Culture

Why do we assume coaches must choose between winning games and developing people? This reflection challenges that false tradeoff and shows how trust, purpose, and discipline create teams built to last.

In December 2021, Vanderbilt football entered the offseason with one of the toughest starting points in college athletics. A 2–10 record. An 0–9 campaign the year before. A roster thin on SEC-level depth. The program had spent decades and was labeled a conference doormat. Competitive confidence wasn’t something Vanderbilt had misplaced — it was something the program had never truly possessed. So when Clark Lea took over, he wasn’t reviving an old contender. He was building a

Spend any time on a practice field and in a motor pool, and you’ll notice similarities in language. We rally around the mission, refuse to let our teammates down, preach next man up, and dig deep when it’s the fourth quarter. We leave it all on the field and trust the process. The vocabulary overlaps so naturally that it almost goes unnoticed. But the real connection isn’t linguistic—it’s foundational. The language is the echo. The roots run much deeper.

Let’s be real—the word "culture" gets tossed around so much these days it’s almost lost its meaning. But here’s the thing: most people talk about culture without agreeing on what it actually is, let alone how to build a good one. So, before we go any further, let’s check what the dictionary says (yeah, I know—cliché, but hear me out). “The arts and other manifestations of human intellectual achievement regarded collectively.” Nah. “The customs, arts, social institutions, and

A case study on Brian Kelly, Jimbo Fisher, and what their stories say about program leadership. When Brian Kelly left Notre Dame for LSU and Jimbo Fisher jumped from Florida State to Texas A&M, both hires looked like slam dunks. Proven winners. National-championship pedigrees. Command presence. Every athletic director’s dream: “Let’s get a sure thing.” Still, both tenures ended the same way. They fell short of expectations and lost the excitement that accompanied their arriva