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todd mOnken<br />
Head Coach<br />
Who or what inspired you to become<br />
a coach?<br />
It would have to be my father. He was a coach and all of his<br />
brothers were coaches – all high school coaches. I would say<br />
that was the initial inspiration.<br />
What do you consider your greatest<br />
achievement/accomplishment and why?<br />
Getting my college degree in economics (at Knox College).<br />
If you could give one piece of advice<br />
to a young person, what would it be?<br />
You never go wrong with great energy, attitude and body<br />
language.<br />
What is the most rewarding thing<br />
about your job?<br />
Impacting young player’s lives. Trying to create the best<br />
version of them you can.<br />
What is the typical day in the life of<br />
a college coach?<br />
First of all, those days are atypical. These is something<br />
different every day. You go from having one child to 101<br />
children, so every day is consistently inconsistent.<br />
What is your favorite Southern Miss<br />
tradition?<br />
It is our Eagle Walk before home games.<br />
What do you love most about Hattiesburg?<br />
The people.<br />
What’s your favorite thing to do in<br />
your spare time?<br />
Spend time with my son.<br />
When you hear “Southern Miss fanatic,”<br />
is there someone who comes to mind<br />
and why?<br />
The one that is on the good end and loves everything about<br />
it is Bill Brodhead. He is not always at everything but he<br />
loves Southern Miss football. I don’t know if fanatic is the<br />
word, but he is fanatical about how kids are doing and about<br />
where we are headed.<br />
What’s your biggest win as a coach?<br />
UAB in 2013.<br />
Besides your home stadium, where is<br />
your favorite place to play and why?<br />
Anywhere we are winning.<br />
What is your favorite childhood sports<br />
memory?<br />
When I was a kid I was umpiring Little League baseball and<br />
my brother ended up pitching and couldn’t throw a strike.<br />
He must have walked like 10 kids and I had to keep calling<br />
balls, because he wasn’t throwing any strikes. He kept walking<br />
everybody and I didn’t know if I was doing the right thing<br />
and that my Mom and Dad would be upset, but he just<br />
couldn’t get it over the plate.<br />
What are your feelings about having<br />
more teams in the national play-offs?<br />
I have always believed that a playoff system is unbelievable.<br />
There should be more teams. It would be more exciting –<br />
it has been proven with the NCAA Basketball Tournament<br />
how exciting it is – even just with the four teams that we<br />
had last year. I would hate to see it go to that, though; just<br />
based on the bowl games. I don’t think you can have as<br />
many neutral site games (in a playoff ) because there is a<br />
lot to be said for going to a bowl game and the reward for<br />
your season for your players and coaches at a site that hosts<br />
you and it really is a neat deal for your kids that have never<br />
been anywhere. The moment you that expand the playoffs it<br />
really diminishes the bowl. Right now, we don’t diminish the<br />
bowls. There is two weeks of it and all the other teams get to<br />
experience the postseason.<br />
Who is your biggest fan?<br />
My son Travis.<br />
<strong>Hometown</strong> Rankin <strong>Clinton</strong> • 25 77
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