Coach Q&A: Meet SMU DLs coach Randall Joyner

It's always humbling when an assistant coach truly has the support of his players. It'll be extremely difficult to find an SMU player to say something negative about defensive line coach Randall Joyner.

"He's brought excitement, but he's also a great person," graduating defensive tackle Demerick Gary said during the 2019 season. "He's a great guy. He teaches us a lot of things off the field and helps us to be better men.

"I think that's where we have the most respect for him. It's more than football with him."

Spring football kicks off today for SMU, and Joyner is pumped about the expectations of the 2020 season. He believes the program has the personnel and the passion to make a very successful 2019 season merely a blip on the radar for what's to come.

The HillTopics continues its "Coach Q&A" series and focuses on Joyner, a former SMU linebacker who has made the Hilltop a place where he wants to develop defenders. He coached a deep group of linemen last year to where a variety of personnel combinations could line up and not show a dropoff in talent.

Here is Joyner's bio, courtesy of SMU Football. Joyner spoke to The HillTopics about football expectations and what he's learned as a young coach. He also spoke about the origin of his nickname, "Bo."

Your nickname: How did that come about?

Bo's actually short for Rambo. I'm the youngest of two boys, and when I was born, I was kind of a bigger-sized baby. My mom would say, "That ain't a sweet baby boy; that's a Rambo." I was kind of a rough kid growing up, too. My brothers are 10 years older than me, so I was always rougher and tougher than other kids. That kind of played into it, too. Since birth, that's been my nickname.

Your coaching resume has Ohio State on it. What was it like being on staff as a grad assistant for Urban Meyer?

I tell people all the time that it was like fourth and 1 in the national championship game, and you've got to get it to win every day in the office. It was awesome to be able to learn how to teach, how to motivate and how to connect with players. In that type of environment, average cannot exist. It really pulls the best out of you. It was an unbelievable experience.

Obviously, learning from Urban Meyer was great, as he's one of the greatest head coaches of all time, but also being able to learn from Luke Fickell, Ryan Day, Greg Schiano, Kerry Coombs and my biggest mentor, Larry Johnson, who took me underneath his wing and really treated me like his son ... I was able to learn how to truly be a great person and how to impact young people's lives.

You're the only coach (not football staff but coach) who played for SMU. Is there a different level of school pride with you as a former player compared to the other coaches?

It's really a surreal feeling. I'm at the university that gave me a chance to live my dream twice -- first as a player and now as a coach. Just to be able to be in this position and impact young people's lives is awesome. The meeting room I meet in was the same meeting room I met in as a linebacker. Just to be able to share that same experience with my players ... again, it's surreal.

There's pride for the school. It's a great university with a great community and alumni base that supports each other. It's a dream job for me. I've had opportunities to leave, and I don't want to leave. It's the uniqueness of me being back home at the university I sacrificed and done a lot of things on the field for. It's also the university that changed my life forever. Yes, there's a sense of pride. Yes, there's a love and an affection for this place.

What have you seen from the Mustangs as they prepare for 2020?

I've seen a lot. What happened last year was an unbelievable season and an unbelievable experience, but we didn't know how to play being the top dog. All of that comes with experience. We knew how to play being the underdogs. When you start off 8-0, there's a different way in how you carry yourself and how you play week in and week out, because we're going to get everybody's best. What I've seen this offseason is there's a whole new standard. There's no "we're going to a bowl game." It's, "we need to win a conference championship."

How do you do that? You have to attack every day. The standard has risen, and these guys have a focus and effort that says we want to finish this. We don't want to come up close. We're going to get everybody's best, and we have that type of respect from teams. It's been cool to see those guys now. We've been challenging them and putting them in situations and competitive environments. We've been making it really uncomfortable to where they can press beyond to when we're in big games and in pressure situations, they know how to respond. I'm seeing that in this group, and I'm really, really excited. It's a great group of guys who are truly working their tails off.

You lost a ton of talent and a ton of experience on that D-line. What is the biggest challenge for you this year as the D-line coach?

I think the cool thing is, while we've lost guys who had production and experience, we still have a lot of guys who have played. They might not have played as many reps as those other guys, but they've seen how those guys work. They know the culture. They know the standard. I really believe this: Leaders drive culture. Culture drives behavior. Behavior drives results. It's my job to set the standard. What those seniors did was do an unbelievable job of setting the standard. Now these guys have to set the standard.

It's my job, day in and day out, to challenge these guys. I really believe a great leader is easy to follow but hard to please. Day in and day out, I'm challenging my guys to push the bar, and they've responded. I'm very excited.

I say this all the time: This group, I've had for two years now. We have the talent, but we just need guys to step up in different roles. They have the challenge. I like these types of years. I don't believe in rebuilding; it's reloading. That's why they call it coaching. I've got to develop these guys. I've got to challenge them. I've got to motivate them. Talent is not the issue. They know we have to go to work and train with a purpose and focus, and continue to exceed the standard.

Giving you the platform: Give your best recruiting pitch to keep players in and around the Dallas area close to home.

I love this one. First off, when you make a decision, it's not a four-year decision; it's a 40-year decision. It's hard as an 18-year-old or 17-year-old to see yourself 40 years from now, to understand the decisions you make now can be results for your life later. SMU provides a unique opportunity to get an elite education, but also doing it in an elite city that provides a lot of opportunity. You want to get a degree that's going to continuously open doors for you years from now. When someone says, "Oh, you went to SMU?" they perk up. Your resume now goes to the top of the stack. It's a huge benefit. You get a degree here, you'll change your life.

Second, you'll play big-time football. Our conference is competitive week in and week out. You're going to play on big-time stages. Right now, at SMU, the city is rallying behind us. What's a better feeling than you balling out in front of the people who have seen you ball out your whole life? You'll have an opportunity to play in a big-time city and in a big-time conference. And you'll have a chance to compete for a conference championship. You can't beat that.

Lastly, and I really believe this, you win with people, and the people in this program want to be here. They're truly committed to developing the person first, player second. I think that's critical. They care about you more as a person than as a player. Now you're going to have a lifelong relationship. They're going to challenge you to make sure you're the best with everything you do, and that's important. I don't care what pretty building you have, or what fancy equipment you have, or what uniform you have, if you don't have the right people there, you're not going to be the best you that you can be.

What else do you need?

TRACKING THE HILLTOPICS' COACH Q&A SERIES

Feb. 16: Co-offensive coordinator/OLs coach AJ Ricker

Feb. 23: Co-offensive coordinator/QBs coach Garrett Riley

March 1: Defensive coordinator/LBs coach Kevin Kane

Today: DLs coach Randall Joyner