Matt Harmon: Recorded live on November 19th, 2025. From the studios of WMCX 88.9 on the campus of Monmouth University, episode number three of the monthly podcast series, Monmouth Matters with an Inside Perspective from University President Dr. Patrick Lehe. This is faculty member Matt Harmon. Thanks for your support and continued listening. Intro: Broadcasting live from the second floor of the Jewels L Plan Geo Center for Communication on the campus of Monmouth University. This is 88.9 WMCX. It's time for our monthly look around campus in our feature podcast series. This is Monmouth Matters with a firsthand perspective from university president Dr. Patrick Leahy. Joined by a two-time alum and longtime faculty member Dr. Matthew Harmon. Matt Harmon: When we started this show back over COVID Times, I tried to find the most generic news type music that I could and I think I accomplished that. Every time I hear that theme now, wherever it might be or any kind of news sound I'm thinking I got to be getting ready for a podcast and yet here we are again month of November, third episode of Monmouth Matters with an Inside Perspective from university President Dr. Patrick Lehe, as you just heard, faculty member Matt Harmon. We got our whole crew here today for what will be a really fun episode. We got a little bit to cover in the first part of the show and then we are going to spend the balance of the second part of the show talking Monmouth Football, who is in the midst of a historic run this season. Head coach Kevin Callahan in his third 33rd year will come over and join us for what we hope will be a super fun interview. President Lehe, say good morning to you and how are you? I'm great. Good morning. How are you Professor Harmon? Did you have someone walk you over today with an umbrella? Do you have a handler that someone has the umbrella over you? Patrick Leahy: Yeah. No, I do not have a handler, so I had to sprint from the car to the front door because of course I forgot my umbrella and my end of my overcoat, but it's supposed to clear up here later today. Matt Harmon: I like that you are classy enough that you use the word overcoat. I don't don't think I have anything that would find as an overcoat come on an overcoat and I bet most of our students who are involved with the show, do you guys even know what an overcoat would look like? John says No. Frank says no. Chloe says yes, which is no big surprise. I'm not surprised that Chloe would know. Nick, you don't even own a coat, do you? No. Nick doesn't even have a coat. Kevin Callahan: Wow. Matt Harmon: We have some educating to do here at Monmouth. I guess I'm going to do a class on that, the history of coats and finished with the overcoat as we said. Third episode here of Monmouth Matters. We've been doing it Monmouth weekly for a really long time and we're excited to be back here in the studios of WMCX 88.9 as we said a little bit to cover first part of the show, second part of the show we will devote talking Monmouth football. As we lead into that, we will talk about some of the other fall sports because it was a great fall season, which is not quite wrapped up. I will start with about the basketball team last night, given Syracuse all they could handle down the stretch. I see the frustration in your face because a near miss for sure, but what a performance from King Rice and his guys up in upstate New York. Patrick Leahy: Yeah, I'm so proud of them because there was a moment there we're down by three at the half against Syracuse and they're talking about their national championship seasons of years past and playing in the, what is it now? The JMA wireless. Matt Harmon: JMA wireless. Yep. Patrick Leahy: Of course, I always know it as the carrier. It's a carrier Matt Harmon: Dome Patrick Leahy: To be able to play there only down at three at the half and then 10 minutes to go. It's like now Syracuse is up by, what was it, 13 or something and we're like, oh, and we hung on and we hung on. We kept fighting, we got it back to 10 and then went on that little run. Jack Collins hits a three to cut it to two with what was that, 40 seconds left or something. Not much time and just didn't quite get everything to go our way at the end, but really, really proud of the fight. I just love the fact that we will play anyone and we'll go toe to toe with them. I mean it doesn't always result in wins, but that is a really proud moment for the program. Matt Harmon: Some big games coming up with men's basketball as well. You can catch Monmouth coming up at home. I think the next home game is this weekend. They've got Sunday against Robert Morris. Robert Morris Princeton coming up on the home schedule. You think about playing any one team will go down first weekend of December to Georgia Tech. They'll play down in Atlanta against one of the better teams out of the A CC. We'll save some of the athletic stuff for a little bit later and again, second part of the show talk Monmouth football. Let's get into this word or these two words. I'll start with the litany of topics that we can cover and see where we go. Strategic planning, that is something that I think any president for as long as I've been here, they talk about a strategic plan. It's usually five years. Sometimes it's extended out a little bit further than that. I know your current strategic plan five years, which means we're in the midst of putting together a new one, but for the common everyday person, when you say strategic plan, what does that mean to a university? Patrick Leahy: I think it means to us what it means to other organizations that do strategic planning is every few years, as you say, in our case, every five years, there's an intentional process to take stock of where we are as an institution and where we'd like to go over the next five horizon. It's a really intentional collaborative process across the campus so that we can be reflective of where we are and then start imagining where we could be in five years and it's a really good practice. This is a serious exercise here at Monmouth. I think some institutions do strategic planning to say they did it and then they button up the plan and stick it on the shelf and don't revisit it for five years, but every single year we're revisiting the plan. My annual goals that I report to the board are pulled right out of the strategic plan, so every single year we're keeping track of our progress and it's amazing that so quickly here we are in the fifth year of our excellence, access, ambition, strategic plan. I'll just say this too, that I could hardly be more proud of the progress we have made. Our overarching goal in the last strategic plan, this current plan is to be a bonafide national leader at integrating excellence and access. And I always say that Matt, that every pretty much every college or university in the country talks about that because they want to signal that they're both as excellent as they can be as an academic institution, but then they're making that excellence as available as possible to deserving students. So everybody talks about it. Fair enough. We decided that we not only wanted to talk about it, but we wanted to create a metric where we might prove beyond a reasonable doubt that we're integrating excellence and access and that is by being the highest ranked institution like us in the country with our access measures, mostly measured by the number of fly students, first generation or low income students that we have. And this last year, as we talked about at a previous episode, our rankings went up this year to our highest ever excellence and our access measures went up to our highest number ever. 55% of the first year class are fly students, so we are making huge progress toward our overarching goal to be a national leader at integrating excellence and access and it's very, very satisfying for me as the president and I hope for all of us who are involved here at Mama. Matt Harmon: Now, when you look at the strategic plan currently, or I'll say the old one for lack of a better term, and if you gauge success in one way, how do you gauge maybe what didn't work or how to improve? Because there's got to be things in there that you're thinking, wow, I wish we could have done a little bit more of this or we need to change this for the next one. How does that process work? Patrick Leahy: That's part of this process. So what we'll do is we'll take a look before we even start imagining the next five years, we'll do a fundamental assessment with our strategic planning committee of our current progress. So we have that overarching goal. We have six themes that support that goal, and then we have a lot of objectives within each of those six themes. We will review each one of those for this has been successful, we've completed this, take it off the table. Another option would be, you know what? We're not quite where we want to be. Let's roll this over into the new plan or a third option, which is we dream this up five years ago, but it's no longer relevant. We tried it and it was either not successful or it's not as relevant as we thought anymore. We'll just take it out of the plan and then of course we'll add a lot of things to the list of objectives. So that's I think a fundamental assessment of where we are starts with a review of our current plan to see what of that is still in progress and needs to be extended. When Matt Harmon: You think about the new plan or the next five years, I'm curious, I honestly don't know the answer to this. Do you put goals in there that are attainable? I'm sure the answer to that is yes. Do you put goals in there that are advantageous and a little bit of a stretch where you'd be okay at the end of a five year saying, Hey, we tried to get here but we didn't quite get there but we're getting closer? Patrick Leahy: Yes. I mean there's a whole range and you'll know all about this Matt, since I think if I remember correctly, you're going to be one of our representatives on the strategic committee. I'm on the committee, Matt Harmon: Another committee. Patrick Leahy: Some of 'em are sort of binary like are you going to build the part and broadcast center for example, we need a broadcast center, we built it, we did it, or you don't. Either you did it or you didn't do it. In that case, we did it. Check that box. It's very easy. There are other things like culture, the way in which we want to change culture here. Make sure that we're ensuring that an increasingly diverse student population, each one of whom feels equally welcome here and feels equally a part of this place. That's a hard thing to measure, but it's so important that we embed that in the plan even though it's a little bit harder to measure. So there's a lot of different ways to look at it. The specific goals, I'll give you one example, which is in this current strategic plan, we of course ambitioned to have a major capital campaign to support some of our goals in this strategic plan like making sure that we have enough money available to bring really deserving students here and some of the capital projects that we wanted to move on and we put in the strategic plan that we thought we could raise $75 million. Well, we went out publicly three and a half years later at $175 million and at the end of this fiscal year, which will coincide with the end of the strategic plan, we aim to be able to announce that we got to $175 million. So that wasn't padding the numbers. We just thought at that point, 75 to a hundred million would be a real stretch and we've just killed that goal. So a lot of 'em we don't make, but that's one we're going to be able to quite proudly say that not only did we achieve it, but we achieved it over a hundred percent Matt Harmon: Without getting maybe too deep in the numbers and the weeds. Moving from strategic plan to this, because I know any school public, private, small, large here in the CAA or if you're in the Big 10, you are relying on people to make donations during the course of a year, and I know Monmouth has one of their days coming up giving Tuesday, which is right after the Thanksgiving break on December 2nd, and I'm looking at the page right now. So I hear Capital Fund, right, that we just talked about in strategic plan and then I go on giving Tuesday and I see different ways for people to devote money, access fund, Monmouth Fund, scholarship fund, athletic Directors, excellence Fund, diversity and inclusion fund. That would all be part of Giving Tuesday, which is something completely separate than you're talking about with the capital fund that's been worked on over the course of the last several years. Patrick Leahy: It's a separate track, but to be fair, all the money that we've raised in the last five years ultimately gets added into that number. So any support that we're able to get on Giving Tuesday does in fact help to support our efforts to get to 175 million. Matt Harmon: And this is something that we kind of touched on in our October episode, which was in and around homecoming I thought you perfectly put on whether you graduated last year or 50 years ago, this is your home. We want you to be part of it. You talk about the culture for current students, that culture also goes to alums as well that when they come back to campus, you want those people to feel proud of the university that they went to. And again, listen, to be fair, Monmouth isn't the University of Michigan. We don't have hundreds of thousands of alums, but those that came here, myself included, I like walking around the campus and I often tell you it's nice to walk around the campus and feel like, man, this place is put together. This place looks great. You can see the improvements that have taken place and those donations that people make, and this is a little plug for giving Tuesday coming up December 2nd do go a really long way, whether it's $5 or $5 million, it's that old line. Every bit helps. Patrick Leahy: Every bit helps and we always try to argue that compared to a place like Michigan, any philanthropy that we're able to receive here at Monmouth will go a lot further here than it might at a really, really big place. I mean, when we get a donation, for example to our athletic directors excellence fund, last year we reported over $30 million of gross commitments to our campaign, 200 and some thousand of which went to that athletic director excellence fund. You might say, well, why is that such a big deal? You raised $30 million 200,000 because that 200,000 is presented to our athletic director, Jen Vero, and she's instructed to spend it in the coming year on improving the student athlete experience here, and then we will fill up that bucket again next year and then the year after that and the year after that. That's like having a $4 million endowment in athletics. If every year we do the golf tournament for example, and we raise over $200,000, it's like having a 4 million endowment to athletics. Now you're starting to see, oh, okay, I can see how even my a thousand dollars gift can go a long way at a place like Monmouth in a way that I just dunno how that happens at much bigger places where that would get lost in a huge infrastructure. Matt Harmon: Actually when you think of it, that first week of December is a pretty interesting, exciting, important week. You've got the Giving Tuesday, December 2nd, which leads into the weekend of December 6th of which one of the highlight events, kind of the month of December almost in some ways I always thought of it as a kickoff to the holiday season on campus. You've got the gala at the Great Hall. If you can take us through that a little bit, why that's important, what it is, how people can be involved with it and what ultimately it does for the benefit of the campus here at Monmouth. So Patrick Leahy: It's one of our few marquee events of the year. We try to limit the number of events just so we can make them marquee. It's our marquee event of the year. It's always the first Saturday in December. It's right here at the Great Hall. It's to raise money for the access fund, which is a pool of funds that allows us to close gaps to the extent possible for students who are ambition to come to Monmouth and just can't quite afford it. Once all the state money is tapped, once all of our institutional financial aid is tapped, there's still a little bit of a gap, so we raise money to try to close that gap for deserving students. It's part of our access play here at Monmouth, and so it's just an annual fundraiser and it's typically very successful this year. It also gives me the unique opportunity to present the President's medal, which is a recognition that we just created five years ago, six years ago when I started to recognize basically life time commitment to the place. And this year I'm really proud that I'm going to be able to give the president's medal for only the third time I believe to Marianne Hess. And if any of our listeners have never met Marianne Hess, they probably know of her because Hess Field is a result of her generosity as Hall is a result of her generosity and so many other things here at Monmouth over so many years. And so it's what a delight for me to be able to recognize her publicly and her family by extension for a lifetime of support to Monmouth University. I just think that's really important that we do that to show the people whom we care so much about that they really matter. Matt Harmon: So those are some things coming up over the course of the next couple of weeks. Let's spend our next last couple of minutes here in our first segment going back a little bit and talk about some things that have been going on on campus a little bit more than a week ago was November 11th Veteran's Day and Monmouth has always done, and when I say always, I don't remember a year that something wasn't done on this campus to recognize veterans from the perspective of you might be a current Monmouth student, you might be someone who served the country, came to Monmouth after and graduated, or just kind of a general thank you to those that have served the country. It's always been kind of a special day here on campus and I give you a ton of credit for elevating it over your five years because it was always recognized, but now it's a much bigger deal. Well, Patrick Leahy: Thank you for saying that. It's a privilege for me to be able to recognize our veterans. One category that I'd like to include as well is some faculty and staff members who also served our country in uniform. We have a ceremony every year to try to recognize our veterans, both part of this community but across the entire entire country. I say this every year Matt, and I'll repeat it here that I sometimes say the older I get, the more I regret that I never served my country in uniform. I mean, I thought about it when I was in college and even went down to the Marine Corps recruiting station in Washington DC my senior year and was debating whether to join the service just for a few years and I didn't and my life went in another direction. The older I get and the more I appreciate what our veterans have done for us and I just want to make sure that we do everything we can not to take their sacrifices for granted. And I say every year at our ceremony, because I never serve my country in uniform, I feel like one way I can serve my country is to try to be supportive of those who did serve our country in uniform. Maybe it's because I'm the son of a Marine, maybe it's just that I appreciate that they have dedicated their lives to serving our country so that we might enjoy the freedoms that we have. But every year I'm here, we'll continue to celebrate them at Veterans Day, at Memorial Day, at every commencement I ask our men and women in uniform to stand. It's often the biggest applause we get at our commencement ceremonies and we'll continue to do that as a small gesture to show our appreciation. Matt Harmon: You know what I think is amazing, and I'll share a quick personal anecdote. My son Cooper, he is my middle of the three. He goes to Springfield College is a student athlete up there, a plays men's soccer in their conference. They are affiliated and played at the end of the year in a playoff game, which unfortunately they lost in penalty kicks to Coast Guard and they played on the campus of the Coast Guard Academy. I don't know if you've ever been there in Connecticut. I mean it is a place that is out of some sort of Norman Rockwell painting with the picturesque and the water and where it's kind of settled in Connecticut and as I like to try and socialize and walk around a little bit, and I saw a couple of, they turned out to be upperclassmen, they had fishing poles. They were going to enjoy night fishing in a nice November night. And I have always come to realize this with people who serve their country served, who are veterans or those that are going to serve their country. All they really want, quite honestly is just a thank you. And that's why I say, Hey, I appreciate you guys for what you are about to do when you graduate here because it's a major sacrifice. I mean, you say you go to the Army, you go to Navy, you go to the Coast Guard Academy, you go to the Air Force Academy, you are giving your life up in some ways for the next five, six years after you graduate college, which oh by the way, isn't the common everyday college experience because of what those men and women are doing in their four years. Yeah, Patrick Leahy: My nephew just graduated in the spring from the Naval Academy and so I have a heightened sense of appreciation for that. I'm really proud of the fact that Monmouth has always recognized year over year over year as a military friendly institution by organizations that track this. So I'm really proud of that. We'll continue to make sure that's the case. One thing that disappoints me a little bit is the two previous universities at which I worked, one had the Army ROTC, and the last one had the Air Force ROTC program on campus. I really wish we had an ROTC program here on campus as a way to continue to support our budding officers, but we'll keep looking for ways to support our veterans. In fact, just later today I am going to join the student veterans in a ruck walk. Now a ruck walk is typically you throw a really heavy ruck sack on and then you walk up a mountain 10 miles or something, right? Well, we're going to do a little differently here. We're going to gather, fill our rucks with canned goods for our nest, our food pantry, and take what I'm calling a ruck stroll around campus before we deposit the goods to the nest. So I don't want to overstate what it is. I don't know if I could handle a 10 mile walk through the woods up a mountain, but I can handle a walk around the campus with our student veterans, especially in pursuit of such a good cause. Matt Harmon: So a couple of odds and ends here. To wrap our first segment, I was looking at a list that was sent over going into the show today, academic highlights and I see Model UN at Oxford. Did we have students go to Oxford Patrick Leahy: Every year? They go every year. They go to an international competition at Oxford. I mean Oxford in the uk. The real Oxford. Yeah, the real Oxford. And they did extremely well. Came back with awards and everything. I mean, we're one of the only American universities at that particular international competition. What an experience for our students. Matt Harmon: How do we get the invite to that? Patrick Leahy: I think I hand it to our Ken Mitchell, our professor that runs that program that he gets us into that every year. So I visit with Model un, I visit with the debate Hawks. I visit today with our sort of rejuvenated mock trial program. I'm visiting with them today in fact. And I do that because in a way that's supporting teams here at Monmouth as well. I try to visit all the athletic teams and try to support them in the way in which they compete against other schools. So I've just extended that to any of our teams that go compete against other schools. Model UN Debate, Hawks Mock Trial, the Kila Real Estate Institute case Competition. Every time our students have a chance to go up against students at other fine schools and then prove that we can compete with them, oftentimes win those competitions. It does a little bit to burnish the reputation of Monmouth and that's one of the reasons I'm so supportive of those groups Matt Harmon: We are expecting in the next couple of minutes, Monmouth football coach Kevin Callahan to come by. We're going to talk about his team this season. They're in the midst of a historic run, which hopefully culminates with at least a home game in the upcoming FCS playoffs right now. Monmouth teetering in that top 10 area at the FCS level. Let's finish our first segment with just how the fall went overall. We started with men's basketball playing last night. We're in that crossover, which November always is the first couple of weeks, the end of the fall, the beginning of the winter season near Miss at Syracuse. But it looks like King Rice has some really good pieces this year and should challenge in the CAA. Women's basketball appeared on ESPN's top 10 recently, which is always kind of a cool thing. And it happens from time to time with different sports and football was on it earlier this season. Women's basketball was on it just over the course of the Patrick Leahy: Last week. Yeah, amazing. Amazing. First and foremost, such a great experience for the student athletes to have those opportunities to compete and then when there are really great plays to be, get that national recognition for them. But once again, it's like that every time Monmouth is mentioned in a national setting for something that we did that showcases our students, that helps to burnish the reputation of Monmouth. One of the reasons that the industry has never looked at us like they do today. I mean we're ranked as high as we've ever been as I mentioned. And I think that's a testament to the students and what they do day in and day out with you. Faculty Matt Harmon: Members, men's soccer in the postseason, women's soccer in the postseason field. Hockey, just an incredible year. And my heart breaks for the field hockey program that they lost a heartbreaking game to Drexel in the CA final. And unfortunately with the number of teams despite finishing in the top 15, I think they finished, there's not many at large teams that go to the field hockey tournament. So a near miss, but just an unbelievable season and will finish as the highest ranked team ever in program history. Yeah, Patrick Leahy: Amazing. Just amazing and a great year on and off the field with field hockey. I was just counting as you ticked them off. Women's soccer, went to the postseason, men's soccer, went to the postseason field, hockey went to the postseason. Our hope is Ball GOs is playing football will go to the postseason. I mean that's excellence from top to bottom in Monmouth Matt Harmon: Athletics. And I did see cross country had a couple of all league performers as well. I am fortunate enough to have one of our rowing students in class and talked about the experience they had when they went up to Boston and raced in the Charles River, which head Patrick Leahy: Of the Charles. Yeah, Matt Harmon: The highlight of any rowing person's career, right? Patrick Leahy: Yeah. I never had a chance to row in the head of the Charles. How do you like that? So what happened? I just another Matt Harmon: Near Patrick Leahy: Miss, another near Miss, another near miss. I rode for a few years at Georgetown and never had the chance to You were in the Potomac race. Yeah. Never raced the Charles frankly. But that is as you point out, it's a highlight for any rower to be able to compete in the head of the Charles. Matt Harmon: I mean, when you think of the sport of rowing, and I don't know it from a college perspective, I know it from working on the beach for as long as I have and rowing in the Atlantic. But when I do and just recently had a group of students, I did it a couple years ago, did it last week, went up to Boston, and anytime I drive by the Charles River, I am amazed. It doesn't matter the temperature, it doesn't matter the weather. There are boats because of the number of colleges that are involved with that sport. To see the activity on that river day in and day out and know how important that sport is, especially to that northeast community, in some ways it's like inspiring to go and Patrick Leahy: Take a look at it. It's very inspiring, especially when as you point out Matt, sometimes it's snowing, literally snowing, and there's still training on the water. It's a grueling sport and it's often five in the morning or late in the evening. It's like every other division one sort of athletic activity. It is a grind, but teaches life lessons that I think stick with our students for years and years to come. Matt Harmon: Great. First half hour. Looking forward to talking with Monmouth football head coach Kevin Callahan. We're going to take a break here. When we come back, we'll talk football. We'll get into it a little bit more. Hawks right now, nine and two, threatening to get into the FCS playoffs. Hopefully a home game, potentially a buy in the opening round will break down that and a whole lot more with someone who is one of the best people that this campus has ever had on it. He is the only football coach in school history starting the program in 1993. Kevin Callahan right after this quick break. Matt Harmon: Fantastic episode here. Number three, Monmouth Matters inside perspective with university President Dr. Patrick Lehey. I'm faculty member Matt Harmon. As we said first half, we took care of a ton of stuff. We're saving the back end of the show to talk about someone who has been here now for 33 years as the head football coach, the only coach that the school has known Kevin Callahan. Good enough to come off the practice field. Give us a couple of minutes here. Talk about what has been a historic season so far for this Monmouth program. And I say that knowing that Coach will immediately probably punch me in the arm and say, we still got one game left. Playoffs are in sight, but a huge game this weekend to close out the 2025 regular season against Albany, which I think on some levels coach is so ironic because Albany brings me back to the days of the Northeast Conference that was maybe one of your biggest rivals in the earlier days of football. And you have a chance to put an exclamation point on the 2025 season with a win against the team that on some levels there's been respect. But like that great rivalry that existed back in the early days of Monmouth football. Kevin Callahan: Well, that's true Matt. And I can honestly say that Albany is where I started my coaching career. I was 21 years old, a college graduate. I graduated from University of Rochester and literally two months after my graduation I was on the campus at Albany starting as a grad assistant there. I did not know that. Spent the next three years there actually. So it's with Bob Ford, with Bob Ford and it's kind of come full circle, but as you mentioned, there's always been a terrific rivalry between Monmouth and Albany, each team having their own set of runs along the way, but always a great program and a very good game. Matt Harmon: We joked right before we came on, I said we're going to talk about the thing that you dislike talking about the most, which is you because we could break down the X's and O's, which we do on our broadcast every week. But you mentioned being at Albany, which makes me think of Bob Ford, who for a long time was the winningest coach at the FCS level. You are now the active winningest coach at the FCS level. When you think of somebody like Coach Ford, I would say Coach Hamline who you worked with for years at Wagner, what does it mean to you when you see you name associated with those coaches that you used to either work with respect and learn from in so many different ways? Kevin Callahan: Well, I think it really means I've just been here a long time, Matt. I think that's what it really comes down to. The longer you stick around, the longer people keep you around. Those things add up. I really try not to think about that too often. I have a saying within our football team, within the football program, and that's let's be one and oh this week. And that's where our focus is. That's what I try to do is think about the task at hand. And this week the task at hand is Albany Matt Harmon: A game that will start at 12 o'clock at Kessler Stadium, Monmouth trying to pick up their 10th win, which would lead into the FCS playoffs. You and I joked about this a little bit over the weekend down at North Carolina a and t, it's hard to navigate, okay, at large top eight seed, do you get a buy? Are you home? Are you on the road? And I said, who's monitoring that? And I think you gave me the answer, it's me because you want your coaches to kind of worry about what's going on more on the field. But you could wake up on a Wednesday morning right now and type in FCS playoff predictions and you would see Monmouth anywhere from I saw high as eight, as low as 13, depending on some of these. And in some ways I know your answer is going to be win the game this week and let those things take care of wherever they're going to fall. Kevin Callahan: Well, that's true. And Bill Parcell has always had this old saying, he said, don't worry that the horse is blind, just load the damn wagon. And that's what I try to tell my assistant coaches all the time. Just load the damn wagon. Don't worry that the horse is blind. Patrick Leahy: Every team culture has a certain set of fundamental principles. Right. What would you say yours are over all these years, Kevin? Kevin Callahan: I mean, I think the biggest thing that we've had going for us right now and that we've always had is just the genuine comradery that exists between or among the players on our team. For instance, after practice, you don't see one player walking across campus to go to class. You see a group of players going to class, you walk into the dining hall and it's a table of eight to 10 guys sitting down having lunch. I think they genuinely enjoy each other's company. They enjoy spending time together. And any type time that you have, that type of cohesiveness, that type of closeness, I think you've got a good chance to be successful on the quarter, on the field or whatever it might be. Patrick Leahy: Do you recruit that or do you develop that? Kevin Callahan: I think we do both. I think it is very important in the recruiting process to identify those young men who kind of have that ability to give of themselves, to be part of the greater good part of the whole. And I think it's something that once they come into our program, the locker room culture almost demands that they become that type of individual. Matt Harmon: When you think of it in so many ways, I am thinking of the athletic department as a whole coach. You've been there. I remember walking in and meeting you for the first time in probably the winner of 92 and saying, Hey, I'm a freshman at Albright College, I'd like to transfer back home. I know football's going to start. And thank God it was 1993 because there's no chance I'd be playing in today's world. And it was like, let me check your pulse. You got a pulse? Alright, we'll take you at that point. But now you've stayed Monmouth for all those years. And I will throw it this way because you talk about culture. Dini Hall, I think came a couple years after you. King Rice has been there for a long time. Rob McCourt's been there for a long time. Carly Figlio has been there for a long time. All of the coaches that have been at Monmouth for an extremely long time, which have had opportunities I'm sure to come, go leave. Why does everyone stay at a place like Monmouth for as long as they have? Kevin Callahan: I think there's a genuine feeling of the closeness. We're a tight-knit community, not only as a campus in general, but also within the athletic department. It's a very tight-knit group. I think the fact that we're all in one building enhances that as well. I mean, you come in the morning, everybody's door is always open. I talk to Coach Rice, I talk to Coach Figley, I talk to Coach Eal on a daily basis. Coach McCourt, coach Flynn. I mean, it's something that we're always asking each other how you're doing, what's up, who's coming up next for their program? And I think we all take a genuine interest in each other's successes. Patrick Leahy: So over all those years, let's be honest, you must have had opportunities to leave Monmouth and to go other places. What was it about? Matt Harmon: Wait, we need that breaking news story because this is a, you don't need to name names, I just want to know. This is a code I have never been able to really crack. Okay. When could you have left? Well, he has to Kevin Callahan: Answer the president. He have to answer this. Yes, that's correct. I have to answer the president. Well, let me put it this way. Prior to coming to Monmouth, I spent eight years at Colgate. During those eight years I was married, my wife lived up there. She grew up in the Jersey Shore. She grew up literally two blocks from the Atlantic Ocean on the beach. And after eight years in Colgate, the opportunity to come to Monmouth. And it's interesting how that came about. I came home one day from recruiting, it was in the spring and there on my refrigerator was an article from the Asbury Park Press saying that Monmouth College at the time was going to start a football program. And it was highlighted. And I said, Hmm, I wonder how that got up there. And that's really how it all started. And then Jeff Stapleton, our former athletic director here, he was an assistant athletic director here, but he was formerly an assistant basketball coach at Colgate. So I called Jeff and said, Hey, what's going on? Are they really going to start? And one thing led to another, and here I am 33 years later. Patrick Leahy: Well, didn't Jeff predate you even he was here before here. Before you. He was here. Wait, Colgate, it's not in, is it in Not in Hamilton. Hamilton. It is in Hamilton. Hamilton, yeah. So can I just ask you real quickly about the Colgate game this year? I mean, is it true that we had, let's be honest, a horrible first half, but you and the quarterback went in at halftime and said, we got this, we're going to get this done. And we were down 28 or whatever Kevin Callahan: At the half. It was one of the most amazing halftime moments I've ever been associated with. I walked into the locker room after meeting with the coaches and they had us on two different floors there. The offense was upstairs, the defense was downstairs, and I kind of walked in and the calm in that locker room was something I had never seen before. And I look over and I see our quarterback, Derek Robertson sitting down. He says, don't worry coach, we got this. That's in a very calm demeanor, calm voice. And he had had probably one of his worst halves of football that he's ever had. I think he threw four first half interceptions. He says, don't worry, we got this. And it was that sense of calm. I think that just kind of spread across our entire team. And we went out and it was very businesslike in the second half and we were fortunate enough to come away with a win. Matt Harmon: You did a great job by the way of dismissing the original question, which is how many times have you thought about leaving and why are you still here? See, I'm pretty good at this. And what school did you think about going to? But in all seriousness, I know obviously the roots with your wife and your kids went to man school in high school and now Kevin, your son is here coaching with you. So clearly there's the connection. But in all seriousness, in a world where coaches move and change all the time, part of the reason that I asked about all the coaches at Monmouth, there's a reason everybody stays. And it's not just because your wife grew up at the Jersey Shore. There's another reason as to when school X, Y, and Z called you said, Nope, I'm okay, I'm good at Monmouth. Kevin Callahan: Well, from a personal standpoint, I was very happy with what we were building, what we were trying to accomplish here at Monmouth. In the time that I've been here, it's really been like five or six different types of program. When I came in in 92, as you remember, 93, the objective was to go out and recruit 100 male athletes who would add to the undergraduate enrollment and start a football program. We were non-scholarship at the time. We were a member of the ECAC, which is kind of a very loosely affiliated group of schools. And then maybe four years in, we joined the Northeast Conference and then that again brought some new challenges after about three years, the Northeast Conference went to some limited scholarship football, so we had to change our direction and how we were putting a program together. Then it was maybe five years after that that we went to the big South and that was big boy football then. And we had to really go out and generate a lot, recruit a lot of guys that had speed because that's what the Big South was playing with. Not as much size but incredibly fast. And then after the last five years in the Big South, we played for the championship each and every year it really became a two team race with Monmouth and Kennesaw State. And then as we ventured into the Coastal Athletic Conference, the CAA, then we found out that not only do we need the speed, but we need size. So we had to go out and recruit size and speed. And fortunately we were able to retain the speed component and I think we're probably one of the fastest teams in the CAA right now. But it took us four years to really get to where we are today. Patrick Leahy: So what you're really saying is that just as you get it figured out, the administration changes to the next level. Is that what you're telling me, such an elegant way to say it. Do you Matt Harmon: Want to ask for a change in budget right now on the record? Can we do that right now? Patrick Leahy: Well, and isn't it true Kennesaw State, didn't they jump up to FBS? Kevin Callahan: They were an FBS team. Patrick Leahy: Yeah. Yeah. So I mean that says a lot that it was a two team race for all those years and now one of 'em is playing at the next level and the Kevin Callahan: Other one in the early years in the CAA or in Big South was Liberty. They're an FBS team program now. And Coastal, when you first joined Coastal Carolina, is that coming next? Well we see where that takes Matt Harmon: Us. Let's see how the rest of the interview goes. Patrick Leahy: I've always wanted to ask you this and I hope it's not too personal a question, but is it like working day in and day out with your son on the staff? Kevin Callahan: It's a tremendous experience. There's just so much to it. And it's funny, I go home each night and my wife says, well, how's Kevin doing today? And I said, yeah, I really didn't talk to him much today. She goes, how can you work 12 hours you a day, you're at the same place and you don't talk to each other. And there's some truth to that as well, but it is great seeing his career kind of unfold and the job he's doing, coaching our receivers, he's been outstanding. He's having a lot of fun here. He's really enjoying the moment. And he's been with us now, what, five or six years I think. Matt Harmon: Funny story. At breakfast at North Carolina a and t on Saturday, Kevin is in charge of the travel kind of aspect of it. So he books the rooms, he makes sure the meals are there. He's walking around telling everybody when they can get up. Patrick Leahy: I heard this, Kevin does all that Matt Harmon: Making, he was, that's part two of this story coming is I stopped him and I said, I'm imagining your dad doing this at somewhere along the way at Albany at Colgate. And he probably said the same thing that you did being that coach, I can't wait until I don't have to do this anymore. I don't want to be the guy telling everybody when to get up and eat. Now, little known fact, I have never in my years of doing Monmouth football seen you eat breakfast before a game. Not once. Kevin Callahan: And I don't think I ever have to be honest with you. I can't eat the morning of a game. I can't eat the night before a game really. I mean it's just some of those things that Patrick Leahy: What happens if we draw a nighttime game in the postseason Matt Harmon: The day Patrick Leahy: Before Matt Harmon: He'll be hungry is what he will be this Monmouth team here in 2025, again, you'll finish up your season against Albany. The playoffs do loom, which would be Thanksgiving weekend. That would be the first round. The goal would be can you figure your way into a top eight spot, which gives you a buy in the opening round and a guaranteed home game in the second round. My question is, you've been to the playoffs a few times from the big South, the COVID year kind of pops in my brain as well. This would be the fourth time that the school is qualified for the FCS playoffs. How does this year's team rank up with maybe those prior teams in terms of where you feel like they are and how far maybe they could go? Kevin Callahan: That's a pretty easy question, but this is by far the best. There's no doubt about it in my mind. I think the wealth of talent that we have, the different positions, I mean it is not dominated by a running back or a receiver or a quarterback. We have all of those components. We have a defense that's relatively young, I was just looking at it yesterday, eight red shirt freshmen that start for that group. And what you've seen in the last four to five weeks is that unit really coming to life and starting to be very productive. And this is one of the best that we've ever had. And I can't wait to see where we fall when the playoffs selections come out Matt Harmon: And an amazing kind of, I'd say success stories, but I think it's story ease after the season you had last year, of which you finished up with a couple of wins at the end of the year, which you have told me springboarded your team into the offseason and through the preseason. And now here in 2025, Derrick Robertson quarterback suffers an injury middle of this year. Frankie Weaver wins the national freshman of the week after last week's performance, throw six touchdowns against North Carolina a and t Derek if he's healthy. You and I have talked about this probably is the national player of the year at the FCS level, but that's kind part one. Part two is you got everybody to come back in a world of college athletics that everyone is thinking what's my next step and where can I go get a paycheck? It really speaks overall to your program and what the culture is all about. Kevin Callahan: And what it really speaks to is Derek Robertson. I mean he put together a public announcement last spring and said, I'm coming back because we're going to play for a championship. And I think by him acknowledging the fact that he was going to return and the fact that we had all these potential weapons that would return, I think everybody else kind of jumped on board and said, yeah, well I want to be a part of that too. And we lost very few guys in the transfer portal, which as you said, Matt is something that that's part of the everyday business right now. Patrick Leahy: I mean, what an impressive young man Derek is. I mean he has such a bright future, whether it's in football or whatever else, but what a leader he has been for the program. Kevin Callahan: That's a great description. He is truly a leader as we all know. He had surgery and he's been out at practice every single day. Had to go back to New York for a doctor appointment yesterday and got some really positive news. So we're looking forward to potentially getting him back on the field. Patrick Leahy: Quick shout out to Coach Walker in the job he's doing. I mean, of course we know Coach Gallo's going to score a lot of points, but Coach Walker's doing a fine job. He he's Kevin Callahan: Doing a great job developing the defensive side and the defensive unit has really made significant progress since the beginning of the year. Patrick Leahy: So in our remaining time, I want to ask you this question, Kevin. I mean, you're 33 years into this, right? You've been a head coach for 33 years. For someone like myself who's only been here seven years, 33 sounds like a long time. What is it about coaching that keeps that fuel in your tank that keeps you going and coaching at this level is a grind. I know that it's a grind, but what is it about it that keeps you so motivated over all those years? Kevin Callahan: Honestly, it's the players. It's the young men in your program. It's the different personalities that they all bring, the issues that they have, the home life that they come from. I mean, every one of them is different. You've got 105 sons out there and there's not one day that goes by that one of them doesn't have an issue of some kind or another. But it's really the players that keeps you in it. And I've heard a long time ago, one of my mentors said to me, when you start thinking about it's time to get out of coaching, it's time to get out of coaching. And I can honestly say that I have never thought about that Matt Harmon: Coach. We started our broadcast today with some of the things that Monmouth has coming up, giving day on Tuesday, the gala coming up the first week of December. And President Lehe and I often talk about the connection to the school. I'm curious in a year like this one for you, you must have your phone just text after text from guys that have played for you at some point saying, great job, keep it up. Can't wait to see in the playoffs, whatever the messages is. Your alumni base from a football perspective is strong. And I know really important to you. Kevin Callahan: It's very strong and it's a very active group too, Matt, and just for instance, on the bus and then the plane ride coming back from North Carolina last weekend, I think I had to answer 120 different techs in me from former players, guys that have been with the program, including Patrick Leahy: From the president, Kevin Callahan: Including one from the president. But that's a great part of the job. I mean that they all stay connected, that they all have such a high level of interest in not only what we're doing but how we're doing. And I think we'll see a large number of them here this weekend as well. Matt Harmon: I want to finish with an important question. WMCX we're in the radio station. We established that you don't eat before the game with breakfast. You don't eat the night before, but are you someone who as players would say, this is my playlist before the game? Are you listening to music? What is Coach Callahan's playlist before a game? Who are you listening to? Yeah. Kevin Callahan: And if you don't listen to anything Patrick Leahy: And if you're really connected to today's students, you'll also know what their music is, right, Kevin? Kevin Callahan: Well, as you know, we play music at practice and that's to up the level of concentration. And it's booming pretty loud over there. And every single day I have to say, who's this? What's that? Who's this? And they look at me. Our players look at me like I'm crazy. They say, coach, you don't know that. I say, no, I don't know. This Matt Harmon: Last game of the season coming up, coach, we're going to do something real quick before we let you go, which is talk about one of the holidays that's associated with football, which is Thanksgiving, which is coming up next week. I know a tradition for the longest time your son was involved with it. He played for Mangu High School against Wall. They played the traditional Thanksgiving Day game. What is Thanksgiving like with the Callahans and what do you guys do tradition wise? Kevin Callahan: Well, in most years we get up early. We go to the Manasqua Wall football game, which is an annual Thanksgiving Day game. My son and I will go to that. We'll come back home and some of my wife's family who's all from this area will come over and we celebrate Thanksgiving. And there's usually a football game on the television in the background this year. Fortunately, if things go well, we'll be practicing that morning and I may have to miss that game. And our plan would be to practice in the morning as we usually do, and then give our players the rest of the day off so they can go visit their families. And I know they're already talking about guys from outside the area, pairing up with guys that live a little bit closer, have to come back that evening and get back at it on Friday. Matt Harmon: President Lehe, what's going on over? Are you having the football team over for Thanksgiving dinner? Oh geez. Patrick Leahy: Oh my gosh. No pressure. Pressure. There was already some talk about whether we should have the basketball team over, so I don't know how we're going to accommodate this. We don't have a lot of traditions in our family. As long as our family is together, it doesn't matter if it's here or it doesn't matter. We are what we call immovable feast. Wherever we are as a family, it feels right to us. So we don't really have a lot of traditions. I did growing up, but since I've had my own family, Amy and I have just decided that every Thanksgiving's a little bit different as long as we're with the four kids and now son-in-law, the five kids. Matt Harmon: And I know for you, I'll give you the last word here, the opportunity to give a university-wide Thanksgiving message as we go into break next week. Patrick Leahy: I just believe we are incredibly blessed here at Monmouth, and we have a lot for which to be grateful. The most important thing is the relationships that are established on this campus. That is what makes Monmouth special. Yes, we continue to invest in the campus. We will continue to try to invest in scholarships to make coming here as affordable as possible. We'll do all of those things. But what makes Monmouth special are the people, and I'm incredibly grateful and I hope we all are for that here this holiday season. Matt Harmon: Very well said. Looking forward to wrapping up the football season regular season wise this weekend. Albany at home, 12 o'clock kickoff. Hopefully there's a ton more football left to be played with one of the best coaches that this school has ever had at the FCS level. And I say this wholeheartedly, coach a better person, and there's no question about it. Having known you for the better part of 30 something years now, at this point, I am a better person for my relationship with you and really appreciate you coming over and giving us a couple minutes today. Kevin Callahan: Well, thank you, Matt. It's my pleasure to be here Matt Harmon: For university President, Dr. Patrick Lehe, our entire student group. I'm faculty member Matt Horman. We will be back second week of December, talk about things from a holiday perspective. Wrapping up episode four and the calendar year. This is episode three. We say goodbye from the studios of WMCX. Thanks so much for listening to this episode of Monmouth Matters with an inside perspective from university President Dr. Patrick Leahy. Have a great day. Outro: All episodes of Monmouth Matters. The President's perspective are available for download and listening. Pleasure on Apple Podcasts and the university website, monmouth.edu. Technical assistance is provided by engineer Eric Reiser and Dr. Aaron Ferguson. The show is produced by Nick Tonio, John Grano, Chloe Goss and Frank Horley. The executive producers and hosts of Monmouth Matters are University President, Dr. Patrick Legge, and faculty member Dr. Matt Haren. Thanks as always for listening.