← See Ball Get Ball with David Pollack
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- [00:00]
Taco Bell Announcer
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- [00:29]
Cool Stuff Daily Host
participation which varies every day the world gets a little weirder and a lot more awesome. Cool Stuff Daily takes a look at everything from mining in space to the latest in the fight against cancer to how AI is basically changing everything. It's all the cool stuff you didn't know you needed to know. Join us for Cool Stuff Daily as we take a quick look at science tech and the wait. What stories that make you sound way smarter at dinner. Subscribe to Cool Stuff Daily now because the future's happening fast and it's way too fun to miss.
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Tosh Lupoi
And how about that Polack interception in the end zone? Well, it's David Pollack and I think people are going to learn what kind of ball player he is. He's got a heart of a lion. I'm real proud of that kid. This is C ball. Get ball. College football's top show for football analysis, predictions and coach interviews. Now here's your host, three time All American, seven time Emmy award winner.
- [01:27]
David Pollack
David. All right, next the series keeps getting better. Tosh Lapoy. Look at that cow on his chest, where he went to school, where he played. And if you want to know a little something about it, like it's not the other way around, this is how it works. A Rod. Aaron Rodgers played with Tosh. DeSean Jackson played with Tosh. Marshawn lynch played with Tosh. That's how it worked. They joined him at Cal with Jeff Tedford and some great years, man. Our our series continues. Tosh. We're having on all the coaches that took jobs in the power four, but the first defensive lineman, the first grown man on the pod, man. So thank you very much for joining us.
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Tosh Lupoi
Honored to be here, man. Fired up. We just ripped it all morning at a spring ball practice number two. So it was awesome, man. Guys getting after it and pumped, pumped to be with you guys now.
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David Pollack
Well, the one thing, the one thing I appreciate about you, man, is your intensity Your physical fitness.
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Tosh Lupoi
And.
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David Pollack
And we. I've heard this over the years, and these have changed, but, like, Tosh, I've got you number one in the octagon. Out of every college head coach, if we go into the octagon and only one comes out, like, only one can win, I've got Tosh. Who's your biggest competition? You think, man?
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Tosh Lupoi
You know, I haven't put a lot of thought into that one, man.
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David Pollack
All right, I'll give you some names, and you can throw inside.
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Tosh Lupoi
Go for. For personal improvement, really. So all I can tell you is whoever that individual is, I'm not going to fear them. How.
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David Pollack
How would Dan Lanning do?
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Tosh Lupoi
I would. I'm going to take myself on it, man. I love that guy. I know he will. He will fight new tooth nail to the death. I know that. And. But, you know, I'm gonna. I'm gonna have to take myself. You know, I've been. You know, I'm training every morning at 5:30 myself, so in case, you know, something pops up like this David, like, I got to be ready for these type of things in life.
- [03:26]
David Pollack
That's what I'm talking about. I love hearing that, Coach. I love hearing that. And I think it's interesting because I started going through the names and I was like, all right. You know, if you think about back in the day, like, I would have given Kirby a chance, but Kirby's starting to get the dad bod. Like, he's starting to get a little bit older. And, you know, it just happens. Crystal ball, obviously. Big offensive lineman starting to get a little bit longer in the tooth. So I had to start thinking about some younger guys, like Marcus Freeman.
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Tosh Lupoi
Okay. Okay.
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David Pollack
He might be solid.
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Tosh Lupoi
Like I said. I mean, you're dropping a bunch of names. Either I have great personal relationships with or men that I respect, but they know just as well as I know. And when we open up that door, you know, anything goes. So anything goes.
- [04:09]
David Pollack
Anything goes. I love that. What about, you know, just being obviously for. For people out there. Like, he. Tosh was at the D.C. at Oregon, just working for Dan and being there, and, man, I just. I've been around Dan so much when he was at the University of Georgia, and I just. The dude, you know, it's real when he starts, like, frothing at the mouth and just the intensity, and it's just. It's awesome. I can imagine, like, meetings with you and him and just. I bet you. How intense were these suckers, man?
- [04:39]
Tosh Lupoi
Yeah, you know, they're not for everybody. You Know, I think what we found, again, someone like that, of the deep respect and love I have for. For someone like that is the. The vibe becomes. Well, you know, and. And, you know, it goes back to people asking me that the question of when I was afforded this opportunity at Cal, became the head coach and asked about the conversations of what took place as far as do you stop and start, you know, the portal opens, so you got to recruit for your next school or, you know, continue to coach the playoffs decision. Right. And what's. What's ironic, Dan and I didn't even have that conversation because it's, you know, you're wired a certain way. Like, what are you talking about? There would be no chance I would be leaving this place before that or leaving Dan or the other way around. You know, if it just. You're on the. There's nothing like being aligned with someone, you know, so, you know, going back to. Dan was my graduate assistant at Alabama when I coached Alabama. So really cool dynamics there to start a relationship there, then move on and go to the National Football League. Right? And he went to Georgia. We stayed in close contact there. And then such a cool thing and dynamic. Now he becomes my boss, you know, and, you know, again, just greatly respect the way he goes about every day, the way he goes about his mission, and certainly improved myself and now afforded this opportunity, I'm going to try to do it better than it's ever been done before.
- [06:11]
David Pollack
Well, that's awesome. To have a relationship with a guy that you know so well and can trust and a guy that obviously is equally yoked obviously helps. But that, you know, you mentioned Alabama, like working with Nick Saban. First of all, before we get to that, what made you get into coaching? Like, is this something you always knew you wanted to do?
- [06:31]
Tosh Lupoi
Absolutely not. You know, you hear those cool stories about, man, I knew when I was 10 years old, no chance, right? So I wanted to play, man, I love playing and was fortunate to have some success here. As you mentioned, those guys that I got to play with. I love how you said it, but, you know, shoot, I was here doing my best. Led us in tackles. Aaron Rodgers lighting it up. You know, we were winning 10, 11 games every season, winning the conference championship here, and that was the expectation. Number two team in the country had an amazing run of success of guys getting drafted and. And then, of course, being a part of the number one public institution in America. So it's a pretty hot package. And being a part of that process, I broke my foot. So, you know, rebounded Went back at it, broke it a second time. And that was. That was a tough moment in life there. And I still battled back, man, and I was trying to be that David Pollock in the league, right, and chase that dream. And as soon as that dream was. Was cut from myself on the third break of the same foot, you know, that was. That was the official response mechanism of the. Good Lord. I get it now. I got the message. All right, so coach Jeff Tedford was our coach here and the power of Cal. I was offered a bunch of jobs, and the knucklehead decision was take the one with coach Jeff Tedford and become a football coach. So even in that point, my mindset was, well, I'll get. Get my masters from Cal. It'll be really cool. Become a graduate assistant and see what I'm going to do in life. Came back here and it took all of probably 36 hours to realize what I wanted to do in life. And Coach Tedford was, was amazing. It was awesome. When you're a GA at the place that you played at, you were, you know, captain and starter and all that good stuff, then you kind of got a little clout. So I got to start coaching the edge guys right away and get some more responsibility. And that evolved into a, you know, being lifted to be a full time, you know, coach up front. And so I was here six seasons and then went to. With Steve Sarkeesian, the University of Washington, that whole staff, you know, was. Was promoted. We had a great run. And on the way to usc, I took a. Took a different turn. And Coach Saban offered me an opportunity there. Spent the next five years of my life with Coach Saban, became the defensive coordinator there before going to the NFL. And that's, that's what's made today, you know, possible, is all those leaders and those amazing opportunities that I've been a part of to be as fortunate as I am to now be the head coach here at Cal.
- [09:15]
David Pollack
Yeah, you just keep the list, just keeps going. Everybody's like, yeah, I know who Jeff Tedford is. I know who Steve Sarkeesian is. I know who Nick Saban is. I know who Dan Lanning is. Like, definitely some great people that you've had the opportunity.
- [09:27]
Tosh Lupoi
Don't leave out, can't leave out Urban Meyer and Dan Quinn, you know, two more that I owe a lot to and was fortunate to coach under. So trying to take a little bit, bits and pieces of what I love most about them and then put my spin on it and attack it at 100 miles per hour.
- [09:43]
Taco Bell Announcer
Any way you enjoy Taco Bell's crispy chicken nuggets is the right way to enjoy them. And now there's a new way. Inside a Crunchwrap slider. The all white meat crispy chicken nuggets you love with your choice of creamy chipotle or jalapeno honey mustard sauce. Inside a slider sized Crunchwrap iconic. The new crispy chicken Crunchwrap slider with creamy chipotle or jalapeno honey mustard sauce. A brand new classic only at Taco Bell at participating Taco Bell stores for a limited time only while supplies last contact store for participation which varies.
- [10:15]
Tosh Lupoi
Oh no. My coffee brawny here new brawny 3 ply is now more absorbent. Wow. Got a clean shirt. Do you wear plaid? Some of the strongest.
- [10:28]
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- [10:59]
David Pollack
This is Mike Borlow of Lexicon Valley
- [11:01]
Tosh Lupoi
and I'm Bob Garfield. Are you one of those people who sometimes uses words?
- [11:06]
David Pollack
Do you communicate or acquire information with, you know, language?
- [11:12]
Tosh Lupoi
Hey, us too. So join us on Lexicon Valley to chew over the history, culture and, and many mysteries of English plus some rice cracks.
- [11:22]
David Pollack
Find us on one of those apps where people listen to podcasts. How do you do that, Coach? You know, you say that. I'm just curious. How do you listen, retain like be around somebody, but go okay. Do you write that in a notebook while you, while you go along and just say like, all right, I like what he because. Because those are great guys that are like Saban. It's hard to go, okay, I love this but I'm going to do this a little bit differently. Like how do you, how does that come to you?
- [11:51]
Tosh Lupoi
Yeah, it's great question. So some, some I believe really strongly in and to answer your question, absolutely obsessed with taking notes. This device that I'm on is actually a great example of Urban Meyer made it mandatory to utilize an iPad, which I was freaking upset about because I write notes and I don't look like, you know, not. And I'm not exactly the home based typer and I was hot about it. And it's, it's life changing from an organization standpoint, you know, so learning, just improving in all aspects of life. Right. So how you take your notes? Well, I got about a stack of, I don't, yay high of, of notebooks. Right. And then where do those go? You move from house to house. What bag are they in? Right, where you can compartmentalize and organize the notes. And so that's what I literally have done. Taking a lot of time of the past, going back to those first notebooks with coach Saban and literally typing them out, transferring them in. But I think more important than notes, right, is you're forming your identity as you're learning under these high level, top level coaches. Right. And you're forming your identity as well. Right. And when it becomes a way of life, you know, whether those five, five years with coach Saban and stuff, you, you get programmed a certain way. Right. I, I, I truly believe that, you know, you consume who you're around. Right. So if you're in one environment for a number of years, I mean, you know, if that's a positive environment, negative environment, you're going to consume, you know, mostly that information which you're in. So being around all those amazing leaders, taking them in, and if you're open minding and you have open mind, you have a growth mindset, how can I constantly improve as as that's what I'm asking myself every day to this day. Right. So, and then you start to really identify what's most important to you, you know, so that was something extremely important coming to here. But for, for I've been afforded a couple of these, thankfully of these head coaching opportunities and you know, choosing the one that I felt strongest about. Right. And, and then starting to build that on your own time. Whether it's the summertime as coaches, it's an exercise of when this opportunity does come, what do I want it to look like, right. Is it a copy and paste from the last program? You know, that's absolutely what it's not going to be for myself. So, you know, people talk about culture, they talk about development. You know, I think these words are kind of getting thrown around loosely these days, like what does it mean? So I ask individuals, like, what's that truly mean to you? And ultimately it's, it's how you live every day. You know, how we do anything is how we do everything. That's every day. So we, we have three major pillars to our culture. All right, David. So starting out with relentless effort, we identified three bullet notes of exactly what that is. Okay. And that's, that's six seconds of hell. I'm gonna dominate my box. Okay. Point A to point B. How fast and violent can I go from point A to point B? And having a plus two finish, that's how we define three. Relentless effort with those three bullets. Number two is ball excellence. It's based off of a 30 year NFL study. Exactly what it sounds like. But with a plus one ratio in the turnover margin, we have a 67% chance to win. Plus two is an 88% chance. Plus three is a 90 chance to win. Before we implement any schematics, fundamentals and technique. Right? So that's something that, it's wild to me, while others don't highlight it as much as we do here. And the third part is what we call pou, Power of the unit. And that's really the brotherhood that we're building and that, that's ultimately preparing and competing for something that's much bigger than just yourself. Right? I'm. I'm looking you right in the eyes right now, Dave, because I'm not reading this. It's not a PowerPoint presentation. This is what's ingrained in my soul, man. Like, this is what I believe in, you know, so we're about to see, right, how effective it is. But we're gonna hang our hats on that. What's really cool is we're gonna live every day. Those are our transactions ultimately. Right? So what I said is just words. So being a man of action is going to display, you know, if that culture is real ultimately. Right. So we're going to apply power of unit. For example, there's not going to be a single meeting, unit, position or team ever in this organization where one of those three pillars is not focused on not a single meeting. That's a rule in our program. Right. So how many different ways? Okay. And then how we live those out. Right? So power of unit. We've done exercises here Wednesday nights. Every single Wednesday night. We have what's called a pou. Nothing to do with football. They're cultural building opportunities for us. Right.
- [16:27]
David Pollack
So what was your last one you did on Wednesday night?
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Tosh Lupoi
Last Wednesday night. So we incorporated here. We have something amazing on campus called the Cameron Institute. Okay. And so we, we did a series with them where we did mental performance. The next one after that was community engagement. And then. And the following one was career development. So the point of it is the power of unit, the brotherhood. These are opportunities for us to strengthen our bond, go out in the community. Right. And make differences. Right. We went to San Quentin Prison. We've worked multiple camps, a youth flag football deal on Sunday, next level. And we're going to incorporate that and build our culture in any opportunity possible. The last one we went into, we actually took the guys through of there's this thing called taxes that's coming up here in mid April, if you haven't heard of them. Right. And so utilizing some, some Alex Mac got in, Zoom, former first round draft pick from here and, and then another great individual that came in and we just talked about the necessity of how we're going to allocate and the attention that we're going to pay to our taxes. Right. That's coming up. So to prepare the young men for that, okay, we had a little presentation on media opportunities and representing this, this program the right way when we do speak to the media. And then we left that with the last 30 minutes, went into what we call the hot seat. So we have an elite running back coach here named Keith Bonaparte. He got up there, selected four individuals and put our guys a little bit in a vulnerable moment, you know, but just shared their story, where they're from, knowing how they dealt with a little adversity. Nothing to do with football, but just one more way where we could grow, you know, as a group and connect.
- [18:20]
David Pollack
I don't think people understand that and how important that is to putting people because these kids don't, they don't talk, you know, and you got to find ways to get them to talk and you got to get, find ways to get to know them because otherwise they'll just kind of show up and be robots. And that's a big part of it. You talk about staff and you talk about culture or you talked about all your guys. So how did you make your decisions? Because you went to the NFL to hire some court now like, yes, sir. How was that? Previous relationships and how did you find, like start with your DC like Hutchins. How did you find him and was there. What was the previous relationship?
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Tosh Lupoi
Absolutely. So, you know, Mike, Mike, someone that's, you know, again, being afforded a couple opportunities in the past. And I had absolutely no interest to become a head coach just to be, you know, a head coach. I want to be in a place that I absolutely believe in, that we could go win at a high level and get a community behind, get an organization behind. And so part of that is tying in the Bay. You know, we have an unbelievable media market here. Right. We have a. And a lot of relationships. Well, Mike Hutchins is born and raised from the Bay, he went to arguably the best high school in America, De La Salle High School.
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David Pollack
I wonder why you say that.
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Tosh Lupoi
And you know, so Mike was someone new in the past, but in, in, in all honesty, it didn't have too much to do. That all that is just my opinion of Mike. You know, we constant career, professional development, you know, doing zooms with Mike. You know, we would go visit a lot of NFL organizations. You know, of course, whether I was at Alabama or, or at Oregon or these organizations would come to us, you know, after we started playing a lot better and so exchanging some thoughts and then following that out with some zooms. Mike was one of those guys and was extremely sharp, you know, going back probably four years ago. So we actually hired Mike and just as I thought, he worked there for about a month until he immediately got a full time job somewhere else. Then the NFL came and grabbed him and seeing him, you know, work up the ladder there and rise and then, you know, Jordan Somerville, very, very similar way of a guy that thinking really highly of him as a young coach and then continuing that relationship and visiting him. So what I love to do, man, in the offseason is, you know, we jump on zooms constantly of just talking through some concepts. You know, I come from a, you know, Coach Saban, a man match history, you know, coverage scheme and a lot of, a lot of multiplicity there and being willing, you know, when you go to the National Football League and learning there's actually some different ways to play some defense man, you know, and learning some things there, but just constantly learning, man, and diving in now we, you know, something I'm really proud about at Oregon is our top three calls on defense. All three years were all different in volume, you know, so I think a lot of people talk about we're going to utilize our personnel. Do you really, you know, and are you willing to continue to grow whether, you know, back to back having some top 10 defenses. But let's, let's, let's strive to be number one like we were at Alabama, right. So, you know, part of that is reaching out to coaches. So Somerville is another guy that reach out to talk about from the other perspective. Right. So what do you not want to see from a defensive standpoint, but naturally growing some relationships there and then ultimately when it gets closer and closer and you become a head coach, you start, you start trying to, you know, hire a guy, then everybody else is trying to hire him. It's usually like, oh, this must be the right thing. Right? So when, when that came to it, especially the last week for both those guys. And promotions are occurring. Other, other NFL organizations are trying to hire him. Like they're giving them quarter titles. That really excites you about who you're hiring, right? So that's certainly what occurred with those guys. And really the goal here, I think it's specific of how you're going to go win at each different place, right? And so you're coming to a place like Cal, man. So it's kind of got that, call it what you want, but that unique, very strong NFL tradition. You know, Jared Goff is just in this office two weeks ago, the number one overall pick. We've had four first round quarterbacks, right, in the last couple decades. You mentioned those names Marshawn Lynch, Javid Best, Deshaun Jackson, Alex Max the other night here. Those names go on and on. So there's been that tradition, right? Well, you got a number one public institution in America that we're back in here, right? Got the top business school in the country. So the goal there is if we could complement that with a highly influenced. It's probably going to sound pretty good. Dave, I come to your living room, right? They say you want the number one degree in America. We got two coordinators hired from the NFL, multiple coaches. Myself been in the NFL in three different organizations, right. And we incorporate the seventh highest volume living alumni in the world, right? Well, we're cooking with fish grease.
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David Pollack
I bet you there's not a lot of people that at your school because of how smart they are that say we're cooking with fish grease, though. That's probably not a lot of that.
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Tosh Lupoi
Yeah, I mean, but it, but it's. These branches work worldwide, man. You know, that's cool too. Like, you'd be surprised, man. You'd be surprised. I mean, you'd be surprised where I'm working with the Atlanta Falcons, right? And how many people I'm running into at in Atlanta. You know about cow bears and just the, the, the, the following, you know, and, and the, the love for it, man. I mean we're at, we're in a place. The university, man, is founded in 1868. So we got some relationships, man.
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David Pollack
Well, it's probably nice to, it's also nice to come home. It's got to be some passion that and hutchings for everybody out there listening. He came from the Vikings and then Somerville came from the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. But okay, so coach, you're talking about culture, you're talking, you talk about finishing with Dan and finishing in the Playoffs. But I hear you took a trip, trip to Hawaii this offseason as soon as you possibly could. Because there's a guy that's kind of important last year to, to Cal success, man, when, when we watched him play, we were like, this young cat. This young cat can play.
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Cool Stuff Daily Host
And.
- [24:44]
David Pollack
And Mendoza leaves.
- [24:45]
Tosh Lupoi
By the way.
- [24:46]
David Pollack
You talk about quarterbacks, there's another one that's going to be the number one overall pick. And then if. If I'm going to bail myself out, coach, then it's going to be easy. I'm going to say JKS and going to get him, but to get Jaren Kava, Sanga Powell somewhat close.
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Tosh Lupoi
Close.
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David Pollack
You jumped on a flight quickly to go get this cat. Like, literally, I heard you went without luggage, like to go get him as. As soon as possible when you took the job.
- [25:13]
Tosh Lupoi
Yep, that's definitely accurate, man. I came here, you know, they. They did an amazing job here, so brought my family a special moment, man. I'm, I'm. I'm truly, truly those moments are, are. I'm already thinking, like, let's go take the next step, man. I want to go meet the team, you know, so it's like pictures and the band playing. You land. And they did an amazing job. So it's a really special moment. I got three amazing children and my queen, Jordan. So to celebrate rightfully so, you know, that allows me to have this, to be able to work the way I work and the passion. Right. She. She comes. My wife comes from a football family. Her daddy played like seven years in the league. Her uncle played, I think 12 years in the league. And then all three brothers played major football. So that was my only chance to get married, man. And when we landed, that was a great moment. So I'm headed over here and kind of get the itinerary and I wanted to meet the team. So I put absolutely no work or thought the schedule I was on, man, as far as working in the playoffs and doing this, as far as I was going to delegate, like where my three hours of sleep or whatever and my thoughts were going to go. And I wanted to just speak to the team. So we landed, kind of change the schedule. I asked to speak to the team. So we had a team meeting. And part of my preparation for that was just to ask Jaren to stand up. And I was going to talk about the things we talked about our pillars, you know, the vision, and then what we got to go do to. To go accomplish what we want to accomplish. And I asked Jared to stand up. Well, Jaren didn't stand up because he wasn't present. So like many young men at this time, portal about to open, right, and, and had a great year. You know, you got, you got agents left and right, you know, promoting, getting the portal. Getting the portal. I got five new deals for you, man. You know, and those agents wanting to go make their money and get these guys to jump in the portal and you know, that's, that's what we're inheriting, right? As a, as a head coach. So sure enough, he was over there on the island. So I couldn't even tell you my last, probably eight minutes of the delivery in the team meeting because my mindset of where, where's Jaron at right now? You know, and what can I talk? Yeah, so, but we finished up there quick. And so I got that answer and you know, my next conversation, I have my three amazing children, my wife, and my next conversation is I need to fly to Hawaii. You know, and so my wife being my wife, she's like, okay, you want me to take your bag? You know, I was like, please. So I'm in my suit. I immediately drove to the airport, San Francisco airport. They were, they were getting a ticket and there was an issue there with the ticket and I didn't want to wait obviously, or chance anything. I literally bought my own ticket, sit up front, got on the flight and, and had no plan. They even just flew to the, to the rock. Okay. So thankfully I coached another first round draft pick out of Cal here, Tyson Alualu. He was the 10th overall pick. And you know, I've formed a lot of great relationships. I, I recruited and signed to a tongue of Iowa to Alabama and have amazing relationships thankfully on the island. So starting to tap into those and find him. And then my man Dan, the founder of Olukai, who's a, who's a die hard bear and a cow grad shout out to Olukai. By the way, man, they gave me some, some slides that are elite if you haven't got some yet by now. Okay. But he's the one who personally picked me up from the airport, at the airport when I landed. So we landed about 12:15am we found Jaren, literally didn't have his number in my phone. Found him via wi fi and kind of identified the plan. They met us over a spot and they allowed me to have a home visit.
- [29:02]
Taco Bell Announcer
Any way you enjoy Taco Bell's crispy chicken nuggets is the right way to enjoy them. And now there's a new way inside. A crunchwrap Sleep slider. The all white meat crispy chicken nuggets you love with your choice of creamy chipotle or jalapeno honey mustard sauce inside a slider sized crunch wrap Iconic. The new crispy chicken crunchwrap slider with creamy chipotle or jalapeno honey mustard sauce. A brand new classic only a Taco Bell at participating Taco Bell stores for a limited time only while supplies last contact store for participation which varies.
- [29:33]
Tosh Lupoi
And that's exactly what we did. So special moment there and to. To be able to sit down.
- [29:40]
David Pollack
We get a commitment on the dot like we, we get a commitment right away before we left.
- [29:44]
Tosh Lupoi
Well, we, we got there about 12:30. That lasted till about 2:45am so, but you know, we. We had a lot of great talks there and one of those is just of course again, the vision, the culture, you know, and, and something that I asked Jaron to do is, you know, knowing that the deals that were coming his way and, and I actually saw one of them and like breathtaking, you know, and you can imagine. J. Imagine Jeremy right before your eyes. You see Fernando Mendoza, who. Who. Who I love and got a lot of respect for. We have a relationship to this day and left the place, right? Go win a Heisman Trophy. Go win it, you know, on his way to winning a national title. And then you got Pat McAfee, which. Which I appreciate you reaching out to me because. Because you know, I reached out to him and never heard back. So, you know, I thought he was like my best friend when he came and visited Oregon, but I guess we weren't as close as I thought there. So he. But. But the reason I'm bringing him up is he. He went out there and said, where is Cal gonna have the next feeder to, right? It's a feeder school. Fernando, right. And Jaden. Not a couple of players. So where's the next great player from Cal going? So of course that's in my bloodline, man. Like, I love it. Let's go. Call me out. Right? So here's our op. So all that in the back of your head of the place that I went to school to, right? So had a great meeting and what I really. What I really challenged Jared to do is if he was comfortable to it is I would like him to. He feels great about where we're going next. Okay. And we obviously have to do some things that we spoke about from a financial standpoint, you know, and it's not about being the highest bidder. That's not what I believe in, you know, it's about you buying into a culture, what you believe in. Right. And. And why you came to Cal in the first reason. Right. Of the magnitude of the degree and how you're going to represent this university. But what I asked him, I said, give me 30 days, okay? Just give me 30 days and watch what's about to happen. That's all I asked for. Right? Okay. So keep in mind this is after the National High School Signing day, which is kind of the bread and butter. What I love to do is recruit in the high school, right? So that exhausted. So. So I never even got to talk to a high school player. So all we have to make an impact on our roster is the portal. And I asked Jaren to give me 30 days after declaring that vision and feeling good about each other is that you can make a verbal commitment, right. And kind of recommit right. On social media right at that time. Okay. And this is. We're talking about the time, by the way, this is pretty JMU playoff game, right? This, right when I was announced as a head coach. So, you know, some, some people asked me about, you know, the time period of this. This is before we even played jmu, right? So asked him at that point if you could do you feel good, as good as about this, as we all, you know, who said and had a great hug and a prayer. And he and Jared did exactly that. And I said, you know, if you could verbally recommit, and then obviously we got to follow through with the, with the financial commitment, your contract moving forward, right. You evaluate that, right. And watch what happens. So he was comfortable to do that. I believe he actually did it that night. So he basically reaffirmed his commitment to the University of California, Berkeley. And in the next 30 days, for the first time ever, we went out and signed the top class in the acc, right? And so a lot of individuals we went toe to toe with, Alabama, Georgia, lsu, Oregon, Notre Dame, and fortunately won our fair share. And a lot of individuals, you know, got involved here that were excited about the future moving forward. And so we can now, you know, compete regularly with those. With those teams. And that's exactly what we're going to do. And so we signed some of the top players, you know, in that competition. And, you know, it is what it is. You know, Jaren could see, right, all of a sudden those four potential NFL receivers that everybody else is recruiting, you know, they just signed at Cal and all of a sudden some offensive linemen to protect, right? And then some marquee defensive players and I believe in the head coach, the culture, the staff and you know, now we got to build it out, right? So that's what we're in the process of doing.
- [33:59]
David Pollack
That's, that's awesome, man. I think it, everybody who's in the
- [34:03]
Tosh Lupoi
ACC
- [34:06]
David Pollack
probably taking some notes right now and they're like, oh man, I don't know if I want that guy. I don't know if I want the smoke. Because you can tell coach you're, you're involved in, you're going to build something with your energy, with your passion. Like my, my favorite quote man is our goal is to physically and mentally assault the quarterback. Like that is my favorite quote of yours. Like, there is nothing that gets me more excited than listening to somebody say that. Like what, what does that mean to you, by the way?
- [34:33]
Tosh Lupoi
Well, I mean it too. Jaren and I, we, we have a. What's cool, man? It's a going back to the Coach Saban days and sometimes he'd afford me the opportunity to go sit in the meetings where he would meet with the quarterbacks, you know, with, with Tua and, and Jalen and stuff. So I could sit kind of be back the room there. But teaching the quarterbacks from a defensive perspective, I think one of the most underrated things of a defensive head coach is what you bring if you feel really good about your offensive staff, which you can bring from that other perspective. So doing some of those exercises too at Oregon with Bo, Nick still and Gabriel and Dante and seeing coach landing right involved in those in those meetings is. That's been really neat. So Jaron and I have had multiple one on one meetings and that's exactly what we're talking about is this is our goal, my goal, you know, of. We want to mentally assault you. Right. We don't want any comfort zone for you here. So why these disguises exist the way they do, Right. Why the changes and all the things that have applied that have gave us a lot of difficulty on the defensive side, how can we apply that pressure? Right? So when you get multiple shifts, motions and tempo variables, you know, that's something I think that's been really innovative from a defense approach. We've taken that and applied it to defense as much as possible. So changing pictures, you know, whether presenting the same picture, you know, that was a huge part of our success of shutting out Texas Tech and Miami in the playoff game is, you know, present similar pictures and take different things. Right. Or the other way around, whether you're presenting, you know, the Multiplicity behind it, and yet playing the same concepts. So taking them through that and then. And then educating how do you find those snitches, right? So when is it fake, when is it real, you know, and as far as the, the physical assault, David, you've done plenty of that yourself. You know, I've watched you. So, you know, just tying those in together where. When you can manipulate the protection up front, for example, and there's free hitters to the quarterback and the physical assault is pretty much self explanatory there where you know when you get some strong hits.
- [36:42]
David Pollack
Except for we get kicked out of every game nowadays, Coach.
- [36:44]
Tosh Lupoi
We got to do it legally, man. You know, you gotta, you gotta strike in the 3 by 3 inch zone and keep them safe, man. So you just practice it the right way.
- [36:52]
David Pollack
It's so. It's such crap watching the quarterbacks get tackled now. I mean, some of it just. It drives me nuts. But hey, coach, think about you.
- [37:01]
Tosh Lupoi
Think about you and me and today's game. Like how you play like three games
- [37:06]
David Pollack
a year, you get kicked out. I mean, I got fined as it was in the NFL. Regardless, I can't imagine what would happen nowadays. Coach, we enjoy your time. I know you got other things to do, but I will tell you this, and I don't tell every coach this, but I'm just saying we got some space on the wall, so if we get a cow helmet, I can promise you it'll go up.
- [37:24]
Tosh Lupoi
So I appreciate that, man. Awesome. Well, I'll send it to you, man. Appreciate you reaching out and extremely excited for the, for this opportunity in the future. If you can't tell, man.
- [37:37]
David Pollack
Yeah, you. You definitely can tell. And I think everybody else will be on the lookout. Coach. Tosh lapoy, intense defense, ready to assault quarterbacks physically and mentally. That is. That's all you need to know if you weren't listening the whole time. Thanks, coach. We appreciate you.
- [37:52]
Tosh Lupoi
Yes, sir. Appreciate y'. All. Go Bears.