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The DiCecco Daily Special: Former Eagles TE Cornelius Ingram Turned Bitterness Into Something Better · Inside the Birds: A Philadelphia Eagles Podcast

0:09
Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome into another episode of the Checho Deli.
0:12
Speaker 1: But it's a special edition of The Checho Daily because
0:16
Speaker 1: we're kickstarting our ware are they now series for Inside
0:19
Speaker 1: the Birds And our first guest was a fifth round
0:22
Speaker 1: pick of the Philadelphia Eagles in two thousand and nine,
0:25
Speaker 1: the one hundred and fifty third pick to be exact,
0:28
Speaker 1: and that is former Eagles tight end Cornelius Ingram, who's
0:30
Speaker 1: kind enough to give me a few minutes. Cornelius, how
0:33
Speaker 1: are you doing, man.
0:34
Speaker 2: I'm doing great, doing great. Thanks for having me on.
0:37
Speaker 1: Absolutely. So you're from Hawthorne, Florida, and it had to
0:42
Speaker 1: be special for you to go to the University of Florida.
0:46
Speaker 1: But what were some of the other options that you
0:49
Speaker 1: had and what led you to choosing to be a Gator.
0:53
Speaker 3: Yeah, coming out of high school, I went to, of
0:59
Speaker 3: course Hawthorne, and we were middle school through high school,
1:03
Speaker 3: so you know, the middle schoolers were walking to campus
1:08
Speaker 3: with the high schoolers. But I had an advantage as
1:10
Speaker 3: a as a seventh grader, I moved up on varsity
1:14
Speaker 3: and played basketball, so I was able to start my
1:18
Speaker 3: my recruiting process a little earlier than a lot of
1:21
Speaker 3: you know, normal high school kids in University of Florida.
1:26
Speaker 3: You know, they took notice as an eighth grader for
1:29
Speaker 3: for for me. So I don't want to say it
1:32
Speaker 3: was a no brainer, because when you go through the
1:34
Speaker 3: recruiting process, of course there's other coaches that other colleges
1:39
Speaker 3: that you you end up having a great relationship with.
1:42
Speaker 3: Of course you might fall in love with scheme system,
1:46
Speaker 3: whatever the case may be, and I felt that way
1:49
Speaker 3: going through my recruiting process, so recruited.
1:53
Speaker 2: I was recruited by a lot.
1:54
Speaker 3: Of schools in both sports, and of course you know
1:58
Speaker 3: the University of Florida be in twenty minutes away from Hawthorne.
2:03
Speaker 2: Everyone thought it was a no brainer.
2:05
Speaker 3: But to be honest, I went through the process where
2:08
Speaker 3: I went on visits. Of course, I had tons of
2:12
Speaker 3: home visits from from different colleges and coaches, and I
2:18
Speaker 3: can remember on a couple of home visits.
2:20
Speaker 2: My dad was always a dialhard Gator, so I.
2:24
Speaker 3: Was recruited by Runs up at the time, and then
2:27
Speaker 3: Billy Donovan was the basketball coach, and I could remember
2:31
Speaker 3: when when both of those coaches would come in for
2:34
Speaker 3: a home visit. Right my dad, he wanted to throw
2:38
Speaker 3: a barbecue. He wanted to invite everyone over. But if
2:42
Speaker 3: it was like let's say, someone like Florida State, with
2:44
Speaker 3: Bobby Bobs coming to Hawthorne and coming to the house
2:47
Speaker 3: to visit, my dad would basically shut down and stay
2:50
Speaker 3: in the room. So I kind of I kind of knew,
2:54
Speaker 3: you know, I had to be a Gator, you know,
2:57
Speaker 3: just because you know, my dad wanted me to go there.
3:00
Speaker 3: But again, I did form a great relationship with with
3:04
Speaker 3: the entire coaching staff. I think they recruited me the
3:07
Speaker 3: longest because I was right in the backyard and my
3:11
Speaker 3: my career was was wonderful. I had a great career there,
3:15
Speaker 3: and I definitely made the right decision.
3:17
Speaker 1: Do you remember who hosted you on your recruiting visit
3:20
Speaker 1: at Florida?
3:21
Speaker 3: Uh, Dallas Baker Wide receiver. Yep, wide receiver. I just
3:28
Speaker 3: thought to Dallas the other day. He's the receiver coach
3:30
Speaker 3: at at Baylor. Great great guy, yep, Dallas Baker. Dallas
3:36
Speaker 3: Baker hosted me and I had a fun visit.
3:41
Speaker 1: Seems like the University of Florida and many colleges are
3:44
Speaker 1: like this, but it has a unique fraternity. Do you
3:46
Speaker 1: still keep in contact with a lot of the guys
3:48
Speaker 1: you played with.
3:49
Speaker 3: I do. I do. I have a couple uh group
3:54
Speaker 3: techs with with with some of the former players, my
3:58
Speaker 3: former teammates that that plays there. I try to stay
4:02
Speaker 3: out the way, even though I'm still in the backyard.
4:04
Speaker 3: I try to stay out the way, you know, because.
4:08
Speaker 2: You know, I know how things go.
4:10
Speaker 3: But most of the time, if if you know, a
4:13
Speaker 3: couple of my former teammates would would would call and say, hey,
4:16
Speaker 3: we're gonna be in town for this Gator game. Of
4:19
Speaker 3: course we'll link up. But yeah, we do stay in contact.
4:23
Speaker 3: A lot of them are back here in Florida, in
4:25
Speaker 3: the state of Florida, so when they're spring football. Of
4:29
Speaker 3: course here it's crazy, so it's a big deal. So
4:32
Speaker 3: a lot of people come back around whether they're at
4:35
Speaker 3: the spring game, we just have practice. But definitely home games,
4:40
Speaker 3: we stay in contact. Away games, we're always in our
4:43
Speaker 3: group chat talking about the game that we're watching when
4:46
Speaker 3: we're playing away. But yeah, I got a great relationship
4:49
Speaker 3: with with with a lot of the cats that I
4:51
Speaker 3: played with.
4:52
Speaker 1: Now, how did you go about balancing the you know,
4:56
Speaker 1: the weight training and the conditioning aspect being a two
4:58
Speaker 1: sport athlete. I imagine there were some conflicts at times.
5:02
Speaker 2: Yeah, No, it was tough. It was tough. I read shirted.
5:06
Speaker 3: I read shirted in football, you know, and that was
5:08
Speaker 3: a part of my recruiting process. When I talked with
5:11
Speaker 3: every college and every coach, you know, they knew being
5:17
Speaker 3: a two sport athlete was something that I really really
5:20
Speaker 3: wanted to do, so.
5:22
Speaker 2: They were basically aware of where my heart was.
5:26
Speaker 3: So I read shirted in football, so I can just
5:29
Speaker 3: kind of focus on basketball. So it was almost strictly
5:34
Speaker 3: basketball when I was doing basketball, But then there were
5:37
Speaker 3: sometimes where I had to do certain things with the
5:41
Speaker 3: football team because you can't have two scholarships, so one
5:47
Speaker 3: of the other sports they have to offer you the
5:50
Speaker 3: other one your walk on. So I was basically a
5:54
Speaker 3: walk on because, like I said, you can't have two scholarships.
5:58
Speaker 3: And when it was time to do certain things for football,
6:02
Speaker 3: I was obligated to do things for football because I
6:04
Speaker 3: was on a football scholarship. But it was tough to do.
6:08
Speaker 3: Of course, I only ended up doing it one year,
6:12
Speaker 3: but you know, it was a dream of minds that
6:14
Speaker 3: played two sports, and I had that opportunity at one
6:18
Speaker 3: of the best schools there. Is, And I will say this,
6:22
Speaker 3: I think I stopped playing basketball a year or two
6:25
Speaker 3: too soon because the year after they wanted the two
6:28
Speaker 3: national championships. So thank god I end up winning two
6:31
Speaker 3: national championships in football. But if I would have kept
6:34
Speaker 3: playing basketball, I would have been a part of those
6:37
Speaker 3: national championship teams.
6:39
Speaker 1: And your son CJ is an electric player to watch.
6:41
Speaker 1: We'll get to him, yeah later in the later in
6:44
Speaker 1: the interview. But when you look at your you know,
6:48
Speaker 1: when you look back, do you feel like your basketball
6:50
Speaker 1: background really translated to the football field, and specifically with
6:54
Speaker 1: tight ends when you look at Antonio Gates and some
6:56
Speaker 1: players like that, how do you feel it really helped
7:00
Speaker 1: shape your game.
7:01
Speaker 3: A lot, a lot, I know, you know, just being
7:05
Speaker 3: a really good athlete in general, but when you're talking
7:10
Speaker 3: about hand eye coordination, footwork, because I was kind of
7:16
Speaker 3: like a big guard where I would, you know, can
7:18
Speaker 3: play on the perimeter, but I could post up smaller
7:21
Speaker 3: guards and and it definitely helped me move around on
7:25
Speaker 3: the football field. So of course, now whenever I you know,
7:30
Speaker 3: just hear about you know, football players with with with
7:32
Speaker 3: basketball backgrounds, I kind of light up because I know
7:37
Speaker 3: how instrumental the basketball side of it. It helps you extremely,
7:43
Speaker 3: extremely a lot for for football as well, so it
7:46
Speaker 3: definitely helped me. I'm glad I was able to do both.
7:48
Speaker 3: It was a dream of mine and I was able
7:50
Speaker 3: to live out my dream.
7:52
Speaker 1: And if I'm correct on this, you began practicing as
7:55
Speaker 1: a quarterback.
7:56
Speaker 3: Yes, yes, yes, yes, graduate left Left Height school as
8:00
Speaker 3: an All American quarterback. I was also Elite eleven quarterback,
8:07
Speaker 3: So yes, I definitely had a quarterback background in my game.
8:12
Speaker 3: And when I went to Florida, I went there as
8:14
Speaker 3: a quarterback. And then, like I said earlier, you know,
8:17
Speaker 3: being recruited by you know, one coach, and then when
8:21
Speaker 3: that coach, lead right, coach Marack came in, he had
8:24
Speaker 3: his you know, his recruits that he probably recruited when
8:28
Speaker 3: he was at Utah. At that time, I didn't understand
8:34
Speaker 3: how a lot of the things work. But now, of course,
8:38
Speaker 3: you know, seeing what's going on in college football even
8:42
Speaker 3: high school football, now that I'm a head coach, I
8:46
Speaker 3: have a better understanding of you know, some guys followed
8:50
Speaker 3: that coach that recruited him. Doesn't matter if it's at
8:52
Speaker 3: that particular school or or or another. So at that time,
8:57
Speaker 3: I didn't want to understand it. But now going through
9:02
Speaker 3: the process, and not only as a player, but now
9:06
Speaker 3: as a coach as well, I have a great understanding
9:09
Speaker 3: of it.
9:10
Speaker 1: And so what sparked the transition to.
9:12
Speaker 3: Tatum, Well, when when coach Mara came in. You know,
9:17
Speaker 3: I think cam neon Tim Tebow. He had those guys.
9:22
Speaker 3: He would recruiting those guys at other places. And I
9:25
Speaker 3: was a really good athlete. Like I said, I'll be honest,
9:28
Speaker 3: you know, being in a small town, you know, I
9:32
Speaker 3: had a decent arm. I was tall, but deep down
9:35
Speaker 3: inside I knew I could play another position. So once
9:40
Speaker 3: I made that transition, right, it was, it was pretty smooth,
9:44
Speaker 3: to be honest, right, I wasn't really used to the
9:46
Speaker 3: contact as far as blocking at the tight end position.
9:49
Speaker 3: But once I switched over, Coach Myern made sure that
9:52
Speaker 3: transition was something where I can line up outside like
9:56
Speaker 3: a receiver.
9:58
Speaker 2: I wasn't known as a traditional.
10:00
Speaker 3: At that time, so and the game was changing anyway,
10:04
Speaker 3: at that point in time, the game was changing, So
10:07
Speaker 3: he used me at wide receiver more than anything. So
10:12
Speaker 3: and I was able to, you know, let my natural
10:14
Speaker 3: ability athleticism take over out on the perimeter because again
10:20
Speaker 3: I wasn't the traditional tight end, so just coach mayern
10:23
Speaker 3: them kind of having their own recruits us kind of
10:26
Speaker 3: sit down and talking and you probably can attest to this,
10:30
Speaker 3: you know, back then, you know, regardless of you know,
10:34
Speaker 3: where you thought about transferring to, no matter what, you
10:37
Speaker 3: were going to have to sit out a year, and
10:39
Speaker 3: I was coming off of redshirt freshman year.
10:41
Speaker 2: I was like, man, listen, I want to get on
10:43
Speaker 2: the field. I want to play.
10:44
Speaker 1: You were part of a national championship team at Florida
10:47
Speaker 1: Cornelis and you were really a key piece in the
10:51
Speaker 1: two thousand and seventh season. You were up for the
10:53
Speaker 1: John Mackey Award, which is a prestigious award that has
10:57
Speaker 1: you know, the most prominent tight ends in college football.
11:00
Speaker 1: What was that experience like for you that two year period.
11:03
Speaker 3: No, it was probably one of the best experiences I've
11:06
Speaker 3: had in my life. You're talking about, you know, a
11:09
Speaker 3: roster full of NFL potential from from the offensive side
11:15
Speaker 3: of the ball, the defensive side of the ball. A
11:18
Speaker 3: lot of the coaches that were on staff under coach Meyer,
11:22
Speaker 3: you know, end up being head coaches at other universities years, years,
11:27
Speaker 3: and years afterwards, so you know, I'm able to share
11:33
Speaker 3: you know, you know, with my family these experiences, not
11:37
Speaker 3: only that, but my players that I coach now about
11:41
Speaker 3: you know, the times and how things were at the
11:44
Speaker 3: University of Florida, right considering right national champions in basketball,
11:51
Speaker 3: like all those guys were on campus at the same time,
11:55
Speaker 3: the baseball program was really good at the track program.
11:58
Speaker 2: So the University of.
12:00
Speaker 3: Floida at that time was probably the hottest UH university.
12:04
Speaker 3: And I was able to you know, play a part
12:08
Speaker 3: in and a lot of it, I've I've created a
12:12
Speaker 3: lot of memories with with with special teammates that that
12:17
Speaker 3: I've grown to know even up until now, and it's
12:21
Speaker 3: one of the best things I ever experienced.
12:25
Speaker 1: And then in terms of the health and a health perspective,
12:28
Speaker 1: you run into your first pout of adversity two thousand
12:32
Speaker 1: and eight, that was supposed to be the perfect season
12:34
Speaker 1: for you into the NFL. Not to dwell on it,
12:37
Speaker 1: but the recollections of that.
12:40
Speaker 2: You know, I think, I think now.
12:44
Speaker 3: How how everything unfolded, uh in in my life, and
12:49
Speaker 3: a lot of it, you know, came from the injury.
12:54
Speaker 3: It was a blessing in disguise, I think for for
12:57
Speaker 3: for me when I first told my cl right, you're
13:00
Speaker 3: talking about someone who's never had a jam finger before,
13:05
Speaker 3: and to tear my I cl going into my senior year, partiest.
13:09
Speaker 2: Thing I've ever had to deal with.
13:12
Speaker 3: And you know, when I tour it in practice, I
13:16
Speaker 3: think it was maybe the second day of training camp
13:18
Speaker 3: in practice, and.
13:22
Speaker 2: I didn't even know it was torn at that time.
13:24
Speaker 3: I ended up finishing practice full speed once I got home,
13:30
Speaker 3: and of course you Wright show were eating do all
13:32
Speaker 3: these things, and I fell asleep and I remember waking
13:35
Speaker 3: up right and my knee was about this big, and
13:39
Speaker 3: I remember calling the training staff and you know, just
13:42
Speaker 3: telling them like, hey, listen, I need to come in
13:45
Speaker 3: right away. So I ended up going into the practice
13:48
Speaker 3: facility like early the next morning, just so right. Our
13:52
Speaker 3: team doctor and of course our trainers can look at
13:54
Speaker 3: my knee, and they was like, hey, listen, we need
13:57
Speaker 3: to get an MRI. And I'm like, well, I don't
13:59
Speaker 3: think it's that serious. So I go in to get
14:03
Speaker 3: my MRI and I get the MRI and I'm kind
14:07
Speaker 3: of waiting on the results and the doctor they're like stalling.
14:11
Speaker 2: And from from where.
14:13
Speaker 3: I was seated waiting on the MRI results. I could
14:17
Speaker 3: see outside of the building where the interest way was
14:22
Speaker 3: right underneath me, and I see like Irban Meyer, Carr
14:26
Speaker 3: pull in, Damn Mullin, car pull in, Charlie Strong, and
14:31
Speaker 3: I'm looking at the time, I'm like, yo, we should
14:33
Speaker 3: be in practice right now, and you know, these guys
14:37
Speaker 3: are pulling in here made me wonder and of course
14:41
Speaker 3: they wanted coach Mayra to come in and break the news.
14:46
Speaker 3: And it was tough. Like I said, I never had
14:48
Speaker 3: a jam finger before my entire high school career, college career,
14:53
Speaker 3: and to tear your ACL going into your senior season,
14:57
Speaker 3: where right, you have high expectations.
15:00
Speaker 2: Of course.
15:02
Speaker 3: You're a key piece to to the team. It was
15:07
Speaker 3: it was extremely tough, you know. And I'll be honest,
15:11
Speaker 3: I got emotional right away, and then you know, I
15:15
Speaker 3: gave it some time and after that, you know, I
15:18
Speaker 3: was just trying to refocus and get myself prepared for
15:22
Speaker 3: the draft, right because you know, a cl injury, of course,
15:25
Speaker 3: full recovery time is a year, you know, so but
15:30
Speaker 3: it was tough. It was tough, I think, you know,
15:32
Speaker 3: just experiencing that and then maybe a couple more episodes
15:37
Speaker 3: pretty similar. It prepared me for what I'm doing right now.
15:42
Speaker 3: Kid you not.
15:44
Speaker 1: When did you start to feel like yourself leading up
15:46
Speaker 1: to the draft process.
15:48
Speaker 3: Well, I will say this, I had I had a
15:53
Speaker 3: cadaver done for my first surgery, and you can recover
15:56
Speaker 3: from that the fastest, so.
15:59
Speaker 2: Maybe maybe five months out.
16:01
Speaker 3: I think from early September to February.
16:06
Speaker 2: I did everything full.
16:08
Speaker 3: Speed, almost full speed at the draft, which is, you know,
16:12
Speaker 3: kind of unusual, and I felt good, you know, I
16:17
Speaker 3: felt like I was at least eighty five percent. I
16:20
Speaker 3: just wanted to show the NFL teams that you know,
16:24
Speaker 3: I had fully recovered. I felt great. But it wasn't
16:28
Speaker 3: until like maybe a couple months after that where I
16:30
Speaker 3: felt probably one hundred percent. So never really fully reached
16:39
Speaker 3: my potential. Of course, you know, going going through the injury.
16:42
Speaker 3: Of course, once I got to Philly, you know, I
16:47
Speaker 3: was one of the most talked about guys on the team.
16:48
Speaker 3: I had a lot of success early on in mini
16:51
Speaker 3: camp and training camp, and then I retell the same
16:54
Speaker 3: ACL and you know, it was it was. It was
16:58
Speaker 3: very frustrating at that time, only only because again right
17:02
Speaker 3: I'm thinking about in the past.
17:05
Speaker 2: Never had to deal with any injuries.
17:10
Speaker 3: But my second, my second injury was actually a blessing.
17:14
Speaker 3: Doctor Andrews did the second surgery, and I can remember
17:17
Speaker 3: when I woke up from surgery. My parents were on
17:21
Speaker 3: the other side of the glass and right my mom
17:23
Speaker 3: was super emotional. My dad he was trying to keep
17:27
Speaker 3: it together. And Doctor Andrews started explaining. He was like, listen,
17:32
Speaker 3: the cadaver was just it failed and it was just
17:39
Speaker 3: about it was going to start to rot in my
17:42
Speaker 3: leg where you know, he could have got infected, could
17:45
Speaker 3: have gotten my blood stream where I could have had
17:47
Speaker 3: my leg amputated, or I could have died from it,
17:50
Speaker 3: you know. And this was the second surgery, so it
17:55
Speaker 3: was it was truly a blessing. Of course, I love
17:57
Speaker 3: the game of football, I love being around it, right,
18:03
Speaker 3: but but I love life a little bit more so.
18:06
Speaker 3: Even though I wasn't able to do what I wanted
18:09
Speaker 3: to do at that particular time, my second acl taror
18:14
Speaker 3: was actually a blessing for me going forward.
18:18
Speaker 1: And would that have been August two thousand.
18:20
Speaker 3: And nine or something yep, yep, yep, yep, following year yep,
18:24
Speaker 3: following year.
18:27
Speaker 1: Wow, So do you I know that we're I recognize
18:31
Speaker 1: we're going back a number of years, but do you
18:33
Speaker 1: have any recollection as to how that injury transpired? Were
18:38
Speaker 1: you running around? Was it non contents?
18:41
Speaker 3: I will say this, I think I think even at
18:43
Speaker 3: the NFL come out, I remember Drew Rosenhaus was my agent.
18:46
Speaker 3: He was like, listen, a lot of the teams, they
18:49
Speaker 3: still like you, but they, you know, some of their
18:51
Speaker 3: team doctors feel like that there's something, you know, funny
18:55
Speaker 3: going on.
18:56
Speaker 2: I was like, well, I still feel fine.
18:57
Speaker 3: I felt I felt good, honestly speaking, So I really
19:03
Speaker 3: didn't really didn't know. I think the graph right, it
19:07
Speaker 3: probably ran, it ran its course. Uh. Now, I will
19:10
Speaker 3: say this, I was kind of unaware of, you know,
19:14
Speaker 3: using the cadaver, not knowing that. I think the first
19:19
Speaker 3: thing I heard was if you use the cadaver, right,
19:23
Speaker 3: this is the surgery that you can recover from the fastest. Right,
19:28
Speaker 3: let's go, you know, because right I'm thinking about my future.
19:33
Speaker 3: You know, I was ready to hit the panic button
19:34
Speaker 3: because again you're talking about going back to school where
19:38
Speaker 3: uh you know, I was considering leaving my junior year.
19:41
Speaker 3: I was considering leaving my junior year. Then you go
19:44
Speaker 3: back to school to have a season ending injury, right,
19:48
Speaker 3: of course you feel devastating. So uh, I think it
19:52
Speaker 3: just it just ran, it ran its course. Nothing in
19:56
Speaker 3: particular in practice that I felt like I was doing,
19:59
Speaker 3: I will say this, So I think the Eagles did
20:01
Speaker 3: an unbelievable job with like just rehabbing me. There there
20:04
Speaker 3: were sometimes where I was I was limited in reps
20:10
Speaker 3: and I and I felt good after my first surgery
20:12
Speaker 3: coming out of Florida, but uh, after we found out
20:16
Speaker 3: it was touring the second time again. The the the
20:20
Speaker 3: whole timing of it was was was perfect for me because,
20:24
Speaker 3: like I said, doctor Andrews, felt like maybe a day
20:26
Speaker 3: or two later, right, it would have been really bad.
20:29
Speaker 3: So I'm extremely blessed to be here, of course, and
20:35
Speaker 3: I've had a lot of success after that.
20:36
Speaker 2: I can say that now.
20:38
Speaker 1: When that happened, Cornelius, was there ever any doubt that
20:42
Speaker 1: crept in knowing that that was the second time that
20:44
Speaker 1: you torn, uh your A c L and your trajectory
20:49
Speaker 1: was trending upwards, and I imagine that the frustration was
20:52
Speaker 1: really settling.
20:53
Speaker 3: It was it was again, you know, I just I
20:59
Speaker 3: just felt like, you know, it was it was my time.
21:03
Speaker 2: I felt like it was.
21:03
Speaker 3: My time and everything was pointing towards, you know, me
21:09
Speaker 3: having success, me getting on the field, me playing, and
21:13
Speaker 3: then yeah, when when when it happened? Right of course, right,
21:17
Speaker 3: certain things play out in your head, right, you feel
21:20
Speaker 3: you feel a certain way about it, and I was
21:23
Speaker 3: still trying to maintain. I ended up in Denver, like
21:26
Speaker 3: I was, I was still trying to maintain, never really
21:29
Speaker 3: fully recovered. And when I was completely when I was
21:34
Speaker 3: completely finished, I was like, you know what, I don't
21:37
Speaker 3: want to go through this anymore. You know, let's just,
21:39
Speaker 3: you know, figure out what's the next step. I stopped
21:44
Speaker 3: watching football for a while, stop watching football for a
21:47
Speaker 3: while because you know, I would get emotional. You know,
21:51
Speaker 3: I've always supported my teammates or or or friends that
21:56
Speaker 3: that I had who still continued their career. But it
22:01
Speaker 3: was it was extremely hard to watch the game because
22:04
Speaker 3: I always just felt like it should have been me, right,
22:07
Speaker 3: it should have been me. And you know I always
22:11
Speaker 3: tell you know, my players now, right, and they're so
22:14
Speaker 3: young and they don't understand, right, I find my purpose.
22:17
Speaker 3: I find my purpose now the way I ended up
22:21
Speaker 3: back in my hometown coaching high school football. I found
22:25
Speaker 3: my purpose, and when you find your purpose and you're
22:30
Speaker 3: walking through it, I really just feel like there's a
22:32
Speaker 3: lot of success for you on the other side. And
22:35
Speaker 3: I've been able. I've been able to do that. I
22:37
Speaker 3: think maybe what twelve years now, I've been to high
22:39
Speaker 3: school head coach and it's been phenomenal.
22:43
Speaker 1: So that's a perfect segue. At what point did you
22:45
Speaker 1: realize I'm good, I'm going to turn the page and
22:50
Speaker 1: move on to the next chapter. And how did you
22:53
Speaker 1: find your calling?
22:54
Speaker 3: Ultimately? Well, the calling actually found me. My calling actually
23:00
Speaker 3: found me, and I didn't know it at that time.
23:04
Speaker 3: Our principal and our athletic director at Hawthorne, you know,
23:10
Speaker 3: they came to me about being the head coach, and
23:13
Speaker 3: coaching never was even on my radar, you know. I
23:16
Speaker 3: was kind of traveling doing my own thing, you know,
23:20
Speaker 3: like coaching was never on my radar. So I can
23:24
Speaker 3: remember when they first addressed me with it. Initially, I
23:29
Speaker 3: said no right away, and the AD and the principal
23:35
Speaker 3: they were pretty persistent. They came back at the end
23:37
Speaker 3: of the week and then they had something else to
23:41
Speaker 3: offer as well. They was like, well, listen, the school
23:44
Speaker 3: you graduated from, we're on the verge of shutting down. Right,
23:50
Speaker 3: my former high school was a D letter grade for
23:53
Speaker 3: like two years in a row in the state was
23:56
Speaker 3: ready to shut the school down. And honest, that's how
24:00
Speaker 3: I got into coaching. Wasn't ready. I didn't even know
24:05
Speaker 3: exactly where to start. The year prior to me taking
24:10
Speaker 3: the job, there were fifteen sixteen players on the team. Right.
24:18
Speaker 3: Of course, there were no money in the football account.
24:23
Speaker 3: It was in the negative, right, So the job wasn't
24:25
Speaker 3: appealing at all. And like I said, the school was
24:28
Speaker 3: also a D letter grade, so they just felt like
24:33
Speaker 3: I would be able to give the school a spark
24:35
Speaker 3: some kind of way, of course through football. And man,
24:41
Speaker 3: when I said yes, I never looked back. When I
24:44
Speaker 3: said yes to taking the job, I never looked back,
24:46
Speaker 3: you know, just alone my first my first team meeting, right,
24:52
Speaker 3: it was almost sixty guys who showed up, and I
24:55
Speaker 3: was like, man, sixteen guys on the team last year,
24:57
Speaker 3: so you're telling me we have the kids in the school, right,
25:01
Speaker 3: They just didn't want to play football. It was a
25:04
Speaker 3: bad time, not even just a year before, but I
25:08
Speaker 3: think maybe a couple of years before that, we were
25:10
Speaker 3: the laughing stock of high school football. In the state
25:12
Speaker 3: of Florida, and again I just kind of stepped out
25:17
Speaker 3: on faith. Wanted to help my former high school get
25:21
Speaker 3: over that hunk, not only academically, but of course athletically
25:25
Speaker 3: as well.
25:26
Speaker 2: And I kid you not, we've been able to do it.
25:30
Speaker 2: We've been able to do it.
25:32
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26:32
Speaker 1: You mentioned that coaching never entered your mind previously, and
26:35
Speaker 1: you've played the game your whole life. But I imagine
26:37
Speaker 1: it's different when you're in that seat. So how long
26:41
Speaker 1: did it take you to really establish your voice and
26:45
Speaker 1: establish your messaging?
26:48
Speaker 3: But I think maybe two years then. I think maybe
26:50
Speaker 3: two years then I was able to kind of, you know,
26:56
Speaker 3: figure some things out. I think for me, I've always
27:01
Speaker 3: been an open book, right I would, you know, call
27:03
Speaker 3: other coaches. I would pick their brains. Of course, my
27:07
Speaker 3: older brother, he was actually the head boys basketball coach
27:13
Speaker 3: at that time. He was the offensive coordinator for for
27:17
Speaker 3: the football team. So we would always talk about, you know,
27:23
Speaker 3: new things we wanted to try, maybe you know, go
27:26
Speaker 3: a different route with this or that, and and he
27:29
Speaker 3: would give me some advice. I can remember when I
27:32
Speaker 3: first took the job, Irban Maya. He was at Ohio
27:37
Speaker 3: State and he owned the Lake House right outside of Hawthorne.
27:41
Speaker 3: So he invited me to his house. I think they
27:43
Speaker 3: were abody to play Alabama in the National Championship and
27:47
Speaker 3: and he was home for like a week, so he
27:50
Speaker 3: invited me over for dinner, and after dinner.
27:53
Speaker 2: We we we we talked for.
27:55
Speaker 3: A while, and I can remember, right, it's probably some
27:58
Speaker 3: of the best advice I received going into my coaching career.
28:02
Speaker 3: He said, listen, whatever you do, you hire, you hire
28:05
Speaker 3: some stand up guys, and you let them do their
28:08
Speaker 3: job right.
28:09
Speaker 2: You don't have to coach every position right.
28:13
Speaker 3: You don't have to right running special teams, run the defense,
28:16
Speaker 3: run the offense.
28:18
Speaker 2: You let them do their job.
28:19
Speaker 3: And I took that in consideration, of course, and he's
28:25
Speaker 3: he's always supported me even now. But but I thought
28:29
Speaker 3: that was huge because in my mind going into it,
28:34
Speaker 3: I was thinking exactly that, Listen, I have to do everything,
28:37
Speaker 3: I have to control everything. And I was extremely happy
28:41
Speaker 3: when I when I heard it from of course, one
28:43
Speaker 3: of the greatest to to let let your coaches do
28:47
Speaker 3: their job, let them coach, hold their position group accountable.
28:53
Speaker 3: And I've been able to use a lot of those
28:56
Speaker 3: different methods, uh and I put them into my and style,
29:00
Speaker 3: of course, and I've had success doing it. I've had
29:04
Speaker 3: success doing it. Well.
29:06
Speaker 1: How what kind of coach would you classify yourself as
29:08
Speaker 1: someone who is sort of an old school like a
29:10
Speaker 1: pic Vangio or.
29:14
Speaker 3: I am so so I'm a mixture of it all, right,
29:17
Speaker 3: I think. For For for me, I'm pretty I'm pretty
29:20
Speaker 3: firm with my guys. I'm not that old, so I
29:26
Speaker 3: know what they're listening to when we work out, right,
29:30
Speaker 3: normally I'm the DJ, or if they're the or if
29:34
Speaker 3: I let players, you know, control the music. They know,
29:38
Speaker 3: you know, there's at least three four songs I want
29:41
Speaker 3: to hear, and we make sure everyone has a different
29:46
Speaker 3: variety of music that they want to listen to. It's
29:49
Speaker 3: it's a it's a great feel. I have a little
29:52
Speaker 3: old school in me. I yell some, I do yell some.
29:58
Speaker 3: I challenge my guys every single day. I'm talking about
30:02
Speaker 3: on and off the field. And I'll be completely honest,
30:06
Speaker 3: I didn't know if that style would really work, especially
30:11
Speaker 3: with this generation, because again I'm not that old. But
30:15
Speaker 3: you know, some of my coaches that I've had, whether
30:17
Speaker 3: they're you know, college coaches or specially high school coaches, right,
30:21
Speaker 3: there were hands on and they were old school guys,
30:24
Speaker 3: and there was no way around it. Right, what you
30:27
Speaker 3: see is what you get. But but I have a
30:29
Speaker 3: little mixture of everything and my coaching style. And I
30:34
Speaker 3: say this to a lot of people. I'm going into
30:37
Speaker 3: year twelve. I've never been disrespected as a as a
30:41
Speaker 3: head coach, not one time. Right. I've had some big
30:45
Speaker 3: time players come through my program. I've had kids with
30:50
Speaker 3: you know, bad home situations like regardless, right, we try
30:55
Speaker 3: to we try to help our players out as much
30:58
Speaker 3: as possible.
30:59
Speaker 2: I have this open door policy.
31:02
Speaker 3: My players know when I'm not at the school, and
31:05
Speaker 3: that's if my office door is closed. Every single day.
31:08
Speaker 3: My office door is wide is wide open because you know,
31:13
Speaker 3: there's a lot that that goes on now in society.
31:17
Speaker 3: A lot of these kids need that outlet. And I
31:20
Speaker 3: didn't want to be that mean coach who who who
31:24
Speaker 3: never wanted to relate to the kids, never wanted to,
31:27
Speaker 3: you know, just hold a conversation with the kid. Right.
31:30
Speaker 3: I'm able to talk about any and everything with my
31:33
Speaker 3: players when they go off to school. As soon as
31:36
Speaker 3: they come back, they stop. By what I think, the
31:41
Speaker 3: last six years, we've been in the state championship game
31:46
Speaker 3: and we've won three of those. Right, I have kids
31:49
Speaker 3: that Division ones, Division two's juco right to see where
31:55
Speaker 3: our program is now. Right. It speaks volumes to not
32:01
Speaker 3: not only myself, but the amazing coaches I have around me,
32:05
Speaker 3: the caliber players that that that we're around every single day.
32:09
Speaker 3: And I think probably the most important thing for me
32:12
Speaker 3: is these parents allow me to coach their kids a
32:17
Speaker 3: lot different than some other coaches. I'll be honest, and
32:20
Speaker 3: and it might have it might it might have a
32:22
Speaker 3: lot to do with me coaching at home. Right, I
32:26
Speaker 3: know a lot of these kids I grew up with
32:28
Speaker 3: their parents or some some relative and I think, you know,
32:33
Speaker 3: just that alone.
32:36
Speaker 2: Helps me with the way I coach.
32:39
Speaker 1: What's your perspective on the future of Hawthorn football and
32:42
Speaker 1: your role in that?
32:45
Speaker 3: Well, I'm off for jobs every year. I'm off for
32:50
Speaker 3: jobs every every year, when it's college level, of course,
32:55
Speaker 3: high school level. You know, I want things to be intact.
32:58
Speaker 3: I'll be honest. I know I want will be there forever,
33:01
Speaker 3: but I want things to be be intact because right,
33:04
Speaker 3: this is this is a place I call home and
33:08
Speaker 3: and and for us. I probably should have mentioned this earlier.
33:13
Speaker 3: Right We we play top notch competition, and we're probably
33:18
Speaker 3: the smaller school in the entire state of Florida. And
33:23
Speaker 3: I take my hat off to my players every single day,
33:26
Speaker 3: Like today, we just had we we we we work
33:28
Speaker 3: out Monday through Thursday, and we just had a great
33:33
Speaker 3: day to day. And I was talking with one of
33:34
Speaker 3: my coaches on the way home, just raving about how good,
33:38
Speaker 3: you know, our lift ended up and then we go
33:41
Speaker 3: outside and we condition. But my kids aren't entitled. They're
33:46
Speaker 3: not entitled, right. I wish you can fly down and
33:49
Speaker 3: see our facilities. I wish you can, you know, fly
33:52
Speaker 3: down and see what we have to work with and
33:55
Speaker 3: for us to have uh limited resources. With the type
34:00
Speaker 3: of success we've had, my kids don't care. As long
34:04
Speaker 3: as I show up, me and my coaching staff, they
34:07
Speaker 3: will be there. They don't care about field turf. They
34:10
Speaker 3: don't care about raggedy equipment, whether it's in the weight room,
34:14
Speaker 3: whether it's shoulder pass. Right, we're doing a lot.
34:17
Speaker 2: Of stuff with less.
34:19
Speaker 3: But but when I tell you this, when my kids
34:21
Speaker 3: graduate from high school, they're ready to go take on
34:27
Speaker 3: whatever the world has to offer for them. And they're
34:30
Speaker 3: they're they're not perfect, but right if a supervisor or
34:35
Speaker 3: boss yell or challenge them at work, they're not walking
34:39
Speaker 3: off their job. You know, a lot of my players
34:42
Speaker 3: that are still playing college ball. Right, they come back
34:45
Speaker 3: and we talk like coach. I laugh at my position coach,
34:48
Speaker 3: because right, you said, you know, maybe worse things, but
34:54
Speaker 3: but it was only to challenge them.
34:55
Speaker 2: I have to push buttons.
34:56
Speaker 3: I have to figure out, you know, how to get
35:00
Speaker 3: how to motivate you or figure out how can you
35:04
Speaker 3: make this play? How can you give me your all?
35:07
Speaker 3: And right, and I feel like it's my job to
35:09
Speaker 3: have these kids not only prepared for college football, but
35:13
Speaker 3: for the real world, because right, we both know how
35:16
Speaker 3: hard it is. So again we we get to do
35:20
Speaker 3: this with with with limited resources, then a lot of schools.
35:26
Speaker 3: I'm talking about a lot of schools. So that's why
35:29
Speaker 3: it's hard for me to leave. I'll be honest, it's
35:31
Speaker 3: hard for me to leave. And I'm talking for the
35:33
Speaker 3: last eight years. I've could have had numerous of of
35:38
Speaker 3: you know, head coaching jobs, and in these high paying
35:43
Speaker 3: states like Georgia and Alabama, Florida being one of probably
35:49
Speaker 3: the lowest payings coaching UH state there is Right, it's
35:55
Speaker 3: all about home for me. A lot of these kids
35:58
Speaker 3: they don't have father figures. A lot of these kids
36:00
Speaker 3: they don't have a positive role model Again, I always
36:05
Speaker 3: think about how bitter I was towards the game and
36:08
Speaker 3: not being able to finish my career the way I
36:11
Speaker 3: wanted wanted and to have the type of success I've
36:16
Speaker 3: had as a coach. Right, I mean it sounds like, right,
36:22
Speaker 3: we're probably writing a strip for a Netflix documentary or something.
36:27
Speaker 2: But these are all facts.
36:29
Speaker 3: Man. To be able to live out this in my
36:31
Speaker 3: hometown means almost everything to me. Heck, man, I can
36:38
Speaker 3: go home. Man, I have a street named after me.
36:40
Speaker 3: Author Warrant, I should have said this as well. I
36:44
Speaker 3: was the girls basketball coach. I have three state titles
36:51
Speaker 3: and girls basketball, and all of this is like in
36:55
Speaker 3: the last for five six years, right, three in girls
37:00
Speaker 3: of basketball, three in football. Our boys have I think
37:05
Speaker 3: two or three state titles in the last two or
37:08
Speaker 3: the last five six years with my older brother, like
37:11
Speaker 3: I said, is still the head boys coach. So to
37:14
Speaker 3: have all this success at the smallest school, probably financially
37:21
Speaker 3: the town is probably you know one of those times
37:25
Speaker 3: where Right's there's not that many local businesses that can
37:27
Speaker 3: help us out financially. Right, you got to think we
37:30
Speaker 3: need new equipment. We have to play for state championship
37:33
Speaker 3: rings with all this stuff going on around us, right,
37:37
Speaker 3: our kids, you know, they really work extremely hard. I
37:43
Speaker 3: feel like I have a dream job now, and I
37:45
Speaker 3: know the football gods blessed me after my injury to
37:49
Speaker 3: be able to be back home and have this amount
37:52
Speaker 3: of success.
37:53
Speaker 1: And what's really special about your story is that you
37:56
Speaker 1: said you walked away from the game feeling bitter, but
37:59
Speaker 1: you've grown into this role and have embraced it and
38:02
Speaker 1: now you get to sort of live vicars through your players.
38:04
Speaker 2: Yep, yep, yep, absolutely right.
38:08
Speaker 3: I think you hit you hit the nail, nail on
38:10
Speaker 3: the head, just just you know, being able to watch
38:14
Speaker 3: some of these kids grow up.
38:17
Speaker 2: Into into young men and see their careers take off.
38:21
Speaker 3: And again, even with all this, right, I make sure
38:24
Speaker 3: parents are in the forefront, like it still isn't about me,
38:28
Speaker 3: and there's the right of course, players invite me to
38:31
Speaker 3: everything in I ten, don't get me wrong, I ten,
38:33
Speaker 3: but I still want to be in the background, you know.
38:38
Speaker 2: Because you know, I feel like this is my job.
38:40
Speaker 3: I feel like this is my calling even when I
38:43
Speaker 3: wasn't ready to accept it, but God had a plan
38:46
Speaker 3: for me. And I know, you know, coaches, and again
38:52
Speaker 3: I am in that that coaching world where you know,
38:55
Speaker 3: I talked to other coaches or I'm at you know,
38:57
Speaker 3: certain clinics or whatever, and I hear some of these
39:01
Speaker 3: other coaches story and it was like, listen, man, I
39:03
Speaker 3: was at this place for you know, twenty thirty years.
39:06
Speaker 2: I never even made it in the playoffs.
39:08
Speaker 3: You know, I never even had an opportunity to coach
39:11
Speaker 3: in the state championship game. So I know how blessed
39:17
Speaker 3: I am. And again it's not by accident, because I
39:20
Speaker 3: have some amazing coaches around me. I do have some good,
39:25
Speaker 3: great support system, and again I'm excited about not only
39:31
Speaker 3: where our program has come, but where it's going still.
39:36
Speaker 1: And in closing, and thank you again for spending some
39:39
Speaker 1: time talking about your career. Absolutely, your son CJ. Is
39:43
Speaker 1: an ascending player for the Florida Gators basketball team. He's
39:47
Speaker 1: really fun to watch. As I mentioned earlier in our conversation,
39:51
Speaker 1: what's your perspective on the growth that he's shown during
39:55
Speaker 1: his time and what's it like being a father being
39:58
Speaker 1: able to watch him play. I'm sure I'm sure you're
40:00
Speaker 1: very proud.
40:01
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, very proud, very proud. I remember just walking
40:06
Speaker 3: into the arena and he was warming up I think
40:10
Speaker 3: the first game of the season against Arizona and they
40:13
Speaker 3: played out in Vegas, and my wife and I we
40:16
Speaker 3: were like just walking out and we were coming out
40:21
Speaker 3: of the tunnel and he was right in the corner
40:22
Speaker 3: shooting the three, right and just seeing the name on
40:25
Speaker 3: the back of.
40:26
Speaker 2: His jersey, Like I had a moment.
40:28
Speaker 3: I had a moment because, right, he was a two
40:32
Speaker 3: sport guy for the longest and he's so mature. I
40:36
Speaker 3: can remember when right he wanted to send out to
40:40
Speaker 3: make the decision to just focus on one sport, and
40:44
Speaker 3: which I thought that was huge of him, right, because
40:47
Speaker 3: a lot of times, right when your dad's the head coach,
40:49
Speaker 3: he was my quarterback.
40:52
Speaker 2: Of course he won what.
40:53
Speaker 3: He won two state championships back to back as a
40:56
Speaker 3: sophomore and the junior, so he didn't even play football
40:59
Speaker 3: is senior year, right, So for him to have that
41:08
Speaker 3: amount of pressure on him, and it's not even on purpose,
41:11
Speaker 3: like sometimes right, just because of your last name, just
41:13
Speaker 3: because your dad might be the coach, just because, right,
41:16
Speaker 3: your dad had these accolades and you're trending to all
41:20
Speaker 3: this stuff. There's there's some pressure, even when we say
41:25
Speaker 3: it's not and for him to sit down and it's like, yo, Dad, I.
41:28
Speaker 2: Just want to focus on on basketball, right, I was.
41:32
Speaker 3: I was happy for him, right, He's he's always been
41:37
Speaker 3: super mature for his for his age, but to see
41:41
Speaker 3: his growth. I can remember just last year we went
41:44
Speaker 3: out to dinner. He was playing early a lot, and
41:48
Speaker 3: and you know, I wanted to just talk to him
41:51
Speaker 3: and see how he was feeling, and like his confidence
41:56
Speaker 3: never waivered and he felt like, hey, Dad, I'm on
42:00
Speaker 3: a national championship type of team with great players. Right,
42:06
Speaker 3: I know my opportunity will come. And now just to
42:09
Speaker 3: see how the season went. By the end of the season,
42:13
Speaker 3: he got more time and he performed well, right, And
42:17
Speaker 3: I know right there and then you know, just pressure
42:22
Speaker 3: he would have to you know and encounter, you know,
42:26
Speaker 3: me being his father, and then him also being the
42:32
Speaker 3: hometown kid at the University of Florida. Right, everyone knows him. Right.
42:37
Speaker 3: Just think about the amount of high school games he's
42:40
Speaker 3: played in this area where people supported him. Right, he
42:43
Speaker 3: can't even go into a store. But when I tell
42:45
Speaker 3: you he handled he handled himself well.
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Speaker 2: All the time, all the time. I'm extremely proud.
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Speaker 3: He'll have a big season this year. Right right now.
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Speaker 3: I think just just looking at him, he's ill, growing
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Speaker 3: and and and he's having a really good off season already.
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Speaker 3: So I'm excited to see him in year two just
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Speaker 3: by you know, all of the flashes he was able
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Speaker 3: to show in year one said a lot about his character,
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Speaker 3: and but he'll continue to grow well.
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Speaker 1: I look forward to following along this season. There's something
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Speaker 1: that everyone can take from your story, Cornelius. Being able
43:27
Speaker 1: to battle through adversity, discover your passion and really flourish
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Speaker 1: is something that I think is what everything it's all about.
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Speaker 1: And I thank you for sharing your story with us.
43:39
Speaker 3: Absolutely thanks for having me.
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Speaker 1: Absolutely well, that's gonna do it for this episode of
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Speaker 1: The check O Daily for Cornelius Ingram, I'm Andrew Decheco.
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Speaker 1: I'll catch you all on the next one.