This is an IHeart podcast.

Guaranteed Human.

So you and I were talking last year and any talk about the playoff was down the road. It was future facing. So now you just made the playoff. And so it's really funny in the expanded playoff era, how the way the public views you is different. Once upon a time, if you were the ninth best team in the country, then you get to the end of the season. And the only takeaway is we miss the playoffs. Now you can be the ninth best team in the country. You make the playoffs, and that same fan says, we made the playoffs. This was a great year. And so that's out there. All right? So inside your building, the way you evaluate your process is the way you evaluate the job you did, the job your team does. How much does it change or does it change at all due to

that external stuff?

Yeah, I don't think at all.

I think, you know, long time ago, you got into these jobs and you had to make sure the

external stuff never impacted the decisions you make.

I think we have internal processes on how we're evaluating growth, how we're looking at the trajectory of the program.

I think we talked a lot about that last year.

And I think what you saw last year was a really big step forward for our program.

And from that perspective, it was a success, you know, regardless of playoffs, non-playoffs.

Yeah.

The overall just state of this place right now, not what you've seen in the past 48 hours

on the practice field, but like if you zoom it out a little bit, kind of the way we look at it.

But from your lens, what is the state of this program now versus a couple of years ago you took

it over?

Yeah, I think the culture is in a really good spot.

I think people who come through this building feel a difference,

whether that's recruits, NFL scouts, whatever.

I think all arrows are pointed in the right direction

for the future of this program.

There's still things, obviously, we need to get done

...