
Loading summary
A
This episode is brought to you by Google Chrome. You think you know a browser, but Gemini and Chrome, that's new. It can help you with practically anything on the web, like restoring a vintage motorcycle from a 50 page restoration block. Or finally break down that long article you've had open for weeks. Gemini and Chrome is here for it, ready to make anything online make sense. There's no place like Chrome. Check responses set up required compatibility and availability. Veris18
B
Gentlemen, it is good to be here. It is the OG kickoff. We are live in Tampa. We are like one half through the first SEC media days that we have ever had in the Sunshine State. As Greg Sankey told us. Will good to be here. All of our media day media days coverage is is on behalf of Culver's and Will, you and I have talked about Culver's a lot as it relates to specifically Wisconsin athletics, which now has a Culver's patch on their jerseys. So it's great to be part of the Culver's family and glad to be here doing this.
C
I feel prophetic, man. I feel like I'm part of the staff over there. I feel like an honorary Midwesterner once again. So shout out Culver's.
B
Look, I've said this before, I'll say it again. If we were good on vacations, going up to Wisconsin as kids, we were getting Culver's, we were getting butter burgers, we were getting concrete, many a travel baseball tournament as well. So like we are I am right now in rarefied air to be talking to you guys on behalf of all things Culver's. We have had a very uneventful start to SEC media days. I'm going to call it like it is, but we did it out of the commissioner. We had Greg Sanke join us and Greg Sanke, you're never going to believe this. Had a couple of things to discuss as it relates to the playoff, as it relates to SEC flexing. He did not do the thing where he said we should have won a national championship and I can't believe that didn't happen. He did not go argue on Ole Miss's behalf. But still Greg Sankey being Greg Sankey for the most part.
C
Yeah, I mean we can talk about how things change and how they stay the same, but ultimately there is a difference between I feel like the SEC and Greg Sankey. You know, he didn't feel the need to come out and bring out any kind of wonky stats or talk about a really cradle of quarterbacks or anything today.
B
Now, now we did have Greg Sankey say that the SEC has the largest average attendance of any league in America, I think in the world, actually. 80,000 average attendance.
C
Yes. So second highest viewership behind the NFL. Highest. Highest in person attendance of any league in the world. I think that's just a cool stat and it checks out.
B
It's his stat of the summer, according to Greg Sankey. My stat of the summer, there are 0, 9 and 3 teams that have made it to the College Football Playoff as at large. So this year, will that change? Because Greg Sankey said we are not having the best of conversations. Unsatisfactory was what he called the conversations between the SEC and the College Football Playoff selection committee as it relates to the metrics and strength of schedule. He did not hand out a bunch of packets and pamphlets this year. That is smart. Really good move by Greg Sankey. But he did mention that. And let's just say I went back up to my room for a very brief minute, a brief minute at lunchtime and I get off at the elevator and there's Greg Sankey sitting right there. So I go, the 9 and 3 thing is going to be real this year.
D
Like I.
B
He's like, yeah, those conversations didn't go well. That they just flat out didn't. I think that is a huge talking point of this season, which could be the last of the 12 team playoff is that nine and three teams, man, until we see it, I can't assume that it's going to happen. Would you bet the over on 0.59 and three teams making into the College Football Playoff this year?
C
I mean, I think we're eventually going to get one. And to your point, it's just about, you know, which team has the strongest case. And we've seen a couple of SEC teams as you talked about, you know, Alabama, South Carolina a couple of years ago that had those cases and they ultimately didn't work out. And I think what was so illuminating from Greg Sankey's quotes today was someone asked about, oh, you know, have you guys basically threatened to break off from the rest of college football? And he said, you know, there's been conversations, but we're not using his leverage, which is pretty interesting because that quote from him, it's leverage. Yeah, that's leverage, exactly. Yeah. And, and I feel like I remember where I was when I heard his initial quote, I think two or three years ago now, where he basically was like, hey, you know, we can't figure this out. If whatever we have to do to get a workable system we're going to figure it out. So I think it's going to take a couple more years of testing, but ultimately the slides still feel pretty far away.
B
Greg saying he's frustrated. He's frustrated in that he feels like the SEC has fallen in line by doing things like having the nine game conference schedule while still requiring a power conference team in non conference play. And he feels like the SEC has been willing to sit down and listen and it's been viewed as like this stubborn party. And in reality it's just that a lot of these other power conferences have kind of gone rogue and all of a sudden it's like, oh, hey, if we don't do a 2014 playoff, all of a sudden we're leaving money on the table. And Sankey brings up, which I think is a perfectly relevant point, that there is not necessarily a proven media number that everybody talks about with the expanding playoff in terms of what that TV contract would look like. And so for the way that it's been approached by these other conferences is, oh well, we have to do this. It's our path in the Rev Share era to be able to finance all these other sports, these things. And maybe it is, but like, I don't necessarily know that the TV package is all of a sudden going to warrant the, the, the potential downside of that, which is something we've acknowledged for a really long time and that is the regular season is still really freaking good.
C
Yeah.
B
And we should probably try and still try monetize that in the best way possible. And so like that's, that's the thing that I'll, I'll sit there and actually agree with Greg Sanke on.
C
Yeah, yeah. And I think too, you know, it's balancing, you know, the first nine game conference schedule with, I mean we've talked about it for the last couple of years. You like every college Saturday has been the best it's ever been, top to bottom. But then balancing that with the fact that the stakes have been lower than ever, you know, back in the day you get one, two, three games that really mattered. Whereas like now it, it feels like every game is back and forth and every game gives teams more chances to lose games, essentially.
B
Yeah. And I think Sankey is, is really trying to get out ahead of this because he knows that the conference that, that he has been at the forefront of doing all these great things these last, you know, this last decade that he's been in this role. He knows that it's about to have a little bit of cannibalism in a way that is. Is not necessarily going to all of a sudden make people think, oh, well, this is just the SEC being the sec. He realizes the streak, it's three consecutive years without being in the national championship. If that continues for a fourth, when, you know, maybe the SEC is going to have the most teams in the College Football Playoff once again, something that he made sure to bring up, that was kind of the biggest flexing that. That he did. Then you got problems, man. Like, you're all of a sudden looking at a world in which you can no longer hang your hat on being, oh, well, we, we have the championship contenders. It still comes down to championships, man. You know what? People don't remember who had the most teams in the playoff in 24.
E
Yeah.
C
I mean, it's ultimately participation, and that's not what we've ever been told to prioritize in the South. Right. And I think we've given Greg Sankey credit over the years for setting the tone and being the leader of all of college football, being kind of a de facto commissioner in the years where it seemed the most chaotic. But it does feel like he's starting to fall in line and be a little bit more reactionary.
B
And it's, it's not even that he's not the alpha anymore. It's that, I mean, when you're not winning championship. This is something we talked about with David Hale. When you're not winning championships, you're not going to look like the alpha.
E
Yeah.
B
You're no longer the alpha in the room. That's just not going to be the case. But it's that I think he's frustrated that others have come in and have been so tied to their own agendas. And that's been the biggest thing that you've seen so far. And when you see, you know, the Big Ten really hold strong and make this push for 24, when the SEC was like, wait a minute, wait a minute. If we had gotten to nine, we were gonna. If we had gotten to the nine game conference schedule, we were going to be willing to expand and go, go to 16. Wasn't that kind of the, hey, you give us this, we'll give you that. And it hasn't played out like that. And so, you know, it does put a lot of things in question. And I don't mean to be doom and gloom here at SEC media days, but we knew that Greg Sankey was going to have to address this. I will say this will. And we're going to have. We're going to have Brooks Austin coming on in just a few minutes here. JD Is going to join us later in the hour, so stick around. For that I will say there needs to be a rule, and it is the Jay Cutler rule.
C
Okay.
B
At SEC media days, always keep your pants on. Kind of. So there is this story that lives in Chicago sports Lord, and I don't even know if it's 100% true. I choose to believe it's true. Someone one time while Jay was the quarterback of the Bears, approached him in the bathroom and tapped him on the shoulder and was telling him like all these things, but like, oh man, like you and Brandon Marshall, you're like the best combination ever. And like, oh, I remember watching you with Vandy and thinking, you're gonna be so good, blah, blah. And this person's like talking Jay0 off, just talking, talking, talking. And Jay's sitting there at the urinal and he looks up exasperated and he goes, don't care. It's the single most Jay Cutler story that's ever existed. If it's not true, I don't care. As far as I'm concerned, it is actually true. Every single time someone brings up the college protect college sports act, I just think of Jake alert the urinal. Don't care.
C
I mean, look, I'm on his side there. The urinal is one of the few moments of peace we have as men. You should never approach someone at the urinal. Agree. So actually in that case, I'm with him. But yeah, the shout out to random senators, you know, shout out Ted Cruz. Something we never thought we'd hear.
B
Sure.
C
But yeah, it's just, it feels like the deeper we get into it, the more like, you know, people are talking about the minutia is if we're all up to date. And it's like, number one, all of this is changing. And number two, we know there's an agenda behind it. So ultimately it's almost like they're speaking to people who are not in the room, if that makes sense.
B
Yes. And once I just want there to be the around the horn mute button.
C
Yep.
B
When a reporter asks this question, I need Tony Reali to step in. And I realize he's no longer in that role and the show doesn't exist anymore. But I need Tony reality come in and just boop, mute button. Anybody that asks about protect college sports until there's actually some legislation that changes, you know, the way that, that all these, these decisions are going to be made behind the scenes. And you know, the, the rev share pool Is. Is changed drastically and this and that. Until actual change happens, let's not talk about it. Let's talk about actual football.
D
Yep.
B
Let's talk about those nine and three teams and whether or not they're gonna have a resume to be able to get into the field. That's what I think is more interesting.
D
Okay.
B
More interesting. Ahmad Hardy, the guy who might be the best returning player in the sec. The guy who, oh, by the way, was unfortunately shot in May. It was addressed. Eli Drinkowicz knew it was going to be addressed. Here's the good news. He is cleared. He is medically cleared. And today was his first day back. Okay. His first day back from this very sudden, stunning off season injury that I think a lot of people were just like, whoa, that's like one of the best players in all college football returning. And you can't assume anything. I took away from what Eli Drinkowicz had to say, talking about this timetable to return. Five to eight weeks. He expects him to return just as John Wayne did that one time. What was the quote again?
C
Basically, John Wayne rode horses after he got shot to a mod. Hardy's taking that same approach, which is just a Billy Badass quote by him. I mean, Drink really is kind of the most interesting coach left. Other than Lane, maybe Do.
B
Yeah, Lane's. Drink's way better in this setting than Lane.
C
Yeah. Drink is underrated. Yeah.
B
Do we need to take a. This moment in time and say Ahmad Hardy, if he does return, which we know the soundtrack many men's going to be playing. Oh, yeah, has to be. Do we need to give him the John Wayne nickname if he is able to make a full return from this very. I mean, what could have been tragic off season incident.
C
Absolutely. I mean, lot of the light of the decade there where, you know, you're one of our favorite players. And I remember telling you, like, I got that push notification and thought it was made up because very little was made of at the time. With a situation like that, I think people are, you know, rightly scared to comment on it. And so it took time for all the facts of the story to come out. But yeah, just such a tragic development for a guy. But again, the story of redemption here, where it feels like, you know, and Drink didn't guarantee anything about is he going to be 100% is going to be a different player.
B
He doesn't know.
C
Yeah, yeah.
B
It doesn't sound like he knows.
C
Yeah.
B
And Jamal Roberts was here for Mizzou, the backup running back. And we can call him a Backup running back with the amount of work that Ahmad Hardy got.
C
But he's a dog, though. I mean, for that Kansas game, he was, man, he was nasty.
B
Jamal Roberts. Good player. Very, very good player. But it is interesting because, you know, this is someone who I think if he were fully healthy, we'd be like, hey, what's the Heisman Trophy conversation? And you just, I mean, there aren't a whole lot of SEC backs that return after a year in which they were as prolific as Ahmad Hardy was. But it is unfortunate. It's kind of just like throw your arms up like, I don't know. I. I don't even know if Ahmad Hardy in his heart of hearts knows what it's going to look like when he's out there on that football field. And you can go back like last couple years, you know, we've had Brian Robinson in the NFL. I know we just talked about many men. We've had Ricky Pearsall as well.
D
Yep.
B
Where it's been like kind of touch and go and it's like it's a. He was the bullet hit a bone. There are things there that I am not, I am definitely not equipped to discuss in the way that it impacts a human being, especially one that takes on the position of running back in the Southeastern Conference, wherein those types of things, maybe they're felt a little bit more. But man, it's a huge storyline. And think about maybe the best returning player in this conference is kind of just an eh, I don't know. We'll see what it looks like, man. No idea.
C
Yeah, I mean there's. There's a thousand directions you can go with it and drink. Even was a little bit scared to address it. He was like, I'm just going to say I'm anti gang or not gang gun violence and basically say, hey, you know, that doesn't mean. Mean I'm anti police. Doesn't mean I want to take away your guns. And it's just such a touchy subject in America, which kind of shows where we are. But that being said, I mean, again, just so tragic and not a guy that was really doing anything wrong. He was just having, having fun at a concert and just a nightmare. And I mean, you know, music midtown in Atlanta has been shut down because Open Carry has been tested. Basically said you can bring guns in the Piedmont park and it's one of my favorite music festivals. And so it's just crazy that like we're just in a place where we just have guns and music festivals.
B
I don't know, wild, absolutely wild. But yeah, Mizzou is one of these teams that is never really going to be discussed that much here at SEC media days. But when your best player is involved in something like that, needless to say, it's going to be discussed. And I was going to ask Drink too, and I didn't get, I didn't get my hand up quick enough to be able to ask him about Garrett Riley, who is going to be one of these guys that you see on an SEC sideline. You're like, wait a minute, he's quarterbacks coach at Mizzou. That's kind of weird. Drink talked about the offense having to change. It has to change for this, this, this specific team. And especially when we've seen the struggles against the elite competition. And it's not to say like Mizzou is like some fraudulent program or something like that that everybody looks to fall on their face. But the reason that Mizzou is not talked about and why this is probably the most airtime that they're going to be getting all week is the eight consecutive losses to ranked teams. Yep, that hangs. That looms. Drink did have an interesting comment. I was curious if you had some thoughts on this. He said that the last three national champs coming from the Big Ten have certainly benefited from not having a power conference team and non conference play. What do we think about that?
F
Will pays Checkout is offered by your banks and credit unions. So when you shop online at participating merchants, your cards appear in one place ready to use and kept up to date. And the best part, your actual card number isn't shared when you check out because boundaries are healthy. Like no work emails after 6. One small step for boundaries, one big leap for checkout. Pays it checks out. Activation required. See pays.com to learn more. Terms and conditions apply.
C
Yeah, I mean it's one of those things that like we always talk about, it goes for you if you win the game, it goes against you if you lose the game. And so ultimately, you know, and I think we can even take that back to the nine game conference schedule because that's something that I think hurts the SEC in a way that it doesn't hurt the Big Ten that you have to be there every single week. And so yeah, I mean, does that get us farther away from scheduling these games if people start to read the tea leaves? I don't know.
B
If Indiana had last year not played Old Dominion, by the way, ended up being a pretty good team. 10 win team Colton Joseph 75 yard touchdown early on in that game if they had just not played Old Dominion and instead played, oh, I don't know, tcu. Is that the difference between that team winning a national championship or not?
C
No.
B
Personally, no. Maybe a little bit biased. I don't think so. It does get a little bit interesting if you talk about, like Ohio State being 10 and 2. If they had actually played someone in non conference play that year, what does it look like? If they had had a big headliner. We saw it play out, you know, with Texas and the way that it worked against them, the 9 and 3 versus 10 and 2 conversation, okay, maybe that's a little bit different, but if we're sitting here pretending like having someone play, you know, a group of five team versus a power conference team in, in non conference play, like that's the difference in them winning a national championship.
D
I
B
miss me a little bit with that.
E
Yeah.
C
And to your point, Ohio State's not even following that advice because they schedule this big marquee matchup with Texas, which they go on to win. And you could argue that after, you know, winning the championship, that would be a team that would be easy to fall victim to their own success. And so I think it helped them tremendously last year.
B
I look, we'll see. We'll play the results on that.
C
Always.
B
It is a convenient thing to fall back on, but that's what frustrates me so much. And it's not just drink that's saying this. This was Link Kiffin when he went on pardon my take and talked about this as well. You can't continue to say that it's the strength of schedule that builds up your conference and then, oh, well, that's the reason that you're not winning national championships. Maybe you just didn't have a team that was national championship caliber. Yeah, like crazy bold take. I don't know if we could throw that out there. But maybe, just maybe that one game that you played in September wasn't the difference in whether or not you were able to win those big time games in January.
C
Yeah, and I'll say it like, you know, we can wrap all this around and say how many actual championship contenders have been left out or cost a chance? Very, very few.
B
Well, Notre Dame would tell you.
C
Well, that's the thing. I would tell you convincingly that if you're scared to play in the Pop Tarts bowl, you were not an absolute champion.
B
First of all of all, nobody should be scared to play in the Pop Tarts Bowl. It is what every bowl game should aspire to be. Exactly And I have seen so many Notre Dame fans, and I think this was trending actually on. On Twitter earlier today that talk about what their path to the playoff would have been like and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And you know where I stand on this. If you lose the two games on your schedule to the two best teams on your schedule, miss me. With your playoff credentials and how you would have gone on a run, could. Could Notre Dame ever realistically gone on a run? Yes. Did they. With that schedule and the lack of quality wins that followed.
C
Did.
B
Did that actually work? Oh, we got Brooks Austin coming on. Brooks. Look, Brook Brooks. Okay. So for the record, I wasn't going to say that. You were three minutes late. I wasn't going to say that. My clock's off.
C
Yes.
D
I'm sorry, brother.
B
We got Brooks Austin joining us. Nowhere of ball.
C
Sharpest dress man at media days. Many are saying, yeah, they do.
D
Every year. It's the same suit, though.
C
Okay. Okay.
D
A good Taylor.
B
Wait a minute. So I used to be this way as well. I used to show up to SEC media days. Four suits.
C
Yeah.
B
Whole time when I represented Saturday down south and I was like sitting here as like, you know, I think 2021 or whatever it was, and I'm like, look, I gotta look the part. Every single day. I wore suits every day. Are you wearing a suit every day this week?
D
Three days. The fourth day. I will not.
B
Is it business casual? Fourth day?
D
Yeah. Yeah.
B
Have you seen the episode Just to show the pipes.
D
I've been working out a lot lately.
C
So sick.
B
Okay.
C
Yeah.
B
Ozempic.
D
No, I do get allegations, though, but something crazy happens when you stop drinking alcohol. Your body. Your body just deflates.
B
Okay.
D
And people. Yeah, I get a zip. Allegations quite often nowadays.
C
That's a bad honor. Honestly.
D
Good.
B
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Look, it happens to the best of us. There's absolutely nothing wrong with that. I. I think it's just because you're a former offensive lineup.
F
Yeah.
D
Honestly, when I was fatter, people didn't call me a nerd as much. Now. Now when people don't like, they just call me fat now when they don't like my opinion about their favorite football team, they're like, what does this nerd know about ball?
B
Yeah.
D
And I'm like, oh, a little bit. A little bit, A little bit.
C
Okay.
D
So, by the way, I am so lucky I was walking by anonymous. So I just randomly in circles because I would have flat out missed this. Okay.
B
You were 115.
C
I was.
D
And it's. It's a me Thing. It's a me problem, not a you problem. It's a me problem.
C
Okay. Yeah, we're locked in for 150, but,
B
yeah, you're here now.
D
That's all.
E
So.
B
All right. We've talked about so far, Sankey, the way that he's addressed this, knowing that there's an elephant in the room three consecutive years missing out on the national championship. Maybe this is last year, the 12 team playoff. He's very clearly frustrated at all the surrounding pieces. The fact that he just doesn't seem to necessarily have this. This voice in the room that. That takes over.
C
Yeah.
B
And that includes the selection committee. And I mean, I think he's miffed that nine and three teams aren't getting in. What was your takeaway from being able to watch him operate?
D
I honestly. And I gotta be very kind of, we're on live television. Gotta be very careful how loudly I say this. I thought it was hysterical that he set up there and said, I'm really interested to gauge the opinion on the media and our fans about expansions of playoffs. Like, Buddy, no, you are not. No, you are not. Because you don't even have to ask. The answer is no. The answer is no. We don't want it to expand any further. We. Some. Most people think 12 is too many.
C
Yeah.
D
You know what I mean? Like the idea that he set up there and he's like, I can't wait to gauge the opinions. Like, let's take a poll. I did. I put it on Twitter. I was like, hey, Greg, Sankey says he wants your opinion. What do you think? Should we expand anymore? And it is unan a unanimous or unanimous? Unanimous. Unanimous. Football brain.
C
That's the word.
D
Welcome to Brooks Austin. But yeah, no, it's like unanimous. We do not want you to go any further. Yeah, and they probably will. They probably will because every coach in this conference wants to go further. But more importantly, every president, every decision maker at those universities just wants a further entrenched foothold into that college football playoff, which I get it. Like, you get in there, you get the warm and fuzzies, maybe you get a home playoff game. And it's massive to your local economy. And that's great for everybody. But I don't know about you guys. You guys cover this for a living like I do. I felt my constituents, my fan base, I felt them getting almost tired of football by late January. So there was so much of break period between playoff games that like, our viewership dropped. Yeah. The retention rate dropped. Everything dropped. And those are supposed to be the biggest games of the year. Now, I know they showed up and watched them because they're going to show up and watch them. But the buzz around it is what feeds. Is what feeds everybody. And the buzz dies after mid December.
B
You're right. And that assessment is. Is very fair when we're talking about something that had the highest viewership of any non NFL sporting event since Game 7 of the 2016 World Series, a game in which I was also a fan of the way that it turned out. But that's probably, that's the issue is that you can justify it with a rating like that and say, well, see, people are still engaged in late January. Sankey talked about wanting to have this calendar wrapped up January 8th. We are, all three of us are old enough to remember a time in which, well, you can't do it in the second semester. You've got to have it wrapped up by the first week of January.
C
Student athletes. I remember those days.
B
Student athletes, yeah.
D
Like kids are going to school these days, right?
B
I didn't come here to go to school. You know, that's going to play school. Yeah, yeah, we're not playing school. But, you know, it is interesting and I think that's a very fair point. And I think that there are so many different ways that you can spin that. If you're looking for nerves, how many strongly worded letters would it take for Greg Sanke to say, this is the fan support I needed? No expansion.
D
There's not a number, like I said. That's why I thought it was so funny. It's like the idea that you even asked for their opinion tells me how disassociated you are from actual fans opinions because they're. Everybody knows they don't want it. Everybody. We talk to them all the time. We see them in our comments. Like, we know the idea that he said that today was like so disconnected, in my opinion, from what actual fans think. And when he said media, like, buddy, you're talking TV media rights, that's who you're talking about. And I know their answer. Yeah, I know what they want. They, they want more and more and more because of Nielsen ratings, by the way, I find it really weird that we have really, really transparent viewership numbers. We do look at that in what we do. And then the Nielsen ratings. I ain't seen a TV rating drop in 25 years. I don't know about y'.
B
All. Yeah, it's weird.
D
It ain't like we got more people watching sports than ever before, but these,
B
these Ratings, just every year, the streaming, I'm sure.
D
Yeah, I'm sure they're counting, you know, multiple people three or four times. I. That's weird to me that their numbers keep going up, but my YouTube numbers are absolutely right there in front of everyone and they can't be manipulated with. And there's full transparency. Well, no allegations. Some people can do it. But yeah, I find that really frustrating because it's right there for us. You can see it in your live viewership numbers and your concurrent viewership numbers and your total views. And then the Nielsen rating pops up and it's like, hey, it's the highest rated football game in the history of football. Okay. The next one will be the next one. You know what I mean?
C
Yeah.
D
So I find them a little bit fugazi, personally.
C
Yeah. I think it's the teams that their season kind of should be over and would be over in any other context.
F
Yeah.
C
Kind of these, like, zombie teams that get to the end of the year. I remember we joked around all of 2024, you're like, oh, LSU, they could get into the playoffs. Like, please, no, I don't want to watch this team anymore. This is not a playoff team. This is not. All we're going to do is embarrass in the situation. And I think those are the moments where people will tune out when you get these blow offs in the early or blowouts in the early rounds, but then by the time we go back to the championship, we get these amazing stories or we get these great athletes and then people are bought back in, you know?
D
Yeah.
B
The best example of this, too, Brooks, I remember sitting with you and JD And Trey Wallace. We're sitting there at the national championship. This. This is my alma mater that's playing in this game. And we're all sitting there at halftime. We're like, kind of like, man, season should ended like two weeks ago.
C
Yeah.
D
Like, yeah. If.
B
If us lovers of this sport are having that sort of feeling. I can't imagine what my buddy Bronson is thinking in the suburbs of Chicago when he tuned out after Iowa went 8 and 4 and he just stopped caring. Like, I. I don't know how that impacts the average fan. And you're right, that's where the disconnect is and it's really, really obvious at this point.
D
Absolutely.
B
All right, let's talk quarterbacks.
D
Oh, we get to talk ball now. Let's do it.
B
Let's do it.
C
Okay.
B
We are both flying the Trinidad flag.
D
Yeah, we are.
B
We have trinidad as. As QB1 where, where you go after that, I think is. Is all totally up for grabs. And I've seen a lot of difference in opinion. Maybe there are some people that would disagree at one with Trinidad at one because maybe they've got Arch there. I've kind of only seen those two guys at the top of, of SEC quarterback rankings. Where's the guy that you're like, hey, this is my bang the drum guy. This is the guy that I watch and I go, he is better than what people are giving him credit for right now. Let's make a big deal out of him now so that we don't have
D
to do this in mid October in the SEC alone.
B
Let's do in the SEC alone.
D
So I liked what I saw from Camario Taylor on tape.
B
That's the correct answer.
D
That dude is nuts. Now, if he, if he's not great, it's because everything else around him, right? And he'll probably get $7 million next year in the portal if that's the case. Yeah. They won't have to buy him out or give Duke a sweetener. Allegedly. Allegedly. Even though I think it was reported that he did get sued for a counter pay. I think he gave them north of a seven figure deal back.
B
Crystal Ball told us that at ACC media days, you know,
D
he entered the
B
portal, they watched film, and then they decided this guy is a good fit in our program. And then that's how it, that's how it happened.
D
And I, I honestly, I was, I was, I really admired Manny Diaz's response to it. He was like, hey, you can only say what you can prove, and we can't prove anything. That's a complete antithesis of an argument of what another ACC coach did this year, but not in this conference, is Camaro Taylor. I'm a big Aaron Philo guy, but that's probably because I'm a big Buster Faulkner guy.
B
And you're also a big high school football in the state of Georgia guy. Yeah, that's right.
D
He does, he does have basically every passing record in the state. He shattered them all. So, yeah, he's. But he's just, he plays the position the right way. You know what I mean? Like, I love that material, can make a lot of plays and he's really explosive and he's a great football player. And I do have a tremendous amount of respect for great football players. I mean, I cover Gunner Stockton really closely. I respect the hell out of guys that put their body online constantly and make plays, but he doesn't play the position. The way that I prefer it. I'm a chicken and rice guy. I want you to go through the reads and do it the right way and your feet to be tied with your eyes and to play it mechanically clean. And for that reason, like, Arch had some mechanical stuff going on last year. And I felt vindicated listening to the fact that our Sark finally admitted that he had off season foot surgery. I don't know if anybody. I don't know if anybody talked about that enough. No, because the whole year, last year, we were like, he's hurt. That don't look right. That don't look like what it looked like. And I'm not just saying that because I thought this kid was going to be immediately great and protecting my own butt on my own takes, but that does not look right. And come to find out, he had messed his foot up against Texas A M in 2024, thought it was going to be okay, and then went through all of 2025 with a bothersome foot. And having watched the tape, they didn't tell us which foot he had surgery on, but I'd be willing to bet a week's pay it was his back foot. I mean, he was so inconsistent with his mechanics and the ball was spraying all over the place. I mean, the Ohio State game is awful.
C
It was rough.
D
I mean, it was really, really bad to watch. From what I'm talking about, like, just, hey, can we be accurate with the football? Can we know where we're going?
B
Zero to nine yards. That's zero to nine yards.
C
And he.
B
And he couldn't throw to his left. Like, he had the thing that Arch Manning had similar numbers going to his left is Garrett Nussmeier. Yeah, it's. It's the type of stuff that it's not nothing. Especially when people are going to say, oh, he just got overrated because of his name. It's definitely part of it. But, like, we saw him do these things a year earlier.
D
Well, not to name drop, but. And I'm not going to name drop him. Please do. I can't. I was talking to a NFL offensive coordinator last off season, and I was
B
like, what did Todd Monket say?
D
It wasn't him. I was talking to an NFL offensive coordinator, still an NFL offensive coordinator. So it wasn't Todd Monkin. And I was like, hey, what do you think about Arch? And he was like, no touch. Can't lay the football. I was like, what? He goes, go watch his screen passes. Go watch his checkdowns. Go watch a zero to nine and that's something he's gonna have to continue to develop. But, man, watching him last year, and I put him up there with, like, right behind Trinidad in this conference. I believe in Arch Manning, but he was a pin cushion last year, man. Like, they could not protect him to save their life. And he is the life. He is the lifeblood of that football program. He should be. And he was on his back way too often last year. And it came in spurts, too, where, like, it's almost like the Red river game last year. Sarko's like, finally, okay, we can't protect. And then the next week, they're back to doing the same old crap, and they get sacked seven times a couple weeks later against Florida, and it's like, what are we doing? You know what I mean? So I think one of the biggest hires this off season was Will Muschamp going over there to Texas. And most Texas fans are like, we had a good defense last year. That wasn't the problem. It was offensive line, it was offense. And I. The most damning piece of evidence was when, for me, was when Steve Sarkeesian
B
had touched the defense.
C
Yep.
D
So I'm gonna let this guy be the head coach of the defense. And my. My sirens went off in my head. I was like, wait a minute. You're clearly telling me you felt like you had to go over there and oversee the defense last year at times. And you're the head coach and you're the play caller on offense. Oh, no wonder you guys stunk at times. You know what I mean? On offense. Because, like, you can't. You can barely wear two hats in this job. Like, I don't believe that great head coaches are great play callers. Still. I think they're great head coaches. That's what they should be. There's too much going on nowadays unless we alleviate things like what Brent's done in Oklahoma. Yeah, he's like, hey, you're going to handle the roster. Jim Nagy. I'm going to call defense and handle culture and handle everything else. And then we'll bring in an offensive coordinator that's manageable, that's doable. Whereas, like, I don't think Kirby Smart would ever be like, yeah, I'll be the defensive coordinator, too, you know, like, he. He's CEO. That's what I mean. I don't think there's been a play caller to win a national championship, has there?
B
Next round. Brooks, we had. We had this.
D
Y' all put the. Y' all put the graphic up, didn't you?
B
The graphic out about play callers as. As. And it wasn't AI slop Spurrier 96. It's just every answer is Spurrier 96. Yeah, that's just like, that's what I would default to.
E
Yeah.
D
It's totally different era of football.
C
It feels like the NFL is going the other way too. It's like in the NFL, they're guys who are play callers. And I hear this and, and it's funny coming from college football because I was talking to NFL with a couple of my guys and like, you gotta have a play caller.
D
And I'm like, whoa.
C
And then you look at the guys that are running in the NFL and flip.
D
Yeah, management.
B
Yeah.
D
They also have gms. They have a regulated system. They know what their off season plans are. They know what their windows are.
C
They know how many teams get in the playoff every year.
D
Exactly. They know they can pay their other coordinator two and a half million dollars and he's one of the best. 32. Yep. That is not the case down here.
C
Yeah.
D
You know what I mean? Down here. The, the head coach of a college football program also has to welcome the students in August. He has to go do all these meetings that you have no idea about before you take those jobs. Right. Like, you're the highest paid employee on the campus. They're gonna stretch you thin, they're gonna run you everywhere. And I learned this most when Nate Oates talked about it at Alabama. He's like, I thank God Nick Saban retired. Maybe they'll actually make the other football coach work. You know, he said something along those lines where he's like, maybe the other guy will actually have to go do some of these things.
C
Yeah.
D
Because Nick was like, no. So who do you think they called? They called me. Being Nate Oats, he's like, I have to go do these things now. Because Nick was so powerful that he could say, I'm not doing that. I'm a football coach. Like, I got other things to do. 99.9 of guys in that role can't do that. They have to go shake hands and kiss the babies. And that takes away from time of coaching. Where in the NFL coaches coach. That's what they do. They're not out here doing all the other stuff.
B
Brooks, last one for you. I'm going to ask you a question that we got asked on, on the next round earlier today, and it's one that relates to those dogs. It's something that I think a lot of people are wondering about as Georgia has had these Two consecutive playoff losses. But Georgia still has team of the decade up for grabs. You win a third championship, that title is as good as yours. That's what history tells us. The over under is 0.5. Georgia National Championships for the rest of the 2000s. Are you taking me over on that?
D
Yeah, I probably would. I think it's a little fugazi to do the hasn't won a playoff game in X amount of years things because he won the buy game like they want. They wanted a rate where they didn't get to play JMU at home.
B
Brooks has the. Brooks is showing us the graphic other Brooks off camera.
D
So Tom Osborne and, oh, Jimbo Fisher. That counts, huh? Okay, so Jimbo did it in 2013 with 21 pros on the field. So you can do it that way.
C
Yeah, yeah.
D
Anybody. Anybody got 21 pros nowadays in 20, 23? Maybe Texas. Maybe Texas. Are people doubting Texas this year? No.
B
They're going to be the pick to win the conference.
D
They should be. Put the weight of the world on that guy. Make him win. If he doesn't have like 15 starters hurt by the end of the year, that dude ought to win a national title.
B
But wait a minute. What if I told you that it was really difficult for transfers to get in at Texas because.
D
Oh, yeah, basket weaving. Yeah, basket weaving.
B
Well, I'm just saying, by the way,
D
basket weaving seems really difficult.
C
Honestly, I don't think I could do that.
D
I don't have the patience or the dexterity in my fingers to be doing that.
B
I. I don't. No way. I. I think throwing basket weaving under the. He needs to be asked about basket weaving this week. If he's not done it. I would. I would also love to. To know what those comments thought.
D
It was a little disrespectful to the basket weavers. Before I go. Before I go, can I say something?
B
Please?
C
Fire away.
D
I've been coming to SEC media days for five years now and I've never been on the next round. And you know why I'm on now? Because Ryan Brown ain't in charge of it.
E
That's why.
B
You know Ryan.
D
How about that?
B
Ryan did send me a message earlier today and was like, are you. You guys aren't having Brooks on, are you? I was like, we actually are. It's funny that you mentioned that.
D
Scoundrel.
B
Good. That means that we're.
C
We're.
B
We don't have to worry about this. No, I'm just kidding. Look, I'm not. You're one of the favorites, you are one of the favorites. As long as we are here in person, as long as anybody is here for the next round, Brooks, Austin, you will be a yearly staple. Appreciate it, man. Appreciate you.
C
Thank you.
D
Y' all be good.
C
Absolutely, man.
B
Oh, congrats on 100k, by the way.
D
Hey, not yet, not yet, not yet.
B
We're not on.
D
Yeah, we're 98.1. And if you're listening right now, you don't subscribe, please do. I might slide you a fiver for that ball nowhere.
B
Yes, sir. Love, love, Brooks, as always. You know, it's interesting. I think you hear hear him bring up a really good point about, let's talk about the play caller thing because it's something that I feel like has become such a crossroads in this day and age. Can you actually be your play caller and still run your program? We saw two coaches that have taken really different approaches to that so far and Electric Wits and Brent Venables. I do think that you're, you're right in that you can't just be like, oh, well, this guy does it in the NFL, therefore it should work in college. I think you have to truly adjust it and treat it like a year by year thing. And I'm, I, I'm always like, I feel like it should be an annual topic of conversation. I realize that folks that have lived this on the plains where an Auburn has had like a different offensive coordinator. I was trying to think about this too, Will. Maybe I'm, I'm putting you on the spot. Like, when was the last time that Auburn had the same offensive play caller in consecutive years?
C
Man, that's a great, I mean, did Bo Nix ever.
B
No.
C
Repeat. Yeah. So like, I mean it would have to be, it would certainly have to be the Gus years then.
B
But the problem is that when was it Rhett Lashley? I don't think it was ever Rhett Lashley officially.
C
Yep.
B
And like at certain points it was Gus. And then Gus brings Kenny Dillingham in, but Kenny Dillingham's on his primary play caller. And then go figure, Bonix gets Kenny Dillingham as his primary play card when he gets to Oregon. Like, it is such a wild thing to think about for those who have had just stability. And I wonder sometimes with these head coaches if they just opt for that and they just go, you know what? I, I know how I'm going to act in this situation. And it doesn't always mean that it's best, but you can see what the alternative looks like sometimes at a place like Auburn. And I think Texas has off as has basically said, look, Steve Sarkeesian has the ability to continue to call place. He can do that as long as we are in contention, as long as we are that team. If Texas does not make the College Football Playoff this year, Steve Sarkeesian and call plays anymore, I'm going to come out, I'll say it right now.
C
Wait for the graphic that comes out that says he's looking at the Titans job or something. He's going to end up.
B
Yeah, but like, the more I think about it, and Brooks has talked about this as well, like Texas is under more pressure this year among any of those contenders. It's because this is everything you've wanted when Arch Manning committed to your program so early on. And I do think that if he's in that spot at season's end where he's like on the outside looking in and it's really similar conversations to last year of like, hey, just get us in the field, see what we can do. It will be an indictment on him as a play caller because maybe the offense is better, but if the offense isn't good enough to carry you to that place, that's a tough pill to swallow. And so I will definitely, at some point, if we're sitting there in early November, like wondering if Texas is going to be playoff worthy, you have my word. I'm coming out with a list of play callers for Sark. Yeah, that's what we have to do.
C
Yeah, but see, that's kind of the point. Like I say that tongue in cheek, but it's honestly, it's honest. Because Sark might be the kind of guy who would just take his ball and go home in that situation, say, hey, if you're going to keep this job. And he's gonna say, I won't keep this job. Have a great day. Someone else will hire me and let me call plays.
B
I think his ego's too big to do that. If I got, if I'm being 100 honest. We got JD Paquel coming on. He's gonna join us. Look, we're, we're fluid here. We're fluid. We're live all hour. We're live on air right now. You're good to go, fellow nowhere of ball. J.D.
D
pacal.
C
Oh, yeah.
B
J.D. i don't think we've done an in person interview, you and I.
E
This is awesome.
B
This is great, man.
E
Good to see you flowing, dude. Seeing Will Ogward in the flesh.
C
Dude, no, man.
E
You know how I saw you Walk in through the hallway. Like, I'm at my spot down there, the on three, you know, table, and I see you walk through. I'm like, it's my podcast feed come to life. Like, let's go, man.
C
Of course, the social feed, podcast feed. You know what? It is good for you, too.
B
Can I tell the audience the one thing that JD has offered me today?
E
Please, please.
B
It was in a bottle. Yeah, it was a certain caffeine pill.
E
Sure.
B
JD's the biggest caffeine pill advocate you will ever see.
C
He's downgrade from smelling salts, I think. I'm sure back in the day you get a little bit rougher with that.
E
I wish I was that hardcore. Even know if we had smelling salts, like in our training room like that. But yeah, the caffeine pills. So five hour energy was my thing for a long time.
B
That makes sense.
E
Kind of made me jittery. No jitters for the caffeine pills, contrary to what Jesse Spano television would tell you. So. And I mean, it's Monday, so, like, maybe by Wednesday you're looking for something different. You change up the caffeine source. We're going to convert both of y', all, I think, before the end of the week.
B
Look, we'll make it happen.
D
I'm.
B
I'm open to alternative solutions. We're always looking for alternative solutions here. We got to make it happen. We've had a very uneventful start to the to the day at ICC media days. We have seen Greg Sankey come out there. We've seen Eli Drinkwitz do his typical thing. We have seen Brent Venables may or may not have been reminded by some jerk that he's the oldest coach in this conference now.
E
Wow. Wow.
B
I threw a bow right at him.
E
Yeah.
B
Hey, I just want to see how
C
he would handle it.
E
Was it true? Was it or was it not true? It's like, Brent, hey, Father Time is here.
B
You want to say I paid him a compliment? I did say, look, you've been doing the hikes. You run stadiums. It's weird for you to think that you're the oldest, oldest coach in this conference. What's your takeaway so far from seeing the way that John Matiere came across, because I feel like we talk a lot of dramatic here in the offseason. He's kind of the perfect guy to talk about because he's. He was a Jekyll and Hyde quarterback. What was your takeaway from seeing him in person? And are you a fan of AI photos that enhance certain parts of his body.
E
Definitely a fan of the AI Photos. Always gave him a little. So he came by our spot, we gave him a dap, and I was like. Like, hey, maybe there's some AI there. But you feel pretty solid here. Just. I mean, to call a spade a spade. So there's that part of it. He also told us, same shirt as Needy Days a year ago. Top button, doesn't button anymore.
C
Okay.
E
He said. So there's some big J journalism going on.
B
Yeah, that's great.
E
That's not AI. I just feel like he seems like he's more used to all of this.
B
Yeah.
E
You know, like, coming out of high school, he was like an FCS caliber player that got Washington State late. And then he wakes his turn at Wazoo, then he balls out at Wazoo, and then he shows up Atlanta and like, outside of Arch Manning and DJ Lagway, kind of felt like he was part of the show a year ago.
C
Yeah.
E
Like he was one of the faces of media days. Everyone was kind of talked to him. He was a story, whatever. Now you kind of get the sense that he's a little bit more poised, more comfortable in his own skin. He's like, I'm an SEC quarterback now. Been there, done that really hard last year to do that with nine fingers and no run game. But. But here he just seems more well adjusted, which I think is huge.
B
It's a good point. I thought last year, Will, I don't know if you felt this too, like, seeing John Mateer. He kind of had a little bit of this look in his eye. Like, oh, snap. Like, this is a big deal.
E
This isn't Pullman.
B
Yeah.
E
Washington anymore. Dude.
C
Like, he.
B
He kind of came in last year and he. I don't want to say it was deer in the headlights, but there. There was a different sort of approach. Yeah. You see him, he was literally the first person I saw here at ICC Media days. Hopped in the elevator, he hops in with me, and that was the first thing I said to him was, any AI photos of you lately or anything like that? Of course, gets. You know, of course, like, rolls his eyes. But I said, that's the thing. You actually don't need them. You're fine. Yeah, I don't care how much John benches, squats, whatever. I care more about his feet.
E
Yeah.
B
What do you think we'll see more of this year? The John material that was the Heisman trophy favorite before Dr. Shin became part of college football. Ex con. Or the guy that we saw after the guy that we saw Starting in that Texas game, it was just a liability and play to play, you didn't know what you were going to get.
E
I think he's more what we saw in September, but I think he's even more refined from a mental game perspective. Like George Floyd has done a great job for us at Sooner Scoop. There's a great couple of pieces out there about his offseason and one of the things that he broke down, I believe it was part two of his series. Talks about how he's watching more tape with Venables, and Venables is giving him the hey, here's what defenses are trying to do to you kind of angle. Struck up a relationship with Sam Bradford and watching tape with him and getting kind of that whole side down. So I think it's the comfort in the SEC. I think it's having 10 fingers, which is great. But I think even more than that, it's like, okay, hey, I'm seeing the game differently now. Like, I am more well adjusted to this, the pace of the SEC and what that brings, because last year it was just such a rocket ship start and it just was all happening so fast. I don't know that he ever got a chance to fully get his feet underneath him, both literally and I guess metaphorically speaking. So the mental side for him, I think is going to be huge. People talk a lot about the motion and the, the way that's going to help him. It's like, I think he had like less than one pass a game batted down last year at London scrimmage, so it wasn't like the release point was everything but just having a more settled approach to the game itself. I'm really excited to see what that does for him because he's ridiculously talented. We all see that.
C
You know what's interesting too, and, and they kind of talked about this at his availability. It's year four with Arbuckle because they said he was with him for two years at Washington State and last year was the outlier. Right, because he was underrated. Underrated. Highly rated. I don't say overrated, but highly rated. And he comes into this year kind of underrated. I think it's a better spot for him. You know, I think that you're right. He was a little bit deer in the headlights trying to be this unknown mystery box going into last year. And I think now we know what his limitations are, but that gives him more kind of fuel to the fire in a sense.
E
I will say this too. His quarterback coach from Washington State, John Kuzevski also came with him to Norman. John Kuzevsky some way somehow was at Cornell when I was there as my running back coach. And like, I don't know how we ever got him in Ithaca, but he was there for a couple of years. I will just say he is one of the best like sports psychologist coaches I've, I've ever had. Like has a certain way of making you feel confident in yourself while also understanding the, the size of the moment. Like in terms of having someone in your ear. That dude is, is a one of one. So having him plus Arbuckle time in the system, familiarity, like I just, I think he's really poised to have a huge year.
B
Jump throws in the sec. When we throw out that term, we think Tebow. If we're throwing out that term for John Mateer this year, I'm gonna be pretty annoyed.
E
Yeah.
B
Because he did it too much last year. Whether that's compensating for the injury, whatever. His feet are special. They are absolutely an asset. More so in the run game probably than anything else. If we're still in November and John Matier can't stop with the happy feet in those throws, it's a problem.
G
And with a schedule, most of us are one good deal away from finally replacing that worn out rug, fixing up the backyard, or getting the bedroom we actually want. Good news. That deal's almost here. Wayfair's Black Friday in July sale. Get up to 80% off area rugs and up to 60% off outdoor and bedroom furniture. Shop Wayfair's huge selection of styles and find the piece to fit your style, budget and space, plus free shipping. Black Friday in July ends July 27th. Shop today@wayfair.com Wayfair Every style, every home.
B
So this crazy thing happens when you do a live show for the first time is that the power just decides to randomly cut out. So for the podcast listeners, apologies for why that sounded probably really awkward. J.D. pikel, our guy here was, was on hand. He brought too much electricity and, and all these spots on Radio Row just had their power shut out. Because that's just something that can happen when you do a live show like this.
C
Yes, Connor, I'm going to steal your joke here. I felt like I heard Don't Stop Believing playing in the background. I felt like Tony Soprano in that moment. They just completely cut us. So here we are. And you know that show business, baby,
B
that is show business. The show rolls on. But yes, no, J.D. did not just abruptly, abruptly leave us. Unfortunately, that is Just the way that it worked out. We had to wait like 15 minutes, get our power back, but we are good to go, so. All right, closing thoughts on the first day of SEC media days. Just we're doing this as Kentucky was on, on air and while we had Will Stein out there in the main podium, we got maybe the best quote of the week. We had Will Stein say, and this is courtesy of our guys, add on three. Adam Luckett, who asked this question basically, like, essentially, why is. Why is it gonna be different? And something that he's been asked a million times so far. He did not give us this answer when he was on the OG kickoff. But it's an answer that all new coaches should have in their back pocket and they should just bust it out at the best possible time when there's the most eyeballs on them. The quote is because of me, to be honest, because of me. I think we're big Will Stein fans.
C
Yep.
B
Having got to, to chat with him the way that we did earlier in the off season, I think a lot more people will come away from this going that Will Steincat. I don't know how many games are going to win this year, but give me, give me the stock. This, this is when we say like buy stock and coaches Will Stein coming out and say something like that. Yeah. Obviously if he flames out in three years, we'll look back on that and go, so maybe it didn't change that much and you fired your winningest coach in program history and you hired a first time head coach. Maybe they would say something like that. I wouldn't be in that camp. You had to change up the vibes. Vibes in Lexington have certainly been changed with someone like Will Steiner.
E
Yeah.
C
I mean, that's the thing. It's, you know, I was saying off air, like, I can't wait for the millennial head coaches to get in there because you're gonna get more like hard quotes like that. And, and just the perception of like, you know, not giving kind of the word salad answer. Well, it's the culture, it's the program. It's like, no, dude, I was brought in here to do a job and if I don't do that job, I've failed. And to your point, you know it's going to be different regardless.
B
It was always going to be different.
C
Yeah. And the people in Lexington, that's all they really want is just something new to believe in, a new vibe. A guy that really makes you believe instead of just kind of sitting up there and being like, what else do you want from me?
B
Exactly. Exactly. So, yes, we're doing this before Tennessee came on air on Monday. On Tuesday, we have Auburn and Georgia in the morning. Alex Golish back in his old stomping grounds. Old stomping grounds that he moved from, like six months ago.
E
Yeah.
B
Here in Tampa. So we will have some more Auburn thoughts tomorrow. We will have some more Georgia thoughts tomorrow. We will have great guests coming up tomorrow. We have. Tomorrow we have a conversation that I'm really looking forward to with Tony Barnhart, Mr. College Football, who is going to be fantastic talking about a book that he's got coming out next spring. And Tony could just tell stories for days and days and days. So that's going to be really great. And then Trey Wallace, our guy that we've had on many a time, is going to join us as well. I'm gonna hold Trey to the Jay Cutler rule.
C
Okay.
B
And I like, look, Trey is asked to do things that are well beyond what I'm asked to do in terms of, you know, government, college sports and all that stuff. But I will hold him to that with the Protect College Sports Act. And if he says that at a random point tomorrow, I, I, I have to just don't care. Trey will not do that. Trey is a man of the people. He will not go down that road unless we ask him to. So he will abide by this. And I, I think we'll be fine.
C
No, no, D.C. bureau over the next round. I don't want to stick you up there just asking the same question.
B
No, no, we will not do that. I might have to ask that. I might have to ask Alex Gollish if he's had Portillo since being back in Tampa.
C
Yeah, I'm excited for kind of the, the rest of the SEC to get to know him better because obviously that's a guy that you booked early on. He talked about, you know, being from Moscow and his wild background. And I think he's a guy that really, again, these younger head coaches, I think flourish in these environments.
B
When usf, I don't know if I've told you this. When USF beat Florida last year, I sent him a text that I was like, I hope you had the biggest Portulo's meal ever after that win. I don't think he did in season diet a little bit different than, than out of season. But I'm looking forward to getting to hear out of school. Looking forward to getting to hear Kirby Smart. Hopefully they're not boring. Hopefully they're not boring. That's Day one. That is a wrap. Thank you for sticking with us amidst our weird technical difficulty issues that we're not used to having here doing this style of show. But yes, live shows every single day, 1 to 2pm Eastern time on the OG kickoff, which is the next round on YouTube, is where you can catch all of that stuff. So we will be back. Follow along tomorrow. Subscribe to the OG Kickoff wherever you get your podcast. Thanks guys.
A
Talk soon.
The OG Kickoff w/ Connor O’Gara & Will Ogburn
Episode: Live from SEC Media Days! Frustrated Greg Sankey & Ahmad Hardy update
Date: July 21, 2026
Broadcasting live from the first-ever SEC Media Days in Tampa, hosts Connor O’Gara and Will Ogburn dive into the central conversations shaping the SEC and college football at large. The episode covers Commissioner Greg Sankey’s growing frustrations regarding the playoff landscape, the thorny question of whether 9–3 SEC teams can break into the playoff, a dramatic update on star running back Ahmad Hardy, and insightful interviews with Brooks Austin and J.D. PicKell. The tone is direct, passionate, and insider-tangential, blending humor, strong opinions, and an undeniable reverence for SEC football culture.
(02:07) Sankey touts the SEC’s “largest average attendance of any league in the world—80,000 per game,” and the second highest viewership behind the NFL.
(02:25) Sankey expresses open frustration regarding unsatisfactory College Football Playoff (CFP) discussions—especially as it relates to SEC strength of schedule and the fate of 9–3 teams.
(03:16) Will details a personal Sankey run-in, noting the candid tone from the commissioner about failed negotiations. The fate of 9–3 teams is poised as a major recurring storyline.
(03:37–04:23)
(07:19–07:29)
(14:20–17:24)
(18:29) “Participation” in the playoff is discussed as a new, less satisfying focus compared to actual championships, especially for SEC fans.
Brooks’ Take on Sankey & Expansion:
Brooks finds Sankey’s claim to “gauge fan opinion” on further playoff expansion laughable and disconnected, insisting fans overwhelmingly do not want a larger playoff.
Concerns are raised about “fan fatigue” as playoff games squeeze deeper into January, diluting what makes college football special and causing TV buzz/viewership to wane after mid-December.
On TV Ratings and the CFP:
The Plight of “Zombie Teams” in an Expanded Playoff:
The hosts, alongside Brooks, discuss their top SEC QBs, with Trinidad and Arch Manning at the top.
Camario Taylor is highlighted as an underappreciated talent, while concerns about Arch Manning’s health (offseason foot surgery) are analyzed—especially his erratic mechanics and protection problems in 2025.
Brooks: “If he’s not great, it’s because everything else around him, right?...That dude is nuts.” (28:17)
Brooks lauds Aaron Philo’s mechanical soundness as a “chicken and rice guy,” contrasting with Taylor’s highlight-reel play.
Sankey’s Stat of the Summer:
“Second highest viewership behind the NFL. Highest in-person attendance of any league in the world.”
– Connor (02:18)
Jay Cutler Rule:
“Every time someone brings up the College Protect College Sports Act, I just think of Jay Cutler at the urinal. Don’t care.”
– Connor (09:17)
Brooks Austin on Fan Fatigue:
“I felt my constituents… getting almost tired of football by late January… the buzz dies after mid December.”
– Brooks (23:15)
Brooks on Expansion:
“It is unanimous. We do not want you to go further.”
– Brooks (22:12)
Eli Drinkwitz’s John Wayne Comparison:
“John Wayne rode horses after he got shot. Ahmad Hardy’s taking that same approach.”
– Will (11:18)
Will Stein’s Self-Belief:
“Because of me, to be honest, because of me.”
– Will Stein (50:42)
The episode captures SEC football’s evolving landscape: a power conference forced to confront its waning “alpha” status, league leaders frustrated with playoff politics, and the new generation of confident, meme-savvy coaches. The stories of players like Ahmad Hardy and coaches like Will Stein illustrate a conference in transition, as the hosts balance nostalgia for tradition with thoughtful skepticism about the game’s (and playoff's) future. All of it, as always, delivered with the authenticity, storytelling, and boisterous chemistry that define The OG Kickoff.
Listener utility: This summary gives a comprehensive yet energetic recap of everything you missed, leaving out the ads and fluff while preserving the show’s central debates, memorable quotes, and distinctive SEC flair.