Baylor’s Matt Ruhle joined ESPN’s 1st Take recently for another of his many interviews he has done over the past six months. Ruhle has been schooled on interviews, and he left this one with his message loud and clear. He did an excellent job of answering the specific question and did not ramble. He was very upbeat and positive. Ruhle managed to get in some facts and stats (9 Baylor players went on mission tour this summer, the team has over 200 hours of volunteer community service in Waco) and changed the conversation from what happened in the past to what is going on now. Ruhle talked about opportunities, not discipline procedures. He sent the message that he intended to establish pride back in the Baylor program with the same standards he insisted upon at Temple. Ruhle came off as totally honest. When pressured to talk about how many wins he needed this year, Ruhle said he hoped to win a ton of games but knew that the off the field stuff needed to take priority right now. Ruhle has done a masterful job over the months taking control of the interviews and not allowing reporters to establish their own opinions.
Study Ruhle’s performance and hopefully you can take something away to improve your interview skills.