Jabbering JAG 136.1 (Coach Interview)

We are in full swing into season 136 and things have already been intriguing. There is still A LOT of football to be played on this young season. To satiate everyone's palette I caught up to a very long-time and well known coach in DIAA. You could say he is a bear in DIAA and a staple in Wilkinson.

Name: Chet

Current Location: Fort Mitchell, KY (it’s just about 10 minutes south of Cincinnati, which is actually “shoe-wearing” territory).

Age: 54 - yes, I’m an old guy:)

Personal stuff: Amazing wife, two wonderful daughters and my dog, Belzer

Favorite Sport(s): NFL and College Football are 1 and 2. MLB is third, and I am starting to get into the Premier League, watching a few games on Sat or Sun mornings. But, it would be a distant fourth.

Favorite Team(s): Cincinnati Bengals and Cincinnati Reds. From a college perspective, I enjoy watching whatever the big games of the day are. And, I also will try to catch any game that Army or Navy play. While I’ve never been in the military, it’s great watching the comradery and atmosphere of their games.

Favorite Level of GD: It would have to be D1AA, for the time being. I like the idea that you can play for a championship every season if you can make the playoffs, versus D1, where scheduling could have you on the outside looking in. I also like the challenge that D1AA recruiting has to worry about D1 teams dropping down, so you have to have a very different recruiting strategy versus D2 (where you are basically just recruiting against other D2 teams). With all that said, if there was a playoff system in D1, I’d probably move most of my teams there. Why did you join Wilkinson: Several years ago, I was thinking about adding another world, and trying to figure out which one I would join. One Friday night, I checked the world forums to see if any of them were active. Much to my surprise, there seemed to be an inordinate amount of activity and posts going on in Wilkinson. I was further shocked to find out that some dude named CJ actually had a regular podcast. He had numerous posts about these “shows”, and I thought to myself “one day, I’ll check them out”.

Well, the very next day, curiosity was too much to withstand, so I went for a run that Saturday afternoon. Instead of turning on my usual Pandora station, I decided to play CJ’s podcast. I had no clue what CJ was talking about, but was incredibly excited that someone was talking about our game, teams and coaches in such great detail. He even had an interview on that show with some guy named Pete. I had no idea who Pete was at the time, but from the conversation, I picked up that he must have won a few championships, and apparently, he was a big deal in Wilkinson, lol.

Over the next week, I listened to about 5 more shows, again with no clue what they were really talking about. At that point, there was no doubt, that I needed to be part of this amazing world.

What do you like most about the world: The competition is well above any other world. True, there are dominant coaches in other worlds, who make winning championships there just as hard. But, what makes Wilkinson different is the incredible depth. Come playoff time, you’re almost always playing a human in the first round that you need to prepare for. Every playoff game, you are on pins and needles, and it’s an absolute gauntlet just to get to the final four, much less the NC game.

I also enjoy the content as well (podcasts, twitter, Slack, Wilk Central, etc.). It is truly amazing and I’m thankful that we have so many coaches that are willing to give up their limited free time for our enjoyment. I’ve sensed that we probably hit a lull in the amount of content over the summer, and I hope coaches will bear with us. Being one of the Twitter guys, I point the finger directly at myself, and I feel bad that I’ve been lax lately. Over the next few weeks, my schedule will quiet down a little and I can get back to it.

What do you like least about the world: Wow, tough question. But, I would say that some of the nastiness that shows up on the boards occasionally is uncalled for. That said, I have to admit, it sometimes is entertaining and amusing, and probably keeps the excitement and chatter going in the world. But, I do think people take things to an extreme in their tone. Good healthy debate is about making a point and having a constructive argument. That’s fine. But, some of the crap on the forums is coaches who pop off with some insult or dig to get back at someone who did the same. It’s a safe environment for people to say anything they want, and have no consequences. So, the fights basically go back and forth until someone gets tired of arguing, or everyone forgets what the original fight was about.

I’ve been part of these sorts of forum fights before, and while it’s always tempting to put my two cents in, I’m trying to stay out of these kinds of things. I think the thing I try to keep in mind is that everyone in this game is a real human being, and you never know what kind of real-life challenges another coach is facing. Most of us probably use this game to try to escape some of the negativity and struggles. I hope we can reduce the amount of this kind of chatter, because it’s basically pointless. But, trolls will be trolls:)

Toughest coach for you to beat in Wilkinson: The three that come immediately to mind are Orangepace, Nitros and Dukelegend. My first memories of playing Orangepace were back in Yost about 20 seasons ago. At the time, my Maine team was on a roll, having won two NCs in a row. I was heading into the NC game the next season against OP’s Cal Poly team. I had a SR QB and a fairly veteran team, and felt pretty confident heading into that game. Not only did I lose that game, I was never really in it. I believe he beat me by 24-27 pts, and he did so with a SO QB. That was the day that I realized how far behind I still am, and that was my wake-up call to evolve, if I truly wanted to be able to compete against elite coaches.

The second coach is Nitros. We all know how great he is, and I don’t think there is any doubt, he is going to win more NC’s and will be a future HoFer. So, the only thing I will add is that Nitros is responsible for my worst loss in my 12 year history with GD. I was up by 21 late in the 3rd quarter in the title game, only to watch helplessly his Texas Southern team score at will. That’s a loss that I still think about, and wonder what I could have done differently.

Nitros, along with Pete, are probably my biggest mentors in this game, and have always extremely generous with their knowledge and willing to provide great detail to some of the questions I’ve posed them. It’s pretty telling of a coach when they are willing to tell you how they beat you, and how they approached the game. Nitros has done that on several occasions. I don’t know that I’ve gotten the “secret sauce”, but those two have taught me a great deal. Biggest rival(s) in Wilkinson: Right now, it’s Dukelegend. I got a pretty big headstart on our rivalry, as he was starting his rebuild at W&M. But, he has clearly passed me by and has built W&M into a powerhouse, and I expect he will probably win several titles over the next 5-10 seasons. Having an elite coach like him in my conference is a very good thing, as it challenges me to keep up and continue to improve what I do on both sides of the ball. On top of that, he’s a class act, always gracious in both victory and defeat. What is your philosophy when putting together non-conf games:

I’m a little different than most, who might want to go out and schedule as many playoff teams as they can. I do want to have 1 or 2 on my schedule, but really no more than that. The main reason is not for fear of losing. It’s really because I want to ensure that the teams I play in the playoffs, haven’t faced me before. I feel like it keeps my opponent guessing, because they won’t have a previous game to look back on. However, this strategy has backfired on my occasionally, where I drop to a 4/5 seed and have to face a #1 seed in the second round, because of weak SOS. It’s something I probably need to pay closer attention to. What drew you to where you are now:

Maine was the easy choice for me. It’s where I spent a good deal of my honeymoon at back in the day, and have been there a few more times since then. It’s also, where I have spent nearly my entire career in Yost, and have had most of my success. Having the same two teams in different worlds allow me to compare the two, and to understand where my deficiencies are. Do you plan on ever leaving Maine:

I’ve come close a few times, but have stopped myself. It would be really hard to leave, knowing how close I was to the NC. I told the coaches on the A10 forum that I’ve signed myself up for a 10-season contract, and then we’ll see where I’m at. If I feel that I’ve gotten them as far as I can, then I’ll probably move up to D1. But, I really want to see this through.

Do you think the CoY Committee does a good/fair job of picking the most deserving coaches each season:

Overall, I think we do a pretty good job. Similar to any committee, we don’t always get it right and we sometimes miss one that the coaches think should have been on there. But, I do think the way we select the nominees, helps eliminate that possibility. Also, even when those do occur, it spurs good healthy debate, which also challenges the committee to perhaps alter how we think about our individual criteria. I can tell you that the way we set up the CoY committee is that each coach has an equal voice in who they believe the candidates should be. Our model allows each coach to use their own standards for what they believe a nominee should have. From there, we each submit individual ballots ranking the 5 across each level, which keeps any one coach from pushing a specific candidate, and influencing the votes of other coaches. So, for a coach to miss the ballot, that means he was on less than 40% of the ballots. From there, it’s in the hands of the coaching community. As I said, it’s sometimes good that our nominations spur debate. We don’t take it personally, so keep it coming.

Anything you think could be improved in the world/the Wilk community:

I would just encourage any coach out there who wants to provide content to jump right in. Don’t ask permission or ask someone what you can do. Follow whatever passion you have, writing, analysis, podcasts, and just do it. CJ started the first podcast, and then Truedevil followed with one of his own. They each are very different, and it’s great that there are now two guys that now do podcasts, so the burden isn’t falling on one guy’s shoulder. I know there are sometimes when it feels like the content is in a low spot. Honestly, that’s going to happen. All of us have real lives and have to balance what part of our free time is spend on the media content, which is why we need more guys to fill in the gaps to keep the content high. Still, even on our worst day, this world is still light years ahead of any of the others.

Thank you for spending the time to do this with me, chetty! Wishing the Black Bears... and everyone in Wilkinson the best this season!