Latest / Johnny's World / Episode 26-Matt Wyatt

Transcript

Episode 26-Matt Wyatt · Johnny's World

• 0:02
  SPEAKER_00: Coming to you live from the Johnny Packer Eyewear Studios in fabulous Dark Vegas, Mississippi.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: Please welcome our co-host, the best iDoc this side of the Mississippi, BW.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_00: And now welcome a true hero, a CF warrior whose favorite motto in life is just keep living.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_00: Here's Johnny.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_02: All right, we're live here with another episode of the Johnny Coral Podcast.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_02: I'm uh co-host John.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_02: And here's my co-host Brandon.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_02: How you doing today, BW?
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_03: Hey Johnny, doing good.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_03: Uh it's game week.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_03: So been been waiting on this one for a while.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, it's been kind of a quick summer since Omaha and all that stuff happened, but it's hard to believe college football is here.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, it is here, and it is uh it's gosh, can't wait.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, it's been so long since since uh since we've had that game and actually have crowds back at Davis Wade, it's been two years, and just everybody's craving football.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_02: Everybody on that high after Omaha.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_02: We're still thinking about baseball nonstop, but getting football in in the gears can be awesome and getting people back in town, just maybe a little sense of normalcy, and just uh really, really good time coming up and uh a lot of good things happening in around uh Starkville.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, speaking of that, um a little update on Johnny Packer eyewear.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_03: So um there's a new uh optical shop opening up downtown in Starkville, and um they should be open the next month or so.
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_03: And they reached out to me a few weeks ago and and wanted to carry the Johnny Packer glasses, and so I shipped them some last week, and then they placed a big order for some more.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_03: And so as soon as they um they open up, we'll have an outlet there in Starkville.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_03: And uh the doctor there um opened the practice, she used some Corinth, and so she requested that we get a Corinth pair, and so I said, You got to write the description for that one.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_03: So we're waiting on that one to come out, and um so we'll be there, and then um we still have in my shop here.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_03: We may have a little bit less uh supply on the website because it's kind of hard to keep up with the inventory between two shops and and the internet.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_03: So um you might notice a downtick in that.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_03: So if you want to get you a pair, you know, come by my place and in uh Stark or go by Starkville or come by my place in Memphis and check it out.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_03: But it's a pretty exciting time.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_03: It's um things are growing with the eyewear biz there.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, uh now that shop's gonna be downtown Starville.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_02: Is that what you told me earlier?
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_02: You think?
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, right around like restaurant Tyler, I believe, is where they're gonna be.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that'll be a great, great location, especially with uh football season coming up, everyone downtown.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_02: So yeah, with that being said, uh one of my good friends who's a friend of the show, uh runs uh Be Unlimited um t-shirt shop downtown on university.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_02: Um and uh I talked to him the other day and he wanted me to give it give a shout out to uh to their store and let them know that if you're in town for uh first weekend of game, stop by.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_02: They still have a bunch of uh national championship shirts available there.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_02: And so uh swing on by and I'm gonna have to uh help you out there.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_02: So uh yeah, it's be unlimited and it's on on Main Street right by um Hotel Chester.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_02: So that'll be cool.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_02: So yeah, man, a lot of exciting things happening in town and on campus.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_02: I just read just a little while ago that cowbell yell will be Thursday night at the amphitheater.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_02: So that's that's that's exciting.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_02: We haven't had a cowbell yell in two years.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_02: So it's a lot of uh a lot of good things, uh good things happening.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_02: And uh we're we got a great show lined up today.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_02: And with football season around the corner, this is the perfect guest to to have on and talk about his story and how he became what he is today, and give us an update on our football team and what we got to look forward to today.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_02: So without further ado, I'm gonna introduce our guest today.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_02: Right now, he's uh you might remember him playing quarterback for the Bulldogs in the late 90s under Coach Cheryl.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_02: And he's had a great radio career in the state of uh state of Mississippi.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_02: And he does color analyst with the uh with Neil Price on the uh broadcast team for the football games and just all around great guy.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_02: Can't say enough good things about this guy, and so happy he's on our show.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_02: Matt Wyatt, join the thank you for joining the show, Matt.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_01: Man, yeah, I'm jealous of those pictures you got hanging on the wall behind you with all those autographs.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_01: You know, like don't splatter that all over the internet with your address.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_01: Somebody'll sneak in there and get them.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, they will, won't they?
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_01: Dak Prescott here and Dak Prescott there.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so you've got you've got the the goods.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_01: No, I'm glad to be with y'all.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_01: Thanks for having me.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, well, we we can't thank you enough.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_02: So yeah, been been wanting to get get on for a while.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_02: So glad you got on.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_02: And uh we we just want to hear your story.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_02: Just tell us really just go with it.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_02: Talk about uh how you ended up at state and uh how you got in the radio business, and and then just conclude it uh with talking about our football team coming up and anything else you want to talk about.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_02: We're just here to hang out.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, so you really you really want me to tell you all that?
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_01: I will tell you this.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_01: You know, um the the winding up at state.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_01: Um I I would say that uh I fully believe 100%, without any doubt whatsoever, that God will pick you up sometimes and put you places you never thought you'd be.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_01: And that can be good and you know, in our eyes, that can be good and bad.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_01: You know, but there's but when he's involved with it, there's a purpose.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_01: And sometimes you don't know what the purpose is until years and years and years down the road.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_01: And uh yeah, so growing up, I was not a state fan.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_01: I was a Braves fan as a kid.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_01: I wanted to be a baseball player.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_01: My dad had played a little college baseball and I idolized the Braves.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_01: Didn't grow up a Mississippi State fan, but I also wasn't, even though we lived in Alabama, I wasn't an Alabama fan or an Auburn fan or whatever.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_01: I was a Braves fan, you know.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_01: So I was the oddball in my elementary classes in Alabama.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_01: You know, they'd say, Who you pull for, Alabama or Auburn?
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like, I don't care.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_01: They're like, what?
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I was kind of the outcast in that regard.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_01: But then I played organized football for the first time in the eighth grade and had success.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_01: Uh we moved, I went to high school all four years at Prattville, started playing and just fell in love with football.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_01: The moment I started playing, it just loved every snap, every practice, every drill, and then decided I wanted to be a football player.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_01: And when I flipped that switch, I just worked at it.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_01: And uh the SEC was sort of everything.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_01: It wasn't, I never thought about playing in the NFL.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_01: I didn't really care about the NFL.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_01: I didn't really even watch the NFL.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_01: The big deal was going to Friday night games and then watching the the SEC games on Saturday.
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I thought they were all cool.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_01: I thought Auburn was cool, Alabama, State.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_01: Uh I hate to say it, but I thought Ole Miss was cool.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_01: I thought LSU was cool, all of it, you know.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_01: And you didn't know how it was going to work out.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_01: And uh I had a few options coming out of high school.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_01: I was not, you know, one of these national recruits or anything.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_01: But state was the first school to offer me a scholarship.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_01: And that meant so much.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_01: And I fell in love with them, got to know the people.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_01: We visited state more than any other place because of that.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_01: And um, when it came down to it, it was this uh Christmas, it was around Christmas of '94.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_01: So that was fall semester of my senior year high school.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_01: And it became pretty overwhelming, this feeling of just knowing me, my dad, my mom, everybody just knowing you're going to Mississippi State.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_01: And that's where you're going.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's that's right.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_01: That's where I'm going.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_01: And so I feel like for us and for me, God had a hand in it.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_01: I didn't always do the right things with it.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_01: I didn't always, you know, have an understanding and appreciate what I uh was going through at the time.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_01: But that's all kids, you know, you learn every day.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_01: And but looking back on it, the way my life has gone to this point, there's just no doubt that uh the creator of this universe wanted me at Mississippi State.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_01: Now, people can roll their eyes or take that for what they want, but that's what I believe.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_02: I agree 100%.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_02: I think everything happens for a reason, you know.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_02: That's uh we go nowhere backs.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_02: And that's uh saying we had my church, we go nowhere backs, and wherever God's sending us, he's given his Holy Spirit to us.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_02: And that's true, man.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_02: You know, uh exactly what you said.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_02: That you were you were placed at Mississippi State for a reason.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_02: We're all here for a reason, and and uh you made the most of it.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_02: It's awful.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you know, and I think too looking back on it's like I don't know, it's a it's a weird thing when somebody goes, you know, if you could go back, would you change anything?
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_01: Or what would you do different?
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_01: Or do you have any regrets?
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_01: You know, it's a weird thing when people ask you that because you know, first of all, like what's the point?
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, because you can't, you know.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_01: Um and and two, um, you you said, you know, make the most of it.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I mean, I think for me, in a lot of ways, I did.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_01: Uh do I wish, do I wish I had played better at times?
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_01: Well, sure, you know, do I wish we had won more games?
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_01: Well, sure, we won a lot of games.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_01: I wish we'd won all of them, you know.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_01: But you look, especially get older like I'm getting now.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, this is there's some gray in here.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_01: And I can't see that on this, but I got some gray in here.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_01: Especially you get older, you look back, and you actually your perspective changes, and you look back at some of those dips and low times and ups and downs and roller coasters of when you're a young person.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_01: And you can actually be more uh genuinely thankful for some of that tough stuff and some of the roller coaster ride because it helped you in the long run or gave you perspective or made you a little tougher, you know.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so yeah, I'm just I tell you, man, I'm I'm so thankful for all of it.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_01: And gosh, I've just been so blessed at every turn uh of of my life.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_01: And so now, you know, you said it, all right.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_01: I get to go to the games still at this point.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_01: I have this is I was trying to figure this out.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_01: So that the 2011 season was my first season in the booth as a color analyst.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_01: Nine and 10, 2009, 2010, I got to do pregame, post-game, but 11, so 11, 12, see, I'm using my fingers, don't make jokes.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_01: 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, and 20.
• 11:15
  SPEAKER_01: See, so last year was my 10th year in the booth as the analyst.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_01: This will be 11.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_01: And uh so I'm going to, I get to go to the games.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_01: They pay me to go to the games.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_01: The thing that I would be doing if I were sitting at home watching it, which is critiquing what I'm seeing or breaking it down, driving my wife crazy, telling her what's going to happen, I get to do that, and it's a job responsibility.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_01: So, man, I'm telling you, I am just I can't be anything but thankful.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_03: So I remember when I lived in Jackson, y'all were starting the head-to-head show.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_03: And then when was the crossover of all that?
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_03: When you were doing your show and then you ended up in state.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_03: Did you get it?
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_03: Get on at state show or yeah, let's see.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_01: I guess a good question.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_01: When was that?
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_01: It was all about the same time.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_01: Uh gosh.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_01: All right, let me let me go back and and line it up in my head.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_01: We we started that radio show in July of 2011.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_01: That's right.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_01: July of 11th, because my daughter was born on July the 18th, and we that, you know, and and that was, and we'd started the show like maybe a week earlier.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_01: It's like we had this big build-up.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_01: We're gonna start this show, and as soon as we launched it, hey, I'm Matt's out on uh, you know, his wife just had a baby, so he's out for a few days.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, that's like right when we started the show.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_01: And that's right, okay.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_01: So that fall was my first fall to jump up in the booth.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and all the football stuff, you know, doing a radio show, doing football.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_01: None of that compares to um, I mean, there's no question that it's one of the three biggest moments of my life, and that's that little girl being born.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_01: She's 10 years old now and down there doing singing lessons right now.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_01: Um you might hear her.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_01: But yeah, you're right.
• 13:16
  SPEAKER_01: Uh it's interesting you bring that up.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_01: I had forgotten that was all at the same time, just boom, boom, boom, that same year.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_03: Did y'all ever get uh into any heated heated battles or anything like that on the show?
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_03: I'm trying to remember right.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_03: I I was waiting on a few moments there, but I can't I don't think anything got too uncivilized.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_03: Nah.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_01: No, uh Ms.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_01: Good, you know, uh we did I was a part of that show for seven years, um and and a part of creating it, launching it, selling it, building it, and then hosting it for seven years.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_01: And that's long enough.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_01: Seven years a long time in radio.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_01: And uh, you know, um I enjoyed most of it, maybe not all of it, but I enjoyed most of it and in enjoyed being on the air with Richard every day.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_01: Um, he's a good guy and enjoyed that part of it.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, it was just time to do something else, you know.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, you can again when you think about it, I mean, seven years doesn't sound like a long time.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_01: There are people who have 30, 40 year careers that's doing stuff, but for most people and for me, you know, you just things have got to move pretty quick.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_01: And if they don't move pretty quick, and then I gotta move pretty quick.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I always remember uh I love listening every day.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_02: And Jim from Corinth, that's the way I remember with you and you'd always call in.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_02: You could tell you with the state, man.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_02: He'd always give Richard a hard time.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_02: It was always funny.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I'm telling you, man, I used to get so tickled at that because um Jim just had a knack for getting under Richard's skin.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know how he did it.
• 15:09
  SPEAKER_01: And then you would ask, you'd ask Richard about it.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_01: He's like, nah, it don't bother me.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like, yeah, it bothers you.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_01: It definitely bothers you.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know how, you know, oh Jim.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_01: You know, the last time I heard heard from uh Jim from Carninth was the radio show I'm doing now.
• 15:26
  SPEAKER_01: This was about maybe about a year ago.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, and I stream the show every day.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_01: And it's three hours every day from 12 to 3.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_01: And so stream it with video on Facebook and YouTube, and it went on Periscope and all.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_01: I think it was Facebook.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_01: He sent me a message on Facebook, like, and it said, Hey, I noticed that a lot of times you mute your microphone and you kind of go down and cough or whatever.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_01: You kind of always he goes, Are you like dipping snuff or something like that?
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_01: And he goes, You know, that stuff can cause cancer.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_01: That was his message.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_01: So, Jim from Corinth, if you're listening, I didn't respond to that because I thought it was a stupid question.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_01: But I appreciate your concern.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_01: That's great.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_03: You know, we've had all kinds of guests on here, and and we've had uh some somebody's burped um a couple times just on there.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_03: Um all kinds of stuff, you know, a little, you know, you go back and listen to the tape and you hear all these sound effects, and you're saying, oh man, I didn't realize how sensitive the mics are sometimes.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_01: I'm sitting here drinking coffee.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_01: I um I drink uh a lot of coffee, and so during the radio show every day, I'm constantly sipping on it, which is, you know, you probably shouldn't, but I'm sort of a coffee addict.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_01: And our man, y'all need to know him, Dan Skinner.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_01: He's a big bulldog, great guy, and he makes coffee out of New Albany, uh roast it up there, and I get my coffee from him.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_01: He he doesn't mind he he he would tell me, Oh, just drink all you want to drink, Matt.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_01: Don't worry about moderation.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and so that's kind of the way I am.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_01: I drink a lot of coffee.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_01: So, you know, I think I guess what I'm saying that is I'm sort of used to it.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_01: I've learned how to constantly sip on the coffee without the little burps and stuff uh throughout.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_01: So maybe we're good.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_01: Dan Skinner, if you're listening, I like coffee too.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_01: So send some over here to me.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_01: High point roasters in New Albany, Mississippi.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_01: Dan the coffee man.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_01: It's good now.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, uh, he got me to the next level of just I get the whole beans and I grind them myself, you know, and use it in the French press.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_01: Hey, buddy, well, you know, like my dad, he came and visited a while back, and I made some that way.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_01: It's the way I make it every day.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_01: And he took one sip and he's like, Boy, this is this is strong.
• 18:01
  SPEAKER_01: Now you making this coffee strong.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_01: I thought, well, I was kind of taking it easy on you a little bit compared to what I normally do.
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_01: So it's good stuff.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_02: Hey, speaking of New Albany, Brianna, you might want to uh trade some coffee.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_02: Our top seven new Albany sunglasses.
• 18:24
  SPEAKER_02: No, there's greenwood in the back.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_02: But there is some new Albany ones because the guy's New Albany might be listening right now.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_02: He reached out to you.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, he probably knows him.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_02: He might he probably know about the coffee.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_03: I'm sure he does.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, the new Albanys sold out the other day.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_03: They they were actually pretty popular.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_02: They did.
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_02: Wow.
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's awesome.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_02: Well, Matt, just uh tell us a little bit about any games in the past that people might want to hear.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_02: I know they're gonna everybody wants to hear about that Auburn game.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_02: You probably get sick of talking about it, but yeah.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_01: I tell you what came up on the radio show today.
• 19:01
  SPEAKER_02: What's that?
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_01: Um, all right, so we do a countdown of a hundred teams in a hundred days.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_01: Do one team every day in the last hundred days leading up to college football.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_01: And so which that countdown every year starts during the last week of May during the SEC baseball tournament.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_01: Started 100.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_01: Well, today was team numbers seven, six, and five because we're coming through the weekend.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_01: And team number five was Georgia.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_01: And so we were just talking about Georgia and I we do a thing where we go, well, let's give me some famous alumni from this particular school.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_01: And our uh producer Bill will run down a bunch.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_01: So he's going through the list of Georgia famous alumni, you know, Herschel Walker and this and that.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_01: And let's see, there's some others like the guy who was um who was the guy on Seinfeld that Jerry Seinfeld hated?
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_01: Uh the neighbor?
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_01: Was it um Norman?
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_01: Newman.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_01: Newman.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_01: Newman.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_01: Sorry, I know it's blasphemy to Seinfeld lovers.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_01: Newman, the guy that played Newman apparently went to the University of Georgia.
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, it's all these things, you know.
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_01: And we're going through it.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_01: And he gets to Champ Bailey, and so the light bulb comes on.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_01: And so when he finished, I said, Hey, I threw a pick six to Champ Bailey, so I'm in the Hall of Fame, you know, roundabout way.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_01: And I remembered because so, so several things I remember about playing Georgia.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_01: 96, we played them in Star War, and I got a sure enough concussion in that game, like seeing double and weird stuff like having thinking you've had this specific dream about certain plays and things, which would be common.
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_01: But the next day we were watching the film together as a team, and then there are those plays on the film that I thought I had dreamed the night before.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_01: It was this weird 24, 48 hours after that Georgia game.
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_01: I remembered that.
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_01: And uh then I remembered the next year we played Georgia, and it was in uh Georgia.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_01: They beat us pretty good in '97.
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I threw a pick six to Champ Bailey.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_01: So I got in the Hall of Fame that day, and I didn't even know it at the time.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_01: And then I came to the bench and I sat down on the back of the bench, and we're in front of the Georgia students, and they're chanting.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_01: Thousands of them in unison are chanting, and it's ear piercing.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_01: They're going, Why it sucks?
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_01: Why it sucks?
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_01: And it is loud.
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_01: And Rob Morgan, who's my brother-in-law now, we're he's also quarterback.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_01: We're sitting beside each other, and he starts poking me in the ribs with his elbow while they're doing this and like giggling.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like, you know, stop it.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_01: It's not funny.
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_01: Well, so later in the game, they put him in there.
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_01: He runs about three plays, throws a pass to the sideline, it gets picked off, taken to the house.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_01: He comes back and sits next to me.
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_01: They start going, Morgan sucks.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_01: Morgan sucks.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_01: And so I couldn't help it.
• 21:59
  SPEAKER_01: I start poking.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: And him, you know.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_01: And so those are some of the memories.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_01: Honestly, everybody wants you to, I don't know, talk about, you know, this favorite game and these moments.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_01: I had a couple.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_01: Everybody talks about the Auburn game, my senior year and stuff.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_01: But the truth is, you know, I think like a lot of players, I have much more vivid memories of the things I didn't accomplish, the bad games, frankly, and sometimes bad throws, because you those haunt you for the rest of your life.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_01: And the last thing I want to do is get out here and make it sound like I was some sort of great player.
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_01: You know, I wasn't.
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_01: I, you know, I was glad to be there.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and after starting, I had plenty of potential.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_01: And after starting early in my career, you know, just began to really struggle.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_01: Um, got benched, and I'm really proud that I worked my way back into a role on the team.
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_01: And by the time I was a senior, I was back in the mix and helped us to win a game or two.
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, when you're young, you just you're trying to not be overwhelmed by everything unless you're some super talent.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_01: And for me, at times I may have been a little overwhelmed.
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_01: You turn the ball over, you don't play well, and you feel like, you know, hey, I contributed heavily to us losing a game or two.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_01: Well, you can do one of two things.
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_01: You can ignore it, which that's okay, but it's maybe not the most responsible thing.
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_01: You can quit and go home, leave, give up, walk away from it, and just try to, you know, ignore it that way.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_01: Nowadays you can transfer, go somewhere else, and hope that they don't look up your stats, I guess.
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_01: Or you can stay where you are, dig in a little harder, uh, accept the situation like it is, fight and scratch a little harder, and decide, you know, all right, I uh if I contributed to us losing some games, I'm gonna do everything I can to try to contribute to us winning some games before I'm done here.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_01: And that's the approach I took.
• 24:15
  SPEAKER_01: Glad I did it.
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_01: And that's what I'm proud of.
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_01: I, you know, I'm not proud of, you know, my career.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_01: Um the only thing I have to be proud of is I stuck it out.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_01: I didn't quit.
• 24:28
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and I helped us win some games before it was over with.
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_02: Well, that's a uh that what you're describing right there is the ultimate teammate.
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_02: You know, when when someone loses their job, especially in the quarterback position, you know, most people will be be mad and it's like, you know, this is not good and everything, but man, you you realize you're part of that team and you you did your role and you stopped when coach needs you in there, you were in there, and and that's just uh teammate right there, all around.
• 24:55
  SPEAKER_01: Well, and I tell you, um honestly, when I first got benched in I get what was the season, was that in '98, I did get mad.
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_01: I spent about a week or two being mad and you know, thinking I was hot, thinking I was a whole lot better than I was.
• 25:13
  SPEAKER_01: Um and after a couple of weeks of it, began to, you know, you the emotions start to settle, and you realize, man, this ain't no, this is not how I'm supposed to go about this at all.
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_01: And and you realize, too, hey, this whole operation of this team, it's going forward with or without me.
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_01: They are not dependent on me.
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, so I can either choose to be a part of it or not.
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_01: So yeah, it's it's part of being that's that's the attitude or the, you know, I hate to use this term, but it's sort of this come to Jesus moment if to be a good teammate.
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_01: But the other thing is whoever's running that program and running that team, the coaches, setting up an atmosphere in the locker room and at practice and everywhere else where guys realize, hey, man, this whole big operation is a lot bigger than just me.
• 26:11
  SPEAKER_01: And that goes back to Coach Cheryl and those guys, you know.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_01: I realized pretty quick, you know, it's not they don't dislike me.
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_01: It ain't personal.
• 26:20
  SPEAKER_01: They got to get the ball in the end zone.
• 26:23
  SPEAKER_01: And if they don't, they get fired.
• 26:25
  SPEAKER_01: You know, they can get fired next week if we don't score.
• 26:27
  SPEAKER_01: I'm still here.
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_01: I got my scholarship.
• 26:30
  SPEAKER_01: So I I started to look at it through other people's perspective other than my own.
• 26:34
  SPEAKER_01: And it was um if I had uh if I had made the choice to get into coaching, then my experience of going through that stuff as a player would have been just absolutely invaluable for understanding how to deal with that stuff going forward.
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_02: Well, well, Matt, before we get into this year's team, I want to switch the subjects for a little bit, talk a little about baseball real quick.
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_02: Uh man, I've got to hear about the uh field of dreams.
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_02: I saw you post that.
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_02: What was that like, man?
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_02: That game was amazing.
• 27:07
  SPEAKER_02: We watched it, and man, just unbelievable.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_02: I can't imagine what it was like seeing that in person.
• 27:11
  SPEAKER_02: What what was it like when you went and visited?
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_01: Man, I'm getting goosebumps just thinking about answering this.
• 27:20
  SPEAKER_01: Look, so I have to ask you, have you ever been?
• 27:23
  SPEAKER_02: I have not.
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_02: I have not.
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_01: You gotta go.
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_02: That's right here.
• 27:29
  SPEAKER_01: You gotta go.
• 27:31
  SPEAKER_01: I'm telling you, all right, so now baseball guy, you know, and here we are, state's winning this whole thing, and I'm out here doing my radio show at the team hotel in Omaha.
• 27:44
  SPEAKER_01: My wife and daughter back home 10 hours away.
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_01: And but I'm I'm I found I don't remember specifically, but I found ways to tell Annabeth and and and soften her up to the idea that I've got to do the show.
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_01: If they win the national championship, I can't be driving in the car the next day and not do a radio show.
• 28:04
  SPEAKER_01: I gotta be on the radio, which means spending the night after the national championship game doing the show.
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_01: And then because of the time of the show, I don't get off the air until three o'clock the day after we've won it.
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_01: I got to find somewhere else to spend the night.
• 28:20
  SPEAKER_01: I can't come, I can't leave at three and drive all the way home.
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm spending one more night one way or the other.
• 28:27
  SPEAKER_01: You see how I'm explaining this?
• 28:28
  SPEAKER_01: Like, should should have been a lawyer's thing.
• 28:31
  SPEAKER_01: So I uh said, so here's what I'm gonna do.
• 28:35
  SPEAKER_01: I've booked a hotel room in Dyersville, Iowa.
• 28:39
  SPEAKER_01: She's like, Iowa.
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_01: Just, you know, hear me out.
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna leave when I get off the air at three on that Thursday after we do our celebrate the national title show, I'm gonna leave.
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_01: It'll take me, you know, three, four, five hours from Omaha to get to Dyersville, Iowa, and I'll get there just in time to have about an hour as the sun's going down to tour the field of dreams.
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna spend the night there and I'll drive home the next day.
• 29:07
  SPEAKER_01: So that's what I did.
• 29:09
  SPEAKER_01: And could I really afford it, you know, to do that and spend all that money?
• 29:14
  SPEAKER_01: No.
• 29:15
  SPEAKER_01: Did it, you know, make a whole lot of sense and so maybe not, but man, would do it again in a heartbeat.
• 29:23
  SPEAKER_01: Got off the radio at the Hilton that Thursday at 3, started driving, pulled up to the field of dreams at 8 p.m.
• 29:33
  SPEAKER_01: Central.
• 29:34
  SPEAKER_01: It doesn't get dark out there that time of year until like 9:15.
• 29:37
  SPEAKER_01: So I had plenty of time, but it was the perfect time because that sun's coming right down over the top.
• 29:42
  SPEAKER_01: You can see the silhouette of the Major League field they've built out there to the West.
• 29:47
  SPEAKER_01: Um, that time of day, there were fewer people there being all touristy and just getting to see it, you know, because baseball has been such a huge part of my life.
• 29:57
  SPEAKER_01: Not I didn't play it at a really high level, I just always loved it.
• 30:01
  SPEAKER_01: Um, you know, as in terms of, you know, idolizing a human being.
• 30:07
  SPEAKER_01: Well, my dad's pretty close to the top of the list because as a little guy, you know, he played small college baseball at Montevallo.
• 30:15
  SPEAKER_01: So the whole idea of playing catch out in a yard and stuff, man, that was a daily routine, you know.
• 30:20
  SPEAKER_01: And so grew up liking that movie and to drive over there and see it on the heels of have what we just went through in Omaha the previous three days.
• 30:30
  SPEAKER_01: It was just absolutely incredible.
• 30:33
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I could have, you know, I'm out there walking around and of course taking some video and stuff and seeing it and really trying to soak it all in.
• 30:42
  SPEAKER_01: Shoot, man, I could have stayed out there until midnight.
• 30:44
  SPEAKER_01: It was incredible.
• 30:47
  SPEAKER_02: So that was it, did it look just like the movie, the house still there?
• 30:51
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, everything.
• 30:52
  SPEAKER_01: It really did.
• 30:53
  SPEAKER_01: They have that place and you know, the town, the convention investors bureau there in Dyersville, and everybody involved with it.
• 31:01
  SPEAKER_01: They they've done a phenomenal job with that property.
• 31:06
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, and I was there at a good time, you know, corn was about six feet tall, um, or so.
• 31:14
  SPEAKER_01: And yeah, it was just beautiful, manicured perfectly, just like in the movie.
• 31:19
  SPEAKER_01: The house is the only difference at the house is there is a a white picket sort of fence surrounding the house with a gate that goes all the way around so as to, because they they sell, you know, tours, but also people can pay extra money and stay in the house.
• 31:38
  SPEAKER_03: Oh wow.
• 31:39
  SPEAKER_01: So by so by putting that picket fence around, it kind of, if somebody's in it, they can lock the gate and kind of keep it slightly private.
• 31:46
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but anyway, yeah, it looks that was another thing to me.
• 31:50
  SPEAKER_01: You know, you don't know what to expect when you're going to see something that you've seen that's part of a movie set.
• 31:56
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 31:56
  SPEAKER_01: You don't know how, man, it it was like um it exceeded my expectations.
• 32:05
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and to drive all that way out of the way, believe me, I had some expectations and it exceeded them.
• 32:13
  SPEAKER_02: So when you watched that game, the MLB game, where were you just like, wow, it was right there.
• 32:17
  SPEAKER_02: This is I can't imagine watching that being just right there.
• 32:22
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 32:22
  SPEAKER_01: Um I tell you what I did too.
• 32:25
  SPEAKER_01: I even went, I immediately I got back to the hotel in Dyersville after touring the field and opened the computer, and I start typing up, all right, Field of Dreams, Major League game.
• 32:34
  SPEAKER_01: How do you get tickets?
• 32:35
  SPEAKER_01: You know, and you put in your information, and like two weeks before, no, about a week and a half before the game was played, I called Annabeth.
• 32:45
  SPEAKER_01: I said, Hey, I just got an email about the Major League game, the White Sox and Yankees.
• 32:50
  SPEAKER_01: I've got access to tickets and hotel if we want to go.
• 32:54
  SPEAKER_01: She says, Really?
• 32:55
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, what is it?
• 32:56
  SPEAKER_01: I said, okay, here's it, here's what it says.
• 32:57
  SPEAKER_01: And I read her the email.
• 32:58
  SPEAKER_01: And the email goes, You have access to two uh different tiers of tickets for this game if you choose to claim them.
• 33:08
  SPEAKER_01: Tier one was this, these two tickets, these particular seats, and they are uh they were, what were they?
• 33:16
  SPEAKER_01: They were fourteen hundred and something dollars a piece or something like that.
• 33:20
  SPEAKER_01: Uh tier two was a little closer to the field, and they were, I think, four thousand six hundred and something dollars a piece.
• 33:28
  SPEAKER_01: And she's just laughing, you know.
• 33:31
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, we we're not, we're not going.
• 33:33
  SPEAKER_01: I I joked on the radio, I said, if I had done it, if I'd said, I gotta go, I gotta go, I gotta be there.
• 33:40
  SPEAKER_01: I'm cashing out, I'm going.
• 33:42
  SPEAKER_01: She would have said, Why don't you just stay?
• 33:45
  SPEAKER_01: Why don't you just feel free, just stay on out there?
• 33:49
  SPEAKER_01: But you know, I couldn't, I had to at least go through the process, see what it would have cost.
• 33:53
  SPEAKER_01: It was unbelievably expensive.
• 33:55
  SPEAKER_01: But watching it, was that not one of the coolest things you've ever seen in sports television?
• 34:00
  SPEAKER_02: That intro where they come out from the cornfields, that that'll give you goosebumps.
• 34:04
  SPEAKER_02: No doubt.
• 34:05
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 34:06
  SPEAKER_02: And the game itself, man, it was like Hollywood scripted.
• 34:09
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, walk-off, just you could not have written it.
• 34:14
  SPEAKER_01: I'm telling you, you could not have written it any more perfectly.
• 34:17
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, it was great.
• 34:19
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it was it was amazing.
• 34:21
  SPEAKER_02: Well, uh, Matt, let's uh let's talk a little bit about what we got upcoming.
• 34:25
  SPEAKER_02: We got football season starting next week, and tell us what it's like covering Mike Leach.
• 34:30
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, can you imagine?
• 34:31
  SPEAKER_02: You know, all these years you're Mike Leach, and now he's our coach, and you're covering him.
• 34:36
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, because I used to want that badly.
• 34:39
  SPEAKER_01: We used to on on um all these radio shows I've ever done, even when he was at Washington State, I'd go clip out some of his press conference every week just because I he was so entertaining, you know.
• 34:52
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 34:53
  SPEAKER_01: Um yeah, and I would say that to this point, because everything's been so new and you had COVID last year, it's like Mike has been, he's he's sort of played it cool.
• 35:03
  SPEAKER_01: You know, he's still getting to know everybody.
• 35:05
  SPEAKER_01: They still haven't had an in-person QA press conference indoors like they normally do.
• 35:11
  SPEAKER_01: They still haven't done it in.
• 35:13
  SPEAKER_01: They were gonna do it today.
• 35:15
  SPEAKER_01: They were gonna feed the media and then do an indoors, in-person press conference for game week in the media room in the north end zone, but the campus shut down because of the hurricane.
• 35:28
  SPEAKER_01: And so now they're not having it this week.
• 35:31
  SPEAKER_01: So he's sort of played it cool.
• 35:33
  SPEAKER_01: Um because last year was COVID and they tried to isolate the team away from everybody they could.
• 35:40
  SPEAKER_01: We didn't have, we didn't spend the time around them that we normally do.
• 35:45
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, and and in their first year it was pretty tough because we weren't on the plane with them, we were traveling on our own, which we always travel on the plane.
• 35:53
  SPEAKER_01: So, all that to say, I mean, covering him in in the interaction that I've had, my observation is the guy is genuine.
• 36:03
  SPEAKER_01: He it's not a put on, it's not a show, it's not being quirky.
• 36:08
  SPEAKER_01: He's as real deal as you're gonna come across in terms of a Division I head coach.
• 36:16
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I the way I described it a couple of weeks ago, I think he's not only not concerned, not just not concerned with public perception and what people think of him, like he's not even aware of it.
• 36:33
  SPEAKER_01: Like it's just he's he's a football coach.
• 36:36
  SPEAKER_01: He's good and and that's why I think he's so engaging in most interview settings and stuff is because he couldn't possibly care less what people think about him.
• 36:50
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, it's not it's not possible.
• 36:52
  SPEAKER_01: And so I like that, I admire that a lot.
• 36:55
  SPEAKER_01: And and then covering his offense, you know, we got to see it right out of the shoots.
• 37:01
  SPEAKER_01: It can be fun.
• 37:02
  SPEAKER_01: They struggled for a little while, but they'll get it.
• 37:04
  SPEAKER_01: And what I've said about that is, you know, at state, you you gotta try something else.
• 37:11
  SPEAKER_01: You gotta be able to, you gotta try, you've tried everything else, but air raid, you gotta try the air raid, and that's why I'm fine with it.
• 37:21
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, Will Rogers, he's a family friend of mine, and uh we've seen him grow up, and he's uh he really was thrown into the fire last year, and and he did really well with certain situations that it that it did.
• 37:35
  SPEAKER_02: But I really excited to see how he performs uh this year.
• 37:38
  SPEAKER_02: It seems like he from what I read last week that if he said if the season started today, he'd go with Will as a QB one.
• 37:45
  SPEAKER_02: So what are your expectations?
• 37:47
  SPEAKER_02: You think you think uh we'll see from I mean, Jaden Wally, I mean, he's gonna be great.
• 37:53
  SPEAKER_02: Any any guys that you've been seeing that stands out or do the little book for it?
• 37:59
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, um, yeah, I ex they'll make a jump.
• 38:02
  SPEAKER_01: I expect them to make a jump.
• 38:05
  SPEAKER_01: Just their consistency is gonna go up.
• 38:10
  SPEAKER_01: And and I don't mean people shouldn't hear that and think, okay, well, that means the completion percentage is gonna go way up from last year.
• 38:17
  SPEAKER_01: Well, that's not what I'm saying.
• 38:18
  SPEAKER_01: I'm just saying how consistently they they just kind of, you know, they hit this throw and they hit that throw and they complete the screen, and the screen's more accurate, and the timing's a little better.
• 38:28
  SPEAKER_01: So instead of making four, we make six, and those things really accumulate over the course of the year.
• 38:34
  SPEAKER_01: So the consistency is just gonna go up.
• 38:36
  SPEAKER_01: It ha it it's just it will.
• 38:39
  SPEAKER_01: All the practice time, the experience goes up, so the consistency goes up.
• 38:43
  SPEAKER_01: And uh, you know, the reason here's the reason that I have a hard time coming out with some, you know, a real strong opinion on the expectations and just how big of a jump is because they are so young.
• 39:02
  SPEAKER_01: And um man, young players go through stuff a lot of times.
• 39:06
  SPEAKER_01: I know the game is different now than it was 25 years ago, but still there's such a big difference between a sophomore and a senior, let alone a second-year senior because everybody's got more eligibility, you know.
• 39:21
  SPEAKER_01: Um, there's such a big difference there.
• 39:23
  SPEAKER_01: And when I look at it, you've got a true sophomore quarterback in Rogers.
• 39:31
  SPEAKER_01: You got true sophomore running backs, one and two, true sophomore leading returning receiver in Wally.
• 39:40
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 39:41
  SPEAKER_01: Um what is Cross?
• 39:43
  SPEAKER_01: I'm trying to think.
• 39:44
  SPEAKER_01: See, Cross was a a true in 19, if I'm correct, but he technically redshirted because he only played in like three games.
• 39:54
  SPEAKER_01: And uh and then started all 10 games for you last year as a freshman at left tackle.
• 40:02
  SPEAKER_01: Well, he's probably your biggest draft prospect on that side of the ball.
• 40:08
  SPEAKER_01: And the guy's played in 13 career games.
• 40:12
  SPEAKER_01: So you you know, state fans don't want you bringing up Sylvester Krohn quotes, but he had a good one when he said you can't hurry up experience, and and he's exactly right.
• 40:29
  SPEAKER_01: So that's the reason for me that I I'm not out here planting a flag in the ground yet.
• 40:37
  SPEAKER_01: You know, they're still young.
• 40:38
  SPEAKER_01: Now, talk to me next year, and it's probably gonna be a different story.
• 40:43
  SPEAKER_01: The way I feel about it is for those reasons I mentioned and others, if you're gonna get your licks in on this offense, you better get them in now.
• 40:55
  SPEAKER_03: That makes me excited though to think about that.
• 40:57
  SPEAKER_03: So I'm ready for it.
• 41:01
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I'm excited for it too, and just because everywhere Coach Leach has been, they make a little jump in year two.
• 41:08
  SPEAKER_01: But what I also know is I don't think Mike's uh coached many teams that had defensive personnel like this one does.
• 41:18
  SPEAKER_01: Um all the best athletes on this football team are on defense.
• 41:23
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 41:24
  SPEAKER_01: The the highest draft prospects, the earliest draft prospects, they're all on defense.
• 41:32
  SPEAKER_01: Um your best assistant coach is on defense.
• 41:36
  SPEAKER_01: That's Arnett.
• 41:38
  SPEAKER_01: They're gonna have a chance to um surprise some people.
• 41:44
  SPEAKER_01: They're gonna play some games this year, and some of these mushy-headed media talking heads that uh you know don't care to look uh past page one of the media guide are gonna watch this team play and go, holy cow, where did this come from?
• 42:04
  SPEAKER_01: And my response would be well, in the state of Mississippi, we've been talking about it for six months, and all you have to do is pay attention.
• 42:12
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 42:16
  SPEAKER_03: Well, Matt, uh, we'll let you get back to your family.
• 42:18
  SPEAKER_03: I know you're talking about your daughter having singing lessons down there, so don't want to keep you too long here, but this has been really good.
• 42:24
  SPEAKER_03: Um, John, did you have any other questions about anything?
• 42:27
  SPEAKER_02: No, uh, we kind of filled him in about the glasses and everything.
• 42:31
  SPEAKER_02: I do want to say, I forgot to mention this.
• 42:34
  SPEAKER_02: Um, the I think we me and Brandon talked about, we're trying to think of a promo code.
• 42:39
  SPEAKER_02: So um we're gonna do a promo code if you're listening and you want to purchase a glass and sunglasses and do uh to get I believe 10% off.
• 42:47
  SPEAKER_02: Uh we're gonna use Bo Duke.
• 42:48
  SPEAKER_02: Bo Duke is my dog.
• 42:52
  SPEAKER_02: So we can use that.
• 42:54
  SPEAKER_02: We're starting that off.
• 42:55
  SPEAKER_02: Matt, I know you're I have to take this, ask you this.
• 42:58
  SPEAKER_02: You're a big smoking the bandit fan, aren't you?
• 43:00
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I I okay.
• 43:03
  SPEAKER_01: I I grew up watching a Dukes a hazard.
• 43:06
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, I really did.
• 43:08
  SPEAKER_01: Long before I had any clue what a Confederate flag was, let alone that you know it was on the top of the General Lee and it was called General Lee.
• 43:17
  SPEAKER_01: I didn't know any of that.
• 43:18
  SPEAKER_01: So I grew up a Dukes a Hazard fan.
• 43:20
  SPEAKER_01: I just thought it was cool to jump in dirt piles, you know.
• 43:23
  SPEAKER_01: You're like, oh, that's awesome.
• 43:24
  SPEAKER_01: And they they don't even open the door, they climb in the window, you know.
• 43:27
  SPEAKER_01: For a kid, that's awesome.
• 43:29
  SPEAKER_01: Uh for but uh Neil Price is the big smoking the bandit fan.
• 43:33
  SPEAKER_02: Well, tell Neil that John has a new movie coming out.
• 43:36
  SPEAKER_02: He had a movie last year that came out called Stand On It.
• 43:39
  SPEAKER_02: It's a tribute movie to Smoking the Bandit.
• 43:41
  SPEAKER_02: It's pretty much the same premise as Smoking the Bandit that changed things up.
• 43:45
  SPEAKER_02: A lot of Easter egg, you know, or Nice, The Dukes of Hazard, and Smoking the Bandit in it.
• 43:49
  SPEAKER_02: So if Neil likes Smoking the Bandit, he will love that.
• 43:52
  SPEAKER_02: So, with that being said, he has a new movie coming out that was in um in the comes out the day after Christmas called Poker Run.
• 43:59
  SPEAKER_02: And it's the Sequel to Stand On.
• 44:02
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 44:02
  SPEAKER_02: Make sure he catches that one too.
• 44:04
  SPEAKER_02: So uh so yeah, we're gonna try to promote that and do the do the code since it's bo my dog's name is Bo and after John, and John's a good friend of mine.
• 44:13
  SPEAKER_02: So so yeah, tell him about that one, he'll he'll get a kick out of that.
• 44:16
  SPEAKER_01: I tell you what now, Stand on It is an awesome title.
• 44:20
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, he got Stand on It from that was the original title.
• 44:24
  SPEAKER_02: What title, let me get this right, uh a movie called that Bert Reynolds did called Stroker Ace.
• 44:30
  SPEAKER_02: Uh that one it's a race car movie.
• 44:33
  SPEAKER_02: That was the working title of the movie, and uh so he used his stand on it, but instead of Snowman and uh and smoking man, we got Frosty in Stanford.
• 44:44
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, okay.
• 44:46
  SPEAKER_01: I like it.
• 44:47
  SPEAKER_01: I like it.
• 44:48
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna check it out.
• 44:50
  SPEAKER_02: So what one more thing I want to ask about speaking of uh Neil Price, tell us a little bit about that.
• 44:54
  SPEAKER_02: I didn't we didn't really go into that.
• 44:56
  SPEAKER_02: Uh yeah, you know, listening growing up as a state fan, and Jack Crystal was the guy, you know, you always listen to that, and now you're in the booth with a guy that replaced Jack Crystal calling games.
• 45:08
  SPEAKER_02: Is that just kind of surreal, right?
• 45:10
  SPEAKER_02: There, I mean, it is pretty cool deal.
• 45:13
  SPEAKER_01: It is he is a great guy.
• 45:15
  SPEAKER_01: Have y'all had a chance to have him on?
• 45:18
  SPEAKER_02: We haven't.
• 45:18
  SPEAKER_02: We that would be great.
• 45:19
  SPEAKER_02: We'd love it.
• 45:20
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I'll hook you up.
• 45:21
  SPEAKER_01: You'll love talking to him.
• 45:23
  SPEAKER_01: Um look, he's um Neil on all the technical levels of broadcasting is as good as there is uh in the SEC.
• 45:38
  SPEAKER_01: Uh he wouldn't let me say it if he was sitting here, but it's the truth.
• 45:43
  SPEAKER_01: Um because I've paid very close attention to it all my life.
• 45:48
  SPEAKER_01: Uh I grew up listening to games on radio.
• 45:50
  SPEAKER_01: We went dove hunting on fall Saturdays or crappie fishing and listening to the radio, we didn't go to games.
• 45:57
  SPEAKER_01: I know what it's supposed to sound like.
• 45:59
  SPEAKER_01: And when Neil does it, that's what it's supposed to sound like.
• 46:02
  SPEAKER_01: If you're a listener to his broadcast, you get the game.
• 46:08
  SPEAKER_01: If he and when he tells you something happened and somebody did it, and what time it is, and how it went down, and when his voice goes up or down, you can trust every bit of it.
• 46:20
  SPEAKER_01: He's giving you the game.
• 46:22
  SPEAKER_01: And uh so when I'm sitting there next to him, it I get confidence because I know people listening to us are getting what they're supposed to get out of this.
• 46:33
  SPEAKER_01: And it's boom, boom, boom.
• 46:35
  SPEAKER_01: If he's excited, there's a reason for it, you know.
• 46:38
  SPEAKER_01: So and then on top of that, he is a great guy to work with.
• 46:42
  SPEAKER_01: He takes it seriously, he works hard, he prepares.
• 46:45
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, he makes sure we're prepared, he makes sure others are prepared.
• 46:49
  SPEAKER_01: It means something to him.
• 46:51
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, it's not personal, it's you know, he's just very professional.
• 46:55
  SPEAKER_01: I hope state fans understand how fortunate they are to have him uh calling their games.
• 47:01
  SPEAKER_01: And, you know, his biggest problem is his color analyst likes to talk.
• 47:06
  SPEAKER_01: Uh and so we can we can improve there, but but I'm I'm proud of him and proud for him.
• 47:14
  SPEAKER_01: Hope he's here a long time.
• 47:16
  SPEAKER_02: I do too.
• 47:17
  SPEAKER_02: He he just stepped right in and and he he's an ultimate professional.
• 47:21
  SPEAKER_02: He's he's just uh everything he said from a listener standpoint, you can tell the highs and lows.
• 47:27
  SPEAKER_02: And you know, I remember Jack Crystal, he said something when was it Duty Noble hired him?
• 47:31
  SPEAKER_02: He's like, tell him the score.
• 47:33
  SPEAKER_02: Uh what was it?
• 47:34
  SPEAKER_02: Tell them the score, the time, and cut out all the BS.
• 47:36
  SPEAKER_01: That's it.
• 47:37
  SPEAKER_02: Uh Jack would Jack would like Neil.
• 47:39
  SPEAKER_02: I I'm I'm I feel confident on that.
• 47:41
  SPEAKER_01: Well, the first home game that we had, the first game he called in 2017, that was his first year.
• 47:48
  SPEAKER_01: And I don't even remember what game it was, but it was the first home game.
• 47:51
  SPEAKER_01: I know that.
• 47:52
  SPEAKER_01: He walks in the booth, he's putting his stuff down, he reaches in his bag and he pulls out a cowbell, not one with a handle on it.
• 48:02
  SPEAKER_01: I'm talking about this is a cowbell.
• 48:04
  SPEAKER_01: It hung off a cow's neck, and that he had put a Mississippi State walking bully sticker on it, and it was a cowbell that a member of his family up in East Tennessee, when he heard he was going to state, gave him a cowbell.
• 48:18
  SPEAKER_01: You know, he's like, this is belonged to our family.
• 48:21
  SPEAKER_01: It has there's a Neil could tell you there's a story behind who gave it to him, where it came from.
• 48:25
  SPEAKER_01: But it's like you got to reach down and grab the ring and ring it this way because it doesn't have a handle.
• 48:31
  SPEAKER_01: When I saw that, I thought, yeah, okay, this guy's gonna be all right.
• 48:37
  SPEAKER_02: That's awesome.
• 48:38
  SPEAKER_02: Nice.
• 48:40
  SPEAKER_03: Well, all right, Matt, we sure appreciate it.
• 48:42
  SPEAKER_03: I think we'll get a lot of a lot of good listens to this, uh, thanks to you.
• 48:45
  SPEAKER_03: So um good luck this year and um hope to see you soon.
• 48:49
  SPEAKER_01: I appreciate it so much, John and Brandon.
• 48:52
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you all for having me and appreciate what you do.
• 48:55
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I see it.
• 48:56
  SPEAKER_02: You know, if anyone needs sunglasses, tell us to johnnypacker.com.
• 49:00
  SPEAKER_01: Johnnypacker.com.
• 49:02
  SPEAKER_02: That's it.
• 49:03
  SPEAKER_02: That's it.
• 49:04
  SPEAKER_01: Promo code BODUK.
• 49:05
  SPEAKER_02: Yep, promo code BODUC, 10% off.
• 49:08
  SPEAKER_01: All right, have a good one.
• 49:09
  SPEAKER_02: All right, Matt.
• 49:10
  SPEAKER_02: Thanks so much, man.
• 49:10
  SPEAKER_02: Look forward to the fall.
• 49:12
  SPEAKER_01: See ya.
• 49:15
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for listening to the Johnny's World Podcast.
• 49:18
  SPEAKER_00: Please help us spread the message about CF and support our cause by going to jonypacker.com.
• 49:25
  SPEAKER_00: You can also reach us at Johnny PackerIwear at gmail.com.