Episode #114: Luke Falk

 🎙 Luke Falk: Mind Strength, Mental Health, and the Quarterback’s Journey 🏈

From walk-on to record-breaking quarterback at Washington State, to playing in the NFL, and now author of The Mind Strength Playbook—Luke Falk’s story is one of resilience, reinvention, and purpose. In this powerful episode of the Significant Coaching Podcast, Luke joins Matt Rogers to discuss the mental side of performance, the lessons he’s carried from his time with Coach Mike Leach, and how his own battles have shaped the way he now coaches and leads.

Luke also opens up about the tragic loss of his teammate and friend Tyler Hilinski, and how it forever changed the way he views mental health and wellness. He shares why returning to Washington State this October to honor Tyler’s life is such a meaningful step in raising awareness for athletes everywhere.

Finally, we dive into Luke’s new book, The Mind Strength Playbook—a guide for athletes, parents, and leaders to master the mindset that drives performance in sports, business, and life.

To connect with Luke Falk, learn more about his coaching, or pre-order The Mind Strength Playbook, head to CoachLukeFalk.com

For more resources on recruiting, leadership, and building significance in your journey, visit CoachMattRogers.com

Transcript

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who cares what they think? I surely do every move I've made, I've thought of the review. How will I look and what will they say? Will I win their love and approval for just one more day? Why do I do this? How can it be? Does it all stem from a deep root of a lack of love for me? And if this is, so how then do I grow? The answer becomes clear. Start love in the man who is standing in the mirror. Welcome back to the Significant Coaching Podcast. I'm your host, Matt Rogers. You just heard Luke Faulk read from his brand new book, the Mind Strength Playbook, releasing October 24th. If the name Luke Falk sounds very familiar, it's because it should. If you were a college football fan, Luke is one of the most decorated NCAA division one college quarterbacks in the history of the game. After four years of leading Mike Leach's daunted air raid offense at Washington State University where they terrorize PAC 12 opponents with their aggressiveness and dominance. After his senior year, Luke would get drafted in the sixth round of the 2017 NFL draft. But due to injuries, a lack of confidence, and as he states, not having a strong enough mind for that level. His NFL career was short-lived. He would soon move on to coaching, trying to chase the next big thing that was expected of someone with his resume. He would soon realize that he was chasing the wrong things and had lost his true identity. Luke's poem is one he wrote after his playing career ended and he moved into the world of coaching. It isn't just words on a page. It's a mirror into the journey. So many athletes, coaches and leaders wrestle with that constant chase for approval. The pressure of outside voices and the realization of purpose and values and self-worth, these are things I can definitely relate to when I was an athlete and coaching my own program. Before we dive deeper into our conversation, I wanna pause and offer a word of caution. Luke and I talk about his close friend and teammate, Tyler Holinski, who tragically took his own life during Luke's senior year at Washington State. This was a heartbreaking moment that impacted Luke in profound ways, and it continues to shape how he thinks about life, relationships, and mental wellness. Luke shares openly about what Tyler meant to him and about returning to Pullman this October to celebrate Tyler's life with Tyler's parents while raising awareness for mental health. I know this may be a difficult topic for some listeners, but it's also an important, conversations like this remind us that behind the stats, the winds, the highlight reels. Athletes are human beings who carry very real struggles, and mental health is something we all need to take seriously for ourselves, our teammates, and our loved ones. Today we'll dive into Luke's playing career. The lessons from the coaches who shaped him, his transition into coaching, and why he believes mind strength is the ultimate separator for athletes, parents, and leaders. And of course we'll talk about the heart behind the Mind Strength playbook, a resource I believe every competitor and coach will want in their hands. After getting to meet this young man and listening to his heart and his purpose, this is gonna be a powerful conversation about performance, pressure, and purpose. So let's get started. Here's my conversation with Luke Falk. Luke so great to see you, man. I'm so excited about this journey you're on, and thanks for being on the show today. I appreciate you having me. Looking forward to it, man. I have followed your career and I went back and watched a bunch of your games this week and your highlights. And I and it brought me back to that time'cause I was always a Mike Leach fan. As a basketball coach, I was a run and gun. We ran the system as a coach and I wanted to run everybody off the floor. So when Mike started doing what he was doing on the football field, I was like, okay, this is my kindred spirit on the football field. Did you feel that right away when you got to Mike? Certainly, yeah. In high school, I came from a system where we threw the piss outta the ball. We set records for completions attempts and games and. Advice that we got from somebody that was helping us in the recruiting process was pick five schools that you really want to go to. And at the top of the list was Washington State, because for that exact reason, coach Leach was gonna throw it. And when I got there, I really gotta see his mentality even more in depth. Because, we're on the road, we're playing at Oregon and we're up 21 points in the fourth quarter, and I'm checking quick game, I'm checking runs to try to bleed the clock out. And I get to the sideline, we just kick a field goal. So we go up 24, I think, and he goes. You're a career bunter, aren't you? I'm like, what do you mean? He is you just love bunting. And he's let's attack. He is just getting on my case about not being aggressive enough and here I am trying to bleed the clock out. But he wanted to score, score, throw it all over the field and really. When I was in college coaching, that offense, I just love it because really the identity of it is to attack them where they're weak. If they have a light box, we're gonna run it. If they load the block box, we're gonna be able to go throw it all over. I just love the way that he approached the game from that standpoint, although frustrating at certain times. Yeah, absolutely. I can only imagine. He was a piece of work, wasn't he? Yeah. Yeah, he certainly was. And do you have a pirate infatuation and other worldly things as well that are outside of basketball? Like he did? He didn't wanna talk football ever. No, I'm a junkie man. I'm a basketball, a football junkie. It's sports. I'm there. There, there's no pirates. I'm a Cubs fan, so I stay away from everything. Pirates. That's good stuff. Unless we're talking about Roberto Clemente, then I can do that. I'm so curious and I wanna save some of this for, we're gonna have a great recruiting talk here in a little bit, but I'm so curious, again, watching you play again, you made every throw Luke, and I'm not trying to build you up, I'm not trying to make you feel good about yourself, but that offense you run, you look at the routes your receivers were running and the deceptiveness and the space. Could you even think about playing you guys man to man? Oh I loved when teams did. The kryptonite for us was the Chris Peterson. Defensive, Boise State Tree where they rush three, play some cloud coverage three. Anyways they had P coverage or they'd do supplemental pressure. And so that was challenging. But yeah, when teams played us man coverage we had recruited, they had recruited at such a high level too, along with our system. It was awesome. Like we played Oregon State in 2015 and they played cover zero and we had six touchdowns at the first half. Yes. A lot of teams really. Kind of went away from that. Arizona State would do some stuff. You're always guaranteed to get hit by them. But just a really fun system and, I think Coach Leach, a lot of coaches could learn from him. Have an identity, have a system, don't just have plays. When I got into college coaching was fortunate enough to be able to have my buddy Trey Tinsley as a receiver coach, and he would always use this so many offenses are just Applebee's. They've got everything, but nothing's great. When we were with the air raid, sure we had a limited menu. We might've been the in and out, but we were excellent at executing that in and out menu. And we could tweak, we could do certain things. And maybe what people would say Coach Leach's fault is that, we didn't adapt enough. But the guy won everywhere. He went at places you're not supposed to win. That's right. Nine wins. 10 wins. 11 win seasons in Starkville. Lubbock and Pullman, those are tough places. How many coaches were pulling you aside after a game? After you just beat the heck out of them? You beat Oregon four times for crying out loud. How many coaches were pulling you aside and saying something like, I don't know how we missed you. I don't know how we didn't get you on our radar. After the fact. I had a lot, a number of'em, especially in state, right? Utah state's five minutes up the road, right? And Coach Anderson was there and it was fun for me.'cause we gotta play him when he was at Oregon State. So it was kinda like, Hey, three times in my career, I gotta give him a reminder that you missed on me. And I'm, his two twins, his two twin sons were my friends. We played on the same team. I read that's why I was just I'm baffled. No one outta your state recruited you. Just baffled. I know. Yeah. Weber State, nothing. Yeah. Dixie State, which is now Utah Tech, nothing Southern Utah. Nothing. BYU Utah, nothing. No, not even walkon opportunity. So for me it was very fulfilling coming back to Utah and being able to break the PAC 12, passing touchdown record at Rice Cycles. In my home state in front of a Kyle Whittingham, who, obviously passed me up and, I, I get it. Had I gone anywhere else though, I don't know if I would've had the success that I had. In fact, I know I wouldn't have because I came, I went to the perfect situation, to the perfect coach, to the perfect team, and anyway the stars really did align for me there. Looking back on it now it's just so cool to watch because the, your footwork and your confidence. I, kids grow. I'm sure they coached the heck out of you to get you where you were. You didn't get the starting job right away. There had to be an injury. You had to earn that spot. It was late sophomore year when you finally got on the field, right? So I got super lucky. My red shirt freshman year I got put on scholarship. So one year after being there,'cause guys transferred out and and literally, so in my recruiting class we had a four star quarterback. And so him and I, the, our first spring together after the fall season we're playing and we're competing for the backup role. And I had beat him and then he transferred out that summer. So I got put on scholarship. I think week nine we played USC and our starter broke his leg. And then I started, I played that game, and then I started the next week. And ever since then, I was a starter. So I was a three plus year starter as a walk-on, which just, I'm still, my mind's boggled, with that whole situation and scenario. I'm going back and watching those first couple of games when you're on the field. And I see so much confidence in you. Where does that come from? Where does that, being a walk-on earning that, right? All of a sudden you're, I'm sure you're always thinking, I gotta be ready to go on the game, but nobody's ever ready for that first one being in a stadium, being on that field with that many people watching you. What was that like, that first time on the field, knowing you were about to take a snap in a Division one game? It was incredible. It really was. And I didn't have a lot of confidence in high school. I didn't have a lot of confidence. In youth sports or any of that. And really the difference maker for me is I started working on my mind. My parents invested in a sports psychologist for me going into my senior year of my senior season, maybe a month beforehand. And so you compound that with that year, my red shirt year, and now I'm in my red shirt freshman year. So that's three years of working on my mind as diligently as I had in my body. With a guy who was, incredible as a mentor and a coach for me. His name's Dr. Craig Manning. I owe him a lot. And so when my moment came, I had, I really, truly was prepared for it. Each week I prepared, like I was the starter. Okay. I didn't get the starting reps, but after practice I walked through'em. I threw the routes with them. Film preparation. I'm making comments to the coaching staff about, Hey, this is what I'm seeing this week. I think these plays would be good. I did that as a backup and one of my most fulfilling things in college we're playing Cal and they're playing this shell coverage, Middlefield open type of deal. I'm like, Hey, if we ran a corner post here off of our concept, it would be open. We did that, we threw a 90 yard touchdown pass. And I had called it in during that game to our our quality control guy at the time, Eric Mely. And I was like, coach Mely, he was the one that found me. So shout out to him, without him nothing happens. So I called it up. He said, Hey, it's time to run that, within a few series they called it. And for me. That was as fulfilling as anything. And I took that confidence of, Hey, I'm seeing the picture I'm understanding this offense. And I had a lot of coaches that worked with me. I had our running backs coach Jim Mastro mentor me in the run game and our offensive line coach mentor me in the run game. That helped me create a mastery around this offense. Yes, it's simple, but as long as the quarterback knows the intricacies of it, it can be complex for teams because the quarterback can get you in and out. He's the magic eraser. And so I think that's what Coach Leach does and a great job of, and his staff did a great job of preparing me. So when my moment did come, yeah, I absolutely had nerve. We were playing USC, I just watched Connor, our starter, break his leg by Leonard Williams. It's we're getting our butts kicked. But there was also a component, and I've talked about this in my mind, strength training. I was playing with house money. What did I have to lose? I was a walk-on. I'm not a four star. I'm not a five star. Nobody expected me to be on the field, so it allowed me to play like I was playing with somebody else's money. I played free, shoot, I cut it loose that year. That was probably the most free I've ever played in my entire life. That red shirt freshman year, and sure did I make mistakes. Absolutely. I threw four interceptions against them. Arizona State and also through 600 and something yards that game as well. What a great learning for me. I also called my own number and a quarterback sneak on a fourth down when we're on the one yard line and they're playing double threes up front, that we had worked on. So I was just like, I. I felt and probably leached like me that year better than any year besides maybe my sophomore year because there was just your kind of maverick mentality. I just, like I just said, f it mentality is a Falcon mentality and it was had so much fun and I had put all the preparation to allow me to have that type of confidence. What I get excited about as a coach is hearing you talk about the ownership. Of what you were doing, and they and your coaches were accepting you, taking that ownership saying, Hey, I see this. We need to run this. It's gonna work. And they were going, all right, let's do it. Yeah, totally. And that doesn't happen. Yeah. Hats off to them. No, and that's the thing about Leach yeah, we all have an ego, but he also, he let you have autonomy of the offense. It's if it worked, great. If it didn't work, yeah, you're gonna get your butt chewed. But it's it really, what did that allow me as a player to do? Golly, I invested, I studied. It's like I wanted that opportunity, and so I knew I could say I have a PhD in the air raid because it's like they allowed me to, rather than just telling me what to do all the time. Let's talk about. The transition from college to the NFL. Okay. I'm gonna lead you here a little bit. I wanna talk about a couple things before I wanna lead into your book here. I'm a Bears fan, so there's so much talk about Caleb Williams right now, never being under center at USC. Okay. You were you ever under center? Quarterback snakes, and then we had a couple plays, green, fake Z quick 85 double under. That would've been a play that we were under center and then, but we're talking what, 5%? No, no less. Maybe 2%. 2%, yeah. How much do you see that as a negative trying to go to the NFL? Not having that experience under center? I think that, it's just a different style, right? It's like they're working on different footwork and I'm, and quite frankly, leach never coached me on footwork. He didn't care. It's as long as you got the ball out on time, right? So that I came from a system that had very little structure with that type of stuff. Then I go play and I get drafted in the West Coast system with Coach Matt LaFleur. And it's if you're the ball's not out on this timing. You're getting reprimanded or, so it just went from no structure to ultra structure, which was different. But really what I, what was the biggest thing for me is my head space, my mindset. Had I been in a different head space, had I been in that walk-on mentality, I have no doubt I'd still be playing today. In what capacity? I don't know whether I'm a starter, whether I'm a backup, because I would've taken to it just like I did at the air raid, and I would've. Met extra, done all the things, but I allowed a victim mentality where I felt entitled that I fell so far in the draft because I had this mindset, agents telling me after my junior year, you're be a second round pick, third round pick if you go right now. I didn't, and I wanted to go back to Washington State to go win a championship and quite frankly, I didn't feel good enough to go at the next level. At that time I had imposter syndrome and I, and part of that really. I think came out, I call it in my chapter three, like the inner critic, right? The inner critic. And my, my, my internal success thermostat. Oh, man, I surpassed it. So what did I do? I brought myself right back down to where I felt more comfortable, and I played bad my senior year. I didn't do what it was necessary, so I needed to have an internal shift, and I didn't quite do that. So yes, there are differences between the air raid and the NFL and when I watch NFL games now, though. Shoot, a lot of them are in the gun. A lot of them are transitioning to what the college game is. Yep. So I just think, you got a different era of football, but had I been in a different mentality, I think I would've been just fine. I also had a, I, I had a wrist injury, so my. Not to say that this contributed to anything, but, so I broke my SCA Floyd against Boise in week two on Play three, I think Leighton Van Dresh, the, remember that linebacker for the Cowboys. So he was with the Broncos or with Boise. I think he got me from behind and then, broke my wrist. So play all year with it and then they do a scan. So your scaphoid, it's one of those bones, apparently it doesn't heal on your own, I'm sure you know it well. Yep. I'm sure basketball people have had it. Yep. So then they did a scan on it and my doctor or team doctor called me up, said. Your bone's not healing properly, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. If you don't get the surgery right now, you could lose it. In terms of, it never heals. So I got the surgery, don't play the bowl game, and that injury has still bothers me to this day. So taking under center snaps, I was taking under center snaps with a guy who was at USC who had never. Himself snapped the ball under center there in the gun. He's snapping to me, hitting my bottom hand, which is my surgically repaired wrist at this time. And it felt like a lightning bolt hitting my wrist every time. So I'm like. I hate going under center, let alone, so had I not had those things, different mentality I don't think it would've been that big of a deal being under center versus not. And here's the thing too. The more athletic you are being under center, I think you have a, you have a greater chance. Yeah. And the gun, it's I didn't have to do anything and under center, I had to go meet Dion Lewis on a stretch play and beat him to the Point, or Derrick Henry on a stretch play and beat him to point. I'm by far the slowest guy, probably on the field, maybe behind one of our guards, and they might've been, they might've been up there with me. So it's yeah, there was a little bit of anxiety like, oh my gosh, I'm not gonna be able to get this handoff, or am I gonna get the. Am I gonna get the exchange here? So my mind, rather than going, okay, what's the rotation doing? Who's got what I'm thinking, oh, I gotta get the snap, I gotta get to the running back. Yeah. So it's tough to ever play any game when that's how your thought process is, when you're thinking about every little thing instead of flowing and be totally in a moment. And reading. Let me switch roles with you. Let's say you're the quarterback's coach that drafts you for the Titans, tennessee. Yep. How would you have coached you differently? Not to be critical of these guys. Oftentimes the GM's making the final decision, especially in the sixth round. You're taking the best player you can and we need a quarterback, and you're the guy that's there highest on our board. How would you have handled you differently in that first year if you were in that position? What's a good point? And nobody's asked me that. And the guy that I had, he was a great human being. I'm a phenomenal human being. The, I think the point that I probably would've done is he's learning the offense just like I am. So he's learning LA floor's offense, just like every coach is. The questions I have, he might not know the answer to. And it's almost like we had a buddy system where it's I'm not gonna throw him under the bus and he's not gonna throw me under the bus. So one, I'd say, know my stuff better than, as good as the coordinator so I can help this kid know what's going on. And then, trying to take me under my, if I'm his coach, I'm trying to take me under the wing in terms of, Hey, let's go work on the fundamentals and the mechanics that you really probably haven't done as a college athlete that we're gonna do now. And you know what, to his credit, he did a lot of that at practice. He did. And it's the earnest is, I think, on the player to go seek the help and to consistently do that. And I didn't. But I think the biggest thing is, go ahead. I was just thinking, I think the biggest thing is just you gotta know what you're coaching on. Too often. I've seen it. We had a receiver coach come in when I was in college and he didn't know the system. So here he is trying to coach and you don't know the system. How are you supposed to coach these guys effectively? Same thing when I got into coaching. The guys that didn't know and have a comprehension of what we're doing on offense, you can't coach effectively. And then it's like the kid doesn't do the job and then the coach is I told them and it's Hey, sorry guys, sorry I didn't get, because a lot of these coaches, you probably know it, it's CYA. Cover your own. Yeah. A SS, right? Yep. Yep. Rather than, what I think would serve them well is take ownership coach. I didn't get'em on that. I didn't, we didn't go over that here. But a lot of these guys it's it's their livelihood, it's what they need. So what are they gonna do? You're going to survival mode. And what does survival mode, CYA lemme tell you what you want to hear. That's right. Let me, do this, that and the other. So I think just in coaching in general. You gotta know your material. You gotta know your stuff. Take ownership. And you know what I loved with Coach Leach, his son, one of the favorite things that Coach Leach said, you are either coaching it or you're allowing it to happen. That's right. You're either coach didn't allowing it to happen. It's like that makes you put a microscope on everything that you do. I even have that he even had that mentality with quarterbacks. Can I share something real quick, please? Yeah. I think it's great for anybody listening to it, whatever sport, coach, parent, whatever. Business. So he would say, all sacks are on the quarterback and we all know that's bs. That's a lie. There's sometimes it's not. But with that mentality, what does it force you to do? I could have got the ball to my running back. Could I have made a protection change? Could I have got us into a better play call? Could I have gone somewhere else with the football? It's putting the ownership and the control in you, which then you can improve. Now, obviously I didn't do a great job of that when I was in college. I averaged like 30 plus sacks a year. But had I had that mentality, it would've helped me. Same thing. How about when a receiver drops the ball? You can't control that. But what if you took the ownership that it was all on you? Could, was my pace good? Did I make the right read? Did I put the ball where it needed to be? How about if the receiver misses the signal or a play call or somebody didn't get it? Did I go over a signal meeting with them? Did I communicate clearly? Did I work with this guy extra? Did I, so it's putting the responsibility and the earnest on you. You can use that in any phase of your life. Sure, there are things you can't control. I get that, but what can you take? Extreme ownership. It's like that Jocko Willick book of, extreme ownership, which I think if we all did that, not only in athletics, but in our everyday life, oh my gosh we're thriving as a society. But a lot of people see YA, Hey, lemme blame. It's not me. They deflect and it's, they don't, it's like they don't have the security in themselves to admit that. Hey, I was wrong there. That's an insecurity that it won't allow you to take in ownership, in my opinion and moments in my life when I felt insecure, those are the moments that I haven't taken ownership. It's such great teaching perspective. Luke, what you're talking about and you talk about society. We're in a society right now that doesn't start with a mirror. We start by pointing and criticizing and vitriol, and that's, it's gotta be their problem. The, my left tackle didn't pick up the, the blitz that my running back didn't, wasn't where he was supposed to be. Instead of looking in the mirror and saying, what could I have done better? What could I done better to coach these guys? What could I have done better to prepare? Yeah. Bears Story. Your Bears fan. So I'm at the Senior Bowl and my agent was good friends with a guy that was in the front office with the Bears, and they were doing us a favor. They're gonna do a mock interview for me with the entire. Organization at that time to prep me for what was coming, the NFL draft. And so I go in there and I think I kill it, right? They put me that Ryan Pace put ringer. It was, I think it was Ryan I can't remember who it was. It might have been Ryan Pace. Okay. I'm sure it was, we could go back and look at who the GM was, I'm telling you, there were 20 people in that room, wow. That's intimidating, man. Maggie was in that room, right? Yeah. So you walk in and they put you through the ringer and all that, and I'm telling you, I think I crushed this thing. In fact, I'm like, I might go to the Bears, even though they don't need a guy. They drafted Trubisky the year before. I'm like, I might go there. We get the feedback and my agents, I'm like how? What'd they think? They're like. They hated it. They didn't think you did a good job. They thought you threw Coach Leach under the bus too much. I'm like, what? And in my victim mentality at that point guess what? I pointed the finger to Leach. Oh, if Leach didn't bench me, if Leach didn't do this, if Leach didn't do that, if Leach didn't do this. How does that look as me? This guy didn't take ownership of anything. This guy has no clue about who needs to improve me, right? So obviously the bears didn't draft me, and that mentality stuck with me my entire NFL career. It stunk. I victim my way outta the NFL because of that right there. I blamed, I made excuses. I was entitled, I was the same draft pick as Tom Brady. Brady felt. Gratitude for the opportunity. I felt slighted Brady took the most of his opportunities like I had as a walk-on me. Oh, they'll never give me a chance. They've already spent too much money on these other guys. Meanwhile, I'm getting more reps than I ever did in my entire life on my freshman year. It's just the perspective that you have of it, the gratitude, it's I butchered this story beforehand, but it's the talent story in the Bible. It's what are you gonna do with what you have? And if you do great with what you have, you're gonna get more. And as a walk-on, sure. I had one talent and I got more. And in the NFL, it's like I had more talents, yet I did less with them. So guess what? It got taken away from me. I wasn't a good steward of the gifts. I was guilty of it just as much as you were when I was that age. And it's a pandemic. It's, I have all these kids that I work with, all my recruits that I work with. 90% of'em, it is their biggest obstacle, and it's the tip of their nose. They can't get past it. How do we teach it? Luke, and I know you've written this great book, the Mind Strength Playbook and Feel, and I know you've been dropping some things from it already. How do we get kids? How do we get that 16, 17, 8-year-old. To start understanding these, this value system that you're talking about, where it starts with me and it has to end with me as well. You gotta coach it. What are they surrounded by right now? Society media, it's fault. It's that party's fault. It's this, it's that. Yeah. And everybody's focus is on things they can't control, so you have to coach'em properly. And that's why I love mind strength because there's really a mind strength movement going on right now because it's so needed. And it's a system that can train somebody sequentially how they can develop it. What does it do? It helps you in sports. Sure. I want it to, I want you to get the quote unquote external scoreboard, but what I'm really after is how can it help you in your life? How can you have that inner mastery so that no matter what happens in the external world, you can have a process and a way of being able to deal with it. Right now, everybody's focus is too much on what they can't, the external, and guess what? As my sports psychologist told me, when you focus on things you can't control. Your anxiety increases. Think about a backseat driver. Oh, this their anxiety is through the roof. They don't enjoy the ride versus the driver on the other hand, they're calm in most cases unless they have road rage. Yeah. And then in that case, they're focused on somebody else. But as athletes. What do you do? Are you focused on what people are thinking of you? Are you worried about whether coach is gonna play or not? You're recruiting this, that, and the other things. You can't control the outcome of a game. You're not gonna enjoy the Dr the ride. Your anxiety's gonna be high'cause it's focused on the things that you can't control. And we could take the same exact principles that we learn in sports, in the mind strength realm, and you can apply'em in anything in life. Yeah. I'm with you. It's the same thing with me. My, my word is significance. It's, I use it for everything because it's, I was taught many years ago to replace the word success with significance. Don't just go for the win, don't just go for the score. I gotta understand. What that means, what's the process to get there? How do I wanna do it? What's right for me? Instead of just saying, I'm gonna throw the ball 50 yards at this point and have him catch it. We gotta put some practice into it. We have to understand why we're running that route. So I love that mentality. I wanna talk about mental health.'cause we you've used the word anxiety a couple times and things like that. You had a great tragedy that you and your teammates dealt with your senior year and I'm, and I'm talking about Tyler Holinski and his death. What did that do to you and your soul at that point of your young life? And I know you've got a couple other guys that got drafted around the same time you did that. That had some mental health issues and didn't get to finish their career. Some of your alignment, and I think if we're honest, must have affected all of you. I would say it infected or it impacted all of us. How could it not, you go from this guy who seems to have it all together, who is the most bubbly individual I've ever been around? Just happy Bambi in a sense. It's just like he, that he had a pep in his step. It's I wish I was that positive when I was going through it. And then obviously. The tragic passing of it. So two things happened for me big time. One, it humanized sport for me. I had gone from a walk on and I viewed everybody that's in that quarterback room as like the enemy competition. I'm not giving you a lick, I'm not doing anything. I wasn't that quarterback guy that was inviting the quarterbacks over. In fact, I would tell them. I wouldn't tell them opposite. I wouldn't tell'em what we're doing though in terms of what I was doing and inviting people over. I was very limited in my thinking. Very not abundant thinking in that regard, their competition. And so his passing, it's oh my God, could I have. Been a much better human to Tyler. Could I have, how did I not see this? So it just, it really humanized it for me. And I took that same approach when I went to the NFL. Then it's like I quit viewing. The guys in that quarterback room as competition and saw people for, we're all human beings. We're all going through struggle. We're all got some things going on and it just, it, it really humanized sport for me. I, that's the only way I can sum it up. So it's and I have, I had guilt over it. I've had guilt over it for so long about that. I've been able to move past it.'cause I was just doing the best that I could. It's like I went from street mode of the walk-on type of deal to this thing happening. All right. I can't do anything about it. What can I learn from it though? Okay. That's what I'm trying to do moving forward. The second thing is that it showed me that it, it is a great strength to ask for help, right? It's it's actually strong to ask for help. I actually had some of my own mental health issues in 2019 after, so my, I get cut. My dad got a diagnosis of cancer At the time, my mom, she had been battling some mental health stuff. I had ended a five year engagement or a five year relationship. We were engaged at the time and my dog died. I had a couple hip surgeries and, what am I doing? Who am I? I was really struggling. I called my sister, she could hear it in my voice. She's you need help and. I was so shameful to get help. I, all the old programming came back, even though Tyler had just passed, 18 months earlier or whatever the math is on that, not a very long time. He's still very prominent in my thinking, thinking, what's it gonna say about my masculinity? What are coaches gonna think of me? What is this, that and the other? And thank God I went and I did it. Thank God that my sister followed through and made sure that I did it. Because you know what? That saved my life in some form of capacity. And so with mind strength. I tell people it's not about perfection. Mind strength's not about perfection. I'm not telling you, you go through and you read my book, or you do my program, or you do any of this stuff that you're gonna be perfect. No. There's gonna be bumps in the road. You're gonna have to call audibles at times. What Mind strength to me is about it's upstream, right? I think I heard Tony Robbins talk about this. It's like you've got upstream and then here's the waterfall, and all our systems and our programs are working on the waterfall right now after the fall has happened, mine strength's, just working on upstream. That doesn't mean that you won't fall off the waterfall every now and then. It's like learning how to change a tire before you need to learn how to change a tire. Great. You can fix it. You can keep moving. But what happens when all four tires blow? What happens when the car blows up in that sense? You need help. And the audible that you ask for, then the mind strength audible you ask for is, I need help. And you go seek it. And so that's why I think therapy and, that type of support, it's absolutely I think a huge mind strength gift. And it's part of my mind strength practice. Shoot. I've had two therapy sessions this week about things that I'm going through right now. I'm not ashamed to admit that. I think it and especially, just like any industry. I've got a really great people in my corner in that regard that can help me, that can help support me in my journey. And so I really encourage people to, if they're going through struggles, issues, stuff like that. It's not shameful, especially with men, right? Especially with men, women they seem to be more open or receptive to go receive the help. And men, it's that's weak, that's weak. What's somebody gonna say about me? No, I think it shows great strength. I think it helps your masculinity, it helps you become a healthy man, so you can be a great, human being in that regard. So one, one thing too, I just wanna say the Linsky have done a phenomenal job. With the tragedy of Tyler in terms of making an impact, I can't imagine what they've gone through. A lot of people probably wouldn't do what they've done. What they've done is created alinsky's hope, trying to end stigma for mental health, especially in when it comes to student athletes and provide them resources. What they've done is created this thing called Student Athlete Mental Health Week, and it's at the beginning of each October. It's a full week long, and you'll see your favorite football team in college or your favorite sport, whatever, it's soccer or whatever's going on. You'll see their, their emblem or their sticker on the back. It'll have the light blue and green and then the number three on it. And so I think they have over 200 schools participating in it now. That's fantastic. Talk about that. I'm proud to say this year I'm teaming up with them and using the book as a resource.'cause part of their mission is to provide resources. What better than a mind shrink book for student athletes. Great. And all the proceeds that come using their special link that we've got for them, giving a hundred percent of the proceeds to them to help them with their cause, and also hopefully provide a resource for these student athletes. So I, I'm proud to do my part. Like I said, I had guilt with Tyler's stuff. I can't do anything about that now. What I can do is try to help move'em forward and, further his legacy. Luke, I know we don't know each other well, so take this for what it's worth from a dad and an old coach. I'm so proud of you, man. I'm I appreciate that. I'm so grateful that we have your voice in this world right now'cause it's so important. It means a lot. Thank you. We can have you speaking to teenagers and athletes and coaches and parents enough for the message that you have and the experiences that you've had and the humility that you see those experiences with. So keep doing what you're doing. I want to get some advice for from you because. Every football team, every basketball team, every soccer team, men and women, it doesn't matter. Doesn't matter if it's pro, doesn't matter if it's college, doesn't matter if it's youth. Everybody's got a Tyler. There's probably three or four Tylers. There's probably three or four Lukes that are going through what you went through and Matt's what I went through. What are some of the things as parents. So we need to be doing proactively as much as being aware of what we're watching and what we're looking for, because we talked about how bubbly Tyler was and how joyful he was and how funny he was and what he put out externally. What are some of those things we need to do as coaches and parents and teachers to be proactive with our youngsters? That's a great question. I'm probably not qualified to even answer it. I can. You are more than you think because you know what you needed and what you got. Yeah. You talked about your parents made. A priority to get you sports, psychologist in front of you, right? Yeah, totally. I think just the more and more that you can here's what has helped me the most when it comes to quote unquote my mental health. So I can't speak on to, I'm not a therapist, I'm not licensed, whatever. But I can talk about my own experience. Like you said, it comes down to this. It's like letting them know as an individual that they're loved no matter what. I struggled with. Self love. I struggled with loving who I was. I didn't like my body, I didn't like my circumstances, I didn't like me, I didn't love me. And and then sometimes you hear my dad was very big on this and I, I love it. To this day, it's I love you. I didn't like what you did. It was, he was always trying to affirm me. I love you, the action that you took. I don't like that we're not gonna do that. Now, obviously it didn't sink into me in terms of the self-love that I had, but I think the greatest thing that you can do is try to help them create an identity of love within themselves. And for me that's through. My, my faith now, it's like that's the bedrock for my mind strength. If you don't have that, in my opinion, you're living off of the outcomes, what people think of you, comparisons, and it's an anxiety ridden. I call it the teeter-totter trap. It's an anxiety ridden type of playground that I wouldn't advise anybody to be on, and all those things are things you can't control. So what's helped me the most is to look at myself in the mirror and genuinely have a love and appreciation for who God made me to be, and knowing that my worth, it doesn't change based upon whether I won or whether I lost. It's unchanging, unwavering, it's God-given and whatever your belief system is like. I went through a program called Al-Anon. I don't know if any of the listeners know what Al-Anon is, but it's a right, it's a recovery thing for family members that have family members that are alcoholics. And one of the greatest things at the end is having a spiritual relationship with, within your own personal relationship of it. I come from Utah. Obviously, there's a predominant religion here, and sometimes it's if you don't fit the mold in that religion, then people just go away from. That. So anyways, not to go down that path, but I think it's important because if you don't have your identity on something that's unchanging, unwavering, now you're living the highs and lows and that can get you in some dark places like it did me, right? If I'm not the football player and that's where my identity was, if I'm not this, that, and the other, if I'm, the way people look at me, I'm in the dumps, now I'm depressed, now I'm now, I'm allowing my worth to be based off of things I can't control and things that are always gonna be up and down for me. Yeah, I went through the same thing. My identity was 100% as an athlete, and when that was taken away because of some injuries and I didn't have the emotional and mental game that you're talking about, the mental strength I moved all that energy into coaching. And then when I got outta coaching in my late thirties, early forties, all of a sudden I realized that was my identity. I'd put all my weight and energy into the identity of being a coach. Yeah. And it's taken me into my fifties to understand that's not my identity. That never was my identity. My identity is. The gratitude and the generosity I give to others and how I raise my kids and the love I give other people. And whether that's coming from a foundation of faith or a foundation of love, it becomes value driven. Value driven. Value driven. It's not, yeah. Yeah. And that's my concern with young athletes right now is a lot of them can say the words you're saying. That my faith is my foundation and I'm doing this. Oh it's talking points. It's talking points, but there's nothing behind it. It's a mask. And that's my concern with that. What's, I think, could you have been, could you have felt this way when you were 17, 18? I think you can, if you have somebody like I, I am, I agree. I see even these college quarterbacks that say. Right things, they've been pro, but I know that it's not, I can see me in them of knowing at that, right? I said when I'm at Washington State, oh, I don't care about what people think of me in the media. I just wanna bullshit. I cared immensely. I cared so much because that's what I tied my worth to, how I'm viewed, how they, how did I win, did that, all that stuff. So I think what it does in order to crack the deal, I think you can, I haven't lived it, so I can't say for sure, but I think you can of, if you had maybe somebody who's gone in their shoes and expressed how much. They disliked themselves and that's why that they felt they needed to rise to the top. In fact, a lot of high achievers I think, feel that it's like they're trying to get the love that they might not have gotten. At other places and they're trying to make up for it by achieving, and people then will pat you on the back. But here's the thing. We beat USC, I have 500 text message messages, flood in after we beat number five USC. I get cut from the jets. I have 10 text messages flooded, right? Minsu mania happens. Who am I now? It was a really, I called it a quarter life crisis. I went in a quarter life crisis. I had to figure out for the first time, who really am I, and it's still a process. It's not like I wake up every day and I'm just a hundred percent, oh. I love exactly who I am. I'm a hundred percent no. It's just like my strength. It's a practice. It's a journey. Yeah. And I could share a poem with you. I'd love to share it with you. I share it. Please do. Because I think when I go talk to these macho. College programs or even high school programs, and I talk about this poem, I get people, I can see the shift in their eyes. They know they're hearing them in the story, and then they ask me, can I take a picture of that? Hey, I got an ad. Can I take a picture of that? Because so many of us struggle, I think, with this topic of self-worth feeling like we're good enough. Blah, blah, blah. And it goes like this. And I wrote this when I was the offensive coordinator at Northern Iowa. I'm in just one of those. Sometimes I get in these low points and it's like something is brewing in me. Something's working. And it was in this moment that I had this insight. It's who cares what they think? I surely do every move I've made, I've thought of the review. How will I look and what will they say? Will I win their love and approval for just one more day? Why do I do this? How can it be? Does it all stem from a deep root of a lack of love for me? And if this is, so how then do I grow? The answer becomes clear. Start love in the man who is standing in the mirror. And I say that now, I must have recited that however many times at this point. I get chills every time because it's truth. Yeah, it's truth. I love it. And if you do that you take the handcuffs off of needing any outcome, anybody telling you how good you are, anything like the comparison, whatever. And you can just have peace in your life and knowing that you're enough. And that doesn't mean that you don't work hard. It just means that you can play with house money, you can cut it loose. And anyways, that's a constant battle for me and a constant workout for me to this day. So I think if you have, yeah I think you can get it, but I think it's a process and a journey. Yeah. It really is. Experience is so important. It's so hard for me to tell kids that. Everything they're going through is a part of where they're headed. It's a part of who they're gonna be, and they need it. They need the hurt, they need the stress. They need to know how strong they are. They need to know they can overcome. They need to know they can become the person they wanna be and they may not know who that is yet. And until they have those experiences and go through what you've gone through and what I've gone through, we, we don't get to be the person we want until we do that. So Totally send me that poem. I'm gonna post it. It's in the book. It's in the book. I was gonna ask you if it's the book. So chapter's, chapter two. I can't wait to read your book. Yeah, I think you're gonna love it. I re I wouldn't, it's funny, my career, I would never have. Been as confident telling somebody about something I did in my career.'cause I wasn't that confident in being able to do it with this book, the team around me that I had. Anyways, I just, I love it. I think it's gonna be a game changing for people and it's entertaining as well. It's not prescriptive. It's here's stories and they'll be able to see themselves in those stories. Can't wait. Can't wait. And I will, I'll promote it and I'll make sure I get some of my kids reading it too. I appreciate it. I'm gonna tell you something. Because I wish I would've heard it at when I was your age.'cause I needed it at your age. I really wish there would've been a Mike Leach at the NFL level for you, because there's no doubt in my mind that you could have played at that level. No doubt in my mind. Yeah. I appreciate it. I just, I enjoyed watching you play live and going back and watching your film again before today. I just, everything you want a quarterback to do and the spirit you played with and the arm strength, the ball just flies outta your hand. So whatever you do from here on out, no. That you deserve to be at that level. I appreciate, it's funny though, it's like I view all that, like you said, the experiences. Yeah. Everything I've gone through, I love playing football. It wasn't my purpose though, what I'm doing now. It is. And it's like all that was the apprenticeship, the highs, the lows, the hard, the, this. To help me do what I'm doing now. I'm glad I didn't play in the NFL. I can't say that when I got out, that was the case, right? That's one of those audibles easy. I think I'm gonna play 10 years in the NFL. Hey easy. Lemme write this book. Let me write this program. Let me go through this. And this is now my journey.'cause shit's Sorry, I sorry to swear. You're good. Stuff's gonna happen. Stuff's gonna happen. The defense might not give you what you want. Yeah, they might blitz somewhere. Whatcha gonna do about it? Easy. Move on. Focus on what you can control and adapt. Good. I wanna talk recruiting with you. I wanna do a little rapid fire with you. Just get some fun questions in your head and get some quick answers from you. Who's the toughest defensive player you ever faced? Yeah, Vive really good. Steve, something else. Yeah, he was, he's a, super Bowl champion for a reason we played Washington. That guy, I joke with my wife, he knows my body better than her because he was all over me every time we played. It must have looked like a rhinoceros coming through the line. Oh my gosh. He, it felt like they were rushing seven when in reality it was three and he was just, he was a man amongst boys at that age. And he still is. He great player. Strongest arm you ever saw Close up? Oh man. Josh Allen at the Senior Bowl. Just guy had an absolute cannon. Still does too. Yeah. Yeah. NFA great guy too. He was my roommate at the Senior Bowl. And was he? Yeah, he's got he's like a guy I like really referring. Especially when I work with a high school quarterback or a college quarterback. It's like that guy's confident humility. He's not boast and he is not doing all this. He's really a genuine human being. Yeah, he's really found himself, hasn't he? I think so. I don't know him all that well. I know Sam better and I know that those guys are buddies. If you're friends with Sam's the same way. Sam's just a, he's just a great dude and I think, they haven't changed. It seems like they haven't changed. They've always been comfortable. In their own skin, it seems says a lot about a guy when they make that kind of money and things don't change, and how they treat people and how they go about their business. It's I listen to Dave Ramsey. It's like you become more of, you know who you already are. He's, he became an even better guy, both of them. That's great. Yeah. NFL stadium, you'll never forget playing. Definitely Gillette Stadium. First career. Start playing against Tom Brady defending Super Bowl champions. The guy that I had looked up to my whole life. I will never forget it. Maybe I haven't washed my hands since that day, since I'm just kidding. Oh, that's great. Best teammate leader you ever played with? Jamal Morrow. Jamal Morrow. Best teammate of all time. Just a phenomenal football player. Always positive, always, wanting to do what's best for the team. He's in college coaching right now, and he's gonna, he's gonna take off. He's one of those guys that if I was still in college coaching, he'd have been one of my first hires because he's that type of guy. You went on the bus. If somebody came to you tomorrow with a job offer, what would you hope it would be? Oh man. That's I like being the entrepreneur. So I would say, I don't know maybe a job offer to work on mind strength with let's say one of these big conferences to be, create a curriculum to teach young people mind strength, because I think it's needed. So I love it. They would hire me as a consultant to create the curriculum and come in and lead it. Let's manifest that. Manifest that's what happen. I like it. I like, I am getting hired. I love it. I love it. What's your best advice for coaches? Oh, that's a good one. I would say. I'm gonna, I'm gonna steal from Chris Peterson's here. So it's like you gotta create a game plan for your life. So Chris Peterson, I listened to him on a podcast, sorry, this is gonna be a long-winded answer, but I listened to him on a podcast and I heard him talk about society's scoreboard and having your own game plan for your life. And he got out of college coaching'cause he felt like, things got outta hand for him in that regard. And I asked Jake Browning to give me his number. Chris Peterson's number before I got into college coaching. He gave me this, worksheet of finding my mission. What are my values? What are the things in my life that are most important to me? And then make decisions based upon them rather than society's scoreboard. Lo and behold, my mission statement at that time was to help people live a self-actualized life through coaching, speaking, writing, whatever it looks like. I've changed the mission statement now to make it more of, Hey, my goal is to help people live their, live life to their full potential through strengthening their minds, and what helped me best do that. What wasn't in college coaching because I was getting outta my values. I said, family, guess what? I wasn't spending any time with my family. I said, exactly, that's why you're out of it. It's so that helped me, although I got off course, although I went down the path, although I did go chase what I call the Society Scoreboard Mountain, right? He called Society Square. I use it all the time now. It's like I was on the external mountain of what could it get me? How could people view me? I was still getting that external hit and his. Message to me and looking at my game plan for my life. And then, there was a diagnosis that happened in my family. It's like it put things in perspective for me again, and now when I make decisions, it's off of that. It's and if I don't make it off of that, then there fill something off in me. So I think too often coaches they coach for the win and loss. Yep. Great. That will. You'll have your moment in the sun, but will you have peace? Will you have the opportunity to have, the pass the pillow test at night knowing that you've made a contribution and a difference based off, that's why I love John Wooden. It's like the guy was a value-based coach and he did win. Sure he won, but it's that wasn't the important thing to him. It was about, making the decisions that were in alignment with who he was. So I'm in full agreeance with you on that. Where can people find you, Luke, if they want to get your book, they wanna learn more about you and what you're doing, and they want to connect with you, where can they find you? Yeah, my website's a great spot. It's coach luke faulk.com. Faulk is a four letter word, starts with an F, ends with a K, no U in there, right? FALK. So coach luke faulk.com. My dad will love that. I used his line right there for our last name. I've heard that pitch over and over again. What's dad's first name? Mike. Mike. Yeah, Mike. Great. Mike. Mike Faulk. Yep. But so that'd be a great spot. You, they could follow me on all platforms, social media on X, Instagram, LinkedIn at Coach Luke Faulk, and then they can buy the book. So I think it's on every book platform right now, Barnes and No by Amazon. And then they can also get on my website. Give him the title one more time of the book. It's called The Mind Strength Playbook. Master your Mind. Elevate Your Game. I would've said life, but I know it's gonna help you in the life area as well. I love it, my friend. I'm so thankful we did this. I'm so thankful I got to meet you and hear your story and if we can get more people listening to it and understanding that they're okay. And that there's a path to happiness and a path to get over everything they're, they might be dealing with and it all starts with saying, Hey, I need some help. Then we did something good today. Yeah. No, I certainly agree. This has been very enjoyable. Love the questions and thanks for having me on. What an incredible conversation with Luke Falk. I came away deeply impressed, not just with his journey from Walkon to NFL quarterback, but with the way he's using those experiences to pour back into others. Luke has so much good to share with the world from his openness about mental health to his passion for coaching, to the wisdom in his new book, the Mind Strength Playbook. It is clear he's committed to helping athletes, parents, and leaders grow stronger in both performance and purpose. If today's episode resonated with you, I encourage you to pick up a copy of the Mind Strength Playbook when it releases on October 24th. It's a resource that belongs in the hands of anyone who wants to strengthen not just their game, but their mindset. Luke's story is a reminder that significance comes not from titles or stats, but from how we impact others, and I believe his best impact is still ahead of him. If you'd like to connect with me or learn more about my recruiting, coaching, and speaking resources and services, you can check me out@coachmattrogers.com. Until next time, stay focused, stay humble, and keep chasing significance.