Months before the college football season kicked off, in the days and weeks before the media circus came to Charleston, when the thermometer was north of 90 degrees, Charleston Southern University head football coach Jay Mills had already scripted the message for the September 5th opener against the Florida Gators.
CSU head football coach Jay MillsIt wasn’t going to be about X’s and O’s. Mills wouldn’t be talking about wins and losses, nor would he rehash some old school gridiron speech. This script was written long before this game was on the schedule, long before Vince Lombardi, or football, for that matter. Mills said he was being led by the Holy Spirit. All he needed was a huddle and a mirror.
As the Buccaneers completed their pregame walk-through at Ben Hill Griffin Stadium, Mills pulled his team together and pulled a small mirror out of his back pocket.
“The mirror reflects and the mirror deflects,” he told his student-athletes. “We want to deflect any praise, any recognition that we receive to where it needs to be sent ? we do it to glorify God.”
Mills held the mirror out, facing his players. Little did they know, the mirror was a prop Mills’ wife handed the coach at the breakfast table that very morning. She pulled two mirrors from her purse, and the coach selected a perfect pocket-sized reflector.
Mills then asked each player to look in the mirror. Take a long, hard look at yourself the coach said. He wanted them to capture that reflection in their respective minds.
“The reflection is looking inward at man’s heart,” he said. “Success and failure are measured in multiple ways, and most people only see it as one in an athletic contest, that’s win or lose. I wanted them to understand there are other measures of a man and what true success is.”
Mills then turned his team loose in the “The Swamp.” It was time to play football. This wasn’t just any football game for Charleston Southern University; this game was a once-in-a-lifetime experience for the student-athletes and the University.
“From the second these young men don the uniform in Pop Warner, their dream is to play in games in front of a crowd of 90,000,” said Mills. “Most of us don’t get an opportunity to do that. Whether they cheer for you or against you it’s still an electrifying experience and a memory they’ll keep for the rest of their lives.”
The crowd of 90,621, mostly in attendance to watch the defending National Champions and No. 1 ranked Florida Gators, was still the largest attendance for a CSU football game. It was the largest crowd Mills ever coached in front of as a head coach (as a graduate assistant for Notre Dame, Mills was on the sidelines for a game against Michigan). It was the second largest crowd in Gator football history too.
As the clock expired, Mills reached into his back pocket and ? again ? he pulled out the mirror. As the team dropped to their knees for prayer, Mills spoke again. Despite the 62-3 loss, Mills delivered an encouraging, hopeful message.
“We’ll have failures in life; we’ll have successes in life, the key is no regrets,” said Mills. “I understand on the scoreboard it can be seen as a failure, but I absolutely know we left with no regrets.”
Life has returned to normal on the second floor of the Whitfield Stadium Center. The strip of office cubicles is filled with assistants, players and sports information personnel as September gives way to October and the CSU Bucs settle into their Big South schedule. There are no signs of regret, no hint of failure or loss of confidence. It’s business as usual in the corridors as Mills arrives.
Father, Hero, Coach
The Bucs are five weeks into the 2009 college football season. Three straight losses, followed by back-to-back wins has CSU at 2-3 overall and facing their first, and biggest, test on the road against Big South conference rival Gardner-Webb (3-1 overall, 1-0 conference) on October 17. In the bye week, Mills took a breather to reflect on the season and a lifetime of coaching.
Not a day goes by that Mills doesn’t think about his late father, Jay Sr. How would he handle this challenge? What would he tell his team? The Bucs head coach has a good idea what he might say. He followed his dad like a shadow when he was young.
“My dad was my hero,” said Mills, looking at one of the three framed photos he has hanging in his office.
Mills Sr. coached high school sports in Iowa and Indiana for 18 years. It started with football in the fall, then junior high boys and girls basketball in the winter, boys and girls track in the spring and then, in Iowa, he coached boy’s baseball and girl’s softball in the summer. Mills Sr. even drove the bus for girls swimming in the summer.
“He made a grand total of $6,000, but it was his passion” said Mills. “He was a better coach than I’ll ever be. Seeing the players and coaches that came out to his funeral just showed his influence.”
Mills said his father’s dream was to coach on the college level.
“I told him before he passed away, ‘Dad, if I ever get an opportunity to become a head football coach at the collegiate level, I’m bringing you out of retirement,” he said. “I want you to coach for me. Three months to the day that I interviewed for this job, he passed away. I’m realizing my dad’s dream everyday now, and my brother’s doing the same thing.”
Mills is one of four brothers. His brother Jeff is an assistant coach at the University of Washington. The others: a lawyer and a pastor.
The second photo, to the right of Mills Sr. is Eddie Gadson. Mills took a long look at Gadson’s image diving, ball in hand, defender in tow, diving ahead for every inch. Mills said, “Eddie reminds me that we just don’t know how much we have. Every breath we take is a gift from God and we just don’t know how much time we have.”
In the final photo, players, coaches, family and CSU president Jairy C. Hunter are seen in prayer following the team’s miraculous 22-point come-from-behind win. Hunter, his back to the camera, is bowing in prayer, his left hand on Mills’ son’s shoulder. The image is a reflection of Mills’ philosophy on coaching ? and life ? as a man of faith.
“I believe that coaching is really one of the last hopes to coach and train young men to be future generational leaders,” said Mills. “A campus is a perfect place to start. You lead on your campus, you lead in your community, you lead at home and you lead in church.”
“Our primary purpose through the program is mission and ministry,” he continued. “Mission, because we want to continually expose them to the gospel and, hopefully, deliver a message through the Holy Spirit to lead them to salvation. The ministry part is to lead those who are believers, toward spiritual maturity. Our passion just happens to be football to deliver that purpose.”
That’s a heady message, considering Mills’ history with football and coaching. His dream was to receive a college football scholarship. The offer never came. Mills was so crushed he missed school the next day.
“I wanted to be as far away from football as I could get,” said Mills. He attempted to carve out his own path, applying his time and energy to studying accounting at Illinois State.
But God had bigger plans for Mills. The next day he received a call, asking if he’d be interested in coaching high school football. Long story short, he accepted the offensive coordinator position at Bloomington Central Catholic High School and won the state championship.
“I don’t believe in coincidences,” said Mills. “I believe that coincidence is a small miracle for which God chooses to remain anonymous.”
Mills caught the coaching bug. He picked his father’s brain. He picked Paul Hansen’s brain (head coach at Bloomington Central), a man Mills referred to as “a Godly man who also coached football.” He later sponged a few skills from Lou Holtz, serving as volunteer assistant at Notre Dame.
As a pupil, he absorbed a lot. The Bucs football program has grown from 1-11 in 2003 to Big South co-champions in 2005 followed by a team best nine-win season in 2006. But 2009 marks a new challenge, and Mills cannot waste time reflecting on past success, or mirrors. It’s back to the future, Gardner-Webb and sights of putting another “W” in his back pocket.