ALL BALL - Josh Pate on CFB Passion, Clemson + Florida Decline, Business

Doug is joined by Josh Pate - Host of Josh Pate’s College Football Show - to discuss when he fell in love with college football, how he forced his way into Georgia sports talk, making the leap to TV, his light bulb moment discovering live social media broadcasts, what’s behind Dabo Swinney and Clemson’s decline, if he needs to adapt to the NIL era, why no one since Urban Meyer can win at Florida 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
Hey, what up.

Speaker 2 (00:07):
Welcome in.

Speaker 1 (00:07):
I'm Don Gottlieb. This is All Ball we are.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
We're in the midst of brewing up quite a series
of all balls for you in the meantime. I just
you know, college football is kicked off, and as you
know if you listen to this podcast, it's about people's stories, right,
all of our stories that brought us into sports that
allows us to make money without doing real people work, right.

(00:33):
And Josh Pat's one of those guys. He is super talented,
has his own show. You can see him on I
think CBS Sports HQ now as well as downloaded his podcast,
And I just I love the fact that this is
a guy who's made a career out of himself and

(00:53):
I just want to know more about him.

Speaker 1 (00:55):
Like how'd you come to be where?

Speaker 2 (00:57):
Like I actually seek out his college football opinions, especially
on the SEC, because it's really balanced, like he really
knows rosters, coaching staffs, styles, interesting. It's not the fanboy
shit you see elsewhere. It's really really interesting, high quality,
high level college football sports talk. And if he says

(01:19):
somebody stinks, they stink, and here's why not just because hey,
they lost the game, so they must.

Speaker 1 (01:26):
Be idiots sort of thing.

Speaker 2 (01:28):
So, without further review, let's bring in Josh Pate. Of course,
if you don't know of him, follow on social media
download his podcasts really really good. We had a long
discussion about his rise, most importantly how he became well him.
So I think my first question is how did you

(01:51):
become you?

Speaker 3 (01:54):
I appreciate Dana Trish Peig got to give them a
shout out for hooking up back in the eighties.

Speaker 4 (01:59):
I don't know, man, I think I think it's a really.

Speaker 1 (02:04):
Shout out.

Speaker 3 (02:06):
It's a to me, it's a I think it's actually
a useful story for a lot of folks who were
like early twenties at any given point. So when I
was in my early twenties, I didn't grow up poor.
I grew up a lot closer to.

Speaker 4 (02:18):
Poor than rich.

Speaker 3 (02:19):
But I didn't grow up poor. So I didn't grow
up you know, like back against the wall. I got
to make it out on my.

Speaker 2 (02:24):
Like, listen, you'd be the first person ever have you
ever noticed no one's.

Speaker 1 (02:27):
Ever gone like, yeah, I grew up Athelon.

Speaker 4 (02:29):
Yeah, I silver spoon like it was right here in
my mouth the whole time.

Speaker 1 (02:32):
Dude, I was poor. You were poor. I was poor.
We were meeting that would fall out of your your ass,
like what you see this back.

Speaker 4 (02:40):
It's been against the wall my whole life.

Speaker 1 (02:43):
But I didn't like that Lebron.

Speaker 2 (02:45):
Like Lebron like, I'm not supposed to be here, Like, dude,
you're six nine six somewhere else you're supposed to be.

Speaker 3 (02:51):
So in my early twenties, I realized I was not
six ' nine. I was not built like a freight train.
So I probably wouldn't make it in the NBA.

Speaker 1 (02:57):
Way down back you high school?

Speaker 3 (02:59):
Where high school in Harris County, Georgia? So like West Central, Georgia.

Speaker 2 (03:03):
Okay, West Central doesn't really help me. Like where does
it relates to Atlanta?

Speaker 4 (03:09):
So here's the Chattahouchi River.

Speaker 3 (03:10):
It's about an hour fifteen south of Atlanta, right on
the line.

Speaker 1 (03:14):
With Alabama on the on the Bama line.

Speaker 4 (03:17):
Huh yeah, like right there.

Speaker 1 (03:19):
What year would did you graduate high school?

Speaker 4 (03:21):
Oh? Four?

Speaker 1 (03:23):
God, damn, you're young. Oh my god, you.

Speaker 4 (03:25):
Hear that, Colin Young. You know that. I'm just talking
to the production team.

Speaker 1 (03:29):
So, but what year was Tibo.

Speaker 4 (03:33):
Tebo was around that, he was like five, maybe maybe
maybe a year after that.

Speaker 2 (03:38):
Here's what I remember, Okay, is Tebow wanted to go
to Alabama, he had some he liked Mike Shula, and
like it's one of the craziest the two things that
could have happened that would forever change college football history.
Oh yeah, actually there's three, right, Mike Price doesn't get

(03:58):
caught with whoever is with at the golf tournament. But
before that, like Mike Shula lands Tim Tebow, Mike Shula
might still be the coach at Alabama. And then rich
Rod of course turned out down the job. Like those
three things had to happen, and then Nick Saban had
to fail with the Miami Dolphins. Otherwise that doesn't like
the last twenty years of dominance doesn't happen.

Speaker 3 (04:18):
Yeah, And the other part of that is, so let's
just say all like dual universe here, Tebow goes to Alabama,
Shula keeps the job. Okay, that's that still means Saban
goes from LSU to the Dolphins. And let's just say
the Dolphins tenure played out exactly like it did. Saban's
jumping back into college football. Is he jump into like
Georgia Tennessee. Yeah, Tennessee would have been great. It's a

(04:41):
little little on the back end of fulmer so man
like Texas like it would have. It would have blown
up college football like it did at Alabama, just not
at Alabama.

Speaker 1 (04:51):
It's amazing.

Speaker 2 (04:51):
Okay, So you're in West Central Georgia, played.

Speaker 3 (04:56):
Football, played football in middle school, high school. What suck
ted Harris County where I went is we got this
like round of coaching in an era of the coach. Yes,
the coaches coaches hate everybody sw Yeah.

Speaker 4 (05:10):
No, it wasn't screwing.

Speaker 3 (05:11):
It was that time where they started to preach specialization
in one sport. So I fell into that, and so
I went baseball, and I thought baseball was my best sport.

Speaker 4 (05:19):
Probably was. So went that route. Ended up not playing high.

Speaker 3 (05:23):
School football, which is a regret I still have to
this day, and so athletics.

Speaker 4 (05:27):
But I wasn't going anywhere.

Speaker 3 (05:28):
I mean, I have minor scholarship offers, didn't want to
play past high school, so I don't really go anywhere athletically.

Speaker 1 (05:34):
So where'd you go to college?

Speaker 3 (05:36):
Went to college at beautiful Columbus State University Downe in Columbus, Georgia.

Speaker 4 (05:40):
Went down there.

Speaker 3 (05:41):
So this is this is the era where the Hope
Scholarship in Georgia first starts to create opportunity where if
you got to be the lottery's going to send you
to college.

Speaker 4 (05:50):
So I did that, But so.

Speaker 1 (05:51):
How does it work?

Speaker 2 (05:52):
Because I know Hope scholarship only in that My producer
at ESPN CBS is Adam Klude Atlanta. Kids shout out,
who's now program director in San Diego, and he said
the only thing he had to do was keep over
a three point at halwire at Georgia. So how does
the Hope scholarship work?

Speaker 4 (06:12):
That's it doing well?

Speaker 3 (06:13):
As far as I remember, all it is is you
got a three point oh GPA in high school, you
get like you get scholarship. I mean it's not full
of it's not like full ride to the University of
Georgia or anything, but some of the secondary and tertiary schools,
your education is paid for as long as you maintain that.
The problem is problem is like some of us were
floating right on that two point nine friendly guidance counselor

(06:36):
bumps us and so like you don't appreciate what you had.
So I go and like I pissed that away. In
a couple of semesters, I had no clue what I
wanted to do. I had no purpose, didn't necessarily have
like the drive I needed to. If you asked me like,
who are you at eighteen or nineteen, I had no
clue what I would have said.

Speaker 4 (06:53):
I just wouldn't have had a really good answer.

Speaker 1 (06:54):
So do people know who they are at eighteen or nineteen?
Some of them do.

Speaker 4 (06:59):
I didn't.

Speaker 3 (07:00):
I look at some of these other kids. I mean,
you're around college athletics. Obviously, I'm around college athletes all
the time. It blows my mind how well put together,
especially at the quarterback position. Some of these dudes are.
The way they answer questions, the way they handle themselves.
They've got full like business management teams. I barely can
have that now. And I'm watching the kid at a

(07:20):
lead eleven as a junior in high school, and it's
like he talks like a fortune five hundred CEO.

Speaker 4 (07:25):
That was not your boy here. That was not me
at all.

Speaker 2 (07:29):
No, No, it's weird because if I would say I
didn't have my shit totally together either. But I did
tell people all the time, like what do you want
to do? I was like, well, I might want to
be a lawyer, like an agent or something. But I
really want to play as long as I can play,
and then either be a coach or a broadcaster.

Speaker 1 (07:47):
And now all thrue.

Speaker 2 (07:50):
But but I don't think saying you want to do
one of three like dream jobs is really having your
shit together. I just think it's thinking out loud. Hey,
how can I use this basketball stuff to never actually work?
That was that was really my plan there? Like what
like lawyer sounds like a lot of work. There's a
lot of reading involved. I'm good, you know, like little

(08:13):
do I know? What we did requires do a lot,
requires a lot, a lot of reading. Now I like
reading about sports. Okay, So you get done with college
in eight.

Speaker 4 (08:23):
No, I don't.

Speaker 3 (08:24):
So I go a couple of couple of years and
I'm not doing anything. GPA fell below three point zero anyway,
So what I did was I did have the good
sense to stop because I fell off Scope Hope scholarships
on paying my own tuition, which is not an astronomical
amount at Columbus State University, but still just wasting money.
So I start going to work in like construction heating

(08:45):
and air installation fabric warehouse down in Columbus on twelfth
and first and So I'll tell you what I would do.
I would sit at that desk all day and I
would listen to like ESPN Radio. This is when calverd
would have been pretty new there. Would have heard Doug
Gottlieb befa out, would have heard Mike and Mike like
that entire rotation. So I just developed this fascination with

(09:05):
sports broadcast. I have no connection. I don't even have
the right degree, I have no experience, but that's what
I started to the first Like for the first time,
I could like define passion. I could say, all right,
I'm starting to feel this thing about that thing that
I've never felt before. So I just badgered and badgered

(09:25):
and badgered the local PD at the ESPN radio affiliate
there in Columbus, they do an afternoon drive show. I've
never seen live production. Just let me come in there
and watch. I was dead serious. I didn't mean anything
more than that. So he finally let me come in there.
For about a couple of months, a couple of times
a week, I'd go in there and I'd watch, And
what I was doing in the interim was I'd gotten

(09:47):
back in school, and Columbus State had gotten themselves a
little broadcast program, little radio station there. So I've gotten
some on air reps. But I go to this. A
couple of things happened. One I listened to this motivational
speaker and he talks doing time inventory, and he said,
if you want to transform your life, you need to
find out where you're spending time.

Speaker 4 (10:06):
Instead of investing time, just chart your days.

Speaker 3 (10:09):
Where are you spending time, video games, listening to music, whatever.
So I figured, man, I'm driving about ninety minutes per
day in my truck and I'm just listening to radio
all day. Like I'm not really getting anything out of that.
So he said, you need to repurpose that time to
align with your passion. So I mute the radio every
day and I just start doing what you guys were
doing for real up at ESPN. I just start simulating

(10:31):
my own sports talk radio show on my truck. I'm
just pretending I'm on air. I'm bringing guests in and out,
I'm bringing segments in and out. I'm just getting like
hundreds of hours of repetition doing that to the point
where you fast forward a couple of years and I'm
in this studio, this afternoon drive radio slot, and this
Dude's co host calls in sick one day and he
just tosses me on air and we just go. It's

(10:52):
afternoon drive, it's caller based, it's in the South, it's
in the heart of college football season, and it's the
most fun I've ever had. And I would go another
couple of years about every getting paid. But dude was
awesome because afterwards he's like, so, where have you worked before,
And I said, well, I've never done this before. You
just put me on air for the first time ever.
He said, well, it sounds like you've done it before,
and I said, it's because I'm driving around like an

(11:13):
idiot and I talked to my steering wheel all day.
So I've done it. It's just not been with a
red light on. And uh, I haven't been off air
since that day. I've just been onever.

Speaker 2 (11:23):
That's amazing. Okay, So I'll give you. I'll give you
a little like shit. I've never told anybody, so my
parents knew this. But I used to shoot when I
was a kid, like and I had free time, and
sometimes my brother would lock me out of the house
because he was just a dick. Because I was the
younger brother, right like come home. I'll never forget what
I told this story the other day that I actually

(11:46):
I had.

Speaker 1 (11:47):
The Omadina Library was like.

Speaker 2 (11:50):
Two houses over and you could hop over a fence
and get there, and it led to my elementary school,
Geordana Elementary, and like one day he'd like I came
home or I was trying. I was out riding a
bike and like, just to be a jerk, he locked
me out of the house and I had to go
to the bathroom really bad, and so like I'm like,
I'm like pinching and squeezing. I got a turtle head
poking out, and like I'm like, dude, you got to

(12:12):
let me in.

Speaker 1 (12:14):
And he would not.

Speaker 2 (12:15):
Answer the door. So I hopped over a fence. I
went to the only library, but it was a national
holiday so it was closed and I had to go
in the behind the behind the library, there's bushes and
I had to go in there and use bushes. Anyway,
my point is that I used to spend a lot
of hours by myself as a kid.

Speaker 1 (12:35):
To shooting hoops. And our driveway was not flat.

Speaker 2 (12:40):
Garrett Phipps's down the street was flat, so I I
dribbled the ball to Garrett Phipps's house, and I would
broadcast the game while I was playing an imaginary game.

Speaker 4 (12:51):
There you go.

Speaker 1 (12:52):
You know I would do.

Speaker 2 (12:53):
I would go sell, and I had all the pauses
right even if I hadn't yet gone through puberty to
talk like how it goes sell, So I would do
the same thing. And then you're talking about driving your car.
It's a real story here. So I get this coaching
job and we announced it on a Tuesday afternoon and

(13:15):
Wednesday morning I have a press conference. So I fly
from Burbank to Phoenix, Phoenix to Milwaukee, and damn if
Milwaukee isn't a lot farther.

Speaker 1 (13:26):
At like midnight than i'd recall it being, It's.

Speaker 2 (13:29):
Like it's like an hour forty five. But I had
to get a rent a car. It was like, oh so,
and I've done this before. I actually did it when
I was doing some sideline stuff for CBS for the
NCAA tournament, where like to get timing down, like I'll
look at a clock and just start talking and get
kind of the timing of it.

Speaker 1 (13:46):
So I actually did.

Speaker 2 (13:49):
And one of the reasons I think I went too
long on my opening speech press conference whatever, was because
like I did it like ten times on the drive,
trying to time it out, trying to make it right
about fifteen minutes or whatever. So I appreciate it. I
did that when I was a kid too. I would
pretend like I used to call into Angel Talk. I

(14:09):
think it was on a seven forty. This a big
Angel fan. I called him Jim Rome Show, and Jim
was on.

Speaker 1 (14:15):
Late at night.

Speaker 2 (14:17):
I used to my mom doesn't listen to this podcast,
so it's fine. My girlfriend lived in a town called Irvine.
I went to high school in Tustin. I lived in Orange.
Both of us were technically illegal where were living. But
I would sneak out in the middle of the night,
you know, bedtime was like I don't know, ten thirty eleven,
like eleven thirty. I'd go out my window and I
would I would roll my car back, you know, pop

(14:39):
the clutch, roll my car back, and then started, you know,
when I was away from the driveway, listen to Jim
Rome on the way there, and.

Speaker 1 (14:47):
Because Rome was on I think from like eight to
midnight on XTRA.

Speaker 2 (14:54):
And then when I would get done then the I
would listen to the overnight show Todd Wright All Night
Annie Se Radio and then I kind of got my
break when I was in college. First I was on
with Jim Rome, and then I was on with Todd
right a bunch. So I get it, and I think
the other thing that's fascinating is and you'll run into
this is like, don't get me wrong, I think my

(15:15):
mom went to Syracuse. I have a lot of Syracuse friends,
but like they kind of think they invented the medium,
and you're just like, yeah, okay, it's just guys talking
about sports and understanding kind of the working parts of
it and anyway, yeah.

Speaker 1 (15:32):
So okay.

Speaker 2 (15:33):
So so you go and this guy's like, holy shit,
you're really fucking good. So did they hire you right away?
Did you start more filling stuff? What happened after that?

Speaker 1 (15:43):
Well?

Speaker 4 (15:43):
I did radio there.

Speaker 3 (15:44):
He said, well, you've got a spot here, like you're
you've got a spot if as much as you want
to do this.

Speaker 4 (15:49):
I'm still in school.

Speaker 3 (15:50):
I'm trying to finish my degree. But so i'd go
to school in the morning, i'd go to the warehouse
work during the day, i'd drive. So it's a fabric
warehouse down in Columbus, Georgia, just like an old mill town.
So like we would do a lot of the fabric
sampling for Lazy Boy, a lot of the big upholstery
chains and whatnot.

Speaker 4 (16:08):
Great work, stimulating work.

Speaker 1 (16:09):
And what would you do with this? What would you do?

Speaker 4 (16:11):
I would show up, What did you do? Seven o'clock
in the morning.

Speaker 3 (16:15):
I'd unload fabric rolls from the Southeastern Freight truck. We
would then take it, cut it up, grommet it, take
sale orders and sample orders from different salespeople out of
the country, put those together.

Speaker 4 (16:27):
Send them off like that's every day. That's just the
same thing.

Speaker 2 (16:29):
But you had to do all of this stuff. You
didn't just you weren't just load unload. You had to
do the entire process.

Speaker 3 (16:33):
No, it's one size fits all back there no air
condition either, beautiful.

Speaker 5 (16:40):
Fox Sports Radio has the best sports talk lineup in
the nation. Catch all of our shows at Foxsports Radio
dot com and within the iHeartRadio app search FSR to
listen live.

Speaker 1 (16:53):
Okay, so you work.

Speaker 4 (16:53):
From seven until when probably seven or eight at night, and.

Speaker 1 (16:58):
Then when would you do radio?

Speaker 4 (17:00):
That's when?

Speaker 3 (17:00):
So radio would be five or four to seven, and
then I would go over to CSU and do an
hour of like University Radio, getting as many reps as
I can, and then find time to do like homework
or whatever. But there was another So there's another thing
that happened a couple years later. I'm doing radio, having
a lot of fun doing it, Like the theater of

(17:21):
the mind of radio is awesome to me. And so
the local television scene there had like an established ABC
affiliate and then the CBS affiliate's number two, and NBC's
like a distant three. But they're really creative and they're
nimble and they try new things out.

Speaker 4 (17:35):
So that GM calls me one day, I've never met
him before.

Speaker 3 (17:38):
I sent him right to voicemail and he said, I
listened to you every day, like you've been auditioning for
a job and you don't know it. I listen to
you every day on my drive home. We want to
do a local weeknight college football show on our D two,
our CW affiliate, and we just want I listened to you.
I think you can do it. Do you want to
do it? So we started doing it and then ended
up becoming sports anchor there, ended up two years in

(17:59):
laving the news anchor in the morning there. And so
that's never anything I aim for, Like I didn't want
to do news. I didn't like doing news a whole lot,
but it's a job. So I'm finally making over thirty
thousand dollars a year for the first time in my life.
But so this is very This is an inflection point.
I think period this is like mid twenty teens. This
is not that long ago. But I don't know if

(18:21):
you remember, like the first time you ever picked up
your phone and you saw someone do something live on
Facebook or something live on YouTube, because I remember vividly
where I was. I'm sitting in our meteorologist's weather center
in the news studio, and in the background, like there's
just his computers.

Speaker 4 (18:41):
Pulled up and there's like a Facebook live stream going on.
So what is that?

Speaker 3 (18:45):
Because I saw the red dot, like I knew it
indicated live. I just didn't know that that was a
capability that platform had. So he said, yes, it's Facebook Live.
So total light bulb moment at that point, because at
that point, I have convinced myself overhead and distribution are
probably never letting someone like me into the business at
the highest level.

Speaker 4 (19:03):
I mean, you just talked about Syracuse.

Speaker 3 (19:06):
I mean there's a flood, there's a highway of Northwestern
Syracuse j School grads, Missouri.

Speaker 4 (19:11):
Jasons, none of that.

Speaker 3 (19:13):
I don't have any family or friends in this business,
like folks from here don't make it anyway, so I'm
gonna have to do whatever. But it's never going to
be premium like primetime overhead and distribution or there's huge
Berlin walls. But then you see this and you realize, well,
the distribution is now the Internet. It's no longer like
syndication deals. The overhead is this is your studio, so

(19:37):
it's no longer multimillion dollar facilities that someone holds the
lock and key to. So if you think you're good enough,
the market will actually be able to dictate it for
the first time. So next week I start what ended
up being like Lake Kegs Are Well, we just changed
the name of the show, but I ended up starting
the show that we still do now, and they didn't
like it because I'm doing it kind of on their dime,

(20:00):
so they shut it down. So I just let my
contract expire and then I ended up working ten ninety
nine for them. But in exchange for being an independent contractor,
I said, you're going to pay me a lot less.

Speaker 4 (20:10):
That's fine.

Speaker 3 (20:10):
Can you give me this studio three nights a week
and let me do my own show on my own
YouTube channel.

Speaker 4 (20:15):
And so we built it. We ended up producing it ourselves.

Speaker 3 (20:18):
It emanated out of a local television studio which looked
better than anything anyone was doing on YouTube, and it
took about two years. And Shannon Terry, who ran twenty
four seven Sports at the time, which had been purchased
by CBS, calls me and says, I've got a studio here.
You're doing stuff that we're not doing. Do you want
to come here? And so in twenty twenty, came up here.
COVID sets in immediately, so me and my director are

(20:40):
the only people allowed in the building, and we ended
up doing it, and it scaled immediately because we talked
about nothing but college football in a time where everyone
else delved into politics and became an infectious disease expert.
So it's taken off and scaled ever since.

Speaker 2 (20:55):
Man, awesome, it's really cool. So genuine Americans story. Okay,
let's talk college football. So you grew up in Georgia
and I've followed a lot of your travels in the offseason.
It does feel like a couple of things one and
This is what I love is you have a genuine
joy for kind of the newness of your stardom, if

(21:21):
you will. Right, Like, like, there's a lot of people
in this in this business who they've been doing it
too long.

Speaker 1 (21:29):
It's not they.

Speaker 2 (21:29):
Still love the sport, but all the other parts to it,
they're like, yeah.

Speaker 1 (21:34):
Been there, I've done that or whatever.

Speaker 2 (21:35):
For you, it does feel like there's a genuine joy.
There's also a part to it where it's like it's
like you've been in the Truman Show in the South
your whole life, and you're like, holy shit, there's a whole.

Speaker 1 (21:51):
World out there. Now. They don't always take it as
seriously as the South does, but there is. There's a
bunch of different ways.

Speaker 2 (21:58):
To do it, right Like, if you go to a
USC game, you're like, this is so different than the SEC.

Speaker 1 (22:06):
There's still the same level of passion.

Speaker 2 (22:08):
It's just different. I can't really explain it anyway. Do
you feel like, do you notice that? I mean again,
I'm not trying in any way to be critical. It's
just the reality of you know, like about I don't know,
six years ago, I did this touring road show, so
I got to go and see enter Sandman. I got

(22:30):
to go see you know, the seminole stick, the spear
in the ground.

Speaker 4 (22:34):
Like I was like, holy shit, all.

Speaker 2 (22:35):
These things, Clemson touching Howard's rock running down the hill
like stuff, and like, look, I'd covered it for years
at ESPN, But at ESPN, unless you're you know, remote,
you don't get to go to.

Speaker 1 (22:47):
All this stuff, right, So it was really really.

Speaker 2 (22:50):
Cool, and I felt sort of reinvigorating what I was
doing because as much as I've done now for over
twenty years, doing new shit always makes it fun. That
is that Has that been your experience? Because this summer,
I know you fell in love with Oklahoma. You did
a big Nebraska trip. Where else did you go to
the summer?

Speaker 4 (23:07):
Man?

Speaker 3 (23:07):
We went fifteen different places, a lot of places I
had already been. But doing it spring is like the
most underrated time to be doing that. The staffs are loose,
the facilities are wide open.

Speaker 1 (23:18):
Kids get out of there, and they don't for you.

Speaker 2 (23:22):
They don't have any bad blood with you, right right, So,
and like spring, guys let their guards down to let
you in like you came to them too. That's the
whole key with coaches. But if it's like in a
neutral environment or.

Speaker 6 (23:33):
On your turf. They're they're they're going politician on you. Yeah,
that's why the fifteen place where'd you go? Yeah, like
media is nothing where we go. So I'm gonna close
my eyes for a second and try and vision the mat.
We went to Kansas State and Missouri, Iowa State, then Auburn, Alabama,
Mississippi State, then Florida, USC Miami. We went to Ohio State, Tennessee.

(23:56):
We did South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia Tech. There's some
I'm missing, but Texas we did, Like those are the
ones that we knocked out this spring, and then a
few of them we wanted to get to, like Oregon.
Couldn't make the dates line up, But I mean we've
been to Oregon before. But going back to what you
just said, so both of what you both things you
said are absolutely on the money.

Speaker 3 (24:15):
Like I'm a kid growing up in the South. To me,
Eugene Oregon is Russia.

Speaker 4 (24:20):
I will never go there. It's it's like another planet.

Speaker 3 (24:22):
I used to watch these games and it sounds like
I'm talking about a kid in the seventies. No, I'm
a kid in the two thousands watching a game at
the Coliseum in southern cal I'll never be out there,
like I'll never be in Blacksburg, Virginia.

Speaker 4 (24:34):
That's just that's so far away. How would I ever
end up there?

Speaker 3 (24:37):
And so not only to be there, but to be
paid to be there, like to have sideline access to
all these games you will, I don't care if I
do this one hundred years. That stuff never gets old.
But the other thing you said is even more true.
This was the biggest wake up call for me. It's
twenty fourteen. I can finally get credentialed through like the
local news station there to go to games, and I

(24:58):
will never forget this.

Speaker 4 (25:00):
Man.

Speaker 3 (25:00):
We went to one of those like neutral site openers.
It was West Virginia versus Alabama in Atlanta, and so
I walk in a working press box for the first time,
like I am around the people I grew up reading
or listening.

Speaker 4 (25:13):
To her watching for the first time. It was the
most underwhelming experience of my life.

Speaker 3 (25:19):
Was so underwhelming that I realized these people don't love
Like a lot of these folks don't love this. They
look like they were at work, like they were at
a job.

Speaker 2 (25:29):
It becomes I think a lot of times, it becomes
a job to people, you know, and you're just like, yeah,
and I you know, I never wanted to become a
job So all right, where'd the white T shirt thing
come from?

Speaker 3 (25:44):
So I just had a little back and forth with
a former news director when we first started doing that
local show. You know, I'm on their air, I'm on
their dime, and so there's just this big back and
forth one day because I've always been of the opinion
that I understand why people have to dress like bankers.

(26:04):
If you're on national television and you're in a major studio,
I get it. I've always thought it's one of the
dumbest concepts in the world because we are we're talking
about sports. You're like, you're wearing a backwards hat right now.
I'm wearing a white T shirt right now, which is
what we would wear if we went to lunch. The
conversations we're having at the end of the day is
just the stuff dudes talk about when they go eat barbecue.

Speaker 4 (26:24):
Anyway, So.

Speaker 3 (26:27):
Why would the show, why would the texture of a
show an aesthetic feel any different to me? Well, I
knew nothing, he knew everything, and he was the boss.
So I threw on the jacket or the blazer every night.
But I told folks then I said, man, if I
ever like, if we can just make it, if we
can call our shots, I will so emphatically go the
other way. And so I've worn this white T shirt

(26:49):
every day since we've done this show nationally.

Speaker 4 (26:52):
Just to prove the point that no one cares what
you're wearing. They care about the content.

Speaker 1 (26:57):
That's it. Nobody gets it. By the way, how many
of these white tea shirts do you want?

Speaker 4 (27:01):
This is now that's a key that's a key question.
I appreciate you, sir, because a lot of folks think one.

Speaker 3 (27:06):
No, I buy them in no chance, Yeah, I buy
him in balk about like fifteen of them.

Speaker 2 (27:10):
And so we'll just we'll just roll for the high.

Speaker 4 (27:14):
They're not even high dollar. They're not even high dollar.

Speaker 3 (27:17):
But but what I think is, I think a certain
company out there is missing the most golden marketing opportunity
to agree, and so I refuse to utter that company's
name on the air until they pay for it.

Speaker 1 (27:29):
I love it. I love that.

Speaker 2 (27:31):
This is kind of a personal question, but I'm gonna
ask because it actually is near and dear to my heart.
When did you decide to let it go when it's
the old uh pirate before it.

Speaker 1 (27:42):
Quits on you type type of deal.

Speaker 3 (27:43):
A long time ago, I shaved my head, like my
junior year of high school, I shaved my head. I
just never grew my hair back out and then nature
did what it does.

Speaker 4 (27:54):
But I mean, like I would have this anyway.

Speaker 3 (27:56):
I can't explain to you strong enough terms how much
I love having a zero dollar per year haircare budget
that is unbelievable to me and being able to dry
your hair in two nanoseconds. Just go like that and
you're good. That's an unbelievable benefit in life.

Speaker 2 (28:10):
What I don't understand is like, look, I had a
good head of hair. I had, we had a good
probably forty year run together, right, And what I don't
understand is, and I guess I do understand that everybody
hates everything, But it's like, if I post something about
a sports take you don't like, did you really have
to point out the fact that beside the power alleys

(28:33):
are getting deeper?

Speaker 4 (28:34):
Like well that hairline?

Speaker 1 (28:36):
What were you talking about? Bro?

Speaker 5 (28:38):
Yeah?

Speaker 4 (28:38):
Well, like I.

Speaker 2 (28:40):
Do, I have a fucking mirror here right, Like it's
nothing I did, uh, or at least there's nothing that
could prove it's something I did. Yeah, that that that part.
Tim Hasselback used to tell me all the time. He's
just like I got a fire up for quit sign.
You know when that moment is firef quits on me.

Speaker 1 (28:58):
Okay, are you the dabbo thing? Okay?

Speaker 2 (29:05):
So I think people are looking at this all wrong.
I think having a high reciptus rate and barely playing
the portal, I think that's the way to do it.
I think their problem is threefold.

Speaker 1 (29:19):
One. Their offense sucks yep.

Speaker 2 (29:22):
And I thought it sucked when they had Trevor Lawrence
beyonest Like, I thought they got away with it because
they had studs and Trevor Lawrence just makes shit happen
and he could just throw it up to him, or
they could hand it off to Clyde Edwards Layer or whatever.

Speaker 1 (29:34):
They just had better players. It was a lack of creativity.

Speaker 2 (29:36):
And I and on that level, I do it's a
little bit like Duke for a long time with Coach
k Like they didn't run anything special.

Speaker 1 (29:43):
They were just better than you.

Speaker 2 (29:44):
Right, So when you're not just better than people, you
have to be more creative and people adjust. So I
think part of it is. They haven't been created. Secondly,
Cole's just not what they thought.

Speaker 1 (29:56):
He would be.

Speaker 2 (29:58):
And and this is a parallel to Florida State, And
it's a parallel for me and coaching basketball, Like, look,
if you don't have a good point guard, you're gonna
look like a shitty coach.

Speaker 1 (30:07):
You just are. If you don't have a good quarterback,
you're gonna look like a bad coach. That's just the
reality to it.

Speaker 2 (30:15):
And then the last part is, uh, it does feel
like I can't tell and you being as close as
you are to it. And for people who don't know,
like again, this is I didn't know this until I
went to Clemson. I would guess if you pulled ninety
five percent of college football fans and you said where
is Clemson, they'd be like, I think it's in South Carolina,

(30:37):
abur just like correct. No one know, like honestly, I
except until my close friend and form producer was a
Georgia lump. I didn't know that Auburn and Georgia was
the south oldest rivalry.

Speaker 1 (30:50):
I had no fucking idea none.

Speaker 2 (30:53):
I was like, well, Georgia plays like everybody's their rival, right,
And I thought Georgia Tech was their big round Like, no, No,
Auburn is like what I thought, that's Alabama, it's the
terrible Nope, they're both all rivals anyway. Then there is
a he did He's always been, you know, really preachy,
but he got a little too preachy. And then the

(31:16):
last part is, and maybe I'll add this on, is
like my guess is at Clemson they took care of
people for a long time. You know, maybe not the
blatant cheating that has happened someplaces, but they took care
of people a lot of time.

Speaker 1 (31:27):
And now that doesn't do you any good.

Speaker 4 (31:30):
Right right now, you can just.

Speaker 2 (31:32):
Buy dudes by dudes. Okay, So tell me where I'm wrong,
tell me where I'm right, give me your dabbos. Sweeney thoughts.

Speaker 3 (31:39):
No, your first point there is the most underrealized point.
Everyone knows that he's resistant to the portal, and everyone
has their thought on it, Like I'm a believer. The
Georgia way of doing it is the best way, which
is building nucleus through high school recruiting, never bend on that,
and then supplement via the portal. If there are a
couple of little holes you need to fill. But you're
bil ninety percent of guys who chose Georgia out of

(32:01):
high school and you developed them in there, ingrained in
your culture.

Speaker 4 (32:04):
Okay. The second thing is the thing you said about their.

Speaker 3 (32:08):
Offense is not realized, but it's dead on the money accurate.
They had studs because they were able to do what
you just talked about in the mid twenty teens, and
they attracted elite talent and they were good enough to
where scheme didn't matter so much.

Speaker 4 (32:22):
They just out Jimmy and Joju.

Speaker 3 (32:24):
That reinforced in their mind that it was doing it
the right way, and in Dabbel's mind, he's doing it
the right way, so it makes him less likely to
evolve down the road when he doesn't have the talent
edge that he once had. And the portal comes along,
so a new talent acquisition mechanism is introduced into the sport,
and FSU starts using it, and Miami starts using it,
and Bama and Georgia star. Well, you're not going to

(32:46):
use it because you've got defined values and principles you
believe in, which I got no problem with. As long
as you're cool with the consequence, I got no problem
with it. But what happened was he was also stubborn
in other areas. To this day, he is very stubborn
and prideful in other areas. I got respect for what
he did in the mid twenty teens, but he's also
imprisoned mentally by what he did in the twenty teens
because that Garrett Riley higher an offensive coordinator raised a

(33:09):
lot of eyebrows, but behind the scenes it was not
viewed as a game changer of a hire. And they're
still very average on their staff. Their support staff is
very average. I got everyone of them graded over here.
They're very average there. And it's just I'm not saying
they're lazy, and I'm not saying they think that Tiger
Paul is going to go win for them. They think
what that Tiger Paul was built on ten years ago

(33:32):
is going to go win for him, and it's not.
Everyone else is evolved, the best of the best evolved,
and they simply haven't. And if they're okay being a
pretty good program, they'll be fine. One of the most
pathetic things that I heard the other day when Georgia
rolled them was well, Georgia does that to a lot
of teams, which is exactly what they said about Clemson
five years ago. Clemson was the one pants and folks

(33:53):
five ten years ago, and now you're saying that about Clemson.

Speaker 4 (33:56):
So Georgia does that to a lot of teams.

Speaker 3 (33:59):
Well, if you're okay be in a lot of teams
and not being former Clemson, then that's fine. If you're not,
you will have to make changes there. But Dabo's never
gonna that program's never going to erode to the point
where it's fireable. They'll just float in that nether world
indefinitely of eight nine win on average, And like, I
don't know how that ends.

Speaker 2 (34:19):
Well, it's really interesting there because you know, Graham Neft
took over and young Ad spent time at Georgia Tech,
and like, like I love Graham.

Speaker 1 (34:29):
Ay, no way he can fire Dabo, right.

Speaker 4 (34:32):
You just can't.

Speaker 2 (34:33):
Whereas Brad Brownell on the basketball side was something that
everybody wanted to fire and he did a great job
of the portal older team and like that thing again,
it's all contextual and relative. But considering nobody gives a
shit about Clemson basketball, they've done a hell of a
job there, evolving kind of with the times. Even though

(34:53):
Brad is probably at least ten years older than than Dabbo. Okay,
what about Florida. Florida has been this Rubik's cube, which
two guys really figured out there's been other seasons here,
seasons there, and I get it's only one game and

(35:14):
they freak out. But like we're like three coaches into
this ship being a complete mess. What what has happened
to Florida football?

Speaker 3 (35:26):
Bad hires? And maybe they made another one? Loved Billion
Napier to death, but.

Speaker 1 (35:32):
I thought Billion Napier was the ship at at Louisiana.

Speaker 4 (35:35):
But he was what he was.

Speaker 2 (35:37):
It's just by the way, do you call him Louisiana
or do you call him Lafayette? Like they've they've wanted
to be my first game working at ESPN full time,
I did, or I had my first one I had
a basketball schedule was Louisiana Lafayette against I think Colorado
or UNC. Charlotte's a four team dealer Charlotte. Anyway, they
kept trying to tell us call us Louisiana. Was like,

(35:59):
you're Louisiana. It's twenty years later they kind of are, Okay,
one do you call him Louisiana or Lucian Lafyette and
then two did does Billionnapiers suck all of a sudden,
like what they'll happen?

Speaker 3 (36:12):
I've still got the Lafayette in the back of my mind,
so I'm not going anywhere.

Speaker 4 (36:15):
I don't think he sucks.

Speaker 3 (36:16):
I just think there's the level, the level of achievement
in the post Nick Saban era has been raised. Like
I call it the freeze point. It does not matter
whether you get water down to forty degrees.

Speaker 1 (36:30):
You mean the Urban may Era, I mean Urban Mayra.

Speaker 3 (36:32):
I mean no, no, no, no, I'm not talking about Florida.
I'm talking about in the SEC in general. You can
include urban Meyer there, but you can include Sabin. What
Sabin did in a prolonged run. He ran urban Meyer
out of the SEC in the process, the prolonged run
he had, and then Kirby's born from that, Like the
level of overall operation in that conference is just different

(36:53):
than pre when Sabin came back, and so it's redefined
things for everyone. And so number one, anytime you've been
in the Sabin program, you're supposed to just be able
to create that cause Kirby did it ignoring the fact
that seventeen other dudes have failed trying to duplicate it.
But then number two, like, he goes to Louisiana Lafayette,
which is what I call it, and he wins. And

(37:13):
so there are some people out there who believe will
the same things win everywhere. In some ways that's true,
in other ways that's not. There is a different modus
operandi Florida than there is at Louisiana. And then he
comes there at the worst possible time because he comes there,
and he comes there as the sport's changing, so like
everything that he's learned up until that point operationally changes
the way you acquire talent then you can pay them

(37:34):
all of a sudden legally it's changed. So like a
new coach in the last five years walking into a
job I think has had a bigger learning curve than
at any point in the history of the sport, just
cause the sport changed more in the past three to
five years.

Speaker 2 (37:50):
Well, it's also it's also and I'll give you just
I'll give you my perspective on the other side.

Speaker 1 (37:54):
And granted, and I don't pretend to be the head coaching.

Speaker 2 (37:56):
Yes, you see in football, but right, I would say,
and this was kind of my working line. Why I
did think and I do think it'll work, is I
coach AAU basketball. That's what this mirrors, you know, it
really does that. Fuck you don't know in AAU basketball
you're sending out text making sure you got five or six,

(38:16):
and then they'll show up and you're like, are you
playing for us for the other team today?

Speaker 1 (38:20):
Right?

Speaker 2 (38:20):
Like transfer portal is all they're about in AU basketball.
So the first thing is you if you were in
college football, college athletics for twenty five years doing it
one way, and then all of a sudden there's this
ground swell, this ground shift, especially if you're a dude
who's like believed in doing it the right way, right,
believe in doing it the right way. Now all of
a sudden it it feels feels weird, can feel a

(38:44):
little dirty too, and you don't know how it works.
And then if you go from now, I'm willing to
believe at Louisiana Lafayette like they took care of their
dudes as this came to be, but it's just so overwhelming.

Speaker 1 (39:00):
Has to be like even for me, you know, I
have to.

Speaker 2 (39:03):
Manage relationships with all these donors collective. You know, you
have to have people who take care of the collective contracts,
who makes their appearances when they make their appearances, Like,
there's a lot more to it than people that people
don't understand. And I can only imagine with like you
go from Louisiana, which is like you call the shots, you.

Speaker 1 (39:24):
Run the stuff.

Speaker 2 (39:25):
It's not that hard, and then you're like, holy shit,
this is a whole different thing. And then you also
like the honestly the hardest part is the character aspect
of recruiting, which is you want to say character over talent,
character over talent, character over town. But then you watch
like you like, damn, that guy's really good, like yeah, coach,

(39:46):
but he's got a felony, Like was it a violent
felony or non violent peony? And can we wipe that
thing clean? And you know, like all right, so we
can't vote, big deal, right, Like you have to make
these decisions on a player here or there, and it
can affect the entire locker room.

Speaker 1 (40:04):
And then the big one is like, hey, if you
can't figure out quarterback, year's rude.

Speaker 2 (40:10):
You know you just are, but it is interesting and
you know, fully stepping aside obviously that changes things as well.

Speaker 1 (40:17):
You get new ad and he was a stud. I
just think it's amazing that Georgia was really good.

Speaker 2 (40:25):
For a long time and those of us who were
covering it and year covering it and coming up through
college as well, where you were like Mark Rick just
can't get over the hump, not a killer or whatever.

Speaker 1 (40:39):
Right, And then LSU.

Speaker 2 (40:40):
Started winning with Saban and kept winning the less miles
and finally George was like, fuck it, let's just rip
the band aid and let's go forth with Kirby.

Speaker 1 (40:48):
And it worked.

Speaker 2 (40:49):
Whereas you know, Florida had been, you know, a spurrier
and then Urban they've been dominating that league and they
had gotten over the hump several times and now all
of a sudden, Georgia just boat raised him when the
East was as down as it's ever been.

Speaker 4 (41:05):
Oh yeah, right, that's.

Speaker 2 (41:06):
Why Missouri went twice to the SEC title. They had
that soft schedule and they played in the East and
so it was like a kind of like a cakewalk.
And like Florida hasn't been able to get up to
the matt and Tennessee finally has.

Speaker 1 (41:19):
That's crazy.

Speaker 3 (41:20):
Let me let me tell you this though about that
Florida job. So because of that success they had. They
kind of had some of that Dabo stuff happened institutionally
at Florida where they thought, we're Florida will be good enough,
and they fell behind.

Speaker 4 (41:33):
They fell behind. They have caught back up.

Speaker 3 (41:37):
So the external stuff, the facility stuff, they are so
night and day different than they were five years ago.
I don't know if it works when Napier, I'm telling you,
if it doesn't work with him, whoever gets that job
next is getting like Florida the way Florida should be.
And I'm not necessarily sure. When Billy walked in that

(41:59):
he had inherited that they were a mess in il wise,
they took a little while to figure themselves out. They've
got that thing figured out now. They've got the facility
pieces and whatnot figured out now. So if it doesn't
work for him, they don't have a half bad roster either,
So the entry point for the next guy will be
pretty turnkey and ready to win.

Speaker 1 (42:18):
How do you maintain.

Speaker 2 (42:21):
You're you're not af shucks, but you're just kind of
you're like exactly what your story says you are. How
do you maintain that now as you grow in success
and in recognizability.

Speaker 3 (42:38):
Staying intimately in tune with the audience, like staying staying
as your audience is, instead of.

Speaker 4 (42:45):
How do you do that being with them every day?

Speaker 3 (42:47):
Like like the way you travel, where you go work out,
not wearing earbuds at the gym, something as simple as that.
I first off, you don't know it, you want it,
you don't need it, you rudge, you don't.

Speaker 4 (43:04):
You can be talking to Steve over there at the
curl rack. You could be getting to know somebody. He sucks,
but you could get.

Speaker 1 (43:11):
To know him. No, it's true. It's true.

Speaker 4 (43:13):
When we go on the road, just making sure you
got to you gotta be immergen.

Speaker 1 (43:17):
You gotta sit in the stands. I mean bad.

Speaker 2 (43:19):
I got a bad habit of getting in the into
the boxes and the box now what the real people are.

Speaker 4 (43:24):
I know it's tough to turn down.

Speaker 3 (43:26):
Look I've taken the invited time or two as well,
but in a very general.

Speaker 4 (43:29):
Sense intoxicating yes, as long as you is.

Speaker 2 (43:32):
Like.

Speaker 3 (43:32):
Look, the other thing I do is I openly just
make fun of our managerial folks on the show in
a way that they they kind of understand is just
playing ball on their part. Sure, but but I look
it sucked the years that were between me graduating high
school and me ever I mean it took me until, yeah,

(43:53):
until my mid thirties to ever make north of thirty
five thousand dollars. That part right there was not fun.
But I do think it equips you, maybe for life
in appreciating.

Speaker 4 (44:03):
What this is.

Speaker 3 (44:05):
Is this right here is you're talking about working for
a major media entity and then giving you creative and
now we own the assets in the latest negotiation, like
I took control of the assets of the show and
the podcast feed, but still being able to be licensed
through CBS, and so you get all the perks of that,

(44:25):
but you maintained the individuality. I don't know of anybody
else in my space that has that, in that good.

Speaker 4 (44:31):
Of sweet spot. I don't know of anyone else that
has that.

Speaker 3 (44:33):
So I don't know how you don't maintain that, and
I don't know how you don't appreciate it.

Speaker 1 (44:38):
I think I'll give you.

Speaker 2 (44:40):
I'll give you an example, Okay, and it's a real
example of somebody who I consider a friend. But I
think some of how he treated people in College's head
Coach was a reflection of the getting shipped on for
a long time when he was a college student early on,
Charlie Weiss is actually a fucking good dude, right, Like

(45:01):
Charlie's a good dude. I've hung out with Charlie. He
loves talking football. His wife is big into horses, my
daughter rides horses, whatever. So but Charlie White's like he'll
talk football or hours. But when he was at Notre
Dame and then of course when he was at Kansas,
there's you know, when he was a Notre Dame, he
was just like a regular student there, and I think

(45:21):
people treat him like shit, and you know, like football
players got tre you great, college coaches got trial you great.
But he was like a non athlete, like he was
just a guy. And I think some of that caused
him to lash out at some people, you know, and
all it takes is you'd lash out at one person
and now, especially just like anything else, that goes kind
of viral. So I think that people react to tough

(45:43):
times differently, and some people process them as negative things
and their revenge is not just going to be success,
but also pointing out their success to others.

Speaker 1 (45:53):
Some people are like you, where.

Speaker 2 (45:55):
They take it and they understand how tough it was,
and that that's most people's lot in life, and they
use it as just a constant motivator and wake up
with great gratitude. And I just I don't think that's
that's a lot of people. Just people are generally they
have a level of unhappiness to them. That's maybe what
drives them and makes them successful, but doesn't make them

(46:15):
as pleasant to be around.

Speaker 1 (46:17):
Okay, a couple quick ones. I know you got to go.
You got a whole crew there, and I appreciate it.

Speaker 2 (46:22):
Give me the three places you most want to go
this offseason that you haven't been.

Speaker 4 (46:26):
Oklahoma. Never been there.

Speaker 3 (46:28):
I've storm chased in Oklahoma several times. I've never been
to a.

Speaker 4 (46:31):
Game at Oklahoma. Like, that's the number one for me.

Speaker 1 (46:35):
You don't want to go still Water?

Speaker 4 (46:37):
No, no, no, no, sore.

Speaker 3 (46:39):
There's a day this year, it's like three weeks from now.
I'm looking at the schedule, So Tennessee plays Oklahoma that night,
Utah plays in Stillwater and it may be early enough
in the day where I can pull off the two
for one because those that was one of the three
that I was gonna mention.

Speaker 1 (46:54):
Okay, so that's so fascinating one because I.

Speaker 2 (46:56):
Will be hotly honest, okay you it will be massively
I think underwhelmed, especially by Oklahoma State in terms of
the tailgating is way better than it's ever been and
the atmosphere is awesome compared to what it's ever been.
It's just so different than the SEC, so different, and

(47:19):
Oklahoma is like they're they're almost there, They're not quite
SEC level of passion. It's just not the same. They're close,
but they're not there. It's really weird, like Oklahoma State
has done. The game day atmosphere has changed dramatically, like
the fact they're selling out now and they don't have
OU on the schedule and the home schedule is.

Speaker 1 (47:41):
Remarkable, like believably, never thought it would happen ever, ever, ever, ever.

Speaker 2 (47:47):
I think those two programs are two of the most
fascinating ones right because Oklahoma I don't think ever should
have left the Big Twelve.

Speaker 1 (47:54):
I just don't.

Speaker 2 (47:56):
They had more money than anybody. But Texas there was
something special about it could recruit Dallas and be the
team they were always in the Big Twelve champion game
always and now there's still kind of just a team
like you got to remake yourself in a new league,
So I don't love that for them. Whereas Oklahoma State
had this happened ten years ago, they're dead, it's over,

(48:17):
like literally over no chance. But now they because they
beat Oklahoma last year, you know, because you got you
get most of your team back.

Speaker 1 (48:27):
Like they kind of got to going on now.

Speaker 2 (48:29):
Their schedule is stinky, tough, like I don't think Arkansas
was walking the park.

Speaker 1 (48:33):
I think Utah's that's a hard one for him.

Speaker 2 (48:36):
I mean Arizona State, even on homecoming, is a tough one,
like Colorado game late in the year. Like there's a
bunch of potential l's there, but they do not usually
look good week one of the season, and it look
good against South Dakota State. I think you'd like that
trip if you if it happens, tell me I give
you all the hookups.

Speaker 1 (48:53):
You need all of them, all right, So, okay.

Speaker 3 (48:57):
The Ore's there's another one in the Big twelve.

Speaker 4 (49:01):
It's really off the radar, like no one I expect
this one. Guess it?

Speaker 2 (49:04):
Yeah, go ahead, okay, Okay, So you've been to the
Ice State, You've been to k State, want to go
to Oklahoma in the Big twelve.

Speaker 1 (49:11):
It's off the radar. Uh oh, I got this one.

Speaker 4 (49:17):
B y U. No, that's one, but it's not by u.

Speaker 2 (49:20):
Okay, okay, hold on Big twelve. I wouldn't be Kansas year.
They player in a fucking soccer stadium. Yeah yeah, hold on,
hold on.

Speaker 1 (49:32):
Big twelve.

Speaker 4 (49:33):
Oh Tech, that's Texas Tech.

Speaker 1 (49:36):
Taco Tech is fun.

Speaker 3 (49:38):
Yeah, yeah, Texas like Lubbit lobb It feels like it's
on the moon to me.

Speaker 4 (49:42):
Yeah, it feels like the whole other world love.

Speaker 1 (49:44):
It is on the moon.

Speaker 2 (49:45):
Yeah, Like it's that's a perfect expression that like, and
I know you're saying about Oregon. I've always feel that way.
When you go to Seattle, you then of Seattle, like
what country am I in? Lubbick is definitely on the moon.
I mean honestly, you get outside of Lubbock, can you
get in that wet Texas got a desert.

Speaker 3 (50:01):
You're like, there's a lot of places to put bodies
out there, man, Yeah, a lot of places.

Speaker 2 (50:05):
Yes, Like people think outside of Vegas there's bodies. It's
definitely Lubbock. Is they get a little weird there too.

Speaker 1 (50:10):
That's a good time. That's a good time. I once
got stuck in Lubbock.

Speaker 4 (50:15):
It was this sounds like a good country song.

Speaker 1 (50:17):
What's the first thirst? Me and Pat Knight in the
back of their locker room. Pat Knight is Bob Knight's son.

Speaker 2 (50:25):
He replaced his father and he knew it was going bad.

Speaker 1 (50:30):
They're playing Texas. I fly in.

Speaker 2 (50:32):
He's like, come meet me in our lounge. We watched
Balls of Fury, that's the ping pong movie. We watched
it and then I got stuck there after they lost
by like forty I was stuck there for like two days.

Speaker 1 (50:44):
We watched the movie at least four or five times.
Nice just drinking beers, telling stories.

Speaker 4 (50:49):
It was great.

Speaker 1 (50:50):
Then I got back to Connecticut.

Speaker 2 (50:51):
I was in ESPN at the time, and I had
this gigantic box delivered from Lubbock, Texas and was super
light like it was like a thousand ping punk balls.

Speaker 1 (51:04):
So that's my love. I've been to lub like a bunch.

Speaker 2 (51:06):
It's a good time, Okay, So Byu, that's definitely beautiful. Yeah,
I've been stuck there on a Sunday and You're like,
oh my god, what do I do?

Speaker 4 (51:15):
I went to Salt late last year. We went to Utah.
I just never been to.

Speaker 1 (51:18):
Byu Salt Lakes kind of speaky cool.

Speaker 4 (51:20):
Yeah it is. I loved it.

Speaker 1 (51:23):
Boise State, like I don't know if i'd never beenre
for a football game.

Speaker 4 (51:25):
I know they redoing their stadium, need to be there.

Speaker 3 (51:28):
Went to Court Vallis last year in the rain against
Washington and it was so sad because like they've got
a good team, but they also know there's like Sarah
McLaughlin music in the background, like this is it, the
game's over.

Speaker 4 (51:42):
We don't have a seat at the new table.

Speaker 3 (51:44):
And then they lost and it was Yeah, I'm pretty
sure we saw the last game of Consequence ever at
Beaver Stadium, Wisconsin.

Speaker 1 (51:50):
No desire going up there.

Speaker 3 (51:52):
I haven't announced it publicly, but we're going up there
for the Bama game, like next week.

Speaker 1 (51:56):
Okay, so once you come on over bro oh yeah,
oh yeah, that's.

Speaker 2 (52:00):
Right, Okay, next day, just so you know, the next day,
Sunday is the Packers home opener against the Colts.

Speaker 4 (52:07):
You know, we always have to get back for the
Sunday show.

Speaker 1 (52:09):
Though, what time Sunday Show.

Speaker 4 (52:11):
Sunday Show, seven o'clock Central.

Speaker 3 (52:12):
But it's a whole day of production, like Sunday is
the busiest day.

Speaker 2 (52:16):
Sorry, well I may pop into Madison that I have
a lot of friends going on there for that it's
like a three hour drive.

Speaker 4 (52:21):
That's the one you want to be at. Man, think
about it.

Speaker 3 (52:23):
They got Bama Oregon on the and Penn State on
their home schedule this year. This is the year to
be Wisconsin season ticket holder.

Speaker 1 (52:30):
I know, and like they've been so boring in the past.

Speaker 4 (52:34):
Yeah, oh my, yes, I have. Yeah. You imagine being
a fan.

Speaker 1 (52:38):
Of of of the Big Ten West. It's legend. Oh
it's it's listen.

Speaker 2 (52:45):
The SEC East was bad for a while, and the
SEC offense was bad, but at least you go like, hey,
maybe we can't score.

Speaker 1 (52:51):
You can't throw a four pass.

Speaker 2 (52:52):
But there's just dudes everywhere, just slow, thick legged football
that also can't score.

Speaker 3 (52:57):
Like oh yeah, like the twenty seven year old fans
have no noticeable bags under their eyes.

Speaker 4 (53:01):
They've just been through so much.

Speaker 1 (53:03):
It's tough you in ten years, what are you doing
still this?

Speaker 3 (53:10):
I still think college football in some variety, who knows
what else branches off of that, but I always want
the core of whatever I'm doing to be related to
college football.

Speaker 4 (53:21):
By far my biggest passion.

Speaker 1 (53:26):
Urban or Saban does either coach again.

Speaker 3 (53:32):
No, No, I'll actually go to the other side of
that coin. I think a couple of guys are about
to retire in the next five years that you perceive
to be in the prime of their careers because they're
realizing you get a raise to go do TV. Like
we were just talking about Dabbo second ago. I'm not
suggesting this is eminent, but Dabo's being criticized nine ways

(53:52):
from Sunday for doing it the only way he knows
how to do it.

Speaker 4 (53:55):
Sabin is all over his TV now.

Speaker 3 (53:57):
He's already won his championships, not as many a Saban,
but he's already won his championships. He's proven himself. He
was a former walk on at Alabama from Pelham High School.
Like he's done at all. If he can go work
at ESPN or Fox or NBC and sit behind a
desk and make twelve or thirteen million dollars a year,
that someone's about to do that.

Speaker 4 (54:16):
So Saban and Urban aren't going back.

Speaker 3 (54:18):
I think a couple of big ones are about to
follow their footsteps to the broadcast world.

Speaker 1 (54:26):
Last thing, you're a high school quarterback, you can go
anywhere where do you go?

Speaker 3 (54:30):
I'd go play for Lincoln Riley at USC without question.
If I take care of myself, Lincoln Riley will make
me a top five draft pick. I'll probably win a
Heisman in the process. I cannot assuredly say that about
any other coach in college football other than Lincoln Riley.

Speaker 2 (54:46):
What could he he? What did he do to find mom?
I don't really understand that one.

Speaker 3 (54:51):
I don't know, man, I'm always the last thing. I'm
always the last to know about this stuff. I have
been texted by my mom.

Speaker 1 (54:58):
I just again, I don't I don't watch. I don't
watch or listen to Finebaum.

Speaker 2 (55:01):
I just saw that he just kind of just napalmed
him in the in the off season.

Speaker 1 (55:06):
Look, a lot of people have whatever. I can only
tell you this.

Speaker 2 (55:09):
A couple of really close friends of mine work for
the dude, and they're like, fuck the coaching.

Speaker 1 (55:14):
He's the best dude there is. Like they worked.

Speaker 2 (55:17):
There's a lot of guys that's been in that business
that are not good dudes, not great to work for,
and he's he's unbelievable making it fun. And I think
people realize that flipping flipping schools, it's a lot like
flipping houses. Like you don't despite the TV shows, you
don't make a million.

Speaker 1 (55:32):
On every house.

Speaker 2 (55:33):
It's hard and sc was foo Bard for a long
time and I enjoyed that one.

Speaker 1 (55:42):
I enjoyed that one.

Speaker 2 (55:45):
And I like Brian Kelly, but it's fun to watch
him lose because you know, the old purple face back
when he was at Notre Dame was super super.

Speaker 4 (55:54):
Yeah, we have been a Notre Dame.

Speaker 3 (55:55):
Notre Dame is my favorite place to go as again,
kid grows up in the South, my only introduction to neighbor.

Speaker 4 (56:03):
Yeah. No, it's just really that's all I know. No,
I'm telling you.

Speaker 3 (56:06):
Last year they play, so I've been up there for
a Georgia game, in an Ohio State game.

Speaker 4 (56:10):
So I've been. I've seen it at its best.

Speaker 3 (56:13):
Last year they play Ohio State three point thirty kickoff.
It's South Bend later in the year, so it's getting
dark early and perfect weather day, blue skies, walla wall, sunshine,
high in the lower seventies, no humidity to speak of,
and around sunset time you got a one possession game,
a couple of great uniforms on the field, places sold
out as red and green looks like Christmas. And I

(56:34):
remember thinking to myself I've been to all these venues
in the SEC, but my appreciation for the history of
this sport being in that setting Notre Dame Stadium, just
knowing how much black and white footage I've watched from
that place, that was as good as it gets to me.
I count all the I'm not saying it's the loudest.
I'm not saying it's the most fun. But my favorite

(56:54):
that I've been to is a big game setting at
Notre Dame Stadium.

Speaker 1 (57:00):
Big letdown was plus You're like, there's gonna be something
else here.

Speaker 3 (57:07):
I'll tell you one, Like we went to Clemson a
couple of years ago. They played A and M, and
it was a great environment, but it was it was
triple digits at kickoff, and so I think it killed
the crowd a little bit. So I know I did
not see Clemson at full throat. I'll tell you one.
We go up to Kansas State a couple years ago.
They're playing Oklahoma State. It was the forty nine to
nothing game, okay, and I'm thinking to myself, I'm about

(57:29):
to see a quintessential Big twelve shootout. Kansas State's quarterback's
not playing, he's not starting lines like three, three and
a half. Every one of these games all years like
back and forth, one possession in the forties and complete
splattering from bell one And as a result, the environment
sucked and people are gone by halftime. So that game

(57:50):
was a letdown. I'm sure Kansas State's great. I've just
never been able to see a half decent game there.

Speaker 1 (57:56):
It's not. I'm met with you. Hey, dude, you're awesome
with your time. I know you're super busy. Tell your
crew I appreciate them staying up late. I know they
always pay up late with your show, but I appreciate it.

Speaker 4 (58:09):
I appreciate it. Man, Thanks for having me.

Speaker 2 (58:13):
All right, that's it for this edition of All Ball.
Of course we're going to have more hoops, but this
is a podcast for interesting people and interesting stories, and
yes they do revolve around sports in the meantime.

Speaker 1 (58:26):
I hope you enjoyed it.

Speaker 2 (58:27):
Thanks to Josh for joining us for so long. Of course,
Mike Holds for producing it and editing it. Reminder of
the Doug Gottlieb Show airs daily three to five Eastern
twelve two Pacific. You can download that in podcast form
as well. Plus we have the in the bonus podcast
it's a podcast hour, no holds barre.

Speaker 1 (58:43):
I think you'll love it.

Speaker 2 (58:44):
Download it wherever you download this, just type been Doug Golly.
You can get more of my stuff in the meantime.
I am Doug gottlieb Bean.

Speaker 1 (58:49):
This is all ball

Speaker 4 (59:01):
Di