In The Huddle

EP#65: Chris' reflections of 10 days in America with Jesse Williams

• Study & Play USA

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Think you know U.S. college sport from the headlines? Try walking seven campuses in ten days and stepping inside the rooms where performance is built. We share what’s actually changed since COVID and why the pathway for Australian student athletes is more compelling than ever.

From the moment we arrived, the pattern was unmistakable: proximity drives progress. Training centres, rehab, academic support, and fueling stations sit within a short walk of the dorms. That convenience isn’t just nice to have; it hardwires better habits. We unpack how facilities have levelled up across divisions, why nutrition stations are everywhere, and how live data in gyms and tennis centres is turning PBs and workload into daily decisions. The vibe is alive, the systems are mature, and the focus is clear: help athletes improve faster.

Coaches told us their appetite for internationals is growing, with Australians high on the list. The reason is athletes who travel far tend to value the opportunity and stick the process. We explain how to stand out: start early, build your baseline before you go, and use film, results, and academics to widen your options. We also cut through media noise: the “student athlete bubble” is real, and day-to-day life is more about class, training, and team travel than politics or headlines.

NIL is reshaping incentives, especially where American football’s economic engine is strongest. We take you behind the scenes at places like USC, Clemson, Georgia, and Alabama to show how game-day scale funds world-class support across sports. Even if your sport is smaller, understanding NIL, compliance, and personal brand can open real doors. It all adds up to a simple truth: if you prepare well before you land, the system is ready to accelerate you.


SPEAKER_01:

So many of you will have seen on our Instagram page that recently Chris spent a couple of weeks in America visiting different campuses. It's the first time that Chris has been there since, well, since since COVID. You know, some of the key learnings, some takeaway messages, how you found it, and and just generally have a chat about it and your experience so that our listeners can learn about it as well. Because during the time you were over there, I got a lot of messages from people saying, I'm loving following this, I'm loving seeing where's Chris today and all the insight. So yeah, I think it's it's good for us to connect and talk about this.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. Well, there's lots of takeaways. I want to talk about them. But I think a lot's changed since I last went over pre-COVID because the world's changed. So um, and if we if we listen and watch the media, it's it's very selective as to what they put on. So it's very hard for us here in Australia to sort of know what's going on. Obviously, we do in our business, but what it did do, first things first, going to America reminded me of how awesome it is. So we know what's awesome because it's what we do daily for a living. Um help young student athletes heading over there, but seeing it, touching it, there's nothing like it. So um just being there was just amazing, and and that's why we're having this chat, I think, just to be able to share some of those really important takeaways that um that I found from 10 days over there.

SPEAKER_01:

Awesome. So so what were some of those main points, you know, that you think you was there anything that shocked you that um you didn't expect? What's different, what's the same? Yeah, give it some idea.

SPEAKER_00:

A lot of it's the same, it's just awesome, you know. I but you forget until you see it and touch it, and it just reminds you. So, but I think um just the vibrancy around the campuses, I was lucky enough to visit seven campuses in 10 days, and across six or seven different states, actually, as well. So a lot of road tripping and um pulling into university, driving through campus, that's one experience that anyone can do. But then getting onto the inside of the campus of um meeting with coaches, touring facilities, getting a bit of an inside look as to how things work in the in the gyms, um, operations, uh everything. So I think um just generally being on campus is my first takeaway. Just being on campus, college life is as vibrant as it's ever been, uh, makes me want to be even younger um and do it all again. Um, but um yeah, so that'd be probably the first takeaway, vibrancy of of these campuses are um sort of live and well, college college life.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, awesome. And if you compare it to the last time that you know we both were in America was was pre-COVID and we did exactly what we did touring around one campus to the next, meeting athletic directors because senior facilities. Um do you think the facilities are better? They're getting more innovative, you know. Um what what was that like? What were the the actual um resources?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, resources. I mean, these these students have absolutely everything at their disposal. Uh one thing that's changed since I've been over is just the real focus on nutrition, so nutrition stations and fueling stations available to all the athletes. And I think what happens in America, Americans and American universities being so competitive, once one university uh adopts those types of um additions to their program, everyone else, well, we better do that too. So all the campuses we went to, regardless of how reputable or well known or big name they were, they all had these amazing fueling stations. So athletes have got everything in one place, they've got their training, they've got their rehab, they've got their food uh that that's of nutritious value to them. Um they've got their any academic mentors in the same building, uh athletic mentors, coaches, everything at their disposal. So all within walking distance to the dorm. So that's the other thing. We talk about proximity being important. That was very evident on this trip as well. Everything is walking distance. Yes, some athletes have cars and bikes, but not out of necessity, out of want. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

You were meeting with lots of athletic directors, coaches over there, uh, and talking to them about the athletes that we're working with, with uh internationals, Australians. What was their uh you know, what were their thoughts around recruiting internationals at the moment? What what were they asking for? What was their feedback?

SPEAKER_00:

Well, I think the word I've used is appetite. So there's an appetite for internationals as much as there's ever been. So like I said before, Americans being competitive. Um, if one university is having a really um great success with international student athletes, gosh, we better get on that um that bandwagon as well. So uh that's always been the case, but it's just absolutely getting bigger and bigger. So the the international body is largely made up of student athletes at most of these campuses. So um, and the reason for it is um from their perspective, is they know that if a young track and field athlete from Sweden or ideally Australia um is uh going to get an offer over there, they're gonna buy into their opportunity, maybe more so than a local American student who's probably gonna possibly take that for granted because that's what they've always wanted to do. So um, and traveling so far to entertain that idea or that take up that opportunity, they're more likely to buy in. So that and the fact that they're really trying to compete with each other for international student numbers. Um, yeah, the appetite for Australians in particular is huge.

SPEAKER_01:

So uh we get asked this a lot at the moment in the current climate is around you know, internationals. Are they still wanting is there any impact from what you're saying? No impact. There is nothing.

SPEAKER_00:

Well, yeah, well, there's there's a little bit of media stuff recently about international visas and things like that. That was very short-lived and and quite um inflated. Um, so not an issue at all. And I guess on that topic politically, I think that's one of my takeaways as well. Americans are just getting on with it. It's just the the impact on any of that sort of stuff on what's happening in politics or leadership in that country or around the world has no impact on on a student athlete's experience or life at all.

SPEAKER_01:

I think that was so critical for you to be able to see. So we had our study and play family catch-ups, you know, in Prism City, Melbourne, Perth, you know, that we happen to in July every year. And catching up with a lot of parents whose daughter were in the US and then asking them about that, you know, so that we can hear it directly from people. It was, you know, the the majority, if not all of them, saying, you know, I know more about what's going on. I'm I'm updating them about stuff that we're seeing on the media and they're saying, what about that? And, you know, daughter is saying, I have my idea you're talking about that. I've never even heard about that. So we've always talked about the bubble that is being a student athlete in in college, no matter what else is going on around them. And that's still the same now. So I think it's just so valuable though for you to go and see that as well. We've been hearing great things from all of our student athletes and families. But for you to actually be on the ground and see that is so important.

SPEAKER_00:

These kids have got such a specific life. So they've got a very timetabled, structured life. That that may not sound exciting because you're where where's the fun in that? But it there is there's plenty of time for fun, of course, for them. But their life is sport, competing or training, um, looking after their body, looking after their mind, studying, being with teammates, being with new friends, traveling around campus. If they're not on campus, they're traveling with their team to compete. That's your life. You don't really have much time to be watching the news and worrying about what what might be happening in other places in the world or anything like that. But it's um they're in their zone, they're doing their thing. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. So that's some of the takeaways you know that you had. Let's talk us through some of the campuses you visited, what a day was like for you, what are some of your experiences from that trip?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I think it comes back to the competitiveness again. I think if we talk about um how competitive these universities are, well, they're getting better and better and better, the the um the facilities, the money. So um they want success. So it's so important for student athletes on this end to get as good as you can on this end um before you go to college. And then college will hopefully do the rest for you and help launch you into whatever you want in your sport. But don't rely on America to make you take you from scratch to a phenomenal athlete. Let's let's get the work done now. So to do that, you've got to start early. So it's never been more important to start this process early. Step one is education, being educated about it, having a meeting with us and and finding out more about it, and then um subject to your desire to go over. Um it it's it's in your best interest just to be starting earlier, uh, early being you know, year nine, ten um in some cases, if if that's if that's suitable. But um, yeah, so that I think that's a couple of really important takeaways. Um I think just NIL, this is worth another podcast at some stage, but for those who don't know, name image alikeness, there's a new rule brought in, particularly for Division I use in NCAA, the ability for student athletes to now make money uh out of their ability or prowess as an athlete. Um, it's just skyrocketing um some of the some of the uh numbers being thrown around with some of the athletes I spoke to over there is quite astronomical, six and seven figures. Um, a lot of that's driven by American football. So um that was a really big takeaway. American football is still is absolutely king. Uh, whether you like the sport or not, it is what's funding all of the sports that we work with every day. And I got to have a really sneak peek at that really up close and personally uh on this trip, which I'll tell you a little bit more about in a minute. But I think the takeaway from NIL is that it's never been better time to go to college and cash in on that if you're good enough. Can be an extra motivator for some families to sort of come out of college with quite a bit of money in the bank. Um, and I think that's um they're probably my main takeaways. I think we can save the rest for another uh podcast.

SPEAKER_01:

So let's let's talk about your time over the days that you had traveling, going from campus to campus, visiting some amazing universities.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I'll go through it chronologically, but really quickly. I think day one pulled into LA and um without a lot of sleep, uh had an opportunity to s to wait around for my next flight. Why not go to University of Southern California, half an hour away, one of the most beautiful campuses you'll ever see? And we just so happened to have two of our student athletes there available to catch up with me. One was Sarah Hammett, a young golfer who's just was only a month into her um her experience when I arrived. And then Lily Fairclow is into her third year as a tennis player. So they'd got to know each other very well. They both met up with me. We did a tour of both of their sporting facilities in tennis and golf. Um, we had a lovely dinner together where we spoke about you know what their experiences have been like to date, and it's just been everything and more that they'd hoped. And they and seeing them interacting with some of their teammates whilst I was there, um, how proud they were of their campus uh and of their experience that they're having was that was an amazing way to start the trip. So jumped on a plane, um, eventually got a hire car, and I ended up in Johnson, Tennessee, Johnson City, Tennessee, where I caught up with another guy from Brisbane who's a former collegiate athlete, um, very famous one in America, Jesse Williams, um, an American footballer who won two national championships with Alabama. Um, I wanted to get a really sneak peek of what what this engine room of football really does for all the sports and scholarship. So he introduced me to a few universities on the inside and on in football. Um, East Tennessee State University was the first one we went to. And um quite amazing, a lot of takeaways from that. But just seeing it's a reasonably smaller Division I university, but the the access to NIL, the access to phenomenal facilities and mentorship uh that these young footballers get, and then how that trickles into all the other sports. That was my big takeaway from probably that day. And then the next day, lots of travel. We traveled probably through five states too, and on the way, um traveling through Clemson University, a big, big university in South Carolina with um the great history of athletic excellence and academic excellence. Um, again, looking through the tours there, the sorry, touring through the facilities there, just absolutely mind-boggling.

SPEAKER_01:

And that is um an interesting update from me because the last time we went to America, we visited Clums, but we didn't go to the football side of it. Football, we did all the other sports. Can you tell everybody that football almost had its own side of the campus that was everything at all?

SPEAKER_00:

It had a little bit not almost. It was definitely very segregated in a in a just a way that's very, very hard to explain. You have to see it. Um, and as we're talking here, uh listeners, viewers can can see some of the footage here of Clemson, big bright orange colours everywhere, but just the um the sports medicine in particular, the in's indoor fields, the practice fields, the fields just for the kickers, the fields for the linebackers, it's just phenomenal. Um, and you know, no excuses for these guys not to be as good as they possibly can in their chosen sport. Yeah, so went on to Georgia from there, University of Georgia, really, really big college university in Athens, Georgia. Beautiful place, beautiful campus. Um, the big takeaway from that um is just, and you forget again, just how vibrant these communities are, but also merchandise, like, oh my gosh, everything in in you know, red and black, which are the colours there of the Georgia Bulldogs. Um, going into their merch stores and almost getting lost, like here in Meyer, it's um and and levels and it's just quite incredible. So I got lost there, and um, and again, that was just a really big takeaway, just just how much money is generated through the universities through the actual local bands as well. Um, on game days, they'd be making millions of dollars that then gets poured back into the local economy, which is all good for the university, which helps build facilities and everything. So everything comes from that.

SPEAKER_01:

And then on to Alabama.

SPEAKER_00:

Alabama was probably the the flagship um university of the particular trip because that's how Jesse Williams is accompanying me, and he's um an alumni of that university before he went on to become a of course a Super Bowl winner with Seattle. So getting the that inner pass onto a game day, um that was just nothing short of phenomenal on gate day five or six, I think. Um getting access to the tunnel where the where the where the athletes run out, uh meeting the coaches, um having some pretty amazing conversations with some of the athletes themselves, and just seeing the efficiency of the preparation for the way they play, the preparation on game day, just everything down to the second, not to the minute, to the second, and hundreds of staff and people making it all happen. So, yeah, I think you know, you'll see on the footage 110,000 people at the stadium, and something like uh double that outside of the stadium, which is phenomenal. So the whole concept of tailgating, if if those watching don't know what that is, that's like a bucket list thing you should be looking to do. Go to a college campus and and uh see what they do outside the campus as much as uh sorry, outside the football stadium as much as they do inside it. It's part of the fun.

SPEAKER_01:

Was the NRL grand final here in Australia? And what the video footage that you were sending me on a day for a game in Alabama, yes, it was a big game, but it wasn't a final or anything was 50 times bigger than what the NRL grand final was, the lead up, the flyovers, the all of the stuff that we reserve for our biggest state of sport. That is what one university is having. Like that's what's mind-blowing.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, what's mind-blowing about it? So I think you would expect it to be bigger. It's America, they have more people. Okay, we we understand that, but I think the bit that don't understand is just the the fans. They will come from states away just for weekly for these games. And so I think the takeaway from that for people listening is that how much people care. They care about their athletes, they care about um, you know, uh not only the current athletes hoping that they win, but seeing the way Jesse was received 13, 14 years on, the care and concern for his health, he's obviously a few health concerns of late, was just mind-boggling every single person. Um, once you're once you're an athlete at these universities, you're always an athlete, you're always welcome back. I think that was a huge takeaway. Second home. Yeah, and I knew that anyway from my experience, but just to see it through someone else's eyes was pretty awesome.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, yeah. And just last point, I'll say, because you know this the goal of this one was to be a short, sharp, sort of quick overview, and and we might do further follow-up ones to dive into stuff. But you were lucky enough to go and speak to the tennis team at Alabama. And there's an Aussie on the team as well, but um, you got to have a chat to them, and in talking to him he was talking, saying to you about the data that they have, the measurement, the analytics that they do as a tennis player is to like no level that he experienced here.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, well, you walk in the doors of the tennis facility, and obviously the tennis courts there, and you go in the indoor facility, they've got their own visio and and um trainers on site. Um there's everyone's data from the lift in the gym that they did that morning, in that morning, sorry, whose PBs or what, and um who was the trainer of the week, those types of things, who's the most improved, those types of things just help you so much get better as an athlete. Wish we had that when I was around, but technology wasn't quite as strong 25 years ago, funnily enough. But um, yeah, just an amazing experience and and being able to talk to the boys and as someone a little bit older who's been through it and give them a little bit of advice. Not sure it was um um anything uh groundbreaking, but certainly just reminding them to enjoy it. Uh it'll fly by. Jesse was able to come in on the court as well as as a big big footballer and and give his advice as well. And it was very much similar tone. This is gonna fly by. You're gonna be old like us one day, pretty soon. So um enjoy it, embrace it. It's just a it's just a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.

SPEAKER_01:

That was that was awesome. Um, you know, it I think it's so important for our listeners to hear this, to hear what you experienced. And um, that this is one of many more trips to come to be able to go over there and see, you know, have our feet on the ground and and visiting campuses and being able to really give that specific advice and to the families that we work with. So um thanks for sharing that with us and with our listeners. And yeah, look forward to what the next trip holds.