Brian Bohanon edit
Tue, Mar 12, 2024 6:39PM • 44:16
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
coach, coaches, work, talk, program, job, kennesaw state, win, kids, football, goals, toughness, players, wanted, started, staff, put, team, group, good
SPEAKERS
Brian Bohannan, Paul Barnett
Paul Barnett 00:00
Coach Bohannan Good morning, Whiteside. Good late afternoon, your time and welcome to the great coaches podcast.
Brian Bohannan 00:07
Awesome, awesome. Excited about being on today.
Paul Barnett 00:10
Thank you for carving out a little bit of time, at the end of your day, I understand you've just come out of the room looking at film, so very keen to chat with you. But I'm gonna start with a really simple question. Coach, could you tell us where you are in the world and what you've been up to so far today?
Brian Bohannan 00:25
Oh, shoot, today, we started our morning workouts with our team. We do six days, they call them coaches runs, but I always laugh with them. I'm like, I'm not running. I'm too old. I'm not running anywhere. But, but we do some team building, you know, some stuff that did to help to build our team up work on adversity and tough stuff. And, and so we started that at six this morning. And then, you know, I've hired a new offensive coordinator, new defense coordinator. So we've really been in meetings a lot right now, kind of getting everybody on the same page with terminology and the things we need to do, because we'll start spring practice in about three weeks. As we get ready for the 24th season.
Paul Barnett 01:05
Well, we're going to talk a little bit about terminology and the 24th season and in fact that the seven or eight seasons that have gone before, because it's a great, it's a great, great story. But let's just begin with perhaps some of your apprenticeship. Now, you worked under the great coach Paul Johnson for 16 years. And I'm, I'm sure at that time, you also saw some pretty good coaches from the other side of the field, too. But Coach Bohannan, what do you think the great coaches do differently that sets them apart?
Brian Bohannan 01:33
Well, I mean, I think number one, you know, obviously, this is talking about leadership. But I think there's a lot of different ways to lead, but the great ones, find ways to get everybody bought into a to a common goal and vision. Right. And everybody, you know, especially in this game, we got, you know, kids from different backgrounds, different places, you got staff from, you know, different places. And I think the ultimate goal is how do you get everybody bought into that. And always working in that direction, and may communicate a little bit differently. But we're all saying the same thing, maybe a different way. But but that common goal and vision we're all working towards, and and just getting everybody to believe in it. And I think that's the number one trait, there's a lot of different ways to do it. [PB1] [PB2]
You know, you, you look across the country, from CEOs, to coaches, to whatever it might be in, you know, people have different ways of leading, but they're getting to the same place. You know, and there's lots of different ways to do it. So, I mean, that would be my number one. I mean, there's a lot of things that go into it. You know, but but I think that in a nutshell is how do you get a group of people born in to something, something bigger than themselves, something bigger than themselves, they believe in they're empowered, you know, to go do it, and to be the best version of themselves they can be. And I think that's really what, what you're trying to get accomplished when when you talk about leadership.
Paul Barnett 02:57
So I'm always intrigued I because the size of an American football team is PSB. I mean, you've probably got more than 100 players is my guess, and probably 50 staff, how do you ensure that they all stay on song that they all stay aligned to that vision, you've got such a disparate group of people?
Brian Bohannan 03:14
Yeah, I think the number one thing early on is you know, you're you have this vision, you have this thing, the way you want things to look, I think you got to take your staff and make sure they understand the vision because they're going to spend time with those those players as well. And then, as a head coach at you, you got to stay in front of them, you got to constantly communicate. I think this day and age building relationships is probably always has been but more so now than ever, you know, to build relationships with with the staff, but more important with your players. And then the thing I've learned in my short time as a head coach, I've been doing this as a head coach for 10 years. But if you never stop talking about the vision, and how we get there, it's like you repeat, I feel like I'm repeating myself all the time. But at the end of the day, there's new people in the bill. There's new kids coming in the program. And maybe they haven't heard it enough or the right way. And so I think that's something I've learned along the way just got to keep saying the same things over and over. Sometimes you got to find a different way or a better way to say it so that it's heard the right way. Because I think that's really important is fine. [PB3] And what I tell our coaches all the time, listen, we know what it looks like, we understand it. But at the end of the day, it doesn't matter if our kids don't understand it. They're the they're the ones that make this thing go we got to figure out a way to to get them on the same page. So I think those are some things that have been important. I'm still learning I'm 53 years old, I learned something every day every day learns up this morning. Go learn something today like just I don't think you ever stop learning in this profession. Of how to help a program be the best they can be at what they do.
Paul Barnett 05:03
Now, cash by hand, and if my research is correct, it was it was way back in seventh grade, when you were completing a school task detailing who you wanted to be what you like to do and what you wanted to be when you grow up that you wrote it simply, when a football coach now, or a seventh grader, that's a pretty profound vision to have. But was there a person or an event that ignited this passion in you to go on and be a head coach?
Brian Bohannan 05:33
So well, there's a couple things. So my dad was a high school football coach for 30 years I played for my dad, I grew up on a football field. So you know, from I don't know, at the time, I was probably six, seven years old, I'm on the field every day, whether I'm the you know, the ball boy, The Waterboy, getting the T trainer manager, I tell them a joke all the time, they had tearaway jerseys back in the day, I'm cleaning them off the grass. Like, so I, that's where I saw my dad, that's, that's where I was going to be I'd catch a bus from elementary, middle school, whatever it might be to go, you know, be a practice, even all when really all the team are practicing, I was helping in some way. So I grew up in it, my parents, both educators and dad, a coach. So I grew up in it, I didn't. You know, I got to college, and I'm trying to, you know what I want to do, I think my mom knew the, you know, when when you coach football, it's, you got to be passionate about it. And it takes a lot of time. And she's like, well, I want you to try the business thing. So I did. And by my junior year, and I'm like, Nah, I'm gonna go coach, this is what I want to do. This is what's in my heart, this is what I feel like I'm called to do. And so those are probably the biggest things that came up along the way. And I love it, I now had no intention of being a head coach, none whatsoever. I really didn't think hardly anything about I just when I first started, I think my goal at the time was maybe to try to get back to the level I played at. So I played the University of Georgia. So in my mind, like, if I could get back to a school like that, that would that was the initial goal, right. And then you get into it, you mentioned, worked for Coach Johnson for 16 years, not tell the story, I did not interview for a job in 16 years. Now whether I was supposed to or not, I don't know, maybe I wasn't good enough to interview whatever it might be. But I didn't. I'm a pretty old school loyal soldier that believes in being where your feet are, and making the job you have the best one, if you do it the right way that people will notice you don't just you have to put on social media for somebody to recognize that you've, you're doing a good job. But anyway, so in and went through all that. And I think it you know, as coach was starting to close on his career a little bit, I realized I was gonna have to step out on my own, I'd been with him for a long time, he's a phenomenal coaching person. And, and that's when the whole head coaching thing kind of came up at a place that didn't even have a football, didn't have uniforms, didn't have equipment. Never thought about that. Not a not one time. So anyways, that's kind of the coaching piece of it is the evolution of kind of how I got into the business a little bit. I'm[PB4]
Paul Barnett 08:21
gonna ask you about the startup and what's happened with that program. But if I could just take a minute to just talk about your apprenticeship a little bit more 17 years before, as an assistant before you became a head coach, and I'm really intrigued to ask you, what did that experience, not teach you that you've now had to sort of learn the hard way? Because you've watched your father as well as since you've been very small. So was that something that really caught you off guard and you've had to work hard on? Yeah,
Brian Bohannan 08:51
so nobody can teach you to be a head coach. Let me just go ahead and get that out of the way right now. You learn a lot of things that people tell you along the way. But when you sit in that chair, and you have to make decisions every minute of every day, and you have no idea what the decisions are just someone walks in your office, nobody can really necessarily prepare you for that. I was fortunate. I had a little time because you mentioned the startup pace, we had a little time to kind of get my feet on the ground but I just remember the the enormous amount of decisions that are put it in your lap that you have to make. Sometimes with good information to help you sometimes maybe not as much. And sometimes you gotta make them in the moment you don't have time to go, Hey, let me think about this for a little bit. You know, I think nobody can you just gotta go do it. Like in. Sometimes you're gonna do good and sometimes you're not and you just got to learn from it and move on to the next thing but I think the amount of decisions is really incredible. [PB5]
You know, when you first get going, and then you're learning something every day about something it's like, and I'm not even talking about scheme. I'm talking about how to manage, how to how to how to communicate, how to win power, how to get, you know what I mean? Like, how do you get everybody, and then you have all the changes on your staff, and you're just doing it over and over again, because they weren't here the whole time. And so you got to go back again and get them on the same page. So I would say just the amount when you say what you did not learn that, that's one of those things I think people can tell you about, but it's kind of like having your first kid you know what I mean? Like, everybody tells you about it, but to do you have that baby in your arms and you feel that enormous amount of responsibility. Kaito might explain that to you don't have any like, just as just is what it is you go figure it out. Right. And so I would say those are probably, you know, probably the probably the biggest thing. Well,
Paul Barnett 10:57
let's talk about let's talk about the startup, as I as I've been referring to it in my notes here. So you're hired back in 2013. And you're starting this program from scratch, you're the first person hired, you're sitting at a cubicle, there's nobody around you. Now let's flash forward, that team goes on to become the best five year startup program in college football history with a 4815 overall record. There's two Big South Conference Championships. There's three straight appearances in the FCS playoffs and four playoff victories. It's it's an amazing achievement. But when you think about that time, let's zero in on this idea of decisions. What were the one or two big decisions that you made early, that have gone on to have big influence later
Brian Bohannan 11:42
on? Oh, that's a that's a great question. So, you know, I tell people all the time, I was sitting in that cubicle, you know, and the site, I had an interview for a job and all that time, and I interviewed for this one. And it was the full gamut of interviews, right? You got committee, President, you got ad like it's all of it, right? Never had any experience doing it really any of it, then you get the job, you're excited, because we're all competitors in this business and you're fired up, you got the job, and then you're sitting in that cubicle, and you're like, holy cow. Well, what's next, right? Like? We didn't have anything at the time, right? We I'm being serious. We didn't. We had a mock up jersey, we could show with one. We, you know, we just so. But at that time, pen to paper, you know, I'd already made up my mind what I wanted the program to look like. But to me, it's all about people. So it was about how do I get the right staff to go do the things that we want to do here? And then how do we get the right, young man that represent Kennesaw State University and can can be somebody that can go make history? Go do something different, go do something special go leave a legacy? Right? And so I think those are the things that I'm jotting down like, alright, people, how do we get the right staff? How do we get the right players? And how are we intentional about the things we're looking for in those two areas. So that's where it started. [PB6]
And then, you know, you start hiring staff, and we're having all this dialogue and communication. I didn't realize how much in my brain I had formulated what I wanted to look like, until the questions would come up. But I can actually, I had answers whether they were good or bad. I had answers and doesn't mean they were always good, but and I think if you know what you want it to look like. And I always use it like, hey, if an opposing coach shook your hand and said, and you guys played extremely hard, you're well coaching, you're tough. All right, those are on the field characteristics that that, that we can win with, like, I want to win, but like even on a bad day, if we can do those things. And then we want young men that represent this university in the community in the right way, because they're gonna be the first you know, nobody know unlike them ever again. They're this class coming in, it's going to tell the next class in the next class. This is what it means to be a Kennesaw State football player. So all this stuff I'm talking about comes back to culture, culture, cultures beat scheme every day, like what is it like in the building? What are the interactions like how does it all work together? All those things together. So you know, all these things we we talked about, we were intentional about and and we and we went at it and I think it was a lot more enthusiasm and energy. We may be always didn't say the right thing, but by gosh, we did it with energy enthusiasm, so at least people could feel like this is a big deal. And in that first class and that First group of kids man they bought in and the records and stuff you mentioned, it's the staff and the player they just bought in. And it was not easy. But they bought in and we're able to have a ton of success.
Paul Barnett 15:12
Coach, can I talk about culture? Because you've got this great word, its acronym to describe it. It's eat EA T, which stands for effort, attitude and toughness. I love it. I love it, when there's a simple way of describing the culture that you're trying to create. Can you tell us a little bit more about it and how it comes to life for people? Yeah.
Brian Bohannan 15:32
So we had two things here, kind of our, you know, mantras are things we, when we first started, we talked about winning the day when the day on the field off the field in the classroom. And that's really overarching for our program, like, Hey, we're not just going to win on the field, we're going to we're going to do, we're going to take care of our business in the classroom, we're going to be good, good citizens, good people. We want to represent the key is in the right manner, but the eat. So we're sitting around a meeting, we're having these conversations about what we want this thing to look like. And I've already told you, I want our kids play hard. I want to be tough, right? Have the right mindset and attitude. So we're talking through all these things. And you know, one of the volunteer guys who had come on and went to school here, he said, you know, Coach, if you rearrange those words, the first letter, it would be EA t, which is eight. And I'm like, That's awesome. And he was born in that meeting at that moment. And it was just, it was organic, like, we're talking about what we you know, what we want this thing to look like so, and the thing about it is its effort, attitude, a toughness, three things you can control. No matter how tall you are, how fast you run, how much you benchpress none of that matters. You control your effort, how hard you play, you control your attitude, your mindset, you control your physical and mental toughness, those things you can control, no matter because we knew we weren't going to be as good as the people we play. When we started. We knew we weren't. But we knew these things would help us go win. And so that became the mantra, kids love it, they bought into it, it's on the front of our helmet, right there on the front, you know, where you'd have a rod L or shirt, there's, there's eat, you know, and that and that's a, that's really the mantra of our program. And we take a lot of pride in it. And that's what we try to sow. So when we go practice, and we go work out, it's a little different maybe than everybody else, because we're trying to ingrain that effort, attitude and toughness in our players. So they feel like going into a game they're more prepared and have outworked their opponents. So that's how it started in a room and it got a guy named Danny Payne. And he's actually at the Naval Academy now. And he said, you know, Coach, if you if you move those words around, and it's it's eat and it's like there was it was born right there in the moment. And it's kind of evolved from there. We put on the helmet does some other things with it. And it is it's the module of our program. There's no There's no doubt about that. When we[PB7]
Paul Barnett 18:04
talk about toughness a little bit, because I get the sense. It's not just about physical toughness, there's a an emotional element to toughness for you in the program as well. Could you could you pull it apart and tell us how you help people develop the type of toughness that you want in their character? Yeah,
Brian Bohannan 18:25
so toughness is in two categories. You have mental toughness and physical toughness. And the Mental Toughness is the is the biggest piece because it goes back to attitude, which is mindset, your mindset, least your ability to play hard and be tough. Where's my mind work? How can I focus on a, on a single task, whatever that is, maybe it's doing my homework, maybe it's my family, or maybe it's some of the schematically or football or weightlifting or conditioning? How can I focus on a on a simple task? regardless of circumstance? Meaning, hot, tired, don't feel good? Whatever this is going on in my life. How can I focus on that that small, simple task and go execute that task? At a high level regardless of circumstance? That's mental toughness to me. To me, mental toughness is the hardest thing to work on this day and age because to to be mentally tough, you have to do hard things. Because that's the only way you can find out if you're tough. If you get adversity thrown in your face on a daily, how do I manage that adversity? Does it? Do I crumble? Do I walk away from it? Or do I go meet it head on and say, You know what? I'm going at this, I may not win this, but I'm going to go at it. It may not meet down but I'm going to get up and I'm gonna go do it again.
You know, people sometimes don't want to fail but failures, how you get to where you, you have the ability to achieve your goals. Everything in life the people that are most successful man they didn't do it first shot. Now I can promise you that you know, [PB8] [PB9]
so I think the Mental Toughness piece is the most important piece of all of so what we're working on right now, our football team, we've, we talked specifically about toughness and really, this morning when I left them it was about mental toughness, right? You know, we're running a if you're running a 10 yard sprint, can you do it when you're really tired? You know? I mean, can you not jump offsides? In a critical moment again, because you're mentally tough, right? And I think that's, to me, that's the component that's most important. physically tough is more about, hey, you know, the manly stuff, right? Like I'm physically tough on, I can go be physical and I can, I can hit and all those things in and that's a huge piece of it, don't get me wrong. But if your mental, your attitude in your mindset is not in the right place, none of the other stuff is going to come up like you'll never get to anything else, you'll never get to the effort piece. Because your mind is on the right place, you'll never get to the physical piece because your mind is not in the right place. So I like on the E, the way I frame it is it starts with your attitude is your mindset. Without the right mindset, you can't have effort and you can't have toughness. Because it all goes back to my mental state of where I'm at and what I am ready, and I want to go do not I have to go do I want to go do it started our football team about a half to person or team or a walk to person, we need want two people, I have to I don't have, listen, have two guys, I have to be here, they're not going to go win for you. And we want guys that want to be here because they want to win and they want to be successful. But it all comes back to the mindset and the attitude of how we approach things, it gives you that opportunity.
Paul Barnett 21:51
Pitch by hand. And I got an interesting quote from you. You alluded to it a minute ago, you say, I've always said culture beats scheme every day, and you sustain on culture, you don't sustain on any scheme. That's how you create an environment. Now, it's an interesting idea. I know schemes are so important in American football and other sports like basketball as well. But if if I wanted to ask you, if I was to ask you to describe the most high performing environment that you've experienced, one that you are aspiring to, how would you describe it?
Brian Bohannan 22:29
I think to get to that idea of a culture of player led and player driven. Of coach, we're going to go do this because it to me, this whole thing revolves around your players, and can they lead? I think when you get to a point that they're carrying the mantra, they're holding each other accountable. They want to go do this. To me, that is the point you're like, This is awesome. To me, that's the arena you're trying to get in where all the thoughts you have as a coach, and as our assistant coaches and staff. They're ingrained. And the players are saying, Hey, we're going to go do this coach, throw at us whatever you want, make it as challenging as you can make it, it doesn't matter. We're going to go do this. And we've had some moments here and some years here. 17 was a really special year for us that it didn't matter what happened. They were resilient. They never thought in a minute they were going to lose, it didn't matter who we're going to play. And they were going to play harder than anybody we played against. Was that coach Bohannan? No, that was a group of young men that had bought into something that was bigger than themselves. And it didn't matter the arena, it didn't matter where they were, that group of young man was going to go do it. And, you know, we went out to Montana State that year and snowstorm and, you know, nobody even knows who we are, you know, and find a way to win a game on the road in the snow against the team that's got a pretty good history. And but that was because of that group of kids and just how they decided they wanted to be. And I think that's the that's the goal and this and whatever you are, wherever you are, when you get them bought into that. And it's it's their idea is their way, if that makes sense. It's about them what they want to do. That's when that's when success. Success follows what that looks like. That's when success follows.
Paul Barnett 24:40
Coach, we've talked about the culture in the team, but when you were setting it up, did you talk about the team's purpose or sometimes people described as their mission? Was that something that you also articulated as a group?
Brian Bohannan 24:55
Absolutely. You know, I tried to do the best job I could to be clear on the vision expectations. I mean, listen, we met for the first time as a team in 2014. We had, I think, 29 kids on scholarship, we had 80 kids in the room. And like I said, Only 29 on scholarship. And, you know, I'd already talked a lot about the vision because we've we've recruited those guys in different capacities with a walk on or scholarship.
But listen, I put on the up, put on the screen, like, this is what we're gonna do here. We're gonna, we're gonna win at home, protect the nest, you know, we're gonna, we're gonna win a conference championship, we're gonna win a national championship. That's the three goals for this program. Now, you and I both know, I knew that won't happen in year one, probably wouldn't happen. Year two, didn't know when it was gonna happen. But I felt like they need to know that this is the standard. This is what we're going for. If you stay set your standards low, you'll get low standards. If you set them high, you got shot to get high standards, like where do you set them. And so we talked about that really, once a year, didn't really get into a lot of it throughout the year. But we did, we did talk about it and laid it out. And each and every moment of every day, needed to reflect what we wanted our football team blue line. So being on time, we're in the right gear, being on time to class, everything that we wanted our our program to look like, especially on a special on a Saturday afternoon, we had to replicate that in everything we did, I was the way I believe is if you want your team to look a certain way, you got to have that way every day. Because it's going to be those ingrained habits that they're going to, you know, they're going to resort back to their training, right. So whatever they've learned along the way, that's what they're going to resort back to. So that's kind of how we approached it, [PB10]
you know, and we're bashful about it. You know, in that five years, we never got to the national championship, and we got the quarterfinals twice, you know, which is we didn't hit our goal, but remarkable in itself. And our nine seasons here, I think were 44 and nine at home, that was a goal. So they gotta have something they're going after, right? You gotta have an nugget out there. That nugget changes a little bit every year with young people, but you got to have something out there for them to go after and even more. So now you got to have some more more immediate things they can accomplish as you work your way through the process. But yeah, we put that out there for
Paul Barnett 27:25
you said that the start of an answer you said protect the nest. And it it links to this quote I have from you where you say, I think everybody's born inherently being selfish. I think it takes a lot of effort and energy to think of others before yourself. It's so so true. And I'm and it's true in all teams and groups. It's not reserved just for sport, but how do you go about developing the skill of being unselfish in your program?
Brian Bohannan 27:54
Yeah, I think we're all that way. Listen, I when I made that like, quote, like it, we're all that way we all have that we, we all have the things we that we, you know, individually want. And I'm good with that. Like we got guys come in, I won't be all conference, I won't be all American. I'm like, Man, I'm fired up about that. Hope you get on what I want to coach. I'm gonna go there. And Phil Knight, I hope you go. I'm all for. So listen, here's how this works. When you put the team above yourself, right, you're going to have a shot at all those goals. Team success lens leads to individual accolades. Team success leads to individual accolades. You got to buy into something bigger yourself. And everything we do hear when you walk in the building, your Kennesaw State football player, I don't care if it's all American quarterback, or the third string holder. The standard of the program is standard, the program you're all gonna be held accountable to that. And everything we do. And so it's like we try to do everything together as a team. This is the standard that's how we do it. You know, and so, it but it is a daily, this is another thing, it's a minute by minute day by day process of working towards Hey, I'm Google your individual goals. I'm glad I want you to write them down. And I want you to put them above your your headboard. So when you get up in the morning, you read those and make sure everything you do during the day leads towards those goals. Coach, I won't be a 3.0 student I want to do this I want to I put them above your and write them down. So when you get up in the morning, remind yourself are my actions backing up my my individual goals. But at the end of the day, if you go by yourself bigger than yourself, right? You're gonna you're gonna say hey, I'm doing this for my teammate. I'm not gonna let my buddy down. We're working our tail off. We have a huge investment. I'm not gonna let it go. I'm gonna I'm gonna do it because I care about him and he cares about me. And I don't want to let him down. And it's amazing when you do that also know that other stuff you want just kind of starts to lining right Like, holy cow, when I put it when I don't make it about me, all sudden the things that maybe I wanted start to come to fruition a little bit. [PB11]
There's no guarantee on that there's no guarantee on life on anything, right? But I'm a firm believer in it. And we talk about all the time and recruits come in, I'm like, Listen, I want you all to go do all the things you want within the day, team success, least individual accolade, we got an All American board and they're filled up with with guys. And it wasn't because that was all they cared about. That was part of it. But ultimately, they cared about their teammates, and they cared about the greater good of Kennesaw State football and how we're gonna go accomplish the things we wanted to and then good things happen with it. It's kind of like I told you about jobs, Be Where Your Feet Are, make the job, you have the best one. You don't have to tweet about it. People will recognize people will know what you do what you're supposed to good things happen.
Paul Barnett 30:53
Catch by hand, and I've heard you talk about self reflection and how important it is to you. Can you tell us about the way that you go about this?
Brian Bohannan 31:04
Yeah, and I probably struggle with this at times, just to be up front, you know, you get in this, you know, you get in this job. And gosh, you're you're judged on Saturday to Saturday, right? Like, if you want everybody loves you if you don't, you know, it just kind of is what it is. Right? It's a and it never stops. Right? You know, especially now and college football we're in the offseason is the toughest time of year, in seasons, actually the fun part, the all seasons where it's a challenging, and I think it's so fast paced, and you're trying to get things done and accomplished you, you don't really step back and look at what all is going on. The one thing I did do here, when we started is I made it a point that no matter. Whatever happened, when we won, we were gonna celebrate. You know, we got to a point here that we were winning. And you know, we could win and not win pretty and the kids would know it. Like they'd go in the locker room and be like, not even want to celebrate. And one thing I did here is no matter what, I don't care, a wins a win. Period, we're gonna celebrate. And we do that because we got to enjoy that moment. And we and I tell our guys after a game you need to go enjoy it. Have fun, you deserve it. Take care of one another. We'll come back tomorrow regroup, get ready for the next one. I think as a coach, sometimes that's hard to do. Right? You're, you're so ready for the next one, right? Like you're just and I'm we're probably that way during the season, I'm gonna be honest, we I mean, I've tried to do a better job along the way and enjoying the victories a little longer, not just right after the game, but like, hey, enjoy them. They're hard to come by. People don't realize what it takes to go win a ballgame. Think about now you got to get 120 Young man on the same page for 60 minutes to go get a job done, like 18 to 22 year olds. So it's, I don't care who you're playing. Half the time you're playing yourself more than you're ever playing an opponent. You got to overcome yourself before you can go play anybody. You know, we're talking about job, let's just don't beat ourselves, we got to shop. And so I think I think these things, you know, all these things come into play a little bit. But I've tried to step back and go, Hey, look at you know, look at what all we've accomplished here. And I'm proud of the people in the building and what they've done and and all this happened here, I think I probably don't do a good enough job of really enjoying those moments more. I think when you reflect you're reflecting on everything like things you could be felt like you did good felt things you felt like you did bad, how can we be better? I'm not a I'm a non ego guy. I don't really care about any of the stuff and all that I do. I am prideful for our program. I do want it to be appreciated and recognized not for me, but for the hard work that's been put in here. And you know, I am that way for sure. But their self reflection, you know, it's you try to step back, take a deep breath. If there's a point in the offseason you can and go Alright, man, this is good stuff, right? Some good stuff going on here. And then I think the same token, as a coach, you're always trying to learn to get better. So you kind of look at the things that may be, Hey, how can we be better as 2024? Right? And 15 And 2024 Completely different times right now. Everything's different. College football is different. The way you got to do some things is different. And you got to find a way to adjust and adapt. And I think part of that self reflection is that a little bit and for me, I think as a coach, I'm always trying to figure out how do I get to the same place I want to get to, but find better ways to do it. find better ways to engage, find better ways to do to get to the place I know that will help us win. You know, so it's um It's a work in progress for me, I'm gonna be honest, we talk about it, I do a better job sometimes at others that because I'm so focused on the next thing or the big picture, or what's down the road, or whatever it might be, and sometimes you get caught up in all that you forget about, maybe some of the good stuff that's happened.
Paul Barnett 35:17
Can I ask you about this idea of things being different. And I want to link it to this idea of 120 young men. And we've had this thing called COVID happen, which I think has changed the way we need to communicate, or it's evolved a little bit, I'd like to ask you what you've learned about communicating across generations. Particularly given the way that millennials have been impacted by COVID? Yeah, so
Brian Bohannan 35:47
I kind of called the post COVID effect a little bit, I think we're going down this road technology and access to information has a lot to do with it, my opinion. And the information is not always accurate, but it's easy access to information. And then it got accelerated, right, Hey, everybody, get away from one another, don't talk to anybody don't hang out with anybody. You know, I mean, and yeah, and accelerated what was already hitting that race accelerated.
And so I call it kind of the post COVID effect. And the biggest thing, I think, that we've learned, and that we know we have to do, as coaches, the kids are not going to come talk about stuff, unless you get them and prod out of them. They're just not, they're more looking at a phone oriented than they are, and Snapchat and Instagram, whatever it might be, then they are open lines of communication. So, you know, I got coaches, a guy signs on the door for meeting tops, like once a week, and I'm still preaching it now. Like, get them in your office. It's not about football, it's just hey, man, how's it going? Because at the end the day we're trying to find out what makes them go, what is their why? Why do they come over to the building every day, right? Other than the scholarship, because it's got to be bigger than that. Now, you're gonna go do this, because this is not easy. And so I think that's the biggest thing is a lot more dialogue is is needed now, to dig into the layers of whatever that that young man's background is, and how does that impact his ability to go be successful. And that's it, that's the biggest thing. And we have to be really diligent about it. We talk about it all the time. [PB12]
And I think there's ways you got to learn to teach differently, you know, attention spans are, are not real long, they'd rather get the quick thing on Twitter or Instagram, and they would listen to anything for a really long time, that's just so it's like, you got to find different ways to teach different ways. Figure out what, how they learn, and we gotta figure out how to teach it that way. And, you know, and so it's like, you can't keep them in a meeting too long. They're not going to be there, they look at you, but they're not there. You know, they're there, they went to another place. So I think these are things that we've learned, and we're still evolving and trying to keep them active and moving. And you know, but the big thing is the relationships and the dialogue and the communication that that is, to me, you don't have that right now you have no shot, you have no shot, it's always been that way. But it's way more that way now than it than it was if we'll use the COVID as kind of a benchmark, pre COVID It's heading in that direction, but it got accelerated during that time. And you know, and obviously, technology and cell phones and access to information is is something that plays a huge role in that as well.
Paul Barnett 38:47
Brian, you talked about uncovering the players why a minute ago I'm wondering What's your why?
Brian Bohannan 38:56
Yeah, I mean, I love watching young people grow and do things they didn't think they could do I love trying to take them to a place they didn't think they could go to help them be the best version of themselves they can be and I'm I'm also that guy that you know kind of tell me I can't do something or maybe you don't think we can do it. I'm have a little that. That chip on my shoulder to go prove you wrong. And sometimes that comes out as extreme passion. Maybe it looks the wrong way. I don't know. It's just me. I am who I am. I don't really hide that. But, you know, I think those are some things I've always enjoyed being around young people and coaches and they don't realize that I'm pushing them to go to a place they didn't think they could go. And I love it when they get there. I love when they go get that job and 510 years down the road they call back and they got kids and like coach in the moment and stuff was crazy tough. But looking back on it, I appreciate it because it's put me in a position to be successful life. Like that's the that's the ultimate win. Right? You know, I want He's playing the NFL. But I know that's not gonna last forever. You know, but that, you know, the kid that comes back in and just like Coach, man, I, I get it in a moment, I wasn't quite sure I thought you were crazy. But, but But I get it. So I mean, I love watching them develop and do things they didn't think they could do, you know, take into play sick, didn't think they could go, you know, not just from a football but from a life perspective, right? Like, we're in a crazy world, like we're helping these kids go develop some skills that can go help navigate what I call a crazy world right now. And to me, that's the that's the stuff that's awesome. And, you know, and that are proud to come back. So you know what I played there? I played there, man, that place is awesome. Loved it. You know what I mean? It's not, we're not perfect. We're far from it. But but, you know, those are things I think that are important. For my why
Paul Barnett 40:58
baseball hat and what perhaps just one last question, if I could, because one of the most fascinating things about the owls is that you're starting a tradition that will probably go on for decades, if not hundreds of years. And I say that because the other programs around you have been around that long. Now, as the person who's at the start of this, who's lit the match at the beginning, when you look into the future, how do you hope people describe the legacy that the hours are creating? Oh
Brian Bohannan 41:40
whatever young man come through this program, they'll represent this universe in this community in the right way. They'll go out on that field and play the game the right way. doesn't always mean we'll win every game. We need to try to but we won't. You know, and I think, you know, is people or someone would look into this program and say, You know what, that things are on the right way. And it's done for the right reasons. Not just on the field, but in the classroom in the community. Everything's done with the mindset of helping young people be the best version of themselves that it can be. [PB13] And we did it the right way. We didn't shortcut it. We shortchange it. We didn't, you know, we, we did it the right way. And, you know, and I think some of those monitors we talked about, I think we'll carry on, you know, and, you know, I hope we've laid a foundation that people take a lot of pride and playing for this program, but also people that come to this place, to even to play us or whatever, like man at Kennesaw State football. You better be ready to go. You know, that's what we wanted. When we started, we wanted to be circled. We wanted to be known, we wanted for someone to say, oh my gosh, I gotta go play them. Because at the time, didn't nobody care about us at all. And I think that's a we got it comes a responsibility to, that's for sure. But I think that's it man. If somebody looks in here is like, shoot, man, this thing was done the right way. Like if somebody else stepped into this program right now they're like, good, and this thing's good. This This place is in a good place, because it's been done the right way. And it's been built the right way. Not built with shortcuts, but built with a with a strong foundation that you could, that you could put any house you wanted on because it has a strong foundation, or strong or a building or whatever that might be because it has a strong foundation.
Paul Barnett 43:55
And then and it's been great getting to know you I've loved researching a little bit about the ALS Kennesaw State. It's a great startup story, and I am looking forward to seeing how it all unfolds in the coming years. I wish you all the best for the coming season.
Brian Bohannan 44:10
Awesome, appreciate you.
Paul Barnett 44:11
Thanks, Coach.
Brian Bohannan 44:13
Thank you