SMQ Illinois-Nebraska Review

  • last year
Jay and Bob review Illinois and talk with former Husker basketball coach Tim Miles.
Transcript
00:00 Welcome to Sunday Morning Quarterback with Jay Stockwell and Bob Frady.
00:12 Yubi, how are you man?
00:15 I am feeling fine!
00:18 We won the game!
00:20 We won the game!
00:21 We won the road game!
00:23 We didn't win the game.
00:24 The team won the game.
00:25 We were there watching them win the game.
00:29 So goodness prevails.
00:31 The brawling Nebraska defeat the culturally inappropriate University of Illinois 20-7.
00:42 And there is joy in Lincoln today.
00:45 What a defensive performance.
00:48 It starts with the goal line stand.
00:52 Three, three fourth down stands for the defense.
00:58 What a defensive masterpiece it was for the boys.
01:01 Well, I tell you, Jay and I were actually sitting next to each other watching this game
01:06 in the comfort of Jay's basement.
01:08 Because the weather went from summer to bummer in like three days in Illinois.
01:14 In Minnesota.
01:15 We're in Minnesota, Bob.
01:16 Yeah, but the weather in Illinois too.
01:18 Both places.
01:19 It's terrible.
01:20 And so here comes Illinois.
01:23 Get the opening kick.
01:24 Five yard penalty.
01:25 They go backwards.
01:26 And then immediately matriculate all the way down the field to the one inch line.
01:32 Now they have a giant at running back.
01:34 He's 6'3, 250.
01:35 I forget the kid's name.
01:37 But on the goal line, when you need to gain one foot, I would say give it to the giant.
01:44 If he just falls over, he'll get in.
01:48 So what do they do?
01:50 They don't go with the giant.
01:52 They go with the smaller guy.
01:54 He gets stuck.
01:55 And then what do they do?
01:56 They go shotgun formation on with two years to go.
01:59 My least favorite play in the history of football is shotgun formation on short yardage fourth
02:04 down.
02:05 It's like, what are you doing?
02:06 You're just giving the defense time.
02:08 So it serves you right.
02:10 Bad coaching staff from Illinois.
02:12 Bad play calling.
02:13 You got a giant.
02:14 Use the giant.
02:15 Get him in the end zone.
02:17 But I'm thankful that they didn't because the big red prevailed and then marched down
02:22 the field and scored a field goal.
02:26 You mentioned you mentioned penalties.
02:27 Boy, the penalties were frustrating.
02:30 Nebraska had 10 penalties for 70 yards.
02:33 But if you watch the Matt rule presser, he actually came out after the officials.
02:39 Apparently Illinois was making calls on the line of scrimmage to try to draw our guys
02:45 off and that is illegal.
02:47 In fact, he had made a call to the league office this week to clarify if that was illegal.
02:54 And it is illegal.
02:55 It's against the rules and they're not supposed to do that.
02:58 So very rarely.
02:59 I mean, coaches don't talk about officiating because you can get in trouble for that.
03:04 But Miles kind of came out after him and sort of defended his guys.
03:09 He rule rule.
03:10 Yeah, Miles.
03:11 Yeah.
03:12 Miles.
03:13 Miles is our guest later.
03:16 And I wish I could get.
03:17 Hold on.
03:18 Let's focus.
03:19 We'll get to him.
03:20 We'll get to him.
03:21 Stay on the game.
03:22 You, Bob, you you have been interrupting me lately.
03:25 What is going on over there?
03:26 Because if I don't interrupt you, I'll be silent the entire time.
03:32 Let's do the Husker Max two minute drill.
03:34 Do the stats.
03:35 Do the stats.
03:36 All right.
03:37 So fairly even game like 312 to 310 in terms of total yards.
03:42 But we again, 19 rushes for 21 yards.
03:46 We held Illinois to.
03:48 So our rush.
03:49 We are surprised by those numbers.
03:50 I was shocked to see those numbers were so close.
03:53 I thought Nebraska just dominated the game and then the yardage is the same.
03:57 No, no, no, no.
03:59 See, we got.
04:00 So in the second half, we got in the red zone four times and took away three points.
04:05 So the turnover battle, I think we won the turnover battle overall, but we had a costly
04:09 fumble in the second half.
04:11 The penalties I already talked about, but time of possession, 37 to 22, very, very much
04:16 in Nebraska's favor.
04:19 We were one in one for fourth down conversions.
04:21 They were one for four.
04:22 Again, we had our three stops, which was which was awesome.
04:26 And our sack game came back.
04:29 We had we were, you know, two sacks for four yards.
04:33 So we're still up there in the overall sacks.
04:35 But again, the rush defense and the overall defense, pretty, pretty fantastic.
04:42 Let's just check in with some of the writers here.
04:45 Tad Striker.
04:46 I love this guy.
04:47 The Blackshirts patiently time and time again showed offense how to close out a team.
04:52 But the offense simply was unable to comprehend what they were saying.
04:55 Yeah, I mean, lots of lots of commentary about how sort of inept the offense was this game.
05:01 You know what?
05:02 I feel bad for sports writers because they have to create controversy just to get clicks.
05:07 The offense was kind of bad.
05:09 You know what?
05:10 In the first half, it was it was weird.
05:12 It was like Jekyll and Hyde.
05:13 Was there like a full moon or something?
05:15 Because it was they were great in the first half.
05:17 Yeah, long completion.
05:19 Maybe when Washington when Washington went down, it was that impacted things.
05:23 But 17 nothing.
05:25 I looked at you halfway through the second quarter.
05:27 I'm like, how do we behave when we're up 17 and nothing?
05:29 Yeah, exactly.
05:30 He's going to TV like two seconds later.
05:33 I should just shut my mouth for the rest of the game.
05:35 So the last one was Chris Thompson.
05:37 This is Sam McEwen.
05:38 So long as this offense remains young and inconsistent, burns timeouts like bingo cards
05:43 and loses wide outs at a rate I do headphones, the Husker defense has has to play at a master
05:49 level.
05:50 I would agree with that.
05:51 It was pretty tough watching some of those formations.
05:55 It's like, you know, you you hope that you have a mature offense and you don't.
06:01 And and you're playing a lot of kids because a lot of people gotten injured.
06:06 And and you got to you got to you know, you got to fake it until you make it.
06:11 And it's it you know, Malachi Coleman had his first catch, which was lovely to see.
06:16 Should have had a second catch.
06:17 He was wide open.
06:18 But, you know, Harvard just overthrew him.
06:20 Joel talked about that in the talk about how he stepped up in the postgame presser.
06:24 So, yeah, good to see Malachi out there.
06:27 He's going to be a great player.
06:28 It is.
06:29 Here's my prediction that you're going to hate this.
06:31 You're going to hate it.
06:33 Jeff Sins is coming back.
06:35 Oh, you know what?
06:36 Well, let's let's let's talk about it for a minute.
06:38 I thought, what a what a great teammate he's been on the sidelines.
06:41 He's been fantastic.
06:42 Yep.
06:43 Sitting over there with his with his high ankle sprain and just being a great, great
06:49 teammate.
06:50 And this is something I'm trying to get across to both my kids.
06:53 You know, like when you're when you're not in the game, just be ready when you're when
06:56 your name is called, you know, but when you're not in the game, you got to be a great teammate,
07:00 you know, and Jeff Sims is providing everyone a really good example of that.
07:05 It's got to be tough.
07:06 You know, he got off to a tough start, then he got injured.
07:08 It's like, you know, you're the competitor and you want it wants to be out there and
07:12 you have the choice.
07:13 You can pout or you can be supportive.
07:16 And it's great to see him, at least from what we can see on TV, being supportive.
07:19 Our prediction of, you know, bull eligible in a month is very possible now.
07:24 This I mean, we've lost the last three games with with Illinois.
07:27 So go too far into the future.
07:32 Dare I say anything about the potential to win the Big Ten West, which is an absolute.
07:37 You know, horror show.
07:39 Yeah, yeah.
07:41 It's a car show.
07:42 One more.
07:43 Arnie, just one of the words used to describe Nebraska last week.
07:46 Hesitant.
07:47 There was none of that on defense against Illinois.
07:49 So that's good.
07:50 Last one from Scott Ritchie from the Champaign News Gazette.
07:54 Nebraska did all the things it used to do wrong under Scott Frost, silly penalties and
07:58 turnovers and got away with it because Illinois was so much worse.
08:02 Well, I wouldn't I wouldn't just throw it all on Illinois.
08:05 Our defense is very good.
08:07 So but the silly penalties and turnovers, I agree.
08:10 The defense is very good against teams that aren't very good and teams that are very good,
08:15 like Michigan.
08:16 It has its issues.
08:17 But yes, most teams aren't like Michigan.
08:20 You know, who else are they going to play?
08:25 That's like Michigan.
08:26 Nobody.
08:27 It's a good effort from the Blackshirts.
08:28 They did a great.
08:29 It's nice.
08:30 It was nice being able to do this and have it mean something.
08:33 Whereas last year, it's like this, you know, this lane is closed.
08:36 Please go over here for your touchdowns.
08:38 You know, this is it's nice to see the Blackshirts.
08:42 Now I think that we need to get to our personal predictions for the game.
08:46 We got it wrong in the last podcast.
08:48 Nebraska was the underdog in this game by three and a half points.
08:52 You.
08:55 Had predicted what?
08:56 Twenty one, 17.
08:59 That's right.
09:00 And I predicted 20 to 14, two touchdowns and two field goals, which is exactly what they
09:05 had.
09:06 And I have to tell you, I was rooting for Illinois to score another touchdown late in
09:10 the game just to make it 20 to 14.
09:12 And so I would I would impress myself.
09:15 I thought you said it was going to be three to two.
09:20 That was the initial prediction.
09:21 And, you know, in the second half, I think it was it was 30 nothing in the second half.
09:25 So it was it was good to see some glimmers or hope.
09:31 I still think, you know, you got a good tight end out there who just looks like he runs.
09:36 He runs around like the incredible Hulk.
09:38 It's like just throwing the ball, get him open, throwing the ball.
09:43 Just, you know, hey, let's take the win.
09:46 Let's be happy.
09:47 We're going into a bye week.
09:48 This means we get two weeks of happiness for the price of one.
09:52 Excellent.
09:53 Excellent.
09:54 Excellent.
09:55 Hey, I think we need to thank our viewers.
10:00 We got our data for September and across all platforms last month.
10:05 We had 60,000 viewers.
10:08 So thank you very much.
10:10 What are you people doing with your time that you're listening to us?
10:13 What's wrong with you?
10:15 Go kiss your wife or your husband or whoever.
10:18 You know, it's like, you know, I think it is.
10:20 It's harvest season.
10:21 So people are out there.
10:22 They're harvesting.
10:23 So they need something to do.
10:24 So they're listening to us, which is fantastic.
10:26 We love that.
10:27 Yeah.
10:28 Yes, absolutely.
10:29 And a major show of appreciation.
10:30 We are going to be launching a store on our website at Sunday MQ dot com next week.
10:37 Hopefully next week, Bob's in charge of it.
10:39 So we'll see how he does this time.
10:41 Slow, slow, slow.
10:42 You and your future selling.
10:43 Stop it.
10:44 You won the game.
10:45 Yeah, yeah.
10:46 You won the game.
10:47 And we have an awesome we have an awesome interview coming up that we had to pre tape
10:53 because of recruiting and all that stuff with Tim Miles that we're coming up next.
10:59 So, you know, stay right here and Tim Miles will be next.
11:04 So coach miles.
11:06 Let me just tell a story about how I got to know coach miles.
11:09 So I've been really blessed to know Tom Osborne for a long, long time.
11:14 And right about the time that coach miles got hired, a cousin of mine who had adopted
11:21 a baby in South Carolina or North Carolina, kid grew up to be six foot nine.
11:27 Paul Millais, his name still playing professional basketball in South America.
11:31 But at the time he was considering coming to Nebraska.
11:34 So I called called coach Osborne and he said, hey, we just hired this basketball coach.
11:38 I'll have him call you.
11:39 And I hung up and literally five minutes later, Tim Miles calls.
11:44 And so I gave him all the information and Paul really want to play right away.
11:48 And so Tim knew of a team, South Carolina, I believe, South Carolina, Aiken, I think,
11:54 and put him in touch with a friend of his.
11:56 And Paul got to to start and play right away.
11:59 And I had completely forgot about the interaction.
12:02 And I was at a conference in Scottsdale and I was walking in.
12:06 And I was actually given a I was on a panel discussion at this conference.
12:10 And this 402 number comes up.
12:11 So I answered it and I'm like, somebody from Nebraska.
12:14 Cool.
12:15 And it was coach miles.
12:16 Well, at the end of the he just was giving me the update on what what happened with Paul.
12:20 And I thanked him for that.
12:22 And he said, Hey, next time you're in, give me a ring next time you're in Lincoln.
12:26 And that was literally in the first couple of months of his, his coaching stand at Nebraska,
12:32 which lasted seven years.
12:34 And so I did that, called him and over time, we played a bunch of golf together, took my
12:40 son down to his basketball camps, and became friends, ended up going to multiple games.
12:46 We went to the Big Ten tournament a couple times, New York went out to went to games
12:53 at St. John in New York, went to College Park, went to Michigan State, of course, multiple
12:59 games in Lincoln, and just became really, really over time, really, really close to
13:06 Tim, I actually went out to this first game at San Jose State, it turned out to be his
13:10 400th win.
13:13 And and so we've stayed in touch.
13:15 And I'll tell you what, he's doing great.
13:17 And you're going to hear all about it here in a minute.
13:20 He was the Mountain West coach of the year last year took a team that hadn't won 20 games
13:23 in 20 years, and won 24 games that went 2414 last year.
13:30 And we were going to wear the same clothes that we wore in the taping with him on Thursday,
13:33 but I can't find the shirt I was wearing.
13:35 I have no idea where it is.
13:39 We managed to find the same clothes we wore because my house isn't that big.
13:44 But you know, I understand.
13:46 We will, we'll take the glass on this one.
13:49 We because this is the same, unfortunately, is the same.
13:55 And you wouldn't you know, Stockwell, you wonder why interrupt you, you just you just
13:59 amble.
14:00 All right, sit back, ladies and gentlemen, I'm about to tell a story.
14:05 A very long story, full of detail, twists and turns.
14:11 But you will be pleasantly surprised by the outcome and richer for the experience.
14:15 Well, there you go.
14:19 So that is a good segue to to coach miles.
14:23 So we are going to say goodbye.
14:25 Congrats to the Huskers for the big win.
14:28 Three and three.
14:29 Oh, my God.
14:31 Coach files.
14:32 Here we go.
14:33 So Tim Miles, my friend, Mountain West coach of the year for 2023.
14:37 If only Nebraska could get a coach like that.
14:42 24 and 14 puts Omari Moore on the Milwaukee Bucks.
14:49 What a season.
14:50 Congratulations, coach.
14:51 Hey, thanks, guys.
14:52 Thanks for having me on.
14:53 First of all, you know, I I'm excited to be here.
14:58 Nebraska is a place near and dear to my heart.
14:59 Hold on a second.
15:01 Let's not get too excited.
15:02 We're barely excited to be here.
15:03 So if you're excited to be here, you might overwhelm us with your excitement.
15:07 I'm a people person, man.
15:08 I'm just a lover.
15:09 I appreciate you guys have me on so we can talk a little Spartan basketball.
15:15 Yeah, man.
15:16 So tell us tell us about the season last year.
15:18 So I was there for your first game, your 400th win in.
15:24 What's this?
15:25 What's the arena called there?
15:26 It's the Providence Credit Union Event Center.
15:29 Yeah, nice.
15:31 And that was really cool.
15:32 Your family was there.
15:33 How's your dad, by the way?
15:35 Dad was three and all last year.
15:37 He came to three more games last year.
15:39 Colorado State on the road.
15:40 A couple of home games in February and and reminded me when we were in the semifinals
15:45 of the Mountain West Championship that he's three and oh, and if he won, if I wanted to
15:50 beat San Diego State, maybe he should be at the game in Las Vegas.
15:54 I did.
15:55 Well, we lost.
15:56 You know, can we get him to come to some Nebraska football games with us?
16:01 Yeah, because I think we're all in three for our last three.
16:04 He's got a pretty good record.
16:06 He's doing great.
16:07 He's going to be 97 here in a month.
16:09 97.
16:10 That's what I was going to ask.
16:11 That's wild.
16:12 That's wild.
16:13 And and your brother brother doing good.
16:15 My brother's great.
16:16 My three sisters are good.
16:17 The family's all doing well.
16:19 My son's you know, my son won the state championship in the state of Nebraska last year in the
16:24 big schools at Lincoln East.
16:26 He won the 400 meter dash.
16:28 He got third.
16:29 Wow.
16:30 200 meter dash.
16:31 Now he's up at North Dakota State running.
16:34 And my daughter, Ava Grace is going to graduate in December out here.
16:39 And so everybody's doing good, man.
16:41 Everybody's doing good.
16:43 That is that is awesome.
16:44 Well, you put together one hell of a season last year, Tim.
16:48 Tell us about it.
16:49 I mean, obviously, Amari Moore is a special player.
16:53 But but how did you put that together?
16:54 And what what a year and ends with you being named coach or coach of the Mountain West?
16:59 Yeah, coach of the century, I thought is what they called it.
17:02 But maybe they changed it.
17:04 That was just us.
17:05 That was just us saying that we're trying to make a thing out of it.
17:10 So just keep repeating it.
17:12 I've heard if you tell a lie long enough, everybody will believe it.
17:15 That's what I've heard.
17:17 You might become president.
17:18 There you go.
17:19 That's how it works.
17:20 Anything could happen.
17:21 So I think you hit the nail on the head.
17:25 Amari, you know, there's one good way to become a Mount West coach of the year, and that's
17:29 to have the Mount West player of the year, which I had no idea.
17:33 And he was terrific.
17:35 Really, you know, it was really special to watch his development and and and how he,
17:42 I think when we got here, he was averaging, you know, eight or 10 points a game.
17:47 And I think he'd made five or six three pointers the season before.
17:50 And I think he made 60 some last year.
17:53 So you saw real growth and real development.
17:56 But that came with a lot of hard work, not only by our coach, but certainly by Amari.
18:01 He was a game changer for us.
18:02 And we were able to go to the transfer portal pre-NIL, though, and pull out a couple of
18:08 guys.
18:09 And it's it's it's it's funny, as you look at the evolution of this whole thing with
18:17 the transfer portal and immediate eligibility, which really changed things.
18:20 You know, it used to be recruiting was this art form.
18:23 Like you get to know a kid, you figure out if you had a development plan for him and
18:26 how he could impact winning.
18:28 And what about the educational value of the school?
18:31 And now it's kind of transactional.
18:33 It's, hey, how much dough do I get and for how long?
18:37 And when I say zero, it usually ends the conversation real quickly.
18:41 You should tell them things like they get a free subscription to Google Analytics or
18:45 something like that.
18:46 Set you up for the rest of your life.
18:47 You're in Silicon Valley, man.
18:49 Yeah, we're going to give you all the analytics from our friend here, Jay Stockwell.
18:54 And he's going to he's going to map out your future for you.
18:58 Let's delve into this issue a little bit.
18:59 So Colin Coward's out there saying that NIL and the transfer portal saved college football.
19:06 And clearly, Deion Sanders has had kind of a different vision and how he was going to
19:11 do it.
19:12 I thought when when Colorado picked him, it was boy, it was either going to work really
19:16 well or wasn't going to work at all.
19:18 But he leveraged both NIL and the transfer portal and managed to put together a team.
19:23 And there's a there's a wing of the media establishment that thinks this is good for
19:28 college football.
19:29 What's what's your take there?
19:30 I think good is a little heavy, but, you know, as I look at things, you know, those pro guys
19:36 like like Deion, who's obviously a phenomenal professional athlete, you know, you look at
19:41 maybe in college basketball, the guys like Eric Musselman, who is a pro coach for a long
19:48 time, who came in and when he's at Nevada, you know, re-hold everything, overhauled everything,
19:54 brought in a whole bunch of new talent, does the same thing at Arkansas.
19:58 You know, there's a way to that.
19:59 And of course, I was always a developmental guy.
20:01 Like a lot of us traditionalists are like you take a guy, you put together what we just
20:05 talked about earlier, this developmental plan, how we're going to work together and how this
20:09 is going to go.
20:10 And certainly the portal with immediate eligibility.
20:12 And that's really where the portal change.
20:14 If you look at some of our best guys that we ever had in Nebraska, you know, certainly
20:18 you look at a guy like Glenn Watson, Shavon Shields are a great high school players to
20:22 develop.
20:23 But I mean, those guys like Terran Pettaway, those guys like James Palmer Jr., Isaac Copeland,
20:28 Isaiah Roberts, a developmental guy.
20:30 But those transfer portal guys really, really were big for us and were some of our best
20:34 players.
20:35 But they all most of them had to redshirt.
20:37 Copeland did not, but the rest of those guys had to redshirt and that redshirt was good
20:41 for them.
20:42 And that's gone now for the most part.
20:45 And now that there's no penalty, you obviously were used to lose two kids, maybe three.
20:51 Now you're going to double that, right?
20:52 The rule in football and men's basketball, the rule in almost every other sport was you
20:57 were always immediately eligible as soon as you transfer.
20:59 There's just a couple of sports where that wasn't the case.
21:03 Well, they waive that for football and men's basketball.
21:07 There might've been one other sport like baseball or something else too, I forget.
21:10 I'm not sure about any on the women's side.
21:13 So forever you could play at one school and then the next year have to sit out at your
21:17 next school for one season unless you got this waiver.
21:21 Well, the transfer portal changed that.
21:24 When they went to the portal system, what really changed was immediate eligibility.
21:28 That's what changed.
21:30 So now everybody that transferred for the first time was immediately eligible at their
21:33 next school right away.
21:34 And so more kids transferred, you could build it quicker.
21:38 You could go get guys.
21:39 Well, that also introduces circumstances that aren't necessarily in the best interest of
21:45 education and value and stuff like that.
21:47 If there's tampering, all of those things that go in.
21:51 Well, almost at the same time, NIL became a thing.
21:57 And now NIL started year one, you ask a kid, "Hey, where's NIL on your thing?"
22:02 This was like three years ago.
22:03 Oh, it's fourth or fifth on their list.
22:06 After year two, which would have been last year recruiting, it was second or third.
22:11 This year of recruiting, it's number one.
22:14 It's number one.
22:15 I want to know what the check looks like.
22:18 And so it's really changed that art of recruiting.
22:21 And Bob was talking, he and I were talking before you got on, was it Utah State, Bob
22:26 or Utah?
22:27 Utah.
22:28 Utah.
22:29 And I think every player, a brand new Dodge Ram, all 85 scholarship players got a car.
22:35 That's unverified.
22:38 That's what the tweeter says.
22:39 And so the tweeter might not be telling the truth because that occasionally happens.
22:42 Everything you ever read on the internet is always true.
22:45 So there's a grain of truth to it.
22:47 It might be a big grain or a tiny grain.
22:50 So Tim, are any alumni stepping up at San Jose State to help you compete in this new
22:55 environment?
22:56 We're working on that.
22:57 I would say that mighty, mighty oaks grow from the tiniest acorns.
23:02 And I'd say we're in the tiniest acorn stage.
23:05 Nice.
23:06 But there's got to be some alumni that have hit it big out there.
23:12 Yeah.
23:13 Yeah.
23:14 Yeah, there are.
23:15 And we're trying to, you know, the thing I think that you guys have in Nebraska, which
23:20 is so cool, was awesome to be a part of for so long, was this kind of intensity of fandom.
23:26 Like there was a true intensity of support for the student athletes, for the programs,
23:31 from the fans and certainly the media part of that too.
23:35 And there was this real intensity about that.
23:38 Talk about no sense.
23:39 Yeah, that was kind of fun, right?
23:40 Yeah.
23:41 Just talk about that.
23:42 So for people who just gladly won that damn game.
23:46 So I mean, we had a team that went to the Final Four, got us in the NCAA tournament
23:50 and it was one of the most electric days.
23:52 I think hands down the best atmosphere I've ever been a part of in any way, shape and
23:56 form as a fan.
23:57 I've been to NBA finals, closeout games.
23:59 I've been to all kinds of stuff.
24:01 Not been to the Super Bowl.
24:02 Bad timing for my profession.
24:05 But you look at the amount of things that went on that day in March 2014 in Lincoln,
24:10 Nebraska, and it was one of the more super cool events of my life.
24:14 And what did you beat?
24:15 I can't even remember.
24:16 Wisconsin.
24:17 Wisconsin, that's right.
24:18 Yeah.
24:19 I think it was Michigan State the weekend before at Michigan State when they were like
24:23 11 or 12 in the country.
24:26 And then I think Wisconsin was 6, 7 or 8 and we beat them at home.
24:33 And then you went to the tournament and got kicked out of the game in like five minutes.
24:37 What happened?
24:38 Well, it was the second half early, kind of midway through the second half.
24:41 And apparently there was a, you know, what's the old cool hand Luke story?
24:48 We got a failure to communicate or whatever.
24:51 I think I told him to suck raw eggs and he didn't take that the right way.
24:57 He didn't suck raw eggs.
25:00 But you know what?
25:03 Baylor was really good that year and they destroyed Crate in the next game.
25:08 And it was a great experience for most of us involved.
25:13 Well, I can say as a close observer of your program, we miss you.
25:20 You know what?
25:22 Again, Nebraska athletics.
25:25 I know right now, you know, they've hired really good men and really good women.
25:31 And there's a lot of successes in a lot of different places.
25:35 And I just think it's a matter of time for those sports like that I deal with, with men's
25:39 basketball and football, for that to happen again.
25:42 It's too good of a place for that not to happen.
25:45 Do you think it's hard for a university to be good at multiple sports?
25:50 You know, I think it's, no, I don't.
25:52 I think it's cyclical, but I think the competition and the size of these conferences are so big.
25:58 And when you won the big eight, there was only eight teams, right?
26:01 I mean, in the old days, right?
26:03 And now it's at least twice as big, maybe even bigger.
26:07 And you know, so, you know, the value on that conference championship, the schedules are
26:13 so uneven.
26:14 And I remember one year when the big 10 expanded, Iowa, who was our next door neighbor, supposed
26:20 to be a rival, right?
26:22 We played them like on March or January 3rd, right?
26:26 Of like, let's say 2015.
26:29 We didn't play them again until like March.
26:34 You know, it was 14 months later before we played them one other time, you know, and
26:38 they were, that's our rival.
26:39 That's, I mean, we didn't play, we only played them once a year and it wasn't even within
26:43 the calendar year.
26:45 And yeah, and it was just like, I was just like, huh, isn't Iowa supposed to be our rival?
26:49 Shouldn't we play them on occasion?
26:50 You know, and that's what the big leagues give to you.
26:52 I really wish we'd get back to some form of regionality, you know, for everyone's sake
26:58 involved.
27:00 So what I wholeheartedly agree and think that all of this hoo-ha around these super conferences
27:07 is going to end up destroying them in the long run.
27:10 Well, you know what happened with the Mount West?
27:11 If you think how the Mount West was created in the West Coast from the West, from the
27:15 Rockies on a hundred years ago, they formed this super whack and they did four quads of
27:21 16 teams, four teams of four.
27:24 And it wasn't very popular and it wasn't very well received by the fans and everybody else
27:29 involved.
27:30 But other than the nine schools, the Mount West schools, which at that time were Utah,
27:34 BYU, Colorado State, Wyoming, New Mexico, San Diego State.
27:40 And I'm missing a couple, but all got together and formed the Mount West, right?
27:47 And it was in the Mount West has prospered and lost some of those key members, but added
27:51 real quality, added TCU eventually, then Boise and now these California schools, Fresno and
27:56 us and Nevada and Utah State.
28:02 And so it's some really good things have happened, but we've already seen it fail once.
28:06 I don't know why it would surprise us if it happens again.
28:09 What happened in the Pac-12?
28:10 Because here you got Washington and Oregon just light it up.
28:14 Is it just that the TV came in and it was just so attractive they couldn't turn it down?
28:19 Yeah.
28:20 I mean, when UCLA and Southern Cal went, I think everybody thought, oh, the Pac-10,
28:28 Pac-12 is really in trouble.
28:30 And it only made sense that if the Big Ten was going to go West, they needed to build
28:35 a Western border.
28:36 You know, I used to tell Jim Delaney that he should build a Western border by adding
28:41 Oklahoma and Kansas with Nebraska.
28:44 Thought that it would be great to see that football rivalry rekindled and two very strong
28:49 schools.
28:50 And then a basketball place.
28:51 Because at the time they were talking about this when they were adding, just when they
28:54 added Rutgers and Maryland, they were talking about trying to add Virginia and North Carolina.
28:59 And I thought the Western Ridge, I didn't think it was going to go to the Pacific Ocean,
29:06 but at the same time, you knew they probably had to build a Western Ridge.
29:12 Two wasn't enough.
29:13 There was going to have to be a couple more.
29:14 Washington and Oregon certainly are those schools.
29:17 And then, you know, I was just kind of curious to see what Cal and Stanford could do.
29:22 You know, where could they land?
29:23 And they landed in the ACC, which to me is absurd.
29:27 And it's absurd as sending Oregon to, just think if you're the Stanford coach, you're
29:33 going to play at Miami, at Florida State, at Clemson.
29:36 Good luck getting there with your softball team and your baseball team and everybody
29:41 else, right?
29:42 So it's a little bit, I think we're all a little bit in shock on it.
29:49 And I don't like the, I'm not a huge advocate for the major, the, you know, the super conferences.
29:56 I prefer region, regionality.
29:58 We agree wholeheartedly.
29:59 I said, first of all, congratulations on having the greatest nickname of any coach in basketball,
30:06 which is Coach FEMA.
30:08 I'm like, I saw that.
30:11 I almost peed my pants because professionally I work with FEMA data all the time.
30:16 I'm like, wait, there's a coach FEMA?
30:18 This is awesome.
30:19 I'm like, do you get like a bunch of trailers in your yard or something?
30:22 You just roll them around the different venues and like, all right, we're here.
30:25 We're here.
30:26 We're taking over.
30:27 The weather's nice.
30:28 We can do tents.
30:29 So given all, given all these changes, how do you compete as a coach now?
30:34 I mean, your, your coaching ability is great.
30:37 I mean, you took this team that, that I think they won a pair of socks the year before you
30:41 got there and you take them to almost to the NCAA.
30:50 And so how do you compete in that environment?
30:52 Yeah, I, first I know the Mount West, I respect all the coaches in the Mount West, but I felt
30:57 like that I really wanted to be in this league and, and, and I, and I'm thankful that San
31:04 Jose state hired me and it really kind of reminded me of my very first job, Mayville
31:09 and Kerry Johnson, my wife said at the time, she's like, this isn't a rebuild.
31:13 This is a build.
31:15 And the same thing, she said the same thing about this job.
31:21 And I think that we can put a blueprint together.
31:24 We can build a winner.
31:25 Our recipe works.
31:27 We know that whatever league that we're in, we can find a way to compete and, and advance
31:31 that program.
31:33 And I just felt like we could do that here.
31:35 And it has changed.
31:37 And I tell you, Bob, the thing that concerns me is like, okay, if, if, you know, how am
31:43 I going to recruit, you know, and if it really does, is it really just come down to raising
31:48 as much NIL money as I can to be able to, because if you look at our league, there's
31:53 six or seven schools over 400, $500,000 of NIL money in men's basketball and we have
31:58 zero.
31:59 And so, you know, I feel bad for our kids, but we, we lost a player this year to a power
32:05 five school that, you know, he's going to make a hundred thousand dollars.
32:08 It's hard not to tell him to not go, you know?
32:13 And and so he did, and that's just part of the deal, but it's a little bit deflating
32:18 to be on the receiving end of that.
32:20 Right.
32:21 Yeah.
32:22 Because even if you, if you get on with these big programs and you make your NIL money,
32:25 if they don't want to cut you, you're still getting paid.
32:28 So you might sit on the bench and get paid versus going and playing the game and, and
32:33 maybe making, you know, betting on yourself.
32:36 My question is that what you look for the kids who want to bet on themselves?
32:38 Yeah.
32:39 And I agree with that.
32:40 And the other thing I'd say to about NIL is, you know, everybody gets paid a little bit
32:45 on the front end, right?
32:46 You have a reputation as someone in your field or industry or whatever.
32:50 So, so you get paid, but, but we pay everything on the front end with NIL.
32:54 It looks like, right.
32:55 I mean, I want that to be performance based, but let's put the NIL money and put a value
33:00 on it.
33:01 Let's make it full value.
33:02 If we went and go to the NCAA tournament, let's make it half value if we have a losing
33:06 record.
33:07 And, and so if you think you're going to make a hundred thousand, if we go to the NCAA,
33:11 you're only going to make 50,000 if we don't.
33:14 I mean, let's, let's, let's just do it.
33:16 We'll call it what it is.
33:17 Let's get a salary cap.
33:19 Let's let's pay him as employees and, and let's get going and, and just have a set of
33:24 rules because right now it's kind of the wild, wild West and who gets what, and you know,
33:29 players aren't even are directed by collectives not to tell each other what they're getting.
33:34 And why would you carry around that burden or that secret?
33:37 I don't think that's a healthy behavior, you know, to have anyway.
33:42 Right.
33:43 Hey, Tim.
33:44 So, so believe it or not, we're actually off to a really good start with Sunday morning
33:49 quarterback last month.
33:51 We had 60,000 views.
33:52 Wow.
33:53 So there's going to be a lot of people.
33:55 You go watch it every day, Jay, like three times a day.
33:58 I'm going to add up there.
34:00 Yeah.
34:01 20,000 of my kids, but, but, but Tim, so a lot of people may be meeting you for the
34:08 first time and I think you have an incredible story going all the way back to Dolan, South
34:12 Dakota.
34:13 I mean, 50 people.
34:14 Can you just give everyone a thumbnail of your career and how you ended up in the power
34:19 five?
34:20 Yeah.
34:21 I'm a gentleman of great, good fortune and good timing in my life.
34:25 There's no doubt about it.
34:26 I grew up in Dolan, South Dakota.
34:28 I was the youngest of five kids.
34:29 I graduated number seven in my high school class, which we've already established.
34:32 There was only 13 kids in the class.
34:36 And it's, you know, forever.
34:39 I told people I was in the bottom half of my class and then a guy made me count to 13
34:43 and I saw right in the middle.
34:46 So I wasn't a math major either.
34:48 Surprisingly enough, I was an elementary ed major at Mary college in Bismarck, North Dakota,
34:52 because I could do the math and because it clearly provided me fourth graders or college
34:56 male athletes.
34:57 It was kind of the same deal.
34:59 So I started coaching at Northern State in Aberdeen as an NEI coach.
35:04 I took the Mayville State job when I was 28 years old.
35:08 They had been 22 years before we got there.
35:10 22 before that.
35:11 They were awful.
35:12 Won 10 games in three years and we won two league championships, went to the national
35:16 tournament and really, you know, did some fun things that way.
35:21 Then I got Southwest State, Marshall, Minnesota.
35:24 We built that team into a NCAA team, won our conference, went to the NCAA regional for
35:30 the first time in school history, won the regional, went to the late eight.
35:34 And then I got North Dakota State, which I thought I had arrived.
35:37 I thought, oh, here's this kid from Dolan and I got the bison job.
35:41 I went to school in Bismarck, North Dakota.
35:43 Everything was the bison all the time.
35:44 I was so fired up and I was there seven months and we had a new athletic director during
35:49 that changeover and they pull us in, me, the football coach, the wrestling coach and the
35:53 women's basketball coach and the AD says, we're going to vision one.
35:58 And everybody's okay, great.
35:59 What league?
36:00 Well, we don't have a league.
36:01 And so we went to vision one three years later, two years later.
36:04 So three years, division two, three years, division one, independent.
36:09 And holy cow.
36:10 I mean, how about this road trip?
36:12 We flew to Utah, that Orem, Utah, played Utah Valley State and then connected the next day
36:17 to get to Brownsville, Texas to play Pan American, Texas Pan American.
36:21 Come back, it's like a five day, six day trip.
36:24 We put on like a billion miles.
36:26 I was like, could have flown first class in Delta the rest of my life.
36:30 We end up back the next weekend and it's Fort Wayne, Indiana for IPFW over to NGIT, Newark,
36:37 New Jersey to play New Jersey Institute of Technology.
36:44 Those are like some of our road trips that we took and we fashioned this thing and it
36:47 was great, but I had a really good team.
36:49 I put together a hang on, hang on one second, Tim.
36:53 That sounds like the travel prescription for a lot of these teams in these big collective
36:57 networks.
36:58 Good luck.
36:59 What's the impact like on the kids who have to make that travel?
37:01 It's debilitating.
37:02 Honestly, it hurts our grades, hurts our sleep, hurts our mental health.
37:05 It's not good.
37:06 I don't like it.
37:07 I didn't like it then.
37:08 But we had a hell of a team now.
37:10 We had a group of young kids and I think in 2005, six, we beat Wisconsin at Wisconsin
37:16 when they were 12 in the country for 13.
37:19 The next year we beat Marquette at Marquette when they were eight and we're never behind
37:22 in either game.
37:24 And Jay, we had 52 turnovers in those two games.
37:27 Wow.
37:28 46 each game and we're only behind I think one possession out of like 150 possessions,
37:33 which tells you this, turnovers are overrated.
37:35 Anyhow, we're all out of state.
37:37 We went out there and lost.
37:39 We lost 82-80, but the AD came up to me after the game and goes, "I like the way you handle
37:43 your team."
37:44 And he called me that spring and hired me.
37:48 And Paul Kowalczyk was great.
37:50 And when I got to Colorado State, we inherited a situation where there was a DUI, then there
37:57 was felony identity theft by another kid.
38:00 And then one of our players pulled a weapon and fired a clock into a couch at my other
38:06 player, which makes it tough in the locker room.
38:08 You know, when those things happen, people don't trust each other.
38:14 And so are you going to pull that gun?
38:15 You better set that pick for me.
38:17 You better set it.
38:18 I'm going to wreck your couch.
38:19 So not only that, we had to get rid of like 12 guys on that team.
38:24 They were melting guns, man.
38:25 And it was crazy.
38:28 So we started out awful, but we built up a winner and we went to the NCAA my last year
38:33 there and left them maybe the best team they've ever had.
38:38 And then I took Nebraska and it was just good fortune that we had a hell of a team and it
38:45 was good timing.
38:46 And then I always wanted to be in the Big Ten.
38:48 So a chance for me.
38:49 And when I grew up, my sister went to OU and we went to some Nebraska games.
38:53 Some of my best friends had moved down to Lincoln right out of college.
38:57 So I'd spent a whole bunch of time.
38:59 And probably, Bob, I'm probably the only guy you've ever met in your life.
39:01 Well, you haven't really met me.
39:03 I mean, we're looking at this.
39:05 You know what I'm talking about?
39:06 I may be one of the only persons you've ever known that I had a I was an NEI assistant
39:11 at Northern St. Aberdeen, South Dakota, and I scheduled meetings with the University of
39:16 Nebraska coaching staff.
39:17 And it was Jeff Smith was my host.
39:19 Gary Bargan was there.
39:20 Danny Knee was the head coach.
39:22 And I met with them for a full day.
39:23 They gave me a tour.
39:24 We looked at film.
39:25 They showed me some offensive sets.
39:28 And I was supposed to go to Kansas and meet Roy Williams and his staff like two days later.
39:35 So it's like Friday, Saturday in Lincoln, Sunday, Monday in in in Lawrence.
39:41 And I learned so much and did so great that I canceled my Kansas basketball trip because
39:46 Nebraska was so that I went home.
39:49 I might be the only occasion I've ever done that.
39:53 I understand we're still upset about how things ended.
39:56 We're not going to get into that because there's probably some contractual reasons why you
39:59 can't but we're still upset about it.
40:01 So Tim, first, thanks for doing that.
40:04 That was really cool.
40:06 This is a football podcast.
40:08 So and you are coach FEMA and evident that Matt rule is in the middle of a very challenging
40:15 rebuild in particular after the Scott Scott Frost years.
40:18 What advice would you give Matt rule?
40:20 Have you ever met him?
40:21 And if you if you were talking to him, what would you say in terms of how to execute this
40:26 rebuild?
40:27 You know, I, I, I paid attention when my son was still running track in high school.
40:32 And I haven't paid as much attention since he graduated because I would get the Lincoln
40:36 paper and I'd get all the news and the updates and stuff like that.
40:40 And and I he was very he's a very impressive man.
40:42 Right.
40:43 And I know you look what he did at Baylor.
40:46 I just can't assume that he can't figure out how to be successful in Lincoln, Nebraska
40:50 with with, you know, everybody's got great resources and everybody's going to have big
40:54 crowds and there's a you know, when you're in that league, the intensity of fandom, as
40:58 we talked about, is phenomenal.
41:00 But you know, I think there's some some some real cool things in Nebraska that everybody
41:04 else has.
41:05 For instance, there's no pro sports culture.
41:08 So really, the young people are celebrities, you know, I mean, and it's pretty cool for
41:13 them to be a part of that.
41:14 It's not that way at Rutgers and Maryland.
41:16 And, you know, it's not that way in some of those other schools, you know, like if you're
41:21 at some of those other big 10 schools, but it's that way in Lincoln, Nebraska at the
41:24 University of Nebraska.
41:25 And I think you can really build on that.
41:27 And I think the support is there.
41:29 I think rule will get it done.
41:31 And, you know, the hardest thing is in and he'll do it, but you just got to stick to
41:37 the recipe.
41:38 I get the recipe.
41:39 Stick to your recipe.
41:40 You know what you can be and what you can do.
41:42 And there's certain adaptations you always have trying, you know, evolve your teaching
41:47 ability and your schematic stuff and all that.
41:49 But you don't have to be anything else and who you are.
41:52 And and then a lot of things have to fall in place.
41:54 And again, you're in a gigantic league.
41:57 Right.
41:58 You've got all these teams, but let's get to a bowl game, man.
42:01 I I got there.
42:04 I mean, people would plan trips.
42:06 They're like, oh, we can't do that.
42:07 We got a boulter.
42:08 We don't know where we're going.
42:09 We might be going to Nashville.
42:10 We might be going to Jacksonville, Florida.
42:14 You know, I mean, they they knew they were going somewhere.
42:17 And God, you know, I mean, it's been since what Mike Riley in the Foster Farmers Bowl,
42:22 Foster Farms Bowl or whatever it was that that, you know, I think the Huskers haven't
42:27 been able.
42:28 Let's get back to that bowl game stuff.
42:29 And that was fun.
42:30 And and it was great for the basketball coach because then they didn't think about me till
42:33 after the first of the year.
42:36 So the schedule, the schedule is favorable.
42:39 So we're on the road tomorrow at Illinois and then it's Purdue, Northwestern and Michigan
42:44 State who's having some trouble.
42:46 So theoretically, Michigan State's having trouble.
42:54 They could be eligible in a month.
43:00 The typical Husker optimist right there.
43:04 If there's one of him, they've called him and made a million.
43:07 Oh, it's OK.
43:09 Now, you have to answer something honestly for us.
43:12 Oh, no, I couldn't.
43:13 Right now.
43:15 Right now, the worst fans in the Big Ten, in our experience, are Minnesota fans.
43:21 You know, when when they're yelling mean stuff, I mean, you kind of think I think we had the
43:28 good fortune.
43:29 There was really never an incident or anything like I think they're always going to yell
43:32 stuff.
43:33 But we didn't ever really have like, you know, nobody threw anything.
43:37 There was no and, you know, fans are fans.
43:40 You know, I've been called a lot of names.
43:41 Some I had to look up.
43:43 But, you know, I the problem was I looked him up on my phone.
43:49 I'm like, God, if they go, you know, if I get in trouble, the feds come in, you know,
43:53 they search my search history.
43:55 They're really going to document this.
43:59 That was a lie, but it was a pretty good story.
44:02 I think you look great.
44:05 California looks great on you, man.
44:06 You've got your tan, you lost some weight, got a nice fresh haircut.
44:10 Right now, I just actually groomed today.
44:12 So there you go.
44:15 So final final question, and we'll finish right on 30 minutes.
44:18 How is your golf game?
44:19 Ah, you know, I knew this was coming up.
44:21 Listen, I knew this was coming up.
44:23 Hey, Bob, you got to be careful with Coach Miles.
44:25 I'm just telling you, you'll be you'll be ahead 17 holes, you'll be up like $300.
44:31 And then you'll be one hole later, you'll be sitting in the bar, working over the dough.
44:35 I will tell you this, I still play that weak bleed, a slicey fadey thing that gets a little
44:41 bit out of whack on me.
44:42 And I still have that handicap.
44:44 And it's the right number that allows me for success in that in that bar.
44:48 Afterwards, you know, I don't know what happened.
44:52 All of a sudden, I hit a couple of good shots.
44:55 I mean, par par par the end.
44:58 It's a miracle.
44:59 I heard on the press on how to how and when to apply the press.
45:01 I mean, you either win coming in on the on the you know, on the understanding what the
45:07 rules of the game are the rules of engagement.
45:08 I like where do we stand?
45:10 How many strokes do I get?
45:12 Or, or you win right at the end going out when you know, you just got to pressure Wayne
45:17 to success.
45:18 Wait, Jay gives you strokes?
45:20 Well, he should.
45:22 I didn't I mean, I didn't know how to do that.
45:24 He's way better.
45:25 I'm like, Jay just just walks to the course assuming he's getting six strokes.
45:32 I think the Husker coach gratuity is what we call that.
45:37 I think.
45:38 All right.
45:39 All right with this coach.