(L-R) Scott, Homer and Bryce Drew. (Photo courtesy of Valparaiso University)
THIS IS THE GET IN THE GAME PODCAST
WITH SCOTT LINEBRINK
When it comes to the Drews, basketball is in their blood. You’d be hard-pressed to find a family with more years of coaching experience than Homer Drew and his sons, Scott and Bryce.
Homer coached for 41 years at a number of schools, including a long stint at Valparaiso University from 1988-2011, aside from the 2002-03 season when Scott served as head coach. It was there that, in 1998, Homer led the 13th-seeded Crusaders to their first-ever Sweet 16 appearance, a run that included one of the signature moments in NCAA Tournament history when Bryce hit a buzzer-beater to knock off fourth-seeded Ole Miss in the opening round.
Scott spent nine seasons as an assistant at Valparaiso before taking over as head coach and winning the regular-season conference title. He then took over as head coach of Baylor University, where he won the 2021 NCAA championship and has been named the Big 12 Coach of the Year three times.
Homer came out of retirement to return as head coach at Valparaiso until he handed over the job to Bryce in 2011. Bryce remained in that job until becoming the head coach at Vanderbilt University in 2016. He now serves as the head coach at Grand Canyon University, where in 2021 he guided the program to its first Western Athletic Conference regular season and conference championships, and thus its first-ever trip to the NCAA Tournament.
Faith has guided all three of them in their coaching careers, and their relationship with Scott Linebrink goes back to the days at Valparaiso. They join Scott this week on “Get in the Game” to reflect on their careers, the joy they get in coaching, and how they try to reflect God in their careers.
Andy Pettitte in March 2025. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
THIS IS THE GET IN THE GAME PODCAST
HOSTED BY SCOTT LINEBRINK
Our guest today is Andy Pettitte, a New York Yankees legend who played 18 years in the majors — 15 with New York and three with Houston. He was a five-time World Series champion and three-time All-Star.
Charlotte Hornets guard Coby White, March 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)
Coby White is back in familiar territory. Not only is the 26-year-old point guard back in a starting role, he’s also doing it in his home state of North Carolina. After being traded to the Charlotte Hornets last season, White is taking over as the team’s primary point guard following the offseason trade of LaMelo Ball to the Minnesota Timberwolves.
A native of Wilson, North Carolina, White returns to the state where he holds the all-time high school scoring record (3,573 points) and where the Greenfield High star was named the state’s Gatorade Player of the Year in both his junior and senior seasons, and selected as a McDonald’s All-American. A consensus five-star recruit, he stayed in state to play for North Carolina, where he was named to the ACC All-Freshman team and was a second-team All-ACC selection.
He then declared for the 2019 NBA Draft, where he was the No. 7 overall pick to the Chicago Bulls. He eventually became a regular starter and averaged a career-high 20.4 points in 2024-25. But with the Bulls battling through another losing season in 2025-26 and White set to be a free agent, Chicago traded him to Charlotte in February.
In 21 games for the Hornets last season, he averaged 15.6 points, 3.0 rebounds and 3.0 assists. White felt comfortable enough with the new situation to re-sign with the Hornets over the offseason on a three-year, $74 million contract.
He also told the media that he sees God’s hand in how his career has played out.
“Like everyone knows, spiritually, I’m a believer in Christ, so I think He has a plan,” he said Monday. “If you would’ve told me two years ago that this is where I’d be sitting right now, I wouldn’t believe you.
“But I’m excited. I’m blessed. I’m fortunate. We have a really talented team — a lot of versatile guys and unique players. I’m excited to share the floor, and we brought in some really good vets that I’m excited to learn from. We’ve got a really good team and I’m excited for the opportunity I have. I think it’s on me to take full advantage of it.”
With White in the fold, the Hornets reached the NBA Play-In Tournament last season, winning a game against the Miami Heat before losing to the Orlando Magic. Now, Charlotte is looking to reach the playoffs for the first time since the 2015-16 season. The chance to lead the Hornets there was a big reason White wanted to re-sign with the team.
“I’m excited to see what this year holds,” White said Monday. “This is a different opportunity. I’m in a unique situation, a unique opportunity, and you know it’s definitely one of the main reasons why I did want to come back here was because I knew it would make me a better player. I knew it would be a challenge for the road ahead, and I knew that in order for me to become the player that I strive to be, that I dream of becoming, I have to take on this challenge.”
He’s fully aware of the expectations, especially given his accolades in high school and college in the state, and knows the franchise and fanbase are going to be looking for him to be a leader. He knows it will be a lot of responsibility and weight on his shoulders.
“I think I’m ready for it at this point in my career, maturity-wise, mentally, physically, emotionally, spiritually,” he said. “So I’m just excited for the road ahead. I can’t tell you what it’s going to look like, but I know that I’m excited to see (it), just like you are.”
.@CobyWhite mic'd up for the first day of training camp 🎤
In the past, White has acknowledged that he may not have been mature enough early in his career to handle such responsibility. Yet he’s seen how God has brought him through those times to make him the man he is.
“I feel with my journey the first four or five years God may not have thought I was ready, that I needed more maturing, maybe more learning,” White told NBA.com in April 2025. “But that was OK. I just wanted to stay patient and continue to be who I am and contribute to work and to strive to be the player who I try to become each and every day. I always give God all the thanks and all the glory because He kind of put me on this journey and He instilled me with the faith and patience to withstand all the trials and tribulations.”
One of White’s biggest examples of how to live a Godly life came from watching his dad, Donald, who was a factory worker in Goldsboro, N.C., and died of liver cancer in 2017 at age 65.
“I was raised to lead with love, raised to put God first and raised to uplift and spread positivity; that’s kind of how my family is,” White told NBA.com. “I look back at my life, growing up in one of the poorest cities in North Carolina. I look back and think, ‘How did I get here?’ I really don’t have an explanation. And then all I can point to is God and my family growing up, my mom, my dad. My dad got on his hands and knees every single night and prayed out loud to God. I saw that every night. He never missed a night, and growing up when you see that stuff as a kid, you start to take home what your parents are doing.”
His faith is big reason why he launched the Coby White Family Foundation, which provides holistic mental health support and scholarship opportunities for Black and Brown youth and families. It also hosts basketball camps and offers educational resources like tutoring, financial literacy and nutritional education.
The foundation is a family affair and guided by Luke 12:48, which says, “To whom much is given, much will be required.”
The Hornets kick off preseason play on Oct. 6 against the Brooklyn Nets, then begin the regular season Oct. 21, also against the Nets.
Clemson head coach Dabo Swinney looks on in a game against North Carolina, Sept. 19, 2026. (AP Photo/Jacob Kupferman)
Dabo Swinney heard the noise last season. After a 1-3 start, fans and media pundits questioned whether his time as the Clemson head coach had run its course.
The Tigers made the College Football Playoff the year prior but lost in the first round to Texas. That’s the only taste Clemson has had of the CFP since the 2020-21 season, when it lost to Ohio State in the Sugar Bowl semifinal. That loss came on the tail end of a dominant run by Swinney-coached teams at Clemson, including going to the national championship game four times in five years (2015-16 to 2019-20) and winning it all twice.
That 2024-25 CFP loss came in the first year the tournament expanded to 12 teams. A fanbase that was used to their team being a mainstay in the four-team CFP has found little patience as the team seeks to return in the expanded format.
The Tigers finished 7-6 last season — the most losses for a Swinney-coached team since 2010 — and a loss to Penn State in the Pinstripe Bowl didn’t help quell the frustration. Neither did a 51-10 loss to LSU to start this 2026-27 season. But Clemson has since won two straight, including a 22-7 win over Georgia Southern and a 28-20 win over North Carolina on Saturday.
Swinney was asked about how he handles that pressure week to week when the expectations from fans are still so high. Never one to shy away from speaking about his faith, he pointed to God.
“God’s on the throne,” Swinney said in his postgame press conference Saturday. “Football don’t define me. Scoreboards don’t define me. God’s on the throne whether we win or lose. Even if I never win another game, God is still good. That’s where my peace comes from. Period, the end.”
Last year’s record could’ve looked different had Clemson been truer to its identity over the years, Swinney pointed out. With an assist from a sports information staffer, Swinney noted that Clemson has the nation’s highest winning percentage in one-score games dating back to 2011. The Tigers went 1-3 in one-score games last season, including a 46-45 home loss to Duke.
“Obviously we screwed that up last year. That’s on me. That my job to win the close games,” he said in his press conference. “That’s a pretty big stat to lead the nation in one-score wins, but that’s how we’ve won. We’ve won close games. If you’re going to have a great season, you’ve got to win close games. Everybody’s got good players. Everybody’s got good coaches. You’re not just going to walk out there and blow everybody out. You have to win some four-quarter, down-to-the-last-play games.”
Several of his undefeated or one-loss teams could’ve had several more losses if not for winning close games. Those types of wins tend to compound and help a team build momentum, Swinney said. He feels like Saturday’s 28-20 win over UNC can be one of those wins.
“It just puts wind in your sails,” he said in his press conference. “It just creates that confidence, and you have to have that because we’ll have some more tough games along the way. We didn’t win the ACC today, but we’re 1-0, and you can’t win two until you win one. So that’s all we’ve got. We’ve just got to keep moving forward.”
"My purpose as a man is to glorify God in all that I do. To be a great husband and father. And then to use that platform of football and education to build great men."@ClemsonFB coach Dabo Swinney is our guest on a brand new Sports Spectrum podcast with @MattForte22. pic.twitter.com/Y8HG5wFUHz
After taking over as head coach mid-season in October 2008, Swinney is now in his 19th season as Clemson’s head coach. He’s 189-54 over that span and is Clemson’s all-time winningest coach. At 56 years old, he still feels like he has plenty of tread left. Last season, he made it clear that if Clemson decides to move on from him at any point, he plans to keep coaching somewhere else.
But whatever this next leg of his career looks like, he knows his peace comes from the Lord.
“I know where I came from and God has shown so much favor on my life,” he said in Saturday’s press conference. “I’d just have to be an idiot to lose my peace now because something ain’t going right. Listen, God never says, ‘Oops.’ It’s what I believe. Just keep going. Just keep going, man. Don’t ever quit. I don’t ever quit, I just keep going. I love what I do. Love who I do it with. But my peace comes from knowing that God’s on the throne. That’s where my peace comes from, and no football game can change that. So I don’t care what happens.”
Swinney has long strived to be genuine and authentic, and he makes it well known to recruits and their families that’s he’s a Christian. He lets them know his job is to coach football, but his purpose is to glorify God.
“My purpose as a man is to glorify God in all that I do,” he said on the Sports Spectrum Podcast in August 2025, “to be a great husband and father, and then to use this platform of football and education to build great men, to build transformational leaders. That’s my purpose in life.”
Swinney and Clemson continue ACC play at Cal on Friday, with kickoff set for 10:30 p.m. ET
THIS IS THE GET IN THE GAME PODCAST
HOSTED BY SCOTT LINEBRINK
Our guest today is Dakota Caton, a former Indiana State wide receiver and the author of a new book, “Cleats to Clarity: A Journey from Identity to Purpose.”
