Michigan State University Athletics
Spartan Football Update: Director of Player Engagement Darien Harris Media Teleconference Transcript
4/30/2020 1:47:00 PM | Football
EAST LANSING, Mich. – Michigan State Director of Player Engagement Darien Harris answered questions from reporters on a media teleconference on Wednesday afternoon.
Harris, who was a four-year letterwinner for the Spartans at linebacker (2012-15) and a team captain on the 2015 Big Ten Championship and College Football Playoff team, talked about why he's so excited to be back at MSU in his current role.
A transcript from the call is below:
Michigan State Director of Player Engagement Darien Harris
On his show on social media with former Spartans and maximizing relationships with former players…
The idea for the show actually came from Lisa Ben-Chaim, our Director of On-Campus Recruiting, as well as the graphics and media department, that's led by Derek Marckel. Both of them came to me with the idea, just to kind of fill space, fill content during this time and I thought it was a great idea. I think it's always good to be able to see what former players are up to, specifically former players that are in the NFL right now and just kind of catch up with them. What I've been trying to do is just kind of space it out between time periods, eras and just get a feel for what guys are up to right now during this time and just kind of reconnect. I think that's what this time should be used for; I think with family, friends, things that matter for reconnection and our ability to reconnect with former players has been good so far.
On how he got the job at MSU…
It was something that wasn't kind of long-winded and wasn't something that was planned out over months time. It was a situation where I knew that whoever was hired as the new coach, I was going to reach out in some way, shape, form or fashion to try to come back and be on the staff in some capacity. I reached out to the Athletic Department and said if there was a way to get me on staff, I was ready to go. I was actually back in town, in East Lansing, for Bennie Fowler's book signing over at SBS, Student Bookstore on Grand River and got a call to go over to the football building, to the Skandalaris building to meet with Coach Tucker for about 30 minutes and kind of the rest is history. That was over Valentine's Day weekend and by the next week I was hired on. That's what I'm learning about collegiate athletics is it moves quickly and it moves fast and it's a blessing to be able to be back.
On his role overall and if it has been shifting since he started…
It definitely will change and shift as time goes on. I mean, I would say that the best way to kind of describe the overall mandates of my job is to make sure that our student-athletes are maximizing their time on campus. So kind of the way we look at it is you have four pillars of life at MSU; you obviously have your athletic career and your academic career but there's also your social life and your spiritual life wherever you are on that spectrum and just making sure that our student-athletes are maximizing those four pillars and four factors of life in the best possible way. But it is ever-changing, especially during the time right now. I've been able to get back into my journalism and media roots for the Spartan-to-Spartan Show as well as putting out some content on our MSU Overtime platform in regards to former players and spotlighting them and current players, spotlighting them. We're spotlighting former players on Friday and we're calling it Spartan Tie Fridays, and current players 'Off The Field' Wednesday's on what these guys are doing off the field as well as on the field. That's kind of what we're focused on right now and then when things get back to normal, we'll go back to regular scheduled programming of figuring out okay, this is what this player enjoys doing off the field, this is where he's maybe struggling, this is where he maybe needs a push, this is where we think we could maximize his time, here, there or anything like that; both on and off the field. My hope is that everyone has the kind of career and the experience that I had at Michigan State.
On his role on the recruiting aspect…
I think the great thing about Coach Tucker, and I think you all are probably seeing that now, is that everybody is involved with recruiting. He's got a pretty simple phrase that's powerful in nature, 'we will recruit every day, Sunday to Sunday, and everybody is going to be involved.' I've been glad to be involved in a lot of the recruiting efforts just in terms of explaining our program, the Overtime program, that I'm able to participate in and facilitate along with Elliott Daniels and (associate strength and conditioning coach) Coach Lorenzo Guess, to our recruits and their families. Just obviously talk about my experience and talk about where I see the program going and just kind of be a resource in any way possible to our recruiting team; they're doing an unbelievable job, the personnel in our department was Scott Aligo as well as recruiting team with Lisa. Everybody's involved in the process which I like and enjoy. I'm definitely having a great time with that and talking to recruits and their parents and families about the experience that I hope they have at Michigan State.
On how he feels about where the program is at with the new personnel…
It's in great hands. I feel great about the direction of the program. Like I said, Coach Tucker has come in and done an unbelievable job of setting a precedent, setting a standard and giving us direction of where he sees the program going and where we want to see the program going. I think that things are kind of gauged by social media nowadays, good, bad or indifferent, but there's an excitement around Michigan State football again, maybe that we haven't seen in the last few years. I'm excited to be a part of that and to see that and to see the finished product as we really dive into this and dig deep into this. I think that we're obviously in the middle of a pandemic and there's things out there that are way bigger and way more important than winning a couple football games, but if you just look at the way that we as an organization have handled this and how we've adapted, I think that's a sign of good things to come, just with the direction of Coach Tucker, the way that he's been able to calm everyone's minds and get us on the right path. At the end of the day, you've still got to recruit, you've still got to get ready to play the ball game and whenever this thing clears up, you got to be ready to kick off against Northwestern, there's no excuses. We have to have that mentality and Coach Tucker definitely set that precedent.
On if he envisions himself as an on-field coach in the future…
No, actually, I've been telling people, I've been telling recruits, their families, this is where my life's passion is, this is where I feel like my life's purpose is; it's in player development. I think it always has been and something that was actually pointed out to me by Coach Tressel the other day was, I've kind of been working for this moment and this opportunity, really since I stepped foot on campus based on the way that I put a lot of emphasis with my teammates on succeeding off the field as well as exceeding on the field. My work as a graduate assistant from 2017 to just this past May in our academic building in the Smith Center when I was working with Mandy (Chandler), Todd (Edwards) and Antwan (Joseph) with student-athletes and on academics. Player development has always been a passion of mine. I definitely don't necessarily see myself transitioning out of that; I want to grow and expand within the role I am in now and continue to grow and develop student-athlete engagement for football players, for all sports, really across the nation.
On how he's engaging with the current players through this…
Pretty much the same as the rest our staff - picking up the phone and calling them. It's the most simple and easy way to do that and I think it's something that maybe we've been taking for granted. A lot of the times, it's real simple to just pick up the phone and call somebody. So calling them, texting them as much as possible. I think we've done a great job with our Overtime program of giving them player development skills and tactics and workshops to do during this time. We've given them different assignments around networking, resume building, LinkedIn, passions outside of football; just trying to get them to think about what life looks like without the game, because that's what they have right now. They're not able to work out with their team, they're not able to practice, they weren't able to do spring ball. At some point in time, football is going to come to a close and you've got to start thinking about what your life and what your passion is outside of the game of football. We've been able to keep them engaged in that regard. But it's almost a blessing that 2020 we have technology, we can see these guys at least virtually; there's meetings, there's Zoom meetings. Be able to pop in to Coach Els' Zoom meeting and hopefully stay in the back but learn what they're doing on the field and things of that nature. It is good and it is a blessing to have technology to be able to hear these guys' voices and see their faces, seeing that it is from miles away.
On his own education plans going forward…
Most definitely. I finished my master's this past May at Michigan State. I'm two down and one to go. The doctorate is going to happen eventually. Coach Guess is working on his – Lorenzo Guess, is working on his and he'll be done with that soon. My grandmother has her doctorate in social working, so it's not something that's foreign to my family and foreign to our staff, especially in the player development stage. Definitely something that I definitely see in the foreseeable future is going for a doctorate degree; just will be a matter of when the right time to start on that path.
On the importance of Coach Tucker's emphasis on reaching out to former players…
I think it's incredibly important. I definitely will be serving as that bridge and that liaison between former players, our current team, our current players. We've got a lot of things in the works from our Overtime program standpoint that's going to link our former players to our current players and allow them to have some interaction with the current guys that's going to benefit both parties, especially our current players because the former players have been there, done that; have transitioned and moved on and they have a lot of wisdom to pass down. Even just in the small time since I've been hired, I've definitely reached out to a lot more former players than just the guys I played with. Definitely got a lot of guys from different era's involved and again, it's all from Coach Tucker's lead. He has reached out to the former players; he's done Facebook Live's with the entire former players group. He's told them that anybody and everybody is welcome back on campus at any time. This is all public knowledge that he's put out there. We're excited about that; there's a new buzz and excitement with them as well so now they're excited to be back and be around the program and be welcomed back. It is important because Michigan State sports and Michigan State as a whole, as a University, is a family; a brother and a sisterhood. We never want to lose that aspect of Michigan State and I think that with Coach Tucker's lead and direction we're definitely pushing that forward.
On the players' perspective during this difficult time…
It's definitely difficult I think for a lot of these guys. The word that come up a lot is stuck in the mud or kind of things being in slow motion. I guess a simple way to put that is bored because they're so used to having a regimented schedule to getting up early for a lift and then meetings, practice, obviously we would've been in spring ball, school. Just the little things they're missing right now; walking to class, things like that. We know how big Michigan State's campus is so a walk to class is maybe 20-30 minutes one direction. Those things they're obviously missing right now, but I think on the other hand and on the bright side, because we're always trying to pull positives out of every situation, I'm not sure that these players will ever take some of those things for granted again. Whether it's having to get up early at 5-o'clock in the morning for a lift or having to go to practice, going to class, going to a tutor, academic check-in; things of that nature, where it seems to be a dread and a drag before, I think now these players are going to be re-energized and excited to actually do those things because right now they're literally just in the house, they can't do anything. A lot of these guys don't have access to equipment for weight training and things like that, everything is body weight, running and getting real repetitive. I think that when everybody comes back, we're going to see a really energized team that's ready to go and that should transition to some good things on the field.
On what the Overtime program is and if he came up with that name…
Coach Lorenzo Guess, he's our associate strength and conditioning coach, he's also our director of player enrichment and player safety here. He actually started the program a few years ago and it's our player development platform. Everything that's player development goes underneath the Overtime program; the Career Combine that we started last year that was supposed to continue this year. We had 40 to 50 companies come in and have a job fair for our student-athletes and we were going to double that in size this year; that's underneath the umbrella of the Overtime program. All of our seminars that we give our student-athletes on resume building, networking, branding themselves, LinkedIn, career transition, that's under the Overtime program. All of our community service endeavors, which we're really looking forward to enhancing and developing will go under the Overtime program and that platform. The great thing about this role for me is that you don't have to reinvent the wheel. There's a lot of things that have already been in place and I just get to come in and kind of take the bull by the horn on those and enhance them in my way. There's a lot of things that have been in place for a long time here at Michigan State, dating back to when I was freshman that are still in place now that we can continue to build on. With Coach Guess and Elliott's leadership as well as me coming in, we're going to continue to grow this Overtime platform and Overtime program as big as possible and hopefully inspire other schools and other communities to take it up. Because that's my favorite part about this role is that the competition is on the field, everything off the field is a collaboration between ourselves at Michigan State and every school across the nation.
Harris, who was a four-year letterwinner for the Spartans at linebacker (2012-15) and a team captain on the 2015 Big Ten Championship and College Football Playoff team, talked about why he's so excited to be back at MSU in his current role.
A transcript from the call is below:
Michigan State Director of Player Engagement Darien Harris
On his show on social media with former Spartans and maximizing relationships with former players…
The idea for the show actually came from Lisa Ben-Chaim, our Director of On-Campus Recruiting, as well as the graphics and media department, that's led by Derek Marckel. Both of them came to me with the idea, just to kind of fill space, fill content during this time and I thought it was a great idea. I think it's always good to be able to see what former players are up to, specifically former players that are in the NFL right now and just kind of catch up with them. What I've been trying to do is just kind of space it out between time periods, eras and just get a feel for what guys are up to right now during this time and just kind of reconnect. I think that's what this time should be used for; I think with family, friends, things that matter for reconnection and our ability to reconnect with former players has been good so far.
On how he got the job at MSU…
It was something that wasn't kind of long-winded and wasn't something that was planned out over months time. It was a situation where I knew that whoever was hired as the new coach, I was going to reach out in some way, shape, form or fashion to try to come back and be on the staff in some capacity. I reached out to the Athletic Department and said if there was a way to get me on staff, I was ready to go. I was actually back in town, in East Lansing, for Bennie Fowler's book signing over at SBS, Student Bookstore on Grand River and got a call to go over to the football building, to the Skandalaris building to meet with Coach Tucker for about 30 minutes and kind of the rest is history. That was over Valentine's Day weekend and by the next week I was hired on. That's what I'm learning about collegiate athletics is it moves quickly and it moves fast and it's a blessing to be able to be back.
On his role overall and if it has been shifting since he started…
It definitely will change and shift as time goes on. I mean, I would say that the best way to kind of describe the overall mandates of my job is to make sure that our student-athletes are maximizing their time on campus. So kind of the way we look at it is you have four pillars of life at MSU; you obviously have your athletic career and your academic career but there's also your social life and your spiritual life wherever you are on that spectrum and just making sure that our student-athletes are maximizing those four pillars and four factors of life in the best possible way. But it is ever-changing, especially during the time right now. I've been able to get back into my journalism and media roots for the Spartan-to-Spartan Show as well as putting out some content on our MSU Overtime platform in regards to former players and spotlighting them and current players, spotlighting them. We're spotlighting former players on Friday and we're calling it Spartan Tie Fridays, and current players 'Off The Field' Wednesday's on what these guys are doing off the field as well as on the field. That's kind of what we're focused on right now and then when things get back to normal, we'll go back to regular scheduled programming of figuring out okay, this is what this player enjoys doing off the field, this is where he's maybe struggling, this is where he maybe needs a push, this is where we think we could maximize his time, here, there or anything like that; both on and off the field. My hope is that everyone has the kind of career and the experience that I had at Michigan State.
On his role on the recruiting aspect…
I think the great thing about Coach Tucker, and I think you all are probably seeing that now, is that everybody is involved with recruiting. He's got a pretty simple phrase that's powerful in nature, 'we will recruit every day, Sunday to Sunday, and everybody is going to be involved.' I've been glad to be involved in a lot of the recruiting efforts just in terms of explaining our program, the Overtime program, that I'm able to participate in and facilitate along with Elliott Daniels and (associate strength and conditioning coach) Coach Lorenzo Guess, to our recruits and their families. Just obviously talk about my experience and talk about where I see the program going and just kind of be a resource in any way possible to our recruiting team; they're doing an unbelievable job, the personnel in our department was Scott Aligo as well as recruiting team with Lisa. Everybody's involved in the process which I like and enjoy. I'm definitely having a great time with that and talking to recruits and their parents and families about the experience that I hope they have at Michigan State.
On how he feels about where the program is at with the new personnel…
It's in great hands. I feel great about the direction of the program. Like I said, Coach Tucker has come in and done an unbelievable job of setting a precedent, setting a standard and giving us direction of where he sees the program going and where we want to see the program going. I think that things are kind of gauged by social media nowadays, good, bad or indifferent, but there's an excitement around Michigan State football again, maybe that we haven't seen in the last few years. I'm excited to be a part of that and to see that and to see the finished product as we really dive into this and dig deep into this. I think that we're obviously in the middle of a pandemic and there's things out there that are way bigger and way more important than winning a couple football games, but if you just look at the way that we as an organization have handled this and how we've adapted, I think that's a sign of good things to come, just with the direction of Coach Tucker, the way that he's been able to calm everyone's minds and get us on the right path. At the end of the day, you've still got to recruit, you've still got to get ready to play the ball game and whenever this thing clears up, you got to be ready to kick off against Northwestern, there's no excuses. We have to have that mentality and Coach Tucker definitely set that precedent.
On if he envisions himself as an on-field coach in the future…
No, actually, I've been telling people, I've been telling recruits, their families, this is where my life's passion is, this is where I feel like my life's purpose is; it's in player development. I think it always has been and something that was actually pointed out to me by Coach Tressel the other day was, I've kind of been working for this moment and this opportunity, really since I stepped foot on campus based on the way that I put a lot of emphasis with my teammates on succeeding off the field as well as exceeding on the field. My work as a graduate assistant from 2017 to just this past May in our academic building in the Smith Center when I was working with Mandy (Chandler), Todd (Edwards) and Antwan (Joseph) with student-athletes and on academics. Player development has always been a passion of mine. I definitely don't necessarily see myself transitioning out of that; I want to grow and expand within the role I am in now and continue to grow and develop student-athlete engagement for football players, for all sports, really across the nation.
On how he's engaging with the current players through this…
Pretty much the same as the rest our staff - picking up the phone and calling them. It's the most simple and easy way to do that and I think it's something that maybe we've been taking for granted. A lot of the times, it's real simple to just pick up the phone and call somebody. So calling them, texting them as much as possible. I think we've done a great job with our Overtime program of giving them player development skills and tactics and workshops to do during this time. We've given them different assignments around networking, resume building, LinkedIn, passions outside of football; just trying to get them to think about what life looks like without the game, because that's what they have right now. They're not able to work out with their team, they're not able to practice, they weren't able to do spring ball. At some point in time, football is going to come to a close and you've got to start thinking about what your life and what your passion is outside of the game of football. We've been able to keep them engaged in that regard. But it's almost a blessing that 2020 we have technology, we can see these guys at least virtually; there's meetings, there's Zoom meetings. Be able to pop in to Coach Els' Zoom meeting and hopefully stay in the back but learn what they're doing on the field and things of that nature. It is good and it is a blessing to have technology to be able to hear these guys' voices and see their faces, seeing that it is from miles away.
On his own education plans going forward…
Most definitely. I finished my master's this past May at Michigan State. I'm two down and one to go. The doctorate is going to happen eventually. Coach Guess is working on his – Lorenzo Guess, is working on his and he'll be done with that soon. My grandmother has her doctorate in social working, so it's not something that's foreign to my family and foreign to our staff, especially in the player development stage. Definitely something that I definitely see in the foreseeable future is going for a doctorate degree; just will be a matter of when the right time to start on that path.
On the importance of Coach Tucker's emphasis on reaching out to former players…
I think it's incredibly important. I definitely will be serving as that bridge and that liaison between former players, our current team, our current players. We've got a lot of things in the works from our Overtime program standpoint that's going to link our former players to our current players and allow them to have some interaction with the current guys that's going to benefit both parties, especially our current players because the former players have been there, done that; have transitioned and moved on and they have a lot of wisdom to pass down. Even just in the small time since I've been hired, I've definitely reached out to a lot more former players than just the guys I played with. Definitely got a lot of guys from different era's involved and again, it's all from Coach Tucker's lead. He has reached out to the former players; he's done Facebook Live's with the entire former players group. He's told them that anybody and everybody is welcome back on campus at any time. This is all public knowledge that he's put out there. We're excited about that; there's a new buzz and excitement with them as well so now they're excited to be back and be around the program and be welcomed back. It is important because Michigan State sports and Michigan State as a whole, as a University, is a family; a brother and a sisterhood. We never want to lose that aspect of Michigan State and I think that with Coach Tucker's lead and direction we're definitely pushing that forward.
On the players' perspective during this difficult time…
It's definitely difficult I think for a lot of these guys. The word that come up a lot is stuck in the mud or kind of things being in slow motion. I guess a simple way to put that is bored because they're so used to having a regimented schedule to getting up early for a lift and then meetings, practice, obviously we would've been in spring ball, school. Just the little things they're missing right now; walking to class, things like that. We know how big Michigan State's campus is so a walk to class is maybe 20-30 minutes one direction. Those things they're obviously missing right now, but I think on the other hand and on the bright side, because we're always trying to pull positives out of every situation, I'm not sure that these players will ever take some of those things for granted again. Whether it's having to get up early at 5-o'clock in the morning for a lift or having to go to practice, going to class, going to a tutor, academic check-in; things of that nature, where it seems to be a dread and a drag before, I think now these players are going to be re-energized and excited to actually do those things because right now they're literally just in the house, they can't do anything. A lot of these guys don't have access to equipment for weight training and things like that, everything is body weight, running and getting real repetitive. I think that when everybody comes back, we're going to see a really energized team that's ready to go and that should transition to some good things on the field.
On what the Overtime program is and if he came up with that name…
Coach Lorenzo Guess, he's our associate strength and conditioning coach, he's also our director of player enrichment and player safety here. He actually started the program a few years ago and it's our player development platform. Everything that's player development goes underneath the Overtime program; the Career Combine that we started last year that was supposed to continue this year. We had 40 to 50 companies come in and have a job fair for our student-athletes and we were going to double that in size this year; that's underneath the umbrella of the Overtime program. All of our seminars that we give our student-athletes on resume building, networking, branding themselves, LinkedIn, career transition, that's under the Overtime program. All of our community service endeavors, which we're really looking forward to enhancing and developing will go under the Overtime program and that platform. The great thing about this role for me is that you don't have to reinvent the wheel. There's a lot of things that have already been in place and I just get to come in and kind of take the bull by the horn on those and enhance them in my way. There's a lot of things that have been in place for a long time here at Michigan State, dating back to when I was freshman that are still in place now that we can continue to build on. With Coach Guess and Elliott's leadership as well as me coming in, we're going to continue to grow this Overtime platform and Overtime program as big as possible and hopefully inspire other schools and other communities to take it up. Because that's my favorite part about this role is that the competition is on the field, everything off the field is a collaboration between ourselves at Michigan State and every school across the nation.
Saturday, September 26
Thursday, September 24
Monday, September 21
Saturday, September 19