The Long & Anticipated Don Nehlen Interview

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Hi guys. I held off on this because I am trying to spread out my interviews so I don't overload my readers and listeners with stuff. This was one of my best ever of all the hundreds I have done. Feedback is appreciated.

Chris

Audio link http://www.thesportsinterview.com/RMFiles/DonNehlen.rm

Don Nehlen was the man that brought West Virginia football up from its losing ways. He helped design a new stadium, improved the facilities, and gave the state a winning team with undefeated regular seasons in 1988 and 1993. In 2000 Don Nehlen retired as head coach and was inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame in 2005. His new book Don Nehlen's Tales from the West Virginia Sideline reflects back on the memories and his many experiences along the way. <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p>
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First off how are you? <o:p></o:p>
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"I am doing fine Chris."<o:p></o:p>
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How long did it take you to gather all the memories for Don Nehlen's Tales from the West Virginia Sideline?<o:p></o:p>
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"About 21 years. There is a little in there from my first year. There is stuff in there about how I got here. The book is an accumulation of about 21 years. It's a little bit of a fun book. It's a good book. I am surprised it is selling like crazy here in the state."<o:p></o:p>
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Before we talk about some topics from the book, I must ask your thoughts on this year’s West Virginia team that has a lot of expectations and is ranked number five in the AP Poll to start the season.<o:p></o:p>
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"Well, number one I think West Virginia is good. I think the quarterback is outstanding. I think the running back is outstanding. The thing that nobody understands is that we are good on defense. We play good defense. If you can play defense and run the football you have a chance to be very good. I also found out a long time ago in this coaching profession that it doesn't matter how good you are it's how good those opponents are. I don't think our opponents are very good. We play twelve games, and I think eight or nine of the twelve had losing seasons last year. The only team that's given any preseason hype at all is the University of Louisville. I just kind of feel like if Louisville is the toughest game on your schedule you are in pretty good shape. When Miami, Boston College, and Virginia Tech left this league we went right to the top of it. When I coached here, if I beat Miami, Virginia Tech, and Boston College I guaranteed you I was the champion. Now we don't play them. The league is soft. For some reason Syracuse is way down. Pittsburgh is not very good. We are so much further ahead facility wise, resource wise, player wise, our coaches do a good job. If you add all that up I don't think there is anybody in our league that is going to come close to us."<o:p></o:p>
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You were an assistant head coach at Michigan when head coach Bo Schembechler called you into his office and told you that you were being offered the head coach job at West Virginia. Are you still amazed that Bo, your wife, and the media knew you were being offered this position before you even knew anything about it?<o:p></o:p>
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"Well, Bo, he suspected it strongly. He said to me, 'Don, it's been my experience when those folks know as much about you as they know about you that they are very interested. When you get home I am sure they are going to be calling you.' Because I hadn't called about the job, I had a good friend of mine that was a very good friend of the athletic director. That friend called their athletic director and said, 'Hey. If I was hiring anybody I would hire that guy at Michigan.' That's how I got here."<o:p></o:p>
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How much did Bo Schembechler teach you about the game of football while you were under him at Michigan?<o:p></o:p>
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"I had coached high school football for six years. I was an assistant coach at the University of Cincinnati. Then I was the defensive coordinator at Bowling Green and then I became the head coach at Bowling Green. I had coached 18 or 19 years before I had went up with Bo. When I went with Bo to be honest I didn't have a lot of confidence because things at Bowling Green were not very good. We were winning, but we were finishing second a lot in that league. I found out finishing second two or three times was worse than finishing last. The president there didn't like me and I didn't like him. It was kind of a mutual deal. I had a chance to get out of there. I am sure he didn't care if I left. I had a chance to go with Bo and in all my years of coaching it was the single best thing that happened to me. I had respected Bo so much. He was the line coach at Bowling Green when I played there as their quarterback. When I became the defensive coach and head coach I used to run up to Michigan all the time and watch them. I always thought Bo was the best football coach in America. When you think of Michigan football you think of Bo Schembechler. It is certainly not a negative on Lloyd Carr. Lloyd Carr was on my staff here at West Virginia. When I think of Michigan football I think of Bo Schembechler as setting the groundwork and holding the foundation for the program. When I left there I was full of confidence. I loved working for him. He was just a sensational guy to me, a sensational coach. I loved the way he handled his players, the way he handled his coaches. He was just a gem to work for. I think the reason I had great success here early is because of Bo. Had I left Bowling Green and gone to West Virginia, I doubt seriously I would have had the success I had."<o:p></o:p>
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West Virginia had been a losing program when they hired you and you kept this my way or the highway attitude with even the governor of West Virginia Jay Rockefeller. You told him that you needed locker rooms and offices to be installed for the new stadium and he helped raise one million dollars. How did it feel looking back to have everyone listen to you about what this football program needed overall to be a winner?<o:p></o:p>
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"I was dealing from a position of strength because I really didn't care if I got the job or not because I loved coaching at Michigan. I told them that you don't want to hire me if you don't do it right. In order to do it right we have to have facilities. We were playing Penn State, Pittsburgh, Miami, Boston College, Virginia Tech, Syracuse, Ohio State was on there a couple of times, Notre Dame, Oklahoma. I mean my schedule was murder. My first day I was there, we were playing Ohio State in basketball. Governor Rockefeller was there and he told me we were going to have to put trailers in the endzone because we didn't have the money for locker rooms and coaches offices. I said, 'Hey. I am going back to Michigan man. The image West Virginia has, that's all I need, is to bring kids in and put them in trailers to talk to them.' I told the governor and he was great. He said, 'Don would you come to the mansion? I will invite the right people.' I went there and he made a little speech, 'I didn't bring you here to feed you. I brought you here to raise some money for coach.' I walked out of there with about 1.2 million dollars and enough to build our offices, weight room, locker room, and so forth in the endzone. Once that got done we had decent facilities. I had a great president. We were able to add on and add on again. We had luxury boxes, built an indoor facility, built a couple grass practice fields, and right now West Virginia has as nice a facility as anybody in America. Better than 95 percent of them."<o:p></o:p>
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Why do you think you were such a good recruiter against the bigger schools with winning reputations and tried to be flashy to the recruits?<o:p></o:p>
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"Well, I don't know how successful we were. There is a lot of football players nobody knows about. We looked behind all the bushes. We felt very strongly that the key to us winning would be to have a tremendous strength program and a great discipline program because we weren't able to beat Penn State, we weren't able to beat Pittsburgh. When I came to West Virginia, Pittsburgh had more players than you could shake a stick at. The Dan Marino's, Hugh Greene's, Ricky Jackson's, Bill Fralic's, and I think it was the who’s who of college athletics. They were in the top two or three in the country. Penn State was a little behind at seventh, eighth, or ninth. We had a tough time beating those guys early. We kept pecking away and beat Pittsburgh my third or fourth year. We got Penn State my fifth year. Pittsburgh started to slip a little bit after Jackie Sherill left. Penn State went into the Big Ten and of course we went into the Big East. After I retired it completely broke up. Without ever scoring a touchdown we went to the top of the league."<o:p></o:p>
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What are your thoughts on Marc Bulger and Jeff Hostetler and how they made the transition to the NFL from being West Virginia quarterbacks?<o:p></o:p>
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"Well, I thought it's a shame that Jeff played 15 years in the NFL and got two Super Bowl rings, should've been the MVP of the one Super Bowl. Those people that voted must have been stupid or dumb or something because without him they wouldn't have had a chance. Jeff didn't play a down at quarterback for five or six years because Phil Simms was really hot. When Simms got hurt, Jeff went in and lead them to the Super Bowl and the next year he was the starter. Of course Parcells left and Ray Hanley came in and Jeff was the starter again. The following year Ray Hanley left and Jeff's contract was up with Oakland and he started out there for four or five years. Jeff was a different kind of quarterback. Jeff was much bigger and stronger, but Marc was the more accurate passer, absolutely a tremendous gifted passer. The pros were a little nervous. They thought he weighed 180 pounds and he got hurt his senior year. If Marc Bulger wouldn't have got hurt his senior year here at West Virginia, I would think that he would have been a third or fourth round draft pick, but being injured he only played in five games and that really hurt us. Had we had him we probably would have had a great year. Marc got drafted in the seventh round and never really had an opportunity. As soon as he got his opportunity, he has been a starter ever since."<o:p></o:p>
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Why do you think your West Virginia defenses were able to dominate Doug Flutie while he was at Boston College, but no other teams had any success against him?<o:p></o:p>
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"Well, I don't know. We took a lot of calculated risks. We just didn't think you could let that kid run around back there. We kept steady pressure up the middle and brought pressure from both sides so he couldn't escape us. We worked real hard with those outside rushers not letting that little turkey get outside of us. We were able to sack him and harass him. We were the only school, and we beat him every single year. He never beat us once."<o:p></o:p>
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On January 2, 1989 you played Notre Dame for the National Championship in the Fiesta Bowl. How do you feel the game would have turned out if you didn't lose your starting quarterback Major Harris to a shoulder injury on the third play of the game?<o:p></o:p>
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"Well, I thought and this is just my opinion which isn't worth much, I thought that we were the better football team going in. Notre Dame had played three teams that we played and we had beaten them much more decisively than Notre Dame. In 1988 we had a good football team. We never ever suffered an injury. Then our last game was Syracuse and my free safety broke his leg, which meant he was out of the game. Believe it or not in the first series I lost my right guard, I lost my quarterback, and I lost my left guard. It's not an excuse. We got beat by a hell of a football team. Had I not lost those three kids it would have been fun to see what would have happened." <o:p></o:p>
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What are your memories of the 1993 West Virginia team that went 11-0 in the regular season, but lost to Florida 41-7 in the Sugar Bowl?<o:p></o:p>
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"Well, the 1993 team was picked sixth in the Big East. It was a team that refused to lose. They were a bunch of overachievers. I don't know if I had any NFL players on that team at all. We squeaked by some people and the ball bounced our way. We were overachievers, got a little lucky, and pulled it off. We were overmatched up front against Florida. We couldn't block their front four, plus we didn't play well. Florida was the better football team. We could have played Florida ten times and maybe won one or two. They were better than we were, but we got there. That's probably the most amazing team I had the whole time I was at West Virginia."<o:p></o:p>
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Why do you think that you didn't do so well in bowl games when you had very impressive teams?<o:p></o:p>
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"Well, to be honest, every time we played in a bowl game, if we were ranked tenth our opponent was ranked fifth. If we were ranked fifth our opponent was ranked one. We were ranked 20<SUP>th</SUP>, our opponent was ranked 15th. We played Missouri I think in 1998 and we lost that game and should never have lost it. We were better than Missouri, but had lost to them. Other than that, I don't think we lost to a bowl team that was worse than we were."<o:p></o:p>
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How proud does it make you feel to know that during your tenure you didn't have any infractions against your West Virginia team?<o:p></o:p>
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"Well, when you coach at Bowling Green you don't have enough money for a hot fudge sundae. I guarantee I didn't know how to cheat let alone thinking about it. Bo always taught us that no one can be proud of a tarnished victory. That is my proudest moment here. We took a team that was lousy and in two years beat Florida in the Peach Bowl and we never once had an NCAA infraction."<o:p></o:p>
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You say at the end of your book, "Television and high salaries scare me to death." Could you tell me why it scares you?<o:p></o:p>
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"Well, it scares me for a lot of different reasons. Number one, and I don't begrudge any coach that is making money, but when they start making millions of dollars then no team is gonna tolerate winning six and losing five. If you are making over a million dollars you better be winning all the time and I don't think that's healthy. I think coaches that make over a million dollars send the wrong message to the faculty. I'd hate to be the head of the chemistry department making 90,000 and some guy who goes out and coaches some game is making ten times what I make. I just don't think that's right. Television bothers me because we are supposed to be teaching these kids as a student athlete and now we play on Tuesday nights, Wednesday nights, Thursday nights, and Friday nights, Saturdays, and that's wrong. You can cut it any way you want, but that's wrong. You play on Tuesday night one team has to travel on Monday because you can't travel the day that you play. Then you play a night game and the game isn't over to 11:30 PM, by the time you shower and get to the airport it's one o'clock in the morning. By the time you land at your home it's two or three in the morning. By the time you get on a bus and get to campus it is four in the morning, and some guy is gonna say ‘Hey I got an eight o'clock class.’ Give me a break. You know and I know he's not going. He's not going to his nine. He's not going to his ten. So we are a bunch of hypocrites. That's why I say that it's crazy. We are now playing college football games on Friday night and now we are starting to bite the hand that feeds us, high school football. Under no circumstances should a college football game be played on a Friday night. That's high school night. That's why I think television bothers me."<o:p></o:p>
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What do you remember most about being inducted into the 2005 College Football Hall of Fame?<o:p></o:p>
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"Well, that was special. You are a football coach, and you have coached all your life, and you get that letter, and say congratulations. I don't mind telling you that your chest pops out and that's as good as it gets. I was overwhelmed. I couldn't believe it. I never thought that I would get in, a guy that coaches at Bowling Green and West Virginia. It is just amazing."<o:p></o:p>
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Why aren't you running for political office? <o:p></o:p>
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"Why? No thank you. I am not interested in that. They'd hate me. I am way too honest. I got too firm beliefs on that immigration. I wouldn't let nobody in here I'd guarantee that, a bunch of crap. We don't have anyone tough enough in any of these offices. They'd run me out of town. They couldn't stand me because I'd tell them like it is. Our country is being ruined because everything has to be politically correct. People can't even say what they want to say today because if they do they are known as hard telling what. I wouldn't want to put my family through that crap."<o:p></o:p>
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Finally, is there any chance you will ever go coach again and if not what do you plan to do with the rest of your life?<o:p></o:p>
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"Well, I am sure I will never have another big time job. I might help a little high school somewhere sometime. I am going to be 71 years old, ain’t nobody going to be interested in me. I had my fun coaching. I don't worry about that. I have about three or four other jobs. I teach a class at the university. I work for the West Virginia Coal Association. I work for a construction company. I go to Florida and play golf. I got so much to do." <o:p></o:p>
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And if the Road Warrior says it, it must be true..
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nice read...thanks
 

WVU

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good interview. You were a little too nice though. He can handle the tough questions, he always has. If he ran for governor next term he would win in a landslide.

I agree with what he said about his bowl game losing streak. WV was always pitted against a better team because of their schedule and because they traveled well. Mountaineer fans go into debt just to travel to a bowl game. They probably have the best fan support of any team, even when it has been a bad year.

He is overstating how tough his schedule was during his glory years at WV. He always beat Boston College, but he could never beat a good Miami or a good Virginia Tech team. He only beat those teams on a down year. Even Pitt and Penn State was only beatable by them when they were no longer dominate.

I used to go to every game back in the 80s. My best memory was beating Penn State at Penn State for the first time ever, and having our fans rip down their goal posts afterwards. Truly classic.
:toast:
 

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I asked what I felt was nessecary. I like asking the tough questions and have to many, but I am not a bashing critical journalist unless there is a reason to ask something critical. He gave some great comments and told why he disliked why college football is the way it is today.

I don't care much about talking about certian games with a personality unless it was a classic remembered or wins and loses usually.

I like to do profile interviews for people I interviewed who have pretty much set their mark in sports.

Personalities remember those who are polite. I ask criticial things, but try to have fun in the process. I don't kiss ass. I just do my job the best I can and will continue to learn as the years go on. I try to be appreciative of everyone that gives their time to me. Most people don't give you 20 minutes.
 

WVU

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It was a good interview Chris. I did not mean to imply that it wasn't. Don Nehlen is a very down to earth and personal guy. I had dinner with him and his assistant coaches at his house and he made everyone feel comfortable and pleased to be there. He usually took losses very hard and this was after a big loss to Miami at home in the waning seconds. After eating you would have thought WV had just won the game in a blowout the way he brought up all the positives.
 

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No problem WVU. I just defend myself because there are haters out there. This is not easy job. It takes a lot of time and dedication to make a name for yourself. I have been doing this six years in October and might have had national coverage for my stuff, but I need a lot more if I want to become a permanent success in this field.

I am not someone who just settles in life professionally. I just want more.

Chris
 

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good interview....they were underdogs in every bowl game except that missouri game and the soth carolina game

that is why there bowl record was bad is because they got bumped up to a higher bowl due to fan travel etc....
Which makes a team like bc who had a great bowl record go to a lesser bowl just like last year...
 

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Makes sense. Thanks for the comments as always guys.
 

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