Speaker 1: It is showtime. A very pleasant, good evening, everybody. Greetings
Speaker 1: from the original Montgomery In home of the world's greatest rips.
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Scott Saderfield Radio Show. Now, as you know,
Speaker 1: this show is normally on a Tuesday night. Because the
Speaker 1: basketball team played last night, the football show moves to
Speaker 1: Wednesday night, which, as it turns out, is a very
Speaker 1: important night for the coaching staff. So Coach Saderfield is
Speaker 1: not here this evening, but we've got a couple of
Speaker 1: great guests that are going to carry us through the
Speaker 1: next hour. Up first, the athletic director at the University
Speaker 1: of Cincinnati, please welcome John Cunningham.
Speaker 2: And a little bit.
Speaker 1: Later in the show we will hear from UC's football
Speaker 1: general manager, Zach Grant. Great conversations coming up with John
Speaker 1: and Zach. Let's start with the season tonight for this
Speaker 1: football program. Seven and two, with three games left in
Speaker 1: the regular season. If the Bearcats win, and these last
Speaker 1: three games are all against very good opponents Arizona, BYU
Speaker 1: and on the road at TCU. But if Cincinnati wins
Speaker 1: these three games, the Bearcats will play for the Big
Speaker 1: Twelve championship in Dallas. It's year three in this league.
Speaker 1: That would be an extraordinary accomplishment if they can pull
Speaker 1: it off.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's very exciting. Obviously, there's only a couple schools
Speaker 3: in the country that can say that everything's still in
Speaker 3: front of them, and more one of them. I mean,
Speaker 3: if you think about it, you could just say that
Speaker 3: the playoffs starts this Saturday, and you just sort of
Speaker 3: win in advance, win in advance, and you get to
Speaker 3: the goal, which was at the beginning of the year
Speaker 3: and really all spring, all summer, everybody all they talked
Speaker 3: about was let's get to Dallas. Let's play for a
Speaker 3: championship in Dallas, a Big twelve championship, because we know
Speaker 3: when we get there, you're one game away from the
Speaker 3: playoff and you just kind of take it from there.
Speaker 3: So exciting to be in this position, really proud of
Speaker 3: this group to, like you said, in year three, to
Speaker 3: have this oppportunity.
Speaker 1: Coach Sadderfield took over a couple of years ago under
Speaker 1: challenging circumstances. Whenever you have a coaching change nowadays in
Speaker 1: college football, everybody's free to leave. A lot of players do.
Speaker 1: In his case, he was also moving into a much
Speaker 1: tougher league, so that made things doubly challenging. What has
Speaker 1: impressed you about the job he's not only done this year,
Speaker 1: but over the course of two and a half years.
Speaker 3: It's been his steadiness. It's just who he is, you know.
Speaker 3: I mean, he had a system that he wanted to
Speaker 3: put into place. He knew he was going to take
Speaker 3: some time. He had to get the people around him
Speaker 3: and you know, start to recruit his players and all
Speaker 3: those things. It just takes time to do that, you know,
Speaker 3: And so I think his steadiness throughout this process. Somebody
Speaker 3: asked me, am I surprised by this year, and I
Speaker 3: told him, oh, I actually I would have been surprised
Speaker 3: if it didn't go this way, because what I saw
Speaker 3: leading into this year was a team that was really gelling,
Speaker 3: coming together. Our best players are our leaders, are captains,
Speaker 3: and great teams have captain that lead the team. And
Speaker 3: I just felt like that's what we were experiencing in
Speaker 3: the off season. And then just talking to people around
Speaker 3: the program. You'll hear from Zach Grant here in a minute,
Speaker 3: but you know, the Nico of the world, and to
Speaker 3: Zach Grant and the assistant coaches and John Daniel, who
Speaker 3: works closely with the program. It just really felt like
Speaker 3: this was going to be a breakout year, that we
Speaker 3: had the pieces in place to go do this. So
Speaker 3: really proud of him, like I said, but in terms
Speaker 3: of Scott who he is as a person, his steadiness
Speaker 3: is what I think always impresses me about him.
Speaker 1: Let's talk about Zach's department, because one of the things
Speaker 1: you did, and Coach Saderfield did when he took over
Speaker 1: as head coach was expand the recruiting general manager, et cetera.
Speaker 1: That entire department. I don't know if you've doubled it,
Speaker 1: tripled it or whatever, but it is considerably larger than
Speaker 1: it used to be. You're spending a lot more money
Speaker 1: in that area. You have to be able to compete
Speaker 1: at this level. And that decision has paid big dividends.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's been it's been a unit. It's been really
Speaker 3: fun to see it come together. Obviously, the centerpieces Zach
Speaker 3: grant able to get him from Western Kentucky has ties
Speaker 3: to Ohio State, you know, a lot of different connections
Speaker 3: around the country, and so he he starts to build
Speaker 3: out his team, brings in Jack Griffith and Casts and
Speaker 3: and all these guys that are just so talented, and
Speaker 3: he can talk about each one of them, but they
Speaker 3: all do a different thing and they all have a
Speaker 3: different skill set. One looks at high school recruiting, one
Speaker 3: looks at portal recruiting, and I think, really, you know,
Speaker 3: I'd love being around him because they work so hard
Speaker 3: and they're so knowledgeable. And if you ever want to
Speaker 3: know what's going on in the country in terms of
Speaker 3: high school recruiting and or portal recruiting, you talk to
Speaker 3: these guys. But I'm impressed, especially with the portal side
Speaker 3: of things, because that's been the new the new angle to,
Speaker 3: you know, making sure that you have a roster that
Speaker 3: can compete is going out and finding the right guys
Speaker 3: out of the portal that want to be Bearcats and
Speaker 3: maybe are a little under the radar, under recruited. And
Speaker 3: we've been able to find those guys and they're they're
Speaker 3: participating at such a high level and they're some of
Speaker 3: our best players. So give them a lot of credit
Speaker 3: for what we've been able to build over over the
Speaker 3: last three years.
Speaker 1: Beginning on July first, colleges could begin paying players directly.
Speaker 1: Has it stabilized college sports at all?
Speaker 3: Boy loading question I don't know if it has yet, Okay,
Speaker 3: And so I said this the other day, I'm hopeful.
Speaker 3: I'm hopeful that it will because I do I do
Speaker 3: think that you know, every every league it has a
Speaker 3: soury cap, right, every league has a cap every you know,
Speaker 3: And that's kind of what we've got to develop in
Speaker 3: a short period of time. I mean, everybody, everybody. Actually,
Speaker 3: we've been doing this a long time. The house case
Speaker 3: that led to us bringing this in house didn't actually
Speaker 3: officially get adopted until June of this year. And we
Speaker 3: all anticipated that it was going to happen, and so
Speaker 3: we put some things into place to get ready for it,
Speaker 3: but it didn't actually happen until June. And so, you know,
Speaker 3: I'm hopeful that that some of these systems that you know,
Speaker 3: the NCAA and then this new entity called the College
Speaker 3: Sports Commission have adopted can be put into place, and
Speaker 3: then we can get what we what we really signed
Speaker 3: up for with the house house case, which was a
Speaker 3: hard cap, a real a true cap in some system
Speaker 3: around that. And then maybe we look at transfers and
Speaker 3: whether or not we're doing the right things when it
Speaker 3: comes to free transfer. Can we work it back and
Speaker 3: go back to a time period in which you get
Speaker 3: to transfer once and that's it. Those types of things.
Speaker 3: So I do think there's a lot of work being done,
Speaker 3: and we may need some help from Congress. We may
Speaker 3: need some different things to finally get it settled, but
Speaker 3: we're making progress.
Speaker 1: The next two football games are at Nippert Stadium this
Speaker 1: Saturday at noon against Arizona the following Saturday against by U.
Speaker 1: We don't have a game time yet on that, we'll
Speaker 1: find out on Sunday. ESPN Game Day was at Utah
Speaker 1: a few weeks ago when Cincinnati played there, did another
Speaker 1: Big twelve game this past week at Texas Tech. Kind
Speaker 1: of feels like maybe it's unlikely they would keep going
Speaker 1: big twelve games, So maybe that is not in the
Speaker 1: mix for Cincinnati. But what about the possibility of Fox's
Speaker 1: big Saturday pregame show coming to Nippert? Is it you're
Speaker 1: feeling that that could be in the cards for BYU
Speaker 1: if things go well?
Speaker 3: You know, I certainly think so. You know, we have
Speaker 3: early conversations with ESPN and Fox and both they're very
Speaker 3: interested in how this plays out this weekend. Obviously, we've
Speaker 3: got a really tough opponent. I mean, Arizona is no slouch.
Speaker 3: They could easily be nine to one right now, and
Speaker 3: so that's gonna be a game we have to we
Speaker 3: have to go perform and play well. If we do that,
Speaker 3: and then b YU has a tough opponent. I think
Speaker 3: they're at TCU that you say, yeah, so so if
Speaker 3: we both win, it could set up a big time matchup.
Speaker 3: And that week specifically, there's not a lot of games
Speaker 3: that you point to and say, you know, Game Day
Speaker 3: or or Fox Big Noon is going to go there.
Speaker 3: And so we're right in the hunt and we're hopeful
Speaker 3: that that if those things happen, that would that would
Speaker 3: be great.
Speaker 1: A big twelve championship game is obviously a major goal
Speaker 1: and has been all year. And if you can get
Speaker 1: there and win or maybe even lose, now you're talking
Speaker 1: about playing in the twelve team playoff, which would be
Speaker 1: amazing to be back in the college football playoff just
Speaker 1: a few years after going in twenty twenty one. But
Speaker 1: regardless of all of that, you're going back to a
Speaker 1: ball game this year. I don't know about you. I've
Speaker 1: started diving into the ball projections. They come out early
Speaker 1: every week, and one nice thing about being in the
Speaker 1: Big Twelve as opposed to being in the American is
Speaker 1: that all of these ball games are really attractive. They're
Speaker 1: in great stadiums against big name opponents on good dates.
Speaker 1: So you know that Cincinnati hopefully is going to the
Speaker 1: Big twelve playoff, but even are the Big the twelve
Speaker 1: team playoff, But even if that doesn't happen, this team
Speaker 1: is going to be playing in a very attractive ball game.
Speaker 3: Always exciting. Feel so happy for our seniors. You know
Speaker 3: the Gavin gear Hearts of the world that specifically said
Speaker 3: we got to get back there. We got to get
Speaker 3: back to a ball game. That's who we are. We
Speaker 3: go to bowl games, and so yeah, just it'll be fun.
Speaker 3: I actually haven't dove in do it too much. I
Speaker 3: think my wife has more than I have because it's
Speaker 3: always a family trip for us around the holiday, so
Speaker 3: she's trying to figure it all out. I know, my
Speaker 3: boys told me the other day they love pop Tarts,
Speaker 3: so I don't know what that means.
Speaker 1: But well, the Pop Tarts Bowl is in Orlando, so
Speaker 1: you would have the double dip. Your boys could possibly
Speaker 1: get to Disney or one of the other theme parks
Speaker 1: there in Orlando. But some of the other balls that
Speaker 1: have been mentioned with s where Cincinnati is concerned. There's
Speaker 1: one in Phoenix, there's one in San Antonio, Houston. So
Speaker 1: these are great markets, good stadiums, big time opponents. It's
Speaker 1: going to be great wherever Cincinnati winds up. This is
Speaker 1: the Scott Saderfield Show. We're leaning toward football topics tonight.
Speaker 1: But before we turn it over to the audience, want
Speaker 1: to ask you about basketball. Wes Miller's team approved a
Speaker 1: three and oh last night. Beating a good opponent Dayton
Speaker 1: obviously is always good. You know, by the end of
Speaker 1: the year, that one's going to be good for Cincinnati's metrics.
Speaker 1: That was a nice win last night.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it was a lot of fun. I mean, it
Speaker 3: was a great atmosphere. It was great to see Fifth
Speaker 3: Third rocking again the way that we saw it all
Speaker 3: the whole entire Big twelve season last year. And so
Speaker 3: really really good win. I'm telling you, Dayton's a really
Speaker 3: good team.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 3: We we certainly had the things that are gonna drive
Speaker 3: Wes Miller nuts today. As he watched the film last night.
Speaker 3: He immediately watches the film with his staff after the game.
Speaker 3: So I'm sure he's getting on him about throwing the
Speaker 3: ball all over the gym a little bit, but every
Speaker 3: once in a while they threw it in the hoop,
Speaker 3: which was good. So we were able to get a
Speaker 3: lot of points and beat a really good Dayton team.
Speaker 3: And the other thing is we the defense. The defense
Speaker 3: really showed up, and we were talking about that before
Speaker 3: he came on the air. I just I felt like
Speaker 3: they really played really hard defensively and locked him down
Speaker 3: and and some really kind of breakout performances. I thought
Speaker 3: Tyler McKinley was really good yesterday. Is just somebody that
Speaker 3: was so solid and made a lot of really smart plays.
Speaker 3: And so I think it's gonna be somebody new every night.
Speaker 3: You know, we've we've seen that already. Bob I had
Speaker 3: a great night, and then you know Sean has a
Speaker 3: great night and Dada has a great night. So it's
Speaker 3: just gonna be one of those teams. But there really athletic.
Speaker 3: They're going to get up and down the floor and
Speaker 3: it's gonna be a fun year.
Speaker 2: All right.
Speaker 1: This is the Scott Sadderfield Radio Show, Live from the
Speaker 1: original Montgomery In Home of the World's Greatest Ribs. Our
Speaker 1: guest in the first half hour is athletic director John Cunningham.
Speaker 1: We're going to take a time out. We'll open it
Speaker 1: up to questions from the audience when we come back
Speaker 1: here on seven hundred wlw.
Speaker 3: Oh, that's fun to hear this.
Speaker 1: Welcome back to the Scott Saderfield Radio Show, live from
Speaker 1: the original Montgomery in the home of the world's greatest ribs.
Speaker 1: Our special guest tonight pinch hitting for Coach Saderfield, Athletic
Speaker 1: director John Cunningham in the first half hour, and the
Speaker 1: general manager of the football program, Zach Grant in the
Speaker 1: second half hour. We will be taking questions from the audience. Tonight,
Speaker 1: our man John Daniel working the room with a wireless mike,
Speaker 1: and he has arrived at Brian's side for the first question.
Speaker 4: Mister Cunningham, Cincinnati has not had a lot of years
Speaker 4: where it feels like football and basketball are really excelling
Speaker 4: at the same time. And I'm not saying both are
Speaker 4: excelling yet, but both are really kind of trending up.
Speaker 4: What does it take in your position to get both
Speaker 4: of those sports, you know, the big sports, get them
Speaker 4: trending up the way they are at the same time.
Speaker 4: You're you're definitely spread a little wide trying to focus
Speaker 4: on both and getting them getting them rolling.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, I think both are unique in what
Speaker 3: you have to build around a program and the resources
Speaker 3: you have to give to it. I do think you know,
Speaker 3: typically football is gonna take it's got to be a
Speaker 3: little bit more foundational. You gotta you gotta really take
Speaker 3: your time to build football up from from the ground up.
Speaker 3: I think that's that's the way to do it. To
Speaker 3: get a sustained success in football basketball with the transfer
Speaker 3: portal and things, it's you know, you've seen these rosters flip,
Speaker 3: and you just got to have really skilled recruiters, and
Speaker 3: you got to have a real game plan on the
Speaker 3: type of roster you want to build, and you got
Speaker 3: to kind of just you know, really be focused in
Speaker 3: on on making sure year to year that you've got
Speaker 3: your your you know, seven to ten guys that can
Speaker 3: go out there and compete. So it's a little bit
Speaker 3: different that way, But certainly it starts with coaching. And
Speaker 3: you know, both of our coaches are are so good
Speaker 3: and so dedicated to what they do, love the student athletes.
Speaker 3: You know, Coach Sadderfield and coach Miller are are you
Speaker 3: know guys that these players are going to be able
Speaker 3: to call in fifteen twenty years for help and guidance
Speaker 3: and that's what you're looking for, and I think that's
Speaker 3: how you get successful in both.
Speaker 1: All right, Phyllis is up next.
Speaker 5: I have both an observation kind of slash duvetail on
Speaker 5: what you just said, John. I think those that stayed
Speaker 5: really speaks volumes to this football program and people aren't
Speaker 5: really picking up on that, and I think that that
Speaker 5: speaks to the coaching staff and to how they feel
Speaker 5: really into this program. And then I have another question
Speaker 5: after you answered to that.
Speaker 3: I agree, and then you know, that's what I when
Speaker 3: we were asked sort of were you surprised that That's
Speaker 3: why I wasn't surprised because I do feel like the
Speaker 3: culture in that building obviously a brand new, beautiful building,
Speaker 3: but even before that, the culture was strong and you
Speaker 3: could just kind of feel feel that around the program.
Speaker 3: And I think our student athletes feel supported, and you know,
Speaker 3: we're trying to make them great football players that are
Speaker 3: going to make it to the NFL, but we're also
Speaker 3: trying to really work on them as people and make
Speaker 3: sure that they, you know, our great fathers and individuals
Speaker 3: in the community. So all that plays into that. And
Speaker 3: I believe that those that transfer from other schools see
Speaker 3: the difference, and then I believe that those are that
Speaker 3: are here stay here because of that. I think that's true.
Speaker 5: Then I want to ask you to speak to the
Speaker 5: Impact Fund and the impact of that fund and how
Speaker 5: that is whole different thing than just not throwing money
Speaker 5: into a whole so to speak, and what that does
Speaker 5: for especially football, basketball and all of our athletic programs.
Speaker 3: Yeah, the Impact Fund in John Daniels holding the mic,
Speaker 3: he's my my CFO and holds me accountable for money
Speaker 3: every day. But I always say money is not everything,
Speaker 3: but it's right up there with oxygen, and it is
Speaker 3: because we in order to do what we need to do,
Speaker 3: we've got we've got to have resources to compete in
Speaker 3: the Big twelve. And so the Impact Fund is really
Speaker 3: us going out and trying to scale as large as
Speaker 3: we can to our three hundred and sixty five thousand
Speaker 3: living alumni to say, this is your program, we want
Speaker 3: it to be great in the Big twelve. We're gonna
Speaker 3: need resources to be great. And you know how I've
Speaker 3: looked at the revenue share piece to it. I view
Speaker 3: that as just that's just table stakes. You have to
Speaker 3: be a full, full revenue share program. What that does
Speaker 3: is that takes a large chunk of money and puts
Speaker 3: it into that well. That means everything else needs resources.
Speaker 3: So all of our sports are gonna need resources to
Speaker 3: backfill the amount of money that we're putting into the
Speaker 3: table stakes of playing in the Big twelve, which is
Speaker 3: revenue share. So to your point, Phillis, it's really about
Speaker 3: it's really about just just funding all of our programs
Speaker 3: and just saying I'm a bear Cat. I want Bearcat
Speaker 3: athletics to be important because it makes the university better,
Speaker 3: it makes our city better, and that's what that's all about.
Speaker 3: So we're just asking people to look into it, give
Speaker 3: what you can, obviously, and and try to make us great.
Speaker 2: Bob. So it's been a little over five years, and
Speaker 2: I remember you probably didn't anticipate on your first day
Speaker 2: having to advocate for completing a ballgame in Birmingham if
Speaker 2: you could, you foresee dealing with all of the isolation
Speaker 2: of COVID. But other than that, how's the rest of
Speaker 2: the time worked out for you? And where do we
Speaker 2: go from here.
Speaker 3: Yeah, you throw in an I L and you're throwing
Speaker 3: collectives and you throw in uh yeah. So I don't know.
Speaker 3: I had a I had an old uh employee of
Speaker 3: ours that that is now the CFO at the Big
Speaker 3: twelve nick Bows, and I don't know, maybe the first
Speaker 3: three years he looked at me and he's like, I
Speaker 3: think it's you. I think I think you're the one
Speaker 3: that has caused everything to go haywire. But my my
Speaker 3: tenure has been has been pretty crazy. But you know,
Speaker 3: I think what I've learned being here is that you've
Speaker 3: got to be malleable. You've got to be willing to
Speaker 3: adjust and and change course when you need to. And
Speaker 3: it's all about people. It's all about people in the building.
Speaker 3: It's all about coaches, the right coaches, and it's all
Speaker 3: about these young men and women that that I love
Speaker 3: being around. If I need energy, I go to the
Speaker 3: Gold Family Dining Hall and I sit with our student
Speaker 3: athletes for launch or breakfast, and that's how I get
Speaker 3: my juice for the day. Because when you make it
Speaker 3: about them, you're you're you typically do the right things.
Speaker 1: Plus, in the new Football Indoor practice facility, those meals
Speaker 1: are really good.
Speaker 3: They're really good.
Speaker 6: Yeah yeah, okay, So keeping on that same tone, what
Speaker 6: are we doing to advance women's sport? Since women's basketball
Speaker 6: is on the up and up, what can we do
Speaker 6: to help further our women's programs?
Speaker 3: Yeah, volleyball. Just one tonight, by the way, So another
Speaker 3: victory by volleyball over UCF. They're having a really good
Speaker 3: year under under Daniel Tomach in her first year, going
Speaker 3: toe to toe in the Big twelve, which is really
Speaker 3: good in volleyball. To I think it's I think it
Speaker 3: starts with just supporting the women's programs by attending. We
Speaker 3: got to get people the fifth third to watch our
Speaker 3: volleyball program, to watch our women's basketball program, to get
Speaker 3: to getler to watch our soccer program and our lacrosse
Speaker 3: program tennis. We've got to get people out and supporting
Speaker 3: in that way. That makes a huge difference. When you start,
Speaker 3: they feel it so much more. You know, our men's
Speaker 3: basketball program is gonna play in front of big crowds
Speaker 3: all the time. But when we get a really big
Speaker 3: crowd for women's basketball, or a really big crowd in volleyball,
Speaker 3: which we've had already this year, it makes such a
Speaker 3: big difference for those young women, and so I think
Speaker 3: it starts there. I think it starts with just getting
Speaker 3: to the games and telling people about it and doing that.
Speaker 3: And then obviously there's other ways to support. Each one
Speaker 3: of those programs have their own development funds, and again
Speaker 3: they need funding just like everybody else, and they're trying
Speaker 3: to be top level in the Big twelve, and so
Speaker 3: we need to support them financially as well.
Speaker 1: I think attendance for the women's game is going to
Speaker 1: get a big bump when d Alexander is able to
Speaker 1: play the most highly touted recruited school history, a local player,
Speaker 1: three time miss basketball in the state of Ohio. Unfortunately,
Speaker 1: she's going to miss the first half of this season
Speaker 1: due to injury. But I'm really intrigued by what Katrina
Speaker 1: Merriweather is doing. Six freshmen in this recruiting class, two
Speaker 1: top one hundred freshmen, and it's kind of different from
Speaker 1: the way many men's programs are approaching it with a
Speaker 1: quick fix. This is old school. She's getting great players
Speaker 1: to grow together, and there are gonna be some growing
Speaker 1: pains early on, but the potential payoff would be tremendous.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I mean, she's been talking about this class for for
Speaker 3: a couple of years, and she always said that, she said, John,
Speaker 3: I'm gonna I'm gonna dig deep and we're gonna create
Speaker 3: something really good, and it's gonna start with this freshman
Speaker 3: class that's so highly touted and we've seen bits and
Speaker 3: pieces of it. We haven't seen the Alexander. We have
Speaker 3: another key injury on that team, so they're kind of
Speaker 3: down two players, but they've got two freshman guards out
Speaker 3: there that are really really good. I think they can
Speaker 3: drive Katrina nuts at times because they're freshman guards and
Speaker 3: we understand that, but they are really good, and you know,
Speaker 3: they're they're all they're They're not off to a great
Speaker 3: start this year. They've they've battled some you know, battle
Speaker 3: Penn State at Penn State and those things. But I
Speaker 3: think what I told Katrina the other day is that
Speaker 3: that's the worst games are behind them and it's just
Speaker 3: gonna get better and better and better because you get
Speaker 3: young people out there getting experience and they're just gonna
Speaker 3: they're gonna gel together and start to figure it out.
Speaker 3: But I'm excited to see d L Lexander as well.
Speaker 3: She's got some rehab to do, but hopefully, you know,
Speaker 3: mid season or so we get her back.
Speaker 1: All right, we're going to be joined by Zach Grant
Speaker 1: just a moment, but I just want to wrap this
Speaker 1: up with you by asking you about the GM that
Speaker 1: the basketball program has hired. Corey Evans has come aboard
Speaker 1: from the Oklahoma City Thunder, the NBA champion last year.
Speaker 1: So now you've gone to this model in football and
Speaker 1: men's basketball with GMS helping the head coach and the
Speaker 1: entire coaching staff build a roster.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's been fun to be around Zach Grant obviously,
Speaker 3: but but Corey Evans is special as well, and Corey's
Speaker 3: been around basketball. I've actually known Corey for several years.
Speaker 3: He's there was a guy that they used to call
Speaker 3: worldwide West and Basketball because he knew everybody. I feel
Speaker 3: like Corey's worldwide Corey because he knows he goes everywhere
Speaker 3: in the basketball world. People know who he is, and
Speaker 3: it's just been such a key to to building this
Speaker 3: this roster. Ian. I'm so excited about what he's going
Speaker 3: to do in the future because he's already talking about,
Speaker 3: you know, players that he's seen out and about in
Speaker 3: the future, and he's got ties to Europe, and he's
Speaker 3: got ties to the NBA, and he's got ties to
Speaker 3: the G League and all those good things. So it's
Speaker 3: gonna be fun to watch him and Wes and that
Speaker 3: whole crew work together to build the roster. But Cory's
Speaker 3: a unique individual, very very smart nose basketball top to bottom,
Speaker 3: and again he knows everybody in the industry.
Speaker 1: All right, we'll take a time out. We'll be joined
Speaker 1: by general manager of the Football Program, Zach Grant, when
Speaker 1: we con continue. This is the Scott Sadderfield Radio Show.
Speaker 1: We're live at the original Montgomery In home of the
Speaker 1: world's greatest ribs, on seven hundred WLW. We are back
Speaker 1: on the Scott Satderfield Radio Show a Wednesday night this
Speaker 1: week instead of the normal Tuesday night. As a result,
Speaker 1: we've got a couple of special guests taking us through
Speaker 1: the show this evening. We had Athletic director John Cunningham
Speaker 1: join us in the first half hour, and now we
Speaker 1: are joined by the Football Program's general manager, Zach Grant.
Speaker 1: Here in the second half hour. We'll take questions from
Speaker 1: the audience and just a bit we also have stuff
Speaker 1: to give away at the end of the show. Here
Speaker 1: at the original Montgomery d Zach. I want to start
Speaker 1: with your quarterback, Brendan Soresby. He had good, not great
Speaker 1: statistics at Indiana. He wasn't that highly recruited coming out
Speaker 1: of his high school in Texas. What did you and
Speaker 1: your staff see on the tape from the limited playing
Speaker 1: time he had at Indiana that made you say, this
Speaker 1: guy can be a great quarterback for us.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 7: The first thing when we were looking at what we
Speaker 7: need to do at the quarterback position after the twenty
Speaker 7: three season, we knew we needed to go get a starter,
Speaker 7: and it was my job to kind of evaluate the
Speaker 7: whole country, all the quarterbacks in different situations who may
Speaker 7: or may not leave.
Speaker 3: So I'm just.
Speaker 7: Initially grading all of them. When I hit on Soresby,
Speaker 7: the number one thing that stood out was his toughness.
Speaker 7: I think that's an underrated thing the quarterback position that
Speaker 7: not a lot of people look at it.
Speaker 3: You know, you're looking.
Speaker 7: At his arm strength and this and that. But if
Speaker 7: you are the leader of the football program and you
Speaker 7: want your players to play hard for you, you need
Speaker 7: to be really tough. And his toughness showed out at Indiana.
Speaker 7: We'd watch his postgame press conferences. He was playing through
Speaker 7: an ac joint spraint on his throwing shoulder, and he
Speaker 7: never complained. He never missed a beat. But beyond that,
Speaker 7: you know, he had good feet in the pocket. He
Speaker 7: was calm operating from within the pocket. He was able
Speaker 7: to elude and avoid sacks playing with you know, an
Speaker 7: average offensive line, and you know Indiana was making a
Speaker 7: run through the season with that. Eventually they were getting
Speaker 7: fired as a staff, you know, that's how it ended.
Speaker 7: But when Brendan took over the job, I saw a
Speaker 7: noticeable difference in the way the players around him played.
Speaker 7: And I simply thought that when when wideouts were open,
Speaker 7: he was hitting them, So I thought he saw the
Speaker 7: field well. Truthfully, I think getting him here and it's
Speaker 7: probably due to the injury, his arm talent is better
Speaker 7: than I thought, But everything else has been a dream
Speaker 7: come true. And it's a testament to coach Siderfield and
Speaker 7: coach Thomas developing him from year one to year two.
Speaker 7: I mean, everyone can see the jump he's made, and
Speaker 7: a lot of it's the pieces around him, but you
Speaker 7: know he'd fit our offense perfectly, and they've done an
Speaker 7: incredible job.
Speaker 1: Similar question about Jake Gold Day. Dame Brugler from The
Speaker 1: Athletic came out with his top fifty NFL draft board
Speaker 1: this week. He's got Jake going number forty two. I think,
Speaker 1: so that would be a high second round pick in
Speaker 1: next year's draft. He played at Central Arkansas. He was
Speaker 1: not heavily recruited out of high school, kind of a
Speaker 1: rush end type player as opposed to an off the
Speaker 1: ball linebacker. What did you guys see in Jake gold
Speaker 1: Day that made you think this guy can play that
Speaker 1: position and play it well for us?
Speaker 7: Yeah, honestly, that one was pretty simple. When we showed
Speaker 7: him to our defense of staff, it was like three
Speaker 7: clips and it was like, this is the biggest freak
Speaker 7: there is the portal. He never got tweeted about, there
Speaker 7: was no publicity around him, and he never got ranked,
Speaker 7: and all those situations are perfect, Like we were convicted
Speaker 7: about what we saw in the person he was. His
Speaker 7: path to get to where he was playing the linebacker
Speaker 7: position probably helped us, and that it was a little
Speaker 7: unique out of high school. He was a COVID recruit,
Speaker 7: so that's how he got lost. When we go back
Speaker 7: and evaluate why we like these portal players, now, what
Speaker 7: did they look like in high school and how can
Speaker 7: it inform our decisions? Then he showed everything on high
Speaker 7: school tabe you would want. I think he just got
Speaker 7: lost in the shuffle, and he played two years as
Speaker 7: an edge rusher at Central Arkansas on one year off
Speaker 7: the ball. The instincts playing off the ball have improved
Speaker 7: now in year two in the system, but the athletic
Speaker 7: gifts have always been there. And I would predict that
Speaker 7: his draft stock increases once he runs.
Speaker 1: The forty, because it's going to be very fast for
Speaker 1: guy who's two hundred and forty pounds. I happened to
Speaker 1: talk to Jake for a podcast earlier this week, and
Speaker 1: on the flip side of this, when he enters the
Speaker 1: portal and you guys try to recruit him to Cincinnati,
Speaker 1: he mentioned that a member the coaching staff flew down
Speaker 1: to where he was three times in the first week
Speaker 1: to take him out to dinner.
Speaker 7: Yeah, I think Jake was embellishing that a little bit.
Speaker 7: I remember it being too. Due to the specific NCAA
Speaker 7: rules surrounding you're allowed to do it once a week,
Speaker 7: so coach brads went on either like a Thursday, Friday,
Speaker 7: or Saturday, and then the following Monday, which was the
Speaker 7: New week. But the rules always changed in college football.
Speaker 7: Currently we're not able to see the portal players like
Speaker 7: that was in the spring, I guess, but you know
Speaker 7: it was an open period when he was able to
Speaker 7: go and anybody was like, you're able to do it.
Speaker 7: So this past cycle you weren't, okay, But as the
Speaker 7: rules change, we're going to take advantage of every possible
Speaker 7: thing we can. And you know, when you go to
Speaker 7: see a kid in person one day after they go
Speaker 7: in the portal, I think that's pretty impressive and shows.
Speaker 3: The commitment to him.
Speaker 7: And you know, the moment he went in the portal,
Speaker 7: we knew we wanted him, and coach Breswell shot down
Speaker 7: and did a great.
Speaker 1: Job strictly by the rules. Just to be clear. So
Speaker 1: when you identify somebody who is quote unquote on under
Speaker 1: the radar type recruit. Maybe he's at a smaller school,
Speaker 1: maybe he's had injury problems, but you've seen stuff on
Speaker 1: tape that you like and you want to bring him
Speaker 1: to Cincinnati. How do you keep it secretive? How worried
Speaker 1: do you get about you know, the word getting out
Speaker 1: on a guy?
Speaker 7: Yeah, I think it starts with our just the way
Speaker 7: I came up being at Western Kentucky for five years,
Speaker 7: Like we're never I.
Speaker 3: Was never in the limelight in any way. Nobody was ranked.
Speaker 3: There was none of that.
Speaker 7: It was just purely the conviction you had about the player,
Speaker 7: their skill set, and what you wanted as a team.
Speaker 7: How we try to manufacture less publicity in the recruiting process,
Speaker 7: you know, we're just not advertising what we do. Some
Speaker 7: people try to artificially do that to gain like Hooplin
Speaker 7: publicity and.
Speaker 3: Buzz.
Speaker 7: You know, there's two ways to do it. That's a
Speaker 7: positive decision in some ways. Certainly for us, we just
Speaker 7: want to acquire the player and it doesn't have to
Speaker 7: come with four stars. As a matter of factly some
Speaker 7: schools will lobby the two four seven reporters to make
Speaker 7: the rankings higher for them. We would rather do it
Speaker 7: the opposite way, both to have a chip on the
Speaker 7: shoulder on our guys and just to keep them away
Speaker 7: from other teams that might just look at that stuff
Speaker 7: and want to recruit them. So we'll let the ranking
Speaker 7: fall how they are. For us, it's about the person
Speaker 7: and about the player and the fit.
Speaker 3: At Cincinnati, one of.
Speaker 1: The real success stories on the team this year is
Speaker 1: the wide receiver position. You brought all these guys basically
Speaker 1: in five guys in the transfer portal, and it's not like,
Speaker 1: all right, you hit on one and the other guys
Speaker 1: are okay. They've all made major contributions. How did you
Speaker 1: pull that off with this group? What were you looking for?
Speaker 1: And why have this? Why have all five of these
Speaker 1: guys been successful.
Speaker 7: Yeah, when you're trying to build a receiver room, it's
Speaker 7: it's like a basketball team. Everybody has their own specific
Speaker 7: skill set and what you need. We have one of
Speaker 7: the fastest players in the country in Caleb Goodie. You know,
Speaker 7: we have a point guard so to speak, in Cyrus Allen.
Speaker 7: You know, there's a do it all type player, and
Speaker 7: Noah Jennings. There's a scorer at you know, power forward
Speaker 7: or shooting guard or whatever you want to call it,
Speaker 7: and Jeff Caldwell and I don't know if there's a
Speaker 7: basketball term for it, but the best one with the
Speaker 7: ball in his hands is Isaiah Johnson. So it all
Speaker 7: worked out in that way. You're trying to fit different
Speaker 7: pieces together so that you have different answers to things.
Speaker 7: Defenses new but the key to it all truly. Number
Speaker 7: one obviously was VJ. Stingley. He did an incredible job
Speaker 7: recruiting those guys. But Brendan Soresby I saw him grow
Speaker 7: as a leader as he helped recruit those players. He
Speaker 7: took ownership of it. He knew if he was going
Speaker 7: to be really good, he needed guys to throw the
Speaker 7: ball to that not only were good, but we're there
Speaker 7: because he talked to them. It like talked him into
Speaker 7: it and could lead them once he's there or once
Speaker 7: they're there. And you know, they all watched the tape
Speaker 7: and they saw the arm talent Brendan had and he
Speaker 7: was a big reason for it.
Speaker 1: Is Cincinnati unusual in the way that you have veteran
Speaker 1: leaders more or less vet the transfer players that you're considering.
Speaker 7: I'd be shocked if more teams don't do that. I
Speaker 7: just think it's so obvious. But we make an intentional
Speaker 7: focus to make that happen. You know, we talk about
Speaker 7: coach Sadderfield's philosophy in terms of team building and leadership,
Speaker 7: and it's a player driven program.
Speaker 3: You know, John.
Speaker 7: Cunningham made mention to this. But you know, we're good
Speaker 7: because we have incredible leaders on this team. Starting with
Speaker 7: Gavin Gearhart and the the number of the players that
Speaker 7: were here you know, even before coach that got here
Speaker 7: and since jac mentioned it, I want to give name
Speaker 7: to those guys. There's ten players on the team that
Speaker 7: we're here when Coach sat arrived that have stayed. And
Speaker 7: when you talk about the culture and the fibric of
Speaker 7: the team and guys being through the fire, it doesn't
Speaker 7: like it doesn't get more than that after surviving a
Speaker 7: coaching change, going three and nine, staying here throughout all
Speaker 7: of it, for us, it's really special. And that's Brady Lichtenberg,
Speaker 7: Gavin Gearheart, Ethan Green, Dante Corleone, Rob Jackson, Drew Logan,
Speaker 7: Jonathan Thompson, Jack Dingle, Sincere Lewis, Ben Blevins, and you know,
Speaker 7: those ten guys truly like some of more like high
Speaker 7: profile leadership roles than others.
Speaker 3: But you know they control and.
Speaker 7: Monitor the locker room at a high level, along with
Speaker 7: some other transfers we brought in. And if it's going
Speaker 7: to be a player driven program, we need to make
Speaker 7: sure those guys are around them or the transfers when
Speaker 7: we bring them in just to self select the right
Speaker 7: types of players.
Speaker 1: It's good stuff. We're going to take a time out.
Speaker 1: Questions from the audience when we continue. Our guest is
Speaker 1: the general manager of the seven and two U SEE
Speaker 1: football team, ranked twenty second in the country, Zach Grant.
Speaker 1: Big game coming up for the Bearcats this Saturday at
Speaker 1: noon against six and three Arizona Wildcats will continue from
Speaker 1: the original Montgomery In, home of the world's greatest rips.
Speaker 1: In just a moment on seven hundred WLW, we are
Speaker 1: back at the original Montgomery In, home of the world's
Speaker 1: greatest dribs and the Scott Saderfield Radio Show. Here in
Speaker 1: seven under WLW. We will be back here tomorrow night
Speaker 1: for the Wes Miller Radio Show eight to nine tomorrow
Speaker 1: again on the Big One. Time for questions from the
Speaker 1: audience for the general manager at football program, Zach Grant.
Speaker 3: Bob is up first, Hi, Zach.
Speaker 2: If you're like me, I want a team full of
Speaker 2: players that really want to be here and want to
Speaker 2: be Cincinnati Bearcats. But they don't all start out that way.
Speaker 2: You got to sort of sell them on the idea.
Speaker 2: So what point in the process to you to you
Speaker 2: sort of switch from selling to evaluating how badly they
Speaker 2: want to be Bearcats.
Speaker 3: It's a great question.
Speaker 7: We're always evaluating them throughout the process. We get very
Speaker 7: limited exposure to like seeing them in person, just because
Speaker 7: we either have to go to them or they come
Speaker 7: to campus, so seeing how they are as people during
Speaker 7: that time were constantly evaluating them. But within the ever
Speaker 7: and never ending cycle of recruiting and the different touch
Speaker 7: points that they have with people on our staff, Cass
Speaker 7: Simmons and tyg Leach, along with the gas QC's interns
Speaker 7: and the position coaches are typically selling the players so
Speaker 7: that they want to come up here and visit right
Speaker 7: But once they sit down with coach Sadderfield. This is
Speaker 7: frustrating for me at times because I'm like, go close
Speaker 7: this guy, But his philosophy is I want to make
Speaker 7: sure they want to come here and want to play here,
Speaker 7: so he's never going to beg anybody to come. I
Speaker 7: think now that we have started to have the success
Speaker 7: that we knew was coming, it's easier to operate that
Speaker 7: way out of a position of power, certainly, but that's
Speaker 7: one way to self select the right types of players.
Speaker 7: We're just going to be as authentic and real as possible,
Speaker 7: make sure they know what they're getting into when they
Speaker 7: sign up for it. It's a hard program. The offseason
Speaker 7: is going to make them better, but it's brutal with
Speaker 7: coach Nico, So they need to know that coming up.
Speaker 7: And if a guy, if you see the look in
Speaker 7: their eye that they want that fire, then then let's go.
Speaker 7: And that's one good way to know Fellas.
Speaker 5: Zach, everybody has been so amazed and impressed and everything
Speaker 5: else you can think of with Jake Golday, is there
Speaker 5: another player that also has been an absolute gem that
Speaker 5: not just met your expectations but exceeded it even.
Speaker 7: When you're comparing him to Jake Golda, that's tough. One
Speaker 7: guy that doesn't get a lot of, you know, publicity,
Speaker 7: I'd say, is Trey Gola Collard. He's a safety in
Speaker 7: his second year. Came from Southern Utah. He was at
Speaker 7: University of Mary before then. But he is an extremely
Speaker 7: consistent player playing the boundary safety position. He's put in
Speaker 7: a lot of conflict situations but always plays fast and physical.
Speaker 7: But he's an incredible teammate and an incredible human being.
Speaker 7: Similar to what makes Jake great beyond the physical gifts
Speaker 7: is his his intentionality and want to become the best
Speaker 7: version of himself. And you see the same thing in
Speaker 7: Trey and a number of our other players. But to
Speaker 7: single one out especially that doesn't get a lot of love.
Speaker 1: I'd say Trey, all right, I see where John Daniel
Speaker 1: is so that I know the mic is in.
Speaker 3: The back of the room, and we're got to Elijah.
Speaker 1: Okay, sorry, what was your name?
Speaker 8: I didn't get it?
Speaker 1: You're Zach grant Is.
Speaker 8: Two questions. First off, other than because Xavier is not
Speaker 8: a football school, the Xavier doesn't have football, but I
Speaker 8: say that's our biggest rival, like in basketball, but in football,
Speaker 8: who would you say when I consider like, who do
Speaker 8: you really get pumped up to play against? Because obviously
Speaker 8: we don't play Louisville as much as we used to
Speaker 8: or Pitt. I mean I consider UCF, like when we
Speaker 8: play UCF, I get pretty pumped up, or maybe Houston.
Speaker 8: What other schools do you get pumped up to play against?
Speaker 8: In the players? And then secondly, do you think uc
Speaker 8: could ever be on the level of competitiveness is like
Speaker 8: a Big ten school like Ohio State or Michigan, Because
Speaker 8: I mean you look at now compared to ten years ago.
Speaker 8: I mean we're in the Big twelve or you know,
Speaker 8: our facilities are much nicer. So do you think that
Speaker 8: could ever be a possibility in the future.
Speaker 7: Yeah, First question number one for us, it's still Miami.
Speaker 7: You know, we don't play them this year, but when
Speaker 7: we play them, I thought you guys probably saw it
Speaker 7: last year. Our team was incredibly enthused both before the game,
Speaker 7: going into it, during the game, and after the game
Speaker 7: with the celebration within conference. I'd say UCF or Iowa State,
Speaker 7: Iowa State, there's a lot of similarities in the way
Speaker 7: we do things. We're gonna play them again next year.
Speaker 7: It'll be four straight years. I don't think we play
Speaker 7: UCF next year, but that rivalry, despite not being me
Speaker 7: being here when we're in the in the AAC, I've
Speaker 7: still felt that since I since I got here, and
Speaker 7: I think that will continue. So i'd say those three
Speaker 7: in my book, And then question number two, I absolutely
Speaker 7: think we can get there.
Speaker 3: That's not gonna happen overnight.
Speaker 7: To me. We need to continually climb the ladder and
Speaker 7: you know, meet every ring of that ladder in terms
Speaker 7: of like meeting the next goal in front of us,
Speaker 7: then the next goal and the next goal, and uh,
Speaker 7: you know, I think we have everything available here to
Speaker 7: do it.
Speaker 3: We're gonna have to, you know, harness the.
Speaker 7: Power of the city and you know, leverage those relationships
Speaker 7: with big businesses as we you know, increase our just
Speaker 7: financial capacity to meet, uh, the competition level at that
Speaker 7: level in terms of you know, nil and revenue share.
Speaker 7: But I think we have everything in front of us
Speaker 7: and every resource possible to eventually reach that goal. We
Speaker 7: just gotta it doesn't happen overnight. We got to hit
Speaker 7: every ring of that ladder.
Speaker 4: First, Brian, how many hours a week do you think
Speaker 4: you spend watching video and what do you do in
Speaker 4: the other hours that you're not watching video?
Speaker 7: Yeah, well those four hours, you know, in my role,
Speaker 7: especially depending on the time of year, I don't get
Speaker 7: to watch as much as I want to, like when
Speaker 7: you when I say that, I would like to do
Speaker 7: it like twenty four hours a day. But I'm blessed
Speaker 7: with an incredible staff that I'm able to work with,
Speaker 7: and Carter Wilson doing scouting for high school, Jack Griffith
Speaker 7: doing scouting for the portal, Cassimmitson and Taiji Leitch and
Speaker 7: Peter Abrams doing a lot of communicating and recruiting and
Speaker 7: then Caroline Tart doing our like visit setup. A lot
Speaker 7: of people in my role that I talk to across
Speaker 7: the country aren't as fortunate as I am where I
Speaker 7: truly trust those people to do what they do and
Speaker 7: they do it at as high of a level as
Speaker 7: anybody out there. That frees me up to not worry
Speaker 7: that I'm not uncovering the unheralded player from an hour
Speaker 7: up the road. I know Carter is already doing that,
Speaker 7: you know what I mean. So in terms of hours,
Speaker 7: I probably try to make sure I'm watching film for
Speaker 7: three or four hours a day and the rest of
Speaker 7: the time, there's different conversations with our coaches. The communication
Speaker 7: with them has to be on point for every specific
Speaker 7: recruiting situation. You know, agents are becoming a big thing
Speaker 7: in college football now. We talk to them a lot
Speaker 7: to gather information more than anything that the name of
Speaker 7: the game and knowing how the market's trending and all
Speaker 7: that for what it will cost for positions and different
Speaker 7: things like just being on the phone and letting them
Speaker 7: talk and then you know, different meetings according to you know,
Speaker 7: what our strategy is in terms of revenue share stuff,
Speaker 7: and like different stuff like that. That's how I kind
Speaker 7: of wrap it up. And then part of it's just
Speaker 7: sitting down and making sure I'm prepared for different meetings
Speaker 7: and trying to lead my team in the best way
Speaker 7: I can. Like, I feel like I have six people
Speaker 7: that operate at such a high level. As long as
Speaker 7: I can give them the correct direction and way to go,
Speaker 7: good things will happen. So I try to be as
Speaker 7: intentional as I can about that. And then in my
Speaker 7: free time, I want to spend as much time as
Speaker 7: I can with my wife and my six month old
Speaker 7: and my dog.
Speaker 3: Winning.
Speaker 1: So don't neglect winning what recruiting has done this time
Speaker 1: of year where the coaches are involved, Are you meeting
Speaker 1: with them and showing them people during this time of
Speaker 1: the season.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 7: Right now in season, every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday morning,
Speaker 7: we spend thirty minutes with the offense and the defense
Speaker 7: presenting recruits. It might be guys we've watched before, it
Speaker 7: might be our current commits. We see their role being
Speaker 7: information and knowledge is power, so we want them to
Speaker 7: be exposed to everything we're seeing and every critical player that.
Speaker 3: Needs to get in front of them.
Speaker 7: That's the time to do it, and then I have
Speaker 7: a little bit more time with coach sat during position meetings.
Speaker 7: When the coaches are in position meetings, we can sit
Speaker 7: down together and you know, strategize on our roster and
Speaker 7: and different recruits that he needs to see.
Speaker 1: What impact is the shake Lee indoor practice facility having.
Speaker 7: Oh, it's been tremendous from a recruiting standpoint. I think
Speaker 7: it just ties everything together for the recruits. We became
Speaker 7: a big twelve team, we've started winning, and now they
Speaker 7: see the facility, and some that have come before and
Speaker 7: didn't now they're like, Okay, this legitimizes everything. It checks
Speaker 7: every box that Cincinnati's legitimately in the in the ballgame.
Speaker 7: Being a real power for team. From the team perspective,
Speaker 7: I think it's even more critical as much of a
Speaker 7: recruiting advantage it is our players rehab, I call it prehab,
Speaker 7: that's probably not the right word, but like training their
Speaker 7: bodies to not get hurt ahead of time, like what
Speaker 7: Aaron Himmler does and what Nico palace EDDI do down
Speaker 7: there in our training room, in our weight room. Like
Speaker 7: you talk about the elite of the elite, they're as
Speaker 7: good as it gets. So we have so many resources.
Speaker 7: I think I read an article this came out like
Speaker 7: six years ago, so the numbers might be a little
Speaker 7: different now. But James Harrison, the Steelers ed rusher, he
Speaker 7: used to spend I think it was like five hundred
Speaker 7: thousand dollars every off season doing different modalities to.
Speaker 3: Get his body right.
Speaker 7: We have every single thing he used and more in
Speaker 7: our facility. And when you tell that to recruits, it's like,
Speaker 7: we're going to invest in you in your personal development,
Speaker 7: your football development. We're going to invest in you in
Speaker 7: rev share and nil. But you're gonna have every resource
Speaker 7: right at the tips of your fingers in an extremely
Speaker 7: functionalit building. It's a compelling deal for them and it
Speaker 7: really really helps.
Speaker 1: That's a great nugget because I remember James Harrison spent
Speaker 1: one year with the Bengals, okay, and I remember all
Speaker 1: the stuff he was doing for that freakish physique that
Speaker 1: he had back then. Zach, this has been a lot
Speaker 1: of fun. Always appreciate your time. Congratulations on the job
Speaker 1: you and your staff along with the coaching staff, have
Speaker 1: done and putting together the roster of the twenty second
Speaker 1: ranked team in the country with a chance to play
Speaker 1: for a big twelve championship in a few weeks.
Speaker 3: Thank you. It's a lot of work still to be done.
Speaker 1: All right, let's hear it for Zach Graft that is
Speaker 1: just about going to do it for our show tonight.
Speaker 1: Thanks to Joe Strecker, our on site engineer. Thanks to
Speaker 1: Joe Waddell back in the studio, we've got stuff to
Speaker 1: give away for the folks who are here at the
Speaker 1: original Montgomery in you've been listening to the Scott Centerfield
Speaker 1: Radio Show on seven hundred WLW