Jakob Barnard: [00:00:00] Welcome to the Jimmie office hours podcast, where academics talk about academics. We'll travel from the depths of liberal arts to the forefront of practical application. Join us as we dive into critical discussions, shaping the minds of tomorrow.
All right. Welcome to Jimmie office hour. My name is Jakob Barnard. I've got with me, Scot Loyd and Brian Mistro. So the episode today, we're going to talk about athletics and liberal arts. So Brian, do you want to give us a quick introduction for yourself though?
Brian Mistro: Yeah, absolutely. So Again, my name is Brian Mistro.
I get Mistro a lot. I get maestro sometimes, even though I'm not, you know, I'm not that guy. But when I went to school here in Jamestown, 2005 to 2009, everybody called me Mistro. So you're not in the wrong by any means, cause that's what president Peterson calls me. So I think I'll [00:01:00] have to handle that sometimes, but yeah,
Jakob Barnard: there's an old five grad.
I think that's how I originally heard it myself. A hundred
Brian Mistro: percent, man. And so for you, it's for me, to be honest with you. I came from Arizona. I had no idea where North Dakota was on a map. You know, I, I couldn't have told you, you know, what's direction other than North, right? And so I came up on a visit here, loved every second of my experience.
I didn't know what I was getting into and coming from a public school down in Arizona, I didn't know that Jamestown was even a private school. Type thing. And so when I came up here, I wanted to play football and what I left with was a pretty cool experience. That was way more encompassing than just playing a sport.
And so I came up here, did my four years graduated in 2009. Went back home. I got into the higher education world in a little different facet. I was the height of the online school boom. I worked at the university of Phoenix for eight months and I couldn't sit behind a desk [00:02:00] for that long. And be on the phones that way.
So my head coach that I played for had a graduate assistant opening for football down at Northern state and Aberdeen did that for two years, received my master's. And then I was at Concordia college over in Moorhead, Minnesota. For seven seasons, eight years, and then got the job here in 2019.
We've been hitting the ground running ever since. So that's my, you got my recruiting spiel in like 30 seconds there.
Jakob Barnard: Yeah. So yeah, so you're, you're now the head coach of football here at UJ. So. Kinda the the first starter question I had. And, and either one of you can kinda do this, but you know, uj, we, we talk a lot about our mission and values and one of the big mission statements there is the holistic experience for our students.
And, and you, you kind of touched on that already, Brian, but how does being a student athlete enhance the mission of the university for that holistic approach? 'cause we, we have a really high percentage of our students who are student athletes. Much more so than I remember in the early [00:03:00] two thousands,
Brian Mistro: right?
To be honest with you, I think it enhances the student experience in such a profound way, because there's so much that's learned through being with other people and coaches and battling adversity and the learning that happens within your sport in general, and just constantly having being a lifelong learner that way.
I think it's just phenomenal for people to be in situations that are competitive. Last I checked, this is America, right? There's winners and losers. And I still like the idea that you can put people in a setting where they truly enjoy what they're doing and they're still learning from it outside of the classroom learning that's taken place.
And I did not really know or value that. But then when I got here as a student athlete. You know, Judy Hager, formerly Judy Erickson was the admissions counselor that I worked with. She picked me out of the crowd during welcome weekend and said, Hey, you're going to be my, my student worker. Okay. And she goes, well, you're loud.
You're obnoxious. And I think that you can give tours really well. I said, [00:04:00] okay, sounds good. So I was a tour guide when I first got here. And then I was a communications major. And so I got into a couple of those classes. And then my advisor, Steve Listapad said, Hey, you're going to write for the student newspaper.
Like, okay, well, you're at every sporting event pretty much. Aren't you? Like we need a sports reporter. So now I'm a football player. I'm giving tours. I'm a, I'm the sports editor of the newspaper. I mean, there's just some cool things that. Opened my doors here in college that I didn't have in high school.
I graduated with 800 kids. You know, there's 4, 000 something students at my high school. Like I was in football and baseball and that was it. And I didn't partake in clubs or any activities and stuff like that. So, you know, my college experience was a lot more holistic and all encompassing than, than my high school experience was.
And usually it's kind of depends. It kind of reversed. You see a lot more yearbook kids in high school than you see in college. But being here now with all the sports that we have. I just think, and I've gone through this and read a lot about [00:05:00] learning and lifelong learning and things that you do consistently.
You know, I, you know, I'm not a video game guy. I think there's learning that can happen from that. I like to read things and I like to go through things. And as a football coach, how do we relate that to our kids so that when they leave here, it helps them in life. Cause none, not a lot of, not none, none of these kids, Our first round draft picks, like they're not going to the NFL.
And so if we have, we did have one that had a pro day, which was cool. But to be honest with you, like they're going to be taking what they've learned, hopefully for some of the adversities that they had in football. And in college in general and becoming better men, becoming better husbands and fathers, all the things that go along with it.
So I think it's all encompassing, man. The experience that our kids have as students on top of being athletes is phenomenal.
Scot Loyd: Coach Brian. It warms my heart that you said you were a communications guy, because that's, that's my discipline, obviously, big plug for communications. And also we [00:06:00] share the competitive.
Nature as well as I coach debate and and speech. So that's a competitive activity that that our students get involved in. I remember a quote by George will that where he said that sports serves society by giving us everyday examples of excellence. So, in addition to my love for communications and speech and debate, I also love sports.
I love to I love in particular the game of football because I think it is such a a, a, a, an example of, of, of what life is, right? You face adversity, you face obstacles, you learn to operate as a team and to cooperate with one another. But you reference this, the idea that most of our students coming here to play football or to play other sports, Aren't going to make it to the pro leagues, but for a student to come in for a student athlete to come in, they've got to have a [00:07:00] sort of that, that, that confidence about themselves that maybe they could.
So how do you, how do you communicate to students that they need to focus On their studies. Because you know, they need to have something to fall back on in case the sports thing doesn't work out. And obviously if it did, they also want to be a well rounded individual and, and have something to talk about.
Should someone stick a microphone in their, in their face post game, right?
Brian Mistro: Right. No, I think it's a great. Situation for our, for our students to be involved in something else that helps them learn and keeps growing. And I think the idea, most of these young people know that, all right, I'm probably done unless it's golf or basketball.
And you mean there's some new league basketball guys that are still 70 years old playing. I mean, whatever. Right. But from a professional standpoint, I think most of the kids know like, all right, this is [00:08:00] probably my, my shot here, my end. And, and I think the idea that, Hey, your studies are. More important right now than to get through all of those things.
So you can have the experience that you want then. Maybe some people really lead on. I think sometimes you get the athlete and they're like, Oh, well, they only care about sports. Like that's the overarching, like, well, they're here just to do that. Like, no, they might've came here for that, but once they get here, it's one of those situations.
And I think it's most colleges. And especially ones that are holistically teaching like the liberal arts in general. I'm a huge fan of the idea because frankly we want more well rounded human beings. So how do you keep them focused? I'm going to plug the Jimmie football team, you know, chop wood and carry water, do your job every single day to the best of your abilities and then surrender the outcome.
And when you surrender the outcome and you just give your all and no matter what happens, happens, You live a [00:09:00] better life. And I think that our guys are starting to understand that. And I think most of the student athletes on our campus understand that, Hey, you know, one step in front of the other, because, you know, surrendering the outcome is kind of hard for us competitive dudes, right?
Like we want to win. And when you say the word surrender in general, that just sounds bad, but Hey, I'm going to give everything I absolutely have to this. So that way, no matter what happens at the end, I can hold my head up high and I'm fine. And I think the people that don't and the ones that, you know, all, well, I missed practice that day, or I didn't try that hard, or I didn't go to sleep.
Right. Or I didn't eat correctly. That's why we didn't win. When you fall back on an excuse, I'm going to quote my coach, like excuses are just lies. There are no excuses. There's choices. And if you make a choice that affects your outcome. And if you make a choice to, to not go as hard as you can or not give your all into something, then you're already determining what that outcome probably is [00:10:00] going to be.
And you, you alluded to football being kind of that. We're kind of crazy in football. So like, I believe this. And if there's another sport that you can think of, let me know. Cause I kind of plugged this that way. Football guys are nuts. So we're, it's a physical sport, right? So 18 year old young men, when they come in and play football, usually aren't ready right away.
So now you're talking about, okay, I'm probably not going to play for a year or two. So there's going to be thousands of hours of film. So, and I'll get into this too, the film and the learning of the playbook. Like our guys basically take another class. Like, we have meetings every day for about an hour on top of their class load to learn the plays and go through film and the things that to make them better on the field.
So they learn all that. They go through two years of practice basically, where they're not playing in games. And then we're one of the only sports outside of maybe the hockey goalie, but [00:11:00] even they can score goals sometimes like where you only play one side of the ball. So now you're cutting the game in half.
So you're only going to play half the time anyway. And now it's a physical game where you're not playing the whole game, unless you're the quarterback, which those guys, the pretty boys don't get touched that much anyway. And so more guys rotate. So now you're only playing half of the half of the game. So we talked to our recruits about this and it kind of blows their parents minds.
Cause most of our high school players, they play both ways and they play, you know, most of the game. Hey, you're going to come to college. 12 to 15 credit load of classes. Okay. You're going to practice for two years basically, and maybe not play at all. And then by the time you're a junior, you might be the backup or the starter.
And you're going to play the average football play is about five seconds from whistle to whistle. Now the time is still running, but from whistle to whistle, it's about five seconds. Okay. So five seconds, let's say you play 50 plays. Okay. We're talking about 250 seconds. You're playing 61 eight. I mean, you're [00:12:00] talking about three minutes, three to four minutes of actual playing the game.
Now your senior year. You're going to do the same thing. So we play, let's say we play 20 games in that span. You might play less than two hours of actual football. You're going to spend four years here. You're going to go thousands of hours in the weight room, thousands of hours in the classroom, thousands of hours worth of film to maybe, to maybe get an hour and a half to two hours of actually.
playing the game. Like you, you have to chop and carry every day. Like you have to one foot in front of the other. So if you don't stay focused on the process, the outcome, isn't going to be what you want it to be anyway. So that's how we try to brainwash our kids. You know, use the jarhead term, like.
Unscrew your head, take out your brain that you think you have, put ours in, screw it back on, trust the process and everything that we do, and you'll get the payoff that you want in the end. Because if you're just looking for playing time, don't play college [00:13:00] football.
Jakob Barnard: No, and it's interesting you put it that way because that really does put a different spin on how our students have been treating their studies.
I think that a lot of that is coming driven from the coaches. It just remembers me. It reminds me the my first semester teaching. I definitely came in with the, the stereotype of gonna have to deal with the athletes. And first kind of major assignment that I had for that class I was flabbergasted, the hockey guys, they were on a trip somewhere.
I'm getting emails at nine, 10 o'clock at night. Hey, the wifi has been spotty on the bus again. But here's our questions for our homework. I was so shocked that I was getting these emails from our athletes. I was answering the emails at nine, 10 o'clock at night. Because I, I hadn't. I, that was not the impression that I'd come in to teaching student athletes with was that they're actually going to be trying diligently do the work while on, on the road [00:14:00] for for a game.
I think it was early season. So it doesn't really matter. But that had not been my impression of student athletes nor particularly that, that sport was not known very well for its diligence in doing homework, at least in high school. Right. So. It just it was surprised me that the emphasis was really put on that.
Brian Mistro: And I think, you know, to be in you guys as professors, man, like, I think we get it really well here at, at our place. At UJ, I think the people that help our students in the classroom understand at a better level than maybe some other places that I've been, they have more than just school that they're, that they're focused on and that they're doing.
And some of these kids have jobs now and they're working. Like it's unbelievable to me, the resiliency of some of these kids. Now there's some. Don't, and that's no matter what school you're at in the country. It doesn't matter, but [00:15:00] like the, the diligence and the ability that you guys have to understand that, and then our students have to have the respect for the classroom time as well.
I think it's a pretty cool marriage because. And especially I can only speak to football. I mean, I know how much I can pull up on huddle, how much our film, our kids are watching, and now on top of their classes, on top of work, on top of whatever, these kids are watching an hour to two hours of film a night.
So they can be ready on Saturday. Like, geez, guys, like, when do you sleep?
Jakob Barnard: That's, that's something I, I mentioned every perspective student and if they come with their parents, their, their parents too, of at least half the learning you do here you do here. UJ, I mean, it's true for all liberal arts colleges is outside the classroom.
We're we're we're with the, your academics that the goal is that we guide you, you set up, but you're doing a good chunk of that learning. Now, myself, I was, I was doing athlete. I did all of the clubs you know, and so editor of the collegian for a year. So another as collegian, let's go but you know, half that learning being outside the classroom.
Really? [00:16:00] We've got to set them up in the classroom, but all of those additional experiences are hopefully what's getting that holistic student, well rounded student in that experience to build on that.
Brian Mistro: Absolutely. And to be honest, man, I'm 37 now, you know, I have the same group of 10 buddies that I graduated with here.
And we talk about, we don't talk about the games, you know, we don't talk about, you know, who made what play versus Valley in 2007, like we talk about the shenanigans that we did in cruisey and Watson, you know, I mean, just the, the holistic experience that this, that most liberal arts places give, like, I don't know, I don't want to say it out loud, like, Kind of a cult.
Like we have a good culture and the root word of culture is cult. And I think that the big thing for, for our kids is just being a part of something. I think that gets lost sometimes is, you know, the, [00:17:00] the student that maybe comes here and isn't a part of anything and they don't join something right away or they're that experience.
What I think college should be. My sister is a great example. And if she watches this, I apologize, Shannon. Like she went to community college and lived at home. So she went to class, came home, went to work and she went, transferred to ASU, went to class, came home. She doesn't have any college friends. She didn't have any of those experiences outside of the classroom at her college that she went to.
And it just, it, it pains me sometimes to see that because it's like, I talk about my buddies all the time and, and, you know, she doesn't have that group, which is. I think, like you said, you learned a lot out of the classroom
Scot Loyd: coach, you've talked a little bit about this, but I want to give you an opportunity to be even more specific.
So talking about the relationships, I have a friend that says all the time that life moves at the speed of relationships. And so we all know the importance of [00:18:00] relationships. And outside of maybe a community college experience, like you referenced it's hard to replicate that outside of sports.
Although there are other activities like speech and debate, like journalism, the school newspaper, things of that nature clubs and activities where you can replicate those particular relationships. So as a, a, a, a college coach and as someone who is involved heavily in Recruiting given all of the potential harms of college athletics.
And so, in particular, we know that football is a dangerous sports, even with all of the improvements for safety. There are still, there's still the potential of, of CTE. There's still the potential of, you know, breaking your leg and, and walking with a limp for the rest of your life. So how do you balance the cost benefit analysis to continuing to participate [00:19:00] in such a dangerous activity versus the benefits that you will receive from being a part of that activity?
Brian Mistro: No, it's a great question. It's the moms most of the time. And, you know, I think when we get parents in, in my office, they sit right there and it's like, all right, you know, another four years of college football, we made it through or another four years of football in general, we made it through high school without really any injuries.
Like, how are you going to take care of my kid if something happens? And so like, that's where we start talking about the benefits. And I think, okay, like this could have, I think the assumption, if you play a sport like this, and really any sport. I mean, you're assuming the risk and now you as a person, as an 18 year old, 17 year old kid, like you don't know that rule.
You don't know that yet. Your parents do. And so like, Hey, what are some of the benefits of being able to go through this? And I think the easiest answer that we had, it kind of goes into the relationship part of it. Like you're going to leave this [00:20:00] place with the best friends of your life. You know, outside of your brother, the best man in your wedding is going to be somebody that you sat next to in the locker room or sat next to in the dorm room or whatever, like your, your, your student experience while you go through college and the relationships that you build are not a four year commitment.
Like you are now making a 40 year commitment. And so when you're 65, 70 years old, like, and you still get together with your college buddies, And your grandkids are running around like you can't put a price on that and I don't think I don't know, you know, how most people deal with it is from a, like a cost benefit, like, okay, go to a community college and it's cheap.
And it's, it's almost free. Some places like you can get what you want to get educationally and get the piece of paper. And if it, if your goal is just to get the piece of paper. And yeah, like I don't win those kids a lot. I'll tell you this, if you want the relationship and you want to look at the pictures on the wall that I have of all my buddies and everybody that's in my wedding and, [00:21:00] and the kids that are all together.
And I don't know how much that costs. Like that, that is so invaluable to me in my life. That my day to day, I mean, let's be real guys. Like I'm still in the group chat with my buddies that like, it's the same group of dudes and we're, we're still 14 years old in the group chat. Right. And so what we try to explain to the parents is the relationships that you're going to get, the experience that you're going to have to make sure that when you leave this place, not only are you successful as a business person or as a professor, as a teacher, as a cop, as a, whatever you want to be, But you're going to be successful as a husband and as a father and as a, as a dude that has a group of friends and live life to the fullest that you want to, because I think that we get that out of our place.
We get that out of the, the, the liberal arts college experience in general. I say this story all the time and it's not a football guy, so I'm a big fan of welcome [00:22:00] weekend and orientation and most coaches don't like that. Especially the fall coaches, because we're in the, we're getting ready for our season, like welcome weekend happens the week before our first game.
So like, it's kind of, all right, we got to get rolling here. I got married, I met my wife in grad school. We got married over in Fargo Moorhead and we got married on the football field. So I married one of those. She's cool with it. And, the officiant for our wedding was a kid that I met at Welcome Weekend that didn't play his sport here.
Like he was just one of my homies that I met at Welcome Weekend. We hit it off. He was the dude that rode his longboard around. His name is Grant Merring, like long hair, looked like a hippie, even though he was from West Fargo. And to be honest with you, like lifelong friend and a guy that, you know, I didn't hang out with all the time while I was in college, we were connected.
And we always had that connection. And when they came to marry my wife, he was the dude that we chose to, to say our vows to like, that's, that's how this works. [00:23:00]
Jakob Barnard: The relationship building is a really good point. I mean, I I'm still friends with some of the ones who lived in Watson with me and that, you know, stayed up the first week, steal, nearly stealing the cruise, Iraq yeah.
The, the Dorm had the dorm, was not happy with the pickup in the courtyard at 3:00 AM. But again, statute of limitations has expired on undergrad shenanigans. Good. But the relationships built for that. Most of the friends I, I, I continue to interact with on a daily basis as well are from those days, which for me, unlike a lot, it was very opposite of high school experience.
The very stock standard, high school experience. I opted out. I, I was the the big introvert. The, I have my group of four or five fellow nerdy friends and. That's good. My entire goal of going to college was to get out there and do things. So I joined everything I could when I came here. So student Senate for two, three years, editor of the collegian webmaster collegian before that, and all [00:24:00] of those things through the way I didn't actually manage to graduate somehow, but I learned a lot of the relationship.
Dealing with other people. And, and I think that's a really good way you're putting it, Brian, of what, what sports is doing is through, through athletics, through the teams. Are we building the, the, the skills that those students have a perhaps better chance of just learning how to deal with others.
Brian Mistro: I'll tell you what, man, I got a picture over spring break with I have three guys from Tucson, Arizona, and I don't, I don't know if they've ever seen a horse before or a cow. And I got a picture from, you know, one of my, one of my players who has a ranch down in Harriet Selby, South Dakota. And with the three Arizona kids that are, you know, milking cows.
It's like, this is, you can't put like now they, they have an understanding and a respect for a different [00:25:00] culture. And it, and I have a personal experience with that too. I was one of the first Arizona kids I think that came up here that was recruited up here. I think there was a group of guys that were before me.
But I came up here, I'm pretty sure I was the first kid with a flat build hat, like black socks and a V and a pair of Vans. I did not look the part. With the cowboy boots and the, and you know, the Wrangler's on. And so when I got up here, I was loud, obnoxious, cocky, like all of the things. And my, one of my best friends and the godfather to one of my kids is a farmer from Edgeley, North Dakota.
And I remember going down to his parents place and his farm and being like, people live like this? Like what is going on? And you know, just those relationships matter, man, because we had our first child and. He's the godfather to my kid now. And so I think, yeah, it's Lord being able to learn with so many different groups of people in so many different ways of life and some of the friendships that we see on our football team with guys from, you know, affluent families in a, in a big [00:26:00] city to, you know, single mom homes that work three jobs.
And that kid hasn't, I didn't have the same upbringing as that kid, but they're best friends. And like, that's just, there's some really cool stuff that goes along with, with being on a sports team and what sports does for our college experience in general. And I think it's just so, so invaluable, man. Like I deal with that a lot, you know, Hey, my kid can go to a community college or get his apprenticeship and be an electrician and make a hundred grand a year next year.
Great. Do that. If that's what you want to do, like life's about choices, like go do whatever you want to do, but you can also come here, have the four year experience, play college football and still do that. And so I think that there's a, there's a fine line of finding out what the young man and the young woman want to do.
Like, what's your life goal? What's your, what's your path that you want to take? And then really see how that, how we fit into that. We've told, we've told kids, no, like, don't come here. Like, cause this isn't what you, this isn't what you want. And [00:27:00] now we've told a lot more. Yes. But I'll tell you what, like you can't put a price on it.
I mean, some of these kids are going to meet their wives and their husbands. And then they're, it's a whole nother ball game now, like you're going to have kids and those kids are going to want to be Jimmie's like I'm dealing with it right now. I mean, my kids want to be Jimmie's like there is no other choice in their world.
And so
Jakob Barnard: my my best friend son is graduating this year and while he's coming to play for you next year. So let's go. Connor's my guy. Yeah, it's going to be a fun one. So but you know, and you've, you've been doing things with the the younger kids as well. I don't, I think it was, I don't know if this was the first year or second year you had the the Blue Jays, the JPS, the public schools and UJ, you had a joint kind of football camp.
Going on there. I do remember you had some key words there with, with your kickoff speech there, but it, it, it, it, so it's something you're, you're trying to also start instilling a little bit earlier before [00:28:00] the college experience as well. It seems like.
Brian Mistro: Yeah, we just want to use our medium, right?
Like football is our, our Avenue to, to help young people learn life, right? I mean, Hey, get in line. Listen to the coach. I mean, there's just things that as you first, second, third graders, you know, fourth, fifth, sixth graders, even as you go a little bit higher, Hey, you're probably going to listen to me right now a little bit better than you're going to listen to your parents, but you still need to listen to your parents.
And I think there's just some learning that happens at a young age when you are able to facilitate a structured environment. That allows them to be successful and allows them to have freedom within the confines of a standard and an expectation. And so I think the younger that we can start people being in things.
Like in general, like I'm a huge fan of be involved in something and I don't care what it is because whatever you're involved with, you're going to have other like minded people that are [00:29:00] with you. And then when you have more like minded people together, doing something for a good cause, you know, that's a win for everybody in society in general, and I think then those people start to branch out and now you have.
Multiple facets of cultures mixing together and being good people like rule number one. Be a good person. Like, it's not that hard. Like, that's the golden rule, man. And so I think starting at a young age, we have a flag football league that we do all summer where those kids get to learn and from our players and, you know, our players to get servant leadership out of it.
It's volunteer for them. They get to really handle little kids, yeah. And the parents and being able to deal with some of those adversities, which hopefully when they become older and they have kids and they're sitting in the stands, you know, they're better people as well. And so it all boils down to a couple of things for me, like be a good person.
And if we can start instilling those values at a very early age, my four year olds out there running around playing flag football. And I think it's, it's really fun to see the standard and the structure that he lives in, in [00:30:00] that world and try to be able to get that home and say like, all right, dude, it's bedtime.
Well, I don't want to go to bed. Well, you have to stay on sides. You can't jump off sides. And if you jump off sides, it's a penalty. It's no different. If you don't go to bed, there's a penalty. Like, Oh, okay. I mean, there's just some cool things that go along with it.
Scot Loyd: Coach, we're going to take just a short break.
And on the other side of this break, I'd love to hear your thoughts about how the college football game has changed in the past few years with the introduction of the transfer portal with the introduction of NIL deals, name, image, and likeness. Does that impact us at UJ? And maybe some of your larger thoughts about all of those changes in general.
You're listening to Jimmie office hours. We'll be back in just a moment.
Welcome back to Jimmie office hours. I'm Scot Loyd along with Jakob Barnard, and we're [00:31:00] having a great conversation with the coach of UJ football Brian and, and Brian, I want to know your thoughts about the particular changes that we've seen in college football over the past few years.
If you think about the, the transfer portal, giving student athletes an opportunity if they're not succeeding or having the level of success. That meets their expectations at a particular university or college as I understand it, correct me if I'm wrong, they can enter the, the transfer portal which gives them opportunities to be picked up by other colleges and universities across the country and also.
The introduction of name, image, and likeness remuneration for college athletes. And I know in, in our speech and debate world, these are topics that have been debated for a, for a long, long time. And I, I wonder if you'd be willing to share your thoughts, how these changes are impacting the game.
Do they have any impact on our college [00:32:00] athletes at UJ? And if so, how?
Brian Mistro: Well, I am like most things, I think initially an amazing rule was put into place to allow students that aren't having the experience. I don't even know if it's success or the level of success or whatever. I think if you're not having the experience that you want and you think that you can get that somewhere else, I'm all in because the rule used to be if you transferred, you had to sit out a year.
We have to sit out a year. Now you're not having the experience you want anyway. And so allowing them to have the ability to say like, all right, I'm not have, this isn't what I signed up for. There was a coaching change and this wasn't the relationships that I had built with this staff. Whatever. If those guys, girls want to transfer and try their luck somewhere else, I'm all in.
I think there's no issue with that at all. But like most things, it can be abused. And when you start looking at it from a perspective of, okay, well this coach recruited me. [00:33:00] I committed to come play here and. I didn't pan out to maybe the way that coach thought I would. I'm not playing and all I want to do is play.
So I'm going to go somewhere else where maybe I can play. Okay, experience, you still want to have that and I get that. Okay, once you do it, once, twice, three, four times with some of these players, like now, there's a common denominator, like what's going on? Is it, is it Is it the coaches? Is it the university?
Is it the school? Is it the, is it the experience or is it you just not getting what you want? And I think that that's the bigger issue that I see. I saw a number and I don't know if it's right. There's some 12, 000 kids in the transfer portal for football across all three levels. There's not 12, 000 spots for kids to go to.
And so I think now you're starting to find, all right, the grass isn't greener on the other side. You know, the grass is greener where you water it. And I think there's always going to be extenuating circumstances like coaching changes are a big one. I think if a coach has the freedom to leave. Then [00:34:00] the kids should, I think that's an overarching argument that always comes up and your coaches are getting paid all this money and the players are just getting used, which will come into the name image and likeness stuff here.
Like I want to go where I'm wanted and this coach wanted me. And now there's a new coach here and he doesn't want me. So I want to try somewhere else. I'm in sign me up. Okay. I came here and the coach. Told me everything and was honest and upfront with me. And I just don't like that. I'm not playing. What are we teaching kids now?
Like the adversity part of this life that you need to get through and battle through and come out on top. Like, no, I'm just going to skip out. I it's terrible, man.
Jakob Barnard: It's interesting to hear that angle of it though because from the, as the academic side of things, you know, don't really remember, you know, I was our president calls them non nons, non athletic, non music.
That, that was me. And I remember, You know, oh, you'd have one or two transfers a semester early 2000s, but it didn't really see there was not that many but we're having to sit out [00:35:00] a whole year that that drove a lot of that But then you see nowadays having a student come in to your program with additional credits from something else is is It's very rare to find them without credit from somewhere else because of the volume of transfers, which, which makes the academic side interesting.
And you're like, well, why is this happening? But to your, your, it's interesting that you make the point though, it is about the experience. And if we're providing a holistic experience in there, for whatever reason, not having a good experience somewhere else, or not having a good one here, is it that bad that they're moving around?
Brian Mistro: Right. And I, you're, 100 percent correct. Back in the day, there just wasn't that many. And if you did get transfers, they were usually from junior colleges. Like there was, you know, they did their two years at a place for whatever reason they wanted to go there first. Whether it's money, whether it was, you know, opportunities, however that works, like most of the transfers that we saw were junior college guys.
Well, now the four year [00:36:00] transfers, a lot bigger uptick because frankly, you know, it's better for us as coaches now to say, okay, we're And we're going to go get a transfer that still has four years of eligibility left. Like he didn't like his experience at a place. So now he still has four years because he didn't play.
Is sometimes more beneficial for us as a program than a junior college guy. That's only got two years left. So now you're getting a, you know, a longer, more, you know, time with that athlete to buy into your values and your culture and all the things that go along with it now, we still recruit junior colleges as well, and.
I think the biggest issue that I have with it, it's not the rule. I like the rule. It's the rule being abused. And maybe abused isn't the right word. Taken advantage of in a sense where now the kid doesn't understand that if you go to four different colleges, you're not matriculating anywhere. And you're not going to probably graduate within four or five years.
Like you still have to have 60 [00:37:00] credits at a place to graduate. And if you transfer your junior year and then your senior year, like, where are you going to get the degree from now, or you're going to be in college for seven years and you're not going to be a doctor.
Jakob Barnard: And that's been the impression on the, the academic side of the problem or the risk with with the transfers is you know, they, they come into our program say in the computing department and they're, they're struggling in a semester.
Well, I'm just going to transfer. That's great, but that you're still going to have the same issue at the next place that you're having here,
Scot Loyd: coach, just to follow up on what you're saying there about the, the, the name, image and likeness. Let's say that, that there is a very talented football player for, for our level that you want to go after.
How do you counter? Because I would imagine there's not a lot of opportunities for name, image, and likeness in, in Jamestown, just based upon where we're at geographically and, and media access, et cetera. [00:38:00] What's your argument to a talented recruit that says, I could go to a, a larger market and, and yeah, I may not get the big name opportunities, but I could certainly make a, a little cash on the side based upon, you know, advertising for, for small mom and pop shops or something like that around town.
How do you, how do you counter that argument, man, if, if that's, that's what a kid is wanting,
Brian Mistro: you know, to be honest with you, if a kid is wanting that at our level. There's some delusion there because across the country, you know, the NAI, even the D2 level, there's not just none of these kids, not none, not a lot of these young people are on full ride scholarships anyway.
So like, there's, there's not a lot of room for name, image, and likeness money coming from like, Our collective or our alums, like some of the big schools have, because they're not even on full tuitions anyway. Like we probably should get them there first before we start giving them cash. And now that's not [00:39:00] we, that's the collectives and the people that do all that stuff.
So at our level, I don't see much of it at all. You know, the things that I noticed from the name, image, and likeness is I've gotten this question, like, Hey coach, I run a YouTube channel and I make money off of it. Or I run my, my Tik TOK account has a ton of followers and I get, I monetize this. Like, is there any rules that your program has maybe prohibits me from doing that?
I get more of that than I get like, Hey, you know, I'm, I'm looking at Jamestown and I'm looking at Ohio state and they're going to give me 500 grand. What else? You should go there.
Scot Loyd: And so how do you, how do you answer that question? If, if a kid does have a very popular social media follow,
Brian Mistro: Hey, promote the Jimmie's man, let's go.
I'm all in. If you, if you're making money off of your YouTube channel and it's something that falls in line with our values at all, if it's just funny or whatever, like go ahead, put a Jimmie football shirt on while you're doing it. And I think that it's really easy for us to be able to say that because you're probably not talking about a ton of [00:40:00] money anyway,
Scot Loyd: right?
Brian Mistro: And. If they're going to do it, they're going to do it anyway. So like why prohibit them from wanting to do it? You know, whether it's, you know, Twitch, we get a lot, you know, guys that stream their stuff, you know, Instagram and Tik TOK are kind of big ones where, you know, I promote this. Like we have a couple of kids on our team that.
You know, bubbler sends them cases of water and they just have to tweet about it or Instagram posts about it every once in a while. I mean, there's some cool things that happen there. But it's usually those things from a name, image, and likeness, like our, our baseball program. One of our baseball players has an Aaron Rodgers, like full account.
Like pretends he's Aaron Rodgers and millions of views and is, is, I think he's probably getting paid from it. But like. That's not because we're giving, like our alumni are giving him money or our collective are giving him money. And so I think that that's the bigger part that we see is back in the day, you couldn't do that.
And like the before name, image, and likeness, if you had a YouTube channel and you were making money off of [00:41:00] it, you are an amateur, you cannot do that. But now that they've allowed that, that I think opens up a lot more freedom for our kids to use, Hey, I'm a football player at the University of Jamestown.
And this is my YouTube channel where I promote, you know, me playing video games or whatever that's make money, dude. Being an entrepreneur, we want those here last I checked. And so I'm, I'm all in on that. But as far as like what you read about in the papers and on ESPN, where, you know, Johnny's transferring from Alabama to Georgia because the collective gave them 2 million, that is a whole nother, a, I know nothing about it.
I've never seen that amount of money in my life. B, I think that's where this gets out of hand is it used to be. I think the, again, the origin of the rule, I'm in, allow the kid to make some money. Now a kid's going to a car dealership and doing a commercial, but he leaves with a Lexus. Like [00:42:00] that's okay.
That is that really name, image, and likeness, or is that just, Hey, you're a really good football player and I want you to score touchdowns on Saturday for my team. So here's a new Lexus, come over to my dealership and shake a couple of hands. I don't like that. I don't think that that's what college athletics is for now.
That's opens up a whole nother ball game guys. Are college athletes supposed to be paid? What are they? Are they student? Are they employees of the university? Like that's a whole nother world because I'm still an old school believer of your college athlete. If you were a pro then yeah, do all those things.
But as a college athlete, the amateurism I still believe in still matters to me. You're doing this. Yes. You're doing this for the school and school is using you to a certain extent to promote their brand and make their money. I get it. But like, if you don't want to do that, then don't do this. That's where my head goes.
Like, if you don't want to do that, if you're a basketball player and you're really good and you don't want to [00:43:00] go to go overseas and play for a year and then come back, you don't have to go to college. You get to go to college. I mean, that's my belief on it is if you don't like the rules, then don't, don't play by it.
Jakob Barnard: Yeah, that's a, I, I definitely agree with the, the whole loosening a little bit so that if somebody is a YouTuber, which is a valid career aspiration these days just ask my son
Brian Mistro: Hey man, I just got done watching Nico and cash this morning. So
Jakob Barnard: okay. So that's. Those opportunities that particularly the modern tech in this world that facilitate things like that aren't blocked by the rules and restrictions because we, we want our students experiencing a little bit of everything.
And if side jobs are that's which are. Totally legitimate and ways to do it. Aren't a burning CD discs in the dorms, sort of fundraising opportunities. Absolutely,
Brian Mistro: man. Cause [00:44:00] like back in the day, for those of you that remember like the pony express and watching the, you know, the 30 for 30 on ESPN, where, you know, the guys at SMU were just finding bags of duffel bags of money in their locker.
Like, yeah, that's not good, but that's kind of what it almost is now. It's just got. A rule behind it that says you can. And so at what point, and now let's be real, it's, you, it's kind of just football and basketball from what I've gathered right now, you know, there's some like women's basketball, obviously I'm assuming Caitlin Clark was getting some type of NIL money.
You know, there's things like that. I don't know enough and at that level, which is why I love the level that I'm at because I, I don't want to deal with it. Like life's about choices. We talked about this already. Like my, my choice in this life in this profession is to not be at that level. Cause I don't want to deal with that.
And I'm pretty confined to being here and liking the kids that we have that want to do this because they love it. And they want to have a better experience in college and, and all that stuff. If I had a kid that [00:45:00] came in guys and said, you know, coach, what kind of money are you going to give me? Yeah, you're, you're probably not a Jimmie dude.
Scot Loyd: Coach, you've, you've, you've alluded to this, but I want to give you an opportunity to talk a little bit more about it. The idea of looking for a prototypical student athlete to play football. At the University of Jamestown, what would that student athlete look like? Do you evaluate first for talent?
Do you evaluate for academics? Do you evaluate how they will the chemistry that they might have with you and your coaching staff the other players or your particular offensive scheme or defensive scheme, or is it, it all, all the above? What is the, the prototypical student athlete who plays football at the university of Jamestown, who do you have in mind?
Brian Mistro: Great question. Cause it, it varies you a hundred percent. Correct. I mean, there's some initial watch film talent. Let's make sure that we're bringing in somebody [00:46:00] that's going to help us potentially win football games. But then from there is when the deeper it gets. So if we get film Or if we're watching film or if something pops up on, you know, X or whatever, we instantly reach out to that high school coach.
And so the high school coach is going to know this young person a lot better than most people. All right. We asked a couple of questions. Is he a good person? Okay. What kind of teammate was he? How are his grades? Would you let us recruit him? Like, those are pretty four standard questions that most college coaches I think would, would ask.
And you'll be amazed at those answers because we'll see a really, really talented football player and say. Hey coach, what do you think? Coach? You know, I hope he has a great career somewhere, but you're not a great teammate. I don't want him, you know, or you get the, yeah, coach, you know, he's student body president.
He was the prom king and the homecoming king, you know, he's led our team and volunteer hours. Yeah, this is a great kid. You're going to want him like, so now that kid goes up, he [00:47:00] goes up and it's, it's really simple for us to want to recruit a young man that has the All right. The off the field accolades from his coach, just as much as the on the field accolades from the paper.
And I think that when you start digging into the recruiting aspect of it, you have to look at the whole person, which is why we look at the whole person and we try to teach the whole person here. Right. And the better human being, the higher he goes up in my book. And then the better football player, then that's where the scholarship gets higher too.
And so I think that we have a really good blend here of. Amazing young men that want to do this, that have the recommendations from their high school coaches. But there's a blend of guys that maybe they didn't have a great relationship with their high school coach, but we're going to give a shot to because I have a good relationship with them and I can't see any flaws or faults or things that maybe we did here.
So you kind of have to take the, with the high school coach says a little bit with a grain of salt sometimes if it's negative because the kid's 16, 17 years old. Like at what point are we just turning away? [00:48:00] You know, a kid had a bad experience or made a bad decision as a 15 year old. Well, we're not, we're not in that business.
So the prototype, I want a great human being first, first and foremost, a great human being that wants. And loves the idea of being able to chop wood and carry water and battle through the process every single day. And so when we explain that to young men, when they come in to visit us and I give them the, Hey, you're going to play an hour of football in your career speech, you know, the guys that light up and they're like, yeah, this is awesome.
Yeah, that makes sense. The guys that get taken back and they go, Whoa, I mean, I'm not going to potentially play for a couple of years. Well, yeah, like those are the red flags that go, all right, is this kid going to really make this or not? And then academically, obviously it's super important that they're diligent in the classroom, because if we bring them here and they play for a year and then fail out, that's not a good thing for anybody.
So we have to kind of monitor the, the diligence that they have. Are they a 2. 0 with a 34 ACT? Okay. That kid's lazy. And he [00:49:00] can do it. So we have to help facilitate him the ability to do it. You know, is he a 4. 0 with a 16? Okay. That kid has to work really, really hard to get his grades because the pages don't turn as fast as maybe as the other kid, but he's still a good player for us to want to recruit and then you get the middle of in between, which is what I was.
You know, the 3. 0 18. Okay. That kid's going to have to work really hard to get to maintain that, or he's going to succeed and get in and get through this just fine. So, no, I think prototype. Good people, man. If you're not a good dude, I don't want you.
Jakob Barnard: The off the field emphasis is is, is pretty interesting.
Cause it's kind of what we were saying for the classroom too, where you were a lot of what you learn is. I know for example, the, the, the young man, my best friend's son, who's joining you in the fall. That was one of the key things that sold him on UJ was sitting down with, with Brian and your team and the discussion on leadership and that being one of the key things that you were looking for [00:50:00] And one of the things that you were interested in him for was an emphasis on leadership not play time not anything else That being seen the big picture emphasis on leadership skills.
That's what sold you. Jay beat out the stigma of being a townie because while neither of his father nor I are, we never really left town. So ergo, he became one. So that, that stigma, he looked elsewhere. He looked at other towns, which, you know, hard to blame him for. But. That, that, that sparkle of leadership and, and off the field, outside the classroom emphasis seemed to really be what cemented his opinion to come here.
Brian Mistro: We want to develop leaders, right? And I think, you know, we had the Marines come and talk to us a couple of years back and something really stuck with me was that everybody has the ability to be a leader in some capacity. And it doesn't matter if you [00:51:00] were the, you know, the extrovert screaming out loud, captain of the football team.
Or if you were the introvert that alignment that sat in the corner, like no matter what within your realm of being, you can be a leader amongst the people that you're around amongst the decisions that you're making from a day to day doesn't matter. And I think that we do at this place, man, we do an amazing job of saying, Hey, you know, You have a role, be a star in your role and be the best version of yourself that you possibly can be.
Others will follow. Can't be a leader without followers. Right? And so like others will follow you if you do things right and correct and you consistently do it. I think the biggest problem that young people have. And I struggle with it too. I mean, I think everybody at some point does being consistent.
Cause I think, you know, once you start being consistent in daily things, that's when things really start to go through the roof and just consistent daily effort is just something that [00:52:00] once you find that in a young person, man, those kids are, those kids go through the roof. And so, no, it's, but what are leaders?
Most of those people. Have consistent abilities to do the right thing all of the time.
Jakob Barnard: And Scot, that kind of builds off of what you talked about earlier with the relationship building. So teaching students to build those relationships. And we really harped on this, I think in one of our previous episodes, but the leadership it's interesting that you're, You're putting it in the terms of leadership as well.
But it's, it kind of sounds like it goes back to that, that core relationship building.
Scot Loyd: Yeah, this idea and we've talked about this before. John Maxwell, who is a huge leadership guy, writes a lot about it, talks a lot about it, identifies the, the three C's that potential employers. Look for in their potential employees, and this goes to leadership as well.
Competence chemistry and character. Do they have the competence [00:53:00] to do the job? From your perspective, coach, do they have the competence? Do they have the talent to play the particular position that you're recruiting them for? Do they have the character? Are they good people? You've emphasized that over and over again.
And then that final C of chemistry. Do they play well with others? Do they work well? Within the context of a team and sort of to, to bring this full circle coach we're nearing the end of our time together, but I'll, I'll give you the opportunity here once again to, to make the pitch for, for UJ football, for UJ athletics.
I think one of the benefits of what we do here specifically is that we give student athletes an opportunity at a liberal arts education where they, they get the stage to develop. Their competence to develop their character to develop their chemistry in a way that they may not have otherwise. And so that's a great opportunity.
And 1 of the big [00:54:00] selling points of coming to UJ to continue their athletic career. But most of all, it's a It's, it's about developing those relational skills, those leadership skills, and those life skills that are going to serve them for a lifetime.
Brian Mistro: Your best ability is your availability. And I've, I've heard that from, from a lot of people now, if you are open minded and you are available to continue learning.
I think that you're going to gain and grow and live your life the way you want to, as you go through college. And I just, the, the young people that are close minded, and this is the way that I need to do it, and this is the way that things are done, like that you, you know, change equals growth guys. Like you have to be able to adapt and learn and grow if you want to be successful in life.
And then when you start to see the availability of these people to have open minds, I think it's, it's their best ability. If you have the [00:55:00] ability to be available to learn and grow and do the things that you should consistently try to do all the time, you're through the roof. And I think that that's something that the college platform that we have here at Jamestown allowing our kids to be holistically taught.
Okay. And, and, and not just, Hey, I'm an engineer or Hey, I'm this like, you're so much more than that. And I read a book and it's, it's the one I go off of chop wood and carry water by Joshua Medcalf talks about this. Like, who are you? Like one of the chapters, literally, that's the question. Who are you?
And most people will respond with I'm Brian Mistro. I'm the football coach of the jimmies. No, you're not. I'm Brian Mistro and I'm a human being, man. And I, I'm, I'm a grower, I'm a learner. I want to be somebody that's better than I was yesterday. And I think that when you start to be able to answer that question that way, when you, when you stop labeling yourself as I'm just this, that's where this place does a really good [00:56:00] job of giving you the ability and the, and the stage to grow and become the A huge, better version of yourself.
There's, I mean, I've been to a couple of places I've been to a lot, but I just think we do such a great job of giving young people the stage to develop and grow and consistently learn and the ones that are available to that, that having that ability is, is far better than the 40 yard dash.
Jakob Barnard: That's a great way of putting it.
It reminds me of a, of. A paper I read a little while back actually used it in my dissertation called the Holistic Approach to Academia Traditional Classroom Instruction and Experiential Learning of Student Athletes by Coffey and Davis. I'll link it in the show notes. But it really emphasized and showed research to prove it that student athletes can have a competitive advantage in the job workplace.
Because of that the various learning styles that you talked, the experiential learning which we also try to do that in the classroom as [00:57:00] well. But dealing with things like failure, which we, we spent a lot of time on in a previous episode and relationship building and all of those aspects in a structured approach, the, the student athletes are getting a, another dose of that.
So Yeah, it's Scot. You've got anything to finish us out with there.
Scot Loyd: Well, I think we should just leave the last word to, to, to coach here. Give us, give us a coach or your best recruiting speech for coming to play football at UJ.
Brian Mistro: Hey, man, you get to do this. You don't have to do this. And I think life's about choices and being able to make a choice to come play football for us is going to give you a platform and a stage to grow and develop as a human being.
And as a person, I think once you, once you start to value those things, then you start to understand what life's about a little bit more. And I think that we do such a great job as a staff. You know, it's not me guys, the people that Are surrounded by us is it's a fun place to come to work [00:58:00] every day because of the young people that we have in it.
And you want to surround yourself with amazing people. And I think we do a great job of that here and there's no other place that I'd want to be.
Jakob Barnard: All right. Well, thank you very much guys. This has been a Jimmie office hour.
If you enjoyed this episode of the Jimmie office Hour podcast, please do us a favor and be sure to like, share, subscribe, and rate our program. Let us know what you think and what you might like to hear about in the future, along with sharing the show to a colleague, prospective student, or somebody who might be interested in a liberal arts education.
And thank you all for listening until next time. This has been the Jimmie office Hour podcast.