Jun 6, 2019
It was a stroke of luck that Dan Hunt, head football coach of Colgate University, my alma mater, was happy to be meet with me for a live #MakeYourMark podcast recording on campus. As you will hear in this episode, he’s a successful coach, a great guy, and just about the best hire a storied team rich in tradition and history could hope for.
“As far as football goes, the biggest thing right now about the sport is that it’s a little bit under attack, and one of the messages that I would love people to understand is that football did not invent the concussion. This would be the best time, if you have young kids, for them to play football. There is awareness. Was there a time when playing football was not smart, was not safe? Yes, but I think those days are over.”
Hearing how Dan approaches recruiting, finding not just solid football players, but young men who are respectful, smart, and exhibit clearly the long term potential of success in whatever they end up doing. Over the course of this podcast, there were so many pearls of wisdom and advice that clearly make an impact that I had trouble whittling them down for this summary!
“With Tradition Comes Responsibility. A lot of kids choose to come here because they want to be part of a program that’s a winner, and they want to be part of all that comes with that. What they have to understand is that they are signing on to take the responsibility to continue that. We use the term culture a lot. The freshmen, their biggest thing is they have to understand the culture, you have to get caught up in it, it’s like a big sticky wheel. Here it comes for you, and you have to stick to it and keep rolling. The biggest part of being here is that you have to give the boys the confidence they can do it, they have to understand that we would not have recruited them if we did not think they were good enough. Admissions wouldn’t have let them in school if they did not think they could do the work, that is a big part too here, balancing the academic load.”
Dan and I shared a ton of laughs, this is what happens when you put two Seinfeld fans in the same recording studio! Meeting the Beatles, avoiding concussions, we covered it all! A top 3 episode easily, give this a listen!
“I think athletes in general really have some traits that allow them to be successful. One thing with football in particular, I might be biased, but I think football is the ultimate team game, you look at an offense, almost half of those players would go out and never touch the football, they’re on the offensive line, but yet they still play. I think being coachable, being a teammate, being able to see goals through adversity, I think all those things that athletes do really lend themselves to life after football. The good thing about being in a school like Colgate, all of my guys want to go to NFL! The fact that they chose a school like Colgate, they already understand there is life other than the NFL that they need to be ready for.”
“When you meet Colgate alums from all over, it is kind of a common trait in them, they are just interesting people who are trying to be successful, almost like a common gene. The same type of people are like, whether they play football or basketball, rugby or hockey, it does not matter, you can kind of tell that’s a Colgate person. I think that’s what is special about this place, it is like a blood line.”
Some Topics we talk about in this episode:
- Introduction - 02:35
- Growing up in Canajoharie - 3:40
- Being a Three-Sports Athlete - 4:04
- A Coach for sure! - 6:00
- Choosing Colgate - 7:54
- Becoming a Head Coach - 8:45
- You Have to Work to Win - 9:50
- That Is a Colgate Person! - 12:03
- What Makes a Better Recruitment Experience? -13:25
- With Tradition comes Responsibility - 15:05
- Screaming Loud in the Fargodome - 21:50
- Running into the National Champs - 22:35
- Weather vs Climate - 26:37
- Not Everyone Goes to the NFL - 31:53
- Be Someone They Can Trust! - 36:25
- Life After Football - 38:45
- Hit Your Mark - 42:30
- Favorite Seinfeld Episode - 44:05
- Football Under Attack - Concussions - 45:40
- Dispelling Football Stereotypes - 47:10
- Wish I Had Invented the Keurig - 49:00
- Hanging out with Jimmy Buffett - 51:10
- Meeting Ringo Starr - 53:00
- Wrapping Up - Read Win Again! 57:45
How to get involved
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