Will Matthews x Ryan Wingo: Road to The Swamp

Texas Longhorns wideout Ryan Wingo joins Will Matthews to talk about life after the bye week and heading into SEC play. He shares his excitement for hitting the road, what it means to play in hostile atmospheres like The Swamp, and the game-day rituals that keep him locked in. Ryan also opens up about his “why”—the deep connection to his family, honoring his grandma, and the motivation that drives him on and off the field.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, everybody, We got Ryan Wingo here right now. Super
excited about this conversation. Ryan. This year has been going on,
moving forward and we're just leaving the bye week moving
into SCC play. Tell us how you were feeling and
what we should expect from you all.

Speaker 2 (00:20):
Super excited obviously, SEC play starting off in Florida, going
to the Slomp, so it'll be a good game. Got
a great team over there. Heard their atmosphere crazy over
there too, so that'll be good for me. Really, just
to help my team win whatever that is or whatever
the game plan is, like I said, just trying to
do everything in my power to be able to help

(00:41):
my team win.

Speaker 1 (00:41):
Like I said, sorry, Sarah, would you go on the road.
What is the feeling that comes up? How excited are
you to play on the road in the swamp?

Speaker 2 (00:49):
Yeah? I love it. I love road games cause you know,
like I obviously get to see the new cities, to
get to kind of see new atmospheres in a sense.
How we be here, so great the great atmosphere in
my opinion, But like I said, being able to go
to the Swamp, go to Georgia, go to all these
other schools, so we got a lot of bot weeks.
So being able to go out there see how they

(01:10):
fans are gonna get a lot of booze. So it's
just kind of just give that college experience.

Speaker 1 (01:14):
A little bit college experience for you and being locked
in your game day ritual.

Speaker 2 (01:20):
What do you do?

Speaker 1 (01:21):
What kind of music? Like? Talk to us about that.

Speaker 2 (01:23):
Oh, I gotta I got a a playlist. H it's uh,
you go do it for your grandma. Put my grandma.
She didn't pass away or nothing. She just so it's
a little sick at a point, and I kind of
p I put on my Instagram story like i'm'na make
sure I go do everything that you want me to do.
So I make it to the NFL and my degree
and stuff like that. So I got it as that.
So whenever I U get to look on and click

(01:45):
on it, uh, it make it remind me of that.
But yeah, I'm I'm listening to music. Use the restaroom
a few times. Uh. And then after that we get
to the field. Uh, I put my music on, put
my music on. Uh uh on my ears, I do
a little one of these. Get get to doing all

(02:06):
the the little warm up stuff, the preactivation stuff I do.
I do my catches, so like I'll catch here, catch
her catch here, and then Miles here are receiver assistant.
He'll throw the ball like a little spin. I gotta
catch it behind my back. Okay, if I catch it,
it's gonna be a great day. If I don't, we're
gonna go run it back again. So it could be
a great day. Uh on the second attempt after that,

(02:27):
really game time at that point.

Speaker 1 (02:29):
So yeah, yeah, that's great. One last question. You talked
about your grandma, and there's just been a trend throughout
you guys because are really family oriented. Can you talk
a little bit about the importance for family for you.

Speaker 2 (02:42):
I think of my importance for a family kind of
like I said, I do in my opinion, I do
everything for my family. So I got some nieces and
nephews at home, and that's nothing they on my home screen.
It's like I wanna make sure that I make it
out for them. I don't got to worry about nothing.
So like so I can pay off their school for
high school, college and all throughout. So and then obviously
my mom and my dad. I got both my parents

(03:03):
in my life. So having that aspect also with another thing,
cause my dad super family, or like he loved his family,
like he used to be on like a little site
trying to find family from all over, Like he found
so many family members from different cities and states that
we didn't even know. So I think me being in
the baby too, I was around my dad all a lot,
like through different phases of his life in a sense,

(03:24):
so seeing like he always gonna be around his family,
keep his family around, love his family, do anything for
his family. He would give us, you know, his own
for his family. So uh, kind of like I said,
being able to look up to that and it a
kind of instill is to me, and that obue my
brothers and sisters, and that's just kind of that's just
a giving to be honest, you wanna make sure I
make sure I do everything for them.

Speaker 1 (03:46):
And then yeah, Ryan, thank you so much for your time,
good luck this week.

Speaker 2 (03:49):
I appreciate you