1-on-1 with DP – 93.7 The Ticket KNTK - Nebraska Men's Tennis Coach Peter Kobelt:- Projecting 3 Years Out: October 28th, 11:00am

Episode Date: October 28, 2025

Nebraska Men's Tennis Coach Peter Kobelt:- Projecting 3 Years OutAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

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Before we introduce our special guests, in tennis, the scramble is the same. It means chaos has happened. once a day at 11 o'clock at 10 o'clock, Bach scrambles. He scrambles. So Bach, if you would, cut, sir. Pay the bills. Pay the bills. Today show is sponsored by Hamilton Telecommunications,

bringing you the latest quality technology and communication services since 1901. Whether it's residential or business, Hamilton has the answers. Visit Hamilton.com for more info. Thank you, guys, sir. Greatly appreciate it. We will, in the 1130 segment, we will have the folks from tipsy-tinas in. They feed us on Tuesday, and we need to connect them to our guest and his program so that he can get, he can get his gentleman fed in a fine, healthy tipsy Tina's taco canteenas sort of way. Let's bring in the head coach, Husker, tennis, Peter Cobalt. Coach, what's happening? What's good with you?

Man, I'm loving the rain. I was just down in Texas yesterday. It was 94 degrees and smoking hot, humid, and coming back. I love the fall weather. It's football weather, baby. It's November's right around the corner. Let's go. It's funny, too, that that Texas light lived down there for, for, geez, I think we were there five years, four years, five years.

And you never get used to the Texas heat. It's tough. No, sir. No, sir. We would have to coach in it two a days for football. And we started those early because Texas football starts early. And they would have the morning practice. They still do two a days. But the morning practice was at 6 a.m. to beat the sunrise. And it would be 88 degrees at 5.30. And you just go, yeah, this isn't good. this isn't good and then the later practice is midday and the sun is it feels like the sun is sitting on the back of your neck just leaning on you yeah different different conditions than what we're experiencing right now that's for sure what were you in texas were you recruiting down there down there recruiting seeing a guy that we're we're looking at hard um down at the on the border of mexico harlangen in texas hot oh yeah he he he he's

Is he a native? Is that where he's from? No, he's from Germany. He's from Germany. He's been over here playing some tournaments. So he's here to fly down there than the fly to Germany. Hey, sir. Catch him when you can catch him. What does that look like for you? Because you don't have the huge football staff of recruiters.

You don't have the full basketball staff. Explain to the folks, when we say that recruiting season, it's always recruiting season. It's always recruiting season, yeah. A lot of it, my assistant does, Brett Foreman. He does a fantastic job of it now. We kind of combo. We sit down a couple times a week, once a week at least, and we talk about where we're at with everyone, what we need to do,

who do I need the message, where are we at, you know, how many guys are we need? We go over the whole board. You know, what type of player are we really looking for? Are we going to be able to go out there and get them? You know, nowadays, you kind of have to be able to, if you want to go and get a guy, You have to have all your ducks in a line, you know, you got to make yourself really stand out. And that's one of the things that I'm working hard to get through is making us really stand out as a program. So we do that on the court.

We do that how we work. We do that with everything that Nebraska has to offer. We do that with outside competitions that are brought to the University of Nebraska. And then the last piece is, you know, the NIL part. So I think we're getting really close to rounding out the circle with everything that we can. offer and it's a constant it's a constant race as soon as you get to where you want to be that you find out someone's one step ahead of you so yeah I mean that's why what Brett does with on the recruiting side he's able to dig out everyone find all the recruits all over the

world put him on my desk I start to build a relationship with him while then I can also focus on some of the other things that we're going to need in order to land a guy that's that's that we need to bring here if we want to take the next jump in the conference there's there's a lot to unwrap there. Yep. That in determining the styles and types of players that you want and need in the program to compete at this level at the University of Nebraska. Yeah. So let's go through the list as much as you can say the types of players. Let's start with

that. The types of players, different types of players that can play at the Big Ten level and be successful. What are we looking at? Yeah. The first thing, the first thing I look at is, you know, how do they win? Do they go out there and are they finding ways to win? Are they finding ways to lose? They get a little bit nervous under pressure. You know, the guy I watched yesterday, got down four zero in the first set. It was 95 degrees and he's not used to the heat and he could have quit against the guy that he's better than been really easy.

And he didn't. So he came back, won the first set, won the second set and won the second set and won, you know, a miserable match. So those are the types of things that I look for. I think that are super important. Obviously, you need in the Big Ten, you play a lot of indoor tennis. It's a big hitting, aggressive, coming to the net, you know, kind of tennis. So you kind of have to understand where you are and what our goal is to win the Big Ten conference first. And if you want to do that, you have to have guys that are able to either hit big or be able to defend it really well.

So all these things come in the play. you don't always need a guy to come and play number one. You might find a guy that you really like at six. And you're like, okay, that guy can play for us, but probably at five or six. Then you kind of try and round out your lineup. So most of the time, I would say teams are looking for guys that can play number one or number two

because that just elevates everyone on your team. But if there's someone that's playing six that doesn't lose Bach, you know, it's one point for the good guys. Well, that's the part about the tennis aspect. I would is if you have six competitors you just have to be more competitive than whatever seed you're playing against right it doesn't really matter right now yes if you've got if you have the resources to pull six number ones you're going to win more matches exactly but the reality is that's not really how things are working the depth pool doesn't work that way and then you

now you're trying to identify who fits for you uh who will fit into your system yep uh and your of play and in your style of coaching and then getting them here from wherever they are in the world to link in Nebraska to see the facilities and otherwise is that the is that the easier or tougher sell i don't know if sailing Nebraska is that tough i think it's just you you got to be really good at communicating with people and have you got to have good relationships with not just players but you also have to have great relationships with coaches and in agents and you know people overseas and I think that's something that I that for me a lot of people know me overseas just because I lived there for six years I was overseas for six years playing pro tennis so people know who I am

former players know who I am that are now coaching players in all the all the different countries so it's really easy to say okay like this player's from check and you know I played with 10 guys from check so I can message all 10 of them and say hey do you know this kid what's his number and you know I already have an in because I know the coach or I know somebody like that so there's a lot of that that goes on but But yeah, I mean, I think we're, you know, we finished 39 in the country last year. We finished fifth in the big 10. I think we're starting to register on the radars of some of these top, top recruits. And, you know, we have this ATP event that we have every year here.

That's really lucrative to these players, knowing that there's an event like that here in Nebraska. There's only eight of them that go on on college campuses here in the United States, that size. So that's one thing that sticks out And then you have to be able to come to the desk with a good offer nowadays To really, really grab their attention. And then I think once they're like, okay, I'll come on a visit then And they see everything like, right, that deal's done. So I think it's that simple.

But I don't know. Most people don't when you say you have to have a deal just to get them to the table. What are we talking about? What can you share? Well, you're not allowed to talk about NIL with recruits. I don't know what the rules are yet quite. I don't know if they're quite clear on Rebshare. There's ways to do it, I believe.

But you have to be careful what you offer because you want to play by the rules and stay within the rules. But you also have to, you know, you have to be able to communicate and say, hey, this is the direction that we're moving in. This is the stuff that we're going to be doing. If you want to learn more about it, call, you know, call this number, talk to this person. Compliance office. Well, yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. We have an NIL director. Jonathan Bayman at the school that does an amazing job. You know, all the, you know, you can, you know, there's, there's people that can help. Is he sane right now? Is Jonathan Bateman, do we need to check on him? Jonathan Bayman's the man. Do we need to do a wellness check on him?

Because that, 655 athletes in the system plus the people who are trying to get in the system. Yeah, I mean, he's working with over a thousand athletes. And the parents and the agents and the coaches. Yeah, I mean, if anyone needs to build out of staff, it's that guy. You know, he needs, he needs, he needs, he needs, he needs a much help as he can get. But from what I've been told, you know, Mr. Dan and Troy, he's one of the finer athletic directors in the country. I truly believe that. And he speaks extremely highly of Jonathan. He works with him all the time with some of these major sports that are doing deals

left and right. And I think we're in a really good position there with Jonathan kind of spearheading the NIL department, rev share department, making sure everything's looking good from a financial standpoint. So I think if there are changes, I think things are liquid here and we can make the necessary changes that we need to to make sure that when things do change because they will change again, for sure,

that we're able to make the move quickly and adapt swiftly so that we can kind of be the team that is navigating through the seeing the forest through the trees kind of with this space. That's kind of what it is right now. But did you hear that there are more changes coming?

I think there's always Did that land with you that just it is Roddy Piper just when you think you know all the answers they change the questions that it will change again and being proactive and having a plan

for this stuff. Explain to people the difference because we think in recruiting and then transfer portal that NIL and Revenue Share get thrown together and they're not. You're talking about two entire different universes and vacu.

Two different things. Right. So the revenue share is for who? The revenue share is for the teams that are generating revenue that are bringing revenue back to the athletic department. And that's a pot of money that's being distributed between those sports. I don't know what Mr. Danin's planning on doing. I know there's a way in a world where if there's a player,

that we, that's doing really well in an Olympic sport, I believe that if we needed to keep a guy here, that he would be able to find a way to do that with RevShare, which is, which is a great feeling knowing that, you know, if we do our job on the court and we have to keep someone here, that they'll help us out with that. But, you know, look, the engine, the engine here is football. Football is responsible for 90% of the revenue in the athletic department.

They're the ones that build the facilities and, and give out the, you know, all the scholarships that, you know, anything you see over there is, is mostly done because of football. So they're going to get the bulk of the rev share and rightfully so. But, but, yeah, trying to find, trying to find the balance there and then trying to figure out creative ways to get into the NIL space and finding ways for our guys to benefit from that,

which is kind of the name in the game right now. And then in the transfer conversation, and there's a difference between recruiting international, players who have experience otherwise elsewhere and a college student who's in the system, NCAA system, who simply wants a new place to play. How do you navigate that space? Because it's generally different. You talk about agents. The agents would mainly be international players who have toured and kind of done some things versus the college players who may or may not have managers or agents? So in the college tennis space you have like they're there we call them agents,

but they're really just like college placement. They're like people that have businesses that help you just select the right college, if that makes sense. That's their business model. And you sign up. And I think they pay a fee for for their service. And then they are like, they reach out to coaches for you. They build a video for you, the resume, all that stuff. They help you go on visits to help you. You know, you got to do all the paperwork, all the transcripts. You have to have your transcripts. They all translated. They have to make sure the school accepts them.

If they're each, each country is different. You know, they all graduate at different times. They all have different transcripts. So all that stuff those agents can, can help with. And then when they go into the portal, if they do happen to go in the portal, they'll reach back out to those guys and say, hey, like that one, that one didn't work out. You know, can you help me find a new one? That happens a lot.

Sometimes they don't go back because usually you have to pay for their search. service again and then they'll kind of do the transfer portal by themselves. But after a year to, the, you know, the players know, like, which schools are, are divvying. Really interested. Are really interested. Maybe a better fit in their services. Yeah. If you know what I mean. Yeah. Sometimes telling somebody, no, no, that's not your pool. That's, that's, that's, that's, that, your, your, your, your visa doesn't, doesn't charge at this restaurant. You, sure. Sure. And a lot of times, we learn a lot in recruiting, like what, you know, what people are doing, what schools are doing, what, you know, that's how you kind of know, you kind of catch up a little bit.

Read my mind. So, I mean, it's, it's tough right now. It's not easy for anybody. It's not easy for football. It's not easy for men's tennis. I mean, all the sports have their own challenges. You know, the numbers just keep going up and up and up. I mean, in every sport, but for football, I can't even imagine, you know, it's crazy.

So they got to figure it out. they've got to figure out a way to cap some of this stuff in every sport. I think the money's here. The toothpaste is out of the tube. We're never going back. But can we find a model that is efficient that works for every sport, that makes sense, that's not going to ruin the future of college sports? I think there's a path and there's a way, and I think the leadership's great,

and I really trust that Mr. Dannen and the big tech. are going to be the leaders of it all. So I'm not super worried. But as a coach, you're like, you know, we've got some momentum now. How are we going to keep this momentum when you're, you know, looking in five different directions? It used to be like, hey, this is what we got to do. And now it's like, okay, this is what I think we got to do.

And then now it changes. So my job is to try and project what the next three years are going to look like. Seeing in the next three years, what does that look like? What's for sure going to be here? How can I make sure that, you know, we're positioned in three years. three years to be one of the best teams in the conference and then one of the best teams in the country too. So I feel like that's the name of the game. Fundraising is and figuring out where you need to be in three years. That's kind of like my number one job. We are, if you

just join us, we are with Husker men's tennis head coach Peter Cobalt. And in these conversations, there are discussions that in the recruiting, vacuum that is, that high school talent is losing out, that it makes it much more difficult for high school talent to get recruited because people really need the immediate fix of having a college ready, a high powerful level talent come into your program. You may not have time to develop and you may not have the resources to develop. So from your thinking, how How should fans think about high school talent in the recruiting process versus transfer talent in the recruiting process? Yeah.

So I would say that just like it is changing for us, it's also changing for them. So the things that they were doing normally to be recruited and to go on a team, that's not it anymore. You know, they have to upgrade. They have to, you know, these recruits have to be better. they have to be willing to sacrifice more and do different things in order to get the on the radars of these coaches because you know at the end of the day in every sport you know here for sure like the expectation is to win and to continue to improve so it doesn't really help us to go out there and and grab a bunch of developmental guys when you know other teams are doing it

in a different fashion so you got to you have to adapt and and what i would say is like look like to the parents and to the players that are coming in through high school like everything's changing like the model that that you've been used to and that we've been used to is gone um will there still be time and a place for for for that stuff yes but you know there's there's not a lot of a margin for air you know big 10 you get 10 roster spots in tennis cc you get nine not every school has a lot that amount either um so you know in last year we had nine guys play nine guys that had to step in and play so like you know we can't have two three guys on our team developing that aren't ready to play it's it's tough so if we could have 12 13

guys in our team that that'd be a whole different conversation but parents have to understand like this is the sports have changed and if you want you know the traditional recruiting is always there but still extremely important you i believe that you know that's the system that you still have to do is the bulk of it is that but um If you're going to ask me if, you know, if we're losing our one, two players in, you know, after this year, due to graduation, if we're going to just bring in freshmen to come in and just roll with it. Like, that's not, you know, no. Like, that's, we can't. That's not the, that's not the model anymore.

And that's okay. But we have to adapt. And they also have to understand that that's not the model anymore. And go develop somewhere if you're not ready and then come back. And then look, look again, if you want to come back. It's easy to transfer. It's not a big deal anymore. and it's not like it's the end of the world.

It used to be at the end of the world, but my job is the position, the University of Nebraska's men's tennis team in the best position that I can every year. And I got to make those hard decisions, and I have to adapt with the times the best I can, whether I like it or you like it or anyone likes it. And that's the name of the game.

From the text line says, well, you ask coach, the best way for a high school coach to reach out to him about a player. Say it again. The question is, the best way for a high school coach to reach out to you about a player. What's the best way? Email, email.

You know, I check my email every morning, every night. The days are pretty busy. But reach out. Reach out to me. You know, we're always at the tennis center, too. I don't think I should give out my cell phone number. Let's not do that. No, no, sir.

Email. My email is easy to find. Huskers.com. you know, it's all there. Reach out if, you know, for me, it's important still that there's, there's a representation of Nebraska on our team and, and, or someone that has ties to Nebraska. I think that's, that's still important.

But, you know, we can't, we can't field a team of just, you know, local players that are good kids. Like we have to, you know, we're trying to, we're trying to go from fourth place last, two years ago, fifth place last year to third place or second place. You know, we're not 12th in the big 10 trying to go. to 10th. We're trying to knock on the door of some of the very best teams in our conference right now. What information do you want in those reach out? Because I think I know the answer to that question, but I'm not sure local folks would know what if somebody says, I have a player that I think

you might be interested. You have a list of questions that immediately pop into your head, size GPA, talent level, tournaments played in, coaching, style of. You know, play, film, what's on the Peter Cobalt list? I would say if you have video, send video, that saves everybody time. I, you know, you know pretty quickly from a tennis level standpoint that if the level is going to be there or not. And then phone number, you know, obviously the grades matter to, you know, what's their, what's their win, win loss record, who have they beat, who have they lost to, all this stuff,

all this stuff matters but for me the the chip you know we're only we're only anteing up here where we're going all in pushing all the chips into the table we're going all out you know for us uh we're a program that doesn't have a lot of like tennis history success like success in tennis like and that's not it's not a it's not a shot at anybody but it's just the truth we don't we don't have a we don't have time to go from 39 to back to 50 in the rankings we have to keep going up we're not you know we're not some of these programs where you can have a bad season or two. And you have the luxury of sitting in a hotbed of recruiting or recruiting a prowliss. You're not in Florida, California, Texas.

Or you don't have a whole bunch of national championships sitting in your closet either. So for me, the time is now. Sense of urgency is extremely high. It's got to happen now. And we got to make it happen. So, you know, that's stuff that we work on every day. The guys know what the expectations are. Like, it's not for everybody.

And that's okay. But that's what we're working towards. Especially in this day and age where you, you, you turn on your TV and you hear the stories. There's LSU who will fire a coach for not winning enough. He's winning. He's just not winning enough for LSU. He's not winning a national title.

And they're willing to write a $50 million plus check to move on from it. Winning now is literally the business that folks are in. Exactly. Right? So folks have to understand that. I mean, you as a coach, you kind of peeking over the fence, right? Like, oh, that's what you all are doing? Yeah, I mean, I wake up every day and I'm like, man, if I don't do my job, I feel like the, you know,

Mr. Dannen's going to come lock on my door tomorrow. And he's, you know, that's how I treat the job. That's how I treat the job. Yeah. That's how I treat the job. If I don't treat the job like that, then the guys aren't going to come out and practice like that. And if they're not practicing like that, then we're not going to be where we need to be from,

from January. So, you know, you know, that's just the way it is. It's not a job for the week. You've got to be able to come in and handle stress and work through it and get better every single day. I think people miss that. Before we go to break, and we've got the folks from Tiptona is going to come in if they're here. I'm not sure if they made it or not. But I do want to ask the question.

You mentioned that sometimes you're looking over the fence and watching, sometimes in the recruiting process and the transfer portals, you hear what other folks are doing. How much of this are you moved by paying attention to? what Michigan, USC, UCLA does in the recruiting, how much does it affect you here at Nebraska? It doesn't affect really our day-to-day operation in terms of what we do and the standards we said and how we motivate our guys in work. But behind the curtains, I'm like, okay, like, this is what's happening? Like, what am I not doing? You know, what am I not seeing? How are they doing that? How can we do that? You know, why aren't we able to figure it out here or do this or do that?

So it's tough because you just a lot of it is he said, she said type of stuff. And you really don't ever know 100% what's going on. But you, that's my job is like, we got to figure it out. To know what the other folks are doing. Never underestimate the greed of the other guy. It's the thing. We'll throw a break. Peter Cobalt, Husker tennis, more one-on-one when we come back.