1-on-1 with DP – 93.7 The Ticket KNTK - Steve talks about Mickey Joseph: February 21st, 10:25am

Episode Date: February 21, 2022

He made Steve work harder when he got to Nebraska and Steve was a juniorMickey is all football all the timeWhat is leadership to you?Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

You're listening to one-on-one with DP. Brought to you by Beatrice Bakery. On 93-7 The Ticket and the Ticket FM.com. Welcome back to 101, 401, 424-645-6-85. Sorry to hand the text line. On a licking hotline, I want to thank the folks from Beatrice Bakery for what they do in making this hour of radio possible.

Steve Taylor is with me today. And because of what he's doing, to kind of build the bridge and set the tone for how alumni and former player engagement is going to happen. I would like to do this. The folks at Biatchez's Bakery has some goodies. What we do from day to day is just to make somebody smile and say thank you.

Yes. So what we'd like to do is put together, we'll put together a little care package for you to take with you. Oh, that's nice. You can share it with family and friends, just our way of saying thank you for putting this sort of thing. Are you saying those little packages of a fruit cake I was eating? Dude, that's the best fruit cake I've ever had.

I was trying to explain. I'm dead serious. I was like, when I saw that, I was, and I was like, this is good. Well, guess what? We can give you an entire food cake. I couldn't stop eating it. No, it was awesome. I was like, this is good.

It's fresh as, oh, man, it's like. Right. It means it's all natural. So you can go through and you go, wow, I try to explain to people. We're at a convention and everybody's like, good and fruitcakes shouldn't go together. I'm like, you haven't had this. It's awesome. Like, you haven't had this.

So we'll do that as a care package. That's nice of you. and saying thanks for what you're doing. This event, there's several different things moving behind it. One of them being the presence and reemergence of Mickey Joseph. So what is it about Mickey Joseph that is uniting folks and making momentum happen around him? You know, it's so weird because Mickey has always been Mickey.

He was incoming. Here's a typical Mickey story, right? And we're just going to have this conversation. and gives you a little insight of his personality because Mickey was very, very highly recruited out of Louisiana. And I was going into my junior year, and he was signed my University of Nebraska. And I saw highlights of this dude.

I mean, this dude was fast, he could run and everything. And I told myself, Mickey is at my house and his wife, we're all there, and we're talking about this, right? And I said, dude, I said, you have no idea how you motivated me to be a better quarterback. I said, when I saw your highlights and you were coming in that next year, I went and took the lightest load I could take academically, and I focused my, I said, this is my, this, I had a great sophomore year.

There's no question about that, but I was like, I need to take my game to a whole new level. And I said, I'm going to dedicate my junior year to that. And because I was being pushed by Mickey Joseph, right, coming in, had to have my stuff together. And it was weird, right? Because I said that, and he said, yeah, dude. he said when I came here and the first day of practice and you threw that ball he said I went and sat down next to the oldest flotliot's flowers on the bench and leota said I know what you're going to do

you're going to rest shirt right just like leo's was right so Mickey told me that story right and Mickey said well they didn't tell me about that number nine guy right so that's just Mickey and he's just he's outgoing he knows football pedigree in his family he loves it that's all he does So we're at his house again, sitting there, having some water, I mean, having some water or whatever. And we're chatting, right? And he said, someone's asking a question. And they asked me, he said, what's your hobby? I said, well, obviously it's golf, right?

I said, what's yours? He said, football. That dude lives and died football. That's a coach. That's all it consumes him. I mean, it's weird because when he bought my house and I was finishing their basement, I saw his wife four or five times, Priscilla. You know her.

She's awesome, right? People think I was married to her. That's Rico's best friend. Yeah, she said, dude, I see you more than my husband. Mickey leaves at 7 in the morning and comes home at 10, 11, 12 o'clock at night. You know, it was weird. So he loves football. That's what he does.

He brings this energy. I listen to him, talk to the recruits, and it's awesome. It's wonderful. So that has re-energized me as well, you know, to see that type of dedication and commitment, and he has passion for football, and he came here to help Nebraska. He could have easily stayed away. I mean, he had other offers and everything, and our program was not in the best of shape, you know, and everything.

So he wanted to come back here, or he came back here to help the University of Nebraska-Lincoln get back to where we need to be. That's the type of coach and player, you know, Mickey is, and he's fun, he's cool, he's cool to be around, and I spent more time with Mickey now than I did when I was here playing, you know. just because. So it's been great reconnecting with him. And his family and his wife, they're all great.

His kids, little Mickey and Malina, they're great. So it's been fun and exciting for me. And that's why I'm so excited about this, because he's bringing this huge energy to the university. And he's reconnecting with, he has ties in Omaha, so he's reconnecting with all those ties and everything. So it's just awesome to watch him do that and to be a part of it and try to do my little role that I can do.

do as a former player. Can Mickey be the connector in the straw that stirs the drink for Omaha and Lincoln? It's not, can he be? He is. He has already done that. There's been huge results already for things that he has done and that he continues to do. So we, when I say we, I always say we because I feel like I'm part of the University of Nebraska, we're going to get this right.

We're going to get it right. And it starts with us as players. It starts with the current administration. And another thing, too, is Trev Alberts. Trev has been absolutely phenomenal from what he's done and the decisions that he's made and how he's going about his business, and he's a former player.

So leadership starts at the top, and I think now we have that leadership. Not I think I know that we have that leadership, and we're all on the same page. We have this common goal, and we're going to get it done, and we're soldiers. It takes each and every one of us

to do our individual part to get this university, get the reputation and respect back that we deserve that we've earned. You and a bunch of other connected Huskers use the term leadership. I'll ask you for a definition of it. Because when you say leadership can be the bridge, a lot of people go in different corners about what that means. To you, what does leadership mean? You know, practice what you preach.

Do what you say you're going to do. be loyal, be committed. Those are values that I was raised on from my mom and my mom, and Coach Osborne was a reflection of that. My professional coaches were the same way. You know, there's no rocket science to it. You know, be consistent in your behavior and what you do. Be inclusive.

Don't exclude people. Treat people on the content of their character. You got to earn your job around here. You got to keep doing what you need to do to keep it. You know, so that's leadership to me. And you can lead in many, many different ways. You know, I was a leader in my way. Broder Thomas led his way.

I fed off that. I loved it. And I learned, you know, and this is one thing I was telling VJ about Coach Osborne. You know, because Coach Osborne used to refer to Barry Switzer. He's a figure head coach. But Switzer led, he motivated his players. He let, he was boisterous in things, and he gave his players confidence. where at that time, Nebraska was more reserved, more quiet, you know, more traditional.

It was okay to have a little swag. It was okay to have some swag as long as you backed it up. Now, you don't want to go over the top. Miami had their swag, you know. And so we developed that at Nebraska, and those players were not, they didn't suppress those type of feelings. Broder Thomas brought that out with a lot of players that you can be vocal, you can be confident, you can say I want to go to the league, you can say I want to win the national

championship without being frowned upon you know i just thought about this last night when we used to set our goals or coach i was not to set a national championship goal it was never a national championship goal it was always you know practice win the big eight things of that nature but it's okay to set a national championship goal you know so um we learn and we get better so that's leadership to me um and everyone leads in a different way um so but it all starts at the top and i think uh we got an athletic director that's a player. He's not afraid to make tough decisions. He's going to hold you accountable.

And he's going to do what he say he's going to do. And he's been extremely inclusive, which is very, very important to me because that was one of the foundations of why I came to Nebraska. There was only so many schools that a black quarterback could play. And Nebraska was one of them.

We're a pioneer in that. That's a big deal. It's a huge deal. That's a big deal. So within that pyramid of Nebraska, black quarterbacks. And it's a part of why as a young kid in D.C. You pay attention to programs outside of that.

And even to get away from black quarterbacks, I go and say mobile quarterback. Or start a style of play, right? Like it's unique. And that was kind of the style at the time because especially the people you were competing against Oklahoma. Absolutely. Listen, this is how we're going to get down.

Now you're going to either get beat by us or get on board. But how did that discussion? Was that ever a discussion with you being here? Listen, I want to come here. I want to play the position and you're going to be okay with. Absolutely. UCLA, USC, say, hey, Steve, you're a great quarterback, but you know, you could be a great wide receiver or maybe running back, you know.

Penn State was one school back east. So I had several schools were like that. But I had schools like Cal Berkeley say, hey, you're going to play quarterback, right? No question. Universal Washington said you're going to play quarterback. I got an interesting story about that, right? And then Coach Osborne, he promised me three things. He said, Steve, you're going to get a chance to get a good education, right?

And you're definitely going to play quarterback. We're not going to switch you. And you're going to have a chance to compete. That's all I needed to hear. A lot of those schools promised me a lot of other things, and he did exactly that. But that's how programs get in trouble is making the promise. Well, you've got to make the right promise. He made the promise that I can get a good education.

I have a chance to compete and I will play quarterback. He didn't promise me I was going to be a star. Right. He didn't promise me that I'm going to start. Right. He didn't say that because a coach who says that, he's saying that to the next guy next year.

Right. So, and I've had that to me, I had coaches say that to me. Lou Holtz recruited me when he was at Minnesota. You know. He's a different kind of recruited than Tom L'O. He was. He was.

No, he was. But they all did it in their own little way, and I respect him everything. But it was just something about Nebraska. Not something. It was a trust factor. and coach did what he and when I came here when I came here I saw no turn of Gil first of all was here right McArthur and Clayton was here window Wooten was here

these are all quarterbacks and not only I'm going to get somewhat crazy on you not only were they black quarterbacks they were of dark skin yeah which was like me right now the general population won't understand that whole different deal so so I knew that right that they weren't afraid to put them out there as a face of their program that's a huge difference and And of course, we were winning. If we weren't winning, the brides wouldn't have been on my top list. I'd say that right now, but they were winning.

There's so much depth from behind what you just said, that people may miss it in the passing. Yeah, having dark-skinned quarterbacks is like within this space, we understand it, and we know the difference between one and the other. We'll throw it to break. One more segment with Steve Taylor before Vijay jumps into the party, and I would imagine that that segment is going to be something to both. hold. Stay tuned, 101, 937

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