← Josh Pate's College Football Show
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- [00:00]
Podcast Host
This is an iHeart podcast.
- [00:02]
Kurt Sweeney (Head Coach)
Guaranteed Human Amazon Health AI presents painful
- [00:08]
Podcast Host
thoughts why did I search the Internet for answers to my cold sore problem? Now I'm stuck down a rabbit hole filled with images of alarmingly graphic sores in various stages of ooze. I can clear my search history, but I can never unsee that.
- [00:27]
Kurt Sweeney (Head Coach)
Don't go down the rabbit hole. Amazon Health AI gets you the right care fast. Healthcare just got less painful.
- [00:35]
Sponsor Announcer
Support for the show comes from Public, the investing platform for those who take it seriously. On Public, you can build a multi asset portfolio of stocks, bonds, options, crypto and now generated assets which allow you to turn any idea into an investable index. With AI, it all starts with your prompt. From renewable energy companies with high free cash flow to semiconductor suppliers growing revenue over 20% year over year, you can literally type any prom and put the AI to work. It screens thousands of stocks, builds a one of a kind index and lets you back test it against the S&P 500. Then you can invest in a few clicks. Generated assets are like ETFs with infinite possibilities, completely customizable and based on your thesis, not someone else's. Go to public.com podcast and earn an uncapped 1% bonus when you transfer your portfolio. That's public.com podcast paid for by Public Investing Brokerage Services by Open to the Public Investing Inc. Member FINRA and SIPC Advisory Services by Public Advisors, llc. SEC Registered Advisor. Generated Assets is an interactive analysis tool. Output is for informational purposes only and is not an investment recommendation or advice. Complete disclosures available at public.com disclosures this
- [01:36]
Jacob Goldstein
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- [02:08]
Interviewer
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- [02:38]
Kurt Sweeney (Head Coach)
Want to drive?
- [02:39]
Interviewer
Carmax, You and I are sitting here, you're fresh off a White House visit. Like, that's how you change the way they think. Just show them a snapshot of you at the White House, and they can't help but think a certain way. But you've been there with Bama before, a long time ago. You went there yesterday as a head coach, and you got to take players there who, once upon a time, people never thought they'd seen that image. What was that experience like?
- [03:14]
Kurt Sweeney (Head Coach)
No, I think it was a great thing for the program, the state and our alums. And we had a good time and President Trump was fun. We had fun up at the podium. And I think all the Hoosiers will remember that day as the first time at the White House.
- [03:30]
Interviewer
Yeah, you know, people ask you about Alabama all the time, your experience there, and I want to ask you about something, but my mind's not going where most people go. We can get there. When we get there, you got to be part of, to me, two of the greatest settings I've ever seen. That 0809 SEC Championship setting.
- [03:50]
Kurt Sweeney (Head Coach)
Absolutely.
- [03:51]
Interviewer
I got to be there just as a spectator. And I mean, all the years since then, been in many, many insane environments. I don't ever remember anything as charged as that. What was that like to be a part of.
- [04:01]
Kurt Sweeney (Head Coach)
Yeah, you're exactly right. Playing in the national championship, the next game, the second time, the second year. I'm not going to say it was a letdown, but it wasn't like the SEC game. It was one verse, two. Two years in a row in the dome. Florida, Alabama, two great teams. It was unbelievable. It was incredible. And words can't really describe it. A lot of great players, great teams, great coaches.
- [04:28]
Interviewer
And then you fast forward all those. I'm not skipping over chunks of career like, we'll get to that, but to momentarily fast forward all the way to you're the head coach at Indiana and you guys were in the playoff last year and you're in several big games last year, and then the spotlight's on you and you still improve, and then you're in bigger games, you're in the biggest game the sport has to offer, but you're the head man at that point. How does the perspective change all those years later?
- [04:53]
Kurt Sweeney (Head Coach)
You know, they didn't feel big to us because we felt like we belonged and had been there and were ready for the moment. And it was just another big game, another game. And I Think that's why this team was successful because of the way they prepared. You know, it was an older group, had played a lot of football, a lot of smart guys, good players, smart guy, strong character, close knit team and good on offense, defense and teams and didn't do things to beat themselves. And so we really prepared Monday, like Monday and when we took the field, it's like we had been there before in the Big Ten championship game against Ohio State and the Rose bowl, etc. And just really proud of the way the staff, the team, everybody handled, you know, those four or five games.
- [05:40]
Interviewer
Did you ever find at any point over those two years so far you having to sort of jerk a knot a little bit and people who were trying to change a little bit in terms of preparation treat this week is bigger than last week. Just the human nature of, oh, we got a big game this week. Do you have to dial that in a little bit?
- [05:58]
Kurt Sweeney (Head Coach)
Not really. You know, I've been doing it too long now and I get that question a lot. When we have a big game, you know, my Monday, what are you going to do different? Well, if there was something different, would have been doing it all along. You know, we believe in our blueprint, our plan and our process and what you have to do to be ready to play on Saturday and the things that we preach that are important to us and just got stacked meetings and days and that's what last year's team did. They were. Their consistency day in, day out was unlike any other team I'd had in the past.
- [06:30]
Interviewer
You never have seemed surprised a bit about what you've been able to do and with good reason because like I could go back to your first days here, you. I'm not even talking about the Google me stuff, just everything that came out of your mouth, it was aligned with a process, it was aligned with a plan. Now, some people talk and don't follow through, but you followed through on everything. And I would imagine in that plan was not just the next two years, it was an infinite amount of time, which means coming off a championship, well, that's all part of the plan too. How to handle success. That's all part of the plan too. And you got a bunch of people, you've got your coordinators still here, you got a bunch of people in this building who are still here. I guess relatively speaking, like how big a challenge has it been to fight the whole complacency bug that a lot of people look at?
- [07:17]
Kurt Sweeney (Head Coach)
It's a little different than coming off a big win and Getting ready for a game a week later. People on the outside are still enjoying it, and they should. Administration's still enjoying it, and they should. Our donors, people in the building. I think we reset pretty quickly and did a nice job. And I think the transfers assimilated and bought into the culture. You know, spring ball was good. It's a little disjointed. When you play 16 games, you're going to have some post season surgeries. And we had some new guys showed up and needed some work done. So we didn't have all our guys out there. We probably had 11 or 12 key guys not participate this spring. So there's a lot of work to do in the fall. But, you know, the margin for error in this game is very thin, as you know. And so we have a lot of work to do, but we've got a lot of good pieces.
- [08:05]
Interviewer
I think we were in Lubbock, Texas. I was in an airport somewhere last year when you guys are playing Penn State. And I don't know that 10 years from now when people tell the story of the Indiana national championship season, the Penn State game will be the first thing that comes to mind.
- [08:19]
Kurt Sweeney (Head Coach)
Right?
- [08:20]
Interviewer
It's the first thing that comes to my mind. More so than the playoff games, more so than the national title game. Only because there had been comfortable wins to that point. Yeah, and your back's against the wall. You're not supposed to win that game. Just history says you're not supposed to win that game. And that in that spot and pulling that out of the fire. I. I had like goosebumps on my arm watching it just sitting there in an airport somewhere. Because I'm like, how in the world did that just happen?
- [08:43]
Kurt Sweeney (Head Coach)
Yeah.
- [08:44]
Interviewer
Which one sticks with you the most from last year? Which moments maybe stick with you the most?
- [08:48]
Kurt Sweeney (Head Coach)
No, I agree. That one there was. Had never seen anything quite like that before. You know, it was a game that they were playing with a lot more energy. They had made a change. Their first home game and they'd played real hard two weeks before on the road. I knew it was going to be a tough game. Now we did have an opportunity to kind of distance ourselves in the third quarter and didn't get it done. And then they took over and some of it was our doing. And so there we are, faced with the final drive by a minute for you to go. No timeouts on the minus 25 and take a sack on first and 10 running clock. Holy cow. Second to 17. And we have done nothing. Three straight offensive series except get the Quarterback hit, turn the ball over, line up wrong, etc. Then all of a sudden it was like those 11 guys now huddle. They just morphed into something else. And Fernando makes a great throw to Cooper in the seam, follows it up with a sideline route to E.J. you know, we miss one to the field, but the clock stops. Then we hit Riley Nowakowski in the seam again. Becker makes a back shoulder catch. And all of a sudden we're inside the 10 yard line with not much time left and two house blitzes. And the quarterback gets hit and linebacker trips one time and may have had a chance to intercept the pass on the second play. Go to Max pro. They can still have one more and wing block, but we're going to have a little more time, get rid of it. And Cooper makes just an unbelievable catch. And yeah, when I was walking across that field at the end to shake Terry Smith's hand, you know, it kind of hit me like, wow, this might be a team of destiny here. Because I'm not one really to think too far down the road. Even when I take a job, it's more like what needs done today. I mean, we believe in our blueprint, our plan, our process. Got a lot of people been together a long time, which really helps. But at that moment I was thinking, hmm, you know, who knows here? But there were a lot of big wars to fight after that.
- [10:45]
Interviewer
Well, you had some games coming up. You ended up having Ohio State. You end up having playoff games culminating in a national championship game. That national championship game comes right down to the wire. I don't know how to quantify this. I don't know how to put a number on it. But how much could you tell that Penn State game was baked into the performance level in tight situations, in games that were down the road.
- [11:05]
Kurt Sweeney (Head Coach)
Yeah, well, you know, we had beaten Iowa on the road in Oregon previous to that. At the end when the game was on the line and Fernando had made the plays and the defense stepped up. And so that gave us confidence. The Penn State game, the way we won that game just I think increased the amount of confidence, belief that no matter what happens, we're going to find a way. And I do think it definitely gave everybody a shot in the arm in terms of, you know, look, we prepare the right way, we go out and play like we can play. You know, we can get this done.
- [11:41]
Interviewer
If you look back on different stops you've made as a coach, you go all the way back, mid-80s each chapter, if you look at your career that way, each chapter or each stop, you may like go all the way back to like Rice. If I pick out what are, what are the things or the lessons or the takeaways that you attribute specifically, number one, you got to coach in the Southwest Conference, which I romanticize all the time because I didn't get to live through that era. I had to see the documentaries. What was that like? Like what did you learn all the way going back to that stop?
- [12:10]
Kurt Sweeney (Head Coach)
I even go back further. Like when I was a graduate assistant at Pitt in 83 and 84 for Foge Fazio. We went to the Fiesta bowl our first year and had a good year. And the second year we're ranked number three in the country preseason, but probably didn't do as good a job, you know, developing that team. And they weren't united. And we won three games. And you learned a lot that year for sure. Then you go to Rice, Southwest Conference, man, played SMU before the death penalty. And the best year we had down there was our first year. We won four games. But every week you're lining up, you know, Texas, Arkansas was really good back then. I mean, they were all good. Houston was scoring a lot of points and it was just a tough job. And Temple was a tough job and Pitt under Johnny Majors was a tough job because you had no facilities, no players, no money, and you were just persevering really. And you know, you're fighting through a lot of adversity as a young coach because you know, everybody's got goals, right? And but you're, you're really not going anywhere because I mean, people want to hire people from winning programs. You're just hanging on. And then when Coach Majors got let go in 96 or five, you know, I was fortunate to get retained by Walt Harris. I was the only guy retained. He was a great quarterback coach and I learned really a lot about coaching the quarterbacks from him and then got the opportunity to go to NC State with Chuck Amato. Now that's 2000. That was the first million dollar staff in college football history where all nine assistants salaries equal a million dollars. See how far we've come? And we walked into Philip Rivers who was recruited by Mike o' Kane as a mid, mid year graduation, right? And so we're in the indoor program and Norm Chows the offensive coordinator and puts a ball in Philip's hand at the end of one of the workouts. You know, of course he wasn't watching cause you weren't allowed to. And he sees that throwing motion. He's like, oh my. Because we needed Philip Rivers to be the quarterback. Cause we didn't have any other. We had no other answers. And I, oh, we're done. Like, no. But we went out there that first spring, that first spring practice. Philip Rivers, man, he was bing, bing, bing, bing, bing. Completing the ball over the field. He was a great player, great competitor.
- [14:30]
Interviewer
I gotta, I mean, I got a time in my life I'm making no money, I'm working local news. I mean, just relatively speaking, professional totem pole, it's pretty low. But I've never had more fun than when I was there because of the people who were there.
- [14:44]
Kurt Sweeney (Head Coach)
Right?
- [14:45]
Interviewer
When you, when you go back, start from this point, go all the way back, like, what are the places, regardless of salary, regardless of stature that you look at and say, man, that mixture we had right there, I love that group of folks. That was a fun group of folks to be around.
- [15:00]
Kurt Sweeney (Head Coach)
I think it's probably from Elon on. When I went to iup, it was actually unionized. So there were three guys on the staff. They were great guys. They coached for my dad. I'd known him a long time, but, you know, everybody in the building was unionized. It was D2. You didn't have any money. But we had a lot of fun there too. You know, you didn't recruit in May, you went golfing about three plays. You could play golf for free. So I had a lot of fun and my family was there, My wife's family was there. She's number nine of 10. But I think, you know, we went to Elon very similar to Indiana, really had a bad history, worse than Indiana's. And we come out of the gate, win eight in a row after the opener against Toledo. And like that was my staff that I had put together. They were my guys and brought a core nucleus of those guys at jmu and we stayed together. We'd lose one here and there. And then a lot of those guys came with me here to Indiana and I think a big part of our success has been able to keep key people in place at the assistant level coordinators and you know, special teams coordinators. Great position coaches that aren't everyday names but one day will be.
- [16:15]
Sponsor Announcer
Support for the show comes from public, the investing platform for those who take it seriously. On public, you can build a multi asset portfolio of stocks, bonds, options, crypto and now generated assets which allow you to turn any idea into an investable index. With AI, it all starts with your prompt. From renewable energy companies with high free cash flow to semiconductor suppliers growing revenue over 20% year over year. You can literally type any prompt and put the AI to work. It screens thousands of stocks, builds a one of a kind index, and lets you back test it against the S&P 500. Then you can invest in a few clicks. Generated assets are like ETFs with infinite possibilities, completely customizable and based on your thesis, not someone else's. Go to public.com podcast and earn an uncapped 1% bonus when you transfer your portfolio. That's public.com podcast paid for by Public Investing Brokerage Services by Open to the Public Investing Inc. Member FINRA and SIPC Advisory Services by Public Advisors, llc. SEC Registered Advisor Generated Assets is an interactive analysis tool. Output is for informational purposes only and is not an investment recommendation or advice. Complete disclosures available at public.com disclosures this
- [17:16]
Jacob Goldstein
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- [18:00]
Kurt Sweeney (Head Coach)
Amazon Health AI presents Painful Thoughts why
- [18:05]
Podcast Host
did I search the Internet for answers to my cold sore problem? Now I'm stuck down a rabbit hole filled with images of alarmingly graphic source in various stages of ooze. I can clear my search history, but I can never unsee that.
- [18:22]
Kurt Sweeney (Head Coach)
Don't go down the rabbit hole. Amazon Health AI gets you the right care fast. Healthcare just got less painful.
- [18:30]
Podcast Host
Wasn't that delicious? So good.
- [18:32]
Kurt Sweeney (Head Coach)
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- [18:33]
Podcast Host
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- [18:38]
Sponsor Announcer
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- [18:39]
Podcast Host
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- [18:41]
Kurt Sweeney (Head Coach)
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- [18:43]
Jacob Goldstein
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- [18:48]
Podcast Host
Okay. Rock, paper, scissors for it.
- [18:50]
Kurt Sweeney (Head Coach)
Rock, paper, scissors.
- [18:51]
Podcast Host
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- [18:51]
Kurt Sweeney (Head Coach)
No.
- [18:53]
Interviewer
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- [18:55]
Kurt Sweeney (Head Coach)
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- [19:02]
Interviewer
I remember we were at the Broyles Award out in Arkansas. Bryant's over there. He's going to end up winning the award. And I remember talking to him. I said, what is Your, you know, what's your, what's your life like? What's your existence like there? And he said, I've, I've got total free re as much free reign as a defensive coordinator can have to operate my side of the ball. I've got y. And I know you've seen many different head coaches do it in many different ways. Some are real hands on, some are more CEO types. How did you become the kind of head coach you are in terms of how much you let your guys handle their business?
- [19:36]
Kurt Sweeney (Head Coach)
I think that's age and trust. You know, I'd be involved a little bit defensively, maybe calm in for 15 minutes, you know, with some practice clips or opponent clips. And how are we going to handle this or why you're doing that? And I think after Bryant's first year as a coordinator, he succeeded Corey Heatherman. Yeah, who did a great job for me. I have a lot of respect for Corey and Brian did a tremendous job. I think it was the first year we transitioned up to Sunbelt from SCS and we actually won the east but couldn't play for the championship because of the NCAA two year rule. And I think after that I just completely let him alone and have ever since and don't say a whole lot, I mean, I'll come in Sunday morning, 7 o' clock and I'll watch the defense and I'll tag about 15 plays or so, put them in a foul and then I'll wait for his critique and those plays will show up on his critique and well, I'll match him up and not even go in there and meet with those guys because I have 100% confidence. Not only Bryant, but the entire defense is staff.
- [20:41]
Interviewer
You guys win the national championship, you keep both coordinators, straighten the conditioning. There's some churn there though. And Derek and I don't know how many he took with him, but Derek and I assume some guys went to Tennessee couple and you look to UConn for the backfield.
- [20:54]
Kurt Sweeney (Head Coach)
Yeah.
- [20:54]
Interviewer
Why was that the right move?
- [20:56]
Kurt Sweeney (Head Coach)
A guy I knew after my first year at Elon, right, my strength and conditioning guy had come from West Point, did a great job. Brian Phillips was engaged. Wife up in Massachusetts, wanted him to come back home. So I had to find a guy. And I think Brian Bryant Haynes may have actually recommended Tyson. He was number two guy at Washington State. I hired him. So he ventured across the country. He was on job three weeks, family puts their stuff in a U haul and wife traveling with two or three kids across the country. They're about 20 minutes out and Mike Leach calls Tyson, says, hey, my number one guy, I can't remember his name, just went to the Bears, why don't you come back? And he did. So when this thing opened with Derek, you know, I did a little research on, he expressed an interest and he came very highly recommended and felt like I knew him, Bryant knew him and we reunited after his three week stint.
- [21:53]
Interviewer
I remember, you know, sometimes you'll listen. I remember Nick Saban talked like this for a long time when they had transitioned at offensive coordinator and he would say, well, we're bringing in a coordinator to run the Alabama offense. I'm not bringing in a guy to teach the whole Building a new system.
- [22:08]
Kurt Sweeney (Head Coach)
Right.
- [22:09]
Interviewer
When it comes to strength and conditioning, how does that work? How much of it is this is the Indiana strength, nutrition, etc. Blueprint versus I'm going to go get a guy to bring his way of doing things in. Or is it just a blend of the two?
- [22:21]
Kurt Sweeney (Head Coach)
Yeah. And I don't know a lot about it. You know, strength, it's a science. And I let Derek run the show because he did a great job. And with Tyson, I just said, look, keep him healthy, don't get him hurt training. Get him a strong, fast, flexible, great nutrition, rest and recovery. I value rest and recovery. I'm a short practice guy. I said, don't get him hurt training and you know, put an emphasis on technique in the weight room and go run with it. Now every once in a while he'd bring me up body weights or body fat. It wouldn't be quite laid out like I'm used to seeing it. So I'd say, look this, can you lay it out like this? You know, when you get my age, you get kind of rigid. You like seeing it a certain way and make sure the print's big enough so I can read it. Sure, sure. But it's his baby and I have confidence in him. He's done a great job.
- [23:13]
Interviewer
You talked a lot. I don't know that people took notice of you talking about the way you practice until last year. And then all of a sudden everybody started globbing on to man, did you, did you hear how long he says they practice? So there are two ways to me to look at practice. Number one is the total length of time.
- [23:29]
Kurt Sweeney (Head Coach)
Yeah.
- [23:29]
Interviewer
And then there is the amount of work being done, the amount of reps being put in. If I were to take your hour, 20 hour, 30 minute practice session and put it up against another's two hour session.
- [23:40]
Kurt Sweeney (Head Coach)
Right.
- [23:40]
Interviewer
Relatively speaking, like how Many reps, How much work total am I seeing you get in versus hypothetically, what someone else is getting?
- [23:47]
Kurt Sweeney (Head Coach)
Well, you know, in spring ball, fall camp, our average practice is probably an hour 45 to an hour 50. And we're probably getting 85% to 90% of the work we got into Alabama, you know, we hit the field, it's all business and we're going now. Once we get in season, I really start to back off. Like Monday's about 25 minute walkthrough, Friday is a 25 minute true walkthrough, whereas Monday might be 60% speed. And Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday average is about an hour 37. And it's hell. Helmets, shoulder pads. We don't go full pads in season practice. The only good on good we do anymore is we'll go about eight plays of seven on seven on Tuesdays because we got to get those back shoulder balls in, you know, yes, press so but that's about it. We get on, we get off.
- [24:35]
Interviewer
I think anybody watching this who didn't play, they don't attend practices regularly, but they watch you. Last year there was no letdown in the level of physicality, toughness, all the things that the old school mind would think you have to constantly be going good on good full pads to, to accomplish.
- [24:55]
Kurt Sweeney (Head Coach)
Right.
- [24:56]
Interviewer
You're telling me you didn't do so how do you maintain that level of physicality, that level of toughness without constantly doing it during the week?
- [25:05]
Kurt Sweeney (Head Coach)
Yeah, how much do you need to bang and you know, how much do you need to practice banging them? And we don't even tackle but one time, and that's in the spring game. We play a half and we tackle, we won't tackle and fall camp. And it's been that way for five, six years. The last five, six years you create the mindset, the identity of your football team and how you want them to play. Fast, physical, relentless, smart, discipline, poised, never satisfied until you go to the locker room at the end of the game. Every play has got a life and history of its own. Nothing, nothing. Game on the line. Getting to play that where it's a process. So they're not kind of result oriented where they're looking at the scoreboard at the end of the game so you can play your best ball when the game's on the line. But also that creates the standard. And it's all about standards and expectations and accountability and process every single day. How you do something's how you do everything. First you form your habits and your habits form you. But that's how you get them playing like that in the fourth quarter with your twos. Cause you're never satisfied until you go in that locker room. You're playing to a standard, not scoreboard. Like when we're up 56 to 10, that's probably when I'm at my worst on the sideline. Like I'm looking or I'm looking for somebody smiling, relaxing, and you know, we can do that locker room at the end of the day, but for 60 minutes we're going to play to a standard.
- [26:19]
Interviewer
I didn't always think that way. Process oriented thinking made no sense to me for the first half of my life.
- [26:25]
Kurt Sweeney (Head Coach)
Right.
- [26:25]
Interviewer
And I remember I've told this story on the show many times. Saban gets hired at Alabama in 07.
- [26:30]
Kurt Sweeney (Head Coach)
Yep.
- [26:30]
Interviewer
He's doing his speaking circuit going all over the southeast. He comes to Columbus $45 a ticket. I got to borrow 45 so I can go listen to him speak. But he spok about what you're talking about. And I'd probably heard it a million times before and it went in one ear and out the other. But because a big time college football head coach is talking like this about defining goals, but setting them off to the side and then focusing on the process it takes to achieve the goals, it just clicked. But it's a big life changing moment for me.
- [26:56]
Kurt Sweeney (Head Coach)
Right.
- [26:56]
Interviewer
But that was age. I don't know. I'm in my early to mid-20s when that happens. Did you always have that perspective or was there a light bulb moment for you?
- [27:04]
Kurt Sweeney (Head Coach)
No, I think going with coach and I went with him in 07, part of his original staff. I just learned so much. And like you said, he had a philosophy. He had been a head coach 13 or 14 years by then. Right. Trial and error. And he could lay it out there where it just made so much sense. And he had an organized, detailed plan for everything. And really after one year with coach, I felt like I had learned more about how to run a program than maybe the previous 28 as an assistant. And I'd come from a coach and family. Dad's, you know, hall of fame coach. But my, my experience with Coach Saban was invaluable and in the sense of urgent. Every day was fourth and one with Coach Saban. And. But that's the way it had to be, kind of to fight complacency and find the edge on a daily basis and be as good as you could be. And I, I just learned so much.
- [28:00]
Interviewer
But see, after that first year, the first year was, was very much an install culture type year down there. But after that, it's not that that program was immune to losing games. They'd lose one every now and then, but there was never a dip. There was never a losing one. You're not supposed to the inexplicable result. And to me it was always. Because when you're up 50 to 10, you're operating to the same standard. You're holding people just as accountable and expecting them to be as dialed in as when it's fourth and goal tied at 27.
- [28:28]
Kurt Sweeney (Head Coach)
No question.
- [28:28]
Interviewer
Because that's when that stuff shows up.
- [28:29]
Kurt Sweeney (Head Coach)
No doubt. And now I understand all those end of the game ass rippings I used to get on the sideline and why. And it makes so much sense now, but you're exactly right. And so that team played to a standard. And you know, now we won 29 in a row, regular season games at one point. And I can remember being on the sideline, we had Florida at home. We're up like 316 in the third quarter, but it just didn't feel the same. And the next weeks when we went to South Carolina and got beat by Esperia Garcia and those guys, Lattimore and you know, and so even when like you're at the top of your game, it's so hard to beat complacency down, you know, on a daily or long term basis. And we stumbled, but, you know, and then they. You learn from defeat, you learn from setback, you come back stronger and win six more national championships.
- [29:26]
Interviewer
I remember listening to him in that specific time period post 09, and he said, you ran recruiting down there, so you would have experienced this. He said, for a long time. Well, actually for, for a short period of time when we first got here, we were recruiting guys with a what can I do for Alabama mentality when they came in the door right then we won a title and we're getting cream of the crop. We got our pick. But there's a, there's a little bit of what can Alabama do for me coming in the door all of a sudden.
- [29:52]
Kurt Sweeney (Head Coach)
Yeah.
- [29:53]
Interviewer
And it's just, it bleeds into what you're talking about.
- [29:55]
Kurt Sweeney (Head Coach)
Still winning.
- [29:56]
Interviewer
But there's just something different here.
- [29:58]
Kurt Sweeney (Head Coach)
Yeah.
- [29:58]
Interviewer
How do you guard against that?
- [30:00]
Kurt Sweeney (Head Coach)
Yeah. And by then I was gone. You know, I was waxing staff tables at the D2 level. And I guess we'll find out this year because, you know, our first two years. Yeah, it's a fact. A lot of the JMU guys came with me and it was such a quick Process. I never even thought, like it was a three day process. I never thought some of these guys might want to come till I listen to their interviews afterwards. They knew the minute I told the team I was leaving, I'm going. But we knew them, they knew us, they knew the standard and they helped the ones who stayed my first year, they helped bring them along, right? A lot of new faces. Now it's college football, right? The portal. So we have 17 new Portal guys and we have 23 new high school guys. That's 40 new guys, that's a lot of new guys. And so you hope to get them to assimilate into the culture, but I don't think you really know till the season. You know how you handle success, how you handle setbacks, winners, moments of adversity, how you respond. And then at the end of the year, you know, you can write the book on that team. Boy, they really had the right stuff. They had all the intangibles. So it helps to keep a good bit of your staff in place, there's no doubt about that. Because at the end of the day what it's all about is getting everybody think alike and get that kind of buy in in season. That's when those intangibles have got to be formed. And having people to understand kind of the blueprint and the plan really helps.
- [31:23]
Interviewer
You know what's awesome? And you probably will never see 99.9% of it, but when, when you have a die hard fan of a team or an alum maybe at Indiana, and then all of a sudden football team starts having a ton of success, right? And there's this guy leading the football team and he's talking about changing the way people think and he's talking about process oriented thinking and he's talking about, you're talking about playing each play, but it could just as easily be handled each assignment in and of itself as if it has a history and a life of its own, you don't see it. But like, does it ever occur to you there's someone who's 32 years old who is just working a job out there that we would consider a normal job, whose perspective on his own life or her own life is changing merely because of observing how Indiana football just altered itself and it changed what a lot of people think, but it also changes the way some people live inside that sphere? Does that stuff ever even occur to you?
- [32:18]
Kurt Sweeney (Head Coach)
You know, I think that's a good point and it probably does happen. And I think the things that we ask our football team to do on a daily basis are the things you gotta have to be successful in life. You have to be process driven, you have to be competitive. You have to be striving to find the edge on a daily basis. And you gotta have consistency and performance and strong habits and discipline and commitment and a work ethic and be able to handle success and learn from failure. You gotta have all those things to be successful in life, to be a good husband, a good, good wife, you know, to be successful in business. And I think, you know, I think probably what we've done the last two years here has been very inspiring to a lot of Hoosiers. Right. Not only because they enjoy coming to the stadium or watching it on tv, but maybe, maybe they have picked up a thing or two. I know this. There's a lot of Hoosier pride out there right now that wasn't there two years ago.
- [33:11]
Interviewer
Yeah, I heard no shortage of season ticket requests for this upcoming.
- [33:15]
Kurt Sweeney (Head Coach)
Sold them out one day.
- [33:16]
Interviewer
So I want go back with me to your period at Alabama, your period before Alabama. Like it took a long time before you became a head coach.
- [33:28]
Kurt Sweeney (Head Coach)
Oh yeah.
- [33:29]
Interviewer
But yet you've always said it was my goal to become a head coach.
- [33:32]
Kurt Sweeney (Head Coach)
Yeah.
- [33:34]
Interviewer
Did you feel passed over? Did you feel overlooked? Like, how did you feel during those periods?
- [33:39]
Kurt Sweeney (Head Coach)
I think there's a lot of times where it's just natural to feel overlooked or passed over. You know, there were a number of times maybe you were the in house candidate to be the coordinator, but maybe the head coach's hiring philosophy was to go outside. Right. And so, yeah, there'd be disappointment. And you know, one thing my dad always told me that stuck with me. He told me a lot of things that stuck with me. But one thing in particular is you never want responsibility until you're really ready for it. And because if you get it before you're ready for it, that could be the end right there.
- [34:11]
Interviewer
You may only get one shot.
- [34:13]
Kurt Sweeney (Head Coach)
That's right. So, you know, and when I finally did leave Alabama, that was such an unorthodox move. But I was hitting the big five zero. I had two girls in high school. My son was a freshman in College. They're all 4 of students and girls wanted to be doctors. I took a tremendous pay cut. I mean, it probably, it was maybe a move made in the coaching profession unlike any other. Probably, you know, to give up what I gave up. But having grown up in the business and seen what the market looked like for 60 year old assistant coaches that weren't line guys or Coordinators. It wasn't a very attractive market and that wasn't going to be me. And I always wanted to be a head coach and I was going to take my shot.
- [34:55]
Interviewer
I know you've talked about the feedback Coach Saban gave you, but outside of him, were there ever people who were, who were trying to gently tell you, hey, look, some guys are just career assistants. Did you ever get that from anyone?
- [35:07]
Kurt Sweeney (Head Coach)
Well, I think you're looked at like that. The longer you are in this profession and you're an assistant coach, I think that's how people tend to look at you and categorize you. And so when it came time to sort of make a decision on the IUP job, I didn't ask anybody because I knew what the feedback. I didn't even tell my dad who was living in that town. He found out the morning I showed up for the press conference.
- [35:31]
Interviewer
It's too late. You don't like it.
- [35:32]
Kurt Sweeney (Head Coach)
It's too late because I knew what was coming.
- [35:35]
Interviewer
That's, it's. I've made several decisions like, yeah, I know they're going to be unpopular. You guys don't need to know. I'll let you know afterwards. But then see you, you start doing your thing there and people see you today and they know Kurt Signetti's process, his way of doing things right? Well, it's pretty fully formed now. How long did it take you to develop your identity basically as a head coach?
- [36:02]
Kurt Sweeney (Head Coach)
You know, I think the first year we made tremendous progress. Year one, every place we've gone, year one, we've made tremendous progress. So maybe a lot of it was already there, but there were certainly mistakes made. I should have been undefeated. Year two in a regular season. Didn't work enough on special teams. Lost one I shouldn't have lost and learned a few things. Year three for sure, coming back from success. But I think by the time I went to Elon, I think I had it down. I felt pretty confident. I'll never forget walking into the house, tell my dad I was leaving, going to Elon, and they were bad. I mean, they were like worse than Indiana. Yeah, you know, and he, you know, are you sure? And I said, dad, we're gonna go down there, we're gonna kick ass. I mean, and we went down there and we did.
- [36:50]
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- [37:51]
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- [38:35]
Kurt Sweeney (Head Coach)
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Kurt Sweeney (Head Coach)
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Interviewer
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Kurt Sweeney (Head Coach)
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Podcast Host
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Kurt Sweeney (Head Coach)
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Interviewer
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Kurt Sweeney (Head Coach)
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Interviewer
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Kurt Sweeney (Head Coach)
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- [39:37]
Interviewer
I mean, I just. So I appreciate. I mean, like, respectful of what just happened the last two years, right? Everybody saw that like, I love this part of your career. Just like if anyone's asking me, I don't want to talk about today, I want to talk about 15 years ago because no one's paying attention, no one believes in you. Like it's, it's so easy to write you off back then, but so if you feel like you're being passed over as a head coach, then you get your shot and it turns out your way works. You were right. Your way can work.
- [40:07]
Kurt Sweeney (Head Coach)
Right.
- [40:07]
Interviewer
How much does it impact the way you look at assistance now? Like do you start looking for versions of yourself that may, that may currently be getting passed over?
- [40:18]
Kurt Sweeney (Head Coach)
No, not really. You know, I've always had a tendency to hire young. Now I'm at a different point in my career and you know, the money we pay assistants now is a little different. And develop guys like Brian Haynes and Mike Shanahan I hired, they were part time coaches at the D2 level. I hired them for under $10,000. Now, you know, Haynes is at 3:2 and Mike's at 1:8 or something. And, and so I've always liked to hire a younger guy that looked like he had the right stuff, character, love football, work habits and watch him develop, help him develop too and try to keep him as long as I could. And that's been the formula. That's workforce.
- [41:00]
Interviewer
You were talking just a second ago about messaging and you know, I think sometimes people conflate messaging with like belief system. Your belief system and your value system can be the same and your messaging just shift wildly based on the setting you're in. And I mean, I know you've had different kinds of teams now because you've been a head coach for a while, right. Your philosophy pretty consistent, maybe little tweaks here and there. But how much does the messaging have to change team to team just because of the kind of group of guys
- [41:29]
Kurt Sweeney (Head Coach)
you have or week to week? Yeah, it's in line with your values, your belief system for sure. You have to maybe find a different way to say it to capture their attention. But that's the other thing about me. When I talk to the team, I try to make every word count. And I'm not going to say a lot to the team, but it's going to be very, boom, hit him right between the eyes. Direct. I'm pretty direct. And so everybody understands what it is I just said. And probably the toughest message this team got from me was, you know, we had to play the Big Ten championship against Ohio State and then play another game in 18 or 19 days. Right. We didn't know who the opponent was for about half the time. Once we found out who the opponent was, the next day we went into. Well, next day was a Sunday for the staff and then Monday for players. And that's when I kind of rocked their world because, you know, yeah, none of these teams that had had buys had ever won. Right. They'd all lost. And so, you know, we had had warm fuzzies for about two weeks. Everybody's feeling good. It's natural. It's human nature. And now I had to rock human nature. And we strung together good days and played pretty well out in the Rose Bowl.
- [42:44]
Interviewer
When you guys go to the Rose bowl, you were just talking about how you never really know until you take the field. But you got kind of a feeling going in, I guess, the final score, that thing was like 38 to 3 or something like that. It's a blowout win. At what point during that day or during that. That period of time do you know I feel really, really good about this?
- [43:06]
Kurt Sweeney (Head Coach)
You know, we scored one at the end of the half to go in 17. Nothing, maybe, and then knocked the first one in the second half and then really started to run the ball well, took it to him. And I knew pretty early in the third quarter this thing is going our way and just continued to go our way. And, you know, it was. It was a great win for the program.
- [43:29]
Interviewer
The Miami game was a game I felt like there were about two or three what normally would be knockout blows in a game. Knockout moments in a game.
- [43:38]
Kurt Sweeney (Head Coach)
Right.
- [43:38]
Interviewer
And they kept getting up and coming back and getting up and coming back. It'd be great to win a national title. 50 to 10. And it's really comfortable in the second half. But because games on the line, they got the ball at midfield, you're up six, they got a chance to go win this thing.
- [43:51]
Kurt Sweeney (Head Coach)
Yeah.
- [43:51]
Interviewer
And then defense comes up, just. I mean, I don't know that anyone could experience that but a head coach. But in that moment, what. What is that like?
- [44:00]
Kurt Sweeney (Head Coach)
I didn't have a chance to enjoy it because the guy took his helmet off. And now instead of having to take a knee on the four, we're taking a knee on the two and then taking a knee inside the one on the next one. So you're coaching to the very last play of the game. Then it finally did end, and I was starting to enjoy it and got the Gatorade bath, and, boy, was that cold. So that was a great game. And Miami was a darn good football team and we had a hard, hard time blocking them. And, you know, it was. I give him a lot of credit. That was. That was gut check. That game was gut check.
- [44:32]
Interviewer
You went to the portal and got Josh Hoover out of tcu. You're watching a guy who just won the Heisman, number one overall pick walk out of here with a ton of accolades. You evaluated Josh Hoover. What did you see in his game?
- [44:44]
Kurt Sweeney (Head Coach)
Yeah, I saw a guy that had played quarterback and started 30 plus games, threw for a lot of yards, a lot of touchdown passes, won a lot of football games, knew how to play quarterback and had a skill set and could develop. And I liked, when we talked, I liked what I heard from him. And he embraced the challenge of stepping in for Fernando, who had won the Heisman. And, you know, he had about the same kind of spring that Fernando had, that Curtis work had, that all the ones before him had. You know, they struggle a little bit in the spring, especially early on. They're a little better at the end of spring and have a great summer. Different guy in fall camp, build on early season success and do things that a lot of people, people are like, wow. So, you know, I'm not in the prediction business, but I would say right now, Josh Hoover's right where the other ones were.
- [45:34]
Interviewer
Don't get in the prediction business. There's no fun over there in the prediction business. There's nothing for you there. Trust me. Outside of quarterback, you guys are through with spring. Now, just what were some of your general observations of your team so far?
- [45:46]
Kurt Sweeney (Head Coach)
I think we got a lot of work to do in fall camp, to be honest with you, because we have so many guys not out there, whether they were returners that had post season surgery or newcomers that had had surgery where they were at before or showed up and needed surgery. We probably had 11, 12 key guys total, you know, a few more on offense and defense. So we got a lot of nice pieces. I'd say, you know, we've got some depth in some areas, but we're thin in some areas, too. We need to get our guys out there on offense only and get them playing together because, you know, we had two or three offensive lineman out for swing. We had our top two tight ends out. Charlie Becker was out. One of our top running backs was out. So we got to get our guys out there and get them playing together.
- [46:32]
Interviewer
I know you lost your dad a while back. I mean, in the quiet moments just after what's happened so far, you got to have those periods where you just kind of wonder wonder what he'd think about this. Where does your mind go?
- [46:44]
Kurt Sweeney (Head Coach)
Well, hopefully he. He's watching. You know, I do remember when we moved up to some belt. That's when he had his, you know, final stroke. He was sort of on his deathbed. We were getting ready to play our opener, first time as an FBS team, Middle Tennessee. And we'd be in about 48, three or something. And my mom and sisters in the hotel told them we're in the hospital, that we'd want our opener 48 to 3 or 6. And they said he smiled. You know, to me that meant he knew everything was gonna be okay. So, yeah, it's been a long journey.
- [47:21]
Interviewer
Still going as we speak. That's right. Cursing that.
- [47:23]
Kurt Sweeney (Head Coach)
I appreciate it, man. Thanks. Thank you.
- [47:39]
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Kurt Sweeney (Head Coach)
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