FULL FRIDAY SHOW: Kalen DeBoer 1-on-1 / Vikings schedule takes / Timberwolves' golden age observance

Happy Hour with John Gaskins

So, what's Nick Saban really like to deal with when you're his successor?

How do you deal with the scolding hot pressure of being an outsider who is inside the boiling cauldron of a stark-raving fan base and a first season, post-Saban, that becomes the losingest season in Alabama in 17 years and the losingest of your own remarkably successful 10-year head coaching career?

What applies from playing and coaching for Bob Young at tiny University of Sioux Falls to following Saban and exchanging haymakers in the SEC?

And, what's it like to golf peacefully at Augusta or be in the white-hot spotlight, surrounded by state troopers and gazing, at-times feverish fans in college football heaven? Is it hell?

As you'll find in this hour-long chat full of Sioux Falls memories and descriptions of the Alabama trenches, Kalen DeBoer takes leading the Tide in stride.

Before he skyrocketed the last five years to take the throne of college football's premier kingdom, DeBoer had a meteoric rise as a young NAIA head coach at the University of Sioux Falls. In between, a lot of steady training flying the not-so-friendly skies of Div. I football as an offensive coordinator in struggling, less prominent programs of Southern Illinois, Eastern Michigan, Fresno State, and Indiana.

In each case, DeBoer learned how to deftly steer out of turbulence and land the plane before his next blast-off.

The Milbank native is as eager to talk about his first gig at Sioux Falls Washington High School — after a short-lived professional baseball career — and the toiling at places that were in the throws of futility and obscurity as he is about the perks of prosperity at USF and Alabama.

And, DeBoer really likes talking about people closest to him, particularly the high-achieving athletic women of his life — wife Nicole and daughters Alexis and Avery — and Alabama assistants Ryan Grubb and Chuck Morrell, who were part of his journey from three national titles in four years at USF to some of his other stops before Tuscaloosa.

What is always in the sauce of success no matter where you are and what situation you walk into?

Listen carefully, and this hour-long chat with DeBoer is more than just an enjoyable stroll down memory lane about the good ol' days in South Dakota or plowing through the pressure of the highest-profile job in his industry. It's a tutorial on seizing the day and finding the "why," no matter who you are.

Before that, host John Gaskins and his happy hour cocktail buddy Jon Oppold — owner of Sunny's Pizzeria and The Orion Pub downtown — tackle the freshly-released Minnesota Vikings 2025 schedule, then take a step back from the teeth-gnashing of the Timberwolves' at-time sloppy play against weaker opponents in the first two rounds of the playoffs to marinate in the sweet stew of having the best team in this history of the franchise and one of the best in the NBA, from front office to star players.