Latest / Champions of Life / Episode 7: Miss State game recap and UT athlete stories

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Episode 7: Miss State game recap and UT athlete stories · Champions of Life

welcome to the champions of life podcast where 3 orangeblooded Tennessee alums discuss how there's always next year Hey everybody.
Welcome back to another dangerous podcast.
It's dangerous because they didn't gimme a script.
They're just letting me talk and that is terrifying.
So it's Champions of Life Podcast back again, where there's always, next year we're breaking down.
Ugh, a tough but clutch win at what should be ranked Mississippi State.
And looking ahead to the bye week, which we are guaranteed to not lose.
And what's ahead for the rest of our schedule.
We could talk about some bad calls.
There's some bad calls, some time management, some time management.
Some drop passes.
Well, just a overall disclaimer.
People are human, they're susceptible to, yeah.
Making some bad decisions.
I think that referee given a second chance on Chris's catch there for a beautiful day.
I mean, we understand the concept.
Guy goes flying down, his arm is moving in that general direction.
But, can we just have at least some type of conversation when the ref on the other side of the field is the one that makes that call and the one that's right there doesn't blow his whistle? Can they at least talk about it? There should be.
There should be a meeting midfield amongst the officials and say, Hey, I'm right here.
You're all the way across the field.
Is this your jurisdiction or not? I don't know how that works, but.
Ultimately, in a perfect world, every coach for each level of competition in the game of football should be given a, Hey, that was a bad call.
I want you to go back and look at it.
I feel like they kind of do it in the NBA right now and it kind of works.
But that one is, it probably wouldn't have been called back 'cause they would've said, well, you know, he, his hand moved and he fell and we can't.
But it was clearly a back call.
And Brazel is having a.
Just a monster season.
I mean, he's putting up huge numbers.
He's outpacing what Hyatt did.
Hyatt.
Mm-hmm.
Um, that was an amazing catch.
I just wanna say the fourth down catch as we're going for the drive.
Yes.
The, the triple clutch.
That was a not a great ball, and he made a big time catch.
We would've dropped that in the years of woe.
Well, Kitman dropped two.
Same type of pass, right? Mm-hmm.
Over the middle.
And I know again, those aren't great throws, but Brazel, I mean, he catches it, he sort of drops it and he's got it.
That was huge.
The good news is he had the separation from the defender already.
Yeah.
To compensate.
Whereas Kitman is, it's a lot of traffic.
That's a hot ball and it's not where it needs to be.
But also, Staley didn't have a great game.
But his third down conversion where he doesn't just, he makes a great catch, doesn't go down.
He fights for that extra yardage.
Turns up field.
Right.
Gets the down.
That was huge.
Yep.
As well.
Dragon people.
Mm-hmm.
Like you were saying, Brazel, great year.
He was out to the, I can't even pronounce this guy's name.
It's an award for the best receiver.
That's all you need to know.
Uh, Biletnikoff.
Yeah.
Does that sound right? Yeah.
Mm-hmm.
Biletnikoff.
Yeah.
Which we only have one in the history of the program.
Yeah.
Hyatt.
And who was that? Jalen Hyatt.
He's still running.
Still running.
Did you all realize as the game was going on that we had more rushing yards than they did? Did not feel that way? Nope.
It did not.
Did not feel that way.
Shocked me when I heard that.
No.
End of the game.
Great.
Poised by our quarterback.
I feel like he led the team well for a game tying drive.
Loved that.
He punched it in.
Um, and again, Brazel made big plays.
I think that there's some fair post-game analysis as to how we got to where we were.
I think, um, it's been widely criticized already.
I understand our coach's decision to let the clock run down before we cross midfield.
If we get a field goal, they're not getting the ball back.
If we don't do anything, they're not getting the ball.
Great strategy.
Love it.
But I think he would take some of those plays back, especially the first down run, which was the right call.
You just get the first down on third and one.
Maybe you just, you got two timeouts, just burn one right there.
Right, right.
That's the difference and I'm hoping that we'll take some things from this game and learn from it, and get better.
That's the hope.
I was going to go some non-football cowbell stuff.
It was annoying, but go ahead.
Well, we definitely need to hit that, but I was just gonna say, I don't know that he will learn from it because a similar thing happened at the end of the first half.
Mm-hmm.
Right.
We go into halftime with a timeout in our back pocket.
Like, yeah.
What, what's I don't understand that.
Game plan, so, or at least get somebody in the box.
A coach or a 12-year-old with a PlayStation controller because they know what to do.
Just having somebody in his ear that can say, we gotta go call time.
Kill it.
Kill it, kill it, right? Those are things that can cost you the game, especially as we go on to play powerhouses like Alabama and Vanderbilt.
Oof.
Vandy.
Add Vandy in there now, Alabama, Vanderbilt this weekend will be interesting.
What about the handbells? Oh, sorry, cowbells.
Just kidding mean, they were pretty, I mean, I had to put on mute most of the game.
Mm.
Did not really have the sound on at all.
It was also bothering my kids are like, what is that sound? We can't listen to that, so just put it on mute.
I don't know how they have hearing left after a full game.
It's, it's miserable, but they love it.
So I'm g Hey, it's what they've got.
They've got their thing.
We've got our woo.
Which we're not getting rid of, but big, big woo guys, they got their cowbells.
I'm over the cowbells.
And it was just one game.
Hmm.
And they're massive cowbell that they have on the sideline that they sign.
I thought that was pretty lame.
It's like the, the voo A was member of the Yeah.
That loud is bothered to bring the World Cup.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
About 15 years ago.
16 years ago, I did find it interesting.
I read up on it after the game.
They are not allowed to have the cow bells unless they cease ringing the bells once the center is over the ball.
And so it sounded like almost like ESPN was altering on the broadcast, but they collectively, as a group of people, have all agreed they won't ring the bell once the center gets over the ball.
I noticed that too, and I figured it was something with the sound.
They have like a sign up on the jumbotron that says ring, and then whenever he gets on the ball it's like, stop.
Interesting.
For the most part, you can tell, like everybody kind of cuts it out, but they, they banned them like 10 or seven, 10 or 11 years ago.
Hmm.
And gave 'em conditional sounds like they're piping it back in.
They might be the stadium, they might be hit an off button.
We've been accused of doing that.
Yeah.
Here's a question.
Would you rather have the name.
Fozzy or fluff? Mm, probably Fozzy.
Fozzy.
Is there a reason behind that? It's close to the Fs Fozzy.
Mm, Fons Okay.
Alright.
Fozzy Bear.
Yeah.
He's a likable guy.
Yeah.
I thought it was fuzzy, but it It's Fozzy, it's F, it's Fozzy.
Oh, I can get you one of those hats.
No, no.
So one of the announcers, his name was Fozzie, and then, you know, the game starts.
And their running back is fluff.
Yep.
And I just thought, what is happening? If you ran as well and just an absolute machine, like fluff, then I'm okay being called fluff.
Mm-hmm.
Call me whatever you want.
Yeah.
Yeah.
But just in general, not being a running back.
Yeah.
Just being a normal guy.
Yeah.
Id rather be fozzy.
Yeah.
Fluff.
Fluff feels too close to, uh, a word you would use to describe passing gas.
Oh, that's, Hey, that's a bluey, is it? Reference? Yeah.
Right.
Dad fluffed.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I can see that.
Also, my kids, when they heard of his name, they thought of cars.
I am a fluffy, you know how Oh yeah.
Like white new queen.
Yeah.
When he's sleeping, I am a fluffy.
Right.
Yeah.
It's, uh, that's okay.
Too far.
This is another po.
This is cars three and that's Cruz Ramirez.
She's, giving like positive reinforcement.
Yes.
It's the mental aspect of the training.
Yeah.
I'm a fluffy cloud.
Yeah, that guy struggled with anxiety.
Wow.
I watched it recently.
We cover Bluey cars three.
I have a 4-year-old and a 2-year-old.
Maybe we'll do a cartoon podcast episode or something.
Well, first of all, it's animation.
Whatever.
These are not, this is Disney Pixar lady, no cartoons.
Okay.
So how do we feel coming outta Mississippi State headed into a bow week and then getting Arkansas? Hmm.
Feel a lot better that we pulled out the win.
And, and again, we complain sometimes about running the ball off the middle, which is warranted.
Mm-hmm.
But handing the ball off to Bishop first play of, I mean, great execution.
We love it, we won.
It works.
And defense, shout out to the defense that's the unit's gonna bring us home.
Um.
I still have some scar tissue from the way that we played.
We didn't play great.
We didn't play clean, didn't feel like we were motivated.
Um, at Mississippi State, I think, you know, it's hard to play on the road in the SEC.
So moving forward to our Kansas, I feel like they're gonna come out ready to play.
They'll be back at home.
Um.
It did not affect our goals last year to lose to them, but I think that they will want to come back and, um, redeem themselves.
And I think Arkansas is going to be, they're gonna be fired up for a new coach and feeling good, or they're gonna be in turmoil and just continue to spiral.
So one of the two.
Yeah, I'm feeling good going into it.
He'll probably, he's an offensive minded guy.
He'll probably throw up a couple points, but I think we'll take him.
I think we'll have two weeks to clean up a lot of this, a lot of these issues you're talking about.
And hopefully Josh, he has learned.
Um, I think this is great going into the stretch we're getting ready to go into with Alabama and Vanderbilt coming up, but I'm feeling fine.
I'm not worried about it.
Maybe I should be, but I'm not worried.
Yeah, I guess I feel okay coming out of the game.
Joey continues to lead the SEC most yards, most.
I touched on that.
I mean, and he would've had more if there weren't past interference call that wasn't there and then a key drop.
Hmm.
But defensively, I mean, we sacked Chapin, what, five times Arian Carter played out of his mind.
Tyree West Joseph.
I mean like for the times that we couldn't ever stop the run or we couldn't get off the field on third down, I'm like, yeah, but we did this so that it's good and bad.
Um, the fake punts.
Oh, the fake punt.
Oh my goodness.
Yes.
I thought the game was over.
Mm-hmm.
Same.
But, but we came back from it.
We came back from a fake punt.
We came back going into overtime on, you know, being away from kneeling, so that was huge.
All right.
So we feel, okay.
I disclaimer the quarterback green.
He's really good.
He does not have great games sometimes, but I feel like he's got the potential to take over a game any given time.
Um, which he did against us last year, and he's done a couple games, but I think collectively as a team, they're, they're not near as good as Tennessee.
Mm-hmm.
And what you mentioned, our lineman getting after their quarterback, it was explosive.
I mean, I, it's been a while since I've seen somebody go around the end like that.
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
And just push him out.
Like didn't even have time to put his hand off out to him and he was already to the quarterback.
Yeah.
We have to do that.
I can't sit back.
Joseph's has been spectacular this season.
He's the next great beacons of lineman Pierce.
Yep.
Well, anything else for this one? We're gonna wrap it up.
You got any stories for us, Bobby? Oh, I got plenty of stories.
It just depends what category you want it to come from.
Something around your time at ut, you know, give some athlete story.
Yeah.
Um hmm.
Athlete story.
I've had my heart broken a couple times by Tennessee athletes.
Just Casey Clawson ignored me one time for an autograph.
I was just a little kid, but.
He had a walking boot on, we were at a basketball game.
I gave him the benefit, but he said, let me get down here and I'll sign it.
And he just walked away from me and hurt.
Oh wow.
That was hurt my feelings.
Ice man.
So he said he was gonna do it? Yeah, he is like, yeah, give, let me get down here.
And I was like, yeah, you gotta a walking boot on you.
Just take your time.
And then he just guessed me.
Um, you know, I was complaining.
Last podcast about.
The fan experience getting into the game at Georgia.
I'll say as a senior in high school, I was part of my school fundraising for our team.
I sold programs before the game and I had to sell so many programs before I could go back.
And this was back and before smartphones, everybody.
We had physical print that you could hold and touch.
So anyways, I'm selling these programs.
I can't sell 'em.
The guys that are on the sidewalk with like an actual stand, they're screaming at me, get outta, here's our territory.
I'm like, I'm just a kid.
I'm not getting paid.
I'm just trying to do my, okay, I'm sorry.
Please don't yell at me anymore.
And kickoff is about to start.
I still don't have 'em all sold.
Luckily I had a ticket to the game and I make it into the tunnel and I sell the last couple right before kickoff.
You know, I should have been doing that the whole time anyways.
My parents are not sports people.
They came to, I think my, both my parents have come to two games in their entire lives and they were at this game and we got great tickets that were like on the 40, like, you know, 20 rows up.
And I finally get there.
I've been here all morning on campus, finally sell all my programs, get down to my seat.
And this is, look the year up.
This is 2006, I believe.
And.
Jason Campbell, Cadillac Williams and Ronnie Brown Auburn are an absolute undefeated machine, and they destroy us within the first eight minutes of the game.
Yep.
Mm-hmm.
And my parents said, all right, get your stuff.
We're leaving.
It was the worst game I've ever been to that, or the LSU game where me and my buddy sat in the rain for three quarters.
You couldn't even see the ball.
But we did it to show our next coach, whoever it was after Butch got fired, that we were a dedicated fan base.
You were a true ball for life.
Thank you.
You were future champions of life.
You weren't at that moment.
I was already looking ahead to next year.
Freshman year speech class, business speech class at ut.
I'm in there with Turk McBride.
Remember him? Mm-hmm.
He was incredible.
We had to give a speech, an informational speech to the rest of the class and teach them something.
And of course, his subject was how to properly tackle.
And he needed a dummy, which was me for, he's like, Hey Joe, you wanna come up here and show him? And he was be, he was going through the motions very slow.
He's like, here's how you lower your shoulder.
Here's how you hit, and here's how you pull the legs up.
So you take them off their feet and you drive 'em into the ground.
He did it so slow, but he doesn't know his own strength.
So he does like that to me.
And I, I'm on my back in two seconds and my elbow slammed on the ground and like starts to bleed.
He felt bad about it, but he was so strong.
Turk, if you're listening to this, we'd love to interview you.
Talk about freshman year how you, uh, taught me how to tackle.
I really appreciate that.
That was pretty incredible.
That's, that's my, uh, claim to fame.
Tur McBride tackled me for an A in class.
I don't know what the terms are, but you may have a lawsuit on your hands.
I, yeah.
Really? No, I'm not.
I'm not, no.
He, him and his brother, I think played in the NFL.
He was an awesome guy.
Yeah.
Wow.
Really cool.
You got battle, battle scars.
Yeah.
I still gonna star right here, my elbow.
I have a couple, but we'll save 'em for future podcast.
We'll tease it.
What a got.
Yeah, and I'll have to decide if I'm gonna name drop because I have a big name in there.
Okay? Mm-hmm.
Peyton, if you're listening.
Oh, Rick Barnes.
Hey, I'm, I know we're running outta time here.
Rick Barnes just signed his first 2026 recruit.
That's good.
Ralph Scott.
Four star.
Maybe he can become a five star in the next year.
Okay.
Come on Ralph.
VFL.
Whatever it takes to beat Stephen Pearl on all we gotta do it.
That's right.
Will we find a way.
All right.
This is Champions, the live podcast.
We're RNS logistics.
Reach out if you have any logistical needs and we woo woo