Kickin' It: The life of a college kicker and conference realignment

welcome to the Cyclone fanatic podcast Network powered by Cody Rhode uh this is the first inaugural official episode of Kicking It with Jeff Woody and Grant Mahoney welcome to the studio Grant man I'm happy to be here I think we dragged you off the street like a sort of like like a cat that got hit by a car and sort of like limped around and we're like he's cute a little damaged but he's cute so welcome we might work yeah so as always well as always the Cyclone fanatic podcast network is powered by Cody Rhodes we're in the Wild Rose Casino and Resorts Studios kind of furnished by Nebraska Furniture Mart this is your first time in the studio which for those of you that are watching as opposed to just listening you guys get the full experience of actually looking at it for those either listening just imagine a cool place whatever that cool place is for you I don't know what it looks like for you something cool anyway uh today on the show we're going to bring in uh we're we're going to start with a little bit of Iowa State kicking stuff because it's kicking it with Grant Mahoney for those that don't know Grant Mahoney was kicker from 2008 to 2011. uh and made lots of long kicks kicked off for a whole bunch of times uh and so we'd have actually some idea on why Iowa State sucks at kicking all of a sudden and we'll go from there into realignment stuff so hopefully this is the last episode you're gonna have to hear at least us talk about something that is not actually football related too much because we're coming in in the season so we're like for those of us that have worked at least a little bit in podcasting and stuff this we're coming out of the dark times because they report to camp in a little bit so without further Ado also thank you to kelderman kelderman manufacturing for being the primary sponsor here for kicking it without having any idea what the show is going to be so that's some serious balls to sign up for this with no idea what's going on uh okay getting into kicking because I think Chris and Brent talked about it a couple times unlike the football preview show but they didn't really do it justice because it's Chris and Brent talking about kicking um why do we suck Grant prior to coming out of state he was his high school team's kicker funner and quarterback so we did it all last year was his first year only focusing on kicking and his stats weren't that bad I mean he was 60 but they weren't that bad if you break it down he only missed one uh one kick at Jack Trice all the rest of his kicks were away from Jack Trice and I think a lot of people you know will really rag on them because the games were so close and they came and like we needed a field goal to to tie Texas to to tie Kansas and he didn't come through um so I think that's why people you know look at look at him place a blame on him and it's it's easy to it's easy to blame the kicker because they're out there you got one job go kick it but you know people forget about interceptions fumbles drop balls I think so the other thing that just so you mentioned that he was quarterback punter kicker and now this is the first year focusing on kicking why is that a difference what what matters and so first question is what's the actual difference because I would imagine you weren't just a kicker there was other sports that you played other activities you did when you're actually at linmar uh why is that different now and then he's still gonna be only a kicker going into this year and so I think there is a natural feeling of like all right if Iowa State last year's kick so inside of 30 yards is 100 great cool congratulations outside of 30 yards straight up coin flip it was hit or miss 50 from outside of 30 yards so if last year it was that you have basically the same kicker holder Pawn or Kicker holder or excuse me Snapper holder kicker uh why is it going to be what is what is why can we as fans look forward to it being better this year so one what's the difference between when you're playing other positions and also kicking wouldn't it be bad better if you just kicked uh yeah I mean if you're just a kicker you're able to focus more on kicking you know obviously um but in high school I'm not sure if Jace kicked off of a block uh or not what I mean by block is when you snap you've got a little little square block essentially it's like an inch tall uh anywhere from yeah inch to a half inch um but in college you're kicking off the ground and so what that what that does when you kick is it lowers The Sweet Spot and so if you're not comfortable kicking you know off the ground you're gonna be hitting the ball higher up which could cause you know X balls they called or low line drives and allowing him to focus just on kicking allows him you know one more year to work on kicking off the ground because he came in initially as a as a preferred walk-on and then he got a scholarship you know just before I think in late January so before they signed that class so in my opinion I think you know giving him a full year to focus just on kicking where he had what seven months to focus on it from his end of his high school year to when he came to Iowa State I think it's going to allow him to focus on hitting more consistent balls and not worry about kicking or not worry about punting or being a quarterback and just focusing on being a kicker and now we have a special teams coach okay how why does that make a difference so there's I guess we're not going to miss a kick ever again now I don't write them um so I think one other another thing that I was gonna about the special themes coach this is the thing that we addressed back uh on fart I think at the end of the season last year is it wasn't necessarily like special teams because if you're interested in getting like an offense and defense breakdown I already mentioned it before like Williams and Bloom did one essentially a full football preview and they did a better job I mean not to say a better job they did a good job I think we'll probably get by the time the season starts we'll have a better idea because you're sort of throwing darts in the dark uh but they didn't really talk much about kind of the Special Teams stuff um so there's two parts of special teams and I think we both Commit This from uh different segments of it so there's operations and there's actual the execution of the rest of the play so operations is snap hold kick or snap punt the actual the operation of getting the ball from the line of scrimmage off of someone's foot that operation has to be like dialed in and I think the way I've described it before is like imagine if you're a golfer and you have you're just standing in the middle of you have you're in your stance you're in setup and all of a sudden you pull your Club back and then someone puts the ball down as right about right before you're about to go swing like that's what kicking is so the operations it would behoove them to not be good at placing the ball in the exact same spot because for those of you that golf do you understand the difference between if the ball is three inches too far forward or three inches too far back it's going to change it so the operations have to be good but at the same time if your operations are good but the execution of the play is garbage meaning as what I would do on special teams and that's where I cut my chops it's where I got on the actually got on the field was covering puns covering kicks returning kicks returning punts and you have to block you have to tackle you have to stay in your lane you have to understand when the timing of each one of those things is and for me last year uh operations were really bad execution was pretty bad on punt cover was terrible X both X operations and execution were terrible on punt cover the rest of it wasn't great but operations were still bad why is a specialty a specific special teams coach what difference does that make from last year to not having one to having one because I can talk about what the the actual the the block punt cover tackled that that's way different with a special teams coach because you can practice it what's different with you why would it be different with operations well I think having a dedicated special teams coach allows you to you know and not saying that they didn't focus on especially before because obviously they did but now you've got a coach that is going to sit down and he's gonna you know schematically look at the other team look at strengths and weaknesses of not only your team but the other team and focus on the weaknesses so like you had two true freshmen you know kicking and punting last year and operational wise it's it's so crucial at the college level because everybody's fast everybody's fast and in high school you can sit back there you can spin the ball you can you can count the the laces you can do whatever you want because no one's going to get there no and I'm not trying to make this about myself but when I was a freshman I was leaned back before before kick I was leaning back I was chilling I was chilling before a field goal boom would kick it and I didn't I don't think I had any block maybe one or two but then after that when coach Rhodes came in he's like you need to like lean forward and like once a ball is snapped like go because my operation time was crap and that's what we had last year we had a couple block kicks we're off the bat there's I mean Perkins would early on he would get the ball he'd spin it and he'd want to have it no operations time I think it's what 1.2 seconds I think is that when from the time the ball is snapped the time the ball has to be off of the foot somewhere between what 1.2 and 1.4 on a field goal and then on a punt it's got to be 2.1 or less I think and that includes that includes the ball flying so that number I think I remember that because if you're on punt cover uh there is a delicate balance in actual in special teams operations uh and for those of you that were expecting anything other than special teams operations for 15 minutes sorry and if you were expecting it you're welcome but if you're on if you're on punt cover there's a delicate balance between blocking not long enough and blocking too long because it's the only special teams the only one where possession switches intentionally where on an interception or a fumble or a fourth down stop possession switches but it's on accident versus a kickoff kick return upon a punt return or a field goal it's always there is no retention of possession on any one of those plays it automatically always flips and so you have to go from being on offense to being on defense in this within the same play and on the offensive side I need to block on the defensive side I need to tackle at some point I need to know when I need to switch between offense and defense so if I'm blocking I'm completely blind to what the operation is so on punt I always I was the Right Guard for four years so right next to the center it was which was Dakota Zimmerman which is your bill A Plus thank you uh you're welcome and punch you in the neck right now uh but on that so you have to take X number of steps and you're really kind of counting in your head sort of like when you're playing flag football when you're like seven you're like one apple two apple three Apple like you're counting the amount of steps and release time before you can actually engage block and then all of a sudden that guy who was playing defense by trying to rush the punter is now playing offense and is trying to block you from getting to his guy so he turns from linebacker to fullback so you have to know when that switch is if the operations is bad and that timing is wrong and the punter is taking an extra half a second and I've already switched to playing defense I'm not blocking anymore they're still playing defense and now everybody's playing defense except the punter which is not very good for the punter so like I think one of the things that the special teams coach hopefully will be able to get across to Tyler Perkins is Bud it has got to be faster it's also on the Long Snapper though the long sniper ship built to deliver the ball were when Perkins is catching it laces up and so if he's living the ball with a laces are anywhere butt up then percontest uh you know why does that matter why does it matter laces down laces up Dan hey Ace I don't want to kick the laces because that's not that's not a flat part of the ball so it could you know it could hit the part of your foot that's gonna make it that's sometimes where you see Shanks sometimes we see Miss hits same thing on on kicks too you know people don't don't realize on field goals that it's a three-person operation so if the snap is bad where if Perkins isn't catching it where the laces are essentially you know away from the kicker and if he puts it down if he misses his spot that's going to throw off the kicker and so it's a three-person operation but of course the kicker is the one that you know that's that's that comes with the territory it comes with the position that you're you're the one that is is kicking the ball so you just have to rely on your Snapper and your holder to do their jobs but if one of those is off people aren't going to see oh the snap was bad that laces are out or they might I guess but people aren't going to see the the minuscule Miss if the punter doesn't put the ball down right where it's supposed to be that that could that could cause a lot who's your holder when you were there Brenner um Oh Derek schmidtahl oh Schmick was linebacker with a neck roll with holder I don't remember Schmick being a oh my God short story a freshman year UNLV um I I made like a pat that tied the game and if we went to overtime and he was always like he'd always hit me in the back of the helmet like great kick UNLV he was so fired up like he hit me I started to see stars and I was like dude I was like you're a linebacker I'm 145 pound true freshman kicker you can't hit me that hard man um freshman year I think I don't think sophomore um Dan Keel sophomore junior year and then uh Brett view career senior year okay and Bucher was the do everything special teams snap hold work in the nutrition office powerlift I think he gained 50 pounds and lost 40 pounds or like 40 pounds of the course of his college career which is absolutely impressive in the gym well he was a became a officer or a ga a strength GA by the time he was actually done yeah um the other thing so like with like why why are okay kickoff coverage within kickoff coverage Iowa state has been fine as the best as I can recall has been fine in the past couple years what is why is there an art and what why sometimes is the kicker who's doing field goals not the one that's doing the kickoffs is there a mechanical difference between the two just like this is more like as a side note as people are coming in because I don't think Perkins does kickoffs I think that's somebody else who's doing the kickoffs I think uh and we'll see what's going into the or uh um uh shackle I think Shackleford did some of the kickoffs so why is it what's the what is there a mechanical difference and what's what what is that mechanical difference yeah it's a little it's a little different and you know you know the goals you're you're when you kick you can swing through your landing on your your plant Footwear as kickoffs you're essentially you're kicking and you wanna I was always told you want to pretend you're coming up and over hurdle with your kickfoot and land on your kickfoot with your if I'm right footed so Lane with your right shoulder kind of down like you're headed downfield and you're rolling down downhill um you want to land you know two three yards pass the ball uh another another thing that's a big difference between kickoff and field goal is kickoffs you want to really engage your quad so you roll your foot over more so you're kind of hitting the ball more on the top of your foot whereas a field goal you're hitting more on the side of your foot kind of a big bone on your foot so like a pass in soccer more a field goal will be more like a pass yeah whereas like uh um a kickoff would be more like a shot you sometimes see guys in soccer like on PKS you know they'll just Hammer one just Hammer one and but they'll land on their kick foot and that's that's essentially what you're doing on a kick off so it's it's more quad involved um which throughout the week you only want to hit you know eight kickoffs leading up to to the game because that's gonna tire out your quad legit so what do you do during practice you're only kicking you have eight kickoffs the entire freaking week what do you do I mean so I mean when I was there we got there like an hour before everyone else play punt golf all the other slappies would get out there oh yeah you oh we're slappies you guys are out there playing punt golf for like the majority of practice practice for freaking four hours basically so we're out there for an hour got all of our work done the first two three periods for special teams we would dick around the last two and a half hours of practice did you guys have to okay I don't recall I would imagine you guys had to run when we had to run yes so well yeah and then two minute drill and then and then at the end of practice usually they do a which suck because you're sitting around practice getting cold all you know for two hours that's I'm so sorry for you but I I'm so sorry for that experience but in between in the beginning and the practice I would I personally would I would catch the quarterbacks I would snap for the quarterbacks and then there will be some days yeah we go inside and play golf so we you know In The End Zone it says Iowa State so the O in Iowa and then Cyclones the Owen Cyclones we would we would Punt and play golf uh was were was Kirby the best at that brand or who was the best at punt golf we all had our date Guyer was really good okay I believe it yeah I believe it we all kind of had our days because punters would hit the ceiling so often because they had good form whereas like me and Zach would just hit Zach would hit low which is absolutely piss missiles they're good spirals they're in the neighbor's role um yeah I would say probably Guyer was probably the best at that but yeah I mean we also did like dry runs you know we do dry ones or you you know we had a one of the coaches I'm not gonna name names wanted us to do because he should have been coaching us okay um you want us to do like um mark off your steps so make sure your steps are consistent so he he bought like 100 golf tees and was like okay put a golf tee here and then when you take three steps back put a golf at your heel and then take your steps or put a golf teacher heel and like I suppose that was relevant but a lot of the stuff was like he then put golf with the balls on the tee and like no that's not the it's not the correct sweet spot if you will for the football so it's kind of okay kind of a dumb drill but I'll do it yeah what else am I gonna do stand around for a while Monumental oh yeah a lot of mental rights that was huge for me my freshman year um Jay Boulevard was the I don't think yeah no I would not have been Jay great coach best special teams coach I had he did a really good job putting us in high pressure situations I mean he would at the end of practice he would have everyone around us I remember Leonard Johnson would was kicking grass at me saying all kinds of stuff he shouldn't be saying to someone I think Leonard Johnson was a notoriously great talker no Taurus the great talker yeah anyway Butler prepared us for for high pressure situations and I I really felt at ease you know my freshman year probably probably more than I want to see my senior because at that point I was like you know I've done this 100 times so it doesn't really matter um but no board did a great job of preparing all the Specialists and he didn't really care he's like you know go out and do your job but he was really big on the day before games he's like he's like mentally prepared he's like do mental reps hit 10 10 field goals 10 Pats if you miss one go back and and reduce they're shooting free throws basically yeah it really is so this podcast isn't all going to be about special teams operations but I did want to actually clear the air because there is some expertise okay some I'm out of here then all right well cool thanks guys that's uh that's the end of kicking it um no so the other thing that we're going to end up doing with this show uh talk about hard transitions uh is there actually is the nice thing is Grant and I have experienced at least a decent amount and what's funny you know I mentioned at the thought that we're going to talk at least a little bit about realignment you and I were both present for all of the Big 12 Missile Crisis in both the round one and round two and we were talking about it beforehand the I didn't remember half of the stuff that actually was going on I don't know if it was like blocked it out like didn't recall or just wasn't paying attention at the time but the Colorado coming back to the Big 12 I don't know what your thoughts are that to me feels like an absolute sleeping giant waiting because that was my one of my favorite stadiums to play at I don't know if it was what was yours for me just because I love Boulder I've got family there so it was memorable to go there as well but it's also super Scenic you know it's tucked in the mountains there and it's it's just yeah it's a great place to play and being out there I don't know if you even saw Ralphie run around because yeah we were out there before the game so seeing Ralphie run around it's big ass Buffalo yeah literally a big ass Buffalo he didn't no it was a it was a sooner one of the sooner horses pooped oh I think at one of our games and they were doing a little sooner Schooner or whatever one of them on the field so I don't know it wasn't Ralphie foreign it's a natural grass field I guess at least it was the time um but I think one of the things that when I was so when we were talking about it's like I didn't I didn't realize how much was going on so I think we both kind of did at least a little bit of recap so again I'm going to reference back to the other shows in the the cyclopedic podcast Network which is Chris and Brent are really good because they live in the actual media rights world like they've done it before so they have a better idea of what's going on but one of the things that for some people you might either I mean if I forgot and we were there like we were at some point thought we were going to be in the con and see USA like I legitimately thought we were going to go to the Conference USA at some point somewhere around 2011 and I was trying to go back and like piece together what was going on so as a recap like actually doing research for what was going on so sorry Jared this first time I've done research and the history of me doing a podcast um that's a grand effect it's a graphic I know I have to hold hold you for this entire show um so one of the things that like when it started I didn't realize how much Dan Bibi had to do with keeping the league from absolutely just crumbling dude got on but he was a visionary unbelie unreal like without him we wouldn't have a big 12. I'm convinced of that there is there here's a quote uh which you sent earlier as we were kind of prepped for this there's a quote from Dan Bibi in 2010 right when this is starting going on which is he sent this to Dan Bibi the former commissioner of the big 12. this is back again 2010 I don't remember when he's got hired for the job but he was this is pre-2010 he wrote a collateral consideration for all of us as national leaders and Intercollegiate Athletics is the creation of a few Mega conferences may result in more governmental legal and public scrutiny pressure to compete may may rise with resulting higher salaries and more churning of ads and coaches clear identification of the highest level of Intercollegiate Athletics reduced to a small grouping ieg-416 member conferences could cause eventual tax consequences and tremendous pressure to pay these student athletes responsible in programs driving the most revenue and pressure and whose coaches and administrators are receiving more and more financial Awards this dude wrote that 13 years ago talking about four 16 member conferences and tremendous pressure pressure to play pay players still applicable right now that legal pressure to pay players is currently existing and I think that's one thing that Brent was is trying to work with is like understanding when there is going to be stuff put come to coming down from Congress whether or not you actually can pay players and whether that's a good thing or a bad thing and that all started back in 2010. yeah and you know doing some of the research too I had forgotten when Northwestern you know wanted to unionize and like the whole you know abandoned versus NCAA like you get paid from that by the way oh yeah yeah so 3 800 bucks I was an impact player in 2013. yeah I can't remember how much I got but it was a nice yeah nice I mean especially when you're like 23 you get a 3 000 check in the mail that was nice yeah really not necessary appreciate it um so the the oh okay thanks Connor uh Connor just text uh Dan Beebe promoted to commissioner it's September 5th 2007. so I've been in 2007 2010 is when he was actually the commissioner so uh to recap where we how we got to this point because we were there through these various like little timelines so how we got to Colorado coming back to the Big 12 because this is actually my first time on a microphone since that happening so we can get to like the thoughts of what that looks like or what the big 12 is going to look like or what's going to happen or or whatever but how we got here so in 2010 uh Nebraska jumped for the Big Ten and Colorado jumped for the Pac-12 in summer of 2010. their last season was 10 11 when the Big 12 then dropped from 12 teams down to 10 teams uh Dan Bibi solidified the league V equal second tier rights which previously hadn't happened Nebraska Oklahoma Texas and Texas A M previously had a higher second-tier rights which is just uh like cyclones.tv is the first year Fox big Fox's first tier and then like your Fox Sports Midwest like that's your second tier rights and so those are even across the way but then gave the third tier rights back to the universities which is where cyclones.tv was happened and then that little Lucifer of a Longhorn Network was born in that renegotiation after Nebraska and Colorado left 12 was like inches away from and Dan Bibi needed to some way to get to appease Texas to actually get them back and to commit back to the conference because as because Nebraska and Colorado Nebraska was at that time one of if I mean Texas is the biggest brand but between Nebraska and Oklahoma they were probably the next biggest so like that is I mean losing a substantial that's the USC and UCLA leaving to go to the Big Ten it's the same situation where you have a huge Market that is going to be pulled out and Texas then goes wait we lose one of our uh biggest name rivals in Nebraska and then also Colorado is going to be gone which has a history and you lose the westernmost part of your conference Texas and Oklahoma and Texas A M and Mizzou had sort of started shopping their way around so Bibi had to essentially somehow manage to get them back in the Longhorn Network was a concession to be able to keep Texas in the conference after that because Longhorn Network was around and Texas A M didn't get to have the Aggie Network with ESPN a m a m started pouting because they hate being little brother sorry guys I don't want this so a m then left in August of 2011 their last season was 11 12. I remember in 2010 so I was there 09 to 13. you were there 08 to 11. uh I remember in 2000 like the 2010 one when Nebraska left I was just like what the what really like it was more confused than anything and then in 2000 in August 2011 is when a m left and then in October of 2011 TCU and West Virginia got brought in but Mizzou left as well so like I remember between August of with a M leaving and October when they brought on TCU in West Virginia I legitimately thought and I remember we were out at practice at the just the north where the south of where the indoor is whatever that practice field is not the Field of Dreams how many majors Johnny major so we're at Johnny Majors and I remember we had coach Rhodes came in and then it was Tom Cruise shell who was the Sid at a time came in and essentially was talking about like sports media rights to a group of like 18 to 22 year olds and understanding like hey we're gonna have a football team but we're not sure where we're going to be playing do you do you did I make that up or do you remember that at all uh yeah I remember him I remember crochet coming and talking to us and me being like I don't care okay so who's in the league next year then Tom are we where are we going to be are we going to be about in the Big 12 or are we gonna bring in new people like what's going on Tom and he's like oh I don't really know but it wasn't stay calm and that was yeah stay calm and so that was in the 2011 season and so like I said October of 2011 Bob bullsby who had just gotten hired at the time so when a m left that's what got BB fired bullsby comes in two months later Mizzou leaves but he manages to get West Virginia and TCU in so by the time between 2000 uh what was it August of 2010 and October of 2011 the Nebraska and Colorado had left and Longhorn Network had gotten born a m left for the SEC Mizzou had left for the SEC TCU from the Mountain West came into the Big 12 and West Virginia from the Big East came into the big 12. there was a chance at that time that West Virginia wasn't even going to make it in the conference because the Big East was going to potentially try and hold their feet to the fire and force them to pay a substantial exit fee from the Big East but managed to get everything back together so that Missile Crisis in that moment at that time Larry Scott was the commissioner of the Pac-12 they didn't think that there was enough addition for anyone other than Texas and Oklahoma to be able to come to the Pac-12 and the Longhorn Network kept Texas around enough but at that point Larry Scott didn't bring anyone on from the Big 12 which is at this point looks like a really stupid move so from there fast forward to July of 2021 Texas and Oklahoma and so from October 2011 to July of 2021 the Big 12 is more or less the same it is on fairly even footing except Texas is just trying to be a big swinging dick and trying to control everything when they when you know from that point I think a lot of that's because of the TV rights that had set in place too why they're why there hasn't been much movement really until recently because he managed at some point I recall that so there was uh at some point in their BB negotia extended the TV negotiation out until 2025. it was supposed to expire I think in 2016 or in 2020 and then they re- some year in between there but extended or got an extension of the grant of rights or of the TV contract until 2025. so fast forward July 2021 Texas and Oklahoma decide to leave for the SEC Bob bullsby at that point holds their feet to the fire with because each of them had a 100 million dollar buyout if they were to have to leave that year they wanted to leave that year but the grant of rights were guaranteed with the conference meaning a grant of rights is you as Texas give me the big 12 the rights to broadcast your games so if you play a game you can't show it because I have your rights to actually show that game so if they were to leave early the Big 12 wasn't going to release them from the granite rights unless they paid 100 million dollars so if they decided to leave anyway all those broadcast games that Texas is on either couldn't be shown or would be shown and the profit would come to the big 12. so at that point bullsby essentially threatens legal action to keep them in the conference and then in June of 2022 uh the Big 12 announced the edition of new schools in July of 2022 Brett yourmark gets hired and at the same month UC USC and UCLA bolt to go to the Big Ten heads are falling at this point and everyone's like what's going on yes so the Pac-12 is now sort of on unstable footing because they had which in my opinion so the first time around the Big East kind of got raided and gone because there's no more football I think that's what's gonna happen to the Pac-12 here I think pactyl is going to go away and you know I think we're going to get another team and you know Chris had mentioned this in another podcast that Arizona might be next and then I think Washington Oregon might be the next ones and then from there it's like this is such a watered down Pac-12 what happens do they do they then join the Mountain West do they try to bring in some teams from the Mountain West and let the Mountain West and you know other teams out there kind of other conferences out there kind of dissolve and make like a a watered down Pac-12 at that point are you then still a power five so to finish where we are because that makes that actually kind of is the next point after that so in July of 2022 Your Mark was hired and UCLA USC and UCLA bolt to go to the Big Ten so at this point the Pac-12 now has a contract expiring in 2024 a meteorites contract expiring 20 20 2024 without their biggest draw so if you're trying to renegotiate if you're the Pac-12 it would be like if Texas and Oklahoma left and you didn't replace them with anyone you're trying to negotiate with a smaller pool Your Mark and so in June of 2023 uh Your Mark finishes negotiations for a new TV deal two years early because the big 12s wasn't supposed to be done until 2025. the pac-12s was supposed to be in 2024. now a while back and they've talked to Chris and Brent have talked about how important it was that that TV TV deal got done it wouldn't be that big of a deal had USC and UCLA not left because the numbers would probably be fairly comparable and if you get a deal early for 31 million dollars and the Pac-12 gets a deal for 29 and a half most schools are going to be like that's good enough because the cost of leaving is going to be substantial and the cost for staying is you know I give a million and a half a year big deal but because USC and UCLA are gone and the Big 12 set the number that becomes the thing that all the Pac-12 schools start looking at because they say I could have that and the big Ten's already got you know 100 million dollars or whatever the sec's got 100 million dollars and the Big 12 has interest in another school and says hey you can come with us and make this essentially it's setting the bar so by getting that deal done early it'll it forces the Pac-12 to meet that number and if they don't meet that number then all the member schools then go wait why are we with this side notes which I don't know I've I had forgotten about in the time that between the time Pac-12 signed their deal and when it was going to expire in 2024. uh the Pac-12 headquarters thing that happened in San Francisco They overpaid and overbuilt and each school had to actually pay back five million dollars to the conference because they overpaid for it they wasted five million there was another time when Larry Scott uh thought that they he like they got an invoice the the contract between Comcast the amount of money that Comcast had given them was five million dollars per school too high so after that five million dollars was too high it's you don't just get to keep that that's not how a contract works so they had to give that money back that was years later that they actually had to give that back so each school then had to give an additional five million so at that point if you heard of the the at some point Washington state had to have a complete hiring freeze and could not spend anything it's because the Pac-12 mishandled money to the tune of 10 million dollars ish per school so you have your mark getting in early with a TV deal saying this is the bar that you could you have to be measured against USC and UCLA leaving the conference and essentially not having their biggest negotiating chips for TV contracts and the Pac-12 being kind of shitty with money so you add all those things together and Colorado then looks at that and goes big 12's in a better situation yeah I'm out I'm out so the Colorado comes back so bringing back to like what happens going forward one of the things that is also going on at the same time so Disney just let go uh Disney which owns ESPN just let go of a ton of ESPN honor talent and I think one of the things they're trying to de-invest at least a little bit from Sports meteorites because it's really expensive so the other parties at the table and I hate the term stakeholders but the stakeholders in these negotiations are the TV contracts or the TV companies ESPN Fox NBC CBS whatever because they're the ones that are going to be broadcast in the games and they are buying this product for 31 million dollars of school they then have to they're counting on the fact that by putting this on TV they will make more than that in advertising revenue or sponsorships or whatever per school to do that so you're essentially paying ESPN is paying the con the schools through the conferences for the rights to broadcast their games so if you're Oregon and Washington and Arizona which seemed like the the likely candidates to come over here ESPN probably doesn't want them to come over because if you're if you're ESPN and you're renegotiating with the Pac-12 and you're going to set that number at 20 million instead of 31 million dollars Oregon's games in the Big Ten or excuse me in the Big 12 would cost you 31 million dollars a year Oregon's games in the Pac-12 cost you 20 million dollars a year they just de-invested from ESPN so my guess is that ESPN is saying we want you to have one more we'd be cool with you having one more because there's a natural partner for Colorado if you get one of those other ones which is why Arizona feels like the most natural addition is you have a natural partner with Arizona and Colorado BYU Texas Tech the Western kind of Southwest stuff uh but if you were to add more that now costs us more money so ESPN is probably going to encourage them to get one more and stop unless the universities are that adamant of getting out of the Pac-12 in which case Oregon and Washington feel like they would be the ones that would want to get out because they are the last big chips for this so I don't know like to me it feels like Arizona would be the next step and I don't have any insight information more than the fact that I think that there has been substantial expressed interest from Arizona to get to the Big 12 it's just a matter of numbers so at this point that's why we are where we are coming into this season also heard that if Arizona doesn't I mean takes for the green and salt take offer that if Arizona doesn't join then your Mark's gonna pivot and go to UConn what are your thoughts on that they broke size arm so I want I I think it was Zayn I think there was the guy's name he's our trainer yeah yeah and pushed him down the stairs and they're talking smack at my grandma at the game like who does that who talks smack to an 80 or I don't know you probably did yeah no I wouldn't do that so I would welcome Yukon back I mean they suck at football they're great at basketball I mean we're already you know the best basketball conference in the in the country so it'd be nice to have another doormat to beat up on in football because their Kansas doesn't suck anymore so Colorado that's interesting so right now so my thoughts on Colorado if Colorado comes the conference in 10 years with the right coach they will be one of the top three programs in the conference I don't agree with that with the right coach is prime the right coach the reason why I say that is so it's the it is the only Power five School in a state of six million that generally tends to produce lots of talent so if they are they are the natural path to the NFL if you're a kid that lives in Denver if you're a kid that lives in Colorado Springs or wherever so with the right coach and that campus is gorgeous the facilities I mean the inside could use a little bit of work but like great Academic School great state great Stadium if if they have the right coach to pull all of it together I'd go to Colorado and it's just a matter of do they have someone to do it and so if they do top three program in the conference well and and Dion's such I mean he surrounded himself with with really good coaches so he may not even need to coach he may just need to be the the face of the of the program and let the often scoring a defense coordinator you know do their thing and he's basically the recruiter of I'm Dion I'm Prime you know I can get you to League I know you know what it takes and I mean he has since he has been brought on they have they have generated so much revenue in that athletic department we were just out in Boulder a couple weeks ago there are prime sweatshirts shirts memorabilia apparel all over people were in it all over and I don't get that I wouldn't see coach wrote I mean I wouldn't but I don't know if I would wear a you know a Coach Campbell shirt but that's all that that's all we saw out there so he has just reinvigorated that fan base they saw at their spring game which is probably the first time that's happened since what Cordell Stewart I don't know if you ever have I mean yeah I would say probably then if at all but I mean there there's a lot of hype around there I'm just I'm not convinced that I'm not convinced that he's the right coach and insane and I think there is some of the stuff that you like they're you're turning over a whole roster and I think when you're turning over an entire roster I would imagine with a good amount of nil deals and I I wouldn't I don't know nil deals for a second would you care that much if uh while we're there or not made more money in nil deals than you would you care the quarterback I'm a kid right uh would you care if I don't know uh Jake Latimer or Chris Lyle made more money than you yes Jake Latimer could advertise for Busch Light in a second yeah you could yeah those are defense events for those I mean deep polls Jake Latimer's one of the craziest people I've ever met I don't know what what's he doing now Jake if you're listening I think it might be a gym teacher in Kansas football coach in Kansas love you buddy if you're listening uh also remember he was the uh the only person that I've ever seen knocks someone else out oh two people two people have knocked that have knocked someone out in a practice one of Jake Latimer's won Quentin pompe was the other who Albert I don't know if it was knocked out but like cold cocked so were you there when that happened it was during mandrels I was probably off playing golf so oh what a dick so it was during conditioning so like this is the best that I was definitely playing golf then I didn't see it happen this is I heard the reaction of what was happening so uh Matt drills were it's a in a conditioning thing you only have to get two to five somewhere maybe six on the high end perfect reps and Yancy McKnight strength coach and Clayton oyster the assistant strike coach were the guys that were running it and uh EA who's now the head guy at Tulsa I think so head guy Tulsa uh they were those are the guys that were running it and so everybody you have to get two perfect reps what that means is every single person on the team has to execute the rep without a mistake and without fall or without uh failure of effort so you're standing with your toes in the white line not in front not behind your toes are in the white line in the end zone there is a string coach of the five I think usually that was EA that was at the five and you would have to they would blow the whistle or call you do a somersault in and then once you get a somersault then you get up to the five yard line kind of chopping your feet waiting for them to give you a Cadence they would give you an instruction as to what that what what was happening at the five yard line so it was like a seat roll which is going to roll your butt and then you stand back up and you chop your feet or it's just straight side shuffle like you're playing defense in basketball and you could point to his left and you'd have to go the direction that he's pointing until he tells you to turn around and if you don't go hard enough then that would count as a ding count as a negative if you stop too soon then that would count as a ding if you didn't react fast enough that would count as a ding so you'd go One Direction go the other direction One Direction go the other direction they would then he'd Point behind you and blow his blow the whistle or say out or something like that you do another somersault you get up to the 15 yard line you get up 15 yard line next string coach is waiting and in the time that the second the first group is on the five and they do a somersault to get to the 15. that's the call to get the next group out to the five and so you're going zero goal line five yard line 15 yard line at the 15 yard line it's just kind of chopping your feet blow the whistle you do an up down Sprint through the 25 25 yard line and you're really sprinting through the 30. like the line is the 25 you don't screw that up everybody on the team just has to do that perfectly twice which sounds easy sounds easy right that's not too hard uh what happens is if you make one mistake that's fine like and honestly if it's like one of those where your point they're pointing to the left and you go to the left and then you go to cut and like you slip and your hand comes down and they call you a ding for that like that's just an execution mistake that's not an effort mistake no one's really all that mad they're like ah damn it you know freaking Lichtenberg or whatever like they would something like that but then you wouldn't be too mad about it the ones that really chat people's ass are the effort ones or the ones that go left you should go right and then you run into each other especially on the seat rolls and you run you smack shoulders or heads uh so Albert at that point which hilarious guy uh at the time kind of a turd as far as effort's concerned uh went to go do the map drills didn't finish got him a ding and at that point you got a bullseye on your back like you get called for lack of effort every string coach is looking at you to finish it gets called for another lack of effort and at that point you get two lack of efforts in a row and none of those count you have to get two perfect right now we're at zero at this point seems like okay at this point come on buddy and uh does it goes to do it again and I actually I think after the second one people are like chirping back at him being like hey oh yeah just run like all you have to do is try a little bit harder for the the last 10 yards goes to do it again I think Latimer was chirping back and forth and being like just finish Albert starts to chirp back to Latimer as we're sort of Milling around in between reps Latimer just cold him uh Albert Goes Down I don't know if it was knocked out or not uh I do remember this yeah at that point it's not our most gracious moment but it was sort of just drag him out of the way so the rest of us can finish the rest of the Reps and the trainers were attending to Albert and we were finishing up and no one was really that mad that that happened so I think we're past the statute of limitations on that so yes that was one of I don't know random Jake Latimer tangent but absolute crazy mofo and he's hands like sledgehammers so yes I would be upset if he made more nil than I did [Laughter] he did not knock anybody else anybody else well he did he was tougher than you great hair so uh upcoming this next couple weeks we're going to be recording these on Mondays we're going to figure out the exact time so that's gonna be posted Monday night or Tuesday morning depending on when uh producer Aiden has got his time availability because his college student who has to do stuff um so as the season gets closer we're going to be able to actually talk a little bit more football in a little bit less conference realignment a little less kicking mechanics hopefully I pray to Jesus we don't have to talk kicking mechanics too much it's probably a good thing yeah I don't think I don't I don't want to talk too much oh kicking mechanics got anything else for the good cause I don't I'm looking for me it should be fun so welcome to the first episode of Kicking It with Woody and jimo thanks for stopping in everybody