Aggie Town Hall: Episode 5

Welcome to another weekly Aggie Town Hall, it's presented by CHI St. Joseph Health, the official health care provider of Texas A&M Athletics.

Mike Wright: Hello again, everyone, and welcome to the Town Hall with Ross Bjork. It's presented by CHI St. Joseph Health, the Official Health Care Provider of Texas A&M Athletics. Along with Will Johnson from 12th Man Productions, Andrew Monaco, the voice of the Aggies, and a special guest we'll get into in just a moment, I'm Mike Wright along with our athletic director, Ross Bjork. It's a big day here, Ross, and we have a special guest. Thanks for the idea, and we welcome one of our favorite cooks to the show today.

Ross Bjork: Absolutely. Howdy everyone and good afternoon. You know, we won the internet on Saturday. Texas A&M definitely won the internet. We had Maroon & White Day, and the star of the show was none other than our defensive end coach Terry Price. And coach, I'm a little disappointed you didn't break out the hat, the apron and the knives. The knives were on fire Saturday. But you know the Coach Price cookoff challenge really took over Twitter. People were tweeting from all over the world. I think we had a submission from Norway. Just tell the audience here how that all got started. What was the idea behind it? I know you're a prolific barbecue chef anyway, but just kind of tell us how that all got started.

Terry Price: Yes, sir. Well, the credit goes to Coach Fisher, who had the vision to put this together, the Maroon & White Day, and obviously Marshall, our in house recruiting coordinator who had the idea as well to put together. Such a great event. It did generate some buzz for A&M and our football program. Obviously since we can't play, we had to put on a virtual display, and it was an exciting thing to do. Coach Fisher's always thinking of innovative ways of not just showing off our product, but showing it off to recruits. And this is another great idea he came up with. He and Marshall really put together a great program all day long, and I was just happy to be a small part of it.

Mike: Terry, you were tagged to be the star of the show, though. That's gotta be pretty good. I mean, you've got to feel pretty good about yourself that they turn to you to drive the message on Maroon & White Day.

Coach Price: Well, I think I'm far from the star of the show. I'm the opening act, as they say. I had fun starting it off, really had a great time cooking, and I was just honestly amazed at how many entries came in. But a lot of people like to cook, and it showed up on Saturday. It was really fun.

Andrew Monaco: Once a coach, always a coach...Max Wright, your line was you need a little more knee bend. You told someone about a three-point stance. You were able to marry the coaching and the cooking, weren't you?

Coach Price: Hey, It's all related. It's all teachable moments, I promise you. Even with all the people that tuned in. It was fun, just talking and sharing tips and talking barbecue. And again, that's a big, big, hobby of mine. I'm not a big hunter. I fish every once in a while. But I love to cook. You can look at me on the sideline and see how big I am and know that I love to cook. It was really, really fun.

Andrew: Coach, I thought Max went to tight end? He's not with you any longer, but you're always going to coach him, aren't you?

Coach Price: Hey, Max is still my guy. I recruited him, I love him to death. It's always a coachable moment when I'm talking to Max.

Will Johnson: Well, speaking of guys moving around TP, Saturday was a celebration of the Texas Bowl win, our last football game, beating a nationally ranked Oklahoma State team down in Houston. I wanted to talk a little ball and asking about a certain guy, because in that game, Demarvin Leal moves to the interior. He's usually with you with at defensive end. But Demarvin went to the interior for that Oklahoma State game. How bright a future, whether it's at end or on the interior, does Demarvin have? And can this be another Justin Madubuike type?

Coach Price: Well, I'm not gonna put pressure on him to see what he will or will not be. I could say this, he's an outstanding young man. He has a great family. He works extremely hard. He's a talented young man, and obviously highly intelligent to be able to play two positions in a bowl game, really proud of him being able to learn it, execute it, play at a high level, and looking for big things for him in the future.

Ross: Coach, I got one more question for you. Did you put Devin to work on Saturday?

Coach Price: No, I gave him the day off. I handled the grill most of the day.

Ross: You know, since since we can't coach the rest of our team, you can coach him as his dad, right?

Coach Price: Oh no question about it. We're making sure he's doing what he needs to do to stay in shape. You can guarantee that. Now he's eating good, but he's working out too.

Ross: I bet.

Mike: All right. We have a few questions that were submitted along the way. And, Terry, we're gonna come back to you with some more updates here in just a moment. But Andrew, why don't you kick us off with our Q&A for Ross Bjork this week?

Andrew: Ross, the question comes from Ben, and Ben says I'm aspiring to be an athletic senior staffer, maybe even an Atlantic director one day. I know there's no one way that works, but what is some advice and/or important qualities to have to achieve this?

Ross: That's a big question. There's a lot to it. And as Coach Price knows, growing up in athletics and kind of cutting your teeth in this...to me, you know, nothing replaces hard work. And I think that's the starting point in all of this. You need to master the technical aspects of what we do in athletics, and those things will come. But you've gotta work hard. And I think you've really gotta be more known for your character and your integrity than really what you produce. And if you do those things, I think you could have a long career in college athletics, once you break in, get your foot in the door, get experience. But those are a couple things that I would say, to answer that question, of how to move up. Just work hard and have great character. Things will take care of themselves.

Mike: To kind of dovetail off that for just minute, because I want to go to Terry on that because the question was about the temple member of senior staff Terry, tell us what it took to get you to the level that you're at right now in coaching, on a collegiate level?

Coach Price: You know, it's amazing. It's really no different than what was just said. It's about hard work, it's about doing things the right way, and doing them well for a long, long time. So what Ross said is exactly right. I don't care whether it's being an athletic director or being a college coach. You do things the right way, you can have a long career in college athletics.

Will: Ross, we've got one here from David, and I wondered how TP would feel about this, too. Because we play in the SEC West, the strongest division in all of college football. But David is asking, can we improve the out of conference schedule? Need to improve it immediately. David does know the division we play in, right?

Ross: Coach. I'll take this one, and I'll take the heat off of you on this one. Here's what I would say. Winning should drive scheduling. Granted, we're Texas A&M, we expect to win every game and we have that mentality. However, we play in the toughest conference in the toughest division. The eight conference games have proven that if you get through that, you'll be a playoff contender. So that's a goal of ours. Look, the scheduling philosophy has been in place before I got here, before Coach Fisher got here. But he and I agree that we're on the right track. We've got the one Power 5 opponent you're playing, so this year it's Colorado. And then after that, you're gonna have two buy games and then you're gonna have an FCS game. And that has proven that if you get through that model, you can win the West, you can win the SEC, you can make the playoff and you can win the playoff. So, until somebody tells us otherwise that you need to scrap that model, that's how we're gonna move forward with our schedule for the foreseeable future.

Mike: Before we get into basketball, a comment on that Ross, as an athletic director. We have Notre Dame coming in two years, is that right?

Ross: We've got University of Miami, we've got Notre Dame, we've got Arizona state, we've got Louisville in '29 & '30. So we're scheduled out pretty far. I think in the SEC the schedule takes care of itself.

Mike: It does. And to the point about scheduling, sometimes when these teams are scheduled they may not be very good, but it's ebb and flow. I mean, Notre Dame has gone through some up and down cycles. We happened to hit them on a real upside. You don't know when you're scheduling these people exactly how good they're going to be.

Ross: Like I said, until really somebody shows us otherwise that our model, you know, is not putting us in the best position, whether that's fan experience, whether that's playoff contender, SEC champion...then to me, we have to stay where we are right now.

Mike: Let's move on to basketball here. We had a question from Fernando that we will get to in a moment. But first your comments about Chennedy Carter going number four in the WNBA draft overall, pretty good accomplishment.

Ross: Oh, it was great. Again, because we don't have live sports right now, the WNBA draft got a lot of attention on Friday night. Just like "The Last Dance" last night talking about the Chicago Bulls got a lot of attention. The NFL draft will get a lot of attention this week, and obviously we'll have some Aggies that'll be selected. So just to see Chennedy and see Texas A&M and the branding and the exposure, it sounds like Atlanta really did their homework and really picked her to fit their system and their style of play. It's just exciting. And that's a testament to Coach Blair and recruiting at a high level and the type of program that he's built over the long haul. That's what we want. That's what we expect, to have a draft pick every year. So Chennedy, we're real proud of her. We hate that she had to leave early, but you can't pass up this opportunity. She's gonna do great at the next level.

Mike: Fernando wanted clarification on the statement you made is Chennedy the best women's basketball player you've seen in person or the best player you've seen in person? If you could clarify that.

Ross: Best women's. Best women's basketball player. Because I did see Michael Jordan play in person, he's the best player. She's the best women's player that I've seen in person, absolutely.

Mike: All right, Coach Terry Price, The floor is yours. Then we may have something to say to you and ask you about your cooking technique, but right now, the floor is open for you to ask Ross Bjork anything that you need to ask. What's on your mind today?

Coach Price: Well, coming off the Maroon & White Day and the tailgate that we had so much fun with, my question for Ross is what is his favorite thing to cook on the grill?

Ross: Man, coach. You know, I'm a Big Green Egg guy.

Coach Price: Just like me.

Ross: I love it. You can't beat the flavor. On the Green Egg, you can't beat just a nice lean filet. I have not done a brisket since I've been in Texas, but I did do a Boston butt. I did that over Thanksgiving and it was perfect. And so I love doing that because I like the long term stuff, too. I think you've got to get experience doing the long stuff along with the quick things, like a filet. So those two things, a filet and a Boston butt on the Green Egg.

Coach Price: You sound like you've done a lot of cooking too, That's awesome. I love it.

Ross: I've got to get into the peach cobbler. I haven't done the peach cobbler, coach. That's pretty good.

Coach Price: I tell you what, it's not that hard either. I'll get you hooked up, it's easy to do.

Will: Coach Price, we're social distancing right now. We're doing what we need to do. But can you not wait until when you can get that defensive line back together and have another cookout at your home as a group?

Coach Price: Oh, of course. It's something I enjoy doing and something that players enjoy doing. Everybody grows up as a youngster going to family reunions and cookouts and those things, and that's one of the reasons I like to do it, just to bring that family sense home to all of our players. So I'm really looking forward to that time when this is all done and we can get back together, break a little bread and just have a big reunion. I really am looking forward to it.

Andrew: My thing is I love talking to all your players, coach, because of things like that and the caring and the way you coach them, not to where they are, but where they can be. I love to see that loyalty on both sides, and we've talked about this before. I think that's going to be part of the appreciation, when we finally get a chance to be back together and to watch you coaching them and watching them get better not just as players, but as young men. I'm so proud that you're a part of this entire university and this team. And thank you for doing this as well.

Coach Price: Yes sir. I appreciate the opportunity and thank you so much, and as always, Gig 'Em.

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