Chris Streveler Podcast

[ElsenMidco]

[GoYotes]

Great job, Jay. This is a fantastic podcast. I strongly urge everyone to take the time to listen to it in it's entirety. If anyone is doubting the direction of Coyote football, this will get you 100% back on board. (and will also make you a Chris Streveler fan for life)

[coyotecrazie5]

Excellent job as usual Jay. You are very informative and can tell you love your job and following the Yotes.

[yoteforever]

Jay Elsen is absolutely top drawer. A huge asset to USD.

Strevvy? The best. He loves the U, and the U loves him. He’s awesome and I believe in my heart will never forget his time here and will always be the positive ambassador for the Coyotes that he is now. There’s class....then there’s the class of class. That’s Chris

[sdyotefan]

Chris is a class guy and we're all really glad he was a Yote! And we all certainly wish him continued success at th he next level!

[kiyoat]

This is a long interview (37 min), so I thought I would transcribe (sometimes paraphrased for succinctness and readability) a few sections that interested me.

Jay: Chris, 2017 was such a special year for you and the program.  A lot of things that had never been accomplished before at the D-I level were (accomplished) in that season.  When did it all sink in?... Things came to a crashing halt when you suffered that playoff loss to SHSU.  Was it then, or did it take some time...

Strev: I don't think the season sinks in the minute you lose.... There's only one team that ends their season exactly where they want it to.  Being the person I am, I think about the missed opportunities, not the positives.

I think it started to sink in about a month later when I went down to Frisco with the coaches and a couple teammates and family, for the Walter Peyton thing.  After that, you can start to look back and be proud of what the team did.  After that, you talk to so many alumni and guys that are on the team.  And they just talk about the impact of you and your classmate.  That's really what I'm most proud of, being able to be part of that class that kind-of got things moving in the right direction...  That's probably one of my proudest accomplishments of my athletic career.  USD is such a great place.  I love going back there and seeing everyone.

Jay: ...How disappointed were you, really, when you didn't win (the Walter Peyton award)?

Strev:  Honestly, I was disappointed, but not for the reason that you probably expect.  I really didn't care about the award for myself as much as ... I had a big speech written out, thanking all my teammates, coaches and my family.  That's really what I wanted to be able to do.

After the season, things get crazy, and you don't necessarily get to sit down with the people you want to, ... I knew a lot of people would be watching, and I knew it would be a great opportunity to thank all my teammates, and coaches.  That was really the biggest thing.... Looking back on it, everyone I was going to thank, knows how much I appreciate them and all their help.

Also, there were so many people that came down from USD.  They gave me my own entire table, so I had a bunch of family, coaches, boosters, administration ... At the time, i thought "dang!  These guys came for nothing" ... I felt like I let them down.  I'm so thankful for all those people.

Jay: Do you feel you had the best season of everybody else in the FCS?

Strev:  I don't know.  Stats are one thing.  That's whatever, but I think that the amount of turn-around we had as a program, ... I don't thing there were many teams that had that.  As for me, I don't know...  Briscoe and me went head-to-head...  He won the game, so... I guess you give it to him.

Jay: I knew you weren't going to answer that.  I had to try anyway.

[kiyoat]

Jay: At Minnesota you got that opportunity that so many guys dream of, playing P-5 Football... but it didn't work out. You wanted to be a QB, and your opportunity instead came in Vermillion, SD... How do you look at that decision now?

Strev: I think that was the best decision I ever made.  Maybe in my life.  Definitely in my athletic career.

Growing up in the Chicago-land area, that's every kid's dream.  Playing Big Ten football. Coming out of HS I had an offer from SDSU, and I was potentially looking at going to an Ivy League school, because i knew that that would set me up for the rest of my life.  But once I got that Big Ten offer I just had to jump at the opportunity.

At the time I thought it was a great decision, and it was a great decision.... I loved my time there, but ... When I switched to receiver at Minnesota, I embraced the role.  I'm a team guy.  If that's what I have to do to help the team, I'm gonna do my best... but when I thought about playing QB again, and I met with Coach Nielson and Coach Schlafke, ... I didn't really know them, but the relationship I was able to build with them ... 

(If I hadn't made that desicion) I wouldn't be here right now talking to you.  I wouldn't be in Canada right now.... I was just talking with Simmons about that the other day.  I told him: "Dude.  Coming here, it changed my life.  Really."

Jay: How quickly did you know that that was the right spot for you?

Strev: Well, I had four official visits lined up, and I only took one.  That tells you something.  A few days after I had visited SD, I texted Coach Schlafke.  I knew what I wanted to do.  I heard that maybe they were talking to another QB.  It ended up not being true, but (I remember thinking) "I can't miss this opportunity"  I sat down with Coach Nielson, and everything I had heard about him (the most positive things you could possibly hear), sitting down with a guy like that -- he's genuine.

Sometimes in College Football it's hard to find people with stand-up character at head coaching positions... He's obviously a stand-up guy.  Coach Schlafke, I could immediately tell how smart he was, football-wise.... He's going through stuff, and I'm reeling in my chair, trying to soak up what he's saying.  I was thinking "I think it would be a great opportunity to learn from this guy".

That summer when I first came in, I was just in his hip pocket, every day, just texting: "hey, you wanna meet?".  I remember watching film for like, 1 or 2 hours every day.  I almost thought I was bugging him, but I was just wanting to soak up as much information from those guys that I possibly could.

Jay: What's the big take-away?  What did you learn from that experience? (at USD)

Strev: Football-wise, my overall understanding of the game.... The things that we did at USD, ... I always felt like no matter what the defense is going to to, we had an answer for what they are doing on this play.  I never felt that before in my career.

(Before that) it was just kind-of like "we're running this play.  Man, I hope it works, but we'll move on to the next one."  At USD it's like, "If this doesn't work, it's on me" .... setting the protections, I've got throws on every run, I see what's happening.  You have to take a lot of ownership of what's going on back there.  That was the biggest step for me... Football-wise, that's what took my game to the next level, and allowed me to be a Pro player now.

[kiyoat]

Jay: Let's just clarify something.  I know there were some (rumors) out there that you hadn't gotten any NFL interest whatsoever.  That's not entirely true.  You made the choice here, and that had to have been very difficult.  Teams DID offer you a rookie mini-camp try-out.  But there was no guarantee of a roster spot, or training camp.

You kind-of gambled on yourself and said: "I think my better opportunity here is to go to the CFL, and see what I can do there."  Am I correct in all that?

Strev: Yeah.  That's correct.  The way the draft works is: on day three, as the later rounds are going on, if you're gonna be an un-drafted guy, a lot of times you're hearing phone calls during the 6th or 7th round, like "Hey, if we don't pick you, we're gonna sign you (as a free agent)".  And I wasn't hearing anything at that time.

A day goes by; I'm not hearing anything.  Two days go by, ... I'm thinking "This is looking really bad".  So, my agent ends up getting calls from three NFL teams talking about bringing me in for a rookie mini-camp.  At that point, the way I felt about it was like: "It's two or three days after the draft, and I'm just now getting calls?"  That doesn't seem very serious to me.  That doesn't seem like something where I'm going to be given a fair opportunity to come in and compete.

Maybe that sounds like I'm being a pouter, but to me, I was making a business decision for myself.  I'm not going to go somewhere and waste time doing something where I don't have a chance to make the team.  Why not go up to Canada where I do have an opportunity?  ...  I had been talking to their coach since December.  I really feel like they made an investment in me.  To say: "Hey, we're very interested in you".  So I said: "you know what? I'm a day-three-after-the-draft call.  Why not go up to Canada?" Go somewhere that wants me.

To double-back, that's kind-of how I felt about USD too. "It's not an FBS program.  It's not going to be on ESPN all the time, but I want to go somewhere that wants me."  So it kind-of felt similar.

[kiyoat]

Lot's of good stuff in this interview on the Bombers, sorry I can't transcribe the whole thing.  I'll just give you a teaser that there is some discussion of Beard product endorsements in Canada...

Jay: Is there any doubt in your mind that things are gonna get back on track with this team, with this program, under the leadership that it's under?  Personally, I've been around it a long time.  I don't have any doubt that Bob Nielson's gonna get it figured out.  You look at his track record, and he's been a builder his entire career.  When you build, it's not always going to go up exponentially, year-by-year.  You get to a rate of progress that is tough to attain year-in and year-out.

And when you play in a league like the MVFC, you're not the only team looking to improve.  We saw what Indiana State did this year... This league is just so difficult.  You have to bring your A-game each and every week.  If you don't, losing a couple of one-score games ... can happen real quick.  Its all about execution, and you've gotta be at your peak every singe week.

Strev: Yeah.  With Coach Nielson, and the rest of that staff, I could talk about them for an hour.  How great of people they are, and how they know how to build a program the right way.  And when you build a program the right way, sometimes you're gonna take a step back.  That's part of the process.  You lose a lot of senior guys, you got a lot of young guys... It's part of the process.  Its hard for those young guys to step up and immediately be the senior leadership, or whatever you're looking for...

If you look back to my first year at USD (I hate to keep relating it back to me, but that's my experience), we lost something like five games by one score.  It was a lot of the same things this year, and the bottom of the league keeps getting better and better.  The top is very high, but the bottom keeps creeping up, so it's like you said.  If you're not on your A-game you're gonna lose.

Coach Nielson and his staff knows how to build a program.  It's clear that they did it at Western, and Western is still reaping the benefits of some of the things that they did there.

You won't find a bigger "ride or die" Yote than me, because the way that changed my life, I'll stick with those guys forever. like (if) we went 1-10, we're probably going to go 10-1 the next year.  I'll just say things like that, but I absolutely believe that the players there, they know what's expected of them.  They know how to step up.  Coach Nielson and those guys are gonna bring in great players every single year, and good people.  Which is important.  If you're building the program the right way, you gotta bring in good people.  Sometimes there's a (not so good) guy here, or a guy there, but the core of that team is very good people, and good players.