A couple weeks ago I contacted Arizona State's SID Mark Brand to get on Herm Edwards' interview list. There were close to 100 requests in, and the list was growing by an hour. Herm is a wanted man. I could take a number and get in line, or I could just circle back when things cleared up... a couple months from now.
Add my name to the list, I said. The interview would be for an audience of football coaches, and we'd be talking ball. I told Mark as much and didn't expect to hear from him again until the summer.
Then, last Friday, Mark wrote me back. Herm wanted to talk -- tomorrow. After 30 years out of college football and a decade out of coaching, it seems he wants to make up for lost time by talking as much ball as he can for as long as he can.
And so talk we did. We talked about how he's enjoying being back in college football, how he's building a program built on a bedrock of competitiveness and the importance of practice in a player's development.
This conversation has been edited for clarity and length.
FootballScoop: Present moment aside, how much fun are you having being back in the game?
Edwards: I'm enjoying it, no doubt about it. For me to come back it had to be the right situation. I had a chance to come back plenty of times -- both levels, college and pro -- just wasn't the right fit. Knowing Ray (Anderson), Dr. Crow, when we sat down and spoke I just felt like this was a good fit for me. It was a good way for me to return and try to give back something to football. I've been involved in football my whole life -- as a player and coach, and obviously on television -- but I missed the camaraderie. I missed being around the athletes and the coaches, and going through the journey that all teams go through every year of trying to achieve something very special. You miss that once you get out of it. I had a good time when I was away from it in the fact that I learned a lot from a wider view. I think sometimes when you get away from it you have a way of learning things. I studied football, visited a lot of college campuses, was invited to a lot of programs and kept up with it. When I came back I felt like quite comfortable.
FootballScoop: Between your self, AD Ray Anderson, Marvin Lewis, Antonio Pierce and Kevin Mawae and others on your staff, you've got a clear NFL influence on you staff. How does that benefit your players?
Edwards: Most of these young men, they have aspirations to go to the next level and play. You like guys that have that focus. It tells you that it's important to them, that it's more than just being a football player, it's trying to establish themselves as a player and go make a living doing this. That being said, it's very difficult. Only two percent of players go on to play in the league and the life expectancy is not very long, 3.7 years. I think it's an achievement that a lot of guys set on their path, "I want to be a pro football player." It's easy to say, hard to do. With the environment that's created here, with the knowledge in the building, there's a lot of information in this building.
We don't give players talent. No coach in the history of coaching, in any sport, has ever given a player talent. God gives them talent. What we provide is information. Any time you can take a player behind the curtain of what it looks like at the next level, you're giving them information.
FootballScoop: How are you enjoying recruiting? From the outside it seems to be going quite well for you?
Edwards: It's relationship. It's a relationship not only with the player, but with the family. This is a big moment for a high school guy. This can be the first time a lot of them have ever left home. Parents want to know the culture of what they're about to allow their son to get involved in -- what type of players you have on the team, what type of men are going to coach their son for the next three or four years. All those things become a factor. They're turning their young man over to you. It's all this other stuff that goes along with (football) that I think we do a good job of selling as well.
FootballScoop: How would you describe your culture?
Edwards: Very competitive. You've got to be a competitive guy if you're going to make any kind of headway in this culture. That's in life. Our core values are something that our players understand: be on time, no excuses, no explanations, be coachable, be available, don't be a sensitive player. Integrity. We like players and people with integrity. Do your words and your actions match up? You've got to be able to compete every day, in the classroom and on the grass. And then once your role is defined, do it with energy. We believe in humility. Stay humble and hungry. And you've got to be a good teammate. You've got to be willing to get out of your own personal thoughts and emotions and treat teammates with considerations and have respect for them.
Those are the things that we expect. We don't try to change personalities. I tell parents that all the time, "I'm not trying to change your son's personality." I just want to make sure that he understands there's some requirements that need to be met. There's some standards of things that you've got to do. Your personality will blend in here. That's what's great about sports. There's all different kinds of personalities.
FootballScoop: You mentioned that you don't want a sensitive player. What do you mean by that?
Edwards: Be coachable. Some players are sensitive. I mean that at every level. I said that all the time at in pro football. Just because you're a professional doesn't mean you're not going to be coached. This is at the highest level. Don't be sensitive. Don't take it like the coach is picking on you, that's what coaches do. Coaches give information. Coaches coach, players player, owners own. That's how it works at that level.
FootballScoop: You said you have a competitive culture. How do you build that as a value in your team?
Edwards: Once they walk in the classroom. You're going to get called out on assignments and what you're asked to do. You might get called out in a sense where, if you're a secondary guy here's the coverage. What do you do? What do the linebackers do? What does the safety do? What is the front? It's everywhere. It's in a drill. When we do drills, it's competitive. When we have an offseason program, the first thing the weight coach does is he splits up all the players on teams and when they lift and run, there's points that are given out and there's a point total that happens at the end of the week. You know what team's leading and what team's not. In the summer, we've got a softball game that's pretty competitive. You've got four team captains, you pick the teams and you go compete. Somebody's going to win a shirt. Everything's about competition, and I think players realize that. If we go bowling as a team, we split up in teams, and somebody's got to win. These guys like it.
FootballScoop: I'm curious about what that first meeting was like when you got the job. I imagine when Todd Graham got let go, hardly any of your players expected you to be the guy walking in as their next head coach.
Edwards: Most of them knew who I was, because of my time on television. Players are like anyone else, they do their homework on who the new head coach is going to be. The first thing I told them is, "Look, there's going to be a lot of outside noise when you hire a new coach. I said, I've got to earn your trust. I've got to earn it. Let me earn your trust." And that was it, basically. But here again: it works both ways. You've got to earn my trust, too. Stay here and be a part of this program. Any time there's a coaching change, things change. Players understand that, they're well aware of that. That was basically the crux of the conversation, to be quite honest with you.
FootballScoop: Who do you go to for advice when you feel like you need it?
Edwards: Staff members that I trust. Marvin. AP. Guys that I've known for quite some time. Other college coaches that I may call. You're always searching for information. Every day that I come in to work -- I'm in my office now -- I'm writing things down. Preparing myself for when the players get back. Giving them some words of advice on where we're headed once we go back. I'm trying to piece all that together. I constantly look at myself and go, "I can't give you talent, but I've got to create an environment here where they can reach their potential." That's what this thing's all about: Can you create an environment where players reach their potential? If they can all do that, now you've got a chance.
FootballScoop: You never missed a game in your time with the Eagles. That had to be pretty formative as far as forming your philosophy as a coach.
Edwards: That's my whole career as a football player. I never missed a practice. I never missed a practice. That's how you get better. The practice part is how you become a good football player. It ain't the game, the game takes care of itself. It's the practice stuff. That becomes where you learn things, you've got to dig it out of the dirt. I've told people my whole. life, that's my claim to fame of being an athlete -- I never missed a practice from high school to college to professional football. That's a mindset. That's understanding how important that is, the preparation involved. You've got to like preparing to be an athlete. You've got to hunger for the preparation involved. You've got to really want to do this.
I tell players all the time, "Guys, your resume is on the tape. You write your resume every day you step on the grass, and it starts in practice." That's what it's all about. You practice way more than you'll ever play in a single season. You've got immerse yourself in that. You've got to enjoy that.
FootballScoop: I apologize if you're tired of talking about this, but I have to ask: How often does the "You play to win the game" clip come up in your day to day?
Edwards: It comes up, between that and the fumble play. I tell people all the time, I said it one time and I never said it again. It doesn't need repeating. I don't say it, I said it one time. That's just what it is, and everybody gets that. It's very difficult to not understand what that means.
FootballScoop: How much longer do you see yourself working?
Edwards: When I run out of energy, then you don't do it anymore. You've got to enjoy what you do. I have never walked into this building or any building I've ever been in where I didn't enjoy coming in the building. When there's no joy in this, then I'm disrespecting the game of football and I'll get out. It'll be time for me to leave and hand it to somebody else.
FootballScoop: You don't strike me as as a guy that's ever lacked energy.
Edwards: No. It's kind of funny, sometimes you have to watch yourself. I kind of live by this saying, "Energy and emotion make the world go round, but facts and common sense keep you from going too fast." I think about that a lot. That's why I try to always be calm. The perception some times is of this guy with all this (makes shouting noise), but I'm a thinker. I'm very calm in moments of emotion and energy. I'm very calm, actually. The perception might not look like that. I played that way, too. I'm a thinker. I'm well aware of the surroundings and what I'm looking at. The thing I fear the most, as a player and even more as a coach, is that I make emotional decisions. Ninety percent of emotional decisions are wrong. They're just flat wrong.
That's just kind of my DNA. When you play corner your whole life, it's a position where you better have selective memory and you better be calm, because if you're not, you've got a problem.