DeSean Jackson, Michael Vick, Chennis Berry, Trei Oliver, Larry Scott talk among top MEAC conference leaders on 2026 College football season and how experiences shape their coaching

**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
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**Ryan Clark** (0:49)
We're also now joined by DeSean Jackson, Ted White and Trei Oliver. There was just a mini argument now, Because DeSean didn't see his jersey behind him like he saw behind Coach, and he was about to have an issue. DeSean, it's funny, right now, you're the only one that's still in a suit, right?
Coach took off his shirt early on. He was suited and booted, had a tie on. Channing's excited because he wants this HU sweatshirt.

**Channing Crowder** (1:16)
Yeah, that's fine, though.

**Ryan Clark** (1:18)
But for you, DeSean, obviously I got to be a teammate of yours. I know the way that you worked. I know how much you love the game of football and how you pour it into it each and every day on the football field as a player. Talk a little bit about the transition to head coach now at Delaware State.

**DeSean Jackson** (1:35)
Yeah, I mean, I think the transition is simple for me, man. You know, to have success is one way about going about it, your daily work. And I'm very personal with my players. You know, I'm able to get in there. I still throw on the cleats. I still feel like I can play. We just talked about that last night. I'm only three years removed from it. But, you know, I think from my perspective, man, being able to get to the nitty gritty, man, I think for me, the coaches I respected was the one that could relate to me, you know, from to understand what I'm going through in my daily lives, you know, because it's not always about football. You know, you may be going through something at home. So for me, I'm just very personal with my players and I understand them. I don't expect nobody to be perfect because we kill me. You know, we're going to make mistakes. But just to correct them and learn from it is the biggest thing I'm in this position for.

**Channing Crowder** (2:12)
And to be in the back, coaches and y'all knew each other. Y'all cool. But you got to light it up sooner or later. It's a smaller conference.

**Ted White** (2:19)
Yes.

**Channing Crowder** (2:20)
So just do y'all exchange information or try to, you know, figure out things in the off season together and then break off and figure out how you're going to whoop each other?

**Ted White** (2:30)
Last night was the first time we had an opportunity to actually collectively spend time together and getting the chance to know DeSean and getting a chance to know Mike. And, you know, obviously I knew Trei because he coached in Louisiana and we had an opportunity to go against each other a couple of times. Man, it's a blessing because you see that these guys are family guys, you know, to hear DeSean talk about his family.
I've been knowing Trei a long time for those guys to know my family. Mike Vick's daughter, she's going to Howard University. So he said that he wants her to obviously work in the sports department and get a chance to work with the football team. So any way that we can help these guys, because again, we're African American coaches trying to have an opportunity to build a coach around African American men, you know, not only build them as football players, but being able to reach them and build them for the game of life also. Yeah.

**Fred Taylor** (3:16)
And with that, for the three of you guys, when we talk about MEAC and SWAC and HPCU, we usually talk about the culture. But for each of you, what standard do you look to instill in these young men that you just speak about?

**Ted White** (3:31)
Just life after football. You know, this off season, it was really important for me for these guys to get bigger, stronger, and faster in the weight room. But we also had an opportunity to have media training for our guys. We had a chance for alums to come in and actually teach our guys how to put together a resume. We had talked to our guys about mental health awareness, dealing with peer pressure, understanding on a structure schedule. But we also had an opportunity to talk to our guys on how to interview for a job. These are the tools that we're able to equip our guys to.