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Mac & Bone Show - Steve Specht Interview · Mac & Bone Podcast

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: It really wasn't until his junior year. He was had
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: an ankle in issue with sophomore year, and he wasn't
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: playing a whole lot. He was actually a tight end.
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: And then his junior year, man, we were loaded. I
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: think we had the best team in the country that year.
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: We were either ranked one or two, and we had
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: eleven guys. We had fifteen guys coming back from the
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: two thousand and six season on defense. I mean fifteen
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: guys had played a bunch and it was an incredibly
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: talented group. And after about a week of mini camp
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: my defensive coordinator Tim McDonald says to me, he says,
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: we got to get this kid on the field, and
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: it was. Man. You talk about being a difference maker
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: from the get go for us, Luke was something special
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: that year on a team loaded with just great players.
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: Coach, it's hard for us to see Luke at anything
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: other than linebacker. Was he any good at tight end?
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: Yeah? He Actually his senior year he went both ways
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: for us, and we moved him to safety. Strangely enough,
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: he played what we call an adjuster position. He's really
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: a quarterback of the defense lines in the middle of
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: a field about seven yards off the ball and he
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: just tracks ball carriers. Luke was made for that position,
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: but he played safety and he played tight end. Hardly
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: ever came off the field his senior year.
• 1:24
  Speaker 3: Did he have the gift like back then of being
• 1:28
  Speaker 3: able to diagnose plays and know what's coming, because that's
• 1:32
  Speaker 3: one of the things that he is obviously known for,
• 1:35
  Speaker 3: you know, in his NFL career.
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: Yeah, it was. It's funny you asked that because I
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: gave a president I was given a clinic presentation a
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: couple of years back, and I was looking for pictures
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: of Luke and I found a picture of him from
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: high school where you could see him calling out pointing
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: that you could see him directing traffic. And I thought
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: found a picture of him in college doing it the
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: same thing, and a picture with Panthers doing the same
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: thing back to back to back. So he had been
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: doing it at a at a lower a lower level
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: at high school compared to what he did with the Panthers.
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: But man, you talk about a young guy that studied
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: the game, watched film. The way he would watch film
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: in high school was different for me as a coach,
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: because he enjoyed it most most high school kids, I
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: t's we got fifteen minutes of film and they want
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: to get out. He'd stayed longer. He'd asked to come in.
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: He a coach. Can I get Can I see at lunch?
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: Can we watch film? He wanted to watch film all
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: the time. It was really it was really neat to
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: watch the evolution because he just improved every year into
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: what he into obviously what he is now.
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: Yeah, so coaching, reading about luc in those years lead
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: to guys to that state title. Puts up phenomenal numbers
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: across the board on defense and I'm sure on offense,
• 2:55
  Speaker 2: as you said, they contributed to as a contributor as well.
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: Why was he only a three star recruit and the
• 3:02
  Speaker 2: forty fourth outside linebacker that year in the country. Look,
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: you got it now, it seems impossible that there were
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: that many guys better than him.
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: Well, that's a great question. I think some of it is.
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: You know, he was long and lanky. He was He's
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: probably six foot two, six foot three at the time.
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: He wore wire, he did. He didn't look the part,
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: and I don't think playing him at safety, you know,
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: didn't help a whole lot. A great quick story for
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: you and Jeff Monk, and who's the head coach at
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: West Point. Now, Jeff was with Georgia Tech and he
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: was in recruiting and I told him, I said, man,
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: you got I said, coach, you got to look at
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: my number three, Luke Keigley. He's he's he's as good
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: as anybody I've ever seen play this game. He said, yeah,
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: we watched the coach thought he was a little stiff
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: and I was like, oh, okay. Well fast forward. I
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: was taking my son on a tour of West Point.
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: One of the coaches I knew was giving us a
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: tour and he said, hey, coach Monkin camp be here today.
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: He apologizes, no problem, no big deal. We get the
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: tour and here comes Jeff Monkin. He comes out of
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: the weight room. He says, coach, I had to see.
• 4:13
  Speaker 1: I said, I didn't think you were gonna be in today.
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: And he said, ever since I missed on Luke Keighley,
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: anytime you have a guy here, I'm gonna make sure
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: that I've seen him talk him.
• 4:23
  Speaker 3: Uh N. I love that he was not alone in
• 4:27
  Speaker 3: underrating him. Early on, we're talking with Steve Speck. He
• 4:32
  Speaker 3: is a head coach at Saint Xavier High school in Cincinnati.
• 4:34
  Speaker 3: He was Luke Keighley's coach in high school, and he's
• 4:37
  Speaker 3: telling us some great stories as Luke gets ready to
• 4:40
  Speaker 3: go to the Hall of Fame back in Ohio in Canton.
• 4:44
  Speaker 3: One of the things that I will say does drive
• 4:46
  Speaker 3: me crazy about Luke is how humble he is. Now. Listen,
• 4:50
  Speaker 3: it's awesome how humble he is. But man, now that
• 4:54
  Speaker 3: he's going into the Hall of Fame, we want to
• 4:56
  Speaker 3: hear him talk about himself and he doesn't want to
• 4:59
  Speaker 3: talk about him so and I know this doesn't surprise you. Coach.
• 5:02
  Speaker 3: Was he that way as a kid where you would
• 5:04
  Speaker 3: coach some kids that would get a little full of himself.
• 5:07
  Speaker 3: I can't imagine Luke was full of himself. Was he
• 5:10
  Speaker 3: that humble dude as a kid as well?
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: Always always coach? You wouldn't he was. The most I
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: ever heard Luke talk was when he was on the field. Yeah,
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: I mean he was very soft spoken. He led by example.
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: The kids followed his example. I mean more kids started
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: watching film because of the standard that Luke said. It
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: was like it became a standard of how to watch
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: film here. But Luke cares about people. He cares about
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: the team, more than the individual, and I still to
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: this day, I think part of the reason Luke retired
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: so young is I don't think he felt he was
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: playing up to the standard he set for himself, even
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: know that he was playing better than almost all the
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: linebackers in the NFL. I really think that he thought
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: he was hurting his team because he couldn't play up
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: to the standard he said for himself to help his teammates.
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: I don't think Luke ever played the game just for
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: the tackles, for the Hall of Fame, for the awards.
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: He played the game for his teammates. And it was
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: that way in high school, and you saw it all
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: the way through the NFL coach.
• 6:23
  Speaker 2: We've heard from a teammate of his a story that
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: he told someone at the Rookie symposium that he was
• 6:31
  Speaker 2: going to play eight when he was a rookie, that
• 6:33
  Speaker 2: he was going to play eight years and that'll probably
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: be enough. And then he played eight years and that
• 6:39
  Speaker 2: was enough. Are you are you surprised that that he
• 6:42
  Speaker 2: did not have a longer career or do you kind
• 6:45
  Speaker 2: of think, yeah, that Luke, like you said, as soon
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: as there was a little bit of slippage, he walked away.
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: I think the great thing about the way it happened
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: for Luke is he left the game on top. You know,
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: he's he He had suffered a few of those concussions
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: and that's always frightening. But he was able to go
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: out on his terms. So did it surprise me? Not really.
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: He had eight unbelievable years, and in the NFL, your
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: body can take so many hits. And I really think
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: that Luke looked at it and he just said, I
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: can't perform to the level of expectation I have for myself,
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: and he felt like he would let people down. That's
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: my take on it, because Luke was always about making
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: others better and raising others level of play.
• 7:35
  Speaker 3: Coach, are you are you going to be there in Canton?
• 7:38
  Speaker 3: Is this something you're gonna take part in?
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: Oh? Absolutely, we're taking Actually, I'm gonna go up Friday.
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: We moved our scrimmage from Saturday to Friday. I'm gonna
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: go up Friday evening and stay through Sunday. And my
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: staff and my varsity team are They're all coming up
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: on Saturday. This is a once in a lifetime deal
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: for us. It's his historic I mean, we're I want
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: these kids to see homegrown guy that did well. I
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: think there'll be just a great experience for all of us.
• 8:10
  Speaker 2: Coach, you have a website and a book, right, go
• 8:12
  Speaker 2: ahead and promote that as well.
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah, I wrote a book called Fourth in Redemption.
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: It was about our twenty sixteen season. We went five
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: and five, barely snuck into the playoffs, and then ran
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: off five street victories d Winna State title. It was
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: a true David and Goliath story. But there there's a
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: there's an expert on an excerpt in it about when
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: Luke retired, and you guys will love this. We're in
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: I have a podcast and my co host was a
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: was a student at Saint X with Luke back in
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: two thousand and seven, and we we were celebrating the
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: podcast at a bar in Tampa, Tampa, Florida, and we're
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: eating and all of a sudden, across the TV at
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: the screen, it appears that Luke Keigley retired and the
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: entire restaurant got quiet, and everybody's looking at it, and
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: then will my my podcast. My co host tells the
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: waiter said he went to our high school. This is
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: this high school coach and the waiters telling everybody, this
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: is Luke's high school coach, and everybody starts cheering. Everybody
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: started cheering for Luke Keighley, and it was a celebration.
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: I think they were cheering because they knew that they
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: weren't gonna have to play him anymore. It was so cool,
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: crazy that, I mean, everybody loved that guy. How can
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: you not love Luke Keighley even though you're you know,
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: your arrival. The whole place was just cheering, asking questions,
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: what was he like is? It was so neat, cool experience,
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: and I thought, man, what a way to go out
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: on top.