Last year we were invited to the Bear Bryant Coach of the Year awards to interview coaches in person. It was a surreal experience, but somehow we didn’t mess anything up too bad, and we got invited back again! So on January 21st, Jordan and I both headed on our drives back to the Post Oak Hotel in Houston, Texas.

I arrive at the hotel and begin to walk around to see the display and set up things. I see everyone hard at work setting up the signs for all the finalists. Then I messaged Paul, the gentleman who was nice enough to invite the committee back again; he just told me to head upstairs like last year. Upon meeting up with him, I immediately thanked Paul for the invite and thanked him for this opportunity to do this again.

Last year, we were in the fancy library area but this year they got a sponsor for the awards who took over the library. The sponsor? THE BOZ Cast. That’s right Brian Bozworth’s Podcast.

I snapped a few more photos of the downstairs area and the entrance. I see this memorabilia shelf of assorted items and guess they were up for bids to benefit the American Heart Association Paul "Bear" Bryant Awards. A really great cause.

I had been preparing a document for all the interviews for the coaches nominated for the award. However, we had a late notification they were giving a lifetime achievement award to Phil Fulmer of Tennessee. That sent me scrambling for a little bit but I was able to do some research and found some really cool stuff. I was really over prepared this year, like we were lucky enough to do this again so I went all out, I had a selfie stick with a tripod taking photos of the interviews, a flag on the table with our designs, stickers of our merch and even a tripod to try to get better sound of the interviews even though we were in a open area.

We got to interview Phil Fulmer for his Bear Bryant Lifetime Achievement Award. Virginia Coach Tony Elliot - Bear Bryant Award Finalist; Texas Tech Coach Joey McGuire - Bear Bryant Award Finalist; Vanderbilt Coach Clark Lea - Bear Bryant Award Finalist; Kennesaw State Coach Jerry Mack - Winner of the Bear Bryant Newcomer of the Year; Former JMU Coach and now UCLA Coach Bob Chesney - Bear Bryant Award Finalist.

Mario Cristobal and Dan Lanning were unable to attend. Mike Elko and Curt Cignetti were unable to attend the media interview portion, but Mike and Curt did show up for the award banquet. Mike Elko did arrive as Jordan and I were leaving, and I even let out an “Oh my God, it’s Mike Elko” when I saw him walk in the hotel.

Curt did win the award this year along with so much else this year. We don’t even need to Google him anymore. He wins a lot.

In our interviews, we wanted to provide coaches with some of the fun stuff and take them out of their football-only mindset. It’s an award event; this is supposed to be fun. So this year, I devised a question about X’s and O’s, but not football X’s and O’s, the ones from Tic-Tac-Toe instead.

The game of Tic-Tac-Toe is a solved game. If both parties play the strategy correctly, the game will always end in a draw. We asked for each coach at the end of each interview, what is the coach’s opening move in Tic-Tac-Toe? We had a little small Tic-Tac-Toe game set and simply asked them to place the block where they would start. Does this mean anything about each coach? Probably not or maybe it means everything? Who really knows. But we got a photo of each move.

Phil Fulmer was the only coach who didn’t start in the center. According to the internet, and this article, How to Always Win Tic-Tac-Toe, Phil made the correct move taking a corner. “From my experience, nothing beats starting in a corner. It's the strongest offensive play you can make. Placing your X in a corner immediately opens up three potential winning rows.” Does Coach Phil Fulmer know this? He did say he played with his nine grandchildren a lot. Do I know anything about deep strategy in this game? Not really but I am learning as I am writing this. It is interesting to say the least.

Tony played the Center X, and really it is the most common answer here by most of the coaches. “The name of the game is control. Whether you're X or O, your job is to dictate the game's tempo. You want to force your opponent onto the back foot, making them react to your threats instead of building their own.” The Center move is great, if gives you the best chance to win as there are 4 options immediately open, but you need to counter the opponent based on what they do to trap them.

Joey went for the Center X also. If you have a smart Player 2, they need to go to one of the corners to take away as many options as possible from Player 1. Apparently from what I am learning, this move is the move to likely lead into a tie and stalemate if both parties play perfectly, which is fine and very common. However, here with this method, if the second player picks anything but any corner, you can get an easy win.

Another Center X by Clark. This is the safest move to control the center and ensure you do not lose the game. This is not a slight against Clark because I would have picked this move too. Phil Fulmer is apparently the seasoned Tic-Tac-Toe vet with 9 grandchildren here with his opening move in the corner.

Jerry went for the center in the opening, like many other coaches here. However, Jerry was the only coach to use the O letter. I asked if the O was for Owls, and he said yeah and Offense too because he's an offensive-minded coach. So a big HOOTY HOO to Jerry and the Kennesaw State Owls.

Bob also started with the Center X. This has made me rethink my entire Tic-Tac-Toe question, and I realized that Phil Fulmer is a Tic-Tac-Toe hustler after reading up about the game’s strategies. I mean, I was a Center X or O person myself before these questions.

If the Bear Bryant awards would have us back next year, I will ask about the second move using Phil Fulmer’s strategy. I’ll place the one in the corner and see how the coach reacts as Player 2. I’ll call it the Phil Fulmer Method of Tic-Tac-Toe playing to see how the coach counters. Crazy how much I have learned about the game of Tic-Tac-Toe just writing this silly thing. I mean, I normally enjoyed playing it to a tie and not losing, but Phil Fulmer is crafty at this game. I had never learned the term “creating a fork” in Tic-Tac-Toe, but it seems like Phil knows that already.

Thank you for reading! Thank you to the Bear Bryant Awards for having us again and hopefully you’ll have us back next year! I attached some other photos I took here.