00:00I imagine, Coach, before all this transfer portal stuff happened and NIL and just roster management,
00:07these weren't things that you were probably overly concerned with.
00:11It was certainly things that you and the assistant coach were always dealing with,
00:15but not to the level it is now with recruiting and how challenging it can be with NIL,
00:20with certain guys you feel like would have maybe ended up in your program
00:24if it weren't for the changes in the environment.
00:27Is the best way to kind of describe this kind of era that we're in now for a coach?
00:32Is it complicated, the best way to describe it, before you kind of get your team really inside the building?
00:39Complicated would be a good word.
00:40I still think as coaches that we still can be very transformational.
00:44We still can pour into these young people and really make a difference in their lives
00:48and not to replace mom and dad at home, to be a father figure away from home for them.
00:52I think there's some, obviously, I think what we read in social media
00:56and what we read on the news that becomes more transactional than transformational.
01:00But I truly believe in the world of golf that we're still transforming lives
01:03and helping guys become better players.
01:06And I think the college system is in an incredible place right now.
01:10Incredible coaches across the country and players and programmers
01:13and great resources, great facilities.
01:14And, you know, just continuing to develop and look what PGA Tour U's done for the college game.
01:20It's been fantastic.
01:22Well, Coach, do you feel like it's almost a little bit more challenging
01:26and makes it a little bit, from a talent evaluation standpoint,
01:31a little bit tougher for you guys because of the roster limitations
01:35as far as how many players you can have on a roster versus...
01:38It wasn't too long ago where I was talking with one of your players
01:41who said that y'all started the year with 15 guys on the roster.
01:45Now, it dwindled down a little bit as the year went on.
01:47But now, in a day and age where there's eight or nine players on the team,
01:52you know, guys, especially for me, for example,
01:55I was a bit of a late bloomer in college.
01:57And maybe I would have been a player who would have been maybe cut in this situation
02:02where it wouldn't have given me that opportunity to still qualify,
02:06still be around really elite players.
02:08And that talent is sometimes kind of walking out the door
02:11where you feel like you're not, you know, in the past,
02:14you would have given that opportunity for that person to kind of develop
02:17over those years.
02:18Is that a challenge for you as a coach?
02:19It is a challenge.
02:21I've always, excuse me, I've always liked to carry 11 players
02:23and, you know, 10 or 11 right around that number.
02:26And I think, listen, you're all about player development.
02:28It's huge.
02:29And we've had guys, I mean, Dominic Mazzelli came in his freshman year.
02:33It wasn't that great.
02:34Sophomore year, he played four or five times.
02:36Junior year, he's an All-American, senior year, he's an All-American
02:38and went on to play the PGA Tour for four or five years.
02:41And Trace Crowe was the same way.
02:43He played like six tournaments in his first two years of college.
02:46And now he just finished third in a tour event, PGA Tour event,
02:49like two weeks ago, you know.
02:51So it's just about guys having a plan, having a blueprint,
02:54working hard, dreaming big, you know, working on the right things,
02:57constantly not being too invasive as a coach, but constantly improving.
03:01And, you know, the challenge now with this house versus the NCAA settlement
03:05is, especially in the SEC, is we can only carry eight guys.
03:09God, it's just not enough, Coach.
03:11It's just not enough guys.
03:13It's not enough.
03:14It's disappointing.
03:16I mean, I think it's disappointing for us as coaches.
03:18It's disappointing because I feel like we have the best league in the country.
03:22And, you know, we've got to continually try to push to get our roster back
03:25to where it should be at nine at the minimum.
03:28And, you know, unfortunately, recruiting, like you mentioned, late bloomers
03:31and waiting for guys to be really good in their junior and senior year,
03:35those days may be gone at this level.
03:38Gosh, it's so – it's tough.
03:40It's tough for me to hear that because I truly don't like that system
03:44because I think it's better to have more guys.
03:47You kind of – your team kind of whittles itself out as far as, like,
03:51who's really ready to try to make that jump the later – you know,
03:54I was a person that was, like I said, a late bloomer.
03:57But also from a recruitment standpoint, does it change the way that you recruit
04:02guys out of high school?
04:03Are you taking less guys now?
04:04And now with this fifth year, it almost feels like if you haven't really
04:09proven yourself over that first four years, like that fifth year kind of feels
04:12like a real, like, hey, it may be optional for us as a program if you're going
04:18to have that option for the fifth year because we – at some point,
04:21we've got to be able to get new guys in the door.
04:24Well, you're kind of right.
04:25I mean, the fifth year might be an option for us.
04:27I think we're all trying to figure all that out right now just because
04:30everything's going to get a new rule every year almost, it seems like.
04:33But I think, yeah, we are evaluating very carefully, and we may only have one
04:37spot, you know, or two spots max in a class to bring somebody in.
04:42And, you know, like you said, you're not going to add that third person that
04:45might have some potential down the road that you really like, you really love him,
04:49you love his family, you love who he works with.
04:50And I just think that, you know, it puts a lot of pressure on us to make sure we
04:55don't miss on evaluations, which always is going to happen.
04:59I mean, that's just the nature of being a human being.
05:01And the fifth year thing has another component to it.
