ITG 139 - Bo Orlando's Saban Stories
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00:00:00 [Music]
00:00:06 In the gun episode 139 here of ITG, your new favorite WVU football podcast.
00:00:11 I'm Wesley Uler alongside the signal caller Jed Drenning for this edition of ITG.
00:00:17 And as always, you know that we are brought to you in part by our friends at BetOnline where the game starts.
00:00:22 We got some portal stuff to hit.
00:00:24 We've got a just a landscape changing day across football in terms of coaches retiring,
00:00:31 particularly one in collegiate football who has some West Virginia ties.
00:00:36 We will discuss what was just a crazy kind of 24 hours of Nick Saban, Pete Carroll,
00:00:42 Bill Belichick all retiring, getting fired, all different kind of moving on to an advisor role in Pete Carroll's case.
00:00:49 All leaving though their head coaching positions at their current location.
00:00:55 A crazy, like I said, last day or two across the coaching landscape
00:01:00 and kind of the the godfather of college football and Nick Saban moving on.
00:01:03 We'll have a special guest to discuss that with us a little bit later.
00:01:07 But Jed, before we get into all of that, it is right for us, you know,
00:01:11 this is the time where, you know, every episode, every other episode or so,
00:01:15 we kind of give some portal updates moving and shaking.
00:01:18 This is obviously a big time of the year for that.
00:01:22 Some names, some exiting Mountaineers that we had been keeping an eye on, Jared Bartlett.
00:01:26 He ends up, we're going to see him again in the Big 12 at Cincinnati, not going too far away.
00:01:31 And then Tomy, we knew he would have a nice market
00:01:35 and he ends up with the reigning ACC champion Florida State Seminoles.
00:01:39 Heading south is big Tomy down there to Tallahassee to be a Florida State Seminoles.
00:01:45 So a couple updates for you there.
00:01:46 Those are the outgoings Jed and I know you've got some some information,
00:01:50 some thoughts on some of the incomings as well too.
00:01:53 Yeah, a couple critical pieces incoming one on the offensive side, one on the defensive side.
00:01:59 This is going to be as you touched on ongoing. It will slow down, of course,
00:02:04 but roster management is going to be a 12-month proposition.
00:02:08 I mean the window is going to reopen the portal window.
00:02:11 There'll be a whole lot more talent pumped into it in May in that window.
00:02:15 But in the meantime, yes, the window is closed,
00:02:18 but you still have all these free agents dangling out there looking for destinations.
00:02:22 Now, there's a couple timelines involved. One timeline being,
00:02:25 can you get them enrolled in time to be part of spring semester?
00:02:29 If you can, all the better. But even if you can't, there'll still be some additions to the roster.
00:02:35 I promise you in May, there'll be some changes on just about every roster in America.
00:02:39 So stay tuned. But the two that I'd like to talk about,
00:02:42 big offensive tackle, homegrown offensive tackle, South Charleston product.
00:02:47 Xavier Bosley was a redshirt freshman for Coach Rodriguez down at Jack State.
00:02:52 And we've talked quite a bit this year about what a tremendous year Coach Rod
00:02:56 and those Jack State Gamecocks had. Well,
00:02:59 Xavier Bosley was a critical piece of a top five rushing attack in the country.
00:03:05 Down there for Coach Rodriguez and Rod Smith, the offensive coordinator.
00:03:08 Big kid, 6'5", 310 pounds, earned freshman All-American honors.
00:03:13 I mean, that says something in itself, but just incredibly productive.
00:03:16 Wanted to come back home, had dreams of playing for the Mountaineers,
00:03:19 remembers the Pat White, Owen Schmidt, Steve Slayton teams.
00:03:23 So it's a cherished opportunity for him.
00:03:26 So we landed one heck of a football player that's coming back home again.
00:03:29 Played for Donnie Mays down at South Charleston.
00:03:31 When I say South Charleston now, maybe that has a different meaning in people's minds.
00:03:36 That team getting smacked every Friday night.
00:03:38 That poor program has withstood some very challenging times.
00:03:42 But when Xavier Bosley was playing there, it was a different animal.
00:03:46 And he is a heck of a football player.
00:03:47 He's expected to compete at that right tackle spot.
00:03:50 We'll see how this unfolds. But you're going to have some options.
00:03:53 Big Johnny Williams. We talked about all the things that Nick Malone did for us last year.
00:03:57 He's now a battle-tested veteran grinder. So you're going to have some options.
00:04:01 And he makes an already deep offensive line room even deeper.
00:04:06 We talked this year, Wes, about one of the critical things about that offensive line.
00:04:10 Wasn't even just the front five. It was the fact that we went seven deep without missing much at all.
00:04:16 And you want to get back to that this year. And it's going to take some quality bodies in there.
00:04:20 And then on the defensive side, there's a kid that I am incredibly excited about.
00:04:25 TJ Jackson. This kid was at Troy.
00:04:28 Now, everything that he does won't surface on the stat sheet.
00:04:32 For instance, he was far more productive on the things that you can measure on paper two years ago than he was last year,
00:04:38 because some of the opposing offenses kind of wised up and schemed to his strengths.
00:04:43 But this is a kid that over the course of the last two years has 61 pressures.
00:04:47 Now, I think the reason he kind of slid under the radar, he's somewhat limited in size.
00:04:53 He's 6'1". He was listed at 262.
00:04:57 But Wes, trust me when I say he's probably 270, 271 right now.
00:05:01 And I would say by the time we get into the Penn State game to open the season,
00:05:05 he'll be 280 plus, maybe 285 after offseason with Mike Joseph.
00:05:10 He's twitchy. He's a leader in the locker room. He's fiery. He's emotional.
00:05:15 He is an incredible addition with tremendous upside.
00:05:20 And again, adding critical pieces to that defensive line.
00:05:24 You want to forge some competition in that room and the level of productivity we have with a very deep group last year.
00:05:30 You want to see what you can do to enhance that this year.
00:05:32 So two key names, two critical pieces, both at the point of attack, both big bodies, one on offense, one on defense.
00:05:39 Very happy about those additions since last time we talked.
00:05:42 Yeah, absolutely. And I love the way you lay that out.
00:05:45 And those sound like they are welcome additions, certainly, and in a couple of different areas as well, too.
00:05:52 And so that's kind of where we stand here today.
00:05:55 You know, it's it's Thursday, January 11th is Jed and I record this.
00:05:58 It'll be Friday the 12th when this drops. As Jed has mentioned,
00:06:01 there will still be a lot of moving and shaking, both with this, you know, portal window here and then again in the spring.
00:06:08 So all of this is is far from finished, far from done.
00:06:12 But that's kind of where we stand currently as we, you know,
00:06:16 roll through and head towards the middle of January here.
00:06:19 Another thank you to our friend JR and our friends at Toothman Ford.
00:06:23 We all know cars cost less than Grafton. They support us.
00:06:25 They support our student athletes with NIL.
00:06:27 So make sure you're getting your butt to Grafton for all of your vehicular needs.
00:06:31 Big thank you to JR and to the good folks at Toothman Ford.
00:06:34 Yeah, Jed, we are we are going to be joined here in just a minute by Bo Orlando,
00:06:39 WVU Sports Hall of Famer, who played for Nick Saban in the National Football League.
00:06:45 So pretty cool. The guy that we're going to get a chance to talk to here,
00:06:49 Bo, he's got the WVU ties. He's got the Nick Saban ties.
00:06:52 We'll have a fun conversation with him. And what was just I mean,
00:06:57 Jed, I I don't know if I remember something like this,
00:07:00 or you always hear the old adage is like always these things happen in threes, right?
00:07:04 Like when somebody when someone passes away, well, these things happen in threes.
00:07:09 I mean Pete Carroll, Nick Saban, Bill Belichick, all within about 24 hours of each other.
00:07:15 And again, all different, some retiring, some moving on,
00:07:19 some moving into advisor roles like Pete Carroll.
00:07:23 But man, I mean you want to talk about just three guys that have won championships
00:07:27 that have been a fabric of the sport at every level for decades.
00:07:31 What a man, what a week so far for the game of football at the highest levels.
00:07:37 Absolutely. And it almost feels as though Pete Carroll's the bridesmaid this week, right?
00:07:42 I mean, what a terrible week he picked up. Very quick aside, we're a little tardy on this.
00:07:48 I've been meaning, and this is on me, for a couple episodes to mention this,
00:07:51 and then we're going to fully jump into Coach Saban. We had our bowl pick competition.
00:07:58 You submitted your picks. I submitted my picks. Scholar submitted your picks.
00:08:01 Yeah, thank you. I knew it was something else I wanted to hit on.
00:08:02 We'll have Owen explain what he submitted.
00:08:07 So here's how it played out very quickly. I actually won something. I hit 28 out of 42.
00:08:13 That's why you wanted to shoehorn that in here.
00:08:17 Yeah, which we might, as a matter of fact, I might text Owen and say,
00:08:19 "We can't bring you on tonight. I have some talking to do about this."
00:08:22 You finished number two. You were 25 out of 42. Scholar comes in at number three, 24 out of 42.
00:08:28 And Owen, again, I'm going to need to ask him. I don't really know how to rank what he sent me.
00:08:32 He was a busy man over the Christmas holidays.
00:08:35 So I think he was at the wheel of his UPS truck sending me this email.
00:08:39 But anyway, that's how that played out. But yes, Coach Saban, on one hand, I'm surprised.
00:08:44 But on the other hand, all indications should point to something like this being a possibility, right?
00:08:49 I mean, it seemed possible over the last couple of years.
00:08:52 And he made some remarks today, and I thought it was kind of telling.
00:08:56 And I was like, that's a very fair point. One of the things that he mentioned, he said,
00:09:00 "Look, it got more difficult in recent years. People would always want to ask."
00:09:05 And this happens when a coach gets up there in age, and that's why sometimes things catch up to him.
00:09:09 It happened to Bobby. People want to know if you're going to be there in five years.
00:09:13 "Hey, if I sign with you, are you going to see it through?
00:09:15 Are you going to be there three, four, maybe even five years down the road?
00:09:18 Are you going to be part of this?" He said, "It got more difficult for me in good faith to say yes."
00:09:23 So that impacted a lot of the things that he was doing. And to me, that makes absolute sense.
00:09:28 He said, "The grind," he said, "at the age," he said, "it's not my health. It's just my age.
00:09:32 It's the grind that this age just wore on me more this year. I felt I had to do harder coaching this year."
00:09:38 And I think that's a fair point, because in my estimation, based on the limitations he had,
00:09:43 by the standards he's established, we talked about the deficiencies of that offensive line,
00:09:48 a more turnover-prone offense. They had some issues.
00:09:51 He found a way to get them almost to the promised land, despite those shortcomings.
00:09:56 So this was, to me, one of his more impressive jobs of coaching.
00:10:00 And there's no way that this wasn't on some level coordinated, the step down with him and lifelong friend Bill Belichick.
00:10:07 But I'm happy for Coach Saban. And you know what? Here's what's going to be crazy.
00:10:14 As we see these possible candidates emerge, I mean, it started right out of the gate.
00:10:18 So that tells me, look, Nick Saban's not the kind of guy who ambushed his department with this, his AD with this.
00:10:23 He kind of let them know it was coming. They were in position to be prepared to at least try and do something about it.
00:10:29 That's why you had Dan Lanning in town the day after the announcement was made.
00:10:32 I mean, that wasn't because a conversation took place 20 minutes after Nick Saban made the announcement.
00:10:36 And here comes Dan. No, this was kind of in the works.
00:10:41 Now, when? I can't put, I don't know. I can't place a timetable on it.
00:10:44 But I don't know. Has Dan Lanning officially turned it down?
00:10:48 I mean, according to his Twitter account, he put out like a hype video of him staying and accomplishing things that you want to,
00:10:55 where you're at and this and that. And why would I want to be anywhere else other than Eugene?
00:10:58 So that's just it looks like he's staying. That leads to the larger point.
00:11:04 I can't imagine if you have a job like Dan Lanning has and you have Phil Knight and his full support out there in Oregon,
00:11:10 you're joining the Big Ten and you have a chance to potentially become Oregon's Nick Saban.
00:11:16 Why would you even contemplate the possibility?
00:11:19 How much money would it take? Because any of these candidates who are sitting in a good situation,
00:11:25 look, the reality of it's this, the game in which Nick Saban won those six national championships at Alabama no longer exists.
00:11:33 How many times have I said it? That was college football 1.0.
00:11:38 This is the portal era. This is the NIL era.
00:11:40 We talked about Alabama lost four studs that were freshmen on their offensive line in last year's portal cycle, three, four stars and a five star.
00:11:49 That's why their own line struggled this year.
00:11:51 So even the resources at a place like Alabama are strained when you're trying to keep a roster together.
00:11:57 Whereas five years ago in the pre portal era, sure, you kind of cornered the market on talent.
00:12:03 You had the two best players at every position in the country in some cases. Right.
00:12:07 I mean, you could tap to a two on the shoulder and say, hey, you're a quarterback.
00:12:13 Yeah, you had you had to a Jalen Hurts and Mac Jones all on the same roster.
00:12:17 Yeah, that's two first round picks in a second round.
00:12:20 So in other words, I think it's this it's like if you're playing checkers, you think, well, people found a way to replace Bear Bryant ultimately with Nick Saban to make you happy.
00:12:29 But if you're playing chess, you recognize the differences between replacing Nick Saban right now in this 2.0 versus replacing Bear Bryant when the game was the same.
00:12:40 It's not going to be the same, but the expectations are.
00:12:43 So I can't imagine taking that on.
00:12:46 I tell you what, if I'm Alabama, I'll close with this toss back to you and then we'll break and we'll bring Bo in because I'm dying to hear both thoughts on this and just some Nick Saban stories,
00:12:54 because I don't know if you guys have heard much from Bo Orlando through the years, just sitting or interviews or Bo can take over room and light it up.
00:13:02 All right. It's it's going to be cool to have Bo be able to talk about, you know, a football deity like this.
00:13:07 But if I'm Alabama, I was going through my mental Rolodex today asking, is there anybody that I think all things considered could handle what needs to be handled at Alabama to even make a run?
00:13:21 You're not going to hit his success rate. He didn't he wasn't hitting his own success rate the last couple of years.
00:13:26 So whoever takes over is going to encounter the same challenges Nick did the last couple of years, which is why he didn't win a championship.
00:13:32 The portal and NIL change things even for Alabama.
00:13:36 Yes, there's advantages, but with it come disadvantages.
00:13:39 The person that I think is most qualified and I saw some numbers, I'll get to the name here in a minute, but I saw some numbers on Twitter.
00:13:48 It talked about when Nick took over in Alabama, 75 percent of the student body was from Alabama.
00:13:54 Yeah, right now it's 50 percent because they cut it off at 50 percent.
00:13:57 They want half the state to have the school to be from the state.
00:14:00 And you're talking about the tuition being three times more for out of state.
00:14:04 So in theory, even though Nick Saban made a hundred and some odd million dollars during his time at Alabama, they could have paid him a billion.
00:14:12 They stratified out what Alabama earned from Nick Saban.
00:14:16 If they paid him a billion dollars, it would have still been a heck of a bargain.
00:14:20 So if in fact those numbers have merit and if in fact the success of the football program at the University of Alabama can increase your coffers that much.
00:14:31 I might pick up the phone.
00:14:35 Call Bella, check. No good guess.
00:14:39 And everybody else I can think of has had success, but you haven't had success and been asked to handle all this massive weaponry and handle the mentality of of the ultimate blue blood locker room and not making them think they're that good and succeeded in recent years in the portal era or come close to, you know, who I I make an outrageous offer to Kirby Smart.
00:15:01 I had your Georgia guy. We're going.
00:15:03 I would pay you twenty five million dollars and make me say no, because you know what? At the very least, I'm going to make Georgia pay you stupid money to keep you, because that is as close as I'm going to get to a guarantee to having even a chance at the run of success.
00:15:17 Now, Alabama is going to keep one. Don't get me wrong.
00:15:19 Alabama is going to keep winning. They're going to keep being a factor.
00:15:22 They're even going to win some national championships. But if you expect expect expect the next guy to jump in and win six titles in X amount of years, that might be too tall of an ask in this new era.
00:15:34 It's a jet. It's like the Lake, the Lakers won championships after Phil Jackson, but not like they did with Phil Jackson.
00:15:40 Exactly. They're going to continue to win.
00:15:42 But that level, I think we've seen the end of it, that level of six titles in that many years and nearly a couple more titles during that run.
00:15:51 It might just be too tall of an ask. The expectations aren't going to change.
00:15:55 But the game around those expectations absolutely has changed at the most basic and fundamental levels.
00:16:02 Kirby, in my estimation, would and I don't think Kirby will leave Georgia, but that's a guy who can recruit the south.
00:16:08 That's a guy who can handle the mentality of a locker room like that.
00:16:11 That's a guy who was part of Alabama's success. He hasn't just won, but he's won dealing with the same things that Nick's been dealing with.
00:16:17 The other guys that I look at who have won haven't had to deal with that.
00:16:20 That's a different ask. And I don't know that that's going to happen, but I kind of think it would be fun to watch.
00:16:26 But now you have the possibility of I mean, who would make a better football college football commissioner than Nick Saban.
00:16:32 But back to you. Well, geez, Jed, you threw about 37 different things at me and then back to you.
00:16:38 I mean, not to you know, not to keep me on pins and needles here, but no, listen, it's funny that whole build up.
00:16:43 I'm thinking, all right, he's got to be going Kirby smart with this because that's the only person that meets all his criteria.
00:16:48 I'll tell you this right now, though, if I'm Kirby smart, if I'm Dan Lanning, if I'm Davos,
00:16:52 Swinney, if I'm anybody that's been floated around this job, I don't want it right now.
00:16:56 I don't want to be the guy to follow the guy. I think that's a big part of it, too.
00:17:00 I think Dan Lanning's maybe looking at this thing and saying, you know what, in the next two or three years, I'll win a national championship here at Oregon.
00:17:06 Alabama will be looking for another head coach and I don't want to be the guy to follow the guy of guys.
00:17:12 First of all, he is the guy of guys. Right. And it's not the same game you're coaching that he was.
00:17:19 Well, but that's how I mean, Kirby smarts, not coaching that same game. Now, Dan Lanning's not.
00:17:23 You know what I mean? Those guys are all in it, in it now.
00:17:27 But I get what you're saying with the with the with the advantages that Alabama used to have.
00:17:31 I mean, Alabama still has advantages over most schools, but I think that gap has narrowed a little bit over the last few years.
00:17:37 So I do get what you're saying there. So let me ask you this real quick before we go to break over under twenty, twenty.
00:17:46 Eight before Alabama wins another national championship.
00:17:52 Oh, I hope it's over because I'd certainly like them to be sagging and we play them in twenty six and twenty seven.
00:17:57 That's my thinking for my own selfish reasons. When they come to Morgantown in twenty six and we go to Tuscaloosa in twenty seven.
00:18:03 Well, I'd like to see him struggling even by their standards. I'll take it.
00:18:06 But I'm going to go I'm going to go over. I think the win.
00:18:10 I think they'll win a national championship again in the next decade.
00:18:13 But I like it's going to take and they'll be in the hunt.
00:18:17 They'll absolutely be. Yeah, they'll go like next year.
00:18:19 They'll go ten and three and they'll act like it's some massive disaster.
00:18:23 You know what I mean? Here's the catastrophe that I'm I'm fearful of.
00:18:27 You're about to see the greatest mass exodus and talent we've ever seen in this era of the portal.
00:18:32 It's a free fall. They have 30 days. Anybody on the roster with a free pass to go wherever they want.
00:18:37 The highest bidder. That's going to happen in large measure.
00:18:40 I don't care who the coach is. You can only retain so much of that. Right now.
00:18:45 My my issue is going to be this. When that next window opens,
00:18:48 there's going to be just as strong a surge from Alabama to maybe even metal and steel from other rosters to supplant that.
00:18:56 It's going to be chaos for the next handful of months. I think in part because of this one program,
00:19:01 we've never seen a level of talent, a mass exodus like this from a talent standpoint.
00:19:07 That's just up for grabs overnight, tossed into the talent pool.
00:19:11 It's going to be insane, insane. But you're still now people have asked,
00:19:15 well, hey, is West Virginia have their eyes on any of those kids? Look, we have our eyes on all those kids.
00:19:19 But are we going to break the bank to pay them what it's going to take to land there?
00:19:23 Just like the Texas A&M kids. If you sign one of those kids,
00:19:27 that's going to take a quarter million dollars to make a run at it. Who knows what it might take in today's market.
00:19:31 Right. But anyway, well, we're going to talk to somebody who knows jolly old St.
00:19:37 Nick very well. WVU Hall of Famer Bo Orlando will join us on the other side.
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00:21:56 Back inside the gun here and we've got a special guest joining us on this edition of ITG like Jed and I discussed in the open kind of a man,
00:22:04 a landmark day across the sport of football with guys like Pete Carroll, guys like Bill Belichick,
00:22:10 no longer going to be head coaches where they've been institutions, Nick Saban at the collegiate level as well, too.
00:22:16 Well, joining us now to discuss he played for Nick Saban in Houston.
00:22:20 He's a WVU Sports Hall of Famer, Bo Orlando.
00:22:23 Bo, thank you so much for taking the time here.
00:22:25 First team All-American at WVU, part of that 1988 magical season with Major Harrison Company.
00:22:32 You were a safety for the Mountaineers. Like I said, All-American sixth round draft pick, I believe.
00:22:37 Correct. Of Houston and Nick Saban. So like I said, thank you so much for taking the time to do this.
00:22:43 And I guess maybe we could just start here. When I mentioned Nick Saban and your time with him, what's what's the first thing that comes to mind?
00:22:51 Well, you know, it's a funny story because like the combine isn't what is it wasn't what it is now.
00:22:58 You know what I mean? So when we used to kind of go over there in West Virginia, we were, you know, it's a little bit like now.
00:23:03 We never get the respect in the big picture of the Penn State, the Alabama's and stuff.
00:23:08 So, so, you know, I don't think anybody was we had we were going to have some players drafted.
00:23:13 So when they would when scouts would come over to the show building and go run,
00:23:16 we would just kind of wander over and say, you mind if I run my fire run because nobody's names are on their list.
00:23:21 So I ran. So Houston and San Francisco was there.
00:23:26 I ran and the guy looked at me and he said, hey, Orlando, come here.
00:23:29 And I said, run again for me. And I ran again. And he said, some I had you down as a four, seven, five.
00:23:34 And he said, you ran four, four, seven and four, four, eight. And I'm like, you know, I don't know.
00:23:39 You know, it's not. And I said, I don't know if I ever read a four, seven, five.
00:23:43 I said, being white, five, 10, 175 pounds. I said, I wasn't playing anywhere with that.
00:23:48 And so long story short, two, you know, about two, three weeks go by the draft comes and I'm or no, before the draft.
00:23:56 I'm sorry. So Coach Dillon calls me like two weeks later and says,
00:23:59 Houston wants to come to DB coach wants to come and run you.
00:24:03 So I said, all right. So I show up at the thing, stretching out and getting readiness.
00:24:07 One guy, one DB comes out there and just me and him.
00:24:10 And you know, as well as I do, like when you do DB drills and you're backpedaling and running everything,
00:24:15 you know, when you have 10, 12 guys in line, it's nice because you get a little breather to get back.
00:24:20 Well, he's firing me off backpedaling, backpedaling, break and break and doing this, catching a ball.
00:24:24 But we're out there for about a half an hour. And I think I think one time I, I fell over.
00:24:29 I was just trying to, you know, trying to impress him so much and trying to run so fast.
00:24:32 And I think I got one little smirk out of him, you know, I mean, he was just real stone faced.
00:24:37 And I didn't know who the guy was. I mean, he's just running. He's an NFL scout.
00:24:41 And so he said, you know, good workout. He talked a little bit.
00:24:45 And then, and then he went a couple weeks later to draft was Saturday comes by.
00:24:50 I think it was, I don't know if it started Friday and Saturday,
00:24:52 but Sunday I'm there and I'm married at the time. I got married before my senior year.
00:24:57 And we're, it was around noontime sitting there having breakfast or my jammies or whatever, you know, me and my wife.
00:25:03 And I get a call and it was like, hey, Bo, this is a coach saving from Houston orders.
00:25:08 And I'm like, yeah. And he's like, we just drafted you in the sixth round.
00:25:11 It's not so that was my, and I just remembered that voice.
00:25:15 I mean that just dry, you know, that dry voice and I knew it was him,
00:25:18 but turn into be the the goat of college football and who know, you know,
00:25:23 when I was running for, you know, back then, but he was definitely a definitely a character boy.
00:25:29 So first thing I got to say guys is I'm going to tell the listeners what I told you during the break.
00:25:34 If you're my age and you were watching the Mountaineers at Mountaineer Field,
00:25:39 Bo Orlando didn't have two names,
00:25:41 but Orlando had one name the PA system each time Bo made a tackle said the same thing.
00:25:46 Stop made by number 22 Borlando. And right now is we're doing the zoom call.
00:25:52 There's no space between Bo and Orlando. So I got a heck of a chocolate is starting that.
00:25:56 So welcome aboard Borlando number 22 Borlando. Let's go here Bo.
00:26:01 You're part of the Berwick pipeline and through the years that's meant so much to West Virginia.
00:26:06 Well, but it was Jake the snake whether it was Chaz Padorko,
00:26:09 whether it was Tommy Robsock, I don't leave my out,
00:26:11 but you are a quarterback for the legendary George Curry on a USA Today National Championship Berwick team.
00:26:19 You play through the course of your career high school up through college to the NFL.
00:26:23 Look at some of the names you played for George. George Curry is an absolute icon.
00:26:28 Not just in Pennsylvania high school circles,
00:26:30 but beyond you played for Don Nealon. The name speaks for itself as a Hall of Famer.
00:26:35 You obviously played with the Houston Oilers with Nick as your position coach.
00:26:39 You played for Buddy Ryan. I mean these names I'm throwing out.
00:26:43 These are some heavy hitters. So if I were to ask you was there a common thread,
00:26:48 how are they alike? How might they have been different?
00:26:51 Was there something that these guys shared in common, these names that I just tossed your way that made them what they were?
00:26:58 How are they alike? How are they different compared to?
00:27:00 They were, I don't know how, they were so confident,
00:27:04 but they were so strict like they had their way or that was it. Like in the old days.
00:27:10 These days are a little bit different how you have to coach. You know,
00:27:12 I know as far as being an AD and coaching in high school,
00:27:15 but they were just very strict and it was their way or the highway.
00:27:19 And all of them, I mean they were very confident what they did.
00:27:23 They knew their shit. I mean they had everything, you know, right down.
00:27:28 But like I had no problem playing for Coach Nealon or Nick Saban or Buddy Ryan,
00:27:34 which a lot of guys did because they were so damn strict.
00:27:36 I mean they were just, you know, Buddy Ryan would walk by you in the hall with a three,
00:27:41 four foot hallway and he would, you know, "Hey coach, how you doing?"
00:27:44 He wouldn't even say nothing. He would just walk right by you.
00:27:47 And he only referred to you as your number. Hardly ever called you Bowie like 826.
00:27:53 Like 826 you gotta move, or 824 you gotta move. And that's how he graded film.
00:27:57 He would say like if someone screwed up like, you know,
00:28:00 he'd call a 6Z, blah blah whatever defense and he'd say, you know, 72 tackle, 26 dumbass,
00:28:07 you know, or if you screwed up and he that's how he graded his film.
00:28:10 Like and you just sat there as fear because, you know, there was, you know,
00:28:14 there was week to week. I mean he'd get rid of people and, you know,
00:28:17 in the middle of the week, the end of the week, I mean come by, you'd have a new,
00:28:20 you know, new guy over there playing and but like, you know, all of them.
00:28:24 I mean Coach Saban and Coach Curry.
00:28:26 I mean they were just all so strict that you just, you know,
00:28:29 your eyes were open and your mouth was shut and you just did what they said.
00:28:32 And I was fortunate to play for, you know, a lot of the goats as you said,
00:28:36 you know what I mean? I mean I consider Coach Nealon, you know, in college.
00:28:39 I mean what he did, what us guys there in West Virginia was to go,
00:28:44 but Coach Curry definitely was. I mean, you know, I was in the pros.
00:28:48 There were so many guys that knew, hey, how's George doing?
00:28:49 I mean how many times you're, you know, NFL
00:28:52 and everybody's asking how your high school coach is because he coached with all these guys
00:28:56 or he ran camps with them and I mean he's just legendary
00:28:58 and I was very fortunate to play for them and have the worth ethic.
00:29:03 And like I said, just, you know, I tell my guys now
00:29:06 and I refer to my life and my experiences through my guys
00:29:10 and I'm like, listen, you're not going to like everybody you play.
00:29:13 They said, but you better respect them and you better play their style
00:29:16 in the way they want to do or you're not going to play.
00:29:18 You know what I mean?
00:29:20 - Bo and I started chatting last night.
00:29:22 I had a producer for Sirius XM reach out to me asking a West Virginia connection to Nick Saban
00:29:29 and of course I'm thinking Bo, right?
00:29:31 And as soon as I said Bo, he's texting me back
00:29:35 and he covered high school football about an hour away from Burwick five, six years.
00:29:38 He knew all about Bo, he knew all about George Curry.
00:29:41 So George Curry is a legend, but we're especially fortunate.
00:29:45 This is Bo's mom's birthday.
00:29:46 So he's on here with us for mom's birthday, but Owen, I'm going to drag you in here now.
00:29:50 Okay, you were an NFL guy, Bo was an NFL guy,
00:29:55 and when I make, when somebody makes a boss call
00:29:57 and you got big on strong safety leading out there on the perimeter,
00:30:00 fullbacks smacking heads with a strong safety,
00:30:03 you had a little bit different perspective than Bo.
00:30:05 So you guys go out of here and compare notes.
00:30:07 It's offense versus defense, downhill, let's go.
00:30:11 - Oh man, offense versus defense.
00:30:15 I mean, obviously back, you know, and I'll say probably more so in Bo's era,
00:30:22 but you know, I still kind of brought some of that tradition as far as physical football into my era.
00:30:30 I'd say it'd be downhill runs, a lot of smash mouth plays.
00:30:35 I mean, I can only imagine the amount of stingers we'd give each other
00:30:40 in practices if we did have to go head to head together.
00:30:44 - You know, and like he's saying, you know, back in the day, I mean,
00:30:49 hell, I remember if our receivers probably had 35 catches a year,
00:30:52 that was a good year for us because first and second down, I mean, you were bashing.
00:30:57 I mean, it was lining up, we would do drills.
00:31:00 I remember my first year there, I came out of high school,
00:31:02 I was 155 pounds and I probably rolled into West Virginia about 160 and,
00:31:08 you know, I had to live in a weight room, but I'm going against Wolfley with his face painted
00:31:13 in training camp and they set one cone five yards apart in there.
00:31:17 We have to run in there and I'm like, I'm packing my bags.
00:31:19 I'm like, the hell with this shit here.
00:31:21 You know, I mean, it was good.
00:31:24 Back then, I mean, you know, I was telling the serious guys when I did the interview,
00:31:28 I mean, we had, you know, by the time my senior year, we had 40 guys bench over 400 pounds.
00:31:33 We took pride, but I mean, it was, you know, it was not passing.
00:31:36 I think they just started bringing in three wide receivers.
00:31:39 I mean, all they do is put a slot on the other side and third down.
00:31:42 I mean, that was their third down to throw pass.
00:31:44 So, it was a different game and but, you know, Wesley, he, you know,
00:31:48 he licked his chops when he sees a little guy like me, safety.
00:31:51 And then when I heard that, boss, man, I didn't like that call, you know what I mean?
00:31:55 [Laughter]
00:31:58 I tried to go in there.
00:31:59 Well, my forte was I was small, but I had to read things and be a student of the game.
00:32:04 I had to read things really quick.
00:32:05 So, I would get up on them real quick and then I would kind of like dodge,
00:32:09 just try to avoid and just try to close it down.
00:32:11 Because if I sat there and took them head on all the time, I would have played very long.
00:32:16 Okay. So, let's talk about the gamut of emotions that Nick Saban so obviously puts you through.
00:32:21 All right.
00:32:21 You were, you're not just in the West Virginia Hall of Fame.
00:32:24 You're also in, there's a Pennsylvania Hall of Fame.
00:32:26 Which one is it that you're in up there, bro?
00:32:27 Well, I'm in, I'm in like the area like the Luzern, but I'm going,
00:32:31 my name's in the Pennsylvania right now.
00:32:33 There's a thing.
00:32:33 There, I couldn't remember what they called that, but I knew you were inducted.
00:32:36 So, so let's look at it like this.
00:32:40 When you played for Nick at Houston, first of all, people forget just, he took a chance,
00:32:45 or Houston took a chance, that defensive staff took a chance on a 5'10",
00:32:49 175-pound safety out of West Virginia.
00:32:51 They saw something in you, right?
00:32:52 You were part of a nasty defensive backfield.
00:32:56 Chris Dishman, walk us through who you played along, what Nick Saban meant to you.
00:33:01 I understand you had a nickname, Nick the Prick, all right?
00:33:05 So, a little nickname for Nick.
00:33:07 And you, so you had that nickname for him, but he's the same guy that all these years later,
00:33:12 you're inducted in this Hall of Fame, and he reaches out with a cool message.
00:33:16 I mean, to me, that's coaching, right?
00:33:18 They sent out, you know, they sent out to him the guys that were doing it,
00:33:22 and he sent back a ball and everything like that.
00:33:24 And I, listen, I have the, you know, back then we were young and this and that,
00:33:28 but like I said, I had no problem playing for Nick
00:33:32 because Coach Curry was as strict as they come, you know?
00:33:35 And so when I played, I had a problem, but we had problems.
00:33:38 I remember, I remember coming into, you know, into the meetings after.
00:33:41 We'd watch practice after practice for like a half hour, and we had a couple DVs,
00:33:47 and, you know, some of those guys had a tough time with Nick
00:33:50 because he was tough, and he was on every little,
00:33:53 whether your step was here or over here and here.
00:33:55 And it taught me a lot because, you know, Coach Dunlap was a good coach,
00:33:58 but we didn't get into a lot of technique like I did with Nick.
00:34:01 Nick was a DV specialist.
00:34:03 And we'd get into meetings, and those guys, man, those guys gave him a hard time.
00:34:08 They gave him the kid. He was a young guy at the time.
00:34:10 So those guys were veterans. They gave him a hard time.
00:34:12 One time he came in there, a guy had a towel over his head,
00:34:14 and he didn't like Nick, and he had, you know, words.
00:34:17 And he said, "Richard, I'm not starting this film until you take the towel off."
00:34:22 And, I mean, it took him five, ten minutes, and we're like,
00:34:24 "Come on, Richard, Jesus Christ, we want to go home," you know, and blah, blah, blah, blah, you know.
00:34:27 And it took, you know, and then he would take the towel off.
00:34:30 It was Richard Johnson. He was a corner for the—
00:34:32 I remember Richard Johnson. Wow. Okay.
00:34:35 And, I mean, Wanda McDowell, Richard Dishman.
00:34:38 I mean, we just had some, we had some characters in there.
00:34:40 And, you know, and in the pros, you're different.
00:34:43 You're men. You have families.
00:34:45 I mean, you're different. And you go at it.
00:34:47 I mean, I, you know, Cincinnati, one of the players went after the coaches,
00:34:51 and then we had him, you know, diving in, diving on him, going after the coach.
00:34:55 So, you know, you're men in that league,
00:34:58 and there's some things that happen that people don't know, you know, going out.
00:35:01 But Nick was tough. But like I said, I had no problem because I played for Coach Nealon,
00:35:07 you know, George Curry and Nick Saban.
00:35:10 So, to me, it was just like, it was another coach.
00:35:12 But to those guys, man, they just, they despise.
00:35:15 But, you know, it's just like I told, you know, Coach Curry when I got done playing for him,
00:35:19 and I got to know him as a man and kind of hang out.
00:35:22 Like what he did for me and what he did for all of us, he made us young men is what he did.
00:35:28 He did, you know, it went far beyond football.
00:35:31 He made us young men because I use that in everyday life.
00:35:33 All the, you know, if you weren't 15, 20 minutes early or half an hour early,
00:35:37 you weren't early at all. You were late.
00:35:39 And, you know, this is not the hard work, the dedication. You were down there every day.
00:35:43 I got kicked out of the field house one day because my hair was too long.
00:35:45 He told me to go get a haircut. I'm the quarterback of our National Championship team,
00:35:49 and I'm walking out of the field house with my head between my, you know, my legs.
00:35:53 I'm like, holy shit, you know, and this is how they were.
00:35:55 I mean, they ran a tight ship, and that's why they were so successful because of the little things.
00:36:01 And, you know, he said, you always take care of the little things,
00:36:03 and big things take care of themselves.
00:36:06 Did Nick ever tell West Virginia stories, talk to you about when you played at West Virginia,
00:36:10 the connection, in other words, him growing up here, him coaching there so many years before you playing there?
00:36:16 Did he ever bring that up? Not too much because, like I said, Nick was, I was a rookie, you know,
00:36:21 and Nick was, he was a young, he was a young coach there, you know what I mean?
00:36:25 And, you know, going out from Belichick when they split off.
00:36:27 So he was kind of a young guy himself trying to establish himself.
00:36:30 So we never really got into that because his personality now wasn't what it was back then.
00:36:37 I mean, now, you know, Jed, you know, our good friend, Chaz Federico.
00:36:40 I mean, Chaz sends me videos, and Chaz is kind of like a life coach, does consulting, does all kind of things.
00:36:47 He sends me so many videos of Nick Saban. Nick Saban's got some great talks and such a great speaker.
00:36:52 I mean, he wasn't like that.
00:36:55 He was actually like very quiet and he was just to the point, you know, to point your feet here, your feet here.
00:37:00 So he wasn't like as boisterous and how he was now.
00:37:03 He was, that's why we called him Nick the, you know, Nick the prick, you know.
00:37:08 But the respect, you know, it's like, you know, it's like I told Coach Curry, like, hey, listen, when I play for you,
00:37:14 I hate, everybody hated you. They hated playing for you.
00:37:17 But when you got out and you see what the, you know, the things and the characteristics and everything you put into all of us,
00:37:24 like I'm very, very grateful. And the same thing with Nick.
00:37:26 I mean, Nick was tough, but like I said, I never really had any run-ins.
00:37:29 I was, always did what he said because I, you know, he was a professional coach and that's the way I was brought up.
00:37:35 You know, listen to your coach, keep your mouth shut and everything.
00:37:38 But he was- I don't know what you did after your rookie year in the NFL,
00:37:42 but I want you to tell us what you did after Bo tells us what he did.
00:37:46 He spent a year on the taxi squad with the Oilers, right? And then, correct me if I'm wrong,
00:37:52 you went back home to Berwick, right? Right.
00:37:55 And you took a job doing what? That wise food. Because we-
00:37:59 Wise potato chips. You're in the NFL, by the way.
00:38:02 We were the first, we were the first developmental squad when they had developmental squad.
00:38:07 We were the very first group to do it my year. And they paid us a thousand dollars a week.
00:38:12 So I made 16, well, you know, I had a little sign about everything, but it wasn't nowhere.
00:38:17 It was $25,000. That goes real, real quick going through, you know, your wife and kids.
00:38:21 And I came home that offseason, I worked at Wise Food,
00:38:25 and then I finally realized, and I think my agent talked to me,
00:38:29 I was there for like two weeks and I hated it. I absolutely hated it.
00:38:32 And he said, you know, you could collect, you know, for things.
00:38:36 So I started collecting and then I just started working out to go back for a team.
00:38:39 So yeah, I mean- Nick, no, you worked there? What's that? Did Nick know you were working there?
00:38:45 No, this was after, this was after, after there,
00:38:48 because I was on the developmental the first year with Nick. I got you.
00:38:51 And then he left the next year and then he, I think he went to Cleveland.
00:38:55 Did he go to, I think he went to Cleveland. He went, he went to,
00:38:58 he was head coach at Toledo for a year before going to Cleveland.
00:39:01 Oh, so he was head coach there at Toledo and then Cleveland and then, and then his-
00:39:06 So you didn't work for Mr. B after your rookie year, did you?
00:39:09 Did you take a job with Mr. B at Potato Chips? No, no, no, it was just Wise. Is that where you were?
00:39:17 That's hilarious. Oh, that's hysterical. People just look at the glam, you know, that's all.
00:39:23 Bo, I got to know, last one, last one I got to ask you.
00:39:26 So you mentioned Ron Wolfley there a few minutes ago.
00:39:29 I don't know if Jed told you this, but funny connection.
00:39:31 So I work for the Pittsburgh Steelers and kind of my, you know, my, my, my real job, my day job, if you will.
00:39:38 And I work every single day with Craig Wolfley, who's, who's Ron's brother, right?
00:39:43 Who, I mean, if you've met one of them, you've met both of them. They're very similar people.
00:39:47 So, so Ron was just about a month ago.
00:39:51 The Cardinals played the Pittsburgh Steelers here in Pittsburgh.
00:39:55 And so Craig was like, I got to introduce, you know, you're the, you're the WVU guy here in Pittsburgh.
00:40:01 Like, you know, my brother, like I got to, so I was really excited to meet Ron.
00:40:04 So it's before the Steelers-Cardinals game and I'm chatting with him and, you know, picking his brain and asking him all these things.
00:40:09 And, you know, he's saying to me, he's like, I really wish I could get back to Morgantown more often.
00:40:13 It's just, you know, I live in Arizona. I work in the NFL.
00:40:17 It's just, you know, it's almost impossible to get a weekend in Morgantown when my job revolves around the Cardinals.
00:40:22 But I said something to him about like, what do you miss most?
00:40:25 Or what do you think about most? Like, I forget exactly how I worded him the question.
00:40:28 And he just kind of smiled and he looked at me and he went, the fight song.
00:40:32 And I was like, I was like, what do you mean the fight song?
00:40:36 He goes, he goes, Wes, I just, I love it so much.
00:40:39 It's West Virginia, it's West Virginia, the pride of every mountain.
00:40:43 And we're sitting in the cafeteria at the Steelers Stadium and he's singing the fight song, right?
00:40:48 That's what, well, you want to talk about somebody that was tuned in.
00:40:51 So we go to play, I'm in Houston. We go to play, it's my second or third year.
00:40:55 So we go to the stadium. He's with Cleveland.
00:40:58 And I'm thinking, you know, every time like you go on a new team, you know, you have your boys playing there.
00:41:03 They played against them, you know, with West Virginia.
00:41:06 Here's my boy Wolf, you know. So I go to Cleveland, I go, what, he's all painted up.
00:41:10 And I go out and this is like two hours before the game, you know, I go out and I'm like, I'm going to talk to Wolf, you know,
00:41:15 like I was a freshman when he was a senior, but we played the whole year.
00:41:18 And you know, Wolf, how you doing? He gives me like a nod and he's like all like channeled in, like running down the field.
00:41:24 I'm like, dude, what the hell? Like, you know, that's my story.
00:41:27 But the bronze, bronze, then after the, you know, after the game, we talk and that's Wolf.
00:41:31 That was, that was the Wolf boys.
00:41:33 I mean, they had, you know, just like Dale to cut off flannel shirts, the boots.
00:41:38 That's what they were no matter what. And they were, they were some tough SOBs, boy, that's for sure.
00:41:44 I love it. I love it. So what is it? What is it for you?
00:41:46 Like when you think of WVU football, when you think of Morgantown, what's that first thing that comes to mind for you?
00:41:51 God, you know, I don't know.
00:41:56 Like I told these guys earlier, I said, I made so many decisions in my life and it's the best decision I've ever made.
00:42:03 I mean, the people in West Virginia, I mean, I've had the connections with all the time and come back and like,
00:42:08 I come back for Joseph's tournament in the summer and I spend four or five days there on cheat leg.
00:42:14 You know, like I said, the people to me were just fantastic.
00:42:17 I mean, I wouldn't change it for the world. And what, you know, I was, I was thinking, referring back to my,
00:42:24 and I know I'm sure we get back to the 88 team, but, you know, you're talking about guys like I came in 155.
00:42:30 You know, I'm a quarterback, Hardy played a little bit defense, come into defense.
00:42:35 You have Mike Fox. I think Mike Fox probably weighed 235 when he came in, 6768.
00:42:42 Pat Marlette was, you know, two and a quarter. You know,
00:42:46 Ronaldo Turnbull, nobody even knew who the hell Ronaldo was. He's from the islands.
00:42:50 He had one offer. You know, he was telling us a story because we went to dinner when we came in for there with Lee Javins.
00:42:55 And, and we're talking to some guys and, you know, looking back now and how all those guys evolved and became in the NFL and players of the world.
00:43:04 So they took a chance and they mended, you know, the coach Nealon's credit.
00:43:10 He mended all these guys and we ended up playing, you know,
00:43:12 I'm playing for the national championship and starting the run of, you know, we hope we had, you know,
00:43:19 a lot of input of what West Virginia is today, help building on, you know, that stadium and everything today.
00:43:23 And we're like, yes, and all those guys. I mean, it's, it's fun.
00:43:27 I, you know, I, it's like anything else, you know, I mean, I, when I'm getting ready to go to West Virginia,
00:43:33 like it goes so fast because I'm so pumped up to get there when I'm driving, you know, you go over cheat Lake, you know,
00:43:40 my, my, you know, the hair on my arm started to stand up.
00:43:43 Like all my boys are there and like all the familiarity, like I almost moved there before I moved to Bethel, my last spot.
00:43:49 I almost, I almost moved. Oh, really? Yeah.
00:43:52 We were thinking I retired, I had a house here in Berwick and I was going back and forth to Cincinnati, moving my kids,
00:43:58 you know, halfway through the year school-wise and then I retired here and I was like, man, I don't want, you know, stay in Berwick.
00:44:04 There's not a lot of industry and everything. And I almost moved to West Virginia was there.
00:44:08 And I ended up moving to Bethel, Pennsylvania now and have, because we have a question.
00:44:14 Owen, you and Bo both have to answer this. West, we're sitting here and you don't often get to do this.
00:44:21 If you ask a thousand Mountaineer fans named the three greatest teams in the history of West Virginia football,
00:44:27 I know two they're going to surface on that list. Right? Owen was on one of them.
00:44:33 Bo was on the other. Guys, the 1988 Mountaineers marched onto the field on an October afternoon,
00:44:42 square off against the 2007 Mountaineers. Walk me through what happens. Oh boy.
00:44:49 That's we'd have to put that in the simulator. Absolutely.
00:44:54 And like you said, I mean, you brought back the old school.
00:44:58 They kind of got away from, you know, the tight end a little bit in the H-back,
00:45:02 but like you brought when you came in and you went back to the old school.
00:45:05 So that was that part. But the passing game was a total different for us.
00:45:11 I don't know if we can handle the passing game, but then again,
00:45:14 I don't know if their defense would just smash mouth. We just ran down.
00:45:18 You know what I mean? So it's two different types of. Yeah, you're talking about going against.
00:45:24 I mean, what are those guys average on the old? I mean, because significantly it was kind of different.
00:45:30 Obviously the offense from when Bo was was playing in West Virginia was you guys had a bunch of beef up front.
00:45:37 You know, we were more of a zone scheme team. So we ran kind of light in the ass up front,
00:45:43 a little more quote unquote, what the coaches would say, athletic, right?
00:45:47 The 280 pounder guys. Right. But I'd say it would be it'd be fun to watch both offenses.
00:45:57 Absolutely. And I'm sure you would see a lot of great hitting on defense.
00:46:04 Yeah, absolutely. I mean, like you said,
00:46:06 it's so hard to you have to go to similar because like it's a different era of balls and even yeah, it's hard,
00:46:11 you know, it's just like when they compared Jordan to the LeBron.
00:46:15 I mean, it's such a different game now. And like these guys throw the ball 40, 50 times a game.
00:46:19 Not that they threw it, but it's a little bit different.
00:46:22 But but like I said, I you know, we both like watching each other and I bleed blue and gold.
00:46:30 I mean and whatever. I don't like to compare my own.
00:46:34 It's like playing against your own guys like we hated spring ball because, you know,
00:46:37 we had to hit each other, you know, I mean, I want to hit.
00:46:39 They're being all political about this West. Like I talked to Owen earlier today and he told me that he's got a whole binder.
00:46:45 I know Jen could talk for an hour.
00:46:50 Jed's got a whole binder on what 1988 would do.
00:46:54 Two thousand and seven would respond. And then Jeff Castile would have done this right.
00:47:00 Donny Miller answered in this earlier today. Owen told me he dropped 40 on that 88 team.
00:47:05 And then a couple hours ago, I was like, we'd have forced him into so many third and longs.
00:47:09 I'd have picked Pat. And where's all that?
00:47:13 You guys were telling me that earlier. Where is it now?
00:47:15 You know, we're just we're I know we're not very smart football players, but we're not smart to fall for that stuff.
00:47:20 Jed. That's right. That's right, Jed. Yeah. Come on now. I love it.
00:47:25 This is this has been a lot of fun. I don't know if you guys have any last any last things for Bo,
00:47:29 but but that's been it for me, man. We really appreciate your time here.
00:47:32 Yeah, I mean, I have one. I have one question for you.
00:47:35 I think what and I know the time was kind of brief,
00:47:39 but what would you say would be maybe something that you kind of took from Nick as far as going,
00:47:47 you know, career, you know, now you're an 80, maybe instilled some things or whatever.
00:47:52 What would just that one little piece that you maybe stole from it? Not stole, but like, right.
00:47:57 Well, I can tell you this when I went through, you know, and and coach Don was a great coach,
00:48:03 you know, coach was a linebacker coming through coaching TV. But, you know, when I got to Nick,
00:48:07 I mean, it was every little step and every little detail, you know, on right arm, left arm.
00:48:12 Like it was just little things pulling here and pulling there,
00:48:14 you know, just little tricks of the trade that I became more of a technician because I wasn't a big guy.
00:48:20 I played probably probably five years, five years out of my my tenure career at 175 in the NFL is the safety.
00:48:29 I lived in a weight room. I was a 400 pound bencher,
00:48:32 but I was the last one in there I had to because I couldn't gain weight.
00:48:35 I remember Al Johnson used to give me cases of suss the cow like to exceed,
00:48:39 you know, the senior drink rebound. No, I still couldn't gain weight.
00:48:43 But you know one thing I pass on to that to the coach saving is I'm a technician.
00:48:49 So I've been coaching in high school for over 20 years.
00:48:52 So I'm not a big scheme guy, sort of speak. We just hired a new coach.
00:48:57 Actually, we Jed, we just hired coach Curry's grandson is going to be a relation on that.
00:49:02 And he is he's he's young, but I'll tell you what he's got.
00:49:06 He's got a lot of characteristics of his of his grandfather.
00:49:09 He's got got a motivational like these kids these days. It's tough to coach these guys.
00:49:13 And one thing I bring is I'm I coach my TVs and even when I coach linebackers,
00:49:19 I'm a technician. I'm I'm reading your keys reading the office like don't look in a backfield,
00:49:24 you know do this you got to read your keys read it. They're going to take you everywhere.
00:49:27 So that's one thing from Nick. I just watching film and doing that little thing every little step
00:49:33 and every little detail like on especially on defense
00:49:36 because you don't know where you're going. So you so that you know,
00:49:38 everything takes you everything. So that was one thing from Nick is I'm a very,
00:49:42 very detailed technician guy. I can play in any scheme you want.
00:49:46 I cover to you want to you want to trail you want to do this you want to sink back on,
00:49:50 you know, if number two releases and whatever I can coach whatever you want because I'm a technician.
00:49:56 So I just read your keys. So that's that's how I become and that's how I've coached
00:50:00 and I've been, you know, fairly successful in my high school career over 20 years.
00:50:04 That's the beauty of that's the beauty of technique.
00:50:06 It's when those master it the way you did. I mean, it's it's universal.
00:50:10 You can kind of plug and play in any system and you know,
00:50:13 you bounced around to a handful of different teams when you left Houston.
00:50:15 I'm sure that served you well. I'm doing that. I'm going to close bow with two questions one.
00:50:20 I'm dying to know as precise and focused as coach Saban was with those techniques.
00:50:27 Can you think of a time? I'm sure you can think of several
00:50:31 but as one stand out where he just absolutely lit you up when you came off the field.
00:50:37 That's question one. Were you a half step off?
00:50:39 What was it? Was there a story? Hey, you're playing Joe Montana and the Chiefs
00:50:43 and you should have done this and you did that.
00:50:45 And as a result, the backside post was a try and think of a time
00:50:48 when that might have happened more so than normal because I'm sure he was full of times.
00:50:52 He lit you up. But the other thing I'd want you to answer also,
00:50:55 what was your initial reaction when you did hear the news that he's hanging it up at 72
00:51:00 when a lot of people thought he had a lot left in the tank,
00:51:02 but he gave some of his reasons today. But what was your initial reaction hearing the news?
00:51:07 And he obviously went out on top. He was in the final four.
00:51:10 So what about those two things? I mean, you know, first of all,
00:51:14 I really never had any run-ins like with him, like with that because like I said,
00:51:19 with all the guys there giving him a hard time, like I was kind of like his little protege.
00:51:23 So I did whatever he wanted. So he was never really that bad to me.
00:51:27 So he was very, you know, very nice to me. I hated you. I had a great relationship.
00:51:32 You know, on the other aspect of like of him retiring,
00:51:35 I mean, my God, a guy 72 years old, I think a little part.
00:51:39 I mean, he's the GOAT obviously of everything. He's won everywhere.
00:51:43 He went his he's became such a motivational speaker such a motivational guy.
00:51:49 I know that he works very hard. I've had some coaches that work for him and and you know,
00:51:55 I said the DB coach that was working. I won't mention any names and he was a friend of mine.
00:51:59 He coached me in the NFL. He worked for he was the DB coach for Alabama.
00:52:02 I said did did Nick help you out a lot at DB goes help me out.
00:52:07 He goes I was this little do boy. He coached at DB's. He said, you know what I mean?
00:52:11 So that's how that's how involved he was coaching.
00:52:14 You know what I mean? That's how that's how involved he was and and defense was his forte.
00:52:19 But but going out, I mean this NIL and this this the transfer portal was just I just think it ruined college football.
00:52:28 But the NCAA has no clue what they did. They should have put a cap on everything.
00:52:32 Hey, if you want to pay a guy four million dollars,
00:52:35 he has to graduate before he gets that cap and playing a bowl game and sign.
00:52:39 I mean, it's kind of a joke now of what you're doing.
00:52:42 I mean, you're going to see the teams like Texas with oil and gas money.
00:52:45 I mean, of course, they're going to get the players on there, you know, I mean,
00:52:48 I wouldn't be surprised if some Alabama's players get on the transfer portal,
00:52:52 you know, when Nick is going to coach there, you know, you got you got Georgia.
00:52:57 You got all his protégés out there, Georgia, all his coaches, you know, I won't be surprised.
00:53:02 Either that or better hurry up and name some some big name coach here.
00:53:06 But it's like it's like coming here for Coach Curry, though,
00:53:09 like for the first, you know, four or five coaches.
00:53:13 I mean, you know, the first thing I had to do when I became a D was was hire a coach
00:53:18 and I'm looking across at George Curry and none of them were even close, you know what I mean?
00:53:21 And and, you know, that's something next to, you know,
00:53:25 everybody's going to compare everything to Nick for the next couple of years.
00:53:28 You know, it's going to be hard to go in there and go on to defeat
00:53:31 and win a national championship your first year at Alabama,
00:53:34 you know, if you don't keep the players definitely an icon.
00:53:38 And like I said, he's grown so much like like like speaking motivational and everything.
00:53:44 I mean, he has, you know, nothing, nothing to prove.
00:53:47 The guy's made a boatload of money. I think he's going out on top.
00:53:52 Like you like you said, you want to go out on top.
00:53:54 You don't want to go out and be forced out, but you want to go out on top.
00:53:58 And you know, and I just think he's ready for he's got I think he has two daughters.
00:54:02 I'm sure he's got grandkids. And like I said, 70 years old to be,
00:54:07 you know, 72 to be in this college at NIL and all this things you have to put up with with the kids.
00:54:13 I just think he's in he's in there's a lot of old school coaches that have they're having a hard time.
00:54:18 Look at look at I can stay for a different sport.
00:54:21 I think that's why the Calipari retired from Villanova.
00:54:24 I didn't know Villanova can hold up paying everybody.
00:54:27 They're not as big school as some of them. And you know, quite frankly,
00:54:30 those guys are what their handout like who gets the most money.
00:54:33 And I think that just I think it just ruined college football.
00:54:35 We'll tell you the truth. And then part of a vote a guy like Nick only has one speed and at 72,
00:54:41 it gets more difficult to sustain that and put in the grind that he knows no other way.
00:54:47 So it's not like he can idle down and delegate.
00:54:49 I mean, he only know is you think that's part of it?
00:54:52 I think so. I think it's a little bit of the portal a little bit NIL.
00:54:56 And I just think that he knows what and you can't coach those guys like you coach like me.
00:55:01 And only like you can't do that. And you know what I mean? And I know it's prevalent in high school.
00:55:06 I mean, hell, our numbers numbers are dropping. I mean,
00:55:09 you got to coach Joey different than Billy and different than this.
00:55:12 He comes from a different background. And back in the day, you know,
00:55:15 if you didn't play there, you hit the highway. It was it was their way.
00:55:18 Or, you know, now it's now it's a little bit different.
00:55:20 I think, you know, Nick has the respect for that.
00:55:24 But I think all that comes into play. I think the guys are different.
00:55:28 You know, what do you what are you going to tell a college guy?
00:55:31 I mean, when we got $20 in college, God, my God, that was a lot of hamburgers,
00:55:35 a lot of 70 cent hamburgers, you know, I mean, we were, you know, we were poor,
00:55:38 you know, going to school there and get no money.
00:55:41 Woody, what do you tell a guy making a couple hundred thousand,
00:55:44 you know what I mean, or a million dollars in there?
00:55:46 You coach him and tell him, you know, screw yourself, Nick.
00:55:49 Like, what are you going to do? What are you going to do?
00:55:52 You know, the pros is a little bit different story.
00:55:54 But college, I just I don't know. I have a you know,
00:55:57 I guess we're old school, Jed, you know what I mean?
00:55:59 And we're used to the hey, you know, it ruined the rivalries in college.
00:56:03 I mean, there is no rivalry. It's who's paying the most money.
00:56:06 It's who's going to be the best teams. It's not the recruiting.
00:56:08 So guys, we were joined by one of the all time greats
00:56:12 who played for one of the all time greats, played for several all time greats.
00:56:16 And we certainly appreciate you didn't mention Bill Cowher there.
00:56:19 And you're listening. I got the chance.
00:56:22 I did get the chance yet. You know, I got to come and get you.
00:56:25 We're we I was on a punt team. I came down and I don't know,
00:56:29 a punt return and a ball was bouncing around.
00:56:31 And some guys were trying to shove me on a pile.
00:56:34 And I know what they almost got me like, you know, for a fumble.
00:56:37 And I came off and he gave me he gave me the chin going out like that.
00:56:39 I just I stuck my head down and I just walked right past him right back to the side.
00:56:43 But he had the chin on me. But he was I Bill was a real good guy.
00:56:47 He was I was a 10 year veteran at the time when I got there.
00:56:49 And he was Bill. That's awesome. That's awesome.
00:56:53 This was awesome. But we know you're busy and you got a million things going on.
00:56:57 Thank you so much for taking the time. This was a lot of fun.
00:56:59 We really appreciate it.
00:57:00 Absolutely. West. Good seeing your brother. You as well.
00:57:04 Any any time, guys. Always. Thanks, man. Appreciate it.
00:57:08 Decade in the NFL WVU Hall of Famer Bo Orlando.
00:57:14 Great stuff with him as always. Thank you, Bo. We appreciate it.
00:57:18 That'll do it, folks. For this edition of ITG final thank yous to our friends at Fortis
00:57:23 for roof performance and financial certainty guaranteed.
00:57:26 Make sure you visit Fortis dot us.com. Also to Johnson equipment as well.
00:57:30 To our new friends of the show. Make sure you're checking out their new location in Weston.
00:57:35 Right off of Route 33. That was a lot of fun. Good job.
00:57:37 Hey, Jed, good job producing the show today and getting good.
00:57:41 Good producing with the book into the guest here. Well done.
00:57:43 Well, here's how stupid I am. It took the brain trust that serious.
00:57:47 XM calling asking for a WVU for you to make a connection.
00:57:51 When I'm like, wait a minute. Why don't I bow on? Well, I was like, are you kidding me?
00:57:54 And it took him mentioning Ron Wolfley for me to be like, oh, yeah,
00:57:57 me and Bo do have a connection. Bring up the Wolf Brothers here.
00:58:00 That'll get some good. Perfect. Bo is terrific.
00:58:03 He's those Berwick guys, you know, they're my boys.
00:58:07 I mean from Chaz to yeah, Bo's a great guy.
00:58:11 Jake's a great guy. Rob sock and I go way back.
00:58:15 So just what a fun crew and what a fun cycle of talent.
00:58:20 There was such an infusion of talent from Berwick. All those guys played the legendary George Curry.
00:58:24 You talk about you heard Bo what reverence they hold coach curry and for good reason.
00:58:30 But yeah, can you imagine the experience of playing for one of the iconic high school coaches in the history of the country?
00:58:37 Who was multiple, you know, two time, three time where it was national champion playing for coach Nealon playing for Bill Cowher, playing for Nick Saban, playing for Buddy Ryan.
00:58:46 It's just crazy. His frames of reference.
00:58:49 But yeah, and I want maybe you can relate to it in the way that we even can't.
00:58:54 But because of your experience in the NFL. But that was I thought that was terrific.
00:58:57 You had good stuff. Yeah. No, that was a lot of fun.
00:59:00 Man, Bo's a great guy, man. I met him while doing through the Josuak stuff.
00:59:07 Yeah. And it's just been really cool in general,
00:59:12 meaning all those, you know, teams from the past.
00:59:17 And obviously I'm well on my way to over a decade plus out.
00:59:21 So I'm one of those as well. Now, one of those older and elder.
00:59:25 You're an elder statesman yourself, buddy. Yes, I'm one of those old relics now.
00:59:29 So it's been awesome. And Bo's such a great guy. Actually, Bo, he can he can play the skins.
00:59:37 He can play. He can play the drums pretty well. And usually during that, that Josuak deal in the summertime,
00:59:46 we usually jam one song together at the.
00:59:50 Jed, we got to get we got to get tickets. We got to get tickets to the Orlando Schmidt jam session.
00:59:56 I tell you what, we have to. I want some a big. Oh, I want some floor seats.
01:00:01 All right. Don't screw me here. All right. No, it's always a good time, man.
01:00:05 And those guys are such I mean, you know, what was really great.
01:00:10 Just kind of listening to some of his story, too, was undersized player.
01:00:17 Gets noticed through basically a crack shot deal that, you know,
01:00:22 some guys come and watch somebody else and he ends up, you know, getting on the radar.
01:00:28 And then, you know, the technician guys, those are the guys you see, you know.
01:00:38 Just, you know, make break the odds always. It's like, you know,
01:00:42 you got a guy here playing, you know, safety at 170 pounds soaking wet,
01:00:48 doing everything he can to eat PB and Jays, keep the weight on.
01:00:52 And, you know, through technique and discipline, which is, you know,
01:00:57 really the background of Coach Saban, you know, has an illustrious 10 year plus career in the NFL.
01:01:05 Yeah, they forced me to be perfect, don't they? Yeah.
01:01:09 And I mean, if in like I love what he was saying, it's like, you know,
01:01:14 it's it's unfortunate that in today's world.
01:01:18 Kids are, you know, let me let me just even like go farther on beyond that.
01:01:24 Kobe Bryant said, I love the process of practice because I knew no matter how hard I put in work,
01:01:32 I would never be perfect. Perfect was unattainable. Right.
01:01:35 But it was always fun to kind of strive for that perfection.
01:01:39 And it's like kids just don't really understand that there's a there's a death discipline
01:01:43 and a technique to creating great habits and which, you know,
01:01:48 like he said, went from not just football, but turned us into men and and beyond.
01:01:54 So really cool stuff, man. Jed knocked it out of the park today.
01:02:00 Hey, last of last of a dying breed, our new friend of the show, Bo Orlando.
01:02:05 Like I said, decade in the NFL WVU Hall of Famer,
01:02:08 All-American part of that team that played Notre Dame in the National Championship game with Major and all the boys.
01:02:15 So great. Great to have him on the show here. We enjoyed it.
01:02:18 Hope you guys enjoyed it. That'll do it for this edition of ITG.
01:02:21 We'll be back next week. It'll be, you know, schedule will be a little different.
01:02:24 We won't have the typical rollout like we always do,
01:02:26 but we'll still be with you every week here, keeping you updated, recruiting,
01:02:31 portal stuff into the offseason. We'll get into spring ball in a couple months.
01:02:35 It's all going on. Oh, one more portal thing that we didn't mention at the start.
01:02:38 Jed, Nico Markeel committing to the Country Roads Trust, which is obviously a big one.
01:02:44 You got your guy in Garrett Green. You got your future in Nico,
01:02:46 and that is very hard to secure in this day and age of NIL and everybody jumping ship.
01:02:51 So loved seeing that news earlier that Nico is signed and committed.
01:02:56 Wanted to make sure we mentioned that as well, too. For our producer Skylar Callahan,
01:03:01 for our new friend Bo Orlando, the signal caller Jed Drenning,
01:03:05 and the runaway beer truck down the sideline, Owen Schmidt.
01:03:08 I am Wesley Uhler. The one thing we ask of you as always before we get out of here is to be an ear and tell an ear.
01:03:14 About your new favorite WVU football podcast for the boys.
01:03:18 I'm Wes. Take care now. Bye bye then. You've been in the gun.
01:03:24 (door slams)
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