Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
Welcome back to the morning kickoff right here on Sports
Radio AM thirteen hundred.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
This is on Mike Harball hars the World's.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
Strongest Man in WWE Hall of Famer Mark Henry and
joining us from Jeorjia.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
It's my man, Neil Hondo Williamson.
Speaker 1 (00:26):
He is the pre halftime and postgame host for over
thirty two season.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
How you doing, Neil, I'm great.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
How are we doing?
Speaker 4 (00:37):
Man?
Speaker 2 (00:37):
Good morning.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
We're excited about this game. Everybody's been talking about it.
This has been circled on the calendar. When the schedules
came out. We didn't know it was going to be
number one versus number five. We thought it could be
number one versus number five, but mostly on the other side,
and now it is all here. How excited are all
(00:59):
the folks in Athens, Georgia this week?
Speaker 4 (01:03):
Well, I'm in Atlanta. I worked for an Atlanta radio
station at the home of the Dogs, the flagship, and
in Atlanta, which is considerably larger than Athens, people are
fired up. As you can imagine. It's probably just like
it is in Austin. That just the thought of these
two traditionally legacy programs meeting for only what's the fifth
(01:28):
or sixth time? Has got everybody really jacked up. The
bonuses set were both so good in this first meeting
in five years, and only met in the Bowl a
few years ago, and before that, I guess it was
nineteen eighty three season, the eighty four Cotton Bowl and
then three times back in the old days. But this
is really exciting for everybody in Georgia.
Speaker 5 (01:49):
Well, we don't want to understate the last time that
we met that was a good night for us.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
How you doing, mister Neil.
Speaker 5 (01:56):
This is Mark Henry Hey Mark around it by Georgia fans.
I'm surrounded in the pro wrestling world, Arn Anderson, Bill Goldberg,
who will be out with us? Are you going to
be in town?
Speaker 4 (02:14):
Yeah, I'm coming in. I'll come in on Friday night
and Friday afternoon. I guess we'll fly in commercial. There
are so many assistant coaches and analysts now that we
lost our place on the charter probably five years ago.
Not complaining, you know, it makes sense. They had to
get the analysts on the plane. So the broadcast team
(02:35):
and a few other the video team and a few
other people will fly out commercial and then then we
leave with the team after the game and have other
means to get back, but yeah, we're fired up now.
If you were in the if you're in the wrestling,
then you got to know Tony Shavani very well.
Speaker 5 (02:55):
And Tony will not return my car right now because
he's well.
Speaker 4 (03:02):
You know, Tony was our producer for about fifteen years.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
And he is a hoot. He is an absolute hoot.
Speaker 5 (03:11):
When you get down here, I'd love to sit down
with you with me and my cards and just chop
it up and get some history. Did you ever get
a chance to interview Bill Goldberg?
Speaker 4 (03:23):
He actually I did back when Bill was at both
Georgia and the Falcons. I was a sportscaster. I was
a young sportscaster and when Bill was with Georgia m
the Falcons, I used to talk to him all the time.
He wouldn't remember me now, but yeah, you talk about
a hoot, he was great back then.
Speaker 3 (03:41):
Well.
Speaker 5 (03:41):
Also, the guy that is the head of women's strength
coach at track at ut is Donnie Maybe, who played
behind Bill Goldberg, and I got to hear from him too.
So I'm just surrounded by all these Georgia people.
Speaker 3 (03:58):
You're a lucky guy, Neil.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
I wanted to get into the injury report. Obviously, things
aren't looking good for Georgia on the injury injury report.
But one of the things that I always try to
tell people, George has been recruiting well for a very
long time, so when someone gets hurt, it's always next
man up. But what have you been hearing about some
(04:25):
of the key personnel that may or may not be
able to participate this week.
Speaker 4 (04:31):
That's a great question. But I am the wrong guy
to ask, and I'll tell you why, because I'm a
little more fatalistic. I after thirty two years of doing
this with the Bulldogs, you know, and certainly I've had
my run with some other professional teams, I realize there's
nothing I can do to alter the game. So I
(04:52):
just kind of let the get I really let the
game come to me. Rather than worrying about, you know, who's.
Speaker 3 (04:59):
Going to be here, who who's going.
Speaker 4 (05:00):
To be there. I just like, you know, we'll see,
we'll see who comes out of the locker room, and
it's exactly what you just said, it's the next guy up.
Who's the next guy up? So without knowing exactly who's
on the injury report, I can guess that Smile London
is on there, and that's that's painful for Georgia. He's
he's really the center of the defense as an inside
(05:23):
linebacker who would call the defenses, et cetera. He's been
out for a couple of games and he's been in
a walking boot now for two or three weeks. I
think he rolled against Alabama, I'm not sure exactly. Besides
besides Smile, Mikel Williams, who's a preseason All American end
slash hybrid stand up linebacker from the outside. We've we've
(05:47):
moved him around some and really a plan to move
him around a lot. Mikel has been playing at about
eighty percent the past week or two.
Speaker 3 (05:56):
After missing a couple of games.
Speaker 4 (05:58):
Those are two guys who you'd really like to have
back at full straight. Hopefully mike Hel will be in
better shape. We lost a running back, Branson Robinson this
past week. He's been the number two RB. He's a
powerful guy.
Speaker 3 (06:13):
He's a bowling ball type.
Speaker 4 (06:14):
Of two hundred and thirty pounds rock.
Speaker 3 (06:16):
Coming through the middle.
Speaker 4 (06:18):
In his place, you'll probably see is Nate Fraser, who's
a freshman out of California who's got some giddy up
to him and surprisingly when you know, having watched him
practice a lot during August, Nate Fraser, who, like I said,
can really get up and go. He's not afraid of
the contact, which has been really nice to see out
(06:39):
of a true freshman. And then a guy named Cash Jones,
who's God Cash. He's going to be a junior or
senior by now. He's a walk on who is very dependable,
can catch the ball, and you'll see him in third
down situations more than likely because he's very good at
picking up the blitz, you know. So if you're in
third and long our third in the medium, you want
(07:00):
to have somebody in there who's going to be able
to pick up that extra rusher.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
So I wanted to ask you too about Carson Beck.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
He's a guy that a lot of folks obviously, he's
on draft boards, he's being seen as a top guy.
He and Quinn Yours going in about now. We know
that they're not on the field together, But how do
you think Carson looks at this game when he knows
that Quinn Yours is on the other sideline and vice versa.
Speaker 4 (07:28):
Yeah, you know, one of the guys I work with
who's one of my best friends. Guy named Eric Zeier,
and Eric plays in.
Speaker 3 (07:35):
The NFL, remember for six years.
Speaker 4 (07:37):
Yeah, he played for Tony Dungee in for Bill Belichick
or his two NFL coaches, and he set all the
SEC passing records back from nineteen ninety one to ninety four.
All of them were broken then by Peyton Manning. When
you look at the all time SEC passing records, Derek's
still probably in the top five for just about everything.
(07:57):
And you know, one of the things that he's taught
me through the years is that you just don't really
think about that stuff about the quarterback on the other side.
What you're really doing is you're commersing yourself so much
in the study of the defense that you're going to
face that you can't worry about what the guy on
(08:20):
the other side is going to do. It's almost like
what I was saying with me with the radio. It's
a fatalist to control what I control I can control,
and not worry about the things that I can't.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
Yeah, that's a great point.
Speaker 1 (08:32):
And I'm looking forward to this big matchup, and I
know that both of these coaches who are friends, they
talked about going on trips together. What do you think
the two coaches one's offensive minded coach, one's a defensive
minded coach, and each of them going at each other,
it's going to be an interesting ball game.
Speaker 4 (08:53):
Yeah. Well, they've certainly seen each other in practice when
they were at Alabama. Yeah, they have certainly, And and
they were both running with thoroughbreds then that they were coaching.
Speaker 3 (09:05):
So yeah, I think it's fun for the coaches.
Speaker 4 (09:08):
Again, knowing Kirby and I've known coach Smart for since
he was a player there. I was announcing when when
he was a player there, and then he was in
assistant for US for one year. And knowing coach Smart
and how he is and having come through the saving
system again, I don't I think that he is going
to coach against coach Starkesian from a from a strategy
(09:30):
and tactical strategic and tactical standpoint, but the person that
personal aspect, I just don't think plays for him at all.
Speaker 3 (09:41):
He is this guy is so single.
Speaker 4 (09:43):
Minded about running the football program. It's it's funny. I
read a quote and I still don't know what happened
that this past week they're in one of his press conferences,
him saying that his kids were making fun of him
because he didn't know who Miley Cyrus is, right, and
(10:04):
and they were shooting at halftime. And at halftime of
the Georgia game. This past week we played Mississippi State.
At halftime, they asked the fans to act as though
it was a game, and they had a bunch of
actors running out on the field in uniform Glenn Powell,
who's the guy who's starting in Twisters that's out right now.
Speaker 2 (10:25):
By the way, Uh yeah it is he?
Speaker 4 (10:29):
Oh godness, Well, a bunch of other actors, you know
in football uniforms were running out on the field and
they need to simulate that. So everybody was booing. They said,
you know, boo and they come out. So these guys
are running out on the field and booing, and I'm
doing the halftime showing. You know, I've got my cans on,
I've got my headphones on. I don't know what they're
(10:50):
doing in the state. Even I see these people run out,
I'm like, oh, I what.
Speaker 3 (10:54):
Heck is that?
Speaker 4 (10:55):
Then all of a sudden, I look up and they're
running out again. Everybody's booing again. I'm like, I'm like
one am I missing here to talking on the talking
on the radio. You know, I'm trying to give scores
or stats or doing whenever I'm an interviewing somebody. And
then the third time they came out, everybody had to
explained it to me later on. So I wonder if
Miley Cyrus is part of that movie or TV show
(11:16):
or whatever they were shooting in the middle of a
Georgia SEC game. It was pretty funny. But back to
coach Smart and not knowing who Miley Cyrus is up.
It reminds me of Don Shula, the legendary late coach
of the Miami Dolphins. One of the guys who was
on the broadcast with me and who I worked with
in town for about forty years, Chuck Dowdell, who still
(11:37):
does color for men's basketball. Chuck used to host the
Don Shula Show in Miami back in the nineteen eighties,
early nineteen eighties, late nineteen seventies when they were, you know,
just coming off of that huge run. And he said
that he was in the locker room with Shula after
a game, and you know, the handlers came out and
(12:00):
whoever it is the pr people came in and said
coach we wanted this guy who was a visitor to
our game today and really wanted to meet you. This
is Don Johnson from Miami Vice. And that she looked
at him and shook his hand and said, oh man,
great to meet you. I really respect how hard y'all's
job is. And you know, if you ever need me
(12:22):
to come out and speak to the to the force
or to any of your people, you just let me know.
He had no idea what Don Johnson Miami Vice was.
Speaker 2 (12:33):
He thought he was part of Miami Vice.
Speaker 4 (12:36):
He thought he was part of Miami vis Yep, you know,
And that's kind of the way Kirby is. He's just so,
you know, singularly focused. Well I shouldn't say that, because
you're very focused on a family.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
Football isolated, but that's beautiful.
Speaker 4 (12:52):
I'm gonna use that before.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
We let you go. Before we let you go, we
know you're you're on the and we are too. But
my question is have you ever been to Austin, Texas?
Speaker 4 (13:04):
I have not, and I can't wait. My daughter is
a musician and she has played there. In fact, she's
playing in Oklahoma City the night prior, so she's gonna
fly in. She's got Saturday off from her tour. She's
gonna fly in and go to the game. My wife's
gonna fly out to Oklahoma see to see the show
and fly with her to Austin. But I can't wait
(13:25):
to come to Austin. I love Texas. I've been to
Dallas several times and San Antonio and Houston. Gosh, I
went to the Blue Bonnet Ball when you guys were
probably weren't even born. It was nineteen seventy eighth.
Speaker 2 (13:39):
Well we were all born. We were born.
Speaker 1 (13:41):
Our producer was not. He wasn't even a thought. But
Mark and I were definitely born.
Speaker 3 (13:45):
So yeah, I can't wait to come and see Austin.
Keep it weird, right.
Speaker 1 (13:50):
Well, that's exactly what we plan on doing. And hope
you have safe travels and hit us up when you
get in town.
Speaker 4 (13:57):
It's great talking to you. Thanks for taking the time
to to talk to me.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
We appreciate you coming on. Thank you.
Speaker 1 (14:03):
There he is Neil Hondo Williamson. He does pregame, halftime
and postgame. Coming up next, we've got the world's Strongest
man bringing his world's strongest take right here on the
morning kickoff on Sports Radio AM thirteen eight hundred, the
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