3 Guys Before The Game - Wren Baker Visits (Episode 665)

West Virginia University just sent a message that will echo across the Big 12.
 
The Mountaineers are adding 140 new athletic scholarships, raising the total to 400 across 18 sports. The move marks one of the most significant investments in WVU Athletics history — with Olympic sports among the biggest beneficiaries, some nearly doubling their current scholarship limits.
 
In this episode, Vice President and Athletic Director Wren Baker joins the “Guys” to explain the decision, its impact on student-athletes, and what it means for the future of the university.

Listener questions and comments wrap up the show.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:08):
Hey, welcome in everybody. Yes, the music is on, which
means we have to start talking. And have I said
this to you before? We got a good one for you.
I mean we got a good one. First time you
said that? Yeah, first time ever.

Speaker 2 (00:23):
I never said that before.

Speaker 1 (00:25):
Normally I only only use that during the summer series.
It's not the summer, it's the fall. The leaves are
coming out of the tree. But look what fell into
our studio, ladies and gentlemen. The Director of Athletics, Vice
President WVU Wren Baker. What we call special if we
don't go a special episode or we want to say we're.

Speaker 3 (00:43):
Special because Ren is joining us, but regularly scheduled episode.
But we got important news to discuss, got.

Speaker 1 (00:47):
A big one. That's what i'most to say. How about this,
It is a significant day in the history fair of
WBU Athletics. We'll talk about it. Three guys brought to
us by Gomart. Get that Gomart rewards card, go to
dot com for details. Immediately begins saving on food and
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do they do? They sell family fun? What? What's what's

(01:11):
better than that? Award? Winning Lou Wendell Marine by Tutor's
Biscuit World. Start your Day The Homemade Way with a
Tutor's Biscuit. Start your Day The Three Guys Way with
a Tutor's Biscuit. Brought to us by Comac's Business Systems,
keeping West Virginia's business data safe, secure and effision for
twenty five years. Great Water Machines. Wren's really big into hydration.

(01:34):
He probably got a couple of these. Yeah, Three Guys.
Also brought to us by Jan Dill's Attorneys at Law
They won't take no for an answer, and by Conley's
CPA Group providing value beyond numbers. All right, let's do
this thing. What's probably way to say?

Speaker 4 (01:50):
How stones are ding? And we're not even through the intro?

Speaker 1 (01:53):
Is your phone on?

Speaker 2 (01:54):
Yeah? I'm sorry he never turns it off. We'll turn off.
Sorry that I got it. I turned it on. I
got it.

Speaker 1 (02:00):
This is the thing. See, you think you got some
things like you'd like to get settled down a little bit.
This is what we have to deal with.

Speaker 4 (02:06):
You know, I've watched a few of you guys's other shows,
and and he doesn't do this to other guests, but
every time I'm on here. He creates distractions, disrespect phone.
Last time he was squeaking his chair over there, like
I mean.

Speaker 2 (02:19):
I have to have the phone on in case Pete
Samill breaks another story.

Speaker 4 (02:26):
Hey one one last thing, Tony another showing quickly another voting.
Seasons went by and I've not been invited on the
on the How Family Pontoon boat.

Speaker 1 (02:36):
What happened there, dude?

Speaker 3 (02:37):
I thought, I don't know that I was invited on
the How Family Pants play.

Speaker 1 (02:40):
How many times did you go this summer? Three?

Speaker 3 (02:42):
I think three ish.

Speaker 1 (02:44):
That's not enough.

Speaker 3 (02:45):
May take the under on that.

Speaker 1 (02:46):
Yeah, really, Lil Wendell not happy with you.

Speaker 4 (02:49):
We probably should have taken one of those pontunes to
provo and back as long as.

Speaker 2 (02:53):
It you did.

Speaker 3 (02:54):
Yeah, we were happy and I would have beat you
if we would have loaded up in the content, would
beat you.

Speaker 1 (02:59):
A little bit of a long a little bit of
a long night turned into the morning. So obviously WV
off this weekend on the football side of things, which
just perfectly falls into the announcement that came out today.
We're recording on Thursday, October the ninth, and the announcement
you've been trickling this I've been calling it a pretty

(03:19):
steady two week to two and a half week trickle.
Kind of threw it out there. Yeah, some things are
going to be happening. We're gonna add some scholarships. Well,
you added more than scholars You added pretty much one
hundred and forty scholarships, which is game changing, precedent setting

(03:40):
news in this new world that we're in. So this
is all good.

Speaker 4 (03:44):
Yeah. No, if you go back to the summer when
I was here, we talked about how we were allocating
our rev share number, and I alluded to for us
to compete long term in our Olympic sports, we were
gonna need to increase our scholarship allitment. To help with that.
We had left our Austin allocation in place, the Academic

(04:06):
Incentive awards, but it isn't truly as impactful as as
the scholarships, and so you know, fast forward, you know, well,
let's rewind a little bit. You guys know that pretty
much ever since I've been here, we've been doing assessments
and having meetings here on a national consulting firm come
in really looked at what do we need to do

(04:26):
to compete put ourselves in that top tier the Big Twelve.
You saw our board pass the resolution a few weeks ago,
which was really important. And then this is another step
in several steps to ensure that across our sports portfolio
that we have a chance to continue to compete at
at a very high level.

Speaker 1 (04:46):
With this announcement, Where does that now put West Virginia
among the other Big twelve schools in regard to scholarship offerings?

Speaker 4 (04:54):
Oh, I would say it would have to be in
the top one or two for sure now, So it's
a while, it's a it's a big, big addition. I mean,
we had so we have about five hundred roster spots
in the in the new model, and so five hundred athletes,
we had about two hundred and sixty scholarships. So you
just think of the impact of adding one hundred and

(05:15):
forty to that. It's an over fifty percent increase in
the number of scholarships that we have and so very
very impactful. You know, different sports are impacted. You know,
let's take basketball for instance, they're roster numbers fifteen. Women's
basketball already had fifteen scholarships. Men's basketball had thirteen, so
wouldn't be much impact to them. In fact, I don't

(05:38):
know that either of them had requested women's basketball couldn't
have any more additional scholarships. I don't think men's basketball
really requested additional But you go over to baseball, who
has thirty four roster spots and was operating with eleven
point seven scholarships. There's a lot of figures that and
I can't recite them all, but baseball is going to
go to twenty eight scholarships and so massive. They'll have

(06:00):
more than double the number of scholarships that that they
had the last few years, including this year. And so
that's a massive increase for them, and and should ensure
that what we've built with the momentum in baseball, sports
like men and women's soccer can continue.

Speaker 1 (06:18):
Sure, go ahead and be careful for Ren. I'm just
advising you in advance. Kind of a counsel. He not
only has the laptop out, he's got the legal pad
propped up on the laptop board. So here you go.

Speaker 4 (06:30):
Well, and when them will be into a scoop, he
comes with his stinger out. Yes, you know now you're
starting starting from that right there, like it's already hoppy.

Speaker 1 (06:38):
When did you find out today that theam will got
you again? Uh what time was it but a little
bit before ten? I think peek, Yeah, posting like that.
What did it feel like for you when you find
when you saw that? Yeah, I do. What did it
feel that? Were you mad? Were angry? Did you have
a sense to call w Ren?

Speaker 2 (06:54):
What did you No, I'm semi retired. I can't fight
that fight every day. I was just teasing about ten.
And also, here's the other thing is that we're we're
kind of semi connected at the hip with these guys.
So there's some things you know, but you don't know
whether you can report them because you don't. I mean,
I would have another to try to report that. I

(07:14):
would have to call Rin and say I'm hearing this,
I want to report something, and then we'd go from there.
He either tell me or not tell me. And I
didn't call you, So I get it. It's okay, It's fine.

Speaker 1 (07:24):
Is sure.

Speaker 4 (07:25):
There's things that Hoppy cares more about breaking than others.

Speaker 1 (07:29):
Yeah, presidential when they hire the new president. You're so.

Speaker 2 (07:32):
But look, I think this is a couple of things.
I think this is really really significant variety of reasons.
One is you're going to one twenty four for the
Olympic sports. I mean you're solidifying those Olympic sports, most
of them. I mean you immediately go to the top
of the tier in the big twelve in Olympic sports,
number one, number two, football gets sixteen more so football

(07:53):
you got one hundred and five is your maximum on roster,
and one hundred and one scholarships, So good shape there.
The biggest The other big thing I think is it
frees up revenue sharing money. I think that's huge, and
I don't know what the number is and whether you
want to share, but that means if you give the

(08:13):
additional scholarships, you do not have to dilute. Maybe that's
the wrong term revenue sharing money with a lot of
these Olympic sports. You can use that for football and basketball,
So correct me if I'm wrong. This also frees up
revenue sharing money for the money making sports.

Speaker 4 (08:31):
Yeah, I would somewhat, but I probably phrase that a
little different. So we go back to last summer, you know,
the kapus twenty and a half million. We did two
million of Austin money, so we rev shared eighteen and
a half million dollars we budgeted and rev shared twenty
and a half million, But in terms of just revshare payments,

(08:52):
eighteen and a half settlement says Austin counts, new scholarships counts.
What we did is we're sunsetting Austin, which was the
academic incentive award that you were approved to be able
to do last year, and we're replacing that with scholarship.
So that means that you'll have a two and a

(09:13):
half million dollar debit against that twenty and a half
million rev share, But that number is going to grow
by about eight hundred thousand.

Speaker 2 (09:20):
Dollars, right, because it grows four percent of there.

Speaker 4 (09:22):
That's right, that's right, and so and the reality is
of the money that you're actually rev share that's going
the vast majority of it's going to football, men's basketball,
baseball has some, volleyball, I mean, women's basketball has some,
and then volleyball men and women's soccer get a smaller,
more negligible amount, but the vast majority is going to

(09:46):
those two sports. So what this does is it gives
all of the rest of those sports what they need
to compete in this modern world. And now you can
focus really on two things. One is making sure that
your revenue sports have the revenue rev share that they
need to be competitive. And then two, making sure that
you're putting a lot of effort and attention into helping

(10:08):
identify and grow real INIL deals with businesses across the
region and state to get real above the cap in
IL money to help extend that because that and so
for people at home that own a business and they
you know, they love the Mountaineers and they want them
to do well. Anytime that that you can do a

(10:29):
sponsorship deal with one of our student athletes, you are
in effect helping us extend that overall pie that can
be shared. Because whether the money is coming from us
or from a business, what the student athlete cares about is, hey,
what's my what's my take home for the year. And
so so that's really what this does is it shores

(10:50):
up our Olympic our Olympic sports programs, puts them in
a place where they can compete in the Big twelve
and nationally, and allows us to focus on the next
part of the plan, which is to is to make
sure that we're growing revenues to cover the revenue that
we're sharing, but we are going to share the full amount.
And then to identify above the cap nil deals.

Speaker 2 (11:12):
But but but it does probably quiet those Olympic sports
in terms of where's our share of the revenue share.

Speaker 4 (11:23):
I think that's fair because you know, previously what some
of them was said is because some schools had added scholarships.
Ohio State was one that added over one hundred scholarships
last for this past year, and so a lot of
SEC schools had added scholarships for baseball in particular, and
so you know, they were trying to take a little
austin and extra revs share and trying to piece together

(11:44):
and we we've said, hey, for for a lot of them,
they might be trying to get some money in the
pocket of two or three players, but they're really just
trying to get everybody to where they've got their full
cost of attendance covered. And so we've we've taken that
that worry, that concern, that headache off the plate and
allow them to focus on other goals.

Speaker 3 (12:03):
Along those lines, I would think from a leadership and
an internal pr perspective, because football and basketball get the
majority of the discussion, but you're still running an apartment
with eighteen different sports, and you want those sports to
be good and you want those coaches to feel like
they have a shot to be competitive. I would think
internal pr for those particular Olympic coaches baseball in particular,

(12:23):
is one they have to be thrilled with. This in
an era when we spend so much time talking about
football and men's basketball and nil type stuff.

Speaker 4 (12:29):
Yeah, you know, in the spring, Will will take the
opportunity to visit one on one in a more formal
setting with all of our head coaches. And I told
our senior staff at one point it's the most miserable
three or four weeks in my life, because you know
those coaches, I mean, they're highly competitive and you want
that in them. I mean I always try to remind

(12:52):
our senior leadership team when there's frustrations with the unquenchable
thirst of coaches wanting more. I always say, you'd pull
the reins on a thoroughbread then have to kick a
donkey in the butt, right like all the point, you know, like,
and so I try to tell myself that when we're
going through those but they all want to zoom to
the outlier. Well, this program has X, how am I

(13:14):
supposed to compete? This program has why? And and they're there,
you know, I won't say it's universally this is true.
But this, this move for the majority of our Olympic
sports programs puts us in a place where we should
be able to compete at a very high level nationally.
And and so you know that that from an athletic

(13:36):
director standpoint, to know that hey, we've got that taken
care of. Now we can we can focus on these
other things, you know, is very helpful financially.

Speaker 1 (13:46):
How do y'all get this done?

Speaker 4 (13:48):
Well? We were planning on starting our own podcast to
compete with three guys. We're gonna do four solid they
would watch three guys. I think four would probably take
it over. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. You know a variety of ways.
The Hope Coliseum naming, you know, I think I alluded

(14:09):
to that helps us do things like be at the
full rev share and and add scholarships. We have, you know,
announced some some changes in some of our giving structure.
We announced we're going to proceed in basketball, for instance,
We're continuing to try and chase down additional revenue streams.
We're continuing to to hone in and get focused on

(14:30):
and and and our advancing in our plans to increase
our premium seating. But a big part of this is, uh,
we sit down with campus collectively said how can we
make this work? And for the universe of athletes. It's
likely that we're going to now be paying an in
state tuition rate, so we'll still pay for for what

(14:52):
we're for the scholarships, but we're we're getting that in
state rate and having having to instead of having to
pay out of state, and that significant, say, and so
we will be able to take those savings and then
apply those towards towards these new scholarships.

Speaker 2 (15:06):
So that's that's a that's significant.

Speaker 3 (15:09):
That's a that's a decade long ask or discussion point
that's been out there that finally gets done.

Speaker 1 (15:13):
That that goes decade way back to Neil Buckler when he
was president. He's the one that took away the tuition him.

Speaker 3 (15:19):
You know.

Speaker 4 (15:20):
And and I'll give a ton of credit to our
Board of Governor's President Benson and then the university's leadership team,
my colleagues on on his cabinet. I think three or
four things are very much true. One, everybody wants and
feels like the university needs for athletics to be successful. Two,

(15:41):
everybody feels strongly that it's important that that's not just
one or two sports, but that we try to provide
a quality experience and an opportunity to be competitive for
our full portfolio sports. And three. You know, we're not
asking to to to get these spots for nothing. We
are willing to pay. We're just asking that they beat

(16:03):
the in state rate. And when you're coming from a
state with a lower population, inherently you don't produce near
as many blue chip Division one Power Conference level athletes,
and so that out of state rate affects us much
more than it would an institution in Texas who's going

(16:25):
to have a big percentage of their athletes from right
there in state.

Speaker 2 (16:29):
So I'm trying to do the math in my head,
which is dangerous. So when you have scholarships for two
hundred and sixty, majority of those are out of state,
So you're reimbursing the university for out of state tuition.
So now you're going to four hundred, you're adding one forty,
and everybody is going to be on in state tuition.

(16:49):
So is the bottom line you're actually going to be
paying less or just a little more, you know what
I'm saying? Right, the total costs.

Speaker 4 (16:59):
Yeah, I would say the cost to us is probably
going to be similar, if not slightly more. But the
university rather it was through us paying that out of state.
The students who were walking on previously paying in state
or out of state. They were that that revenue was

(17:21):
coming in from somewhere, so therefore going capturing that revenue
bucket from somewhere and in an effort to help us
pay this.

Speaker 2 (17:31):
So the university, the academic side would say, are downtown
downtown Downtown I.

Speaker 4 (17:38):
Don't use that downtown town one university, but they are.

Speaker 2 (17:44):
But then that makes them really more of a partner
in what you're doing.

Speaker 4 (17:49):
No question. I mean our board of governors and President
Benson uh and the rest of his team have been
tremendous partners in supportive and and this isn't like you
all have to do this or here's what we need.
This is sitting down collectively and saying what can we
do to help, knowing that it is a goal for

(18:11):
the university to ensure athletics is successful to move into
that top tier of funding. And this is a big
piece of it. It's not the only piece, but an
important piece. And so it really was everybody coming together
and saying what's the best way to do this? And
I think getting that in state rate for the universe
of athletes is probably more palatable than leaving the system

(18:33):
the way it was and getting a cash transfer. On
the other end, it it feels different that people can
understand an internal discount rate for something that's as important
to the university's brand and marketing as athletics is you.

Speaker 3 (18:46):
Have I'm going to ask you an impossible question to answer,
but maybe speculate a little bit. You've come off the
starting line really quickly here. You mentioned you're one of
the leaders here, certainly in this conference and across the
country and doing this any thought or can you foresee
how long you keep that lead being in a copycat
business that others are going to look around and say, hey,
look what West Virginia is doing.

Speaker 4 (19:05):
It's a tough question. Not as impossible as when my
wife tries on two different outfits and ask which one
I like best?

Speaker 1 (19:10):
You look beautiful and both of the dear either one
really difficultside, which one of them both best?

Speaker 4 (19:16):
I've ever seen? So I suspect that most people work
in the same boat we were. They were trying to
figure out for their revenue sports how to get the
majority of the rev share funded. First, Some added scholarships
last year. I remember Ohio State added a bunch of scholarships,
for instance. But I do think I would bet you

(19:41):
that every baseball coach in the conference is probably setting
up a meeting with their a D right now to
talk about so probably, like any time somebody does something,
it's going to put pressure on other people in the
in the conference to do the same. Now, some added
a more negli number of scholarships this year, you know,

(20:02):
Like we were one of the few that didn't add
any scholarships this past year, but we were also on
the few that left Austin. So I kept reminding our coaches, well,
you have that Austin, and there's a scholarship value that
that that is too that it extends your scholarship budget.
But you know there there's definitely you know, I would
say it'll be an advantage uh for two, three, four years.

(20:26):
But but people will start making progress towards that because
no one's going to sit there and let you. Kevin White,
the former Idea duke who's on the Heuron team, UH,
the line he uses when he's presenting is you're chasing
people who are chasing people, and so nobody but nobody
is sitting there waiting on you to to catch them
and pass them by.

Speaker 2 (20:45):
You know what, you know what you're doing, though you're doing.
We're not a higher state and we're not You're doing
what you can do. Yeah, okay, you've you've you have
an avenue and you're going that avenue. You're not trying
to say we got to raise all this. You know,
we have to do all this with N I L
or everything else. I mean, I think it's a really
smart play.

Speaker 4 (21:04):
Yeah. Well, you know, I would say the toughest few
months that I've had on this job has been the
last six or seven months, because it does feel like.

Speaker 1 (21:13):
A second time out. Say that again, I know.

Speaker 4 (21:16):
Because there is some stuff.

Speaker 1 (21:18):
This has been the toughest six or seven month Wait
wait a second. You want you like.

Speaker 4 (21:22):
To attract though I wouldn't because the things that happen
with having to make a change at head coach or
somebody makes a mistake, right that's a coach or student athlete.
Those are things that are temporary. You know, you can
work through it. There's there's acute pain, but you but
you move past it. You know, as we went through

(21:46):
those spring meetings with coaches and everyone, you have simp
a sympathetic heart to what their plight is and what
they're going through and what their concern is. But you
don't have the ability. You know, you literally feel like
you're you're putting lipstick on a bunch of different pigs,
but you're not really like solving anybody's problem and spreading

(22:10):
things out thinner than you would like. And this really
takes a lot of your sports and says, hey, for
the next couple of years, we've given you a much
better situation to compete in. It's not going to be
the end all be all for everybody for all times,
but this is a major and major thing that's gonna
really help you be able to compete. Now, let's take

(22:32):
our entire team's effort and energy and go focus on
how we make sure that these revenue sports have what
they need.

Speaker 1 (22:39):
Three guys, before the game is brought to us by
Comac's business systems. You just heard Ren say wanted to
take care of the people that work for You know,
if you're in a business, why don't you take care
of the people that work for you. Ren did it
with scholarships, you can do it with water. I mean
we're calling this I twelve water cooler, some are calling
it revolutionary. Is this better?

Speaker 3 (22:57):
And carrying the big water jets?

Speaker 1 (22:59):
Here are those? Number one? Those things hurt your shoulders.
Then you got plastic. That's a whole nother deal. The
I twelve water cooler that Comas has right now, Ren
does both hot and cold water and ice. I mean,
why not put it in your break room, put it
on your floor, wherever your manufacturing is, wherever it might be.
Put it in there. Contact COMAXWV dot com. Ask them.

(23:20):
But by the way, they also have I don't know
if you know this, every single kind of office equipment
ever made in the world, Like if you name it,
Like what do you want? You want to curl paper clips?
They got a machine and make a paper clips whatever
you need.

Speaker 4 (23:31):
Tony knows I'm a massive water cans big guy. I
mean basic gallon today at see that at least.

Speaker 1 (23:38):
A gallon to day three guys, also brought to us
by Jan Dill's attorneys at law, Ren has not taken
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have not needed veterans benefits or Social Security claims. They're
based right here in the state of West Virginia and
have clients in all fifty of our states. If you
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(23:58):
we're starting to go through that process military benefits or
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Your big analytics guy, eighty eight percent of the people
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Get these folks involved right from the beginning, and your
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(24:20):
until they get money for you for an answer that's correct.
Kind of like Wren won't take no for an answer
when you told so, the coaches sit down with you, you say, hey,
in a perfect world, tell me what you need and
they say, I need this many more scholarships. Then months
go by and you come back to them and you
start making phone calls or call them into your office

(24:40):
and you say, okay, Steve Sabans, okay, Jen Greeney, Dan Stratford,
who Hoppy by the way, hired Nicky is overrown, and
you say, this is what we're doing. What were the reactions.

Speaker 4 (24:52):
Well, some of those conversations were had with their sport
program administrators, but by and large, I think the number
they were expecting we would come back with and the
number that we come back with were we're drastically different.
I don't think they were thinking they were gonna get
as me scholarships as they as as what they're going

(25:12):
to get. And so you know, excitement, uh, and and enthusiasm. Now,
I try to remind people all the time if if
you took a head coach and you said, Tony, you're
you're the head coach of badminton here. I want you
to make me a list of everything you need to
to to win a championship, and I give you everything
on that list, and I come back to you in

(25:34):
a month and and said, hey, Tony, do you have
everything you need to win a championship on You didn't
have another list, And so, uh, then that's just coach, Like,
that's just coaches. You do this long enough, you know
that they're just wired to always be thinking about how
can I take this to the next level? What what
would would make us better? And and you know, their
jobs to go out and help people grow and develop

(25:56):
and to win games. Uh, they have a disc shary
responsibility for douciary, but I don't think they take that
near seriously as they do those other responsibilities.

Speaker 1 (26:07):
And so budget budgets a little loga.

Speaker 4 (26:10):
So yeah, but they were, they were very excited, very
very pleased. You know, they all ask if they could
write notes to our board in the university leadership and
so they're doing that. But yeah, they're they're very excited.

Speaker 1 (26:25):
Think about this without this addition of scholarships. Right now,
standing today, track and field number top ten of the country,
number one of the mid Atlantic region. Both women's soccer
and men's soccer are both top twenty five, and they
both have number five RPIs going into this weekend's action,
right and baseball two super regionals. Don't think about that,

(26:46):
I mean rifle wins the World's championship. I mean think
about that. That's what they're doing with what they have.

Speaker 2 (26:51):
Yeah, volleyball's cooking right now.

Speaker 1 (26:53):
Volleyball's starting to percolate. Gen's got those guys competing and percolating.

Speaker 4 (26:57):
Now right they're taking they took a mass step forward.
Is I mean volleyball top of all time from top
to bottom. Volleyball is the deepest sport we have in
the Big twelve. Everybody is in that top seventy five. Wow,
you know, and so it is a tough, tough league

(27:17):
to compete in. There just literally is no give mes
on any night you got. I mean we, Tony and
I were at the match last night against Cincinnati and
they had a player that I feel like it was
like watching Lebron play in high school. You know, dominant,
very dominant, and so so you know. But but coach

(27:41):
Green's done a great job.

Speaker 3 (27:43):
Let's dive a little deeper on the baseball part of this,
because I'm I'm just amazed at what baseball is Tony.
You just said what they've been able to do with
the resources they're given. I don't just mean here, I
mean nationally what baseball programs have done over time where
you have significant contributors in your starting lineup are paying
their own way to school. And for West Virginia now
to be in the position is with that stadium, the

(28:04):
performance center where you have what will soon be the
cy Young Award winner coming down here to work out
because the pro facility doesn't have the same facilities as
here to now going back in and fully funding this.
That's remarkable what baseball has been able to do from
a program perspective. And this is kind of a cherry
on top of that, isn't it?

Speaker 4 (28:22):
It is? And you know I spoke to the baseball
team a few days ago. They the returners from last
year got their super Regional rings and uh and the
athletic director got his as well. So you were down there,
uh but uh And I told them, I said, I said,
you're walking into a program that has that has grown

(28:42):
beyond anybody's while this imagination, Like I know when Randy
got here and he and Oliver were out selling the vision,
this big bold vision to for the for the program,
when when that uh uh tiff was put together to
build the baseball park, I know they price sold this
kind of vision. But deep down inside, if you give

(29:04):
them truth sarum, did they really think that this program
could be as consistently good as what it's been now
for three or four years? Maybe they did, but I
find that hard to believe. And so to see what
that program is from a fan support standpoint, and the
way that the attendance has grown from a competitive standpoint,

(29:24):
from a facility and resource standpoint, is really incredible, and
this scholarship piece ensures I mean it was a big
concern of ours. If we don't find a way to
get baseball more scholarships, they will not be able to
sustain the trajectory that they're on. And so I would
say baseball is one of the biggest winners here for sure.

Speaker 3 (29:44):
The recruiting level that they have gone to is pretty remarkable.
This just adds to that gives you the resources to
now go out and take that to even higher level.

Speaker 4 (29:52):
That's right, And by you know, by giving them these scholarships,
and they get a significant revenue share too, And and
you know they do recruit some West Virginia athletes and
some of those kids get some real in IL deals.
But again, by by giving them these scholarships, we will
still try and go out and find in IL deals

(30:14):
for some of their key players, but there's less pressure
on that because everybody, you know, at least has their
full cost of attendance covered with the vast majority of them.
So back to football, when you're trying to extend that
cap and make sure that they're getting the best of
the best, maybe that frees up a little more time
for you to uh to focus there, And so I

(30:34):
don't want people to misread that and say, oh, well,
they're not gonna We'll continue to work on all of
these sports, but it relieves some pressure that you can
spend more time and energy on on the football side.

Speaker 1 (30:47):
To go ahead.

Speaker 2 (30:48):
What what was the what was the genesis of this
of this concept was this? You looked at what a
couple other schools had done, or you talk to other
ads and people sort of knock this around. What was
your moment where you said, you know, we can do this.

Speaker 4 (30:59):
I think just knowing. But honestly, baseball was a big
part of the conversation because there were some SEC schools
that that added significantly in scholarships to baseball, and there
were some big twelve schools that added some you know,
and Arizona State added quite a few scholarships.

Speaker 1 (31:18):
And so.

Speaker 4 (31:20):
You're really sitting around thinking, okay, with baseball, minimim soccer,
and we care about all those sports, but with those
three sports, we have made such progress to become nationally
competitive and nationally known and to build a reputation for
being highly competitive. We do not want to lose that

(31:40):
in this new world. It's important to West Virginians that
that we that we reflect the values of the state
and that we reflect well on the people of this state.
And so that really is where some of the conversation went.
And as we look at three and five year plans,
it really was, hey, we're going to spend a lot

(32:01):
more time and effort trying to piecemeal things together when
we could just make this scholarship change and really inject
a vast amount of energy into those programs.

Speaker 2 (32:12):
I want to go back to the resolutions and Board
of Governors because at the time, it's just like this
general resolution like we support athletics and going forward, and
it was just it looked sort of template like, but
that was that was gigantic. Yeah, and you, I know,
made a presentation to the board. I don't know if
you talked to members individually, but had you not gotten that,

(32:35):
had you not gotten them to say, Okay, we know
what you're trying to do, We're with you, I don't
think you would there would have been a lot of
questions about this.

Speaker 4 (32:42):
Yeah, you know, I I so I've been asked some,
including by other athletic directors, which is part of the
reason that that resolution had some vagueness to it, Like
we feel like we have a really good long term
plan to build towards success. And we may talk about
football in a minute. I know that we're not where
we wanted to be this year, where coach Coach Rodriguez

(33:05):
wants to be, but we feel like we have a
very good long term plan to ensure the competitiveness of
our programs. Now, you're gonna have down years, You're gonna
have years where there's injuries, You're gonna have years where
there was a recruiting miss. But over the long haul,
we're we're building a foundation in a program and feel
like we have we have a very well thought out plan.

(33:28):
But but we don't want everybody else in the world
and all of our competitors to know our plan. If
we had announced, let's just say a year ago, that
we were going to add all these scholarships, I'm sure
Virginia Tech and Pitt would have been saying, you know
what West Virginia's getting ready to do, like we better,
we better get that done. And so you don't want
to just like a coach doesn't walk out there at
their press conference and reveal here's here's how we're going

(33:50):
to try and beat this team. We're not trying to
do that either, but I do think when you look
at the build up, the multiple presentations that started with
just me, then here On comes in, then slam our
architects come in and they're doing these presentations. The board
takes their resolution, we are working a plan and we've

(34:12):
got to retreat coming up this fall with our with
our board, and Hereon's coming back in to just lead
discussion around Hey, here's what we saw a year ago,
Here's what we're seeing in the market today, do we
need to adjust this plan? What what else needs to happen,
and where do we see the future going? And so
I would just tell people at home that that there's

(34:33):
a there's a reason, uh sometimes that we do the
things that we do, but very much there is a
plan that we're following.

Speaker 1 (34:40):
You are feeling good about the future of football. What
is it that makes you feel good as we get
ready to ramp out into year two.

Speaker 4 (34:49):
Well, one is I know that we have all of
the resources lined up and allocated as as we move
into year two, and we we had a good, good
competitive pool of resources this last year. But when you
hire coaches like they missed that entire high school recruiting cycle, okay,

(35:09):
and then you look at the portal cycle and they're
way behind on it. And and a lot of times
by the time, even though you're not supposed to be
tampering and all this stuff that wouldn't happen, by the
time a kid goes into the portal, a lot of
times they kind of have identified the place they're going,
or the one or two places they're going. So you're behind,
and then there's incredible pressure on what's left in there.

(35:33):
They're they're getting bid up supplying the man and the
supply is getting lower, especially when you get a late start.
Then you add in that unregulated period where people were
just dumping money at certain institutions into the system that's
supplying to man. It's going up, and so were The
roster that we have has a good amount of money

(35:53):
in it, but we did not deploy every dollar that
we had to go and and people who we didn't
think were difference makers. And so we have some money left,
some gas left in the tank, money in the match yea,
and some gas left in the tank. In this year's
REVS share number. We have the full lotment for next
year's REUE REV Share number, and we're currently working on

(36:17):
secure and above the cap nil deals and when you
add those together, I think we will have a highly
highly competitive pool of funds to draw from. I think
Coach Rodriguez and his staff are doing the things that
you want a first year coach to do, to set
a culture, to set expectations, to build a foundation. You know,
we're still probably going to be looking for a good

(36:39):
number of players, more than we would like to this
upcome year, but it won't be eighty players. It'll be
less than that, and you'll know and have evaluated the
players that you retained and that are in your program.
So I think we'll be in much better shape. You know,
people want to always zoom and look at like what
happened with Indiana when when sign he went in there

(37:00):
was able to bring in fourteen really good players with
them and they had some good players there and low
expectations and a schedule that's set up, and he did
a heck of a job. But if you look since
twenty twenty three at first year coaches in the Power
Conference jobs, those have not been super successful seasons for

(37:22):
the most part. But year two there has been a
considerable jump. I mean Look at Arizona State, they were
three and nine. They went eleven and three. Look at
Houston last year and where I think they only won
four games all year, and they already have won four
this year. You know, you just look at year two,
there's a big jump year one. Everybody's had a struggle.
So I would just tell people at home, you know,

(37:45):
I understand it's frustrating. You know, you can see the
frustration in our coaches and student athletes as well. Nobody
puts more into it than them. You know, I want
to win every game, but I feel really good that
we are a foundation that is going to allow us
to build something really special and to compete at a
high level, and that we have the right people in

(38:06):
place to do that.

Speaker 3 (38:07):
So we've spent the bulk of the time talking about
how it affects Olympic sports. That's a good spill over
into how this helps football. Men's basketball on a similar
boat here, they benefit from this as well. I think
you're seeing that on the recruiting trail at this point,
the guys that have signed are coming in for visits.
That has gone to a new level, and basketball clearly
has the resources behind it.

Speaker 4 (38:26):
Yeah, in terms of just the scholarships helping them. Men
and women's basketball won't see like a big benefit from that,
but they will see a benefit from what I mentioned earlier,
and that is being able to take care of these
all these Olympic sports with scholarships allows you to focus
more on growing those above cap nil opportunities. We don't

(38:47):
have our MAC staff and the GBE team out trying
to raise money to fund scholarships for people, So now
they know we can go out and raise money for
hopefully provements at Pushcar Stadium, which will drive revenue and
then grow in those above the captain il opportunities, which
is gonna be the next differentiator. And so that's something

(39:10):
that's going to be really really important as we move
forward for for a lot of sports, but particularly football,
men and women's basketball, for them to have those opportunities.

Speaker 1 (39:19):
Do you think that with the way things have now
been organized within football, when you go to quote unquote
market in this offseason, will you be in the top
half among other Big twelve conference schools, will you be
in the top five?

Speaker 4 (39:34):
Definitely top half, and I would imagine we'll be right
there around that seventy fifth percentile, top four or five. Yeah,
I think that's I think that's where we'll be and
and you know, and I'm confident if we're there, that
we can put together a team that will be highly competitive.
You know, if you look at most of the teams

(39:56):
in the league that have success, they are pretty old
and experienced up front on both sides of the balls,
particularly the offensive line. And so you know that is
an area where you're gonna you're gonna go into portal
try and get a lot better. But you're also you
know that there's gonna be a little some high school

(40:18):
recruitment that you have to develop our great offensive lineman.
Most people Utah, I think somebody told me across their
front five they had an average of thirty six starts
at Utah something like that. Yep, And so you know
you still need to grow and develop those and so
much of a team's offensive success starts right there on

(40:40):
the offensive line. But I do think you'll see, you know,
both in terms of competitiveness in that too deep, but
also depth will get a lot better. I mean, the
scholarships for football, that's where you're gonna get a lot
of help with the scholarships, is the depth you're gonna
be able to recruit and retain better from a from

(41:01):
a depth standpoint.

Speaker 1 (41:02):
Hope Coliseum is now fully engaged. I drove by today
and they're taking off the big sign out in front
of the road, making one bigger.

Speaker 4 (41:10):
Huh yeah, it's uh so uh that Marquee is going
to get considerably bigger, considerably uh more sthetically pleasing. Not
that the old one was bad, but the design on
the new one's really nice. You know, they're gon upgrade
some signage at the at the primary gate there when
you come in to the front of the colisseum, and

(41:33):
then we're gonna be working on update and the lighting
where we can get lighting that we can change colors
and top of the roof. You know, we're having breast
cancer awareness games. We can go pink and you know,
and it's fourth of July, we can go red, white
and blue, and uh so, uh that that'll that'll be fine.
But uh yeah, I just want to say again how
grateful I am to Hope and and their leadership team,

(41:57):
including Morgan O'Brien, their CEO. That was that's a game
changer for us, and it really you know, it sets
the table because because we got a very good market
deal on that. So it says the table when we
go to market with other opportunities for people to see
that benchmark and know if they want to co brand

(42:17):
with us, you know what what what that what that
looks like from a financial commitment standpoint, but also an
activation standpoint, how we will try to deploy the activation.
I think Hope was really pleased with how that was
rolled out and activated.

Speaker 1 (42:32):
They activated well, yeah, they activated.

Speaker 4 (42:34):
Well, you put a band in a small space like
Clark Mountaineer Club and that was that was high energy,
very nice. I felt like I was somebody walking through
that that.

Speaker 1 (42:45):
Uh yeah, yeah. You always are like a magician. You
always have one more up your sleeve. So you did,
Hope Gas, You're doing this one hundred and forty additional sky.

Speaker 4 (42:55):
Why does he do this all the time?

Speaker 3 (42:57):
I ask a magician to reveal their tricks, asking where
he over commits you guys on stuff all the time.
That's his brand, that's his brand. He's gonna try and
get you to over commit to something here too.

Speaker 1 (43:09):
You got another one up your sleeve.

Speaker 4 (43:11):
We are are actively working on a couple of major
gifts that that I hope we can get announced for
at the end of the year, but that I'm confident
that we'll will get done, which will allow us to
invest in in some facility stuff that will be very exciting.

Speaker 2 (43:27):
By this time next year. Will it be blank blank
at Mountaineer Field?

Speaker 4 (43:33):
Is that an offer for Hoppy kerchiefal Mountaineer.

Speaker 2 (43:36):
Field if you do it for like eighty eight dollars?

Speaker 4 (43:37):
I mean, but you've built a little You're like a
media mogul here. You're like Murdoch of West Virgia.

Speaker 2 (43:44):
I'm really Murdo. I'm minor celebrity. The value of that
is minimal. But look, I mean it's logical to believe
that that naming. I mean, you have the things the
baseball field is named, that coloseum is named. You would
look at mountain your field.

Speaker 4 (44:00):
Right potentially yeah, uh, you know again, it would have
to be the right partner, somebody that we felt good
about sharing our brand with and their right financial investment.
But that's definitely something that that we would consider. I
think Mountaineer Field we would we would desire for that
to always be part of that, uh, because I know

(44:21):
that that's a name that that's endearing to people. But
but it's certainly something that that we we would consider
in the right time and place and listen, I got
I get a lot of feedback on on those things,
and some people don't, don't, don't love it. But but
but I think most people understand that in today's world,

(44:44):
that expense line is growing, and so you have to
grow that revenue line to keep up with it, because
you know, if you don't, then then you're you're going
to campus and asking them for for even more help,
or you're which which ends up being a burden to students,
or you're just jacking up the cost of tickets and
concessions and parking, which is a tax on your fans.

(45:07):
And so it really is something that really helps us
to remain competitive without putting any undue burden on any
one of our constituents.

Speaker 1 (45:20):
I think you're at a perfect time right now. This
doesn't happen without everyone being aligned. You've got administration aka Downtown,
You've got the Board of Governors, and you've got you
and the athletic department. Those this all doesn't work unless
you've got those three entities tight together and you and
a lot of schools don't, right A lot of schools
have these battles internally, don't want to do this, don't

(45:42):
want to do that, And what happens You just go
down so this.

Speaker 4 (45:45):
Yeah, and we have people who are invested in a
variety of different ways. But I'll just use one example
like Russy Hudson, our board chair Diversified Energy, is a
major sponsor, one of the biggest sponsors of WU athletics,
and all before he was on the Board of Governors,
Rusty would check in with me fairly routinely, just just

(46:07):
kind of wanting to know the status of different things
in a supportive way, not in anything other than that.
And so I think you just go down through that
Board of Governors and we have a group of people
who understand the significance and important of athletics. They're fans

(46:27):
of the Mountaineers, they are people with deep connections to
this state who understand how important the Mountaineer athletic programs
are to the people of this state. And so I
think that's what you want. I tell colleagues around the
country all the time. We have our own set of
challenges at West Virginia and for WU Athletics. One that

(46:49):
I do not have is to sell people on the
importance of the sports teams to our university and to
our state, like I've never once had to try to
convince people of that. People inherently to get it here.

Speaker 2 (47:00):
You know.

Speaker 3 (47:00):
To that end, this is probably more of a statement
than it is a question, But to that end, it
really is remarkable. And listen, I get the health of
the football program is vital to the health of the
athletic department. I think everybody understands that. But given where
this new world was three four five years ago, and
some of the thought of what that would do to
Olympic sports and the death potentially of Olympic sports and

(47:22):
what may be coming down, and the lack of opportunities
for women and others in this new world, it's really
remarkable what we're talking about today and where this is
gone compared to what was thought was happening in that
world a couple of years ago, isn't it?

Speaker 4 (47:36):
Yeah? It is, And I would say the threat of
that is not gone, right. I mean, we've talked about
it on this program before. If you don't get some
kind of federal legislation, and you don't go ahead and
go down the path of a collective bargaining agreement, you're
going to continue to get challenged in court, and you're

(47:57):
going to continue to lose more off than the not
in a way that at some point to compete in
those revenue sports, it's going to come at the expense
and sacrifice of Olympic sports. It's just like which is
why I always say this is not sustainable. An unrestricted, unregulated,
free agency at all times market in sports is not

(48:22):
sustainable for higher education institutions. But for us to be
able to make the progress we have and to hold
serve and to double down on on our willingness and
ability to compete in those sports at this juncture in
time is remarkable, and hopefully it keeps us competitive until
we figure out whatever way we're going to go in

(48:45):
terms of establishing a system that that is sustainable. But
I like, at some point we're going to have to
either go down the employment road and and and and
collectively bargain or figure out another mechanism to do that,
because what we were doing right now isn't sustainable.

Speaker 1 (49:07):
Before you go, by the way, you were totally on
when Hoppy asked you to her headsets before we started
and you said, my mic Adoqutte is perfect It wasn't
off Mike once. It was very.

Speaker 4 (49:18):
Very tried to put me in these noxious headsets like.

Speaker 1 (49:21):
I was, I apologize on behalf of two of the
three guys around, and I apologize for hoppy, try and
make it put.

Speaker 2 (49:27):
I was just trying to make the show better. But
Ren was Look, Wren was on micro.

Speaker 4 (49:32):
Yeah, Like if I'm five time right now, I don't
know if you count the time I came home with
President Benson.

Speaker 1 (49:38):
You're in the seat we counted as a seat. Sit
once you sit on the side a five time half
a scholarship. I want to show you something you've been
talking about Golden Blue Enterprises, and I think we did
something that was kind of historic. Earlier this week we
partnered with the United Way inside touchdown Terrace, with mountaineer coaches,
with student athletes, with Golden Blue enterprises, with a couple

(49:59):
of sponsors, Clear Mountain Bank, Hope Gas was there as well. Hey,
if you would, Jake show us some of those pictures
because Wren was at Big twelve meetings, so that was
us in case, you know, ide go ahead flipped through
some of those. So we had a big look at
the crowd. We sold it out two hundred and seventy five,
two and seventy five people. That was good, and there
we are with the folks from the United Way. Then

(50:21):
we did so we actually did two groups of five
student athletes and then we did some football players. We
had Nick Cray and Curtis Jones in there later on.
Then your coaches, Oh they're happy. I mean they're happy.
They have more scholarships, right, excellent, they have marriage on.

Speaker 4 (50:35):
Them to all wear something different so that I'll have
two hundred and seventy five people in the crowded email
and asking where they can buy all of that.

Speaker 1 (50:42):
Of course Phil was Daniels. Yeah, Phil was there. So
this Uh, that young lady there with her arm rais
she won one of the live auction items to come
and listen to sit in during three guys like a
studio audience.

Speaker 4 (50:54):
How about that?

Speaker 3 (50:55):
Yeah, I think she actually wants a mic for that show.
She that was she was, Yeah, she's.

Speaker 1 (50:59):
Right for a mill be able to do that. We
got an next.

Speaker 4 (51:02):
Us asking questions if you wouldn't stop it. There was
this at the event here, well this.

Speaker 3 (51:09):
Story that's trying to find revenue sources as well.

Speaker 1 (51:12):
We bought we bought the hog bought the hog at
the Preston County Livestock Show the cake.

Speaker 3 (51:19):
But and then we had we had someone there bidding
for us.

Speaker 4 (51:23):
Yeah, and uh, an educated person, you know, I grew up.

Speaker 1 (51:26):
Dave Thomas, the president of Clear Mountain Bank, bid it
for us.

Speaker 3 (51:29):
He knows how to bid.

Speaker 4 (51:32):
Yeah, And so then we bought the pig. But can
he judge a hog. That's when I'm asking, well, very good.

Speaker 3 (51:41):
If you want to be a proxy in the next
year's buckets, we're happy to employ it as well.

Speaker 1 (51:45):
Come in. So then we auctioned off the meat. Yeah.
So Wilbur was his name, b Bless his heart, thirty.

Speaker 4 (51:53):
Eight pretty common pig name, I think, yeah it is.

Speaker 1 (51:56):
He wasn't a common pig though, you know why. I
gave his life to the United Way of mon and
Pton Counties. Thirty eight pounds of pork sausage, fourteen pounds
of bacon, two hams, pork steaks, I mean, chops everything there.
He is well, I mean I hate to see him
like that, but I mean that was a good memory. Anyway.
R Ip sold that bad boy. Auction that bad boy
off for twenty three hundred dollars.

Speaker 4 (52:17):
I just feel like, like people know where bacon and
sauces come up. But when you show the pig, it
just a little sad.

Speaker 1 (52:25):
Like, Hey, you ever watched Lion King Circle of Life? Baby?

Speaker 4 (52:29):
I mean, yeah, you gotta go look. It reminds me.

Speaker 3 (52:33):
Listen, we appreciate the sacrifice.

Speaker 2 (52:34):
Yes, I'll tell you very much.

Speaker 4 (52:36):
A story my brother's x Y. She was and she's
still a great friend of the family. But she was
from Tulsa, and we all grew up in the country
and so was the city of the city saying, Oklahoma
it is, and so you know, she she came in
one summer and my grandmother had a cute little cat

(53:00):
out in the in the lot, and they went out
there and his name, my grandmother named him Boudreau, and
like she'd go out there and feed him every day
and and so you could pet him, this little calf. Yeah,
and so fast forward, we came in for Thanksgiving. My
grandmother made some chicken fried steak, and and uh, we
were all eating it. And homegrown beef really good, unbelievable,

(53:26):
it's completely different taste. And and so my sister in
law said, you know, Gran, Sue, this this is some
of the best beef I've ever had. This is incredible,
And my gran said, boudrou tastes good, doesn't he? And
she just like start crying like she had no idea
that what was what was happening there that we were
fat out the old calf. Yeah, she gave the whole

(53:49):
name during the dinner.

Speaker 2 (53:50):
Yeah, so this should be it should be spreads on stats.
Every day there's roughly well fourteenth thousd and pigs are
slaughtered every hour in the United States. That equates to
about three hundred and thirty six thousand pigs a day.

Speaker 1 (54:06):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (54:06):
Meanwhile on the plains of central Oklahoma and Missouri and Texas,
and wild hogs are running wild right destroyed. Oh yeah,
destroying people's property. Like some of those people will hire
people to come fly over their property and helicopters just
gunning them down like machine gun.

Speaker 3 (54:26):
This program's very aware of that, be very aware of that.

Speaker 1 (54:29):
Do you know the story hunt?

Speaker 4 (54:32):
Oh I forgot about that, like when he killed the
wild board.

Speaker 3 (54:34):
Well, again, there's some question on how that came about.
Thing might have already been dead at the very least
it was sleeping. Yes, A lot a lot of questions
on the the uh.

Speaker 1 (54:48):
Here, I don't know he was his fantasy land over there.
This is I have some facts. Number one, one shot
pig was dead. Number two it was dead. That's why
one shot was gig was the pig was And have
it on videotape.

Speaker 3 (55:02):
Thank you charge that you did it. No, No, it
was just standing up a pig or a wild board.

Speaker 2 (55:09):
It was a big board.

Speaker 1 (55:10):
It was.

Speaker 3 (55:11):
It wasn't charging you. But it was standing and walking around.

Speaker 1 (55:15):
It was an assassination?

Speaker 3 (55:16):
Was it standing and walking?

Speaker 4 (55:17):
It was?

Speaker 1 (55:18):
Excuse me? You heard me.

Speaker 4 (55:20):
It was laying down.

Speaker 1 (55:20):
You heard me, sleep and counts and honey, you just
ask a hunter, where do you have to go? Excuse me?
Could you walk around a little bit so I can
have a tougher shot. Took care of them.

Speaker 4 (55:28):
But you know those things like multiply very rapidly, and
they destroyed farm land and crop.

Speaker 3 (55:33):
They crushed, They root through the ground, Texas, they are menaces.
We're not disputing that, just disputing.

Speaker 1 (55:39):
That Wilbur wasn't like that. He was just up there
in Preston County. That young man that raised that he
was did a wonderful job.

Speaker 2 (55:44):
You know, we we we take no joy in the
of the hog.

Speaker 1 (55:47):
We just I mean, but he helped people. It was
solace and he helped his life help people. Great cause
we made it raised money for you, not a way
I'm on in Pressing County anyway, Very thankful. We did
really well with and it was great to interwine all
of the entities together. And those are the kind of
things you're trying to do the Golden Blue get get
out there right and.

Speaker 4 (56:06):
John, I'm really glad to see our student athletes doing that.
And I will just say Don Robinson, who we've we've
hired in Golden Blue, great member of the community, understands
community engagement, lifelong West Virginia, lifelong mountaineer fan, and is
doing really unique and and and great things to to

(56:27):
grow our our presence and and and also to grow revenues.
So we're we're really pleased with what he's doing.

Speaker 1 (56:34):
Each of those student athletes that spoke donated to the
United Way. Did they really Yes, they did, all all
of them, and they were really really good.

Speaker 2 (56:41):
They were great. They were they were great and they
and each of them. During Tony's interview, Rin talked about
the environment in West Virginia, and you would reference that
in the environment West Virginia, how they felt welcomed here.
All they understand what the university means the rest of
the state. So that that's a big part. Man, it's
a big part of being here.

Speaker 1 (56:58):
All right, you've spent enough of your precious time with us.
We we sincerely appreciate. This is where we make a
super interesting segue where I start talking about textual healing.
The graphic goes up and then as a magician, Ran disappears.
I mean it is here now, it's going. So, all right,
what are you doing for your off weekend? You doing
anything fun?

Speaker 4 (57:19):
I'm actually flying Friday to uh Texas. So the ad
at the University of North Texas a dear friend of mine,
and he's receiving and distinguished Alumni award from from Abilen
Christian University Saturday morning. So I'm gonna go. You know,
you have off from football. Brad knows this. What are
you gonna do? I'm gonna go watch South Florida and
the University of North Texas one of the best group

(57:40):
of five games of the year. Yeah, well that's a
big one.

Speaker 1 (57:43):
Florida's good.

Speaker 2 (57:44):
Yeah, it is undefeated, aren't.

Speaker 4 (57:45):
They they are? And they got a ranked team coming in.
I saw a stat they're like, oh and twenty nine
against ranked teams away from home controller or road. They're
two and two all time at home against ranked teams,
so it's a big one for him. They they're expecting
their first ever sellout in their new stadium.

Speaker 2 (58:06):
Hat and fry probably back in the day. Yeah, well,
good deal, nice hating fry references.

Speaker 1 (58:13):
Ren, thanks so much, all. Let's take this. Watch them disappear, yeat,
watch watch Ren disappear. Ready, Wren is going to disappear?

Speaker 2 (58:20):
Four three two.

Speaker 1 (58:22):
Three guys brought to us by Textual Healings episode eight
hundred dot com. You can check in with us. That
number is three zero four four zero four forty eighty three.
Three oh four four oh four forty eighty three. Go
to our websites and you can get all the different
kinds of stuff that we have on there, which which

(58:45):
includes our coffee, our popcorn, apparel, and as they just say,
and stuff. Three guys also brought to us by Tutor's
Biscuit World. You know, with over seventy locations, you are
not far away at any time of the day from
a Tutor's Biscuit World. Hoppy oftentimes stops and gets it
and they're having a good fall. This is a fun

(59:07):
season for them. As they transition into fall, we call
it biscuit weather. Some people gravies a little bit more pronounced.
During that, you got to try these new sauces that
are now available at Tutors Biscuit World. The original barbecue
still there, so don't fret, but now additional sweet TERIAKEI
Carolina Gold and the Honey Siracha. Start your day the

(59:30):
homemade way a Tutor's biscuit and they are down, down, down, fantastic,
three guys. Also brought to us by Gomart. Saturday is
coming up as we record on a Thursday. Triple rewards
points every Saturday right now at Gomart. So if you
have the app on your phone, triple your rewards points.

(59:50):
It leads to faster savings, food and fuel. Visit them
throughout the state of West Virginia and beyond. It is
go for good times. Go for Gomart and download the app.
That would be nice. So what are you doing on
your off off day? Jarring peppers?

Speaker 2 (01:00:07):
Oh that's right, you got a big peppers.

Speaker 1 (01:00:10):
This is the one day of the year Pepper Weekend.
We'll do about between seventy five to one hundred jars
of red hot peppers and sauce.

Speaker 2 (01:00:18):
Now, what do you get the peppers?

Speaker 1 (01:00:20):
Sometimes most of the time from Ohia.

Speaker 2 (01:00:24):
What do you mean you got?

Speaker 1 (01:00:25):
You go there or they get them. There's a lot
of peppers. So they he coordinates it through somebody and
they say, yeah, we can get them foury reds hots.
Bring them. Yeah, so they'll wash them on Friday.

Speaker 2 (01:00:39):
It's a two day thing.

Speaker 1 (01:00:40):
But wash them on Friday and already and then Saturday
morning we'll go in there about I don't know, ten
twelve guys. Really, it's a day long process. Ten twelve
guys cut the peppers, then bring them into the house
and then they are fried, oil, garlic, basil, and then
they are bottled in jars with the sauce, and the

(01:01:01):
sauce is also going in there at the same time.
They're exceptional. It's good exceptional.

Speaker 2 (01:01:05):
How hot you said they're hot?

Speaker 1 (01:01:07):
They're hot, but not stupid hot, not ghost pepper hot.
Not like over at B Dubs where we had the
Blazing Wing challenge and it was the combination of Ghost
Scorpion and Carolina Reaper. Not that hot. But these are
really really good nice that sounds like fun These are
really really good t actual healing. Not a ton of them,

(01:01:28):
which kind of makes sense because we were just here
and there's no game to be played. But I want
to start off with this one. Okay, this one's a
special one. As you'll see from my most recent post,
my grandmother, Pauline Fruit Sock from Summersville, passed away at
one hundred and one. Been tough. We had a great connection.

(01:01:49):
Thanks for making life more enjoyable. She was born if
you want to show this picture here, Jake born in
nineteen twenty four, Hoppy, one of thirteen kids in Century
West Virginia. Her dad came through Ellis Island from Italy.
He was sixteen years old. She lived through a century
of change with grace and grit. I loved her and

(01:02:09):
always will rest easy. Grandma. See on the other side,
and there's our guy, brat Rick Shecher. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:02:15):
Can you imagine what she what she lived through, I
mean through the changes that she saw.

Speaker 1 (01:02:22):
In nineteen twenty four to two twenty five. Credible, just amazing. Texter.
Three guys, any concern about Rich's Rich Rodriguez's unfortunate travel
struggles over the years, You guys mentioned how angry he
was after a Rutgers game in the early two thousands.
Now this eleven am arrival after BYU. Well, here's the difference.

(01:02:48):
So the Rutgers thing was an afternoon game and they
didn't make it back to Morgantown until Sunday afternoon. This
was old timer. That was an old timer. This was
you got on the plane. Lord knows what it was.
I'll tell you exactly what it was. So the game
got over at two in the morning. Here we were
on the bar probably like three point thirty. So it
was This was much more reduced than the Rutgers thing

(01:03:08):
where they had to go back to the hotel and
sleep for the night. That's that was the ultimate.

Speaker 2 (01:03:13):
After sitting on the plane after six hours.

Speaker 1 (01:03:15):
For the pilot's timed out and that wasn't good. Texter
Ty Edwards will be back next week for UCF. He
is from Palatka, Florida, two hours from Orlando. He will
be in Yeah, I don't think there's any question about that.
Next Texter says this sweet and salty like hoppy signed

(01:03:36):
Jeff from Sandyville. Ooh have you tried those? Good, Senator?
I have not would receas filled pretzels. I like the
way he said hoppy is sweet and salty describes you. Well,
Oh thank you, Hunter Hillsboro, North Carolina. Hey, guys, both

(01:03:56):
Khalil Wilkins and Scottie Fox bring young and this season
being a throwaway. Do you think that Rich will go
for a fifty to fifty split for the games remaining
or continue to have Wilkins be the main guy?

Speaker 2 (01:04:11):
Well, you would think he'll go with knowing Rich, I
mean Rich, the rich is not afraid to use the hook.
I think he'll go with whoever he feels has had
a good week of practice, and if that person is
not performing in a way that he thinks he should be,
the hook will come in, Brad and somebody else will
come in.

Speaker 1 (01:04:30):
Yeah, I would.

Speaker 3 (01:04:31):
I would think though, if I'm picking one of those,
I think Wilkins gets the first crack to go ahead
and secure the bulk of those snaps. It just he
fits what you're trying to do. Saw how many times
he ran him yu, Yes, So I would think that
would be the primary hope. But yeah, there's no doubt
you're going to see both of those guys moving forward.

Speaker 1 (01:04:47):
Again, I said a bunch of times. I mean Rich
is very, very atypical when it comes to quarterback usage. Like,
the only thing that matters to him is that the
person who is in there right now is giving him
the best chance to win the game. So if Khalil
Wilkins starts a game and rich is watching and he
doesn't think that he at that moment is giving him
the best chance to win the game, he'll pull him.
He won't even think twice about it. He doesn't care

(01:05:08):
about feelings, he doesn't care about whatever you want to call.
He's like, my job is to win. Your job is
to win. If you're not doing the best you can,
I've got someone else that can win better than you
at this moment. Again, it doesn't it's not a permanent,
it's not a tattoo. It's just at this moment, he'll
make a change.

Speaker 3 (01:05:24):
I am curious to see the improvement from Khalil now
that he has started a game and got the majority
of the snaps. Now to a week off where you
can examine that you have more time for mental reps
even than the physical. But been in the fire for longer,
right has adapted that the jump you'd improve the most
from week one to week two. So from his first
start to his second start. I'm interested to see how

(01:05:45):
how much of a jump that is going on the
road here to u SEF. But how about him assuming
he gets the start next, His first two starts in
his career both come on the road. It can't be
a lot of that that has happened over him.

Speaker 2 (01:05:56):
But he might. He might go on the field at
UCF and go, well, this ain't so bad after being by.

Speaker 1 (01:06:03):
Exactly not as loud, that's for sure. This next text,
this is rue from Buchanan. I am sending this from
not so Happy Valley. I wanted to respond to Hoppy
about everything but the oink in a pig scrapple is
as I was told, literally everything in a pig except
the oinc I have attached a picture. So just a

(01:06:25):
little recipe for how you cook this. You slice it
about a quarter inch thick, fried in butter, make a
couple over easy eggs, and place it on top. It
is money a little bye week conversation. By the way,
I'm in Happy Valley for a meeting. Yeah, so you
do that, and they give you two stints as well,
right on the side of the plate.

Speaker 2 (01:06:44):
I gotta tell you, I am a big scrapple guy,
big pond. First, I've heard of this well where I
grew up. Yeah, this time of year, we didn't butcher,
but people would butcher and somebody would drop off some
scrapple or they call it. I think the German name
is pont hoss. And it's chilled, you slice it, you
fry it. It's really good.

Speaker 1 (01:07:07):
Seriously.

Speaker 2 (01:07:07):
Oh yeah, I love it?

Speaker 1 (01:07:10):
Wow?

Speaker 2 (01:07:11):
You never you never had it?

Speaker 1 (01:07:12):
Never have bread? Have not? You know me? And you
give it a try, you'd eat that.

Speaker 2 (01:07:20):
I mean it's it's sausage like, okay, have you but
you take? You take? It's literally what's left after you
butcher a right and after everything else you can eat
like you just that you don't have to.

Speaker 3 (01:07:31):
Well, I was gonna say one of the I don't
want to hear that part.

Speaker 1 (01:07:33):
Just want to know what all have you ever?

Speaker 2 (01:07:35):
And you had corn?

Speaker 4 (01:07:36):
You had corn meal there?

Speaker 2 (01:07:37):
Now?

Speaker 3 (01:07:37):
Yeah, I want it with the over easy eggs there
like RU was talking about.

Speaker 2 (01:07:41):
Okay, I want it included.

Speaker 1 (01:07:42):
In that all right, have you eaten hagis no?

Speaker 2 (01:07:45):
Never had have you? No?

Speaker 1 (01:07:46):
I turned it down? Well did you jonate it?

Speaker 2 (01:07:49):
I probably would turn it down too.

Speaker 1 (01:07:51):
Yeah, Joe nate it. We were in uh in Scotland
and Scotland.

Speaker 2 (01:07:56):
I mean you shuld probably should give it a try
because you're in Scotland.

Speaker 1 (01:07:59):
I'm good, I said, would you.

Speaker 2 (01:08:02):
You ever had tripe?

Speaker 1 (01:08:03):
Crushed it as a kid? My dad and I would
crush it by the by the pound, Are you kidding?
My mom would cook it, put it in sauce, and
I crushed it as a kid. You talking about some
weird looking stuff, the honeycomb inside the stomach. That's one
of the few things dude flourished. But I understand that's

(01:08:25):
really not healthy at all. It really isn't. But I'm
a little kid.

Speaker 3 (01:08:29):
I neither scrap what else I used to eat. So
you were pounding in your you know what I.

Speaker 1 (01:08:35):
Used to crush chicken stomachs.

Speaker 2 (01:08:38):
Excuse me, gizzards, Oh gizzards.

Speaker 1 (01:08:40):
Gizzards crush them. Yeah, just absolutely devoured them.

Speaker 2 (01:08:44):
But it's getting a little nauseous over here.

Speaker 1 (01:08:46):
Three guys brought to us by peanut butter cups at
go mar Three guys brought to us by lou Wendell
Marine sales. I was talking to Nathan Adrian over at
basketball practice today. Yeah, you know he's he's in the
boat business out of state. Yeah, over in Maryland, And
I said busy time and he goes like, yeah, busy

(01:09:07):
time people bringing their boats in so over on the
other side, right, we're talking about lou Wendel Marine Sales
in Saint Albans in the valley and if it's that
time of the year for you to bring your boat in,
get sales of availability if you want to catch a deal,
but also the service aspect of it. Lou Wendell forty
years in business, Premiere Boat Marine. They got the whole deal.

(01:09:30):
Check them out at lou Wendelmarine Sales dot com. That's
lou wendelmrin Sales dot com. They sell the avalon boats
manufactured one hundred percent here in the United States of America.
From the text line, I want to make a podcast
episode recommendation to you and any listeners that are fellow nerds.

(01:09:53):
Check out the six hundred and forty eighth episode of
Freak Comics called The Merger You Never. They discussed the
state of college athletics and why things are the way
they are from a different perspective. They also throw out
some hypothetical some crazy, some not. Apparently there's a part
two coming. By the way, I was watching, he adds ps.
I was watching the Singapore Grand Prix F one event

(01:10:15):
Sunday morning and I saw a familiar business on the spoiler.
You could show this. This is from Isaac Hadjar's car,
So Tutor's Biscuit World, also apparently now in the Singapore
F one Race International. I'm waiting for confirmation that they
were talking biscuits and not high end watches. Probably probably so, Texter.

(01:10:40):
Since there's a bye week this week, basketball will be
brought up. I thought I'd take a moment to focus
on thirteen November for a moment for the remaining portion
of the football season. It cannot be said enough that
beating Pitt on thirteen September was worth any heartache that
would come for the rest of the year. I said

(01:11:00):
it the week before the brawl last month. Mountainer Nation
will be there. Let's show up now in force for
Ross Hodge in his first backyard brawl. He got to
town when West Virginia played Pitt in baseball. He was
present at the overtime football last month. He knows what
this rivalry means. Aaron says, I suspect clear Mountain Bank

(01:11:23):
will still have their beat Pitts sign out on Chestnut Ridge.
Let's get out there in mass at the Coliseum and
try to enjoy another win, hopefully while going to and two.
This fall has always beat Pitt and let's go Mountaineers.

Speaker 3 (01:11:35):
That'll be a fun game. Yeah, Pitt likes its team.
I think we will like Ross Hodge's team.

Speaker 2 (01:11:41):
That'll be a good one. We were hanging with the
coach Hodge at the United Way event, and he likes
his team. We had two of the players there, very
impressive young.

Speaker 3 (01:11:49):
Man, Harlan Obioha and Trey Eagle Staff both did a
great job speaking and we were watching a little bit
this week. Harlan makes a difference inside. That's a big dude.
And here's a big fella, a big seven footer in
there that has good feet. Tony good feet.

Speaker 1 (01:12:04):
Yeah, I don't know if they're quite. I mean he's
got Jimmy Bell asked good feet. Jimmy a great feet.

Speaker 2 (01:12:10):
What is he six nine?

Speaker 1 (01:12:11):
No?

Speaker 2 (01:12:13):
Is he seven to one?

Speaker 1 (01:12:14):
Sid?

Speaker 3 (01:12:14):
Yeah, he's a big seven plus.

Speaker 2 (01:12:16):
And Carlan can you said you can light it up?

Speaker 1 (01:12:20):
No.

Speaker 3 (01:12:21):
Trey in the middle right there, six five, six, six
can score at all three levels.

Speaker 1 (01:12:26):
You're not a small guy, Brad.

Speaker 2 (01:12:28):
Yeah, you're like six two.

Speaker 3 (01:12:29):
Yeah, but you know they would have trouble on the
post against either one of those two.

Speaker 1 (01:12:34):
Well you had trouble on the post against Rebecca Lobo?

Speaker 2 (01:12:37):
Well, well, well she's pretty good. I did. But they were.
They were just it was nice meeting them and they
were just like mature young men and it just handled
themselves really well. So and Hodge likes he likes these guys.
I'm going to practice tomorrow.

Speaker 1 (01:12:51):
I heard you were That's awesome.

Speaker 2 (01:12:52):
First time. Well, coach was invited me. I kind of
I kind of invited myself.

Speaker 1 (01:12:57):
You did.

Speaker 2 (01:12:58):
It was embarrassing, and he he said, come on in.

Speaker 1 (01:13:01):
Yeah, you're gonna get to go in there, which is great. Brad,
are you doing though, Spreads.

Speaker 3 (01:13:04):
I've got a couple. I'm just a couple, just gonna
drip one out there on the UCF game. But I
got another one that we I'll just go ahead to
check the numbers.

Speaker 1 (01:13:11):
He's checking the numbers, the numbers.

Speaker 2 (01:13:13):
There comes a heater.

Speaker 1 (01:13:16):
Spreads on stats, kind of throwing you off here a
little bit. Aren't we did healing first? Rent? All right?
Yet you got him out, all right? He knows the way. Really, yeah,
I've been here A lot spreads on stats is brought
to us by the Conley CPA group, providing value beyond numbers.
They will walk step by step with you in anything
that you have to do. When it comes to the

(01:13:38):
world of accounting. You can have them do off site
accounting for your business, so they can do that remotely.
They can provide CFO services and a whole lot more.
I'm smiling because I may have attacked CPA there at
the event the other night. Yes, but you guys embarrassed.

Speaker 3 (01:13:56):
No, no, not embarrassed, but per usual, you make the
attack and then I've got to clean it up on
the back end. As I was trying to walk through,
I was jumped. As I was walking through two on one,
got double team. Would they say, got trapped in the
corner with the ball, was looking for help there, got
two accountants all up on me.

Speaker 1 (01:14:12):
What'd they say because of you? What did they say?

Speaker 3 (01:14:14):
Just attacking them unfairly? They were trying to give you
an answer. You were bull rushing right through them. Wouldn't
allow them to answer?

Speaker 1 (01:14:20):
All I asked, was in a moment of great electricity
during the auction? Is this tax deductible. Guy wanted to
go into his car, take out his tax manual, ire
tumming through. Let's see he got coachs Oh, you mean.

Speaker 2 (01:14:32):
You wanted to do some research. You wanted to actually
get it right.

Speaker 3 (01:14:34):
It's not always a yes no answer. They had to
had to look at some things.

Speaker 2 (01:14:39):
By the way, one of the guys you attacked is
my accountant. I would like him to get it right.
I don't want him to go yeah good enough. Yeah, yeah,
that's probably fine. Yeah that suit, you got it, Daniels.
We can write that off.

Speaker 3 (01:14:52):
I think I sued it over.

Speaker 2 (01:14:53):
I think thank you, thank you Brad cleaning up. Yeah,
I don't know. It was a toughness to clean up.

Speaker 1 (01:15:00):
Sorry about that.

Speaker 2 (01:15:01):
Yeah, yeah, you're really sorry.

Speaker 1 (01:15:02):
We rate and not really. We raised a lot of money.

Speaker 2 (01:15:05):
Yeah, it was fun. It was a great event.

Speaker 4 (01:15:07):
Packed.

Speaker 3 (01:15:08):
Community really showed out for that.

Speaker 2 (01:15:09):
Yeah, it was great. Props to the props to the
people who paid to be there and then bid and
bought things, and I think everybody had fun music.

Speaker 3 (01:15:17):
Yeah, guys, two sides.

Speaker 2 (01:15:19):
Are there, House banned Two sides.

Speaker 3 (01:15:22):
United Way did a great job of organizing that. The
committee was fantastic and as we mentioned Golden Blue Enterprises.
That was that was awesome to have those athletes there
from all the sports. It shows again we've said this
a bunch of guys. Football and basketball gets so much
of the attention. There are so many fantastic stories across
all the sports, and there's so many worthwhile just interest
stories from the background of these these players and these athletes.

(01:15:44):
It's it's fun to get a chance to talk to them.

Speaker 1 (01:15:47):
Or what do you got spreads on stage?

Speaker 3 (01:15:49):
Well, first we we kind of let this out a
little bit. I was going to come in with the
numbers on the pig, the actual numbers. This is pretty remarkable.
Go hit to me, just break it down real quick.
Two pack of ribs, sure, nineteen pork chops, it's a
lot of shops. Three steaks good, three shoulder roasts, thirty
eight pounds of breakfast sausages, big break breakfast sausage. Two

(01:16:11):
fifteen pound hams, and fourteen pounds of Bacon's all from
the one pig.

Speaker 2 (01:16:17):
That's bless his heart.

Speaker 1 (01:16:18):
He was fully committed.

Speaker 2 (01:16:19):
That's why, and that is one of the reasons that
pigs are a tremendous food resource. Is there there's a
there's a lot there up there.

Speaker 3 (01:16:30):
Yeah, just gonna drip a couple of UCF numbers for
us to ruminate on for another week. We'll do it
more when we get into the preview episode. But starting
to dive into to their efforts a little bit here
was this stat really jumped to me. So UCF is
fiftieth nationally right now in EPA per play expected points
added per play fiftieth nationally.

Speaker 4 (01:16:50):
Pretty good.

Speaker 3 (01:16:51):
They're tenth in the Big Twelve, tenth in the Big Twelve,
but fiftieth nationally. There's some teams in this league that
are having some success. This will be the fourth top
fifty offense West Virginia has played to this point in
that category EPA per play.

Speaker 1 (01:17:08):
Fourth.

Speaker 3 (01:17:09):
How many games this will be the seventh?

Speaker 1 (01:17:11):
Can we get to like about ninety nine or one
hundred and ten?

Speaker 3 (01:17:13):
That'd be nice, But you're not going to because the
next part of that stat is this, there are four
more on the schedule. So West Virginia will play eight
of the top ten in the Big Twelve in terms
of EPA per play this season. So we talked about
the schedule lightning up. No Penn stayed on it. But
you're still getting some teams that are producing again, those
will normalize. We'll see how many finished inside the top

(01:17:33):
fifty by the end of the season. But that one
kind of jumped out to me.

Speaker 2 (01:17:37):
But in this league there is There might not be
a national champion, but there is balance and quality in
the league.

Speaker 3 (01:17:42):
It just backs it up again. There's just not as
Ren was talking about the volleyball league in the Big
twelve football same way, there's just not an obvious walk in.

Speaker 2 (01:17:50):
Okay, they're not very good. They're not very good.

Speaker 3 (01:17:52):
One last note though on UCF, and this will be
something to keep an eye on. Stay on EPA per Rush.
UCF's defense right now is having some overall success, but
they have thus far struggled to stop the run. They're
one eighteenth nationally and EPA per rush going against a
West Virginia offense that's gonna want to do what hop
is going to want to run it. So if West

(01:18:13):
Virginia is to go into this game and listen, guys,
I think there's no doubt and you don't shy away
from this. You looked at this schedule and said, all right,
that's one it's on the road. But you've got a
UCF program that is also trying to find itself under
Scott Frost version two point zero. Just like Rich a
team that's trying to find its identity. It hasn't played
an overly difficult schedule. I'll get into that next week.

(01:18:34):
This is one where if you're West Virginia in a
great situational spot coming off a bye week when they've
got to play another week, you've got to go into
Orlando feeling like, all right, this is one let's play
a little bit better and see if you can walk
in there and get out of the bounce house with
a win.

Speaker 1 (01:18:47):
Agreed, you can watch West Virginia's next opponent, the Bearcats
against Cincinnati this coming Saturday, and get a look see
what they got. They got some speed, I got speed,
some speed.

Speaker 3 (01:19:00):
Yeah, they'll put guys in space. I mean I know
you hear that in modern football, they'll put guys in space.
This West Virginia defense better find a way to find
those guys better than it did against BYU because they've
got some slippery dudes.

Speaker 1 (01:19:11):
All right, what's the show? Yeah, it was good. Great
to appreciate running.

Speaker 2 (01:19:15):
That's a big that is huge news. Yeah in WU athletics,
that is that is seminal moments.

Speaker 3 (01:19:23):
I still and guys, I still feel like we underreported
how big it is for baseball because for decades it's
I get baseball coaches a lot of credit for doing
what they've done West Virginia and otherwise just in the
industry of doing what they do to compete while having
eleven point seven scholarships, that's been the national rule, that's

(01:19:44):
been national for that industry and those coaches to do
what they've done, what an uphill battle every year and
to now suddenly jump that, guys to twenty eight, so
I know it helps a lot of different programs. That
is absolutely enormous for a baseball program that is really
cooking right now. Anyway, without that, it has to be Yeah,
should be change.

Speaker 1 (01:20:03):
Coach Stratford gotta be giddy soccer wise, he been, he's
been feed. He's been feeding thousands with a few fish
and a couple loaves of bread.

Speaker 2 (01:20:11):
Yeah, as well, that's great. It's a great move.

Speaker 1 (01:20:13):
All right, three guys, we'll be back next week. We'll
preview West Virginia and UCF. It won't be on Sunday,
so we're not here Sunday. No, why would be here Sunday? No,
we're good always this show up. Yeah, you can come
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(01:20:34):
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Speaker 2 (01:20:54):
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(01:21:15):
value beyond numbers. All right, have yourself a great bye week.
West Virginia watches Cincinnati and UCF and then they will collide.
Next weekend. Thanks for being with us over and now