Steve Walentik sat down with Kim. It's a pretty wide-ranging chat. Interesting points: Nikko had procedures on both hips, and most of his S&C work will have to be upper body; the choice to move on from Herring seems to stem from the failure to develop "toughness;" Barnett can tag along on the team's summer excursion to Italy, but he can't suit up.
But here's the part I figured most folks might care about.
Q: Going back to March, there were a couple of days of silence where it was unclear what Mack Rhoades was thinking about your job. How did you handle that, and where do you feel like you stand right now as you head into your third season?
A: Obviously, the two years have been difficult. There have been a lot of challenges. Nobody is more disappointed than me, but nobody is more committed and passionate than me to get it back to where our fans want it to be. It is a process. I’m sorry. I wish you could do it in one year. Mack has been unbelievably supportive. He was supportive through the process in March when we discussed the situation. He has not given me any like, “You’ve got to win this many games” or “You’ve got to do this.” But we both are very much in agreement that we need to improve.
At the end of next year, we don’t want to be sitting there saying, “Well, we’re three or four years away from being competitive.” I don’t want that. He doesn’t want that. You don’t want that. You’re tired of covering this team. You want to cover a team that wins, right? It’s a lot more fun. And I know our fans are. That’s kind of the basis of our conversation, but he’s been unbelievably supportive. The bottom line is, you’ve got to win games. You’ve got to produce. I think we’ve overcome some challenges. There’s still more, but we’ll continue to try to do the best job we can every day.
Q: I think outsiders look at your program and say you’ve now got all guys that you brought here. Does that actually feel different for a coach?
A: Yeah, it does. And nothing critical of the guys that left. God, I wish them all well. I really do. I’m sure some of them are going to go on and do very well, and I hope they all do. I think the advantage now is that our staff has had a chance to recruit the kids that are here, actually get to know them a little bit, know their families. Some of the recruiting that took place before was kind of a quick deal — “Hey, come visit.” “Hi, I like you.” “You want to come?” “Yeah” — without the opportunity of getting to know the guys better. That’s not a negative about the guys that left. It probably worked both ways. But now I hope we’ve done a much better job of getting to know the guys, their families, their backgrounds, just everything about them.
But here's the part I figured most folks might care about.
Q: Going back to March, there were a couple of days of silence where it was unclear what Mack Rhoades was thinking about your job. How did you handle that, and where do you feel like you stand right now as you head into your third season?
A: Obviously, the two years have been difficult. There have been a lot of challenges. Nobody is more disappointed than me, but nobody is more committed and passionate than me to get it back to where our fans want it to be. It is a process. I’m sorry. I wish you could do it in one year. Mack has been unbelievably supportive. He was supportive through the process in March when we discussed the situation. He has not given me any like, “You’ve got to win this many games” or “You’ve got to do this.” But we both are very much in agreement that we need to improve.
At the end of next year, we don’t want to be sitting there saying, “Well, we’re three or four years away from being competitive.” I don’t want that. He doesn’t want that. You don’t want that. You’re tired of covering this team. You want to cover a team that wins, right? It’s a lot more fun. And I know our fans are. That’s kind of the basis of our conversation, but he’s been unbelievably supportive. The bottom line is, you’ve got to win games. You’ve got to produce. I think we’ve overcome some challenges. There’s still more, but we’ll continue to try to do the best job we can every day.
Q: I think outsiders look at your program and say you’ve now got all guys that you brought here. Does that actually feel different for a coach?
A: Yeah, it does. And nothing critical of the guys that left. God, I wish them all well. I really do. I’m sure some of them are going to go on and do very well, and I hope they all do. I think the advantage now is that our staff has had a chance to recruit the kids that are here, actually get to know them a little bit, know their families. Some of the recruiting that took place before was kind of a quick deal — “Hey, come visit.” “Hi, I like you.” “You want to come?” “Yeah” — without the opportunity of getting to know the guys better. That’s not a negative about the guys that left. It probably worked both ways. But now I hope we’ve done a much better job of getting to know the guys, their families, their backgrounds, just everything about them.
