1-on-1 with DP – 93.7 The Ticket KNTK - College Tennis vs. College Football Five-star August 15th, 12:25pm

Episode Date: August 15, 2026

College Tennis vs. College Football Five-star August 15th, 12:25pmAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Back to one-on-one with D.P. Sponsored by the Downtown Lincoln Foundation on 93-7 the ticket. Peter Cobalt. Yeah, Cobalt feels slurs a little. Coach, you aired you heard your tennis record, didn't you? The tennis racket, that's right. Oh, yeah. You used your tennis record.

It is important. We were talking about it. We pointed behind Young Wyman is the plaque for this year's 2026. Nebraska Broadcast Association finalists for radio station of the year, not sports radio station of the year, radio station of the year, the entire state of Nebraska,

of the 130 plus stations in the state, we're top three, period. And I was explaining that, unfortunately, the way the process is, is you get into a room, the finalists are determined. So the state determined. through votes and otherwise.

And then the final three are put in front of an unbiased, air quotes, unbiased broadcast association from another state. So in this particular year, the year it was Indiana. And so, but there were three people with the room who watch without bias. They watch those clips. And then they decide to rank the three. And they do. I would say this, that if the state is Washington, D.C.,

I would dare say that we would probably fare better than we did if it's Midwest. Because there's stations here that are connected. We're a freestanding independent station. I have no allies voting for me. The second station was a part of a big media cluster. So they have stations in those states. So people know the name. They know the name.

They know the company. The other, the winner, and shout out to them. Agriculture. So it's either country music or agriculture, and they kind of know each other. And then we're sports. And if they don't know us, they don't know us. But the fact that sports is rarely in the conversation

across the country. When I tell you 50 states, your best station is rarely, Matter of fact, sports stations rarely get in the top 10. Most of them, it's top 20. Like a great sports station is in the top 20. An independent sports station being in the top five in your state, you did some stuff.

You did some stuff. And I'm proud of it. And again, part of the content that we create. Again, we're 18 hours today, seven days a week. Culligan, Jay, appreciate you. He says, DP, thanks for being heard. on a weekend. So it's a lot about you and your dream. But it's part of the thing that when I got here,

listen, I'm not trying to be second to nobody. But I understand the boundaries that are in play. That if I'm not spending Ohio State money and I can still go toe to toe with them, I'm good. Like I'll put us up against any station in any town in the Big Ten. Hell yeah. I'll put us up. Listen, if the Big Ten had a competition, I tell you what,

I'll throw hands with all up. There you go. I'll throw hands. I'll put my 18 hours a day and my staff or my lineup. Plus, I'm going to walk into the meeting like the old WWE days where they had the Monday night wars. I'm going to get Grant Wisdom,

Jason Peter, Jay Foreman, Terrell Farley. I'm bringing in DeMorne, Peter Colbelt, Mark Manning. We're going to march. We roll it up in there like a gang. I was about to say. We walk you didn't get that first. first place trophy because you got you got average coaches like me on the show no bro we listen we would

walk through they would they say win getting off the bus yeah we would we would win getting off the bus but the perception is is important and it doesn't matter as much what other people think it's good to hear what other people think about about the ticket it's good to hear what other people think about the brask of tennis they know what where good work is being put in especially those people who are the standard at the top. But what Peter Cobalt thinks of Nebraska tennis is the thing because that's how you're going to get in the room

with Ohio State in USC. That's how. Like if you don't believe you belong in the room, no one else, though? No one else does. So how do you handle that? What is your perception and how important is it to you?

Well, first I'll just a golf clap for you DT. I'm not much of a golfer, but I know the golf flat, but congratulations to you and your whole staff here. Anytime I drive by, the curtains are up and the lights are on, and you guys are putting out some product to the local Lincoln community here. So hopefully you guys don't all take it for granted. There's a whole operation down here and it starts with you, D.P. So appreciate you, you know, giving me the opportunity to come down and talk on the station. and, you know, when you guys allow me to. But going back to your question, yeah, you got to have the utmost belief that no matter

what it looks like from the outside that you know that it can be done or else the people that you bring into the program aren't going to truly believe either. So because you believe that this can be the best radio station, so does Nick and so does Farley and so does the whole gang. So when they show up and they have their turn to speak on the radio, They're like, hey, like, this is the standards that DP wants. And this is, we need this to be to premiere and not just sports radio show here in town, but radio show, period.

And, you know, third place is great. But you're going to sleep. How can we be first next year? 100%. If I know anything about you, that's how it is. And I know that's how your staff's viewing it too. So it has to come from the top. And that's why I'm privileged to be the men's head tennis coach under the leadership.

of Mr. Troy Danin because that's what he expects from me in the men's tennis program. And those aren't just expectations or words. He also backs it up with actions and he's willing to help out in any way that he can in today's world to allow me the chance to do it. And it's really up to me from there to make a count. So between him and my boss, Brandon Meyer, I truly feel like I'm not, cut off on any in any way that I need to have what I need to be successful. And yeah, maybe there's another conversation or two that we need to have once we have

a top three finish like you guys in order to take the last jump there. But you got to have all the foundation in the building blocks put in place. You got to be able to do all the small things you need to do each and every single day or else you're never going to have a chance and then, you know, whether you're the old saying born on third base, whatever, this or that, yeah, that's great. But if you're not willing to step on home plate, then it doesn't matter either. And do everything required to do it. Absolutely. So my job is to do everything that we need to do to get the third base.

And then maybe there's additional help on the way to home plate, but I'm not worried about that quite yet. I think we still have a long way to go with the basics and the fundamental things and, you know, building up the tennis community here and getting people more excited about tennis. There's a whole lot of things that encompass that. But I think it all starts with me in my belief in my vision for the program and my vision for tennis here in Nebraska. And then, you know, getting not just the community, but the whole athletic department and, you know, ultimately the entire state of Nebraska to get excited. about it. I think it can be done. Is it a big, uh, big ask? A hundred percent, but, um, I was told,

um, a long time ago, not a long time ago, but recently, um, from a, from a gentleman who just passed away, I won't mention his name, but he's like, if you're going to do anything in this life, you do it as big as you can. You do it as big as you can, because you never know what's going to come from it. So those are words that resonate through me every day. Any, anything I take time and effort to do, we're going to do it as big as we can. So for me, our goals to win a national title, our goals to win a Big Ten championship, and that's it. That is, there's a, I was on a panel Monday, and literally that thought was where the conversation was headed. And I try to speak authentically in my space

from what I know to be true. And that simplifies a lot for me because there's that thing. But the quote that I ended up on was this. You must do everything to accomplish anything. And to accomplish anything,

you must do everything. There's no exception to it. There's no lowering of standard. There's no, that quite frankly, in the sprint, I have to give the best sprint that I can give. to get anything from it. And this louder statement about what it says about me to me

is whether I did anything and everything to accomplish that thing. Yep. Right? And I think often in the space and why I give credit to you with Nebraska tennis because I know that you didn't start on third base in this place. The history of Nebraska tennis isn't the same as Ohio State. It doesn't sit. You don't have the hall of honors with 48 tennis players.

But you're building it. And this is where it starts. This is where it comes from. And I think that as you recruit, in the back of your mind, do you ever ask yourself, can this player help me beat Ohio State? or is it, can this player help me beat everybody at we face? Like, how do you process that when you look at talent?

Best available talent, best fit, or quite frankly, can they help me beat who I need to be? Yeah, I think there's levels to it. I don't worry so much. And again, it's yet to be seen whether this is going to work or not yet. So it's working. It's working. It's working.

We're just getting it going, but I truly don't worry too much about is this going to be what the, is this going to be good enough to beat what the other team has out there? And I don't know if that's right or wrong. For me, I'm more worried about like, is this the right guy that can handle me every single day at practice? That's first. First thing first. And then on top of that, can he handle me?

And then is there room for him to grow and get better? And if I think that the sky's the limit, if he can handle me and if there's a lot of room to get better and improve, I think that's probably better than what most schools have to offer, if not every school has the offer. So I don't, Ohio State's just the end result. I think if you look at the top and you're like, oh, I got to get a guy that's going to beat him,

then it's like, yeah, if you just look at the numbers and the stars and stuff, like we're not going to just recruit all five stars and get them to come here or whatever. So I don't necessarily see recruiting like that. I see it as a developmental structure. And can we actually develop these guys into players that can beat a team like Ohio State or USC or UCLA? Does the star system work in college tennis the way it does sports? A little bit.

A little bit. The best Americans are considered blue chips. So if you have a blue chip, that's like top 10 player, a top 20 player. And then there's five stars and four stars and three stars. So we're still, you know, I would consider us more an international team and from a recruiting basis. Like we still probably recruit the majority of our, we allocate the majority of our time to recruiting international players. So there's no, you know, we go through the ITF national or international rankings, but there's not like a, if we get the number one player in the world,

it's not a blue chip. He's just the number one player in the world. So, that's kind of how it's defined in our world. I would imagine, like that would be a whole show is going through the weeding process between, you know, with football, we do it all year round. It makes my head hurt because I know that the star system is crap because none of it grades. There's no star for intelligence, character, or toughness. Sure. Which are the three things that I want first.

Yep. So the star system only tells mentally lazy people, they need to know do i need to pay attention to this guy because he's an athlete he has the athletic arrogance it has nothing to do with winning uh in the big 10 conference i i agree but i also think you you need you want to be a sustainable a sustainable program like you're going to have to find the guys that do compete the best that also are four stars and five stars is the same number of of five stars in tennis as there football i don't know that's a good question well look we've got the young boy over here we've

got the boy genius over here. We'll let him during the break investigate quickly. And then we'll bring back to something that we had him investigate in the previous hour, which is when uniforms produce results or at least should, what do you do with it? So the Huskers announced the black uniforms, the blackout. I want to ask Coach Caldell. Does he know, like, when they wear home reds, do they have a better winning percentage? When they wear black t-shirts as a team, do they have a better winning percentage. I would like to ask Coach Colbell about his uniform selection and whether it matters at all. We'll get that answer when we come back. Watch live on Facebook, YouTube or Twitch. You're listening to one-on-one with DP on 937 the ticket and the ticket

FM.com.