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Andrew Caraway | 2024 Georgia Football
216 Plays9 days ago
Jim and John are joined by Andrew Caraway for our first off-season episode.
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Transcript
Promotion to Play-by-Play Announcer
00:00:00
Speaker
we're going to bump this guy up to play by play. We want you to do color. And I'm like, sweet. When do I start? Like, well, your first broadcast is tomorrow. sounds like Sounds like me starting a podcast with Jim.
Podcast Introduction and Guest Overview
00:00:15
Speaker
Welcome to My Gotta Podcast. I'm Jim Wood. In this episode, John Powell and I are joined by Andrew Carraway. We talk about his role in high school football, recruiting, the landscape of college football, his Georgia story, and more.
00:00:28
Speaker
As always, remember to check out the newly redesigned MyGottaPodcast.com to see our latest merch. And you can follow us on social media at MyGottaPodcast.
Engagement with MyGottaPodcast.com
00:00:37
Speaker
Finally, if you need help with your website or your online presence, head over to WorkingWebMedia.com slash dogs.
00:00:44
Speaker
Now let's join the conversation in progress. All right. We're back. We're back. Back again. ah short hiatus this time.
00:00:55
Speaker
i don't know. This is, you know, we'll have to go back and look in the annals and this may be the closest first off season episode after uh, season read review. So, uh, so far goals, somewhat accomplished of trying to have more off season content.
00:01:12
Speaker
Uh, But a special one this time ah with special guest, Andrew Carraway. Andrew, thanks for thanks for joining and being with us here on ah My Got a Podcast. and I appreciate it, guys. i I'm really excited about this. Thanks for reaching out and looking forward to talking to some football, y'all.
00:01:27
Speaker
Yeah, so for the folks that don't know, Andrew has been pretty vocal about some topics with related to recruiting because of his unique situation and in Georgia high school high school football. And so I reached out to Andrew and asked him if he wanted to come on in relation to talking about recruiting We just got done with the quote unquote signing days that we that we have here for college football.
Transition to Recruiting Coordinator
00:01:52
Speaker
And Andrew, why don't you start out with giving us just a rundown of like, you know, what you do, what your connections are to Georgia high school football and, you know, just give us give us the rundown.
00:02:03
Speaker
Okay. Well, yeah, started out in media. um did, I did, um i did ah worked in radio in my market and I actually became the play-by-play voice I started as color commentator, but play by play voice of my old school that I went to Callaway, which is in LaGrange, Hogan'sville area, Troop County over here in West Georgia.
00:02:25
Speaker
And I did that from 2015 to about 2019, 2020 ish. to about twenty nineteen twenty twenty ish um My last game broadcasted was our first ever state championship game that we won in 2020, which was a cool way to kind of go off. And the reason i got i i stopped doing that was um our head coach at the time, or he's still here, obviously,
00:02:51
Speaker
a guy that I played for and both my brothers played for, he called me and he's like, hey, i got this opening.
Challenges in College Recruitment
00:02:58
Speaker
and need a director of social media and a director of college recruiting. i think with your background, like you'd be really good at this.
00:03:05
Speaker
I want you to come do this for me. and i mean You know, I thought about it. um You know, the pay definitely wasn't like the same as what I was getting in media because I was also I hosted a podcast, too, which which was starting to make some traction. But I thought about it and it was a good opportunity. And and and I've been doing that since 2020, been doing ah recruiting. And it's a, you know, recruiting coordinators is what everybody calls them. My title is just a little more fancy because it coincides with my social media stuff than I do. But, um you know, it's one of those things I think there's more and more of us popping up across the country.
00:03:44
Speaker
A lot more schools are starting to invest in and guys like myself who are there to, know, it's not my job to get a kid an offer. It's just my job to help the kids learn how to promote themselves, but also promote, you know, the program the best I can.
00:03:58
Speaker
So, you know, um give it as much visibility as possible and ultimately make a college evaluator's job easy. Like one of my mottos is if if it's easy, if it's easy to say no to one of my players, it's also going to be easy to say yes.
00:04:13
Speaker
If I make your if I make everything that you need accessible to you. um you're going to get told no way more than you're told yes in this profession. You have to just be able to, you know, shake it off, roll with the punches and move on to the next guy. So, but um yeah, I'm glad there's, I'm glad there's a whole bunch of us starting to sprout up throughout the state.
00:04:34
Speaker
It started out as kind of a big thing. Like if if you were kind of a bigger school, like a, you know, Valdosta Lowndes, Calquit County, kind of like, obviously they have more resources than a lot of places do.
00:04:46
Speaker
um so i i work at a little double a school over here 950 kids uh but we're really good we're a really good team we've put out some really talented players um it's a georgia podcast i'm a georgia fan so everybody remembers terry godwin's one hand to catch he played for us um thank bixby who played at auburn university now the jaguars he played for us and a bunch of others, you know, um, Braylon Sanders, who's, you uh, Ole Miss and now he's with the Patriots. So we've had a lot of talented guys come through, um our little
Career Path Support Beyond Football
00:05:20
Speaker
school. So, um, yeah, just trying to give these kids an opportunity to, to, you know, showcase what they can do and hopefully it leads to, to a football scholarship. But we also, uh,
00:05:32
Speaker
We work on other things besides, you know, if they want to. had a kid come to me and tell me he want to be a welder couple years. He didn't want to play college football And I'm like, that's fine. That's great. Welders make a lot of money.
00:05:43
Speaker
And so we we work with them to figure out how to get them into a situation to be successful. So, article yeah, that's kind of that's kind of it in a nutshell. And then the social media stuff's just I just handle graphics and hype videos. But every school does stuff like that. So that's not unique.
00:05:58
Speaker
Oh, sweet. So you're like, you're, you're, I mean, ah this is where the, the Hunter Jones relationship, I feel like blossoms there. so sleep Yeah. He's an okay person.
00:06:09
Speaker
a like Yeah. Me and Hunter, me and Hunter are are pretty good friends. You know, that's, that's kind of was our hitting off point of becoming friends as he, he was doing stuff at his school at the time. And he saw some stuff I was doing and we just kind of hit it off from there. And we've been friends for golly, five or six years now. So love that guy.
00:06:31
Speaker
I love it. That's awesome. Friend of the show. Friend of the show. but the I to look at, I have to like text Hunter while we're recording. Um, I, also I also, I didn't know the, the announcing part. I didn't realize you're like the theyre Larry Munson of Callaway football.
00:06:47
Speaker
That's awesome. Well,
Broadcasting Career Journey
00:06:49
Speaker
I, I, uh, i was preceded by a guy that did it for a long time. It was Tony Walls. He did it for a long time now.
00:06:58
Speaker
When I say a long time, Calloway opened in 96. So it's not an, it used to be a high school. And then in 96, that closed and they built Calloway and Hogan'sville High became Hogan'sville Elementary School.
00:07:14
Speaker
they just had run out of room. And, you know, we moved back to Georgia in the early 2000s, like 2000, 2001-ish. So, um you know, we have, you know, two other schools here that are pretty large.
00:07:28
Speaker
My parents wanted me to go to a more, you know, the teacher-student ratio. They liked that a little bit better. So that's what started that. But, yeah, I got in, and i never it's never something I thought I wanted to do with play-by-play. I'll be honest with you. Yeah.
00:07:43
Speaker
my first ever broadcast, I was a color commentator at the time, the 2016 season. I got a phone call the day before our scrimmage game against Greenville and it was the radio station. They said, Hey, um you know, so-and-so retired.
00:07:58
Speaker
We're going to bump this guy up to play-by-play. We want you to do color. And I'm like, sweet. When do I start? And like, well, your first broadcast is tomorrow. sounds like Sounds like me starting a podcast with Jim. I'm like,
00:08:10
Speaker
like So you're telling me at 10 o'clock at night that I at five o'clock have to know what i'm talking about, because at at the time I've been like a casual Callaway fan. Like I've been like I played and then both my brothers played there. So obviously I you know followed along from a distance.
00:08:27
Speaker
I ran out of mit I thought I had all this material ready. I'd like four pages. I ran out of material before the first commercial break. and To this day, I will not listen to that broadcast because I know it's terrible.
00:08:41
Speaker
Like, I'm sure there's a lot of, uh, uh, you know, but, um, You know, learned a lot doing that. Color commentary is you have to let the play breathe.
00:08:53
Speaker
um And that's where I started. That's how I know you're a good play-by-play or are you a good color commentator already, Andrew? You said that. like You got to got to let the play-by-play guy talk about the play and then you got to find the right time to add the color commentary.
00:09:08
Speaker
Right. And you don't want to step all over the call. Exactly. Yeah. oh My first year, there was a couple of times where hear me in the background like, yes or go go like this and i had to learn how to kind of tone it down in those moments and doing that job introduced me some people because like i started reaching out asking for help in the profession but also just listening to people like um i know he's off air jim when i was telling you it like me and jeff dance are good friends and um listening to him do georgia baseball that's kind of where i like i would go listen to georgia baseball him and dj and
00:09:44
Speaker
And I was like, that's kind of the cadence I want to go where we're talking enough, but we're letting the, you can hear the crack of the bat. You can hear the fans. You can hear, you know, the stroke whenever it's time to change the picture, you know, all that stuff. So it's so, so that's something I took into consideration. and then in 2018,
00:10:04
Speaker
19, became the play-by-play guy. So um having done color commentary, it really helped me, I think, with play-by-play, kind of feel the play out more, but also allow my partner to an opportunity.
00:10:19
Speaker
to, to contribute to the broadcast too. So, um but it was a lot of fun. I enjoyed it called a lot of big games, traveled a bunch, um got to call games in some unique places, but the the final one, the state championship game, unfortunately it wasn't at the Benz. It was at center park stadium, but it was a beautiful day.
00:10:40
Speaker
um It's the closest that any day during COVID felt like a normal day us. But that was a lot of fun. We beat Fitzgerald. um us and Fitzgerald have a little rivalry, so that was a fun but was a fun day. so Did anyone get on their donkey?
00:10:58
Speaker
No donkeys.
00:11:02
Speaker
No. I did almost have ah kind of a slip-up during the broadcast. we were think we were leading 15-10 late in the fourth quarter. It was about 2 minutes, 2-10 left in the game.
00:11:15
Speaker
we ah We had a tailback. His name was Charlie Dixon. he This kid could have transferred and started for any high school in Georgia. he backed it He was Tank Bigsby's backup for three years.
00:11:25
Speaker
For context, when I say backup, this kid was 225 pounds, and I'm not kidding you. Yeah. And he ran a 4, I think a 4.57 was his 40.
00:11:36
Speaker
forty And it's it's that plays on YouTube, on GPB
Memorable Broadcasting Moments
00:11:41
Speaker
Sports. But that joker ran broke off about a 68, 69-yard touchdown. Red and butter play, buck sweep, ran buck to the left side. 22 to 10, you're like, on the broadcast, i I'm like, and that's the dagger.
00:11:53
Speaker
Nope. A few plays later, we blow a coverage and give up a TD, and I'm sweating it out. I'm like, oh, boy, did I just jinx this? um so but that was that was a fun game to end my broadcasting career on so and and then I I dabbled and hosted a podcast um but it was a podcast so uh so it was it it was a very um it wasn't a unique uh clever name like this it was just the West Georgia football podcast it we uh we over in West Georgia everybody thinks of Carrollton or they think of Rome they don't think of
00:12:30
Speaker
all the other programs that are really good like Cedartown, Callaway, Heard County, yeah Carver, Columbus, teams like that. So I made a point to cover at the time, i covered Callaway, but I had a guest, the local sports writer in LaGrange, Kevin Eccleberry was my co-host and he covered Troop and LaGrange High School.
00:12:53
Speaker
And so we would just come together and we we would talk, just talk ball. We'd talk about the previous week's game. We'd preview the upcoming game. Sometimes we'd get coaches to come on. Sometimes we'd get players to come on. But it was a lot of fun.
00:13:07
Speaker
so yeah Yeah, was going to say, you're sounding, this is like, ah you like live like the
Podcast with Notable Guests
00:13:13
Speaker
whole like coffee town thing. Like what Wes used to say. Wes was a guest on my podcast. Yes. Amazing. That's great.
00:13:22
Speaker
Did he do it with a voice? Yeah, I got him to do it a couple times, but. so But no, it was good. It was fun. AJC used to publish links to my show each week because cause that's how they'd keep up with what was going on in football over in our neck of the woods. too Yeah, that's true. They can't just send someone to everything, right?
00:13:40
Speaker
No. Well, that i feel I feel for those guys, any of those beat reporters. they they you know I know one, I won't say exactly what it covers, but... You know, he covers one classification, but then on Friday he's covering, like, 6A football game at Milton. It has nothing to do his job. And I'm like, ah, it's tough.
00:13:59
Speaker
like Like, at the time, like, like old school, class 2A, you had, like, Thomasville, Fitzgerald, us, Rabin County, you know, um...
00:14:10
Speaker
who, you know, everyone, i love Gunnar Stockton, great kid, but we spanked that butt in the semifinals the year we won the state championship game.
00:14:20
Speaker
Oh, no. How did he do in that game? Not well. hello No, I think his, like, third pass was a pick six, and it just set the tone. Like, I think we won, it was like 41 to 17 was the final score. Do throw it from hash to hash?
00:14:37
Speaker
Yeah. Man, I'm going tell you he you could tell that he was really talented. um during ah when his That was his junior year of high school. Gunnar's problem is he ran into south middle and South Georgia powerhouses in his playoffs.
00:14:56
Speaker
His playoff losses, I think, were Fitzgerald, Callaway, Thomasville. Well, those are all really strong teams. And traditionally in Class 2A, if you don't run the ball and play defense, you're not going to win a state title. like Like Dublin, Brooks County, teams like that that used to do that.
00:15:14
Speaker
They were more of a you know, spread you out. We're going to. They played a lot of what you would remember, like what Prince Avenue and Eagles Landing would do in single A private. You know, they just they they want to they want to throw the ball, a little short, quick passing game.
00:15:25
Speaker
That does not work in class 2A. That's just, people are going to rip your head off. There's just there's just too much physicality there. Run the dang ball, Bobo. Yeah, um i'm I'm all over this. This is like sounds like my kind of football.
00:15:39
Speaker
oh here the thing too A lot of players play two ways in the smaller classifications. so like Your tackle's playing defensive tackle. Your guards are playing D-end.
00:15:51
Speaker
Your tight ends and H-backs are also playing linebacker and edge rusher. You're not going have clean pocket. You're not going to. Gunner, think... yeah and so you're not going to and you know um so yeah gunner i think you know When we played him, we could tell they had a really talented you know he was really talented, but we were just across the board.
00:16:14
Speaker
That team, we we didn't have a single kid, I think, that played both ways. but actually We dressed about 95 kids on that team, which was a lot. for that size for 900 students you have 95 kids on the football team that's pretty good that was a fun night but i but i love gunner and i'm excited to see what he's going to do this year he's a great he's a great kid so cows cows and trucks yeah friends family and cows don't have to worry about that truck getting stolen i can tell you that oh my gosh i don't know man it looks pretty sweet
00:16:51
Speaker
uh enter is uh out of curiosity i've i've always wondered this is the callaway name is that the same family as like callaway gardens and callaway golf cal callaway callaway foundation is who sponsored the school so okay they're really involved with you callaway gardens and multiple um callaway golf is an associate is like not a like part of it but but callaway gardens is a callaway um pro shop.
00:17:19
Speaker
So that's just, it just made sense, right? Like, and you know, so so when you go down there play everything in the in the pro shops, all Callaway, golf, and and Bridgestone, I think. So, but um but yeah, they they help sponsor the school. um the the The school looks a lot different than the other two schools. it's In the county, it's very, there's a lot of trees, a lot of, you know flowers, shrubbery,
00:17:45
Speaker
And I think a lot of that's by design just to make it look kind of, you know, kind of make it on brand for for all that. So, but it's beautiful campus. It's getting bigger by the second. So our new indoor practice facility should be done in a couple months. So it's... um It's a gorgeous campus.
00:18:02
Speaker
It's so crazy. So, and I'm going to say this too. Like I went, so you mentioned Milton earlier. Like I went to Milton, but not like current Milton. Like we were terrible when I went there.
00:18:13
Speaker
um But just to hear these things like indoor practice facility is still so wild to me. It's until the kids on our team, the the all the stuff they have now, like we have a little facility with our locker room and weight room. And i was like, this is like when I play, this was like forest.
00:18:29
Speaker
And this is where we went and puked during two days. don't understand anything about two days. Right. They'll be won coach, it's hot, I'm tired. I'm like, buddy, we used to practice for three hours in the morning, go back inside, take a nap, eat a PB&J and put the same sweaty pants on, sweaty pads and go right back out. This was like 2006. Yeah. Like, it wasn't that long ago, but good Lord. I was like I don't want to hear anything about being tired.
00:18:54
Speaker
Uh,
Marketing Players for Future Success
00:18:55
Speaker
that's great. I think I, I also just like the whole recruiting coordinator thing. I think it's, it's interesting to, to, to to hear that name with it being on the other side of what we college football ball fans think of as a recruiting coordinator, but it makes sense. Um, and that's, that's really cool.
00:19:11
Speaker
What, what you do there, helping the kids out. And so. Yeah, it's just, you know, it's it's it's fun. there's There's times where the job is a little more stressful than I would like it to be. But, you know, like I said, my main job is to make connections with college coaches um and make, you know, but also teach the kids how to market themselves. I got a i got a lot of marketing in my background from my jobs and education.
00:19:34
Speaker
And I think the most important skill you can teach a young person is how to market themselves because it's like I tell our players, you know, and I'm sure any coach in the state would tell their players this is probably not unique to us, but you know, it's, it's, if you can market yourself in life, whether it's to play college football, to go to school, to get a job, to convince a young lady to marry you to all kinds of stuff, you know, there's,
00:20:00
Speaker
um Being able to market yourself is a skill, a lifelong skill. And I just want them, that's how I get them to think. And we do a lot of stuff on social media, self-promotion.
00:20:11
Speaker
um We but make sure the kids and the parents understand, like, you get out of this what you put into it. um I'm only one person. i can't I cannot force a college to offer your son, even though every parent thinks that's like I can just snap my finger and make that happen. um There's still things that they look for. And I'll tell you this, like i entered this arena in like it is the wildest thing.
00:20:36
Speaker
um Like pre-COVID, I feel like I would have 10 kids on my roster that would have a Division I offer. Because those offers, and and when I say Division I, it's like Samford, East Tennessee State. I'm not saying these are like SEC kids.
00:20:53
Speaker
Right, right. But when COVID hit, getting offers, like I just told you that tailback in the state championship game, He didn't have a committable offer until the week of signing day, because that's when everybody got that extra year. So everybody was like, oh, crap, who's going to stay? Who's going to go?
00:21:09
Speaker
And then a basically any, all the high school offers, they were just kicking people to the curb because people were staying and then and had nowhere to go. So I have a question like, cause, I hear that term com committable offer, but for the people and for me, what is like, explain the opposite of that. Like, so what, what is happening if someone has like a non-committable offer? I'm assuming that's a thing when we hear a com committable offer.
00:21:32
Speaker
Big schools are notorious for this. It's kind of a we're interested in you kind of thing. Like, it's like a kid will come to work out at a camp. Let's say it like LSU. And I'm not calling them out. i'm just saying like, just use that as an example.
00:21:46
Speaker
They go to a camp at LSU. They do well. The head coach is like, hey, i really like you. We're going to go ahead and offer you. But here's the thing. That kid ain't going to be able to commit on the spot. It's one of those things where it's like, hey, let's, we're going to, we're going to put our,
00:21:58
Speaker
are are hook into you first and if you pan it out then then they can say we were here like we believed in you all along and then that offer junior senior year becomes where they can call and commit um okay whereas there's other offers from and you'll see this from smaller schools like i'll use examples like Troy does a really good job of this. they When they offer a kid, it's for real. like they can And other schools do a good job of this, but i'm just i really the guys at Troy are close to me. so Yeah, I feel like I see Troy listed on a lot of kids' offers.
00:22:30
Speaker
there They're very deliberate with who they extend offers to. and and And now that we've gone from the COVID kids to the NIL era, the extra year of eligibility, all that stuff, it's just becoming even harder to get a ah Division I offer.
Impact of COVID on Recruitment
00:22:47
Speaker
It's just, you know, i had a school, i won't I won't say who it was, two years ago, they told me they were taking 25 but only five of them would it be high school kids.
00:22:59
Speaker
Wow. Because they're like, my job is on the line every Saturday, so I'm going to go get – and this was a group of five. He's going to go get the third safety at Georgia and the backup linebacker from Bama, and he's already ahead of the game. Then instead of you know getting a high school player that they have no idea will pan out or not.
00:23:16
Speaker
Right. and And that's still – that's getting worse and worse by the day – is I think it's a numbers game at this point. theres just so There's just so many, there's so many schools, so many options. And, you know, with the extra year that just like, I mean, the math ain't math and you know what i mean?
00:23:34
Speaker
oh It's, it's tough. It's really tough. You know, like I, for example, I had a kid this year, tight end, six, four, 235 pounds, good looking kid.
00:23:46
Speaker
Kind of a raw talent, but yeah he's talented player, but he's just he's got a lot of upside. I couldn't get. I mean, he had a couple offers like UAB, East Tennessee State. But then also, too, what people understand is when staffs leave or move on, a lot of times those offers get – you're trying to scramble to see, can he still sign? Yeah.
00:24:07
Speaker
Is this still good? Is the new staff interested in him still? had a running back this year, 215 pounds, best tailback we've had since Tank Bigsby played here.
00:24:18
Speaker
Not a single Division I team. and And I think he's going to end up going JUCO because that doesn't count against you now. Like he's got all the school offers, and i said, dude, go JUCO because you can get the same thing out of it and get in a portal with four years left to play.
00:24:34
Speaker
Like so. um Take the Stetson Bennett route. Well, you're going to see more and more talented kids playing Division two JUCO, NAIA ball. So when I say NAIA ball, I'm talking like Reinhardt University up in Atlanta.
00:24:50
Speaker
You know, they're a really good NAIA. We have an NAIA team down here, Point University in West Point. um Like schools like Berry College up in Rome, Division three they recruit linemen that are 6'5", 300 pounds, and they get them.
00:25:04
Speaker
And they're going to get a lot more of them because that number of high school kids going on to play actual Division I ball is going to shrink. It's going to shrink down, especially with the roster condensing too. That's the other – that's the new thing we've got to deal with this year. Roster is going to 105.
00:25:19
Speaker
That's – That's going to be even less. Think of all the influx of kids that are fixing to go in the portal. Yeah. You know? And they're going to all push that when that happens, it pushes everyone else down. Yeah.
00:25:30
Speaker
So, yeah. Not to mention when schools like Barry College can start paying kids directly. Yeah. and And that's the other thing, too, with NIL. There's just so much just wildcard out there with who gets paid, how much. I mean, i just.
00:25:46
Speaker
It's just getting to the point for me where it's like, you the NFL's not this wide open. Yes. why is like college entitled to be like player movement and all this? But like when you go to the NFL, it's okay to have a contract.
00:26:00
Speaker
I think a lot of it, people are like, well, because NFL has a union. What? Okay. Well, then we're at the point now with college football that you're going to have to seriously start looking at this. is There's going to have to be a union at some point for the players. Right.
00:26:14
Speaker
There's going to have to be scholarship contracts. Like, like there's some, there's some stuff I'm hearing. um don't know how true this is going to end up being, but like, but I think you're going to start seeing some teams like, ah you know, a bunch of SEC schools go, Hey, we're going to offer Jim Wood five-star running back from Milton.
00:26:33
Speaker
But it comes with a three-year contract. It's a three-year commitment. Yeah, yeah. And then here's the thing is like you break that commitment and and go to leave.
00:26:44
Speaker
Well, then I've also heard about having to pay back that money or have the the institution you're going to has to reimburse that. the the the other institution for you know for that like kind of like a soccer transit like a soccer just about to say that we're we're we're starting to come into champions league football and college football and we're about to have uh compensation for youth development i just think if the players want to be paid there there's consequences of your action when i say consequences i don't mean it's like bad it's just you have you can't have your cake and you too you can't say oh we're going to be paid we're going to get a part of the pot we got to do all this but then on the other hand be like
00:27:22
Speaker
but you don't get you don't like Bloody Tuesdays, you're going transfer. Like, that's ridiculous. Like, that's, to me, like – can't handle Kirby rage strokes. Well, like like, I'll tell you this. like Like, these college coaches, like, I wonder how much longer Kirby's got.
00:27:37
Speaker
Yeah. see Like, this already – Kirby, if you look at Kirby right now, compared to when he got hired 10 years ago, he's aged 20 years. Yeah. Yeah.
00:27:48
Speaker
a um and And, you know, when you see him in person, he's still energetic, still, you know, happy-go-lucky. He's got a lot of support staff in place to help insulate him from dealing with all this directly.
00:28:01
Speaker
He's got a lot of smart people helping him make decisions. But you also just wonder from just a pure, just, you know, he just lost his father, which is something you identify with, unfortunately. And you start, when that stuff happens, you start thinking of like, well, how much time do I have?
00:28:17
Speaker
Do I want to spend it fighting with my third string right tackle over grand? Or do I want to watch my son Andrew play college baseball? You know mean? Like, yeah, he's already set for life.
00:28:30
Speaker
Kirby's got enough money to walk away tomorrow. And he's never him and his kids will never want for anything. but Everything he does for the University of Georgia, like the fans. And I say this as a season ticket holder.
00:28:41
Speaker
like be grateful for what we have, be grateful for what he's done, be grateful for how much time we have left with him. Because I think the end is sooner than we all want to admit.
00:28:52
Speaker
I'm not saying it's this year. right It wouldn't shock me in five years if Kirby walked away. Yeah. Especially stuff doesn't get regulated, especially if it's just, you know, these players, man, like, like Damon Wilson, like, come on, bud, what are we doing?
00:29:06
Speaker
Like, Like, let mean yeah or or think of this. Okay. I know it's the Georgia podcast, but think of a player like Isaiah Bond has one of the most iconic plays in Alabama football history.
00:29:20
Speaker
The gravedigger play. And you leave to go to tech. Like, so, so like that town is like those football players are held in just God regard. Tyrone Prothro, who made a behind the back catch in a meaningless football game, like 25 years ago, still like a God there.
00:29:36
Speaker
Yeah. i say bond like could have gone down as one of the greatest Alabama players of all time because of that play. But instead he chased, you know, Texas is over here with their oil money.
00:29:47
Speaker
Yeah. Like, Hey, and then, and then you just, there's so many like side conversations you can have about this. Like how, how sustainable is NIL at some point, these boosters are going to be like, screw this man.
00:29:57
Speaker
Like um I'm not going to keep paying for like an eighth place finish. This is, this is what I'm really interested in on that, on that angle is it's like, Like is even some of these people that have this money, like they are business people.
00:30:13
Speaker
Right. And it's like, it's like return on investment, you know? And it's like, what is it? What are they getting back? Because NIL hasn't been, it hasn't been, i i get paid for my name and an image and likeness and I do the local car dealership commercial.
00:30:28
Speaker
which is kind of what I wanted. I mean, it happens not enough. I want more cheesy commercials, but anyways, sad side, side story, but like, is it enough for these people to invest this money and their team wins?
00:30:39
Speaker
And maybe it is. And maybe you have that kind of disposable income and and cool, but like, I'm, I'm, I'm curious how long people keep shelling out this money without, without it actually helping their business, right. Without the, the player actually promoting them through commercial, whatever, you know, to,
00:30:56
Speaker
impact the bottom line other other than just happiness you know i thought about too mean look at ohio state 20 million it worked out but at the same time like as a college football fan i think college football is a microcosm of society today is we're always in a hurry to be the next thing think about it like it goes down to like i have friends i have friends who have kids that play travel ball and they treat that like it's But it's like we're getting rings, like we're we're spending 10 grand a year to play travel ball. Like what happened? What was wrong with playing Little League and going to Williamsport and and grinding for that?
00:31:33
Speaker
But you're so worried about becoming the next thing. You want that notoriety to become the next thing. And now it's trickled down into in the high school is you you have kids posting graphics transferring to another high school.
00:31:44
Speaker
Yeah. yeah All glory to God, I'm going to finish my senior year at whatever. It's like, yeah man, that's soft. It's high school, bro. You know? But in it's crazy. Yeah, it's crazy. And then you see and it's see in college, it's like this these cole schools work so hard to recruit these kids.
00:32:02
Speaker
Now you've got to recruit them every single day. yeah One bad practice, and they're going storm off and be like, oh, I'm going play over here. I'm going to go. Look this. Like, how can you how is it okay to transfer from Alabama to Iowa and then back to Alabama before the season starts?
00:32:20
Speaker
That was wild. no Yeah. To me, it's like, what's to stop a school saying, hey, I need you, hey, I'm at Bama, I'm going to tell you to transfer to Auburn, get their playbook, and transfer back?
00:32:31
Speaker
Yeah. You know what i mean? yeah Yeah. I'm starting to think, is that how tech almost beat us this year? Did they have someone do that? Yeah, seriously. But there's there's so much that's like, you could have like five episodes about just like...
00:32:48
Speaker
The transfer policy is broken. and nio is broken. player movement is broken. Player compensation is broken. it's just there needs to be guardrails.
00:32:58
Speaker
The NFL is not this wide open and it's a professional league. And if we're in a hurry to ruin college football and turn it into the NFL, well, then we need to regulate it like the NFL. Yeah, there's no regulation. The wild, wild west has all got to stop. The problem is is that it's everything's just so decentralized. You talk about the NFL. like The NFL is intentionally structured. like There's two divisions. There's two leagues.
00:33:23
Speaker
You've got the AFC and the NFC. like I hate to tell i hate to say this, but like the writing seems to be on the wall that that's where college football is headed with the Big Ten and the SEC.
Critique of Conference Expansion
00:33:35
Speaker
Yeah.
00:33:35
Speaker
like It's sad. It'll be the big 10 and the SEC and then there'll be everyone else. so Some of the stupidest things that I've ever seen in my life have come from this. Stanford in the ACC.
00:33:47
Speaker
So you don't tell me that a tight ends coach in Palo Alto, California, who can throw a rock and hit the Pacific ocean is playing an Atlantic coast conference game that weekend.
00:33:58
Speaker
That's stupid. Texas in the SEC is stupid. Okay. Like um Washington and USC in the big 10 is absurd. Like it's just, and and I'll say this too. Like, i think a lot of blame for this for me personally.
00:34:13
Speaker
And if y'all are alive, the, you know, streaming this, I'm sure like 49 people will comment on this and be like, I think Greg Sankey is single-handedly responsible for ruining college football. oh I think his greed and money-hungry with these TV deals and all this, I think he has expedited the downfall of his own sport.
00:34:36
Speaker
Was it him? Do you think it was him or or was it the Big Ten? Because I feel like the Big Ten and struck struck first. and All he was doing was trying to play catch-up. I think a lot of it's with these TV deals, which is what started – the conference expansion because everyone wants a cut. It goes back to what you said, John, like decentralized.
00:34:56
Speaker
I think so. The NCAA had a chance to fix all this at some point. and They did a terrible job of it. I think you have to at some point figure out a way to have a commissioner.
00:35:08
Speaker
I'm to tell you what their is going to be 20 from now. 0-20. and i think cause hear me out on this why why are group of five teams gonna play in the college football playoff um'm gonna tell you what their record's going to be twenty years from now oh in twenty They're not going to win a national championship against power power four teams. They're not going to.
00:35:31
Speaker
So why not take those group of fives, those Sunbelt teams, those, you know and put them in their own league and their own playoff. If I'm at Georgia Southern, knowing I can compete at a proud program that won one double A national titles, why would I not want an opportunity to compete against my peers for a national championship?
00:35:51
Speaker
Right. um you know Georgia you Southern should be playing Tulane or something like that or playing Jacksonville State for a national title. you know we should have the payday They get the payday. from it's all about money right like It's all about money. It's about College football is so much better when you had to cheat.
00:36:10
Speaker
So much better. yeah yeah
00:36:14
Speaker
I don't disagree. That was the self-regulation right there. That was it.
TV Deals and Suggested Reforms
00:36:20
Speaker
You just had these unspoken rules. You know, it's explain back Donald s sacks of cash. That was so much better. You know, like it's just it's crazy.
00:36:30
Speaker
Like and it's like you look at the NFL model. The TV deals are not with the the divisions. It's not with NFC North. It's with the league. Yeah. think tv deals should be done through some kind of centralized office and a divvied out equally you have to quit allowing because because you're seeing other things too have y'all seen this these valuations of athletic departments that have just randomly come out so what that tells me just from and i want y'all's opinion on this are you are we going to see college football athletic departments sell out to private equity firms
00:37:06
Speaker
Eventually, I mean, being they own Florida State Athletics. Florida State no longer. They're just paying to use the logo. But now you have a private equity firm from wherever that now owns that athletic department.
00:37:19
Speaker
Like, are we are we going to see that? Because it all goes back to the donor burnout and stuff. You're going to find some way to keep funneling this cash in. Are you going to see private equity start taking over college football? And when that happens, I'm just going to close my laptop and I'm just going to.
00:37:35
Speaker
Nothing. Nothing he would make me hate Florida more than to see them playing at Ben Hill Emerite Stadium. Yeah.
00:37:46
Speaker
Yeah, I know like one of the versions I've heard of that theory is like, and then like they're not... like Are you even a student? when yeah like Does the student part of student-athlete go away?
00:37:57
Speaker
and don't know. um It's like they we're in such a hurry to get to the next thing. It's like, well, this player... yeah cause that's been that It was an old age-old argument. Maurice Claret dealt with this too. I should go pro after one year.
00:38:09
Speaker
Well, my thing is, is like how about... like make Where the NCAA should have come in, it's like, okay, why don't we just make it two years? You play college football for two years, then you can go to the NFL, right?
00:38:22
Speaker
Or be removed from high school for two years. Because you have, like, 20-year-olds going in to the into the draft, right? to Like, i think I think Dylan Sampson, Tennessee, is back. I think he's 20, and he's going to be in the draft, but he's a junior, right? He's a younger guy.
00:38:38
Speaker
So it just – You know, there were so many ways that we could have fixed this. Instead, now it's like, I got to worry and sit on the dog vent and worry about like our backup running back, you know, being like, oh, I really like my spring practice. I'm going to transfer to Ole Miss.
00:38:54
Speaker
you know it's like this is so stupid man this is emily a hunter I remember we were, we had an exchange ah in December with that portal window. Like, is there I'm trying to remember, cause I think you were saying like the math. Yeah. Like the, it's like, like the sequence.
00:39:14
Speaker
Yeah. Like the sequencing. Right. So like, how does it, how can a coach like deal with this? How can they know who to recruit because of the portal? Just your thoughts on like the, the sequencing of the windows between signing day and portal transfer,
00:39:27
Speaker
Windows. and I guess it's, I mean, it really, like like you said earlier, you've got these kids that can't get a com committable offer because coaches are trying to get the, I know, I guess the sure thing and and a transfer. um Well, imagine trying to sign a class like early December, then mid December.
00:39:45
Speaker
That's when everybody starts leaving. That's like, how do you replace those kids? Right. You just have to go to the portal and do that. Hmm. I think for continuity purposes, so so obviously, you know, the college football, and see the other thing is timing, the college football playoff, 12 teams is too many. I'm not going to go down that framework.
00:40:03
Speaker
It's ending later, so the the spring semester is starting. So it's harder to transfer in the middle of a semester, right? Just from a, just mucking up your transcripts and stuff.
00:40:16
Speaker
I think you just make it to where you get, what you transfer at the end of the school year. So if the school year starts in 2020 and ends in 2021, well, you can transfer after spring practice of 2021.
00:40:28
Speaker
If you're not satisfied, you've been in the program for a year, you've had an opportunity to go through fall camp, a whole season, and improve during spring practice. And if you're not happy with where you stand, well, then get in the portal and go.
00:40:41
Speaker
And now that team has ah has the ability to then recruit replacements for him and sign them in dis December. You see what I mean? And they're not having to, it I think, You have to have one portal window.
NIL's Effect on Football Dynamics
00:40:54
Speaker
You need to have, i think we're getting to the point now where I think d Division I teams should do December signing. Everybody else signs in February. um that That's just, because because like all of my kids, all of my seniors, none of them signed in February.
00:41:08
Speaker
i had kids I have seniors still getting offers from schools today. Like, that's how broken everything is. Like, and and it's there's there's no way to like make it like if I was 18, and I've got like five offers from like D3 schools.
00:41:24
Speaker
And then I'm trying to like make a decision and I've got like another school that offers me it's like that's so confusing. Yeah. to yeah You know, i think there's just got to be some kind of continuity. But but also to just think of the the college coaches and I don't want to hear like, well, they get paid 10 million. That's great. But they're still they're still human.
00:41:42
Speaker
There's still health issues involved. They're still family. They're still like these coaches. If you want Kirby to coach more, we should like you. We should encourage there to be less.
00:41:53
Speaker
ah of this, right? if If Bama fans wanted Saban around more, they they should have been clambering for one transfer window, you know, one signing, more dead period.
00:42:04
Speaker
I want Kirby and Cabo more and during the offseason. I want him and Cabo for four months. I want him to come back with a 10, 30 pounds lighter and ready to roll.
00:42:15
Speaker
Like, that's you know what I mean? That's what I want. um know If he's going to Cabo for more often, then he might not be 30 pounds lighter. That might be hard to do. but But yeah, there's got to be some kind of consistency because just, I mean, and everybody's like, well, you can transfer from your job and you can leave your job. But this isn't that. I was just about to say, i was just about to ask or throw a wrench into your like...
00:42:39
Speaker
comments about Greg Sankey ruining ruining the sport. I actually think that it all kind of started when with coaches like coaches being able to maneuver wherever they want to go whenever they want to go and there's no there's no willy nilly. There's no willy nilly about it like there's no commitment on the coaches level and you had situations like, frankly, like for, to, to use the UGA example, everyone's asking questions about why Bobo is still around. Why is Stacy Cyril still around?
00:43:10
Speaker
And you had, you had made the comment, like with the cap, the way that the calendar sets up, like you want your coaches out on the road for a certain period of time. And then, there's the dead periods and then the, the, the soft open periods. And then there's all this, ah all this stuff so so associated with signing day. yeah And like, if you were to make a coaching change, you're shooting yourself in the foot from a getting coaches in homes and making visits and all that kind of stuff.
00:43:38
Speaker
So like, if, if any coaching changes were going to happen, they probably would have happened around this time or possibly later. Right. So like, yeah, if if If you're letting kids, like the flip side of that is that you're letting all these kids come in, like Monken last year when he left at the end of February, right?
00:43:57
Speaker
um He goes off and and gets his gets his job and goes off to the NFL. But we had already recruited all these kids that were under the impression they were going be playing for him, right? So like coaches in a way have kind of fostered this free willy-nilly situation that we have right now because – You know, that's just that's just what we've allowed to happen here. And like you said, if if there's not a centralization, it's just going to continue to happen. And I don't know that the centralization is ever.
00:44:24
Speaker
I don't know that the powers that be in college football are ever truly going to relinquish that power to one entity like the experience be perfect.
Need for Regulation in College Football
00:44:34
Speaker
I saw me saw me up for 10 years of that.
00:44:38
Speaker
He'd be like having Doge full time college football. this Just sign me up. I'm in You know, let's. It's not Herbstreet. No, no. Because Ohio State will be able to tamper twenty four seven and and he won't see anything.
00:44:53
Speaker
ah He's got to watch out. though His boy plays for Michigan now. That's an interesting dynamic. in that whole thing is youngest son signed with Michigan. So that's, ah is that's an interesting casualty of the one Oh five roster limit.
00:45:06
Speaker
So, so yeah, I'm with you though, John, I don't, I don't disagree with you. I think there's probably a way to uniform coaching movements too. Like now coaches get fired and, and,
00:45:18
Speaker
at all times during the year. But, you know, I wonder when it comes to like that, there a way to uniform like that when it comes because there's ways that schools combat it, you know, with the buyouts, you know, when they have the stuff.
00:45:34
Speaker
And that's where I've like pitched it for like if players are going to leave, then I feel like if a player leaves Georgia for Auburn, Auburn should play georgia pay Georgia a buyout. Whatever Georgia has invested in that player, Auburn should have to pay to Georgia.
00:45:45
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. They should have to have some skin in the game. in And and if my thing is, too, is like you start introducing contracts, well, I would make them all a three-year minimum or a two-year minimum. I wouldn't do year-to-years, ever. Yeah, for sure. And make it harder.
00:46:01
Speaker
yeah If the kid wants to move on, That's fine. There's one transfer window. and And I'm to the point too, it's like, I'm all for letting them transfer one time. Anywhere you want to go, transfer.
00:46:12
Speaker
After that, buddy, you know, we don't need 17 helmet decals at your senior bowl helmet. Like, we don't need that. Okay. We're not trying to keep, you know, it's like, it's like, it's like, um,
00:46:23
Speaker
What's that guy, Finley, that used to play at Auburn? What's his quarterback? Isn't he like on his seventh team? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I would add a layer of complexity there for graduate transfers.
00:46:36
Speaker
i was loved I always loved that rule, that once you once you graduated, i' keep you could go wherever you wanted to. I think that's like, also too, it's like, why don't that make that part of it too and say, hey you play here, but if you want to transfer, graduate and leave.
00:46:48
Speaker
Because then you incentivize them getting their degree as well. Mm-hmm. Because at the end of the day, like the reason why NIL is so broken is there's so many families that come from difficult situations.
00:47:01
Speaker
And they come from nothing. And you have a random guy saying, well, I'll pay your son $10,000 to come here. Well, that's like the lottery ticket. Right. And they're gonna be there's a lot of people that are desperate for that. And I'm seeing it all the time and in my profession, you know, with high school kids. It's like, you know, it's you have these NIL opportunities for people that don't have a whole lot going for them.
00:47:23
Speaker
And I think there's got to be we've got to do a better job, too. If this is to be new future for college football, I think it like the state of Georgia needs to do a better job of making sure that, you know, things like money management are prevalent in high schools where we're learning how to manage our money, how to handle contracts, how to handle what's a mortgage.
00:47:41
Speaker
taxes 1099s like we need to start introducing this and maybe a little less algebra two and a little bit more money management you know there's things i took in high school that i've never used even i'm saying it's like not valuable but like i could have would have loved to learn how to balance a checkbook i would have loved to learn how to invest i would have loved to learn about you know real estate properties you know, investment properties, but like, you know, that's, there's a whole trickle down effect is if if we want kids, if kids are going handling this, because also think of this, there's so many kids that have agents.
00:48:18
Speaker
a lot of it's just like, like uncle Ricky, that is the handler for them in taking 20, 30, 40, 50% of the There's so many people out here taking advantage of the kids too.
00:48:31
Speaker
And, and that's where I think it's really important for, i think, for high schools to have more kind of awareness in, you know, teaching kids how to manage contracts, how to manage money, how to think for themselves.
Teaching Financial Literacy in NIL Era
00:48:43
Speaker
You know, they're so interested in getting the bag. gonna sound like an old man here, still a millennial. Like it's like, they spend more time on that than thinking about like four years down the road.
00:48:54
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Is Carter has joined Carter has joined chat. Sorry. Um, um In, in Georgia can, I know there's some States where like, you're allowed to earn n NIL technically even in high school or whatever, like, is it against GHSA or anything? What is Georgia like? And and I don't even know what North Carolina is like. It's so complicated. It's so complicated. Like you can, but like you can't wear your team and you can't be on school property You can't wear any of your team paraphernalia or logo.
00:49:26
Speaker
You can't like there's so like there's a whole list of things. okay It has to be the business paying you. It can't be like a booster who owns a bit. It's got to be like a loan entity. And I've got so many feelings on this. Like we had kids in the state making NIL money.
00:49:42
Speaker
getting paid all this money and they never won a state championship, you know? And it's like, you're going to, you think you hear about a kid at Michigan who got paid what 19 million bucks or whatever it was to go there.
00:49:54
Speaker
What if he sucks? Like, ah you mean like what if he What if he's terrible? And it's like, that's where I'm saying, like, all this stuff's broken. It's like.
00:50:05
Speaker
The incentive to work hard is also not not as strong as it once was as well. Like, because at the back of your mind, you're like, ah I can just and could just bankroll this $9 million for a good chunk of the rest of my life.
00:50:19
Speaker
It makes it easier to tell your coaches where to stick it. You know? Yeah. It's, it's it's ah you know, you saw a lot of stories come out. and i'll And I'll give multiple people shout outs here. Like, you know, like the dog event or like Dogs HQ or these other like message boards like Roddy and Nabolsi and Rusty and those guys. like run the show we And there it's amazing when certain people left Georgia that there was suddenly a lot of details on the work ethic.
00:50:51
Speaker
Yeah. And look. I like Carson Beck. i've I was one of the few guys that like during his you know three you know throw in one interception, get two for free you know kind of thing he was dealing with, I would support him because there was a lot of it that wasn't on him during those games. there was a lot of I think there was a reason in the second half of the SEC championship game that that team locked in.
00:51:19
Speaker
Mm-hmm. You didn't see drop passes. You didn't see mental errors. You didn't see now, was the game pan vanilla? Yeah, it had to be because you had to back up quarterback in. But at the end of the day, the guys rallied around Gunner Stockton.
00:51:31
Speaker
Gunner throws a catchable ball. It was a catchable ball, but also he's not, you know, he's not flying out immediately after practice to go to Miami. He's not rolling around all in his Lambo, you know, all this stuff and and rubbing people the wrong way. There's you there's so many stories of of star players sharing their and NIL money with their teammates.
00:51:52
Speaker
I'm not saying Carson never did, but I had a story that he that he did. You know, as the quarterback, um and this that this team just felt like so – something did not click with this group.
00:52:05
Speaker
And I think a lot of it was NIL entitlement. Like, um ah we're not going to see 2021 or 22 again. i think 22 was like the last, like, true national title, like the way college football was meant to be.
00:52:18
Speaker
Like, hurting kids want to be there, guys like Nolan Smith who – you know, F it. I'm going to hit somebody with a torn bicep because I'm Nolan F and Smith. And that's what I'm, you know, like that's, that's like, we don't have guys like that, you know, like, and and there's guys like on this team, like Jalen Walker, love Jalen Walker, you know, you know, CJ Allen, you know, great, a great player. But like for those kinds of guys, you had guys like,
00:52:45
Speaker
you know, that were not locked in and who thought they could just roll their Georgia helmet out and it was going to solve everything. Now, I do have and do have one thing from this last season that I've always wondered is what if what if Georgia had beaten Alabama?
00:53:01
Speaker
What if the comeback had happened? Do things go differently for that team? You know what mean? like Or do you feel like it's still the same same old, same old? I mean, my my personal opinion is that we should have won that. Oh, I agree. A thousand percent.
00:53:14
Speaker
ah that but We made Jalen Miller look like Tom Brady for 30 minutes and it was done. Like, yeah, that that that's this season. But I think John and Jim, you brought up some good points about, I think there's a lack when you're paid like that.
00:53:30
Speaker
Are you really watching film or are you just sitting in there texting on your phone, looking like you're watching film just so your coaches see it? Are you really, Mike Bobo was the same OC in 2023 and that was a damn good offense.
00:53:44
Speaker
We scored a lot of points. We blew out a lot of teams, a lot of really good football teams that year. And do we have better players? Yeah. Like you had really good players. But like some of these guys like Dylan Bell, okay? Like the other night, I was telling you off air, like i watch my little boy and me, we watch like one 15-minute montage of a game. yo Last night was 2023 Tennessee.
00:54:07
Speaker
Seeing the catches Dylan Bell made in that game and then watching him this year, like what happened to him? What happened to Arian Smith? Arian Smith didn't have drop issues really throughout. He always, 2022 Tennessee, who who who went deep?
00:54:21
Speaker
and got us back in that game, Arian Smith.
Recent Changes in Football Strategy
00:54:23
Speaker
Yeah. Arian Smith, Ohio State. You know, Arian Smith, fourth down, 2021 against Missouri. Catches a dime from Stetson Bennett. Yeah. Why all a sudden can he catch? is Is it too much was put on him?
00:54:35
Speaker
was he Was he given too much volume because he was the only reliable person, so that for his margin for error was less? So when he did screw up, it stood it stood out like a sore thumb? Yeah.
00:54:46
Speaker
You know? Yeah. The volume change was enormous for him. Cause he was always, he was kind of like a gadget. I'm i'm not saying like gadget plays so much, but like he was a spot guy, his, ah his career until this year. And then all of a sudden he's number one receiver.
00:55:00
Speaker
Um, although then he wasn't, which was weird, but whatever. Well, the sugar bowl, he was just like, this is it. I got to go out on top here. Like, you know what i mean? Like he's like, we didn't throw to him enough. Sorry.
00:55:11
Speaker
Not to re relitigate the sugar bowl. Dylan Bell was like, no, I'm going to let Cash catch this TD. I don't want it. Oh, man. Yeah. Yeah, whole season was just really – it was just really odd not being able to run the football.
00:55:25
Speaker
That was the other thing. Yeah. But like I told you, Jim, before we got started, there's just some interesting things I'm learning through this draft process on, like, Trevor Etienne.
00:55:36
Speaker
Like, just, you know, and having my my friend at PFF kind of go through it with me and show me, like – man, there's holes here to run through, and he's making ah bad decision. Like, he's he's going the wrong way. And they were saying Trevor Etienne is, like, a really good player, but he he his vision was not good.
00:55:54
Speaker
It was not great. And, see, I'm one of those who's like, I don't want to see that because all I see is, like, ISO beat Texas SEC champions. but He's like, but for every one of those, how many times did he did he did he bounce back and didn't need to?
00:56:10
Speaker
How many times did he give up on a blocking scheme where it was there? And i was like, I don't have to go back and watch the tape. But I think there's so much that went into this season that that was just ah like just not normal.
00:56:22
Speaker
I think it's just easy to say Bobo sucks. Yeah. Well, yeah, I mean, like there's there's really so much of that that I can tolerate. Like, ah to a certain extent, the Sugar Bowl was like maybe a tipping point for me and in some of that. But like at the at the same time, like you go back and even looking, i mean, from the first snap of the game in the Sugar Bowl, like there are guys whiffing blocks left and right.
00:56:47
Speaker
Like... Freeling was getting roasted out there. Yeah, I mean, like, there's there's only so much a coach can do a situation where players are just not executing, which that kind of boils up to it's the coach's job to get the players ready to play and all that kind of stuff.
Youth and Inexperience in Teams
00:57:03
Speaker
But, like, i don't know. It just felt like that this season was just an egregiousness of a combination of injuries, youth, inexperience that Kirby talked about before the season.
00:57:15
Speaker
And... I mean, I remember telling Jim, i was like, dude, I don't know if you guys really realize this or not, but like there's a ton of young guys on the defense right now. there's so many There's so many young players out there.
00:57:26
Speaker
yeah um And that might be why we're seeing some of the some of the things that we're seeing. But, like, I don't know. the Not to get off off topic of of talking about recruiting and going back to the season rehash, but...
00:57:41
Speaker
Oh, you I'm i with you. it it There was times in that shirt where was like, hey, that jailbreak screen that everybody screams at Bubba Ford, that was a Todd Munkin staple. yeah I would love to see like 50 to 70 more of those, but we never threw one in that game because i was like, can Notre Dame's front was really good. If you can't block them, we'll get the ball up quick.
00:58:00
Speaker
You know, like, why are we trying to launch the ball downfield? That's like not been all year. You know, we were a dink and dunk offense and it's like, now we're just going to just throw up, you know, you know hail Mary's every other play, you know, but ah yeah, there's, there's so much from this season.
00:58:17
Speaker
There's so many questions I have just, Recruiting wise, just what does the future look like? i know there's like some house bills coming that could bring things like contracts into play and that's going something else I got to add to my resume of that so contract negotiations. Yeah.
00:58:37
Speaker
John, why don't we why don't we go ahead if you had something. I was just going to say, so you're so you're the you're the recruiting czar for college football. Fix it today. Okay.
00:58:48
Speaker
The whole process? Yeah. like What would you do from top to bottom from Georgia high school, from your perspective at Georgia high school recruiting all the way up to D1 or whatever?
00:59:00
Speaker
like what what are What are the solutions from where you sit? Yeah. Well, my first solution is to have one transfer window four for colleges. i I think for continuity for school and everything, you do it after spring ball, let them transfer over the summer, acclimate.
00:59:17
Speaker
But I think that allows colleges to and coaches to actually build a program. Right. I would agree with that. I think, you know that helps. I also think, you know having one signing day, December for, for, for division one teams, December is the day.
00:59:34
Speaker
Cause now that you have that continuity with the transfer portal, let's build continuity with the signing day so that everybody's on the same page. If I could snap my finger or two, i would say like bring, bring contracts into play with a minimum and punish the, you know, punish the player and other institution for leaving.
00:59:54
Speaker
You know, if you want to quit on your team and go somewhere else, that's fine. You can go, but that you're not just going to go for free. You know what mean? It's one of those things where it's like, you know, in the NFL, you can't just get cut.
01:00:10
Speaker
There's dead cap space. There's waiver wire. You could get picked up by a team you don't want to play for, you know? So I think bringing in contracts, making ah ah making them a little stickier to the member the home institution.
01:00:23
Speaker
So if i have a you know if I sign, like I said, Jim Wood, five-star Milton tailback, UGA, I'm going to sign them three-year contract. three year scholarship and Auburn comes in, you know, and they offer him yellow wood man bag. And,
01:00:40
Speaker
Auburn should then have to reimburse the University of Georgia for every penny they invested in Jim. That's that's how I feel about it. do you think that you could also layer in like medical reviews? like You have to actually pass like a medical exam before you... I mean, you could have physicals that you have to have.
01:00:59
Speaker
I mean, there's all kinds of stuff that you could that you could do.
Unified Policies for Fairness in Recruitment
01:01:02
Speaker
But I think there just has to be more uniformity on transferring out, transferring in, signing players,
01:01:10
Speaker
and and NIL management. Now, look, if a school wants to pay a kid $19 million, dollars that's on you, okay? Okay. If you feel good about that, that's on you. Is that sustainable? No, it's not.
01:01:21
Speaker
So I do think I don't know if it's salary caps and in some way, shape or form, because otherwise you're going to get into the situation to continue to use the European soccer model. Like, you know, in in the EPL, there's no there's no salary caps, which is why there's always like a consistent top five teams. And there may be like a Cinderella story here and there. But generally speaking, it's five teams that really have a ah chance to win.
01:01:45
Speaker
Well, how how boring has Major League Baseball gotten? Like, oh, look, the Dodgers signed another guy. Like, right it's like, oh, my gosh, man. Like, good for you for having all this money to blow. But, like, it's I'm going to be long gone, and they're still going paying these guys like they're great-grandkids with all this different stuff. Bobby Bonilla. Bobby Bonilla.
01:02:08
Speaker
Yeah, just just like circle that, John. just like and That would be kind of like the just the meat and potatoes of what I'd want to see. you know Besides like you know a commissioner, there being a union for the players, um some kind of common sense with the conferences.
01:02:25
Speaker
Um, it makes no sense the way it's structured and, and I get it for money, but there's, there's other ways to, there's other ways to figure this out. There's other ways to make money. There's other ways to figure out, you know, it's like the NFL model, you know,
01:02:40
Speaker
Fox and CBS go through the league. Fox gets NFC. CBS gets AFC. You know, and it's it's it's even it's split. I think that's how you fix it. But that's also much easier said than done. You know, we've got seven.
01:02:54
Speaker
You have people that are minors. that These are minors involved, like in some cases, 16 year olds. Right. Yeah. um ah Allegedly. Right. One thing I would add to fix recruiting is bring back the fax machines on Sunday day. <unk>ed my machines yeah yeah There's no tampering when it comes out. You send that l LOI and it's over. That's right. yeah That's right.
01:03:17
Speaker
That's fun. ah What about in the high school ranks? Cause you had mentioned like some, some shenanigans at the high school level, right? yeah, I'm just naturally, I've become super pessimistic to just the whole process, like the mega camps and the, you know, there's so many.
01:03:36
Speaker
I mean, I have kids on my team who are guilty of this, who I think they care more about getting a graphic and posting it on social media than the actual offer itself. I think they want the likes and all of the fanfare that comes from that rather than the substance of the offer.
01:03:53
Speaker
You know, I could get them an offer from like, Huntington College in Montgomery, Alabama, which is a Division III school. And it's like they would care more about getting to post something on Instagram than the actual, like, understanding what goes into that, you know?
01:04:09
Speaker
um i think I think there's just there's money has reared reared its ugly head in the sport. there's we We treat some of these five-star players like like they're NFL guys, and they haven't accomplished anything.
01:04:22
Speaker
They haven't accomplished anything. yeah We had ah player in the state last year that just every time you turn on g GPB or anything, yeah they would just keep saying his name over and over and over and over and over.
01:04:36
Speaker
And it's like, What did the kid ever win when he was at that school? He had he played for a powerhouse program, you know, couldn't win a state championship. But we've fallen over him like he's the second coming of whoever.
01:04:50
Speaker
And it's like we get so caught up in these recruiting rankings and. 247, Rivals, and On3. Has anyone really like gone in and saying like who who panned out who didn't?
01:05:02
Speaker
ah Do they go back and say, like hey, we we rated 30 kids as five stars. How many of them actually panned out last year? right you know How many of them were all-conference? How many of them were like honorable mention on all-conference? How many of you got drafted?
01:05:16
Speaker
How many? mean, haven't they done that? They've done that analysis, though, I feel like. that If you are a five-star recruit, you are you increase your likelihood of being drafted by x percent. And, you know, that basically just outlining that as you got down into the the lower stars, the less likely it was that you were going to be drafted into the Yeah.
01:05:37
Speaker
Unless you're Dan Jackson. you Yeah, I mean, there was always that there was always outliers, but like overwhelmingly five and four star players are more likely to get drafted and two and three star players. Oh, there's there's no doubt.
01:05:51
Speaker
There's no doubt. I think the problem... And out doesn't really matter in that. and regard i guess is kind of what Well, you see so many of these recruiting camps that come out and get these kids to come pay 70 bucks and the line is two hours long and they catch two passes the whole day.
01:06:05
Speaker
And yeah yeah it's it's prevalent. It's super prevalent. I tell my kids, I said, look, if you have... If you have some schools that you feel you can play at, go to their camp.
01:06:17
Speaker
If you feel like you can play at Mercer, go to Mercer's camp because there's other schools there. Like Georgia is really good about this. When they host their ah passing league in the summertime, they have schools, like all kinds of schools there.
01:06:31
Speaker
Like they'll have Arkansas State and they'll have Charlotte and they'll have Coastal Carolina and just throwing out names. And they do a good job. Kirby does a good job of of trying to help those kind of programs out.
01:06:43
Speaker
That's cool. You're not going to see Auburn, in Alabama there. Right. Yes. But. ahtmr Right. But youre you see Jacksonville State, you'll see others, you Kennesaw State, you'll see teams that Georgia ain't worried about, you know, coming and helping.
Evolution with Transfer Portal and NIL
01:06:57
Speaker
But at the same time, like, I feel like recruiting has gotten so watered down. Like, it's just, we fawn and fawn and fawn. over these kids and treat them like gods. Then you wonder why when they get to college, they, you know, why'd that kid not pan out?
01:07:13
Speaker
Or what happened to him? Or, you know, oh, he was a five-star. Why didn't he do this? And it's like, well, man. Is it still that way with, with the way that the transfer portal has, has been though? Cause,
01:07:26
Speaker
I feel like that, I don't know, this is just my perspective because i still follow it a little bit, but, you know, i just remember being super excited about getting all these four-star guys, like, back in the day. But now I feel like the only thing that people really stand up and pay attention to is how many five-stars you have, right? Yeah.
01:07:45
Speaker
like Like, because at the end of the day, you can go out and find someone in the transfer portal that actually has produced and was a four star recruit and, you know, is kind of a known quantity at an SEC school or at a big group of five school or was, you know, an all American at West Virginia, you know, kind of stuff like.
01:08:05
Speaker
You hit the nail on the head, John. Like that's one of the biggest things I'm seeing as a trend. And it's things that college coaches have literally told me to my face. It's it's so Georgia just brought in a defensive back from UAB, really good player, right?
01:08:21
Speaker
Well, think at how much less time it takes to onboard that kind of player than it would to go through a five-star kid coming in as a freshman that you have to now de-recruit.
01:08:33
Speaker
You have to, basically, okay, hey, you're here, but now you're just one of the guys. I'm not going to text you every day and sing your praises. You're one of the guys now. He's been through orientation in that he's been through an orientation at a major college football program and has actually started his college career and knows that he's got to go to class and schedule class and study. You want kids that that know how to do it, right, who have been there and have proven that they can do it. So you're going to see a lot of schools like
01:09:04
Speaker
Georgia and Alabama, who are going to supplement their rosters. You might grab a guy or two. like I know Georgia got two really talented receivers. Those are positions of need that you need those.
01:09:15
Speaker
But then they're supplementing with guys that that they're also recruiting. right So it's kind of like you're hedging your bet. It's like, I'm going to bring in this safety from UAB. He played at a smaller school, and I'm going to hedge bet. I'm going to say, okay, hey, I think he can play, but I'm also at this five-star that I brought in behind him.
01:09:33
Speaker
and so It's like the ultimate thing. but the problem the The other thing you realize too, and and a lot of smaller schools feel this way, it is like they it's almost like if they have a good player, they're just like, well, it's fun coaching you. We'll see you later.
01:09:48
Speaker
Because they know at the end of the year that player's gone. right and It makes it so much harder. I have a lot of players on our team that have ah we like they have group of five offers.
01:10:00
Speaker
A lot of them do. Those kind of schools, I think, are going to be easier to get offers from. I think the bigger schools are going to gobble up the five-star kids, the high-end portal talent.
01:10:13
Speaker
I think your Troyes, Georgia Southerns, Kennesaw States, Georgia States, they're going to be, you know, hey, I can go pluck Bama's third-string safety. Hey, I can go get the backup right guard from Ole Miss.
01:10:28
Speaker
But also, you've got think some of these kids are coming from NILs at big schools, and it's going to be kind of a culture shock knowing that you're you're not going to make $70,000 a year at this group of these these g five s right?
01:10:43
Speaker
So a lot of those schools, too, they build their rosters organically, and then they get punished for being good coaches. They get punished for having good schemes. They get punished for being successful. and those kids get poached
College Football as a Feeder System
01:10:55
Speaker
by the bigger schools. And I think it's, it's all becoming like, it's like a feeder. So it's like, it's like major league baseball. It's like you have single a double a triple a. It's like, I think that's how it's going to, I think that's almost how college football feels like it's going.
01:11:07
Speaker
It's like, you're to have your small feeder schools who are like, you know, you've got your JUCOs, you got your, your, your group of fives, you got your, you got your FCS teams.
01:11:20
Speaker
And that's why I feel like to, to, create some kind of momentum for some of these schools, it would make sense to have a college football playoff for G5. It's not as much money, fall but but if FCS can do it, why can't G5 do it?
01:11:35
Speaker
yeah yeah you know like And i just think there's something to be said to be able to compete, to to know that I'm the head coach at Sanford University in Birmingham, out Alabama, and I've got an opportunity to win a national title because it's apples to apples.
01:11:49
Speaker
You know, Sanford knows when they come to Sanford Stadium that they're going to get their ass kicked 50 to zero, you know, and it's it's it's it they have no shot. They have no shot, you know. And i think I think that would be pretty cool addition if we're going to do all this. That would be cool.
NIL Compensation Trends
01:12:08
Speaker
One thing that that also I feel like is is happening, um and you're seeing it with some of the NIL deals that are actually out there. is, you know, we talk about the NFL location of college football.
01:12:21
Speaker
That's panning out in how positions are compensated. So, like, you've got quarterbacks that are making millions and millions of dollars. You've got wide receivers making millions of dollars.
01:12:32
Speaker
Maybe the left tackle's making... good money but the running backs they're not nearly able to bank as much money because of you know the trickle down effect of how the NFL handles running backs right like you're not spending millions and millions of dollars on these running backs whereas historically particularly in the SEC you got Herschel Walker you've got Bo Jackson you've got all these all these guys that you know probably were paid millions of dollars, you know, adjusting for inflation, whatever, how you however you want ah want to put it. But like, you know, I feel like that's also something that that's gone away too, is is is that there's more emphasis on positions that are going to impact it. And some of that's the analytics that have come kind of come out and, you know, how to how do you impact a team? And it seems like that the wide
NFL Management Influence in College
01:13:25
Speaker
receiver position is,
01:13:27
Speaker
overwhelmingly one of those positions that you know georgia historically hasn't really had a whole lot of success with um but yeah i mean that that's something else that i feel like we're seeing too like you mentioned your your running back that didn't get any d1 offers it's it's wild to me and i think so i think one thing too and i forgot to mention this earlier i had an interesting conversation the other day with somebody Watch what North Carolina does over the next couple years with Bill Belichick being in Chapel Hill or Chapel Bill, as they call it. The Chapel Bill shirts are amazing. I'm not going to lie.
01:14:02
Speaker
hired an entire NFL staff. he Yeah, he brought in a GM, right? He brought in Michael Lombardi, who was with him in New England. Watch how they handle all of this, because I think you're i think they may set the precedent on you know how to yeah run in an internal cap.
01:14:20
Speaker
like you talked about having positional value and stuff, but you also talk about a head coach who's notorious for for value, right? He's instead of going to get a $20 million dollars wide receiver, he's going to go get five, $4 million dollars wide receivers and say, I'm going to hedge my bet that one of these guys is going pan out.
01:14:36
Speaker
Especially since he can't, especially since there's no like, there's no salary cap or anything like that. You just have to be under the, under the threshold for, for players. Yeah. Which was, which is still better than the NFL. Yeah.
01:14:49
Speaker
Right. And and there's going be some programs that are going to have better budgets than others. I don't know what North Carolina's budget looks like,
College Playoff Expansion Debate
01:14:55
Speaker
but I think you might see a lot of schools copy that template if it works. If Bill comes in and has success in year one, year two.
01:15:03
Speaker
I think you're going to see more schools go to that NFL model of having a GM, having us you know having you know people in there, mathematicians that handle you know finances and and and figuring out you know who who gets paid, who doesn't get paid.
01:15:16
Speaker
if In a perfect world, I just wish you'd just pay every player the same. You just say, here's the here's the pot of money. Here's 10 million bucks. We're going to divide that by 105 kids. That's what you get. Everybody gets the same, right?
01:15:29
Speaker
and But that's that the world's not perfect. Right. yeah You're also talking to the guy that, you know, I think there should be eight teams in the playoff, not 12. I think eight is perfect, but it's, you know, I'm a, so i'm I'm, I worry for the sport for a lot of, i just like it does with everything. Money corrupts everything.
01:15:49
Speaker
Money ruins a good thing. You know, look, I know the old saying is, have you ever seen a sad kid on a jet ski? No, I've never seen a sad kid on a jet ski.
01:16:01
Speaker
I think there's something to be said, too, for just the the stories we grew up with. And at risk of sounding like a get off my lawn guy, I'm only 36. Jim the president of get off my lawn.
01:16:15
Speaker
I loved the walk on stories. The Godrician Blankenship is getting a scholarship. I love the college kid grinding it out because college shouldn't – it's not for everybody.
01:16:26
Speaker
no one's entitled to that. It's a privilege, not a right. And we've turned the privilege into a right through all this stuff. It's like, well, I'm a college player. I'm entitled to this. I'm entitled to that, or I'm going to do this, and I'm going to do that.
01:16:38
Speaker
And i think what made this sport great too was regionality. And i don't give a crap about USC versus Rutgers. I don't give a crap about Stanford versus Syracuse. you know Georgia versus Texas felt like a non-conference game when it was played.
01:16:57
Speaker
And then when they were in the SEC championship, I'm like, what is this? this is This is absurd to me. like and and And here's what's going to happen. it's going to nothing Nothing ever stays the same. Look at the NCAA tournament for basketball.
01:17:12
Speaker
let's Let's get 74 teams. Let's screw it. Everyone's in. every Everyone, we no more regular season. and is it like to terrible about cup Jim, Jim Herrick used to lobby the NCAA tournament should disagree. Everyone like cancel conference championship games or conference championship tournaments. And it's just one
Regional Rivalries and Conference Identity
01:17:30
Speaker
huge tournament.
01:17:32
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. just Just, I worry about that too, for the college football playoffs. I hear about it going to 16 teams and I'm like, Yeah. Those are, those teams are not, you're worried about teams that weren't going to win it anyways. Yeah.
01:17:45
Speaker
There's maybe six. I think, I think, I think it should be six. but i John, that's music to my ears. I thought four was perfect, but if you were going to expand it, I was sitting there saying, okay, this is back when we have power five.
01:17:58
Speaker
I'm like, you need five conference champions, three at large. You have to make being a conference champion matter. I don't care if it's a five loss team. They won their conference. yeah Well, it's like, well, they're not as good at his s he see well then you'll know real quick. yeah one quick okay it's It's one of those things where like that'll all sort itself out.
01:18:17
Speaker
I don't want to hear from Ole Miss. They had their chance. You lost at home to Kentucky, bro. Terrible. hey I'm sorry, Hunter, but you lost. Hunter doesn't care. Alabama, when you lose to Vanderbilt, you lose all ability to have any type of argument or rebuttal about what you should or should not be entitled to.
01:18:38
Speaker
don't want to hear Yeah, i don't i don't yeah i don't I don't think anyone really has an R. I'll say, as far as the 12 team goes, I feel like they got the D12 right. like i don't have any and they I've said this before, like I feel like they followed their procedure, um which I thought was good.
01:18:53
Speaker
i think I agree. i think 12 is too many. I think if you're going to expand beyond four and you want to have buys, go to six, my take. but And then eight would have been fine but you go to You just first rounds on campus?
01:19:07
Speaker
Yeah. Semi-finals, traditional bowl sites, and you're out in one game. That's all you're doing. And you're rewarding the team for winning the champion conference championship. Like, why did Georgia not get Penn State's path?
01:19:20
Speaker
Yeah. What is that? Like, and I knew the minute I saw SMU was going to Happy Valley, I was like, thank God SMU's in. They deserve be in. They're about to get destroyed. Right? You know, same thing for Boise State.
01:19:32
Speaker
I was like, Jared Zabranjki's not there. Kellen Moore's not there. They're fixing to get lit up. Right. Yeah. They have that tailback. Great story. You're blocking, you know, power five defensive ends. You're not blocking, you know, six to 285 nose tackles to play at Colorado State.
01:19:49
Speaker
Like I'm not trying be mean, but it's just different. Yeah.
SEC Dominance and Championship Value
01:19:53
Speaker
um There's just so much. And and I worry. It's going to to 16. What's going to stop? Just top 25. The whole top.
01:20:01
Speaker
The regular season has to be. And I feel teams were not punished for things that they would have been punished for in the past. Josh is raging right now. Josh is so angry. Josh is raging right now.
01:20:15
Speaker
yeah lia but's guy He knows how we feel. We've told Well, think of this, like Ohio State got beat by Michigan and it didn't matter. Yeah, I know. It didn't matter. Notre Dame lost at home.
01:20:27
Speaker
At home. that's That's the stuff that is kind of like the, I'm glad that the soul crushing loss doesn't exist, but like, I guess that the makeup of college football, I mean, you can see it. I mean, you don't even have to look at college football. I mean, let's look at every sport that's going on right now. Like, yeah.
01:20:46
Speaker
SEC gymnastics, SEC baseball, SEC basketball, SEC football, like the top 10, 15 in the country of all these different sports is just littered with SEC teams.
01:21:00
Speaker
Like, We are not the same. We are not. our Our league is different across every sport imaginable, and especially at college football. Like that, I feel like that there has to be, there has to be a recognition that like, that's nice that you play college football in the big 12 or Pac-10 or whatever, whatever we're calling it these days, but it's cute.
01:21:21
Speaker
But the big boys are playing over here. The adults are talking.
Cyclical Nature of Football Dominance
01:21:26
Speaker
and And I guess, like, because I don't disagree with you, but I also say you got 12 weeks to do your talking. If you're a national championship team, don't lose at home to Kentucky.
01:21:35
Speaker
If you're a national championship team, don't lose at home or lose to Vanderbilt on the road, which is basically Bryant-Denny West or East or whatever. Like, that's an embarrassing, like, to lose that game. and that and ah and And not just to lose They were dominated on the line of scrimmage, Nick.
01:21:49
Speaker
And, yeah. you know You look at Georgia and their schedule. That's not the same. you know i mean That's not what Penn State had to go through. That's not even close to what Notre Dame had to go through.
01:21:59
Speaker
But I feel Georgia wins the national championship. You know what i was waiting for? i was waiting for them to put Texas to where they would have, oh, their third matchup, Georgia and Texas. It's like, buddy, I'm so open.
01:22:13
Speaker
Like I'm so over, I don't want to play Texas. Like next year I'm going to Athens. I'm like, I don't. ah Great. Yeah. Like let's do this again. Yeah. Cause we're going to play again in three weeks. That's fantastic. This is great.
01:22:23
Speaker
Yeah. I was happy to see them on the other side. when You know, i miss like, I just miss the regionality of the sport. And, and, and there was times like, you know, you know,
01:22:34
Speaker
We've all been Georgia fans for a while. you know You both probably longer than me. I became a Georgia fan in 2000. So I remember that big win over Tennessee. But who is the top dog in college football during that time? Miami. USC, you know what mean? Like the SEC was coming on and the sport's so cyclical.
01:22:50
Speaker
There's times where up and where you're down. It's like my all of my in-laws are Alabama fans. So it was I would hear it feel free ah people holiday. Oh, the SEC West is the SEC West is. And I was like, well, there was a time where the SEC West was trash.
01:23:05
Speaker
Like I remember early 2000s when like Georgia won the SEC championship in 2002, like that Arkansas team was trash. Arkansas. Yeah. You know what I mean? But then like the next year you saw that LSU team.
01:23:17
Speaker
Right. And then the next year you saw that Auburn team come out, but then cyclical goes back. Then Florida comes out and then Alabama comes out. So what I'm saying is like the sports is cyclical is like wait I think we could have got the parody we were looking for. We just left it alone and let other teams just decide to get better and do something about it rather than everyone gets a trophy.
01:23:37
Speaker
Everyone gets NIL, everyone gets TV money, no matter what you bring to the table. Right. Like, you
Memories from College Football Games
01:23:44
Speaker
know, think of the Rose Bowl forever ruined the Rose Bowl. Pac-10 versus the Big Ten. That's that was the game.
01:23:50
Speaker
And now yeah you have a team from Oregon wearing a Big Ten patch. That's like such a sacrilege. Like so. but But like, John, I hear you 100 percent like the SEC is head and shoulders.
01:24:04
Speaker
The best conference. But at some point, like, I'm just a believer in the regular season has to matter. Like, it has to. Like, ah keep you can't just get people a pass for, like, hypothetical matchups. Because, like, and I'm not disagreeing that, like, Ole Miss would have done the same thing SMU. Like, I think they would have. I think Alabama would have done the same thing. Well, I don't know. This depends on which Melrose shows up. But if – Second quarter, Melrose shows up against Georgia that, again, in and in a playoff, they would have had a shot to win it. But the thing is, is you you lost three football games.
01:24:38
Speaker
yeah cool You don't deserve to play. don deserve play maybe yeah um And that's just that's just where I stand. you know Some people get mad, some people don't. But my whole thing, don don't lose the games you're not supposed lose. Look at last year.
01:24:50
Speaker
Georgia controlled their own destiny and laid an egg in Atlanta. Whose fault is that? Georgia's. We had the opportunity to 3P. If we beat Alabama, we 3P. You cannot convince me otherwise. Yeah, I won't.
01:25:02
Speaker
yeah and We walked into Atlanta and laid a goose egg. And that's nice. You know what I Because Florida State didn't get in either. You know, Florida State was undefeated. They won their conference championship.
01:25:14
Speaker
ah you have They should have been my take, but. and I wouldn't have been disappointed. i mean, of all those teams, like I felt like Washington was the weakest one of all, you know, but it's just, it's like I said, it's just, you can.
01:25:27
Speaker
we can debate this until the cows come home. I just, I just worry for the sport in general. It's, it's so different than it was the night we watched Ringo house that interception. Yeah.
01:25:39
Speaker
the sport to me just feels so much different. Like that night it felt so of magical. It felt like, man, maybe it's our time make a run. Maybe it's our time to have what Nick Saban had.
01:25:50
Speaker
Dynasty. Dynasty. Yeah. and It's a different sport. Jim, let's tell me. it's it is ah It's a totally different sport. is a different sport. We're in a new era. We're ah we're in a new sport. You did, Andrew, you started to veer into something that I want to make i want to make sure we get to it because it's John's favorite question.
01:26:06
Speaker
And so you mentioned
Passing Down Fandom Through Generations
01:26:07
Speaker
the the year 2000. ah ah John, why allowed am i yeah am I allowed to ask this question? that what's your what's your jewish story What's your Georgia story?
01:26:18
Speaker
This is fun. I was a 12-year-old boy in 2000, later in on. we We had moved a lot when I was younger because my dad was in military.
01:26:31
Speaker
So it's been you know they spent time at Fort Benning, or Fort Moore, whatever. It was Fort Bennett at the time. And, you know, Fort Lewis. And, you know, had never really been in college football. Had always kind of watched it from afar. But then we moved back.
01:26:45
Speaker
And, like, one I really kind of took – it's kind of when college football to me was kind of more of a national sport, too. It's like it all the games were on starting to become on TV. So, like, I would sit down and start – you know, SEC on CBS.
01:26:58
Speaker
And I lived in Georgia – You know, Georgia Tech sucked. I wanted nothing to do with that. And I was like, I just was drawn to it, like being in the in-state team.
01:27:09
Speaker
But also to like that that. I remember that Tennessee game and just watching like how like fired up everybody was. Like I remember the 90s, like Robert Edwards and like Quincy Carter.
01:27:19
Speaker
But like that game to me was like, that's when became a dog. And my first ever Georgia game that I went to was in 2002. So I live in the Grange. OK, so I hate Auburn.
01:27:31
Speaker
OK, bite me if you disagree. I don't care. They're 30 minutes away. You didn't have to deal with Nick Fairley stuff like I did. the Now, i'm I'm all for like Florida and Tennessee and South Carolina ima and Georgia Tech like J.D.,
01:27:48
Speaker
If you're listening, the tech is the enemy. get it. Auburn, to me, is who you want to vanquish every single fall. And those fans are the biggest crybabies in all sports.
01:28:02
Speaker
They have their double standards. they're the If a Georgia player does something, they're the first in line to point a finger. But then they're the first in line to take your take that same player who stole someone's wallet and make them their starting quarterback, Nick Martin.
01:28:16
Speaker
Yeah. But so my first game, 2002, Jordan-Hare Stadium, SEC East is on the line. And I was in the opposite end zone of 70X takeoff.
01:28:28
Speaker
And – All I know is the whole Georgia contingent stood up. I'm like looking around like, do I cry? Do I cheer? Do I do both? like And then I look up on the Jumbotron before they had that the the stupid just in your face one at Jordan-Hare Stadium. and i saw I saw the play and I said, i said oh, my God, he caught it.
01:28:46
Speaker
He caught it. this It's like that this is a magic. And so was like during the school. Got to put it. Got to a child of a glass on it. 2000 the Tennessee 2001 had the hobnail boot, which was really cool.
01:28:59
Speaker
But like just being there in person, Oh two, like just like kind of following. And finally it's like, Oh man, wait I, you know, I live two hours of Athens. So when we go to a game, I've become the guy that only shows up for like the four o'clock or later kicks, because I don't do, I don't do noon kickoffs. I just can't. It's just, it's just, you can, you can take your noon kickoff and do whatever you want to with it.
01:29:22
Speaker
Um, and And what I've done, too, with that is now that I'm a dad, is it's something I want to have so to share with my son. And it's been really cool seeing like, you know, we were but know my wife's an Auburn fan, so she's going to talk to all this trash.
01:29:43
Speaker
They're crybabies. Oh, yeah, I'm married to one. I watch it all the time. Yeah, she, she, but she's, she's been way more Georgia games than she's been. mean, she's on a first name basis with the whole Georgia roster. can't tell you, she can't even name like four of them.
01:30:00
Speaker
But so we were sitting in Sam's club the other day, couple weeks ago. I'll just send you all the video. My son, he was, he picks up on things and he, he's, he's, he says, go dogs.
01:30:12
Speaker
And said, what? said, go dogs. boof woof Like that. He don't say sick of me yet. yeah so and So every time there's a football kickoff, it doesn't matter who's playing. That's what he does.
01:30:22
Speaker
Go dogs. Like, and it's the funniest thing in the world. Like, that's amazing. But yeah, But getting it like take him to his first game this year, um he watch he watches football. like he Now, he has his little toy cars that he'll play with, you know but he's he's watching the game. So that's been special to pass it on to him. I hope the game is as enjoyable for him as he gets older as it was for me when I was growing up. That's what I worry about
Evolution and Challenges in College Sports
01:30:48
Speaker
with where college football is heading is you – you you were rooting for a bunch of college kids, man, that went got hammered on milk on Saturday nights. And they were just one of you. They were one of the guys. And now you you know now they're not really that way anymore. But, you know, there's there's David Green, those early years with with Green was was special. DJ Shockley, um David Pott.
01:31:14
Speaker
So, yeah, that's my story. It's not as fun, I'm sure, as others. But it's it all started. that night against Tennessee. I like it. I like it. You're not me. The other guy you're talking to ah was one of the goalpost terror down people.
01:31:30
Speaker
but Really? Oh, yeah. Yeah, you'll have to go back and listen to the the night the goalpost came down. they They're like, John Powell, they call you my name. Munson's like, John Powell's taking post to the river. We don't even have a river nearby, but he's going to go throw it in. He did say, get the students off the field for God's sake, is what Munson said.
01:31:48
Speaker
They were not keeping you off the field that night. No, they were not. and Talk about like, a I guess i guess you could ah we could have gotten... uh andrew on to talk about from his perspective as a as a young boy right so yeah we had an episode we had an episode where we talked about that night i had the perspective of the fan in the crowd fighting for his life jim had the perspective of the fan in the crowd and then we had george foster on who gave a player's perspective oh that's awesome like so we got like all three together
01:32:21
Speaker
Well, I'm going to tell you, any any game that you want to talk about, you just let me know. Because I'll tell from my perspective, the one game like that I've been to that I will never forget for the rest of my life was the 2017 SEC Championship game.
01:32:36
Speaker
And I'll tell you why. It's double meaning to me. Because cause I also made a living in Auburn for 10 years before I got the job I have now. So normally that went well because we own them.
01:32:49
Speaker
But There's times where there's like, it takes acts of God for Auburn to beat Georgia. you So I was there. i was there in when they beat us down.
01:33:03
Speaker
and yeah beat that was a beat um I have a whole story about that game. I'll save that for another time. Maybe I'll post it on Twitter or something. But it's it's a funny story. It's a good one about my interaction with an old Auburn fan behind me.
01:33:15
Speaker
And it ended with him handing me for my Coke that I was drinking. He handed me two airplane bottles of Jack and said, I think you need this more than I do. Yeah.
01:33:25
Speaker
and So the funniest part about all that. So the next couple weeks later, like to beat them in Atlanta, like I remember vividly, remember much more so the DeAndre Swift, like nail in the coffin run than I do the Keely Ringo pick six, like the Keely Ringo pick six. Like I will always remember that game. But like that 2017 game was like when,
01:33:49
Speaker
it's like, I felt like we were back. I was like, George is back, man. We're back. We were going to be contenders with Kirby. He's the guy. Cause because big shows before that we had no idea, there were so many things you were just is Kirby the guy? Is he, you know, and that game happened, man. Like, like I just lost my mind.
01:34:08
Speaker
Like I was sharing a box with like all these Auburn fans and I was just like letting them know, yeah like, you can have your Mickey Mouse win. We got the real one. Like, you know, You know, when, when it mattered, beat the dog crap out of you, you know, just, yeah, that's a good one.
01:34:26
Speaker
Yeah. That's a good one. You know? So, but yeah, that was, that I could, I'm telling you, I've got a lot of fun, and fun stories about that stuff, but. um but yeah man i and i tell you that's a cool question that y'all ask like you're your your guests because everyone probably has a little bit different story than yeah what oh yeah ah well i'll turn it i'll turn the interview on its head yeah what what are your like what is your favorite like game that you've been to like as an adult Oh, man.
01:34:58
Speaker
I mean, as an adult? mean it was being Like post-college. Okay. Post-college? um That you've been to in person? Honestly, ah I didn't really go to a whole lot of games when I had young kids for so long.
01:35:14
Speaker
I feel that. I feel that. jim and i When Jim and I kind of re rekindled our relationship with the podcast and stuff, and I mean, going to the games with him and his family has been amazing. And going with my kids to go and see the game, having my family around with Jim. So like,
01:35:32
Speaker
when When we played Ole Miss, but that's the game that I kind of go back to is the ah full experience. Like, got to stay with him and his family. Got to tailgate all day long.
01:35:44
Speaker
Did the ESPN stuff. was like the whole nine yards. And then, like like, one of my favorite memories of Jim is, like, him coming downstairs and saying, yeah, we can stay.
01:35:55
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. yeah that was fun uh yeah yeah the old miss game the old miss game is is pretty awesome that was a good time yeah i wish you were works for that one i i guess i guess mine i mean i feel like i'd be lying if i didn't say the ringo the the natty the first natty and so for that one i went uh my dad and i my dad and i went um And, you know, so that's like, if I were to answer the, what's your Georgia story question, was like, I got it from my parents. They met at Georgia.
01:36:30
Speaker
You know, we've talked about, we had my dad tell that story on the podcast once, but like, you know, that's where my fandom came from. And so getting to go to that game with my dad, pretty awesome. um And then,
01:36:43
Speaker
some Some close runners up, I would say next Natty, LA with my sister. and then another one though, too. The the one that we like to say kind of like started so much for us with the podcast was the Clemson game in Charlotte.
01:36:59
Speaker
like yeah so it was my my wife and i went with with my parents and we met up with with john and that was like the first time we met so many people that we now know um was at that game um so like john smith hunter we had never met hunter in person until that game we met hunter at that game um too many people yeah Bobby, Greg, like I list the whole whole world. The people that we talked to at Rodeo, everybody like um we met so many people with that game that that's a big that one.
01:37:30
Speaker
That one was that's a special game. The beginning of that season, you know, um and just all the friendships made in the old. We saw tons of old like so John and I fraternity brothers.
01:37:41
Speaker
We saw other fraternity brothers that neither of us had seen for a while at that game, too. um So that that that's a fun one for me to special. I'll tell you the Georgia Twitter family that we have is really cool because I've gotten to know lot of y'all through Twitter X, whatever. I'm still called Twitter. still call Twitter. It's fine.
01:38:02
Speaker
oh I've enjoyed getting to interact and mingle with, with all of you at the tailgates and, and everyone's always treated me like family, you know, whether I stopped by for 15 minutes or, you know, we, me and my family, we tailgate across from Myers quad cause we park at South deck.
01:38:19
Speaker
Um, So we're literally right across the street from Myers. And it's a great setup. Like, it's so awesome able park in South Deck, especially with a small child. And I'm the elevator and I'm at my tailgate. And it's like, now leaving, can do a whole podcast on leaving. I was going to say, you're, yeah, that's tight.
01:38:39
Speaker
Yeah, it's a long wait, too, buddy. You better have some beverages in that cooler. you through But um yeah, it's it's such a great, great group. Like, like, i would name everybody and I'd probably leave someone out. But like, this is like whole collective group, you know.
01:38:56
Speaker
um I keep up with both of you, you know Bobby, Jim, you know Hunter, like all that whole group. you know and and And crazy like with Hunter, too, it's like our our wives are friends. and you know They hit it off great.
01:39:13
Speaker
Shout out Meg to Jones. Yeah. Putting up with Hunter, you know what i mean? Yeah. yeah yeah And congrats to them on their their beautiful son, Truett.
01:39:24
Speaker
I can't wait to meet Truett at one of the tailgates. I feel so bad for Megan because that child looks just like his daddy.
01:39:35
Speaker
That's always one of my favorite things to hear my wife say is like, every sense that they look like you. I've got to carry this child for nine months. You're like me. Yeah.
01:39:47
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah, it's such a tight-knit group and it's fun. And y'all do a great job with this podcast. you know it's It's a lot of fun. um love the Love the community. Whether or not they agree or disagree with what I said, it's fine. That's all good. and you'll find I think you'll find that most people probably agree with you. um I think it's kind of like the...
01:40:07
Speaker
You know, we're all on this train together and there's there's the folks in the first class that are just rolling with it. And there's the folks in the in the steerage or whatever. That's like, this sucks.
01:40:18
Speaker
Yeah. Can we change this place? It's getting very close. Like I'm getting very close to not caring about conferences or anything. I'm just going to be a Georgia fan. And whoever's your schedule, I'll be there.
01:40:32
Speaker
The rest of them don't care anymore. If Stanford wants to play in the ACC, God bless them. I don't care. Cal wants to play in the WAC or whatever. i dont I just don't care. like it's It's getting that way for me where it's like,
01:40:48
Speaker
I'm less worried about the conference and more worried about just what's, what's Georgia doing? What's the best thing for Georgia, you know? Yeah. yeah and And it's fun seeing Georgia become, you know, you know, good at more than one sport. You know what i mean? Like, just seeing like, like right now, like I know we're all caught up on basketball, but I'm go tell you, i have,
01:41:07
Speaker
I had no expectations this year. Never really have. Baseball, though, I think this is a special team. I yeah even without Charlie Condon and Corey Collins with this group, I think they have what it takes to go to Omaha and see what they do.
01:41:21
Speaker
ah Foley Field looks beautiful. All the renovations they did. I can't wait to get out there. Basketball come around. It takes time. It takes time. And We're all learning to navigate this new NIL era, man.
01:41:33
Speaker
yeah So I think be patient. We've never been good at basketball. So to act like we're in time, a 25 win team different. We were good when i was in school, but we that's a story for another day.
01:41:45
Speaker
Just let it, just it'll be all right. but hey hey hey Hey, Fletcher, Fletcher, basketball minute. It just happened. Nailed it. And I'll say I wore my ninety s ah baseball hat for a reason.
01:41:57
Speaker
so That should be worn every Sunday. yeah, I totally agree. like That uniform's fantastic. And I may have been an industry plant with the basketball in it, so don't worry about that. I'm kidding. Too good. but Well, man, this has been too fun. This has been awesome.
01:42:14
Speaker
Love getting to hear your Georgia story, your perspective on recruiting. ah Been a blast. Make sure we tell, where where can folks find you, Andrew? ah Just come find me on Twitter. I'm with all the rest of you mucking it up in the comments.
01:42:27
Speaker
but At Caraway6, my handle. And then, you know, I'm pretty accessible. Just search my name on Instagram or Facebook if you want to. You'll get the more mild version of me there.
01:42:39
Speaker
ah Sure. um But yeah, Twitter's twitter is always good time. Cool. Cool. Awesome. JP, what do what do you got to round this out? i get I got nothing else.
01:42:50
Speaker
mean, I could probably talk to him about recruiting stuff all the time. But I guess if you were if your son was going through the recruiting process, what advice would you give him if he was aspiring to be a an athlete? I've actually been thinking about this.
01:43:03
Speaker
It's a good question. If I had to give some advice to my son, I would say go where you're wanted because I think that's going to be the best best experience for you. um You know, you go to college to earn an education to make a career down the road eventually. You know, some people need it, some people don't.
01:43:20
Speaker
I think if you sacrifice that experience for a couple grand, I think you're losing out on something pretty special. I think my advice to him was it would be go where you're wanted and go where you have the opportunity to have the most success for yourself.
01:43:36
Speaker
And if that's at a smaller school, so be it. If it's at UGA, awesome. You know, if he's one of the best players in the country, awesome. You do you, man. But my advice to him is just do what made him happy and what made him feel like, you know, I always tell our kids ah recruiting is all about the right fit, and you've got find the right fit for you. So that would be my advice to my son is find the right fit for you,
01:43:59
Speaker
And go where you're wanted. Don't try to force something that's not there. And if you go to follow Florida, you're dead. of Too good.
01:44:11
Speaker
Good times. Thanks for, thanks for joining us, Andrew. i know that you, you have possibly mid, mid midnight wake up calls or ah early mornings, but anyway, thanks for taking the time.
01:44:24
Speaker
No problem. Awesome. Go dogs. Go dogs.