Latest / Off The Bench / Hour One | Live from SEC Media Days: Nick Rodriguez & David Epps
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Off the bench.
- 0:01Speaker 2: We have to Jacob Hester and Matt Flynn.
- 0:03Speaker 3: Let's go.
- 0:04Speaker 2: Let's go from a championship backfield to your morning drive.
- 0:07Speaker 4: Ham'sday. Hester and Hester got it.
- 0:10Speaker 1: Ba ba laa.
- 0:11Speaker 2: Your Luck's in to off the bench control the Live
- 0:19Speaker 2: from the Raising Kine Studio. Here's Jacob Hester and Matt Flynn.
- 0:28Speaker 5: YO and welcome in OTB. Here live from Tampa, Florida.
- 0:34Speaker 5: SEC Media Day's first day.
- 0:37Speaker 4: We are here. Flynn made it.
- 0:39Speaker 5: He's back oh plane, trains and automobiles.
- 0:42Speaker 4: He found away.
- 0:43Speaker 1: We found a way and we always do. I competed yesterday.
- 0:48Speaker 1: I competed real hard in the travel game. I think
- 0:50Speaker 1: it was about you know, from start to finish what
- 0:55Speaker 1: it ended up being, sixteen hours of travel. It was exciting,
- 0:58Speaker 1: very good, but we made it. I'm I won't bore
- 1:02Speaker 1: you with all the details. But lots of flights delayed, Yeah,
- 1:06Speaker 1: lots of flights canceled, lots of moving around, lots of
- 1:09Speaker 1: running in airports. And at about eleven forty five last night,
- 1:13Speaker 1: I started looking at rental cars. Luckily didn't have to
- 1:18Speaker 1: do it though, got on a plane.
- 1:19Speaker 5: So if you'd have gotten a rental car at eleven
- 1:22Speaker 5: forty five in Atlanta. You would have gotten to Tampa,
- 1:25Speaker 5: Florida at what time I would.
- 1:27Speaker 1: If It kind of depends on how long it would
- 1:29Speaker 1: have taken at the rental car station. But I would
- 1:31Speaker 1: have gotten here at about seven am, so that was
- 1:36Speaker 1: but we're on East Coast time, so I would have
- 1:38Speaker 1: had an hour to spare hour to freshen up powder
- 1:40Speaker 1: of my nose.
- 1:42Speaker 5: I bet you would have been electric. I NAMEIC on radio.
- 1:45Speaker 5: Well right now, we're about two and a half hours
- 1:48Speaker 5: of sleep right now.
- 1:48Speaker 4: So yeah, it's better than none.
- 1:50Speaker 1: We are we are absolutely just running on absolute vibes
- 1:56Speaker 1: SEC vibes because an no performance enhancers, No, no, no, no,
- 2:02Speaker 1: we are an SEC country man Tampa Florida.
- 2:08Speaker 4: When I think SEC, I think Tampa Florida.
- 2:11Speaker 1: Yeah, because we got all those games here, all those
- 2:14Speaker 1: teams around here surrounding the Tampa area. Yeah. So absolutely,
- 2:20Speaker 1: it is very nice. It's that it's gorgeous.
- 2:22Speaker 5: I mean, I don't know, I don't know if you
- 2:24Speaker 5: can see the little water feature behind us there, but
- 2:27Speaker 5: there's water.
- 2:28Speaker 1: There's water, there's boats. I couldn't really see it at
- 2:30Speaker 1: night last night, and then this morning I could barely
- 2:33Speaker 1: see outside my my puffy eyes when I was walking
- 2:36Speaker 1: across the street. Now I got a bone to pick
- 2:38Speaker 1: with somebody else that's here from the station.
- 2:41Speaker 6: It's sir Hunt Palmer.
- 2:42Speaker 1: Okay, so just picture this long day travel right after
- 2:46Speaker 1: a very long week. So we're running on not a
- 2:50Speaker 1: lot of sleep. Right I get here, I walk in
- 2:53Speaker 1: the hotel about one. Okay, And before that, I looked
- 2:57Speaker 1: before I got my uber, I looked at through our
- 2:59Speaker 1: group next and I looked back where I said.
- 3:02Speaker 6: Hey, where are we staying this week?
- 3:04Speaker 1: And Hunt Palmer sent me the hotel address and the
- 3:08Speaker 1: name and the pen the screenshot of what the hotel was.
- 3:11Speaker 1: Went there, talked to the young man that was kind
- 3:16Speaker 1: young man that was working the front desk. He said,
- 3:18Speaker 1: you don't have a reservation here. I'm like, yes, I do.
- 3:21Speaker 1: My friend Hunt Palmer told me I did, and he
- 3:24Speaker 1: wouldn't lie to me. So this is one forty five am,
- 3:27Speaker 1: feeling great, very happy about it.
- 3:29Speaker 6: And now it was at.
- 3:30Speaker 1: A different hotel.
- 3:32Speaker 4: It was across the street, was across the old catwalk.
- 3:35Speaker 1: Yeah. And then I got to the hotel, got to
- 3:37Speaker 1: my room, put on the PJS and laid in bed,
- 3:42Speaker 1: and I was like, wait a minute I mailed my
- 3:45Speaker 1: luggage bag to my hotel, which is.
- 3:49Speaker 6: Not this hotel.
- 3:53Speaker 4: Because off of Punch, because.
- 3:55Speaker 1: Of Palmer exactly.
- 3:57Speaker 4: So what did you do.
- 3:59Speaker 6: I went down there and.
- 4:00Speaker 1: Had to walk back across get you know, and get
- 4:04Speaker 1: my bag from the other hotel at well. Yeah, I
- 4:08Speaker 1: got back to the hotel about two fifteen. Yeah, that
- 4:11Speaker 1: was good. So you had to get back dressed, Yeah,
- 4:14Speaker 1: gotta get back out and had to put the stinky
- 4:17Speaker 1: socks back on. Yeah.
- 4:19Speaker 6: Yeah, it's tough. Look, hey, we're here.
- 4:22Speaker 1: We made it.
- 4:23Speaker 4: Glad you are.
- 4:24Speaker 5: The betting onds were not in your favorite buddy. I'm
- 4:27Speaker 5: gonna let you know all week bet as you were out,
- 4:29Speaker 5: it wasn't you. I told you, it wasn't you that
- 4:31Speaker 5: we were betting against. It was the airlines. It was
- 4:34Speaker 5: you were coming from a place where you had to
- 4:36Speaker 5: take a prop plane to another destination, a destination you
- 4:39Speaker 5: get to and then you got to take another plane
- 4:42Speaker 5: to Atlanta.
- 4:43Speaker 1: And I did have to take a plane first yesterday
- 4:46Speaker 1: where I didn't know if I needed to offer the
- 4:48Speaker 1: pilot to help spend the propeller at the front. It
- 4:51Speaker 1: was that kind of situation. I bet you did well
- 4:54Speaker 1: with that. It was not a jet I'll say that.
- 4:57Speaker 5: I bet you, I bet you and your baby come
- 4:59Speaker 5: to did great with that.
- 5:01Speaker 1: Yes see, yep, no it didn't. The otherwise I was fantastic. Yeah,
- 5:08Speaker 1: night time.
- 5:09Speaker 5: I mean you sent us a video of a guy
- 5:11Speaker 5: shredding the saxophone.
- 5:12Speaker 1: Yeah, it was a great time with the same barts
- 5:15Speaker 1: and didn't know a whole lot about the island. I
- 5:18Speaker 1: knew it was very nice. But we went for brother
- 5:22Speaker 1: in lawn sister in law's fortieth combined fortieth birthday, so
- 5:25Speaker 1: they did everything the right way. Had a really good group,
- 5:28Speaker 1: A big group, like thirty six people come down there
- 5:31Speaker 1: for this birthday party. I don't know if YA can
- 5:34Speaker 1: probably tell them my fortieth birthday, and elite adults are
- 5:37Speaker 1: probably a little bit bigger because.
- 5:39Speaker 5: Of the fist pumping those Okay, a lot of this
- 5:42Speaker 5: all week, all right, so just one arm well.
- 5:46Speaker 1: No, what too? Okay?
- 5:47Speaker 5: Sometimes both pretty impressed. Yep, I mean I get it.
- 5:51Speaker 5: The video of the guy shredding on the saxophonet.
- 5:53Speaker 7: It was.
- 5:55Speaker 1: Kenny g couldn't hold a candle to that guy.
- 5:57Speaker 4: Maybe not, I don't know Kenny Chee's prete legit.
- 6:00Speaker 6: Anyway, that's great. How was How was the week back home?
- 6:03Speaker 4: It was good? It was good. I don't you know
- 6:06Speaker 4: typically when you're out like the first.
- 6:07Speaker 5: Day, I think we had we had a couple of guests,
- 6:10Speaker 5: but outside of that, I think Thursday and Friday we
- 6:13Speaker 5: just straight up O G.
- 6:14Speaker 4: Trapot, That's what I'm talking about. Yeah, I mean we had.
- 6:16Speaker 5: Chef, you know, our like our normal Thursday Friday people.
- 6:20Speaker 4: But no, it's good.
- 6:22Speaker 1: That's strange of you. Just well, I'm out there just
- 6:25Speaker 1: a raw dog a show like that.
- 6:26Speaker 5: No, guess I know we did Wednesday with Doring came
- 6:29Speaker 5: on on Wednesday. Ah nice, Yeah, but I can't I
- 6:32Speaker 5: don't really remember what else we had, But no, it
- 6:34Speaker 5: was good. Trapot held it down. I love it made
- 6:38Speaker 5: fun of you, yeah, like we typically.
- 6:40Speaker 1: Do, like you do. Well, what how are you feeling
- 6:43Speaker 1: about this week? Buddy?
- 6:45Speaker 4: We're gonna see.
- 6:45Speaker 6: We're gonna find out we're here at the water.
- 6:48Speaker 5: We're going to see I So we'll, you know, we'll
- 6:51Speaker 5: do our show O T B. And then today I
- 6:54Speaker 5: go twelve to five over on the College.
- 6:56Speaker 4: Channel again back to the old stomping grounds.
- 6:58Speaker 1: Oh boy, are they gonna like give you a bad
- 7:00Speaker 1: luck when you walk in.
- 7:01Speaker 4: Probably so like Trader.
- 7:03Speaker 6: Yeah, there's the NFL going You were that professional.
- 7:06Speaker 5: Yeah, so we'll see how much I actually know about
- 7:09Speaker 5: college once I walk into that room.
- 7:13Speaker 4: I mean, I'm so proud of you. I mean, look
- 7:15Speaker 4: at this.
- 7:15Speaker 5: You've got Oklahoma, yep, Missouri, Kentucky notes.
- 7:19Speaker 1: Check that what those of y'all watching? These are notes
- 7:21Speaker 1: on players that are here. Do y'all even you guys,
- 7:25Speaker 1: even Nicholas Rodriguez, y'all tell them about him, he's the linebacker.
- 7:29Speaker 5: Got any other fun notes about Huri? I don't know
- 7:32Speaker 5: why they're here. They're in the CC.
- 7:35Speaker 1: Oh yeah, okay, he's a junior six foot two, twenty five.
- 7:40Speaker 4: Did you do that research in Saint Bart's No.
- 7:44Speaker 1: I know, I was had a long day yesterday. Yeah,
- 7:47Speaker 1: there are my travels. That was one perk about you know,
- 7:50Speaker 1: the international travel free WiFi.
- 7:57Speaker 5: Yeah, because you'd have really been struggling without that free wife,
- 8:00Speaker 5: No doubt. What the thing that is different if if
- 8:04Speaker 5: you've listened to us in the past here at media days,
- 8:07Speaker 5: we've been doing this obviously for a long time.
- 8:09Speaker 1: Now.
- 8:10Speaker 4: LSU's not today. LSU's not the leadoff hitter.
- 8:14Speaker 5: LSU is actually gonna kind of be the closer of
- 8:17Speaker 5: this deal.
- 8:17Speaker 4: So that is going to be a little bit different.
- 8:19Speaker 5: Typically media days, we get here and it's immediate it's
- 8:23Speaker 5: LSU and like they would be walking around here in
- 8:26Speaker 5: like an hour from now, So that is going to
- 8:29Speaker 5: be different. I think I actually, now we're got to
- 8:31Speaker 5: get to the end of the week. I think I
- 8:33Speaker 5: actually kind of prefer that, prefer them at the end.
- 8:37Speaker 4: I do think. I think, so now we've got to
- 8:39Speaker 4: get to that point.
- 8:40Speaker 5: But think about it, it's like you get here, it's
- 8:42Speaker 5: the first day. It's like you get to summer camp
- 8:44Speaker 5: and you're trying to figure out your bearings a little bit. Boom,
- 8:47Speaker 5: here's LSU. Yeah, you know, you don't have time to
- 8:49Speaker 5: like build it up and slow build and talk about others,
- 8:52Speaker 5: and then you lead into the main story, which is LSU.
- 8:56Speaker 5: And so I think the SEC is like, because LSU's
- 8:59Speaker 5: been Monday for as long as I've been doing this,
- 9:01Speaker 5: and this is my ninth media days, they've always been
- 9:04Speaker 5: on a Monday.
- 9:06Speaker 4: But the SEC like then.
- 9:08Speaker 5: Sometimes I don't want to talk too loud because my
- 9:10Speaker 5: guy Drink might be listening. We'd get to Thursday and
- 9:13Speaker 5: Drink would be like where's everybody at. Well, yeah, nobody's
- 9:17Speaker 5: leaving Texas and LSU being on the last day, so
- 9:20Speaker 5: I think it's a smart move.
- 9:21Speaker 6: By the league.
- 9:22Speaker 5: No disrespect to those other programs. They're not LSU in Texas, duh.
- 9:26Speaker 5: So they're like, hey, what should we do. Let's put
- 9:28Speaker 5: some teams at the front that we know they're going
- 9:30Speaker 5: to be there, and then at the end we're going
- 9:32Speaker 5: to backload this with two massive teams.
- 9:34Speaker 6: It does beg the question will there be less people
- 9:37Speaker 6: here today?
- 9:39Speaker 4: I don't think so.
- 9:39Speaker 5: I think I think because it's the opening day that
- 9:43Speaker 5: everybody's kind of fired up to get it. Like I said,
- 9:45Speaker 5: it's like it's kind of like summer camp, Like there's
- 9:47Speaker 5: a lot of people. Now you might not be looking
- 9:49Speaker 5: at two of them, but there's a lot of people,
- 9:51Speaker 5: Like they look forward to Marler. Marler loves media days.
- 9:58Speaker 5: So yeah, it's this is no for sure, but they'll
- 10:02Speaker 5: all be Here's what I'm saying.
- 10:03Speaker 1: Yeah, for sure. I'm really One thing I'm looking forward
- 10:09Speaker 1: to this week is to see the overall I don't
- 10:15Speaker 1: know the best word to say here, like the overall
- 10:17Speaker 1: opinion of LSU, the overall vibe. So like last year,
- 10:20Speaker 1: I kind of felt like LSU was this people. You'd
- 10:25Speaker 1: say LSU to them, they would like crack a smile
- 10:28Speaker 1: a little bit and be like this, that's kind of
- 10:29Speaker 1: my dark cord. I really think LSU is going to
- 10:33Speaker 1: they are. I'm picking them to go to the SEC Championship.
- 10:36Speaker 1: I'm picking this. I really think they're gonna be the
- 10:38Speaker 1: sleeper team this year. I got a feeling people are
- 10:41Speaker 1: gonna be pumping the brakes a little bit and you're
- 10:43Speaker 1: not gonna have that overall feeling.
- 10:46Speaker 4: It's gonna be a little bit of the George W.
- 10:48Speaker 1: Bush.
- 10:48Speaker 4: It's like, yeah for me once for sure he ain't
- 10:51Speaker 4: on film or twice.
- 10:52Speaker 1: Yeah, but I remember just being last year, like going
- 10:55Speaker 1: to everybody and be like, hey, man, give me your
- 10:56Speaker 1: pick for the C Championship and they would crack as
- 10:59Speaker 1: they'd be like, well, you know what I got LSU. Susan.
- 11:02Speaker 4: LSU was like the main ant.
- 11:03Speaker 6: I love I love those guy, I love that what
- 11:06Speaker 6: US is doing.
- 11:06Speaker 1: Blah blah blah. And obviously LSU ended up not being
- 11:11Speaker 1: very good. Really yeah, Like if you need a breakdown
- 11:16Speaker 1: of it, I can give you full breakdown.
- 11:19Speaker 5: They coach got fired pass at the lone of scrimmager
- 11:23Speaker 5: behind it.
- 11:24Speaker 4: Yep, pass outside the hash, never in the middle. Yep,
- 11:28Speaker 4: so one run.
- 11:30Speaker 1: So we'll be really exciting to like see all these
- 11:32Speaker 1: people that this is what they do every single day.
- 11:35Speaker 1: They are looking at rosters, they're looking at players. They
- 11:37Speaker 1: are all in locked in to see their overall opinion
- 11:41Speaker 1: of the roster that Lane has been able to build up.
- 11:45Speaker 6: And also what's the opinion of Lane right now?
- 11:47Speaker 1: We know that was all everything was, you know, too
- 11:50Speaker 1: hot to touch early on when it first happened. I
- 11:53Speaker 1: believe all that's kind of calmed down. But we also
- 11:56Speaker 1: live in the bubble of vat Ruthers. So we'll see
- 11:59Speaker 1: what everybody else feel was like, how they feel about
- 12:02Speaker 1: the move. Maybe maybe find some all missed people around
- 12:05Speaker 1: here tell they feel about it.
- 12:06Speaker 5: I bet they would love to come talk to baton
- 12:08Speaker 5: news radio. I bet they would no doubt about it,
- 12:12Speaker 5: and they would whisper sweet nothing into the microphone.
- 12:16Speaker 6: They'd wish him well. He did a great, great things
- 12:19Speaker 6: for them.
- 12:19Speaker 4: I mean he did. He changed your program.
- 12:21Speaker 5: But you know how quickly we'll forget all right, So
- 12:24Speaker 5: we have a ton to get to today this week.
- 12:27Speaker 4: We're excited Flynn's here.
- 12:29Speaker 5: I wasn't sure if that was going to happen, So
- 12:31Speaker 5: I'm excited to see my guy. We are going to
- 12:33Speaker 5: break it all down. My man's got notes. My man's
- 12:36Speaker 5: got notes.
- 12:37Speaker 1: Yep.
- 12:37Speaker 4: He took the time.
- 12:39Speaker 5: He wrote Eli Drinkwitz on this piece of paper and
- 12:42Speaker 5: then followed by players names with a little fun fact
- 12:45Speaker 5: about the players, y'all.
- 12:47Speaker 1: Like like I was trying to tell you before, Kayden
- 12:51Speaker 1: Green left tackle. Yeah, chat G told me it's got
- 12:55Speaker 1: really nice feet, real nicely. He actually is a really
- 12:58Speaker 1: good player. Yeah, he's probably the best player on their team.
- 13:01Speaker 1: He is. Now, that's all right here, but I remember
- 13:05Speaker 1: all the film I watched over him last year.
- 13:07Speaker 5: All right, we will take our first break, but of
- 13:09Speaker 5: course we have got much more coming right back your way.
- 13:12Speaker 4: Stay locked in.
- 13:13Speaker 5: It is OTV here live from Tampa.
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- 14:21Speaker 2: Live from the twenty twenty six SEC Football Media Days
- 14:25Speaker 2: in Tampa, presented by FMOL Health, Our Lady of the
- 14:28Speaker 2: Lake Relief, Windows, rev Fiber and Farish Construction and Roofing.
- 14:50Speaker 4: All right, Welcome back in.
- 14:51Speaker 5: It is OTB here live from Tampa, Florida, SEC Media Days,
- 14:55Speaker 5: and we're going to be joined by our first guests
- 14:57Speaker 5: of the week. Nick Rodriguez joined us linebacker from Missouri
- 15:01Speaker 5: who we're finding out. It's got some some ties to
- 15:05Speaker 5: LSU a little bit. It's got some friends Mason Taylor
- 15:08Speaker 5: that played for LSU.
- 15:09Speaker 4: Chatting it up here before we came on. Nick, we
- 15:11Speaker 4: appreciate time, man, sir, appreciate you for having me on here.
- 15:14Speaker 5: All right, So walk us through getting the you know,
- 15:16Speaker 5: the invite to Media Days and kind of how how
- 15:19Speaker 5: drink kind of broke it down for you and like
- 15:21Speaker 5: what it meant to you to go and represent your
- 15:23Speaker 5: school here.
- 15:24Speaker 3: Yeah, it was Yeah, told me Caden and Jamal a
- 15:30Speaker 3: few weeks prior to when they posted it on on
- 15:32Speaker 3: social media. You know, it was just a blessing, the
- 15:35Speaker 3: great opportunity. I'm excited to be here. I'm excited to
- 15:39Speaker 3: put on for our university and our team and that's
- 15:42Speaker 3: importantly our culture.
- 15:44Speaker 6: Nick.
- 15:44Speaker 1: I was asking you right before you came on, like
- 15:45Speaker 1: how much how much training prep work.
- 15:47Speaker 6: Did you get put? Man with me and Jake, we
- 15:49Speaker 6: used to go.
- 15:50Speaker 1: Through that media training, basically telling you all the things
- 15:53Speaker 1: what not to say. So how was that they kind
- 15:55Speaker 1: of get you prepped a little bit for this week?
- 15:57Speaker 3: Yeah, a little bit. I'll just tell you not to
- 15:58Speaker 3: say that. It's not to say that. Be yourself at
- 16:01Speaker 3: the end of the day. Just don't say this or that.
- 16:03Speaker 5: So it's a little bit of a home game for you,
- 16:06Speaker 5: it is.
- 16:07Speaker 4: I mean, you're from Florida, from Miami.
- 16:09Speaker 5: This kind of gets like walking around now you can
- 16:11Speaker 5: probably tell me I'm wrong. It's got a little feel
- 16:13Speaker 5: of like a little Miami, a little like a miniature one.
- 16:16Speaker 3: Yeah, a little bay, a little trees, a little waterbut
- 16:19Speaker 3: the vibe going.
- 16:20Speaker 4: So you're saying, you don't see this in Como.
- 16:23Speaker 3: No you sees Yeah, fine, trees just palm trees, palm trees,
- 16:28Speaker 3: different type of trees.
- 16:29Speaker 1: That's right. So Jake kind of mentioned earlier and you
- 16:31Speaker 1: were talking about it, so just you know, you're we're
- 16:34Speaker 1: you're talking to Louisiana audience here, and so of course
- 16:37Speaker 1: we all know and love Mason Taylor. You said you're
- 16:39Speaker 1: pretty you go back with him, you're pretty tight with him.
- 16:41Speaker 3: Yeah, me and Mason played back in high school. Obviously
- 16:46Speaker 3: he played tight end. But I got a great story
- 16:48Speaker 3: of him when his dad coached him. He was our
- 16:51Speaker 3: DC and we were playing I think Western. They put
- 16:54Speaker 3: him at d N and man, he was off the
- 16:58Speaker 3: chain in the corner back. I remember his helmet came off,
- 17:02Speaker 3: relentless just chasing him and then they had to blow
- 17:06Speaker 3: the play dead because he didn't have a helmet on.
- 17:08Speaker 7: It was crazy.
- 17:09Speaker 6: So who would and practice? Who would get the better?
- 17:12Speaker 1: I'm sure y'all had to go against each other a
- 17:14Speaker 1: little bit at one on ones, maybe a little head up,
- 17:17Speaker 1: maybe some blocking.
- 17:18Speaker 6: So who'd get the better of each other?
- 17:20Speaker 3: Yeah, you know, every day is a different day. We've
- 17:22Speaker 3: had it back and forth, iron shoppers, iron We just
- 17:25Speaker 3: made most of it.
- 17:26Speaker 5: Love it all right, So walk us through a day
- 17:29Speaker 5: with our guy, Eli Drinkwitz.
- 17:31Speaker 4: I know drink drink very very well.
- 17:33Speaker 5: He's got a great personality, likes to have a lot
- 17:35Speaker 5: of fun. But I've also heard like once y'all get
- 17:38Speaker 5: into the meeting rooms, maybe a little bit different side
- 17:41Speaker 5: of drink.
- 17:42Speaker 4: He got a little fire to him.
- 17:44Speaker 3: Oh, you definitely do. So, I mean we want to
- 17:47Speaker 3: walk you through. So, I mean what we always we
- 17:50Speaker 3: have a basketball hoop in there. We always start off
- 17:52Speaker 3: to meet his fun you know, compete. Our core value
- 17:55Speaker 3: is always compete. So we'll have offense, defense, a few players,
- 17:58Speaker 3: even coaches.
- 17:59Speaker 7: Go up there. I would shootout clock starts.
- 18:01Speaker 3: It's like a twenty second clock, and then we start
- 18:04Speaker 3: with that after that, depending on what day we had
- 18:07Speaker 3: prior what he needs to speak about. Yeah, get serious, yeah,
- 18:10Speaker 3: and get onto us. And then he'll put us up
- 18:13Speaker 3: on the big screen if we mess up, point us
- 18:15Speaker 3: out in front.
- 18:15Speaker 7: Of the whole room, and then he'll crack a couple
- 18:17Speaker 7: of jokes.
- 18:18Speaker 5: And you know, do you get a reward for winning
- 18:21Speaker 5: the basketball though? Like does the defense have to run
- 18:23Speaker 5: if the offense wins?
- 18:25Speaker 3: So? Sometimes so okay, sometimes if he likes offense.
- 18:29Speaker 5: So if I know offense, well, I mean, offense is
- 18:32Speaker 5: superior side of the football.
- 18:33Speaker 4: Right on, we all know that that.
- 18:37Speaker 3: If offense would win, they won't have to run gasters
- 18:39Speaker 3: or something like that after practice.
- 18:41Speaker 1: Right. Oh, that's great, So you know how like what
- 18:43Speaker 1: a luxury that is to have a coach like that.
- 18:46Speaker 1: I'm sure you know, like we we were in a
- 18:49Speaker 1: year with Nick Saban, then we were here with bless
- 18:51Speaker 1: Moods and in the NFL, multiple different coaches, that kind
- 18:55Speaker 1: of environment is incredible, So y'all are y'all are blessed
- 18:58Speaker 1: to have that because, as you know, there's different personalities
- 19:01Speaker 1: at head coach all over the country. So being able
- 19:04Speaker 1: to do that, do you think it helps like the
- 19:06Speaker 1: team camaraderie, just being able to kind of for one
- 19:09Speaker 1: and have fun with each other. But then you got
- 19:11Speaker 1: to know how to draw that line between like all right,
- 19:13Speaker 1: now's the time we got to focus and get to work.
- 19:15Speaker 3: Yeah, for sure, I feel like that definitely helps us
- 19:17Speaker 3: bring our brotherhood together. We have a real strong brotherhood.
- 19:20Speaker 3: We connect really well with one another.
- 19:23Speaker 7: We don't just.
- 19:24Speaker 3: Hang out at the facility, like yeah, we're always grilling,
- 19:26Speaker 3: We're always at the pool, like we're playing pickleball now basketball.
- 19:30Speaker 3: We're just having a good time, trying to build a
- 19:32Speaker 3: team and just we enjoy being around each other.
- 19:34Speaker 1: But let me follow up to that, like this day
- 19:37Speaker 1: and age, with all of the transferred portal situation, like
- 19:42Speaker 1: there's so much turnover on a roster, how old are you?
- 19:44Speaker 1: How are y'all able to build that camaraderie fast with
- 19:48Speaker 1: so many new faces every single year.
- 19:51Speaker 3: Yeah, So we'll start off with like at the facility,
- 19:54Speaker 3: we have this thing called Brotherhood and Ball. So every
- 19:56Speaker 3: Wednesday we have food trucks come out to the facilit
- 20:00Speaker 3: We set up games in the indoor spike ball, whatnot, cornhole,
- 20:03Speaker 3: and we just spent time together. You got you gotta
- 20:06Speaker 3: spend time together in order to build a cromarty.
- 20:08Speaker 6: Uh yeah.
- 20:10Speaker 3: And then outside of the facility, we like I said,
- 20:12Speaker 3: we played pickleball, basketball, We go watch movies, We grill
- 20:16Speaker 3: out together. We have cooking competitions like we always try
- 20:19Speaker 3: to go.
- 20:19Speaker 5: Okay, well, hold up, who wins the cooking competitions?
- 20:23Speaker 4: And what are we throwing down?
- 20:25Speaker 7: We're throwing down on the grill. We do steak. So
- 20:29Speaker 7: me and Luke work.
- 20:31Speaker 3: We got this running joke called the best restaurant of
- 20:33Speaker 3: Como is Chairman Drive.
- 20:36Speaker 7: That's one of the streets. Oh yeah, so we.
- 20:38Speaker 3: Throw down on the grill. We have like Ribby's steak.
- 20:42Speaker 3: It's called it's like inso like skirts steak. And then
- 20:46Speaker 3: we have our other teammate, Alas, he's always cooking up
- 20:49Speaker 3: like crazy stuff.
- 20:50Speaker 5: All right, where's the lions from though, Tampa, Florida? Okay, okay,
- 20:53Speaker 5: here you go. All right, So the Florida boys are
- 20:56Speaker 5: showing out up and como.
- 20:57Speaker 1: Yeah, no doubt. So like that that brings true and
- 20:59Speaker 1: every aspect always competing. Yeah, I hadn't heard of the
- 21:02Speaker 1: food competitions. That's fantastic, dude.
- 21:04Speaker 5: Let's I'd have whipped your ass at back in college
- 21:07Speaker 5: out of here.
- 21:08Speaker 4: Don't you worry about it.
- 21:09Speaker 1: I was making those three dollars pork tenderloins for wind
- 21:12Speaker 1: Dicks nice A report states. That's right, exactly. All right,
- 21:18Speaker 1: let's talk about it competing during the season.
- 21:20Speaker 6: So this year a bigger role for you.
- 21:23Speaker 1: Are you gonna be kind of the the play caller?
- 21:28Speaker 6: We call it the green dot guy. Is that kind
- 21:30Speaker 6: of your role this year?
- 21:32Speaker 7: Uh?
- 21:32Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean I would assume so I in practice, Yeah,
- 21:34Speaker 3: I'm me and my buddy who's next to me call
- 21:39Speaker 3: the plays and just look over the sideline, see the signal.
- 21:42Speaker 1: Yeah.
- 21:43Speaker 3: I may get the mic. I may not, but it's
- 21:45Speaker 3: all right. We just lead the defense one play at
- 21:48Speaker 3: the time.
- 21:49Speaker 5: Nicholas, Before we let you go, I just want to ask.
- 21:51Speaker 5: I mean, you've been in Missouri, and Missouri is a
- 21:53Speaker 5: program that has really continued to be on the rise.
- 21:57Speaker 5: H you know, building new parts to this stadium, expanding Drink,
- 22:02Speaker 5: which has got you know, a nice contract to reward
- 22:04Speaker 5: him for all the things that they've done, and you
- 22:06Speaker 5: just see them continue to build and see them continue
- 22:09Speaker 5: to try to get to another level. How's it been
- 22:11Speaker 5: to be a part of that, to kind of see
- 22:12Speaker 5: it and be in it as it happens.
- 22:15Speaker 3: It's been great to see, just to see Drink take
- 22:18Speaker 3: steps and always hiring I feel like the right coaches.
- 22:21Speaker 7: When I first got there.
- 22:23Speaker 3: We had a coaching change on the defenither side and
- 22:26Speaker 3: he hired coach Betune and I feel like that's been
- 22:28Speaker 3: a great hire ever since. And he's just always making
- 22:31Speaker 3: the team come together, you know, day and age transfer portal,
- 22:35Speaker 3: you know people every day, he always makes us come
- 22:37Speaker 3: together and even with the coaching staff and all that.
- 22:40Speaker 7: So he's been.
- 22:41Speaker 1: Great, awesome. Yeah, Well last question for it, so just
- 22:44Speaker 1: going into I know this is this is the time
- 22:46Speaker 1: of the year. Everybody's confident, everybody loves what they've done
- 22:49Speaker 1: with everybody feels like they've kind of improved. How do
- 22:52Speaker 1: you feel about this coming season?
- 22:54Speaker 3: I feel great. You know, it's just another opportunity to
- 22:57Speaker 3: go out there and compete and do what I love
- 22:59Speaker 3: and do what we love. Just got out there and
- 23:01Speaker 3: played the game of football that we always wanted to play.
- 23:03Speaker 1: Oh yeah, oh yeah, man, Well, good luck. We wish
- 23:05Speaker 1: you the best, sir, and I hope you have. I
- 23:07Speaker 1: hope you have your best season.
- 23:08Speaker 7: Thank you.
- 23:09Speaker 4: Yeah, I appreciate it.
- 23:10Speaker 6: Thank you.
- 23:10Speaker 7: Nick.
- 23:11Speaker 5: Let's try to read us good enough to join us
- 23:12Speaker 5: here on OTB. Missouri linebacker looking forward to a fun
- 23:17Speaker 5: season there in como. All right, we're getting ready to
- 23:21Speaker 5: step away, but don't you worry. We've got much more,
- 23:25Speaker 5: thank you, sir, got much more coming your way here
- 23:27Speaker 5: from Tampa, Florida.
- 23:29Speaker 4: That defensive coordinator he was talking about was Blake Baker.
- 23:32Speaker 1: Yeah he was. He's already.
- 23:35Speaker 5: Yeah, you can't have him, Nicholas, Sorry, Bud, sorry about it.
- 23:38Speaker 4: All right, we'll take a break.
- 23:39Speaker 5: We've got more OTV coming right back your way when
- 23:42Speaker 5: we jump back here live from Tampa, Florida.
- 23:45Speaker 4: Off the bench, all right, go see our friends over
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- 24:05Speaker 4: That is not the case with Bathfitter.
- 24:07Speaker 5: You are going to definitely get one day turnaround.
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- 24:49Speaker 2: Them live from the twenty twenty six SEC Football Media
- 24:53Speaker 2: Days in Tampa presented by FMOL Health. Our Lady of
- 24:57Speaker 2: the Lake relief windows rev Fiber and there is construction
- 25:00Speaker 2: and roofing.
- 25:12Speaker 1: All right.
- 25:13Speaker 5: Welcome back in OTV here live from SEC Media Days, Tampa, Florida,
- 25:18Speaker 5: and of course our SEC Media Day coverage is presented
- 25:20Speaker 5: by f m ol Health, our Lady of the Lake Parish,
- 25:23Speaker 5: Construction and Roofing, Relief, Windows and Rev Fiber.
- 25:28Speaker 4: We are back.
- 25:29Speaker 5: We just had a great conversation with Nicholas Rodriguez, linebacker
- 25:33Speaker 5: there from Missouri. We are going to now be joined
- 25:36Speaker 5: by the Peach Bowl President and CEO, David Epps. David,
- 25:40Speaker 5: we appreciate it, thanks for hopping on, guys. Obviously we
- 25:44Speaker 5: had you know, we've had Gary on in the past,
- 25:46Speaker 5: and so actually I think we've had Gary on every
- 25:50Speaker 5: every year that we've been here. So we are very
- 25:52Speaker 5: excited to welcome you to the show.
- 25:53Speaker 3: Now.
- 25:53Speaker 5: Now you've got to commit to eight years, though I
- 25:55Speaker 5: think Gary came on for eight years in a row,
- 25:57Speaker 5: so I'll treat that whatever is always compete like that,
- 26:02Speaker 5: that's all right, go for nine. So all right, tell
- 26:05Speaker 5: us about just the whirlwind probably that has been for
- 26:08Speaker 5: you taking over the Peach Bowl obviously one of our
- 26:10Speaker 5: favorite bowl games. Matt and I had an opportunity to
- 26:13Speaker 5: play in a Peach Bowl and it was a great
- 26:16Speaker 5: memory and hopefully we can get it into some of
- 26:17Speaker 5: those memories. But just for you, what it's been like,
- 26:20Speaker 5: you know, over the last couple of months.
- 26:22Speaker 8: Well, I'll tell you. For me, it's been a sort
- 26:23Speaker 8: of a dream come true. I'm I mean, I'm sure,
- 26:25Speaker 8: I'm like you guys. I didn't play college, but I've
- 26:28Speaker 8: always loved football. Started as an intern at the Peach
- 26:32Speaker 8: Bowl in nineteen ninety four. So this is sort of
- 26:34Speaker 8: a realization of a dream for me to be able
- 26:36Speaker 8: to we love what bowl games have always done for
- 26:39Speaker 8: student athletes in our community, and for me to be
- 26:41Speaker 8: able to finally be in the big chair just means
- 26:44Speaker 8: I get to put my stamp on it and we
- 26:45Speaker 8: continue to make really positive things happen for the city
- 26:48Speaker 8: of Atlanta and also for the college football playoff.
- 26:51Speaker 6: Yeah.
- 26:51Speaker 1: So you start as an intern that ninety four tho,
- 26:54Speaker 1: which is ninety four.
- 26:55Speaker 6: That's incredible.
- 26:56Speaker 8: I was only ten at the time before obvious.
- 27:00Speaker 1: So tell us about kind of your your career to
- 27:02Speaker 1: this point and how you got back involved into kind
- 27:06Speaker 1: of running the whole running the whole show at the Peachball.
- 27:08Speaker 8: Well, I tell you, I came out of grad school
- 27:11Speaker 8: at the University of Georgia and needed an internship and
- 27:14Speaker 8: started selling tickets, as a lot of people in the sports.
- 27:17Speaker 4: Business do so.
- 27:18Speaker 8: Over the I've always said, over thirty two years, I
- 27:21Speaker 8: basically have done every job in our company, and they
- 27:25Speaker 8: either had to promote me or fire me, and they
- 27:28Speaker 8: made the right decision. But I've always had my eye
- 27:30Speaker 8: on this. I've always as a business professional, I've always
- 27:33Speaker 8: sort of conducted myself with an eye on the prize.
- 27:37Speaker 8: You know, whatever we all do, right, we like to compete.
- 27:40Speaker 8: We like to try to be the best.
- 27:41Speaker 6: In our business.
- 27:42Speaker 8: And that's always been the goal for me, was to
- 27:44Speaker 8: prove in whatever role I had, whatever relationships I built,
- 27:48Speaker 8: that I deserved the shot to be in the chair,
- 27:50Speaker 8: and you know, I'm thankful it finally happened.
- 27:54Speaker 1: All right.
- 27:54Speaker 5: Now, You've got a kickoff game between Baylor and Auburn
- 27:58Speaker 5: coming up.
- 27:59Speaker 1: That's now kind of a fun little opening it is.
- 28:03Speaker 5: And obviously you know Auburn's going to be that's pretty
- 28:05Speaker 5: easy for their fan base to get there.
- 28:07Speaker 4: We know the Baylor fan base travels well.
- 28:09Speaker 5: We played them in a Texas Bowl was that two
- 28:11Speaker 5: years ago? And obviously that was a sold out game
- 28:14Speaker 5: between LSU and Baylor.
- 28:15Speaker 4: So they're going to travel. Well, kind of talk.
- 28:17Speaker 5: About that matchup, how that matchup came together and kind
- 28:20Speaker 5: of what you're expecting.
- 28:21Speaker 8: Well, we're excited. You're exactly right. It's an intriguing matchup.
- 28:25Speaker 8: It's our afflic kickoff game, which we subtitle Kickoff for
- 28:29Speaker 8: a Cause because everything we're doing is to support childhood
- 28:32Speaker 8: cancer awareness and treatment. So because September is childhood cancer
- 28:36Speaker 8: Awareness month. So the game itself we put together. It
- 28:40Speaker 8: was originally going to be an Auburn home game. Okay, yeah,
- 28:43Speaker 8: you know so because they went to Waco last year,
- 28:45Speaker 8: that's right. And we talked to Auburn and what we
- 28:48Speaker 8: realized was there was a chance to take the game
- 28:50Speaker 8: out of Auburn, bring it to Atlanta, and put it
- 28:53Speaker 8: on a little bit of an elevated stage being in
- 28:55Speaker 8: the national neutral site game, you know, Labor Day, Saturday, ABC,
- 29:00Speaker 8: the middle of the afternoon. And the wrinkle is we
- 29:05Speaker 8: and Auburn work together to realize what if we actually
- 29:08Speaker 8: engaged some legitimate as intended in il in this thing.
- 29:13Speaker 8: So part of what we would pay for a guarantee
- 29:16Speaker 8: for a team to come play in our game, we're
- 29:19Speaker 8: going to use to actually engage the student athletes to
- 29:22Speaker 8: help us promote ticket sales, the viewership of the game,
- 29:26Speaker 8: and even fan information and event attendant. So it's really
- 29:31Speaker 8: a good way for to me, it's in il as
- 29:34Speaker 8: it was intended. It's using the name, image and likeness
- 29:37Speaker 8: of the student athletes to help us market the affly
- 29:40Speaker 8: kickoff game, right.
- 29:42Speaker 1: And so that some of that money circulates back to
- 29:45Speaker 1: the university.
- 29:47Speaker 8: Well, no, this money is going to go directly to
- 29:50Speaker 8: the student athletes.
- 29:51Speaker 6: Oh okay, yeahtastic?
- 29:53Speaker 8: So I mean there there, when it's all said and done,
- 29:56Speaker 8: there could be some you know, there's a basic pod
- 29:59Speaker 8: of money we agreed to with Auburn that they would
- 30:02Speaker 8: get for playing in our game, and a percentage of
- 30:06Speaker 8: that will go directly into NIL.
- 30:09Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, it's the NIL world is so fascinating, especially
- 30:13Speaker 1: at this point because the rules are still being developed.
- 30:16Speaker 6: They're still being made, and they and.
- 30:18Speaker 1: The ways to use the rules are certainly being you
- 30:22Speaker 1: are still figured out right now. So to be able
- 30:24Speaker 1: to kind of stay cutting edge and find ways is
- 30:29Speaker 1: very unique and always intrigue to me, like, how are
- 30:31Speaker 1: we how can we benefit from this NIL and do
- 30:34Speaker 1: it the right way? And it sounds like that's exactly
- 30:36Speaker 1: what y'all are doing. Well, you hit on it exactly.
- 30:38Speaker 8: There's so many everybody's taken their different approach, and everybody's
- 30:42Speaker 8: trying to work within the rules. We're very careful and
- 30:45Speaker 8: cautious to make sure from a legal standpoint, working within
- 30:48Speaker 8: CSC to get things approved that we tried to do. What,
- 30:53Speaker 8: like I said, is legit in IL and if the
- 30:56Speaker 8: student athletes can benefit and they've provided us this marketing
- 31:00Speaker 8: measurable marketing benefits, you know why not? That was the
- 31:03Speaker 8: intention of an eye all along, and of course that
- 31:05Speaker 8: may be completely different this.
- 31:06Speaker 1: Time next year. Well I should we all know what
- 31:09Speaker 1: the spirit event? Yeah, it was supposed to be.
- 31:11Speaker 7: Yeah.
- 31:12Speaker 1: I was always like that, you know, it remains to
- 31:14Speaker 1: be sick.
- 31:14Speaker 5: Yeah, Matt, it was why when David sat down, he
- 31:17Speaker 5: was like, yeah, two thousand and five Peach Bowl, they
- 31:19Speaker 5: gave the MVP trophy to the wrong guy.
- 31:21Speaker 4: And I was like, who you telling no doubt about it?
- 31:23Speaker 4: That's what he said. I heard it. I have it recorded.
- 31:26Speaker 1: Yeah, Well, I'm not a couple of guys here.
- 31:29Speaker 8: I mean we had a one hundred and ninety six
- 31:31Speaker 8: passing yard, seventy rushing yards. You guys accounted for a
- 31:33Speaker 8: lot of that off that South day.
- 31:35Speaker 5: So that was that was a fun day for us
- 31:37Speaker 5: because mag got a chance.
- 31:38Speaker 4: That was the first start.
- 31:41Speaker 5: Yeah, and then for me, I was telling you like
- 31:42Speaker 5: I was a fullback that entire year.
- 31:45Speaker 4: And then we had some injuries.
- 31:46Speaker 5: We had some guys miss assignments, and Lessa's kind of
- 31:49Speaker 5: looking on the sideline like grabs me. It's like get
- 31:51Speaker 5: in there, tell back, and I'm like, oh, hell yeah,
- 31:53Speaker 5: let me go do some of that. And we were
- 31:56Speaker 5: running behind like a really good offensive line too, And
- 31:59Speaker 5: so it was that game was.
- 32:00Speaker 4: A lot of fun.
- 32:02Speaker 5: It was a top ten matchup, it was, and Miami
- 32:05Speaker 5: was a good team until the game started.
- 32:07Speaker 8: Yeah, you guys humbled Miami that day. That was a
- 32:09Speaker 8: forty to three final and just a beat down.
- 32:13Speaker 6: Yeah, you know your stuff for sure.
- 32:16Speaker 8: I tried to keep them separated, that's right.
- 32:18Speaker 6: Yeah, that was.
- 32:19Speaker 1: That was a fun day and a big day for
- 32:20Speaker 1: I meane a huge moment for myself personally, but for
- 32:24Speaker 1: the team. I mean, that was that team, you know, five.
- 32:27Speaker 1: I would put it up against probably any other team
- 32:31Speaker 1: that we had, right.
- 32:32Speaker 5: So, David, if you remember, we didn't really have a
- 32:35Speaker 5: bye week that year because of Hurricane Katrina. Right, So
- 32:39Speaker 5: we were supposed to start against I think North Texas
- 32:41Speaker 5: maybe at home. That game got canceled. We were supposed
- 32:44Speaker 5: to play Arizona State at home. That game got moved
- 32:47Speaker 5: out to Tempe, Arizona the week of the game, so
- 32:49Speaker 5: we played there. We played Tennessee like on a Monday
- 32:51Speaker 5: night because of another hurricane, so we didn't have a
- 32:54Speaker 5: bye week, and so we got to the SEC championship
- 32:57Speaker 5: game that year, but we were on fumes, no bye
- 32:59Speaker 5: weeks right to the championship game in Georgia beat US
- 33:01Speaker 5: and so it was one of those situations where we
- 33:04Speaker 5: could have played the seventy two Dolphins and it wouldn't
- 33:07Speaker 5: have mattered.
- 33:07Speaker 4: Like we were rested up, we were mad at how.
- 33:09Speaker 5: We performed in the SEC Championship game, and Miami just.
- 33:12Speaker 4: Kind of caught the brunt up it.
- 33:13Speaker 8: I'll tell you this, We've always loved an opportunity to
- 33:17Speaker 8: host LSU. It doesn't matter. I mean, I've been around
- 33:20Speaker 8: thirty two years. We've had you guys, great years. We've
- 33:23Speaker 8: had you guys maybe not so great years. The teams,
- 33:26Speaker 8: the coach, the fan base.
- 33:29Speaker 1: You guys know it.
- 33:30Speaker 6: But for people outside of LSU.
- 33:31Speaker 8: There's nothing like the LSU sports and football culture.
- 33:36Speaker 1: Well, I know LSU fans love it too, because it's
- 33:38Speaker 1: one of three places that batoner'ge Airport flies to.
- 33:40Speaker 6: This so it's really nice for us.
- 33:44Speaker 4: That's very true.
- 33:46Speaker 1: We started talking about the kickoff game this year Baylor
- 33:49Speaker 1: and Auburn, and I was wondering, how did those games
- 33:51Speaker 1: come together? Like we always see these, you know, so
- 33:54Speaker 1: and so schedule a home a home and home with
- 33:56Speaker 1: what for nine years in the future. Yeah, And I'm like, oh, well,
- 34:00Speaker 1: don't tell me, now, tell me like the year before
- 34:02Speaker 1: and whatever.
- 34:03Speaker 6: How do these games?
- 34:04Speaker 1: Are they already scheduled games and that both teams just
- 34:07Speaker 1: agreed to do a neutral site or is this something
- 34:09Speaker 1: that's planned out years ahead of time.
- 34:11Speaker 7: There is no single model.
- 34:12Speaker 8: I'll tell you, going back ten years, fifteen years, it
- 34:15Speaker 8: was just a matter of finding. You know, you ran
- 34:18Speaker 8: into Nick at Sez Media days, you ran into Dabbo
- 34:21Speaker 8: and you said, hey, would you guys be willing to
- 34:23Speaker 8: play each other?
- 34:24Speaker 1: Right?
- 34:24Speaker 8: And they were both in the mentality of anywhere, any place, anytime, anybody.
- 34:30Speaker 8: And that was back when maybe losing that game at
- 34:33Speaker 8: the beginning of the season didn't necessarily cripple your season.
- 34:36Speaker 8: The strength of schedule ended up helping you.
- 34:39Speaker 4: Now it's a little tougher. Yeah.
- 34:43Speaker 8: Number one, the conferences going to the nine conference games
- 34:46Speaker 8: reduces the amount of inventory that a team has to
- 34:50Speaker 8: even consider doing a neutral site.
- 34:52Speaker 4: Two, everybody's putting.
- 34:54Speaker 8: In so much money on their home experience, right LSU, Florida,
- 34:59Speaker 8: Georgia piling money in to make sure that when fans
- 35:02Speaker 8: come to Baton Rouge, there's nothing like it, and the
- 35:06Speaker 8: university can get the majority of the revenue from it
- 35:08Speaker 8: because they need it. So it's tougher and tougher to
- 35:12Speaker 8: put them together. So you have to find things like
- 35:14Speaker 8: the nil angle to get creative. And what's really going
- 35:18Speaker 8: to happen, I think is you're going to find most
- 35:20Speaker 8: of these neutral site games are going to dry up,
- 35:22Speaker 8: but you're going to have some big blockbusters here and there.
- 35:25Speaker 8: As the two the conferences going to nine games is
- 35:28Speaker 8: finally playing itself out. You're going to see some home
- 35:31Speaker 8: and homes that neither schedule can accommodate anymore, and they're
- 35:36Speaker 8: going to say, well, let's just melt this into a
- 35:38Speaker 8: neutral site three or four years down the road.
- 35:42Speaker 4: So it's going to be challenging.
- 35:45Speaker 8: But in Atlanta, we feel like we're we unabashedly say
- 35:48Speaker 8: we're the capitol of college football. We're going to keep
- 35:50Speaker 8: fighting for the Hall of Fame there and we're going
- 35:52Speaker 8: to try to fill that Labor Day weekend anytime we can.
- 35:56Speaker 8: And Baylor Auburn, it's a really interesting one just because
- 36:00Speaker 8: nobody's expecting conference championships out of those two teams, but
- 36:05Speaker 8: I don't think anybody's realizing the upside that they have.
- 36:09Speaker 5: It's gonna be the first opportunity for Auburn fans to
- 36:11Speaker 5: see goalish to their new head coach, which that's always exciting,
- 36:15Speaker 5: no doubt it.
- 36:16Speaker 8: And you know, and Randa brought it lagway in had
- 36:19Speaker 8: a good portal, so it's you know, I'm not saying
- 36:22Speaker 8: these guys are being competing for the championship, but it's
- 36:24Speaker 8: one of only four P four versus P four matchups
- 36:28Speaker 8: of Week one. And you always argue about data points
- 36:31Speaker 8: between you know, the Big Ten, the Big twelve with
- 36:34Speaker 8: the ACC and it'll be interesting to say, two teams
- 36:37Speaker 8: who are more or less at the same position within
- 36:40Speaker 8: their conferences, how do they match up?
- 36:43Speaker 5: David, what's the rotation for the Peach Bowl now expanded playoff.
- 36:46Speaker 5: What did the next couple of years look like for
- 36:49Speaker 5: the Chick fil A Peach Bowl?
- 36:50Speaker 8: We are this year where January first quarterfinal, and then
- 36:54Speaker 8: the same thing next year January first quarterfinal, and then
- 36:56Speaker 8: we'll be a semi the year following, so we're we're
- 37:00Speaker 8: in partnership with the Fiesta, so we do quarter quarter semi,
- 37:05Speaker 8: quarter quarter semi over the next six years.
- 37:07Speaker 6: Got it.
- 37:08Speaker 1: What's your opinion on playoff expansion? Where do you think
- 37:11Speaker 1: it should kind of are we at the honey like
- 37:15Speaker 1: the sweet spot right now? Or you know, it's hard
- 37:18Speaker 1: to say. It's anybody's guess. Everybody loves a game that
- 37:20Speaker 1: really really matters and it's for you know, winner go
- 37:23Speaker 1: home type situation. But there's a certain point in college
- 37:26Speaker 1: football different than other sports that you know, it might
- 37:29Speaker 1: be a little too much, But what do you think
- 37:30Speaker 1: that sweet spot is? Well?
- 37:32Speaker 8: For me, it's all about having a playoff that rewards
- 37:36Speaker 8: and recognizes the elite teams.
- 37:38Speaker 4: To me, that's what a playoff should be.
- 37:41Speaker 8: I mean, you guys played, so you probably have a
- 37:43Speaker 8: better understanding of what makes a team elite. So the
- 37:47Speaker 8: only thing I want is a playoff that doesn't dilute
- 37:50Speaker 8: the regular season so much that people are going, oh,
- 37:53Speaker 8: we can lose three games and we're okay. That's never
- 37:56Speaker 8: been what college football is. It's more of a pro model, right,
- 38:00Speaker 8: So my hope is if it ends up it, I mean,
- 38:03Speaker 8: I like twelve twelve works for us.
- 38:05Speaker 4: Any of them will work for us.
- 38:06Speaker 8: We and the other five playoff balls can make it work.
- 38:10Speaker 8: I just don't want anything that undermines what makes college football,
- 38:15Speaker 8: in my opinion, the greatest game in the world.
- 38:17Speaker 4: There's nothing like it.
- 38:19Speaker 8: And if we dilute the regular season and make it
- 38:22Speaker 8: you know, diet NFL, I think we've done the whole
- 38:26Speaker 8: enterprise of this service. So smarter people than me, we'll
- 38:29Speaker 8: figure out where the line is that teams on this
- 38:32Speaker 8: side are elite.
- 38:36Speaker 1: Maybe that's very nice of you to say.
- 38:40Speaker 5: Well, David Weacher truly appreciate the time, Glad.
- 38:44Speaker 4: Look, you're one of at least nine. There you go,
- 38:47Speaker 4: you committed to nine.
- 38:48Speaker 1: It in.
- 38:49Speaker 8: I'm going to put them on my calendar today and
- 38:51Speaker 8: appreciate you guys, and I'll give you a good go tigers,
- 38:54Speaker 8: good luck with the seasons.
- 38:55Speaker 5: Thank you appreciated, all right, David f CEO, President of
- 38:58Speaker 5: the Peach Bowl. Good enough to join us here on OTB,
- 39:01Speaker 5: will take a break. We've got more coming right back
- 39:03Speaker 5: your way here live from Tampa.
- 39:05Speaker 4: Off the bench, all right, go to Russellpools dot com.
- 39:10Speaker 4: That is a website for Russell pool a company. If
- 39:13Speaker 4: you want a dream in your backyard, go work with
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- 40:10Speaker 2: Live from the twenty twenty six SEC Football Media Days
- 40:14Speaker 2: in Tampa, presented by FMOL Health our Lady of the
- 40:17Speaker 2: Lake Relief Windows, Red Fiber and Farrish Construction and Roofing.
- 40:28Speaker 9: Just all right, welcome back Game No TV here live
- 40:51Speaker 9: from Tampa, Florida.
- 40:54Speaker 1: Ooh boy, we're sporty. Whoa, whoa, that's two real sports
- 40:59Speaker 1: interviews are out there.
- 41:01Speaker 5: I mean, Nicholas Rodriguez from Missouri David Epps.
- 41:04Speaker 4: From the Peach Bowl. What are they trying to do?
- 41:06Speaker 4: Make this a sports show?
- 41:07Speaker 1: Yeah?
- 41:08Speaker 6: If we're not careful, whoa.
- 41:10Speaker 4: It's is sports adjacent?
- 41:13Speaker 1: Oh man, this is good stuff, though, this is good stuff.
- 41:16Speaker 1: I told you before the show started. Not a lot
- 41:21Speaker 1: of nostrils get in touched with oxygen this week around
- 41:24Speaker 1: these parts.
- 41:25Speaker 4: Would that make Would that make this a room full
- 41:27Speaker 4: of mouth breathers?
- 41:28Speaker 1: I think so? All right?
- 41:32Speaker 4: Yeah?
- 41:32Speaker 5: Uh my guy Cole Cublock, who's right behind us over there.
- 41:37Speaker 4: He always so he's in the cards like Flynn and I.
- 41:40Speaker 5: He always when he sees me, brings me a stack
- 41:42Speaker 5: of only like fullbacks are like big backs. So shout
- 41:47Speaker 5: out to Cole Cuban. I've got Rob Conrad. I don't
- 41:49Speaker 5: know if you remember and played Syracuse play for the Dolphins.
- 41:51Speaker 5: I've got Ron Daane here and that guy was pretty good.
- 41:55Speaker 5: And then like in the middle of this, it's nothing
- 41:57Speaker 5: but Mike Alstock.
- 41:58Speaker 6: Well, you got multiple all Stars, I.
- 42:00Speaker 4: Mean like thirty of them.
- 42:01Speaker 6: Hold the phone.
- 42:02Speaker 4: I know those are worth a lot to me.
- 42:05Speaker 1: Like if y'all could see this, I think it's a
- 42:08Speaker 1: I think it's a Crown royal card. Yeah, Ron Dame,
- 42:11Speaker 1: like I don't think of larger humans ever run like
- 42:15Speaker 1: these are old school elbow pads.
- 42:18Speaker 6: Ye, neck roll you've ever seen?
- 42:21Speaker 1: My god?
- 42:22Speaker 5: Yeah, Ron Dame was not shying away from contact there, Bud.
- 42:25Speaker 1: Tell you what, I'm glad I didn't play defense in
- 42:28Speaker 1: the NFL when he was. When he was rolling, I
- 42:31Speaker 1: would have been chopping some ankles down.
- 42:33Speaker 5: We are going to go to a card shop, met
- 42:35Speaker 5: you and Cole?
- 42:36Speaker 6: Yeah, absolutely.
- 42:37Speaker 1: I was actually looking him up yesterday on where anything
- 42:42Speaker 1: close by was. So it looks like we'll be taking
- 42:45Speaker 1: a pretty lengthy uber rah to think.
- 42:48Speaker 4: Sorry, I mean, he can't be that far.
- 42:51Speaker 1: I got a couple. There's probably a couple of Star
- 42:53Speaker 1: Wars boxes with my name on it right now.
- 42:55Speaker 4: At my house.
- 42:57Speaker 1: Those are cards moving for boxes, buddy. But my daughter
- 43:05Speaker 1: two zata into last week, so they've got they're into
- 43:08Speaker 1: like all these you know, we've talked about the squishies
- 43:11Speaker 1: and fidgets and now they're like these rare ones whatever.
- 43:14Speaker 1: They think. They're like these amazing collectibles. Yeah, like old
- 43:17Speaker 1: school beanie babies.
- 43:18Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, yeah, gotta put the tag protectors on those puppies.
- 43:21Speaker 6: You gotta put the tag protectors.
- 43:23Speaker 1: There's gonna be, you know, some there's gonna be probably
- 43:25Speaker 1: some random divorce trial sessions where people are separating. There
- 43:30Speaker 1: they're dumpling squishies.
- 43:33Speaker 5: Judge, I bought that dumpling me me.
- 43:38Speaker 1: She gets the rare one with the glitters on it.
- 43:41Speaker 1: But she comes up to me, she's like, dad, don't
- 43:43Speaker 1: think I want to get into Pokemon now. I'm like, oh,
- 43:45Speaker 1: woh boy, I don't know, like I don't know anything
- 43:47Speaker 1: about it.
- 43:49Speaker 6: They all look the same to me. Yeah, but sure, baby.
- 43:52Speaker 5: To be fair though, you probably didn't know anything about
- 43:54Speaker 5: Star Wars before you started doing this.
- 43:56Speaker 1: I didn't know anything about any of the cards, so
- 43:59Speaker 1: you're right. I don't know if I really want to learn, true,
- 44:02Speaker 1: but I will.
- 44:03Speaker 4: You're gonna have to though. That's my baby, That's what
- 44:06Speaker 4: I'm saying.
- 44:07Speaker 1: Baby.
- 44:07Speaker 4: Once baby gets if she's already asked, you're already in.
- 44:10Speaker 1: And so might even go to that card shop here
- 44:13Speaker 1: in Tampa this week and bring her home a Pokemon box.
- 44:17Speaker 4: Man, a box, not a pack. Can't you have money?
- 44:23Speaker 1: Well, and you like to open just a pack? Oh
- 44:27Speaker 1: you want to open a box of those things? Yeah?
- 44:30Speaker 5: Yeah, starting to buzz a little bit.
- 44:32Speaker 6: Yeah, it's a little bit, little bit.
- 44:35Speaker 1: Give me the give me the schedule, the day to
- 44:39Speaker 1: day's schedule. So four teams every single day, yep, of course,
- 44:43Speaker 1: and so they're going to kind of waterfall trickle in
- 44:46Speaker 1: throughout the day. But I feel like I've seen more
- 44:48Speaker 1: than three players kind of walking around here that which
- 44:52Speaker 1: would mean two players or two teams.
- 44:54Speaker 5: Uh yeah, So I mean they kind of get here
- 44:57Speaker 5: around the same time.
- 44:59Speaker 4: But the schedule, I'm it's a little stair stepping, but
- 45:01Speaker 4: not a lot.
- 45:02Speaker 5: And then you'll have you know there's gonna be half
- 45:06Speaker 5: of them are over there, like in the serious XM,
- 45:09Speaker 5: CBS sports like that's across the hall, and then they
- 45:13Speaker 5: kind of rotate and then they'll come into here a
- 45:15Speaker 5: little bit, and then they'll go up to the podium
- 45:17Speaker 5: in the main room.
- 45:18Speaker 1: Right.
- 45:18Speaker 5: So it's like just a little cycle of trying to
- 45:21Speaker 5: shuffle people in and out, and everything's scheduled.
- 45:24Speaker 4: And that's why you see.
- 45:25Speaker 5: Like the handlers like if you go longer than like
- 45:27Speaker 5: your ten minute and a lotment time, they start giving
- 45:28Speaker 5: you like the crazy eyes.
- 45:31Speaker 1: Whoa, yeah, yeah, she was getting little nervous while you
- 45:33Speaker 1: were talking to Nick earlier.
- 45:36Speaker 5: See, but I did learn, so I learned from my
- 45:38Speaker 5: new co host Pat Kerwin at these events, and it's
- 45:42Speaker 5: a savvyvet move. If you turn your back to the handler,
- 45:46Speaker 5: they can't make you break.
- 45:49Speaker 6: That's a really good point because.
- 45:50Speaker 4: You can't see them and then they can't get mad
- 45:51Speaker 4: at you.
- 45:52Speaker 5: You just turn your back to them, and when they
- 45:55Speaker 5: do the like the rapid up, oh, I have to
- 45:58Speaker 5: because his handler is the best and she's gonna be
- 46:01Speaker 5: on time, and we're on time. To take a break
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- 46:51Speaker 1: Go to the website buyautomotive dot com. You can do
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