New Arkansas Razorbacks head coach John Calipari joined Shan & RJ ahead of his team's exhibition matchup with TCU in Forth Worth on Friday to discuss how he's settled in with his new team, why recruiting in Texas is so important, how he'd change NIL if given the chance, and more!
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00:00How is John Calipari fitting into Arkansas?
00:20Well, you won't believe this, this isn't the first time I've taken over a program.
00:26You walk in, I need a Catholic church, I need a Dunkin' Donuts, and I need great facilities, and I'm fine.
00:34My wife grew up two and a half hours north of us, north of Springfield, Missouri, so she's got family here.
00:43And you know what? I'm like jacked about this.
00:48It's another place to make a mark, to get involved in the state where there are a lot of things that are needed.
00:57I always say if you sit in the seat I'm in, and all you do is watch tape, you kind of cheat the position.
01:04And you're not here, these are all rented seats, and you're not here long, but what do you do with it while you're here?
01:10We've taken the team to Pine Bluff, we've taken the team to Hot Springs.
01:15We've been up in Little Rock, we have a couple games in Dallas.
01:20Why is Dallas, why do our graduates all go to Dallas?
01:26They get more Arkansas graduates in Dallas than they do our own state.
01:31I mean, what is going on?
01:33You know, so, but no, SEC, we've got like 10 teams in the top 25, it's crazy.
01:40You get people picking teams in our league to win the national title.
01:45So it's going to be a war.
01:47We played Kansas in an exhibition game.
01:51These people were 20,000 strong students, and it's 25th of October, and they're like intense, a thousand students intense.
02:00So now we come down there, we're at the Dixie, we're playing TCU, and it's going to be a great challenge.
02:09And I'm telling our fans, come on, we're coming next week, we're playing Baylor in American Airlines.
02:16You know, but this is, Jamie's done a great job at TCU, and they play hard, they're well coached, and we're young.
02:26We've had two days of practice where I'm a little disappointed because almost like, okay, you beat Kansas.
02:33They have their big guy, we have ours out too, but they have their main guy.
02:38And there's a little bit of arrogance, and then they see my fangs come out, the hair on the back of my neck grows.
02:46I mean, so the last couple days I've been a little disappointed because of that.
02:51But, good group of guys, they just don't know, they're immature.
02:55Coach, I used to think of Parcells like this.
02:58Are you a guy who...