For the first time since 1964, Wheaton College didn’t score a point in the Little Brass Bell rivalry. North Central’s 41–0 win was another milestone in a program built on precision and pride—but for head coach Brad Spencer, the victory said as much about culture as it did execution.
Since taking over at his alma mater, Spencer has sustained what few programs at any level can: continuity. In an era of roster churn and quick exits, North Central keeps players—and standards—for the long haul.
The secret isn’t hidden in a scheme or a slogan. It starts with a simple, daily ritual.
The “Why They Stayed” Tradition
Every Tuesday through Thursday in camp and early in the season, a senior stands before the team. Two questions guide the moment: Why did you choose North Central? And why have you stayed?
“It’s hard to play four or five years of college football,” Spencer said. “We don’t have 30 seniors starting. But they all have value. They all have a story.”
Those two minutes in the spotlight give players a chance to reflect on their journey and remind everyone listening—especially freshmen—what the program truly values. The answers often echo the same themes: relationships, love, brotherhood, purpose. For young players still adjusting to the demands of college football, those messages cut through.
“Freshmen start hearing that over and over,” Spencer said. “They realize there’s something deeper here than just scoring touchdowns or making tackles.”
By the time North Central reaches midseason, most of those freshmen can repeat the senior messages by heart. That consistency creates something rare: a shared language of belonging that outlasts recruiting classes and turnover.
Celebrating Every Role
Spencer’s culture extends beyond who starts on Saturday. It’s built to make every player feel essential.
He points to the “work team O-line” as the most challenging job in football—grinding through practices against the first defense, with no glory on game day. Yet, those players are celebrated like starters.
“That position is the least glorious, most physical, most demanding, and the most important,” Spencer said. “We make sure those players know how much they matter.”
Recognition runs through every layer of the program. Weekly awards, t-shirts, and simple acknowledgments highlight effort and commitment. In the postseason, North Central even travels players who are only on special teams. “We might take two snappers, three kickers, or a guy who starts on all four units,” Spencer said. “We celebrate every puzzle piece.”
That investment pays off in retention and buy-in. Players understand that impact isn’t limited to stats or headlines—it’s defined by contribution. In a college football landscape dominated by NIL and transfer movement, Spencer’s model stands out as refreshingly stable.
“In a day and age when transferring is so prevalent,” he said, “the more you can celebrate the individual and their part in the team, the better your culture will be.”
Leading the Living Organism
Now, in his fourth season as head coach, Spencer views his team differently than he did when he was an assistant. He describes it as a living organism—something that grows, adapts, and must be guided through the year.
“As a head coach, you can step back and really see your team morph and grow,” he said. “It’s important to have a gauge on where your team is so you can guide it in the right direction.”
That awareness shapes how he balances recognition with accountability. While North Central’s practices are sharp and demanding, the culture underneath them is steady and relational. The players trust that the feedback they receive—good or bad—comes from a place of care.
Retention Through Relationship
The results speak for themselves. North Central continues to produce All-Americans and championship runs, but the foundation remains human. Thirty seniors, most of whom aren’t full-time starters, show up every day because they feel seen and valued.
That sense of belonging isn’t manufactured—it’s reinforced daily. Whether it’s a senior reflection, a scout team recognition, or a quiet pat on the back, Spencer’s program runs on the belief that people play harder and stay longer when they know they matter.
“We win with Jimmys and Joes, not X’s and O’s,” Spencer said. “Our job as coaches is to bring out the best in each player—mentally, physically, and spiritually.”
At North Central, that approach doesn’t just keep players. It keeps the standard.
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Podcast transcript
John Snell (00:01)
Now in the studio is Brad Spencer, head coach and national champion, North Central College, recognized by Hanson ratings and presented by Tully. Brad, congrats and welcome to our coaching coordinator to show of the week and great job this past weekend.
Coach Spencer (00:19)
Thanks, John. Appreciate you having me on and excited to talk about the game and Cardiff football.
John Snell (00:25)
Well, you guys obviously have done some great things there. And as you know, it takes a great staff to do that. Certainly want to give an opportunity to shout out to your coaching staff.
Coach Spencer (00:38)
Yeah, thanks. I appreciate it. ⁓ I felt like, certainly blessed to have our assistant head coach, Shane Durking, our defensive coordinator. Kind of my partner in crime and then Coach Eric Studeman, our offensive coordinator, both alums and guys I recruited, Eric I played with. They did just a great job putting together a really strong game plan. then Coach Martins, our special teams coordinator.
Fairley works with our return team and is our strength coordinator. So just really solid ⁓ game plans this week for Wheaton College. We almost executed a little pooch pass. ⁓ We just had a couple of guys that were off sides and maybe got a little bit excited, but I thought they did a great job, buying a few things for us.
playing a lot of new faces. We’ve eight, nine new starters. It certainly starts at quarterback and Coach Foster, our quarterback’s coach, has done a great job working with Garrett and Demir ⁓ after having coached Luke the last two years to a Goularty trophy. Garrett and Demir are just both doing a great job.
handling their parts of the offense, some crossover, some different parts. But they both played really well. They were combined 15 of 16 in this game. And I think if the head coach makes a better call down in the red zone, they’re 16 of 16 or 15 of 15. So that one was on me. Fortunately, they both played outstanding outside of that.
John Snell (02:09)
You
Coach Spencer (02:19)
You know, and then on the defensive side of the ball, Coach Workin-Thien, our D-line coach, JP Sullivan, who was co-defensive player of the year last year with Wheaton College defensiveman Johanic. But JP had a phenomenal game and our defense lit up negative two yards rushing just under 200 total yards, I think it was, ⁓ on Saturday night. And then Bobby Medina, our DN, was on national team of the week this week. He had three sacks and helped.
anchor that defense. So Coach Workinby is doing a great job with those guys.
Murph and the D backfield. We had two defensive backs out this week so you we had to see it Kyler Green and John Williams step in and Coach Murph did a great job preparing those guys and getting them ready so it was just a really good effort. Coach Allen works with our receivers and Tommy Scopeland is having a great year. Coach Lane works with our Nichols.
Ash with our DBs. Those guys are just doing a really good job and Coach Wiskowski works with our running backs and O-line and you know our running backs is kind of a two-headed monster right now between you know Sean Allen and Dynie McNeil who was newcomer of the year in our conference last year. They’ve both just done a great job and they’re part of those new faces.
So it’s been really great to see our entire staff work with some new guys, particularly on offense and special teams. We have a lot of depth and a lot of experience on the defensive side of the ball. But to shut out Wheaton for the first time since 1964, I think speaks not only to our staff effort on defense, but I think also speaks to how good of program Wheaton College is.
to go 60 years without being able to shut somebody out, I think speaks to all the great players and coaches that they’ve had and great battles that we’ve had with them. In my time, it’s been Coach Dwyer and Coach Scott at the helm.
certainly some really great coaches like coach Bishop before that and some other coaches that won a lot of football games in our conference have made it really hard for know the Cardinals to compete and win against against them. Really before 2005 North Central didn’t have a whole lot of success in the battle for the little brass bell.
John Thorne kind of turned those tides and coach Jeff Thorne continued to turn them helping us get to our first national championship and you know now our guys are just doing a really good great job the last couple years we’ve had over 30 seniors so when you have that many seniors you’re gonna have some experience you have maturity so when you get into games like this where you have five six thousand people there’s gonna be ups and downs they’re gonna make great plays you can rely on
those older guys and you know I started out by talking about that seven play, 17 play drive they had. Ended up having a senior captain Danny Nuccio you know step up and make an interception in the end zone to end that drive and prevent them from getting any points. And that’s the senior leadership that you need you know when you know I tell the guy and this is a Lou Holtz quote but don’t tell me how rocky the sea is just bring the ship in and those guys really did that on that drive.
just kind of missing tackles here and there. had a couple guys out of place on a few plays and they eventually just stood up, stood strong, fell back on their training, did the things that they’ve been coached and you know, we got a real.
John Snell (06:10)
Yeah. Well, obviously, again, you guys have done a great job and you have a great staff that’s ⁓ been big for you guys and your success. As you know, on the show, we asked that our coaches give some little coaching tidbit that they can share with our listeners that our coaches can learn from. share with us, Brad, some North Central insight.
Coach Spencer (06:40)
Yeah, well I mean, think you can always, getting successful football team’s gonna work on blocking, tackling, turnovers, ⁓ blocking and tackling, we work on every single day. But I mentioned the seniors, ⁓ and so I guess I’ll kinda touch on one of those things. ⁓ We really try and highlight our seniors, and so since we’ve been in camp.
senior a day at practice. So our Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursdays, we’re always going to have a senior get up after practice and talk about really two things. Number one, why’d you choose North Central? And then I think more importantly, number two, why have you stayed? You know, because it’s hard to play four or five years of college football. you know, when you have 30 seniors this year, you do the math. ⁓
we don’t have 30 senior starting. That’s not possible. We don’t even have 22 senior starting. You know, so really the majority of those guys are probably going to be playing roles in some other way, other than starting on offense and defense. And so to be able to highlight those guys, I think not only brings value and worth to them, but I think it also brings value and worth to the other segments of your team, whether
wool player, ⁓ whether you’re a package player and a not.
specialty offensive set, whether it’s a heavy set or a light set or a speed set, whatever it might be, or on special teams. We really like to…
celebrate our special teams players as starters as well as the offensive defensive guys. In fact, when we get to the playoffs in past years, we travel guys who are only special teams players that might be traveling two snappers or three kickers. It might be traveling a guy who starts on kickoff, punt, punt return, know, the big four. You know, so we really want to highlight every puzzle piece of our of our team. ⁓
So to me, you know, that’s maybe something that we felt has been important. You know, maybe other programs don’t highlight those things, but I remember when we had seven, eight seniors, when I was, when I started coaching here, 2004, 2005, I don’t think we had but 10 seniors, maybe. And coach John Thorne always talked about if we want to win the conference, we’ve got to get to 20 seniors. And so.
that was the goal was how do you get to 20 seniors? Well, you got to make everybody feel important. You got to make those seniors feel important, especially if they’re a senior on work team. You know, you look at, think the hardest position in football is work team online. That is the least glorious, hardest, most physical, demanding, ⁓ most important job, yet it gets the absolute least amount of credibility. ⁓
So we really try and elevate the players that are in those positions so that they can feel the way that they should feel, which is incredibly important, whether it’s awards, weekly awards, t-shirts, hats, whatever, backpacks, whatever it might be, it’s elevating those players. And so to me, in a day and age with transferring is so prevalent, moving around for, whether it’s NIL,
somewhat other transactional reward. I think the more that you can celebrate the individual and their part in the team, I think the better off your culture is going to be. It’s a lot of fun to get into X’s and O’s. It’s a lot of fun, obviously, to recruit really great players and we’ve been blessed to be able to do that. don’t, we have, you know, I’ll always believe you win with Jimmy’s and Joe’s, not X’s and O’s.
bad coach can ruin a good player a lot faster than a a bad player can ruin a good coach. So I think it’s our job as coaches to find a way to holistically bring out the best in each player mentally, physically, and spiritually. I think one way you do that is you pat them on the back. You reward them. Give them their two minutes in the sun, so to speak, in front of all their teammates. And I think also then,
what’s happened for us is these seniors start saying the same exact things. It almost seems a joke, you know, because they’re like, well, I don’t want to say the same thing as the last guy. But when a freshman starts hearing that and they start hearing relationship, they start hearing love, culture.
John Snell (11:25)
Yeah.
Coach Spencer (11:40)
over and over and over and over and over again for you know it takes us months to get through it because we only do it for you know the two the three days that we really put pads on they start to hear okay maybe there’s something to this maybe there’s something more than just scoring touchdowns or getting sacks or kicking field goals
Maybe there’s something to this brotherhood and this family that’s here with Cardinal football. And so I think it just works on a lot of levels and it’s such a simple thing to do that I think it’s easy for coaches to skip over that type of work. ⁓ But we think it’s important to take time out of the X’s and O’s to build community, build relationship, and build understanding of each other.
you know in today’s day and age there we all have so many things going on you don’t really know what the person next to you is walking through even when you know them really well so to encourage an environment where players and teammates get to know each other and coaches get to know the players and vice versa vice versa I think
you’re creating a space where players can be the best version of themselves, which is going to give you the best result on the field, which at the end of the day, that’s our job. That’s our job as coaches is to elicit the right response on the football field. And I think that’s been something that is we value.
John Snell (13:03)
Yep.
You said it, Brad. And the question I was going to ask is, do you spread that out through the entire course of the season to do that? ⁓
Coach Spencer (13:20)
It goes through,
we won’t go through the whole season, ⁓ but it’ll go through, I mean we’re still doing it and we’re in week five. We’ve still got a couple of seniors left and we’ve got 30, 31 seniors depending who comes back next year for fifth year or not. ⁓ Last year we had about 38, so it goes well into this and we started that in camp. And again if you’re only doing two, three a week, you can do the math, it spreads out and… ⁓
think that’s important because that first half of the season I think is really hard for freshmen. It just is. There’s a lot of changes. School is totally different. Living in the dorms is different. You have somebody in your space. Football is vastly different in every single way. ⁓
John Snell (13:54)
Yep.
Yep.
Coach Spencer (14:08)
And so to have them hearing a positive message from older guys that maybe they are the player that you’re in the country, maybe they are all Americans, or maybe they’re the back, the fifth string work team DN. ⁓ I think it kind of covers a part of the year that’s hard for freshmen. Once you start moving through the year,
think the freshmen get more comfortable, the newcomers get more comfortable, they start to get to know their teammates. ⁓ And so then they start to take on those relationships on their own in different ways. It’s just kind of like a good, I don’t want to call it a band-aid, but I think it’s a nice bridge for them early in the year to be hearing a positive message. Because I mean, if…
we’re all honest, ⁓ you football, you never arrive. So you’re constantly coaching and giving less than positive feedback to kids as a coach. ⁓ You know, and there’s different ways to handle that so that it’s not a negative message, but they’re constantly going to be coached on things that are wrong. I think it’s good to hear things that are really, really good.
John Snell (15:19)
Yeah, I think that’s a great point, Brad, that your freshmen hearing a consistent message from their peers about them having a great experience, I think is really helpful to them in understanding and appreciating why they’re there and why they should stick it out. And obviously, you guys have done an incredible job of retention, keeping 30 plus seniors. I mean, there’s not too many programs that are keeping that many kids.
on a consistent basis. So I think that message and that use of showing value to the young kids through your seniors is a really good idea.
Coach Spencer (16:00)
Yeah, thanks. I appreciate it. And ⁓ I think you see the dividends pay off as the season goes, you know, because as a head coach, you know, this is my only my fourth year doing it. But I can attest to you can sit back and you see your team morph and grow, you know, in ways that like as an assistant, I don’t remember ever being able to really see, you know, I just wasn’t looking for it, you know, because you’re kind of.
You know, you’re in the weeds of everything with schemes and drills and indie and everything. so, you know, as a head coach, you can kind of move back and you see your team as it’s cliche, but it really is a living organism that is changing as you go throughout the year for good or for bad. ⁓ you know, and I think as a head coach, it’s important to be able to have a gauge on where your team is, you know, as that living organism so that you can try and guide it in the direction that, you know, you
John Snell (16:41)
Yep.
Coach Spencer (16:58)
to go.
John Snell (16:59)
Somebody said to me one time, Brad, as a leader, you need to have big eyes and big ears to watch for things like that and to watch how your team, as you said, morphs into a team and great stuff. Brad, again, congrats on a great win. Thanks for your time. Thanks for this insight. And we really appreciate you being a part of Coaching Coordinators weekly show.
Coach Spencer (17:26)
Yeah, thanks, John. I’m to be here. I appreciate you guys.