The Journey To Greatness

The 49ers new head football coach, Biff Poggi, shares how his own struggles inspired his passion to help his players on and off the field. It's the backdrop for "Mining For Greatness". The show's executive producer, David Ravin, talks about his connection to the university, Biff, and why he's optimistic this season will be different for Charlotte football.

Transcript

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Our goal is to win the American Conference. If we don't win that, that won't be a successful season. This man will go to war for his players. He's going to go find the most battered and broken down young man. He's going to help build him back up. Wherever he goes out, like I'll go, I promise that he's a winner. It's that simple. But he still stuck on what last year was like. You to attention to three of go! They feel like it's us against the world and nobody thinks we're going to be any good. They are resolute in this one thing. They. They do not want to play, on a losing football team. So get ready for the ride, cause you’e gonna love it. Welcome to Charlotte Football Mining for Greatness, presented by Ravin Media. I'm your host, Travis Hancock on the bone of the Mack and Bone Show weekday mornings on WFNC 6 to 10 a.m. Our show loves college football and there hasn't been a lot of love for what Charlotte has done the last couple of years. But that's all expected to change this season because of the job that head coach Biff Poggi's going to do with these Niners. This show is all about the journey of taking a team near the bottom and turning them into a powerhouse. And joining us right now kind enough on an extremely busy week for the entire football program, head coach Biff Poggi. Biff your speech and beginning of episode one I thought was completely captivating about healing the broken. And that message I think, resonates with so many of us. Where does that side of you come from? Your ability to heal those that are broken? Where does that come from? Well, I lived it right. I was a I was a really messed up kid. And, you know, good, good family, good parents. But I was just I was a very anxious kid and afraid to fail, afraid to succeed and always get in trouble. You know, just a real problem. And what happened is people just count me out. You know, it started by being that I was a troublemaker, but it was you know, I was a very intelligent then, you know, I couldn't be trusted and all those kind of things. And I got I got a chance. I got a million chances, but I got the chance to work. And then so that's kind of what's set me on the path I've been on. When I was watching, I was thinking, are they going to are they going to go through some of your past? And you mentioned in their coach Finney, a guy you were growing up that had so much impact on who you became. Can you elaborate a little more on Coach Finney, who he was and what he meant to you to get to the stage? Yeah, he he was a Baltimore icon, you know, like he was an all-American football player at Princeton back when they played real football. And he went to the Cotton Bowl. And so, I mean, it was it was real football. He was drafted by the Steelers, was an all-American lacrosse player, was a captain of the wrestling team. He was the headmaster of the best school in Baltimore Dillman most exclusive school. And he took a chance on me and like like I lived with him and his family for six weeks a year, three weeks around exams at the semester and at the end of the year. And and look, I mean, he had to he had to break a lot of rules to get me into the school because I didn't pass a test. I can tell you that. And and that he had to fight a lot of battles with people that were his college age to keep me there and add. But he changed my life. And, you know, and it meant a tremendous amount to me. And and, you know, and I've paid that school back for sure. And you mentioned the term pay it forward in reference to finish what you're doing. Now, one of those guys is nose tackle John Wallace, who's chronicled Big Wall, I think they call him in this episode. Coach Move calls me. He's like, well, I got the job. I'm like, Congratulations, Coach, and I'm happy for you. And then he goes, Yeah, you're going to come play for me. I'm like, Coach, I'm kind of I'm kind of done with football. You know, he said, Well, football's not done with you. We got his side of the phone call. But from your perspective, when you got this opportunity for you to make those calls to guy to guys like Big Wall, what did that mean for you to finally make that call? It said, say what's ride here? Well, you know, I want to do give opportunities to kids that that had played for me that that it didn't work out for right and you know big roles from a situation where it you know, it's not an easy situation where he's come from, you know, incarcerated father, grandmother and mother doing a great job. But it's a lot. Right. And and he went to junior college age and just couldn't do it. It just didn't work for him. And so he's working on the floor of this pretzel factory and I called him and he said, I'm done with football. And I said, Well, football's not done with you because we got to get you squared away, get you a degree, and get you where you're able to take care of yourself and people in your life that you care, you know, with an education. And and so he came down and his is his first semester area 2.5 GPA working really, really hard. He's lost a bunch of weight and he's going to play a lot on Saturday. Coach, how special of a week is this for the program? It's almost like sort of scripted in a way, right? The docu series Mining for Greatness debuts. And then because of the TV rights, now you're on in primetime, NBC against all teams, Maryland, where so many guys with the program came from. It's almost like one of those meant to be that you were going to be on prime time week two NBC. Todd Blackledge has the call. That's a hell of a week for the Niner football program. Yeah, it's you know, I look at it like God has a plan for everything. And even even if we tried to bulldoze this thing, we could have gotten this. You know, we tried to muscle this through. I mean, you know, Todd's an old friend. We actually played against each other in college. He’s Penn State. I was Pitt. The fact that he's now at NBC, it was a long time guy at ABC, ESPN. The fact that he's there now, the fact that NBC has the feature Big Ten game, the fact that it's Maryland, the fact that it's Charlotte, and it just it all, you can't you can't make this stuff up. So it's a really it's going to be a really cool thing. And the other thing is like, you know, like the head coach there at Maryland, Mike Locksley, I coached his son Kai at Gilman, and he's a quarterback that way. And so I've known Mike a really long time. I know his wife, Kia, and Mike's like a really good friend of mine. It just it just and I know so many kids on the team there and Mike, those so many kids on our team, it's like it's wild. A couple more questions. Coach will get you on your way to prepare for that game. I know you're extremely busy right now. One of our questions on our radio show in the morning, kind of a silly question for you. We're really into your your gameday wardrobe that the cutoff shirts that they're now selling at the bookstores here. The question we get a lot from Niner fans and our listeners is is there a weather cutoff for the for the shirts? Do you do you wear them throughout the season? Does it get cold and you change it up? When do you when do you adjust out of the cut after that? Just full cut off. We'll go. No, it's full cut off or go. Never get out there. I will say I will say that our you know, I've gotten a little the fans seem to love it. The players love it. We're getting national attention like crazy There are some folks here that don't absolutely love it. So I was thinking about this week traveling on the plane and my outfit for just putting a green blazer over the cut off Georgia shirt. Then they'll probably sell green blazers that go with it. One more question about this episode, and we're going to talk about this on our show a lot tomorrow morning. On WFNZ is I was just absolutely captivated when all of a sudden in the episode Weapon X, Brian Dawkins appears for the pre-game speech. There was no like lead up to that. I, I played that this morning to wake me up. I read through walls coach this morning I want to play football. Because of that. He was unbelievable. That's going to go all types of viral. That was insane. Where did he come from, coach? All of a sudden I'm like, Oh my God, Brian Dawkins is here. Is that a pass that you have with them? Where did where did Weapon X come from in this episode? Actually, Brian is friends with the guys that run the United States Olympic Performance Center, which is on campus here. And Ike Belk called him and then said to me, Would you like Brian to give the pregame? I was like, Yeah, I would. And he was first of all, he was electrifying. The intensity was insane. And I looked at him. I said, Do you have any eligibility left? Because he's jacked it out of his mind. He could still play that game. So it was it was awesome for our kids to have that. Well, Coach, thanks for joining us. We're excited to be part of the of Mining for Greatness. This is just episode one presented by Raisin Media. So much more to go. I know it's a crazy time for you. Thanks for taking a few minutes. We're pulling for you against the Terps NBC's Saturday night. Thanks, coach. Thank you very. Much. This this great journey that we're going to be on all season long. I'm Mining for greatness presented by Ravin Media. Ravin Media, my guy right here, David Ravin. Welcome into the podcast, man, and thanks for all you're doing to make this possible. What what, what has drawn you to be involved in this Niner program and with mining for greatness right now? Actually, you know, it started because I was involved in the School of Architecture and I was giving them money and somehow, someway, suddenly with Biff meeting him and welcoming him to Charlotte because we had a Michigan connection. Okay. So, you know, little by little he, uh, I offered, I offered. I said, What can I do to help you? Yeah, around here. And he said, You know, I don't know a lot, but I have various questions. And so we meet periodically. I meet with the players, some of the recruits that he brings in, and it's just evolved. How special was Biff? Because there's the football coach side, but there's also like you are there's that successful business side. This is a rare combo of a head football coach that has this whole other business side. That's got to be something that we hardly ever see, right? Maybe a couple times. I know the former coastal Carolina coach was like that, but this is a this is a different this is a different breed, isn't it, for this combination? He it is. And he you know, he speaks business terms, but he doesn't dress. Like. A businessman. He doesn't act like a businessman If you go in his office. Now, the thing he was most excited about was this huge humidor that he has them all on his desk. Yeah. So he he definitely has the history and can talk about it, but he's he's just a unique character. I mean, it is yes, he is a one man show. How important? Well, first of all, I was reading I want to say I was reading a article in the Charlotte Business Journal by Eric Sandberg. That was about you and Biff. I was pretty cool, right? And then I started to think, man, these guys, you know, let's be honest here. We're honest on the Mining program podcast. There's a lot of there's a lot of money involved there when you guys go out to dinner and hopefully I can get that invite here at some point. You as men that there are well off here who's. A who's. Paying that bill at the fancy place that doesn't go to fancy places but I don't know that's a that's another question there. You know that's just because you asked me that. Now, I had to think about it. He's a great business man because I. Always pay, like to get an invite. Please, if you don't mind, how important is it not only to chronicle for Charlotte and a school that you love and then you're working here in the other departments. How important is it to not only chronicle this journey, but there's so many player journeys that are unique and a lot of guys that have come back to Beth from the previous either high school or whatever it is. And it's going to be a pretty special show because before the headliner, he's on the marquee, but a guy like Jalen Jones I thought was incredible. In the episode we saw John Wall with his story. There are so many stories here to be told. That's got to be a meaningful thing here as well. Right? I'm hoping throughout the series we can get more into some of the players. I mean, beyond just the St Francis. Yeah, you have a lot of great storylines. Icky's twin, there's I meet a bunch of the kids. Some of them have played on the old team, some are transfers. They've already graduated looking for one last chance. I mean, there is a story about each one of those kids and I hope we can touch on a lot of them. I think it's it's really interesting. David, as far as the team itself goes, 1-0 and not the bad start the other day in terms of the offense, but they get a win nonetheless, which matters. What was your takeaway from seeing the team itself against North Carolina State? So I was on the field and South Carolina kicked a field goal, which was the first points. And I'll admit I was getting a little nervous, you know, what was going to happen the rest of the game. Our defense was smothering them from the start. We were just slow to get the offense going. And I think they moved around. Some personnel got the running game going, but you know, then they started to click. But there was there was some uneasiness in the stadium. I felt like of a, oh, is this deja vu? But then they really started going celebrations on the sideline. The energy really was picking up. It was it was great. And once they started to score, they kept running with it and finished the game. If you can imagine on our show each morning, on the radio, at the intersection of business and sports, it's really become unavoidable in terms of college athletics right now. So, you know, if they've talked on our station about needing help and wanting all the help you can get for his program, how big is it? How big is it going to be for the people of Charlotte, the fellow business leaders, to really get an inside look here, to not just hear something of Biff that's a soundbite, but man, when you watch him connect to these players, that's got to be a huge deal. When people can actually witness it for themselves to think about calling your mom. He goes to every player and says, Make sure you call your mom. That to me right there, if you are a business person and you're like, Yeah, I don't really know. You watch this show and you know, you're you're you're, you're investing in this program. So I actually think that brought us closer together because I think Biff would admit he was surprised by the people that said, I'm interested, but I went to a different undergrad school. You know, that's where a lot of my resources would go. And I think Biff was surprised by that. So that actually brought us closer together. That's the reason you see Ravin Ravin Media, the Empire that it is supporting this thing. It was a little bit of a surprise that a lot of people didn't get behind him. So I'm really hopeful that the series is successful, but more importantly, the team is successful and that people start to let's be honest. I mean, they're going to get behind a winning team. We know that. So I'm hopeful that that starts to bring some people in that at otherwise passed on supporting the program, including alumni. That may have been a little disenfranchised over some of the season. So I'm hoping that with the support we start to see that come in through Biff the series and how they play on the field. What your support is going along, what we hope that others follow in that after seeing the series, seeing the team play with more games. He's David Ravin, executive producer of Mining for Greatness. Thanks for all you're doing. Appreciate it. And thanks for allow me to at the house. We appreciate it, man And we'll we'll be watching and thankful for you for all you're doing. Ravin Media, Thank you. Thank you. That's all for this episode. We will see you next week for episode two of the Mining for Greatness Podcast presented by Ravin Media.