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00:05Rich Gannon, Steve Young, Jay Cutler, those are just a few names that quarterback guru
00:11and former Bears head coach Mark Trestman has worked with during his NFL career.
00:16Now Coach Trestman is taking his football acumen to the next level by authoring the book Teaching
00:22the Game. Coach Trest, my former head coach in the CFL and mentor, of course, joins us now to
00:29teach us the game. What have you been up to these days? Well, I left the Chargers back in
00:3724, after the 24 season, and I spent 18 months grinding on this book that is really not my
00:45book, but I call it, it's our book. It's a thank you note to all the players and coaches
00:50that I've had the privilege of working with and for, and I decided I was going to take
00:55the time to put it all down. And that's what I've done is 18 months working on it and launched
01:02it about a week ago and really excited about the first, getting started with it and really
01:10proud of it. But really just a thank you note to football. And if I could, Brandon, I'm really
01:16proud of you and the professional and personal growth that you've had over the last 10, 12
01:21years since we crossed paths. And that's part of the great part of coaching is, is watching
01:26people you've worked with grow in their journey. And I'm just really proud of you and privileged
01:32to be here today.
01:33Well, we, I say we, a lot of your former players, we thank you as well, just, you know, because
01:39of the, how you were, how you, you know, the way you taught and how you made us selfless
01:45in a sport where a lot of people don't want to be one of 11. They want to shine, but
01:50you
01:50taught us to, to want it more for your, for the guy next to you than you do for yourself.
01:55And we'll get into the book and, and, and I got stories from guys that, that, that you
02:00have coached throughout the course of the years. So I'm gonna give you some really cool stories
02:04there. But here in New York, a lot of people are excited about John Harbaugh being the new
02:11head coach here for the New York football giants. You were coach Harbaugh's OC in Baltimore
02:17back in 2015. Now he's in charge of turning around the Giants franchise and coach since
02:25Tom Coughlin left back in January of 2016, the Giants have gone through seven head coaches,
02:32five permanent to interim coach Harbaugh is number seven. So what is it about John Harbaugh that
02:38is going to give him the chance to bring some stability and some wins back to the franchise?
02:45Well, that's, that's a great question. And I'll just try to break it down. Simply number
02:49one is John is a highly experienced and a highly evolved football coach and head coach. He's
02:56been through a lot over his 15 years or so with the Ravens. So I am assuming that that experience
03:04is going to help him dramatically. He's very organized. He's very competitive. He's team first.
03:11Um, he will be the CEO, uh, of the organization of the football program. Um, he does not micromanage
03:19his, his coaches as a coordinator. Uh, we always had a meeting on Tuesday night prior to the games,
03:25um, because he wanted to play continuity football and we would have individual conversations as well,
03:31but he's going to let his coordinators really handle, um, the football team in their respective
03:37areas. Um, he also is extremely relationship oriented. And that's one of the things I really
03:43learned from John, uh, as a CEO watching him in practice. I think fans media will see that
03:50he'll spend a lot of time moving around the team and, and talking to individual players and
03:57continually trying to work on personal relationships. So instead of calling plays or doing a lot of
04:03specific X's and O's coaching, which he'll jump in and do, and he has the ability to do it in
04:08all
04:08three phases, uh, he is going to be really more involved with, um, uh, the relationship building,
04:15uh, of the team and let his coordinators and staff do what they're designed to do. And that's to,
04:22uh, develop, uh, his players. So, uh, fundamentals matter team first matters. And I think what really
04:29makes this a really, uh, important hire is that I think the, you know, I think most people would
04:35agree the marriage of the head coach, the coordinator, and the quarterback is probably
04:40the most important marriage. And what goes on in that quarterback room is extremely important,
04:45but the marriage between the head coach and the quarterback is going to be important.
04:49And John has that experience of taking a Flacco and developing him to lead and win. And then
04:57Lamar to do the same two different quarterbacks where Lamar, obviously a dual threat quarterback
05:03as is Dart. So I think that marriage is, is, is going to look really good. And then, you know,
05:10you have the added value of Matt Nagy who had the experience of being for many years with a dual
05:15threat like Mahomes. I think there's a lot of experience there from a head coaching standpoint
05:20and a coordinator standpoint. And you also have Greg Roman there, you know, who coordinated for Jim
05:27and is going to certainly handle a lot of the run game aspects and his had great value in coaching
05:33Lamar. So there's a lot of chemistry working, uh, in the favor of bringing Jackson Dart, bringing the
05:40best out in Jackson Dart.
05:42I see a lot of Mark Trestman and John Harbaugh as well, with the way that you used to structure
05:47your practices coach, it was very detail oriented and there were situations within situations.
05:54So when the lot of, you know, some of the people on the beat would be like, Oh, well,
05:57the office didn't look that good today, or the offense didn't have that many big plays.
06:02Maybe this is because they were working on, you know, second in the short, you know, rundown.
06:07So they were working on third and threes and that, that thinks that sort of nature. So it wasn't
06:12about pushing the football down the field for the oohs and ahs. It was about moving the
06:17chains and keeping a drive going. And then on the next practice, they would work some sort of play
06:22action, taking shots, uh, down the field as well. And you, you mentioned that marriage between head
06:28coach, uh, offensive coordinator and quarterback. I've mentioned some of the quarterbacks that you've
06:35worked with in the past. Jackson Dart is going into his second season and all eyes around New York,
06:43New Jersey and the tri states are on Jackson Dart second year leap. How do you work with,
06:50if you're Matt Nagy, how do you work with, uh, John Harbaugh and a Jackson Dart to build
06:56an offense around Dart to get the most out of him in year two?
07:02Well, Jackson Dart has all the eight plus attributes of being a great elite quarterback.
07:08There's no doubt about it. He's physically strong and he's really not injury prone. And we'll get to
07:13the, the meat of really what the discussion is going to be about is how to keep him on the
07:18field
07:18and living for the next place. So a part of the, this, this mindset and what's got to go on
07:24in that
07:24quarterback room is Jackson. You've got all the ability in the world, but here's the deal.
07:29Uh, to win in the national football league, you got to do two things. Number one is to protect the
07:34football. And you do that on the center quarterback exchange on the way to the running back confines
07:39of the pocket location, a throw and exiting the pocket. You got to take care of the ball. And if
07:44you do, your team's going to be in a position to win enough games to get to the playoffs and
07:49have a
07:49chance to win for a chance to have a chance to win a championship. But there's a second phase
07:55of, of a quarterback being able to do his job and that he's got to live for the next play.
07:59And Jackson dart has to be convinced that he's a, he is a dual threat quarterback, but he's not a
08:06dual threat running back because he is not injury prone, but he's been in prone to doing things with
08:12his body that are not advantageous, uh, for his team to win games. And the proof is in the, in,
08:19in really
08:20statistics and you can make them, uh, whatever you want. But the bottom line is last year alone,
08:2511 quarterbacks in the national football league started all 17 games. The winning percentage was
08:3366%. That's going to, and there were only three, three quarterbacks who played 17 that didn't win
08:3810 games. So when you look at that, if a quarterback takes care of the football, he's got to be
08:43trusted
08:43to do that. And he's got to be trusted to live for the next play, which is getting up and
08:48moving on to
08:49the next play. And then onward to the next game, you're going to have a chance to get to the
08:54playoffs
08:55and have a chance to win a championship. And he has the, the ability to do that, do both of
09:00those
09:00things. He's just got to be convinced to do cost benefit analysis and not put his body at risk when
09:07he does extend the play. And I think the experience that John has had with Lamar, which gives him great
09:14credibility and the experience that Matt's had, uh, with, with, uh, with, um, my homes, uh, gives
09:22that both of them, the credibility and Jackson's got to be a great listener in that regard, because if
09:28he can play down after down, um, he's, he's, he's good at protecting the football. He's, he's going to be
09:34efficient. He's got to become a better in the pocket and not leave too soon because he has such confidence
09:41in his athleticism. The Giants have a chance to be a, a very, very good football team with the people
09:46they have surrounded him with and the coaches that are there to develop him. Does his skillset
09:52remind you of any of the really good or great quarterbacks that you've worked with in the past?
09:58Well, the only one close would be Rich Gannon and Steve Young. Uh, both of them had the ability and,
10:04and the beauty of quarterbacks like that, that coordinators can't make the right call. You know,
10:09as you play the game, coordinators can't make the right call every time. And it's specifically
10:14really hard on third down with all the diversity of what goes on defensively, the blitz schemes,
10:21the fronts, the coverages and things like that. So if the quarterback has ability to get his
10:26coordinator and his team, a couple of first downs on third down, all of a sudden, you're not just
10:31average on third down. You're pretty good on third down. Dart has the ability to do that. We've seen
10:37that with Mahomes over the last seven, eight years, that he wasn't always given the best play.
10:42There was traffic around him. He found a way to extend and make plays to allow his team to
10:48continue drives and score points. Dart has all that ability and is probably physically stronger
10:54than either Steve was at the time or Rich was, but both understood this. If they didn't live for the
11:02next play, their teams don't have a chance to win the game. Teams that had starting quarterbacks
11:07that didn't play 11 games, lost more than, only won 43% of their games. So backup quarterbacks who
11:16start don't win enough to take you to the playoffs. Starting quarterbacks who play 17 games, there's a
11:23pretty good chance the Giants will be in the playoffs if Jackson Dart can play 17 games in the division
11:29they're in, which even gives them a better chance in 2026.
11:34Hey coach, I know you said coordinators don't make the right call every time, but every time you would
11:38call Z-Tel to up in Canada, which was a go route to me, man, we were almost 100%, baby.
11:44I gotta give
11:44you a little pushback on that one. Coach, man, you've been around the game for decades. You've taught the
11:52game. You've worked with some of the best, and we're currently watching the NFL game changing and
11:57evolving throughout the course of the years. Where do you see the league and the on-field
12:04product in, let's say, 10 years or so?
12:08Well, that's, you know, I just think that what I've seen athletically is there's really no comparison
12:16with the athleticism of players today and what it looked like 15 or 20 years. The game is more
12:25violent, and the league does everything it can for player safety. We've seen that on the other side
12:30of it, but the speed of the game, the physicality of the game, which is forcing quarterbacks to have
12:36the ability to extend plays and make plays in the pocket. The training of quarterbacks has been good
12:44to an extent, but also the pressure on coaches in college and the NFL to get quarterbacks out there
12:52quickly is something that, you know, remains to be seen. But I think the game is as good or as
13:00good
13:00as it's ever been, and I know there's disagreements across the board on this, but I think in a league
13:05of 32 teams, you've got almost every team that now has a quarterback who can win on Sunday and if
13:14the
13:14games are close in the fourth quarter, have a chance to win that week and find their way to the
13:20playoffs. I think that's what makes it so interesting each and every week. So I'm excited about the game
13:26and where it's going. You know, we both love football. We know what it's done to our lives on
13:31and off the field. I've never seen more dedication in players than I do today with their intake of
13:38food, how they take care of their bodies. The science has never been better on and off the field,
13:43and I just think it's going to be better in different ways. I just don't have that crystal
13:49ball, Brandon, to be more specific than that. Coach, teaching the game. Talk to us about why you felt
13:57the need to write the book and break down exactly what you want the reader to learn as they go
14:04through
14:04this book. Yeah, well, the genesis of it, if I could, Brandon, real quickly, is I visited the
14:11University of Michigan in the fall of 2023-24 when Jim's last year at Michigan, and they were, each night
14:20they had meetings called Teach the Game. They were team meetings where aspects of the game were taught
14:26to the team, not only the team, but coaches, support staff, the personnel people, the scouts, things
14:32like that. Everybody was involved, and then when I got to the Chargers in the spring of 2024, Jim asked
14:39me to put the TTG, Teach the Game meetings together, and as I began to formulate these meetings that
14:46would happen in the evening during training camp, to make a very long story short, I said to Jim, and
14:51we kind of taught, I think there's a book here, and when I left the Chargers after just having a
14:57great
14:57year, we got to the playoffs, Jim's first year, had the Teach the Game meetings, spending a year with
15:04Justin Herbert in the quarterback room. I just was revitalized while at the same time deciding I was
15:12going to retire from the game, and I spent the last 18 months writing this book, and really what it
15:17is,
15:17it's a thank you note to coaches, players that I've worked with, that I've coached with, that I've
15:23learned from, still learning the game today, even at this stage, really proud of that, and I just
15:29started writing, and I just could stop, and every day was just this joyous moment of writing different
15:35aspects of the game, so the book is for NFL coaches. We've got a bunch of NFL head coaches who
15:42have the book, and have given it to their staffs, that's gone great early on in this, but it's for
15:49college coaches, high school coaches, and players to really give them an understanding of the game,
15:55and regardless of position, I made a real attempt that every coach on the field should understand
16:02what it looks like behind the quarterback, and the importance of the position, so it's a 640-page book,
16:08but the first 200-plus pages are just the quarterback, and his job, what quarterback meetings look like,
16:15the week in the life of the quarterback, 40 seconds between each play, and then it just, it extends to
16:21the
16:21key fundamentals, and not just offensively, but I've looked at it from defense and special team side as well,
16:28and the fundamentals that are necessary to play the game, and that just goes, it just moves on to different
16:34specific areas of situational football, two-minute, four-minute, of which there are sub-situations
16:41that coaches have to prepare for, so it's an all-encompassing book, it's my way of looking at it, and
16:48as I say
16:49in the book, I hope it's a conversation starter, because there are so many ways to teach the game,
16:54so many different ways to look at it, it's not a book of diagrams, it's not a book on what
17:00offense to run,
17:01it's really a book written as a novel, it has a section in there on the science of the throwing
17:06motion, which is the only place there are pictures, I'm really proud of that, and then it closes with,
17:12I've been teaching a leadership course at the University of Miami Law School for the last six
17:16years, and it finishes with about, you know, 45 pages of a composite of the leadership and fundamentals
17:25of leadership program that I teach to third-year law and MBA students at Miami Law.
17:32That's awesome, Coach, where can the people find the book, where can they get it?
17:37Yeah, thanks for asking, you can get it right on Amazon, Teaching the Game by Mark Trestman on Amazon,
17:44I also have a website, teachingthegame.com, which can lead you not only to Amazon, but to Coach's Choice,
17:50where you can order the book as well, if sometimes there's been a holdup on Amazon, because the book has
17:55done
17:55well the last couple weeks, but either coacheschoice.com or Amazon will have the book, and Brandon,
18:02I thank you for letting me push the book today, I'm really, as I said, I'm really proud of it,
18:07and I really have acknowledged all the coaches and players that I've worked with that really gave me the enthusiasm
18:14and encouragement to put the book together, I'm really proud of the way it's written, anybody can read it
18:19and understand it, whether you're an NFL coach or just an avid fan.
18:23Well, we players, thank you, Coach, and as a son of a head football coach, I think that's what drew
18:28me most
18:29to you, because, I mean, I respected the details, the discipline, again, teaching selflessness,
18:36wanting it more for the guy next to you than you wanted for yourself.
18:40I just remember in the wide receiver room, how you would break down the mandatory outside release,
18:45like, you know, a lot of players didn't want to take on Cardinal, that Cardinal route,
18:49you didn't want to take that mandatory outside release, knowing that it was going to be a love
18:54for the game type route, unless it was bump, bump coverage across the board, then you had that,
18:59you know, that chance, but you broke it down to where it's like, you, like, really had us thinking,
19:07like, that guy next to you has a family, and he wants to eat for you, and he's going to
19:11run it for you,
19:12so don't be selfish, run it for him, run it for the love of the game, run it for your
19:17team,
19:18and just the way you broke that down, you taught the game, you taught that route and concept,
19:23I mean, that's something that still sticks with me to this day.
19:26Also, don't tell yourself a story.
19:28That still sticks with me to this day.
19:30I say it to my three-year-old, even though he's looking at me like, what are you talking about?
19:35But if you're telling yourself a story, you don't get prepared for the moment,
19:38and I've seen guys not only on the football field, but in life, just tell themselves a story,
19:43and they don't prepare themselves for that moment or that opportunity.
19:48So that's, I always, I always still say that, Coach.
19:51I love you, and I appreciate you coming on.
19:54If I could, I mean, one of the key points of the book is, and what I try to show
19:58you each and every day,
19:59is how everybody on every single play and every single moment of the day is either,
20:04is interconnected either directly or indirectly, and that was one of my goals each day,
20:09was to show the team through video or some action why everybody matters,
20:15why everything we do matters, the process in the moment.
20:19And then what I'm most proud of today is, I think the number one goal I always had was to
20:24convince each
20:26and every person that wanting it more for each other than wanting it for themselves is the best way to
20:33get,
20:33to be the best you can be, because if everybody wants it more for you than they want it for
20:38themselves,
20:38then you've got 52 other guys working for you each and every day,
20:43and that's a minimal sacrifice to want it more for each other.
20:47And for you to repeat that to me just makes me very proud and humble that the journey that I've
20:57been on
20:57has been worthwhile, so thank you, Brandon.
20:59Not only teaching the game, teaching the game alive.
21:02Teaching the game, everybody, go get it on Amazon.
21:05Coach Trish, thank you for hopping on with us today.
21:07Thank you for your time.
21:08Yeah, and I wanted to thank Steve Young and Tony Dungy for doing the forwards as well.
21:13They took the time and was really, really proud of that.
21:16Tony took the whole manuscript with him all last year to all the Sunday night games
21:21and to both Steve Young and Tony Dungy, a big thanks.
21:26All right, Coach Trish, appreciate you.
21:31Let's do it!
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