Transcript
Speaker: Well, here we go. I feel like as I mentioned, they're typed in the introduction or bio on this podcast. I feel like I'm the last person to do a podcast that has any radio or media or sports background. So we're going to give it a try.
Speaker: See how many people listen, if anybody listens or it may just be me coming into my studio once a week, twice a week and sitting down and talking to myself about sports, about what I want to talk about and just hear myself talk. I don't know, but we'll give it a try. So for those that do not know me, my name is Robbie Ross. Currently I am the public address announcer.
Speaker: at Paulson Stadium for Georgia Southern football. I am the public address announcer for Richmond Hill football. I host three coaches podcasts for 9 1 2 sports, the Frederica Academy night podcast, the Brantley County Heron podcast and the Richmond Hill high school wildcat podcast. Done that for three years.
Speaker: Also, I am an associate golf professional and golf services supervisor at Retreat Golf Course for the Sea Island Golf Club on St. Simons Island. Let's see. Lots of radio experience since 1995. Lots of football games I've worked either on radio or
Speaker: on the PA, Washington Wilkes High School, Madison County High School, Gainesville High School, Furman University, various high school broadcast around Southeast Georgia and the Augusta area as well. So lots of football experience, baseball, basketball, done soccer.
Speaker: Conference Carolinas, they're one of my employers right now too. I do the PA for all their, well not all, basketball, softball, and soccer conference tournaments. My good friend Brian Hand, who we may have as a guest on this show sometime, gets me those gigs. You know, you talk about life in radio and
Speaker: and football and sports and broadcasting and media. And it's really about the relationships that you build. And just talking about Brian Hand is a great example of that. We met when I was in Augusta doing Augusta State webcasting, basketball. I think I did some volleyball too, which I have only done a few volleyball games.
Speaker: Um, met him. He was the, at the time the, um, SID at USC Aiken met him while I was covering the masters for WLOV, uh, radio station in Washington, Washington Wilkes.
Speaker: And kept in touch, kept in touch, he moved on to Spurs and Feathers, a publication of South Carolina Gamecocks. So I would then have him on my show in Washington, you know, during football season once a week to talk SEC football. He then moved on to UNC Asheville and then to the SID for the conference
Speaker: of Conference Carolinas. So it's all about relationships and keeping in touch. And even though you live far away, sometimes you still keep in touch with these folks. And if you need a broadcast done or an event announced, public address announced, I don't know, you need a PA guy. I'm not scared to hop in the car and drive.
Speaker: anywhere in the Southeast to do a game. It's kind of what we do. It's kind of fun like that. And I'm not afraid to do it. Driving to Statesboro six times in the fall, driving to Richmond Hills six times in the fall. So it's just kind of what broadcasters do on this level anyway, when you're not Jim Nance or
Speaker: or Joe Buck or those guys, you do a lot of drive time. And I'm sure we'll get into my years on the Furman Sports Network, 20 years, doing football, some basketball, some baseball, some soccer. And I'm sure we'll, as this podcast progresses, I'm sure a guest or two will pop up along the way.
Speaker: in that aspect of my life with the Furman radio network. But a lot of those relationships, I still have. And the road trips, driving up and down the roads to football and basketball and baseball games are some of the most fun memories that you acquire in this business. It's not really the games, it's getting there and getting home from and things of that nature.
Speaker: But this week, this first episode, we're fresh off week one of the NFL, fresh off week two of college football on the cusp of what could be the most interesting Presidents Cup, I think in golf, maybe the biggest blowout.
Speaker: But definitely the maybe the most tumultuous As well with all that's going on with the PGA and the live and and things of that nature So a lot going on in the world of sports first thing that that, you know, I wanted to mention In that aspect talking about the NFL I saw a tweet this afternoon
Speaker: that I felt was very interesting that everybody, especially in the South loves college football. I'll not drop my phone. I'll do that a lot probably. Loves college football and college football is great. I loved it. I was on my back porch all day Saturday from noon until Georgia Southern won against Nebraska.
Speaker: And that last kick missed. That's why my voice is kind of hoarse. I got excited Saturday night when Georgia Southern won that game. College football is great. College football is fantastic. We have weeks and weeks and weeks and weeks and weeks. And we're going to have more weeks, I think, coming up when they expanded to 12, which I have mixed emotions on. And we'll talk about that, I'm sure, as we get into this thing.
Speaker: But one thing jumped out at me. The NFL is still king nationwide. Nationwide, the NFL is still king. 25 million people watched the Sunday night game between the Cowboys and the Bucks. And in comparison to the national championship game last year of Alabama and Georgia, 22 million people watched that.
Speaker: So that tells me that the NFL is still king. There's no doubt about it. It is a monster and it is rolling and it's a machine. And nationwide college football still is in the rear view mirror a little bit of the NFL. Is that always the case in the South and the South East? Probably not, but I didn't have that sample set of numbers. I just had a large nationwide sample set and I found that to be interesting.
Speaker: And so with that being said, we moved to the first week of the NFL and I'm trying this year something new. I'm trying to focus more and stay more on a week to week basis, on a week to week basis, more involved and
Speaker: stay up on the happenings of the NFL. Um, I'm always all in like week one, week two maybe, but when you get to week three and week four, my interest kind of wanes and then I'll ramp back up towards the end of the regular season and, and headed to the playoffs. But I'm going to try my best.
Speaker: to make a concerted effort to keep up every week. And I have a fantasy league team for the first time in a couple of years that I'm invested in because it's with coworkers.
Speaker: and seems to be a little, you know, heated. I'm not going to say heated, uh, some talk back and forth so far. So I think that will help as well. And, um, one thing top of the top of the list here, the Atlanta Falcons are still the Atlanta Falcons. Um, I did not get to watch the Atlanta Falcons game. And that is a point of contention also that
Speaker: leads and lends to my maybe waning interest, uh, during the continuation of the NFL football season based is based on where I live. Now I do, I work Sundays at the golf course, so I cannot justify spending whatever amount of money it costs, $300 something dollars to get the NFL ticket. I'll say that.
Speaker: And I've always lived in the Falcons coverage area. So I did not have to worry about not being able to watch the Falcons play moved down here to Southeast Georgia, St. Simon's Island for some unknown reason, for some reason, the entire state of Georgia is not an Atlanta Falcons.
Speaker: And we're not in Atlanta Falcons market, even though we're in the state of Georgia. Yes, I know we're closer to Jacksonville than we are to Savannah, but not by much. But that's still no excuse that two counties or three counties down to two counties, Quinn County and Camden County, and maybe clench to the, to the west of Camden. There's no excuse at three counties.
Speaker: in the entire state of Georgia or not in the Atlanta Falcons footprint when you get them on television. So I will say that the fact that being in a Jacksonville Jaguars coverage area does contribute to my lacking interest in the NFL season year long as a whole. Cause I don't care anything
Speaker: about watching the Jacksonville Jaguars play the Indianapolis Colts. Sorry, doesn't interest me. I don't have any interest in watching the Jags play anybody. And so when they're on TV, that means we don't get anything else until four o 'clock. And sometimes, you know, the Falcons are not always playing at four o 'clock. Very rarely do I get a Falcons game. So that's my beef.
Speaker: that the entire state of Georgia, I feel like should be in the Atlanta Falcons footprint because we are in the state of Georgia, where the Atlanta Falcons are, the Jaguars are of course in the state of Florida. Anyway, I followed the Falcons on the ticker on my phone while the Jags were on and the, who else did we have early? I think we had, oh, Patriots and Dolphins. Don't care to watch that either. So there were two games at one o 'clock
Speaker: that I didn't really care about. So I didn't really get serious about watching football Sunday until the four o 'clock window where we got some good games. Falcons had what, a 20, I think 26 to 10 lead at one point, 23 to 10 or 20, yeah, 23 to 10. And they could not hold on.
Speaker: It's just unbelievable. Ever since that fateful February day in 2017, things have gone downhill. Payers and Niners, I almost pulled the trigger on the money line on that one.
Speaker: did not, did not see that coming. I think the Niners kind of went away from things. The Niners, I do have Deebo Samuel on my fantasy league team. So I was happy to see that he scored and I'm not really sure why they went away from that. They scored the first 10 points of the game and then got outscored 19 to nothing in the third and fourth quarter. So I'm not really sure why they went away from Deebo Samuel. It seems like that was working. I know it was pouring down rain.
Speaker: in Chicago Steelers and Bengals almost tied, I think, but, uh, Steelers got that one Eagles. My quarterback is Jalen hurts kind of went out on a limb on that. I feel like kind of went out on a limb. Um, but it worked out this week. Anyway, it'll be interesting to see, um, how that works next week when, let's see who I'm playing.
Speaker: Oh, he's got Aaron Rodgers. Well, that'll work out because Jaylen Hertz had buddies, but also the Packers are playing angry and playing Chicago. So that's not a good recipe for my team. Dolphins and Patriots. I don't care anything about the dolphins of the Patriots. I don't. I don't like watching games in Miami. It's too sunny. Football is not supposed to be so sunny. I've always thought that San Diego seems it's like it's too sunny there to watch football and hot.
Speaker: I much rather watch cold football. Maybe that's another reason why I picked back up later on in the season. Ravens, Jets, you know, the Jets, poor guys. The Jags seem to have the Falcons mentality or Falcons affliction of blowing leads late. Browns and Panthers. Panthers had that one and the Browns came down and took it. And then there was a tie between the Colts and the Texans. I don't understand why a game can end in a tie.
Speaker: Giants was upset. Giants beat the Titans. And then I was very interested to watch the Chiefs and Cardinals. Patrick Mahomes is very, very good. This just in, one of those things. Chargers, Raiders. That wasn't on my TV, so I didn't see it. And then the Bucks and Cowboys, 19 to three, Bucks dominated that game. Cowboys were never in it. Cowboys were gonna struggle.
Speaker: Again, you know, everybody thinks about the Cowboys and those rings they won. It was, what's 26 years ago now, 26 years ago, since the Cowboys won a championship 1996, 26 years ago. It's crazy. And then last night, the Seahawks and the Broncos, um, listen to that on the radio coming back from playing golf on the ocean course, which was a fantastic experience. If you have not ever played the ocean course.
Speaker: I would highly recommend it. It is very hard. Physically and a very challenging golf course. Beautiful, lush. But there's a reason why it's one of the hardest golf courses in America. But it was fantastic. Shot 87. Didn't play well. My swing's a mess right now. But that's a topic for another day.
Speaker: The college football season, as I said, we're in week two and how exciting is it that Georgia Southern got to win at Nebraska? The Clay Helton era is off to a 2 -0 start. Still some things to work on, obviously, but the offense is 150 % more effective than this time last year. Bringing in Kyle Vantreese,
Speaker: was fantastic by Coach Helton. And the running game seemed to be more open against Nebraska with Jaylen White and Gerald Green than it was all of last year running a run -based offense. Like the option out of the pistol or whatnot.
Speaker: I found that to be, you know, I thought that I didn't expect, I didn't expect those runs. I don't think Nebraska expected those runs. Also last week, Appalachian State and Marshall getting wins. I'm telling you folks, the Sunbelt East is top to bottom, maybe. And I know that I'll probably get some pushback on this.
Speaker: if anybody's listening and has listened this long, what are we in? We're in a minute 18, which I didn't know, I don't know how long I'm gonna go. But I'm telling you, the Sunbelt East top to bottom, I think is the toughest division in any conference in America. I know everybody wants to say the SEC West and everybody wants to say the SEC East and the SEC as a whole, but top to bottom, there's not a night off
Speaker: in the Sunbelt East. There is not a night off. You have AP, Coastal, Marshall, Georgia Southern, Georgia State, who gave North Carolina all they wanted, gave South Carolina all they wanted. Georgia State is probably the best 0 -2 team in the country right now.
Speaker: The best 0 -2 team in the country. They had North Carolina on the ropes. If they hadn't given up two blocked punts for touchdown to South Carolina, they would have won that in Columbia. Old Dominion goes on the road to beat Virginia Tech. App State did what App State did. Marshall did what Marshall did. James Madison's outscoring people 107 to 14 in their first two games as an FBS member. Georgia Southern beat Nebraska, beat Morgan State.
Speaker: have the tough UAB team this week. Coastal Carolina had to survive to beat Gardner Webb, but top to bottom, there's not a night off in the Sunbelt East. There's not a night off. There's a couple of nights off in the SEC East. Missouri is atrocious. Vandy is Vandy. South Carolina, the book is still out there. Florida, Kentucky, Georgia, Tennessee, not in that order.
Speaker: are very good. Florida, I think, came down to earth a little bit. We're still not so sure how good Utah is, so we don't know how good that win is. SEC West, A &M, and Bama, they're two best teams going into the year. Almost. BEM almost suffered a loss, and then they were going to have to win out to get to the playoffs. A &M's going to have to win out to get to the playoffs. They're not going to do that.
Speaker: They're not gonna do that. Ole Miss, Mississippi State, Auburn, you know, the SEC West is good, but I take top to bottom. Week in, week out, the Sunbelt East is the toughest league, division in any league in the country. And I'll stand by that. I'll stand by that. ACC, Clemson, I'm not sure about Clemson. Firming up, Firming put more yards on him.
Speaker: Congratulations to Clay Helton. We had a good showing against Clemson. I mean Clay Hendricks, Clay Helton, Clay Hendricks, both the Clays that I follow. Clay Hendricks and this week, Furman and East Tennessee State battle. Battle of student versus teacher, kinda. But good friends facing off.
Speaker: A couple of years ago, when I worked for ESPN Coastal and Southern Pigskin, I wrote an article the first time that Clay Hendricks faced Bobby Lamb at Mercer about two good friends facing off against one another. Former teammates, high school teammates, college teammates, coached together, and then they faced off when Bobby was at Mercer and Clay in his first year as a head coach at Furman. Same type situation.
Speaker: George Quarles, the head coach at East Tennessee State, played with Clay Helton, not in high school, or Clay Hendricks. I can't get that wrong. That's going to be a common occurrence, probably. Clay Hendricks, not in high school, but Clay and George played for Furman, won a national championship. No, played for an national championship in 85, didn't win it.
Speaker: Bobby Lamb was on the staff in 88. Clay, I think was still in NC State. George was not on the staff, but then when Clay took the job.
Speaker: After Bruce Fowler was let go in 2014, Clay Hendricks came in and took the job, brought in George Quarles, who was a very successful high school coach in the state of Tennessee. I think won 11 state championships in 13 years, something silly, something silly like that.
Speaker: So this week, it's the reverse. Clay Hendricks coached under Bobby and then it was the, he was the student against the teacher. And now this Clay, Clay coached with George Quarles who at East Tennessee State took his job, took the first, this first year. And it'll be Clay Hendricks going to take on East Tennessee State and George Quarles this weekend.
Speaker: Furman and East Tennessee State. So that'll be on my radar anyway. Looking at the schedule coming up, not that many good games this weekend. Florida State and Louisville on Thursday night Air Force in Wyoming and then Georgia and South Carolina, the noon game, the former Jefferson pilot noon game in Columbia.
Speaker: UConn in Michigan, Oklahoma, Nebraska. Of course, Scott Frost, as everyone knows, no longer the head coach at Nebraska. Kentucky Youngstown, that's a layup. No games between ranked opponents. Well, excuse me, I'll take that back. BYU's at Oregon. Oregon barely in the rankings, or 25th. Appalachian State opens the Sunbelt against Troy, 330.
Speaker: Georgia Southern on the road against UAB at 330 Louisiana Monroe at Alabama. Liberty at Wake. Mississippi State and LSU could be interesting to see how things topple out there in the SEC West.
Speaker: And that's really it. I mean, Charlotte and Georgia State, Georgia State should get their first win there. South Florida at Florida. I don't think Florida leaves the swamp for like two months. Louisiana Tech and Clemson. Miami and Texas A &M, that's another ranked game I missed. That should be kind of interesting. Game day was going to be there.
Speaker: but game day now moving to Appalachian State after they beat Texas A &M. That's kind of interesting. In the late game for all you late night owls who needs a comeback game to bet on, Duquesne at Hawaii. Yes, Duquesne at Hawaii. Eastern Michigan and Arizona State, North Carolina State at Arizona. Here's one.
Speaker: 11 o 'clock, North Dakota State, they have won six straight against the FBS. They are still in FCS, obviously. Number one team in the country. They've won, I don't know how many national championships now, I lost count. But they go to Arizona at 11 o 'clock Saturday night. That'll be interesting to see how that shakes out if they can win their seventh game in a row against FBS competition.
Speaker: Um, so yeah, there's 26 minutes of this first episode and I'm not sure what will come of it. Um, but hey, I've had fun sitting here talking. Uh, if you have questions or comments for me, please leave them below wherever you found this podcast. I'm going to try to get it to everywhere where people listen to podcasts like Apple and Spotify and all that.
Speaker: And I'm linking it to my Twitter. So, oh, the play. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. I can't go away yet. I can't go away yet. I didn't even talk about the Braves. How did I get 27 minutes into this thing? And I talk about the Braves. Oh, mercy. Braves have lost three in a row. It's crazy.
Speaker: I think that the only two times the Braves have had three game losing streaks this year or after they took, got within a half game last time in the Mets and then took the half game lead. This time they then promptly lose, lose three in a row. And, you know, last Monday night or Sunday night, Sunday afternoon was, was crazy.
Speaker: Kenley Jansen, yes, Brian Snicker, I know. Kenley Jansen leads the league and saves. Yes, I know. That is your standard answer every time he blows a save. But he's also blown three of his last seven attempts. And it's getting out of hand. And those are three games that we needed.
Speaker: Those are three games that had we won those three games, we would be more, we would be in the, you know, not a game and a half back. Excuse me. Not a game and a half back. Let's say I'm pulling it up right now. We would be 90 and 54 and we'd be a full game up at this point.
Speaker: had Kenley chance and converted on the three of the seven that he's blown. And these next two games in San Francisco are very, very important because the Mets are playing the Cubs. I mean, we have drawn the short end of the stick when it comes to scheduling. I mean, we play the hot Mariners. Now we're playing the Giants.
Speaker: And then we come home and we face the Phillies who are still battling for a wildcard spot and have the next best record in the National League behind us. Although nine games behind us. So we come home for the Phillies in the Nats would that should be fine. Then we go to Philadelphia and Washington before the Mets come to Atlanta. The last three home games of the year.
Speaker: So, and conversely, the Mets have the Cubs right now, which is, you know, the Cubs are winning as I'm recording this. I'm recording this on Tuesday night. But, you know, Braves have Kyle Wright going tonight. You would hope that's a win. Get him his 18th win of the year. Give him a chance for 20 in the next couple of weeks. Would be a nice little surprise. We've got to get a win.
Speaker: and keep the heat on these Mets and just kind of piece it together. Ozzie Albee should be back, but where do you put Juan Grissom? I hope he can play left field. I hope he can play left field. Because Osuna is not the answer out there. Not the answer at the plate, not the answer in the field. He's a liability. Hopefully Grissom can play left field when Ozzie gets back. That remains to be seen.
Speaker: But I mean, hopefully that is the case. So if you're interested in high school football, go over to 912 sports and listen to my podcast with Frederica Academy, coach Brandon Dierich. Didn't do a Brantley podcast this week with Jeff Cannon because they were off
Speaker: and my Richmond Hill podcast with coach Matt Lazat. Richmond Hill plays New Hampstead Friday at home. I'll be up there for that one. Frederica Academy goes on the road to take on John Millage Academy, who has just dominated for the last three years, four years, they've won 39 games in a row. So coach Derek has his work cut out for him up there. And then Saturday be here to watch football.
Speaker: and Sunday, although I'll be at work. So hope you enjoyed it. If you got this far, great. If not, I understand. And we'll be back again. I don't know when. A couple of days if something happens, there's really no timeline on how frequent or infrequent I'll do these. But we'll see as sports happens, I'll be in here.
Speaker: This is Rob O's World. I'm Robbie Ross. Thanks for listening.
