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The O-Zone Podcast | Liam Coen Shares Personal Journey Through the Athletic's Jeff Howe · The Jacksonville Jaguars Official Podcast Network

0:05
Speaker 1: Soon.
0:08
Speaker 2: Welcome to the Ozone Podcast with Jaguars senior writer John Osher.
0:14
Speaker 2: All Right, welcome into this week's Ozone podcast, and I
0:17
Speaker 2: think it's going to be a special one for people
0:19
Speaker 2: who are on the internet on social media probably hearing that.
0:25
Speaker 2: Our guest today, Jeff Howe, who's the national insider for
0:28
Speaker 2: The Athletic, has written an outstanding story on Jaguars head
0:32
Speaker 2: coach Liam Cohen and has been a lot written about Liam,
0:35
Speaker 2: but this one was special. Goes into his relationship with
0:39
Speaker 2: his late mother Beth, his father Tim, who's around the
0:41
Speaker 2: Jaguars a lot, and specifically it's the first time Liam
0:46
Speaker 2: has really talked about the death of his mother by
0:49
Speaker 2: suicide in two thousand and six. I believe it was
0:54
Speaker 2: after dealing with pretty devastating effects of lime disease, and
0:59
Speaker 2: I think I've got the details of that right. Jeff,
1:01
Speaker 2: first of all, appreciate you doing this, and you told
1:07
Speaker 2: me right before we started this you've known Liam, you
1:09
Speaker 2: went to UMass with Liam and have known him for
1:12
Speaker 2: a long time and said it was a really special
1:15
Speaker 2: story to do. And again, of congratulations is the right word,
1:20
Speaker 2: but outstanding job on the story.
1:22
Speaker 1: I appreciate that. Thank you, Yeah, and I have.
1:25
Speaker 3: I've known Liam for twenty years and our paths continue
1:29
Speaker 3: to intersect, but it's you know, personally and professionally. But
1:34
Speaker 3: we've had a personal relationship for about twenty years, and
1:37
Speaker 3: it started professionally is a loose term because he was
1:41
Speaker 3: a college quarterback and I was a college reporter, but
1:44
Speaker 3: you know, I covered the U. Mass football team for
1:46
Speaker 3: the UMass or the Massachusetts Daily Collegian, and I still
1:50
Speaker 3: remember his first appearance. Tim Day was the U Mass
1:53
Speaker 3: starting quarterback at the time, and Tim got hurt, and
1:55
Speaker 3: Tim is Ryan Day's brother, Ryan Day. The Ohio State
1:59
Speaker 3: had coach and Liam comes in and they had a
2:02
Speaker 3: really really good roster and you just needed good, smart
2:06
Speaker 3: quarterback play and you got a red shirt freshman coming
2:09
Speaker 3: in and you weren't sure what was going to happen,
2:11
Speaker 3: and the next thing you know, the guy's playing phenomenal,
2:14
Speaker 3: phenomenal football, and it's just sort of took off from there.
2:19
Speaker 3: But somebody that I grew close to just you know,
2:21
Speaker 3: from a coverage perspective, the quarterback is obviously.
2:24
Speaker 1: Going to be somebody you want to talk to.
2:26
Speaker 3: But yeah, really started to get a good relationship with
2:29
Speaker 3: Liam and a lot of players and Don Brown and
2:32
Speaker 3: the coaches with that program at the time. I mean,
2:34
Speaker 3: you know, it's UMass football. At the time, they were
2:36
Speaker 3: in one Double A. So it's not like there was
2:38
Speaker 3: a lot of media around, even when they had that
2:40
Speaker 3: national championship run to the one Double A finals a
2:44
Speaker 3: year later. You know, there's there's only so many reporters
2:47
Speaker 3: who were around, and certainly so many who care. So
2:52
Speaker 3: it was easy to kind of realize that we were
2:54
Speaker 3: like minded people. I mean, there were a bunch of
2:56
Speaker 3: days that I spent in the football offices just talking
3:00
Speaker 3: with the guys, learning about learning the game. I mean,
3:03
Speaker 3: I just I've said it a bunch of times publicly privately,
3:06
Speaker 3: you know, to these people like Don Brown has taught
3:09
Speaker 3: me more about football than anybody I'll ever meet, because
3:11
Speaker 3: he always cared to take the time to explain things
3:14
Speaker 3: to me. And you know, Liam was very similar. And
3:18
Speaker 3: you know, I can't even tell you how many times
3:20
Speaker 3: I'd be hanging out with Liam in the coach's office
3:22
Speaker 3: and Don would step in or vice versa, and you know,
3:26
Speaker 3: one next thing, you know, you're spending a couple hours
3:28
Speaker 3: just shooting the breeze with some people down there and
3:31
Speaker 3: just trying to learn as much as you can. And
3:33
Speaker 3: here we are twenty years later, and you know I
3:36
Speaker 3: brought this too, this magazine that I was the editor
3:39
Speaker 3: of The Score, so as the sports editor of the
3:44
Speaker 3: student newspaper, I was responsible of putting that out in
3:46
Speaker 3: the spring of six right before I graduated. We chose
3:51
Speaker 3: Liam as the cover athlete with Brandon Thomas the basketball
3:54
Speaker 3: player there and that picture right in the middle of
3:58
Speaker 3: the campus, right right in front of the Man's Statue
4:00
Speaker 3: at UMass in a very well traveled area.
4:03
Speaker 1: I want to say.
4:03
Speaker 3: It was like a Thursday in the spring on the afternoon,
4:06
Speaker 3: so you know, there are thousands of kids walking around
4:09
Speaker 3: going to class, coming from class whatever, and you've got
4:13
Speaker 3: Liam in full football uniform next to the you know,
4:16
Speaker 3: the biggest statue on campus.
4:18
Speaker 1: And it was just it was a really funny site.
4:21
Speaker 3: And I know that's a that's a magazine that I
4:25
Speaker 3: my friends still have copies of it. I know Liam's
4:28
Speaker 3: family still has copies of it. So it's it's one
4:31
Speaker 3: of those things that you know, a bunch of us
4:34
Speaker 3: will never forget.
4:34
Speaker 2: It's very cool. It's and uh not to labor, you know,
4:40
Speaker 2: uh from twenty years ago with Liam's mom. But it
4:44
Speaker 2: was such a moving story to read. And I guess
4:51
Speaker 2: having known him and having been talking to him when
4:53
Speaker 2: he was discussing this, it sounds like such a cliche question,
4:57
Speaker 2: but what is her memory meant to him and in
5:02
Speaker 2: that relationship, because it was special and you did a
5:04
Speaker 2: great job talking about in the article.
5:06
Speaker 3: Yeah, I had no idea about the tattoos, to be honest,
5:11
Speaker 3: and so when I asked him about it and he
5:14
Speaker 3: immediately showed me his wrist and her signature, I was
5:19
Speaker 3: I was really like blown away by that, and just
5:22
Speaker 3: it's a way for him to of course channel her anytime,
5:25
Speaker 3: you know, he's able to. And you know another part,
5:28
Speaker 3: I saw his wife Ashley tweet that before every home
5:31
Speaker 3: game so far this season, Butterfly has flown to the
5:34
Speaker 3: sideline where he's been and they look at that as
5:37
Speaker 3: Beth coming in to check on him. I mean, just
5:41
Speaker 3: there's something, you know, things like that that happened that
5:45
Speaker 3: I don't know sure if you want to think to
5:46
Speaker 3: a higher power or just what have you. You know,
5:49
Speaker 3: it's just it's pretty wild to see things like that.
5:52
Speaker 1: I mean, I know there are signs.
5:53
Speaker 3: With people that you know, we've lost in our lives
5:57
Speaker 3: and you see stuff like that pop up and you
6:00
Speaker 3: just have that feeling that that's somebody trying to let
6:03
Speaker 3: you know that things are going to be okay. But
6:05
Speaker 3: you know, I know, personally, for me, I had spoken
6:09
Speaker 3: to Beth. You know, I still remember. I don't remember
6:12
Speaker 3: how many times we had spoken, but I vividly remember
6:14
Speaker 3: one conversation that I had with her, and it was
6:17
Speaker 3: for like forty five minutes to an hour, and I
6:19
Speaker 3: called the house looking for Tim and I don't think
6:22
Speaker 3: he was home yet or what have you, and you know,
6:25
Speaker 3: wound up talking to Beth.
6:26
Speaker 1: And it wasn't for a story or like an interview.
6:28
Speaker 1: It wasn't anything like that.
6:29
Speaker 2: It was just which comes across in the story by the.
6:32
Speaker 1: Way, Yeah, yeah, yeah. She was an outstanding person, just
6:36
Speaker 1: a beautiful soul.
6:37
Speaker 3: And we were talking about school and homework and classes,
6:42
Speaker 3: and she wanted to know how Liam was doing and
6:44
Speaker 3: stuff like that. So when I say that, you know,
6:48
Speaker 3: I always I put a lot of pressure on myself
6:54
Speaker 3: to write features that have sensitive topics. I put a
6:59
Speaker 3: lot of responsibility on myself to make sure that the
7:02
Speaker 3: subject is comfortable and happy with how that story turns
7:07
Speaker 3: out that's incredibly important to me. And you know, there
7:12
Speaker 3: are times when like I have my process that I
7:15
Speaker 3: go through when I write features, and it's not as
7:17
Speaker 3: frequent anymore, but this one was different because it was
7:20
Speaker 3: personal and it just it meant a lot to make
7:24
Speaker 3: sure that the legacy of Beth and the way that
7:29
Speaker 3: it was read by the family it hit the right
7:33
Speaker 3: chord and delivered with the respect that it absolutely deserved
7:37
Speaker 3: and needed.
7:41
Speaker 2: You know, and I'm quite sure how to ask, but
7:45
Speaker 2: why do you think or when you were talking to him,
7:49
Speaker 2: what you know sort of gave you the impression that
7:51
Speaker 2: he was sort of ready to talk about this now.
7:53
Speaker 2: And it may not be a fair question because you're
7:56
Speaker 2: not him, but you know, he had not talked about
7:58
Speaker 2: this publicly before.
8:00
Speaker 3: Yeah, through you know, our connection. I've known the story
8:05
Speaker 3: for you know, since it happened, and it was going
8:12
Speaker 3: down to Jacksonville two or three weeks ago whenever it
8:15
Speaker 3: happened to be recently. Of course, I wanted to write
8:20
Speaker 3: a story about the person Liam Call and the person
8:23
Speaker 3: in a way that I could write it, and I
8:25
Speaker 3: wasn't sure what the direction would be.
8:28
Speaker 1: I went down there.
8:29
Speaker 3: I'm with pages upon pages of different types of topics
8:33
Speaker 3: that we could address, and not knowing how much time
8:36
Speaker 3: we were going to have to hit on all of them,
8:39
Speaker 3: you know, just trying to like fire off one at
8:41
Speaker 3: a time. And you know Liam, you know, he laughs
8:44
Speaker 3: at himself. He loves to talk. So you could ask
8:46
Speaker 3: a question. The next thing you know, you're seven minutes
8:48
Speaker 3: later and it's like, all right, I had sixteen different
8:51
Speaker 3: follow ups, but that might that might take up our
8:54
Speaker 3: entire window.
8:55
Speaker 2: Yeah, there's a passion for educating that. I'm sure it
8:57
Speaker 2: came from Beth.
8:58
Speaker 1: I mean absolutely. And I just asked.
9:02
Speaker 3: I was curious if he was comfortable speaking on that topic,
9:07
Speaker 3: and he was. And I really appreciate that, and I've
9:12
Speaker 3: told him that, and I just I really do.
9:16
Speaker 1: I appreciate anybody who's willing.
9:17
Speaker 3: To not just open up about a sensitive subject, but
9:23
Speaker 3: to almost welcome me as a person who they trust
9:29
Speaker 3: to tell that story.
9:30
Speaker 1: And I don't ever take that lightly.
9:34
Speaker 3: There's just so much responsibility and when somebody is going
9:38
Speaker 3: to trust you with information like that, they deserve to
9:41
Speaker 3: have that story told the right way. And I tried
9:45
Speaker 3: like crazy to make sure I was able to do that.
9:49
Speaker 2: I should you know, and I don't want this question
9:52
Speaker 2: to be a cliche, but in getting to know Tim
9:56
Speaker 2: a little bit, because he's around a lot, and I
9:59
Speaker 2: don't pretend know him know him, but you know, you
10:01
Speaker 2: could tell what kind of guy is I think you
10:05
Speaker 2: know you mentioned it and I've been I just met
10:10
Speaker 2: Liam when he got here, but you can really tell.
10:13
Speaker 2: I knew he was going to be a good offensive coordinator,
10:16
Speaker 2: I mean, and a good play caller. What you didn't
10:19
Speaker 2: know about him was how he would connect to players,
10:22
Speaker 2: because as you know you've covered the league, that's the
10:25
Speaker 2: most important thing and not every head coach can do
10:28
Speaker 2: it because a lot of coordinators can't do it because
10:31
Speaker 2: they've been coordinators of their lives. Yeah, he has been
10:35
Speaker 2: obviously unbelievable at connecting with the locker room and being
10:39
Speaker 2: a leader, which you just don't know about a head coach.
10:43
Speaker 2: I'm assuming that Tim and Beth the upbringing everything you know.
10:48
Speaker 2: To me, that's got to be a huge part of
10:50
Speaker 2: why he's top tier at that.
10:53
Speaker 1: And that was truly like the goal.
10:55
Speaker 3: And if we didn't address, you know, the really sensitive
11:01
Speaker 3: stuff about Beth's story, that was still going to be
11:04
Speaker 3: part of the subject. Just growing up with this family,
11:08
Speaker 3: because again, like I've seen it, I've seen how quality
11:11
Speaker 3: these people are and this family is, and what a
11:14
Speaker 3: quality person Liam is and always has been.
11:18
Speaker 1: Just he just is, and so.
11:23
Speaker 3: You know, you just wanted to make sure that, however
11:26
Speaker 3: he wanted to go about it, let's just try to
11:29
Speaker 3: make sure that we show people a side of Liam
11:31
Speaker 3: that I've been fortunate enough to know for twenty years.
11:34
Speaker 3: And it's easy to get lost in, you know, some
11:40
Speaker 3: of the side stuff. I mean, they drove me crazy
11:43
Speaker 3: when like the Duval thing took off, Like I understand it,
11:47
Speaker 3: but I was like, man, like I just I just
11:49
Speaker 3: want people to see that, Like there is a completely,
11:54
Speaker 3: a much more genuine, sincere side of Liam that is
11:58
Speaker 3: going to make him a successful head coach. You know,
12:01
Speaker 3: the fiery stuff with Sala after the game, Like there
12:05
Speaker 3: are those those are all genuine parts of you know,
12:09
Speaker 3: these are parts to him. He's not going to shy
12:11
Speaker 3: away from who he is as a person, right, but
12:13
Speaker 3: like there are these other sides and they're not going
12:15
Speaker 3: to draw the attention just because that's that's just not
12:18
Speaker 3: the way that you know, some of these it is
12:20
Speaker 3: not the way the new cycle works a lot of times, right,
12:23
Speaker 3: So it was you know, how can we go there
12:25
Speaker 3: and do this the right way if that's the way
12:28
Speaker 3: that he wants to be able to do it. And
12:30
Speaker 3: that's just really how it all came together. And yeah,
12:35
Speaker 3: I think there was something else, oh, you know, just
12:37
Speaker 3: in terms of like the coaching and who's going to
12:39
Speaker 3: be successful.
12:40
Speaker 1: You know.
12:40
Speaker 3: So I covered the Patriots from oh nine to twenty
12:43
Speaker 3: one before I transitioned into our one of our top
12:46
Speaker 3: NFL reporters, and I really started to learn or gain
12:50
Speaker 3: more of an appreciation for how difficult of a job
12:53
Speaker 3: it is to be a head coach, and especially the
12:55
Speaker 3: first time guys, like the the amount of commitments that
12:58
Speaker 3: they have that are that have noting to do with
13:00
Speaker 3: football they have to take on, especially in the offseason.
13:04
Speaker 3: It's like through the roof. There's just so many different
13:06
Speaker 3: people pulling you in a lot of different.
13:08
Speaker 2: Directions, and coaching anymore you're managing.
13:10
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly.
13:11
Speaker 3: So like I can rattle off probably ten people in
13:16
Speaker 3: the last five years who I was convinced we're going
13:19
Speaker 3: to be really not ten, ten is probably five to
13:22
Speaker 3: seven people who I was convinced we're gonna be good
13:24
Speaker 3: head coaches and it didn't work out, and maybe it
13:27
Speaker 3: was because of their own mistakes, maybe it was because
13:29
Speaker 3: of organizational issues. Whatever it could be any reason, you
13:34
Speaker 3: truly never know. And you know, the next big challenge, well,
13:39
Speaker 3: I mean, aside from like the second half of the season,
13:41
Speaker 3: the second half of the season is going to be
13:42
Speaker 3: an extraordinary challenge for the Jaguars to continue trying to make.
13:45
Speaker 1: A push for the playoffs.
13:47
Speaker 3: But there's going to be that challenge when the Ross
13:49
Speaker 3: dress were reset again and going into year two, you
13:52
Speaker 3: look at Brian Daball, who had a really good first
13:54
Speaker 3: season with the Giants, and then you get a little
13:57
Speaker 3: farther or a little further away from that previous regime
13:59
Speaker 3: and the Ross starts turnover a little more.
14:01
Speaker 1: You want to bring in more players.
14:02
Speaker 3: Sometimes you know that success is not always in a
14:06
Speaker 3: straight straight line, so there are always these different types
14:11
Speaker 3: of challenges and levels of adversity the coaches are going
14:14
Speaker 3: to take. But it was cool to see the Jaguars
14:17
Speaker 3: start off successfully, to have the high profile wins against
14:21
Speaker 3: the Niners and the Chiefs, to beat the Chiefs on
14:23
Speaker 3: Monday Night football for the whole world to see, and
14:26
Speaker 3: to kind of let the league know that, yes, this
14:29
Speaker 3: this guy can coach. And you know, I don't want
14:33
Speaker 3: to blow smoke and say that I knew that he
14:34
Speaker 3: was going to be a head coach in the NFL
14:36
Speaker 3: or whatever, but I certainly started to wake up to
14:39
Speaker 3: that fact when he joined the Rams and I saw
14:40
Speaker 3: how much Sehn McVay appreciated him. And then you see
14:43
Speaker 3: the way that mcveigh's tree started to go out and
14:46
Speaker 3: have success on their terms, and knowing that eventually the
14:48
Speaker 3: clock was starting to tick on Liam's time. And then
14:51
Speaker 3: he has all that success as the play caller for
14:53
Speaker 3: the first time with Kentucky, which is a huge challenge,
14:57
Speaker 3: and you know he was great at it, and you know,
15:00
Speaker 3: kind of back and forth between the Kentucky and the Rams,
15:02
Speaker 3: and then you know, having all that success in Tampa.
15:05
Speaker 3: I thought, once once things started to go really well
15:07
Speaker 3: in Tampa, it was only a matter of time before
15:09
Speaker 3: he became a head coach. And you're seeing the the
15:13
Speaker 3: Jaguars are currently reaping the benefits of the way that
15:16
Speaker 3: he is able to connect with players and to scheme
15:19
Speaker 3: up an opponent.
15:21
Speaker 2: What you know, I'm not sure if this question applies.
15:25
Speaker 2: We talked about a lot of it, But I'll ask
15:26
Speaker 2: it anyway. I know from writing the kind of story
15:31
Speaker 2: that you wrote, you research a million things to get
15:36
Speaker 2: to five or six things that you can really emphasize, right,
15:39
Speaker 2: Anything that you didn't get in the story that you
15:41
Speaker 2: would want people to know about Liam.
15:44
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh.
15:47
Speaker 3: Between yeah, I'd like eight and ten thousand words of quotes,
15:50
Speaker 3: and I think it was a story that probably didn't
15:52
Speaker 3: surpass twenty five hundred words. So there was I could
15:56
Speaker 3: write like a half a book off of the stuff
15:58
Speaker 3: that I had.
15:59
Speaker 2: I say, it's probably because you know him. You you
16:02
Speaker 2: know him so well. There's so much, but you know
16:05
Speaker 2: it's uh again, honest, gonna put you on the spot.
16:08
Speaker 3: Yeah, look, I'll go back. I'll tell anybody who will listen.
16:12
Speaker 3: He was a damn good college quarterback. I mean he
16:15
Speaker 3: he gets kind of takes a shot at himself in
16:17
Speaker 3: that story. I immediately was like, man, you're not giving
16:19
Speaker 3: yourself enough credit. Like he was a good player for
16:23
Speaker 3: a high quality U mass team in the one double
16:25
Speaker 3: A level. I mean they didn't go to the national
16:27
Speaker 3: championship by Fluke. That was something that was years in
16:31
Speaker 3: the making and great coaching, phenomenal defense, I mean, Brandon
16:35
Speaker 3: London was his top receiver before Victor Cruz. Brandon London
16:39
Speaker 3: won a Super Bowl at the Giants and seven, like
16:41
Speaker 3: there's this is a team that had a lot of
16:43
Speaker 3: James ahead of bo started in the Super Bowl for
16:45
Speaker 3: the Patriots and eleven. You know, there were some quality
16:48
Speaker 3: players on that team, and it was like he just
16:50
Speaker 3: had to come in and play decent football and play
16:52
Speaker 3: responsible football. And then it eventually kind of morphed and
16:55
Speaker 3: it turned into, hey, this guy's pretty good. Let's let's
16:58
Speaker 3: kind of expand the playbook. Let's start throwing it deep
17:00
Speaker 3: to London. And you know, Jason Peebler and Rashid Rancher,
17:04
Speaker 3: a bunch of guys who I'm garing not a lot
17:07
Speaker 3: of people on this podcast had heard of. But you know,
17:10
Speaker 3: Steve Baylark was a really good running back and they
17:13
Speaker 3: just they were a really good team. But he was
17:15
Speaker 3: a good player. He knew how to manage the game.
17:18
Speaker 3: But he had really accurate ball. He was smart, he
17:21
Speaker 3: knew where to put it, he didn't turn it over.
17:23
Speaker 3: He did everything that you want out of a quarterback.
17:26
Speaker 3: And I truly believe, like or I shouldn't say that,
17:30
Speaker 3: I wanted to see what it would have been like
17:32
Speaker 3: if he had a chance, Like if it weren't for
17:34
Speaker 3: that elbow, what would it have been like if he
17:36
Speaker 3: got a chance in an NFL camp? But I'm not
17:38
Speaker 3: saying he was going to be a starter or anything
17:39
Speaker 3: like that, But like I keep going back to, I
17:42
Speaker 3: just used this example somewhere else, Like Brian Hoyer was
17:45
Speaker 3: an undrafted free agent with the Patriots and O. Nine
17:47
Speaker 3: when I started covering them and winds up beating out
17:52
Speaker 3: actually I think Kevin O'Connell, and there were like four
17:56
Speaker 3: quarterbacks on that roster No.
17:57
Speaker 1: Nine.
17:58
Speaker 3: He wasn't beating out Brady, but he beat out every
18:00
Speaker 3: everybody else to the point where they only carried two
18:02
Speaker 3: of them. And then Brian Hoyer had a really good
18:04
Speaker 3: NFL career ban early as a backup, And you just
18:07
Speaker 3: wondered if Liam's instincts and smarts and creativity with the
18:11
Speaker 3: offense was going to be able to lead the way
18:14
Speaker 3: for that type of success.
18:15
Speaker 1: But you know, the elbow, The elbow had other ideas.
18:17
Speaker 2: Sure, what just a final thought, you know, we talked
18:22
Speaker 2: about Beth a lot, uh as we should have Tim's
18:26
Speaker 2: around here a lot. What kind of influence do you
18:28
Speaker 2: think he had on clear.
18:30
Speaker 3: Yeah, he was because you see both sides of him,
18:33
Speaker 3: and especially in the story, I was happy with how
18:36
Speaker 3: that came out, because you got the tough and rugged
18:38
Speaker 3: side as the football coach, and you know the dad
18:41
Speaker 3: who's's got that old school mentality, and you know the
18:45
Speaker 3: grandfather has that old school mentality. I mean, there was
18:49
Speaker 3: It was a part of the story where Tim opened
18:51
Speaker 3: up about how he had a heart attack in Florida
18:53
Speaker 3: at age twenty two and when his family, his parents
18:57
Speaker 3: were flying down to go visit him in the hospital,
19:00
Speaker 3: Tim was like, well, I can't show I can't make
19:02
Speaker 3: them nervous. So even though I just had a heart attack,
19:04
Speaker 3: I need the nurses to kind of let me know
19:07
Speaker 3: when they're walking down the hall so I can prop
19:08
Speaker 3: myself up and show everybody that I'm okay. And they
19:13
Speaker 3: were just you know, stories like that. But then like
19:15
Speaker 3: there's the softer side. So you know you're talking about
19:18
Speaker 3: like Northeast football, whether it's at Salve Regina where Tim
19:22
Speaker 3: was the first head coach at D three program, or
19:24
Speaker 3: the high school stuff, or you know, you kind of
19:27
Speaker 3: go through the New England circle where Liam was Brown
19:30
Speaker 3: RII U Mass which made a big.
19:32
Speaker 2: Deal up there. People down here don't realize, but that's
19:35
Speaker 2: a big deal up there.
19:36
Speaker 1: Yeah.
19:37
Speaker 3: And but like these athletic departments don't have a lot
19:39
Speaker 3: of money, so they're you know, especially at some of
19:41
Speaker 3: the smaller schools where these athletes are lucky to get
19:45
Speaker 3: a couple pairs of shorts and a T shirt. You know,
19:47
Speaker 3: you got to like sign out like a pair of
19:49
Speaker 3: radial gym shorts. Like these are places that don't have
19:53
Speaker 3: the luxury stuff that you get at a lot of
19:55
Speaker 3: the bigger programs down south.
19:57
Speaker 1: And so Tim.
19:59
Speaker 3: Would I go to the you know, U URI and
20:02
Speaker 3: Brown and the other colleges in the area and just say, hey,
20:04
Speaker 3: do you have any old equipment that you're not using anymore,
20:07
Speaker 3: because I want to give it to some kids in
20:09
Speaker 3: the neighborhood or in town who don't who can't go
20:11
Speaker 3: out and afford it. So he would like wander around
20:14
Speaker 3: and just start giving out cleats and shorts and T shirts.
20:17
Speaker 3: And it might be a might give a Brown T
20:18
Speaker 3: shirt to somebody and Ri cleats to somebody else. But hey,
20:22
Speaker 3: now all of a sudden, that kid's got a little
20:23
Speaker 3: college football pride in somebody close to him and maybe
20:27
Speaker 3: he wants to come out and give football a try.
20:29
Speaker 3: And it was you know, Tim always wanted to look
20:32
Speaker 3: out for his players. He had them over the house
20:34
Speaker 3: a lot. I was always like, you know, try to
20:37
Speaker 3: set them up if they needed money, if they need
20:39
Speaker 3: you know, with work to get a job, to try
20:43
Speaker 3: to make sure they weren't getting into any trouble anywhere.
20:45
Speaker 3: So he looked out for them and he noticed that
20:47
Speaker 3: that was going to help them play harder for him.
20:50
Speaker 3: And you look at the way Liam operates, you know,
20:53
Speaker 3: he had a quote in the story, it was like,
20:55
Speaker 3: if I could get these guys to play hard with me,
20:57
Speaker 3: it's gonna make my job easier. And a lot of
20:59
Speaker 3: that stuff kind of continues to hold true with him
21:02
Speaker 3: as coach. The first time coach, he was very much
21:04
Speaker 3: aware that he is going to have some shortcomings. It's
21:07
Speaker 3: hard to figure out how to manage a game and
21:09
Speaker 3: be the head coach and call plays and be in
21:12
Speaker 3: charge of timeouts and replays and all this other stuff.
21:16
Speaker 1: He's gonna make mistakes. But if these guys see how
21:19
Speaker 1: hard he works, and he does.
21:21
Speaker 3: He doesn't have a share in his offices like he
21:24
Speaker 3: doesn't want to sit like he has a chair around
21:26
Speaker 3: some tables, but he does not have a chair at
21:28
Speaker 3: his desk.
21:29
Speaker 1: So he's not a guy who's gonna sit down.
21:30
Speaker 3: He's always gonna be bouncing from room to room and
21:33
Speaker 3: throwing creative ideas of people. And you know, Josh heinz
21:36
Speaker 3: Allen was saying something like, you know, I know he's
21:39
Speaker 3: not a defensive coach, but he can talk to me
21:40
Speaker 3: about defensive stuff. And I know it's not just him
21:43
Speaker 3: regurgitating something that somebody else just told him, like this
21:46
Speaker 3: is he's speaking for U him knowledge. And I'm not
21:51
Speaker 3: gonna throw anybody else under the bus, but I can
21:53
Speaker 3: think of coaches who were put into situations where they
21:57
Speaker 3: were trying to fake it and see through that. There
22:02
Speaker 3: are you know, if you're going to be if you
22:05
Speaker 3: want that old school hardcore mentality, no nonsense, you know
22:10
Speaker 3: it's my way or no way that that doesn't work
22:13
Speaker 3: in the NFL anymore. You need a otherwise, you need
22:18
Speaker 3: an unbelievable amount of credibility already built in. And it's
22:22
Speaker 3: just guys want to play for coaches who are invested
22:25
Speaker 3: in them as people, and you're going to see more
22:27
Speaker 3: and more and more of that you already are, but
22:29
Speaker 3: that's been one of the biggest changes in all of coaching,
22:32
Speaker 3: I think in the last ten years, more so in
22:35
Speaker 3: the last five.
22:36
Speaker 1: And somebody like Liam is perfect for that.
22:38
Speaker 2: Yeah, that that's an outstanding place to close because it's
22:43
Speaker 2: sort of what I've been searching for in terms of
22:46
Speaker 2: you know, when you look at Liam, you know that's
22:50
Speaker 2: the nut graph right there, right, I mean, like he
22:53
Speaker 2: is the guy who can connect with these players because
22:57
Speaker 2: of the credibility he brings in And it's hard as
23:01
Speaker 2: we with the Jaguars have been trying to sort of uh,
23:05
Speaker 2: you know, tell his story. Part of it is the
23:08
Speaker 2: locker room speech is part of it is you know, uh,
23:11
Speaker 2: just having won the podium and hearing them. But Jeff,
23:14
Speaker 2: your story and you saying these things today sort of
23:19
Speaker 2: weaves through that and it shows that what we're saying,
23:22
Speaker 2: what we're showing is real, right, I mean, like you've
23:25
Speaker 2: seen it behind the scenes. So again, outstanding job and uh,
23:31
Speaker 2: you know saying that in your story and on this podcast,
23:34
Speaker 2: it's it's it's much appreciated.
23:36
Speaker 1: Thank you.
23:37
Speaker 3: I will I'll say my running joke with him is
23:40
Speaker 3: h I coach my daughter's fifth grade soccer team, and
23:43
Speaker 3: I was like, man, you gotta stop stealing my post
23:45
Speaker 3: game speeches. So you gotta get them to we gotta
23:49
Speaker 3: get them to cut, like, come up with your own stuff. Man,
23:51
Speaker 3: Like I gotta, I gotta stop sharing with him what
23:53
Speaker 3: I'm saying to the team because it's, you know, word
23:55
Speaker 3: for word a lot of times.
23:56
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'll bet it's word for word. Hey, Jeff, I
24:02
Speaker 2: can't thank you enough. I know you took about a
24:03
Speaker 2: half an hour of your day to do this. I
24:06
Speaker 2: know you're promoting the story, but it's also above and
24:08
Speaker 2: beyond again outstanding story. I know how hard it is
24:12
Speaker 2: to write those well, and you wrote it very very well.
24:15
Speaker 2: Thank you for joining the ozone podcast.
24:17
Speaker 1: Jeff. Of course, thanks so much for having me. I
24:19
Speaker 1: really appreciate it.
24:20
Speaker 2: You