Latest / The Heisman Hopefuls Podcast / Kentucky RB Ray Davis

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Kentucky RB Ray Davis · The Heisman Hopefuls Podcast

0:00
SPEAKER_07: Welcome to the official highest trophy podcast.
0:32
SPEAKER_01: Here's your host, Chris Houston.
0:35
SPEAKER_01: Welcome back to another episode of the official Heisman Trophy podcast.
0:39
SPEAKER_01: Thanks for joining us.
0:40
SPEAKER_01: We are headed into the second week of October, and the plot is beginning to thicken in the Heisman race.
0:46
SPEAKER_01: We've got some high-profile matchups coming this Saturday involving top 10 teams, the kind of games that Heisman voters really pay close attention to.
0:54
SPEAKER_01: So without a doubt, I think all eyes this weekend will be on Oregon and Washington, USC and Notre Dame, LSU and Auburn, among others.
1:01
SPEAKER_01: And we're getting to the point in the season where Heisman hopefuls, who are maybe dark horses out there, are probably going to need to start making their move.
1:08
SPEAKER_01: And we're going to be talking to one of those Heisman Dark Horses to kick off the episode.
1:12
SPEAKER_01: Running back Ray Davis of Kentucky will be joining us.
1:15
SPEAKER_01: In our second segment, we'll be talking to 1978 Heisman Trophy winner out of the University of Oklahoma, Billy Sims.
1:21
SPEAKER_01: And we'll close things out with the 2018 High School Heisman Trophy winner, a remarkable young man named Sanjay Chala.
1:28
SPEAKER_01: But before we get into our guests for this week, let's check in on the latest happenings in the Heisman World.
1:35
SPEAKER_07: It's the Heisman Relgum, week six.
1:52
SPEAKER_01: Two clutch performances from each game really stood out.
1:56
SPEAKER_01: We have to lead with Dylan Gabriel's gutty play that lifted Oklahoma to a last second, 34-30 win over Texas in the final Red River showdown under the Big 12 flag.
2:05
SPEAKER_01: The senior quarterback posted 398 total yards with 285 passing and 113 on the ground, including one rushing score.
2:13
SPEAKER_01: Gabriel only threw for one touchdown, but it was one Sooner fans will not forget as he capped a five-play, 75-yard drive with this three-yard touchdown pass to Nick Anderson with 15 seconds left for the game's clinching score.
2:27
SPEAKER_07: Gabriel.
3:10
SPEAKER_02: I know I haven't ran this year much.
3:15
SPEAKER_02: But you gotta do whatever you gotta do to win the game.
3:17
SPEAKER_02: It doesn't matter whether it's me running, whether it's me passing for 400, whether it's me running for 200, and um, you know, handing the ball off, having good play fakes.
3:25
SPEAKER_02: Um, just just doing my job.
3:27
SPEAKER_02: Whatever it takes to win the game.
3:29
SPEAKER_02: That's all.
3:30
SPEAKER_02: That's all that really matters at the end of the day.
3:35
SPEAKER_01: Our next three performances featured some brilliant play without the last second heart palpitations.
3:40
SPEAKER_01: North Carolina quarterback Drake May has quietly led the Tar Heels to a 5-0 start behind an arm averaging 325 yards a game, fourth best nationally.
3:49
SPEAKER_01: Saturday, he passed for a whopping 442 yards and three scores and a 40-7 victory over Syracuse, and he also ran for 55 yards and his fourth rushing score of the year.
3:59
SPEAKER_01: This 77-yard TD strike to wide out Kobe Pesor wasn't May's best pass, but when you're hot, good things happen.
4:43
SPEAKER_07: There's a direct snap to Bidell.
4:45
SPEAKER_07: He's got space to run.
4:47
SPEAKER_07: Can anybody catch him?
4:49
SPEAKER_07: No, they can now, and Fidel now way over 200 yards rushing.
4:56
SPEAKER_01: We close things out with wide receiver and Heisman Trophy Podcast September guest Marvin Harrison Jr., who posted his best numbers of the season in Ohio State's 37-17 win over unbeaten Maryland.
5:07
SPEAKER_01: The Buckeye Jr.
5:08
SPEAKER_01: turned in season highs with eight receptions for 163 yards, including a much-needed 37-yard over-the-shoulder catch on second and 33 early in the fourth quarter.
5:18
SPEAKER_01: On the following drive, he came through with this 17-yard scoring catch that gave OSU some late breathing room.
5:24
SPEAKER_07: Third down and 10.
5:25
SPEAKER_07: McCord sets up over the middle again.
5:29
SPEAKER_07: This time it'll stand.
5:31
SPEAKER_07: Marvelous.
5:33
SPEAKER_07: Marvin Harrison.
5:46
SPEAKER_01: Tickets to the 2023 Heisman Trophy Dinner Gala are now on sale.
5:50
SPEAKER_01: The event takes place in New York City on Sunday, December 10th, the day after the Heisman Trophy ceremony.
5:55
SPEAKER_01: The guest of honor for the gala is the 2023 Heisman Trophy winner, as well as the 50th anniversary winner John Capoletti, the 25th anniversary winner Ricky Williams, and the 10th anniversary winner Jameis Winston.
6:07
SPEAKER_01: Plus, we'll also be honoring the 2023 Heisman Humanitarian Award winner.
6:11
SPEAKER_01: Just go to Heisman.com to purchase tickets and witness Heisman history.
6:16
SPEAKER_01: Our first guest on today's show leads the SEC in rushing.
6:20
SPEAKER_01: He's a senior who started his college career at Temple, and then he moved on to Vanderbilt, and now he is at the University of Kentucky.
6:27
SPEAKER_01: Through six games, he's got 653 yards rushing on 91 carries, a 7.2 average with eight touchdowns on the ground.
6:34
SPEAKER_01: He's also caught 13 passes for 182 yards, another four touchdowns.
6:38
SPEAKER_01: His 12 total touchdowns leads the nation.
6:41
SPEAKER_01: At 5'10, 216 pounds, he's a thickly built, explosive running back with over 3,000 career yards.
6:47
SPEAKER_01: And he's got an inspiring backstory.
6:49
SPEAKER_01: As recently told to Pat Forte of Sports Illustrated, he has overcome many obstacles to get to where he is now.
6:56
SPEAKER_01: His Wildcats are 5-1 and getting ready to take on Missouri on Saturday.
7:00
SPEAKER_01: So Ray Davis, thanks for coming on the official Heisman Trophy Podcast.
7:04
SPEAKER_05: Appreciate that.
7:04
SPEAKER_05: Thank you for having me.
7:05
SPEAKER_01: So how's life in Lexington treating you?
7:08
SPEAKER_05: It's treating me good, you know.
7:10
SPEAKER_05: Feeling like a little superstar here and there after the Florida game.
7:13
SPEAKER_05: Um, but you know, I've just been loving it.
7:15
SPEAKER_06: You know, it's it's very quiet.
7:16
SPEAKER_06: Uh, you know, the fan base is and one of a kind, so it's just about, you know, trying to be consistent and just enjoying the small victories and the small moments around here.
7:24
SPEAKER_01: Of course, Kentucky is best known for basketball, but the football team is five and one.
7:28
SPEAKER_01: Are you guys starting to get your due respect and recognition around town?
7:32
SPEAKER_06: Uh I I I mean, our football team's always been getting recognition, you know, with uh what they've been able to do in the past, but you know, definitely um just you know, I th I think getting the Florida game was was big just for the culture and just for the history of what that rivalry's been.
7:45
SPEAKER_06: So I think a lot of people were very happy about that for sure.
7:50
SPEAKER_01: UK is your uh third college destination.
7:52
SPEAKER_01: What's it like to come into a new program, you know, coming from the outside?
7:55
SPEAKER_06: It's definitely different.
7:56
SPEAKER_06: You know, you gotta learn the ins and outs of a program.
7:58
SPEAKER_06: You gotta kinda learn yourself again and who you can be around uh a lot of the guys.
8:03
SPEAKER_06: And I think when I came in, you know, I've said it before, but my first day here, I felt like I hadn't been here for three years.
8:09
SPEAKER_06: You know, the guys embraced me, you know, um, they treated me like family.
8:13
SPEAKER_06: And it it and and it and it was sad that you know I only have a year l year here, but you know, um I I've been able to have a a wonderful year so far and just have been around a great group of guys, and you know, I love these guys like they're my family.
8:25
SPEAKER_06: If I could invite all of them to my wedding, I would.
8:27
SPEAKER_06: So you know, just just being around this place and just this environment, you know, from top down from staff to you know the last person here, you know, everybody has a goal, everybody has ambitions, and you can just see it in the way that people approach their day and how they approach when they walk in the building.
8:43
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
8:43
SPEAKER_01: You're now leading the SEC in rushing.
8:45
SPEAKER_01: Is that what you envisioned coming to Kentucky and and what kind of goals did you set for yourself this year?
8:49
SPEAKER_06: I mean, yeah, for sure.
8:50
SPEAKER_06: Um, you know, I I would say I didn't I actually didn't set no goals.
8:54
SPEAKER_06: I actually had no no uh I I just was just coming in and ready to play, you know, and just to be able to prove everybody wrong.
9:01
SPEAKER_06: I think that was the biggest goal I would say was to be able to prove everybody wrong.
9:04
SPEAKER_06: And you know, I've always heard you can do it once in the SEC, but can you do it two times or can you be can you be that dominant factor again?
9:12
SPEAKER_06: So just going in and putting my head down and working, you know.
9:14
SPEAKER_06: I just I that that was the biggest thing I wanted to do was just prove that I can be a guy that many people can rely on and to go out there and be the best teammate I can and to just love the game once again.
9:25
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you sure showed that against Florida.
9:27
SPEAKER_01: 280 yards, averaged almost 11 yards per carry that day, scored four touchdowns.
9:32
SPEAKER_01: Were you just feeling it, or was it something else that led to your career?
9:35
SPEAKER_06: I'll be honest, it was it w it was my teammates.
9:38
SPEAKER_06: Every time I came back to the sideline, they just kept kept giving me juice, kept giving me energy to just keep going and keep going.
9:44
SPEAKER_06: And you know, once I fed off their energy, and every time I got there on the field, I just was like, all right, you know, if they need me to go do this, and I'm gonna go ahead and do this and put us in the best position to win.
9:56
SPEAKER_01: How would you describe your playing style as a running back and who has been your biggest influences or role models and developing that style?
10:03
SPEAKER_06: Yeah, um, you know, for me, I think what I can say that separates me from a lot of backs, but you know, in within the conference and even in the countries, I feel like I have a really good, really good IQ of the game, but also my vision.
10:15
SPEAKER_06: You know, I I I really look at, you know, safety rotations, I look at, you know, pre-snap, post-snap between the linebackers and just seeing how I can make certain cuts and seeing how I could, you know, set my blocks up in the best way possible.
10:28
SPEAKER_06: And I I think you know, there's a there's a lot of people who played a part in in the running back that I am today.
10:33
SPEAKER_06: And and I would give a you know a shout out to to my trainer back in Philadelphia, Brian uh Hare.
10:38
SPEAKER_06: You know, he's he's always been with me.
10:40
SPEAKER_06: We we uh we FaceTime a bunch, we hop on Zooms watching film, you know.
10:44
SPEAKER_06: He has been you know a huge, huge credit to just what I've been able to do as a running back.
10:50
SPEAKER_06: He he's always telling me things I need to get better at, what I what I can do, what I'm doing too much.
10:55
SPEAKER_06: And he always just reminds me to, you know, not try to get out of my comfort zone and and not try to put myself in a box and just understand that, you know, playing the game and just letting it come to me and being able to build on a game uh has always been something that I've been able to try to do and understand that not everything has to be a home run hitter, not everything has to be bouncing outside, you know, being able to accumulate those small yardages then turn into the big gains.
11:24
SPEAKER_01: You've uh had to learn three different systems.
11:26
SPEAKER_01: Yet you were at Temple and you and then you're at Vanderbilt, now you're at Kentucky.
11:30
SPEAKER_01: Did does in a way, does learning all the different offenses and terminologies and different styles, does that kind of help you overall, do you think, uh, with your football intelligence?
11:38
SPEAKER_01: Sure.
11:39
SPEAKER_06: I mean, I I've had three different OCs now, um, you know, three different three different uh offensive minds who who view the game very differently.
11:47
SPEAKER_06: Um from our first year, we were more of a spread in hurry tempo to, you know, being at Vandy, we were more slow it down and trying to figure out the best play to to get us ahead of the change.
11:57
SPEAKER_06: And I think being with Cohen now, just understanding the NFL mindset from him, understanding how he calls plays and knowing how to set things up and just you know, trying to I always try to say to be the quarterback of the running back room and to learn what the quarterback reads, you know, why he's checking plays, why he threw this router, you know, being on the same wavelength as him.
12:18
SPEAKER_06: So just understanding that, you know, this all can translate to an NFL um, you know, season and an NFL offense.
12:28
SPEAKER_01: When did you realize you wanted to be a running back?
12:30
SPEAKER_06: I'll be honest.
12:32
SPEAKER_06: Uh if I pulled up film from I mean, I still have Pop Warner film.
12:36
SPEAKER_06: I actually played quarterback when I was a pop in Pop Warner.
12:39
SPEAKER_06: I wanted to be the quarterback so bad, you know.
12:41
SPEAKER_06: I wanted to be the guy that everybody leaned on and that had the ball in his hands when when when the game was at, you know, on the on the line.
12:48
SPEAKER_06: And then I then I grew up and I realized I didn't have the height.
12:52
SPEAKER_06: So I I realized that uh I was really good at running the ball, but the height was going to be an issue.
12:56
SPEAKER_06: So I stuck at running back and my dad played it for so long.
13:00
SPEAKER_06: So it kind of was just in the generation of he did it, you know, why won't I do it?
13:04
SPEAKER_06: And I learned some traits from him.
13:06
SPEAKER_06: So definitely I think by the time I got to high school, um, I only played running back one time in high school, and that was my junior year.
13:13
SPEAKER_06: After that, I I played quarterback for my my senior year, and uh I just realized when I got to college I liked running the ball rather than having to call all the plays.
13:22
SPEAKER_01: Right.
13:22
SPEAKER_01: Do you have any pregame rituals or routines that you uh do before games?
13:26
SPEAKER_06: Uh I I call my trainer.
13:28
SPEAKER_06: Me and my trainer will sit on the phone.
13:29
SPEAKER_06: I'll sit at the end of the end zone on the goalpost, and um we'll just talk, you know, we'll we'll sit there and we'll talk about just life.
13:36
SPEAKER_06: You know, we we kind of try not to talk about football in that moment, you know.
13:40
SPEAKER_06: He tries to check in with me just about you know how my week was and how am I mentally prepared, just you know, going into a game or just how am I doing mentally.
13:48
SPEAKER_06: So we'll always talk, and after that I'll I always put on a couple songs and just really lock in.
13:53
SPEAKER_06: Um, you know, we we had a uh a mental performance coach at Vanderbilt, Kayleen Curry, and she was really big on just taking deep breaths and you know, controlling what you can control and you know focusing on what is in that moment and where your feet feet land.
14:09
SPEAKER_06: And so I always try to take a couple deep breaths and just close my eyes and and picture myself in a calm state.
14:17
SPEAKER_01: Sounds like uh Brian Hare has really been a huge influence on you.
14:20
SPEAKER_01: How did how did your whole relationship with him as your trainer get started?
14:23
SPEAKER_06: It was 2020, you know, during COVID and a lot of stuff was going on, and you know, me and him uh we had locked in, we had did a couple training sessions, and I really just liked the way he had made me view the game.
14:33
SPEAKER_06: I liked how he changed my footwork and just the way I approached it from a physical standpoint, and we've always been kind of locked in for the past three years.
14:41
SPEAKER_06: Every time after a game, we'll hop on a Zoom and we'll get the correct and stuff.
14:45
SPEAKER_06: After every game, he'll call me, we'll we'll talk, or even just throughout the week.
14:49
SPEAKER_06: So just knowing that he's even though he's not here physically, he's willing to still go out of his way to to help me elevate my game.
14:58
SPEAKER_06: So when it's time to get to that next level, there there's no there's no more, you know, uh gaps in in my game.
15:04
SPEAKER_06: You know, trying to fill those holes.
15:06
SPEAKER_06: Obviously, that's always willing to learn new things, but I think from that standpoint, he's helped me tremendously.
15:13
SPEAKER_01: What kind of feedback did you get from him after the Florida game?
15:16
SPEAKER_01: And then also what kind of feedback did you get after the Georgia game?
15:19
SPEAKER_06: Um, you know, Florida game, you know, he definitely found some things in there.
15:22
SPEAKER_06: I could have hit a couple holes.
15:24
SPEAKER_06: I you know, I could have uh finished some runs a little bit better in his mind, but I definitely think uh it was some stuff that I learned.
15:31
SPEAKER_06: And even Georgia, we spoke about it yesterday actually.
15:33
SPEAKER_06: And uh, you know, we we got back to just uh talking about being patient, you know, setting up my blocks and understanding again that it's okay to get those small gains at two to three to four yards because eventually things will open up as things go.
15:47
SPEAKER_06: I think you saw that within the the screenplay I had to to score a touchdown, you know.
15:51
SPEAKER_06: I was running the ball, so they felt that that was gonna be a dominant feature for me, and then kind of stepping up in the pass game and we were able to get a score in.
16:00
SPEAKER_06: So, you know, it him him just telling me, Hey, things are gonna come at you, and things may be small at first, but you know, uh as as the game goes on, you know, some something's gonna pop and and how are you gonna how are you gonna react, how you gonna face adversity.
16:14
SPEAKER_06: And I think uh that's something that he realized at Georgia.
16:18
SPEAKER_01: You were recently featured in Sports Illustrated an article by Pat Forte, who uh really went into great detail about all the obstacles you had to overcome growing up.
16:28
SPEAKER_01: And I have to commend you for for doing that because it must be very hard to talk about some of the things uh that you went through.
16:33
SPEAKER_01: Luckily, you had some amazing people along the way that you met to help, including a woman named Laura Banks.
16:38
SPEAKER_01: Can you tell me a little bit about her and how you became close with her and her family?
16:44
SPEAKER_06: For sure.
16:44
SPEAKER_06: I mean, I won't go too much into it, but you know, um, Laura has just been a tremendous person for me.
16:50
SPEAKER_06: You know, she has changed the way I viewed life, you know, she has changed my life, and you know, that's something she'll never take credit for.
16:56
SPEAKER_06: And I think that's one thing I love about her.
16:58
SPEAKER_06: And and you know, I mean, for for a kid at the age that I was when I met her at 16, 15, 16, you know, I I couldn't tell you what I was gonna do.
17:07
SPEAKER_06: I wasn't thinking about college, I was barely even thinking about high school.
17:10
SPEAKER_06: I just was trying to figure out, you know, what my next days were gonna be.
17:13
SPEAKER_06: And for me to look at her in her eyes and for her to have that confidence of willingness for me to change my life and her to be there every step of the way, it it just showed me that, you know, she wasn't gonna give up on me and she hasn't given up on me.
17:26
SPEAKER_06: And I think that, you know, being being the kid that I was at that time, that's when I needed.
17:31
SPEAKER_06: And and I need the consistency.
17:34
SPEAKER_06: I needed, I needed all that, and and she was able to give it all to me.
17:37
SPEAKER_01: Great story.
17:38
SPEAKER_01: Uh, what advice would you give to young athletes facing the kind of challenges that you faced?
17:44
SPEAKER_06: Just knowing that there's always a light at the end of the tunnel.
17:47
SPEAKER_06: Um, you know, knowing that you're always gonna face obstacles, there's always gonna be barriers in front of you, and you know, it's okay to have to to hurdle a couple of them.
17:54
SPEAKER_06: You know, it's okay if you have to hurdle everyone.
17:56
SPEAKER_07: Yeah.
17:57
SPEAKER_06: But knowing that once you get through all the things that you've gotten through and you are able to achieve what you put forth and you had planned, uh the outcome is so much sweeter because you look back at it and you realize that you would have not been the person who you are today without facing any of those challenges.
18:14
SPEAKER_06: If I didn't sit there in that homeless shelter at 12 and go through what I went through, I I promise you I wouldn't be sitting in this chair talking to you.
18:22
SPEAKER_06: I promise you I wouldn't be in Kentucky.
18:23
SPEAKER_06: I couldn't tell you where I'd be.
18:25
SPEAKER_06: You know, I couldn't tell you if it was I'd be in a good place or a bad place.
18:29
SPEAKER_06: But just understanding that no matter what is thrown in front of you, whether you're sitting there and you're you're down in the dumps, you know, I always tell myself, hey, if I have a bad day, well, how long, how long is it gonna be bad?
18:40
SPEAKER_06: And how long until I need to get up out of that situation?
18:43
SPEAKER_06: And what can I do to put myself ahead of that?
18:46
SPEAKER_06: And that's just one thing I would tell someone is no matter whatever bad days that you have, how you how are you gonna change that?
18:52
SPEAKER_06: How are you gonna change the outcome?
18:54
SPEAKER_06: What how can you impact and making making it better?
18:57
SPEAKER_06: And um, so that that that's that's big for me, and that's just how I approach life and how I even approach the game.
19:03
SPEAKER_01: You've got the NFL ahead of you after this year, and you know, uh NFL careers can can be fruitful or they can be short.
19:10
SPEAKER_01: But whatever the case, what what do you have planned for for when football is over?
19:15
SPEAKER_01: What what are your your goals and aspirations?
19:18
SPEAKER_06: Well, you know, I'm I have a Vanderbilt degree, so you know that's that's a blessing in disguise, just being able to have that and and being able to be able to go into the world with that with that uh degree.
19:29
SPEAKER_06: But my goal hopefully is to be able to work on work for ESPN.
19:32
SPEAKER_06: I'd love to be a sports commentator.
19:34
SPEAKER_06: I played every sport in the book.
19:35
SPEAKER_06: I I played lacrosse, I played basketball, I played baseball, football, obviously.
19:39
SPEAKER_06: I even did some underwater hockey when I was like even younger.
19:42
SPEAKER_06: It's it's a real sport.
19:43
SPEAKER_06: So underwater hockey.
19:45
SPEAKER_06: Yeah, it's it's a real sport.
19:46
SPEAKER_06: So um, you know, I'd be and I I commentated hockey in high school, I commentated our basketball games, I've had my own radio shows, I have my own podcast right now.
19:54
SPEAKER_06: Nice.
19:54
SPEAKER_06: Um, so you know, just being able to be able to talk about something I've enjoyed talking about for 23 years, and and that's sports.
20:00
SPEAKER_06: So yeah, I would love to do that.
20:01
SPEAKER_06: If not, you know, then um I'd I love to just be able to help and motivate kids.
20:06
SPEAKER_06: You know, I want to get into coaching.
20:08
SPEAKER_06: You know, it's surprisingly I don't really want to coach football.
20:10
SPEAKER_06: I'd love to coach basketball.
20:11
SPEAKER_06: And the reason for it is I think you have a smaller roster that you can really impact someone's life.
20:17
SPEAKER_06: You know, when you have a roster of 13 to 16, you can really be able to impact uh a kid's life and be able to show them the true meaning of life.
20:25
SPEAKER_06: And that's not to knock football.
20:27
SPEAKER_06: I think a lot of coaches have impacted my life truthfully, but you know, I'm a person where I've been through so much that I think my words can inspire uh one to go and and lead the life that they want to live.
20:38
SPEAKER_01: And if that fails, there's always underwater hockey.
20:42
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, there's always underwater hockey, yeah.
20:44
SPEAKER_01: If you were a Heisman voter and you were looking to vote for a running back, beyond just looking at the yards and touchdowns, what would you what do you look for in running backs when you're trying to compare running backs?
20:54
SPEAKER_01: So that sets them apart besides just the the the top line stats.
20:58
SPEAKER_06: I think you gotta look at the way the NFL views running backs, and it's about what they can do in being versatile, you know, not being one-dimensional, but being uh multi-dimensional.
21:08
SPEAKER_06: You look at the Christian McCaffrey of these days, yeah, he can run the ball really well, but look what he does in the past game.
21:14
SPEAKER_06: Look how he impacts uh a defensive coordinator's calls because you have to understand that you potentially may have to go nickel or dime.
21:22
SPEAKER_06: You can't be heavy and have multiple linebackers in the game because what he can do against your linebacker, uh it's a little scary.
21:29
SPEAKER_06: So I think you gotta look at that from the standpoint of what are what are the college running backs doing these days to impact a game?
21:35
SPEAKER_06: Is it just running?
21:36
SPEAKER_06: Is it just blocking?
21:37
SPEAKER_06: Is it is it just catching, or are you having all three phases of that in there?
21:42
SPEAKER_06: Can they run, can they catch, and can they block?
21:44
SPEAKER_06: And I think you have to look at that.
21:53
SPEAKER_06: How does someone protect their quarterback?
21:54
SPEAKER_06: How what does someone do when the ball is thrown to them in space?
21:58
SPEAKER_06: And you know, if I was a voter, I would look at Uh, you know, sadly I'm not a voter, so I'm a little biased, but um, you know, I I think if anybody's voting, you gotta look at what what the all-around game is, because that's that's the name of the game nowadays in college football and even in the pros, is what can you do in all three phases of the game.
22:16
SPEAKER_01: Well, based on that answer, it sounds like you'd make a tremendous Heisman Trophy voter, so maybe one day.
22:21
SPEAKER_01: Ray Davis, University of Kentucky, the SEC's leading rusher.
22:25
SPEAKER_01: Thanks for coming on the official Heisman Trophy podcast.
22:28
SPEAKER_01: We wish you success and good health, both for you and your team, and good luck against Missouri on Saturday.
22:35
SPEAKER_06: Appreciate it.
22:35
SPEAKER_06: Thank you so much.
22:36
SPEAKER_01: Be sure to check out Ray Davis the next time you see Kentucky play.
22:40
SPEAKER_01: Coming up next on the Official Heisman Trophy Podcast, 1978 Heisman Trophy winner, Billy Sims of Oklahoma.
22:49
SPEAKER_01: This is Ricky Williams, 1998 Heisman Trophy winner, and you're listening to the official Heisman Trophy Podcast.
22:56
SPEAKER_01: Take an even deeper dive into Heisman lore by going to Heisman.com, home to all things Heisman, including news, bios, and the latest on all the winners, plus updates on the Heisman Trophy Trust and its charitable mission.
23:06
SPEAKER_01: It's the A to Z for Everything Heisman, from Alan Amici to Danny Werfel.
23:10
SPEAKER_01: We really need a Heisman winner whose name begins with Z.
23:14
SPEAKER_01: Alright, we're here with Billy Sims, 1978 Heisman Trophy winner from the University of Oklahoma.
23:19
SPEAKER_01: Welcome to the show.
23:20
SPEAKER_03: Hey, glad to be on the show.
23:22
SPEAKER_03: If you say it real fast, it it it won't make me look old.
23:28
SPEAKER_03: 78, real quick.
23:29
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I'll say it really fast next.
23:31
SPEAKER_01: Uh well, I'll come back and edit it and say it real fast.
23:33
SPEAKER_01: Uh okay.
23:35
SPEAKER_03: I was just joking.
23:36
SPEAKER_03: No, I just I just turned uh 68 uh last week.
23:42
SPEAKER_01: Wow.
23:42
SPEAKER_01: Happy birthday uh from from everyone here at the Heisman Trophy.
23:46
SPEAKER_01: Uh I'm sure all the all the Sooner fans are excited to have you on.
23:51
SPEAKER_01: There was a huge game last Saturday with your rivals in which the Sooners emerged victorious, so we thought it was only appropriate to have you on this show.
23:59
SPEAKER_01: Oh, without a doubt.
24:01
SPEAKER_01: Well, you know, uh not everybody ever a lot of people know your story, but you know, it's good to to update it for for the new the new generation so they so they uh know their Heisman history.
24:14
SPEAKER_03: Right, right.
24:15
SPEAKER_01: That's what we're gonna do today.
24:16
SPEAKER_01: So okay.
24:18
SPEAKER_01: Billy Sims, born in St.
24:19
SPEAKER_01: Louis, moved to Hooks, Texas when you were in eighth grade.
24:22
SPEAKER_01: What was that experience like going from a big city to a small town?
24:26
SPEAKER_03: Well, uh during the summer months, I I was used to go visit my grandparents there.
24:32
SPEAKER_03: They was forming at home and and raising cattle and all that stuff, so I got used to being around that type of atmosphere.
24:41
SPEAKER_03: I just thought it was a good idea to go live with my grandparents.
24:46
SPEAKER_03: And uh because I have other siblings, they didn't want none of that country stuff, but I did.
24:54
SPEAKER_03: Coming from St.
24:55
SPEAKER_03: Louis, they like the city life.
24:57
SPEAKER_03: But I I'm I I got used to the country.
25:00
SPEAKER_03: My mother was was uh letting me go visit, and I ended up being there throughout high school and college.
25:10
SPEAKER_01: So you were originally a baseball guy, a huge St.
25:12
SPEAKER_01: Louis Cardinals fan.
25:14
SPEAKER_01: Oh, still to this day.
25:16
SPEAKER_01: To this day.
25:16
SPEAKER_01: You were you wore 20 for Lou Brock, and you were gonna play baseball, right?
25:21
SPEAKER_01: And then you switched to football in 10th grade.
25:23
SPEAKER_01: What I mean, was it just the the atmosphere of being around Texas football that just sucked you into football and and left baseball behind?
25:32
SPEAKER_03: Well, I didn't want to play at all, really, because uh in St.
25:35
SPEAKER_03: Louis during that time period when I was growing up, most black kids we played baseball because of the Cardinals that was pretty good.
25:44
SPEAKER_03: It was back in the 60s, early 60s, middle 60s, or whatever.
25:48
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
25:49
SPEAKER_03: And uh when I went to Texas, everybody played football, and I thought that was one of the craziest games somebody wanted to be involved in.
25:57
SPEAKER_03: Who wants to get knocked down and beat up and all that stuff?
26:01
SPEAKER_03: So I didn't start showing some interest until about the 10th grade.
26:07
SPEAKER_03: And uh we was terrible, we were worse than the bad news bears.
26:11
SPEAKER_03: And uh I decided to come out.
26:13
SPEAKER_03: I was third string running back, which was okay with me because I didn't want to play running back anyway.
26:19
SPEAKER_03: And I was first string linebacker because I was pretty fast, I can tackle people, and I wanted to hit somebody instead of being hit.
26:28
SPEAKER_03: And lo and behold, the two guys in front of me was my cousin, and they get hurt.
26:34
SPEAKER_03: Well, there wasn't nobody left but me, because Hooks, Texas was a little small town, still is.
26:40
SPEAKER_03: And uh I said to myself, well, coach, I don't I don't want to play running back.
26:46
SPEAKER_03: He said, Well, we need you, we need you.
26:48
SPEAKER_03: So out of pure fear, I said, okay, and the rest was history.
26:54
SPEAKER_01: Wow, what a serendipitous uh moment for you.
26:57
SPEAKER_01: Uh and you took off from there.
26:58
SPEAKER_01: You you went on to an incredible high school career, uh, very prolific.
27:03
SPEAKER_01: And and then the recruiting happened, and you and you were obviously courted by it by the world, and and um I heard you didn't go to Texas because Earl Campbell was wearing 20 at the time.
27:14
SPEAKER_01: Exactly.
27:16
SPEAKER_03: Yes, uh, that was my one of my visits, and I went down there because I knew Earl uh because I grew up in Hooks and he's from Tyler, Texas, which is about an hour and a half drive from Hooks.
27:28
SPEAKER_03: And uh so I took my visit and had a good visit, and I told Earl, I said, Well, Earl, I can't come here.
27:34
SPEAKER_03: You wearing my jersey number, number 20.
27:37
SPEAKER_03: He said, Sure, you can come here.
27:39
SPEAKER_03: You can just wear 20 and a half.
27:41
SPEAKER_03: I said, 20 and a half.
27:47
SPEAKER_03: So uh I ended up actually orally committing to Baylor, Grant Taft, great name there in the Waco area.
27:54
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
27:55
SPEAKER_03: And my grandmother fell in love with Coach Taft because there was they was a Baptist school, and we were Baptists.
28:03
SPEAKER_03: I was gonna want to be because it was a Baptist school.
28:06
SPEAKER_03: And uh my last visit was Oklahoma.
28:10
SPEAKER_03: Around about 73, 74, oh, you had won a national championship.
28:14
SPEAKER_03: I went up there to visit, and I noticed he had a lot of Texas players playing for him.
28:21
SPEAKER_03: And I told him, I said, Well, coach, you sure got a lot of Texas players up here.
28:25
SPEAKER_03: He said, Oh yeah, we recruit real heavy because Texas is close to us.
28:30
SPEAKER_03: I said, Well, coach, I think I'm gonna keep my commitment.
28:33
SPEAKER_03: I'm going to Baylor.
28:35
SPEAKER_03: So he was finna put this sooner magic on me.
28:38
SPEAKER_03: And at that time, I didn't know what Soon of Magic meant.
28:42
SPEAKER_03: I said, uh, he said, before you leave, I want you to uh meet my family.
28:46
SPEAKER_03: So I said, no problem.
28:49
SPEAKER_03: We go home and we getting out the car, going inside, and at that time he has he had three kids, two boys and a girl, and they all was wearing number 20.
29:01
SPEAKER_03: I was like, wow, coach, he said, oh yeah, they already selling your jersey number up here.
29:08
SPEAKER_03: He's working me over, but I don't know this.
29:10
SPEAKER_03: Little court press.
29:12
SPEAKER_03: Yes, and uh that next following weekend, when I went back home, they was playing the University of Colorado.
29:21
SPEAKER_03: Well, he knew where I was doing the game because where Hooks is really close to Oklahoma anyway, so I didn't get the uh game on the radio.
29:33
SPEAKER_03: Well, one of my co-workers came out there and said, Hey Billy, Coach Swiss want to talk to you.
29:39
SPEAKER_03: I said, Coach Swiss, I said, nah, you guys fooling me because he's at the base uh football game.
29:46
SPEAKER_03: So I go in and the payphone, you remember the payphone, don't you?
29:50
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
29:52
SPEAKER_03: So uh lo and behold, it's Coach Switzer on the payphone.
29:57
SPEAKER_03: We talked the whole entire halftime.
30:01
SPEAKER_01: That was at the gas station, right?
30:03
SPEAKER_03: You were working at the gas station.
30:04
SPEAKER_03: Yes, the gas station.
30:05
SPEAKER_03: At the gas station.
30:07
SPEAKER_03: And so uh I could hear the referee in the background telling Coach to come on back on the field and get ready to kick off.
30:16
SPEAKER_03: He said, Well, he said, You hear that?
30:18
SPEAKER_03: I said, Yes, coach.
30:19
SPEAKER_03: He said, I'm gonna promise you two things if you recommit and come to this great state of Oklahoma and the great university.
30:26
SPEAKER_03: I'm saying to myself, okay, here it comes.
30:29
SPEAKER_03: So he said, first of all, I'm gonna make sure you get your degree, because I know your grandmother will love that.
30:37
SPEAKER_03: Well, he pulled a grandmother call on me.
30:40
SPEAKER_03: And two, you're gonna win the Heisman Trophy.
30:44
SPEAKER_03: No question about it.
30:46
SPEAKER_03: And at that time period, I wasn't thinking about, you know, because of a Heisman trophy and nothing like that.
30:51
SPEAKER_03: I recommitted and the rest was history.
30:55
SPEAKER_01: Wow, what a uh great recruiting story.
30:57
SPEAKER_01: What was Barry Switzer like uh to a to a young man uh coming out of high school?
31:03
SPEAKER_03: You know, the main thing that still stands to this day was the fact he said after my career was over with and everything, I'm gonna still have your back.
31:14
SPEAKER_03: And if you talk to a hundred players, 99 of them will take a bully for him.
31:19
SPEAKER_03: I'm one of them.
31:20
SPEAKER_03: And till this day, I see coach, I probably talk to him at least a couple times a month, every every other month.
31:27
SPEAKER_03: And uh he's about 85, 86 now, still getting around, and they're still there in Norman.
31:34
SPEAKER_01: You came in with Kenny King, uh, another great running back.
31:38
SPEAKER_01: And your first three years at OU were kind of rough.
31:41
SPEAKER_01: You had some injuries.
31:42
SPEAKER_01: I hear you wanted to quit the team at one at one point.
31:46
SPEAKER_03: Well, yeah.
31:46
SPEAKER_03: Well, what happened was uh they had a lot of other great running backs during that time there, and I ended up backing out backing up uh Joe Washington, who wore number 24.
31:59
SPEAKER_03: So I knew I wasn't gonna play a lot, which it, you know, wishbone, chicken bone is all the same to me.
32:04
SPEAKER_03: I didn't know.
32:07
SPEAKER_03: I had to learn the system.
32:09
SPEAKER_03: And uh because at that time period we were so dominant uh at Oklahoma.
32:16
SPEAKER_03: The things that you see Alabama do in the last several years, that used to be us.
32:23
SPEAKER_03: And uh so my sophomore year, I fractured my my shoulder because in the wishbone, everybody got to block somebody at some time.
32:34
SPEAKER_03: And uh when I was in high school, I never had to block anybody.
32:38
SPEAKER_03: So um I I got injured, didn't play at all, missed a whole year of my sophomore year.
32:44
SPEAKER_03: I come back off of that year, lo and behold, talking about might have a chance to win the Heisman Trophy.
32:52
SPEAKER_03: I didn't believe it because I hadn't done anything.
32:56
SPEAKER_03: But as the season went on, I was getting better and better and um had a lot of great supporting casts around me that made that happen.
33:07
SPEAKER_01: What was so different about your abilities going into 1978 as opposed to 77 and uh 76?
33:15
SPEAKER_01: Was it just a matter of being healthy finally and and kind of finally getting, you know, the chance to get most of the carries?
33:22
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, you know, in the wishbone, everybody back there is mainly a running back.
33:27
SPEAKER_03: So, but we we had such great uh amount of uh uh people that could run the football.
33:35
SPEAKER_03: Uh another great friend of mine who passed back in 84, David Overstreet, who wore number 22.
33:43
SPEAKER_03: Uh he's from a little town called Big Sandy, Texas, which is not too far from Tyler, Texas.
33:50
SPEAKER_03: And at that time period, OU had two of the all-time leading rushers out of the state of Texas.
34:00
SPEAKER_03: Myself, I was second, and David O Street was was third.
34:05
SPEAKER_03: And he was about 30, 30 yards behind me.
34:09
SPEAKER_03: And and uh I finally uh was healthy for a change.
34:14
SPEAKER_03: And again, I had my roommate, matter of fact, he won the Outland trophy the same year I won the Highestman Trophy for blocking for me.
34:23
SPEAKER_03: So we was pretty dominant.
34:26
SPEAKER_01: The 70s were to were a time of just tremendous running attacks, eye formation, wishbone, flex bone, the veer.
34:34
SPEAKER_01: Tell me about the wishbone a little bit.
34:35
SPEAKER_01: Was it a hard system to learn and and and get comfortable in?
34:39
SPEAKER_01: And and uh you know, I imagine a lot of it's it's trust, right?
34:44
SPEAKER_03: Well, yeah, but mainly it was built on speed.
34:49
SPEAKER_03: Because you had to be as you know certain type of player and toughness to play in the wishbone.
34:57
SPEAKER_03: Uh even come to the quarterback because we didn't hardly ever throw much, only in practice.
35:04
SPEAKER_03: So the thing about people that came to play there for they could block.
35:10
SPEAKER_03: Uh my tight end was a great blocker.
35:14
SPEAKER_03: The receivers could catch ball and block downfield.
35:17
SPEAKER_03: And matter of fact, my recruiting class probably was one of the Coast Sources' best recruiting class at 1975.
35:28
SPEAKER_03: Every guy that he recruited, they all went and played at the next level.
35:34
SPEAKER_01: Wow.
35:34
SPEAKER_01: So you tore through the big eight in 1978.
35:37
SPEAKER_01: You had four 200-yard games, including three in a row at one point.
35:41
SPEAKER_01: Was this the point after those three 200-yard games when you started to get the feeling that there was a possibility of maybe winning the Heisman?
35:50
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, but you know, um, I really didn't put a lot of big deal on it because uh of the other guys in the backfield, they were just as good, I thought.
36:04
SPEAKER_03: And uh what really made us so dominate wasn't just me.
36:08
SPEAKER_03: When it came to um the other players playing in different games, they they would uh be just as good.
36:17
SPEAKER_01: And of course, you had great quarterbacks, Thomas Lott, uh JC Watt, uh to kind of run the show.
36:24
SPEAKER_01: Um back then they didn't really have a live announcement of the Heisman.
36:28
SPEAKER_01: How did you find out that you won?
36:31
SPEAKER_03: Well, believe it or not, my roommate he was cutting class that day.
36:38
SPEAKER_03: And I was in class, and he came looking for me because back in those days, what they don't do it like they do it now.
36:47
SPEAKER_03: I was in class, and uh he came in there and he said, You you you just wanted to high school.
36:54
SPEAKER_03: And I said, Okay, he said, come on, we gotta go to the sport information.
36:58
SPEAKER_03: Well, I was an hour late because I wasn't cutting class.
37:02
SPEAKER_03: And uh, because my professor didn't care if I had one and Nobel Prize, you know, it didn't matter to him.
37:09
SPEAKER_03: So I was about an hour late, and and uh that's that's when I was uh found out I had uh won the trophy.
37:18
SPEAKER_01: Well, what was that feeling like?
37:20
SPEAKER_01: What did you do?
37:20
SPEAKER_01: Did you go celebrate or or call your call your call your mom or call your grandma?
37:25
SPEAKER_01: Well who's the first person you you called?
37:28
SPEAKER_03: Well, I called my folks back home in Hooks, Texas.
37:32
SPEAKER_03: That was that was my grandmother, but she didn't care because she never watched me play football.
37:36
SPEAKER_03: She didn't like football.
37:38
SPEAKER_03: She thought it was too rough.
37:41
SPEAKER_03: She would never come see me play.
37:43
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
37:45
SPEAKER_03: Any other sports she had watched, but when it came to football, she hated it.
37:50
SPEAKER_01: What was your expert was the experience like going to New York City back then with the downtown athletic club?
37:58
SPEAKER_03: Well, of course, the uh that would that was my uh I'm trying to think, first time actually getting on a plane.
38:08
SPEAKER_03: Come to think about it.
38:10
SPEAKER_03: And uh had to borrow somebody's suit because I didn't have a suit.
38:15
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
38:16
SPEAKER_03: I borrowed my cousin's suit.
38:18
SPEAKER_03: And uh way we go to New York, because like most people, you've never been to New York, you're always looking up at the tall buildings and all that.
38:30
SPEAKER_03: And what I found out, people wasn't too friendly, you know, because I'm used to speaking to people and saying hello.
38:38
SPEAKER_03: And sure.
38:39
SPEAKER_03: They said, no, you don't do you don't do that in New York.
38:43
SPEAKER_03: You know, had a lot of fun talking to meeting other guys that had a chance to win it, and guys that that show up every year for the uh dedication.
38:54
SPEAKER_03: At one time, uh Mr.
38:57
SPEAKER_03: Jay Burwinger was still around.
38:59
SPEAKER_03: I always like to visit with him because he was the first one to win the Heisman out of Chicago in 1935.
39:06
SPEAKER_03: And he said he was telling me that that when he won it, it wasn't a big deal.
39:12
SPEAKER_03: He took a bus or train to New York and went up there and picked it up and went back home.
39:22
SPEAKER_01: Uh, what other uh Heisman winners did you enjoy meeting uh at that first time in New York?
39:27
SPEAKER_03: Well, we we had I'm trying to think a lot of the old guy because they passed on now.
39:32
SPEAKER_03: But uh, of course, the two-time winner, you know, Archie Griffin.
39:36
SPEAKER_03: I call him double deuce because he's he's the only person that ever won it twice.
39:40
SPEAKER_03: Right.
39:41
SPEAKER_03: And that that may be threatened this year.
39:44
SPEAKER_03: Could be.
39:46
SPEAKER_03: Caleb Williams, who hires mean trophy, belongs in Norman, Oklahoma anyway, told me he told me he's gonna win it again.
39:55
SPEAKER_03: So that might happen.
39:56
SPEAKER_01: Well, you know, that's uh brings up the next question.
39:59
SPEAKER_01: You know, you were only the sixth junior to win the award at the time, and you came back for another shot at it.
40:05
SPEAKER_01: Was there a lot of pressure to repeat?
40:06
SPEAKER_01: Did it seem like like it was something that um a big goal of yours that you put pressure on yourself?
40:13
SPEAKER_03: No, not not at all.
40:14
SPEAKER_03: I mean, I I didn't really know I was gonna win the first one, to tell the truth about it.
40:19
SPEAKER_03: And uh Charles White, bless his heart, you know, he's since passed away.
40:26
SPEAKER_03: Had a great year.
40:27
SPEAKER_03: We became friends and uh things of that nature.
40:30
SPEAKER_03: And I end up, you know, of course, coming in second to Charles White.
40:35
SPEAKER_01: But to uh Which is about as close as about as close as you can get to repeating, really.
40:40
SPEAKER_01: You came in first and second.
40:41
SPEAKER_01: There's very few uh Heisman winners who've done that, gone first and second.
40:46
SPEAKER_03: Well, here in the state of Oklahoma, all the Sooner fans thought I should have won it a second time.
40:54
SPEAKER_01: Tell me about that famous Sports Illustrator cover with you and Charlie White tugging on the Heisman.
40:58
SPEAKER_01: Tell me about that whole uh that great uh picture of you guys tugging and the headline saying, Hey man, that's my Heisman.
41:05
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, we we actually that's the first time I have met uh Charles White.
41:10
SPEAKER_03: I went out to uh California because we we uh did that shoot uh for Sports Illustrated out in California.
41:19
SPEAKER_03: He was more of a habit go guy all the time, and he was trying to show me the atmosphere, how it is in California.
41:30
SPEAKER_03: And I asked Charles, I said, Charles, do you ever go to bed?
41:36
SPEAKER_03: I'm old country boy.
41:39
SPEAKER_03: He said, Yeah, I go after a while.
41:41
SPEAKER_03: But anyway, we we we stayed in touch, you know, from that, and uh it was when I found out he had passed away, it it it really uh was a sad, sad situation.
41:54
SPEAKER_01: What would you be doing if you never played college football?
41:58
SPEAKER_03: Well, I thought I was gonna be an auto mechanic, believe it or not.
42:03
SPEAKER_03: When I uh growing up in high school and all that, working at the gas station, I learned a lot the old-fashioned way.
42:10
SPEAKER_03: Nowadays you gotta go to school to work on a car now.
42:13
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
42:14
SPEAKER_03: So technology and all.
42:16
SPEAKER_01: Sure.
42:16
SPEAKER_03: But yeah, I thought I was on um, I used to work on the guy's car on campus and stuff back then when it was real simple to do.
42:25
SPEAKER_03: So um to me, I thought it was a good playing paying job because when you take your car to even nowadays to get it worked on and fixed, they laughing at you because they know they ain't stuck you with your big bill.
42:43
SPEAKER_03: So, yeah, I thought I was gonna be an auto mechanic.
42:46
SPEAKER_03: True thing.
42:47
SPEAKER_03: All right.
42:48
SPEAKER_03: Noble profession.
42:49
SPEAKER_03: Um let me let me let me let me add let me add this if you don't mind.
42:54
SPEAKER_03: When I uh got hurt in Oklahoma, I quit.
42:58
SPEAKER_03: A lot of people didn't know that.
43:02
SPEAKER_03: And I was going back to Hooks, Texas to pump gas.
43:06
SPEAKER_03: So I went back home.
43:10
SPEAKER_03: And two days later, this car pulls up to the pump and it's Coach Switzer.
43:17
SPEAKER_03: And I said, Well, coach, what you doing down here?
43:21
SPEAKER_03: Filler.
43:23
SPEAKER_03: I thought it was just a regular customer.
43:26
SPEAKER_03: He said, if you're gonna pump gas, it's gonna be in Norman, Oklahoma, not Hooks, Texas.
43:33
SPEAKER_03: He brought me back to Norman.
43:36
SPEAKER_03: And the rest was history.
43:38
SPEAKER_01: Billy Sims, 1978 Heisman Trophy winner out of the University of Oklahoma.
43:43
SPEAKER_01: Thanks for coming on the official Heisman Trophy podcast.
43:46
SPEAKER_01: We look forward to seeing you in New York in December or maybe at one of your delicious Billy Sims barbecue restaurants.
43:53
SPEAKER_03: Thank you very much.
43:54
SPEAKER_03: Thank you for having me.
43:56
SPEAKER_03: Boomer.
44:08
SPEAKER_01: The Heisman High School Scholarship Award is nearing its 30th anniversary, having first given out the awards in 1994.
44:14
SPEAKER_01: Past winners have gone on to successful careers as doctors, authors, educators, engineers, athletes and coaches, and in business.
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SPEAKER_01: Some have become Olympians.
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SPEAKER_01: There have been officers in the U.S.
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SPEAKER_01: military, a winner who served in the White House's National Security Council and the Department of Defense, and there is currently a U.S.
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SPEAKER_01: Congressman from Utah, Blake Moore, who won the award in 1997.
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SPEAKER_01: Now, the Heisman High School Scholarship is not just a national award.
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SPEAKER_01: There are male and female winners chosen from any school that submits applications, and beyond that, there are state winners, national finalists, and of course, a male and female national winner.
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SPEAKER_01: It's really an incredible club.
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SPEAKER_01: We talk about the Heisman Fraternity, and really the Heisman High School Scholarship is its own pretty exclusive club, featuring just as many impressive men and women as the Heisman itself.
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SPEAKER_01: That all said, we are thrilled to welcome our first Heisman High School Scholarship winner to the show, Sanjay Chala, who won the award in 2018 while a senior at Pillow Academy in Greenwood, Mississippi.
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SPEAKER_01: And he's a recent graduate from Southern Methodist University.
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SPEAKER_01: How are you doing?
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SPEAKER_00: I'm doing well.
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SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much for having me.
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SPEAKER_00: Very happy to be here.
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SPEAKER_01: You know, athletically, wow, you were a four-time state champion in tennis.
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SPEAKER_01: You won three team titles as well, played on a soccer team that competed for a state title, finished third in the state golf tournament.
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SPEAKER_01: You captained each sport and maintained a 4.9 GPA to boot.
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SPEAKER_01: When did you find time to sleep?
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SPEAKER_00: Holy cow.
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SPEAKER_00: Oh my goodness, don't even get me started.
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SPEAKER_00: It was it was a team effort.
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SPEAKER_00: You know, I feel very blessed to have had an incredible family and support group within my friends as well to push me to be the very best version of myself that I could be every single day.
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SPEAKER_00: Um that meant parents driving me back and forth to games, to practices, and then supporting me in whatever endeavor it may be, um, purchasing supplies for me, as well as offering the best academic help possible.
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SPEAKER_00: It really meant the world to me.
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SPEAKER_00: So I have no one to thank but those around me for the ability to succeed like that.
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SPEAKER_01: Fantastic.
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SPEAKER_01: You also became an Eagle Scout in high school and led a project to help youth access uh tennis basics and spearheaded a group that provided hundreds of hours of free lessons for uh tennis lessons for beginners.
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SPEAKER_01: How did that all come about?
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SPEAKER_00: You know, I feel extraordinarily blessed to be to have grown up in the Mississippi Delta in Greenwood, Mississippi.
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SPEAKER_00: And I had I've been given so much in my life blessings from family, blessings from friends, and I take great pride in the community that I come from.
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SPEAKER_00: And so I always wanted to find a way to give back.
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SPEAKER_00: And that's through passions of mine, such as tennis.
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SPEAKER_00: You know, my Eagle Scout project was to refurbish and help build a tennis wall in the green in the local Greenwood community.
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SPEAKER_00: And that was a fun way to combine both athletics that I really enjoy in tennis, but also giving back to the community and spreading a game that I so love.
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SPEAKER_00: And being an Eagle Scout taught me values of being a good human being every single day and giving back to those that matter to you, which I feel very fortunate in my case was my entire community.
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SPEAKER_01: What were your impressions of the high school Heisman before you entered it?
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SPEAKER_01: And did you think you had a good chance in the competition?
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SPEAKER_00: You know, every time you hear the word Heisman, you your eyes just light up.
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SPEAKER_00: You think of the grand ceremony in New York.
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SPEAKER_00: You think of the absolutely incredible athletes that have been past winners of the college award.
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SPEAKER_00: And so when I heard there was a high school award, I thought this is something that is so interesting because it's kind of aligned to who I am as a person, someone who prioritizes academics, but also finds time for the athletics as well, with an emphasis in particular in combining both for the betterment of my community.
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SPEAKER_00: And I thought it was a great opportunity.
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SPEAKER_00: I had a friend who was a state finalist the year before me.
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SPEAKER_00: And just seeing how incredible that journey was for him, how the celebrations were and the excitement levels in his family really motivated me to do my best in applying and prepare myself to apply for come senior year.
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SPEAKER_00: And my goodness, what a journey that was.
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SPEAKER_01: Yeah, what was that experience like winning state and first and then uh then the national award?
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SPEAKER_00: Oh, it was incredible.
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SPEAKER_00: I remember celebrating winning for the school, which was so exciting.
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SPEAKER_00: And then on my 18th birthday, I was announced the winner of the state of Mississippi, which was just the greatest birthday gift I could have ever imagined.
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SPEAKER_00: And then I was named, it was incredible.
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SPEAKER_00: And then I was named the winner for the region.
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SPEAKER_00: And our school had a pep rally that Friday, a day after I was named the winner for the region, and I was told there was going to be a celebration for my recent recognition.
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SPEAKER_00: And in front of the entire school, people I'd grown up with, teachers that have taught me my entire life, friends and family, over a thousand people, it was announced that not only was I the regional winner of the Wendy's at the time, the Wendy's High School Heisman Award, I was the winner of the national award.
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SPEAKER_00: Uh as the I was voted the best male student athlete in the entire United States of America.
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SPEAKER_00: And to say I was emotional would be an understatement.
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SPEAKER_00: I remember seeing my best friends, their families, the teachers, my family all there clapping, cheering, just loving me and supporting me.
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SPEAKER_00: And the amount of love that I felt in that moment is something that I will never, ever forget.
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SPEAKER_00: I felt extraordinarily blessed, not only for winning the award, but to be able to celebrate with those who made it possible.
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SPEAKER_00: That meant the world to me.
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SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that must have been amazing.
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SPEAKER_01: What are your favorite memories from the 2018 Heisman weekend?
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SPEAKER_01: Um Kyler Murray won that weekend.
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SPEAKER_01: Did you did you get to chat with him a bit?
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SPEAKER_00: Kyler Murray won that weekend.
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SPEAKER_00: It was so cool getting to meet him.
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SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, he's a very stylish guy, and I remember part of the excitement was picking out a suit, shopping for a new suit and shoes prior to going to New York.
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SPEAKER_00: So being able to talk some fashion with him.
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SPEAKER_00: He was kind enough to compliment one of the jackets I was wearing in one of our meetings.
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SPEAKER_00: Um, another super exciting part about the whole Heisman post being post being named the winner, um, one of the most exciting parts was shooting a video to kind of show all the things I was involved with within my local community.
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SPEAKER_00: So being able to shoot action shots on the soccer field or tennis court as well as within my community was fantastic.
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SPEAKER_00: Something else that really stood out was being able to go to the floor of the New York Stock Exchange and see the opening bell ring.
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SPEAKER_00: You know, I studied finance for four years here at SMU, and I can say that nothing I did in four years was as exciting as hearing that opening bell ring as a senior in high school.
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SPEAKER_00: So that was really special to share that with my father, as well as the college candidates for the award at the time.
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SPEAKER_00: And then, of course, the Heisman ceremony, night of the big event, seeing Kyler more seeing Kyler seeing Kyler Murray name the winner, and being amidst that crowd and the excitement and everything else related to the entire ceremony was just wonderful.
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SPEAKER_01: Definitely, definitely.
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SPEAKER_01: Now, please talk to us a bit about what being a Heisman High School Scholarship winner has meant to you.
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SPEAKER_00: You know, it's meant the absolute world to me.
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SPEAKER_00: And not because I'm the one that won the award, because of the impact I think it's had on my local community and state of Mississippi as a whole.
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SPEAKER_00: I feel extraordinarily blessed once again to be where I'm from and to be able to inspire children in the local Greenwood area and across the state.
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SPEAKER_00: I mean, after the award, seeing the number of students playing tennis, playing soccer, playing golf rise dramatically has been something very special to me.
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SPEAKER_00: And those are the sports that make me the man I am today.
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SPEAKER_00: They've taught me valuable life lessons outside of the athletic world, and I feel very fortunate for that.
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SPEAKER_00: So inspiring individuals to pick up new sports that were special to me means the world to me.
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SPEAKER_00: In addition, one of the biggest impacts was the inspiration for my sister and to see her blossom into the young woman that she is today.
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SPEAKER_00: She was in ninth grade, I believe, when I won the award.
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SPEAKER_00: And three years later, she was named the female winner of the High School Heisman Award.
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SPEAKER_00: And so to see her take it to the next level, um, she's incredibly gifted herself, but hopefully inspired by my journey and motivated by my journey, to see her put herself in the spotlight, earn that recognition, and be celebrated as well means the world to me.
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SPEAKER_00: I'm I have a sibling.
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SPEAKER_00: As an older sibling, I think it's very rare to be to look up to your younger sibling, but my younger sister means the world to me.
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SPEAKER_00: And to see her be able to enjoy a similar success just is was absolutely wonderful.
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SPEAKER_00: But also, it means a lot to me being a Mississippian.
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SPEAKER_00: You know, I think Mississippi sometimes is looked down upon by other states and individuals.
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SPEAKER_00: I vividly remember many moments introducing myself to people while in college or in professional settings and saying I'm from Mississippi and people looking down about it, looking down on it or being taken aback by it.
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SPEAKER_00: And this award proves that we have a community that can bolster success, not just in me, but in everyone.
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SPEAKER_00: We have the communities that people are willing to give back to.
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SPEAKER_00: We have academic programs in schools that are absolutely incredible.
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SPEAKER_00: And we have athletic programs that bring out the best, that bring out the best in every single athlete that puts their time towards it.
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SPEAKER_00: So it's yes, I may have been the winner, but in my heart, the state of Mississippi and this local town of Greenwood, Mississippi is truly the winner.
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SPEAKER_00: And it's an honor and blessing to be able to represent both of them.
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SPEAKER_01: Indeed.
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SPEAKER_01: Is there a network of past winners that you've been a part of now that now that you're uh a winner?
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SPEAKER_00: There is.
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SPEAKER_00: There's incredible camaraderie, which is the most special part, you know.
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SPEAKER_00: Life is so, there's so much unknown in life.
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SPEAKER_00: But the one thing I do know is that each December, I will be going to New York and celebrating the newest high school Heisman Award winner with all the past winners.
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SPEAKER_00: Um, one of our biggest advocates and the first high school Heisman winner, Tricia Perry, is just the champion of our cause.
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SPEAKER_00: She is always rocking and rolling in New York, um, holding court, whether it's with the high school organization or the college event itself, everyone knows her name.
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SPEAKER_00: And so to be able to go back and see individuals like herself and other past winners and celebrate the new winners really is special.
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SPEAKER_00: And also being able to network and get to know the trustees even better than Heisman.
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SPEAKER_00: Some individuals, Mr.
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SPEAKER_00: Dan Reed, Mr.
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SPEAKER_00: Tim Henning, the associate director for the Heisman Trophy Trust, and uh Vasily Krishna Murthy.
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SPEAKER_00: I mean, all wonderful individuals who I met upon my first visit to New York and who I very much look forward to seeing every time I return.
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SPEAKER_01: Wonderful.
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SPEAKER_01: You just graduated from uh SMU with degrees in business administration and finance, and you're uh now a few months into your professional life and private equity.
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SPEAKER_01: How's how private equity?
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SPEAKER_01: How is that going for you?
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SPEAKER_00: It's going very well.
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SPEAKER_00: You know, I'm so I'm at a new firm, 90 degree North Holdings, and I don't think I could have dreamed up a better job for myself.
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SPEAKER_00: Of course, I studied finance for four years at SMU, but I also developed a passion for the world of politics.
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SPEAKER_00: And this firm, we're a private equity company that also does work in the political consulting world.
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SPEAKER_00: And so I'm learning so much, being able to take what I've learned in past internships, whether they were in finance or politics, I'm able to put them forward in both worlds.
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SPEAKER_00: And given that it's a startup, it's just a three-person team.
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SPEAKER_00: I've got the most incredible bosses who I learn more and more from each and every day.
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SPEAKER_00: It's been really, really wonderful to see all the hard work stemming from elementary, middle school, high school, college kind of culminate into this new possession position that I really, really enjoy.
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SPEAKER_01: Well, also looking at your resume, we saw your interests include Hollywood and Bollywood.
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SPEAKER_01: Is there a cross-section there between your own pursuits and interests and maybe where your professional life will take you?
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SPEAKER_00: I would do anything to get into the acting world.
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SPEAKER_00: I've always had a huge knack for movies.
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SPEAKER_00: I'm a huge Leonardo DiCaprio fan.
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SPEAKER_00: Um, you know, if it comes down to a session between Hollywood or Bollywood, that that remains to be seen.
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SPEAKER_00: I mean, I'm not much of a singer and dancer, so Bollywood might may be out of the question.
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SPEAKER_00: But um I do love a good movie every now and then.
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SPEAKER_01: Well, if your uh past performance is any any indication, uh you are definitely on to uh success in whatever you uh whatever field you choose to concentrate on, whether it's private equity or politics or or acting.
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SPEAKER_01: Uh Sanjay Chala, thank you so much for coming on the official Heisman Trophy Podcast.
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SPEAKER_01: We wish you the best and hope you keep in touch and maybe we'll see you in New York in December.
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SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much.
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SPEAKER_00: It's an absolute honor to be here.
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SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
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SPEAKER_01: The official Heisman Trophy podcast streams every Wednesday during the college football season and is hosted, co-produced, edited, and engineered by Chris Houston.
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SPEAKER_01: Paul Goldberg is the executive producer and editor.
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SPEAKER_01: Special shout out to Isaac Lohencron, and big thanks to the Heisman Trophy Trust and its executive director, Rob Whalen, and associate director Tim Henning.
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SPEAKER_01: The official Heisman Trophy Podcast can be found on Spotify, Apple Music, and anywhere you listen to your favorite podcast.
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SPEAKER_01: You can also find clips of our show on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube.
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SPEAKER_01: Just go to at Heisman Trophy.