This is an IHeart podcast.

I mean, I truly, truly believe, like, for me, for me as the head coach, like, I have to have that urgency.

I have to leave no stone unturned. I have to have the same discipline in my life that I want them to have.

All right, everybody. It's not often that you get to bring on a person that's not only a friend, but somebody that you admire in a very significant way.

Now, over my career, I've been exposed to so many different coaches and instructors and people that really spend a lot of time influencing other people, in particular

young men. And one of the people that has had the greatest impact on me in my life, because

of how much he cares, because of how much he's dedicated to what it is he does for living,

he really transforms people's lives. And so without further ado,

I'd love to welcome my friend, Coach Matt Ruhle, to the show. Thank you, Matt, for coming on.

Oh, thank you, brother. And for what I think you know this, but the feelings beyond, beyond mutual in terms of how I feel about you.

So thanks for having me here.

Absolutely. Let's get right in. I know you're coming off a Big Ten Press week and doing five

gazillion interviews about specifics and, you know, what's coming up in the season. So I thought

we just get started with, you know, I mean, you go to

through a week like that and obviously everybody wants you to give the details of your

expectation of performance, what you think is going to be good or bad. How do you look at the

season in terms of not versus wins or losses, but in terms of your players and what you want your players to really, um, lean into this year in terms of their development and their cohesion as a team?

Well, um, I mean, it's year three for us, you know, so, you know, year one you come in, you know, the guys don't even know what to expect. You know, the way we do things is different, you know, maybe than what they had done before, it's hard. And so that the first year you're kind of teaching it, you want them to sort of learn the process that that second year, they start to live it out, you know, they kind of know what to do. now they have to make a decision like am i going to am i going to do it am i not going to do it you know um sometimes you're you're working harder than you ever have in your life and you're getting some results but not what you wanted and and so there's um there's kind of almost like a decision that has to be made by everybody. And when they make that decision,

if they decide to buy in, then you're three here for us. I'm looking for ownership. I'm looking

for guys that like no longer coach rules way. It's our way. And we reported today. I told our

coaches like, I don't, I want you to walk in this building every day as a coach and be like, I'm so grateful to be here. I love the food. I love, I love the gear. I love the clothing. I don't want you to complain. Like, this is ours, you know, and I think when you have ownership, anything's possible. No, they're going to, they're going to take it and run with it. And that's why, you know, my other college stops, we always, you know, played for a championship in a year of three because it was no longer me.

It was them.

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