July 28, 2025 • 59 mins
Jay Tust, former sports director at KTVB and newly appointed leader of Bronco Studios at Boise State Athletics, takes us behind the scenes of his remarkable career journey and exciting new chapter.
After 14 award-winning years in broadcasting, Jay reveals how baseball shaped his professional mindset—from overcoming early struggles as "the worst kid in Soundview Little League" to being drafted by the Cincinnati Reds. This transformation taught him resilience and the power of sacrifice, principles that guided his Emmy and Murrow Award-winning journalism career and now fuel his vision for Bronco Studios.
The conversation explores why Boise State's innovative approach to athletics media attracted him. Working alongside visionary athletic director Jeremiah Dickey, Jay explains how the department's philosophy—"skate to where the puck is going"—positions them ahead of chaotic changes in collegiate athletics. The goal: creating a permanent studio space where student-athletes and coaches can tell their stories directly to fans worldwide, expanding the already powerful Boise State brand.
Beyond career ambitions, Jay shares deeply personal motivations for his transition. The shift from late-night news schedules to more regular hours means precious additional time with his growing family—daughter Collins (5), son Brooks (2), and a third child on the way. After experiencing heartbreaking loss with his first child, this work-life balance became a non-negotiable priority.
Looking ahead to an exciting football season featuring a highly anticipated matchup at Notre Dame, Jay offers insights on players to watch following Ashton Jeanty's departure. His enthusiasm for both basketball and football programs reflects his genuine passion for Boise State athletics and the community he's called home for far longer than the "three years" he initially planned.
Catch the expanded storytelling of Bronco Studios across Boise State's social media channels and YouTube as Jay continues championing the unique stories that make Boise State one of college athletics' most compelling brands.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Today on the Ever Onward podcast, we have Jay Tust
.
Jay is an amazing guy 14 yearsat KTVB as the sports director.
He's famous in our communityfor a few things, but mostly for
being one of the greatest guysaround, and he just made a huge
(00:20):
move.
He just went over to BoiseState.
He will be leading BroncoStudios for Boise State
Athletics.
Jay has been an incrediblejournalist.
He won the 2015 Murrow Award.
He won an Emmy Award in 2019.
He's a true pro and BoiseState's just very, very
(00:41):
fortunate to have him with thismove and with all they're doing.
Can't wait to catch up with JayTuss.
Today, prior to Jay Tuss, we'llhave a Allquist update with my
partner, holt Haga.
Holt man, we've been busy, holycow.
It's been crazy.
It's funny that we have to do alittle Allquist update for us
to get connected, to talk.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
I know we're freaking running right now.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
We're running and gunning.
It's good, it's been good.
Let's talk a little bit aboutwhat's going on.
It's it's interesting.
We're in a like, I think,nationally, we're kind of in
this hey, what's going on?
A lot of stuff going on.
You know, interest rates havenot done what we thought they
were going to do, but our valleybecause of micron, and now this
new announcement.
And what are you seeing outthere?
You're, you're, you're in thestreets every day.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
Well, it is because we do a lot of like panels and
things.
We get a lot of questions, andthat's the question that comes
up every you know, all the time,almost exclusively is you know
what?
What's going on in Boise withoffice?
We hear it's good, but why?
You know?
Why aren't things being?
Why isn't office being built?
What's going on?
And it's kind of a simplequestion with a really complex
answer, right, but like justsomething is kind of, and we
(01:51):
talk a lot about marketconditions, but something pretty
interesting is actually ishappening right now in the
office space in the TreasureValley and you know we do have a
healthy market.
It's very healthy actually.
It's about as healthy as it'sbeen in a long time.
I mean, it's like our vacancyrates have been at 6.5% to 7%
for the last like three years,stable, yeah, which I mean.
(02:13):
That's so traditionally, you'relooking at that.
Guys like us will look at thatand say, hey, let's go build
more office.
Speaker 3 (02:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
Right, yeah, yeah, yeah.
And so then the question isokay, well, why aren't we
building office?
And we know that as a developer, it all comes down to basis and
market conditions.
We know they're good, but basisis sort of a fancy way of
saying cost and when we plug inall our assumptions and our
numbers, it's just, you know,with interest rates and
construction costs and landprices and all the things, exit
(02:41):
cap rates and things Harder thanever to do, harder than ever,
right.
And so we know why we haven'tbeen able to do it.
And when you enter all thosethings in and you sort of assess
a corresponding lease rate thatyou have to have to be able to
support those costs and get thereturn on investment, you're
either below market, at marketor above market.
And if you're below market,you're definitely doing the
(03:03):
project.
If you're below market, you'redefinitely doing the project.
If you're at market, you'restill doing it.
If you're a little above,you're still doing it.
But if you're way above, you'relike it doesn't make sense
because it's too risky.
That's where we have beensomewhere in that, just with the
costs and the basis, and soit's been difficult.
But I think the interestingthing that we're seeing in the
(03:23):
data right now is that the sublease, the vacancy rates, have
been stable, but the sub leasespace available on the market
has been cut in half effectively.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
It's still happening here.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
It's still happening here, right and so because we
haven't been building the sublease space.
That was at 680,000 square feetsix months ago is now at
350,000 square feet.
So if you extrapolate that outand you say okay, in six months
and another six months you'reout of vacancy, You're out of
sublease space, right?
So then where are people going?
Because, assuming demand staysrelatively stable, the supply is
(04:01):
going to be an issue and it'sgoing to happen.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
Well, I think there is a corollary between what
happened in the residentialmarket here and what happened in
the office market here.
It just is Because you hadresidential if you looked at
what homes the median home valuewas for a long, long, long time
and then you had this explosion, right yeah.
And if you think about office,it's the same thing.
We had stable rates.
Remember when we bought the USBank building?
(04:24):
and we found the rent roll from1982 or whatever.
It was like 15 bucks, unchanged, unchanged, and we're like oh
man, I mean, we were that manyyears later and the rates were
the same and then rates startedto creep up a little bit because
they had to.
I still think there's some catchup to do on rates.
Rates just because of thisexplosion in costs.
(04:46):
You know labor costs are notgoing to go down with everything
going on.
So so I I guess the the theadvice I'd give someone looking
for office is you better get itnow, absolutely, because it's
not.
This is not.
It's not going to be lessexpensive.
Uh coming up, it's moreexpensive for us to build.
Uh, land's more expensive thanit's ever been.
Labor costs are going to staytight.
(05:11):
So getting high quality officenow and us figuring out how to
get more and more on the marketwe're just got to do it because
it's not like next year is goingto be any easier.
Rates may come down a little bit, but all these other factors
are staying the same and it'sjust going to end up costing
more, just like everything elseExactly, exactly.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
It's just like to end up costing more.
Just like everything else,exactly, exactly.
It's just like your groceries.
Real estate's the same, but toyour point it's like we have
been lagging behind othermarkets and rates have not
increased at the same rate.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
It's interesting because on the retail side they
have yeah retail has, when youlook at all the retail we're
doing it 10 miles.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
Oh gosh, yeah the rates you're getting.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
I'm like, oh my gosh, so retail, certainly I think
retailers have responded to hey,this is just what it costs now
the industrial has.
If you look at what industrialso I think just the office
market, it's going to cost more.
Going into the future, witheveryone moving here it is.
And the other thing for officeusers and I hear this all the
(06:04):
time, I've had a couple offriends call me in the last
couple of weeks is the commodityis still people.
I say that in a positive way.
There has never been a bettertime.
I tell my kids this.
I mean, if you're in your 20sand you have a skill set, the
fact that you can go get, soeveryone needs high quality
individuals now can go get, soeveryone needs high quality
(06:27):
individuals now.
So having a space that you cancome to work and attract and
retain and recruit people, it'sgoing to be more and more and
more and more critical.
Having a place where you wantto go to work, you want to be
with people you want to be with,yeah, being in space that's
comfortable, that they'vethought about a natural light
and how it's laid out and yourworkspace.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
Yeah, it's the retention, recruitment and
retention, it's like the humancapital component, right.
So it'll be interesting.
But I think I think justgenerally at the the you know
what's here's where we are, butwhat's coming is, you know, all
signs kind of point to rates aregoing to continue to rise.
It's not slowing down.
It's not slowing down and themarket sort slowing down and the
(07:04):
market sort of what's happeningin the market sort of is the
backbone of that.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
This is all true.
If we would have said thisbefore Micron's new announcement
for the next $50 billion, wewould have told you this.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
But now it's like yeah, that's even more like
piling on.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
What a great place to live.
It's awesome to have so muchindustry on.
Yeah, what a great place tolive.
It's awesome to have so muchindustry.
It's funny for me to think backto 20, 25 years ago, when I was
on little committees of like,how are we going to ever get
businesses to move here and howare we going to ever get median
wages up?
And now we're dealing with theother side of that, which is
this is what happens when youhave an unbelievable place to
live.
Unbelievable place to raisefamilies, quality of life off
(07:42):
the charts, charts, and that'swhy everyone's coming.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
yeah, yeah, we're fortunate, all right, very
fortunate, it's been fun hey man, how are you good?
Speaker 1 (08:00):
you know, last night I had uh m MJ hit me up on text
right and left.
I don't know how he heard youcoming off.
He's like that guy's one of thebest guys on the planet.
Speaker 3 (08:11):
I learned a lot from MJ, especially trying to just be
as energetic as he is every day, because that's, I think, what
made it's actually what makes MJspecial, because he still
certainly has it, doesn't he?
Oh?
Speaker 1 (08:22):
yeah, I love that guy .
He told me to ask you about allthe long car trips in the
Bronco.
Speaker 3 (08:30):
Oh man, you know, sometimes you've got to earn
covering the Boise Statefootball team, right, I didn't
realize, you guys traveled bycar, so much.
Yeah, we've driven to.
I remember probably my bestmemory is getting off the news
(08:50):
at 10 one night and drivingstraight to Albuquerque, which
was about 21 straight hours ofdriving right.
Um, and it's so funny, tommy,because I'm sure you know this,
like when you're working on aproject and you're just you know
it, it uh, it kind of wear youdown at some times and whatnot,
and then you look back on ityears later and you're like, oh
man, those, those were the goodold days.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
You know what I mean.
It's always that way.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
Yep, and uh, I will say this, um, I'm sure MJ is
cool with me sharing this.
I was, I was young buck backthen, right, and we're getting
into this, but 14 years, 14years, yep.
And so this was on the frontend of my career, when, when MJ
would make these rides or thesedrives with us and I would often
find myself in the driver'sseat just a little bit more than
(09:32):
than MJ, and I remember, youknow, turning around in the
backseat and MJ's laying acrossthe backseat taking a quick
little nap.
But, um, I will say this abouthim I, you know, I, I, I say
that in jest, but I, I honestlythought it was pretty cool for a
guy that had been in the gameas long as he had, yeah, that he
was still willing to do that inorder to to serve his community
(09:54):
, right, yeah, and so I, Idefinitely took those moments
and learned from them.
He's, he's an, he's anunbelievable human being.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
I you know the energy and just you know it's genuine,
like it's, like it's his heart.
He's, he's, uh, he, uh.
He's on our board, ournon-profit board.
Uh, teens trades puts on a golftournament.
It's just, he, just.
But he just comes in a room andlights it up.
Speaker 3 (10:18):
Yep, if you think he's energetic on a newscast,
watch him emceeing a charityevent or something like that
right.
I will say this.
So when I moved here, I got mystart in broadcasting in
Lewiston, idaho, at Clue right,and I spent about two years
there.
I actually look back now.
(10:39):
The good old days.
Wanted to get out of there atthe time as fast as I possibly
could, but I loved.
It was a baseball town coveringthe NIA World Series.
It was great.
But you know, our whole newsroom, our whole on-air department,
was three people right.
We had zero ability to go liveLike, so we had to always be in
the studio in order to actuallyhave a newscast.
And I moved down here and itwas our first trip.
(11:00):
It was my first trip coveringthe boy state football team on
the road and we went to theglass bowl in toledo, ohio right
, and again travel out acrosscountry.
We're all pretty tired and ourphotographers, shanti asale and
mike d donato, fire up you knowthe light, the camera and it's
go time to do the news at 10 andall of a sudden mj finds the
(11:23):
ensue like more enthusiasm thanI could ever muster up at that
point in time.
But I just remember looking athim and going okay, that's how
this is done, and ever sincethat day I've just tried to be
as energetic and as passionateas that man is about working in
Boise, idaho.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:40):
There's some pretty incredible people that if you
get around like reallysuccessful people and you watch
them, that turn it on thing.
It's interesting that you saythat because yesterday we had a
little thing here we're helping.
Operation Military Blessings,great nonprofit, 30 years,
started here and they basicallyprovide gas cards and grocery
(12:06):
cards for the first couple yearsin the military.
Okay, because those families,what they make 39 of them are
food insecure and they'reactually under the poverty level
.
When you're joining anyway,they're, they're here locally,
they're out of diapers and babyformula.
So we started a thing yesterday.
But I'm getting my point.
So governor dirk kempthorne, uh, is on their board and and so,
(12:29):
as part of the event yesterdayhe was here but he's he's
undergoing cancer treatmentright now.
So he comes in, he's.
You know he's not, he's, as youcan tell, he's going through it
.
And and I'm even like hey, dirk, I can't believe you're here.
But man, when those cameraswent on Yep, ready to go For the
press conference, some of theguys that were filming it he sat
(12:52):
up and just delivered.
One of the guys said he's like Ididn't even care what he said,
I was just it was like the mostpowerful and passionate thing.
And I remember also, like withmitt romney, when we were able
to campaign together.
Same thing like he on the plane, uh, you know at, you know, get
into the event, just tired.
(13:12):
You know, you know these dryinglong days and then just boom,
they turn it on.
But but I, I've, I've thoughtabout that and um, and I think
mj is that way too he knows, heknows he's got to deliver and
and he can just dig deeper toanother level and just make it
happen.
Speaker 3 (13:28):
Yep, I've worked with tremendous people at K2B.
Another one that I'll bring upthat has been one of the more
influential people in my life isCarolyn Hawley.
Oh yeah, and she's another onethat you know.
She's a mom.
She's balancing so much andthen I just remember, like again
, watching her on the desk andit was just like you had no idea
what else was going on in herworld and it was just like the
(13:48):
most professional thing you eversaw and I'm like, okay, I got
to somehow try to mimic that aswell, which would be impossible
to actually.
You know, you know perfectly,try to emulate that.
But also, tommy, a lot of it forme comes from my, you know,
just growing up around sports,right, and it really is crazy
how much of it does translateright.
And there's there's times whenyou're, uh, you know, cross
(14:12):
country.
The Florida state game it'slike 48 hours.
We probably had four hours ofsleep.
They moved the game because ofa hurricane.
You're just exhausted.
But it goes back to, you know,workouts at 5am and in college
and you don't want to get up andrun three miles, but you kind
of have a little moment withyourself with like, no, how much
you got in the tank and I stillhave those moments with myself
now, like whenever I'm tired,like it's that challenge how
(14:33):
much more can you give?
And as close as you think youare to empty, there should be a
little bit left in the tank andI always go back to.
You know, I draw my experiencesfrom sports when it comes from
stuff like that and it stillcertainly motivates me today.
I love it Can we go back now.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
Let's start there.
Tell us a little bit aboutgrowing up and you.
Speaker 3 (14:53):
I grew up in Tacoma, washington, and I lived in the
same bedroom, tommy, with my bed, almost in the same position,
until the time I left forcollege and the reason why I
kind of bring that up my dad,blue collar worker, another guy
that I what did he do?
He was an electrician at theUniversity of Washington
Hospital.
He worked there for over 35years but he was a guy that woke
(15:18):
up at five every morning.
We lived in Tacoma, he workedin Seattle, so you're talking
about an hour and a half up orso dealing with traffic.
We only live like 25 miles away, but over there you're dealing
with traffic, so you're 90minutes to two hours up to
Seattle.
He works and then he has tobattle that coming back home,
and so you know he was gone like11, 12 hours a day and I just
(15:42):
learned a lot from that.
Later on in life I actuallyinterned up there for a summer
job and I really got the chanceto see him do it and he would
also come home and then drive meto baseball practice.
We get home from that at likenine, thirty or ten, and then he
just did that every day, everyday, and that was a real
experience for me to witnesswhat my dad, kind of like,
(16:04):
sacrificed and did for me to tryto be the best version of
myself, and so um, there's,there's a mentality on those,
those kind of guys though.
Speaker 1 (16:15):
I have it, my dad's the same way, but man, even now,
you guys almost 80, and heworks me into the ground and
just never complains.
And I'm like dude, it's hot orit's cold, or it's me into the
ground and just never complains.
And I'm like dude it's hot orit's cold or it's I'm tired, or
whatever, and he just, he justgrinds.
There is man, it is a, it is a.
You know, I think we're soft aswell.
Speaker 3 (16:34):
You've actually led me to my next point here, tommy,
because, um, my dad, he jokesaround that he might not have
some of the skills that I havein terms of getting up in front
of a camera or crafting an emailor whatever it might be.
My dad can roll up his sleevesand fix anything, tommy, like he
(16:56):
can't.
He can fix anything, yeah, andI um captured zero of that
skillset.
So anytime anything breaksaround the Tust household here
in Boise, he he's my first calland usually he just shakes his
head at me and then, you know,he helps me figure it out.
But, uh, that's the reason why Ibring up this story is because
not only did he help build,build, um, what I, what I take
pride in, is my work ethic, butthere, you know, I would also
say change wasn't something thatwas like instilled in me early,
(17:18):
lived in the same bedroom tillI was 18.
My dad worked the same job for35 years, and so, as I make this
transition from KTVB, a placethat I've been at for 14 years,
to Boise State, it's really notthat big of a change, tommy, but
for me it feels like a lot ofchange.
Right, but growing up in Tacoma, I love sports.
I love football, but baseballhas our heart.
(17:39):
Baseball was like the thingsince I can remember.
We're watching it at the house.
I'm collecting baseball cards.
Speaker 1 (17:45):
So you're a huge Mariners fan.
Speaker 3 (17:46):
Huge Mariners fan.
I was joking around with mybuddies over at Tex last night
because we just blew anotherlead to the Yankees.
We're up 5-0 in the eighth andlost.
Speaker 1 (17:54):
I saw the highlights.
I'm like what Right?
Speaker 3 (17:57):
I know it's just the worst thing ever.
Ken Griffey Jr is my idol.
Yeah, idol, he.
It hit me last night that he isalso the person that I'm going
to hold responsible for what hasbeen a lifetime of misery so
far as a baseball fan, becausenot only have we never won a
world series time, we've neverbeen to the world series.
And I remember growing up, likeall the Cubs fans and Red Sox
fans, being like we're evergoing to see it in our lifetime.
(18:17):
And now you're, you're them,I'm them, I'm them, I'm like I
don't know if I'm ever, evergonna see it in my lifetime.
So, yeah, but baseball's got myheart.
Speaker 1 (18:27):
It always has and, um , still does you watch still
does fall forward every day,isn't it?
Isn't it a great?
It is, I always say, the onlythe only real negative about
being in a town this size.
It would be great if we had itit would be amazing.
Speaker 3 (18:42):
I mean it's.
I really we're gettingeverything around here.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
I mean we're, we're booming like crazy, even AAA.
Speaker 3 (18:48):
But I would love it.
I'd be there every night, tom.
I would be there every night,tommy, I would be there every
night.
Speaker 1 (18:53):
We're doing a giant redevelopment in downtown Reno
and they have the Reno Aces Yep.
Speaker 3 (18:58):
I've been there.
It looks beautiful.
Speaker 1 (19:00):
AAA team for the Diamondbacks.
So I've been to a few gameswith them over there, but it's
just AAA Nice ballpark.
Herb Simon owns the ball, theteam he's the owner of the
Indiana Pacers.
Okay, I mean Reno, our sizetown where I'm like I want this,
I want that.
Speaker 3 (19:19):
Well, we've got to make it happen here, tommy, what
can?
Speaker 1 (19:21):
we do to pull this off.
Hey, we got off track here.
Speaker 3 (19:24):
So you, you baseball's your thing so coming
out of uh, uh, actually I'mgoing to back up just a little
bit here because it's important,it's an important part of my
story and over, kind ofovercoming adversity.
I loved baseball but I wasawful at it.
I was terrible, tommy.
If I got a hit in a season likewe were celebrating, I was was
bad, really bad.
Speaker 1 (19:46):
And where do you was Jack then, Cause maybe the
problem there is.
You were like I was the smallerkid.
Speaker 3 (19:51):
I actually was a smaller kid then, yeah, so it
had to do with the fact that youcouldn't swim.
Speaker 1 (19:56):
Maybe that was so big .
Speaker 3 (19:57):
Maybe that was it and uh, I was, I was just, I was
terrible at it.
But I joke around about Griffey.
I just we would time our nightsaround his at-bat.
Speaker 1 (20:07):
Why are you so terrible at it?
Speaker 3 (20:08):
I was not expecting you to say that, you know, just
kind of a little kid afraid ofthe ball, stuff like that.
You know you loved it, but Iloved it.
The irony of all of this,though, is my dad came to
everything.
He was a great supporter ofmine, and there was a day I
vividly remember the at bat.
I'm 11 years old, and it's likethe one day my dad had to work
(20:30):
a weekend, and during baseballseason because he did, he did
work weekends, but duringbaseball season he never.
He never missed a game.
He missed this one, and Iliterally remember saying that
at the at bat at NortheastTacoma Elementary, and I just I
was like you know what, I'm justgonna, I'm just gonna swing the
bat.
Like you know what, I'm justgoing to swing the bat, I'm just
going to stay.
What could go wrong?
And so, luckily, the pitcherthrew it over the plate.
(20:52):
I swung, I hit an oppositefield double into the right
center field gap, and I rememberstanding on second base
thinking this is like thecoolest feeling ever.
Why don't I just do this allthe time?
And that was a big turningpoint in my career.
And that was a big turning pointin my career, and so, from you
know, being the worst kid inSoundview Little League as an
11-year-old.
I made varsity baseball atStadium High School as a
freshman and, just to advancethe story a little bit, I worked
(21:15):
myself into a position to getdrafted out of high school by
the Cincinnati Reds.
I mean that was like thecoolest moment at that point in
time in my life Because I reallydid sacrifice a lot.
It was the moments where allyour friends might be out kind
of doing like the the fun, coolstuff that you, you know like
you'd want to be doing in highschool, and at 10 o'clock on a
Friday night I'd still beswinging away in a batting cage
(21:37):
for an MLB scout or somethinglike that.
And I really learned the powerof sacrifice at my senior year
of high school and that reallyset the course for, I mean, the
rest of my life really, tommy,you know and I know you know
this, but sports, in so manyways, right, the individual
sacrifice, those solitarymoments when you're alone and
(22:00):
you're like can I do this?
Speaker 1 (22:01):
What do I need to do?
You dig in, you find yourself.
And then the team aspect of ithow do you be part of something
bigger than you?
I mean, there's just so manyreasons that it can be so
powerful in shaping our livesand becoming.
You know, you think about thelessons you probably apply right
now to business, that you learnboth individually and
personally and team wise.
(22:21):
It's the big deal.
Speaker 3 (22:22):
I also think that I played uh, I'm not going to say
the most frustrating sport,because I try to play golf now,
and that's often veryfrustrating.
Um, but baseball is a game offailure.
You have to.
You have to learn how tosucceed when you are mad at
yourself, when you're frustrated, all this stuff and you need to
learn how to move on Right.
Um, your next at bat is alwaysyour most important at bat.
(22:44):
Uh, whether, what, if youstruck out, whatever it is, if
you hit a home run, it doesn'tmatter.
Your next at bat is what youhave to focus on.
It's your most important at bat.
And so it's things like that.
When you're anchoring a showand there's stuff going on,
somebody forgets to roll a video, and if you show it in the
moment, then your emotions getthe best of you.
(23:05):
Your next at bat, your nextstory, whatever it is, is your
most important story.
You have to find a way to moveon and hold your composure.
You know, I know that an analogyI've heard over at Boise State
recently is skate to where thepuck is right.
Is the center fielder out?
You know you have to run towhere the ball is and you know I
(23:28):
was at a time in my life,fairly athletically gifted but I
was never the fastest guy,right.
But I think that you knowwhether it be an angle to a fly
ball, stuff like thatanticipation instincts I think
that I was able to develop thoseat a higher level and so I I
was able to make up, you knowthe the difference between guys
that were faster than me,because I was to be able to.
I was more efficient, tommy,that's getting from point A to
point B and whatever you do,right, like if you're working on
a project, how do I mostefficiently get from point A to
(23:51):
point B?
A guy's faster than me, right?
Well, there's people out there,there's universities, there's
broadcast stations that havemore resources, more money.
I have to do what they do atthe same level, but I have to
get to from point A to point Bfaster than them.
So all the analogies can applyone way or the other, right, and
you can dismiss them, but Ilean into them because I love
(24:13):
sports.
I still work in sports todayand I think they absolutely fit
my mission.
Speaker 1 (24:19):
And they're real.
As you were talking here, I wasthinking about business.
We have a lot of peoplelistening to this that are
business leaders.
But the other analogy that isaccurate is if you come from a
sports background, you are justuse especially baseball.
Like you said, you're really,you're you.
You must be good at saying I'mgoing to have a bunch of failure
and I'm going to keep growingand succeeding, and I'm not.
(24:41):
There's always taking myself tothe next level in whatever
aspect of my game.
You think about business, it, it.
There's so many people that Iam around now that I'm like man.
You're setting some artificialcause.
I think they believe they'vearrived at some level, you know,
with their interpersonal skills, with their leadership skills,
(25:02):
with their ability to createvision and plans and, you know,
deliver.
And, and I'm like you probablyought to sit down and have a
plan because it doesn't stop.
No, it doesn't stop when you're30.
It doesn't stop when you're 40.
It doesn't stop when you're 50.
In fact, I think as you getolder and you get a little
perspective on this whole thing,then you're like man.
I, you know, I still have along ways to go right, I still
(25:24):
need mentors, so it doesn't stopright.
So it's a great analogyprofessionally and we'll tie
into a little bit.
I don't want to go there yet,but tie in a little bit to where
you're at.
I mean, how old are you now?
I am on the other side of 40,tommy, other side of 40, and
you're making this big changeright but it makes sense to me
because you're in thisprogression professionally where
(25:44):
, like, what's the next thing tostretch, what's next thing to
grow, what's what, what's the,what's the?
Where are you going to take thegifts that God gave you in this
career, that you've done inyour professionalism, and say
I'm ready for the next thing?
Yep, so it makes sense to me.
First, off.
Speaker 3 (25:58):
I'm so happy that God placed me here in Boise Idaho
because I absolutely love it.
I thought that when I signed myfirst contract here, it was a
three-year deal and I thoughtthat I would be here for the
length of that contract and getthe heck out of here.
And I didn't have much.
I didn't really know much aboutBoise Idaho when I even moved
here.
I just knew that it was abigger market and a bigger
(26:19):
station than I previously was,and if you want to climb the
ladder, that's the next rung,right, right.
And then I moved here and I waslike, well, this place is pretty
cool, yeah, and I started tokind of think about things.
Not only did I meet my wife andnow we've started family that
happened in about year threethat I met her, and then, what
year six or seven, we started todevelop our family but, um, I
(26:41):
think that when I, when I movedhere, I didn't understand how
unbelievably kind ofaccommodating this place is, in
all honesty, like I lived eightminutes from work when I worked
at KTVB.
I work at Boy State now and Ilive about 12 minutes from work.
On a bad day when I hit traffic, yeah, it's about 20 and I go
back to my story about my dad.
(27:01):
He's sitting in a car foralmost three hours a day, and
that's time you don't get backin life and, and so do the math
on that Right.
It adds up and even you know,there's even like.
I thought I thought aboutmyself okay, if he's gone 11, 12
hours a day, but he's spendingthree hours in a car and it only
takes me a total of a half hourto commute to and from work
every day.
(27:22):
I could even pour 10 and a half, 11 and a half hours and I'm
still gone as long as he isRight, so I can even get another
three hours of production atwork, almost Um, that's more of
my mindset during footballseason, because the demands are
greater.
But either way, I you know, Ijust think that that's life.
You don't get back sitting in acar, right, and so you know who
(27:42):
talks a lot about this.
Speaker 1 (27:43):
Garrett Lofto, who's the CEO of Simplot Okay, we're
doing a little thing ontransportation and he will
impassionately talk about hisemployees that have to travel on
.
I-84 right now and what an hourcommute means each way to their
family life.
And as the CEO, he's like, hey,I don't want that.
(28:04):
I want those two hours a day,absolutely.
Two times five, that's 10 hoursa week.
I want that spent with theirkids.
I want that spent.
You know what I mean.
He's like it's been really goodfor me to feel the authentic,
just genuine passion about.
I want this for my employees.
So you forget that sometimes.
Sometimes it's just what you do.
(28:24):
So you forget that sometimes.
Sometimes it's just what you do.
But over a lifetime, as you getagain, I think, as you get a
little older, you look back.
You're like man, it's a bigchunk of my life.
So it's interesting that youappreciate it so much.
Speaker 3 (28:39):
Honestly, tommy, that alone is actually still a big
reason why I live here.
It also means that I can runhome on a lunch break or maybe
for dinner real quick orwhatever it is, and still do
that and get back to the office,to where, if it's an hour and a
half commitment like, you'renot doing that, like.
So you know, a couple of yearsago I took a serious look at
moving back to Seattle for an onair job back there and you know
(28:59):
I just the reality hit that Ijust don't know if that's where
I wanted to be then or everreally want to be.
I just I really value whatBoise Idaho has offered me and
it's also just.
It's also we really have likethe kindest people and you know
I worked in news for a long timeand so you know, you know
(29:20):
everything's exposed there and Iget that.
But I'm telling you, if you goto the store, if you walk around
town, if you go to a BoiseState football game, I really
feel like you genuinely get tohang out and live in a town with
like the kindest, most genuinepeople.
It's not, I promise you, I'velived other places it's not like
here.
Speaker 1 (29:37):
Yeah, it's the heritage of kindness and
community.
It's a big deal.
Hey, tell me about your, tellme about your kids.
I know, I know, this is a bigdeal for you.
I want to make sure I hit itbecause because we're going to
get into sports here in a minute, I'm sure.
But uh, but talk about that.
Speaker 3 (29:53):
I do like talking about this because, um, I think
that there's a lot of people outthere that you know they want
to start families and they canalways assume the path to
parenthood is is super easy, butsometimes it's not, and
sometimes it takes you, you, you, longer than you want to have
kids, and sometimes you gothrough tragedy.
And my wife is so strong and,um, you know, I I feel like
(30:13):
Tommy when you asked me aboutthis, I'd be remiss if I didn't
share my whole story.
But, um, you know, we lost ourfirst child, or our baby girl,
at 26 weeks.
Um, she, you know so, uh, shewas a stillborn um her name.
We named her Claire and it wastough.
She had a chromosomal issue and, uh, that was really tough for
my family.
But, um, in in, you know, godworks in mysterious ways.
(30:36):
And so that was on, uh, april6th 2019.
And on April 7th 2020, uh, wewelcomed our little girl Collins
into the world, and she is nowa little over five.
She is just the coolest kid.
She's so bright, smart andawesome and I love being around
her and now I get to be aroundher at night because my schedule
(30:58):
is shifted and I know we'regoing to get to that in a second
, but she's just wonderful andshe's going to school and next
year she's going to go to schoolfull-time in her first, uh,
first full year kindergarten, um, and then I have a two-year-old
son named brooks and he is justa tank, he, he is like, he got
down for brooks robinson.
Uh, you know what?
I love baseball, so I'm notgoing to say no to that.
You know, everyone wants tolike brooks kepka and that's not
(31:20):
it.
But, um, I would probably say,like I I think that you know,
the first kids that were namedBrooks came from Brooks Robinson
and we're a baseball family.
So, um, it certainly stemmedfrom that at some point in time.
But he, yeah, he's just a tank.
Tommy and I got short legs and along torso, and I'm sorry,
buddy, but you probably got myshort legs and a long torso.
So he's, uh, you know he's,he's tough, he's so different,
(31:42):
all about cars, movie, micro,whatever it is, like our hot
wheels, that is, um, but he's,he's all about it.
He throws stuff, he runs intostuff and he just bounces back
up.
So hopefully he'll be a littleathlete.
And then we got, uh, what I'lljokingly say is a negative three
week old, because my wife isdue with our third child, uh,
here in a couple weeks, and wedon't know, you don't know, we
(32:03):
are waiting.
Have you did you all?
I never did, but you had thepatience to do that.
I had the patience to do itbecause my wife wanted to do it.
Tommy, we actually did it withour, with Brooks.
Speaker 1 (32:15):
By the way, that's a great move, no matter what no
matter what the issue is.
Speaker 3 (32:18):
That's a great move the best advice I could probably
give on this podcast today.
But we, um, we waited with.
We waited with my son as well.
Oh, you did.
And it was the honestly.
My wife is an organizer, she'sa planner, wants everything
ready to go, and she said shewanted to wait and I'm like, oh,
that's not you that's not what,but if you want to like, it's I
got.
I don't have a choice, like I'mjust gonna.
(32:39):
Whatever you say we're goingwith.
And it was the coolest thing.
Um, we didn't know we.
It's so funny.
The doctor goes hey, when hepops out, do you want me to tell
you?
And we're like, yeah, sure, letus know.
And he popped out and thedoctor couldn't even get the
words out of his mouth and I waslike it's a boy.
So I was pretty excited aboutthat.
(33:00):
I do love being a girl dad, soI don't care.
Well, give me a happy, healthyyep exactly give me a happy
healthy little baby and I amgood to go.
Speaker 1 (33:08):
So I have a grandson that's five and a grandson
that's three.
Okay, my daughter just had alittle girl who's 10 months old
and, oh man, she, she melts usoh yeah, she.
Speaker 3 (33:18):
She like just melts the whole room yeah, she's gonna
have you wrapped around herfinger for quite some time.
Yeah, it's over.
Speaker 1 (33:24):
Yep, well, that that's cool.
Well, that's awesome.
And you know what I love aboutyou and I don't know you that
well, jay, but I do, as I followyou and watch you.
It's really cool to watch theexample you set as a father.
I appreciate that.
It's a big deal, I mean becauseyou know, I know some of the
guys from the station betterthan you and it comes out with
(33:46):
everyone that knows you thatkind of like you're an awesome
dad, like as people describe you.
That's like and when that'slike the in the first couple of
sentences that someone saysabout someone, you're like.
That's pretty cool, that ispretty cool.
Speaker 3 (34:02):
Honestly, Tommy, I don't know if I've ever really
heard it phrased that way.
So that actually does mean alot to me and I think about my
career when people ask me aboutit and like the biggest
compliment you could give me isif you feel like I love my job
and I do, and I would say thesame thing about just life in
general being a dad.
So if that so easily comes out,that actually is awesome.
(34:25):
Makes me feel like I'm kind ofdoing my job a little bit.
Speaker 1 (34:27):
Maybe I think you are .
Yeah, hey, so let's talk aboutthis transition.
Yeah, this is going by fast,but I really want to get into it
.
So so, man, I was so excited Ididn't know what was brewing and
then this, you know, this bigthing comes up.
Yeah, but I can't wait to hearabout I there's got to be with,
I mean, jd JD's like one likethis guy.
(34:48):
Like, come on, j.
I've been around a lot ofpeople in my life in healthcare
and politics and business andeverything else, and I don't
know that I've ever been arounda guy quite like him.
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (35:02):
A little while ago you brought up sports and the
team aspect right.
A little while ago you broughtup sports and the team aspect
right, and I think a lot of thetime is you thinking about how
you can make your team better,which I certainly is.
The goal for me is to make youknow my team at Boise state
better.
But after that, on the otherside of that is, it's
surrounding yourself with a goodteam and people that have drive
(35:22):
and are going to make youbetter and are going to push you
and even to the point you'regoing to get a little
uncomfortable, but you know whenyou come out on the other side
you're going to be better for it.
Right, and joining forces withJeremiah Dickey, cody Gogler,
chris Coots all the incrediblepeople over there running the
boys sit athletic departmentright now.
It's never been in a betterposition, tommy.
It is.
(35:42):
It's wild to think what is goingon behind the scenes in the
athletic department, how hardthey're working, how passionate
they are, how innovative theyare and they are always, it
seems, like on the right side ofthe cutting edge, like they
don't sit, they don't wait, theyhave the ability and I honestly
I don't even know how they doit half the time, but they're
(36:04):
anticipating all of this chaosthat's going on in college
football.
And it goes back to that, thatanalogy that I've heard them use
recently skate to where thepuck is.
Everybody wants to chase.
Like what these current littlechanges?
And they're like, no, I'mrunning the better route to the
ball in the gap Right, mybaseball analogy, like that.
That's what.
That's what it's about withthem, and they're doing it right
(36:25):
now.
And I am just excited to workwith people, um, as passionate
as they are.
They love this community andthey're they're they're really
setting the tone for collegesports.
Speaker 1 (36:36):
I've been able to be around him a little bit more
lately, for a couple ofdifferent things we're doing.
And I think there's a lot to belearned about people love,
following people and thensetting and establishing a
culture.
It doesn't just happen.
So there's a couple of littlekey, key principles here.
(36:57):
Yeah, but then it is.
It's the work, the vision, theteam, the communication, that
clarity yep, that clarity of theplan and where we're going.
Even though you can have lots oftimes in life whether it's a
business or whatever we're doinga lot of times where we think
we're going ends up gettingthere in twisted turns and ways
(37:21):
because there's challenges andproblems that are going to come
up.
But if you've got a team socommitted to getting there, it's
almost like bring it on, itdoesn't matter, they're not
afraid of it, just bring it onbecause we know where we're
heading and our goals are solofty and our vision is so clear
and our team is so on the samepage and our plan is so precise
(37:43):
on how we're going to execute.
And then we're going to go,work our asses off and work
harder than you.
It's, it's infectious and andand.
In a lot of ways, you know, I'vehad a lot of business over the
years and I think, man, I thinkof some of the failures I've had
, and I think it was because youdidn't have kind of this thing
that he creates.
I'm going to give credit at thetop, but it is his whole team,
(38:04):
but I've never seen anythinglike it.
So, to be like, I'm excited tohear what your the plan is here,
but when, when, when they, whenyou moved over, I'm like, oh
man, this is going to be great.
I don't even know what it isyet till today.
Speaker 3 (38:15):
That's why I wanted to call you to have to get on.
But no, I'm excited to talkabout it and he's my boss now,
which I'm still getting used, sohopefully it's cool with this.
But kind of like, when all ofthis stuff was starting to kind
of take place, jeremiah was backin new york at a uh being
honored as one of the bestathletic directors in the
country, right, yeah, and um, Itexted him congrats and for him
(38:40):
he, he took like a you know, Ithink it was like five or six
people out of the athleticdepartment off his senior staff
with him because he wanted themto kind of experience that scene
.
And none of it was about him,like he didn't make any of it
about him.
Like everything he was tellingme was like it's because of my
team, I want to be here withoutmy team.
Um, he, he constantly talksabout that and I mean it might.
(39:04):
It might not seem like it holdsweight, but I'm telling you
like how, how adamant he isabout the message and how
genuine he is about the message.
I was just like I just I don'tsee any reason why I shouldn't
want to work with this guy Likehe's.
He's all about the biggerpicture of the team.
And he said something um, at a,an event I emceed, uh earlier
this summer that I thought waswas kind of a cool thing.
And when it comes todecision-making, he said, you
(39:26):
know, he said that sometimesmake, even making the wrong
decision, is better than makingno decision.
I mean, tommy, where wherewould you be at right now If you
know the first building you you, you know you built.
You were just hung up on whatlight bulbs forever and you just
never made a decision aboutwhat light bulbs you wanted in a
room.
Speaker 1 (39:42):
You'd never go anywhere.
And it's almost like thatresiliency that he has.
Yeah, it's, it's, it's, he'sspot on, because he and you're
gonna, and you're gonna acceptthat you're gonna make some
mistakes, you're going to havesome unforced errors because you
are so out there, and that'sokay, that's okay.
But when that's your culture,it also builds, it comes with
(40:03):
resilience.
It's kind of pre-baked, becauseyou're like, hey, we're going
to go for it and again, it maynot be exactly what we're
thinking, but we're going to beleading out there.
I love the analogy, the puckanalogy today, because that's
exactly what they're doing.
It goes back to.
Speaker 3 (40:17):
You know I drum up another sports analogy, but how
often does a coach say, if youmake a mistake, but you make it
going 100 miles an hour, likeI'm not going to fault you for
that.
Sometimes you make the wrongdecision, but it's better than
just sitting there and making nodecision, because if you, if
you don't make a decision, youstand neutral.
And if you stand neutral longenough, you're probably going to
slide backwards, especiallywith with uh, where you need to
(40:38):
go in college athletics rightnow.
Speaker 1 (40:40):
Right, I can't, I can't even imagine, yeah, like,
and the fact that, uh, I'm justreally proud of him.
So what, what's?
Speaker 3 (40:46):
the plan.
So I don't know if so again,we're not stuck in neutral,
we're moving forward.
Boise state, you know, a coupleof years ago they, they vaguely
mentioned this idea Broncostudios and it was just too
early.
Then it just they, they justweren't ready.
And even now I don't know,honestly, tommy, I don't know if
we're fully like, ready.
But you know what?
We're ready to make decisionsand we're ready to sprint.
(41:08):
And so Boise State wants tobuild Bronco Studios, and they
brought me on to help run thisthing along with Chris Coutts,
and basically it is finding waysto monetize the incredible
stories of Boise State, whichBoise State itself has long been
one of the greatest successstories in college sports, the
(41:29):
underdog that always finds howto do more with less.
And so now they're creating aplace that is convenient for
athletes, coaches, athleticadministration to come to and
share those stories on campus.
We can jump in a room, jump ona podcast, a show, whatever it
is, and now we can start to makesure that we tell our story as
(41:50):
best as Boise State has everdone it, and that's what we're
excited about.
We have a temporary studioright now.
We're working on the future.
I, you know, I've in the past,I've been told don't set
timelines on things, but youknow, I think we're so excited.
I think we're looking at, youknow, sometime in the next year
getting that permanent home andI think it's.
(42:10):
It's going to look sharp.
And if you know Boise state andagain, Cody Gogler, jeremiah
Vicki, chris Coots, all theseguys over there, you know that
it's going to be second to none.
We're going to do this rightand it's going to be awesome and
I'm so excited for it.
And I also have to mentionpeople like Spencer Danielson,
uh, leon Rice, two guys thatI've worked with for a long time
(42:32):
that they get it.
They get it.
There's a number of othercoaches over there Justin
Schultz, beck Rogar.
These guys are all awesomepeople that I'm so excited to
get to know better and make surethat we're doing our best to
not only tell their stories buttheir athletes stories and share
them with Boise and, honestly,beyond that, because now you
(42:53):
know the way media has changed.
You're no longer even justconfined to your city, right?
It's YouTube, it's social media, it's all this stuff that now
expands across the country, andeven globally, for that matter.
But we're we're really excitedabout this, tommy, and to where
to where we can take it, talk alittle bit about the brand.
Speaker 1 (43:09):
You've been around sports professional college.
I mean, this is your life.
Talk about the strength of theBoise State brand in the nation
and just how it's an incredible.
You don't realize it.
It's just that things like thisjust don't happen.
Speaker 3 (43:28):
So when I lived my sophomore year of college I
actually played baseball down inTexas and whenever I told
anybody where are you from, andI'd say Washington, and they'd
go DC and I would say no,Washington, Otherwise I would
have said Washington DC.
But why I bring that up isbecause now I get to travel out
(43:48):
and mostly it's to cover BoiseState.
But whether you're in Louisianaor Washington DC or Florida or
whatever, and they go where youfrom and you say Idaho and they
go Iowa, and you go no, Idaho,and they're where's that?
I know, do you know the bluefield?
Oh, Boise State, the Bluefieldpotatoes, Like I just don't know
(44:10):
if there is another.
I know that Alabama is big andLSU and all this stuff, but like
when you talk about their state, I don't know if the university
or field resonates at themagnitude that Boise State does
in Idaho.
Like the power of the blue isreal, I'm telling you it is.
Speaker 1 (44:27):
It's the front porch to our community, and what a
beautiful front porch it is.
It's awesome.
I mean the thing that I oftentell Jeremiah, if you could plan
.
I mean you think about ourpeople, just think about the
families that live here.
Sometimes we get, but you thinkabout just all of these
families that make up ourcommunity in the Treasure Valley
(44:48):
.
And then you think about Idahoand you think about the heritage
and you think about everythinghere and how he's come in and
embraced what was there, whichwas a great foundation.
But but instead of trying to goforward with with a plan that
didn't embrace the past, jdembraced that.
It was Blue Collar Club.
It's who are we, it's what ourheritage is.
(45:09):
So everyone that was here islike, yes, this guy gets us, but
then he takes it to the nextlevel, yes.
And so you go from where wewere 10 years ago to where we
are now nationally and you thinkabout you could not have
planned it any better for thepeople of Idaho, for the state
of Idaho, for the heritage ofIdaho, for the Treasure Valley,
(45:31):
what a front porch it is.
And then you walk that campus,you see and same thing
everywhere I travel, everywhereit is the topic that comes up.
And then you have a little bitof good fortune.
Like an Austin Gentry I mean,come on.
Speaker 3 (45:46):
Yeah, he was unbelievable.
I mean, come on, yeah, he wasunbelievable.
I mean I say the blue now, andmaybe Ashton is going to be
known across the country just aswell as the blue is, for that
matter.
And you see what he's doing atthe Raiders already.
He's lovable.
Speaker 1 (45:58):
He's just one of a kind.
Well, kellen Moore was verymuch that way.
I mean, we've had thesetranscendent athletes too.
But what's the value of that?
Could never be.
You can never put a number onit for the state and where it
sits.
Right now we're on thesubcommittee, jd and I, for the
president search, but it's themost important job in the state.
(46:21):
This thing is just poisedacademically, like where it sits
, just the academics, the, thefaculty, um, and then you come
over to athletics.
Speaker 3 (46:33):
We are we are in a great position.
This is such a um a relevantpoint to bring up right now.
So recently, texas State becamea part of the Pac-12.
If you would have asked threeyears ago or speculated that,
you'd have been like, if youwould have asked three years ago
or speculated that, you'd havebeen like there's no way, right.
So it was about three years ago.
Texas State got a new presidentand Texas State's president has
(46:55):
been investing into athletics,right.
And all of a sudden now theystart to run their own sprint.
And three years of thatattitude and they have now
parlayed that into an invite tothe Pac-12, which now elevates
everything for them.
They go from the Sunbelt to thePac-12, right.
And so that university'spresident, that vision that he
(47:17):
had seeing the value in sports,the front porch of his
university and making that frontporch as beautiful as it could
be, right.
And now that has been soattractive, to the point now
that the Pac-12 has said come onover here, we want you guys to
help us build this thing, and soI do think this is an important
decision for Boise State.
And getting back to even to JDhere for a second, so you bring
(47:41):
up, you know, the blue collarmentality, which is awesome, and
it is a staple of Boise Idaho.
But I've been here long enoughto also realize that there is a
dangerous side to that, and whatI mean is you, can we take so
much pride in doing more withless, right, yeah, but you
better not get content with thatalways being the mission,
(48:02):
because you know what's coolerthan doing more with less, doing
more with more, doing more withyeah.
And jeremiah is going out thereand you look at the new
scoreboard, the new sound system, the north end zone.
He speculates about the eastside, right?
Um, the only cooler than doingmore with more or sorry, doing
more with less is doing morewith a little bit of more, yeah,
but you had to do more withless to get there.
Speaker 1 (48:25):
Yes, and that's the beautiful thing In a very short
time and man hats off to him andhis team, cody.
I mean, it's just beenincredible.
It's been incredible.
It's very inspiring.
Hey, what are you lookingforward to coming up?
Well, I mean, the season'sgetting ready to go.
Speaker 3 (48:40):
Notre Dame's going to be huge Notre Dame's going to
be so cool and I think that youknow there's some cool things
coming down the pipe even withthat.
I'm just going to leave it atthat, but I think that that game
is just going to be epic.
My grandfather, super Irishdude.
Speaker 1 (48:57):
My grandfather.
Same thing Like I grew up infact makes me get a little
emotional, because my grandpawas my hero, both of them.
They were very different humanbeings.
One was very, very Mormon andone was very, very Catholic, and
the one that was Catholic.
In his basement he lived in alittle teeny house, he worked at
Kennecock Copper, he was veryblue-collar and in his basement
(49:21):
he had the things he loved andhe had an old Motorola record
player, but it was one of thosebig console things and I have it
in my man cave right now.
That's like when he died.
I like that's.
I wanted that cool and I wantedhis 40-year service ring from
Kennecott Copper and I have bothof those things.
But we I grew up every time Iwas at his house dancing to the
(49:42):
Notre Dame fight song.
In front of that he, he was apassionate, passionate Notre
Dame fan.
Just just it of that.
He was a passionate, passionateNotre Dame fan.
It was his thing.
That was just a connection thathe loved.
So I remember watching thosegames with him.
Here he is living in Magna,utah, working on a copper mine,
but that was his team, so it'sgoing to be great.
Speaker 3 (50:04):
Same deal.
Grandpa Sullivan always makingsure you're drinking the right
type of whiskey and stuff likethat.
So he would be.
I know that he thinks it'sreally, really cool.
He's not in the state to travelanymore and that's fine.
He'll be watching it on TV butas a bucket list item.
I'm so excited to go there.
I've got to see some reallycool venues during my time at
(50:24):
Boise State and watch them coversome really cool opponents.
I got a chance to experiencejust a little bit of that
killing where I got here in 11.
They went 12 and one.
It was a special season and Iget to connect that with the
Ashton Gentry era.
So I've seen a lot, but thisone Notre Dame, at Notre Dame
South Bend I mean it toucheddown Jesus.
It's going to be the coolestexperience.
(50:45):
What am I excited for?
I'm excited for that.
I'm excited to figure out howwe're going to tell the stories
and stuff for this whole season.
But if you want to talk about aroad trip, that's the one
that's circled on this, and thenI'm excited to see people like
Maddox Mattson rise up All theseguys that have to step up with
Ashton Gentry.
Now out Cage Casey, the lefttackle, phenomenal dude, mason
(51:06):
Randolph at the center of theoffensive line.
Ty Benefield the safety thatled the team in tackles last
year that's going to make a bigstep.
You're going to get to knowpeople like Max Steege played
very limited time last year butwith Ahmed Hassani now gone,
(51:31):
he's a guy that's going to haveto step up.
So we get to learn about thesenew guys that we didn't know
before.
And now we get to see ifSpencer Danielson can run this
thing back and prove to collegefootball that Boise State is a
power team and deserves nationalrecognition, and I just it's
going to be an awesome fall.
It's going to be an awesomefall because they have a great
leader and I just think they arebuilt different.
They are built for this.
Yeah, wow.
Speaker 1 (51:47):
You got me going.
Yeah, right, a little bit ofbasketball.
I think they've had atremendous.
I mean, it is so interesting tosee how different college
athletics is now, because it'skind of like you reload, you
reload.
But what I love about it andmaybe I'd love to get your take
on this when you have a coachingstaff like we do, they're built
for that, right.
Yeah, because they're just thesystems there and Leon's there
(52:10):
and it's just very excited aboutwhat's going on too.
They've who they've lined upfor.
This year is going to beincredible.
Speaker 3 (52:16):
I know that we've said this in the past, but you
look at their roster right nowand I'm telling you, the roster
construction is is really,really impressive.
Yes, they will miss TysonDagenhart dearly, but I actually
went out to practice yesterday.
I'm telling you, tommy, theylook pretty good and they're as
deep as they've ever been.
And the cool thing about thisera is that the transfer portal,
(52:39):
nil, it is giveth and it istaketh, but Boise State doesn't
get caught up in what is orisn't fair or any of that stuff.
They just kind of chargeforward and do what they believe
is the best.
And by having that attitude, Imean you can look at it Like
look who's entered the portalfor them and look who they've
gotten out of the portal, andthey're on the winning side of
this thing, tommy.
And you brought up the coachingstaff, the continuity there.
(53:03):
And again, if you don't know,you don't know.
You can look at it from abird's eye view and just think
they just have a coaching staff.
Tommy, what's the difference?
I was talking with SpencerAarons yesterday.
Spencer Aarons is a truefreshman.
He just represented team Canadaat the U19 FIBA World Cup in
Switzerland.
Right, I saw that he had offersfrom I mean, you name it Oregon
(53:26):
, illinois, washington.
He had, he had offers from big10 schools everywhere and he
chose Boise state.
And so this is like when youbring up the fact like no, this
coaching staff cares, they'regoing to develop you, and you're
like, yeah, okay, everybodysays that.
And then you talk with Spencerand you're like, how's it
different here?
Mike Burns flew toitzerlandjust to support and watch
(53:47):
spencer aaron's play in thatright.
It's not words with them, it isaction I love watching burns.
Speaker 1 (53:53):
Oh, he's so intense.
It's like my favorite thing,I'm telling you you need.
Speaker 3 (53:57):
Okay, have a special like two hour long version of
your show here.
Invite burns on.
That guy is filled with storyafter story after story.
Speaker 1 (54:05):
I'm gonna do that.
Speaker 3 (54:05):
He's oh, he's just but man, he bernie's like the
coolest, he's so awesome him timjury david moat.
Speaker 2 (54:12):
Hey he's so intense.
Speaker 3 (54:14):
He's intense.
But here's the deal he'sintense when he needs to be
intense and then you get himaway from the court and he's
like again, just like one of thebest guys they'd probably go
have a beer with not to everhave, but I would love to
probably his son plays.
Speaker 1 (54:26):
Played at one of the local high schools.
Okay, yeah, and one of mybuddies was uh, was an assistant
coach there and we're sittingtalking.
I'm like how's that going like?
And he's like he's the coolestparent.
He doesn't say it.
I'm like really, yeah, justbecause you see his demeanor on
the it's just awesome.
Speaker 3 (54:43):
I think you get around some of these coaches.
That's something theyimmediately realize is they're
like I don't want a parentcalling me telling me how to
coach.
So, even though I know a heckof a lot more than that guy down
there coaching high school, Idon't want somebody doing that
to me.
So you know what we're justgoing to.
Let him figure it out.
And the cool thing about thatis you let them work through
adversity and then you are justthere to to be the guy to lean
(55:04):
on after it all.
Uh, what is your, what is yourwife thought of the transition?
So far, so good.
You know I.
Uh, the cool thing about theyou know this, this transition
is it.
You know I go from more workinglike a two to 11 schedule to
more like a nine to five.
Which man seeing the sun comeup?
You know it's, oh, it's justgreat.
I get off and the sun's stillup.
I get to go home and havedinner with my kids.
(55:26):
So I've I've lost a little bitof time in the morning with them
, but I get.
I get so much more on the backend of it and you know my wife.
Speaker 1 (55:34):
You know now's the time to do it, cause when I I
did, I did night shifts in theER for 10 straight years when my
kids were little and I'm.
But as your kids get intoschool, man, the clock changes
Because you're going to see themmore and that's going to be
significant.
Speaker 3 (55:54):
My daughter, like I said, five days a week next year
.
She did two days a week twoyears ago, three days a week
last year, five days a week thiscoming year, and if I were to
drop her off at 8, get home at11, I'm not seeing this little
person that I'm telling you Ilove more than life itself.
I would, I want to see her fivedays a week and that would,
that would take from my soul.
And so now, by hopefully mixingup the schedule that's the
(56:17):
reason, yeah, so now I'veshifted a little bit and I think
that you know habits and thingslike that and routines, they're
so important how we buildourselves and craft ourselves.
And you know, you know habitsand things like that and
routines, they're so importanthow we build ourselves and craft
ourselves.
And you know, I was, I meanI'll say you know kind of stuck
in those same routines, thosesame habits for 14 years and now
, by just even this little shiftwhere I drive four more miles
(56:39):
to work, still cover a team thatI've covered for you know, 80%
of my job, even at KTVB.
You know just that little shift, even a KTVB, um, you know just
that, that little shift.
It it's uh, it's good for yoursoul man, yeah, like this
sometimes.
Yeah, it is, I get to rebuildthose habits and analyze how I
can structure myself to be themost efficient, best version of
myself, professionally, uh,family wise, all that stuff.
(57:02):
And so it's.
It's just been kind of fun tonow, you know, take notes and
say I kind of want to start myday off like this, and if I do
this now, I you know I don'thave to do it later or whatever
it is.
And so it's just a, it's ablank slate to try to build on
and become the best version ofmyself.
Speaker 1 (57:17):
So for everyone listening out there, what's?
Uh?
Where should they be lookingfor the new stuff?
And tell us a little bit how tofollow along?
Speaker 3 (57:23):
In the short term.
Immediately, we can definitelytell you Boise State's social
media channels.
So if you go to Bronco Sports,you can also find any of the
main accounts.
Whether it be football, men'sbasketball, softball they all
have their own individualaccounts.
We'll certainly be all oversocial media Instagram, twitter,
facebook, all of that stuff butthen, on top of that, right now
we will be utilizing theYouTube platform, and that's
(57:46):
another platform that you knowthey have a really good
following on there and so ourreach will be there.
And then you know, after thatwe're just going to kind of see
what the future holds.
Speaker 1 (57:54):
Tommy.
That's where those stories willbe, that's where to follow
along, and you'll be digging inand sharing more and getting it
out there and we'll tell thatstory and hopefully grow this
thing.
Speaker 3 (58:04):
I'm telling you the future is going to be cool with
it, though Listen.
Speaker 1 (58:07):
I can't wait, every time Like it's a what a great
fit.
And um you're.
You're an unbelievable guy, man.
Thanks for coming on and thanksfor the example you set.
I I it may sound corny, I don'teven care.
So I'm sitting here talking toyou today, cause I don't know
you that well.
I'm thinking, man, what ablessing for all of the people
that are going to be around you,the athletes.
(58:28):
No, you're a pretty unique guy.
So to have you in the clubhousewith the leadership and then to
have you around these athletesand say, hey, that's a guy I
want to be like someday, that'sa pretty cool deal man.
Speaker 3 (58:43):
It's another huge point of pride I've taken in
this thing, tommy, is that I'vealways tried to relate to the
athletes and I have to considerwhat's best for news, but I also
, I I take their, I I take theirthoughts and feelings into
consideration at times andthere've been moments where
that's been returned to me andI'm excited to really invest in
(59:03):
building those types ofrelationships.
All right, man.
Today on the Ever Onward podcast, we have Jay Tust
.
Jay is an amazing guy 14 yearsat KTVB as the sports director.
He's famous in our communityfor a few things, but mostly for
being one of the greatest guysaround, and he just made a huge
(00:20):
move.
He just went over to BoiseState.
He will be leading BroncoStudios for Boise State
Athletics.
Jay has been an incrediblejournalist.
He won the 2015 Murrow Award.
He won an Emmy Award in 2019.
He's a true pro and BoiseState's just very, very
(00:41):
fortunate to have him with thismove and with all they're doing.
Can't wait to catch up with JayTuss.
Today, prior to Jay Tuss, we'llhave a Allquist update with my
partner, holt Haga.
Holt man, we've been busy, holycow.
It's been crazy.
It's funny that we have to do alittle Allquist update for us
to get connected, to talk.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
I know we're freaking running right now.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
We're running and gunning.
It's good, it's been good.
Let's talk a little bit aboutwhat's going on.
It's it's interesting.
We're in a like, I think,nationally, we're kind of in
this hey, what's going on?
A lot of stuff going on.
You know, interest rates havenot done what we thought they
were going to do, but our valleybecause of micron, and now this
new announcement.
And what are you seeing outthere?
You're, you're, you're in thestreets every day.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
Well, it is because we do a lot of like panels and
things.
We get a lot of questions, andthat's the question that comes
up every you know, all the time,almost exclusively is you know
what?
What's going on in Boise withoffice?
We hear it's good, but why?
You know?
Why aren't things being?
Why isn't office being built?
What's going on?
And it's kind of a simplequestion with a really complex
answer, right, but like justsomething is kind of, and we
(01:51):
talk a lot about marketconditions, but something pretty
interesting is actually ishappening right now in the
office space in the TreasureValley and you know we do have a
healthy market.
It's very healthy actually.
It's about as healthy as it'sbeen in a long time.
I mean, it's like our vacancyrates have been at 6.5% to 7%
for the last like three years,stable, yeah, which I mean.
(02:13):
That's so traditionally, you'relooking at that.
Guys like us will look at thatand say, hey, let's go build
more office.
Speaker 3 (02:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
Right, yeah, yeah, yeah.
And so then the question isokay, well, why aren't we
building office?
And we know that as a developer, it all comes down to basis and
market conditions.
We know they're good, but basisis sort of a fancy way of
saying cost and when we plug inall our assumptions and our
numbers, it's just, you know,with interest rates and
construction costs and landprices and all the things, exit
(02:41):
cap rates and things Harder thanever to do, harder than ever,
right.
And so we know why we haven'tbeen able to do it.
And when you enter all thosethings in and you sort of assess
a corresponding lease rate thatyou have to have to be able to
support those costs and get thereturn on investment, you're
either below market, at marketor above market.
And if you're below market,you're definitely doing the
(03:03):
project.
If you're below market, you'redefinitely doing the project.
If you're at market, you'restill doing it.
If you're a little above,you're still doing it.
But if you're way above, you'relike it doesn't make sense
because it's too risky.
That's where we have beensomewhere in that, just with the
costs and the basis, and soit's been difficult.
But I think the interestingthing that we're seeing in the
(03:23):
data right now is that the sublease, the vacancy rates, have
been stable, but the sub leasespace available on the market
has been cut in half effectively.
Speaker 1 (03:35):
It's still happening here.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
It's still happening here, right and so because we
haven't been building the sublease space.
That was at 680,000 square feetsix months ago is now at
350,000 square feet.
So if you extrapolate that outand you say okay, in six months
and another six months you'reout of vacancy, You're out of
sublease space, right?
So then where are people going?
Because, assuming demand staysrelatively stable, the supply is
(04:01):
going to be an issue and it'sgoing to happen.
Speaker 1 (04:03):
Well, I think there is a corollary between what
happened in the residentialmarket here and what happened in
the office market here.
It just is Because you hadresidential if you looked at
what homes the median home valuewas for a long, long, long time
and then you had this explosion, right yeah.
And if you think about office,it's the same thing.
We had stable rates.
Remember when we bought the USBank building?
(04:24):
and we found the rent roll from1982 or whatever.
It was like 15 bucks, unchanged, unchanged, and we're like oh
man, I mean, we were that manyyears later and the rates were
the same and then rates startedto creep up a little bit because
they had to.
I still think there's some catchup to do on rates.
Rates just because of thisexplosion in costs.
(04:46):
You know labor costs are notgoing to go down with everything
going on.
So so I I guess the the theadvice I'd give someone looking
for office is you better get itnow, absolutely, because it's
not.
This is not.
It's not going to be lessexpensive.
Uh coming up, it's moreexpensive for us to build.
Uh, land's more expensive thanit's ever been.
Labor costs are going to staytight.
(05:11):
So getting high quality officenow and us figuring out how to
get more and more on the marketwe're just got to do it because
it's not like next year is goingto be any easier.
Rates may come down a little bit, but all these other factors
are staying the same and it'sjust going to end up costing
more, just like everything elseExactly, exactly.
Speaker 2 (05:26):
It's just like to end up costing more.
Just like everything else,exactly, exactly.
It's just like your groceries.
Real estate's the same, but toyour point it's like we have
been lagging behind othermarkets and rates have not
increased at the same rate.
Speaker 1 (05:36):
It's interesting because on the retail side they
have yeah retail has, when youlook at all the retail we're
doing it 10 miles.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
Oh gosh, yeah the rates you're getting.
Speaker 1 (05:43):
I'm like, oh my gosh, so retail, certainly I think
retailers have responded to hey,this is just what it costs now
the industrial has.
If you look at what industrialso I think just the office
market, it's going to cost more.
Going into the future, witheveryone moving here it is.
And the other thing for officeusers and I hear this all the
(06:04):
time, I've had a couple offriends call me in the last
couple of weeks is the commodityis still people.
I say that in a positive way.
There has never been a bettertime.
I tell my kids this.
I mean, if you're in your 20sand you have a skill set, the
fact that you can go get, soeveryone needs high quality
individuals now can go get, soeveryone needs high quality
(06:27):
individuals now.
So having a space that you cancome to work and attract and
retain and recruit people, it'sgoing to be more and more and
more and more critical.
Having a place where you wantto go to work, you want to be
with people you want to be with,yeah, being in space that's
comfortable, that they'vethought about a natural light
and how it's laid out and yourworkspace.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
Yeah, it's the retention, recruitment and
retention, it's like the humancapital component, right.
So it'll be interesting.
But I think I think justgenerally at the the you know
what's here's where we are, butwhat's coming is, you know, all
signs kind of point to rates aregoing to continue to rise.
It's not slowing down.
It's not slowing down and themarket sort slowing down and the
(07:04):
market sort of what's happeningin the market sort of is the
backbone of that.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
This is all true.
If we would have said thisbefore Micron's new announcement
for the next $50 billion, wewould have told you this.
Speaker 2 (07:16):
But now it's like yeah, that's even more like
piling on.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
What a great place to live.
It's awesome to have so muchindustry on.
Yeah, what a great place tolive.
It's awesome to have so muchindustry.
It's funny for me to think backto 20, 25 years ago, when I was
on little committees of like,how are we going to ever get
businesses to move here and howare we going to ever get median
wages up?
And now we're dealing with theother side of that, which is
this is what happens when youhave an unbelievable place to
live.
Unbelievable place to raisefamilies, quality of life off
(07:42):
the charts, charts, and that'swhy everyone's coming.
Speaker 2 (07:44):
yeah, yeah, we're fortunate, all right, very
fortunate, it's been fun hey man, how are you good?
Speaker 1 (08:00):
you know, last night I had uh m MJ hit me up on text
right and left.
I don't know how he heard youcoming off.
He's like that guy's one of thebest guys on the planet.
Speaker 3 (08:11):
I learned a lot from MJ, especially trying to just be
as energetic as he is every day, because that's, I think, what
made it's actually what makes MJspecial, because he still
certainly has it, doesn't he?
Oh?
Speaker 1 (08:22):
yeah, I love that guy .
He told me to ask you about allthe long car trips in the
Bronco.
Speaker 3 (08:30):
Oh man, you know, sometimes you've got to earn
covering the Boise Statefootball team, right, I didn't
realize, you guys traveled bycar, so much.
Yeah, we've driven to.
I remember probably my bestmemory is getting off the news
(08:50):
at 10 one night and drivingstraight to Albuquerque, which
was about 21 straight hours ofdriving right.
Um, and it's so funny, tommy,because I'm sure you know this,
like when you're working on aproject and you're just you know
it, it uh, it kind of wear youdown at some times and whatnot,
and then you look back on ityears later and you're like, oh
man, those, those were the goodold days.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
You know what I mean.
It's always that way.
Speaker 3 (09:12):
Yep, and uh, I will say this, um, I'm sure MJ is
cool with me sharing this.
I was, I was young buck backthen, right, and we're getting
into this, but 14 years, 14years, yep.
And so this was on the frontend of my career, when, when MJ
would make these rides or thesedrives with us and I would often
find myself in the driver'sseat just a little bit more than
(09:32):
than MJ, and I remember, youknow, turning around in the
backseat and MJ's laying acrossthe backseat taking a quick
little nap.
But, um, I will say this abouthim I, you know, I, I, I say
that in jest, but I, I honestlythought it was pretty cool for a
guy that had been in the gameas long as he had, yeah, that he
was still willing to do that inorder to to serve his community
(09:54):
, right, yeah, and so I, Idefinitely took those moments
and learned from them.
He's, he's an, he's anunbelievable human being.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
I you know the energy and just you know it's genuine,
like it's, like it's his heart.
He's, he's, uh, he, uh.
He's on our board, ournon-profit board.
Uh, teens trades puts on a golftournament.
It's just, he, just.
But he just comes in a room andlights it up.
Speaker 3 (10:18):
Yep, if you think he's energetic on a newscast,
watch him emceeing a charityevent or something like that
right.
I will say this.
So when I moved here, I got mystart in broadcasting in
Lewiston, idaho, at Clue right,and I spent about two years
there.
I actually look back now.
(10:39):
The good old days.
Wanted to get out of there atthe time as fast as I possibly
could, but I loved.
It was a baseball town coveringthe NIA World Series.
It was great.
But you know, our whole newsroom, our whole on-air department,
was three people right.
We had zero ability to go liveLike, so we had to always be in
the studio in order to actuallyhave a newscast.
And I moved down here and itwas our first trip.
(11:00):
It was my first trip coveringthe boy state football team on
the road and we went to theglass bowl in toledo, ohio right
, and again travel out acrosscountry.
We're all pretty tired and ourphotographers, shanti asale and
mike d donato, fire up you knowthe light, the camera and it's
go time to do the news at 10 andall of a sudden mj finds the
(11:23):
ensue like more enthusiasm thanI could ever muster up at that
point in time.
But I just remember looking athim and going okay, that's how
this is done, and ever sincethat day I've just tried to be
as energetic and as passionateas that man is about working in
Boise, idaho.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:40):
There's some pretty incredible people that if you
get around like reallysuccessful people and you watch
them, that turn it on thing.
It's interesting that you saythat because yesterday we had a
little thing here we're helping.
Operation Military Blessings,great nonprofit, 30 years,
started here and they basicallyprovide gas cards and grocery
(12:06):
cards for the first couple yearsin the military.
Okay, because those families,what they make 39 of them are
food insecure and they'reactually under the poverty level
.
When you're joining anyway,they're, they're here locally,
they're out of diapers and babyformula.
So we started a thing yesterday.
But I'm getting my point.
So governor dirk kempthorne, uh, is on their board and and so,
(12:29):
as part of the event yesterdayhe was here but he's he's
undergoing cancer treatmentright now.
So he comes in, he's.
You know he's not, he's, as youcan tell, he's going through it
.
And and I'm even like hey, dirk, I can't believe you're here.
But man, when those cameraswent on Yep, ready to go For the
press conference, some of theguys that were filming it he sat
(12:52):
up and just delivered.
One of the guys said he's like Ididn't even care what he said,
I was just it was like the mostpowerful and passionate thing.
And I remember also, like withmitt romney, when we were able
to campaign together.
Same thing like he on the plane, uh, you know at, you know, get
into the event, just tired.
(13:12):
You know, you know these dryinglong days and then just boom,
they turn it on.
But but I, I've, I've thoughtabout that and um, and I think
mj is that way too he knows, heknows he's got to deliver and
and he can just dig deeper toanother level and just make it
happen.
Speaker 3 (13:28):
Yep, I've worked with tremendous people at K2B.
Another one that I'll bring upthat has been one of the more
influential people in my life isCarolyn Hawley.
Oh yeah, and she's another onethat you know.
She's a mom.
She's balancing so much andthen I just remember, like again
, watching her on the desk andit was just like you had no idea
what else was going on in herworld and it was just like the
(13:48):
most professional thing you eversaw and I'm like, okay, I got
to somehow try to mimic that aswell, which would be impossible
to actually.
You know, you know perfectly,try to emulate that.
But also, tommy, a lot of it forme comes from my, you know,
just growing up around sports,right, and it really is crazy
how much of it does translateright.
And there's there's times whenyou're, uh, you know, cross
(14:12):
country.
The Florida state game it'slike 48 hours.
We probably had four hours ofsleep.
They moved the game because ofa hurricane.
You're just exhausted.
But it goes back to, you know,workouts at 5am and in college
and you don't want to get up andrun three miles, but you kind
of have a little moment withyourself with like, no, how much
you got in the tank and I stillhave those moments with myself
now, like whenever I'm tired,like it's that challenge how
(14:33):
much more can you give?
And as close as you think youare to empty, there should be a
little bit left in the tank andI always go back to.
You know, I draw my experiencesfrom sports when it comes from
stuff like that and it stillcertainly motivates me today.
I love it Can we go back now.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
Let's start there.
Tell us a little bit aboutgrowing up and you.
Speaker 3 (14:53):
I grew up in Tacoma, washington, and I lived in the
same bedroom, tommy, with my bed, almost in the same position,
until the time I left forcollege and the reason why I
kind of bring that up my dad,blue collar worker, another guy
that I what did he do?
He was an electrician at theUniversity of Washington
Hospital.
He worked there for over 35years but he was a guy that woke
(15:18):
up at five every morning.
We lived in Tacoma, he workedin Seattle, so you're talking
about an hour and a half up orso dealing with traffic.
We only live like 25 miles away, but over there you're dealing
with traffic, so you're 90minutes to two hours up to
Seattle.
He works and then he has tobattle that coming back home,
and so you know he was gone like11, 12 hours a day and I just
(15:42):
learned a lot from that.
Later on in life I actuallyinterned up there for a summer
job and I really got the chanceto see him do it and he would
also come home and then drive meto baseball practice.
We get home from that at likenine, thirty or ten, and then he
just did that every day, everyday, and that was a real
experience for me to witnesswhat my dad, kind of like,
(16:04):
sacrificed and did for me to tryto be the best version of
myself, and so um, there's,there's a mentality on those,
those kind of guys though.
Speaker 1 (16:15):
I have it, my dad's the same way, but man, even now,
you guys almost 80, and heworks me into the ground and
just never complains.
And I'm like dude, it's hot orit's cold, or it's me into the
ground and just never complains.
And I'm like dude it's hot orit's cold or it's I'm tired, or
whatever, and he just, he justgrinds.
There is man, it is a, it is a.
You know, I think we're soft aswell.
Speaker 3 (16:34):
You've actually led me to my next point here, tommy,
because, um, my dad, he jokesaround that he might not have
some of the skills that I havein terms of getting up in front
of a camera or crafting an emailor whatever it might be.
My dad can roll up his sleevesand fix anything, tommy, like he
(16:56):
can't.
He can fix anything, yeah, andI um captured zero of that
skillset.
So anytime anything breaksaround the Tust household here
in Boise, he he's my first calland usually he just shakes his
head at me and then, you know,he helps me figure it out.
But, uh, that's the reason why Ibring up this story is because
not only did he help build,build, um, what I, what I take
pride in, is my work ethic, butthere, you know, I would also
say change wasn't something thatwas like instilled in me early,
(17:18):
lived in the same bedroom tillI was 18.
My dad worked the same job for35 years, and so, as I make this
transition from KTVB, a placethat I've been at for 14 years,
to Boise State, it's really notthat big of a change, tommy, but
for me it feels like a lot ofchange.
Right, but growing up in Tacoma, I love sports.
I love football, but baseballhas our heart.
(17:39):
Baseball was like the thingsince I can remember.
We're watching it at the house.
I'm collecting baseball cards.
Speaker 1 (17:45):
So you're a huge Mariners fan.
Speaker 3 (17:46):
Huge Mariners fan.
I was joking around with mybuddies over at Tex last night
because we just blew anotherlead to the Yankees.
We're up 5-0 in the eighth andlost.
Speaker 1 (17:54):
I saw the highlights.
I'm like what Right?
Speaker 3 (17:57):
I know it's just the worst thing ever.
Ken Griffey Jr is my idol.
Yeah, idol, he.
It hit me last night that he isalso the person that I'm going
to hold responsible for what hasbeen a lifetime of misery so
far as a baseball fan, becausenot only have we never won a
world series time, we've neverbeen to the world series.
And I remember growing up, likeall the Cubs fans and Red Sox
fans, being like we're evergoing to see it in our lifetime.
(18:17):
And now you're, you're them,I'm them, I'm them, I'm like I
don't know if I'm ever, evergonna see it in my lifetime.
So, yeah, but baseball's got myheart.
Speaker 1 (18:27):
It always has and, um , still does you watch still
does fall forward every day,isn't it?
Isn't it a great?
It is, I always say, the onlythe only real negative about
being in a town this size.
It would be great if we had itit would be amazing.
Speaker 3 (18:42):
I mean it's.
I really we're gettingeverything around here.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
I mean we're, we're booming like crazy, even AAA.
Speaker 3 (18:48):
But I would love it.
I'd be there every night, tom.
I would be there every night,tommy, I would be there every
night.
Speaker 1 (18:53):
We're doing a giant redevelopment in downtown Reno
and they have the Reno Aces Yep.
Speaker 3 (18:58):
I've been there.
It looks beautiful.
Speaker 1 (19:00):
AAA team for the Diamondbacks.
So I've been to a few gameswith them over there, but it's
just AAA Nice ballpark.
Herb Simon owns the ball, theteam he's the owner of the
Indiana Pacers.
Okay, I mean Reno, our sizetown where I'm like I want this,
I want that.
Speaker 3 (19:19):
Well, we've got to make it happen here, tommy, what
can?
Speaker 1 (19:21):
we do to pull this off.
Hey, we got off track here.
Speaker 3 (19:24):
So you, you baseball's your thing so coming
out of uh, uh, actually I'mgoing to back up just a little
bit here because it's important,it's an important part of my
story and over, kind ofovercoming adversity.
I loved baseball but I wasawful at it.
I was terrible, tommy.
If I got a hit in a season likewe were celebrating, I was was
bad, really bad.
Speaker 1 (19:46):
And where do you was Jack then, Cause maybe the
problem there is.
You were like I was the smallerkid.
Speaker 3 (19:51):
I actually was a smaller kid then, yeah, so it
had to do with the fact that youcouldn't swim.
Speaker 1 (19:56):
Maybe that was so big .
Speaker 3 (19:57):
Maybe that was it and uh, I was, I was just, I was
terrible at it.
But I joke around about Griffey.
I just we would time our nightsaround his at-bat.
Speaker 1 (20:07):
Why are you so terrible at it?
Speaker 3 (20:08):
I was not expecting you to say that, you know, just
kind of a little kid afraid ofthe ball, stuff like that.
You know you loved it, but Iloved it.
The irony of all of this,though, is my dad came to
everything.
He was a great supporter ofmine, and there was a day I
vividly remember the at bat.
I'm 11 years old, and it's likethe one day my dad had to work
(20:30):
a weekend, and during baseballseason because he did, he did
work weekends, but duringbaseball season he never.
He never missed a game.
He missed this one, and Iliterally remember saying that
at the at bat at NortheastTacoma Elementary, and I just I
was like you know what, I'm justgonna, I'm just gonna swing the
bat.
Like you know what, I'm justgoing to swing the bat, I'm just
going to stay.
What could go wrong?
And so, luckily, the pitcherthrew it over the plate.
(20:52):
I swung, I hit an oppositefield double into the right
center field gap, and I rememberstanding on second base
thinking this is like thecoolest feeling ever.
Why don't I just do this allthe time?
And that was a big turningpoint in my career.
And that was a big turning pointin my career, and so, from you
know, being the worst kid inSoundview Little League as an
11-year-old.
I made varsity baseball atStadium High School as a
freshman and, just to advancethe story a little bit, I worked
(21:15):
myself into a position to getdrafted out of high school by
the Cincinnati Reds.
I mean that was like thecoolest moment at that point in
time in my life Because I reallydid sacrifice a lot.
It was the moments where allyour friends might be out kind
of doing like the the fun, coolstuff that you, you know like
you'd want to be doing in highschool, and at 10 o'clock on a
Friday night I'd still beswinging away in a batting cage
(21:37):
for an MLB scout or somethinglike that.
And I really learned the powerof sacrifice at my senior year
of high school and that reallyset the course for, I mean, the
rest of my life really, tommy,you know and I know you know
this, but sports, in so manyways, right, the individual
sacrifice, those solitarymoments when you're alone and
(22:00):
you're like can I do this?
Speaker 1 (22:01):
What do I need to do?
You dig in, you find yourself.
And then the team aspect of ithow do you be part of something
bigger than you?
I mean, there's just so manyreasons that it can be so
powerful in shaping our livesand becoming.
You know, you think about thelessons you probably apply right
now to business, that you learnboth individually and
personally and team wise.
(22:21):
It's the big deal.
Speaker 3 (22:22):
I also think that I played uh, I'm not going to say
the most frustrating sport,because I try to play golf now,
and that's often veryfrustrating.
Um, but baseball is a game offailure.
You have to.
You have to learn how tosucceed when you are mad at
yourself, when you're frustrated, all this stuff and you need to
learn how to move on Right.
Um, your next at bat is alwaysyour most important at bat.
(22:44):
Uh, whether, what, if youstruck out, whatever it is, if
you hit a home run, it doesn'tmatter.
Your next at bat is what youhave to focus on.
It's your most important at bat.
And so it's things like that.
When you're anchoring a showand there's stuff going on,
somebody forgets to roll a video, and if you show it in the
moment, then your emotions getthe best of you.
(23:05):
Your next at bat, your nextstory, whatever it is, is your
most important story.
You have to find a way to moveon and hold your composure.
You know, I know that an analogyI've heard over at Boise State
recently is skate to where thepuck is right.
Is the center fielder out?
You know you have to run towhere the ball is and you know I
(23:28):
was at a time in my life,fairly athletically gifted but I
was never the fastest guy,right.
But I think that you knowwhether it be an angle to a fly
ball, stuff like thatanticipation instincts I think
that I was able to develop thoseat a higher level and so I I
was able to make up, you knowthe the difference between guys
that were faster than me,because I was to be able to.
I was more efficient, tommy,that's getting from point A to
point B and whatever you do,right, like if you're working on
a project, how do I mostefficiently get from point A to
(23:51):
point B?
A guy's faster than me, right?
Well, there's people out there,there's universities, there's
broadcast stations that havemore resources, more money.
I have to do what they do atthe same level, but I have to
get to from point A to point Bfaster than them.
So all the analogies can applyone way or the other, right, and
you can dismiss them, but Ilean into them because I love
(24:13):
sports.
I still work in sports todayand I think they absolutely fit
my mission.
Speaker 1 (24:19):
And they're real.
As you were talking here, I wasthinking about business.
We have a lot of peoplelistening to this that are
business leaders.
But the other analogy that isaccurate is if you come from a
sports background, you are justuse especially baseball.
Like you said, you're really,you're you.
You must be good at saying I'mgoing to have a bunch of failure
and I'm going to keep growingand succeeding, and I'm not.
(24:41):
There's always taking myself tothe next level in whatever
aspect of my game.
You think about business, it, it.
There's so many people that Iam around now that I'm like man.
You're setting some artificialcause.
I think they believe they'vearrived at some level, you know,
with their interpersonal skills, with their leadership skills,
(25:02):
with their ability to createvision and plans and, you know,
deliver.
And, and I'm like you probablyought to sit down and have a
plan because it doesn't stop.
No, it doesn't stop when you're30.
It doesn't stop when you're 40.
It doesn't stop when you're 50.
In fact, I think as you getolder and you get a little
perspective on this whole thing,then you're like man.
I, you know, I still have along ways to go right, I still
(25:24):
need mentors, so it doesn't stopright.
So it's a great analogyprofessionally and we'll tie
into a little bit.
I don't want to go there yet,but tie in a little bit to where
you're at.
I mean, how old are you now?
I am on the other side of 40,tommy, other side of 40, and
you're making this big changeright but it makes sense to me
because you're in thisprogression professionally where
(25:44):
, like, what's the next thing tostretch, what's next thing to
grow, what's what, what's the,what's the?
Where are you going to take thegifts that God gave you in this
career, that you've done inyour professionalism, and say
I'm ready for the next thing?
Yep, so it makes sense to me.
First, off.
Speaker 3 (25:58):
I'm so happy that God placed me here in Boise Idaho
because I absolutely love it.
I thought that when I signed myfirst contract here, it was a
three-year deal and I thoughtthat I would be here for the
length of that contract and getthe heck out of here.
And I didn't have much.
I didn't really know much aboutBoise Idaho when I even moved
here.
I just knew that it was abigger market and a bigger
(26:19):
station than I previously was,and if you want to climb the
ladder, that's the next rung,right, right.
And then I moved here and I waslike, well, this place is pretty
cool, yeah, and I started tokind of think about things.
Not only did I meet my wife andnow we've started family that
happened in about year threethat I met her, and then, what
year six or seven, we started todevelop our family but, um, I
(26:41):
think that when I, when I movedhere, I didn't understand how
unbelievably kind ofaccommodating this place is, in
all honesty, like I lived eightminutes from work when I worked
at KTVB.
I work at Boy State now and Ilive about 12 minutes from work.
On a bad day when I hit traffic, yeah, it's about 20 and I go
back to my story about my dad.
(27:01):
He's sitting in a car foralmost three hours a day, and
that's time you don't get backin life and, and so do the math
on that Right.
It adds up and even you know,there's even like.
I thought I thought aboutmyself okay, if he's gone 11, 12
hours a day, but he's spendingthree hours in a car and it only
takes me a total of a half hourto commute to and from work
every day.
(27:22):
I could even pour 10 and a half, 11 and a half hours and I'm
still gone as long as he isRight, so I can even get another
three hours of production atwork, almost Um, that's more of
my mindset during footballseason, because the demands are
greater.
But either way, I you know, Ijust think that that's life.
You don't get back sitting in acar, right, and so you know who
(27:42):
talks a lot about this.
Speaker 1 (27:43):
Garrett Lofto, who's the CEO of Simplot Okay, we're
doing a little thing ontransportation and he will
impassionately talk about hisemployees that have to travel on
.
I-84 right now and what an hourcommute means each way to their
family life.
And as the CEO, he's like, hey,I don't want that.
(28:04):
I want those two hours a day,absolutely.
Two times five, that's 10 hoursa week.
I want that spent with theirkids.
I want that spent.
You know what I mean.
He's like it's been really goodfor me to feel the authentic,
just genuine passion about.
I want this for my employees.
So you forget that sometimes.
Sometimes it's just what you do.
(28:24):
So you forget that sometimes.
Sometimes it's just what you do.
But over a lifetime, as you getagain, I think, as you get a
little older, you look back.
You're like man, it's a bigchunk of my life.
So it's interesting that youappreciate it so much.
Speaker 3 (28:39):
Honestly, tommy, that alone is actually still a big
reason why I live here.
It also means that I can runhome on a lunch break or maybe
for dinner real quick orwhatever it is, and still do
that and get back to the office,to where, if it's an hour and a
half commitment like, you'renot doing that, like.
So you know, a couple of yearsago I took a serious look at
moving back to Seattle for an onair job back there and you know
(28:59):
I just the reality hit that Ijust don't know if that's where
I wanted to be then or everreally want to be.
I just I really value whatBoise Idaho has offered me and
it's also just.
It's also we really have likethe kindest people and you know
I worked in news for a long timeand so you know, you know
(29:20):
everything's exposed there and Iget that.
But I'm telling you, if you goto the store, if you walk around
town, if you go to a BoiseState football game, I really
feel like you genuinely get tohang out and live in a town with
like the kindest, most genuinepeople.
It's not, I promise you, I'velived other places it's not like
here.
Speaker 1 (29:37):
Yeah, it's the heritage of kindness and
community.
It's a big deal.
Hey, tell me about your, tellme about your kids.
I know, I know, this is a bigdeal for you.
I want to make sure I hit itbecause because we're going to
get into sports here in a minute, I'm sure.
But uh, but talk about that.
Speaker 3 (29:53):
I do like talking about this because, um, I think
that there's a lot of people outthere that you know they want
to start families and they canalways assume the path to
parenthood is is super easy, butsometimes it's not, and
sometimes it takes you, you, you, longer than you want to have
kids, and sometimes you gothrough tragedy.
And my wife is so strong and,um, you know, I I feel like
(30:13):
Tommy when you asked me aboutthis, I'd be remiss if I didn't
share my whole story.
But, um, you know, we lost ourfirst child, or our baby girl,
at 26 weeks.
Um, she, you know so, uh, shewas a stillborn um her name.
We named her Claire and it wastough.
She had a chromosomal issue and, uh, that was really tough for
my family.
But, um, in in, you know, godworks in mysterious ways.
(30:36):
And so that was on, uh, april6th 2019.
And on April 7th 2020, uh, wewelcomed our little girl Collins
into the world, and she is nowa little over five.
She is just the coolest kid.
She's so bright, smart andawesome and I love being around
her and now I get to be aroundher at night because my schedule
(30:58):
is shifted and I know we'regoing to get to that in a second
, but she's just wonderful andshe's going to school and next
year she's going to go to schoolfull-time in her first, uh,
first full year kindergarten, um, and then I have a two-year-old
son named brooks and he is justa tank, he, he is like, he got
down for brooks robinson.
Uh, you know what?
I love baseball, so I'm notgoing to say no to that.
You know, everyone wants tolike brooks kepka and that's not
(31:20):
it.
But, um, I would probably say,like I I think that you know,
the first kids that were namedBrooks came from Brooks Robinson
and we're a baseball family.
So, um, it certainly stemmedfrom that at some point in time.
But he, yeah, he's just a tank.
Tommy and I got short legs and along torso, and I'm sorry,
buddy, but you probably got myshort legs and a long torso.
So he's, uh, you know he's,he's tough, he's so different,
(31:42):
all about cars, movie, micro,whatever it is, like our hot
wheels, that is, um, but he's,he's all about it.
He throws stuff, he runs intostuff and he just bounces back
up.
So hopefully he'll be a littleathlete.
And then we got, uh, what I'lljokingly say is a negative three
week old, because my wife isdue with our third child, uh,
here in a couple weeks, and wedon't know, you don't know, we
(32:03):
are waiting.
Have you did you all?
I never did, but you had thepatience to do that.
I had the patience to do itbecause my wife wanted to do it.
Tommy, we actually did it withour, with Brooks.
Speaker 1 (32:15):
By the way, that's a great move, no matter what no
matter what the issue is.
Speaker 3 (32:18):
That's a great move the best advice I could probably
give on this podcast today.
But we, um, we waited with.
We waited with my son as well.
Oh, you did.
And it was the honestly.
My wife is an organizer, she'sa planner, wants everything
ready to go, and she said shewanted to wait and I'm like, oh,
that's not you that's not what,but if you want to like, it's I
got.
I don't have a choice, like I'mjust gonna.
(32:39):
Whatever you say we're goingwith.
And it was the coolest thing.
Um, we didn't know we.
It's so funny.
The doctor goes hey, when hepops out, do you want me to tell
you?
And we're like, yeah, sure, letus know.
And he popped out and thedoctor couldn't even get the
words out of his mouth and I waslike it's a boy.
So I was pretty excited aboutthat.
(33:00):
I do love being a girl dad, soI don't care.
Well, give me a happy, healthyyep exactly give me a happy
healthy little baby and I amgood to go.
Speaker 1 (33:08):
So I have a grandson that's five and a grandson
that's three.
Okay, my daughter just had alittle girl who's 10 months old
and, oh man, she, she melts usoh yeah, she.
Speaker 3 (33:18):
She like just melts the whole room yeah, she's gonna
have you wrapped around herfinger for quite some time.
Yeah, it's over.
Speaker 1 (33:24):
Yep, well, that that's cool.
Well, that's awesome.
And you know what I love aboutyou and I don't know you that
well, jay, but I do, as I followyou and watch you.
It's really cool to watch theexample you set as a father.
I appreciate that.
It's a big deal, I mean becauseyou know, I know some of the
guys from the station betterthan you and it comes out with
(33:46):
everyone that knows you thatkind of like you're an awesome
dad, like as people describe you.
That's like and when that'slike the in the first couple of
sentences that someone saysabout someone, you're like.
That's pretty cool, that ispretty cool.
Speaker 3 (34:02):
Honestly, Tommy, I don't know if I've ever really
heard it phrased that way.
So that actually does mean alot to me and I think about my
career when people ask me aboutit and like the biggest
compliment you could give me isif you feel like I love my job
and I do, and I would say thesame thing about just life in
general being a dad.
So if that so easily comes out,that actually is awesome.
(34:25):
Makes me feel like I'm kind ofdoing my job a little bit.
Speaker 1 (34:27):
Maybe I think you are .
Yeah, hey, so let's talk aboutthis transition.
Yeah, this is going by fast,but I really want to get into it
.
So so, man, I was so excited Ididn't know what was brewing and
then this, you know, this bigthing comes up.
Yeah, but I can't wait to hearabout I there's got to be with,
I mean, jd JD's like one likethis guy.
(34:48):
Like, come on, j.
I've been around a lot ofpeople in my life in healthcare
and politics and business andeverything else, and I don't
know that I've ever been arounda guy quite like him.
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (35:02):
A little while ago you brought up sports and the
team aspect right.
A little while ago you broughtup sports and the team aspect
right, and I think a lot of thetime is you thinking about how
you can make your team better,which I certainly is.
The goal for me is to make youknow my team at Boise state
better.
But after that, on the otherside of that is, it's
surrounding yourself with a goodteam and people that have drive
(35:22):
and are going to make youbetter and are going to push you
and even to the point you'regoing to get a little
uncomfortable, but you know whenyou come out on the other side
you're going to be better for it.
Right, and joining forces withJeremiah Dickey, cody Gogler,
chris Coots all the incrediblepeople over there running the
boys sit athletic departmentright now.
It's never been in a betterposition, tommy.
It is.
(35:42):
It's wild to think what is goingon behind the scenes in the
athletic department, how hardthey're working, how passionate
they are, how innovative theyare and they are always, it
seems, like on the right side ofthe cutting edge, like they
don't sit, they don't wait, theyhave the ability and I honestly
I don't even know how they doit half the time, but they're
(36:04):
anticipating all of this chaosthat's going on in college
football.
And it goes back to that, thatanalogy that I've heard them use
recently skate to where thepuck is.
Everybody wants to chase.
Like what these current littlechanges?
And they're like, no, I'mrunning the better route to the
ball in the gap Right, mybaseball analogy, like that.
That's what.
That's what it's about withthem, and they're doing it right
(36:25):
now.
And I am just excited to workwith people, um, as passionate
as they are.
They love this community andthey're they're they're really
setting the tone for collegesports.
Speaker 1 (36:36):
I've been able to be around him a little bit more
lately, for a couple ofdifferent things we're doing.
And I think there's a lot to belearned about people love,
following people and thensetting and establishing a
culture.
It doesn't just happen.
So there's a couple of littlekey, key principles here.
(36:57):
Yeah, but then it is.
It's the work, the vision, theteam, the communication, that
clarity yep, that clarity of theplan and where we're going.
Even though you can have lots oftimes in life whether it's a
business or whatever we're doinga lot of times where we think
we're going ends up gettingthere in twisted turns and ways
(37:21):
because there's challenges andproblems that are going to come
up.
But if you've got a team socommitted to getting there, it's
almost like bring it on, itdoesn't matter, they're not
afraid of it, just bring it onbecause we know where we're
heading and our goals are solofty and our vision is so clear
and our team is so on the samepage and our plan is so precise
(37:43):
on how we're going to execute.
And then we're going to go,work our asses off and work
harder than you.
It's, it's infectious and andand.
In a lot of ways, you know, I'vehad a lot of business over the
years and I think, man, I thinkof some of the failures I've had
, and I think it was because youdidn't have kind of this thing
that he creates.
I'm going to give credit at thetop, but it is his whole team,
(38:04):
but I've never seen anythinglike it.
So, to be like, I'm excited tohear what your the plan is here,
but when, when, when they, whenyou moved over, I'm like, oh
man, this is going to be great.
I don't even know what it isyet till today.
Speaker 3 (38:15):
That's why I wanted to call you to have to get on.
But no, I'm excited to talkabout it and he's my boss now,
which I'm still getting used, sohopefully it's cool with this.
But kind of like, when all ofthis stuff was starting to kind
of take place, jeremiah was backin new york at a uh being
honored as one of the bestathletic directors in the
country, right, yeah, and um, Itexted him congrats and for him
(38:40):
he, he took like a you know, Ithink it was like five or six
people out of the athleticdepartment off his senior staff
with him because he wanted themto kind of experience that scene
.
And none of it was about him,like he didn't make any of it
about him.
Like everything he was tellingme was like it's because of my
team, I want to be here withoutmy team.
Um, he, he constantly talksabout that and I mean it might.
(39:04):
It might not seem like it holdsweight, but I'm telling you
like how, how adamant he isabout the message and how
genuine he is about the message.
I was just like I just I don'tsee any reason why I shouldn't
want to work with this guy Likehe's.
He's all about the biggerpicture of the team.
And he said something um, at a,an event I emceed, uh earlier
this summer that I thought waswas kind of a cool thing.
And when it comes todecision-making, he said, you
(39:26):
know, he said that sometimesmake, even making the wrong
decision, is better than makingno decision.
I mean, tommy, where wherewould you be at right now If you
know the first building you you, you know you built.
You were just hung up on whatlight bulbs forever and you just
never made a decision aboutwhat light bulbs you wanted in a
room.
Speaker 1 (39:42):
You'd never go anywhere.
And it's almost like thatresiliency that he has.
Yeah, it's, it's, it's, he'sspot on, because he and you're
gonna, and you're gonna acceptthat you're gonna make some
mistakes, you're going to havesome unforced errors because you
are so out there, and that'sokay, that's okay.
But when that's your culture,it also builds, it comes with
(40:03):
resilience.
It's kind of pre-baked, becauseyou're like, hey, we're going
to go for it and again, it maynot be exactly what we're
thinking, but we're going to beleading out there.
I love the analogy, the puckanalogy today, because that's
exactly what they're doing.
It goes back to.
Speaker 3 (40:17):
You know I drum up another sports analogy, but how
often does a coach say, if youmake a mistake, but you make it
going 100 miles an hour, likeI'm not going to fault you for
that.
Sometimes you make the wrongdecision, but it's better than
just sitting there and making nodecision, because if you, if
you don't make a decision, youstand neutral.
And if you stand neutral longenough, you're probably going to
slide backwards, especiallywith with uh, where you need to
(40:38):
go in college athletics rightnow.
Speaker 1 (40:40):
Right, I can't, I can't even imagine, yeah, like,
and the fact that, uh, I'm justreally proud of him.
So what, what's?
Speaker 3 (40:46):
the plan.
So I don't know if so again,we're not stuck in neutral,
we're moving forward.
Boise state, you know, a coupleof years ago they, they vaguely
mentioned this idea Broncostudios and it was just too
early.
Then it just they, they justweren't ready.
And even now I don't know,honestly, tommy, I don't know if
we're fully like, ready.
But you know what?
We're ready to make decisionsand we're ready to sprint.
(41:08):
And so Boise State wants tobuild Bronco Studios, and they
brought me on to help run thisthing along with Chris Coutts,
and basically it is finding waysto monetize the incredible
stories of Boise State, whichBoise State itself has long been
one of the greatest successstories in college sports, the
(41:29):
underdog that always finds howto do more with less.
And so now they're creating aplace that is convenient for
athletes, coaches, athleticadministration to come to and
share those stories on campus.
We can jump in a room, jump ona podcast, a show, whatever it
is, and now we can start to makesure that we tell our story as
(41:50):
best as Boise State has everdone it, and that's what we're
excited about.
We have a temporary studioright now.
We're working on the future.
I, you know, I've in the past,I've been told don't set
timelines on things, but youknow, I think we're so excited.
I think we're looking at, youknow, sometime in the next year
getting that permanent home andI think it's.
(42:10):
It's going to look sharp.
And if you know Boise state andagain, Cody Gogler, jeremiah
Vicki, chris Coots, all theseguys over there, you know that
it's going to be second to none.
We're going to do this rightand it's going to be awesome and
I'm so excited for it.
And I also have to mentionpeople like Spencer Danielson,
uh, leon Rice, two guys thatI've worked with for a long time
(42:32):
that they get it.
They get it.
There's a number of othercoaches over there Justin
Schultz, beck Rogar.
These guys are all awesomepeople that I'm so excited to
get to know better and make surethat we're doing our best to
not only tell their stories buttheir athletes stories and share
them with Boise and, honestly,beyond that, because now you
(42:53):
know the way media has changed.
You're no longer even justconfined to your city, right?
It's YouTube, it's social media, it's all this stuff that now
expands across the country, andeven globally, for that matter.
But we're we're really excitedabout this, tommy, and to where
to where we can take it, talk alittle bit about the brand.
Speaker 1 (43:09):
You've been around sports professional college.
I mean, this is your life.
Talk about the strength of theBoise State brand in the nation
and just how it's an incredible.
You don't realize it.
It's just that things like thisjust don't happen.
Speaker 3 (43:28):
So when I lived my sophomore year of college I
actually played baseball down inTexas and whenever I told
anybody where are you from, andI'd say Washington, and they'd
go DC and I would say no,Washington, Otherwise I would
have said Washington DC.
But why I bring that up isbecause now I get to travel out
(43:48):
and mostly it's to cover BoiseState.
But whether you're in Louisianaor Washington DC or Florida or
whatever, and they go where youfrom and you say Idaho and they
go Iowa, and you go no, Idaho,and they're where's that?
I know, do you know the bluefield?
Oh, Boise State, the Bluefieldpotatoes, Like I just don't know
(44:10):
if there is another.
I know that Alabama is big andLSU and all this stuff, but like
when you talk about their state, I don't know if the university
or field resonates at themagnitude that Boise State does
in Idaho.
Like the power of the blue isreal, I'm telling you it is.
Speaker 1 (44:27):
It's the front porch to our community, and what a
beautiful front porch it is.
It's awesome.
I mean the thing that I oftentell Jeremiah, if you could plan
.
I mean you think about ourpeople, just think about the
families that live here.
Sometimes we get, but you thinkabout just all of these
families that make up ourcommunity in the Treasure Valley
(44:48):
.
And then you think about Idahoand you think about the heritage
and you think about everythinghere and how he's come in and
embraced what was there, whichwas a great foundation.
But but instead of trying to goforward with with a plan that
didn't embrace the past, jdembraced that.
It was Blue Collar Club.
It's who are we, it's what ourheritage is.
(45:09):
So everyone that was here islike, yes, this guy gets us, but
then he takes it to the nextlevel, yes.
And so you go from where wewere 10 years ago to where we
are now nationally and you thinkabout you could not have
planned it any better for thepeople of Idaho, for the state
of Idaho, for the heritage ofIdaho, for the Treasure Valley,
(45:31):
what a front porch it is.
And then you walk that campus,you see and same thing
everywhere I travel, everywhereit is the topic that comes up.
And then you have a little bitof good fortune.
Like an Austin Gentry I mean,come on.
Speaker 3 (45:46):
Yeah, he was unbelievable.
I mean, come on, yeah, he wasunbelievable.
I mean I say the blue now, andmaybe Ashton is going to be
known across the country just aswell as the blue is, for that
matter.
And you see what he's doing atthe Raiders already.
He's lovable.
Speaker 1 (45:58):
He's just one of a kind.
Well, kellen Moore was verymuch that way.
I mean, we've had thesetranscendent athletes too.
But what's the value of that?
Could never be.
You can never put a number onit for the state and where it
sits.
Right now we're on thesubcommittee, jd and I, for the
president search, but it's themost important job in the state.
(46:21):
This thing is just poisedacademically, like where it sits
, just the academics, the, thefaculty, um, and then you come
over to athletics.
Speaker 3 (46:33):
We are we are in a great position.
This is such a um a relevantpoint to bring up right now.
So recently, texas State becamea part of the Pac-12.
If you would have asked threeyears ago or speculated that,
you'd have been like, if youwould have asked three years ago
or speculated that, you'd havebeen like there's no way, right.
So it was about three years ago.
Texas State got a new presidentand Texas State's president has
(46:55):
been investing into athletics,right.
And all of a sudden now theystart to run their own sprint.
And three years of thatattitude and they have now
parlayed that into an invite tothe Pac-12, which now elevates
everything for them.
They go from the Sunbelt to thePac-12, right.
And so that university'spresident, that vision that he
(47:17):
had seeing the value in sports,the front porch of his
university and making that frontporch as beautiful as it could
be, right.
And now that has been soattractive, to the point now
that the Pac-12 has said come onover here, we want you guys to
help us build this thing, and soI do think this is an important
decision for Boise State.
And getting back to even to JDhere for a second, so you bring
(47:41):
up, you know, the blue collarmentality, which is awesome, and
it is a staple of Boise Idaho.
But I've been here long enoughto also realize that there is a
dangerous side to that, and whatI mean is you, can we take so
much pride in doing more withless, right, yeah, but you
better not get content with thatalways being the mission,
(48:02):
because you know what's coolerthan doing more with less, doing
more with more, doing more withyeah.
And jeremiah is going out thereand you look at the new
scoreboard, the new sound system, the north end zone.
He speculates about the eastside, right?
Um, the only cooler than doingmore with more or sorry, doing
more with less is doing morewith a little bit of more, yeah,
but you had to do more withless to get there.
Speaker 1 (48:25):
Yes, and that's the beautiful thing In a very short
time and man hats off to him andhis team, cody.
I mean, it's just beenincredible.
It's been incredible.
It's very inspiring.
Hey, what are you lookingforward to coming up?
Well, I mean, the season'sgetting ready to go.
Speaker 3 (48:40):
Notre Dame's going to be huge Notre Dame's going to
be so cool and I think that youknow there's some cool things
coming down the pipe even withthat.
I'm just going to leave it atthat, but I think that that game
is just going to be epic.
My grandfather, super Irishdude.
Speaker 1 (48:57):
My grandfather.
Same thing Like I grew up infact makes me get a little
emotional, because my grandpawas my hero, both of them.
They were very different humanbeings.
One was very, very Mormon andone was very, very Catholic, and
the one that was Catholic.
In his basement he lived in alittle teeny house, he worked at
Kennecock Copper, he was veryblue-collar and in his basement
(49:21):
he had the things he loved andhe had an old Motorola record
player, but it was one of thosebig console things and I have it
in my man cave right now.
That's like when he died.
I like that's.
I wanted that cool and I wantedhis 40-year service ring from
Kennecott Copper and I have bothof those things.
But we I grew up every time Iwas at his house dancing to the
(49:42):
Notre Dame fight song.
In front of that he, he was apassionate, passionate Notre
Dame fan.
Just just it of that.
He was a passionate, passionateNotre Dame fan.
It was his thing.
That was just a connection thathe loved.
So I remember watching thosegames with him.
Here he is living in Magna,utah, working on a copper mine,
but that was his team, so it'sgoing to be great.
Speaker 3 (50:04):
Same deal.
Grandpa Sullivan always makingsure you're drinking the right
type of whiskey and stuff likethat.
So he would be.
I know that he thinks it'sreally, really cool.
He's not in the state to travelanymore and that's fine.
He'll be watching it on TV butas a bucket list item.
I'm so excited to go there.
I've got to see some reallycool venues during my time at
(50:24):
Boise State and watch them coversome really cool opponents.
I got a chance to experiencejust a little bit of that
killing where I got here in 11.
They went 12 and one.
It was a special season and Iget to connect that with the
Ashton Gentry era.
So I've seen a lot, but thisone Notre Dame, at Notre Dame
South Bend I mean it toucheddown Jesus.
It's going to be the coolestexperience.
(50:45):
What am I excited for?
I'm excited for that.
I'm excited to figure out howwe're going to tell the stories
and stuff for this whole season.
But if you want to talk about aroad trip, that's the one
that's circled on this, and thenI'm excited to see people like
Maddox Mattson rise up All theseguys that have to step up with
Ashton Gentry.
Now out Cage Casey, the lefttackle, phenomenal dude, mason
(51:06):
Randolph at the center of theoffensive line.
Ty Benefield the safety thatled the team in tackles last
year that's going to make a bigstep.
You're going to get to knowpeople like Max Steege played
very limited time last year butwith Ahmed Hassani now gone,
(51:31):
he's a guy that's going to haveto step up.
So we get to learn about thesenew guys that we didn't know
before.
And now we get to see ifSpencer Danielson can run this
thing back and prove to collegefootball that Boise State is a
power team and deserves nationalrecognition, and I just it's
going to be an awesome fall.
It's going to be an awesomefall because they have a great
leader and I just think they arebuilt different.
They are built for this.
Yeah, wow.
Speaker 1 (51:47):
You got me going.
Yeah, right, a little bit ofbasketball.
I think they've had atremendous.
I mean, it is so interesting tosee how different college
athletics is now, because it'skind of like you reload, you
reload.
But what I love about it andmaybe I'd love to get your take
on this when you have a coachingstaff like we do, they're built
for that, right.
Yeah, because they're just thesystems there and Leon's there
(52:10):
and it's just very excited aboutwhat's going on too.
They've who they've lined upfor.
This year is going to beincredible.
Speaker 3 (52:16):
I know that we've said this in the past, but you
look at their roster right nowand I'm telling you, the roster
construction is is really,really impressive.
Yes, they will miss TysonDagenhart dearly, but I actually
went out to practice yesterday.
I'm telling you, tommy, theylook pretty good and they're as
deep as they've ever been.
And the cool thing about thisera is that the transfer portal,
(52:39):
nil, it is giveth and it istaketh, but Boise State doesn't
get caught up in what is orisn't fair or any of that stuff.
They just kind of chargeforward and do what they believe
is the best.
And by having that attitude, Imean you can look at it Like
look who's entered the portalfor them and look who they've
gotten out of the portal, andthey're on the winning side of
this thing, tommy.
And you brought up the coachingstaff, the continuity there.
(53:03):
And again, if you don't know,you don't know.
You can look at it from abird's eye view and just think
they just have a coaching staff.
Tommy, what's the difference?
I was talking with SpencerAarons yesterday.
Spencer Aarons is a truefreshman.
He just represented team Canadaat the U19 FIBA World Cup in
Switzerland.
Right, I saw that he had offersfrom I mean, you name it Oregon
(53:26):
, illinois, washington.
He had, he had offers from big10 schools everywhere and he
chose Boise state.
And so this is like when youbring up the fact like no, this
coaching staff cares, they'regoing to develop you, and you're
like, yeah, okay, everybodysays that.
And then you talk with Spencerand you're like, how's it
different here?
Mike Burns flew toitzerlandjust to support and watch
(53:47):
spencer aaron's play in thatright.
It's not words with them, it isaction I love watching burns.
Speaker 1 (53:53):
Oh, he's so intense.
It's like my favorite thing,I'm telling you you need.
Speaker 3 (53:57):
Okay, have a special like two hour long version of
your show here.
Invite burns on.
That guy is filled with storyafter story after story.
Speaker 1 (54:05):
I'm gonna do that.
Speaker 3 (54:05):
He's oh, he's just but man, he bernie's like the
coolest, he's so awesome him timjury david moat.
Speaker 2 (54:12):
Hey he's so intense.
Speaker 3 (54:14):
He's intense.
But here's the deal he'sintense when he needs to be
intense and then you get himaway from the court and he's
like again, just like one of thebest guys they'd probably go
have a beer with not to everhave, but I would love to
probably his son plays.
Speaker 1 (54:26):
Played at one of the local high schools.
Okay, yeah, and one of mybuddies was uh, was an assistant
coach there and we're sittingtalking.
I'm like how's that going like?
And he's like he's the coolestparent.
He doesn't say it.
I'm like really, yeah, justbecause you see his demeanor on
the it's just awesome.
Speaker 3 (54:43):
I think you get around some of these coaches.
That's something theyimmediately realize is they're
like I don't want a parentcalling me telling me how to
coach.
So, even though I know a heckof a lot more than that guy down
there coaching high school, Idon't want somebody doing that
to me.
So you know what we're justgoing to.
Let him figure it out.
And the cool thing about thatis you let them work through
adversity and then you are justthere to to be the guy to lean
(55:04):
on after it all.
Uh, what is your, what is yourwife thought of the transition?
So far, so good.
You know I.
Uh, the cool thing about theyou know this, this transition
is it.
You know I go from more workinglike a two to 11 schedule to
more like a nine to five.
Which man seeing the sun comeup?
You know it's, oh, it's justgreat.
I get off and the sun's stillup.
I get to go home and havedinner with my kids.
(55:26):
So I've I've lost a little bitof time in the morning with them
, but I get.
I get so much more on the backend of it and you know my wife.
Speaker 1 (55:34):
You know now's the time to do it, cause when I I
did, I did night shifts in theER for 10 straight years when my
kids were little and I'm.
But as your kids get intoschool, man, the clock changes
Because you're going to see themmore and that's going to be
significant.
Speaker 3 (55:54):
My daughter, like I said, five days a week next year
.
She did two days a week twoyears ago, three days a week
last year, five days a week thiscoming year, and if I were to
drop her off at 8, get home at11, I'm not seeing this little
person that I'm telling you Ilove more than life itself.
I would, I want to see her fivedays a week and that would,
that would take from my soul.
And so now, by hopefully mixingup the schedule that's the
(56:17):
reason, yeah, so now I'veshifted a little bit and I think
that you know habits and thingslike that and routines, they're
so important how we buildourselves and craft ourselves.
And you know, you know habitsand things like that and
routines, they're so importanthow we build ourselves and craft
ourselves.
And you know, I was, I meanI'll say you know kind of stuck
in those same routines, thosesame habits for 14 years and now
, by just even this little shiftwhere I drive four more miles
(56:39):
to work, still cover a team thatI've covered for you know, 80%
of my job, even at KTVB.
You know just that little shift, even a KTVB, um, you know just
that, that little shift.
It it's uh, it's good for yoursoul man, yeah, like this
sometimes.
Yeah, it is, I get to rebuildthose habits and analyze how I
can structure myself to be themost efficient, best version of
myself, professionally, uh,family wise, all that stuff.
(57:02):
And so it's.
It's just been kind of fun tonow, you know, take notes and
say I kind of want to start myday off like this, and if I do
this now, I you know I don'thave to do it later or whatever
it is.
And so it's just a, it's ablank slate to try to build on
and become the best version ofmyself.
Speaker 1 (57:17):
So for everyone listening out there, what's?
Uh?
Where should they be lookingfor the new stuff?
And tell us a little bit how tofollow along?
Speaker 3 (57:23):
In the short term.
Immediately, we can definitelytell you Boise State's social
media channels.
So if you go to Bronco Sports,you can also find any of the
main accounts.
Whether it be football, men'sbasketball, softball they all
have their own individualaccounts.
We'll certainly be all oversocial media Instagram, twitter,
facebook, all of that stuff butthen, on top of that, right now
we will be utilizing theYouTube platform, and that's
(57:46):
another platform that you knowthey have a really good
following on there and so ourreach will be there.
And then you know, after thatwe're just going to kind of see
what the future holds.
Speaker 1 (57:54):
Tommy.
That's where those stories willbe, that's where to follow
along, and you'll be digging inand sharing more and getting it
out there and we'll tell thatstory and hopefully grow this
thing.
Speaker 3 (58:04):
I'm telling you the future is going to be cool with
it, though Listen.
Speaker 1 (58:07):
I can't wait, every time Like it's a what a great
fit.
And um you're.
You're an unbelievable guy, man.
Thanks for coming on and thanksfor the example you set.
I I it may sound corny, I don'teven care.
So I'm sitting here talking toyou today, cause I don't know
you that well.
I'm thinking, man, what ablessing for all of the people
that are going to be around you,the athletes.
(58:28):
No, you're a pretty unique guy.
So to have you in the clubhousewith the leadership and then to
have you around these athletesand say, hey, that's a guy I
want to be like someday, that'sa pretty cool deal man.
Speaker 3 (58:43):
It's another huge point of pride I've taken in
this thing, tommy, is that I'vealways tried to relate to the
athletes and I have to considerwhat's best for news, but I also
, I I take their, I I take theirthoughts and feelings into
consideration at times andthere've been moments where
that's been returned to me andI'm excited to really invest in
(59:03):
building those types ofrelationships.
All right, man.
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