid, and I told her folks, you shouldn't go there. If that's all they think of you, a boyer, look at it, I brought old Frank Solich over there with me, who was the head coach at the time,

and Frank, those narrow stairways they got in Germany. Yeah. He comes down the stairs and all the way down, broke his ankle. He broke his ankle on the official visit. So he's, here we are flying back from Munich to Chicago. And his ankle's going, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, on that plate. His ankle is about two feet thick when he got off there. The kid has to sign now.

Like he has to sign. Let me tell you. Like, I gave you my ankle. Like, that has to happen. There's what we think, Coach, grab this next one right there off the next mic, Mike Stad. That was plugged in. You don't have to worry about it.

It happens all the time. Like, I would imagine, like, calling that kid on the phone and going, hey, listen, you, Coach Solace broke his ankle to come visit you. I think you're a Husker now. Like, I think you're legitimately a Husker now. Oh, there's no doubt. You have to be a Husker.

I think the broken ankle sealed the deal. You know, it would be a thing. I am with Coach Rod Brown. Through all of it, right, that I would imagine also that the competitive nature of high-level coaches, there's some competition in recruiting between the groups that, quite frankly, hey, listen, you know, D-Line's having a really good run. the running back room is having a really good run. The receivers are doing well.

Hey, the linebackers need to pick it up a little bit. How much of that conversation, do you recruit across the board now? Does it matter what group they are or what region of the country? Because as you said, different parts of the country, different parts of the world, different cultures require a different touch. Well, you know, I'll just talk about back in the day. Yeah. You know, the one thing that was really important to us is that

of all, you know, we'd go all over the place and because, you know, our population base in Nebraska's never just been great. So you have to, you don't have a lot of people. So you got to go a lot of places and look. But you always had an incredible affinity with the people in the greater 500-mile radius. And that's always, that's always been the case. And a lot of schools that I've done really well have had that mentality. And I remember back in the day, Coach I was born,

And the most nervous time for us was on signing date. Yeah. Because he went down the list and he looked, this guy's in a 500-mile radius. He didn't sign with us. Why? Who's got that area? Why didn't he sign with us?

And we better know. We better know, well, coach, we had them in. Mom and dad were here and they just didn't like it, you know? We're good with that. But if we didn't know much about the kid, that's when it was a lot of tension. Where on the pecking list of priority? Because I would imagine, and I know that it varies depending on the young man,

but coach versus parents, right? That sometimes you're recruiting the coach. Oh, the high school coach. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah. There were a number of high school coaches that were very involved in recruiting. There were some that weren't.

There were some that just really were kind of hands off. But, you know, I wanted to visit with the high school coach. I wanted to talk to that high school coach. and not necessarily recruit him or sell him, but at least get just the fact, sir. I mean, I wanted to know what made the kid, what made his heart tick and why this, why not that, you know, all of that. And I think just doing a lot of that groundwork and diving deep, it is, it really comes down to work ethic.

I mean, it really does. I'm not saying it's the only thing in recruiting. But if you leave that part out, and if you're just going by all of the natural stuff, you know, the natural smile and the award-winning phrases in the home and so forth, you know, I think you can come up short. There is a grit and a grind that's involved with it. And then the ability to recover fast. You can't sit around.

I mean, there were times when I lost recruits and I was like, down, man. It's like, dang, I blew it. Dang. I mean, I'm just muttering to myself, listen, while I'm doing all that, I need to get on to the next kid. I mean, we've got to move on. The Arns family's waiting for it, right? You got to get it through the – I'll ask you this thing when we come back from break, because I think a big part of it from the high school coach aspect was trust.

The word that usually moved the needle to who these athletes were going to choose was who do I trust. and it often bounced back because the recruiting coach, Ron Brown comes to a house in Houston, Texas. He's going to hear from the high school coach, the parents, he's going to hear from other players, and then he's going to hear from, he's going to trust what he saw on tape. Or does he trust the visit,

the visit more than what he saw on tape? And that's the question I'm going to have for you. What's priority one? What's the thing that helps? helps you decide more than anything else. The thing that you trust most when it comes to recruiting, it's an amazing thing hearing it from Coach Ron Brown. We'll be right back here on the ticket.

Back to the ticket weeknights on 93-7, the ticket and the ticket FM.com. Final segment, it's always interesting. And again, I probably should preface all of these conversations with Coach Brown and that we go down the rabbit hole. We're never going to get to all the questions that I have for him. Each conversation will be a different conversation that just kind of follows some of the wisdom and knowledge and experience.

Because for me to sit in front of Ron Brown and not ask him about some of the things and how things work for listeners, because there are families out there whose kids are going to be recruited and they don't know what the process is and they don't know what the coaches are thinking. But I do know that the word trust is important. in both directions, right, that the player has to trust the coach and the staff and the city and the community and all those things. The parents have to trust the coach and all those things. The coach has to trust what he sees or what he knows. And those are pivotal moments. Those are

important moments in the recruiting process and then in life. But you were telling the story about recruiting one of our own. And I think it's a fantastic story because, you know, it makes sense that this is kind of what happens, but things tend to work out. We were talking about Jay Foreman.

Yeah. I mean, I went up to recruit Jay out of Eden Prairie in Minnesota. I remember the day I went up, and it was a snowy, rough day. I mean, they canceled all the schools in Minnesota, and because that probably happens half the winter is up there. Yeah, I'd imagine. But anyhow, Jay was home.

And I was, you know, I had grown up watching Chuck Foreman play in the NFL. He was like one of my guys. I mean, I was a running back in high school. And, you know, I was Chuck Foreman. Loval bread, one-year-ins cycle. You spend doctor this dude? Yeah, man. So I'm going to visit Chuck Foreman here.

And we're going after Jay. And Jay was really a good player. He was a very versatile kid. One of the reasons I was interested in me because I thought maybe he could be a wingback, a kind of an h-back type guy on offense or a linebacker. But he was a good athlete. He was a really bright guy. Very, very, he's very athletic, and he was very bright.

Real smart football player. So I'm up there, and I'm thinking, okay, got a shot at this. And so I'm talking to Jay. It's just me and Jay in the home there talking for a while. And then dad comes home. And I go up to him, I said, oh, Mr. Foreman, I've been wanting to meet you, he said, Coach Brown. He said, you need to leave right now.

He said, my boy's not going into Brasco. And I had to make a real tough business decision. Right. Within my mind. Right. And in a matter of seconds, because I couldn't go, humma, hama, hama, hama, hama, you know, very long. I just said to myself, I'm not leaving.

I'm not, you know what? I'm going to, I'm going to battle this dad. I'm going to battle Mr. Chuck Foreman for his own son. That's what I think of Jay Foreman. Yeah. And I just wanted him to hear me out. And so we had to talk a lot of things through. But at the end of the day, we left on good terms.

And Jay, of course, came to visit, and it worked out for Jay to come here to the University of Nebraska. And every time I saw Chuck Foreman come to the football games, he came and watched Jay play a lot of times. He would see me. We'd bear hug each other. And it was a far cry from that. initial deal. But you know what? I think what happens, DP, is, you know, these parents,

they can read you just like we coaches think we can read parents. You know what I mean? They are looking for something that's authentic, that's real, and not flaky. You know, I've always felt like it's important not to tell a kid what he wants to hear, but tell him what he has to hear to be the very best he can be. And I think, Moms and dads and the kid himself will trust a man of integrity. You know, integrity means that you're one. Like the way you think, what you say, what you do, and who you are all one. You can't divide.

It means it's one as a whole number which cannot be divided. That's where the word comes from integrity. It's integer. And so if you're an integer as a coach or you're an integer as a player, or integer as a parent. You can't be divided. You're not talking out of two sides of your mouth. You're not a chameleon changing colors every time it's more popular to be something else.

And so as a coach, you don't go in there saying, well, you're going to play next year, and you're going to do this, and you're going to do that. I mean, I think it's really good to go into a home and say, you know, just really watching a film, you really need to work on your change of direction, your pad levels got to improve. And this is where we think we can really help you, blah, blah, blah.

I mean, I would much rather trust that than somebody telling me that I'm great. And you know what? I'm thinking, I wonder if he's telling that to the next guy he's going to say too, you know. So I think it's really important to be honest. If something is really good, tell them it's really good. If something's not so good, say it's not so good, but here's where we can help. Have a plan. Yeah.

Have a legitimate, authentic plan. Legend, it is always a great hour. It's a great hour. We're going to do it again Saturday morning. So, but then to me on, Coach, thank you for sharing knowledge, spreading wisdom and love. Because this is all good stuff around the way. Harrison Orange, thank you, kind, sir, for taking us through on the mothership. We're going to go get warm.

That's what we're going to do. And then we'll do this thing again tomorrow morning, starting at 6 a.m. With early break. Jake, Sippel, Coach Bill Bush, on 93-7, the ticket.