Charlie Ragle: From Taylor's High School Head Coach - To Assistant Head Coach At ASU

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Speaker 1: Just grabbed the mic, grab the mike.

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Speaker 2: Put that thing nice and close to them.

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Speaker 1: Lips A.

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Speaker 3: Welcome to another episode of Busts with the Boys our spring tour Chevrolet. We got a shout out the boys of Chevrolet. No free shotus to Chevrolet, specifically the Silverado EV. Chevy is a trusted company that has been innovating for the last one hundred years. Up to now, most electric vehicles have been either too expensive, too small, and too limited and capabilities for most people. Chevy is committed to make an EV's available for all Americans. There is a growing network of public charging stations stations and there are over nineteen hundred certified Chevy EV dealerships. Chevy has convenient ways to research and shop EV's online. EV's for everyone everywhere. This is an absolute pleasure. We have head coach of Chaparral, Chaparral, right.

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Speaker 2: Chaparral coach Charlie Ragel was head coach Chapero, maybe the most winningest coach in Chaparral history, but the.

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Speaker 3: Head coach of Chaparo when you were in school. That's why this is important, right. We get to if anybody who listened to Dave Seigler interview. You can check that one out when we sent on the Raiders GM. This is the same bloodline basically, not genetically, but you know what I mean, I'm with you that Taylor came from. So I assume this is gonna be a great storytelling podcast between now two.

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Speaker 1: Yeah.

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Speaker 2: So just background, man, I was my junior year, my freshman through junior year, I'm playing noose tackle and Chaparral High School, Scottsdale. It's a lot of money in that school, a lot of like a lot of resources at Chaparral. They come up to Cave Creek and fucking donkey us now, Trace Carrol, his dad was just a play guy I played with for like one year on like Pop Warner comes up to my dad. I was like, Hey, what are you doing with Taylor? And I's like, what do you mean? He's just trying to play football hopefully get a scholarship. And he's like, I think you need to have a meeting. So he goes and sit down with Ragel and I don't know what happened to that meeting, but I would love to hear that conversation you had.

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Speaker 4: Well, let's back up, because first of all, that was junior year. We go up to Cactus Shadows, you know, and it's up about a good twenty minute drive from the Dale, and uh, we're playing Cave Creek and alls I know is they've got this really big, good looking Kui and they're playing him at nose tackle. The thing I remember most about that game is that there was a really bad cornerback. And this is great coaching right here, I said, tomorrow, c's up in the box. Before the game kicks off, I said, hey, Dave, Mike Cummings, we had a really good receiver. I said, he's covering this guy. You just throw it to this guy all night long. And we went for twelve catches, two hundred and fifty yards, four tugs, sixty points on the board. The de tackle was a non factor. That was a non factor. I literally I wasn't even a player. You would look at and be like, we got a block picture.

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Speaker 1: He walked, was big, he.

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Speaker 4: Was long, good looking, and so fast forward to the spring of oh wait, oh wait, right, yeah, oh wait, and yeah, I guess I could say this now. I had a breakfast with his dad, which is illegal, I suppose, but what the hell, And there's gotta be a statute of limitations on.

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Speaker 1: That doesn't there.

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Speaker 4: So we met and just talked about the potential. We had a really good defensive end was Taylor's teammate, Craig row At, And Craig was a four point zero student, had every offer in the country as a junior. So going to that spring, you knew that our place was going to be packed with dudes coaches coming through. And Taylor's dad knew that, and you know, he thought, man, this is the opportunity for Taylor to to to get seen.

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Speaker 1: And now did you pitch him to move the offensive line versus no tax?

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Speaker 4: Well, when I saw him, I was just like, man, look, this guy's a no brainer offensive tackle. Like I mean, you look at him, He's athletic, how he bins. It was like, this is And at the time, our offensive line coach had was in his early seventies, Ron Hibbeneck was retired, had played at USC coach was a long time offensive line coach for the Patriots way back in the day. And so I'm just like, this makes so much sense for this guy to play offensive line, and and I just told his dad, if we can get him there and he does what he needs to do. He's gonna blow up. I hadn't seen the transcript yet. Let me preface that, brother, it was bad. I don't know that he went to school for the first two and a half years. When I saw that thing, Man, it was bad, bad from.

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Speaker 1: My my freshman year.

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Speaker 2: The first semester I failed three classes, and then my second semester I failed four. So I failed seven classes my freshman year of high school.

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Speaker 4: Yes, yes, as they say, yeah, the border and so my man here was rocking into Chaptown with the one six GPA. And uh but back then the NCAA right time. Life's about timing, as we all know. And uh, back then, you could replace as many classes as you wanted to. There was no there was no rule on how many classes as there is now. So I told him, man, hey, it's time to go to work. We're gonna we're gonna change that. We're gonna change the face of your landscape. And uh, that's exactly what we did. A lot of a lot of credit to a lot of people. And you know, he left with the two point six GPA, and uh uh there was probably forty plus Power five Division I schools that came through that spring, and you know, credit to Tony Dues.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, you guys all know, dudes, he's out there. Dudes.

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Speaker 4: Dudes believed me when I told him, like, we're going to get this dude right, Like, we will get this guy qualified.

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Speaker 1: You just got to trust me on that.

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Speaker 4: And so Dues stayed because everybody came to see Craig and obviously Craig was a hot commodity and a really good player as well, but everybody was asking about Taylor, you know, and then you show him the transcript, they're like, good talk, coach. And so my man pounded some workout again, a lot of a lot of resources and a lot of help, and you know, a few months later, my man is rocking at two six and he's on his way to go blue.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, it was a while. It was a while.

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Speaker 2: Like I told you a little bit about it, Like we played those first two games, and that's like where I got all my scholarship offers off. It is just that I put those on film and then they went and like he said, like a bunch of coaches would come, and like Harball was at Stanford and he came, he saw my transcript and literally laughed out loud. It was like, there's literally nothing we can do here in left Like Wisconsin did the same thing.

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Speaker 4: So here, here's a great story. You're gonna love this. He comes with his dad to get registered for school. You see this guy, really like walking across the campus is the first time I really laid eyes on Mo other than in the uniform in the game. I'm looking at him offensive corder and we're kind of like in an off back in a room and he's walking across the campus and I'm just like, man, look at this dude, Like that's a left tackle. So I tell tell Rod, And again Rod's old school man, and we had had a kid that had started at left tackle for is really good high school player. Uh and Ethan Lewis. Ethan Lewis, Yes, okay, yeah, I say Rod, we're gonna move Ethan to right tackle. This is gonna be our left tackle.

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Speaker 1: And he was pissed. He fought me on it.

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Speaker 4: We've got a left tackle, No, man, this this is this is a left tackle. And so he comes on campus and he says, I'll never forget this. He says to he goes, I just got one question for you, he said, Coach, Like I don't even know if you're gonna remember it. But he goes, when you guys played me, I was playing the nose tackle. Did you have to double and triple team? That's a tough look. Last questions like that, I said, let me tell you something. We had to create a whole game plan against you. I said, we were doubling tripling. How one point we just wedged the whole thing at your ass. We couldn't stop you. Complete lie.

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Speaker 1: As I told you the front end of the story.

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Speaker 4: And he looks, as Dad, let's go get me signed up. Facts.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, it's so funny how the Taylor.

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Speaker 4: Loan era started at Shoptown, USA and uh, and then once he got on the field, man like, and I love this guy because he's never forgot where he's.

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Speaker 1: Come from, you know what I mean.

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Speaker 4: And he's just a genuine dude, Like it's rare in your life to coach someone of his ability, but just he approaches life kind of how I see it. You know, I got a real fiery personality, and it's either you know, I'm either in fifth gear or un parked, you know what I mean, And it's all in. And that's how he approached it. On the field and off the field. You know, he was an instant fan favorite. He was an instant students. The students loved him, man. But it was how he played the game with just a relentless and I mean, you know, like the dude just played balls to the wall and there's no substitute for that. And obviously once he put the stuff on tape, it was a rap.

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Speaker 1: And then once we.

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Speaker 4: Got the grades where they needed to be, everybody came slinging those offers.

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Speaker 3: Well, was it basically like they saw the first two games or whatever, and everybody's basically lined up, And then it just came down to the transcript.

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Speaker 1: Yes, I mean.

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Speaker 4: The transcer was so bad in the spring that people were scared away from it, but once he put the stuff on tape, it was too good for people not to come back and check back in. And then they saw, oh, man, he's making that progress. Yeah, you know, but then dues had been dudes had stayed the course, man, and stayed consistent with me. And then obviously with Taylor's dad's background in the Big Ten and having the affinity for that, obviously he could tell you the rest of that why he shows Michigan. But Uh, it was everybody, man, everybody and their mom wanted this dude. It's been and it's been fun. Like to sit here and see all of this man, and like it's it I trade. It's an emotional for me because how much I love this dude, but it's also just a testament to how hard he's worked and just eat life.

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Speaker 1: Man, you never know. It's crazy. Yeah, man, does that make you feel good? Yeah, it makes you feel good.

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Speaker 2: He's one of those when you take compliment, you just got to kind of receive it and sit there and take it because it is it's tough to get compliment.

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Speaker 3: Cool to hear though, because he's somebody who obviously was was part of that big process for were you in pivot in your life.

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Speaker 2: And it was I remember, like you remember, like you look back in high school now and you realize, like how not big of a deal you made it up in your head because you were so zoomed in on high school like we like, uh, Rigel was always always good to me, man, Like I I didn't get in like by the time I got to like my senior year, I wasn't getting in trouble like I was in the beginning. But like I could have done pretty much whatever the fuck I want, and he had my back and I but we had one A couple of times we played to worrow and uh, I fucking do. It was like going into half, it was like seven zero and Dwayne Garrett are running back. Who you met Dwayne at dinner? Uh? Last last fall. He makes this diving catch in the back of the end zone and Dwayne can't fucking catch. You can literally throw it to him ten times, you know, drop at six of them, just straight up. He makes this in like crazy catch. I get a face mask call, it gets called back. We end up living the game.

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Speaker 1: I remember you guys talked about it that we.

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Speaker 4: Were seven at half.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and four had like eight dudes going d one.

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Speaker 4: They had that rivalries. Master's ten thousand people there. It's unbelieved. Well, me and the coach got a great food feud going to like it's a it's everything was build up to be, and we score. It's going to be seven to seven. We're gonna go on the half tide, and we just got lost all the momentum.

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Speaker 1: For us right there.

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Speaker 4: You know, he'll shut the face masks, but my man was was doing blindside before there was blindside. He was putting kids. We're out of patche Junction one night, all right, on a Friday night. My guy's putting dudes on roller skates and putting them out in the tumbleweeds, I mean way out. And the thing was is this guy was not shy about sharing his opinion with the officials, which as a.

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Speaker 1: Coach, you know that's obviously not what I want. Yeah, And so like the coach throws a flag.

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Speaker 4: He's got this literally dude on the track, I mean, and the coach the ref comes to me and says, look, man, that's just unnecessary rough as he's got this kid fifty yards down the field.

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Speaker 1: And I said, well, what do you mean? What do you want me to do?

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Speaker 2: Man?

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Speaker 4: Like, I can't tell my guys stop blocking him. That's not what we're preaching this program. So honestly, you know, I'm gonna take the fifteen. And so he comes, get his ass off the field. I got to talk to him and bring him over there. He comes the official Do you remember that? I remember, I remember excessive blocking and reaching in his pocket.

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Speaker 1: He's like, are you getting paid for this? To the rest throws another flat and that's What I loved about him, though, man.

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Speaker 4: Is the dude was just he he had that passion and that intensity that made him a lead And that's that's what it was like. He is obviously physically gifted. He could run, he could bend with with his length, which is rare. But it was the mentality and the passion that he brought to the field every day and off the field too, that that has gotten him where we are today. It was a cool deal, man, Yes, bring bring him back to ASTU. Like you've been in a lot of places. You're you went to U of A, went over to cal for a while right five years, and and then Idaho State. Yeah, it was just a just a nice cup of coffee as a.

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Speaker 1: Head coach twelve months.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, and you know, and then obviously you know, bringing it all back with with coach Ziggler, you know, and coach I coached coach Dillingham that first year. So he came my second year. That first year, Kenny was a senior and got hurt and was going to hang up the cleats, and so I got him, you know, I just he was a smart young man. I just said, hey, man, we gotta get this guy into some coaching, you know, and and uh, that's how the process of his journey began. And you know, here we are now back here full circle in uh in Tempe, working working for for Kenny Man. It's uh and sitting here doing a podcast with you guys, it's it's pretty wild.

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Speaker 1: So you were a senior when Coach d was about to come in.

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Speaker 4: He so, Uh, Coach D was a senior. He was at still at Cactus Shadows.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, and so my junior I transferred in spring break, like Cat Shows was going on spring break. Chaperon was off spring break, and I just took that weekend and then went to the new school. Yeah, and so their season was already done. He was I didn't even know coach Dellingham at all because he was a senior, but you know, he he was hurt, couldn't play. I got this really sharp kid. His dad was a very intelligent lawyer that was on our booster club. I got to know his dad and Kenny had come off some knee injuries and just i'd got to really build a relationship with Kenny. I'm like, man, this kid's pretty sharp. And I said, what are you going to do?

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Speaker 1: Man?

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Speaker 4: And He's like I think I'm just gonna go to issue, probably a lawyer like my dad. And I was like, well, I don't really give a ship what you what you can I say that on here?

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Speaker 1: Oh yeah everything up here?

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Speaker 3: Yeah?

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Speaker 1: Yeah?

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Speaker 4: Uh. Anyway, so uh, I said, you know, I don't really care what you do, you know, in terms of your career, but I want you to come back here and coach. And that's how the Kenny d train started rolling out of Shaptown and uh. And then my man joined the crew that spring after the spring break, and you know, here we are, rest is history.

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Speaker 1: Well what did you see in?

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Speaker 4: Uh?

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Speaker 1: I was gonna say, Kenny coach, Coach Dillingham. Yeah, you know what.

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Speaker 4: The thing that I say about about Coach Dillingham that that is the most impressive is he's always been driven, even at that young of age.

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Speaker 1: You know.

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Speaker 4: I tell the story that we were sitting around one time and we were in a staff meeting and he's the young new kid, eighteen years old, and he says, uh, we were talking about why people do this, and I can't remember what the particular situation was, and he just pops about of nowhere and just says, you know, it really comes down to one thing, Coach Rigel, and I said, well, what's that He's got all's of his life life principles is the.

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Speaker 1: Juice worth the squeeze.

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Speaker 4: And I looked at this guy and I'm like pretty perceptive, especially in what we were talking about, and that dude was driven. Like from that point on that that quote stayed with me for whatever reason, and then I just watched him stay focused to what he wanted to do and achieve his goals and to get here at at the age of thirty two years old and be where he's at. Man, that that that takes the resolve. That's you know, young people, and you guys are young man, it's hard to stay that course with the temptations and the things that come with the success. To stay driven and in that goal oriented tells you a lot.

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Speaker 1: About what he is. I oh, really do you know? I just you can just tell by listening. You're the speech giver. Brother.

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Speaker 2: I told you before we've walked in here like this would get it seems like the fucking I got to know one more thing before we go theter When you're playing Moraine in the first game senior year and you gave a speech about your dog.

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Speaker 4: You're throwing the ball, the ball, the dog dies. Is that a real story that really happened. No shit, a dog was hardy man, purebred lab. My wife had it before we got together. We're out labor day weekend. We'd come from practice and come home. It's midday. Took the dog out to the park, was throwing the ball and the dog collapsed. Uh, you just collapsed.

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Speaker 1: Now, how are you? How are you funneling that into a pre game speed.

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Speaker 4: No matter what you do in life, man, you do it till you till the wheels come off. Like you've got to be so ingrained in the passion and in the process you run till an end. It's like you run till the end. Man, there's no there's no limit. Like it's you got to be all in or all out, and that's the only way that you really achieve greatness.

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Speaker 1: Most people will never understand that. Hey, you gety, he's got the fucking juice.

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Speaker 4: So I'm gonna come to nash Vegas, Nashville and sit on the bus at some point.

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Speaker 2: Hell, yeah, brother, you are in Biden.

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Speaker 1: You're here spring game, Go Devils. Thanks guys.

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Speaker 4: Yeah, absolutely, let's go do this. M.