(upbeat rock music) Hey, what's going on? This is the Saturday on South podcast. I am Connor Guerra, will plan for today. By the way, SCC Media Day's attendee list just dropped right before we started recording. I am not gonna dig into that because if you actually care about the media attendee list in a way that's more than just, oh, this guy's gonna be here. That guy's gonna be here. You care about it probably more than I do. If I were on it, we're not on the player invitee list. - I thought I was gonna get a walk up song. Man, I gotta change out some. I gotta re-prepare. - Both of us have four years of eligibility left. - Right. - I'm just saying, it would be great faces of a program. Some would say, not a face for radio, a face for video podcasting. I'm just saying, extend the offer and I'd be happy to make an appearances instead of bringing kickers there and doing stuff like that. Kickers are important too, don't get too worked up. But yes, we're not gonna dig into that list. We're gonna have a ton of media days coverage next week. So we're gonna be talking about all those different takeaways and whatnot. But if you were wondering why we're not talking about that is 'cause I don't think it's that interesting of a subject. The interesting things we will be discussing today will. We have Josh Need coming up who is somebody that I've been a fan of for a really, really long time. And if you have been on YouTube and you're listening to this podcast, I'm assuming you've seen SEC Shorts, which is just such a staple of SEC culture. So it got into kind of the roots of that, how it's become such a mainstay for all of us. And then we're gonna close with LAD of the week. But first, well, something that we, I don't think we've done a whole lot of this off season, but we have a Georgia-heavy pod today, a Georgia-heavy pod. Do we talk too much, Georgia? Do you think that we do because I always debate this in my head if I talk enough, Georgia? And then I realize that by November and December, it dominates conversation. Yeah, I mean, I think it's kind of covering your bases, right? Because it was Alabama, then it was Georgia and Alabama. Now we're just not really sure what Alabama is, so it's two different stories. So I think, you know, if you win, they talk about you, right? And if Georgia was winning two games, we'd be talking about it just as much, I feel. So that's the way I view it is that, okay, Georgia winning nine 10 games, not as interesting, but Georgia pushing for 13 to 15 or two, same as Alabama, would be pretty interesting. That's true, that's a good point. And it kind of feeds into our discussion today, as Georgia continues this chase for history, emphasis on the word continue, because by the time that we are talking next week at SEC Media Days, we will be there together for the first time, which, how is that possible that this will be the first time that we are at SEC Media Days together? You and I, man. - Yeah, I don't know, man. It's crazy, yeah. I went a couple of times earlier in my SDS career. I remember I famously got a picture of Les Miles during his last year. But yeah, I think I've only been like, technically, I don't think I've been on the list. That's the thing. I got some like stuff around the happenings, the going's on with Marlar, but to be like officially included, I think there's only been one. A side of this one. - Credentialed Will Ogron, love to see it. Love to see it, looking forward to it. What always happens at SEC Media Days, it becomes a hotbed for predictions. Of course, we do order a finish in the ICC, we talk breakout candidates, bold predictions, et cetera, all that stuff. Some might like to predict a national champ, that's also a popular thing to do. I expect to hear some people predict that Georgia will win a national championship and perhaps somewhat nonchalantly, I think they'll do it because, again, just like Alabama, it's hey day, it doesn't really look like you're going out on a limb. You're talking about a pre-season favorite, likely the pre-season number one team in the country, saying that that team's gonna win a title, doesn't really feel like it's that bold. The people that would say that it's not that bold would probably fail to mention the stat. I always reference about how 18 of the 19 last pre-season, AP number one teams have failed to win a national title with 2017 Alabama, being the lone exception to the rule. But you will hear people say, "Ah yeah, Georgia winning a national championship." You'll hear Georgia players and coaches talking about, "Ah yeah, we're focused on blah, blah, blah," but our goal is always to win a national championship. But I feel like, and correct me if I'm wrong here, I feel like because Georgia did it three-peat, it almost seemed as if we're kind of starting over with the legacy stuff. This is a new era with Georgia. They didn't three-peat, so now we're kind of moving on to the next feat as they try and tackle the 12th team playoff. And look, for Georgia internally, yeah, it's one season, one game at a time, that one play at a time, all those different cliche things, totally get it from that perspective. They're not talking about legacy, they're not talking about what they're doing in a four-year stretch, I get that. But for all those people like us, on the outside looking in at what they have done, I think there should be a different approach, I do. There are a ton of historical hurdles for Georgia to overcome as it tries to win three titles in four years. For starters, you should already know the stat that I referenced with Brooks Austin a few months ago, talking about how the only coaches in the last 70 years of organized American tackle football, who have won three titles in four years. Tom Osborne, Nick Saban, you might have heard of them. For a lot of us, you're probably, gosh, you're probably, yeah, you're too young. I think I'm gonna cut off the youngest that you can be to say that you remembered both of those two dynasties. - I certainly don't remember the fair, I'll be honest, yeah. - Yeah, 'cause you were born, gosh, you were born in '94, correct ya? Born in '94, the first year that Nebraska won three of four. So that makes perfect sense, you would have remembered 1997, great Heisman race in '97. That was just a distant memory for, well, not even a memory, but something that was never processed by a young Will Ogren. That's kind of the way that a lot of people, I think my age look at it is, okay, well, we've seen dynasties in college football in recent memory. If we can remember it, then it feels a bit more real to us. And maybe three in four doesn't sound quite as impressive just because it's been done. And it's been done in this conference. It's been done even in the last 15 years. Even if you're a younger college football fan, you probably remember Bama in '09, '11 in '12. Look, I didn't mean to go there, I was just gonna breeze right past that for ya. Didn't mean to talk about a very sore subject still, but it's an unbelievable accomplishment. It truly is. That was also a time, '94, '95, '97. It was a time before we did the whole like, having a game to decide a national title that was actually called the National Championship. Amazing, again, we forget these things. Alabama's three in four was also pre-having a playoff to decide a national championship. Okay, you know that, need me to remind you of that. Some would say that makes Georgia's path to get to a national championship easier because they have the playoff, the crutch of the playoff. Those people, purists, of course, they would conveniently leave out the fact that last year, Georgia got left out of the final year of the '14 playoff despite the fact that they went swelled in one. So just point worth remembering. To win it all in the 12 team playoff, some will say that it will be easier because the entry to get into the 12 team playoff is easier. - Hold on, you're telling me that one head-to-head loss against that team should, okay, interesting, just making sure. So when Georgia loses that game, they're out of a 14 playoff. When Alabama loses that game, they're in a two team beat. - Okay, yes, okay, got it. - Different years, well, different years. - Yeah, 'cause now it's easier when, Alabama did it was harder, correct, yes, okay. - I respect your unbiased opinion on this. - Well, I'm thinking about it, like what this is, but it is kind of funny to go, yeah, it used to be harder to make this, but then you literally just gave data of how Georgia did the exact same thing that they did and they got left out and people was funny. So actually, I'll keep Georgia credit on that. - Just depends on the year, exactly. A BCS apologist would never bring up the point that you just did, but it is indeed true. - Yeah. - So like if Georgia is 10 and two, nine and three, and then wins it all, okay, that's fine. Let's talk about how the ability to get into the 12 team playoff is definitely easier and it benefited Georgia, and maybe you're gonna look at this title a little bit differently than you would one of those teams who had all those Nebraska teams were undefeated, not all those Alabama teams were undefeated, oh nine was undefeated, but still nonetheless, you know the point that I'm getting to. And look, if Georgia goes 12 and oh, 12 and one, 13 and oh, if that's what we're talking about here though, like going into the SEC Championship, coming out of the SEC Championship, that's where that argument of this was easier, that's where that stops because if Georgia wins it all with a regular season like that, like after that happens, they will still need to beat in the college well playoff, at least three more top 12 teams to win it all. And remember, that's also getting through this new version of the 16 team SEC, which might have five or six preseason top 10 teams, it's looking like maybe probably five in the top 10, six in the top 12, just kind of depending on the way that's gonna shake out, but you get it, the SEC still confirmed good, okay. Georgia is traveling for true road games against three of those teams. Three of the teams that I think will absolutely be in that preseason top five, okay, because they're obviously going on the road to Texas, they're going on the road to Bama, and they're going on the road to Ole Miss. That doesn't include the season opener against the coach that's responsible for 40% of the rings won by active coaches in the sport. Clemson, Davosoy, you might have heard of him. - I still tell ya. - Yeah, yeah, as he will tell you. And Georgia's a significant favorite in that one, as it should be, it's being considered like a Georgia home game. Maybe it is, maybe it isn't. I'm penciling in Georgia to win that game. Yet, I will admit, even as someone that tries to look at this stuff objectively, I really do. I look at Georgia's schedule, and I still kind of scoff at it. I do, and I saw someone in this business who will remain nameless, they will continue to remain nameless. I saw someone leave Georgia out of the playoff, and it took everything in me not to respond because of how crazy that is to process. And I don't want to go down that rabbit hole of getting into this fight on Twitter, and what's really the point of that, no thank you. They were saying, well, you know, lose it, Bama, lose it, Texas, and then just find another loss for them. You don't just find another loss for a program that's won 39 consecutive regular season games, with just two losses in the last three seasons, both of which were to the greatest coach in the history of this sport on a neutral site, okay? Georgia has gotten to the place, that as you mentioned before, Bama was once at, where you never, ever looked at those Bama schedules and said, hmm, that's one of the toughest in the country. You never did that, because yeah, it's hard to be totally, you try and look at it subjectively, and you end up being a bit objective about it, okay? Georgia's being tasked with going on the road against possibly three top 10 teams, before it plays as many as four neutral site games against likely top 12 teams to close the season, because I'm including the ICC championship, and that is a neutral site game. I assume that whoever Georgia would face in an ICC championship would also be a top 12 team, you get what I'm saying. When Nebraska won three in four years, how many times total in those three title seasons, did they travel for a top 10 road matchup in the regular season? - Huh, how many times, so they would have been, I should know this, they were in the-- - Big eight. - Big eight at the time, man, so that would have been-- - Big 12, big 12 months, just sorry, yeah, okay. - Yeah, so like, that's the real question, right? So I'm gonna say over the course of those three years, let's say, wait, sorry, one more qualifier, neutral site counts, or no, it's for road environments? - Through road games, 18 top 10 teams. - I'm gonna say two. - Three, close. - I think it was my initial guess too, I thought that-- - Yeah, so same as like what Georgia could project to have this year, again, things will play out, we'll see if those teams are going to be in the top 10 at the time of the matchup. When Alabama won three in four, '09, '11 and '12, how many times total did they travel for a top 10 road matchup during the regular season in the Almighty ICC, in the midst of that seven consecutive titles, in the midst of this run of dominance for the ICC in which it felt like, man, every week is the Super Bowl. How many times do you think Bama had these true road games against AP top 10 teams during that stretch? - I'm gonna say, based on that context five. - Uno. - Oh my gosh. - One, and I guess we're excluding 2010 'cause that wasn't a title season, but in those three title seasons, once. And it was 2012 at number five LSU. Shout out TJ Elden for that one. Sorry, I didn't, didn't choose violence, not the point of today's discussion, well, not the point, just the direction we ended up in. And yet, because it's Georgia, the dogs can go two and one in those games. Let's say that happens at Texas, at Bama, at Ole Miss. Let's say Georgia goes two and one in those games and some will wonder what's wrong. That's the crazy standard that Kirby Smart has created and deserves all the credit in the world for that. You have to find another loss. You have to find a weakness. I've been asked that question a few times this offseason because that's what we try to do with teams that are gonna be competing for a national championship. Just like last year when I talked about the Bobo stuff, a lot and I thought that was going to be a potential deterrent for Georgia winning a national championship. I've said with this team, maybe the non Malachi Starks pieces of the secondary, that could be an issue. And then I remind myself, it's still Kirby Smart working with Blue Chip Talent. That combination is usually all you need. It usually works itself out just fine. I've said, I don't know if there's like a true alpha in that receiver room who's gonna kind of step up and be the guy that Carson Beck can unconditionally turn to in those tight spots. But then I'm reminded how much depth there is and how much I really love how they can go five, six deep. And I think to myself, yeah, we're saying that now, but that could be very, very different by mid October, especially if you have a lot of different potential options for it, who can establish themselves. Any time I search for the flaws on Georgia's roster, I struggle. It's difficult question to answer. And I think it's natural to be like, well, when you can just buy recruiting classes like Kirby does, you can do that sort of thing. And of course, you don't have any weakness. It's a five star factory, and you can do this, this, and this. And you should never have to worry about if you're, you know, if you're not having the advantage with a specific position group, it helps. But explain why Georgia feels like the team that just has fewer and fewer question marks every year. When they know in this era, their depth is going to be hitting the portal. It's just going to happen. I went back and looked at like each of the four years of the portal cycle to see what their net was, because that's always interesting to me. Like, oh, imports versus exports in the portal era, something that a lot of people who are like, you know, in Sanders lost 35 people in the portal. They're like, oh, they also brought in like 42. They like to leave that out. Georgia lost 24 guys in the portal, this cycle, and brought in 11, which is easily more than they've ever brought in before. One of whom was a long snapper. Another was a kicker. So pretty light portal class, relatively speaking, compared to what a lot of programs bring in. And when you lose two dozen guys, that's very significant. The previous year, Georgia lost 16 in the portal, only brought in four. Year before that, lost 13 in the portal, only brought in one. And then in the first year of the portal, it lost 14 and it gained three. Kirby's portal is, his net is minus double digits every single year. Yeah, think about that. I mean, I'm not going to do the whole like, that's why college football is so much harder to coach in, now compared to 25 years ago, because you can also have like a million support staff and you're compensated in a totally different way. And I'm not going to really dig into that. But I will say that it's truly remarkable to think that Kirby is trying to win a title for the third time in four years with a roster that has such few flaws, at least as we look at it sitting here in early July, 33 players drafted in the last three years after title number one. To repeat that, to win a national championship, after losing 15 players in the NFL draft, you've heard me say this countless times if you listen to the show. But to do that, after losing 15 players to the NFL draft is absurd. And to think that that middle title, if this is indeed three out of four, that middle title in 22 could actually be kind of lost in the shuffle because of the way that the national championship played out was 65-7, that's absurd to think about as well. To predict a Georgia title is to predict history. It's saying that they're about to continue this run that's among the most impressive we've ever seen in the post integration history of this sport. It's saying, yeah, I know that there are some easy paths to winning it all. And maybe Georgia is going to follow an easy year path by going 10 and two and not playing in an SEC championship. And they win four in a row in the playoff or something like that. But depending on how you get out of the regular season and into the playoff, we might be talking about one of the most battle tested teams in the history of this sport. Maybe the single most battle tested team if it is another regular season of dominance for Georgia. To predict a Georgia national title is to say, I don't care that preseason number ones have a kiss of death in the last couple of decades with the whole internet being a thing. Connor, that stat is bogus. I do not care about it. So if that is the question, can I acknowledge all of those things? In predict that Georgia will win a national championship in the year of our Lord 2024? Yes, I can, Will. Yes, I can. I'm picking Georgia to win a national championship. I'm predicting history. I think that happens with not one, not two, but three matchups against Texas. Texas wins the first one in Austin. Everybody pays out of the second mortgage with their house to be able to go to that game. Georgia wins the second one in Atlanta. Georgia wins the third one in Atlanta, the national championship. I believe that Georgia is ready for history. Any pushback. I think you're right on the money here, right? Yeah, it's funny how often, I don't think I've said this, but how often I'm looking for a very specific thing, and I end up finding that specific thing written by Brad Crawford. So I just wanted to shout out again again. Hey, literally, it's like he reads my mind and writes that article. So I reading his, like most, I was like, oh, I gotta find the most recent, way too early, top 25 that I can, from someone I respect, it's Brad. It was late April, which was post-spring. So okay, now we're cooking, right? And I'm looking up and down here. He has Ohio State ranked one, which is what I'm seeing, lots of places, right? And it's like, okay, let's just take that one out for a second. I'm gonna compare Georgia to every other team in this tier with them, right? So let me just take a quick step back. So it's so funny about Georgia, is that what you just said is so accurate, right? Which is that they could go two in one in road top 10 matchups, which no team has really done. And it'd be a disappointment, right? So Georgia has found themselves stuck in this weird neutral gear, where they're getting the same criticism that Alabama got. But to the point I was just making, they don't quite have that A on the side of their helmet, do they? Or not that side of the helmet, the logo. They don't have the, you know, 'cause and you know, you call me a home or whatever, but it is pretty funny when you think to yourself, okay, yeah, Georgia was the team that was left out last year, right? And when you really put that in context, oh, Alabama lost at home to LSU, and they were given a chance to avenge themselves pre-play off. A chance that Georgia never would have gotten, because we saw again, pretty close to the same thing, I know years are different. I'm here to tell you right now, if Georgia had lost at home to LSU in 2011, they would have not gotten a second chance. And if Alabama had beaten Georgia in this, the championship game, they would have. And we've seen it. It happened last time they played the championship game. So all I'm saying is, when you look at these teams around Georgia in this way too early, who has even come close to proving that they're worth what Georgia is, right? Oh, Iowa State, all they have done is lost to Georgia and every other team that matters, including Mizzou, they can't even beat Mizzou and yet people. And again, I'm not dumping on Brad because he's right. This is probably how this is gonna end up looking, right? It's, he's doing a great job at his job, which is to not give his opinion, but to kind of get everything together, right? So Georgia is number two, Texas at number three. As you've said, saying Texas is back already is so funny to me because they have just won, they have achieved winning the big 12. Congratulations, man. Boom, Oregon. They have zero recent national title. They have zero national title period. It's really not. Again, they have a 60,000 seat stadium and they can't beat Washington and they're hoping the more just leaves them alone forever. Alabama, they lost the greatest coach of all time. Ole Miss, they are Ole Miss. Like Kiffin is their coach. Michigan, they lost everything. Like it's really funny to just go through this list. Like with Mizzou is at number eight here. Again, love Mizzou. There's, there's just a level of separation here between what we trust Georgia to do because what I was gonna make the point of is, you know, we've been drawn to picking Alabama and or Georgia because it's not about being right. It's about not being wrong. When you're doing preseason. Correct. And that's something I'll give you is you've gone out on limbs and a lot of people haven't, but Georgia still, weirdly, feels like they're not the safe pick to just continue to do what they've done because what is Georgia's struggle with that? Okay, let's be the devil's advocate hater here. They got smack by LSU twice when Joe Burrow was there. He's not coming back neither was co-cho. They are one of those since Joe Burrow graduated against LSU, right? So still technically losing record, but whatever. Nick Saban can't consistently beat Nick Saban. So he's gonna be playing golf. So again, who are the natural predators of Georgia at this ecosystem? Not really anyone, right? Because until there's a team like Alabama did, like Joe Burrow did, that consistently can expose you and make you play this scared brand of football that Kirby Smart has played when he's lost. Like that's not Carolina game is not happening again. Okay, like the way of, oh, we are scared to play a talented quarterback and make plays down field. They hired Mike Bobo and continued to be good. Like that mistake has already been made and it looked great. And yeah, okay, you could talk about a snap went this way in the SC Championship game, but Georgia is fully aware that they're going to have to prove themselves probably more because they're not Alabama. And I think that's become their fuel because at the end of the day, we could all talk about the standard is the standard. But Kirby Smart has even gotten to the point of his career where he's wearing a suit talking about getting me into playoff because they know what the expectation is, right? They know that they're going to have to continue to prove themselves because what I think that people did was they want to crown the new champion, right? Just like we wanted to crown Davo over Saban. Just like we wanted to crown Kirby the one time he beat Saban. But then as Saban stuck around, it was like, wait, this is the only guy we can safely put our money in. This is like the bond market, right? So now that he's gone, that team is Georgia. Like it's just so clearly, Georgia, if the only thing you could struggle with was Nick Saban and Joe Burrow, you're probably just a great team. - True, the only thing I disagree with what you just said is Kirby has definitely put on a suit that like you need to put Georgia in the 14 playoff. Did it last year and did it in 18 as well. After losing Alabama. - Yeah, but that's a scheduled part of the Dick Saban experience. There has been for the last four or five years, which is that he knows he can get into playoff. It's not working for Kirby. So his last, can Saban's last line of defense is putting on the blue suit, shaking hands, making jokes. That doesn't work for Kirby Smart. We've just seen it. - Yeah, 22 with Saban making that case and then continuing to make it. It was like, all right, what are we doing here? I hated that. I thought it was one of the worst arguments I've seen when, you know, their best win was against a four loss team, Ole Miss or Mississippi State, like Tigger Pick. But I think that you brought up something that's interesting of like, who's the team that could stare Georgia down and actually be a threat to what they're continuing to try and accomplish. And I think after that game in Austin, people will say it's Texas' time. This is what it's going to be moving forward. Texas is the new standard. And I'm not necessarily one of those people that's like, they're about to fall off the face of the earth. 'Cause I, again, I've said, I've got Texas going 12 and 0 in the regular season, okay? - Right. 12 and 0, believe that they will get into the college to all playoff, and I believe that they will have a say in who wins a national championship. I just told you, I think they're getting two-way national championship and losing to Georgia. But if you're asking me, well, how do I think Kirby Smarts can respond to that? I'm not thinking twice, okay? As long as it ain't saving, that's all I care about. Now, if it's saving, and you're telling me how does he have to respond? I know he did in 21. I know he responded to that ICC Championship loss and beat Saban and got the last laugh. I fully acknowledge that. And I'm not taking that away from Kirby. It's an important part of his legacy and what he has built. But if he were Saban, and if that was the guy that you had to get the last laugh against, we would all have questions. There is no more of that left where I would feel like, oh, I'm gonna bet this coach is actually gonna make the right adjustments against Kirby Smart. That's why he's number one on the sport. That's why he's the number one coach on the sport, and there should not be a second question about it. I think that if you are looking at the way that plays out against Texas and you think to yourself, well, there's a team that can go out and beat Georgia. I'll say, yeah, that's fine. They did just do that. If that's indeed what we're talking about, but do I think that that's gonna be the case and it's gonna prevent Georgia forming a title? I don't. I don't. Because I've now gotten so far past the what's Kirby gonna do to mess up his own chance narrative? That I would much rather have this discussion instead of, wow, they actually have a chance to kind of quietly go about a pursuit of a national championship and a pursuit of history. And that's the greatest thing you could do as a college football coach. When history feels imminent or expected, that is a sign that you have totally turned around how we talk about you and what the new standard is for the sport. And so I bring that up today, because I think the bold thing to do is gonna be saying that, oh, Georgia, you know, isn't gonna win a national title. And I don't know that anybody's going to be able to explain that with anything, but it's just kind of a bold prediction that I'm gonna throw out there. Look, I'm preaching to people who probably know or remember one, two years ago, I get to SEC medias and I'm like, I think Tennessee beat Georgia this year. And it was something that I wore. And I said, up until that, like even, you know, leading up to that matchup, I still think Tennessee wins. Tennessee was never one of the country at the time. And I still had that moment. And Marlar always talks about this. When that ball is kicked, man, all that talking goes out the window. And nobody's been able to embody that quite like Georgia. And it's why I wanted to be able to discuss this today, because we're gonna, it's the season of bold. It is talking season. It's all over the place. There is nothing wrong with sitting here and saying, I think Georgia is about to make history. And I don't care that it's not three feet. That would have been incredible. Three and four is freaking incredible. And I think that happens this year. - I'm looking at this right now, man. And how many, just, I don't know if you know this, I'm pretty sure I got the answer here. Do you know how many active coaches have beaten Kirby Smart? - Active at their current job is zero. - Yep. - That I know. - Yep. - 'Cause Tom Herman's at FAU. Gus Melzon is at UCF. And then, well, Mustardamp is no longer in there. At Odron, no longer there. Yeah, Nick Saban retired. Yep, that's the breakdown. Dan Mullen, not coaching. - Not coaching. - That was the point of the day. It's all like, save it. Like you said, Hugh Free, he's at Ole Miss, but then he went to Auburn, Paul Jogson before he retired, beat him once. - So there's-- - Derek Mason. - Derek Mason at Danny. - He's at East Tennessee. Yeah, he's at East Tennessee. He took over for, I think, Rick Stockstill. Yeah, I think he was there for like 17, 18 years. So, yeah, zero. - So there's just, no one has beaten Kirby Smart. So like, that's kind of where I'm at. I'm saying this to follow up exactly what you're saying, which is that, how can you not rank this team number one? Because again, it's one of those that it's like, oh, okay, well, if you're walking down the left side of the street at 2 PM on a Wednesday, this bad thing happens to you. It's like, what if you just don't do that? And it's like, that's exactly what playing the disabled is right now. It's like, okay, well, if saving un-retires and takes over Ohio State, then we're having a different conversation. Urban Meyer un-retire, maybe that's a different conversation. If we're gonna sit here and go, yeah, I think we need to root for, we need to say Texas has passed them. Because now that I think about that, I know probably Bama fans are like, you know, screaming at their radio if people still do that and be like, hey, well, yeah, Doug, Georgia had the benefit of that going in the last year's SC Championship game and then Bama proved them wrong, correct. Where's Nick Saban not coaching anymore? So if it was against Bama, this would be a whole other conversation. Luckily, we, the ongoing joke is the bully graduating. The bully is graduated. Joe Perrow is not coming back. The disabled is not coming back. There is not a single guy who you're worried about. Just don't schedule to UCF. Just don't do it. - Do it. I wouldn't be worried about Gus if I'm a Georgia fan. - I would always be worried about Gus once. (laughing) - He got his one. - That's what it's gonna say is, just don't schedule to UCF and Hugh Freeze. Just gotta, again, you almost got that last year. Just be, just try to get him at home. (laughing) It's a safe deal. So that's my thing is like, it should be talked about completely differently. I know it's hard when you want to change your opinion on stuff and then something like the SC Championship game happens. But again, it's just pointless data because if that had been Brian Kelly beating him that way, we're like, well, that was a new king on the block. Oh, look at this. They're one-on-one. No, it's the fact that none of this stuff matters, right? So like, before we go to jump on to the next fun thing, like I said, the point that we meet with Davo, we wanted to put Nick Saban in the dirt, crown Davo, we watched older Nick Saban out of all of younger Davo and it went, uh-oh, we all were wrong. Kind of same deal here. If Texas wins once or even twice, I'm not ready to give them a three-peat chase the way that Georgia has been doing until outside of the regular season. I think that when you've done that, you can be treated like a team that can beat Georgia consistently because when Texas beat Alabama, nobody said, well, you know, it's futures now, old man. It was like, well, they kind of got one, and that's how it should be viewed the same way. Kirby's last postseason loss. We're tying just bowl games here. Tom Herman, Texas is back. Yep. That's hard to ignore and it doesn't guarantee that he just wins every bowl game for the rest of time. But I'll take that. I'll bet with it. I don't care if that means that it's not bold. Some will say that's a cop-out answer. I just laid out that history to show you why it's actually not a cop-out answer because this is incredibly hard what Georgia is trying to do. Winning three in a lifetime is a difficult feat for a college football coach to accomplish. It's why I said if Kirby does it this year, Kirby's on my Mount Marshmore of greatest coaches of all time. He joins Bear. He joins Osborne. He joins Saban. He passes up Switzer and Spurrier. All those different guys who have been so good and so respected for so long, but just because we've seen this in recent memory with Saban or it has elements of Saban to it, the binder is not withstanding, that are all too similar. It doesn't minimize it. It at least shouldn't. So again, I think that context is worth remembering as the season begins and look, new era, same Georgia. Same Georgia, don't care. - Yeah, and I think that's the thing and that we talked about it doing kind of the legacy update, which is that hey, actually it is kind of more impressive to win in the super-comforts, right? It is because you can kind of avoid teams. You can kind of not have to play a team twice, right? Usually it's how it was supposed to work and it's like, no, like now, if you beat a team, like let's say that Alabama just becomes a powerhouse and a debore, beating them once is not gonna be enough anymore. You're gonna have to beat them once and then see them again and then to your point, maybe you see them a third time and you just gotta get used to an NFL-style schedule. And I think it's a big deal because again, in 2019, when LSU beat Nick Saban, we were over rooting for Auburn 'cause we didn't wanna go see Alabama again 'cause we already beat them, right? And that's the key is that you, old college football, you beat the boss and you moved on to the next stage. Now it's like, well, you better not, like we joked about, you better go fish those goalposts up out of the river to the sea because Angri, Alabama's coming back to town and when you host a playoff game and those goalposts won't matter and they'll laugh at you if you just won the first one or not the second one. So I think, you know, just to put a bow and all that, that we're entering this era where you really can't hide from anyone and the best team is gonna be, say what you will, but it will be a more complete system of determining the champion and we can kind of compare that like we talked about to the Miami team in '01 or even some of these Nebraska teams where it's like, yeah, you guys may have gone on the road more than, like it's weird, they went on the road for top 10 matches for Alabama, but Georgia won't have that option. So it doesn't matter. They won't be able to not play, you know, these big teams. And even the teams like, you know, even the teams like in Iowa or USC team or whatever these teams are, it's like, no, you're gonna be exposed. You can't just win the Rose Bowl and lose two games. It'd feel like you had an all-time season. - Can I confess something? - Please. - I'd thought a while about whether or not I want to have Texas winning a title. I thought, hmm, I think they have the roster that's best built for it outside of Georgia. And then I pivoted and thought, do I want to be bold and have the prediction that's a little bit out there that, you know, people are like, oh, that's interesting. That's a really good point. I hadn't thought of that. Oregon would have been that pick if I'd wanted to go in that direction. And then I just came back to, why would I, why would I not pick Georgia? Why would I not pick Georgia this year? Let's acknowledge all those things that I brought up. Am I only gonna not pick Georgia because of the preseason AP number one stat? Am I, is that gonna be my reason? Because that's kind of thin. And again, it just, it would add to the accomplishment if they're able to do it understanding how rare that has been. So that's, that was kind of my mindset with all of this. I knew I couldn't pick Ohio State's win an extra championship because I think I've done that like, yeah, four times in the last seven years or something. It was time to put that to rest. That means Ohio State's coming up. - And that's what these are here for. Like he'll talk to their fans. They're like, my God, Max, this God knows. And he said to us, he said, well, yeah, if this team had CJ on it, if this Ohio State team had CJ on it, they would have won the net. I said, that's every Ohio State team. Every Ohio State team is, if this one thing had changed, suddenly they win every award and everything is different. It's like, George's already done that. There's no if, then it's okay. If you don't fumble the ball at the SD Championship game, you probably beat Alabama a second time and you're the number one seed overall. Like that's your one thing. And now you're in a conversation with three in a row. It's not, I need this guy to flip over backwards and do this. So that's kind of my thing. It's like, you've already beaten that player. You know, in my final game as the clock struck zero. You've already beaten Ryan then. You've already, you know, done that stuff. So yeah, I think that anybody who is saying anything but Georgia is the team to beat right now is, I'm not saying necessarily chasing headlines, but trying to find something when the answer's right there in front of you, you know, or it's like, if Ohio State, if Ryan Day does kind of, you know, break through, that would be a story. It would be the story of a la Boston Celtics. Oh my God, so crazy the team with more resources than everyone finally won a title. This is so shocking to everyone. But that would be the story. It wouldn't be like, we expected this, you know? I'm okay with having Ohio State at one. I won't because I think Georgia deserves to start up at that top spot. I'm okay with it just more so from the standpoint of like moves they've made to address their weaknesses. I do think they have more obvious weaknesses than Georgia does. I think Ohio State's offensive line is not the world beater that it's often been. I think they're secondary outside of it. It's interesting. Like I talk about the non-Malachist arcs pieces of Georgia's secondary and with Ohio State, it's like it's the non-Kaleb Downs pieces of their secondary and how that could be a potential issue. And I'm actually, I looked at, I did like all the, you know, with the predicting the 12 team playoff and I mapped out the percentage chance that every team in the field would have to win a playoff game. So for Ohio State, with them being a one seed, I had to play it out with the eight and I matchup, which is, Bama is the eight and Ole Miss is the nine. So I'm like, I actually went through it. I'm like, if I'm an Ohio State fan, I want Bama to win that game because the way that Ole Miss actually matches up with Ohio State with this really, really good talented defensive line that could give Ohio State's offensive lines of problems and then the passing game that I've said a million things about this offseason that Ole Miss has that actually could kind of put Ohio State on his heels a bit. And so when you kind of map it out that way and you think to yourself, all right, well, if I could see Ohio State just on the wrong day, even with extra rest, getting to either of those teams. - Yeah, both of those teams, and if it was Georgia, I would be shocked. That's the key. I would be shocked. I would not be shocked if Lane Kiffin came into town and said, well guys, I'm wearing my pants backward today. We're only gonna throw 50 yard bombs around. He was like, oh, and then he just loses by 30 points. And it's like, oh, wait, we know exactly how this was after three plays, we knew exactly how this was gonna go. And that's exactly what I'm saying, is that it's like, at this point, Georgia is that team. So like, I see what you're saying. You have Georgia won. I will go ahead and say, hey, yeah, Ohio State bought a bunch of shiny new toys, and what else is new? And that's resulted in one title that I really remember. Like I said, you know, the flag against Miami, that was five or six years old for that. I mean, they're one. - Oh, 2014, 2014. - That's what I said. They're one that I really remember. - Oh, you don't remember the, my, gosh, you're young. - Not that young, I was sad, right? You know what I'm saying? Like, I'm not gonna tell you I was that, I mean, that was not the Nolan no-call for me. It was like, well, I know the rule book and this is that. Like, I was like, that's crazy. It was what I take away. But like, one that I vividly can remember how it exactly happened. Like, there's been one. So like, that's what I'm saying, is that they are actually bad money because they make you lose money when you bet on them. So that, I don't know, it feels safe, but it's really not, is what I'm saying there. - Ohio State is not safe. That's the only takeaway from- - Yeah, just because that's the key. If we were betting them one at a championship and they finished fourth, oh my God, save this money ever. But that's not what we're doing. We're betting on a team. And if you would bet on LSU every year and they started at 20 some years, your money would have done better than if you bet at Ohio State every year. That's the crazy part. - There we go. Let's make it about LSU. - No, I'm just saying LSU's trash every other year, but they some years have broken through. That's exactly my point, is that if you had bet on Georgia every year, it would have been disappointing until these last three years, right? Ohio State doesn't have that breakthrough, you know, where's Georgia does? - Georgia better in the odds. - Yeah. - Better overall. - Yeah. - Better path to a national championship. I agree. All right, let's kick to Josh need. I've always been, like I said, just a major, major fan of SEC shorts that is just something that on Monday morning during the season, it's just, you know you're gonna watch it, it's great stuff. If you don't love it, that's kind of a you thing at this point. So it was fun to be able to dig into the history and kind of their process, which is truly insane. Like it's incredible what they do with such a quick turnaround to be able to crank out videos that hit at like every single time. So it was fun to be able to talk about all those things. So here is Josh Need. Now excited to be joined by a very special guest. It is Josh Need, the face of SEC shorts. Josh, did you know that you are the second most popular video? Not on your YouTube channel, obviously, but on our YouTube channel, like the SDS YouTube. Do you have any idea what that video could possibly be? - So it's an SDS video, like you guys made it? - It is an SDS original. It is not just ripping off one of your videos and us reacting to it and doing the things that everybody does on the internet now. - Yeah. I did something with Marlar. Is it something like that? - Apparently. I think if you could really go back into the archives, you remember that it was the 2018 SEC Media Days and you and Marlar did a roast of every SEC team just off the cuff and it has lived on. So I mean, you did something extremely well. Things have gone very well for you since then. I looked at your most popular SEC shorts video, just a little comparison and Texas being voted, or Texas like wanting out of the SEC before it even joined is the most popular one with like 1.2 billion views. Probably just a little bit of a different feel now. Do you have like Texas fans that are in on the joke and are they aware that they are about to get made fun of by you on a weekly basis, even if they win a national title? - So it's been a little bit about, so it's been, there are some that already knew who we were and they're like now excited to be part of like the video every week or you know, more frequently. And there are some Texas and Oklahoma fans who have just come across us for the first time with us like making fun of them and they don't know who we are. They just think we're like randos that are just decided to start making fun of their teams and they hate us. So the comment section, they think the people in our videos are like our family and they're like to put your kids in these videos to just insult our football team is pathetic and like, no, that's a kid actor and we paid her so maybe you're right. We are. - One thing that they will learn though is like SEC fan bases and the thing that you have done such a good job of tapping into is that SEC fan bases hate each other more than they like their own team and that's the beauty of what you guys do is if everybody is able to be made fun of then, you know, that's kind of the entire point. I want to dig into the roots of SEC shorts because what you guys do is so incredibly unique and challenging with being able to have topical videos that come out on a Monday morning. That's such a staple of now just SEC culture and having that come out on a Monday morning when you know, you're not just iPhone with time which is all anybody needs to post on YouTube now, you guys have like actual production and you know, like a plan that goes into this, take me back into like how this idea started for you guys to start doing this. - Yeah, so it started for us when the SEC network formed and we had been doing like an Auburn Alabama show on like a cable access channel and we were like, okay, we can do something, surely we can come up with something that they'll be willing to put on air on the SEC network. And about that time, you know, they put fine bomb, fine bomb was on the SEC network for like six hours a day or something. It was something crazy. So he needed to fill time and so he was taking fan rants from fans and they were doing the same thing. They just had their phones up to their face. Like you couldn't even see their whole face. It's just their eyeball and they're like, oh, just screaming into the phone and you know, no shirts. Never even took the time to put a shirt on. And so we were like, the bar scene is pretty low here, fellas, I think we can get on TV. So we put together like a polished sketch that was basically, you know, at the time Alabama was, there was like a quarterback controversy with Jake Coker and Blake Sims. And like a typical Alabama fan in the summertime, they were like, this Jake Coker kid is gonna light it up. And then the season started and Blake Sims was playing instead of him and he was doing great. So then Alabama fans were like, well, yeah, of course he is. Everybody knew Blake Sims was gonna be great. So that was kind of like the point of the video. And Paul like talked about it on the show. He had me call in and he interviewed me on the radio and everybody I worked with, freaking out. And I was like, should I get an agent? Should I move to LA or now? I've already asked my dad to be in my entourage. So I guess I have to do that now. So they asked us to keep making the videos and we did every week for a year. As you know, any good business model as you give away your product for free for a year. And at the end of that people were looking forward to the videos, people that approached us like actually pay us to do it. And so it kind of slowly became our job after that. - What's the production process? - That was 10 years ago. That was 10 years. This is our 10th year. God, that's crazy to think about 'cause man, I feel like I've been watching those videos for so long. And I went back and watched some of the older ones today and just like kind of brought me back to that place and seeing that rise. I mean, it's truly remarkable to think about where you guys started. - Was the first thing you thought of like Josh's face was really fat back then 'cause that's all I can think of. It's like, wow, my face like contracts and expands each year. And luckily it's logged on YouTube for forever. So I can just go back and see my weight, fluctuate back and forth for a whole decade. It's really exciting. - I think it's more like the first thing I noticed is like how quickly the production changes. Like, and you guys were doing really good production early on. It wasn't just, you know, like people just sitting there. iPhone looking at just their eyes. But like, I noticed like the improvements and like how smooth everything has become. And the fact that like you look at your videos now and you talk about trying to get, you know, people to advertise and stuff like that. 'Cause ultimately that's how you monetize it. You guys got freaking Kirk Herb Street doing ads for you guys at the end of all of these. Like, how surreal is it to think about where you guys started, where you were even poking fun at yourself of like, we're not credentialed to SCC media days. Here's an uncredential look to now being at that place where the biggest name in college football is working with you guys. - Yeah, it's really, we did a presentation yesterday just at like a corporate thing. About like the early years and where we're at now. So we've actually had to sit down and think about it. It is very surreal. You know, it goes by, it feels like it goes by so fast. And we've been doing it for a decade now. And I could just remember being happy to like, we would take pictures of ourselves on "Fine Bomb" and like, oh, we're on TV, this is great. And now, you know, we've done commercials with Herb Street. It's, it just, and we've been on like "Game Day" and SCC nation and all that stuff. And when it's happening, you're thinking, oh, okay, this is a great for whatever we want to do next. But then you think about like, we would have never thought that we'd be on "Game Day" when we started it. We were just kind of wanted to do something that we enjoyed doing creatively. And it's turned into whatever it is now. And it's been, it's been really, really cool. - Take me through that production process 'cause I don't think the average person at home like realizes how crazy your turnaround is to be able to get on location, to do all those different things that you guys do, to have, you know, some sort of a script played out. I don't know how much of it is improv, how much of it is scripted, to be able to edit it and then to have it out Monday morning. Like that quickly, I gotta imagine you guys work pretty much around the clock, like, you know, even from Saturday once you get an idea into Sunday and then Sunday is just pretty much like, you just go until you finish. - Yeah. So, yeah, I think our production is why no one else does it the way we do it is because it's a lot to take on. And if you wanna do it like once or twice a year, that's one thing, but we have to do it 25 times a year. And that's what's kind of really difficult about it, but also kind of rewarding it when you pull it off, right? So we watch all the games Saturday. We don't really, we'll kick a couple of ideas around like possibilities, but you never know what's gonna happen after the games. Like news could break, something could happen. And so if you come up with your idea too early on a Saturday and commit to it, something a coach might get fired that night after the game or a player may say something or something may happen in the news, and then you gotta start over from scratch. So we'll have a few, we'll kick around a few ideas while the games are going, Robert Niletech's back and forth. And then we don't pick an idea until Sunday morning when we meet. And then, so that's around like nine o'clock or so. And then we batter out ideas, we pick one, and then you just have to go all in. So we split up and Robert will start writing a script and I'll start like getting all the equipment together, calling actors, trying to get a location. Then we both will start, you know, trying to put like props together and wardrobe. And you have essentially 15 hours to come up with an idea, write a script, find actors, find a location, go to the location, like unload all that, you have to pick up the gear, unload all the gear, set it up, film, break everything down, Robert leads to go edit, and then 8 a.m. it has to be up. So we've got like 15 hours to do all of that. And it's an insane thing to do 25 times in a row. So it's a lot, and you know sometimes you know, going in like this isn't a very good idea. Like this is probably not gonna be very funny, but you've already committed and something has to be up at 8 a.m. on Monday. So you just have to try to fix it. And so sometimes there is some improv while we're shooting. Sometimes there's some rewriting and moving stuff around, but very few times we've been like, this is so terrible, we have to just start over at like 10 o'clock at night and just accept the fact that we're gonna have to just keep going until 8 a.m. in the morning. And it has to be really bad. 'Cause a lot of times we're just like, well, people are just gonna have to think we're not funny this week because we don't have it in us, but yeah. - Okay, well, what was the bad idea? There's one that stands out of your mind, where it's like we describe it. - Oh, there's been several. Oh, so it was, this was, now was probably a long time ago, like at least seven years ago or longer, maybe, yeah. But it was an idea, Auburn was getting visited by the ghost of football past. And the effects we were using, it just looked so terrible. And it wasn't funny and like the way we were doing it, we're, 'cause you know, in a day you can't just like, pull off whatever you can dream of, whatever you think of has to be something that's possible to produce in a day. So I can't remember what our ideas were, but the jokes were bad, the setups were terrible. I think the premise was funny, but it just, and the effects look bad. It was just all terrible. So we were like, it was late at night. We were like, this is awful, like we can't do this. We bailed and like ended up doing something easier. I think it was some sort of talk show idea or something. But I think even then you can see in the video, like there's just bags under my eyes, I'm just like barely, barely performing. And it's just, 'cause you gotta turn in something. So. - It speaks to your ability though that even the ideas that you probably don't feel particularly good about, still make the rounds always. And it's still like, oh God, like literally every Monday, we always have an SEC short story on Saturday down south, just because you guys, your hit rate is so unbelievably high. I imagine, you know, like laying shares your stuff or going on fine bomb, some of these real experiences. What's like the one that kind of stands out where you're like, this is kind of a pinch myself type moment that they shared our content? - Well, the sparks. - There we go, okay. - I was like, you know, I thought that was a Marjorie Taylor Green, has shared. - All right. - Yeah. So that was interesting. I think for us, like a pinch me moment was getting to work with Steve Spurrier. We both like him a lot. Like we both think he's hilarious. And so we did this video for SEC Network. It was like their, it was like their five year anniversary. And so they asked us to do a video. And so we were, we had more access to coaches and stuff that we would normally do. And we had time to actually like write something and produce it over several weeks. So we got Gus Malzahn to do, he was the coach at Auburn at the time to do a bachelor parity where he was searching for his new quarterback. And instead of a rose, he was giving out a quarterback. - I remember. - And just the fact that he agreed to do it, we were like, this is amazing. Like why did he say yes, we could not figure out? It turns out like his wife was a big bachelor fan and she had been making him watch it. So when we pitched the ID, he was like, oh, absolutely, I'll do it. And so we got really lucky and he was really nice. And he went along with all the jokes and he was really cool. And then also part of that video, we had, we had Spurrier as like an analyst for college games on TV. And our joke was that he just spent the whole time making fun of Tennessee because he has all these like famous like quotes about making fun of Tennessee. And so we get to the recording, it was like during media days or something. And Tom Hart's there to be his like play-by-play guy and we have a whole green screen set up and Spurrier gets there and he's holding the script in his hand which was just filled with Tennessee jokes. And he was like, yeah, I don't want to say any of this. And we were like, what? He was like, yeah, yeah, you know, Tennessee's my third favorite team, what? Who has a third favorite team? And also making fun of Tennessee is what you do for fun in your spare time. And so he was like, don't worry though, I got you something, I got you something. And so we just hit record and he was like, yeah, looking forward to what Tennessee's got out there today. I think they got a real good team. We were like, that's the opposite of what we wanted but we were just so happy to be in the same room with him. We were like, thanks Steve. And he left and we didn't use it. It never aired and Archie Manning ended up recording that same bit and but it was like a different joke. It wasn't making fun of Tennessee. It was like Tom Hart had a joke about watching to a play and he's like, I've never seen anyone throw and run like this ever before. And Archie was like, are you serious? And he's like, you know, took as a joke. Anyway, Archie saved us. He was great and we never used the Spurrier thing but we were just so happy to have like, even done anything with him that, you know, we still look at it fondly, I guess. - That's incredible. And Spurrier, like just blowing a total, what he did the last minute, just had to throw you off at everyone. - Here's my favorite part. The next day, 'cause he was there for media day coverage 'cause they had just done like the documentary. And the next day, someone at media days asked him about Tennessee and he rattled for like five minutes on like, they're terrible. Of course, they're like, why? Why Steve, why us? It's 'cause he had never heard of us, I'm sure. And was like, why do I care about making jokes for these guys? Like, who cares? Like, he didn't want to take the riff. He wants to, I think the way Alyssa Lange described it to us 'cause after when he left, we were like, what happened? I don't know what she was like, well, he doesn't want, he wants to do it on his own. He doesn't want you to like, make the difference. - He knows the audience, he controls. How that always goes. - I mean, in his defense, he's won a national championship and we are two dorks from the internet. Like, whoop, I'm a good joke for us, Steve. So. - Okay, so I gotta imagine there's also been the one where like somebody's giving you a call, you know, somebody's giving you a call of like, hey, you guys crossed the line or something like that or like somebody behind closed doors was like, can you guys like take it easy on this or something like that? Which, is there a story like that that stands out? - Oh yeah, for sure. So we, for four years, we were, we worked for ESPN and we would do separate sketches during the middle of the week for SEC Nation that would air Saturday morning during that show. And we had a video one year that was, it was a meeting for a support group for all the bad teams in the SEC. So you go around the circle, it's just the five terrible teams and they're just talking positively about like how they're gonna, you know, get better. And so it aired and every athletic director or whatever who was, who had a team in that video called the conference, who in which called the network to say, why would you guys air this? This is terrible. Like they said stuff like this will affect recruiting. Like 18 year olds are watching SEC Nation at 8 a.m. like, well, I wasn't sure until now, but since SEC shorts made fun of, you know, Tennessee or whoever, but yeah, they were all very upset. Another one was, we made another video for ESPN where Kentucky was having like this great year. I can't remember. - 2018? - 18, yes. And so we were making all these like positive Kentucky football videos, which was very hard for us. We didn't even have the Kentucky gear. I don't think at the time we had to go buy stuff. But it was very exciting 'cause, you know, you're always happy for a team that's doing, like their fans are like through the roof 'cause they're about to win 10 games and that's never happened. And they're just like super excited. So we're happy to be making all these videos. So we make one that's like Kentucky's a football school. And now their basketball team, oh, it was a commercial to like raise money for the basketball team 'cause they're a football school now. So it's the basketball players doing car washes, asking for like donations. And, you know, we just found the two tallest people we knew and you know, they're just like holding upside and doing it. And so it aired on TV and ESPN cleared it and they were fine with it. But Mark stoops saw it and was like, how could you do this to us? And they were like, what do you mean? And apparently, you know, I guess the football and basketball departments didn't get along great at the time. So he wasn't super pumped about it. But, you know, I'm sure it's fine now. Cal's gone and he's stoops is doing great. So I'm sure it's all fine now. This was like years and years ago. - So sensitive subject to this day very much. Josh, last one for you. What's the future of SEC shorts? Can we get like SEC longs? Just like 20 minute feature films. I'm not like, just send me off season because obviously like your workload during the season is, you know, is crazy. And you talk about the turnaround. But like 20 minute feature films, SEC longs, I like those numbers would be insane. That would be interesting. That would be fun. I think, you know, we pitched, we pitched an idea to SEC network early on to let us have like a kickoff show before the season starts that would have, you know, a bunch of, you know, like a key and peel situation where it's a bunch of different sketches pushed all in to one show. We wanted to make it kind of like a variety show where you would have like sketches. You know, we'd have Hannah sing a song and, you know, do a bunch of different stuff like that. And they were not interested. But so we've turned that idea into a live show that we do throughout the year, sometimes in the off season. But this year we're doing two in the fall. So we'll, again, announce those here pretty quick. So that's what we do now. We kind of, when we're not making videos, you know, we like to do these live shows. So I hope everybody gets a chance to make it out to one. So in this fall, they're going to be Fridays before games. We're going to do some for a couple different talents and stuff before big games. But it's just an hour and a half of sketches. We do audience games, Hannah sings a song that we wrote. They're stand up. There's all kinds of stuff in it. So it's like a old-timey, like vaudeville variety show, but with, you know, but for college football and written specifically for your team. - That's awesome. Yeah, 'cause I remember you guys doing a college station last year. - We did. That was awesome. College station is crazy. Their fans are insane. The traditions they have there, just the ones you know about now on the surface, you're like, that's kind of weird. Then you get there and it's a thousand times weirder than you think, but they're so great. They're so sweet and like they're excited to be a part of, you know, SEC shorts making fun of them and they're good sports about the jokes and it was a really fun, amazing experience for sure. - That's awesome. - You ever get a chance to go to Midnight Yell? Please go. I'm sure you, have you been? - I have not been. That's on my bucket list. I need to be able to get out there one day. It's nothing prepares you to see what you will see and you know, what everyone sees are the stuff that's out now like the Yale leaders doing there. I forget what they call it. It's like a monologue, but I don't know if they call it a monologue or not, but that's what everyone sees though. A little five minute clips of them telling like corny jokes, but that the Midnight Yell is like an hour or two long. There's the most insane stuff you've ever seen going on all around you, all at once. You just have to go, you have to see it to believe it. It's insane. - The unique traditions in this conference, man. Never ceases to amaze. - Oh, while we were there and we're at, we're at, at College Station, we're at Midnight Yell, we got to like stand on the field to watch all the stuff going on. And this one guy is taking us around. He just, someone introduced us to him and they're like, he's gonna host you for tonight. So he's walking us around on the field, the places where like people shouldn't be. Like in the stuff and we're like, who is this? He was an astronaut and we never, no one was like, hey, this astronaut's gonna show you around. He's been on the moon, by the way. He'd never mentioned it. No one ever said anything. We had to look him up after because we were like, who was this guy? He was great. And he was an astronaut. He was just like, just never, never came up that he had been to the moon. If I had been to the moon, it would be the only thing I talked about to anyone ever. But this guy loves Aggie football so much that he just never even thought to like, yeah, you know, I'd be, this reminds me of being on the moon. Like I would work it into every conversation I had. And he's just like, never, never brought it. - Hi, nice to meet you, Josh Need. I went to the moon. - You may recognize me from the moon. Oh, you've never been there? That's crazy. I wonder that thing that comes out every single night, that the moon, you've probably seen it before. I've been there, no big deal. - I've walked on it. So, I don't know. - This guy. - I haven't spaced mechanic for a while. - No big deal. Josh, this is awesome, man. Really appreciate the time. Hopefully I'm gonna get to see you at some point here. Are you gonna be in Dallas for us to see media days? - No, so the only media days we've been to were the ones they wouldn't let us into for fun. Other than that, we're making a video this Sunday that we'll post, I think July 8th, Monday morning. That's gonna be like a Texas Oklahoma being welcome to the SEC video. Then we're gonna do another couple off-season stuff and then get cranking for the season. So, we're excited. - We'll be here before we know it. Josh, great stuff, man. We'll do it again sometime. - All right, thanks. Let's close with some latter of the week. Will, actually you want, mine's gonna be very deep into the weeds, college, football type stuff. So why don't you start? - Yeah, so mine's pretty easy. I feel like I've been a little bit too sappy lately, so I'm just gonna make this one very bread and butter, blocking and tackling as we say, Paul Skeens. Man, it's always nice when you could be a little bit of a homer and it pays off, right? Got to see him in person for the first time in Atlanta, watching against the Braves, and it was so sick. This is my exact style of picture. We've talked about the two different kind of styles of picture, right? We're just like the Maddox on one side with the control. Skeens is like watching a medieval siege engine just destroy a cow. It's like watching House of the Dragon. It's like watching a dragon blow up a castle. And it's so funny because in two back-to-back starts, so is the first pitch that got taken out of the yard in the game before the Atlanta game, and in the Atlanta game, the first batter hit a homerun, and I was there with my girlfriend Andre, and I looked at her, and I was like, here's the thing, he just gives up homeruns, and then it's just fine. And it's the craziest thing that every pitch is that outcome. It's either, this is kind of like Max Scherzer was one of my favorite baseball players ever. He's like that with more velocity. It's the most nuts thing. Six, six, right-hander, if you guys haven't been given up with him, but the way that he can throw these insane, like little of the fifth inning about to wrap up his day of work, 100 mile an hour fastball for a strikeout that they can't even get near. So yeah, he was named to the All-Star team. The first rookie pitcher to ever be named an All-Star, which is crazy, I believe he actually is starting. I think he's still working through that, but the thing that actually blew my mind is that the first time it will be history, that for nine of a pitcher's first 10 starts, they had double digit strikeouts. That is nutto. So the fact that, again, kind of a cheat code because he came through the Air Force Academy transfer to LSU, he's usually a little bit older than most rookies, certainly a bit bigger, but the concept is kind of like Zion, where it's like surely major league hitting will catch up to this guy. - No, it turns out if you could just throw 103 in the third inning, people are not used to that. - My father-in-law is a big Pirates fan. We text baseball a lot. That's usually where most of my baseball consumption is filtered through these days. And I was saying to him, because he's already worried about when he's gonna leave for the Yankees or something. As sad as it is, that's the life of a small market major league baseball fan. And I said to him, I think he's gonna be easily better than any Cubs pitcher in my lifetime, which is depressing. Because if you're gonna include Maddox, you have to include Maddox when he was on the Cubs and stuff, which you're really good, but skiing's gonna win, Zion. I wouldn't bet against it at this point, not this year probably, but still, that seems inevitable. And you kind of think about it in those terms and you realize, oh yeah, this guy's pretty frickin' special. And you cherish every single year start that you have with him. Like, I miss that. That's kind of the fun, unique thing about baseball. Like, you could be a die-hard fan and there are certain games where like, I remember when I first got down to Orlando, I had like the MLB radio subscription and stuff like that. And it was, I would listen to every single, like most every Cubs game, but when it was peak Jake Arrieta, that's when I listened, I was like, I'm gonna make sure that, you know, maybe I can get some work done early or something like that, or I will have that on while I'm doing something. It is appointment listening to me. Yeah, I was a little bit old fashioned with radio, whatever. It's like 19 bucks for the year, it was worth it. And skiing's is now easily already that guy. Like, if you ask me what are the odds, I'm gonna watch the MLB All-Star game. Probably not great, but with him pitching, I'm like, oh, I wanna be able to see that. We'll be, you know, in Dallas, I'll be at a half hour away. I'm sure a lot of people want to venture because skiing's will be there and it'll be on the bump. And that's cool, baseball needs more of that. Yeah, yeah, I mean, it's so crazy too watching a guy, like we talked about figuring it out and stuff. He was kind of just like kind of had like ROTC guy vibes, like big smile, kind of like, like, like, you know, it was just, he seemed like he was just being like kind of stopping off before his like service career. And then you could just see every year him getting cooler, like just him being like, huh, like it's like watching an anime character come to terms with their superpowers. And the thing that's so funny too, I already compared to be like one of the dragons in House of Dragon, but how well their offense does what he pitches, that's like he's been in line for a ton of wins because it's like, I got this thing on my side. I'm gonna swim with a bit of his buddy. We're gonna be fine. And just the way that this really middling pirate's office becomes a pretty solid team against good teams. It's like, oh wait, you're not gonna be able to hit our guy and we are gonna be able to hit your guys. So yeah, I'm right there with you. It's appointment viewing for sure. - What a feeling, man. What a feeling. Just let it rip every single time. We're not shortening up on two strikes. Screw that. Skates is on the bump today. We're good. We can strike guys. - It's over for you, buddy. - Oh gosh. All right, mine's going into the weeds. Ryan Bamford, the UMass AD, okay? If you saw the video on Twitter from GfedGoCrazy didn't get his actual name. It does like college football, stadium tours on TikTok and stuff like that. If you saw the video, you know what I'm getting at here. He tweeted this video of UMass's football stadium and that place is so forgettable. I've had to watch the video like three or four times to remind myself of the structures that are actually in place there because it's bad. If you just said this is actually a random high school in the Northeast, nobody would push back at all, okay? I did like a little bit of the Wikipedia digging around just 'cause I had to see the story of the stadium. They got lights in 2008, which was the same year that my high school got lights as the last team in our conference to get lights in high school. All bleacher seats, not even real con courses. It's just the most nothing burger stadium that you'll ever see. And it'll come as no surprise that no, that like, well, I shouldn't say no. Core four teams aren't exactly lining up to be able to go there, but- - Our guy. - There is one for four team who agreed to go to UMass to play an organized game with tackle football there. And that is Mizzou. - Yep. - An SEC team who could very likely be undefeated and in the top 10 could be playing actual football at this place. Luther Burden III is going to walk on that field. And I'll just say it so he doesn't have to or nobody at Mizzou has to say it. That man is too good for that. Okay. He is too good to be on that field. I think the pre-2023 version of Brady Cook is too good for that field. All right. So how did this deal come to be? Where did our guy Ryan Bamford factor into all of this? Okay. - Yeah. - If you remember from a pod that we did in December with SEC schedule of surprises. - This is one of my favorite wormholes that we call is how they love sickos that UMass. Let's do it. - I've spent so much time and energy digging into this and reading stories about it because it's fascinating. I'm not saying I'm going to write a book about this, but my gosh. Okay. So Ryan Bamford, the UMass AD pitch to then Mizzou AD Jim Stirk back in 2019. And this pitch was a masterclass. He tells Mizzou, look, we're an independent. You guys do not want to do what Georgia and Auburn do to be able to play us, which is pay us $1.9 million to get your automatic win. Okay. That's what both of those teams did. You, Mizzou, have two spots that you need to fill. It's 2024 and 2025. We are an independent. We have flexibility. We can make this happen. You name a date, we're like, we're there. We'll do it. Save some money, come up to UMass in 2024, let's help each other. And for whatever reason, Jim Stirk, he gets bullied into doing this and not playing at Gillette, where usually they play, it seems like Boston College or something like this, which is a hundred miles away from their campus. - Those ones gonna say they couldn't even get in Gillette Stadium. - They couldn't even do that. - As the story goes in the Daily Hampshire Gazette, support local journalism, Ryan Bamford talked to a former UMass employee who worked at Mizzou, and he got them to vouch for the facilities and the plans to upgrade the UMass Stadium. He got an employee who used to work there to be like, yeah man, it's good. That'll be fine. Don't worry about it. Just sign on the dotted line, make this happen. Ryan Bamford rules, okay? I said before, I'll say it again. I'm not that guy negotiating my next contract. I would love that. I really would. Why is he also noteworthy right now? He got UMass into the Mac for 2025. Starting in the 2025 school year, UMass will be a member of the Mid-American Conference, okay? As in the conference that had not had a team join since Buffalo in 1998. He got his program into a conference that has an actual identity and will have games on ESPN in the middle of the week that we call "maction" that we'll be able to flip on UMass on a Tuesday night and see this team play football in that stadium. And here's the crazy thing. They did a major stadium renovation in 2011 when they announced they were gonna be joining FBS, a move that was kind of scrutinized. So this was the renovation that they did just to get to FBS standards. And this is what their stadium looks like. Yet Ryan Bamford, eight years after all of that, was like, "Hey, Mizzou, we're gonna upgrade this thing "by the time you have to come here." And he pulls it off. That's incredible. You know those people that could just sell you anything? I always think this is fascinating. Ryan Bamford has been selling, he sold Lemonade as a kid for $20 a cup. I'm convinced that there's no doubt in my mind whatsoever. That guy did not have a penny of student loan debt by the time he graduated college because he just hustled and find ways to be able to talk people into giving him money. There's zero doubt. Game of the year, October 12th, 2024. Mizzou at UMass. Mizzou is going to be playing a game at Kyle Field one Saturday and the following Saturday it'll be playing at UMass. All because Ryan Bamford, easy out of the week. - So this guy, again, this is one of my favorite rabbit holes. This guy looks very young. Like let's call it late 30s, early 40s. And I clicked on his Wikipedia. And when it looks like he took over the job in 2015 at UMass, and the first thing he did was raise a banner honoring Caliperi who got them in trouble. And I love you, Ryan Bamford. Because you raised a banner for Caliperi instead of erasing and pretending like that didn't happen. You know, like who could forget? You know Marcus Cambry and those boys love that generated a lot of buzz which is what your job is. And then you were able to move your university into the FPS and into the back in the following year. Like the concept of, what's up? - Time heals all wounds, Will. - Yes. Yes, it had been decades before that. This guy showed up and was just like, bleep it, we ball. Like from day one was like, I'm gonna generate headlines. I'm gonna move myself, I'm gonna do this. This is the classic. Like you're just hoping to know I'm going through your day as like the Missouri athletic director really. Yeah, let's just call UMass. And it's like, what's that guy on, huh? And it's like, wait, he looked back, it's like, I can play a bit of a horrible mistake here. This guy at UMass is, I did not read this county report on it. - I just wanna go back in time and find when Jim Stirk hung the phone up that day and he thought, what just happened to me? I just signed my life away. This was a horrible, horrible deal. Why in the world is Mizzou playing here? It makes no sense whatsoever. And I just like, I don't know, I'm not trying to get political or anything like that. You know what I'm saying? Let's just, let's get some ideas going. Let's let everybody group think, okay? Let's think this happened, all right? - This is the perfect American to celebrate on the 4th of July week, which is that this guy just said, you know what? This is how things used to be done. No taxation without representation. No, I'm not gonna show up to your football state to be a blowout. I'm gonna do it this way. Everybody else, you kinda like the holidays. We're like, all right, dude, what? Oh no, this is not a big problem. And you know what? You're a great American this week. You put it fully, you were an independent, you used that leverage. Coming into an SEC school like the Godfather would be like, I'm gonna make you an offer, you can't refuse. It's like, okay man, you got it. - If we find out five years from now that Ryan Bamford is in prison and he had identity theft issues, I'm not gonna say that I'm gonna be stunned. - Yeah. - I'll be waiting on him to talk his way out of it. Find a way to show that he didn't get a fair trial. His lawyer was inept. And there's no way that he should be serving this time. Then he's gonna find a way to be out and selling something and just keeping it moving. That's the Ryan Bamford way. So seeing this deal. - Yeah, I was advising Leo as Jordan Belfort when I looked him up and he kind of fits. Like he kind of fits, he hit him up. See if we can get him on the podcast and he come on. - Let's do it. - And they are made out of, but definitely did start following him on Twitter an hour before we started recording, so. - Yeah. - TBD. Who we can't. - If you, with like the keys to your car, you'd be like, where'd those go? What? He pulls them up from behind us a year. - Like, did he just divorce my wife for me? What? How'd Ryan Bamford do this? Unbelievable. - Well, you can't keep getting away with this Ryan Bamford. Also, if you're unhappy with your AD, as is he guy, there's a dead top of the list right here. 'Cause whatever you need him to do, all right, you can do it. - This man is making moves. Look, South Carolina, I'm just saying. - Mizzou's kind of had your number a little bit recently. You want somebody that's gotten Mizzou's number, call up Ryan Bamford. - He'll make it happen. (laughing) - All right, if you haven't, leave us a five-star review, subscribe to our YouTube channel where you can watch every single episode of The Starting Down South podcast, follow us on Twitter @DSDSbot, @setdownsouth, @tjogura, @cosohard. Thanks, guys. Talk to you soon. (upbeat music) You
Let's talk Dawgs. Specifically, the guys talk about why Georgia, as it pursues 3 titles in 4 years, is trying to accomplish history (1:00). SEC Shorts founder Josh Snead joined the show to discuss the roots of the ever-popular videos and what the future holds (43:00). The guys close with Lad of the Week (1:08:00).
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