Latest / The Mike Keith Show / The Mike Keith Show | BRENT HUBBS, EVAN FORD (9.1.26)

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The Mike Keith Show | BRENT HUBBS, EVAN FORD (9.1.26) · The Mike Keith Show

0:00
SPEAKER_09: From the banks of the Mississippi to the peaks of the Smokies, this is the home field of champions.
0:21
SPEAKER_15: Laminate on the Mac and scores lemon sleep.
0:26
SPEAKER_09: More than 75 years of broadcast excellence.
0:30
SPEAKER_09: We are the Fall Network.
0:45
SPEAKER_09: Mike Keith starts now.
0:48
SPEAKER_07: So glad to have you with us on the Mike Keith show delivered by Uber Eats.
0:52
SPEAKER_07: In my Smoky Gray, my new Adidas Gray.
0:56
SPEAKER_07: I'm Mike Keith.
0:57
SPEAKER_07: That's Brent Hubbs.
0:58
SPEAKER_07: BallQuest.com, Ball Radio Network.
1:00
SPEAKER_07: What do you think of the gray?
1:01
SPEAKER_16: I love them.
1:03
SPEAKER_16: I like the way the I like everything that Adidas is putting out right now.
1:07
SPEAKER_16: I think there's some really good looking stuff that's really colorful.
1:10
SPEAKER_16: Yeah, oh yeah.
1:11
SPEAKER_16: But it's it's got a great look to it.
1:13
SPEAKER_16: I think it's very on-brand.
1:15
SPEAKER_16: I don't think they're deviating from the brand that is Tennessee.
1:18
SPEAKER_16: That's what I like about the initial rollout of stuff that Adidas has done.
1:22
SPEAKER_07: We're going to do something about the Smoky Gray uniforms later on this edition of the Mike Keith show.
1:27
SPEAKER_07: Evan Ford, who is the director of design and branding, or branding and design for 151 Creative.
1:36
SPEAKER_07: I'll get it right by the time he gets here.
1:38
SPEAKER_07: We're going to talk about those uh those uniforms that honor General Needland uh and the 100th anniversary of his first team.
1:45
SPEAKER_07: That's later in the show.
1:46
SPEAKER_07: But Brent Hubbs, who is uh a big part of what we do 33 years on the ball network now, which is hard to believe.
1:55
SPEAKER_07: Means I'm old.
1:56
SPEAKER_07: No, no, but it does not mean you're old.
2:00
SPEAKER_07: Because what does that make me?
2:01
SPEAKER_07: I'm not accepting old.
2:02
SPEAKER_07: I refuse to accept it.
2:04
SPEAKER_07: Well, good for you, because I've seen I've accepted it.
2:07
SPEAKER_07: But you've seen a lot of stuff, and you've seen a lot of football teams, and you've seen a lot of changes over time in every different area.
2:17
SPEAKER_07: When you look at the changes that Josh Heipel made this offseason, and and obviously we're talking about Jim Knowles and the defense and Derek Owings and the strength and conditioning program overall, nutrition and everything with it.
2:31
SPEAKER_07: And you don't have to get into the specifics of what they've done, but just as an overall change, how do you rate this as compared to changes you have seen in your time around the program?
2:43
SPEAKER_16: That's a great question.
2:44
SPEAKER_16: Um I I think when you specifically think about Jim Knowles, I I immediately kind of hearken back to the return of David Cutliffe in in 2006.
2:54
SPEAKER_16: And and it's easy to do because the two know each other, they work together.
2:58
SPEAKER_16: But when David Cutcliffe came back in in 2006, there was an identity, there was an accountability factor, there was a I'm in charge, this is how we're gonna do this.
3:11
SPEAKER_16: And I think that Jim Knowles in part of it's a little bit in his demeanor, but I think there's a th there's an element to Jim Knowles, Mike, that just says, I'm in charge, I know what I'm doing, I'm experienced, I have my plan, I have my system, I know what I want to do.
3:30
SPEAKER_16: And so there's a a credibility factor, I think, in that.
3:34
SPEAKER_16: And he doesn't have to tell you.
3:35
SPEAKER_16: He does not have to tell you.
3:37
SPEAKER_16: You just listen to him.
3:38
SPEAKER_16: And you just know.
3:39
SPEAKER_16: I mean, you sit down with him when he first got here, when you walked out of the room with him, you went, This is this dude's a ball coach.
3:44
SPEAKER_16: Right.
3:45
SPEAKER_16: Ball coach.
3:46
SPEAKER_16: And and I think that's the one thing that has been exuded uh from his arrival at Tennessee.
3:52
SPEAKER_16: When I look at Derek Owens, I I think the biggest thing that stands out is again, he has the credibility, but it's the accountability factor that he has brought to this football team and to the players and how they're being held accountable for everything that they do from nutrition to training, um, arrival on time, all the little nuances to to be a better football team from a physical standpoint.
4:20
SPEAKER_16: And so I think it's the accountability thing with Derrick Owens that stands out.
4:24
SPEAKER_16: And you know, I don't remember when John Stuckey arrived.
4:27
SPEAKER_16: Uh, that was a big fundamental shift in how you trained.
4:32
SPEAKER_16: I don't know that Derek Owens is necessarily reinventing the wheel in terms of how lifting weights.
4:38
SPEAKER_16: I mean, that was a very much going to Olympic style training when John Stuckey arrived.
4:43
SPEAKER_16: It was a very different type of training.
4:47
SPEAKER_16: To me, though, there was an accountability factor with John Stuckey.
4:50
SPEAKER_16: You don't mess with John Stuckey.
4:51
SPEAKER_16: Like you're gonna do it his way, and he's in charge.
4:54
SPEAKER_16: I think Derek Owens bringing that accountability factor to this team would be somewhat of a comparison, maybe to that, but we'll see.
5:02
SPEAKER_16: I mean, John Stuckey did it for a long time.
5:04
SPEAKER_16: We're just now getting to know Derek Owens.
5:06
SPEAKER_07: The decision, though, were decisions made by Josh Heipel to make the major turn in the water that he did, to take the boat and turn it in a different direction.
5:19
SPEAKER_07: When in eight years as a head coach, he had not ever done that.
5:24
SPEAKER_07: And there's something to be said for coaches who have stability rather than coaches who fire coaches all the time and whatever.
5:33
SPEAKER_07: And there are many instances where that stability has worked great.
5:38
SPEAKER_07: It's hard to know when you have to shake it up.
5:42
SPEAKER_07: And Josh Heichel decided to do that.
5:43
SPEAKER_16: I think it's leadership.
5:45
SPEAKER_16: And I mean, I think that's leadership one-on-one is that you have to do a true self-evaluation.
5:50
SPEAKER_16: You don't make excuses for where you were, you look at where did we come up short, what was our shortcomings, and what areas where can we go fix that?
6:02
SPEAKER_16: And then it's hard to make the change.
6:04
SPEAKER_16: It is hard to tell somebody they're no longer a part.
6:07
SPEAKER_16: Sure.
6:08
SPEAKER_16: But when those people are good at their jobs.
6:10
SPEAKER_07: I mean, they they wouldn't have been here and wouldn't have had success for a period of time if they weren't good at their jobs.
6:17
SPEAKER_07: Absolutely.
6:18
SPEAKER_16: I mean, but I think when you do make that change, it's never about who you let go.
6:24
SPEAKER_16: And I'm not belittling them either because it's all about who you hire.
6:28
SPEAKER_16: Exactly.
6:28
SPEAKER_16: And I think for this situation with Josh Heipel, he looked at the defensive side and said, What gives us the most trouble?
6:39
SPEAKER_16: As an offensive staff, what's the most perplexing stuff for us and who's doing that really well?
6:46
SPEAKER_16: Now that Ohio State team was loaded on defense.
6:49
SPEAKER_16: But schematically, they gave Tennessee fits in that playoff game.
6:54
SPEAKER_16: Resonated, like, okay, this guy does a lot of really good things.
6:58
SPEAKER_16: Now, does he fit?
7:00
SPEAKER_16: But I think it's about looking in the mirror at what do you have to do as the game continues to evolve?
7:08
SPEAKER_16: Offensively, who is challenging us on the defensive side that I like that would help our defense?
7:15
SPEAKER_16: And then I think when he looked at his strength and conditioning and his physical nature, and he said, Hey, an extra conference game is coming, and he looked at his numbers in November over the last couple years versus you know other people's numbers in November or versus his September-October numbers.
7:33
SPEAKER_16: We wilted, as Glenn Ellerby said about his offensive line, didn't hold up well enough, need to make a change there, and I need to have somebody whose team is stronger in November and stronger in December than they are in September, or just as strong.
7:48
SPEAKER_16: And I think that's where Derek Owens, who he had a previous relationship with, that's where he came to the forefront.
7:54
SPEAKER_07: The word reset has been used.
7:57
SPEAKER_07: And you could say they've done that in their high school recruiting and what their transfer portal attitude is going to be, how they're going to use their NIL money going forward, overall roster management, which Danny White has talked about a lot for the overall athletic department.
8:15
SPEAKER_07: When you use the term reset, there's almost this feeling like, well, 2026 is not going to be quite as strong because it's a reset.
8:23
SPEAKER_07: You can reset on the fly and continue to have success, but if you look at where they are and the decision that's been made at quarterback, you have a chance to have your quarterback be with you for three or four years instead of changing every year.
8:37
SPEAKER_07: Feels like there's a turn in a different way that has overall optimism in the program, not just for this Saturday and next Saturday and the rest of 2026, but going forward.
8:48
SPEAKER_16: I think it's evolvement.
8:50
SPEAKER_16: That's I I think that it's listen, I've been in this league five years.
8:55
SPEAKER_16: Okay.
8:56
SPEAKER_16: The game is changing.
8:58
SPEAKER_16: People hire have adapted to what we do.
9:01
SPEAKER_16: Rules are limiting some of the things we can do.
9:04
SPEAKER_16: We have to be better talent-wise in areas.
9:07
SPEAKER_16: Okay.
9:08
SPEAKER_16: We can't be young every year.
9:10
SPEAKER_16: All of these things that you have to sit and look at when you're trying to figure out your identity, who you're going to be, and what you want to be.
9:19
SPEAKER_16: Do you want to be a young team every year?
9:22
SPEAKER_16: If not, then you're going to recruit a little differently.
9:26
SPEAKER_16: Okay?
9:26
SPEAKER_16: Retention becomes a big thing.
9:28
SPEAKER_16: Let's talk about roster management and really dive into it from a GM standpoint and look at what works and what doesn't work.
9:36
SPEAKER_16: And you have to bring the money factor into that.
9:38
SPEAKER_16: That's just the reality of it.
9:40
SPEAKER_16: I think you're also looking at, okay, offensively, what do we need to tweak?
9:45
SPEAKER_16: And you look at him, he tweaked his offense last year, and that's continuing to happen as you move forward.
9:51
SPEAKER_16: Now I've got a quarterback that I think I can build around.
9:55
SPEAKER_16: Okay, if he performs the way we think he's going to perform and grow throughout this season, we're not looking ahead because we're in it for the now, but we have a foundation of things that we think we can really build around, not just for 26, but even beyond if our quarterback's who we think he is.
10:12
SPEAKER_07: And if you're not in the market for a veteran quarterback come January to start, then you can put that money not only in your current quarterback, but in other players on the roster, or you can use that money to go get what you need at other positions.
10:30
SPEAKER_07: A la, free agency, and every other sport.
10:33
SPEAKER_16: Yeah, and because now you know here's our identity.
10:37
SPEAKER_16: What does he need help?
10:38
SPEAKER_16: What do we need to help him with?
10:39
SPEAKER_16: Right.
10:40
SPEAKER_16: Is it a tackle?
10:41
SPEAKER_16: Is it a receiver?
10:42
SPEAKER_16: What do we need to build around him?
10:45
SPEAKER_16: Because we have this core of where you want to be.
10:48
SPEAKER_16: Now it's got to work out because let's just be real honest.
10:51
SPEAKER_16: They thought they had that core a couple years ago.
10:53
SPEAKER_16: That's right.
10:54
SPEAKER_16: And it didn't work out that way.
10:55
SPEAKER_16: But if it does hit that way, yes, it's the same principle as an NFL team.
11:00
SPEAKER_16: Everybody's looking for the franchise quarterback.
11:03
SPEAKER_16: When you get one, it changes your whole outlook on your window to win, how you build around.
11:11
SPEAKER_16: If you don't, then you find yourself in the market every year trying to hit on one.
11:15
SPEAKER_16: And we had we've seen NFL franchises that, quite frankly, have gone decades and haven't been able to hit on one.
11:21
SPEAKER_16: And that's why they haven't won.
11:22
SPEAKER_16: That's right.
11:23
SPEAKER_16: And and so the kid, the quarterback element to it is so important at all levels of football, but it's really a thing in college football.
11:30
SPEAKER_16: And if you can get one you think you can build around, boy, you feel like you've got a leg up moving forward.
11:36
SPEAKER_07: The other thing that I think is advantageous to Tennessee from a roster building standpoint is if you go through this roster, it's changed.
11:44
SPEAKER_07: Obviously, it's no longer five to play four, it's five to play five.
11:48
SPEAKER_07: So guys have fifth years.
11:50
SPEAKER_07: You're listed as a freshman, a sophomore, a junior, a senior, or a fifth year.
11:55
SPEAKER_07: They're no more red shirt anything.
11:58
SPEAKER_07: Well, if you look at the number of fifth-year players on Tennessee's roster this year, there are a lot.
12:05
SPEAKER_07: There really are not a ton of them.
12:08
SPEAKER_07: The majority of this team potentially could come back next year.
12:12
SPEAKER_07: Now they all won't, but you have that option with some players that before you didn't think maybe you'd have that option with.
12:21
SPEAKER_07: And so, I mean, you could keep those guys together and add in the potential of, you know, some transfer portal guys who really make sense.
12:35
SPEAKER_07: That's what you want to be.
12:36
SPEAKER_16: You want to have a core of an aging football team.
12:39
SPEAKER_16: Is that not what George has been doing?
12:41
SPEAKER_16: I think that's what George has been doing.
12:42
SPEAKER_16: We certainly saw that's what Indiana was a year ago.
12:46
SPEAKER_16: I think you want to have that core and you want to focus on keeping your core, which is why retention is such a big deal, and you have to have a plan for that.
12:54
SPEAKER_16: Um, and and you listen, the transfer portal is a thing, and you have to win in the transfer portal.
13:01
SPEAKER_16: It's hard to win in the transfer portal if you need 18.
13:05
SPEAKER_16: Right.
13:05
SPEAKER_16: Okay.
13:06
SPEAKER_16: But if you need it, it's a little the transfer portal and high school recruiting have a lot of similarities to it because high school recruiting is evolving to a smaller class number, and we're gonna go heavy into getting a couple of elite players, three, four, whatever the number is, elite players that we think we can get that can come in and make an impact.
13:28
SPEAKER_16: Portal's a little bit the same way, right?
13:30
SPEAKER_16: Maybe you need to backfill some of your roster with some portal guys who aren't necessarily the high-end guys, but then you're gonna go try to get a couple of elite guys to fill a specific hole that you have.
13:42
SPEAKER_16: They kind of mirror each other now more than they did when it first came out.
13:46
SPEAKER_07: Here's what I wonder.
13:47
SPEAKER_07: Are you getting ready?
13:49
SPEAKER_07: If we're not on the way right now, are you getting ready to see 105-man rosters be filled out with true rosters of 105 players that you would offer a scholarship, instead of having 10, 15, 20 who just fill in the spots as walk-ons and so forth?
14:12
SPEAKER_16: I I think the challenge with that is finance, is the financial part of it.
14:15
SPEAKER_16: I don't know that you ever get to that point where you say all 105 of mine would have been truly recruited players that I wanted to do.
14:23
SPEAKER_07: All right, so let me throw another, just to interrupt you, but let me throw the other option.
14:27
SPEAKER_07: If we do get the one-time transfer rule, meaning you can't transfer every year unless you want to eat up a year of eligibility.
14:35
SPEAKER_07: You only get one free transfer.
14:38
SPEAKER_07: Does it then become 105 true players on scholarship that you would have offered scholarships?
14:45
SPEAKER_16: I I think it becomes closer to that.
14:47
SPEAKER_16: Okay.
14:47
SPEAKER_16: Yes.
14:47
SPEAKER_16: I don't know that you completely ever get there because again, I think I mean, are we ever going to slow down on how much money is being spent?
14:55
SPEAKER_16: I don't know.
14:56
SPEAKER_16: Uh, but I think you get closer to that.
14:59
SPEAKER_16: I think the question that you have is how many players do you really need?
15:04
SPEAKER_16: Well, they're gonna tell you I understand that they're gonna say 105.
15:07
SPEAKER_16: They're gonna say 145 if you have them.
15:10
SPEAKER_07: You could realistically do 75.
15:12
SPEAKER_07: Okay.
15:12
SPEAKER_16: So do you could certainly do 85.
15:15
SPEAKER_16: Do you do financially for those 75 and you keep the back end of that a little bit more as your scout team?
15:21
SPEAKER_16: I think so.
15:22
SPEAKER_07: I don't know.
15:23
SPEAKER_07: Yeah.
15:23
SPEAKER_07: More coming up with Brent Hub's.
15:25
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19:43
SPEAKER_07: Brent Hubbs is here.
19:44
SPEAKER_07: There's a game on Saturday.
19:46
SPEAKER_07: Tennessee's playing firm and ball's getting ready for the season opener.
19:51
SPEAKER_07: Talk to me, Brent Hubbs, of VallQuest.com and the Ball Radio Network, about where you think this team has come the furthest since they left Nashville in the Music City ball.
20:05
SPEAKER_16: Defensively.
20:06
SPEAKER_16: I think it's defensively in grasping what Jim Knowles wants to do.
20:12
SPEAKER_16: When you left Nashville, the question was you knew they were going to be different.
20:16
SPEAKER_16: It's a new scheme.
20:17
SPEAKER_16: The question was how much could they do?
20:20
SPEAKER_16: Because the notion was, well, it takes two years to learn the system and and all of that.
20:25
SPEAKER_16: I think that they're further along and they're they're they're drastically different there because one style of play, but two, I think the adaptation and the ability to grasp his system through the fact that he brought a number of people in that could coach it, uh, that already knew it, that wasn't learning it on the fly.
20:42
SPEAKER_16: I thought it was interesting, Anthony Poindexter uh talking to me and others in the media when he said, I'm a better teacher this year than I was last year.
20:50
SPEAKER_16: And it's because he knows his subject.
20:53
SPEAKER_16: He know he knows it better.
20:54
SPEAKER_16: He was learning as he went a year ago at Penn State, trying to figure it out.
20:58
SPEAKER_16: Now he's got a better grasp on it, so he teaches it better.
21:00
SPEAKER_16: You know, and it was funny, DeJan Lane, who's the safety that transferred him for Penn State, I asked him, he goes, Yeah, he's a different teacher.
21:07
SPEAKER_16: He can explain things in a more concise, simplified way than he could a year ago when he was still trying to figure it all out.
21:15
SPEAKER_16: So I think their ability to learn quickly uh has made them more different on defense and and more not competitive, but maybe able to execute more than I think we thought they would be able to to start the year.
21:28
SPEAKER_07: A knowledgeable friend said to me that the most underrated member of this staff in terms of his overall importance is Anthony Poindexter.
21:40
SPEAKER_07: Why would that be?
21:42
SPEAKER_16: Because he's played the game at a high level.
21:44
SPEAKER_07: College football fame.
21:46
SPEAKER_16: He's coached at a high level at multiple places, he's extremely intelligent, but he's also extremely relatable.
21:55
SPEAKER_16: The kids like him, the kids adapt to him.
21:58
SPEAKER_16: We're not gonna get to see Idris for.
22:00
SPEAKER_16: Play.
22:01
SPEAKER_16: But Idris Farouk is a guy who listen, if you're him and you're sitting here in January and you're looking, trying to decide what you want to do.
22:08
SPEAKER_16: You got all these new coaches coming in here.
22:09
SPEAKER_16: And oh, by the way, they bring in TJ Metcalf and safety.
22:12
SPEAKER_16: They brought in a Penn State safety in Lane, and you're thinking, where do I fit?
22:16
SPEAKER_16: Right.
22:16
SPEAKER_16: And you immediately fall in love with Anthony Poindexer's coaching style, and it fits you.
22:23
SPEAKER_16: It's his relatability factor.
22:25
SPEAKER_16: It's his knowledge.
22:26
SPEAKER_16: It's the trust Jim Knowles has in him, but it's his ability to relate and to teach young men.
22:33
SPEAKER_16: And I think there's an old school element to his coaching style.
22:37
SPEAKER_16: Um, but I also think it's real so relationship-driven.
22:41
SPEAKER_16: And we get caught up in the money and we get caught up in all these things.
22:44
SPEAKER_16: At the end of the day, relationships still count in this business.
22:48
SPEAKER_16: It still counts on the football field, in the locker room, in the team meeting room.
22:52
SPEAKER_16: That kid's gotta feel like you believe in him.
22:56
SPEAKER_16: And I think Anthony Poindexter does a great job of creating that bond or that relationship between him and his players.
23:03
SPEAKER_07: We're seeing that in recruiting already.
23:05
SPEAKER_16: Yeah.
23:05
SPEAKER_16: Yeah, you are.
23:06
SPEAKER_16: You're seeing that in recruiting.
23:08
SPEAKER_16: Um, because it's real.
23:10
SPEAKER_16: And and you know, they're not dancing around the money part of it, but you still have to have that rapport and that relationship.
23:16
SPEAKER_16: And I think that's something Anthony Poindexter does a really good job of.
23:20
SPEAKER_07: He feels like a coach that can get in any door recruiting-wise, meaning he can get you in there.
23:29
SPEAKER_07: Yeah, don't don't know if you're gonna be able to get him, don't know if you're gonna be able to get a visit, don't know, don't know what the money will be, all that.
23:36
SPEAKER_07: But you always wanted to have, as back when I covered the team and we worked together, and since you've been doing it, you know, there are always coaches that can get you in the door.
23:47
SPEAKER_07: And that's all you asked for to start with.
23:49
SPEAKER_07: It feels like he's one of those guys.
23:51
SPEAKER_16: Yeah, and I think it's because he's so comfortable with who he is.
23:56
SPEAKER_16: Think about this.
23:57
SPEAKER_16: Anthony Poindexer could have he could have been a defensive coordinator anywhere in the country.
24:02
SPEAKER_16: I mean, he he could have gotten a job.
24:04
SPEAKER_16: Heck, he could have stayed at Penn State, you know, probably with the new staff there.
24:09
SPEAKER_16: Yet he comes to join Jim Knowles and be the co-defensive coordinator.
24:14
SPEAKER_16: He's not in this world where I gotta get mine, I need this title, I need that.
24:19
SPEAKER_16: He wants to win.
24:21
SPEAKER_16: He wants to have good players, he wants to enjoy who he's working with and who he's around.
24:26
SPEAKER_16: When you walk into a room and that's what you exude, you exude that you're that that you love wearing the shirt that you're wearing because you love working for that place and you love the people you're working with, it gets you in the door.
24:41
SPEAKER_16: And I I think that's something that being a veteran, he does a really good job of.
24:46
SPEAKER_16: And I think it's showing up in recruiting, but I also think it's showing up in his position meeting room.
24:50
SPEAKER_07: Number one on defense is TJ Metcalfe.
24:53
SPEAKER_07: Why is he so important in 2026?
24:56
SPEAKER_16: Because he's experienced, he's got leadership skills, he's played in this league, he's played in Michigan, he's got a lot of experience under his belt.
25:07
SPEAKER_16: And I think there's an element of calmness and stability to what he does.
25:14
SPEAKER_16: There's just doesn't feel like it's all chaotic in what he's doing.
25:19
SPEAKER_16: It's like everybody take a deep breath.
25:21
SPEAKER_16: We know what we're doing, let's get this called, let's get this handled, and let's go play.
25:26
SPEAKER_16: And I think that's the advantage to being an older football player sometimes.
25:31
SPEAKER_16: He's seen a lot.
25:32
SPEAKER_16: And I think that for this defense with all the newness that's in there, even though he's not been a part of it, he has a great relationship with Poindexter, who recruited him out of high school.
25:41
SPEAKER_16: They've stayed in touch.
25:43
SPEAKER_16: He's a very smart football player.
25:44
SPEAKER_16: I think he's grasped this defense through Poindexter and Jim Knowles very quickly, and I think he's Mr.
25:51
SPEAKER_16: Stability kind of and and in all of the chaos that's going around around you, he's the one who just says, We're okay, go play.
25:59
SPEAKER_16: And I think he's led that way since he's arrived at Tennessee.
26:03
SPEAKER_07: So TJ Metcalf is number one on defense.
26:05
SPEAKER_07: Xavier Gillum is number two on defense.
26:09
SPEAKER_07: Why is Xavier Gillum such a steady force and a player that Tennessee's counting on so much in the defensive line?
26:17
SPEAKER_16: Because he's athletic and can make plays.
26:19
SPEAKER_16: And that's what they want of their defensive linemen.
26:21
SPEAKER_16: He's a playmaker, got really good hands, uses his hands well.
26:25
SPEAKER_16: He's refining some of his techniques.
26:27
SPEAKER_16: He wants to be coached.
26:29
SPEAKER_16: He wants to be coached hard.
26:30
SPEAKER_16: And he's just made plays.
26:32
SPEAKER_16: He's made plays since he's been here.
26:33
SPEAKER_16: He's been a playmaker for them on a very consistent basis, and he goes to work every day.
26:39
SPEAKER_16: He and Rodney Garner have blended very well together.
26:42
SPEAKER_16: And he and Zavid talked about Davis.
26:44
SPEAKER_16: I wanted to come here because of him, his success, this league, Coach Knowles, and I wanted to be better.
26:51
SPEAKER_16: And he's gotten better under Rodney Garner.
26:53
SPEAKER_07: It's Brent Hubbs, FallQuest.com, and also the Vol Radio Network.
26:57
SPEAKER_07: He'll have more with me coming up on the Mike Keith show delivered by Uber Eats right after this.
27:02
SPEAKER_09: Mike Key, Mike Key, Mike Keith.
27:04
SPEAKER_09: Back with more Big Orange Insider Access.
27:07
SPEAKER_09: We are the Vol Network.
27:32
SPEAKER_07: Delivered by Firehouse Subs.
27:34
SPEAKER_07: I love a Firehouse Sub.
27:35
SPEAKER_07: They're delicious.
27:36
SPEAKER_16: They're fantastic.
27:37
SPEAKER_07: They're fantastic.
27:38
SPEAKER_07: The hook and ladder.
27:38
SPEAKER_07: The hook and ladder.
27:39
SPEAKER_07: The hook and ladder is the one.
27:40
SPEAKER_16: The hook and ladder is legit.
27:41
SPEAKER_07: Can't go wrong.
27:42
SPEAKER_07: All right.
27:42
SPEAKER_07: Give me a hot take, week one, Brett Hubbs.
27:45
SPEAKER_07: Just throw one down right here.
27:47
SPEAKER_07: For the season or for the game?
27:48
SPEAKER_16: Whatever.
27:48
SPEAKER_16: All right.
27:50
SPEAKER_16: I'll give you a season one.
27:52
SPEAKER_16: I think Tennessee is going to challenge the modern record for rushing yards in a single season.
27:58
SPEAKER_16: Really?
27:59
SPEAKER_16: I do.
28:00
SPEAKER_16: Tennessee has rushed for 3,000 yards, more than 3,000 yards, one time in the modern era.
28:06
SPEAKER_16: They got close two years ago.
28:07
SPEAKER_16: They only did about 38 or 40 yards of it two years ago.
28:10
SPEAKER_16: I think this running back group is legit.
28:14
SPEAKER_16: I think that's a really good group of running backs.
28:16
SPEAKER_16: You have an experienced offensive line.
28:18
SPEAKER_16: You have a quarterback who's got legs that can use his legs.
28:22
SPEAKER_16: I think you're going to run the football to protect the quarterback.
28:25
SPEAKER_16: And I think the quarterback's going to have more R in his RPO than the previous couple of quarterbacks have had in the RPO game.
28:32
SPEAKER_16: So I think they're going to run the ball more.
28:34
SPEAKER_16: I think they have a chance to challenge that.
28:36
SPEAKER_16: I think they're going to be an effective running football team this season.
28:39
SPEAKER_07: Does Deshaun Bishop have a legitimate chance to have the season he would need to have, which would be the best season in Tennessee running back history in terms of yardage to end as the all-time leading rusher?
28:52
SPEAKER_16: I mean, a chance, yes.
28:54
SPEAKER_16: Do I think he gets there?
28:55
SPEAKER_16: I probably not, because I think there's going to be other backs who get opportunities that maybe he doesn't get enough that way.
29:02
SPEAKER_16: We'll see how Darrell Sims plays that.
29:04
SPEAKER_16: I just think the quarterback factor with with his rushing yards that he's going to produce will put Tennessee closer to that 3,000 yard mark.
29:14
SPEAKER_16: You know, they've been over 2,500 yards for the last five years.
29:18
SPEAKER_16: Last year was the first year they didn't rush for 2,500 yards.
29:21
SPEAKER_16: But Joey Aguilar was not a runner.
29:23
SPEAKER_16: I mean in the RPO game, he was going with the pass option in the RPO game more than the run option.
29:29
SPEAKER_16: I think that the influx of the quarterback's legs is going to elevate their yardage.
29:33
SPEAKER_16: I don't know that Deshaun gets to that number, but I think he has a fantastic year.
29:37
SPEAKER_07: Part of the problem Deshaun has in terms of the number of carries will probably be because of Javen Gordon and Dewan Morris.
29:44
SPEAKER_07: Yeah.
29:44
SPEAKER_16: Who have both had great camps.
29:45
SPEAKER_16: Gordon is a better player than I realized he was when he transferred in.
29:50
SPEAKER_16: When he transferred in, I was like, okay, he's played some at Tulane, solid, whatever.
29:54
SPEAKER_16: And then you watch him in spring, you're like, that guy's pretty good.
29:57
SPEAKER_16: And then you look in fall camp and you get all the reports back, and you're like, this guy continues to make plays.
30:03
SPEAKER_16: And you wonder, I go back to Starr Thomas a year ago.
30:06
SPEAKER_16: He was very okay in the spring at best, but he really took that summer to learn the offense.
30:12
SPEAKER_16: And he was a different player in fall than he was in spring, which is why he kind of had broke out in that Syracuse opener a year ago.
30:20
SPEAKER_16: I just think Gordon has come a long way this summer in understanding the run scheme, which will make him an even more effective back.
30:28
SPEAKER_16: And I thought he was a good back in the spring.
30:30
SPEAKER_07: And Morris can really run.
30:32
SPEAKER_16: He can scoot.
30:33
SPEAKER_16: The question is, how do you get him, how do you get him involved?
30:36
SPEAKER_16: Is he is he an every down back yet?
30:38
SPEAKER_16: Is he a third down back?
30:40
SPEAKER_07: How much weight he's gained since he got here?
30:41
SPEAKER_16: Um he was in that 17 to 20 pound club, I'm sure.
30:45
SPEAKER_07: So he he said that he was 182 when he got to campus, and now he's 205.
30:51
SPEAKER_07: Yeah.
30:51
SPEAKER_07: I mean, that's a different guy, especially not losing any speed.
30:56
SPEAKER_16: Yeah.
30:56
SPEAKER_16: The challenge is how do you use that weight effectively?
31:00
SPEAKER_16: Meaning you got to run behind your pads better, you got to run with better leverage, things that he did not have to do in high school.
31:06
SPEAKER_16: Because there was a lot of just get to the corner.
31:08
SPEAKER_16: Nobody was going to catch him type deal.
31:10
SPEAKER_16: So he's had to learn patience.
31:12
SPEAKER_16: He's had to learn to run between the tackles.
31:14
SPEAKER_16: I think the patience part of it for him remains his biggest challenge because there is some patience required in this offense.
31:21
SPEAKER_16: I think that's where Gordon has adapted because he understands that part of it.
31:25
SPEAKER_16: I think Deshaun Bishop has great patience with things.
31:29
SPEAKER_16: That's where Morris has to continue to grow.
31:31
SPEAKER_16: The game has to continue to slow down for him.
31:34
SPEAKER_16: But physically, he's much more equipped to run between the tackles than he was at any point a year ago.
31:38
SPEAKER_07: You covered the recruitment of Faison, Brandon.
31:42
SPEAKER_07: And it, I mean, from the point where it is today, with he being named the starting quarterback at the University of Tennessee as they prepare to play on Saturday against Furman backwards, it's three years.
31:56
SPEAKER_07: And they came together very quickly, had a had a mutual attraction, built a relationship, and then he's been committed for over two years.
32:07
SPEAKER_07: As and and I talked a little bit with Josh Eippel about this on the on the Monday edition of the show, but I want to ask you from the perspective that you had and knowing some of the different people involved overall, what was it about Brandon that appealed so much to Tennessee?
32:26
SPEAKER_07: And what was it about Tennessee that appealed so much to Brandon that has kind of led us to what we thought was really this expected moment?
32:35
SPEAKER_16: I go back to the first time I met Faison Brandon, and it was at the end of a camp at Tennessee.
32:44
SPEAKER_16: He had just finished working out, he had just finished his freshman year of high school.
32:48
SPEAKER_16: And Tennessee offered at the end of that camp.
32:50
SPEAKER_16: And he was not the starter as a freshman, and they went ahead and offered.
32:53
SPEAKER_16: Yeah, they offered him their.
32:55
SPEAKER_16: He was unbelievably accurate with the footballing camp.
32:58
SPEAKER_16: And there were some good players, good quarterbacks in that camp.
33:01
SPEAKER_16: He had size.
33:02
SPEAKER_16: You just looked at him and went, okay, there's a lot of tools, man.
33:05
SPEAKER_16: A lot of tools you can work with here.
33:07
SPEAKER_16: We don't want to be late on this one because if he ascends the way we think he can ascend, man, he's got a chance to be a really good player.
33:16
SPEAKER_16: And in talking to him, he was he was over the moon about the offer.
33:21
SPEAKER_16: He had kind of a natural attraction to Tennessee.
33:23
SPEAKER_16: But remember where he's from.
33:24
SPEAKER_16: Greensboro.
33:25
SPEAKER_16: Hendon Hooker's the quarterback at Tennessee.
33:28
SPEAKER_16: There's a right, you know, he's looking at Tennessee because of that factor.
33:32
SPEAKER_16: But he really liked the offense.
33:34
SPEAKER_16: He really enjoyed working with Joey Hallsley at camp.
33:37
SPEAKER_16: Felt some comfort there.
33:39
SPEAKER_16: Family really liked the area.
33:41
SPEAKER_16: They were really impressed with that initial camp.
33:44
SPEAKER_16: Then a year later, he comes back for camp again.
33:47
SPEAKER_16: Well, you can put on the slides, Mike, at that point, just strut around, right?
33:50
SPEAKER_16: You've got your offer.
33:52
SPEAKER_16: You're just coming over to say hi or whatever.
33:54
SPEAKER_16: Man, he cleated it up and he went and worked out.
33:56
SPEAKER_16: The arm was stronger, the accuracy was still there, had a great camp in Nealan Stadium.
34:02
SPEAKER_16: And you just had a sense in talking to the family, but man, they really, really liked the area, the coaching, the offense.
34:11
SPEAKER_16: They felt like it really fit him very well in all the research that they had done.
34:16
SPEAKER_16: He was pretty comfortable with everything.
34:18
SPEAKER_16: So you felt like Tennessee was in a good spot.
34:20
SPEAKER_16: From Tennessee's perspective, his physical skills are just tantalizing.
34:24
SPEAKER_16: He could run.
34:25
SPEAKER_16: He's now 6'4, 225 pounds.
34:28
SPEAKER_16: He's got great size about him.
34:30
SPEAKER_16: He's got good accuracy.
34:31
SPEAKER_16: He throws it well.
34:33
SPEAKER_16: He's got some leadership traits about him.
34:36
SPEAKER_16: That's why Tennessee liked him.
34:37
SPEAKER_16: Is you just looked at what you want in your offense, and you look at him, and you know, man, there are guys that fit, and then there are guys that really fit.
34:45
SPEAKER_16: And from an athletic standpoint, he really fit.
34:48
SPEAKER_16: And I think so that's where And Tennessee liked his mental makeup as well.
34:52
SPEAKER_07: But they had to sit and wait on that for what, 15 months before he signed?
34:59
SPEAKER_07: Yeah.
35:00
SPEAKER_16: I mean But but he but he never really waved.
35:04
SPEAKER_16: He never took another visit.
35:05
SPEAKER_16: He never listened to anybody.
35:07
SPEAKER_16: He was home.
35:08
SPEAKER_16: He was home regardless who was here.
35:10
SPEAKER_16: He was not worried about the competition factor.
35:12
SPEAKER_16: Tennessee obviously had a great rapport with him.
35:15
SPEAKER_16: He never leveraged or tried to use anything for that.
35:18
SPEAKER_16: He was once he committed, man, he was locked in.
35:21
SPEAKER_16: He went to work on TK Keys and went to work on recruiting people with his personality.
35:26
SPEAKER_16: Never once did he waver.
35:28
SPEAKER_16: I mean, he he he was completely done when he committed.
35:31
SPEAKER_16: And Tennessee was completely done.
35:32
SPEAKER_16: They weren't interested in anybody else either.
35:35
SPEAKER_16: So it was a marriage that hit pretty quickly and was one that was pretty strong between the two.
35:40
SPEAKER_16: But that's rare.
35:41
SPEAKER_16: Uh yeah, quarterbacks are a little different because they are little you hit you see some, but some of the money's evening out a little bit, so you don't see it as much in terms of guys flipping around.
35:53
SPEAKER_16: Quarterbacks are coming off the board so early now.
35:55
SPEAKER_16: They're taking their spot, and a lot of those guys aren't wavering.
35:59
SPEAKER_16: But for him not to entertain anything at all during that two basically two-season stretch tells you how much he loves Tennessee.
36:06
SPEAKER_07: Looking forward to seeing you on Saturday.
36:07
SPEAKER_07: Looking forward to seeing you.
36:08
SPEAKER_07: I'll see you back here on Thursday to get ready for Furman.
36:10
SPEAKER_07: Okay.
36:11
SPEAKER_07: Show's good.
36:11
SPEAKER_07: All right.
36:12
SPEAKER_07: We're going to talk smoky gray in a moment.
36:13
SPEAKER_07: How did the balls come up with the design that honors the 100th anniversary of General Nealan?
36:19
SPEAKER_07: Evan Ford tells us that next on the Mike Keith Show, delivered by Uber Eats.
36:26
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37:03
SPEAKER_02: Sometimes it's just protecting the cornerback.
37:06
SPEAKER_02: Sometimes it's all in the market.
37:08
SPEAKER_02: Sometimes it's necessary no one is.
37:11
SPEAKER_02: We protect each other.
37:13
SPEAKER_02: We protect the protection with difficulty depending on where you stay.
37:17
SPEAKER_02: Whether it's protecting the quarterback or protecting what matters at all.
37:20
SPEAKER_02: So it's fine to build it to side.
37:24
SPEAKER_02: Designed to inspire.
37:37
SPEAKER_07: One thing belongs on every game day menu.
37:40
SPEAKER_07: Calhoun! Whether you're dining in one of Calhoun's nine area restaurant locations, taking the feast to your tailgate, or grabbing a fight from one of Calhoun's locations inside Nealand Stadium.
37:51
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37:53
SPEAKER_07: So you can focus on curing the balls of the Calhoun Tennessee.
38:00
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38:04
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39:07
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39:11
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39:16
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39:46
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39:51
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39:55
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39:57
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40:00
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40:03
SPEAKER_07: We're actually not a two-man team.
40:05
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40:08
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40:11
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40:12
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40:19
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40:23
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40:26
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40:27
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40:28
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40:39
SPEAKER_07: Smokey Gray is going to be warned by Tennessee coming up on October 3rd against Auburn.
40:44
SPEAKER_07: And here to tell us the story of this year's Smokey Grays is Evan Ford.
40:50
SPEAKER_07: He is the director of branding and design for 151 Creative.
40:54
SPEAKER_07: And here is his team's piece of work, the Smoky Gray jersey that you can see with the UT in the front.
41:03
SPEAKER_07: One thing that I love is right here.
41:07
SPEAKER_07: From the general.
41:10
SPEAKER_07: Congratulations on this.
41:14
SPEAKER_07: An awesome piece of research.
41:16
SPEAKER_07: How many years has Tennessee done the specific story?
41:21
SPEAKER_07: Smoky Gray Jersey.
41:22
SPEAKER_11: So this is our fourth year in a row.
41:24
SPEAKER_11: We really enjoyed telling some great stories through Tennessee history and um just a chance to highlight things, parts of our university history, our nickname, our legends, and uh just give a megaphone to their stories through our uniforms.
41:39
SPEAKER_07: Why Nealan specifically this year?
41:42
SPEAKER_11: We kind of do these about two years in advance.
41:45
SPEAKER_11: We were looking at 26, what's important, what's anniversaries are happening that year.
41:49
SPEAKER_11: And so you know, the the big one was it's a hundred years since General Nealan's first season as head coach at the University of Tennessee.
41:56
SPEAKER_11: So we thought, oh, that's a great chance to talk about the general and just everything.
42:01
SPEAKER_11: His his kind of kind of a larger-than-life character and all the things that um he did and uh all the man that he was, and so that's that was kind of an easy, uh, easy story to tell.
42:13
SPEAKER_07: The jerseys themselves are not replicas of what the 2016 wore, though, right?
42:18
SPEAKER_11: No, so pretty early on, we decided we wanted to do something that was a little more all-encompassing.
42:23
SPEAKER_11: He was obviously a legendary football coach, but he was in the Army Corps of Engineers.
42:27
SPEAKER_11: So we like that story of he engineered not only as his career, but he engineered kind of Tennessee football's growth in both a literal sense and he built a stadium and then also figuratively through the winds and the you know the legacy that he left.
42:40
SPEAKER_11: So we decided let's take that.
42:42
SPEAKER_11: He coached from um 26 to I believe it was uh 52.
42:46
SPEAKER_11: And so we took elements from all of those years.
42:49
SPEAKER_11: The number font is kind of straight from 38, 39 teams that were really legendary teams.
42:54
SPEAKER_11: The helmets are inspired by kind of the leather helmets that they wore from 26 until they I think they started wearing shells in 42.
43:01
SPEAKER_11: Just a lot of different elements from his his time at Tennessee that we wanted to pull from and use.
43:07
SPEAKER_07: And even some of his design ideas about Nealand Stadium expansion on the sleeves of the jersey.
43:13
SPEAKER_11: Yeah, I believe it was the 48 expansion, the south end zone when they kind of made the stadium a horseshoe.
43:18
SPEAKER_11: These kind of arches that still exist in some of the oldest parts of the stadium today, set the architectural blueprints from that part of the stadium, is sublimated on the sleeves and kind of a tonal gray-on-gray look.
43:29
SPEAKER_11: That was probably the first design element that really anchored the whole thing, and then we built from there.
43:33
SPEAKER_11: The Nealin patch with him and the famous on the knee pose.
43:37
SPEAKER_11: Yeah, we have a great archive of photos of General Nealon, and he's kneeling in a lot of them.
43:41
SPEAKER_11: There's one of him next to Doug Atkins, there's one of him by himself, and so that's where the cast of the statue was comes from.
43:47
SPEAKER_11: And so we decided let's let's put a patch on there, let's put a signature, just make sure like everybody knows what this is all about.
43:53
SPEAKER_07: And the stripes on the helmet.
43:55
SPEAKER_11: Yeah, so it's it's meant to look like a leather helmet, which I know is a kind of a bold and New for us, but we obviously wore leather helmets for the you know a good chunk of our earliest earliest years of football.
44:06
SPEAKER_11: And so wanted to recreate that.
44:08
SPEAKER_11: The kind of crossbar pattern, the exact years, I think they used it in 38, 39, like I mentioned.
44:13
SPEAKER_11: Those were really legendary teams.
44:14
SPEAKER_11: We tried to mimic those as closely as possible.
44:16
SPEAKER_11: Obviously, we used the gray shells, so a little different.
44:19
SPEAKER_11: They wore kind of tan helmets, orange helmets, uh, maybe even gray way back in the day.
44:24
SPEAKER_11: But it's also got the star on the back because Neilon was a brigadier general, one star general.
44:28
SPEAKER_11: And so we wanted to bring that element into it as well.
44:31
SPEAKER_11: And so it was a cool process.
44:33
SPEAKER_11: I mean, a helmet normally it's a shell and some decals, but this was a lot different.
44:36
SPEAKER_11: This had to be painted and hydro-dipped, and we had to figure out how do we how do we make it look like a leather helmet.
44:42
SPEAKER_11: We work with a company called Gemini Racing out of Milwaukee.
44:44
SPEAKER_11: Oh no, yeah.
44:46
SPEAKER_11: Um, they actually did the Green Bay Packers leather style helmet.
44:49
SPEAKER_11: So that that was kind of our jumping off point.
44:51
SPEAKER_11: How long did you work on this, Evan?
44:53
SPEAKER_11: Two years.
44:54
SPEAKER_11: You're starting the process thinking about it.
44:56
SPEAKER_11: A year and a half, you're submitting final artwork.
44:58
SPEAKER_11: It takes about a year to get a sample in hand.
45:01
SPEAKER_11: And then the helmets are kind of a different timeline.
45:03
SPEAKER_11: We probably started that process maybe nine months ago, 10 months ago.
45:08
SPEAKER_11: And that was just a lot of emails back and forth, a lot of mailing samples back and forth and arriving at the kind of the where we landed.
45:15
SPEAKER_07: Did the change from Nike to Adidas change your process any at all?
45:20
SPEAKER_11: We knew like this is a really good uniform.
45:22
SPEAKER_11: We didn't we want to keep this when we make the change.
45:24
SPEAKER_11: And so we brought this to Adidas Creative Team.
45:27
SPEAKER_11: They had actually been thinking a little bit about a true throwback leather style helmet uniform.
45:32
SPEAKER_11: And so they brought a couple ideas to the table that we hadn't really thought about.
45:35
SPEAKER_11: The uniform itself, it's got these cool checkerboard perforations around the collar.
45:39
SPEAKER_11: The perforations below kind of the numbers are in a traction stripe pattern, which traction stripes are kind of a vintage football aesthetic that you see on a lot of old uniforms from like the 20s and 30s.
45:50
SPEAKER_11: And so they brought those ideas.
45:52
SPEAKER_11: It was nice to get kind of their professional opinion on what we had already kind of baked and and they improved it a little bit and it kind of landed on and where it's at.
46:01
SPEAKER_07: You're a Tennessee guy, but you're also the head of 151 Creative and the design team.
46:07
SPEAKER_07: Combining that, when people see these and they have seen them, and they see the merchandise that's just coming out.
46:14
SPEAKER_07: What do you hope they see just right off the bat?
46:17
SPEAKER_11: Or you hope they understand and get I I just think these uniforms, the ones we've done the past few years and this year, are such a great chance for us to tell stories that we could tell otherwise, but this is the perfect megaphone to really shout out loud to our fans hey, General Nealon, legendary guy with just a larger-than-life story, and this uniform gives us that chance to tell it in a way that we can really put a lot of eyeballs on it.
46:46
SPEAKER_11: And so I just hope that people see like the love and attention to detail and that this was really done from a sense of we have a great history here and we want to highlight that.
46:54
SPEAKER_11: We we do want to modernize, we do want to have really cool uniforms that are cutting edge, but can we can we showcase the life and story of a man who built this program and do it in a way that every vol fan hopefully comes away from this, knowing a little bit more about the general and appreciating what he did, and helped us win World War II, which his amazing supply chain in the Pacific that was phenomenal.
47:18
SPEAKER_07: People don't even know that.
47:19
SPEAKER_07: You know, people don't understand it.
47:20
SPEAKER_07: It's in the Tim Johnson book, but you know, a lot of the military historians say he is one of the undercredited people because he was able to build a supply chain system in the Pacific that created a difference to finish off the Pacific Theater and win it.
47:39
SPEAKER_11: Yeah, and if you read Tim's book and you read some of these other books, you realize how much of that football meets his military career, the discipline required, physicality required, the mindset required.
47:50
SPEAKER_11: He brought that both to his his career as a general and his his time as a head football coach.
47:55
SPEAKER_11: And the the way those two things marry is really a cool part of his story.
47:59
SPEAKER_07: And he should have pitched in the big leagues.
48:01
SPEAKER_07: Yeah, he was I mean that was that was the whole part of his story that it was not seen as anything that you should be doing.
48:08
SPEAKER_07: Baseball was not that you know, not that big a deal.
48:11
SPEAKER_07: So he didn't go into baseball.
48:13
SPEAKER_07: He was 35 and five as a pitcher at West Point, yeah.
48:16
SPEAKER_07: And I mean just crazy good.
48:18
SPEAKER_07: And the baseball thing factors in a little bit because you even get a little of the 51 College World Series team look in this jersey, too.
48:27
SPEAKER_11: Yeah, we were looking at so many old photos and just archives and things.
48:31
SPEAKER_11: We found this photo of him um from his time late in his coaching career.
48:34
SPEAKER_11: He's wearing the 51 baseball team's logo on a hat.
48:37
SPEAKER_11: Like, that would be cool to bring back.
48:38
SPEAKER_11: It was kind of UT.
48:40
SPEAKER_11: Yeah, the UT.
48:40
SPEAKER_11: It's interlocking.
48:41
SPEAKER_11: It looks a little bit maybe like the Mets, you know, with those the details on the edge.
48:46
SPEAKER_11: And so we thought, let's bring this back.
48:48
SPEAKER_11: It's not really been utilized by us and our any of our vintage merchandise or anything.
48:53
SPEAKER_11: Um, anything really.
48:54
SPEAKER_11: We hadn't really seen it anywhere.
48:55
SPEAKER_11: And so we decided let's bring this back.
48:57
SPEAKER_11: And it kind of anchors the uniform, it's right on the middle of the collar.
49:00
SPEAKER_11: But yeah, he he was a great baseball player, four and oh at Army against Navy.
49:04
SPEAKER_11: Um, and he was also a great boxer.
49:06
SPEAKER_11: Yeah, he was like a the heavyweight butt.
49:09
SPEAKER_11: He was the I think at the end of his time at Army, he was the he won the award for the best athlete at Army during his four years.
49:16
SPEAKER_11: So that really cool guy.
49:17
SPEAKER_11: I mean, just the books, the story, it's it's worth like digging into and just learning more about it.
49:23
SPEAKER_11: Well, congratulations.
49:24
SPEAKER_11: Thanks.
49:24
SPEAKER_11: Good job.
49:25
SPEAKER_07: We're back to wrap up this edition of the Mike Heath Show right after this.
49:28
SPEAKER_09: Back with more Big Orange Insider Access, direct to the stores with the voice of the Valls.
49:35
SPEAKER_09: And you, we are the Vall Network.
50:08
SPEAKER_07: Starting with targeting.
50:10
SPEAKER_07: As an experimental rule for the 26th season, targeting fouls that are upheld still include a disqualification for the remainder of the current game, but will not result in being suspended for a half of the next game.
50:26
SPEAKER_07: That's for first-time offenders only.
50:28
SPEAKER_07: If a player is called for a second targeting foul in the same season, he will be suspended for a half of the next game.
50:37
SPEAKER_07: The penalty for offensive pass interference is being adjusted.
50:42
SPEAKER_07: It was a 15-yard penalty.
50:44
SPEAKER_07: This season it becomes a 10-yard step off.
50:48
SPEAKER_07: Defensive pass interference penalties, however, remain 15-yard fouls.
50:53
SPEAKER_07: Additional coaches replay challenge.
50:56
SPEAKER_07: Head coach now has two replay challenges per game.
51:00
SPEAKER_07: If a coach wins at least one of the first two challenges, they are awarded a third challenge.
51:07
SPEAKER_07: Following a fair catch, a fair catch kick by the receiving team is now available at the spot of the catch.
51:16
SPEAKER_07: The kick must be a field goal attempt with a holder, no T.
51:20
SPEAKER_07: And if the kick passes over the crossbar and through the uprights, three points are awarded.
51:27
SPEAKER_07: If the fair catch occurs as time expires in a half, the team is allowed to make their fair catch kick as an untimed down.
51:37
SPEAKER_07: Love this rule, as it will potentially add strategy at the end of the half or in end-of-game situations.
51:46
SPEAKER_07: First Horizon Bank is taking being the official bank of the balls even further.
51:51
SPEAKER_07: Today, Tennessee announced that First Horizon Bank will be the official Jersey Patch sponsor for football, volleyball, soccer, golf, track and field, cross-country, swimming and diving, tennis, and rowing.
52:05
SPEAKER_07: Congratulations and thanks to First Horizon Bank.
52:09
SPEAKER_07: I'm Mike Keith, and we'll see you next time.