Coach's corner: Chattanooga's Matt McCall

Matt McCall processed some mixed feelings this week as he watched his mentor and longtime head coach Billy Donovan leave Florida for the Oklahoma City Thunder.

He was elated — thrilled, really — for Donovan to fulfill his long-held dream. But for McCall, a lifelong Gator, it was also tough to see the man who built a championship-caliber program leave Gainesville.

It's only fitting, however, that McCall will take so much of what he's learned under Donovan's tutelage as he embarks on the next step of his career: His first head coaching gig.

McCall was hired by Chattanooga on April 12, taking over a program that had gone 40-25 in the last two seasons under coach Will Wade, who departed for Virginia Commonwealth.

McCall, 33, has for years been considered a rising star in the profession, learning the craft by Donovan's side at Florida (for four years as an assistant coach, but also previously as the director of operations and, before that, as a student manager) and three seasons as an assistant at Florida Atlantic.

And now, McCall is getting his chance to run his own program for the first time — which means he's had a crazy couple of weeks figuring things out so far. Crazy in a good way, of course.

McCall spoke with Paste BN Sports national college basketball reporter Nicole Auerbach to discuss his first head-coaching job, what he's learned from Donovan, how his coaching career began in general and more.

Q: So, this is the first time you're living outside of the state of Florida, isn't it?

A: This is the first time I haven't lived in Florida! I'm still relatively close. We're just a couple of states away. But I think for me, that was nothing I was even considering when taking this job. For me, what I was considering was the fact that you have an athletic director (David Blackburn) in place here that's big-time. Even though it's a mid-major program, he's running it like a high-major program. Great conference. Just a lot of really positive things in place for me here. … Chatanooga is a great town. It's a bigger town than Gainesville, as hard as that is to believe. The adjustment here has been great. The people here are what make the place special, and I think with any job you take, it's the people who are what draw you to the job, attract you to the job.

Q: It's been a few weeks now, since you took over. What has this month been like for you being a first-time head coach — just a complete whirlwind?

A: It's obviously a complete whirlwind. You get the job, and there are a million phone calls coming in, a million text messages coming in. This person wants a job, that person wants a job. This person has a player, that person has a player. Congrats, coach. This, that and the other. Got to sift through that. Got to hire a staff. My biggest thing the first couple of days on the job was I wanted to make sure — because (former coach) Will Wade and his guys did a really good job recruiting — I wanted to make sure the guys who were on the team currently and still had eligibility left were coming back. That was my main priority. I didn't want anybody leaving. Then, you go from there. You meet with the signees. Who's a good fit? Who wants to come? Who doesn't want to come? Then you do that. In the process of doing that, you're still trying to hire your staff. ... You've got your family back in Gainesville; it's an adjustment for them. Try to get them up here and try to find a house — where do we want to live? It's a lot. But it's all positive things, all part of the job. But the biggest thing was making sure the players were coming back and being a part of this, because I think it's going to be something special. They're a together, connected group. I want to be the guy that steers this group in the right direction. Like I said in my (introductory) press conference, I can promise them one thing: This will never be about me; it'll be about them. I want to see them succeed. So, it's been nuts, it's been crazy but I am starting to find my niche here and getting a little bit settled in.

Q: This is the first time you've hired a staff. When you were an assistant, was it something you'd keep in the back of your mind, like, 'Oh, someday when I become a head coach I might hire this guy?' How do you piece together your first staff?

A: The first thing for me in the whole deal was I wanted to get people on my staff who were familiar to me. You're at Florida, Florida wins. So there are going to be opportunities to leave. I've had a couple different opportunities. There's always something in the back of your mind. You're thinking, well if this happens, I may hire this guy. Not that you're not focused on the job you're doing, but you keep it in the back of your mind. The biggest thing for me an my staff was I just wanted guys who are familiar with me, know what makes me tick and know what I'm about. There's going to come a point in time where we lose a game, and I'm going to want to lose my mind. Not only that, but they know the direction I want the program to go. I'm not saying this is the University of Florida, but I put people on my staff who have been part of the culture at the University of Florida because that's exactly how I want our culture here to be. It worked. It's a pretty good culture to model (after). There's always different things that happen, different things that come up where there's a guy who has worked for someone that you know and has a chance to be a superstar or has a wealth of experience, and then boom he has an interest, and you hire him. We've put together a really good staff here.

Q: You touched on some of the parts of the program and school that attracted you to this job, and you were talking about being at somewhere like Florida, working for someone like Billy, having opportunities. So how do you realize you're ready to be a head coach, and you have to find the right spot? Is there a certain point where that clicks? Is it gradual?

A: Not that I wasn't ready last year or the year before that, but when everything is rosy and everything is easy, you're not really facing a ton of adversity. When you're winning the SEC championship two years in a row, going to the Final Four and the Elite Eights, winning 30 games in a row, there's not a whole lot of adversity. I learned more this year with the experiences we went through (Florida was 16-17 last year and failed to qualify for the NCAA tournament and the NIT) under a total rebuilding project. I learned more this year than I had any other previous year as an assistant coach. I felt like after this season I was even more prepared. I'm not one of those guys who's out there chasing jobs, putting my name in every situation. I think you have to let some of these schools come to you and show their interest in you. With Chattanooga, it was that draw from the beginning. The athletic director first and foremost reached out to Billy Donovan, which to me said a lot about him. He's not even talking to me until he talks to my boss. That was attractive from the beginning, and it just kind of steamrolled from there. I met with them, I interviewed, spoke to a lot of people I trust in this business. Everyone said the same thing. They said, 'If you can get the job, you have to take it.'

Q: Let's go back to the beginning for a second, your roots. You began as a student manager at Florida — where your dad had played football. Was that always the plan? When did you realize you wanted to be a coach?

A: I had plans to go to Stetson University. I was actually going to be a preferred walk-on. I think early on going through getting ready to enroll there, something just didn't feel right. It probably was the fact that maybe I wasn't as good of a player as I thought I was. I took a step back and looked at it from the standpoint of, you know you want to be involved in basketball. You know you want to coach. What's the best option for you to do that and get there? I had a relationship with (Florida athletic director) Jeremy Foley because of my father. I got to know Foley through Steve Spurrier and my dad. I knew that relationship could maybe get my foot in the door with Coach Donovan. I figured, if you want to coach, what better opportunity is there than to join Coach Donovan's staff as a student manager and just learn? Learn from him. See how he ticks. How he runs the program. That's what I did. I knew, coming out of high school, I wanted to coach. I tried to pick the best route possible to do that. A lot of people play. I didn't do that. I went to Coach Donovan because I knew I would learn more from him in four, five years than me going to play anywhere else.

Q: What are some of the main things you took away from him? Not even basketball or style things, but out of everything you've learned from having him as your mentor.

A: The level of humility at which he does his job. It's the same reason I think he's going to succeed in the NBA. It's the reason he had an unbelievable amount of success at Florida. The University of Florida was never about Billy Donovan. It was always about the players and the program. That's something I'll always take with me. No matter how many championships you win or lose, how much success you have, it is never about you individually. It's always about the team and the program. To me, that says a lot. He could walk around with an unbelievable arrogance about himself, like he's got everything figured out, that it's all about him. But he doesn't. It's not. The biggest lesson I've taken from him? That.

Q: You mentioned earlier that you learned a lot this past season in particular. What specifically did you learn in a year in which you didn't go to the Final Four or an Elite Eight and everything wasn't easy?

A: It would have been easy this year for (Donovan) to be like, look fellas, I'm not dealing with you guys, I'm not going to coach you guys, I'm quitting on you guys midway through the year because of how the season was going. The energy level that he brought on the floor every single day to practice, the energy level he spent trying to get through to these guys mentally, the energy level he spent after the season with each and every one of these guys individually. Team meetings. Trying to get this thing going back in the direction everyone wanted it to go. To me, that was amazing. At no point did he ever voice his frustration to anyone. He was still the same guy. He didn't walk around the office miserable, hating everybody. He was the same guy who, the previous year, won 30 games in a row and ran the No. 1 team in the country. He didn't change because the season wasn't going as well as it should have.

Q: Last question. I'm curious, as a first-time head coach, even one surrounded by great mentors and resources around you, has anything surprised you?

A: I used to make fun of Coach Donovan because he used to always say to me how exhausting home visits were. You have to go in and do all the talking. As an assistant coach, you set up all the meetings. You just sit there and watch. That first week on the job, I was on the road recruiting and I'm the one who is doing all the talking. After my first three home visits, I called Coach, and I said, 'Coach, I just wanted to apologize. I want to apologize because I always made fun of you for always saying you were exhausted. I'm exhausted.'