Join us as Justin Titchenell delves into an inspiring conversation with Branden Jakubcin, the Associate Head Coach and Defensive Coordinator at Heidelberg University. Witness Branden’s transformative journey from a player to a pivotal figure in Heidelberg’s football program, shaping a legacy of success, resilience, and leadership.
In this exclusive dialogue, Branden Jakubcin shares his compelling journey from his playing days at Heidelberg University to his influential role as Associate Head Coach and Defensive Coordinator. Discover the challenges and triumphs of transitioning from player to coach, Branden’s instrumental role in turning the team’s fortunes, and the shared experiences of building a winning program with Justin.
Dive deep into the core values of hard work, dedication, and the profound importance of relationship building in coaching. Learn how football transcends the field, teaching invaluable life lessons on teamwork, discipline, and navigating the highs and lows with grace.
About Branden Jakubcin:
17 years with Heidelberg University’s football staff, evolving into a key figure in the program’s success.
Named OAC Assistant Coach of the Year, mentoring All-OAC performers and leading a defense celebrated for its strength and strategy.
A beacon of guidance off the field, contributing as an advisor for Heidelberg’s Student-Athlete Advisory Committee and The Siggy Awards.
A personal journey from Ohio Dominican transfer to Heidelberg graduate, now residing in Tiffin with his family and impacting lives on and off the field.
Follow Coach Jakubcin’s insights and the lessons from football that shape champions in life and on the field. A story of determination, growth, and the power of sports to change lives.
Connect with Coach Jakubcin:
Twitter: @CoachJakubcin | @BergFootball
But the guy’s got to trust it I’m going to work hard because if I’m going to ask them to come lift in the morning go to meetings all day go to class all day and go to practice and work their butts off for two hours I better be willing to do
As much work as I can with what I have you know um and I think that’s the biggest thing it doesn’t matter what profession you’re in or if I’m a football player if I’m the football coach like that’s how you earn respect is by how hard they’re going to work
Episode 107 featured coach Brandon Jacobson the associate head coach and defensive coordinator at heidleberg University for more content like this be sure to like And subscribe thanks for coming on Coach definitely thanks for having me so coach Jacobson just completed his 18th season at heidleberg University where he’s the associate head
Coach and defensive coordinator so to officially get things started coach can you just share with the audience a little bit about your background and how you got involved in your current role and I know you said you’ve you’ve been there for almost half your life at this
Point yeah 100% love to learn about that yeah definitely um so I came here as a player um and unfortunately after the 2006 season I had a knee surgery and uh following that up we had a new head coach come in and i’ had really only known him for weightlifting you know I
Knew him for like four months and uh I went to get my physical for the summer and the doctor was like you probably shouldn’t play football again so knowing it was Mike howlet who’s at Toledo now uh coach howlet I called him up in July and was like hey uh doctor said I
Probably shouldn’t play football and he was like okay you want to be a student coach you know it was that quick like he didn’t say like oh well we’ll figure out no he’s just like you want to be a student coach and I said sure you know
Because I want to be around my friends and hang out um so I did uh that year I helped out with the inside linebackers which ironically enough was coached by coach Donaldson who’s our head coach now um so I was under him for for two years I coached the inside linebackers um and
Then I G for two years here coaching the outside linebackers and then uh 2011 was my first season full-time and I coached the DBS um so I went DBS I’ve coached the DBS ever since um I was special teams coordinator for a couple years in
There and then when coach how left to go to Toledo coach Donaldson was the defensive coordinator and I was the Special Teams coordinator and we kind of traded jobs so he became the head coach and took over special teams and I took over the defense so this was my eighth
Season as defense coord nice so can you tell me about that experience coming in as a player and then just transitioning direct you know directly into coaching uh well I don’t know how much you know about the history of heidleberg but uh in the early 2000s
We were not very good um and I’m talking I lost more games in one football season than I lost in four years of high school um so it was it was a tough transition to to go from that um now the you know we had good coaches
When we weren’t winning very many games like there’s guys that are D1 coaches guys that have been prominent coordinators at D3 and D2 levels um we just weren’t a very good football team we didn’t have a lot of great players um but we had a new coach come in coach
Howlet came in in 2007 and literally the team that we won zero games with the year before we won four the next year and it was the same team you know there was a couple freshman playing here and there but it was literally the same guys you know um different coaches came in
And kind of helped us push us along um but the transition going from being a a player to a student coach was better than I thought it was going to be because you know starting off you were sitting here going like I’m gonna coach guys that you know I was a junior so
There was kids older than me that I was trying to coach yeah you know and so but you know I it’s kind of the one thing you got to treat him with respect and you get respect back you know I can’t talk to him like I’m a 10year vet of
Coaching you know I gotta talk to him like I’m the same dude sitting in your math class with you you know because that’s what’s going to happen before practice we’re sitting in class together and then I’m the one blowing the whistle yelling at you when practi is going on
You know so there’s got to be a trust or respect level um to that um but you know the whole transition was great because it was the growing of not just you know me learning how to coach football but we went from winning no games to slowly
Winning four games and four games and four games and all of a sudden we’re over 500 you know in 2010 2011 we start winning you know six eight nine games in 2012 and you’re sitting here going like oh this is how we turn around a program
You know so it wasn’t like I just stepped into a program that we were you know eight and two and nine and one every year and you’re like oh this coaching stuff’s easy you know like no we were at the the bottom floor you know we were figuring out how to weight lift
And how to win games and you know how to play 60 Minutes of football you know so it was a great time for me looking back because I got you know kind of baptized by fire getting into you know learning how to coach football with a program who
Was learning how to win you know yeah yeah and that’s interesting you were talking about having a program start from the bottom and and you know building it up because with my experience at Gettysburg we had a Sim I had a similar playing experience you
Know I came from a a pretty good high school in Philadelphia go to Gettysburg and then I had we were three and seven and then went one and nine the next two years and my my senior year was actually the co year so we never even got a
Season wow but the the moral of the story was like just learning you know obviously it’s not how it went but like it it’s not how we expected it to go but like learning the process of like hey how how do we try to turn this around and those guys at
Gettysburg haven’t had much more success in terms of number of wins but like I still keep in touch with the coaches there and they’re they’re starting to turn things around and it’s encouraging to see we’re getting some better talent in there and you know just hearing about
Your story like coming in early and as a student athlete then than a student coach and now a coach full-time it’s pretty cool to hear that um so what would you say like in your experience would be some of the top lessons that you’ve learned for example like would it
Be you know just like Focus or Vision or or what exactly were you thinking um I I think my biggest thing you know the cliche part of is just hard work you know like like that’s the one thing that coach howed instilled when he got here
Was like we have to outwork you you know like whatever we’ve been doing for the last four years has not been working and I’m going to come in and first thing we’re going to do is we’re going to start lifting and early in the morning
And we’re going to learn how to work and then you’re going to learn how to be disciplined and we’re going to learn those type of things and I think that’s something that’s really carried on for me now um because as a coach like I don’t want to put half into it you know
Like I can’t sit there and think that you know guys are going to trust me to put a game plan together knowing that I’m working nine to5 yeah you know like if they don’t see me in the office after practice they don’t see me in the office
Before their classes start like how how can they trust me to put together a good game plan if I’m you know only no you only got to sit in your office and grind for 18 hours a day you know or because truthfully you’re probably not working
18 hours of that day you’re just sitting around the whole time um but the guy’s got to trust it I’m gonna work hard because if I’m gonna ask them to come lift in the morning go to meetings all day go to class all day then go to
Practice and work their butts off for two hours I better be willing to do as much work as I can with what I have you know um and I think that’s the biggest thing it doesn’t matter what profession you’re in or if I’m a football player if
I’m the football coach like that’s how you earn respect is by how hard they’re going to work you know and same thing goes into meeting same thing goes into film study same thing goes into the weight room you know the the players have to see you giving that amount of
Effort into your job if you want that out of them you know um so I think that that’s a big one um and then just learning how to coach you know one one thing that coach Hal used to always said is either you’re coaching it or you’re
Allowing it you know and that was one thing that always hit me because it’s like man if we’re struggling covering a passing route or if we’re struggling with this coverage either I’m teaching it wrong or I’m just letting them get by because I don’t want to correct them
Yeah you know and that you kind of tow that line of like okay what’s constructive criticism and what’s something that I got to get on them about you know and you’re sitting here oh if I don’t say anything I just let it go then you give up a big play or
Something like that happens you know so that was one thing you know I’ll say with Coach how if from when I was a student coach he treated me like I was a full-time coach and sometimes it was great because I had a lot of responsibility then also sometimes it
Stunk because I’m sitting here going like why are you so hard on me I’m literally just left stats class to come here and coach and you’re yelling at me you know um but no it made me made me understand football made understand being a football coach made me
Understand you know what it takes to go into running a successful program you know but also your demand in stuff out of your assistant coaches your student coaches your graduate assistants because in order for our program to succeed and win it’s got to be from the top down you
Know and Y and and I think just hearing about your story and some of the lessons you learned it comes down to relationships at the end of the day you know relationships not only between yourself and the coaching staff but also between you and the players and just
Like you were saying your players need to have trust in you that you’re doing your job just like you’re asking them do their job and anybody anybody that’s successful um you know look at the most successful coaches out there anybody that’s at that top level has that that
Level of trust that’s that’s almost like and it’s not quite like a friendship like I’m sure you can attest to this too like you have to you have to know like the time and the and the place to to like be friendly and and like be cool with the guys but also like
They’re there’s a time and a place for like business too um so I I I’m sure you you’ve seen that as well too in your experience yeah I think that’s um you know just looking at our program uh Telltale sign I think of a successful
Program is when you can if you came on campus on a Tuesday at noon there’s going to be kids hanging out in the office yeah and sometimes it’s just like hey I don’t really don’t feel like walking back to my dorm and I got class
In 30 minutes I’m just going to chill on the couch in the office and watch TV you know but if our players can feel comfortable enough to be around us during the day then you start building that relationship and yeah like you said you got to understand kind of the
Authoritative figure to when I can have fun you know and things like that but I think it really goes into like as long as the players believe that we have their best interests at heart and we’re going to put them in positions to succeed but then also they know like I
Said that we’re going to put our work in and our time in for them you know like there’s been lots of times where you know are just sitting here on the couch watching TV or just sitting on their phones but they’re in here yeah you know
And and for us it’s like okay well that’s a good thing because for some of these guys you know especially out ofate guys or guys from a couple hours away like We Are The Father we are the uncle we’re the brother we’re the whoever that they’re closest to because if something
Goes good or something goes bad we’re literally the closest people to them yeah you know um so a lot of times you have those easy conversations sometimes you got to have the hard conversations with them but if we have a relationship it makes those harder conversations a
Little bit easier if you have earned the trust of each other and respect of each other definitely and I think it it all starts with just caring about the kids Beyond just football and I had somebody else on the podcast a few days ago they were just talking about you know as
Simple as just asking them about about their life outside of football how’s school going you know how how’s your girlfriend how’s how how how’s everything else going so I think the more that you can do that and and also balance between you know showing them
How much you care about as a person but also on the football side I think the more successful that you’ll be at least you know what I’ve seen from talking with some successful coaches too yeah definitely I mean I just you got to get to know your players yeah and that’s
What that’s what it comes down to because like in coaching you’re gonna have the guys that you need to yell at and you have the guys that you need to put your arm around and talk to them you know because everybody responds different ly to success everybody responds differently to adversity and
You got to find a way to figure out how to coach every kid you know you got to be Stern on them and you be Stern on them and if you gotta love them up and put your arm around them to get what you what you need out of them then that’s
What you got to do but you don’t learn that about your players unless he actually talked to him right definitely so any last words coach you want to share with the audience today that’s a a tough um you know my biggest thing is you know I’d love to
See people playing football um love to try to continue the sport and keep it you know growing you know I always feel like sometimes the Sport’s getting attacked whether it’s with rules or penalties or um you know other things that go into it but you know football is
One of the greatest sports in the world it teaches you a ton of life lessons um you know everything from Team to love to respect to discipline um it builds a whole bunch of you know we call here we call them CH Championship characteristics you know um and the game
Of football teaches you a lot of that stuff and the two biggest things is it teaches you one how to be a teammate and be a team player um I guess it teaches a lot of things my biggest one’s teammates team players number two is hard work and
Number three is handling adversity and success you know because I think those are things not just in football but in any sport you play but also life that are some of the biggest things you know um and football is just a great sport um you know I I didn’t think when I was
Gonna be you know 19 20 years old that they’re going to say hey do you want to be a football coach um I I thought I was going to play short stop for the Indians you know that that was my career goal growing up you know then here I am you
Know 18 years later coaching football so yeah and and last point I just wanted to bring this up because I really liked what you said you know it’s a lot of people talk about how you handle adversity and I think it’s just important to know like how do you handle
Success and being from Philadelphia I think the Eagles it’s probably a great example of that because you know the Eagles had had great success last year Year we’re 10 and one and then you know well everybody knows what happened this for the last seven games there was a bit
Of a a collapse there yeah so I think that’s also important to understand is not only how do you handle adversity but how do you handle success yeah I mean the one the the one of the greatest quotes that I have um that we have in our Championship manual
Is that adversity and success are like a sports page in the newspaper yeah only there for one day right you know so even if the the worst thing in the world happened to you tomorrow no one’s going to talk about it definitely thing you know like you the on Saturday we won a
Football game on a last second field goal by Sunday no one’s talking about it’s not the newspaper again they didn’t run the same story the next day and say oh by the way if you didn’t see it on Saturday hle B one again yeah you know
Like once once it’s over 24 hours are over then we’re on to the next you know um and so I was just being able to handle that stuff and yeah we we celebrate our victories here but same thing with our losses we can’t sit here
After 24 hours and be like oh we won this week’s going to be easy yeah you know um or dwell on your losses after 24 hours so for sure awesome coach well thank you very very much for sharing today best of luck is your recruiting and and thanks again for being on the
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