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Get ready to experience the adrenaline rush as we dissect one of the biggest rivalries in college football - "The Game" Ohio State vs. Michigan. Joining us for today's exhilarating match-up discourse is none other than Zach Smith, former coach at Ohio State and host of the Menace 2 Sports podcast. In this episode, you'll get an insider's perspective on this notorious rivalry, from the exhilarating stories of on-field competition to the shocking details of a recent Michigan cheating scandal. Zach's unique insights provide a fresh lens to interpret what this rivalry truly means to the players, the coaches and the ardent fans.
We won't stop at stories from the past, we're also scrutinizing the future, specifically the much-anticipated rivalry game between Ohio State and Michigan. We're spotlighting the key elements that could tip the scales - team strengths and weaknesses, quarterback performance and the potential game-changing impact of injuries. Plus, we're getting you an exclusive on Ohio State's current starting quarterback, Kyle McCord, and his future with the team. So, buckle up as we traverse through the passionate, unpredictable and inspiring world of college football, where rivalry is not just about a game, but a tradition that continues to shape lives.
There are college football rivalries and there's the game the Ohio State Buckeyes versus the Michigan Wolverines. Matching 11-0 records a cheating scandal, a Big Ten championship on the line and a chance to play in the college football championship. My guest today coach for the Buckeyes and shares why this game is unlike any other college football game. Zach Smith next on the Athlete One Podcast.
Speaker 2:Welcome to the Athlete One Podcast. Veteran high school baseball coach Ken Carpenter takes you into life's classroom as experienced through sports. Go behind the scenes with athletes and coaches as they share great stories, life lessons and ways to impact others.
Speaker 1:Today's episode of the Athlete One Podcast is powered by the netting professionals, improving programs one facility at a time. The netting professionals specialize in design, fabrication and installation of custom netting for baseball and softball. This includes backstops, batting cages, bp turtles and screens, ball carts and more. They also design and install digital graphic wall padding, windscreen, turf protectors, dugout benches and cubbies. The netting pros also work with football software, lacrosse and golf courses. Contact them today at 844-620-2707 or visit them online at wwwnettingproscom. You can check out nettingpros on Twitter, instagram and Facebook for all their latest products and projects. Hello and welcome to the Athlete One Podcast. I'm your host, ken Carpenter, and joining me today, former Ohio State football coach and host of the wildly popular Menace to Sports podcast host, zach Smith. Coach, thanks for taking the time to be on the show. No, thanks for inviting me on. Man, I'm excited. Well, this time of the year, this is my third year of trying to do something tied to the Ohio State and Michigan game that's coming up and it's game week. What is your greatest memory as a coach? Coaching in that Ohio State and Michigan game?
Speaker 3:You know, it's one of those things. You know, I grew up in Columbus. My grandfather coached in Ohio State, so I had I thought I had an intimate knowledge of the game and like what it meant, and I definitely had a better knowledge than some. But when you're on the inside, it's one of those like inexplainable, almost speechless things Like I'll never forget in 2012 when you know, the whole week felt different, like you could just feel like the air was thick, there was like an aura around the game. Just the intensity went through the roof and you know, as a coach especially a first time coach at Ohio State you never coached in the game it just it feels different and you know it and you know Thanksgiving's a part of it now, when they moved the game back a week. But it wasn't until I went on the field and free game that I really was like whoa, this is very different. Just the way that players to meet their swerver, like the interaction with, with, with their rivals, like everything about it was different. Like the intensity was something like I've never seen. I mean and I was at Florida for five years I saw Florida, georgia, florida, tennessee, florida State. I saw some quote, unquote rivalries, but it's, it's truly second to none. I mean, it is wild.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, I, I wanted to get into it and it's. It's the talk all the way across the country. And what is your take on the the Michigan cheating scandal? And if Harbaugh didn't know anything about it, in my opinion, why wouldn't the big 10 suspend the coordinators? Because those are the guys that seemed like they were benefiting the most most from it.
Speaker 3:Well, yeah, I mean, that's the undeniable thing, right, like we have 4k live, like actual evidence that the coordinators are interacting with this intern, which is an unheard of thing on game day, specifically when you're calling the play in the middle of calling plays. Like we know for a fact, those coordinators were receiving information that was illegally obtained and we know they knew about it. Come on, I mean, you have to be, I mean, just just general common. Then it'll be like, wait, how do you know all these signals? But even if you didn't know that he had this racket of people stealing signals, you'd be like how do you, how do you know this? Like you would ask that question. That's just obvious. Yeah, and, and who knows? Harbaugh was weird enough. He might not have known, but it seems like I know this much as the head coach of a big time organization. Like that, you should know when an interns running up and down the sideline telling guys what the defense is, you should be like, well, time out, how does this intern know that? Why is he on our sideline? Like so I think it's. I think it's a big deal, maybe not as big as a guy fans want to make it, but certainly much bigger than Michigan fans want to make it. Yeah, it's one of those things where I think they're gonna be in some serious trouble in the winter and I'm actually shocked that they were able to get away against the spending hardball during the season just because of due process, but I think it's gonna be a bad deal come.
Speaker 1:February. Well, you've been, you've been on the sidelines with Florida, ohio State, and the thing that I that Catches my eye I'm starting to look for it now is seeing that grad assistant being that coach to the coordinators and head coach. I don't see that typically. Is that is that, nor is that the norm, I guess.
Speaker 3:No, it's the most most uncommon part of all of it and the end and the most honestly, the greatest evidence Guilt was that, like I've been, I think I've been on four different college staffs or no, I've been in four different school and, yeah, a dozen staffs. And I mean I don't know of a time ever that an intern could be that directly involved and not get just dog cussed. We're talking to full-time coaches while while they're trying to work I mean you know it's an intern, is a very Seen, not her job and certainly on game day late, no one better even know you're there. You're just sitting there doing your mundane tasks, trying to support the coaches who are actually coaching. And you know, in the office on Sunday or through the week you might have more of a voice, but on a day I Was a receiver coach and I've barely talked, because it's a hard deal if you're a coordinator to call plays, especially with chaos on the headsets, and that's up going on like the last thing of the world you would ever have is some intern talking during the play calling process. I don't think it's ever. I've never heard of it ever. I can't even reflect back to my last year at Florida. I was off as a GA and our quality control guy there's only two back then, not like a hundred, and our quality control guy is Justin fry, who's the line coach at Ohio State now, and we had some staff turn over and Steve Adasio was the coordinator and he was. We were very, very close. I mean, he's both of us would call him our mentor, right it probably more so than urban Meyer and he was struggling because he had a bunch of coaches that were really helping him that much, so he relied on us to do it. And we both got fired like week five because Urban was livid. He was like I'm paying hundreds of thousands of dollars for these coaches and you two idiots that don't make anything. They're talking on game day. If I ever hear you talk again, you're never gonna work here again. I was like, oh okay, I thought I was helping, but gotcha, yeah.
Speaker 1:Well, that, yeah that you know, I coached high school football for six years and the the chaos that's just trying to call plays is Crazy and I can't imagine at that level. Oh, it's.
Speaker 3:It's insane, and especially when you have too many voices, right? Yeah, I mean, there's times for urban mind five whenever eight million dollar coach. He's like Talking during the process and he'll even say like in the middle of the game I'm sorry, I'm screwing you up. I need to shut up like the head coach. Yeah, I think an intern is gonna be talking to these guys. Oh, right.
Speaker 1:Well, I wanted to kind of dig into the the coaching side of the game and Can you compare and the strengths and weaknesses of Kyle McCord and JJ McCarthy?
Speaker 3:I I Did. I sit on my show today. I think they're so Similar to each other. Um, you know JJ's year two, so coming out of the gates, one, they didn't play anyone to. He had a year of experience, so he was far better than Kyle. Week one, week two, week three. But I did a study. You know, take the first five weeks and kind of throw him out one because Michigan played no one in. Two, kyle was just, you know, he just getting warmed up. He's never been a starting quarterback in college football, let alone, or to Ohio State, let alone with that. Everything else and all everything they've done is very, I mean, it's very, very similar. And I even today broke down, uh, saturday's games offensively, ohio State and Michigan. Jj missed 100 grows and Kyle played, did not play well. I mean, kyle's stat line looked fine, but just ball placement, accuracy, skipping through reeds, like things he was doing. Jj was doing it too and I watched both of them and I'm like JJ were calling the same guy through three intercepts, just gets bowling greens Two pick sixes against ECU, like he's liable to do that Saturday, just like Kyle is, or they could kind of manage the game and not, and I think that's going to be the biggest kind of contention point. The game is whoever just manages the game better, because it's probably going to win.
Speaker 1:Right and I, you know, I looked at, I watched the Michigan Maryland game this week and then you know, obviously I caught all of the Ohio State game too and with with Kyle you know you talked about skipping reads. Explain what you mean by that, because you got to go through your progressions. But sometimes they just look one way and then go right to the, to the, the guy. You know the the out pattern real quick on the side, I guess.
Speaker 3:Yeah so. So Kyle's biggest problem is that I don't think he's fully confident in the pocket. I don't think he fully trusts the pass protection. I don't think he's the toughest kid in the world and I'm not calling him soft, I mean he's. He's definitely grown in confidence and toughness. But he'll go through a read and you know, you know, whatever, every pass play has a progression of some sort and he'll. He'll always start at one but then a lot of times he'll skip through two to get to three, just and just kind of it's almost nervous, that's like okay, boom, boom, boom, I got to throw it here and it's like, dude, two was about to pop open, like you didn't let it develop and it was rookie mistakes. You, you'd hope that going into game 12 as a starter, you kind of grow out of those things he hasn't. I mean, even he had. He missed a Mecca Booka down the middle of the field early in the, the Minnesota game, which was like, oh my God, split safety is like you have what you want. So he just, he just got to learn from it and grow. You, you'd hope that this process would have had him further ahead when it comes to mastery and understanding the offense and knowing how to just just own it and run it. But he's not, it's not a bad thing. I mean the play I'm talking about. He completed a Cades Dover for like a 16 yard gain, so it's not. It's not like problematic, like oh no, we're going to lose, but it's like dang, you really missed a big one, and against Michigan that might be a massive difference.
Speaker 1:Right, yeah Well, let me ask you. Someone asked me this this weekend. They said do you think Ohio State holds back a little bit and doesn't show everything because they're trying to hold back a little bit for the Michigan game? Is that a possibility?
Speaker 3:I mean no. I mean at this point in the season it's week 12. I mean they've had some battled Penn State, notre Dame. I mean there's been games where, where you can't hold back. I mean you can't hold back and beat Notre Dame on the road. You just can't. No, not it, not it not this day Now. Indiana, sure, like that Minnesota team, absolutely they could have just ran the ball every play, probably one by 20 points, but it's too late in the season for that. Not only because you're in some serious games where you need to just open it up and go win the game, but also there's nothing worse in the world than all of a sudden you unveil this like these, these offensive plays that maybe you haven't shown before, and Kyle McCord has zero game reps in that Like exactly. You want him trying to execute that against Michigan for the first time in his life. I don't.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I totally agree with that. Um, michigan's defense is really good. And do you think Ryan Day will attack through the air with Harrison McBooka and Stoner, or is he going to lean on Trevion, or do you think it'll be a combination of the two?
Speaker 3:Well, the good news is, I think you know, prior to, let's say, three weeks ago, you, you really look at Michigan like this is the best defense of the country. They nobody's really moved the ball any which way on them. And then two weeks ago you watched Penn State, who has a really good rushing attack, not as good offensive line as Ohio State, but they ran the ball on Michigan pretty consistently. And this past week Maryland couldn't run the ball on them but Thalia threw the ball on them. Now he threw two picks, had a, had a you know sack fumble for a touchdown, but outside of those three plays they threw the ball on Michigan pretty well. And I said it today on my show like Ohio State is essentially Penn State's run game and Maryland's throw game with a top five receiver. Like they're the perfect combination where they should be able to do both. Now Thalia is a little more accurate, a little more veteran, little. He's a better quarterback than Kyle is right now. But I think I think Trevion Henderson, that full clip. I think they're going to be able to run the ball on them. I really do and I think that's going to, you know, settle Kyle down through time of the rivalry game. You don't want to go out there and say let's throw it 60 times with a rookie quarterback who's just been okay. So I like where Ohio State sits right now and I think Michigan's phenomenal on defense, but they're not invincible.
Speaker 1:Right, yeah, I agree, and they haven't played the toughest schedule. It's actually been pretty soft, you know, outside of the Penn State game, I guess. But you know, what I wanted to ask you was I think there are two areas that it comes down to for me when I look at the game. Is the quarterback played from the court? And you know, something I don't see him do very often is roll out, or even, if nobody's open, just take off running and do you think that's something that you know? I know CJ last year all of a sudden in the Michigan game kind of ran a little bit. Is that something that he might try to do?
Speaker 3:I mean he's got to do it when it's necessary and I think he's done that better than CJ did, for sure. Where it's like, all right, this is what I got to do on this play, like it kind of everyone's covered, there's a seam, I got to take it. He does a good job. He doesn't lack a willingness to run. He's just not a very good athlete. I mean no knock on him. Neither was Peyton Manning, neither was Tom Brady. I mean he could still be the best quarterback that ever lived without being a great athlete. Right, it's just not. And I think he needs to get the yards. I mean I watched Tom Brady last or his last year in Tampa Bay, whatever. He is 44 years old. I watched him a handful of times scramble for seven yards or nine yards. I mean he's capable to do what he needs to do, but I don't think he needs to start. You know, looking to run. I don't think that's going to be anything lethal that anyone's scared of, but absolutely when teams, when you play in an athletic quarterback and you play two man or some kind of trail coverage and everyone's back to the quarterback, like at some point there's just a lot of green grass, yeah, that athlete, ok athlete, great athlete. You just got to go take those yards.
Speaker 1:Now do you think injuries on for Michigan or Ohio State will play a role this weekend?
Speaker 3:Well, michigan's left tackle was out this last game. They say he's going to be back. To be honest with you, he's not very good anyway. So I think it's. You know it's. It's the same for Ohio State. Whether he plays or doesn't play. Ohio State's got a heck of a. I don't want to call it a problem because they're pretty loaded on defense. But Latham Ransom is not gonna play. It's a big loss. I love sunny styles and Josh Proctor back there. They just have to stay healthy, otherwise a true freshman is gonna try on the field, which I don't love in this game ever. Even though Lee Carterford has been really good. Tommy Eicherberg's got to come back. I said it on my show, I don't really. He's got an arm elbow issue. He'll get it amputated and play in the game. Yeah, he's gonna play. Hopefully he's that close to full strength. And then Michael Hall Jr Is the one who I think been underrated upfront Defensively. You're talking about three of the top five or six players on defense that were down this last weekend. They can't be down this weekend like it's. You got to be as close to full strength as you could be right, I totally agree with you there.
Speaker 1:Do you think Michigan's you know we talked about them playing a soft schedule and lack of being in close games other than this past weekend If they get down early or have to play from behind, do you think that that comes into play and and you know, that's the pressure that they really haven't felt this whole entire season?
Speaker 3:Yeah, they never felt it and they felt it last weekend in a game that you know, if that'll Leo plays decent, they, they probably lose the game. I mean that Maryland outscored Michigan's offense. I mean they obviously added the fumble six to safeties, whatever that is. That's what 11 points and they won by seven. So they, they Essentially offense defense outside of those three plays. I mean they're, they're in trouble. Yeah, I think this it's not even JJ. Jj, I think, has has kind of come back to reality the last, you know, four or five weeks, compared to how dominant he was early in the season. But I think it's the pass pros the real issue. Well, how does they find a way to get up? And Michigan has to start throwing a football. That is not something that they're not comfortable with. That they, they, they don't have the receivers for it, they don't, definitely don't have the line for the to hold up and pass pro. And if Jim Knowles starts Blitz and JJ McCarthy, it could really, I think that's the game plan for Ohio State. They got to jump out early, they got to run the football, they got to get up and then they got to make JJ throw the ball, load the box, take away short throws and making throw it down the field. He was one for five on deep balls against Maryland and that stat doesn't even tell how ugly it was, like some of the balls he threw. I'm like what is that Right?
Speaker 1:I mean just brutal throws, brutal misses by eight yards, ten yard yes, I, you know, with with everything that goes into this game, and sometimes records don't matter, I mean because Michigan's beat Ohio State in the past Ohio State. Speak Michigan. You know you talked about, you know, earl Bruce. Now you know I remember the game, you know, I believe it was right after they told him he wasn't coming back and everybody had the Earl and that was just an amazing effort. And how important is it for to get your players to just Totally just be locked in and have to and do whatever it takes to win.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean I think it's. This game has always been a game that bucks the trend. I mean, you could go back as long as you want to go back, but if you want to even talk about recent memory, I mean even when CJ Strauss, you know, rookie year, it was on the road and everyone was like Ohio State is absolutely gonna win because Michigan can't. Jim Harbaugh Can't beat Ohio State. He did his programs not built for that, they're soft, blah, blah, blah, blah. What happens? Michigan wins. Then the next year, 2022, cj Strauss coming back gonna be a top five pick Veteran team at home chip on their shoulder, revenge, all this stuff. Michigan handles business and this year it total opposite. Right, it's on the road. Kyle McCourt, rookie quarterback, Hasn't been great like Ryan day, can't beat Michigan golf program. The narrative usually Gets flipped in the game and that's what. That's the main reason I think Ohio State wins, despite the you know deficiencies or maybe small weaknesses. I see at Michigan, this game just always kind of goes opposite what it's supposed to, because it's a rivalry game and it's about who wants it more. It's about passion, it's about minimizing mistakes, it's just. It's just really is different than any other game you play or coach against yes, you kind of answer the next question I wanted to ask about.
Speaker 1:You said you believe Ohio State is going to win. Now, hypothetically speaking, does, regardless of this, who wins the game? Does Harbaugh come back for 2024? I think he does, for for two reasons.
Speaker 3:One I think if the NFL would take him, he'd leave. He's tried every year to leave. Even two years ago he did. He tried like hundred different ways, didn't get any job. He said I'm staying here. And then this past year on signing day, ordered a plane to go to Minnesota to go interview for a job Like the worst optical thing you could ever do for a college coach. And now this year I think the NFL is kind of out on Jim Harbaugh. I don't think they want him now. If they did, I think he would leave. And I think further to that point. I mean, you're looking at what Michigan's doing right now with this cheating scandal. They are doubling down and backing our ball like no school ever has. If this happened to allow, a state Ryan day would have been fired three weeks ago. So I think they'll literally take whatever the punishment is, because they they're so close to the rich rod Brady hoax era that they're like we don't really care, like we're gonna ride with our coach. Whatever punishment is fine, we're gonna see through the storm, we're gonna drive the ship and on the other side we're still gonna have Jim Harbaugh and so things are okay. Well, you know, I, I was, I was thinking about that.
Speaker 1:And you know, ohio is a brutal state and the fans are unbelievably passionate If Ohio State were to lose the game. If Ohio State were to lose the game, how does that affect Ryan Day?
Speaker 3:Well, I don't know. People think he's on the hot seat now and he's certainly. He's certainly feeling pressure. But I think if he loses this one the seat actually gets hot. But it wasn't long ago that I watched John Cooper make it 13 years winning only two games against Michigan. I think if he, if Ryan, remains successful, making the playoffs, going to a championship, national championship every now and then, I think that will supersede a handful of losses to Michigan. Now people are going to be pissed, people aren't going to be happy. But what's the alternative here? I mean, I've been a part of, I was a part of University of Florida. You know they had all the success under Steesperger. Higher Ron Zook. Fall out of that national limelight. Bring urban in. Get back to the national limelight. You know two out of three national champions. And since urban left I, we see what Florida's become. Right, it's not that hard to fall into mediocrity. Michigan's better than they've been in 20 years. I'm not excusing Ryan Day for losing at all. I mean it will be a really, really bad deal if he loses. But I think the administration is going to be smart enough to say listen, this guy's still. I mean lost what? Six games? Yeah, he's ever. That's that's how I feel about it. Yeah, and the other side of it is Gene Smith's gone, he's going to be done here after the season and they're going to have a new AD. And that's when things you never know what to predict. Then who do they hire? How does that guy feel about Ryan Day? Does he want to bring his own guy in? Anytime AD's change mid 10 year. It's always like, oh, this is getting pen-fentious.
Speaker 1:Well, I do a little thing where I call it a little bit of quick, rapid fire, quick questions. I'll shoot at you and who's your, the final four teams in the college playoff this year and who wins it all?
Speaker 3:Oh man, this is really hard with Jordan Travis breaking his leg, yeah. So I think winner of Ohio State Michigan is in. I think loser of Ohio State Michigan is out. So if I have Ohio State winning, I think Ohio State makes it to the playoffs. I think this is tough. I think Oregon beats Washington and they're the best one-loss resume in the country. You've benched their loss. They lost by a couple of points on the road to a really good football team who has a little bit of a fraudulent defense. So I think you're going to have winner of Ohio State Michigan. You're going to have a one-loss Oregon team. I think you're really going to have a hard time keeping Texas out if they win the Big 12. I mean, they are one-loss team that won the Big 12, beat Alabama. I think Alabama beat Georgia in that SOTA championship game. And I think if Florida State wins, regardless of not having Jordan Travis, I think they got to get an undefeated ACC champ. You have an undefeated Big 10 champ, an undefeated ACC champ, one-loss. Oregon's the highest ranked one-loss team with the best resume, and then that force spots up for grabs. And I said it today on my show I really see a way where the SEC is left out, which has never happened. But if Texas wins the Big 12 with one loss and Alabama beats Georgia, you have a one-loss SEC team champ, one-loss Big 12 champ, and that one-loss Big 12 champ beat Alabama. So how do you not win?
Speaker 1:them in Right exactly, so it'll be interesting to see what they like to do. If you tell it, it seems like there's always an SEC bias there, but it definitely is. Well, do you have a story from coaching in the Ohio State Michigan game that maybe the average fan would have no idea about? I asked the same question to Tyvis Powell a couple of years ago and he talked about an incident with the band. So I was like oh, I'm a bunch.
Speaker 3:I think the tunnel fight was one of my favorites when that tunnel should be outlawed in college football. We saw what happened in Michigan-Michigan State, with the helmets being thrown and chargers being brought forth on a couple of the Michigan State players, but there was a scuffle in the tunnel in 2013. The year Tyvis had picked off the two-point conversion to win the game and everyone's coming in from pregame warm-ups and they start barking. Our guys are in the locker room and Mike Vrable and I they start trying to go out to start a fight, essentially, and we're trying to hold the doors. I'll never forget it. I almost snapped my arm off because this game was like rabbit dogs trying to get to Michigan. That was crazy. And then the on-field fight was the worst for me because all my players went on the field and Andre Wilson started it. Michael Thomas is red-shirting, he's on the field Fist fighting guys. And I think the wildest part is the one player in that game that should have been ejected over anyone. Maybe not Dantre, but Braxton Miller was on that field. He took these two different players and threw punches and didn't get ejected. And that game is very different without Braxton Miller and we have Marcus Hall get ejected. Dantre got ejected. Braxton unscathed I don't know if no one saw him or if they were like, yeah, let's just kind of ignore that one, but when we watched it back on film, braxton absolutely should have been ejected.
Speaker 1:Wow, that's crazy. Does Kyle McCord come back? And if he doesn't, who do you see as the starting quarterback in 2024?
Speaker 3:Oh, I mean I, I, chris asked me this and I said come back from where? Like he is not an NFL quarterback? No, he's not, I'm there yet but I get it. I get how the emotion works. You're the starting quarterback. Dwayne Haskins was a quarterback for one year and left. I think Kyle absolutely comes back. I think Ryan make you know he has enough context in the NFL. He'll make sure that kid knows like, don't make a mistake here, come back, develop and see what you are next year. But if he wasn't to come back, I still stand on what I said coming out of training camp, because it came from the most credible sources alive that this staff really felt like Devin Brown was gonna be a Heisman level quarterback this year and he kind of fumbled the job right down the home stretch and Kyle was the safer play with the defense they had. I Think I think it's gonna be an open competition in the spring, no matter what Kyle does, to be honest with you, and then we'll see what Lincoln kind of holds can do. I mean, obviously, coming from what I was saying, west Dakota, but coming from South Dakota, you know he's got a learning curve there. But a great athlete, really talented kid.
Speaker 1:It's gonna be a healthy competition, no matter what happens, I think yes, well, to finish up, tell the listeners about your podcast, minister of sports, tell them what it's all about and you know where they could not listen to it and where you can be found on social media. Yeah, sure.
Speaker 3:So we go live on YouTube every day noon. Menace of sports is the channel. It gets put out everywhere. Podcasts are no, the whole kind of ran behind. Our thought behind it was it's, it's to be a menace to sports media, like just just just shake it up and do things differently, which is just raw, real, unfiltered, like we tell the truth. If common court sucks, I'm gonna say common court suck with the full understanding that I want them to be great and I feel like accurately, you know, analyzing the play of college football players is okay and that's uncommon in sports media. It's usually about yeah you know, sun shines and rainbows and it's like, yeah, there's no need for that, like we can talk about what Kyle's deficient at, talk about what he's good at and talk about what he can do to improve and we could be honest about it. And If you don't like it, go watch one of those other Ohio State shows to say, everyone's great, kyle's gonna be a Heisman candidate, yeah, so that's kind of the thought behind it was just like unfiltered, raw real truth about about college football.
Speaker 1:And you know, going from coaching to a podcaster. How was that for you?
Speaker 3:Well, I didn't know I was gonna do that. I just I kind of, after I got fired in July of 2018 and then I started this May of 2019 and it was about the end of the football season where it's people were I thought eventually like the whole thing would go away, like people stop talking about it. But I couldn't do anything without people just berating me with comments and telling me what I was. They're telling me what I did. And I was like hold on now, that's not true, or that's not true. And so finally, I was like you know what? I want? To be real, I want to still be involved in college football, I want to watch it, study it. I love it, it's a passion. So I was like I'm gonna start a podcast, I'm gonna say whatever the hell I want to say, and you all can kiss my ass. And so I did. And I had no idea what that meant. I thought it would be just something hobby kind of thing I did on the side, and it just exploded overnight Because I, you know, I built it up, I definitely played, played the drama in my own favor, and then it got to a point where it was doing such numbers that I was like I probably should look into it like how to monetize this, how to do this like legitimately, and so I did.
Speaker 1:Yeah, cuz I I've listened to your, your podcast and it you are Very relaxed and I mean it. It sounds just like you're talking right now and you do a really good job at it. So I, I'm impressed by it and you know I, being a podcaster and coming from coaching to to being a podcast, I, you know I'm not to that level by any means, but I, you know, I I enjoy what you're doing and and how you're, you're You're able to turn it into something that you know a lot of people are really checking out on a daily basis.
Speaker 3:Yeah, man, it's been really fun. It's been really fun, I love it. I would have thought right yeah well, everyone.
Speaker 1:It's Zach Smith, menace to sports podcast host and Coach. Thank you very much for taking the time during Michigan week, because I know you're really busy this week to be on the podcast and I really do appreciate it.
Speaker 3:No, absolutely. Thanks for having me have fun.
Speaker 1:If you enjoyed today show, please be sure to share it with a friend. Send him a link. It helps us to grow the athlete one podcast. Special thanks to our sponsor, the genetic professionals in proving programs, one facility at a time. If you want the best products for your football, soft or lacrosse, golf courses and, as always, baseball and softball, contact them today at 844-620-2707 or visit them online at wwwnettingprosecom. And, as always, thanks for listening to the athlete one podcast. I'm your host, ken Carpenter. Take care.
