Brain surgery is a fairly aggressive process. There's a lot to get through. There's the beautiful, delicate shaving first, which is really lovely. There's a wonderful ceremony of putting all the covers on, so only the little bit you're operating on is revealed. But once they make the incision and tear the skin back, the drill comes out.

I was at Texas State in 2005. I'd never coached quarterbacks and never called plays a day in my life. David Bailiff hired me and we go 11-3, and Barrick Nealy breaks all kinds of QB records. I grinded. I got my hands on every drill tape I could. I went to clinics. Every brain I could pick, I picked. And I wasn't too proud to ask the kids.

I've definitely seen that Texas is certainly a right-wing area politically. I think if you talk to the average Texan, some people may still think that alternative energy is some sort of hippie mumbo-jumbo, you know. I think there's still a strong movement to continue to drill and continue to find these other sources of oil within the country.

Obviously, when you're doing fitness work at a club all week and every week, it's all about specific drills for what you need to do on the pitch. So I'd be doing a different drill to the centre-midfielders. It's all specifically tailored for me. For example, my drills are high speed. It's all about trying to break the line with a sharp sprint.

I was 14, but it was on a thing called day release, so we took the day off school on a Wednesday to train and do school at Cobham, and at the end of the day, we got asked to train with the first team just because of numbers. There was a drill where it was like a 1v1 drill, and I got partnered with Drogba. I was going 1v1 with Drogba when I was 14.

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