Latest / The Jake Wimberly Podcast / Mississippi College Football Coach Mike Kershaw Joins the Program

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Mississippi College Football Coach Mike Kershaw Joins the Program · The Jake Wimberly Podcast

• 0:20
  Speaker 1: But with Thorrow Wednesday, it is the afternoon drive. We
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  Speaker 1: We're at Haartfield Academy today, day one of the high
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: school football road Tour. We'll have Craig Bowman, the head
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: football coach, coming up here in about thirty minutes. Right now,
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: we're going to swing across town visit with head football
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: coach at Mississippi College. Mike Kershaw is on your radio.
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: Make sure to find him on X give them a
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: follow at coach m Kershaw coach. Welcome in.
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  Speaker 2: How you doing brother man, Jake. I'm doing fantastic. How
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  Speaker 2: about you, man?
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  Speaker 1: We're doing great and look I appreciate you jumping in.
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  Speaker 1: It was it was great to visit with you by
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  Speaker 1: phone yesterday or two days ago. Now, first off, publicly
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  Speaker 1: want to tell you, you know, congratulations on being the
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  Speaker 1: head football coach at Missippi College. I know that you
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  Speaker 1: have spent some time in the state of Mississippi. You're
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  Speaker 1: back here, so congratulations on being back and of course
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  Speaker 1: you know being over at Missippi College.
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  Speaker 2: Man, I appreciate that, and it is it is great
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  Speaker 2: to be back in the state of Mississippi. Now we're
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  Speaker 2: just gonna be gonna be wearing a couple of different
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  Speaker 2: colors this time.
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  Speaker 1: Coach, for those that may not know, kind of take
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  Speaker 1: us through just a you know, kind of a flyover
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  Speaker 1: of your career. I know that you spent some time
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  Speaker 1: out at Rice and some other portions. You come from
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  Speaker 1: a football family. Just a little bit about your your background.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, so, I mean I grew up in a football family.
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  Speaker 2: My dad was involved at the Canadian Football League. So
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  Speaker 2: I was actually born and raised up in Canada. So
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  Speaker 2: I kind of grew up in the locker room up
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  Speaker 2: that way. Ended up going to high school in California
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: and Louisiana. That's kind of where I got my way
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  Speaker 2: down to the South. Was finished up eleventh and twelfth
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  Speaker 2: grade in Louisiana, funny thing is I actually was recruited
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  Speaker 2: to Msispi College out of high school, decided in actually
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  Speaker 2: one year, went to Western Colorado first, and then ended
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  Speaker 2: up transferring back to Delta State because they recruit him
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  Speaker 2: out of high school as well. Played there from ninety
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  Speaker 2: six to ninety eight, when was my last year playing there.
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  Speaker 2: Graduated there in two thousand, ended up starting to coach
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  Speaker 2: there in two thousand and one, stayed there till two
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  Speaker 2: thousand and six, decided to have a life change and
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  Speaker 2: got married to my beautiful bride in Austin, Texas, and
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  Speaker 2: moved out that way and got out of coaching for
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  Speaker 2: really about a ten year span, and was pretty much
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  Speaker 2: thought I was done with coaching, and you know, started
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  Speaker 2: my own insurance agency and did all that type of
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  Speaker 2: good stuff. But kind of once you're a coacher, never
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  Speaker 2: you never get out of it, right, It's always in
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  Speaker 2: your blood. And so once my daughter graduated high school,
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  Speaker 2: my wife kind of looked to me, She's like, hey,
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: I can work remote. Is coaching ever something you wanted
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  Speaker 2: to get back into? And I kind of stopped in
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  Speaker 2: my tracks, and thirty seconds later I was calling my
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  Speaker 2: on my coach in contacts and be like, hey, I'm
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  Speaker 2: ready to get back in if anybody just gives me
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  Speaker 2: a chance. And so my first year at Rice, which
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  Speaker 2: was twenty eighteen, I sold my insurance company, volunteered with
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  Speaker 2: coach Bloomgren at Rice, and then as twenty nineteen, got
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  Speaker 2: the receiver job and was there ever since and came
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  Speaker 2: over here the end of December and been into missisp
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  Speaker 2: College rated role.
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  Speaker 1: Mike Kershaw on your radio head football Coach at Mississippi
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  Speaker 1: College Wedn'sday edition of the program. Coach, When you look
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  Speaker 1: at Mississippi College, why did that make sense for you
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  Speaker 1: at this juncture in your career.
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  Speaker 2: Well, the first thing is, you just don't get a
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  Speaker 2: lot of time to be a head coach. You don't
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  Speaker 2: have a lot of opportunities to be, you know, be
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  Speaker 2: the guy to run your own program. So that that
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  Speaker 2: was intriguing to me. At Rice, I also recruited Mississippi
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  Speaker 2: as well, and so every time I flew in here,
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  Speaker 2: you know, I'd always kind of think about, well, maybe
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  Speaker 2: I take over that program, what it would look like,
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  Speaker 2: you know, I wonder why you know this is going on?
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  Speaker 2: That going on? So that made sense to me. I
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  Speaker 2: got a lot of I've got a base here in
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  Speaker 2: Mississippi that you know, I still know a lot of
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  Speaker 2: lot of high school coaches here that my time at
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  Speaker 2: Delta State that either I coached with or they were
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  Speaker 2: student assistants over there, or guys I played with. There's
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  Speaker 2: a lot of high school coaches here that that was
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  Speaker 2: from the ADULTA State area. So I think I got
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  Speaker 2: a lot of contact here. It makes sense, you know.
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  Speaker 2: To me, I thought that this school is sleeping giant
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  Speaker 2: and I never understood why they never won, and so
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  Speaker 2: everything just kind of aligned up. And my good friend
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  Speaker 2: Jud Boswell of Clinton High School, I talked to him
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  Speaker 2: about the job and he goes, hey, I got I
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  Speaker 2: got a pretty good relationship with the president and the
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  Speaker 2: athletic director, and you want me to throw your name?
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  Speaker 2: And I was like, yeah, he goes, well, good, he
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  Speaker 2: already did. So that's something how it just played out.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's that does sound like something Jud would do,
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  Speaker 1: and that is no doubt true. Let me ask you
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  Speaker 1: this because you not I spoke about this, and you know,
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  Speaker 1: because when you pull up on campus over there, and
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  Speaker 1: it's a beautiful campus, the facilities are in pretty good shape.
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  Speaker 1: You know, when you're there for a night football game,
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  Speaker 1: for instance, sitting here at Hartfield Academy. Heartfield won the
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  Speaker 1: m AIIST State championship against Jackson Prepp out there last year.
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  Speaker 1: It's a great atmosphere, it's a great place. You look
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  Speaker 1: around and go, why not here, especially with all of
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  Speaker 1: the talent and the fact that it's now it's back
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  Speaker 1: a Division two school and you guys have scholarships to offer,
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  Speaker 1: So there's there's a lot to offer right there in Clinton.
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  Speaker 2: In there, there absolutely is. And that's again another another
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  Speaker 2: one of the reasons why I take the job. There's
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  Speaker 2: some multile some things in the recruiting side of it
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  Speaker 2: that I think we've got some advantages on. But if
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  Speaker 2: you lay it all out, you're like, why not kind
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  Speaker 2: of like you said, why why not miss it? Be
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  Speaker 2: college when you bring kids on campus. Again, it is
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  Speaker 2: a beautiful campus. You know the football program, it's not
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  Speaker 2: not a secret. They have not been very good since
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  Speaker 2: they've come back from Division three, And so I would
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  Speaker 2: say a lot of people kind of what you said
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  Speaker 2: yesterday on the radio is kind of a kind of
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  Speaker 2: no one really even talks about it is Assissippi College,
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  Speaker 2: and that's something we've got to change and change is
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  Speaker 2: really exactly what we're gonna do in every aspect of
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  Speaker 2: our programs.
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  Speaker 1: Mike Kershawll hit Football coach Mississippi College on your radio
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  Speaker 1: talking Chalk Saw Football to excuse me, whnds the edition
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  Speaker 1: of the program and coach, You guys have a you
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  Speaker 1: you put together a staff. It sounds like, you know,
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  Speaker 1: be it a positional coach or you know, maybe a staffer.
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  Speaker 1: I mean from from places like Liberty, places like Troy,
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  Speaker 1: maybe TWU Lane. You've pulled in some really sharp guys.
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  Speaker 1: It sounds like that have been a part of some
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  Speaker 1: big time winning programs, be it you know, a group
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  Speaker 1: of five or Power five football. And you've also flipped
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  Speaker 1: the roster pretty quickly.
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  Speaker 2: Had you Yeah, we actually absolutely did. We We have to,
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  Speaker 2: you know, bring in good coaches. These these players came
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  Speaker 2: into my office when I first got here as the coach.
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  Speaker 2: We just want guys that, you know, know how to
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  Speaker 2: win in college football. And so that's exactly what I did.
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  Speaker 2: The guy that brought into my offensive coordinator actually coached
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  Speaker 2: with at Delta State in I guess there's probably two
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  Speaker 2: thousand and two through two thousand and four and very similar.
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  Speaker 2: We actually At that time, Delta State was running a
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  Speaker 2: double slot option with Steve Campbell, and when we made
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  Speaker 2: the transition, we decided to scrap that and go to
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  Speaker 2: four vertical passing games, kind of what we're doing now.
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  Speaker 2: And two years later we were the number one offense
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  Speaker 2: in the country. So I'm very familiar and have a
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  Speaker 2: lot of trust in my offensive coordinator, my defensive coordinators.
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  Speaker 2: Like you said, comes from Liberty, there's been a lot
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  Speaker 2: of different places where they've played great defense, and so
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  Speaker 2: you know, he's been around a lot of different coaches.
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  Speaker 2: He's been at Clemson, he's been at Troy, he's been
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  Speaker 2: at Jacksonville State, and again last year at Liberty. So
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  Speaker 2: we brought in some really quality coaches that either you know,
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  Speaker 2: they may be a little bit young, and then there's
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  Speaker 2: time to shine. And you know what, at the Division
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  Speaker 2: two level, you got to take some chances on some
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  Speaker 2: guys like that. And I really have a lot of
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  Speaker 2: faith in what these guys are doing. And then yet
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  Speaker 2: we flipped the roster we did. We brought in I think,
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  Speaker 2: as if we counted today, there was fifty five new
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  Speaker 2: faces that were sitting in our team meeting. So the
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  Speaker 2: guys we kept. So the guys that have bought in,
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  Speaker 2: the guys that are ready to go, and then the
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  Speaker 2: as we brought in our guys that are going to
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  Speaker 2: help out with depth, going to help out with you know,
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  Speaker 2: changing changing what this offense and defense looks like and
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  Speaker 2: bringing in some speed. And so we had to get bigger, faster, stronger,
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  Speaker 2: and I think that's exactly what we did.
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  Speaker 1: Coach talent aside to change a football culture, you know,
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  Speaker 1: and a lot of times we throw that in that
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  Speaker 1: that lingo around a lot, you know, very loosely football culture.
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  Speaker 1: It's not the same as a culture in a city
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  Speaker 1: or culture in a town, but it's there is a
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  Speaker 1: culture inside every building. We know that. How hard is
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  Speaker 1: it to develop or not a different culture at a
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  Speaker 1: place that traditionally doesn't have a culture like that like
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  Speaker 1: you're wanting to have.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, it's tough. It's one of those deals that
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  Speaker 2: you know, it's something you talk about every single day.
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  Speaker 2: And that's why bringing in new guys helps out that
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  Speaker 2: a little bit because it's not you know, it's natural
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  Speaker 2: for the guys that have been here to kind of
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  Speaker 2: have that you know, hey, we haven't won or we
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  Speaker 2: you know, we haven't done this right or done that right.
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  Speaker 2: But we got to come in from day one and
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  Speaker 2: talk about guys, we got to set a championship stand
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  Speaker 2: and that's how we're gonna live. So you may be
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  Speaker 2: in the past where you could have been late and
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  Speaker 2: that was okay, or you showed up for this or
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  Speaker 2: that and that was okay. That's not okay anymore. And
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  Speaker 2: they understand that, Hey, whether or not at breakfast check,
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  Speaker 2: whether or not at you know, study hall, whatever it is,
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  Speaker 2: the grades are gonna be better. It's got to be
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  Speaker 2: to the championship standard that we set and that's how
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  Speaker 2: we're gonna live. And if you don't live that way,
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  Speaker 2: you can't play here. And so guys, I think coming
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  Speaker 2: in day one you talk about that, they buy in.
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  Speaker 2: And there's gonna be a couple of guys that didn't
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  Speaker 2: buy in the spring, you know, and they're not on
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  Speaker 2: the roster anymore, and that's great. But the guys that
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  Speaker 2: did buy in, they're ready to go. The new guys
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  Speaker 2: that were here this summer, they're ready to go. The
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  Speaker 2: coaching staff the same way they got to buy in
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: it the same thing. They got to preach the same thing.
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  Speaker 2: I'm preaching, and again we're ready to roll. I think
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  Speaker 2: are guys players wise, coaching wise, they're ready. So culture, yeah,
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  Speaker 2: is it a sign that a lot of people have
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  Speaker 2: in their building. Absolutely, but it's just got to be
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  Speaker 2: preached every single day and they'll understand what the true
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  Speaker 2: culture is once the championship standard is set.
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: Last question, We'll get you on your way, and I
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  Speaker 1: appreciate your time today. What's the schedule look like for
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  Speaker 1: you guys? Obviously with practice?
• 10:05
  Speaker 2: Uh?
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: And I always joke about this with everybody. We call
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: it fall camp. There's nothing fall about one hundred degree weather.
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: But what does that schedule look like from now until
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: you guys get ready to kick off Game one?
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  Speaker 2: So it's kind of our reporting days today. So it's
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: kind of like Christmas morning. But the problem is I
• 10:20
  Speaker 2: don't play with my new toys until Friday. Uh, so
• 10:23
  Speaker 2: we don't. We don't get to go out there and
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: practice until Friday morning. Uh, but we'll you know, we've
• 10:28
  Speaker 2: got I think twenty one practice before our first game,
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: so I'm glad we don't have to play tomorrow, but
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: we've got time to get ready to go. We open
• 10:36
  Speaker 2: up that shorter in Rome, Georgia, it's actually a Wednesday
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: night game, which is kind of crazy, but it kind
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  Speaker 2: of fits our schedule really well. And the cool thing
• 10:44
  Speaker 2: about our Mississippi College alumn that are around the Jackson areas,
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: We've got six home games and so all these guys
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: that are listening right now, we need you back to this,
• 10:51
  Speaker 2: you know, we need you back to Clinton. We need
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: to get to get you out here and you get
• 10:55
  Speaker 2: cheering for Clinton at our at our games here and
• 10:58
  Speaker 2: get get you in the new the new navy blue
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: and celestial blue colors that we got going on. And
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  Speaker 2: we're creating a new culture right here and we want
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  Speaker 2: everyone to know it and jump on, jump on the
• 11:07
  Speaker 2: bandwagon for it.
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: Mike Kershaw, head football coach at Mississippi College. Make sure
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: to give a follow on exit Coach m Kershall. Check
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: them out on social media platforms Facebook, Instagram and more. Coach,
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: I appreciate your time today. Look, we appreciate what you're
• 11:20
  Speaker 1: doing for Mississippi College. Congratulations again, and look we'll get
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: over and we'll be visiting with you very soon.
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  Speaker 2: Jay, come on over every time.
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  Speaker 1: I'll see you then. Thanks, coach, appreciate it. Mike Kershaw
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: on your radio head football coach Missippi College. We got
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: to take a time out. We are brought to you
• 11:35
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• 11:39
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• 11:42
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