The Playbook with Colin Jonov
Formerly The Athletic Fortitude Show.... Colin Jonov’s Athletic Fortitude Show has rebranded to The Playbook with Colin Jonov, evolving from a sports-centric podcast to a universal guide for mastering life’s challenges. While retaining its foundation in mindset and performance excellence, the show now expands its scope to empower everyone—athletes, entrepreneurs, professionals, and beyond—to live life to its fullest potential
The Playbook with Colin Jonov
BEST OF THE PLAYBOOK: Yogi Roth- Finding Balance, Curiosity, and the Future of College Athletics
Yogi Roth and I dig into how clarity, confidence, and discipline help us choose family, protect mental health, and still compete at a high level. Yogi shares hard career calls, coaching frameworks, and why seekers—curious, coachable people—win over time.
• choosing family as the true priority
• turning feedback into growth through front loading
• using precise coaching language, not criticism
• normalising mental health and licensed support
• replacing the chip with joy and ownership
• storytelling as identity and performance
• curiosity as the core trait of great quarterbacks
• NIL, transfers, and the need for guardrails
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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_01:That's a cool question, Colin. Thanks for having me, man. Uh, 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. Uh, how do I stay balanced? I I'm a huge fan of the following phrase, which is uh chase what matters. And two years ago, I was knew I was gonna 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 gonna 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're 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 Glean 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. 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, you know, our home. Like, like if you really get to the truth of it, like what are you confident about? In sports, like my mentor is a guy named Pete Carroll. He's 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, confidence, offense, protect it 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. The discipline is the hard part because you get pulled in different directions. But I always go back to that. And I almost jumped to the NFL this past offseason, I almost took a college job this past offseason. And it was like, if I'm legitly 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 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_03: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_01: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 the first week of May, I had the 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 had, but grandma's coming tomorrow. You know, so it's it's not that hard to get feedback as long as you're open for all feedback, is kind of what I've learned. Uh, 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, uh, yo, 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. Like by December, they're like, when is this thing over? It's a sprint, you know. Like, so I gotta be, I gotta be easy on myself too.
SPEAKER_03: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_01: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, all you wanted was feedback. You wanted that feedback loop. So much so that 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. Like you kind of just get fired. So it's like one of those things where, like, as an athlete, you're so accustomed to. So I believe in front loading those things to my bosses who are amazing now at Big Ten Network and Fox, of like, hey, like, what'd you think of the open? What'd you think of this drive in the third quarter? Like being specific, asking for the feedback, and then getting it and learning and growing from there. And I love that, man. Like, I think all of us, I still want to be coached. Like, I I I went to a chess class the other day, and then the chess coach was just like grilling me. And I was like, I loved it. I hadn't been yelled at like that in a long time. Why'd you make that move? Why are you making that move? You gotta protect the king. And I'm like, dude, great, thanks, Seth. So poison pond, check it out. It's a great chess platform.
SPEAKER_03: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 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. Now I would say too, like, I was always a coachable kid. Like, 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_01:How old are you? I am 28. Yeah. Do you 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, I think coaches 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 I think a big challenge. I was talking to my wife about it last night of like there's an example of an online coach. Tom Freeman was our online coach back in the day of Pitt. And Tom was this beautiful soul. He is this beautiful soul. And he was loud, he was everything you'd imagine online coach to 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. I coach my kids' team. I see with those athletes, like they look up to the the adults there. And 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 SC, I was yelling, go, go, go, go, go. And he goes, Hey, go where? Like, go where? Where do you want where you want to go, bro? You know, like faster through the bags, pick up your knees, eyes up, you know, different specific language, which I think is a huge part of like youth sports, to building the foundation so athletes are seeking feedback versus just having to receive it.
SPEAKER_03:I like how you just casually drop Pete Carroll and Chris Peterson's name, like two of the greatest coaches, particularly Pete Carroll, in the uh, 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? But hey, we do need to get better this way.
SPEAKER_01:I'm I'm gonna steal this from another guy, uh, Dr. Michael Drive. He's sports psychologist. I just had him on my podcast. It's an awesome listen. 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 the I 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? 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 gonna navigate and have to be challenged to navigate a lot once you get here. That's the only guarantee is that it's gonna go differently than you anticipated go. 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 those of 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. 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 uh 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, you know, three, four, five-day window is just get players to let their guards down. So how do you do that? I always believe you just get to know them. Like, I'm a huge fan of like taking the helmet off of an athlete. You know, I just did an interview with um on my podcast, just had Lincoln Riley on. It's an awesome conversation. Because just take the headset off. Like, you don't think of a guy who's got a hundred million dollar contract, you don't think of a guy who led Oklahoma to the playoff and then left to come to SC. Like, you get to know a guy who like 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 we'll work through that. I want you to feel like you have a trusted environment. So that's that's like the first thing is is almost like in a nutshell, it's like, I'm rooting for you. I think we live in a society generally that fails to give people the benefit of the doubt. Like if you rolled into any conversation, my wife's amazing at this. She's teaching me every day, man, of like you can roll in a conversation and 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 was raining again. 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 the professional setting. Like, can you look at things and root for people and cheer them on versus pick the one thing that they're not great at? Like, 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, you know, uh 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, I want people to root for me in that regard. Like, you know, my weaknesses, like, help me out here. It's 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, Gervaise would say, it's it's three positives for one criticism. You know, great route. Loved your hands, your eyes are special, but hey, the release, let's work on that.
SPEAKER_03:Do you think that element of you brought up hey, we have five licensed sports at colleges 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_01:I think everywhere. I think in elementary school, I think in professional settings, and a thousand percent in sports. Uh I wrote a book behind me called Five Star QB, and in it, um, I got advice from 50, what we call the ambassadors of the game. A guy, Joey Roberts, and I wrote the book. So it was from Pete to Chip Kelly to David Shaw to Dan Lanning and Brian Day. Like it's it's people in 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. Uh, so no offense to anybody else who wrote it. But he said, um, 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. Uh, it's one of the things I think about often when I'm calling a game. Praise and blame are all the same. So, like, how does somebody ride the wave, the natural wave of life? How do I ride the natural wave of life? I could call it 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 the you probably dealt with this, freshman year, day week 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 here? 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 transfer to the city here, like 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, like 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. So I I'm just a big fan of front loading it. You know, like yes, catching it 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 got your sleep deprived because your kids are young, or whether you're an athlete and you know you living the life that you lived. 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_03:Do you think some programs don't care, or some just better at communic communicating that aspect of it?
SPEAKER_01:I think I'll care. I think there's certain coaches, and I think it's it's fair to say, like, hey, we don't legally want to be in 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 pregrary in that regard. But I 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? And I'm shredded 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 in the thoughts about so yeah, I would be so disappointed if a school wasn't into it. 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. If they're not open to that, then they need to be shown the front door and not allowed back in, or just be educated. And I just don't think we're in that world. I I think that maybe 10 years ago, but I just think in the last 10 years there's been such growth there. And sadly, because we've seen athletes take their own lives, right? Like I covered and lived the experience of the Holinski 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 it's probably a 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 on how to navigate it. And I think that's the coach's job. And I see, at least out here where I've cut covered games and call games for almost 20 years now, like it's been beautiful to watch the growth in that regard.
SPEAKER_03: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 uh Taylor Wan and uh Will Compton on Busting with the Boys. And you know, as a fan, I remember like all the peaks and valleys of like his career and listening to him talk through it. Like I remember being like, I remember this, like 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. Um, 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 the farmer, right? Not the the head coach or whatever it is, and that they deeply care about the people there and they've created that environment. 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 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_01:Yeah. I I want to be really thoughtful here of 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 it's their own journey and their own path. I would say this what do you see every team wearing when they practice that? Wear guardian shells, which is the helmet on top of the helmet, like protecting their brain. I think there needs to be a part of like training, right? You train to protect your body. I think there's a world where you gotta 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, but also the loss of a grandparent, 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 Curler and Jedfish 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. 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. Like you dealt that with that too. Like we all did it. It's like a rite of passage. I'm coaching my kids' team, we're the eight-seed going against the one seed. Nobody's gonna give us a chance. I could give two shits about that this weekend when we play. Guys, we're gonna lead the league in high fives in this. You're gonna have the most fun in the history of fun. Like, but it's front-loaded at a young age of like, prove him wrong, prove I'm wrong, prove, and when you're a walk-on, like triple that, like times like that's just what it is. And then if you have success, I had a scholarship, like you found success, like 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. Like, find ways to take a breath. We get like this so much. You see, my shoulders just get to my ears. Like David Shaw would always say, He loves when quarterbacks drop their shoulders at a point in their career, they're like, hi, let's roll. And and I think that that's a skill. So I would invest in it. I would, I would I would invest so much in it, and it's so easy to do it now. You can go on YouTube and look up Joe Dispens and do a meditation before 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 reference in Dr. Michael Trevay's podcast. You can hire a life coach for$150 an hour. More importantly, if you're an athlete, it's all free. He's literally right in front of you. Like you just gotta knock on the door. And I think coaches need to enable that that's okay. It's the old adage, and I'll leave you with this, man, on my thing on this thought of like, I do this all the time with athletes. How many people in the room? 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? So it's that that sadly the stat still remains to probably a large degree once you get to once you get to a certain level. I wish that was like 90%. And and I think it's growing, man. I really feel that way. I think there's still probably a stigma, but hopefully it gets less and less. And I'd 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 this real life that happens all the time, too. So I'd say go for it, and that'd be my recommendation.
SPEAKER_03: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 being under-recruited, you know, all the whatever cliches that you want to throw at it. And so I just was angry all the time. But like you just said, that flip to be able to like enjoy and like be able to compete out of like love for the game and go back to what made me good, other than you know, being athletic, right? But when you're a kid, it's just it's fun, right? 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 kind of turn that heat on and bring that anger on. Um, did have an anger management specialist on the show a couple times actually, some of my favorite conversations, but being able to control it, knowing when, hey, I can turn the heat on what 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, like 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 or 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 it it's it's hard to emphasize unless you've gone through it.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah. And I think all of us have like I just because you weren't, you know, uh Hall of Famer, just because 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 because 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% compared to 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 connected unit, etc. But in football, like 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 a recruiting ranking, all things that have been true for a long time, and now you are a transaction. So you have to fight even harder to make sure you compete to take the helmet off and tell people who you 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. 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. And I said, How many have TikTok or Instagram? Every hand went up. I said, Well, you're telling a story every day, whether you realize it or not. So what are you telling? How are you sharing it? How are you shaping it? What do you want to share? What matters most to you? Let's go through the exercise. And away we went. It's kind of brand building one-on-one, but to me, like 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. I've done this, Colin, probably two, three hundred 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. Like 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 a long 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_03: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, you know, 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_01:Yeah. Well, I and man, I'll steal this from Disney and Pixar, but like stories do the following. Number one, they they're 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? There's highs and lows, there's a football season, there is natural adversity. 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 but ultimately the best stories only do one thing Colin I believe they make you feel something so I tell this to athletes when I 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 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 or most athletes are like oh damn I gotta do this again and I'm like well what if you 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 and that can only build your brand because you said you're a brand earlier right you start tying it together and it's like yeah I do need to share a little bit more I do actually I 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 like if you say that out loud like try it it it makes you smile it just does and you walk over there like all right let's 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 gonna like complain about it what do you think is the most important trait that successful quarterbacks and people in general have 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 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 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 you're a seeker like you are constantly in curiosity mode you're trying to seek and uncover constantly like coverages routes scheme body mental like you're just trying to learn like it's never I've got it figured out you just don't like it's it's the most humbling thing of all time is playing sport. I'd argue life is the same they got to figure it out like family feels pretty good and then your kid throws up in the backseat like what you know I'm saying like like life just happens all of the time like it just does.
SPEAKER_03:So I I think you're constantly just got to be a seeker you know be obsessed but to me it's it's that seeking ways to grow seeking ways to learn inspire also seeking ways to recover I'm horrible I would guarantee guarantee but I would bet you are horrible at recovery too because you're an overachiever right so sleep lax you know you're 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 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 gonna be successful and the answer was well how curious are you yeah and just it hits deep love that answer it's one of my favorite things how curious are you yeah and what's success there's a really cool book I'm reading where is it it might be back here. Might be in our room oh yeah Five Types of Wealth by Salil Bloom and for Hill I have I don't have it here but have the book too he's he's become a friend of mine.
SPEAKER_01: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 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 like 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. And the point is 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 I've 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 like dive in like what what actually does matter like 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 like go make a ton of money bro like 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 100,000 or Michigan. Like if you want to play go to UTSA and throw for 5000 yards like what is it? I want to play at an ACC school then go to Pitt like whatever it is it is. I could care less what it is but I want you to own it. And 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. So to your point of like being curious like yeah like be curious about yourself too and then be cool with like your wins because and 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. We're all a spec. 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.
SPEAKER_03:You know like and move on like it's no big deal world's not gonna implode your own insignificance is super empowering and actually something Sahel 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 raise and blame are all the same do you believe curiosity is innate? Do you believe it's developed or do you believe we're all curious in different areas?
SPEAKER_01:Oh no it's you're born with it I've seen it with two kids 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 a thousand percent I think 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 believe I do believe that play is a language of the world. And I think you can roll in any country and just go play catch, play hoops, kick a soccer ball and like figure life out I think that life can constrain you to be in the office at this time, which is okay it's part of it. Like be committed to this craft. Okay part of it. But I think we do need to get outside my favorite part of travel is you go somewhere to see something but ultimately you see yourself in a different light because things pop right imagine just turning your phone off and going for a walk things just pop. Talk to yourself navigate life like I can someone pour gasoline on that for sure in your curiosity especially as you get older right mentorship, books, your podcast of course is doing that already but no it's we all got it no matter if we come from nothing or everything. We are all seekers which is why I go back to that core trait 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 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 decide to leave and change professions and I recruited a guy named Matt Barkley since he was 14. He was coming in SC as a freshman a guy named Michael Fountain fellow pit alum was the producer running college game day at the time at ESPN I was up when I was a player I used to sit in on production meetings. EJ Borghetti who I just love dearly would allow me that opportunity and I would learn from Herb Street, from Bob Davy, from Chris Fowler like I was just sitting at the table Todd McShay like I'd just be learning from these guys. And I realized it was a profession. So I leave TV and I'm ready to try to or excuse me 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. 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'll 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 uh I had known the 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 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. 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 I roll in go upstairs I go to this dark room I talk about quarterbacks I never knew if it was great or not and 20 minutes later I'd be on ESPN never got paid never asked to get paid and would do it a hundred times over.
SPEAKER_03: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 I think I think I got a lot of empathy for athletes right now.
SPEAKER_01:As I referenced earlier like I think it's easy to not you know it's easy to not give somebody the benefit of the doubt and I've talked to enough parents and athletes they're just trying to figure it out. That's why we wrote the book again Five Star QB because there's 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 like it's just hard man. And probably not going to get it right. Like it's not going to be flush. Name a guy that just rolls in and starts as a freshman and the career is perfect.
unknown:Right?
SPEAKER_01:Matt Barkley did and then he didn't leave after his junior year as a projected top 10 pick and got drafted I think on day three like so 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 envisioned it. How do you process that?
SPEAKER_00:Like it's just a truth.
SPEAKER_01:So yeah man I think I think that's kind of it our athletes more I don't want to jaded yeah probably like with what reality is here's a million dollars here'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 than they or in high in the league as they did in college so like I think it's always it's gonna catch you at some point 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 the end of the world yep do you need humility 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 in the NFL they completely uh leave that group for a much more professionalized group and I think now what I've seen is like the 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 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 like 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_03:One thing you talked about earlier and continued 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 like how am I going to do this? And you know at the time right and I think some of it's genetic right in the way I'm wired but like I knew I was never like gonna quit but had the transfer portal been different I may have right it's hard to know and like you said I have a lot of empathy for athletes in particular 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 if if at your current job if another company offered you$10,000 more, you'd probably get up and go. And it's 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? God I hope not.
SPEAKER_01:I don't think it'll make it especially like basketball like think about I knew more women's basketball players in March Madness than I than I knew men's you know as like a sports guy like imagine the casual fan probably the same thing. I think in college football like 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 Ten and what happened there and the two new schools in the SEC. But yeah no if it's it remains the same like it's it's in trouble. Like there needs to be whether it's you know they're gonna fix the calendar 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 they'll also be collective bargaining if not a salary cap. I I think that's gotta be a huge part of it especially if now you're paying 20 plus million in Rev share to your athletes like there have to be whether it's penalties you saw you're seeing it at Arkansas like if you're there and you get paid X amount of and then you leave they can pay it back like these contracts are gonna get tighter and tighter and tighter so I I anticipate it being clean. The challenge is 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 now let alone like navigating budget how many seats do we need on the plane how many hotel rooms do we need like what are we feeding these guys like all these things are just kind of in flux. So I I think we'll get there and then I I wonder if it kind of comes back to earth. Like I still think Pitts in the Big East. It's like 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 like they don't like the ACC to me is wake Carolina Duke Florida State it's not even Miami. Like it it just doesn't make it still isn't so I 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 Texas and USC is proud of USC I don't like the what's happening in college football which it seems like these conferences andor TV partners are like 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 the haves and have nots. So we'll see how it shakes out.
SPEAKER_03:Hey well I can appreciate you you know for for coming or can't appreciate you more for coming on man it means a lot um I was excited to to get you on I know the impact you had on my life was pretty big when you came and spoke to to Pitt when I was there for my senior year. So full circle getting you on the show is uh pretty cool for me. And if people want to buy your book they want to reach out to you you have anything to promote on your podcast is great by the way I've listened to a few episodes you know where where can people get at you?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah it's easy man just at yogiroth.com has everything uh our podcast is is really fun I think if you want thoughtful dialogue in college football uh it's just whyoption.com uh I try to pour into it it's from the lens out here on the West uh but I try to talk about all the teams across the country which is really fun so it's it's been cool to kind of start that endeavor and then call games every weekend which has just been a blast. I do want to get back to Pitt though I do yearn to call like PitCal or like Pitt Stanford just because it'd be hilarious. But just to get back there and you know I I try to get back there every few years. I think now being in the Big Ten I whenever I go to Penn State um I stop at Pitt and Coach Narduzzi's just been amazing. He let me speak to you guys when when you were there he let me do it this past summer uh and I think as you get older you just got such pride in in where you pour it into I walk out of that practice field probably practice field similar to probably you and I still smell what it was like to cut our ankle tape off after practice. Like I could feel and sense Chris Kurt and Lisaka Polite and Larry Fitzgerald and Tyler Palco and you know Chris Wilson like Joe Stevens like all my boys like I could recall that with such fondness. So I just have great great respect and love for that place. It totally turned me into who I am today changed my life. If I don't go to Pitt and walk on I don't meet Brendan Carroll I don't meet Pete I don't coach at USC I don't broadcast for the Pac Toll 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_03:Thank you man I appreciate it uh listeners thank you for tuning in tune in next week download the pod subscribe to our YouTube channel five stars only can't thank you enough Yogi thank you you got it man peace