Athletic Fortitude Show
Athletes all over the world endure countless mental physical and psychological adversities over the course of their careers. We are here to bring you the solutions to those adversities with some of the top professional athletes, coaches, and sport and performance psychologists around the world!
Athletic Fortitude Show
Yogi Roth- Finding Balance, Curiosity, and the Future of College Athletics
Yogi Roth shares his philosophy of "chasing what matters" and how to balance achievement with gratitude while staying focused on life's true priorities.
• Chase what matters: have clarity about what matters most, confidence when you say it, and discipline in how you attack it
• Learning to take feedback requires separating your identity from your performance
• Mental health support should be "front-loaded" in athletic programs, not treated as an afterthought
• The most successful people are "seekers" – constantly curious and learning
• Storytelling is essential for athletes to share who they are beyond their sport
• Prove yourself right instead of proving others wrong – don't give control to external validation
• College athletics is in transition and needs structural changes to find stability
"Find ways to breathe, find ways to take a breath. I think that's a skill."
yeah, man, you're everywhere and, like, you've done a lot of cool things, built a lot of really fascinating stuff. So, like, how do you balance, like being grateful for what you have and still trying to do more?
Speaker 2:That's a cool question, colin. Thanks for having me man, it's been fun to kind of track you and connect with you and then have this conversation. I've been trying to do it for a little while, so love that. How do I stay balanced? I'm a huge fan of the following phrase, which is chase what matters.
Speaker 2:And two years ago I knew I was going to be unemployed because the Pac-12 was going through a transition and I was like, all right, what can I turn up in my life? What dial can I turn up? And I'd always done four to six speaking events a year and I said, all right, I'm going to turn that up. All right, how do I invest in myself? So I hired this guy named Chris West out of Portland who's like a speaking coach, and we went to town for about six months and we would talk every two weeks or so and we just did a lot of work. And it was always frustrating for me at first because he would say just show up to the meeting. And I'm like, no, no, no, I prepare for the meeting. And he goes just show up as fully your best self. And we did all this work and what we netted out is I basically studied and analyzed every interview I've done in my life, in my sporting life, and what I learned and gleaned was the best in class, the best teams, leaders, organizations, athletes. They chase what matters. Okay, what does that mean? They have clarity around the thing that matters most. Clarity around the thing that matters most. They're confident when they say it, it's not BS. And then they're disciplined in how they attack it.
Speaker 2:So if you ask a lot of people, probably my age, what matters most to you, most of us would say our family. Now would we say that confidently, that's based on the individual, because some of us might be chained to our desk. Some of us might love our job maybe more than our home. If you really get to the truth of it, what are you confident about In sports? My mentor is a guy named Pete Carroll. His first meeting in every team he's ever coached. He would say it's all about the ball. He'd roll in with the football and he'd say it's all about the ball. Clarity, confident, offense, protected with your life, defense, do everything, go get it. It's all about the ball. And then practice would be discipline to go teach how to protect the ball, how to strip the ball Same thing in my life. So how do I find balance? Well, I did that exercise for myself and the answer is my wife and our two sons, and it's not close and I'm confident in that.
Speaker 2:The discipline is the hard part because you get pulled in different directions, but I always go back to that. I almost jumped to the NFL this past off season. I almost took a college job this past off season. It was like, if I'm legitimately saying my family matters most, why am I going to go take a job Pays me a bunch of money, but 17, 18 hour days with two kids under 10 years old? Like then it's not, like it's okay. Then say the thing that matters most to me is making a bunch of money and being at a high profile professional job, and so that's it. It's that simple. It's a hard ass question. It's not easy to find the clarity and be confident and honest with yourself. And then the discipline is is what you know? You know this. You're an athlete man Like that's the part of us that is innate. But as you get older and older, it's the part that I think falls apart.
Speaker 1:How do you hold yourself accountable, then? Or how do you stay honest with? Hey, this I am confident that my family and my kids are the things that matter most.
Speaker 2:You ask them you know, like I ask them, like you know, I, my wife was gone for two weeks in Asia for her job, so I was solo dad in it. But I had two spring games. I did everything I could to be here to the last moment to get on a plane and on the last game I had a week ago. So I don't know when this is airing, but in first week of May I had a game at Washington University of Washington. It was a Friday night game, so I had to fly out. I took the last flight on a Thursday night, like the latest I could go, and my son's like but dad, I have open house on Friday, like it gutted me. But I did everything that I could. So I just ask him like hey, buddy, I'm sorry I gave you everything I have, but grandma's coming tomorrow, you know, so it's.
Speaker 2:It's not that hard to get feedback, as long as you're open for all feedback. It's kind of what I've learned and I also have to have some grace with myself. You know a guy named Chris Peterson who's one of my favorite coaches, former pit coach, he did a year there. He said you know, like some seasons of life are a sprint, so in football season. It's hard on my kids and my wife. I know that Because I'm gone. This year was longer than any year. Before I left I was gone all the training camp of August and then the season is the season and, as you know, it went until mid-January. By December they're like when is this thing over? It's?
Speaker 1:a sprint, so I got to be easy on myself too. How did you get good at taking feedback, because that is something that a lot of people are learning to do or need to learn to do.
Speaker 2:Well, I'd be so curious your opinion on that too, because you're younger than I am but we're both athletically minded. My generation you. All you wanted was feedback. You wanted that feedback loop so much so that I I definitely became insecure seeking feedback right like what positive or negative. I always say that about quarterbacks. Like you're coaching every play I don't know if we're in a generation now I have theories on this of like you don't really want feedback. Like I work with high school quarterbacks every summer and I think most of them do, but I think it's challenging. I think those that have you know that overused phrase, but it's accurate of growth mindset. Like you want to get better. So I love feedback and as you get older, especially in the broadcasting profession, you can get it on Twitter, but I don't give a damn about that. But you want it from your bosses. You don't get it that often you kind of just get fired. So it's like one of those things where, as an athlete, you're so accustomed to it. So I believe in front-loading those things to my bosses, who are amazing now at Big Ten Network and Fox, of like, hey, what did you think of the open? What did you think of this drive in the third quarter, being specific, asking for the feedback and then getting it and learning and growing from there. I love that man. I still want to be coached.
Speaker 2:I went to a chess class the other day and the chess coach was just grilling me. I was like I loved it. I mean yelled at like that in a long. Why'd you make that move? Why are you making that move? You got to protect the king and I'm like dude, great Thanks, seth. So, poison Pond, check it out. It's a great chess platform.
Speaker 1:So for myself right, I would say when I was younger I wasn't always great at taking feedback. I think a lot of it was my identity was tied to outcomes and being right and being an athlete, and anytime that identity became under threat it felt like it was an attack on who I was, and so I wasn't great early on and I had to learn that process. And so for me it just started with forcing myself to ask for feedback, and ask for honest feedback, not like oh, you know, you're so great or whatever, but like no, like hey, tell me what did I do wrong or what can I be better at. And just forcing myself into those situations and I've now at a point to get to where you are right Is like I actively want feedback, like all the time I want to be coached, I want to get better. It makes me feel better to know that I can take something and then incorporate it into what I was.
Speaker 1:Now let's say too, I was always a coachable kid. If you ever asked my coaches, they would say I was very coachable because I didn't really fight back, I didn't give lip service. But each time I received coaching in a film room, internally it felt like I was screaming, and so I had to overcome that as I matured. Unfortunately, most of it came after my playing days, but that was my process. That's how I learned to get better at it.
Speaker 2:How old are you? I am 28. Yeah, would you say that your peers are open to feedback in the way that I described how my peers and I were open to feedback? No, no, yeah. And as a coach, you have to navigate that because now there's outs right, like, I can transfer, I can leave, I can dip Same thing in life, yeah, I think a big challenge.
Speaker 2:I was talking to my wife about it last night of like there's an example of an O-line coach. Tom Freeman was our O-line coach back in the day and Tom was this beautiful soul, is this beautiful soul and he was loud. He's everything you'd imagine a line coach should be, and I always think that it's an athlete's job to be able to decipher what the coach said, versus only what words came out of his mouth. So it could be like go, go, go, I need you to be faster, you need to be stronger, step with your left foot. I need you to be faster, you need to be stronger. Like, did you hear, I need you to step with your left foot, and I think that is really hard to do as an athlete without taking the rest of it personal, and I think that was hard for us then because you want to, you want to appease your coach.
Speaker 2:I coach my kids team. I see with those, those athletes, they look up to the adults there. That's why I'm really big on coaches, like every word matters. I learned that from Pete Carroll. First practice I was coaching at SCI. I was yelling go, go, go, go, go. He goes hey, go where, go where? Where do you want to go, bro, faster to the bags. Pick up your knees, eyes up different, specific language, which I think is a huge part of youth sports. It's building the foundation.
Speaker 1:So athletes are seeking feedback versus just having to receive it. I like how you just casually dropped Pete Carroll and Chris Peterson's name like two of the greatest coaches, particularly Pete Carroll in the, you know, in recent years as a coach, as an analyst. Now, when you're working with quarterbacks in particular, how do you make the coaching not feel personal? You talk about the importance of using words. How do you use your words to make it not personal?
Speaker 2:but hey, we do need to get better this way. I'm going to steal this from another guy, Dr Michael Gervais. He's a sports psychologist. I just had him on my podcast. It's an awesome listen.
Speaker 2:He's awesome, by the way, he's awesome. We talk literally about this. The phrase is front-loading. So, for instance here's one example, and I tell them I urge this for coaches on the regular when a recruit shows up at your facility, what's the first thing? What's front loaded? What's the first thing when they walk through the front door they get? Is it photo shoot? Is it how you can get to the league? Is it how you'll play here immediately? Is it what your academics will be like? What is the thing the first thing you do? Is it the swag Like? What is it? Is it? Hey, right down the hall we have six licensed mental health experts. The door is always open because you're going to navigate and have to be challenged to navigate a lot. Once you get here that's the only guarantee is that it's going to go differently than you anticipated it going. How you can handle that will be not just up to you, because we will be here to support you. Can you front load that? So when I get with the Elite 11 quarterbacks every summer which for your audience that might not know what that is, think American Idol for high school quarterbacks the top 20 come to LA, that's when I'm there.
Speaker 2:I've hosted and coached in this event for almost 20 years now and it's amazing. It's the who's who of quarterbacks that make it and it's the who's who of quarterbacks that don't make it, and that's okay. The first thing we try to do in a tight three, four, five day window is just get players to let their guards down. It's how to do that. I always believe you just get to know them. I'm a huge fan of taking the helmet off of an athlete. I just did an interview on my podcast just had Lincoln Riley on. It's an awesome conversation. Because you take the headset off. You don't think of a guy who's got a $100 million contract. You don't think of a guy who led Oklahoma to the playoff and then left to come to SC. You get to know a guy who grew up on a farm, and I think athletes want that and I think story builds trust. I always say this to the athletes like the best stories make you feel something. So can I ask a question to make you tap into something that you can emote? Right, and then I could feel something from your response. And if you don't want to do that because the guard is up, that's okay, we'll work through that. I want you to feel like you have a trusted environment. That's the first thing it's almost like, in a nutshell, it's like I'm rooting for you.
Speaker 2:I think we live in a society generally that fails to give people the benefit of the doubt. If you rolled into any conversation my wife's amazing at this, she's teaching me every day man you can roll into a conversation easily, complain how's your day today? Man, it was cool. But like I can't believe so-and-so, did this at the office. Or like God, it's raining again, like it's it's so natural to do that, versus like it was raining today and I kind of felt like cozy inside. You know, like I got to spend a little bit more time snuggling up. You know like whatever, whatever the thought is same thing in a Can you look at things and root for people and cheer them on, versus pick the one thing that they're not great at.
Speaker 2:I feel that for me as a broadcaster, I've never been great at math. I excelled at math because I busted my ass at math. But if you said, call a game and I want you to subtract the play clock or 10-second runoff or where's the field goal at, like I'll struggle there in real time on live tv. I will struggle getting the exact number, so I don't now I don't try to do it. Like my partner knows, the producer knows, hey, I'm not great at math. Man, can you just say it in my ear real quick, like I just know it? So, instead of like, like I want people to root for me in that regard, like you know my weaknesses, like help me out here. The same thing, like I feel, I hope my friends would say that, like they feel like yogi's constantly encouraging them. I hope my kids would feel that, versus coming down on them, mike would say, gervais would say it's. It's three positives for one criticism. You know, great route. Loved your hands. Your eyes are special. The release. Let's work on that.
Speaker 1:Do you think that element of you brought up hey, we have five licensed sports psychologists down the street and that development and caring, do you think that's more important now than ever, particularly in the transactional world of college athletics?
Speaker 2:I think everywhere, I think in elementary school, I think in professional settings and a thousand percent in sports. I wrote a book behind me called Five Star QB and in it I got advice from 50, what we call the ambassadors of the game a guy, joey Roberts, and I wrote the book Pete, to Chip Kelly, to David Shaw, to Dan Lanning and Ryan like it's people and everybody I knew. I was like what advice would you give to a quarterback? Write that. And Chip Kelly wrote the most beautiful part of the book to me. And they were all great. So no offense to anybody else who wrote it.
Speaker 2:But he said praise and blame are all the same and when I read that quote, it just landed Praise and blame are all the same and it's one of the things we lead with at Elite 11. It's one of the things I lead with when I'm interviewing athletes. It's one of the things I think about often when I'm calling a game. Praise and blame are all the same. So how does somebody ride the wave, the natural wave of life? How do I ride the natural wave of life? I can call a great game and, based on the fan base, one of them is celebrating me on social media after the game. The other one is telling me I should be fired. I can't ride that wave. I used to early in my career, if I'm being honest with myself. So I just think, yeah, it needs to be the first thing that happens in the facility, because every athlete will tell you you probably dealt with this freshman year week one of camp, day three. You're probably looking up at the ceiling in Sutherland Hall or wherever you stayed at Pitt and you're like what am I doing? Do I belong here? Same thing happened to Larry Fitzgerald, same thing happened to Tyler Palko, same thing happens to the best quarterbacks in the world. Now you can easily dip within five days. Back then you had to hang and if you transferred to the city here, it was a total different state of the world. And I'm not here to play the old guy of like it was harder back then, but it was. It was harder to change. Now you're incentivized sometimes here's more money to come change, which is okay. But if you don't have the fundamental mental skills to navigate that change, praise and blame are all the same. I think you're just gonna struggle.
Speaker 2:So I'm just a big fan of front loading it, you know, like, yes, catching on the back end is better than not. But I think athletes, it's important for them to know like between them and the floor is the coach and the program. There's always somebody there, because I think mental health is such a vital part of life. You know, like whether you're a parent and you're sleep deprived because your kids are young, or whether you're an athlete and you live in the life that you live, it's, I think it's everything, man, and more and more and more and more and more and more athletes and coaches. I talk to echo that, and what's really beautiful to watch is that when I talk to 16 year old quarterbacks now, a lot of them have a mental skills coach as well as a quarterback specialist and I just think that's, that's an amazing state of the game.
Speaker 1:Do you think some programs don't care, or some just better communicating that aspect of it?
Speaker 2:I think all care. I think there's certain coaches and I think it's fair to say, like hey, we don't legally want to be on this path. Like, hey, we'll pass it off to the licensed experts, because I'm not that and there's a lot of laws, there's a lot of like gray area in that regard, but I've never met a program or a coach that like doesn't care about that. Even the oldest of coaches that are as old school as can be like they're very aware of what mental health is. Now I think that universities have come around to celebrating somebody who has grown in their mental health, just like they have grown in the weight room, right. We always see the before and after photos Like what was I like in January? What do I look like in April? I'm shredded.
Speaker 2:Now I love when I hear and talk to athletes that are like in january I was thinking about leaving and the school set me up with this licensed expert and now I've just got such a better modality on how I navigate my own thoughts and the thoughts about so, yeah, I, I would be so disappointed if a school wasn't into it and and as an athletic director, I think it's your job to decipher if you have someone leading your whatever team football for the sake of this conversation, front door and not allowed back in or just be educated, and I just don't think we're in that world.
Speaker 2:I think that maybe 10 years ago, but I just think in the last 10 years there was such growth there and, sadly, because we've seen athletes take their own lives right. Like I covered and lived the experience of the Hohentze family at Washington State if you're familiar with them, when their son passed away, you know, and I just think there's so many resources now and their son passed away, you know, and I just think there's so many resources now and it's probably one of the very few benefits maybe of social media, of like sharing stories to shine a light on what's necessary in terms of what you need to support an athlete with, like it's not just like money and swag anymore, like it's real tools and how to navigate it. And I think that's the coach's job and I see at least out here, where I've covered games and call games for almost 20 years now like it's been beautiful to watch the growth in that regard.
Speaker 1:One of my favorite athletes in the world is Marcus Mariota, not one. He is my favorite athlete and I just listened to his real first interview, like in depth, with Taylor LeJuan and Will Compton on Busting with the Boys and as a fan, I remember all the peaks and valleys of his career and listening to him talk through it, I remember being like. I remember this. I remember this pivot in his own career and the important piece that he talked about. Really two things. One he talked about his experience in Washington with Dan Quinn and saying that that culture there, like what they've built, is so different than any other team that he's been with or been around in their focus on the individual right In creating that environment like you talked about, you know, getting to know the farmer, right, not the head coach or whatever it is and that they deeply care about the people there and they've created that environment.
Speaker 1:And then the other piece was he talked about in Philadelphia that preseason. He was like I was ready to retire. He was like I was terrible. He was like I wasn't playing well. He's like Howie Roseman comes in and says, hey, you need to go see a sports psychologist, basically, and it changed his career Right. And so, seeing all of this and knowing how many athletes still aren't taking advantage, even within these programs, what is your advice to those guys to really take that element seriously?
Speaker 2:yeah, I, I want to be really thoughtful here. Like, I'll give you my thoughts. My advice, I think, is like, especially when it comes to somebody in between their own ears, it's their own journey and their own path. I would say this what do you see every team wearing when they practice? Now, wear guardian shells, which is the helmet on top of the helmet. They're protecting their brain.
Speaker 2:I think there needs to be a part of like training, right, you train to protect your body. I think there's a be a part of like training, right, you train to protect your body. I think there's a world where you got to protect your spirit a little bit, your psyche, your mentality, your approach and knowing that so many things can impact it. Yes, playing time yes, a head coach benching you yes, a fan base yes, a head coach benching you yes, a fan base. But also the loss of a grandparent, a challenging relationship, like there's so many things, and I think athletes deal with so many proverbial cuts along the way in their career and most of us I'll say me 100% built this massive chip on our shoulder and I wish to. I would have loved Walt Harris to do what Howie Roseman did for me at Pitt. It wasn't even a thing then, but I would have loved that, because I wish somebody just took that chip and just like knocked it off my shoulder so I could play and perform and compete with joy, as Steve Kerr and Jed Fish like to say. I think that most athletes, we build this thing up and we're just like I see it with quarterbacks all the time.
Speaker 2:Prove the haters wrong, prove the haters wrong. If you follow me on Instagram, I'm always saying go prove yourself right. I clap back on that immediately Go prove yourself right. Go prove yourself right, because at some point, who are you fighting? You're smiling. You dealt with that too. We all did it. It's like a rite of passage.
Speaker 2:I'm coaching my kids' team. We're the eight seed going against the one seed. Nobody's going to give us a chance. I could give two shits about that. This weekend, when we play Guys, we're going to lead the league in high fives and fist bumps. We're going to have the most fun in the history of fun, but it's front loaded at a young age of like, prove them wrong, prove them wrong.
Speaker 2:And when you're a walk-on triple, that that's just what it is. And then if you have success I had a scholarship you found success. All of a sudden, now it's even more so and you never get to breathe. So my recommendation would be like find ways to breathe, find ways to take a breath. We get like this so much. You see my shoulders just get to my ears. David Shaw would always say he loves when quarterbacks drop their shoulders At a point in their career. They're like all right, let's roll, and I think that's a skill. Their career, they're like all right, let's roll, and I think that's a skill. So I would invest in it. I would invest so much in it.
Speaker 2:And it's so easy to do it now. You can go on YouTube and look up Joe Dispenza and do a meditation when you wake up, before you go to bed, when your brain's in this beautiful state. You can go on YouTube and find mental skills. You can listen to who we referenced in Dr Michael Treve's podcast. You can hire a life coach for 150 bucks an hour. More importantly, if you're an athlete, it's all free. It's literally right in front of you. You just got to knock on the door.
Speaker 2:I think coaches need to enable that. That's okay. It's the old adage, and I'll leave you with this man on this thought of like. I do this all the time with athletes. How many people in the room?
Speaker 2:I would say this how many of you think 90% of the game is mental? Everybody raises. How much are you training the mental side? 2%, so that, sadly, the stat still remains to probably a large degree once you get to a certain level. I wish that was like 90% and I think it's growing. Man, I really feel that way. I think there's still probably a stigma, but hopefully it gets lesser and less. And I say the same thing for coaches. Coaches should do it. I mean, when I talk to team sports psychologists, they're coaching the coaches as much as they're coaching the players, because they're navigating the real life. They're navigating a wife and kids and family and stressors and jobs. And do you move again? We just moved. Do you buy a house? You sold your like? There's just real life. That happens all the time too. So I'd say, go for it, and that'd be my recommendation.
Speaker 1:I was the epitome of, like, the chip on the shoulder doubting me because, listen, I'm a small five nine white kid, right? I mean, like just that's the way I was in a sport where there weren't too many of me, and so for me it was always, you know, being under-recruited, you know all the whatever cliches that you want to throw at it, and so I would just was angry all the time. But, like you just said, that flip to be able to enjoy and be able to compete out of love for the game and go back to what made me good other than being athletic. But when you're a kid it's fun. You love to go out and compete and have fun. And I do think that there's an element where you do need to be able to turn that heat on and bring that anger on.
Speaker 1:I did have an anger management specialist on the show a couple of times, actually some of my favorite conversations but being able to control it, knowing when, hey, I can turn the heat on versus when I can simmer it down. But for me it was life-changing and that's maybe an overstated thing people say, but genuinely it changed my life learning how to remove that chip from my shoulder, prove myself right, do things for myself, not to prove others wrong, because then you give people control over you. When you give them that right to make you angry to say, oh, I'm doing this to prove you wrong, then they control over you. The person you blame is the person you give control and it's harder to own accountability when you're constantly pushing that away. But it's hard to emphasize unless you've gone through it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, and I think all of us have Like, just because you weren't, you know, a Hall of Famer, just because I wasn't a Hall of Famer cause I wasn't a hall of famer Our voice still matters and I think in team sports it's really important. That's why I love football the most, cause it's like the ultimate true to me Hope I'm not offending people, but it's like the, the only true team team game, like 100% Jordan and hoops and roll or at least have great success. Now you can be special because you have coaches, you feel like you're one connecting unit, et cetera. But in football you really have to feel that, like you have a role and I think sometimes in this NIL landscape I tell this to locker rooms pretty regularly of you wear a helmet, you put on pads, you're recruiting, ranking, all things that have been true for a long time, and now you're a transaction. So you have to fight even harder to make sure you compete, to take the helmet off and tell people what your story is. I coach a lot of athletes on that identifying your story and then curating how to share it Because I think it's important. I mean, all of us have one.
Speaker 2:I was just at Alabama and I asked the whole team. I said how many of you consider yourself storytellers? And maybe three hands went up. I said how many of you have TikTok or Instagram? Every hand went up. I said well, you tell them a story every day, whether you realize it or not. So what do you tell them? How are you sharing it? How are you shaping it? What do you want to share? What matters most to you?
Speaker 2:Let's go through the exercise and away. We Brand is always so lifeless. I do an exercise that I'll share now, so hopefully too many teams don't listen to it. If they do, just humor me when I'm in your room. But I say shout out the best brands. And they all. It works.
Speaker 2:I've done this, colin, probably two 300 times, and they all say the same thing it's Apple, it's Nike, it's Beats, it's Adidas, it's like every top brand. And I say none of you have ever said a person's name. So you all claim that you're all these brands, but you never said your name, because you're bigger than a brand. You have a heart, you have a story. Now let's share that story and maybe one day it can become like an actual brand. But in the meantime, stop creating your logo for your website and leverage the logo on your helmet, on your jersey, because it's been around way longer than you've been around and will be around way longer when your career is over. And I hope athletes do that, because I think it's something that I think is kind of missing a little bit as the sport becomes a little bit more individualized.
Speaker 1:And the storytelling part from a psychological, mental aspect too. When you learn to storytell and you learn to give meaning to what's happened in your life previously, what's happening in the present and what you're writing in the future, when you go through those ups and downs, it becomes easier to dictate the meaning of those, because you hold the pen right and when you can look at your life from a story you can write in. So when something bad happens, when I get cut, when I get benched, this is all just part of a larger narrative.
Speaker 2:Yeah Well, I mean, I'll steal this from Disney and Pixar, but like stories, do the following. Number one they are full of great characters 105 guys in a room, you and I on this podcast, like we're characters in this beautiful journey of life. Two, they go on a journey right in this beautiful journey of life. Two, they go on a journey right. There's highs and lows. There's a football season, there is natural adversity. How are you going to navigate that? That happens, right, there's stakes, is what they would say. And finally, there's a resolution. There's a resolution. Every game, every season, every week, every show.
Speaker 2:But ultimately, the best stories only do one thing, colin, I believe they make you feel something. So I tell this to athletes I love going to Elite 11, excuse me and I hear their interviews. I just eavesdrop when they're talking to reporters and I'm like what did the other side feel? Did they feel this kid is presidential? They feel this kid is very political in his answers? Did they feel he's very endearing? Did he feel like God, just another interview?
Speaker 2:Or most athletes are like God damn, I got to do this again. And I'm like well, what if you want to tell your story? Right, you just told me you want to build a brand, like you want Titleist to sponsor you, like 76 is my sponsor, like I want my sponsor to be proud. Okay then, let's make people feel something, let's give them something worth sharing worth sharing and that can only build your brand. Because you said you're a brand earlier, you start tying it together and it's like yeah, I do need to share a little bit more. I do actually. I tell athletes this. It's funny, but I always say, when you walk to go do an interview, I want you to say the following phrase, which is, quote I'm about to go have the most fun in the history of fun. You say that out loud Like try, it makes you smile, it just does. And you walk over there like, all right, let's go do this, like I'm here anyway. The eight-year-old in me would beg for someone to interview me and now I'm going to like complain about it. What?
Speaker 1:what do you think is the most important trait that successful quarterbacks and people in general have?
Speaker 2:Yeah Well, quarterbacks. I think to get in the room you have to be an elite competitor, premium competitor. I think you have to be able to be a precise passer. You can't just play catch. You got to play quarterback, you got to be able to hit spots. So if you get those two things in the room and then I'll put it out to the rest of society, the number one trait I found things into the room and then I'll put it out to the rest of society the number one trait I found we wrote it in the book Five Star QB is you are a seeker.
Speaker 2:You're a seeker. You are constantly in curiosity mode. You're trying to seek and uncover constantly Coverages, routes, scheme, body, mental. You're just trying to learn. It's never I've got it figured out, you just don't. It's the most humbling thing of all. Time is playing sport, I'd argue. Life is the same. I got to figure it out. Family feels pretty good and then your kid throws up in the back seat Like what. You know what I'm saying. Life just happens all of the time, it just does. So I think you're constantly just got to be a seeker, be obsessed. But to me it's that seeking ways to grow, seeking ways to learn, inspire, also seeking ways to recover. I'm horrible, I would guarantee, but I would bet you are horrible at recovery too, because you're an overachiever, right, so sleep lacks. Maybe you miss a day of work, right? You're laughing. I'm nailing you right now, bro, like same vibe, so like I would say, seeker.
Speaker 1:It's funny. I can't remember which interview I heard, but I was listening to an interview and the person was like, well, how do I know if I'm going to be successful? And the answer was well, how curious are you? And just it hits deep Love that answer. It's one of my favorite things how curious are you?
Speaker 2:Yeah, and what success. There's a really cool book I'm reading. Where is it? It might be back here. It might be in our room, oh yeah. Five Types of Wealth by Salil Bloom.
Speaker 1:And I don't have it here, but I have the book too. He's become a friend of mine.
Speaker 2:Oh, even better. So connect me. I want to have him on my podcast. Man, I'd love to. Oh, definitely. But I'm reading the book and you know the book.
Speaker 2:But like, if your audience doesn't like, the first line is like, how much money do you need to be happy? And it's like, okay, you need a baseline to be out of poverty. Okay, let's call it $150,000 or something like that, if you have a single family income or whatever. After that he asked somebody with $20 million and they said, well, I need $40. If I had $40, I'd be happy. He asked someone with $100 million what would you need If I had $250, I'd be happy?
Speaker 2:And the that like after a certain point, like money doesn't buy any happiness, and I think there's some really impressive truth to that of you know we're all on this path in life and like I think at the end of the day, we can miss some of the things that matter most. That's why I come back to that like it's kind of the headline of my keynote address is all about like chasing what matters and I think it takes a lot of what I call lonely work to dive in and like what actually does matter when I advise quarterbacks and I say there's no wrong answer. If it's to make a ton of money in NIL, then let's go Go commit to five different schools, transfer twice, go make a ton of money, bro. I love that. Just be honest with yourself. Like, be confident when you say it. If it's I want to play, then you don't have to go to Alabama and play in front of a hundred thousand. Or Michigan. Like, if you want to play, go to UTSA and throw for 5,000 yards. Like what is it? I want to play at an ACC school, then go to Pitt.
Speaker 2:Like Whatever it is it is, I could care less what it is, but I want you to own it. I think that's a really hard thing to do because there's so many things pulling at us or influencing us on what we should do. Through your point of being curious, like yeah, be curious about yourself too. Then be cool with your wins. I think I used to be like this like if you're waiting for somebody to don you like that you've arrived, it'll be cool for the couple days, but then, like you just keep moving, like we're all a speck, and I think as you get older you really recognize it allows you to relax a little bit more. Be okay if you stumble on a podcast or if I screw up in a game. Now I can say on a broadcast in front of a couple million people apologies, I said Colin's name wrong and move on. It's no big deal, we're all not going to implode.
Speaker 1:Your own insignificance is super empowering. And actually something Sahil says is the first mistake is thinking that people are actually thinking about us and most people are just walking around just focusing on themselves. So that person that you're worried about having an opinion on you is only thinking of themselves yeah, totally, praise and blame are all the same, like you know do you believe curiosity is innate? Do you believe it's developed? Or do you believe we're all curious in different areas?
Speaker 2:oh no, it's, you're born with it. I've seen it with two kids. Um, what's in your hand right? Think of as a baby, like grab your finger, what does that thing do? Open up the box. We've got like a button in our bathroom that our little four year and a half year old is pushing every day just to see what it does. You know, like turning the lights on and off, how many times, how fast you can do it, like I think you're born curious 1,000%, I think.
Speaker 2:As life goes on, I think we forget how curious we really are. That's why I love travel. When I was your age, I'd travel all across the world with nothing more than one bag and one ball, and I believe in the phrase. We all speak ball, and I do believe that play is a language of the world, and I think you can roll into any country and just go play catch, play hoops, kick a soccer ball and figure life out. I think that life can constrain you. Being in the office at this time, which is okay, it's part of it. Be committed to this craft Okay, part of it. But I think we do need to get outside.
Speaker 2:My favorite part of travel is you go somewhere to see something, but ultimately you see yourself in a different light because things pop. Imagine just turning your phone off and going for a walk. Things just pop, talk to yourself, navigate life. Can someone pour gasoline on that? For sure, in your curiosity, especially as you get older mentorship books. Your podcast, of course, is doing that already. But no, we all got it. No matter if we come from nothing or everything.
Speaker 1:We are all seekers, which is why I go back to that core trick, because I think it's super innate. What was something that you maybe didn't get paid for, but ended up being a life-changing?
Speaker 2:event. Oh, dude, I mean. There's countless of them, but the first one that jumps to mind is I am coaching at USC and I decided to leave and change professions. I recruited a guy named Matt Barkley since he was 14. He was coming in in as a freshman. A guy named Michael Fountain, fellow Pitt alum, who was the producer running College Game Day at the time.
Speaker 2:When I was a player, I used to sit in on production meetings. Ej Borghetti, who I just loved dearly, would allow me that opportunity and I would learn from Herb Street, bob Davey, from Chris Fowler I was just sitting at the table Todd McShay I'd just be learning from these guys and I realized it was a profession. So I leave football and I'm trying to figure out the next thing in my life and Michael calls me and he goes hey, tell me a little bit about Matt Barkley. And I said, sure, but put me on TV. And he goes you've never done TV. And I said, I know. And he goes all right, I'll give you one shot on College Football Live and if you're not good, we'll never invite you back. Perfect.
Speaker 2:So I go down to LA Live in downtown Los Angeles with a bad suit on. I don't know what I'm doing. I walk into a room kind of set up, like I have here put an earpiece in, I'm looking at a camera, I'm just in a dark room and some guy starts talking to me and I start talking about Andy Dalton and whoever it was like, whatever college quarterbacks were playing at the time, and for two years I worked for free for ESPN, which was probably like against all HR policies, but I was a guest on College Football Live every Tuesday and it jumpstarted my career because it put me on a big platform. I had expertise, I had known the craft and it became like a quarterback lens and a quarterback lane for me and that led me to broadcasting games at Fox. At the time I was doing Big 12 and a couple of Pac-12 games Pac-10 games at the time and that start in 09 has led me to have now an 18 plus year career in sports media.
Speaker 2:So yeah, man, just saying yes. Every time I go to LA Live, I think about that and I'm like pull up there, pay for my own parking, roll in, go upstairs. I go to this dark room talk about quarterbacks I never knew if it was great or not and 20 minutes later it'd be on ESPN. I never got paid, never asked to get paid, and would do it a hundred times over.
Speaker 1:Do you think that mentality is lost a little bit in athletes today when they're picking schools, trying to figure out where they stay, how they work through adversity? I don't know.
Speaker 2:I think I got a lot of empathy for athletes. Right now, as I referenced earlier, I think it's easy to not. It's easy to not give somebody the benefit of the doubt and I've talked to enough parents and athletes that are just trying to figure it out. That's why we wrote the book again. Five Star QB because you can't like Google how to be the parent of a recruitable athlete. Walk on three-star, five-star, 30 offers, no offers, like it's a hard thing to navigate. And now this money, this promise, that money that promise, this school, this scheme, this coach, this system it's just hard man, probably not going to get it right. It's not going to be flush. Name a guy that just rolls in and starts as a freshman and the career is perfect. Matt Barkley did Then. He didn't leave after his junior year as a projected top 10 pick and got drafted, I think on day three. He didn't leave after his junior year as a projected top 10 pick and got drafted, I think on day three.
Speaker 2:Again, I go back to what Coach Peterson has shared with me, which is the only guarantee in life is what he would tell every freshman is that your career is not going to go as you envision it. How do you process that? It's just a truth. Yeah, man, I think that's kind of it. Our athletes or I don't want to look jaded yeah, probably like with what reality is? There's a million dollars, there's half a million dollars to go be on this team, football, basketball, what have you? Like your first job is going to be not that you know we're seeing. I mean, look at some of the guys that got drafted, like they're making less money in college or in the league as they did in college. So like I think it's always it's going to catch you at some point.
Speaker 2:So are they more jaded? That's a strong word for me. I think it's. Are they doing their best? Yeah, is their best sometimes way, way off course? Yep, can they get back? Yep. Is there another world? Yep. Do you need humility?
Speaker 2:Yes, and I see I think the thing I see most, colin, is that athletes come to college with a certain group of people around them representing them and then when they leave to go to the NFL, they completely leave that group for a much more professionalized group, and I think now what I've seen is like the elite 11 quarterbacks I see are having, like most of them are not train wrecks in terms of their representation. I think a couple of years ago I saw a ton of that College. I saw a ton of that. It's like 23-year-old buddy. They met who's their manager and I'm sure that still happens to the players that are not necessarily premium. But I think the guys that are like quote, unquote big time and navigating real money and real offers, I think most of them have the proper people around them and if they don't, they learn the hard way and then they get them there and you hope it's just not too late.
Speaker 1:One thing you talked about earlier and continue to relay there is just it's easier for athletes to transfer or do other things. Now and to your point, like you're staring up at the ceiling, I remember vividly my freshman year. We're about a week into camp and me laying on my side looking at my blank white wall and just thinking I have four to five more years of this. I was like how am I going to do this? And at the time and I think some of it's genetic in the way I'm wired but I knew I was never going to quit. But had the transfer portal been different? I may have.
Speaker 1:It's hard to know and, like you said, I have a lot of empathy for athletes. Particularly with discourse on social media, you get fans who have voices now who will attack players and you know all these different things. And you know I try and tell my friends who you know didn't play at a high level I'm like if someone offered you a million dollars, you wouldn't pick up and move. I was like if you're at your current job, if another company offered you $10,000 more, you'd probably get up and go. And it's a nuanced discussion and it's very difficult and I don't blame the players. I blame the people who are supposed to provide guidance to the players. Are we in a transition phase, or is this what we should expect from college athletics for the next 10, 20, 30 years?
Speaker 2:God, I hope not. I don't think it'll make it especially like basketball. Think about it. I knew more women's basketball players in March Madness than I knew men's as, like a sports guy, imagine the casual fan. Probably the same thing, I think, in college football. It's never been more popular due to the playoff, and I think conference realignment has made it sexy and there's some new matchups you want to see, especially in the big 10 and what happened there and the two new schools in the SEC. But yeah, no, if it remains the same like it's, it's in trouble, like there needs to be, whether it's.
Speaker 2:You know they're going to fix the calendar right. Right, I think spring football I think I called the last spring football game ever on May 1st at Washington I think it'll be OTAs in, much like the NFL in May and June. Now moving forward next year just be based on the academic calendar or the transfer portal calendar things that I think will shift. I think there'll also be collective bargaining, if not a salary cap. I think that's got to be a huge part of it, especially if now you're paying 20 plus million in rev share to your athletes. There have to be whether it's penalties you're seeing it at Arkansas. If you're there and you get paid X amount and then you leave, I can pay it back. These contracts are going to get tighter and tighter and tighter, so I anticipate it being clean.
Speaker 2:The challenge that like look at the timing, like teams don't even know how many players they can have on their roster and we're may 6th as we record this like that's just a hard thing to do as a leader, not let alone like navigating budget. How many seats do we need on the plane? How many hotel rooms do we need? What are we feeding these guys? All of these things are just kind of in flux. So I think we'll get there. And then I wonder if it kind of comes back to earth.
Speaker 2:I still think Pitt's in the Big East, the fact that in the ACC and I know it's and they're a proud member of it and I'm a proud fan of my school it just doesn't feel real. The ACC to me is Wake, carolina, duke, florida State, like it's not even Miami, you know, like it just doesn't make, it still isn't. So I think we'll get back to like a regionalized world in college football. What that looks like, if that's just like two, three, four conferences, I don't know. I know this. I know that Pitt is proud of Pitt, washington State's proud of Washington State and Texas is proud of Pitt. Washington State is proud of Washington State and Texas is proud of Texas and USC is proud of USC.
Speaker 2:I don't like what's happening in college football, which it seems like these conferences and or TV partners are deciding what schools matter. I don't think that's appropriate. I don't think media and viewership should drive that. I think it's like the more teams the better that are proud of themselves and want to invest in themselves. Like, let's not have it to haves and have not. So we'll see how it shakes out.
Speaker 1:Hey, well, I can't appreciate you, you know, for for coming, or can't appreciate you more for coming on, man, it means a lot. You know I was excited to get you on, to get you on. I know the impact you had on my life was pretty big when you came and spoke to Pitt when I was there for my senior year. So full circle getting you on the show is pretty cool for me and if people want to buy your book, they want to reach out to you. You have anything to promote. Your podcast is great, by the way. I've listened to a few episodes. Where can people get at you?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's easy man. Yogirothcom has everything. Our podcast is really fun. I think if you want thoughtful dialogue in college football, it's just YOptioncom. I try to pour into it. It's from the lens out here on the West, but I try to talk about all the teams across the country, which is really fun. So it's been cool to kind of start that endeavor and then call games every weekend, which has just been a blast.
Speaker 2:I do want to get back to Pitt, though I do yearn to call Pitt-Cal or Pitt-Stanford just because it'd be hilarious, but just to get back there. I try to get back there every few years, I think now, being in the Big Ten, whenever I go to Penn State, I just stop at Pitt. Coach Narduzzi has just been amazing. He let me speak to you guys when you were there. He let me speak to you guys when you were there. He let me do it this past summer and I think as you get older, you just got such pride in where you poured into.
Speaker 2:I walk out of that practice field, similar to probably you, and I still smell what it was like to cut our ankle tape off after practice. I could feel and sense Chris Curd and Lasaka Polite and Larry Fitzgerald and Tyler Palko and Chris Wilson, joe Stevens all my boys. I could recall that with such fondness. So I just have great respect and love for that place. It totally turned me into who I am today. It changed my life. If I don't go to Pitt and walk on, I don't meet Brennan Carroll, I don't meet Pete, I don't coach at USC, I don't broadcast for the Pac-12 networks and I don't meet my wife on a plane coming home from Stanford. Like I really believe, so, like I owe it all to Pitt and proud to be on your show man, congrats on everything.
Speaker 1:Thank you, man. I appreciate it. Listeners, thank you for tuning in. Tune in next week. Download the pod. Subscribe to our YouTube channel. Five stars only, baby. Can't thank you enough, yogi. Thank you, you got it, man. Peace.