← See Ball Get Ball with David Pollack
See Ball Get Ball with David Pollack
David Pollack ONE-ON-ONE with SMU Head Coach Rhett Lashlee
00:37:28
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- [00:00]
Commercial Announcer
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- [00:29]
Rhett Lashley
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- [00:43]
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- [00:45]
Rhett Lashley
the champ of the Ram. Heck, we might even cancel Monday Toyota trucks. Find yours@toyota.com Toyota let's go places.
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Interviewer
All right, next we have the coach of the SMU Mustangs. And, and, and by the way, Rhett Lashley joins us. I, I, I did some reconnaissance for this Rhett, so you're going to really enjoy this, this interview. I went back to, I went back to seventh grade for this interview.
- [01:14]
Rhett Lashley
Oh wow.
- [01:15]
Interviewer
I went, I went, I went to your boy Gus Malzahn. He said, he said he coached you since seventh grade from seventh grade to 11th grade. Is that true?
- [01:23]
Rhett Lashley
That's, that's accurate.
- [01:25]
Interviewer
What do you gotta, you gotta give me a good, he gave me stories on you. You got to give me some good
- [01:29]
Rhett Lashley
Gus Mouse, we don't have enough time on your show.
- [01:31]
Interviewer
I mean, hey Eli, when Eli Drinkowicz came on, by the way, he knew every fast food order for Gus Malzahn.
- [01:39]
Rhett Lashley
Yeah, that's true.
- [01:40]
Interviewer
Every single one. It was impressive.
- [01:41]
Rhett Lashley
One of the few guys who's known Gus longer than Eli. So you know, Eli and I and Casey woods, we could have a, a full probably season long podcast busting on old coach Miles on. But yeah, I was a seventh grader, 13 year old at, at Shiloh Christian School in Northwest Arkansas and Gus gets hired to be the head football coach, the dean of students. My first running with him was when I got sent to the dean of students office. So that's how I met him. And I didn't do anything that bad, but I did enough to have to go to the dean of students.
- [02:12]
Interviewer
And he was saying, what did you do? You did something wrong?
- [02:15]
Rhett Lashley
No, I mean my mom will tell you I was probably, you know, probably innocent and just, you know, misunderstood. Anyways, so then, but yes, he came to our school and it was the first year we ended up having seventh grade football. And you go through junior high and we start, no huddling, throwing around the yard. And he turns our after one year, the next four years we go to four straight state title games at my high school. So he changed it quick, the culture, everything. But you know, some of the best stories, you know, we're playing my sophomore year, we're playing in the semi, the quarterfinals, and we won a game 70 to 64. It ended up being the national game of the year. I threw for 672 yards, had eight passing touchdowns, two rushing touchdowns, and we still almost lost. And so they had won the school's first state title the year before. Now I am a sophomore first year starter and we're undefeated, playing one verse, two, the quarterfinals and they're beating us 24 to nothing. Three drives into the game, I've thrown two picks, is 24 to nothing. They're running for 1,000 yards, we're throwing for 1,000 yards. And he looks at our D.C. right, if they go up 24 to nothing and goes, well, I think they might score 100. And the DC goes, yep, I think they might. And we ended up winning. But then a better one that he really loves me to tell is my junior year, we're in the semifinals and we're up two scores. We ended up winning going back state championship game, but we're up two scores on a pretty good team on the road. And I throw a really bad interception, I mean bad. Like I lob up a wheel route down the sidelines to cover two safety like we're winning. And middle of fourth quarter and it gets picks. So I'm running off the field and one of our assistant coaches meets me at the numbers and escorts me away around because two other coaches are holding him back and he's screaming and pointing at me that he's going to kill me. Screaming it out loud. And
- [04:07]
Interviewer
I mean, how did mom, how did mom and dad take that, by the way?
- [04:11]
Rhett Lashley
My dad was an old ball coach. He probably was thinking the same thing. I don't know if my mom heard, but he doesn't like me telling that one. But no, he, he was awesome. He had the incredible ability to push you harder than you could push yourself and help you hold you to a higher standard that you can hold yourself to.
- [04:27]
Interviewer
Oh, that's cool. Now he, he spoke highly of you, obviously. He said you had a true gift. He said he's always been, it's always been. He's been your special player, special Coach. But the thing he said, that thought separated you from everybody else was always been best when the pressure was the highest. Like, you never blinked unless. Unless he was going to have to kill you. I guess that was the only caveat.
- [04:48]
Rhett Lashley
Well, no, I didn't blink then. They just escorted me another direction. I tell you what, he would always ask this too.
- [04:53]
Interviewer
He.
- [04:53]
Rhett Lashley
He'd call you quarterback. You didn't really have a name when you played for him. Come off the field and you throw a pick, he'd go, quarterback. Why'd you throw an interception? You're like, I have nothing for that. Like, I don't know what to say to that. I did it.
- [05:04]
Interviewer
I didn't mean to.
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Rhett Lashley
This. I'm trying to throw the game. Like, I don't. I didn't mean to. You know.
- [05:09]
Interviewer
Yeah. Do you use that now or do you use names?
- [05:12]
Rhett Lashley
I use names.
- [05:13]
Interviewer
Okay. What. What made you, like, what made you go from playing with him? You went to Arkansas with Houston. Nut, by the way, we played y' all in the SEC championship while you were there. I don't know if you remember that
- [05:23]
Rhett Lashley
game didn't go well. Yep.
- [05:24]
Interviewer
Next it was. It was 30 to 3. Matt Jones.
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Rhett Lashley
I remember they didn't have any good edge players, though. We didn't have an issue with the edges of Georgia.
- [05:32]
Interviewer
Matt. Matt could fly, though, couldn't he? Good Lord, he was that. Hey, I remember watching Rhett. I remember watching Sean Andrews tape going to that game, and I was like, oh, my God. Like, he moved people off of the screen.
- [05:45]
Rhett Lashley
I was like, you remember this? Most people forget this. Sean Andrews was the left tackle. You know who the tight end was?
- [05:50]
Interviewer
Peters.
- [05:51]
Rhett Lashley
Jason Peters. He ended up being like however many year left tackle those two guys were beside each other.
- [05:58]
Interviewer
Yes, I remember. I had to go against them. So you don't. You don't forget that when you have to go against all of that ace. I remember going to. To the Lombardi into all the awards with Sean Andrews, and that's when I realized that dude liked to eat. Holy cow. I was like, now I know why he got that big.
- [06:14]
Rhett Lashley
His pregame meal was spaghetti meatballs, and he would just crush it with syrup on top.
- [06:19]
Interviewer
Was he Buddy the Elf? I mean, come on, man, work for him. He was. He was impressive. So I know you were there, like, you were there at that time, but. But, like, what made you say, hey, I want to get into coaching?
- [06:30]
Rhett Lashley
Yeah. It's kind of my upbringing. You know, coaches impacted me, so. My parents divorced when I was three. My mother remarried when I was Seven to who I consider my dad. And he had been a high school coach for eight years. And then by the time they got married, he was out of coaching and started his own business. Was really successful business guy. But he coached high school football for eight years. And at the core, that's what he loves and who he is. And so kind of the. The men of my life, from him, Phil Phillips to Gus Malzon, to Chris Wood, who was my other junior high and high school coach, who's on our staff now here at smu, like, those three men impacted my life more than anyone. So coaches really impacted me. And then just, you know, the other, you know, my grandfather, when I was growing up back then, you know, there was only like, three games on every Saturday. It was abc, NBC, cbs, and then there was Monday Night Football, and there was like, only two pro games on. On Sunday. And he. My granddad would record all the games each week on VHS and mail them to me. So, like, during the week, I would be watching last week's, you know, Notre Dame, Colorado game or Texas, Arkansas or San Francisco 49ers Giants Monday night Football game. Instead of watching cartoons all week, I'd watch the replay of those games that I didn't watch live because I was probably, like, asleep or something. And so I just kind of fell in love with it. And I. I loved Bobby Bowden, I loved Bill Walsh. Those were kind of the coaches. I. And so just growing up, loving it, and then having coaches impact me the way they did, I loved the game. And when it became apparent about that time that Arkansas, Georgia game happened, that I wasn't Matt Jones and my career was going to end at the collegiate level fairly quickly, I just. I kind of gravitated to coaching. And then people like Gus and Houston Nutt were kind enough to help me get in. As you know, it's. You got to have an opportunity. They gave me an opportunity to get in, and that's. That's kind of how it all got going.
- [08:23]
Interviewer
Wow. That's cool, man. That's. You always wonder. I think the stories are different now with coaching and getting into coaching and where you come from. Like, so much of that is the story, you know, back in. Back in our day because we're old, but now, nowadays, obviously, it's a little bit different, but you also had to climb the ladder, which is kind of cool, man. Like you. I mean, being a ga. Being an analyst, like coordinators, like, working your way up. What's. What's the. What's the story you had when you Were like, all right, dude. Like, I got kids, I got no money. Like, was, was there a moment where you were just like, man, am I going to keep doing this? Because something's going to have to change.
- [08:58]
Rhett Lashley
Yeah, there's several pivotal moments. And to your point, I think all, all men and women need to understand, like, there's one thing to get given an opportunity. It's hard to get opportunities. And there's sometimes you're more fortunate than others. There's a lot of great coaches out there that probably never gotten the opportunity. I was blessed to get the opportunity. But then it's what you do with those opportunities. You know, you still got to put in the work and, and earn it. You know, it was everything from, you know, I G8 in 06 at Arkansas, we had McFadden and Felix Jones and all those guys with Gus. And then, you know, Gus goes to Tulsa. I'm actually going to go with him. Super longer story that a lot of people have heard. But I end up not going. So I get out of coaching for almost two years. Then Gus goes to Auburn in 09 and calls me back, well, I just got married like 18 months earlier. My wife didn't know she was going to marry a ball coach, you know, and I'm like, well, we're going. And she was great. And I said, here's what we'll do. We'll go for two years and either I'll get a job and it'll be great, or if not, we'll move back to Arkansas or do whatever and we'll figure it out. Okay, so we kind of go all in. Well, 09's a good year. 2010 is a great year. We have a guy named Cam Newton. We win the national title. But oh yeah, in September of that year, our twin boys are born. So we got me on a ga salary twin boys. And my wife had been working as a marketing director at a medical spa in Auburn making, I don't know, 30, $40,000. So she was the breadwinner. She was paying all the bills. And about June.
- [10:20]
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- [10:48]
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- [11:44]
Rhett Lashley
All of that available@meaningful beauty.com July before that 2010 season. She's like six, seven months pregnant with the boy. She's like, yeah, I'm quitting my job. I'm like, oh, okay, you know, you make more money than me. She actually found her tax return not long ago and like she made more money than me, so she quit. So I realized, okay, we better get a job. And thankfully we won the national title and Pat Sullivan hired me at Samford and I've never been happier to get a job because I had kiddos, you know, so that was kind of the progression from ga and then I skipped steps to like I somehow go from being a GA and now I'm a 27 year old OC and again, a great opportunity, but what do you do with it? And there's plenty of other moments like that along my journey, but that's kind of how I was like, I better get a job or I'm getting out of coaching because I got to make some money.
- [12:33]
Interviewer
You mentioned the name. I had no clue we'd go where we're going right now. But you mentioned Cam Newton to me. I've covered the game since before Cam and I've never seen a better player. I've never seen it. Like to me, if you asked me to pick one player that I go, I don't want to play against offensively, it would be Cam. Would you agree with that? Or would you have somebody else?
- [12:56]
Rhett Lashley
I mean, in a one off season? It's really hard to argue. I mean, I think just in my lifetime or people I've been, you know, I got to witness Darren McFadden live, you know, you know, the year Joe Burrow had at lsu. I mean, you see what Reggie Bush did that year. But like, yeah, I mean, and I got it up front row seat to what he did in that one season and then what he did in the NFL. I don't know if there's been. It's easy to argue there's not been a more dominant player in a single season of college football. What he could do at 6, 6, 260 pounds, the way he could throw it, the way he could run it. And what people don't understand is like his, the intangible. He was the alpha, the leader of that group. People didn't see that summer before anything, before he even won the job. He's pulling receivers all summer long to go throw with him. He's getting them out of their dorms. And he's the guy that every Friday going to the hotel was in the, on the bus with the team, watching extra film on the iPad, like he was, they saw him on Saturday. He loved the Superman, the big kid. He had fun, but like he worked his tail off and, and then, you know, to go in the NFL and do what he did for a long time. So now you see him and he's got a big personality and all that, but like he put in the work and yeah, physically, I mean, I watched him jump from the 8 1/2 yard line against South Carolina with the ball out and land, you know, halfway in the end zone. I never thought I'd see anything like that.
- [14:14]
Interviewer
I'll never forget Dan Mullen was on this podcast when he took the UNLV job and he said, Tim's gonna hate me for this. But he said, Tim and Cam went head to head. I don't know if you've ever heard this in tug of war. And they did it in Florida back then. And he said he dragged Tim five yards down the field, seven yards down the field. He said Tim wouldn't let go of the rope, but he was like, he literally dragged him like he was a little man. And he was like, I've never seen anything like it. So it just gives you an idea of like, I don't think people understood like the size and then the quickness, but the competitiveness to me was just, was just next level. It was just so fun to Watch.
- [14:53]
Rhett Lashley
You know, there's certain guys, you can feel them when you're on the field with them. You could feel.
- [14:58]
Interviewer
He's one of those play.
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Rhett Lashley
Yeah.
- [15:00]
Interviewer
Yeah. And he had that. He had that gravitational pull, too, that bigger than life. Like, it's amazing. Some people can just have fun in the moment, others can't. And it's. It's a gift. It's such a gift. Gus also told me one of those stories, my last gus story, but 2014, on the sideline at Mississippi State. I. I heard you. I heard you. I heard you physically assaulted a referee. Is. Is that correct?
- [15:22]
Rhett Lashley
Wow. Let's make sure we don't get any quotes out of context here.
- [15:27]
Interviewer
I know the real story, but saying you physically assaulted a referee is way better than what it really was.
- [15:33]
Rhett Lashley
That was a rough day. Yeah, we're. That was one. Verse two. Mississippi State, Auburn, right? That was the Dak Prescott year. They were big. And we just lost the national title the year before, and we rolled in there, and I think they beat us about 38 to 23. I can't remember. It was. It was raining, and I'm standing down behind the offense, and we're about to get to delay a game play. Clock's running down. Nobody's seen it. Gus quarterback. Nobody's anything about it. So I go sprinting to the. To the side judge right there. And I'm go. I'm going like this to call timeout. And I mean, my feet come out from under me. I got rain pants on everything. I slide right into his legs. He looks down at me, starts yelling at me, you know, And I'm like, time out. And Gus, it's funny, you can see on the sideline. Copy. So I slide into the official, and Gus starts walking towards me. And when he sees what happened, he just turns and walks the other way, like, oh, I'm not getting caught on TV with this deal. And I made Mike Ditko. Come on, man, for. For Monday Night Football that week. So, yeah, that happened.
- [16:36]
Interviewer
Never, never, never. That's good. But that. That. That could have been assault. Did he. Did he handle it good, though? I mean, he wasn't too pissed off?
- [16:45]
Rhett Lashley
He was pissed in the moment. We got the timeout. It's important.
- [16:48]
Interviewer
Okay.
- [16:48]
Rhett Lashley
Didn't help us win the game. And then later, I think you realized I slipped. He didn't know. He's like, why is this guy trying to take my acl?
- [16:58]
Interviewer
Well, I mean, so you got all that background, man, and, And. And all that time with Gus and company. But what about Getting to smu, man, and, and, and watching smu, it's been really cool because y' all made a. Y' all made a conscious decision, like a lot of people in this world are making decisions to go get money immediately. Y' all made a conscious decision to go get into a league and like, listen, this is where we want to be. This is where we want to go. But talk about you and getting to SMU and you know, what you guys have been able to do, because I don't think, I think people used to look at you guys like, oh, a little lsmu. I don't think that's the case anymore.
- [17:35]
Rhett Lashley
Yeah, it was the case and for a while should have been, and now I don't think it is and I don't think it should be. But yeah, I mean, again, you get opportunities. I'm blessed to be the head coach here at the right time and. But my experiences got me to here, you know, and I had the benefit I was when I finally broke away kind of from Gus and started figuring out this thing on my own a little bit. I came to SMU for two years as the OC before then going to Miami for two years and before coming back. And so I'd had the benefit of being here and we won 10 games the last year. I was the OC here in 2019 and kind of started to, we're still in the American, but, you know, do some things. So I knew the place well enough to know that when I got the opportunity to come back, be the head coach, it was really a no brainer. I mean, it was my first chance to be a head coach, but at a place I knew, a city in Dallas, you know, where I knew we could win and felt really good about it. And it was about the same time that from, you know, the board and the alumni and the major donors on down, like going back to. We want to be great again at football here at SMU. There's the glory days in the 80s and there's dope Walker played here and all this. We want to be back on the big stage where we had been before. And so, you know, just, just getting the opportunity, I mean, getting the opportunity to come here, but at a place where, to your point, we have a lot of really incredibly successful business people here. And so they looked at this as, as a business deal, as an investment. We're going to invest in SMU's future. Just like when they invest tons of money in a company and it may be 5, 10 years before they get A major return on it. Like, you know, because there was no other way we were SMU was going to get a seat back at the table. And so people are like, well, you gave this up or you gave that up? Well, we didn't give anything up. We didn't have it. So what we decided to do is, you know, invest and bet on ourself, get ourself a seat at the table again and then watch what we can do to earn it. And it's no different than honestly, you see what Cody's done at Tech, they've invested in certain things. We've done it the same way, just. And so it got us in. And then in two years now, going our third year, I think people have seen, wow, they belong. They've got staying power. It wasn't just a one off, like they're committed. And so. But it was looked at as an investment in the future of smu. Not just athletics and football, the school and the university. Because I think our leadership here understands, man, a great athletic program, great football program is the front porch and marketing arm almost of a university. What it can do for the university 5, 10, 15, 100 years from now, we needed to be back in the arena. We're in with the peers we have. And so for me personally, right, I get to get hired as a head coach. Coach. Two years in the American. We did win a conference championship, but then I don't even have to. I didn't have to move and I became a P4 coach overnight. Like, kind of pinch yourself. Like that's not normal. And so you asked for a raise
- [20:20]
Interviewer
when you go to a P4, huh? Do you ask for a raise when you go P4? Like, wait a minute, we're going, we're transitioning. Thanks, Kim. I'd be like, wait a minute. What? I want to get paid like that.
- [20:32]
Rhett Lashley
Hey, timing. We won the conference year before as we were going to the P4. So it was a good win. Win, perfect, perfect.
- [20:38]
Interviewer
And then you come and what people don't realize, this is Rhett Lashley, smu, by the way, coaches. But like, what people don't realize is what we're talking about is y' all gave up the money to come to the acc. Y' all join the acc. You're not participating like everyone else, but that's what he's talking about, giving up. But then you come into the league, coach in the first year, you, dag, go to the College Football Playoff and kind of prove yourself. What did that do for SMU and where you're at now.
- [21:03]
Rhett Lashley
I think it just accelerated what we believe can happen here and will happen here. I think you just sped it up. You know, most people, hey, it'd be cute if they go sick.
- [21:10]
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- [21:41]
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- [22:42]
Rhett Lashley
prove they can compete. But to do what we did to go 80 in the league, to play for the conference championship, to make the college football playoff. And the funny thing is yeah we we give up the TV revenue but there's still other things we can earn. We earned more year more money in our first year in the ACC than we did would have earned staying in the American with that TV deal. And we didn't even get any TV revenue. So the betting on herself paid off but I think it just accelerated it because now you know we've had back to back top recruiting classes in school history. Last year we followed up with nine wins. I think we have a chance to have a really good team this year. And. And I think it just. I think it probably changed the brand awareness and how we're perceived out of the gates much faster than. Than it would have. Obviously, if we just come in and kind of gone a ho hum. 5 and 7, 6 and 6.
- [23:29]
Interviewer
You were one of the first people that came actually on our show a couple years ago when you were making that playoff run and you told me about how you found Kevin Jennings. Like, he wasn't a highly recruited kid. You kind of went and saw him and you were like, dang, that dude's got something to him. Like, when I watch him coach, he's got the. He's got the ability. He's got the athletic ability. It looks like he's got. He's continued to get a little bit thicker. Like, is it. Is this a fair thing? He's got all the tools. He's got the playmaking. Like, this dude's elite. When I watch him, I'd love to see him stay in the pocket with his feet a little bit more and just not drift. Like, really. You know, you think about, like, I coach high school football now and I'm telling my QBs, like, listen, it's Pat and go, I know, but have a freaking purpose. Like, step, step, step. Like, give me a purpose in what you do. Like, I would. Is it fair to say, like, that's his next step? And talk about just how great he is, because he's been probably one of the most winning quarterback y'.
- [24:23]
Rhett Lashley
All.
- [24:23]
Interviewer
Y' all had and have had.
- [24:25]
Rhett Lashley
Well, first of all, you sound like a pretty good QB coach right there.
- [24:28]
Interviewer
That was pretty good stuff.
- [24:30]
Rhett Lashley
I like the intensity and all that. So let me know when you tell your QB you're going to kill him and then you're all the way in. But, you know, see, everything you said, spot on about Kev. And he's gotten better and better each year. He's poised to have, you know, a great year. He's healthy. He has. He. After his first year, he put on ten pounds going into last year. Now he's probably put on another 10. So you know where he played at? Probably 180 in that playoff run. He's closer to 200 now. He's incredibly gifted, can throw it, can run it. I mean, to your point, I think of all the returning P4 quarterbacks that have played P4 like they're returning P4 starting quarterbacks with at least 15 starts or more. He's got the best winning percentage. He's got the third Most wins among P4 returning started quarterbacks, he's 19 and 7. I think Rocco Beck and. And Noah at Arizona have more. And he beat Noah last year in a bowl game. So, like, he's one. He's the leading passer returning in the ACC. He's top 10 in every category in America. Like, he's actually already proven it. But I think, I think it's a year where we feel responsibility. We're really. I think we got a chance to be better around him this year on offense and as a team. And so I think as coaches and as players, like we, we owe it to him to play well around him and put him in good positions because he is gifted. He's. He's incredibly humble, incredibly confident. The guys believe in him. He's unquestioned leader. He doesn't say a lot. He didn't have to. He just goes out and plays and competes. He's the best competitor I've been around. I've been around some good ones. Cam Newton's up there, like, but he, he has that kind of. I mean, one of our best corner. Can't beat him in a single drill and winter workouts. You know, we run sprints and he beats everybody team by 30 yards. Like, he's just got that to him. And he's, He's a winner. He won in high school. He's won at our level. To your point, he's. He's. He's going to break every school record at SMU midway through this season if he stays healthy. He's, he's just, he's a Heisman finalist worthy guy. If we win enough games and are good enough around him. And I think we have a chance to be this year. So. But what he's done at this time at smu, being a Dallas kid, staying in Dallas and staying at SMU during this transfer time, I think cements his legacy here and, and has been huge. Just almost as huge as us going 8. Knowing the ACC has been Kevin Jennings. The way our program can. Can continue to grow fast.
- [26:47]
Interviewer
How do you. You talked about transfer portal. Like, I'm thinking about that guy talking with Gus Malzahn and winning shootouts 100 to 98. And I'm thinking about like that guy and what they're talking about with football and how the game is and coach, we're like totally the other direction now. Like, it couldn't be more different. Like building culture, taking your recruits, you know, taking the transfer portal. Like, as a coach. How different is it from when you started to. Right now?
- [27:18]
Rhett Lashley
Yeah, I mean, it's totally different than when I started period. And then, you know, when I became a head coach four and a half years ago, it's, it was different then than I ever thought it would be. And four and a half years later it's nine day different than it was four and a half years ago. So it's different. I think the things that, that don't change is it's still a people business. So all the factors outside, you know, transfer portal, nil ref share, money, agents, social media, like all the other things, the factors around the kids now have changed. The factors around the game have all totally changed. So those out external inputs are definitely way different and you got to deal with all of them. The one thing that hadn't changed is we're still in dealing with 17 to 22, 23 year old kids that love the game, that want to play the game. If we're finding the right guys, we're bringing the right guys in here and people are still people and you can work them as hard as you're willing to love them. If people know you care about them, they'll do anything for you. Hey, it's a lot easier to say, hey Kev, you've been really good here. But like if we want to take this to the next level, let's get our feet set in the pocket more. Then here's how you can do this or here's how you can do that or buy into the vision to staying at SMU instead of going to all these other places that would pay you tons of money to transfer right now because of the relationships. It just still comes back to people and relationships and why we all got into coaching. Again, there's other factors we now have to deal with. There's a lot of more things that players deal with than like say when you and I played. Yeah, but it still all comes, it's still the greatest team sport ever and it still comes back to relationships if you want to be great and build a great culture. And so we still try to focus on those things even though there's a lot of other things that we got to deal with.
- [28:56]
Interviewer
I know. And speaking of other things you got to deal with, like when you, when you, how are you going to address the Sourcebee conversation with your team? Because as a coach I'm like, I've got to address this. I got to let them know why this isn't good. Listen, I'm not, I'm not crapping on the kid, I'm not crapping on a university. Like, but there's also, you know, always consequences for your actions. And I think that's something important to point out to kids because they need to. They need to hear that, probably. But, like, how are you addressing this with your team? What do you think of it all? Like, as a coach and an ambassador to the game? Like, what do you. Like what do you. Is this good for our game? Like, what I actually, I'll ask you like this. If Kevin Jennings did that coach, how would you handle it?
- [29:36]
Rhett Lashley
Yeah, yeah. None of this is good for our game. And it has nothing to do with, like, the Texas Tech and Brennan Soares being Cincinnati, Indiana. Like, none of that's my business. So I'm not going to speak to that. That's their thing. I think most coaches are going to fight for their players in general. It's kind of like, yeah, I mean, it's like I tell my kids, my own personal kids, I got four of them, or our players, like, hey, man, if you tell me the truth, I'll fight for you. You may be wrong, there may be consequences, but I'm always going to have your back and I'm here for you. But, like, the, the greater issue on this is, is the health of our game. Our industry is already incredibly unstable. And something like this, it just takes all confidence that there's any stability or any structure, because again, it's not about the people involved. It's if they're. If there are rules that are. Are pretty cut and dry, that there's not many rules we all agree on. Right. This one everybody remotely just about agrees on. You just don't do this. And if you do, it's kind of zero tolerance, and it's always been that way. And the governing body is going to apply the rules appropriately. And no one's really questioning, but you can go to any judge in your state and get the right judge, and then all of a sudden there's an injunction and rules don't matter, then it's the same as having no rules. And so now you're asking, here's the problem. So it further highlights the brokenness right now of our fantastic game. I mean, college football can't be more popular, but nothing's going to sustain without structure, guidelines, and some sort of stability.
- [31:14]
Commercial Announcer
Right.
- [31:15]
Rhett Lashley
And we don't have that. And so now you're asking me, well, what are you going to go tell your team? Well, I think I'm going to tell them that you still can't gamble on sports. Right. Like, it's not okay. It's an integrity issue. It's not healthy. And, oh, why it's against the rules. But what they've just been told is, well, it can be against the rules and still not matter. And so I think that's the challenge and that's the example you've asked about in today's current situation. But that's a challenge in general in our game is like, just tell us the structure and we can all play within that at a high level. But we're having to mentor these kids through, hey, what you can and can't do. And they're going, it's kind of like telling guys, hey, man, you can't celebrate and do this. And they watch the guys in the NFL do it every day on Sunday. Okay, that's only going to last so long. Guess what? Now our guys celebrate. So that's the challenge I think, that we are in. Involved with right now is, yeah, I'm going to tell our guys we're not going to make a big deal about it. But, guys, gambling's still illegal. You can go to jail, you can lose your eligibility. You can, this, this, this and this. And if they say, well, what about that? And say, well, I don't know, I can't tell you why that happened, but it's still illegal.
- [32:22]
Interviewer
I think the, you know, and you're. I love that you said the sport's awesome. And it is great. Like, these are, these are parts of the, of a problem, but the game is awesome. These are symptoms, but the game is still amazing. But, like, coach, the most important thing to me, man, is I got to know the games matter and I got to know you're not messing with the product on game day. Like, I don't care. All the other stuff, man, the, the transfer portals, we've been navigating all this stuff that, that we'll be honest that some of it sucks and some of it's terrible and the fans don't like a lot of it. But at least I know the games matter now. We know there's corrupt people in this world. Like, if this is possible, like, now you have to doubt. Think about when Sorsby throws an interception late in the fourth quarter. Like, think about the scrutiny that comes with this. Like, there's just going to be a lot that's not good for the game. It's not good, it's not healthy. And you're telling me that there's not. There's going to be people that are going to be like, hey, I'll offer you $1 million to throw this game because I can make seven. And guess what? Another thing, too, Coach, that drives me nuts. We won't do it here on ours, but how about the money that everybody continues to take from these gambling places, like hand over fist, like, hey, let me tell you, you watch college game day now, you're going to see all the betting, all the parlays, all this crap, like, all this stuff. And listen, you can do what you want to do. You can do that on any. Any show and any site, and you can take the money. But if you do that, you're putting in front of these kids left and right. And now they have this, and it's right there.
- [33:49]
Rhett Lashley
Yeah, it's more accessible than ever. And yet, you know, the last couple years, it's been a big deal about don't gamble, don't gamble, don't gamble. Coaches and baseball are getting fired. FBI probes are coming in. All this stuff, you know, and yet that's, like, become one of the two or three things that is still consistent. Like, every year, you got to talk to your team, you got to bring people in. Compliance has to say, you can't do this. You can't do this. You can't do this. There's zero tolerance. You're out. And then this happens. And it's like, it. It definitely proves that we need, you know, whether it's this stuff going on in Congress right now or something, we definitely need some help because the integrity of the game is now under attack, to your point, versus just a lot of other chaotic things we're having to deal with.
- [34:33]
Interviewer
Yeah. All right, so how does Rhett Lashley be a great coach? Chase, greatness. Develop all of your young men in your locker room, which. What you're doing. How do you do that and balance the family life with. You got. You got a set of boys twins and a set of girl twins. You got. You got twins all up in the family or something. This is like, yeah, this is genetics.
- [34:53]
Rhett Lashley
I tried to tell my wife that I did something pretty special. She's yet to agree with me. So, you know, the how is really simple. It's. It's. It's really threefold. It's one. I have an incredible wife. She's phenomenal. And she never thought she'd be a coach's wife. She never thought she'd have one set of twins, much less two. And she probably didn't think she'd be dealing with me going on 20 years now. But she's phenomenal. We could do the whole podcast about her, just her grace and how she leads and loves our family. The second thing is I had, I did. We talked about it at the beginning of this deal. I had a man step in, Phil Phillips, to become my dad and really help raise me and show me, you know, Morse caught than taught. So he helped show me a lot of how to do things. I didn't know I was learning how to treat people, how to talk to people, how to do this and how to be a man. You know, boys don't know how to become men unless they're told or shown or taught. And I think a lot of people, a lot of times just, oh, he'll grow up. Well, how I had someone help show me. And then thirdly is just the, the grace of God, man. I. I serve a great savior who time and time again shows me grace and mercy and gives me more opportunity and more blessings than I deserve. But I do. I have a great family. And I think, to give you a more practical answer, I think that margin is big. And we don't take ourselves too seriously here. We love to compete, we love to win. We believe in what we do. We got a hard job, we got to win or we won't be here. Yada, yada, yada. But, man, we enjoy who we do it with in this building. We're not trying to win the award for hours served. If it takes 24 hours, we'll take 24 hours. But if it doesn't, we're not going to sit here just to say, hey, pound our chest. We work till 1am if we win, we're going to have a job. If we lose, they're going to get rid of us and they're never going to ask us what our time clock said. And I tell our coaches all the time, man, don't miss your kids stuff. Short of it being a conflict with our game on Saturday or one of our practice, something that like our game or our practice, like, go, you can always come back, get it done. But if you miss your kids games, it's not because you didn't have permission to go. Because I just believe that's my calling as a dad first. That's our staff's calling, is mothers and fathers, like, pour into our kids. We can do both. We can do both. And I think it's so easy to say, well, I either got to do this or this. Nah, man. Like, one day when I die, they're not going to ask me how many wins. When I get to heaven, it's how did I raise my kids? How did I steward them? The Players on our team, like, that's the stuff that matters. And so we just try to keep it in perspective, have margin. We feel like you can be elitely competitive, elitely successful, but still have that family atmosphere and that balance. And so that's how we do it.
- [37:31]
Interviewer
Are we, are we a hands on dad and in like sport, like they're playing sports, so.
- [37:37]
Rhett Lashley
Yes and no. I mean, I try to be dad and, and, and can you help yourself? Oh, so when I. Okay, so I, I got to coach the boys because of COVID I got to coach them in their fourth grade baseball team. They were at 10 or 11. It was the best, most awesome thing I ever got to do. So one time I got to like coach their team. I was the head coach. They were playing, so I coached them and it was, man, it was so fun. But so, yeah, I like to give. I've learned to just be dad and tell them what I'm proud of them and not what they need to do different as much. Unless it has to do with effort and attitude. I don't really go crazy as long as they're doing those things. But, you know, now that my boys are 9th graders going into 10th grade, like last year, they were 9th graders and they were playing football. Well, one of our boys was the backup quarterback, is a ninth grader on the varsity team and the quarterback got hurt. He played in five games. He started to, you know, and so I'm sitting in the stands watching the games and my wife makes me want to watch him play football. My other son started at second base on the baseball team. Like, I go through two bags of seeds easily in a game.
- [38:41]
Interviewer
I'm just to keep your mouth shut.
- [38:43]
Rhett Lashley
There you go.
- [38:44]
Interviewer
Yeah.
- [38:45]
Rhett Lashley
And then after the game, I just tell them, man, as long as they played hard and did their best, I tell them I love them and I'm proud of them and, and I wait a while before I critique anything.
- [38:54]
Interviewer
Yeah, man, it's such a, it's such a hard. Like, there is no harder job than raising kids. Like, it's by far the, the hardest thing I've done. And I, I'm just learning, man. Like, hey, great game, Love you and just shut up and walk away and get out of it. If they wanted my opinion, they'd ask, like, they'd ask me and they man mine, the older I get, the less they want it.
- [39:16]
Rhett Lashley
Like, there's plenty of times I've told my wife, hey, maybe you should tell them this.
- [39:20]
Interviewer
Yes. And it'd be so much better received, wouldn't it like, wifey can get away with murder.
- [39:26]
Rhett Lashley
It's gotten better, though. Like, they were just having 7 on 7 deal yesterday. And. And my wife's texting me. I wasn't sitting by her. And she goes, t needs to get rid of the ball quicker. I'm like, that's my girl.
- [39:37]
Interviewer
I love that. My. My son. My son told us. He said he's about to be 18. And he was like, hey, this is one of my proudest wife. My wife. Proudest I've been to my wife. He was like, hey, I'm about to be 18. I'd like to be. I like to address the rules and be treated more like a man. And my wife was like, okay, what are you thinking? And he was telling us a couple of things that he thought he should do. She was like, I agree. And she goes, you know what? You're gonna go get a job and pay for your cell phone, pay for your gas, pay for your insurance. You want to be a man? Like, we can absolutely treat you more like a man. He was like, no, well, that's not what I meant. She goes, oh, you want the benefits of manhood without working? Oh, I got you. But I was. Oh, I was in the background, like, let's go fist pumping like crazy. I was so jacked, and it didn't come from me, so it was so much better, man.
- [40:23]
Rhett Lashley
Oh, that is amazing. Yes. Big time. Now, is this your son that just committed to Clemson?
- [40:28]
Interviewer
Yes, sir. Yeah.
- [40:29]
Rhett Lashley
Congrats, man.
- [40:31]
Interviewer
Thank you very much. Yeah, it's. It's weird. It's weird having a. Another one in the house and you're gonna see, like, that ninth grade area now. You're rising tenth graders, like, 6, 3, 2, 25. And I'm like, who's that man next to my wife that I need to go beat him up? Like, holy cow, that's mine. It's. It's. Man, it goes fast. But I appreciate your time. Hey, happy anniversary. I think we had. We just had an anniversary. Happy birthday. We just had a birthday. You got all kinds of things going on.
- [40:55]
Rhett Lashley
All kinds of stuff. Yeah. It just means we're getting older, right? And congrats to you. I mean, seriously, your son Dabo's gonna be great. That's a great spot. And. But yeah, no, I actually. I turned 43 this week, and I punished myself for getting older and did legs that day. It was leg day, so.
- [41:11]
Interviewer
Hey, you can't spell legendary without leg day.
- [41:13]
Rhett Lashley
Yeah. But then the next day, I, like, could barely walk because I think I did something to my hip flexor.
- [41:17]
Interviewer
So that's the price we pay is getting older. Rhett. Appreciate your time, man. Keep doing your thing. And we look forward to watching you guys this year, man.
- [41:24]
Rhett Lashley
Appreciate you, man.
- [41:25]
Interviewer
Appreciate you, brother.
- [41:28]
Rhett Lashley
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Commercial Announcer
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Rhett Lashley
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