Coach Q&A: Meet SMU's Scott Nady

Scott Nady is SMU's director of recruiting relations and community engagement. In short, he wears a variety of hats for the Mustangs. One of his best qualities is selling the program.

Prior to arriving at SMU, he was the head coach at Parish Episcopal School and won state championships in 2010 and 2014. He was charged to help build a championship program at Parish -- which has produced SMU roster players in defensive end Gerrit Choate, wide receiver Parker Stone and offensive lineman Sam Burns, as well as 2021 SMU commit quarterback Preston Stone.

Coming to SMU, Nady's now charged to help sell the vision to some of the best recruits in an out of the Dallas area. In his words, his time at SMU has been one of the best decisions of a coaching career that extends to two decades.

Nady spent some time with The HillTopics to discuss his position, the current state of recruiting and his thoughts of head coach Sonny Dykes. Here is Nady's bio, courtesy of SMU Football.

As director of recruiting relations and community engagement, your entire methods changed with the current global conditions. How do things differ on your end?

Given the current situation, it kind of played right into our strengths. From Day 1, we've established there would be programs that are flashier and stadiums that are bigger. If it's about the shimmer and the shine, a lot of schools can do it in a bigger fashion than us. What we've hung our hats on is the quality and depth of our relationships, with both our recruits and our players. This pandemic has boiled things down, not only to recruits but people in general, to what really matters. And what it comes down to is what kind of relationships you have in your life, who cares about you and who you care about.

We've gone about recruiting a little bit of an atypical way. We're not one of those schools that throws out 1,000 offers. We get really in depth with kids and get to know them, just to make sure they're a good fit for us. This whole process has allowed us to dig deeper in relationships of these recruits to where we can get to know them a lot better.

For the teams that rely on the flash and the glitter of what they have on campus, this is probably hurting them. But for us, it has allowed us to do what we do best, even though the situation has been so difficult for everyone.

What are your thoughts of virtual tours and using those to help sell athletes?

I'm a big fan of it. Our graphics and media department are incredible, in both the football department and with SMU. We have one of the most beautiful campuses, I think, in the country, and it photographs very well. That's a huge advantage. And with a huge indoor facilities, being so state-of-the-art, I think a virtual tour is a point of strength for us right now. I think we have one of the more beautiful campuses in the country.

Aside from coaching, what have you been doing to keep yourself occupied?

I've been spending a lot of time with my kiddos, which has been fantastic. I've also spent a tremendous amount of time brushing up on and getting deeper into the Air Raid offense. That's Sonny's offensive pedigree and where he comes from. I've coached in several different systems, but by trade, I'm Wing-T based -- trap, sweep, counter. I've been putting in three or four hours a day during this pandemic to become as well-versed as I possibly can in what make Sonny's offenses so great. It's really meshed with some of the things I've already done. If I'm not doing this, somebody else is, and I like my job.

You saw this team grow in 2019. From what you saw in spring practice, what are the expectations for 2020?

It's been such a great experience for me. Ironically, it really mirrored my high school experience in Dallas. When I was the head coach at Parish, I was convincing kids to come to a private, challenging, academic school in Dallas. That's what SMU is, as well. When I stepped on campus, I had been talking very similarly to kids for 14 years. SMU is a bigger, more impressive version of where I was. The goals are very similar.

We're trying to build something, and watching it grow has been déjà vu for me. When I got here, we were trying to put something on the field that would be competitive. There were games on the schedule that you knew it would take an act of God to help win. That's just the reality of it. But last year, in August, we looked at our schedule and really thought we had a chance of winning every single game, and we made a pretty good run of doing that.

Now, with the maturation of our program, we've reached a point where our biggest competition are the guys in the mirror, not the guys across the line of scrimmage. The team that can give us the biggest challenge is SMU, and if we don't allow that to happen, I think we can have a very special season.

Few in coaching will find a negative thing to say about Sonny Dykes. What is it about Sonny that makes him so likable?

I'll be honest, I didn't think I would ever have interest in being an assistant to anybody, just because I'd been a head coach for so long. With the culture that Sonny has built at SMU, I would coach with that guy forever. The feeling around the office is the same with the staff. It's like a family. What makes it special at our place is our team sees how well we all get along. It just permeates throughout the program from top down. When you hire a guy who loves coming to work, and he hires a bunch of guys who love coming to work, the players are going to love coming to practice. You can get a whole lot done when everybody wants to be there -- and I wouldn't want to be anywhere else.

I haven't found anybody yet to say something bad about Sonny. I can count on half a hand how many guys I'd want to coach for, and Sonny's at the very top of that list. I was going to move my family to California and coach with him there. That speaks volumes this time in my career. He's just very genuine. There's nothing phony about him. What you see is what you get. He's loyal and honest, and what he tells you, you can hang your hat on.

Some guys are good coaches, but you don't want your family to be around them. With Sonny Dykes, I want my family to be around him as much as possible. If I left town tomorrow and left my kids at Sonny's house, I'd feel great about it. Life's too short, and I'm not a young man, so I really don't have time for anybody in my life who's not a quality human being. He's a guy where if you have a young kid, you can point at him and tell the kid, "Act like that." If Sonny was coaching in a cow pasture in East Texas, I'd want my boy to play for him. At the end of the day, the things you're going to learn from him will supersede the other 150,000 people you may see.

He loves kids. I think he really likes football, but he loves kids. He tells stories about players of the past, and when you see them come out to a practice, you see how they greet him and how they hug him. You look at our staff, and so many of them are former players. That's pretty rare. I bet you there are 100 other guys who played for him that would love to coach for him. I feel lucky every time I walk into the office, and I feel lucky that he ever wants to listen to what I've got to say. He just sets a very easy, enjoyable setting where everyone has a voice.

Who you get in June is who you get in December, and who you get on Monday is who you get on Sunday. There are no multiple faces of Sonny Dykes. He'll be the same if you're a millionaire or if you're homeless, if you're an All-American or if you ride the bench. I can't say enough nice things about the guy. I'd work for this guy for the rest of my career if given the opportunity.

Recruiting is the lifeline of a program, which makes your job that much more important. Is that more of a blessing or curse for recruiting directors nationwide?

I can only speak for me; I relish it. I love it. I want the ball in my hands when the game's on the line. I've been that way since I was 6 years old. Before I started working college football, I used to say that there's three things that matter in college football -- recruiting, recruiting and recruiting. In this time, I think it's a blessing that we've got a great recruiting department, It's kind of a multiheaded beast with different guys and different jobs.

I think we're in a unique position to where we can have a tremendous impact on the national recruiting scene. I think once the Dallas talent understand the opportunity and starts staying home, and it's happening now, but once it happens more and more, I think incredible things will happen at SMU. We've got a great roster right now with a lot of exciting young players. I think our scouts do an incredible job of evaluating talent, potential, upside and cultural fit.

We've had numerous situations where we've offered a kid who doesn't have offers anywhere else, and we could care less -- which is refreshing. As a former high school coach, one of the most frustrating things that you hear is when a college coach looks at film and then he asks, "Who else has offered him?" That was one of the few times as a high school coach where I'd have to maintain my composure.

Sonny has done an incredible job of hiring guys who, No. 1, love kids, No. 2, have little to no egos, and No. 3, all are pointed in the right direction. Everybody wants to be here. We have an incredible university with an incredible coaching staff, and we're in the best city, I think, in the country. And we have an unbelievable opportunity here.

If I couldn't sell this, I'd have serious deficiencies. The guy who sells Ferraris, is he a great salesman? I don't know. Have him go sell a '71 pick-up and we'll see. But right now, I think we have a Ferrari. People aren't use to thinking of our place as a Ferrari, but give me 30 minutes with them, and I'll change that.

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

March 8: DLs coach Randall Joyner

March 15: TEs coach Josh Martin

March 22: WRs coach David Gru

March 29: Safeties coach Trey Haverty

April 5: RBs coach Ra'Shaad Samples

April 12: CBs Kevin Curtis

Today: Director of recruiting relations and community engagement Scott Nady