At the University of Wisconsin–Stout, the wins tell one story. However, the people behind them tell another. Head coach Clayt Birmingham has led the Blue Devils for nearly two decades, and what he’s built is more than a program — it’s a living example of Clayt Birmingham’s Wisconsin–Stout football culture, where family and connection drive success.
From the start, Birmingham has focused on growth through consistency. Rather than chasing turnover for fresh ideas, he builds from within. “When you look at coaching and hiring coaches, the longevity, the consistency, the maturity — it’s just like recruiting players,” he said. “That goes for the coaching staff as well.”
For instance, his defensive coordinator, Travis Destache, has been with him all 19 years. Similarly, his defensive line coach, Jake Schiff, played for him before joining the staff and now has over a decade of experience. Across both sides of the ball, the same names and faces return each season. As a result, the team doesn’t need to keep retraining. “That’s how you win,” Birmingham said. “You don’t have to keep retraining. You have consistency.”
Moreover, that steadiness extends beyond the field. Birmingham’s program develops relationships with the same care it develops players. Every fall camp dinner, for example, pairs a rookie with a veteran from the opposite side of the ball. They share a meal, talk, and discover something unique about each other. In turn, those small acts build trust — just like reps build muscle.
Within this football culture, touch and connection aren’t abstract ideas; they’re everyday actions. High-fives, hugs, and daily interaction reinforce those bonds. “We’re really big on touching,” Birmingham explained. “We slap hands, we hug — anything with contact. It builds connection.”
Furthermore, tradition keeps the program moving forward. On Wednesdays, offense and defense compete in “Joke Wednesday,” trading their worst punchlines for bragging rights. Then, on Thursdays, position groups compete in “Competition Thursday” — with coffin-corner kicks, football bowling, or any challenge the staff invents. Coaches and trainers join too. Even though the games last only ten minutes, they create shared laughter and lasting memories. “Every year I ask if they still want to do it,” Birmingham said. “They always say, ‘We’ve got to — it’s tradition.’”
Even the end-of-year banquet reflects that same philosophy. Seniors run the event themselves — speaking, leading, and closing their careers before teammates and parents. Meanwhile, coaches sit in the audience and watch their players take ownership. “We preach building men to parents all the time, and this is our final product,” Birmingham said. “I want to see the mature man up there speaking.”
In addition, parents are part of the foundation of Clayt Birmingham’s Wisconsin–Stout football culture. He emails them weekly, hosts a family barbecue during camp, and circulates contact lists so families stay connected. After every game, players, parents, and staff gather at the same restaurant for the “Fifth Quarter.” It’s not mandatory; instead, it’s a celebration of community. “It’s a packed house,” Birmingham said. “About half the team shows up. Parents hang out. Coaches walk around and talk with everyone. It’s a fun environment.”
At the same time, Birmingham isn’t afraid to challenge old boundaries. The banquet and Fifth Quarter are social settings where coaches and players mingle responsibly. “We’re from Wisconsin,” he said, laughing. “You don’t have to be an idiot. You can have a nice social time. They need to see people handle themselves the right way.”
Ultimately, what stands out in Clayt Birmingham’s Wisconsin–Stout football culture isn’t a single tradition — it’s how all the traditions fit together. Each gesture, from a hug in practice to a senior’s speech at the banquet, reinforces the same message: we’re in this together.
In a profession often obsessed with schemes and systems, Birmingham proves that the real edge comes from relationships. Indeed, continuity isn’t just about keeping staff; it’s about keeping people connected — coaches, players, and parents — long enough to build something lasting.
And in the end, that consistency in Menomonie, Wisconsin, has become something powerful: a program that truly feels like family.
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Podcast transcript
John Snell (00:01)
Finally, we head to the WIAC where Coach Clay Birmingham and Wisconsin Stout earned a hard fought victory over Wisconsin Oshkosh this past weekend. Coach, congratulations on a great win. Congratulations on where you’ve brought that program. And we appreciate your time and just want to give you an opportunity to congratulate your staff. And then we’ll talk about sharing some thoughts.
Clayt P Birmingham (00:28)
Yeah, I appreciate it. Quite an honor, we’re very thrilled. So gotta give a shout out to our coaches, Doing a phenomenal job. One thing when you look at coaching and hiring coaches is the longevity of the consistency, the maturity, just like you’re trying to recruit players. I think that goes with the coaching staff as well. I think we’ve done a pretty good job of keeping guys around, keeping them happy.
But we’ve started with our defense coordinator, Travis Destash. Thought he did an amazing job on Saturday. He’s been with me for 19 years. So I’ve been here 19, and he started out as my graduate assistant and just kept elevating his game as he went. So ⁓ very, very smart coordinator. Jake Schiff is our D-line coach. He’s been with me for 10 years, ⁓ played here for four years, so actually 14 with me. ⁓ And then we have Coach Thomas.
⁓ Coach T is ⁓ been here forever ⁓ He’s retired now, but he’ll never stop it and he’s been with us for 34 years I hear at stout ⁓ and then we have ⁓ our assist our new athletic director not doing that step down Aaron Sullivan we have her husband Jeff Sullivan Has been with us for 10 years. So pretty solid defense aside pretty consistent ⁓
That’s how you win with guys that you don’t have to keep retraining. You got good consistency here. So offensive side, we’re trying to get the consistency up there, but we have our offense coordinator, Nick Pescik back with the second stint with us. So this is his four years with me now. Coach Branch, Derek Branch, actually is an alumnus at Stout as well. Played here for two years as a player and then has been coaching for 12 years with us. So.
His wife’s a principal and I think that’s key too. ⁓ You know, have keep a coaching staff around, you gotta make sure the wife’s happy obviously and that they have good jobs because we don’t get paid a lot. ⁓ And then we have, ⁓ we have Jed Stutsman does our running backs. His wife works in our building. He’s actually a teacher. He’s been with us for 12 years. And then we have a young buck, Kobe Berghammer, who was a stellar quarterback in this league at Oshkosh.
John Snell (02:26)
Thanks.
Yeah.
Clayt P Birmingham (02:48)
was an All-American for them. We kind of snagged him. He was ⁓ kind of a restricted earning guy last year and really did nice jobs. We elevated him into a full-time position. So this is his second year with us. And then lastly, we have Riley Kleist. Kind of started off with a student assistant and he has a full-time job now, but he’s been with us for four years too. So a lot of consistency. I’m a big believer in just keeping guys around, keeping them happy ⁓ and let them do.
John Snell (03:13)
Well, we appreciate that. you’re right. Continuity, Clayton, is huge to the success of a program. And it’s great to hear that you’ve been able to keep your guys around. As you know, the format of our thing is to share an idea or thought with our listeners. You mentioned team culture and team building. ⁓ How about you share a little bit of that with our listeners?
Clayt P Birmingham (03:38)
Yeah, I think, you I listened to a couple of podcasts here and it seems like all the coordinators talk about X’s and O’s and all the head coaches kind of, you know, what interests them now is the longer you’ve been in this thing is how to recruit and retain and just keep people happy and how to get along and more building relationships. So, you know, think it starts off with, you know,
We have five team rules and rule number five for us is get to know your teammates and that kind of engulfs a lot of things. Every program should be teaching building men and they do because that’s our job as college coaches is build them into a man through their motivation which is football. So we do all the same stuff. We have big brother, little brother which I think is huge. It gives people opportunity to lead and follow. We’re
We’re really big in touching. know, I picked this up from high school coach where we touch a lot. We slap hands, hugs, and anything we do with contact. because you look at just relationships in general. And always talk to recruits as you’re dating a girl, you know, it’s in what do you do? You know what I mean? You take her out to eat. So right away is usually the first date is going to dinner. Well, we kind of transpired that into our program where we have dinner with the teammates. So every dinner in fall camp. You’re
You’re eating with with a veteran with a rookie on the opposite side of the ball. So we organized that. We used to have spreadsheets. Now we just kind of line it up after our walkthrough before we go to dinner. And as they walk off the field, they just grab a guy across from them and they take him to dinner. just, you you break bread with them, you get to know them. You’re just trying to find something unique about the other person. So I thought that’s been good.
You know, one thing we do a lot of family traditions, we call them, where it’s just a lot of team building stuff. Throughout the week, we always have like joke Wednesdays. This comes from Dewey Nats, man.
good old boy. ⁓ after Wednesdays we just you know get a good feeling in you we tell a few jokes a couple offense against couple defense and see who’s got the best joke and they’re pretty bad nowadays but competition Thursdays at the end of practice on Thursdays we coaches think up some dumb competitions and they get to choose one guy from their position group and we go whether it’s kicking a field goal or football bowling or football bocce or
Off and corner kick. We have a huge list of those things. We’ve been doing it for shoot ever since we do. was here in 1920 years. And then you just have all your stuff in the off season, which I think is important competing softball tournaments and do a draft with it to make it fun and dodgeball and all that stuff. I mean, they’re playing football to be with their buddies and have fun. So let’s have fun with them. So other than that, I think one unique thing we do here and I know a lot of coaches cringe at this.
John Snell (06:21)
Yeah.
Clayt P Birmingham (06:32)
our team banquet we we hold the banquet because I think it’s pretty special if a guy makes it four or five years in college football that’s a big deal and they should be murdered so our banquet is basically we have all of our seniors sitting at the head table I sit back all the coaches sit back in the audience and we have our seniors run the whole banquet ⁓ we give them pieces we have you know one talks about academics or ⁓ the thank yous ⁓
John Snell (06:51)
What?
Clayt P Birmingham (06:58)
Then we have a boat, pick four or five them to give just a five minute speech about whatever they want to talk about. Because that’s really cool. mean, it’s interesting what they say and the stories they have. And some people are like, I don’t know if I want that guy talking. for us, we preach as building men to our parents a lot and to everybody. And this is our final product. I want to see the mature man up there speaking, you know, and just.
How did he do in speech 101? And just, it’s kind of cool. And it just, there’s tearjerkers up there. There’s, people, it’s so funny and the parents love it. And they don’t let the listen to a bunch of boring coaches about talking about, you know, whatever we have to talk about about them. So, and as a coach, I like it because, you know, what does, what does assistant coach talk about right away? What they need to work on, right? And my wife always says, God, that sounds so bad. You’re supposed to be praising them. And, but we’re trying to make them better. So,
John Snell (07:34)
you
Clayt P Birmingham (07:54)
So that’s just a couple things that we do team building wise. I think it’s important too that we do a lot of stuff with our parents and some people are scared of parents where I love to talk to our parents and I sent out a weekly parent email. We have a team barbecue during camp where we practice and then right after that we bring in a guy to smoke meat all night and we have a big kind of a potluck and it’s a huge, all the parents come and that’s their time to kind of get to know each other.
and to make them involved. After that, I will send out a parent contact list and I tell them, hey, reach out to these people, reach out to these families, because in order for you to have a positive time, you need to get to know other parents because tailgating or after the game, kids are gonna ditch you pretty quick to go with their friends and you need, the parents that have the most fun will hang out with their parents.
John Snell (08:41)
You
Clayt P Birmingham (08:49)
We have a fifth quarter after every game, win or lose. It’s always at the same place. It’s a big sports bar. ⁓ And all the coaches go, parents will go, players will go. ⁓ And we hang out with our parents. I walk around and talk to all of them. And a lot of parents are, we never talk about playing time, but parents are mature enough nowadays too when you set the tone in the beginning of the first meeting that they don’t even ask anymore about their kid, how they’re doing.
⁓ They get it. They’re mature men. We’ll talk to them about their playing time and stuff, but ⁓ Just a few things that we do. I think that are fun. I don’t know if they’re unique, but ⁓ it’s worked for us
John Snell (09:27)
Clay, I think that is absolutely awesome what you do with the banquet, the fifth quarter, the idea of now when you talked about the Thursday competitions, that did you say the coaches are doing the competitions or you create them for the players to do?
Clayt P Birmingham (09:46)
We all do it. So each when I I tell them the competition or after practice, say it’s coffin corner kick or whatever, they get to choose one person from their position group. They can only do one competition a year. ⁓ Coaches are involved. They have a team ⁓ and usually a coach is one for many years, but now we’re we’re slipping. And then even the training staff are our trainers have a team so they get to do it too. So it’s pretty fun. It’s pretty comical. It’s quick. It takes 10 minutes after practice.
John Snell (10:04)
You
Clayt P Birmingham (10:16)
But it’s just another way. that’s just Dewey Nats’s idea. We just kept it going, the tradition. So we’re a big tradition school and we just keep them. And I ask our guys every year, like, you guys sure you won’t tell jokes after practice on Wednesday? Are you sure you want to do Thursday competition things? Because it’s lots of times the same competition. And they love it. Like, yeah, we got to do it, man. It’s tradition. We love it. So I’m like, all right, if you like it, we’ll keep going with it. So it’s been positive for us.
John Snell (10:34)
Yeah.
I love that. I love the Thursday competition thing. I think again, the banquet thing. I’ve never heard of anybody doing that before, Clayton. I think that is just a great idea. And your idea of see how they’ve developed. ⁓ you’re right, parents don’t want to listen to us as coaches. They’d rather hear the kids. ⁓ And the kids would rather hear the kids. ⁓
Clayt P Birmingham (11:06)
We get about 300
people at our banquet. mean, it’s known to be a pretty fun night. And we hold it off campus at one of our sponsors’ place, a big bar. They have an old banquet hall. So we hold it off campus. And you know what? Here’s another thing, too, which a lot of college coaches don’t agree with or try to fuse it up. But there’s alcohol at that banquet. There’s alcohol at the fifth quarter.
⁓ I think it’s important nowadays more than ever to show these guys how to act with a beer in your hand. And a lot of people are scared of that. They’re like, ⁓ we can’t drink where the players are. That’s how I grew up and that’s how it used to always be. ⁓ It’s not saying we’re never gonna buy one. We’re not gonna sit around and talk to our players. If they’re at the same bar, we’ll say hi to them. But they need to see a person handling.
themselves positively with a drinking hand because hey, we’re from Wisconsin, right? I’m gonna have a beer and a mixed drink or whatever and you don’t have to be an idiot. You can have a nice social time. But they need to see that and they need to preach it. We need to preach it and because we know we all know they’re doing it ⁓ and I think it’s part that a lot of people turn a cold, know, cold shoulder to or don’t even acknowledge it. We’re we got to teach them.
John Snell (12:25)
Yeah, absolutely. The fifth quarter, Clayton, how many people do you think typically will show up for that after the game?
Clayt P Birmingham (12:34)
I mean, there’s it’s it’s a packed house in there and ⁓ that’s why we have this little deal with our with that venue. So they give us some kickback too. And ⁓ you know, they feed our coaches every Tuesday night so we can sit in here and game plan till nine o’clock at night. So we hold our banquet there too. So we bring business to them and they give us kickback as well. And it’s a good give and take. But shoot, it’s it’s it’s a humongous place and that place is packed and.
You gotta get there early. About half our team shows up because the other half is like, we have no place to sit and ⁓ whatnot. But it’s a fun environment.
John Snell (13:12)
Yeah, I’d say it’d have to be a pretty big place to handle all those people. And it’s awesome that you have that set up with them. ⁓ Clay, that is great stuff. ⁓ Really appreciate you sharing. ⁓ Congrats again on a great win. We wish you the best of luck the rest of the season. I know that your conference is an absolute grinder every single week. ⁓ So look forward to seeing your games. ⁓
Again, congrats and we wish you the best.
Clayt P Birmingham (13:42)
Yeah, thank you. We got a big one this week, back at them. Never stops in this league, which is a fun league.
John Snell (13:48)
No doubt about it.
Clayt P Birmingham (13:51)
Thanks.