We Still Booze 2.24: ISU Director of Football Operations Greg Brabenec

With spring football in full swing, Iowa State Director of Football Operations Greg (Skip) Brabenec joined Austin on the podcast to discuss all things Iowa State football.

Most importantly, it should be noted that our friend Skip was the subject of some Twitter hazing via Matt Campbell and Tom Manning last fall. Skip took quite the tumble down the stairs and lived to tell the story.

It appears he wasn’t the only one that has this issue with the stairs.....

That's the thing about success. There is no elevator, you have to take the stairs.....as painful as it may be at times.

To start our conversation, Skip discussed his role as the Director of Football Operations. What is it like scheduling Matt Campbell’s day and what does the bill look like for a team meal? With practice during the day, how difficult is it to schedule classes for student athletes?

When Matt Campbell brought over almost his entire staff from Toledo, some questioned the decision at first. After over a year of them being in Ames it has become clear this is a big part of their success. Just how close is this staff and how much fun do they have with each other?

"At any given time you could have 10 to 15 young children in the football offices or at team functions. Most of the staff has young families and they are very involved with the program," said Skip Brabenec.

The popular question within the Cyclone community is when does this staff ever sleep? How do they function without sleep? Skip tries to beat Matt to the office, but his car is often in the parking lot already when he arrives at 5:15 in the morning.

"Our staff goes through an unbelievable amount of coffee. Campbell doesn’t drink any of it though. He drinks Spark Energy," Brabenec explained.

We took a moment to discuss some of the top storylines from the spring: Allen Lazard’s senior season, Chase Allen’s first season and whether Joel Lanning will see more snaps on the offensive or defensive side of the football. Also, Skip talked about the uniform combinations we may see next fall in addition to the wholesale changes we will see in 2018.

With so many Ohio roots, we discussed the Akron non-conference game this fall along with the possibility of returning there for non-conference games in the future. With so many Cleveland roots, which professional sports team does this staff follow the closest? Hint: Its not one of the good ones.

We appreciate Skip taking the time to join us on the podcast. Anything else you would like to know about the team or coaching staff? Let us know in the comments and we’ll ask him next time.

You can follow Greg (Skip) Brabenec on Twitter: @GregBrabenec