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With a home on Lake Gilmer and three seven-acre ponds within the yard holding “all of the fish you would ever catch,” Jeff Traylor felt content material in his life as a highschool football coach.
However after 15 years and three state titles at Gilmer, a name from Texas coach Charlie Robust introduced a possibility too good to go up. Traylor joined the Longhorns as their particular groups coordinator and tight ends coach in 2015, shifting to affiliate head coach the next season.
The transfer set Traylor down a path that wound by way of SMU for a season and Arkansas for 2 years earlier than he landed at UTSA, utilizing the teachings from his earlier stops to construct the Roadrunners right into a winner.
Q: What had been a very powerful stuff you found about being a college coach throughout your time at Texas?
A: The largest was I realized rather a lot from Charlie about the right way to recruit and the right way to be true to your self — for me to be what I’m. To not be one thing that I am not. Charlie does it a sure approach, and I resonated with Charlie, as a result of he’s very all the way down to earth and only a good human. We didn’t do a bunch of loopy stuff, we simply recruited, and it’s extra relationship pushed. I realized rather a lot from Charlie on that. Charlie was old school, and he was going to construct it by way of the highschool child. He thought he had 5 years, so he was going to wash up the locker room, usher in freshmen and develop them. However he solely acquired three years, after which Chad (Morris) solely acquired two at Arkansas, so I realized rapidly that you just higher get the media, the fan base and the boosters in your aspect actually fast. It is going to be a blended roster. I am coming in with transfers, JUCO and highschool. And we’ve stayed true to our mission since we’ve been right here. But when I had finished all of these things and had nice tradition pillars and all people was good and behaved effectively and all of the issues we had, however we solely gained 4 video games, after which possibly 5 video games, I’ve a sense this may be actual totally different proper now. I simply have a sense. So, recruiting and the right way to deal with a roster could be the 2 issues I might say I realized probably the most from Charlie.
Q: How did your expertise of the recruiting course of as a highschool coach put together you to come back on the process from the opposite aspect?
A: I knew what I didn’t wish to do, simply because so many guys had come by way of my workplace, and a few of them appeared like used automobile salesmen, and that grossed me out. I had voicemails on my telephone I stored for years, simply to play them, simply to remind myself what I didn’t wish to be like. There have been additionally quite a lot of guys who got here by way of my workplace that I actually appreciated how they dealt with their enterprise, and I respect what they did, and I took rather a lot from that. Whenever you’re at a very good college, and I used to be there for 15 years, these coaches get to know you fairly effectively. All of them come by way of your door. So that you meet a ton of college coaches and also you get some actually good relationships with all of these guys. There are some guys we simply didn’t line up with philosophically, and we didn’t wish to be like that. And there are some guys I actually lined up with philosophically and I needed to be like that. I am nonetheless near these guys to at the present time, the fellows that I realized rather a lot from.
Q: Did something shock you about recruiting in comparison with the way you perceived the method in highschool?
A: I’d say most of it. I used to be blown away at the way it actually went down, and the simplicity of simply making a very good analysis, and dealing tirelessly recruiting a child, which is a relationship with me. You may discuss one million recruits. Brandon Jones from Nacogdoches, and his mom Sarah, and all of his brothers, who all of their names begin with a B. Brennan, Braxton, Bryson, Brayden and his father Bert handed away. And I bear in mind, you couldn’t name them by title on Twitter, however I known as them the Killer Bs, and people children all knew I used to be speaking to them on a regular basis, but it surely was authorized as a result of I wasn’t calling them by their title. No person else knew they had been Killer Bs. I am nonetheless shut with all of these children. Brandon is taking part in with the Dolphins proper now. Simply these relationships, that’s only one recruit with a foolish story that I didn’t know. Whenever you’re the highschool coach, you didn’t know the depth of the closeness you get with these relationships. Particularly if you’re a place coach. Whenever you’re the top coach, there’s so lots of them. However if you’re a place coach and an space coach, you possibly can actually get into your children. That blew my thoughts, the depth you go to. But additionally the chance of simply hustling, of simply working, and the way shut I acquired with that household, and lots of households like that.
Q: What about program administration on the college stage? How had been issues totally different from operations at Gilmer?
A: You will have an entire lot extra assist in college. Much more assist. You will have a tutorial employees right here, you’ve got a power employees right here, you’ve got amenities, you’ve got diet. In highschool, you do all of that by your self. That is all you. You simply do every part. From washing the garments, to lining the sphere, to mowing the sphere. Now, as Gilmer went, we acquired all of these issues taken care of. However I used to be amazed at how a lot I needed to find out about compliance, and people form of points. I didn’t perceive how microscopic they had been by yourself campus. There was rather a lot I needed to study. I am actually glad I used to be an assistant for 5 years earlier than I turned a head coach.
Q: What did you study in regards to the atmosphere, tradition and angle at Texas that you would be able to apply to UTSA to push this program towards the identical heights?
A: The function of a frontrunner is to color a imaginative and prescient for the group, for the boosters and for the media clear sufficient and robust sufficient that you just’re holding that imaginative and prescient till all of us get there. It is the identical with a participant. The imaginative and prescient you’ve got for that participant, it’s a must to outline it clearly sufficient and robust sufficient that you just maintain it till that child can seize it himself. It is the identical right here. No totally different. What we had visualized for Gilmer, that stadium, that very first one, the press field was condemned. I had my employees go up and construct two deer stands, simply so my coaches might have one thing to educate out of. We had been in deer stands our first season. And now you take a look at that multimillion greenback facility, and it’s due to a imaginative and prescient we had in our thoughts, and we held to it. And clearly, success, and profitable, is likely one of the largest causes, however relationships, these two issues, are what will get it there. And I simply felt like with this job, it has all of that. I believe it has all of it, for my part. We simply must get there, and we’re younger. There are quite a lot of obstacles to beat, but it surely’s a hearth that burns within me, to actually get this place there. It’s my best power and it’s my best weak point. It’s going to most likely be what kills me at some point, as a result of I am so decided to get there.
Q: How did your time at Texas improve your reference to the Texas highschool teaching group?
A: That’s why Charlie employed me. The one most cause he employed me was as a result of I might get him in each highschool coach’s door. Charlie is so good with relationships, as soon as we acquired within the door, we had been good. However simply getting him in is the important thing. And yeah, clearly, everytime you coach there, that model is so massive, it enhances your capability to get you to speak with whoever you wish to talk with.
Twitter: @GregLuca
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