Pro Mindset® Podcast

Building a Champion's Mindset with Chris Kolarevic

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In this episode of Pro Mindset® Podcast, host Craig Domann welcomes Chris Kolarvik—a dedicated football coach and former Power 4 & CFL player who has navigated the scenic route to success. Chris shares his journey from a ski racer to a college football coach, emphasizing the power of self-awareness and resilience. Discover how Chris' experiences can inspire personal growth and the importance of finding the right fit in both sports and life.
Episode Takeaways:

💡 Self-Awareness—Key to Personal Growth
💡 Resilience—Overcoming Adversity
💡 Fit—Finding Your Place in Life

Join us for an insightful conversation on mastering mindset and embracing your unique path with Chris Kolarvik, a leader in fostering individual potential and team success.

💬 “Trust yourself, trust your journey, and the rest will fall into place.” — Chris Kolarvik

🚀 Ready to Build a Mindset That Powers You Through Anything?
If Chris’s insights on self-awareness and resilience inspire you, the Pro Mindset® Coaching program can help you align your potential with purpose and adaptability.

 👉 Learn more or apply at www.ProMindsetPodcast.com/coaching or reach out directly to Craig at Craig.ProMindset@gmail.com.

#ProMindset #Mindset #CraigDomann #ProMindsetPodcast  #ChrisKolarevic #NCAA #NCAAFootball #Huskers #GBR #NebraskaFootball #NebraskaCornhuskers #UniversityofNebraska #CanadianFootballLeague #CFL #TigerCats #IowaWestern

PRO MINDSET (00:

01.986) Hey, welcome everybody to Pro Mindset podcast. This is your host, Craig Domann. Today I have young man on who's got a very decorated past. He's currently a football coach, college football coach. His name is Chris Kolarvik. Chris, welcome to Pro Mindset.

Coach CK (00:

19.239) Happy to be here.

PRO MINDSET (00:

21.068) Hi brother Chris kind of take us down memory lane. You're a all world, all state kind of guy from Michigan. You end up at you and I go to Nebraska kind of walk us through your journey as a player.

Coach CK (00:

37.308) Yeah, it's been, I took the scenic route, you could say. I took the scenic route as a player. Growing up, I was a ski racer. wasn't, football was not my main thing. I was a ski racer, that was my thing. And then I got to high school and decided, you know, I like the crowds and I liked it. Everybody comes and watches and I liked the teams. So I got really into football and I started focusing on football. And it was around... I 10th, 11th grade year I started to realize, OK, I think I could do this at a pretty high level. Started playing really well. My recruiting was a little bit strange. I broke my collarbone my 11th grade year, so I didn't get a bunch of big offers. But I had Mac schools. I had walk-ons at Michigan and Michigan State and Northwestern and a couple of the Big Ten schools. Ended up getting a Northern Iowa offer really late. And the sentiment I felt from those coaches was, that they felt like I could come in and play right away. And I really liked the dome. I liked everything about Northern Iowa. So I ended up committing to Northern Iowa. It was pretty late in the process. A big part of that decision for me was one model I live by is go where you're wanted and go to the place that, you know, the people want to see you grow and develop. And you're not just, they're not just doing you a favor. They're not, you're not just an afterthought. Go to the place where they want you. And so I went to Northern Iowa. I packed up my stuff. was 17 years old, skipped my graduation and went to Northern Iowa and I redshirted my first year there. And then my second year, I started at Will Linebacker. played my first game was at Montana and playing the Grizz, lost a tight game. then, you know, the reason I said I took the scenic route was because my career had a lot of different ups and downs. I had injuries, I had changing teams, coaching changes, coaching issues. The first adversity that I really faced was the injuries. I mentioned that junior year I broke my collarbone in high school. So that was the first time I was met with having to come back from adversity. After three games, I broke my collarbone and then came back for the playoff run. So I ended up coming back that season. And then my freshman year, I played six games. I was leading the country in tackles. I the most tackles in FCS football.

Coach CK (03:

00.614) I think I was averaging 12, 13 a game, something like that, playing really well through six games. And I'm playing up at South Dakota, and I broke my foot pretty bad. ended up sitting out rest of the season. Had three surgeries that year. The following year, played hurt. I played all but two games that year. Played really well, was All-American, all conference, all that. Got honors. And that season ended. I was looking around and I had graduated. And then that was the year that COVID canceled the season. So our season was canceled. So I'm looking around and I'm graduated. So I felt like I could go move on to a bigger school. And I love Northern Iowa. I love those coaches. We had some great teams. Going into that season, we were ranked number two in the country. We had 10 NFL-type guys on that team. was an awesome team. Coaches were great. And I felt like I could move on and go to a bigger school. So ended up going in the transfer portal. And it was weird when I went in the portal. It was the first month or two the portal opened, so nobody really knew what the portal was. It would just open. So I go in the portal. I didn't really use social media at the time. I didn't really use that to get recruited. I just went in kind of blind on a prayer, like wondering what was going to happen. And a couple days in, I had gotten some calls, and then Scott Frost called me, offered me a scholarship to go to Nebraska. And growing up in Michigan, when you're a football player and you think you're pretty good, You take it kind of disrespectfully when the big ones don't offer you. Like I didn't get Michigan in Michigan State and I kind of had that chip on my shoulder from them not wanting me. And so I kind of wanted to go prove everybody wrong and go to Nebraska and go beat Michigan. And that obviously didn't go as well as I thought it would. My time there was not, my time there didn't go as planned. Again, taking the scenic route. I went to Nebraska. I played, played three different positions, played nickel. I played Mike. I played well. I played all over the field.

PRO MINDSET (04:

42.542) I'm

Coach CK (04:

59.678) A lot of coaching changes. And it was there I really learned how to deal with not just physical adversity, not just playtime adversity, adversity as far as losing games in front of everybody you know. Facing, I'm on the biggest stage that I've ever played on. playing. And this is like I put my entire life into this. put my life's work into this. And I'm playing in front of everybody that I know on TV every week. And we're losing games. I'm not playing how I should be. And I allowed things to affect the way I played and the way I showed up because I didn't know how to handle those type of things at the time. So those two years were tough. Probably the most challenging years of my career dealing with coaching issues, coaching changes. losing games on TV, all that good stuff. So I finished up in Nebraska. I did a pro day, had a good pro day, went to Chicago, went to New Orleans, got cut by both. And then I went up and played in Canada for a year. Had an opportunity to go back. Didn't want to go to Canada, didn't want to live in Canada anymore. I was, an American. I didn't want to live in Canada. And then again, scenic route, got out of football for a year, did real estate for six to eight months. decided that wasn't for me either. And I looked in the mirror and I said, I think I'm a football coach. I think I'm a football guy. So I ended up taking a job as a linebackers coach at Iowa Western Community College. we had an awesome first year. I couldn't ask for a better first year coaching. I mean, it's an hour away from where I played college ball. Well, it's an hour away from one school. And then it's about three hours away from the other school. So it's right in the middle. So it's a great location for me. And we ended up winning a national championship and had some great players. And it was a great. first year as football coach. couldn't ask for anything better. And so now we're starting spring ball tomorrow. That's where we're at in the calendar and I'm looking forward to a great year.

PRO MINDSET (07:

03.566) OK, Coach, I'm going to go back and pick a few things that you talked about. And we're just going to dive a little bit deeper. So when you talk about you wanted to go where you were wanted, a lot of players don't get recruited. A lot of players get recruited, and they only get one. But for those guys that are being recruited by multiple schools, how does that play a factor when you've got NIL, you've got Scheme? You got all these other things that could be factors in making a decision. How do you, you know, like talk to a recruit out there. How do you know that they really want you?

Coach CK (07:

43.038) I think there's, would say two things pop in your, pop in my head. Number one is you have to know yourself. You have to know what you need out of a program. Like what type of player are you? What skillset do you have? What are your strengths? What are your weaknesses? And how does that fit into a defense or an offense or whatever that team is doing? How do you fit into the program? Cause you're not going to fit with every coach. You're not going to fit with every program. That doesn't mean just because you go to a place and it's not the right fit doesn't mean you're a bad player. It just means it wasn't the right fit. You could be a bad player. There are bad players. But a lot of times or sometimes, you go to a place and it's just not the right fit for one reason or another. So I think the first thing is knowing yourself and what you need out of a program. And you need out of a defensive scheme. And you need out of coaching. And the type of people that you want to be around and the type of environment you want to be around. And number two, as far as going where you wanted, nowadays, money talks. So if somebody's paying you, it's Maybe not even necessarily about the dollar amount or getting money in your bank account or how much money you're making But if they're paying you more money, that means they want you more Which that means they are invested in you and if somebody's invested in you that means that they're gonna give you more coaching They're gonna give you more time. They're gonna give you more opportunities because for example, you're if you if you recruit a kid and you pay him $500,000 you're not just gonna bring him in and and Not give him any time not give me any opportunities if he's bad at first you're not gonna just you know, write them off, you're going to keep giving them opportunities, you're going to allow him to grow, allow him to develop. So you want somebody that's going to invest in you. You want somebody that's going to put that, you know, that stock in you so that they're invested and that they have to, they're forced to, you know, spend that time on you, give you opportunities, allow you to grow, allow you to develop. Whereas if you chase the big name or you chase, you know, the school that you really want to go to. but they're maybe not as invested in you. And it's not even, it doesn't have to be just money. It's time invested. It's how much these coaches are willing to put into you. And I see that as the two things would be the one, what do you need out of a program? And number two, how much are they willing to invest in you?

PRO MINDSET (09:

54.679) Okay, so being in the NIL business, you run into this a lot where a school's willing to give one player 400 and a different school's only going to give them 375. So does it really matter if it's only $25,000 difference or do you always go to the one that's got the most cash?

Coach CK (10:

18.013) I would say it's just situational. think there's a lot of factors that play into it. depends if, personally, I was somebody that wanted to get further away from home. I wanted to go carve my own path, make my own name. So that mattered to me. Some guys want to stay closer to home. Some guys want to go where they know people. Some guys have just a different connection with the coaching staff. That matters too. That was a big part of my decision to go to Northern Iowa was the connection I felt to those guys. I I still talk to those guys today. I talk to him once a week still to this day, a lot of them. So I think there's a lot of factors that go into that decision. I would say a $25,000 difference in pay is pretty negligible. And there would be a lot of other factors that would play into that decision, I think.

PRO MINDSET (11:

02.51) Okay, so you as a linebacker coach, how do you share your vision for a recruit? Like when you're recruiting a guy, now you're on the other side. You are the recruiter. You have made a decision that your program wants this player. How do you convince them, for lack of a better word, that your place is better than anywhere else?

Coach CK (11:

25.531) I think you have to paint a picture. It starts with having them on campus and seeing the facilities and having them envision what it would be like to be here. And then number two, it's giving them the vision of what it's going to be when they play here and what they're going to get out of it. So with recruits this year, some of what I would do is I would sit down and I would show them a comparison of what I thought they could be as a player and where that would take them. And I would show them, If you come here, play well, this is what's going to happen. showed them I'm at a Juco. So I would pull up 24-7 arrivals and I would show them the top 30 linebacker recruits in the country. And I would say, this is you, this is you, this is you. And show them where they're going and give them kind of that oil painting of where they're going to go and give them that vision of where they're going and how we're going to help them get there, the steps we're going to take to get there. what they have to do as far as diet, they have to do as far as training, what they have to do as far as developing the mindset it takes to become a champion. Pro Mindset podcast. Shout out.

PRO MINDSET (12:

35.705) Shout out for sure. Appreciate that. Let me ask you this. You were fortunate enough your first year in coaching to win a national championship. 47.347) And when you were in Nebraska, you set world records for the wrong reasons, you know, because you guys lost so many games and my son Jojo was in the same boat. So I can understand that. And I felt it as a parent. What did your staff have? What did your players have? What was the magic? What was the secret sauce that they had that allowed you guys to beat Hutch in the national championship game? When it could probably get it gone either way. It was two really talented teams.

Coach CK (13:

18.716) That's a good question. That's a really good question. sometimes it's hard to say what exactly was the magic. And sometimes magic is better not explained. But to me, the difference was. We allowed the players to be themselves. And I think that's where we struggled at Nebraska was we were very handcuffed and. Here, it was very much so allowing the players to let their talent shine. We're going to coach you hard. We're going to make sure you the playbook, know what you're doing. But when you get on that field, we're getting out of the way, and we're letting your talent shine on the field. And you're going to go do what you've been doing since you were 12 years old, and you're going to go play football. It didn't come without headaches. It didn't come without challenges and problems. We lost to Hutch in week two. We had to come back and beat him in the national championship. But to me, Leadership isn't leadership and control and power is not about getting somebody to do everything you want all the time and right when you say to do it. It's not this militant thing where I say this you do it. It's allowing each player to fulfill his maximum potential as a human being. And when you're able to do that and everybody can come together and do that together, you can have a pretty damn good scene.

PRO MINDSET (14:

43.097) Okay, so let's move over into coaching philosophy. Because that's a little bit of what you're talking about and it worked because you guys end up with rings and everything else. What is your coaching philosophy? Where did you get it from? Who did you get it from? Maybe multiple coaches. And lastly, a lot of times we create something out of like failure and messes and things we didn't like. So what is something that you didn't like that you feel comfortable with as a player that you're making sure as a coach, you're not putting your players in that same situation?

Coach CK (15:

26.096) The worst feeling for me was feeling like I was in a cage, feeling like I was in a box, feeling like I had handcuffs on. That was the absolute worst feeling because for me, and I know a lot of guys are like this, this is my life. Like this is my art. This is what I do. Like this is everything that this is what I think about when I go to sleep at night. This is, you know, I think about this all day, every day and how I can be better and how I can be the best player or coach that I can be. And the... Most challenging times as a player for me was when I felt like I had handcuffs on, when I felt like I was in a box, and when I felt like somebody was asking me to be something that I wasn't. And that's kind of my mission as a coach is to bring out the best in players, even if they come in all shapes and sizes, and fitting together different skill sets, different talents. Not needing every position, not needing a Mike Linebacker that's six foot four, 250 pounds. And if you're not that exact weight and size, then you can't play. Or not needing a guy to play a play exactly the same as the next guy, because every guy's different. Every person is different. allowing everybody to express themselves how they want to, allowing everybody to maximize their own individual gifts, that's my core philosophy as a coach.

PRO MINDSET (16:

47.457) I love that. Now, we got 11 dudes on defense. You're the D coordinator. And you got 11 dudes that are individuals. And they're all expressing themselves, hopefully to the maximum ability that they have. How do you get 11 dudes to all work together? How do you get that unity? How do you get that connection when you want everybody to be themselves? Because it's got to be both, right?

Coach CK (17:

14.8) Yep. So I did a coaching clinic recently and one thing I talked about was, and so I'm a business guy, my dad's a businessman. I watched him do it forever. And then I went to a Catholic school and I have two business degrees. So I studied business and there's this book called the wealth of nations by Adam Smith. wrote it around the time of the declaration of independence was written. And it's kind of like the foundation of the U S economy and his thing, like his main point or word that he used in that book was this thing called the invisible hand. And the invisible hand is something to describe. Each person doesn't do things out of out of this, this self sacrifice. Like the, says something about the butcher doesn't make, doesn't get the meat or the baker doesn't bake the bread just to make himself feel good. He bakes the bread so that he can get money to feed his family. So he's baking the best bread he can in order to feed people. Yes. But he's not doing it to feed people. He's doing it to feed his own family. So understanding that everybody's got their own internal motivations. Everybody's got their own internal, you know, reasons for doing things and ways of doing things and realizing that everybody on the team wants the team to be successful because when the team is good, that helps everybody around them and realizing that when each person is really good as an individual, that helps the team. And, you know, obviously it worked out pretty well for America. America, you know, made a lot of money and is doing pretty well. And When you handcuff people and force them to fit into a system that they don't necessarily fit into, they're never going to be able to reach the maximum potential that they can reach. And yes, it's easier to control. Yes, it's probably less of a headache to deal with just foot soldiers that are going to do everything a coach says. But I don't think you're ever going to reach the maximum potential that you can reach as a player or as a team if you're doing it like that. So it's not.

Coach CK (19:

19.255) It's the, the, the quarterback doesn't play out of this, out of this sense of justice where he just wants the team to win. And that's all he cares about. He's doing it because he wants to get paid. He's doing it because he wants to be play football on TV. He's doing it because he wants people to see him playing football on TV. And I think to ignore that or to, to act like everybody should just be a team guy and everybody should just, you know, have this moral. way of being where they're just team guys. think you're missing out on what's really motivating people and what's really getting people going and what's really getting people in the building and maximizing themselves.

PRO MINDSET (20:

04.963) Well, you're describing the best pro football teams before NIL, before transfer of order.

Coach CK (20:

12.175) Yeah, and it's weird to me because you see, and you see growing up and you see, I don't know if it was just a generational thing or what, but it was almost like there had to be this thing where everybody said, hey, we're team guys. We just want the team to win. And everything you did was for the team. And I understand the team is important, of course. You want the team to win. But I think you have to look at why you want the team to win. And it's not just this, you know, it's not just a sense of being a good person. Like it's not just a sense of like just being a good person and I want the team to win. It's a lot of times selfish. It's a lot of times self-driven and that's not a bad thing. And I don't like that there's maybe a stigma around that being a bad thing, that selfishness. Like I don't think there's anything wrong necessarily with that selfishness.

PRO MINDSET (21:

10.383) Well, I think as a coach, if you can bring the right guys in and they all have deep, strong internal motivations, that's a good thing. And you have, you know, with the transfer portal now, one of the biggest challenges for coaches, especially the old school coaches, she only got a limited period of time to get these guys to gel together as a team because they are individuals.

Coach CK (21:

22.714) Definitely.

PRO MINDSET (21:

39.139) And I believe that moving forward and then we're seeing it right now, but as we move forward with so much turnover on rosters, the coaches that are the leaders that can allow people the freedom so they don't feel like they're in the box, but also have the team connected so we're all marching down the same tracks are the ones that are gonna win the most.

Coach CK (22:

00.474) Agreed, agreed. people are hired mercenaries now. It's not back in the fifties or the sixties when you're playing football, the the the state schools, the big state schools, they got all their players from the state and everybody in the state kind of knew what what the what the team was running. So everybody kind of fit into the system already from the time they were in middle school. Now, players are going from Michigan to Nebraska. Players are going from New Jersey to California. Players are going all over the place. And I think. A huge deal as a coach is getting players to understand their role and buy into their role because not everybody's going to be the starter. Not everybody's going to be the guy that's getting all the attention and the love and everything and getting guys to buy into that role and fit what they do and figuring out where their skill set and what role fits which skill set and meshing those people together and meshing all those things together because yes, there's 11 people on the field, but there's also 60 on the sideline. You have to have all 60 of those guys come together and fit like a puzzle piece. And it's like a puzzle. And you have to fit the puzzle together. And that's very challenging. mean, there's not only 60 players, but then you got your 20 more recruits and you got your 200 recruits that are on your recruiting board. And then you got all the alumni and the boosters and the coaches. And you got hundreds of people that you have to fit this puzzle in together. explaining to everybody their roles. figuring out where people fit and in which role and where they can be the best themselves in each role and fitting everybody together and getting everybody to buy into each role. That's kind of how you make a good team.

PRO MINDSET (23:

40.367) Okay, so I'm going to ask you a question about role as well as let's just use QB as a position because it's the second most important player on a team like an NFL a lot of times is QB too. It's not somebody that's starting. I mean, there's no doubt, your DN, your left, all these guys are important. They arguably could be the second most important guy after your quarterback. But if your QB one gets hurt. QB2 all of sudden is your most important person. So how do you balance this situation? You got a guy that's QB1, team's following him, coaches said he's our guy after a competition. Let's say it was a quarterback battle. But QB2's got really two choices. To accept his role as QB2 and do what QB2's do. ruffling feathers, know, kind of get ready for the game. Hope that the starter, secretly hope that the starter gets hurt so that you get your shot, especially in a big game on national TV. And you don't tell anybody, but that's secretly that's what you're thinking. Or the other choice for QB2 is to be QB1 and do everything that QB1 would do if he was QB1, whether it's game planning or it's preparation. whether it's belief in himself, whether it's relationship and leadership with teammates, so that when he does get a shot, he doesn't have to flip the switch because he's already QB1. When the coach doesn't see him as QB1, in his mind, he's QB1. But in the coaches, he's QB2. Speak on that.

Coach CK (25:

35.194) I think everybody's a little bit different and the way everybody prepares is a little bit different. Some guys just have this ability to turn it on when the lights come on. Some guys are real, they need to prepare over and over again. You look at a Johnny Manziel and if Johnny Manziel was the backup, he's probably not doing any preparation, but he didn't really do any preparation when he was a starter either. So it really is dependent on who it is to me.

PRO MINDSET (25:

55.373) Hahaha

Coach CK (26:

03.951) I think it comes down to knowing who you are, knowing how you prepare yourself and what gets you ready to play the game. Not necessarily, because I think a lot of times I see in football and I see this a lot is people do things in a performative way. They do things just to impress somebody like look how much I'm working, look how late I'm staying at the office, look how much film I'm watching. They just do it to impress somebody. And that's fine, that's a way to do it. But... think understanding what gets you ready to play as a player and what gets you ready and you locked in and what's going to get you to play the best, that's what's most important. And you're right about if you're the starter and the backup, it should be the same. But I don't necessarily think that's the same for everybody.

PRO MINDSET (26:

52.163) Hey, you said something twice, Chris. First time I just let it pass by, but you said it again. You've got to understand yourself. And you've used it in two frames of reference. One is the right place to go. And two is how you prepare and how you view your role. That begs the question, how do you know who you are?

Coach CK (27:

19.692) It's impossible to know who you are just sitting in a room by yourself. You have to go through trials and tribulations. That's how you understand who you are. Going through spikes and highs and lows of emotions and wins and losses and gut-wrenching stuff, and really... and high wins and high lows. That's how you figure out who you are. And then once those things happen, you have time to sit with it and sit and understand how you responded to those situations, what worked, what didn't. That's how you get to know yourself. That's number one. And number two. My favorite scene in a movie I've ever watched, and my favorite movie is Eight Mile. I grew up in Michigan. I grew up idolizing Eminem. And so he's growing up in Michigan. He's living in a trailer with his mom. He's broke. His family's broke. He's got no money. And he's a white guy trying to break into a pretty African-American dominated industry. He's a rapper. And he's just getting bullied. The dude just gets bullied by everybody. I mean, everybody's just kind of, you know, not treating him very well. He's in the beginning of the movie, the first scene of the movie, he chokes, he gets up into this rap battle and he's rapping against, you know, his main bully guy and he chokes. And so the movie goes on, he's kind of finding himself figuring out who he is. And then at the end of the movie, they have a rap battle. And the final rap battle is him against the guy that he went against first, who's like kind of the guy that runs things around the city. And he goes against him and Eminem goes first. And he pretty much just says everything that the dude is, he knows the dude is going to say about him. He says, he says, I am white, I am a bum. I do live in a trailer with my mom. He just owns all the things that are wrong with him. He owns all the things that people are going to say about him. He owns all the things that, you know, most people want to hide because they're embarrassed about. He just owns it.

Coach CK (29:

22.648) He says all this and then he drops the mic and then the next dude he chokes because he doesn't know what to say because he took the words right out of his mouth. And he doesn't have anything left to say because he already said it. And so to me it's a great just example of owning who you are and owning even the embarrassing parts, even the ugly parts, because we all got ugly parts. We all got broken parts. We all have parts of life and ourselves and things that we don't like.

PRO MINDSET (29:

30.485) Hahaha

Coach CK (29:

52.686) But everybody's got that. And to fight that or try to hide that or try to be something that you're not, just to put up an image or a front of something, you have to understand and be OK with who you are and accept who you are first and accept all the things about yourself, regardless of whether or not you think people are going to accept you for them.

PRO MINDSET (30:

16.235) OK, this is an opportunity for you to be real. When at Nebraska or at UNI, did this show up for you where you had to own who you were in the face of adversity, in the face of failure, in the face of situations where maybe your coach wasn't in your corner, and you had to double down on who you were and own who you were because maybe they didn't.

Coach CK (30:

44.255) Yeah, I actually posted that I posted a quote from that movie and so it's it's funny that you bring that up I posted a quote from that movie so we played Northwestern in Ireland my senior year and so I After year one, I had asked to move to nickel from inside backer. I went and played nickel I didn't like the way I was being coached at inside backer. So I moved to I asked to move and I had a great spring ball, I had a great fall camp. I was given the opportunity to start and I didn't, I came out and I was nervous. I came out and I was still questioning myself and my abilities and I missed a tackle early on. And for better or for worse and whether I thought it was right or not, I got benched early in that game after missing a tackle in the open field. I also had made a really great play in that game too. And I just decided after that game, I don't care how many times I mess up. I don't care how many times I'm embarrassed about a play that I made or something that went wrong or the fact that I had no stars in high school or the fact that I came from a small town in northern Michigan and I grew up on a dirt road. I decided after that game, when we lost that game and I got benched, I decided that Nobody was going to stop me and nobody was going to make me feel smaller because I made a mistake. I was just going to keep showing up and being the same guy every day. And it's easier said than done because it takes every day and it takes being that every day. And you're going to have these doubts, you're going to have these fears, you're going to have these insecurities that are going to eat at you at times that are going to make you want to play small, that are going to make you want to shrink in these rooms where you feel like people are bigger than you. and people have more accolades or people have more stars or people have more ability than you. But when you can just own who you are and own your mistakes, own your flaws, own the good, bad, ugly about yourself, then you can start playing ball. Then you can start really playing and playing to the best of your ability.

PRO MINDSET (32:

51.599) OK, so finish the rest of the story. How did you finish out that season? And how did owning, basically just owning who you are after that game and almost detaching from the idea that the coaches maybe didn't think you were a starter or whatever the case may be. How did you responding to you owning impact the coaches responding?

Coach CK (33:

20.535) Yeah, so that season I I started games at Mike, Will, and Nicko. I played all three different positions. I got benched multiple times, probably like four five times. I got benched up and down. It was up and down every game. I would go into Saturdays sometimes not knowing if I was going to play three snaps or if I was going to play 70. I had no idea. That was very challenging for me. I didn't know what position I was going to play. I didn't know what drive I was going to go in. It felt like somebody up there was messing with me. It felt like somebody was.

PRO MINDSET (33:

49.903) They probably were.

Coach CK (33:

50.542) didn't want, so felt like somebody didn't want me to play well at times. And I don't, I'm not somebody that likes to make excuses and I would never use that as an excuse because regardless of your situation or regardless of, of whether or not somebody wants you to succeed, you still have to play well. It doesn't matter because your performance is the only thing that matters. The only, nobody, nobody watching on TV cares whether you had a bad day or not. Nobody watching on TV cares whether, whether something happened the day before that's on your mind that's bothering you, nobody cares. The only thing that matters when you step on that stage is your performance. And you have to be able to perform. And at times, that means shutting off your emotions and shutting off the things that are bothering you and going and performing when you need to perform when that spotlight's on. So it was just an opportunity that you're to practice that every week because I didn't know when I was going to go in the game. I didn't know what situations I would go in. Sometimes I would go into the third quarter completely cold and play the rest of the game. Sometimes I'd go. drive and then I'll play the rest of the game. Sometimes I would play the whole game. Sometimes I would play Mike and then I'd go to nickel the next drive. I'd be playing man on a slot receiver in the Big 10 and then I go to Mike. I played every different position at every different point in the game. So it forced me to just figure out how to be ready to perform at a moment's notice anytime, anywhere, any day. And I ended up, you know, obviously with all that going on, I didn't have the best season. My film wasn't wasn't my best year. but I ended up finishing that season. had an interception to win the game against Iowa and it was the last play of my college career. and it was kind of poetic to me and it was kind of a, one of those things that doesn't happen unless you got God on your side. and it doesn't happen unless you keep showing up every day and not folding and not folding when the pressure is on you and not folding when you're beyond frustrated about things that are going on around you. and you just keep showing up and you keep performing and keep improving your performance.

PRO MINDSET (35:

51.287) Okay, so I appreciate that perspective. I would say that, you know, for a lot of the people that are listening, unless they played at a high level, they don't realize how often players get the vibe from their coaches that they really don't want them to do well. And that they really don't want them to play well, which sounds ridiculous, but it's so true. Because they want somebody, they want to be justified in their decision to play somebody else. But for some reason, somebody above them saying, hey, you got to play Chris. And you got to put him in there. He's our senior. He's got this guy. And then the coach is like hoping that he may be messed up so he can yank you out and put his guy in. how do you? So now, your cleats are hung up for playing, but they're not hung up for coaching. But let's pretend that you could time travel back to

Coach CK (36:

32.31) Mm-hmm, it's real.

PRO MINDSET (36:

47.949) you know, fall camp, final season in college in Nebraska. Knowing what was going to go down, knowing how they were going to scrutinize you, knowing how if you make one mistake, they're going to demote you. How could you have prepared mentally different?

Coach CK (37:

09.187) I would have told myself one thing. I would have said, yourself. I would have said, trust yourself, trust you. Look out for you and trust you, and the rest will fall into place. You get so caught up in, and I remember getting caught up in trying to figure out what they were thinking or trying to figure out what position I was going to play, or trying to figure out what everybody around me is thinking, and and trying to analyze everything all the time. and being very worried about what other people were thinking about me. What this coach was thinking about me or that coach or that person in the media or that question they asked me in the interview. I was very preoccupied with what everybody was thinking about me instead of being preoccupied with my performance and my play. And I think you have to trust your own talent, number one, and you have to trust your own. your own decisions. and trust that sometimes you're going to do things that aren't what a coach told you to do. Sometimes you're going to do things that you're not technically supposed to do. But you have to trust yourself that you're making the right decision. Trust your own work and trust your own preparation and trust your own instincts that you're doing it right. Because this is going to happen at every level. No one player has had every single coach and every single person that is watching the game think he was a good player. Everybody's going to have somebody that's nitpicking. And every good player found a way to turn that off and just play their game. And there's going to be times when you have more people in your corner than others. There's going to be times when it feels like everybody's against you. There's going to be times when it feels like the whole team turns on you. And then there's going to be times when it feels like you've got the whole city behind you and everybody believes in you. regardless of either of those situations, no matter which side of the spectrum you're on, it's trusting your own ability and trusting your own instinct and being very self-driven as far as knowing what you want and knowing how you play and knowing yourself and knowing what kind of work you want to put out there and being proud of the work that you put out there.

PRO MINDSET (39:

20.303) Well, one of the things that Pro Mindset talks about is the concept of you have to play an inside game. And when you care and think about what other people think, you're playing an outside game. When you're paying attention to social media and what people are saying outside game. When you're are walking by the coach's office and you hear him talking about something and you're like eavesdropping and slow your pace down. So maybe you can catch a word. You're playing an outside game.

Coach CK (39:

31.992) Exactly. 43.512) Mm-hmm. All right. 50.305) or you're looking at the depth chart. Like one week, one week it says I'm starting, but then I don't start. And then one week it says I'm not starting, and then I'm starting. It's paying attention to those things that don't really have an impact on you, but you're allowing them to have an impact on you. And just showing up and knowing yourself, knowing your game, knowing how you play it, and trust in that. And then you have to have people in your corner. You can't do this solo. This is not a solo. talk, I mean, we're talking a lot about ourselves and knowing ourselves and it's an inside game, but you also need to have people in your corner that you trust. You know, I had some coaches in my corner that I trusted throughout my career who I could go to with these things. A lot of, there was times where it felt like I didn't, but I think as you grow in the game, having people that have kind of been with you the whole time. and been with you and can be honest with you about your play. For me, I had a coach. I had a coach come into my life when I was about 13, 14 years old when I really started to get serious about football. He's kind of like my grandpa. I still talk to him like three times a week all the time. And he became this really important person in my life where he kind of taught me the game. And not only taught me the game, but taught me life. He used to sit down and lecture me about God and life and how to approach your mission and your calling. everything about that from the time I was about 13. I mean, it was just, would, he would preach these things to me. And for me having a person like that in my life where I could go to, and I remember, I remember my first game in Nebraska I played, it was at Illinois. First game in the Big 10, I was fired up about it. I played okay. And he calls me after the game and he says, Chris, what are you doing? Why are you playing like that? Like, why are you playing? You don't look like yourself. And I remember at the time I knew it wasn't, but I hadn't admitted to myself yet, but I was caught up in trying to fit into this role or this box that wasn't me. And he watched me play and he said, you've never played like that before. You look like a robot. You look like you're playing with somebody in your headphones the whole game, telling you what to do. And just that conversation flipped how I approached it. And I think

Coach CK (42:

13.369) It was hard, I think, to get out of that. It was hard to go, you know, once you try to... 25.29) It's hard when you feel like you're in a box and then it's hard to get out of that box. And it's easy to just stay in that box and do that and be there and be comfortable there. But I don't think I ever would have grown as much as a human. And I don't think I have made the plays and done what I did as a player had I not had that wake up call from him who is the guy that's been watching me play since I was a sophomore in high school, who's been who watched every game I played in high school, who watched every game I played in college. who knows how I play, knows me and was able to kind of give me that honest feedback about my play. So having people that you trust from a younger age or whenever you can find them, I think that helps a lot too. And you got to have people in your corner. I mean, there's a reason a lot of these, you see older athletes, they have guys that have been in their corner a really long time. And that's why it's because they know their tendencies. They know a lot of times it helps to have somebody know you better than you know yourself. And having people in your corner, whether it's family, whether it's friends, whether it's whoever in your corner, that matters a lot too.

PRO MINDSET (43:

31.087) So tomorrow is first day of spring ball. How many linebackers are you anticipating in your room?

Coach CK (43:

35.032) Yes, 38.892) We have. We have 21 right now in our room.

PRO MINDSET (43:

44.207) Okay, got 21 guys gonna show up in your room.

Coach CK (43:

47.96) 21 guys in our linebacker room and then we're gonna have another 20 come for fall camp. So we're gonna have between 30 and 40 guys in fall camp, yeah.

PRO MINDSET (43:

58.483) So 3-4-4-3, what do you guys run?

Coach CK (44:

00.534) We run a four. It's a little different than a traditional defense that you would see a lot of times played on TV. It's really a 4-3. We play with two overhangs at nickel and will. So the nickel and will are overhang linebackers. The D line is in A and B gaps. And the ball always gets forced to the nickel and the will. And we play man on the back end. So our backers are underneath droppers. So there's three underneath droppers, 1, 2, 3, nickel, will. Flat dropper, middle dropper, flat dropper. And then we have four DBs playing man on the back end. That's our base defense. And then we play some cover three, some cover one out of it. But it's a little bit different than a traditional defensive front that you would see because we play with the overhangs and we play with guys in the A B gaps. But that's our defense.

PRO MINDSET (44:

51.385) So the operative number you said was three, but you're going to have 30 to 40 guys entering fall camp. So that means 27 to 37 guys aren't playing. When they roll out the ball to start the game, they're on the sidelines with you. So what is your message either tomorrow at the position meeting?

Coach CK (45:

00.545) Correct. 09.612) Yeah. 13.719) Mm-hmm.

PRO MINDSET (45:

21.103) or in fall camp where you help them understand that you're for them and that they're going to decide who's going to start based upon how they play so that they feel like you're in their corner because you said you had to have somebody in your corner. can you be in the corner of 40 guys when only three are going to be playing and maybe six, maybe do a little rotation or something. But it's like a majority of them are going to be on the sidelines.

Coach CK (45:

51.298) For me, it's giving them consistent, honest feedback. So it's not going two weeks and letting... There's a difference between not playing a guy and him not knowing why he's not playing and not playing a guy because he knows exactly why he's not playing. And it's not just getting to the end of fall camp and saying, hey dude, you're not good enough. It's consistently every day when you're watching film, this is why you're not gonna play. this is why you're going to play, this is why you're not going to play. And being very open and clear and transparent about why they're playing and why they're not playing so that when the time does come for somebody to not be on the bench and somebody to be on the field, both guys know exactly why that's the case. And it's easier said than done. And there's guys that obviously are going to be frustrated with not being on the field. But. There has to be that open and transparency with the guys in the room of here's what you need to do to get better. I don't see you doing that and actively coaching that, not just letting it be and ignoring it. And then at the end saying, this is why you're not playing because that's where I think you get the reactions of you didn't say anything. I didn't even know that I wasn't doing well. And I think that when they're not doing well, you need to tell them like they need to know. And that sounds so basic, like it sounds so basic to say that. It sounds so common sense to say, like, when a player is not playing well, you need to tell them. But I saw a lot of guys not do that. I've seen a lot of coaches not be that for players. And whether that's because they didn't want that player on the field, they didn't want that player to get better, whatever it is, giving them honest feedback on a regular basis about why they're doing well or why they're doing poorly, that's how you avoid those situations of, coach, why am I not playing? I'm going to be a cancer on the team because I think I should be playing. They need to know.

PRO MINDSET (47:

54.361) Now, honest feedback on a regular basis is awesome. It's not always fun for the player or the coach.

Coach CK (48:

00.972) No. And you've got to be the bad guy sometimes. Sometimes you have to be the bad guy. And that's a role that you kind of have to accept as a coach. And if you want to be everybody's friend all the time, you're not going to be very good at this. And that's not to say you can't have good relationships with people. And that's not to say you can't have good relationships with your players. And I think, in general, relationships grow through conflict. Relationships grow through hard conversations and saying the things that need to be said, even if they hurt or somebody doesn't want to hear them, that's how a relationship grows. So I think you end up with stronger bonds, stronger team chemistry, stronger relationship between the coach and player if you can have those hard conversations on a regular basis.

PRO MINDSET (48:

49.551) Okay, let's fast forward. In the coaching field, where do you see yourself going? What is your ultimate dream? I do you want to be a head coach in the NFL? Do you want to be a head coach in Power 4? Do you want to stop at being a DC? Do you just want to be a linebacker coach for your whole life? What is, what is like your, your vision for your, your top dream?

Coach CK (49:

14.933) My ultimate goal is to do this at the highest level I can possibly do it. I want to push to do this at the highest place and level that I can do it. But in doing that, I don't want to lose myself in how I do things. And I want to do it in a way that's congruent with who I am. It's important to me to find roles and find places and find situations that fit. my goals, my missions with how I coach and how I do things. And the philosophy that we talked about on this call, being in a place where I can implement that, being in a place where I can actually do that and not be forced to do it a different way just because it's a higher position. whether that makes it take longer, whether that makes it a more difficult journey is not an issue for me. But I want to do it. in congruence with how I want to do it and in alignment with who I am at the highest level that I can possibly do it.

PRO MINDSET (50:

22.223) Okay, we've talked before about finding players that have an edge. Why don't you embellish that? What does that mean?

Coach CK (50:

31.644) An edge is a few things. The number one thing is, and it could be different for different players, different backgrounds, but an edge is that thing that drives you and makes you different. An edge is sharp. Sometimes it'll cut people. An edge is that thing that's not always pretty about you. An edge is, for example, if you grew up in really hard circumstance and you dealt with some trauma as a kid. you have an edge because you've seen things and some things have happened to you that bother you, that affect your psyche. And football is a great outlet for that. So that edge is, sometimes that edge is having some anger and taking it out on the field. Sometimes that edge is, some people doubted you as a kid or when you were younger and wanting to prove people wrong. Having that edge is that thing that makes you stand out, that thing that makes you different that thing that that forces your will upon the opponent and and Yeah, that's I would say an edge

PRO MINDSET (51:

46.383) What did I not ask you that you would like to share?

Coach CK (51:

50.102) Mm. My experience this last year at Iowa Western was very interesting. I lived in dorm room. I lived just in the heart, in the thick of this Juco football. And I got to see players come from every different background you could think of. I saw kids from the South, the West, the East, the North, from Iowa, from Georgia, from all over the place. Kids who had great families, kids who had not good families, kids who came from... good situations, bad situations, bigger schools, came from smaller schools. I saw kids from all different shapes, everything, all come together and be a great team. And it was really cool for me to see all these guys grow as humans, see them grow on the field, off the field, whether they came from a bad situation or not, grow and get better as a human. and then have success on the field and then go on to do better things and go on to whether it's they're just going to a four year school to go to school or whether they're getting $500,000 to go to Clemson, getting to see kids come in and go live in a dorm room in a Juco. I it's not a nice dorm room. And then go on, play well and grow as a person and then go have success afterwards. Watching that growth from individual players.

Coach CK (53:

20.456) of all different backgrounds and watching those players come together like that puzzle, watching all those guys come together was a really cool learning experience for me and being very, very in it. Like I lived with the players in the dorms. I mean, I had my own room, but I was with them and watching them and being around them every day. was an experience for me that's going to affect the way I coach for the rest of my career.

PRO MINDSET (53:

45.837) What's the most positive impact that's going to make on the future generation of players that you coach?

Coach CK (53:

54.549) It helped me understand players. helped me understand people. I grew up in Traverse City, Michigan, which is a beach town of a lot of the same type of people. They think the same, they do the same things. It's like a bowl. And playing allowed me to do this. I I played all over the place and I met a lot of different people from a lot of different places. And then this especially did that this past year where I got to know people, human beings from a lot of different backgrounds, a lot of different ways of thinking. to sit with these kids, even like I would leave my dorm room door open at night and kids would just come in and talk to me. And it gave me a different perspective on how they think and how you can get through to them and understand them and how each kind of type of person or type of player needs to be coached and understood so that he can be the best version of himself. So it just gave me a better and a different and a better understanding of how people think and people of different backgrounds and it gave me a more diverse understanding of people.

PRO MINDSET (55:

05.687) I love that. Makes you more relatable, more open-minded. You know, you're going to be more of a player's coach because of that.

Coach CK (55:

15.636) Yeah, I would definitely consider myself a players coach, 100%.

PRO MINDSET (55:

20.387) Well, this flew by my man, flew by. I want to thank you for being on Pro Mindset today, Chris. Expect big things from you. I know you're at the Juco ranks, but I know there's going to be pathways to bigger programs down the road, bigger titles. Not a lot of coaches can speak like you speak and clearly communicate the way you communicate. That's going to pay dividends for you down the road.

Coach CK (55:

24.47) appreciate you having me on. 50.55) Well, I appreciate that. I appreciate you having me on and I appreciate you preaching what you're preaching and helping the next generation with growing with the growing this mentality because football in any sport, it's it's I would say about 20 % skills and then it's about 80 % the mind and developing that champions mindset. So you're working on the 80 % and you're really making a difference for the next generation. And I got to give a salute to you for doing that and and doing this with doing these type of podcasts with a lot of different people and I gotta give a salute to you for raising some awesome kids who are doing the same thing. So I appreciate you having me on and yeah, this was fun. All right.

PRO MINDSET (56:

30.447) Appreciate it.