A lot of people have said, 'Why not take a smaller school head job?' I honestly feel my growth was better being in a large program, being around Coach Saban, and learning how to manage a lot of the tough situations you deal with in the media.
I know how great Alabama is. I know how great Coach Nick Saban is, and I enjoy being around his program. I will continue to enjoy being around his program.
There's a lot of people who think in order to be a good head coach, you've got to be a head coach at a smaller school.
Northern Arizona was a job no one had ever survived, and a lot of people said I was crazy to take it. But to build a program and win there gave me a lot of confidence when people said we couldn't do it at Pitt.
I wouldn't say in all situations, but a lot of times kids can be the most reasonable people around because they don't have the deal with all the drama that goes along with being an adult.
I know I get a lot of grief about some of the things I've said about Coach Saban, but working under him was like going back to school and getting another degree.
I've always known being a professional athlete is tough, let alone being a quarterback in the National Football League. There's a lot on you, a lot of pressure on you to succeed. You take the glory and you take the falls, but that's what I signed up to do.
The best thing wrestling ever taught me was how to network with people, how to talk to people, how to deal with a lot of different kinds of people in different situations and being a good guy and a bad guy teaches you how to be able to have a thick skin.
Christian guys had a reputation for being soft or not being tough enough to play the game. But every chapel we've had, our team fighter has been in there. Stu Grimson is very outspoken. Dan Bylsma, the head coach at Pittsburgh, was one guy that really helped me a lot.
I've seen Coach Saban over the years have to make a lot of tough decisions, and there's not one decision he doesn't make that he doesn't bounce ideas off the staff. To me, that's invaluable.
To me, personally, my development to become a head coach will be much better working for Coach Saban than necessarily going somewhere else because you learn every day that you're in there.
It honestly affects my mental health, social media, on a really profound level. Because I'm constantly being bombarded with an image of femininity that I feel I have to adhere to. And I think there's a lot of pressure in this industry, as well, being constantly discriminated on your aesthetic appearance.
I speak about family and adoption because it 100% changed my life and who I am. It definitely played a very large role into just learning how to be grateful for what you have and being fulfilled in a way that a lot of adopted kids don't feel.
I am already experiencing something better than being a pop star and that's being a father. It's the best job in the world. A lot of work, but a lot of fun.
Well, being at a big school, I had to perform every night. I had to deal with a lot of fans, media stuff, interactions, relationships, you know, just to build myself and show how much I care about Kentucky.
I think a lot of us who had these oddly shaped childhoods, in some ways we're hyper-capable. We're able to take care of ourselves in a lot of ways but it's like we're missing a piece. When everyone went to school to learn how to be a regular person we were sick that day. We compensate other ways. Alcohol and drugs is one of those ways. Instead of learning how to cope with our problems and deal with hardship and deal with anger, we just decide to get drunk and not care.
I'm learning a lot how to be good at what I do and also how lucky I am and take it all in and be grateful for all this late in life success I've been having and it's good to have people that have been around and successful for awhile and work with them and see how they behave and it's why they are who they are and why they're still successful.