THE ED MYLETT SHOW - Unrivaled Clemson Culture w/ Coach Dabo Swinney

Episode Date: June 15, 2021

First , let me just tell you upfront…THIS IS A TRULY INCREDIBLE CONVERSATION! This is a Master Class on LEADERSHIP, FAITH , CULTURE and LIFE Even if you are only a casual follower of college football, you’re undoubtedly familiar with Clemson Tigers head coach Dabo Swinney. Over the past three decades few coaches can rival the SUCCESS Coach Swinney has enjoyed. You learn a lot about LIFE and what it takes to succeed as a player and a coach in college football. And Coach Swinney learned a long time ago about what it takes to be a WINNER. He became Clemson's head coach in 2009 and has built an ASTONISHING legacy since that time. Coach Swinney’s teams have won 81% of their games going 140-33. He also led the Tigers to national championships in 2016 in 2018. And for the past three seasons, he’s coached Trevor Lawrence, who many consider the finest quarterback coming out of college football in quite a long time. To enjoy such a high level of success for an extended period you must have STANDARDS and a CULTURE in place that let's players EXCEL to their HIGHEST CAPACITY. Coach Sweeney talks about what that culture is and how Clemson’s culture actually turned into a brand that has made it easier to continue to RECRUIT THE BEST TALENT in the nation. Coach Swinney is also a man of FAITH. And he has infused his coaching style and his relationship with his players with faith-based principles that have also significantly contributed to the positive culture at Clemson. One of the best ways you can learn to be SUCCESSFUL in your own life is to learn from others who have enjoyed the highest levels of success in their life and in the teams they coach. Coach Swinney goes way beyond the Xs and Os to deliver an INSPIRING and INSIGHTFUL exchange of ideas that you will not want to miss. 👉 SUBSCRIBE TO ED'S YOUTUBE CHANNEL NOW 👈  → → → CONNECT WITH ED MYLETT ON SOCIAL MEDIA: ← ← ← ▶︎ INSTAGRAM ▶︎ FACEBOOK  ▶︎ LINKEDIN ▶︎ TWITTER ▶︎ WEBSITE

This is the Ed Milach Show. Welcome back to the program, everybody. I'm so fired up today. I have some man I've admired from a distance for so many years. He is one of the great leaders in American sports. He just is. And he does it with a style that is all his own. And it's one that I've admired from a distance.

Some of our mutual friends have confirmed what a good man he is for me. And let me tell you, 140 and 33, while he's been at Clemson, is the head football coach there. But he started to get better and better and better. Last three years, only lost three games, undefeated in 2018, two national championships.

The list goes on and on. And this is from a guy who was a walk on at Alabama, by the way, which is even more ironic that you went to Alabama now. You coach at Clemson, but I am honored to have Dabo Sweeney on the program that I coach. Thank you for being here. Thank you, Ed. It's good to be with you, man. This is a great, great, great treat to be on this podcast or show and an opportunity to meet you. Yeah, my pleasure, coach. So we're going to go all over the place. We're going to talk leadership,

recruiting, culture, all these different things, but as I was reading about you, you know, you walked on in college and then you end up that you went to national championships of player too. A lot of people don't know that. So you've done a lot of winning in your life, but you get this job and I heard you say that they rated you a D plus higher because you were like the interim coach, but is this true? I want everyone to get this. A lot of you that are listed as your entrepreneur, as your leaders, maybe you're a little bit young in some cases too. This man was 38 years old when he takes over

this program. Is it true that when they hired you, you went like in literally into a closet, like a physical closet and we're talking to yourself? Is that actually true? That is true. So, so what happened is I just, you know, came to work on October 13th 2008 I was an assistant in my six-year here as an assistant and middle of the season three and three we were coming off a tough loss and they decided to make a change at head coach the head coach position and you know I had no really I mean absolutely no idea We had a 7 a.m. staff meeting that morning and it was actually my day to to do the devotional Kind of rotates around the room and just happened to be my day that day

And it was just business as usual as a Monday. We're gonna play Georgia Tech that weekend and at our staff meeting like we always do Went on in our offensive meetings Offensive coach and so we're in our planning and about mid-morning, about 10, 30 or so, the operations guy walks in and says, hey, the coach's bound needs to see the whole staff and the staff room. Well, that never happens.

We'd already had staff meeting that morning, so it was really kind of odd. So we all got in there, knew something was going on. He walks in and he basically just said, he didn't have a lot of words. He just said, you know, I much appreciated us. And, and hey, this is something that's gonna happen. We're gonna make it, they're gonna make a change.

And he said, you know, hey, look, I'm good. He said, I just, you know, we're about all you guys, I'm gonna visit with you individually in due time. But right now the AD wants to step in and say a few words. So you're sitting there, you know, you got a lot going through your mind. I'm a young guy. I got a young family, you know, people going on AD steps in. AD was not a man of many words either. Old school guy from Arkansas. He basically just said, hey, look, you know,

Mark and Saul, he basically just said, hey, look, this isn't something that I wanted to happen, but he did tell Coach Boughton he was going to make a change into the year regardless of what happened. And Coach Boughton, they revisited later on that morning and said, you know what, this is going to be a negative seven weeks. Why don't we just make a change here? And let's let Davo be the interim.

And Coach Boughtoughton the head coach He he kind of you know said, hey, would you consider Davo being the interim and AD said absolutely he said, you know, and so anyway next thing you know he walks in he says a Here's what's happening, you know, I know it's a tough business. I expect y'all to just continue to do your job We got a bunch of kids is counting on us and an dadbo, you're now the he to see him off us in 5 and walked out. And so y

in there was this weird m slamming pins and no p sudden they got dead qu. And everybody in the room was looking at me. I mean, I'm in sweatpants. I mean, this is Monday's or long days in our world. And just, you know, I didn't really know what to say, but it was just, I mean, I was like having an out-of-body experience, you know, but I just said, you know what, hey guys, you know,

let me go meet with them. We'll get back together a little bit. I didn't really know what to say. I went to my office and grabbed a notebook and a pen called my wife on the way to his office and said, hey, you know, we just got let go. They just fired Tommy. Oh my God. I said, oh, it gets worse. I'm the interim. And I said, I don't know when I'll talk to you, Kath. And so I go around and take a deep breath. I walk in his in his office. And I really, I don't know when I'll talk to you, Kath. And so I go around and take a deep breath. And I walk in his office. And I really went in with the mindset of,

this is going to be a miserable, we had six games left, and an open date. So seven weeks, this is going to be a miserable seven weeks. But I'm thinking he's probably going to tell me, hey, do a good job. I'll try to get the next guy to keep you or something, along those lines. But just the opposite happened. There's such great lessons that came out of that

and I still tell people to this day when I go speak. So I walk in this man's office and I sit down and he looks at me and he said, he said, Dabbo, let me tell you something. I know you're in a tough spot here. He goes, but here's what I want you to know. And he kind of told me how all kind of came about. He goes, but here's where we are. He said, for the next seven weeks, I want you to be the head coach. I don't want you to be the interim head coach. For the next seven weeks, I want you to do whatever you think you need to do to fix us. He said, if you need to fire the whole staff, fire the whole staff or whatever you think you need to do, I for the next seven weeks, you have my full support. That was a mistake on his part, okay?

But that's what he tells me. And then he goes, he said, for five and a half years, I've watched you. I've watched how you led your players, how you handled yourself in the community. I watched you with your family. He said, I see these kids in your office. I've seen how you handled discipline and recruiting. And he said, Dabo, I'm gonna be honest with office. I've seen how you handle discipline and recruiting.

And he said, Dabo, I'm gonna be honest with you. I've done this a long time. He said, personally, he said, I think you're what we need here at Clemson. He goes, he goes, so what I want you to know is when this thing's over, you're gonna get an interview for the job. He said, he goes, whether you win them all or lose them all, he said, I'm gonna give you an interview for this job.

He goes, now I'm gonna hire the best coach. I job. He goes, now I'm gonna hire the best coach. I'm gonna go all over. I'm gonna hire the best coach. He goes, but I'll say it again, I think you're what we need at Clemson. He goes, it sure would help if you could win a few ball games. I heard right. And then he kind of sits back.

He says, you got any questions? And I'm like, I mean, my whole mind, so now my mind is racing. So I leaned up and I said, so you're, you know, I said, well, I appreciate that. And I said, you're telling me that, that like I can be the head coach. And for seven weeks, he said, I'm telling you,

whatever you think we need to do, you need to do to fix us, you got my full support. And I'm like, and so I walked out of this office, and I've had a notepad, and my mind is racing. Yeah. And I, you know, because I went in there with one mindset, and I came out with a different mindset, and the lesson that I got from that was,

number one, you never know who's watching. So just be great at whatever you do. You know, I mean, whatever it is you're doing, just be great at it. So many people, especially in this business, they're chasing things, they want this title, or they're this and that. And the grass is green where you're watering it, right?

You know, just be great where you are. Just be great where your feet are. Blue more your planet is what I always say. You don't know who's watching, but I know this, if you're great at what you do, people will notice that. Amen. So that was an lesson and I, and I, and I learned that as a player, same thing happened to me as a player. I, a sophomore, I'm a walk on, I come to a Tuesday practice. Boom, they said, hey, we're going gonna give you a shot. You know, and I didn't even know he was paying attention.

Next thing, you know, I let her three years, I get a scholarship, win a national championship. But the second part of that lesson is you got to be prepared for your opportunity. You know, you got to be prepared for your opportunity. You may not ever get it, but, but right, better be prepared, you know. Well, anyway, so what did you do coach to be prepared? Like, yeah, so he's so, he's up to you on the shoulder. You're ready. Did you think you were ready?

Absolutely. So, so say answer that. So when I walked out of there, I went in a closet. I literally, I went in like a, yeah, that's a true story. I have janitor closet half vent and I just closed the door and I just sat in there and for 45 minutes, I just started writing. I just started writing, and it was all over the place.

You know, I'm thinking recruiting, I'm thinking discipline, how I wanna change practice, what would I wanna do this week? How am I gonna meet with the team? I gotta meet with the staff. Is there anybody I need to make a change with? I'm gonna run the offense. I'm gonna, you know, I had all these things going on, and I'm just scribbling 100 things for that moment.

Yeah. All right. But as I, and so I go through that, but the second part of it is from the time I got into coaching in 1993, I was preparing to be a head coach. All right. I didn't know if I'd ever get a chance to be a head coach,

but I was just, I love what I do. I love what I was doing. I love my, I mean, I'm just chance to be a head coach, but I was just, I love what I do. I love what I was doing. I love my, I mean, I'm just trying to be the best at whatever it was, but I started kind of building a book, started putting a head coach book together in 1990, I mean, literally right out of the gate, things I liked, things I didn't like, you know, academic stuff, philosophy of offense, philosophy of defense,

philosophy of recruiting, philosophy of special, philosophy of recruiting, philosophy of special teams, you know, who I would want to hire, you know, what would be my staff expectation, you know, whatever, how I would run practice, you know, and I started putting all this, just building this all over the years and all the years, I, oh man, I like that, throw it in the book. Or, you know, a lot of times, so I coached eight years at Alabama when I finished playing. I played five coached eight. And a lot of times we learn more from the bad than we do the good.

And that's called experience. When we touch that hot stove and we get that bit, we learn, right? Yes. But the wise man learns from other people's experiences. So we all learn from our own. That's just life. But man, I just spent a lot of time learning from other people and I do that when I play her to this day. I send them stuff from all over the country all the time. You know, whether

it's something good or something bad, you know, to learn from others. And so I just was started going through things and I spent the first seven years I spent all seven years of coach Stalin's career at Alabama with him and then all of a sudden I started working for other people getting exposed to different things and I started going up Well, now I know why he did it that way You know and so I started having things reinforced and then I started, you know, growing into my own as far as yes You know my beliefs my philosophy and I started putting all this together and what happened to me, this was a great, great turning point for me. In 2006, they were starting a football program

at the University of South Alabama, the Jaguars down in Mobile, and they're a good program, but they were starting football there. And they reached out to me to come interview for the job. And I'm like, you know what, you know what? And it was, it'd be quite honest with you, and I only told this to my wife, if I had gotten the job, I wouldn't have taken it.

But I told Kath, I said, you know what, here's what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna prepare for this job, like it's the University of Alabama. Like it's the job. And so it forced me to take all those years of stuff and I put it together and I organized and I went after that job, like it was the greatest job.

I mean, I had Jaguar Nation, we fixed in the rule the world, man, I had everything in there. And so I was prepared. And I finished like second or third on the job. They didn't offer me the job. Yeah, but but I finished second or third on the job. But I really wouldn't have taken it if they'd offered it, but it was great.

Great process. And so all of a sudden two years later, I'm the interim head coach at Clemson. And so when I'm getting interview, so I'm in the middle of the season. I'm in the chaos. I'm making changes. I got all this stuff going on the season. I'm in chaos. I'm making changes. I got all this stuff going on. And but when that season was over, you know what I did? I walked in.

I had the president. I had the AD, the assistant. And I had them all a book. And I said, Hey, this is who I am. This is what we're going to be. This is what we're going to do. This is what our philosophy is. This is how we're going to run the program.

This is the staff I want to hire. This is, you know gonna run the program. This is the staff I wanna hire. This is our discipline policy. This is what I believe in. And bam, here we go. That to me is like, I feel like we just did the whole show. Like I hope everybody got this and goes all the way back. All this stuff about blooming where you're planted, the grass is greener where you watered.

I've actually never heard it said that way before. But this idea that he was blooming where he was planted, being the best and great at what he did, but preparing for the future all the time. It's amazing to me even entrepreneurs that even will listen to the show. They'll write down little keys, but are you watching how the guests says it? How they phrase it? How they position it? How they tell a story? How I do it? Where you work right now, if you're, if you're, you know, an employee somewhere, are you prepping to be a business owner someday, studying what works and what you said to about what doesn't work? Are you keeping that binder that coach kept of keeping these notes and experience allows you to anticipate,

too? If you don't have experience, I think you're constantly reacting. Yes. And I think what happened was when you got this job, a lot of guys get that opportunity, they didn't prepare like you. Now they're just reacting, recruiting this problem, The boosters, we just had this loss. Oh my gosh, our centers hurt. And they're reacting all the time. This allowed you, I think, would you agree with me? Coach, that preparation allows you to anticipate situations sometimes that you wouldn't get if you weren't prepared.

Got a plan. You know, Abraham, one of my favorite quotes from Abraham Lincoln's Lincoln was, if Abraham Lincoln said, you give him six hours to chop down a tree. He's going to spend the first four hours sharpened in the axe. You know, I mean, it's all about preparation. It's just in my world. And what we do, we only play about 3% of the time.

We prepare 97% of the time. But it's what you're doing when nobody's watching. That's what separates people. You know, you didn't get here. I don't know your separates people. You know, you didn't get here, I don't know your whole background, but I guarantee you didn't get here doing this show. You didn't just show up. I mean, it's what you're doing.

Championships are one when nobody's watching, they're when the stands are empty. And it's the same thing with people. Champions are made when what you do when nobody's watching, you know, so it's that 97% of the time, you know, we all work, we have jobs, but it is all about preparation and having a plan. And so having a vision, being able to articulate that vision.

You're gonna deal with young people today. Number one, they better know that you care. Number two, you better be able to communicate why. All right, and so, and you've got to be able to articulate a vision and get people to buy in and get behind that. I don't care if you're running a company or whatever it is, but the other key thing, this is very important, because especially in my world,

and I deal with a lot of young people, and I deal with a lot of young coaches now. And I've been an 18 to 22 year old, and I have a PhD in 18 to 22 year olds, because I've spent my entire life with that group, my whole life. And in fact, I was at a convention a couple years ago and I had this young couple of young guys,

I'm going up, we were in Louisville. And I'm going back to my hotel room and I'm standing over by the elevator and these couple of these young guys came up to me and they were like GAs at grad assistance somewhere. I don't know if they were Baylor or where. Some school and they came up to me. I coached me. I just wanted to introduce myself. I nice meet you guys and I'm literally standing there at the elevator and they're like they're like, you know, Coach Wendy, listen, we just, you know, we just want to, you know, they wanted me to give them like,

you know, 30 years of stuff and knowledge and a minute here and they want to go, they want to go from GA to head coach. And I just, and they'd listen. I said, well, here's what I will tell you guys. All right. And this is exactly what I just said. I said, be great. Whatever you're doing. If you're the GA, be the best GA and the history of GA's. If your job's to go get the coffee, man, you bring the best coffee that anybody's ever got you get that coffee man Everybody's gonna manage you get that call this guy's unbelievable. All right people notice that I said I can't tell you How many people I've hired that they don't have some fancy resume what they got is they got an unbelievable work ethic and Attention to detail and they're just so focused being great at what they're doing. They don't get distracted

So that's number one prepare, but you need to hear me on this. Guys, I'm about to get on this elevator and I'm going to hit 14 because now I'm on the 14th floor and when the door is open, I'm on the 14th floor. Well, let me tell you this, you gotta, you gotta take the steps. All right, there's no elevator to being ahead coach. There's no elevator to being the CEO. There's no elevator to greatness. You got to put the work in and take the steps. Period. And you know what? Enjoy it. Yeah. Enjoy it. It's not about because I've been to the top. I tell our guys all the time, I've been to the mountain top. And it's awesome. We love it. We climb a mountain every year at Clemson. That's kind of our thing. You know climb them out? One step at a time.

We love that. And we start out based camp. And the top of the mountain is awesome, but that's not what it's all about. That's just a moment. What you will cherish more than anything is the journey that it took to get there. Like, man, what it took to get there?

The people you were with, the relationships that you developed along the way, the failures that you had, the mistakes that you made that you learned from, that you grew from. That's what you cherish more than anything. Everybody looks and they see the grand moments, you know, Tom Brady winning a Super Bowl. That's great. You know what, Tom Brady's going to remember more than anything, man, those practices. Getting together with the guys, the bus rides, the plane rides, when nobody's watching the preparation on a plane. That's what it takes.

I'm getting goose bumps y'all. You've got to fall in love with that. You've got to embrace the suck, right? There's a lot of it that just sucks. And you've got to fall in love with that part. If you're going to do anything great in life, it's not going to just happen. So the preparation and fall in love with the preparation,

all the great players that I've been around, that's what separates them. They love the preparation. Everybody loves to play. Yeah. All right. But it's falling in love and embracing the suck along the way. That's what separates us.

Oh my gosh. Very rarely I'm in the middle one of these shows. I'm like, this is freaking great. You know, we're in the first quarter just because it's a I just want you I just want to keep going. But I just got to say this to you. I just gave a talk this weekend. A bunch of entrepreneurs very high entrepreneurs. And so I'm going to give you an overall business philosophy. It's going to surprise you. I said, here's what it is. Everybody you encounter wants to feel this from you that you love them care about them, believe in them and you can show them how to get a little bit better. That's it. And they're saying, help me. You said it of young people, but it's true. I think coach of all people, as you said. And then this notion, I just want to

review. I'm not going to review everything he says, but he says so many good things. This idea of the love of the preparation, I promise you, that's true across the board of the athletes, I've worked with too. But in addition to that, being able to create a vision that you can articulate that people buy into is like you're listening to this man talk, there's a rhythm, there's a fl- it's so easy to listen to him. You wouldn't born with that, that's something that he's worked on over time. The other thing you've done coach, and I'd like some keys from you on this for myself, you've created a culture there, right? There's a culture there, right? There's a culture there.

There's the tiger walk. Maybe you could share with everybody a little bit about that. I do my research, right? But there's this culture you've created. And I think teams, organizations, are a reflection often times of the personality, the character of the leader.

And I feel like your program, maybe more of an any that I've heard about sort of reflects that culture that you create because of the man you are. Give us some tips on creating culture and maybe tell them what the Tiger Walk is in addition if you can squeeze it in. Yeah, well, the Tiger Walk back to that week of being an interim, all right? That I get the job on Monday. I don't sleep Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and all of a sudden Wednesday night, I get this, I finally get to that one of those sections. I'm

scratching off all those notes that I had written down. I was like, oh, you know what? I want to do this Tiger Walk thing. I went to the AD, you know, it told you it was the worst thing he told me because I did about three things in three days. He's like, no, wait a minute. We can't do that. And I said, you told me that what you would support for seven weeks, I could be the head coach. And so I was kind of my little calling card and he would, he's like, well, okay. I said, I want to get him to drop us off out in the middle of the road on perimeter road here. And we're going to walk to the stadium. He's like, what we can't do that. We got troopers. I changed the route, everything. Changed how we come in. It was a, it was pandemonium. And I said,

well, you told me, I said, that's what I think I need to do to fix this. And so I literally, what it was was for six years of being an assistant, it used to drive me crazy because I would be over there fired up because I was, I was never with the team. I was over there recruiting. And I would walk through the parking lot. And man, by the time I got in the stadium, I was ready to just punch somebody, you know, just feel the energy and the passion. And our players would pull up on a bus and a sweat suit and get off and walk in with headphones and they weren't engaged and they didn't get it. And we used to take some crazy route through the farm lands and you never saw anybody and you just pull up.

And so that was literally like Wednesday night. I said, we're changing all that. I said, these guys need to understand how important it is. And they need to feel the passion. They need to feel the energy from these fans. And so we literally, and they were all freaked out. They were worried about security. And I mean, it was like,

because we're gonna get off at the part, and we're literally walking, it's a long walk right through the main area. And I mean, there must have been 40,000 people out there. It's incredible. And to this day, it's what we do. And it's exactly what happened by the time we got there. Like, they got it. Like, guys, this is important. This means a lot to a lot of people, you know, and we're coding time, you know, takes a little more effort, you know, to get up and get

ready. And so that was kind of how the Tiger Walk came about. And we've done it ever since. And it's just been an amazing thing. But to me, everything comes back to the people. You got to get the right people involved. But our culture here, we talk about getting everybody kind of all in and committed to being their best in everything they do on and off the field. Not just, we don't ever talk about being the best.

That's something that we, and that's kind of how I ended up getting connected with John Gordon a couple years after I got the job. I didn't know him. But we got to be our best, you know? I mean, whatever our best is, and if you're not willing to be committed to that, then you're never going to have a chance to be the best. You know, maybe we can be the best, but we got no chance. The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 9 and 24, in a race everybody runs, right?

Everybody runs. But only one wins first prize. So run your race in such a way as to win. That's what all ends about. Don't just run the race, don't just go to work, don't just go to practice, cause time to go to practice, don't just go to that math't just go to practice because it's time to go to practice. Don't just go to that math class because it's what's time.

It's what's going to math class. Go with some purpose. Run the race to win. Learn to do your best. Make excellence to happen. And when you do that, eventually you will become your best. And guess what? That's what God created us for.

It's to be our best. You know, so that's just the mindset that I have. And so coming into this thing, I was like, I gotta get all in. Our culture is family. All right, so creating a family atmosphere. Well, how do you do that? You don't just say, all right, we got a family atmosphere. Right.

Oh, you gotta be intentional about that. Intentional about who you hire. Do they value family? You know, be intentional about being inclusive, like our wives, our kids, it's, they're here all the time. You know, I mean, we're practicing on this field, we got a kids game going on the other field.

Every Wednesday night, it's family night. All of our wives, our kids, that's one of the things I missed the most last year during COVID was we couldn't do all that. But, so it's a family atmosphere. The next thing is in our culture is communication, layers of communication. You know, it's my swinging leadership group, it's the Swini Council, the Swini Huddle, you know, just layers of communication and different perspectives, staff meetings, and just how we go, we start over every year.

I start over every year as if we all just landed from another planet and have never met each other and I reinstall the program every year as it felt like just like we just got here. And that's how I protect the program. All right, so communication leads to trust and respect. You can't have anything great if there's not trust and there's not respect.

All right, and then, as I said earlier, you gotta have a vision. You gotta be able to articulate a vision that everyone understands that everybody in the building can articulate from the person who greets them at the door to the people cleaning the building, to the secretaries, to the coordinators, to the players. Everybody's got to be able to articulate that vision and we call that our common purpose.

You know, and our common purpose is to graduate our players, equip them with tools for life, make sure they have a good experience and win a championship. And everything in our program is about that. So we all know that, but the other kind of key component to the culture that we have is appreciation. You know, having a genuine appreciation for each other's role. So that's how you get people to buy in to be in great at whatever they do.

You show appreciation. No one's better than anyone else. And, you know, we, I took one quote when I got the job. All right, George Washington Carver had a quote, as the only quote I had in the building and I put it up and I said this is how to a couple things here. We're going to be all in. That means being committed to being our best. We're going to run the race to win. All right, and then the second thing, I put that quote up and I said, guys, this is how we're going to be graded Clemson. You got to remember, at 09, we hadn't won an ACC championship in 20 years. We had not won 10 games at Clemson in 20 years.

All right, and now the last decade where the second winning is team in the country, us in Alabama, we've had 10, 10 plus win seasons in a row. Third longest streak in the history college football. We had the third winning is decade in the history college football. We won seven conference titles and two national championships.

And so, and you know how we did it? Here's how we did it. Well, well, titles and two national championships. And so, and you know how we did it? Here's how we did it. Well, well, two things. Two things. It's so good. We did it this way. And I walked into my first ever meeting with the players. And I walked in with these two signs right here. One says, believe, and the other one says, it can't be done with the team crossed out, right? And my message to the team, the very first team meeting was we got to create an attitude of belief. We got to create a culture that expects.

But the only way we can do that is we got to make some decisions around here. We got to quit hoping, and we got to start believing. And the only way that's going to happen is we got to get all in and we got to quit hoping and we got to start believing and the only way that's gonna happen is we got to get all in and we got We got to be committed to being and doing the best that we can possibly be doing everything that we do and if we do that We're gonna have a chance to be special and then I took that quote and I said I put this quote You know see this right here. This is how we're gonna do it

We're gonna do it our way if it don't work I got nobody else to blame myself. I'm a D plus higher. I'm not supposed to be any good anyway. I'm an at risk kid, baby three boys, parents, dad's alcoholic, parents to force no education in my family. I'm a walk on player who earned a scholarship. I'm a D plus higher walk on coach. And we're gonna be successful. And here's how we're gonna do it. You know what we're gonna do? We're gonna take what we have. We're going to quit worrying about what we don't have and we're going to make it great. We're going to make the best of what we have. Number one, all right, that's what we're going to become inside out. All right, I'm tired and I wrote, I literally I wrote down all the things that Clemson

had never done and I wrote down all the things that people said we couldn't do. Oh, well, they can't ever do this. They can't ever do that. And I said, so here's the choice. We can listen to all that and be paralyzed by that. Or we can learn how to be inside out. The Bible says as a man, think it's so easy. So we're gonna learn how to think. We're gonna learn how to believe.

That's what we're gonna do. We can do it. We can do it. All right, and then I'm just telling you, that's what I believe. So, and that's what God has taught me through my life. So, y'all can get on board with that if you want. And again, I'm talking to a team, nobody came there to play for me. And so, I'm talking to these guys, because what I got to do,

the first thing I do, I got to get these guys to buy into this vision. And I said, here's how we're going to do it. And I took that quote from George Washington Carver that says, when you do the common things in life, in an uncommon way, you will command the attention of the world. I said, so here's how we're going to do it. We're going to do the common things in an uncommon way. You know what that is?

Man, how we clean that locker room. Here's how, and I put it up, I said, here's how the locker needs to look when you walk away. When we get off the bus, there's not going to be any trash left on the bus for the bus driver. We're going to clean the trash. When we land at the airport, nobody's getting our luggage. Us coaches and the president and the 80, we're going to go get the luggage. When we leave the movie theater on Friday night, we're going to leave it cleaner than we got there.

And we do, we bring blowers, we blow it out, you know? And so we've created this culture. In fact, we got a, we lost it Notre Dame this year and we got a letter from Notre Dame talking about they never had anybody leave the locker room the way they left it. I read that to my team. I said, guys, this is one of the most proudest thing. We just lost the game. Everybody's devastated double over time. I said, this is what this is awesome. All right, this is what it's all about. Gosh, when we won the national championship in 2016, we lost to Alabama and 15, you know, and it's like, God, it was frustrating. You're down sick, man, you just, we were supposed to win, right?

Well, we didn't, but God never says, oops, he never says my bad. So we come back the next year. All right. And we're going to play him in Tampa for the national championship again. And I told I said, we're going to win the game. I'm not really sure how, but we're going to win it. I said, because you guys love each other. Man, I see it every day. And that's going to be the difference in this game. And I said, but guess what? All right. Here's how we're going to do it. Just by doing the con if we do the common things in an uncommon way. All right. How we line up. How we get to the ball, how we get on and off the field, how we, where we put our eyes, our fundamental, we just do the common things in an uncommon way,

our passion, we will command the attention of the world. And we won the national championship with one second on the clock. We beat it. Unbelieve well, by our team. And only God can, that's just God's favor, man. That's just God's grace and favor. And that, and only he could orchestrate something like that. But, but it started with being able to build a culture. And so, to build a, in my world, it's a culture, it's through graduation, it's through accountability, it's through discipline, it's through recruiting, but it all comes back to people. It all comes back to people and having that vision and getting everybody to buy into that and fall in love with that. And so that's what we've done and we've done every year. We start over.

Every year we start it. So we'll take five days this July and we'll get together and we'll go through every page of that book right there and we'll talk about, we'll talk about the first page, you know, the first page in that book is attitude. We'll spend 30 minutes talking about attitude. And guys that are, I won't say one thing, get her on audio, that book is gargantuan, just so you know, I wanted to say one thing, this is like a legendary podcast. You don't notice, because you don't do a lot of podcasts. This is a freaking legendary podcast. Two concerns, number one, there are people that were driving 55 miles an hour, that are driving 104, there's a lot of tickets.

You said it was just me and two guys talking each other. I told you there was a lot of people and you know it. And then the other part, you pour people on treadmills that were level five. You're like level 26 right now, pouring in sweat. But I just, I'm so glad I introduced you the way I did is one of the great leaders in American sports, but I would amend it now, like just one of the great leaders of people. I mean, I'm blown away. I mean, my hands are a little bit shaking right now. I do a lot of stuff, coach. I mean, I do

a lot of stuff. So I just want to tell you in the middle of this how grateful I am for you and you're willing as to share so openly. And I got to ask you in the middle of this how grateful I am for you and your willingness to share so openly and I got to ask you talked about recruiting I just want to know about this because you're both a great recruit or and you get great recruits So a because a lot of people that are entrepreneurs look getting the right people on the bus matters You can find the seats as you go, right? And so all entrepreneurs out there They're asking the kids if you're gonna get great people, right? But they got to fit your culture too. So two questions, you can answer them together. What makes a great recruiter, recruiter, and what makes a great recruit for you? Yeah, well, I think what makes

a great recruiter is, is being relationship driven, like really being genuine and authentic. Like, there's something that there's a term in my world sometimes you'll hear you know you go and you recruit you sign this great class and then I've had coaches over the years in my journey they'll say oh and now we got a D recruiter I don't like that like if you got a D recruiter somebody that means you weren't genuine and authentic in the process yeah no so so I think what makes a great recruiter is, is, is, is being able to connect. And how do you connect with somebody? Just be yourself. You know, don't be something that God didn't create you to be. Be who you are.

Be genuine. Be authentic. All right. And, and you got to be detailed. You got to, you got to, you got to, you got to, you can't, can't, you gotta take the steps, right? There's no elevator. You gotta put the work in. And you have to be relationship driven. Sooner or later, you know, that's like, I tell my coach, you know, you, you Twitter and I don't do any of the social media stuff,

but you can do all that stuff and tie it. Sooner or later, you gotta come from, you gotta get in, you gotta talk to somebody. Right. And you gotta be able to sit down with, you know, mom and grandma and dad. And the same things that I've talked about, be able to lay out a vision, not just for your program, but a vision for how that young person is going to thrive in your program.

Right. And so that connectivity, you have to be able to connect and articulate. So that's one thing, but then also it's, it's having a belief in what you're recruiting them to do. Like you, like, I mean, I'm sorry, but if you work for a date, but you hate a date, you just work there. Well, that's not good. You know, you have to be passionate about what you do and you have to have a belief in who you do it with.

You know, if you're going to be a good recruiter. So that's first and foremost, and then what makes a great recruit for us here at Clemson is you couldn't have said it better. You have to fit the culture. You know, I mean, it just is what it is. I know. If you had a kid where you're like this, this doesn't matter the position. This is the number one quarterback on the planet.

We get this guy, we got three years of the run keeps going, but you end up hearing something about their background or maybe they don't like faith. I don't know what it might be. Have you just said no, we passed, you've done that. Well, I think again, what makes it good recruiter is being disciplined, all right? Being disciplined to what you believe in,

what's your criteria, what the fit is, all right? And so, you know, because there's a lot of times, you know, they'll say, oh, well, I mean, you could get lazy and just say, oh, man, here's all these so-called five-star rated regas or whatever. And you can get lazy. And next thing, you know, you're out of a job. You know, you have to have, you have to be convicted as a recruiter like, like, okay, he's only rated a two-star. I don't understand why no one else has offered Grady Jarrett, who's now the 37th highest paid athlete in the world for the Atlanta Falcons.

Why is he not having any offers? Like, you have to be convicted in what you see, what you believe. All right, that's number one. Okay, and then vice versa. Here's this five stories, got 75 offers and you're all well to the tape. You're going, I don't see it.'re going, ah, I don't see it.

Yeah, you know, I don't see it. You so you, you know, I've just always relied on my gut and my instincts. Uh, but, but when it comes to the fit, like I empower every one of my coaches, I tell them, you're the head coach at your position, but I better never hear you complain about your players. All right. And so as a result, we're, we're very, very slow in the process, but you know what's happened? It's become our brand. Like, like a kid may have 50 offers.

He just knows, people just know that Clemson doesn't offer many people. And we're very slow in the process. All right. But we've done it our way. To this point, I've not taken transfers or junior call. I've done it all through high school evaluation. Yeah, that's how we won here And so we have to be right and so it's academics. I mean, there has to be a great great player But does he have the academics? It's not just get in but to stay in and value education because that's a part of our culture You is valuing education. It's just a family atmosphere. Not everybody's looking for family. Some people just wanna go make sausage.

Well, that's great, no problem. All right, but this is different. This is a relationship-driven program. I mean, we're gonna love and serve and care for you. All right, we're gonna equip you with the tools that you need. We're gonna, if you come here, we're gonna serve your heart and not your talent.

So what that means is, if you're out smoking dope and skipping class and all that, you ain't playing. I'm just telling you up front, this ain't the place for you. I'm gonna be very transparent. And so by being very transparent, you're gonna attract the guys

who really are looking for discipline, looking for accountability. They really want that structure because there's still a lot of for accountability. They really want that structure because there's still a lot of kids out there that really want that. They want that family aspect of it. This is a relationship for the rest of our life. That's kind of how I look at it.

And so if you look, if you went right now and looked at how many offers were out, there's 65 power five teams in Division I football, we're probably third or fourth in fewest offers in the country. We just don't offer many guys, but these coaches know I empower them, but they also know I'm a hold on accountable. Because if there's a problem, guess who's office is going to end up in mine. And so they know the culture.

This place is not easy. We have a ton of fun. And everybody, you know, when they see, that's part of it. We want to have a great experience. We want to have some fun. But our culture is one that squeezes people up. You know, if you're not all in here, you're not going to blend in. And that's okay.

You know, kids are kids, but the culture's going to squeeze you. And it's not going to be the other way around. It's squeeze you down. All right, we're going to squeeze you up. And so that's what we've created. And so to sustain that, you've got to get the right people. You've got to have the right staff. They got to believe.

My staff's been together a long time. There's a reason why a lot of these guys don't leave. And it's, you know, it's because they believe whole hardly in what we do and how we do it. We're, we, we, we say we're an uncommon program where you need program. Nine. So second winning is team in the country, the last decade, but nine out of those same 10 years, we've been top 10 academically

with Duke and Northwestern. So I've had 289 seniors and 284 graduates. But what's the first thing in the vision of our program? Graduation. 98% graduation rate. So we're winning at a really, really high level on both sides of the coin here. And there's no perfect people. There's no perfect places, but what separates people and places is how you respond. You know, it's not, are you going to ever have a mistake or a problem or whatever. I mean, I got 135 young people on my team. It's how you respond. Can I ask you about that? I want to ask you about that, the 135 thing. I just want to acknowledge one thing, guys. Scarcity creates value. And so one of the things are these few offers, they become more valuable because they're more scarce. That's important. Okay. So just

understand that's also a strategy. People waiting around people waiting around for their plums and offer if they get it, it's a big deal. Right. So there's a little game there. He's not been saying yes, not game, but that's just part one of the benefits of being so guarded with your culture. And so. Hey, hey, let me stop you there, Ed. Keep that thought because you just hit on it. That's why I know you're a smart dude. So we had, so about three years ago, two or three years ago, NCAA changed all this stuff.

You used to, you can only do official visits. That means we can pay for the family to come in and get, and it's a big dog and pony show for a whole weekend. We used to can only do that their senior year, you know, from September to January. That's when official visits took place. And we always did ours in December and January, occasionally you might have one in November.

That's kind of always been our philosophy. Well, about three years ago, they changed the rules and they say, oh, you can start doing official visits in April, May, and June. And so, well, guess what? All these kids want to go on these official, and so my staff went this big come to Jesus staff meeting. And I mean, they were really challenging me, man. They had, they were all, they were loaded for bear waiting on me to walk in there. They had their plan on they've been, you know, they, they were ready. So they're going to make

their presentation on why we have to start doing a official visits in the spring. Well, and I listen and I said, we're not doing that. And they go, Coach, how are we going to, I mean, how are we going to recruit? I mean, Alabama and Georgia and all these people are doing a official visit and we're not going to do it. And I said, no, we're not going to do a fish. I said, just because everybody's doing something, don't make it right. I said, that's first, that's first of all. And then I said, what's the number one thing in our program, it's a family atmosphere, right? I said, so now, y'all telling me, April, May, June, we're gonna be tour guides every weekend. All right.

So when am I gonna coach my son's baseball team? And when are y'all gonna be at your daughter's recitals? When are we gonna be dads? So when is enough, guys? And I said, we built our program to this point now. We already won a national championship. I said, guys, every kid in the country, heck yeah. I can fly to Clemson, each stakes,

hang out with the Tigers, stay in a nice hotel, bring my family, sign me up for that. I'm in. And I said, if they're not gonna come unofficially on their own and be invested, paid their way, guess what? They're not coming for four years. All right. So, so here's, I said, so I hear y'all. And I mean, it was, you know, there was some, there was some ruffled neck hairs because everybody's trying to figure out how they're going

to explain to these coaches that are saying, you know, he's high school, well, you know, the boy's visiting here, y'all are going to visit him. And I said, well, guess what? We'll get the kids that we're supposed to get. Wow. I believe. And so I just want you to know, to this day, we've yet to do an official visit in the spring. That's crazy. I just know that all these people getting ready to do these official visits, we've not done any of them. So all these kids, when they, if we've got DJ, we, he ungly lay my quarterback came three times from LA, paid his way, you know, but that's one of the reasons he, but I knew he was interested.

I knew he was invested. All right, I knew he understood who we were. And to your point, I mean, and I pulled out a little quote and I read it and I said, you know, hey, do you ever see any roles or voice commercials? You know, you ever seen it? No. No, I had no advertising going on for Bentley's, you know, or whatever. I say, we're different.

We're unique. And I said, and I wrote it down. I said, write it down on the board. And if I'm wrong, they will change it. I'm not saying I'm, I said, that's just what I believe. That's my good. And I said, and we're uncommon. And I said, right now, we'll have over 20 commitments by August. We had 22 commitments by August. And you know what? What has happened? It is now that has become

our brand. Yeah. Now these kids, they're not offended. Even the coach is like, I just how Clemson does things. Yeah. You know, but guess what? They still want that Clemson offer. You betcha. And, and when a kid comes unofficially, then he's sending me a message that he truly is interested, that he truly is invested in the things that we offer here. Listen, I'm going to jump in on this. I just want everyone to get this. You're going to be a great recruiter.

There's a little bit of a takeaway. There's a little bit of prestige to what you're doing. And you can create that. You don't have to have an undefeated season or a company that's making $300 million in profits to do that. It's got to be, by the way, and you have to believe that you're worthy, your product, your service, your business, your family, whatever it might be, your class, your team, you're worthy of that level of prestige or exclusivity or uniqueness to you, right? That's just, it's a huge deal. This is like a master class on leadership and recruiting,

but there's one thing I gotta ask you because I've always wondered this about you. Lots of coaches talk about faith in the locker room, right? Before a game, let's pray together, or they're Christian men or women that lead teams. You were the first coach that I saw do it outside the locker room in like post-game interviews. Now, I'm sure it's been done before,

but it's not been done before to my understanding on the level you compete at, the magnitude of your job. And I remember watching you get interviewed after a game going, this dude fires me up. Man, he always acknowledges God. You always says something about his faith. And that's bold. And I actually thought it first, I thought it was aggressive because or amazing because I'm not if it cost him some recruits. And it must be okay with him

that he does do that. Was that a conscious thing? We're like, I'm going to be bold about what I believe in the lock. I'm the same guy in the locker room that I am in an interview that I am with my family that I am coaching baseball. And I'm sure you might have caught a little flag for it at one point in your life for being am with my family that I am coachin' baseball. And I'm sure you might have caught a little flag for it at one point in your life for being so bold about it. I just wanna know your thoughts about your faith, how it plays into being a coach, a leader, and your boldness about it.

Oh yeah, I've caught a lot of flag about that. I think, you know, when, that's why the Bible says you better put your armor on every day, I mean, like every single day. You know, and listen, I don't judge people or think, I just, I just believe what I believe. And you know, Colossus 323 says, one of my favorite verses says, it says, whatever you do, do it with all your heart as if you're working for the Lord.

All right, whatever you do. All right, and I tell me, if you're cleaning the room, your bedroom, do it as if you're working for the Lord, because that's the perspective God wants us to have. And that's, you know, we have a really crazy'm wrong. I'm gonna meet my maker one day, but I know what I believe, and I believe in Jesus, and I believe in God, and I believe that in Colossians where it says, whatever you do, you do it with all your heart

as if you're working for the Lord. And when you do something with all your heart, you're gonna go above and beyond, right? And everything that you do. And so God, I don't get how you can separate that. And so yeah, I've had all kind of flack. I've one year, wherever some group that, man, they tried to come and like,

they said all this crazy stuff, like I'm only playing Christian, I'm like, let me tell you something. If I'm only playing Christians, we ain't winning like we win and I promise you. And nobody chicken roll at chapel, I got chapel. But I don't sit around and go, oh, you didn't winning like we win and I promise you, you know, anybody checking roll at chapel, I got chapel, but, but I don't sit around and go, oh, you didn't come to chapel, you don't play today. Not give me a break. You know, I just think you have to be who you are.

They're, and that's what that's what I said back then. There's nobody that comes to Clemson. If I was an atheist, yes, yes, what? Everybody who came to Clemson would know that. All right. I think you just be who you are. You know, and there's nobody that comes to Cumpston and goes, well, that guy, man, I know, Coach Swinney was a Christian, you know?

And so I just think you just be who you are. I know what my job is. My job is to win football games, but I know who my maker is, too. And I know that when you are a person of faith and you're a Christian, that's not something you turn on and off. You know, whatever you do, you do it as if you're working for the Lord.

And so, yeah, my paycheck says comes to the University, but let me tell you, then the day I'm working for the Lord, because one of these days, there's gonna be a scoreboard, a whole lot bigger than the one that hangs out here in Death Valley, and it's gonna be, you know, Davo, I gave you all these things, and all these young people, what did you do for me? And listen, my job's not to save them,

but I do feel like that I have a responsibility to be an example. And I try to live my, man, I'm the biggest center in the world. I try to live my life in a way that glorifies God. And in those moments from time to time, listen, I don't ever want anyone, we live in such a superficial world.

I don't want anyone to ever think that, man, this is because of, anything that I am is because of God. Anything that I've done is because of God's favor on my life. God's grace, man, God's grace and His favor, His will, His you know leading the way I mean, that's just how I look at it and so because we live in this world now where everybody wants to put you up on this pedestal And I try to be quick and say hey listen, ain't nothing great about me if there's anything great about me

It's the Holy Spirit inside of me all right and guess what everybody can have that and you said something a minute ago And then listen I greatness this for everyone. And I told our team back in 2013, we beat Ohio State in our first ever BCS, we had an orange bowl, and then we beat Nalovam a couple of times, and we've beaten some of these big, big schools. If we walked out there at the middle of the field,

and we compared checkbooks, and we compared budgets, and we compared all, we'd get dominated. we compared budgets and we compared all we'd get dominated Yeah, we would get smoke or if we guess what me number one recruitment classes We've had in 12 years as a head coach Zero right hero none None, you know, so it's not all about that. All right. It's about it's about people it's about passion. It's about people, it's about passion, it's about, you know, uh, uh, synergy, iron, sharpened an iron, it's about attitude, it's about belief. That's what it's all about. And so, you know, I don't see it as being bold when I give God the glory. You know, I don't want anything that

that happens in my life. We're two guys that have that in common. I'm a sinner saved by the grace of God too. Thank God. And, but I'm told that I'm bold when I do it because I catch some criticism for it, just like you do. That's the thing when I'm at my bold

and I like you so much. Yeah, well, I can't worry. I just don't worry about that. You know, I mean, listen, I mean, that outside noise is always going to be there. And again, if we spend our lives sitting around worried about, you know, what we need to worry about is pleasing God. And when you live your life and that's your belief, please, and God, well, you're going to upset people.

That's just part of it. And, you know, what? The, the, the, it goes back to what I said earlier being inside out, you know, I don't know who said it, but there was a quote. I love it. It says, you know, ships don't sink because of the water around them. They sink because the water gets in them, right? And so we can't let all that stuff in us. And you know, we got to let the light inside of us be brighter than the light on us at all times. And so the light gets bright, man.

That was the last thing I told our team in 16. I was like, hey, this is what we got to do. The lights are going to be bright, man. But we've got to let the light inside of us be brighter. What an opportunity that we have. And listen, you know what? Some of the best opportunities that we have is when we have failed miserably, all right? That's when, especially when you're a Christian, you know?

And so, you know, it's all good. That's what God teaches us. It's all good. All things, all things work together for the good, for those who love the Lord. And so it's a mindset, it's a mentality, yeah, it sucks. We hate it.

We don't, you know, but guess what? All things. All right. And so we're all here for, for a blink of an eye. I mean, a blur. I mean, we've lived long enough you and I. We've seen young, young people die. I've spoken at a bunch of funerals. I've had, you know, former players die. I've had family die. We've got we, it's, boom, it's a blink of an eye. So are we gonna live for something that's just superficial? You know, that's not my choice. And here's the good thing about the God we serve. He gives us the choice.

It's a choice. And it's everybody's choice. But I hope that we can live our lives in a way where maybe other people may say, you know what, there's just something different. you say, well, let me tell you about that There's this guy named Jesus and man if you just put your eyes on him in the good and bad and you believe and you don't quit man He's he's gonna

He's gonna bless your life and some things this side of eternity will never know will never understand Yeah, all right, but that's what fates all about. You know, it's really just, just believing when you don't understand. And then one of these days, when we meet our maker, man, we're gonna celebrate and see the bigger picture of life. So awesome.

I was saying earlier, I just like you. I just like you. I respect you, but I like you. I'm so glad I like you. You know, when you have somebody from a distance you've admired, then you meet them that kind of exceed your expectations. That's a wonderful thing, and you're doing that for me. And I know this for millions of people too. All right, two questions I got for you. And by the way, thank you in advance. Yeah, I'm speaking on behalf of so many people. This is a master class. This is legendary stuff.

You see, if you're an entrepreneur, or even if you're a, you could be driving in your car right now and you're a mother and you got to pick your two kids up, you got to get them back home, you got somewhere to go after that, you got a class you're taking. You got people that have busy big lives right now.

I was talking to an NFL guy that you and I both know. And he has a big life, like he's got car dealerships. He's retired now, but he was the GM of a football team, but he's still involved in it. And he's got his golf life and his college, all the modern life that he's involved in. And he's got a family and he's got grandkids now, right? And he's got endorsements that he still has in business

as he runs. He's gonna manage his money, manage manages life, he goes to church. It's a big old life, right? A lot of people feel that way. Run into college football team like you do. I don't think most people know, but it never stops because you got to constantly be recruiting. You got boosters to deal with.

You got alumni, you got tickets, you got a win, you got the offensive scheme, the defensive scheme, you got everything, I mean, it's all this stuff. Then you got your little league team, your family. You just got all this stuff. What do you do to keep it all going? Like, that's a big old life, right? Like, how do you keep all that going?

Yeah, it is a lot, but it goes back to, you know, just chasing your passion, man. Just loving what you do, and then loving those that you do was surround yourself with good people. I can't do everything by myself. And the Bible even says that, it says where there is no council the people fall, but in the multitude of good counselors, they're safety.

So I've surrounded myself by a bunch of great people, okay? I have a wife who's a rock star. We met in the first grade, you know, we started going together. We called it going together back in those days. We started going together in the sixth grade and dated all through high school and college

been married 27 years now. I've got three wonderful boys. I got two great dogs, you know, so I've surrounded myself, but the. I've got three wonderful boys. I got two great dogs. You know, so I've surrounded myself, but the number one thing is you got to stay connected to the vine. You know, for me, it all comes back to faith. All right, God's not gonna put any more on us

than we can handle. All right, and this is just what God's called me to do. And I submitted that, you know, like he's called me, like this is what he's called me to do. And I submit to that, you know, like he's called me, like this is what he's called me to do, you know, and if I keep my eyes on him, all right, he's gonna fill me up. You know, what happens is everybody's got all this stuff, all right, one of the things I do with when I speak

and I go to churches or something, I'll bring a football and, you know. And sometimes I do this with my team, and while I do it every year with my team, I'll bring a football in front of the room, and it's all pumped up hard football, and I'll bring a guy up, and I'll say, I stand on this ball. And you can visualize this,

they're trying to stand on this football. And then I'll say, well, that's how your life's gonna be if that's the foundation of your life. And so I think it's the same thing for anybody, you can apply the if your job is your foundation of your life, if your country clubs, the foundation of your life, if your bank accounts, the foundation of your life, if your family is the foundation of your life, you're going to always be empty. It nothing will fill you up. All right. And so, you know, and

then I'll take a flat football, and I'll hold that, and I'll say, this flat football can't fulfill the purpose that it was created for, right? Because it doesn't have any air in it. So it'd be hard to kick, it'd be hard to throw, it'd be hard to do all these things. You know, and it's the same thing with us as people.

I don't think we can have joy in our life. I don't think we can have a fulfill what we've been created to do if we don't have that air inside of us. And for me, from a biblical standpoint or a faith standpoint, it's the Holy Spirit. When you have the Holy Spirit inside of you, he's gonna fill you up, man. He's gonna pump you up so that you can

fulfill the purpose that you were created for. And you're not gonna, he's not gonna put any more on you than you can handle All right, and he's gonna order your steps. You know, we make off our plans, right? But God's plans are way different than ours Every now and then they'll line up But but most of the time his plans are so much Grander than what than what we have and so you got to stay connected

You know for me that's just that's all I can answer there's so much grander than what we have. And so you gotta stay connected. For me, that's all I can answer. I know everybody's not a Christian, listen this. But for me, you ask me the question, how do I balance all these things? Man, I keep my eyes on the Lord. It's prayer, it's quiet time. I need time to think.

It's quiet time. It's vacation. Man, I do a 13 month calendar every July, and every day is planned out through the next August. So 13 months, because we're gonna be organized. All right, we're not gonna just fly by the seat of our pants. I need the wives to know when everybody's off.

We need to plan vacations. We need to create some light space. You know, I gotta learn how to say no. I've gotta stay connected. You know, I've gotta have that to say no. I've got to stay connected. You know, I've got to have that that that daily devotion. I've got to have the prayer time. I got to have that small group. I got to go to church. Man, I need I got to I got to let that Holy Spirit fill me up and guess what? When you keep your eyes on the Lord, you can have joy in what you're doing. You know, you

take that word joy and that's Jesus others yourself. All right. When you focus on Jesus, then you focus on others and then you focus on yourself, then then you're going to have joy in your journey. And that's the perspective I had a long talk with the basketball coach at Baylor this year. We talked about that. They made that their their feed, a culture of joy. And I think to have a, I see so many people, I know people that have more money than they could ever spend in their life and they're miserable. They're the most miserable people you'll ever meet. But and then I see some people that have very little and they're like the happiest kindest people you ever meet. But and there's nothing wrong with money or having things, but it's the perspective that God wants us to have. And when we have our focus on those right things,

then you can have joy in the journey. And at the end of the day, that's what it's about. It's not about some destination, it's not about some great moment. It's about living our lives every day with a joyful, grateful heart. And when you have that and you're connected to the bond, you know, if you see an old branch laying on the side

of next to a tree that's broken off, what happens? It whithers and it dies. But when you stay connected, all right, then you have a chance to really live a fulfilling life and you know what, and be peaceful. And whatever it is that you're doing and whatever is you're having.

Like people look at me today and they're like, oh, well, that's easy for him. He's a, he's, they put my salary in the thing and he's this, give me a break. Let me tell you something, this was God's journey for me. I didn't get into coaching to make money. My wife was a school teacher and I said, you know what, I'm gonna coach football.

And I made third, I was a full time coach at Alabama making $38,000. I thought we were rich. She's making $26,000. I'm making $38,000. We got, we don't know what we're going to do with all this money. We're, we were happy. And we had a, I had a path that I wanted to chase in my life. All right. Never in a million years would I even dream that I would be where I am right now, okay? You know, but but it's just God's grace and God's favor. The other thing God gives you though, God will keep you. He will help you just just just man. He'll put you in the soul that he wants you in if you're letting.

Yeah, the other thing that God, the Holy Spirit does is it gives you, you listen to this man's incredible words and sometimes when I speak it happens too, and I know you get this feeling too, I'm like, I don't even know where some of the stuff comes from, but I do, that is the Holy Spirit working on you. Here's how I know that. My last question involved this thing I saw on you for years, which is joy, and you literally covered it

as you were answering. There's a joy about you. Ask yourself a question, but as you're listening to Coach Talk today, wouldn't you wanna go play for him if you were a player? If it was a company, wouldn't you want to go work with him? If it was a product, wouldn't you want to buy it from him? And maybe you go back and listen to this again and think about all these principles, the way he delivers them, the way he articulates them. And I think it might make you a better mother, a better father, a better business leader, maybe a better coach, if you're a coach, a better entrepreneur,

a better business person, maybe a better person in your faith. And I think that's what you do coach. I think you help people get better. I think you care and I think you help people get better. And you did that for me today. You did it for me today. I'm incredibly grateful. I'm rarely this quiet during a show because there's just too much value in what you have to say than for me to jump in. I know my honest like Ed, you're quiet today. Well, what the heck would I jump in and interrupt this for?

Right? So, coach, I'm very grateful. Thank you for today. Thanks for having me. I'm speaking, I'm going to have anybody and I've told you this privately too. There's anything I can never do for you. I'm here. You can sit with me a friend now. And I just want everybody that's listened to this

or watched it today. Subscribe if you not, share it. Obviously, this is one of these, it's just gonna go, go viral because of the level of content here today. And so God will sweeten you, thank you for being here today. Everybody listen to her watching. God bless you, continue to max out your life.

And thank you, thank you so much, coach. Yeah, man, hey, listen, you got to come, you got to come see the tiger someday and speak to these guys and I appreciate your passion and unbelievable questions. First of all, you know, you only have a good interview based on the type of questions, man, you, you hit me in some of my sweet spots. Last thing, the last thing I'll leave you is, is kind of what we, we live our life with around here every single day That we walk in our team room every day. They see a big old windshield on the screen and a rearview mirror

Because it's always about what's next. It's always about that's the mentality All right, that's the mentality we have to have we got to keep our dreams greater than our memories All right, that's what it's always about, you know, the river you mirrors very, very small, right? And what happens is, you know, we spend our lives looking in the river you mirror, and we, you know, we crash, you know, we, because something bad happened or something great happened. Oh, man, that's awesome.

Well, you know why Tom Brady is so successful in some of these people, because guess what, they don't live their life in the river you mirror. You know, it's, it's, they attack what so successful in some of these people because guess what? They don't live their life in the river you mirror. You know, it's, it's, they attack what's next and they, and they, they have joined the journey. They love what they do and, and, and it's a chance to go win again. You know, it's a chance to go do it again. You know, get your eyes out of the river you mirror, man. We, we, we had failures. We, we screwed up.

We made mistakes or man, we, we made a million dollars last year. We did all, well, guess what? Nobody cares. Touchdowns don't carry over to this year. It's always about what's next. And so if you really want to, you know, be successful, get your eyes in the windshield. That's a reason why it's bigger than that little, little rear-view mirror. So it's a windshield mentality, man. Attack what's next. Have fun doing it and just be committed to, to be in your best with whatever it is you got. And, uh, man, good what's next, have fun doing it, and just be committed to be in your best with whatever it is you got, and man, good things will happen for you.

They call that folks a mic drop right there. Showing everybody the mic on the video. Alright guys, max out coach, I don't even know what to say. Thank you so much. God bless you all, Cherit. I appreciate it. Good to be with you. Coach, Sheridan. I appreciate it. Good to be with you. Coach, thank you.

["The End My Let's Show"] This is The End My Let's Show.