Interview: Preston Pehrson and a Winning Culture
Pehrson has joined head coach Jim Mora’s staff as the general manager of the UConn Huskies football program. He recently finished his third year with Texas Tech as the director of player personnel and helped turn that program around going from 4-8 in his first season to 7-6 in his final year in a tough Big 12 conference.
I had the luxury of interviewing Pehrson recently in what was going to be a discussion about the process of recruiting. What I ended up getting out of the interview was the culture in which the Huskies are building. From the sounds of things, the team has bought into the coaching staff’s direction. The Huskies coaching staff is creating a winning culture that could see this program have an incredibly quick turnaround.
I asked Coach Pehrson what the staff’s plans were in recruiting. Were they going to put the main focus on in-state talent, or was the plan to venture out and try to sign some of the higher- profile guys from the larger football states like Texas, Florida and California. He said, “Our focus is bringing guys in that understand the culture, that understand what we’re trying to build, what a great opportunity this is, not just athletically but academically.”
He followed that up by saying of in-state talent, “Even though they are from Connecticut, we still need to fight for them. We aren’t just going to land them because they are in-state.”
Pehrson went on to explain why more and more recruits are looking into UConn: “We have a great staff, great people around the team. I think it’s going to be one of those stories that in a couple of years people are going to enjoy what they see and it will become easier to recruit some high-profile players.”
We then talked about the campus and its allure to incoming players. I live in the area, only five minutes away, and often bring my 2-year-old daughter to walk around campus. I had mentioned how the campus is beautiful and Pehrson had a great response.
He said, “It’s unbelievable; the facilities are the best I’ve been in. We have great academics and I felt bad that I didn’t know it, but when I got here I looked up all the stuff that we were going to be able to push to the kids, and I didn’t realize what a great academic institution it is.”
Pehrson then talked about the staff in place that is so attractive to incoming recruits. “You have a two-time NFL head coach, you have a young up-and-coming offensive coordinator that was a head coach as well, and you have a defensive coordinator who has all sorts of knowledge and two Super Bowl rings. You have three guys at the helm that are incredibly knowledgeable and you have a special-teams coordinator that is on the fast rising track. I’ll put our staff against anybody in the country. The way we’ve meshed, it’s the best staff I’ve been on as far as meshing together.”
There are videos around social media of the team working hard and seemingly also having a lot of fun with each other. I asked Pehrson if this is all for the video or if it is legitimate. He said, “It’s enjoyable. The guys are actually having fun. It’s a great atmosphere; there is no doubt about it.”
Pehrson continued to explain how the staff is unbelievable at UConn: “I see the staff walking up and down the hallway and I see plenty of guys who will be head coaches some day, no doubt about it. The difference is when that may happen. Nobody here is waiting for the next opportunity to pop up because they don’t like it here. We have all bought into what we are building here and it is going to have to be an unbelievable opportunity for any of us to up and leave.”
Pehrson said the team has bought into the new staff immediately. He explained how sometimes it takes a year or two for players to listen and buy into the staff, but not this team. He said, “This team is hungry to get better. You can see the guys actually running and enjoying it and getting on each other in a positive way.“
As we were concluding our interview, Coach Pehrson and I talked a bit about our kids and the campus. I loved what I got out of that part of our interview, even though it was not football related. I told him how I am on campus all the time with my daughter walking around the campus. He talked to me about how the coaching staff is with each other’s kids and families. I got a great sense of camaraderie from it all.
He said, “If you come up and get close to our building you will probably come across a lot of the coaches’ kids. Coach Mora has done a great job with that as well, making our families welcome and letting them be around. I’ve been places where staff had said just wives, but here my son is drinking out of a normal glass at 22 months old spilling all over and Coach Mora is talking to him and he’s on the phone looking at things with my daughter. It’s a great atmosphere for the families too which is exciting.”
What started as an interview to get a better sense of the recruiting process, ended with a chat of how the culture, staff, facilities, and campus are what makes UConn and will end up bringing in even more talent. The staff shows a great sense of pride, accomplishments, experience, camaraderie, family, and competitiveness to create a winning culture. A culture that should make the UConn Huskies a competitive team in the immediate future. The sky is the limit for this roster and staff and I am very excited to see how this all shakes out.
