Marshall football coach Doc Holliday earned a reputation by learning south Florida and mining the area for talent.
It would stand to reason, then, he'd be in South Beach or Fort Lauderdale or some other nice vacation spot about now, right?
"Not now," Holliday countered from his office on Monday. "All our new kids are on campus, so we're here. We had camps. We just finished six straight days of camps. We have our 7-on-7 and lineman camps Wednesday and Thursday."
He paused.
"Actually, we always have four coaches in the office every day," Holliday said. "We'll take vacations throughout the summer. All our kids are here though and we're able to work with them a couple hours a week, so we need coaches around. There won't be a day going by that we won't have at least four coaches in."
This season will be an interesting one in Huntington. After winning 10 games each of the last three seasons, the schedule gets more interesting with Louisville and Pitt on the schedule. Most believe this is the year before THE year and the final win tally could be as low as five or as high as nine.
"I think we're a talented football team," Holliday said. "What happens in September is determined by what's happening now. There's no doubt we have talent. But talent and potential gets you beat without production. I tell our team and coaches every day we can't forget what got us this far. We have to outwork people. That's what we do."
Holliday isn't daunted by the task of winning 10 for the fourth straight season.
"We expect to win them all," said the coach. "That's what we do. That being said, winning is hard. It's all about preparation."
Part of the preparation, of course, is the aforementioned recruiting process. In that regard, MU is doing what it can.
"Camps are part of the evaluation process, but coaches aren't allowed off campus at this point," Holliday said. "We are, though, participating in satellite camps. We have guys participating in like five of them in Florida this coming week. We have guys going to Virginia Tech and Ohio State. We're going a lot of places."
Holliday is a big believer in the controversial satellite camps.
"Absolutely," he said. "We get the opportunity to see a lot more kids."
Thundering Herd coaches will travel to Jacksonville, Tampa, Orlando, West Palm Beach, Fort Lauderdale and Miami, according to Holliday. Defensive ends coach Sean Cronin and assistant head coach Adam Fuller leave Tuesday. Offensive line coach Alex Mirabal and wide receivers coach/recruiting coordinator Todd Goebbel will meet them in the Sunshine State after camps finish in Huntington on Thursday. On Tuesday, Goebbel and running backs coach Pepe Pearson hit Ohio State.
Also, while all that is going on, Holliday and staff will be studying their upcoming opponents. First up are Morgan State and Akron at home.
"We take this time to look at it," Holliday said. "We'll have our first two opponents broken down and ready to go. Also, we'll look ahead to games three and four with Louisville and [at] Pitt back-to-back. We go at least four games."
So, how do the teams look?
"Damn good," Holliday said. "We're the only team in our conference playing three non-conference teams that were in bowl games last year. Akron won eight and its bowl game. Louisville is probably going to be a Top 10 or 15 team heading into the season with 19 starters back - after beating Texas A&M in a bowl game. And of course Pitt went to a bowl and won eight games."
Again, MU's season will be interesting. There will be very few seniors starting on either side of the ball, which should set up 2017 nicely. That written, understand Holliday probably has as much talent on his roster as ever before.
"I've always said, it's better to be young and talented than old and lose," he said.
We'll wait and check out areas like MU's run game. But now, while many are taking vacations, Thundering Herd players are working.
"I have good kids that understand what it takes," Holliday said. "Along with the expectations and standards - which are extremely high here at Marshall - is responsibility. I have great leadership on this team. They embrace what goes into this. I like what I see in regard to their work."
It's at least a good sign for September.