Lots of K-State talk in this Q&A with The Athletic. Nothing groundbreaking, but thought he had an interesting perspective on the possibility of him taking over during the Currie years if Snyder would've stepped down. That, and the first sentence of the last paragraph below. Kinda seems that even his inner circle is left in the dark to some degree.
How did you get the UTEP job? How did you sell yourself in your interview?
“They wanted somebody who could recruit Texas because they felt Texas hadn’t been recruited the way it needed to be recruited. They needed somebody that had the Texas ties and a reputation in the state of Texas. And they wanted offense. I’ve been the winningest offensive coordinator in college football since 2011, had a good eight-year stretch of consistently putting out really efficient offenses that win football games at the highest level. And I have the experience of being a head coach. When you took those parameters, it was just the perfect time and perfect place for me.”
“I went after it and I used my resources. John Currie was a huge fan of mine, and I think I did have a great chance of getting the K-State job if it ever opened when John was there. Jim Livengood, the AD when I was at Arizona, was a big resource of mine. Tom Burman at Wyoming was a big fan who helped me. Bob Stoops and I are really close and Bob went to bat for me pretty hard. Steve Miller, who was the AD at K-State when we got it turned around, is a well-respected person in the business. I went and used some of those bigger guys I have in my corner, and it worked out.”
After the past nine years, what was the hardest part of leaving Kansas State? What are you going to miss the most?
“Just the fans and the people that you care about so much there. It’s your alma mater, you played there, you have so many years invested there. The people of Manhattan are great friends of mine that I’ve known forever. There are a lot of people in the administration that I really care about and spent a lot of time with. That’s the hardest part of leaving there.
“But you know it’s not going to go on forever. Coach (Snyder) is 78 and you have to start making plans because you can’t just keep waiting and waiting and all the sudden the day comes, Coach retires and now what do you do? So it was hard to leave, but you’ve gotta take opportunities when opportunities are there. When you have a chance to take something like this, you’ve gotta go after it. Leaving there was hard, but the opportunity here is really exciting.”
EDIT: This is only part of the Q&A. If enough people ask for it, I'll copy and paste the whole thing. There's more K-State talk, but nothing I felt was super interesting.
How did you get the UTEP job? How did you sell yourself in your interview?
“They wanted somebody who could recruit Texas because they felt Texas hadn’t been recruited the way it needed to be recruited. They needed somebody that had the Texas ties and a reputation in the state of Texas. And they wanted offense. I’ve been the winningest offensive coordinator in college football since 2011, had a good eight-year stretch of consistently putting out really efficient offenses that win football games at the highest level. And I have the experience of being a head coach. When you took those parameters, it was just the perfect time and perfect place for me.”
“I went after it and I used my resources. John Currie was a huge fan of mine, and I think I did have a great chance of getting the K-State job if it ever opened when John was there. Jim Livengood, the AD when I was at Arizona, was a big resource of mine. Tom Burman at Wyoming was a big fan who helped me. Bob Stoops and I are really close and Bob went to bat for me pretty hard. Steve Miller, who was the AD at K-State when we got it turned around, is a well-respected person in the business. I went and used some of those bigger guys I have in my corner, and it worked out.”
After the past nine years, what was the hardest part of leaving Kansas State? What are you going to miss the most?
“Just the fans and the people that you care about so much there. It’s your alma mater, you played there, you have so many years invested there. The people of Manhattan are great friends of mine that I’ve known forever. There are a lot of people in the administration that I really care about and spent a lot of time with. That’s the hardest part of leaving there.
“But you know it’s not going to go on forever. Coach (Snyder) is 78 and you have to start making plans because you can’t just keep waiting and waiting and all the sudden the day comes, Coach retires and now what do you do? So it was hard to leave, but you’ve gotta take opportunities when opportunities are there. When you have a chance to take something like this, you’ve gotta go after it. Leaving there was hard, but the opportunity here is really exciting.”
EDIT: This is only part of the Q&A. If enough people ask for it, I'll copy and paste the whole thing. There's more K-State talk, but nothing I felt was super interesting.
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