UCLA head coach Cori Close in March 2020 (AP Photo/John Locher)
THIS IS EPISODE 550 OF THE SPORTS SPECTRUM PODCAST
Cori Close is the head coach for the UCLA women’s basketball team. In her nine seasons, she has led the Lady Bruins to three Sweet 16s and one Elite Eight appearance. In 2019-2020, UCLA went 25-4 before the season was cut short due to COVID-19.
Prior to her coaching career, Close was a player at UC Santa Barbara (1989-93) and was the first player in school history to record more than 1,000 points and 500 assists in a career. In April 2005, Close was inducted into the UCSB Athletics Hall of Fame.
On today’s podcast, we talk to Close about being a good truth teller, being a fruit bearer, why she decided to do a Proverbs challenge, her growth as a leader, and how her faith guides her as a head coach.
Oscar Tshiebwe in April 2026. (AP Photo/Karen Warren)
THIS IS THE SPORTS SPECTRUM PODCAST HOSTED BY JASON ROMANO, FEATURING OSCAR TSHIEBWE
Oscar Tshiebwe is an NBA player with the Houston Rockets. He went undrafted out of Kentucky in 2023 after winning the 2022 Naismith Player of the Year award and being named a first-team All-American in 2022 and second-team All-American in 2023. He led all of college basketball in rebounding in ’22 and ’23.
After signing a two-way deal with the Indiana Pacers and then with the Utah Jazz, he led the G League in rebounding in 2024 and 2025. On April 12 in the NBA, Tshiebwe posted a career-high 29 points and 17 rebounds against the L.A. Lakers. He signed with the Rockets as a free agent on July 24.
Today on the podcast, Oscar Tshiebwe returns to the show to tell us about his NBA Draft experience, how he left money on the table in trusting in God’s plan, celebrating the Lord even though he was undrafted, what it means to have courage in the dark, writing a book, and how he has mastered the art of rebounding.
THIS IS THE SPORTS SPECTRUM PODCAST HOSTED BY MATT FORTE, FEATURING DANIEL THOMAS
Daniel Thomas is a defensive back with the Cleveland Browns. He was selected in the fifth round of the 2020 NFL Draft by the Jacksonville Jaguars after playing his college ball at Auburn. After five seasons in Jacksonville and one in Detroit, he signed with Cleveland in 2026.
Today on the podcast, Matt Forte talks to Daniel Thomas about his NFL Draft experience during the pandemic in 2020, how his experience at Auburn shaped his faith, finding identity in Christ rather than football, what “Cleveland for Christ” is all about, and why he uses his social media platform to point people to God.
THIS IS THE SPORTS SPECTRUM PODCAST HOSTED BY ANNABELLE HASSELBECK, FEATURING JAXON SMITH-NJIGBA
Jaxon Smith-Njigba was selected by the Seattle Seahawks in the first round of the 2023 NFL Draft. He was named to the Pro Bowl in 2024 and 2025, and last year led the NFL in receiving yards and was named the NFL Offensive Player of the Year. He had 10 receptions, 153 receiving yards and a touchdown in the NFC Championship Game victory over the Los Angeles Rams and ultimately led the Seahawks to a Super Bowl LX title.
Today on the podcast, JSN joins Annabelle Hasselbeck to talk about his incredible 2025 season, signing a new four-year extension in March to make him the highest-paid NFL receiver in history, trusting in God’s plan, growing in his faith in Jesus, and believing the best is still yet to come.
BREAKING: Seahawks, WR Jaxon Smith-Njigba agree to terms on 4-year, $168.6M extension with $120M guaranteed, making him the highest paid WR in the NFL. (via @RapSheet) pic.twitter.com/krdA4gMRVe
Jacksonville Jaguars head coach Liam Coen, Nov. 2, 2025. (AP Photo/David Becker)
Despite going 13-4 and winning the AFC South a season ago under first-year head coach Liam Coen, the Jacksonville Jaguars have largely flown under the radar in offseason talks about potential Super Bowl contenders. Many experts predict the Jaguars to take a significant step back in 2026-27.
But as Coen enters his second year at the helm, with quarterback Trevor Lawrence returning, he believes his team can not only replicate last season’s success but continue to improve on it. If they do, it will mark the Jaguars’ first back-to-back postseason appearances this century.
“In everything that we do, we are training to say, ‘Anyone, any time, any way,'” Coen said as he addressed his team during the first week of training camp. “We built the standard and the foundation and the way that we want to play the game.”
At 40 years old, Coen is one of the younger head coaches in the NFL, and he’s also a member of the famed Sean McVay coaching tree; Coen learned under the Los Angeles Rams head coach as a position coach for three years (2018-20) and the offensive coordinator for another (2022). In 2024, Coen was the offensive coordinator for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and helped fuel the career renaissance of QB Baker Mayfield. In his first year in Jacksonville last season, he became the NFL’s first rookie head coach to win 13 or more games after his team won four or fewer games the prior season.
During Coen’s coaching journey, he’s established himself as an offensive mastermind and a skilled quarterback developer. He’s also made it known during his time in the spotlight that he’s a follower of Christ.
Coen was a guest on the “Built 4 More” podcast last week with pastor Joby Martin and Denny Thompson, where the coach discussed one of the most difficult experiences of his life and how Christ formed his faith through the trial.
Coen grew up as an only child in Rhode Island, where he was a football fanatic and very close with his mother, Beth. But when Liam was in high school, Beth felt something was off. After numerous appointments, the doctors concluded that she’d contracted Lyme disease. The former marathon runner now struggled to get out of bed each morning. The physical pain was excruciating, and there was little improvement. But the emotional toll grew unbearable.
Four years later, in 2006, Coen was chasing his gridiron dream in college at UMass. He returned home during a school break, and his dad was in the hospital with congestive heart failure. While Coen was at the hospital with him, his mother took her own life.
Coen needed to care for his dad in the immediate aftermath, and then he rushed to return to school and join his team. Suddenly, he was back on a college campus, going to classes and practices like nothing had changed.
“I didn’t probably deal with it right, or well, in that short term,” Coen admitted on the podcast.
But this was different than anything he’d experienced before. The pain of losing his mother in the way he did wasn’t going away.
“Come to find out, 10 years down the road, it creeps up on you when you don’t deal with it,” he said on the podcast. “You don’t process it, you don’t forgive, you don’t have grace. It started to eat at me, and I didn’t know why. I didn’t know what was really happening. I wasn’t feeling right.”
He found people to talk through his traumatic past, and amidst those sessions, Jesus became a frequent topic of conversation. Coen had attended a private Catholic high school and learned many of the rituals, but he had never truly discovered the essence of Christianity.
“I actually began to have a relationship with Jesus Christ,” he said of that time. “And oh my gosh, I started to have more grace, and I started to forgive, and I started to have a little bit more understanding of what she went through and why.”
He had been given new life in Christ.
That new life was only strengthened during his time as the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach at Kentucky (2021, 2023) through the ministry of the school’s Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA) chapter. There, Coen was introduced to a man who handed him a small but extremely helpful packet about the Bible.
“I didn’t know what Jesus did,” Coen said on the podcast. “I didn’t know what He sacrificed. I didn’t know why He was truly put on this earth.”
Coen’s story of unthinkable pain followed by the power of healing found in Christ is a testimony of God’s goodness that he’s shared with his team and those close to him.
“Once I understood [true faith] and learned and was educated, I felt a different vibe,” he concluded. “I felt a different way of wanting to represent God — Jesus Christ, myself, my family, the way that I carry myself, the grace or honesty that you live life with.
“Perfect? Absolutely not. No question. But I know that it helped me when I actually built a relationship with a Power greater than myself in Jesus Christ.”
find someone who looks at you the way Liam Coen looks at Parker Washington
Now, in the hyper-competitive world of NFL football, with a nation’s eyes soon falling again on his sport, Coen has an opportunity to point others to Christ — the Fountain of true life — both in the 2026-27 season and beyond. Jacksonville’s first preseason game is Aug. 15 in New Orleans.
