00:00:00:00 - 00:00:09:22 Unknown You. 00:00:09:22 - 00:00:16:16 Unknown We're back like season three of Vol Club Confidential brought to you by our great friends in Knoxville. Smiles is back on the air. 00:00:16:18 - 00:00:34:18 Unknown I'm your host, Austin Price. And tonight's season debut show. We're going to look back at that national championship run with head coach Tony Vitello and the Baseball Vols before we get into football season a week from now with Darryl Sims. But before we do all that, we're going to bring in Hunter Badeur of the Vol club, Hunter. An exciting time. 00:00:34:18 - 00:00:51:10 Unknown Football season is just around the corner, but this has been like this nice stretch run. You got a little bit of a breather there in between the national championship in Omaha and now the start of football. Exactly. Not much of a breather. And that's a good thing. to be sure, we don't have much downtime, but, it's here. 00:00:51:11 - 00:01:08:19 Unknown College football is is right around the corner. And we could be more excited to get back to, tailgates and engaging with our, fans and talk about all kinds of new stuff when it comes to the swag coming out this fall to, like, a lot of new merchandise, a lot of new, you know, different things, whether it be t shirts, hats, I mean, cups. 00:01:08:19 - 00:01:30:04 Unknown I mean, it's it's just a lot of new memorabilia. And, in addition to that, we have launched our ball club, and it's the first of its kind, to our knowledge, no other. And I like this has something like this. And, you know, also, we're always looking for ways to, to reengage with all of our members and, and bring value and, that you can purchase through the app. 00:01:30:06 - 00:01:55:21 Unknown there's rewards points, maybe even every once in a while a of a recurring, nugget or two. But, we encourage everybody to download the app and, and, it's really probably the best way to, to receive updates. Time. Yeah. And you follow us of all quest. You know, Eric over locked on Josh Pate, with what he's doing CBS it's kind of a one stop shop for just Vols coverage. 00:01:55:23 - 00:02:05:11 Unknown You know, you can kind of go there and just kind of get a little bit of everything there. At the Vol Club app, he's Hunter Badeur. Now for more on our great friends at Knoxville Smiles. Let's take a listen to them. 00:02:05:11 - 00:02:26:22 Unknown I'm Tennessee basketball player J.P. Estrella. Let me give you a tour here of the offices at Knoxville Smiles. Doctor Costa is placing implants with a robot, and it's all done digitally. There's no guessing with this since it's all robotic. Doctor Wilco is the newest addition to The Office. He loves to research the latest and greatest in technology. So the other doctors go to him for the newest product information and techniques. 00:02:27:00 - 00:02:45:03 Unknown Doctor Malone is building teeth in the mouth. To him, cosmetic bonding is more like artwork. He does this without cutting your teeth down. It's all about building them up. Guys, we started from the other bigger chair. 00:02:52:14 - 00:03:00:03 Unknown Yeah. So good. What's up? How are we doing? Good man. You? Not too shabby. Thank you for having me happy. Yeah. Awesome. Yeah. Good to be here. 00:03:00:03 - 00:03:14:15 Unknown Normally we'd be starting season three with football. It's right around the corner. But so much has happened the last few months on the baseball front. How do we not start with you and Tennessee baseball. I'm excited to start season three. But, I feel like I'm a part of the football program. 00:03:14:15 - 00:03:35:18 Unknown I know Coach Heupel well enough so we can help kick off that and all the other fall sports that are about to take over our campus. before we get, you know, going with kind of a recap of what was the magical run, how much do you kind of relish having your front row of basketball games? You're down there hyping the crowd up at football games, you know, with your different outfits and stuff, like, how much do you kind of enjoy that? 00:03:35:20 - 00:03:55:17 Unknown It's kind of a nice break from your own sport because we haven't had one since the parade, which was phenomenal. and quite frankly was an energy boost. I think everyone was gassed by the time we got back to Knoxville. Yeah, obligated to go there. And then you got there and it was an adrenaline rush like you've never had before. 00:03:55:19 - 00:04:15:16 Unknown but since then, we haven't really had a break. And in those football games are a little bit of a breather for us, even though we have recruits on campus. the falls a little bit easier pace. So I think that's when a lot of this will sink in and we'll be able to enjoy not just, again, all the fall sports on our campus, but the fact that we ended on a successful note. 00:04:15:18 - 00:04:44:17 Unknown You've had such a whirlwind with the portal and all that as as it's I mean, has it sunk in a little bit, though? Have you ever had that moment come where you're just sitting there, you're like, and we're ordering rings or, you know, something that just kind of clicked for you. Not one thing that clicked. and so on, kind of a permanent or long term basis, but a lot of little moments when you're driving in the car, you know, over to Nashville or Atlanta for recruiting or on a flight you're daydreaming or delayed on a flight, which is standard procedure these days. 00:04:44:19 - 00:05:03:14 Unknown you know, just a lot of little moments like, some of them almost kind of panicky, like we if we wouldn't have done this one thing right, or this wouldn't have gone well, this wouldn't have worked out. And then you bring yourself back to center and say it did work out. or again, moments of kind of remembering elation or certain positives that happened. 00:05:03:14 - 00:05:24:17 Unknown But you got to bring yourself back to center because this summer is so important to our future success. And it's so busy. you don't want to get distracted by getting too caught up in this stuff. Sure, I get it. Since you kind of went through, you're like, Kevin Frazier and Trey Wingo do a fantastic kind of like, what if podcasts like, what if Kobe had went to the Bulls in the mid 2000, you know, like what what would have happened? 00:05:24:17 - 00:05:45:09 Unknown Like, you know, legacy wise all that. Was there a moment where like, you were going to pinch hit a guy or pull a pitcher and you didn't? Then you're like, man, I'm really I mean, like, if I had done that, like, can you, can you think back with that much clarity and think about a moment where you didn't pull the trigger or did pull the trigger and it worked out? 00:05:45:11 - 00:06:09:06 Unknown Yeah, I think you know that. Well, the biggest one that's hard to overshadow, especially in my mind. And I hate bringing it up because it kind of opens you up to more criticism than you want with pitching changes, because anytime you change pitchers, if it goes well on the scoreboard, he looks more sure don't I remember there was one time we took Garrett Crochet out of a game in the ninth inning, and I still look back at that. 00:06:09:06 - 00:06:29:23 Unknown I'm like, what the heck was I thinking? Or we thinking when we made that change? Well, we end up winning the game. But again, in the ninth inning, we took out Garrett Crochet, who's a major league All-Star pitcher. but to my point, the one was after the eighth inning, Kirby comes in and to be honest with you, had his first really successful outing against A&M. 00:06:29:23 - 00:06:48:18 Unknown They had kind of taking good swings against him, in Hoover and in Omaha. He gets two massive outs for us. Celebrates like crazy. Sure. Yeah. Do you want to send him back out there after he celebrated the way he did and you know it hadn't gone as well? Or do you want to give Combs the inning and give him the ball? 00:06:48:18 - 00:07:09:13 Unknown And Combs had thrown 60 pitches the day prior. So if there was a camera on all of us in our dugout during that eighth inning. Decision eight the ninth inning bridge, it would have been a comedy special because it was a disaster, especially Richard Jackson, who was, you know, moving on to bigger and better things in the business world. 00:07:09:15 - 00:07:38:07 Unknown I give him the most credit. He just really was descriptive about how Combs was throwing the ball down in the bullpen, and that gave us the confidence to, to let him start the ninth. And like a savvy veteran, he kind of knew what he could give up and what he couldn't give up. And he navigated through that very challenging innings, the way that, the way that we wanted to, to there's like two iconic, like, video moments for me in the last, I don't know, 15 years when it comes to Tennessee athletics. 00:07:38:09 - 00:07:54:12 Unknown It's Alvin's touchdown at the Battle of Bristol. And he smiles and he's got the silver grill in. And then it's Combs after he throws the wild pitch and they pull within you know so close. And he just kind of grins right. He's kind of got that like yeah. You know like you know when he does that what are you thinking. 00:07:54:15 - 00:08:10:16 Unknown We got this game. We got this game there was about you ask about moments like, if you would have done this, would have done that. I wish I would have been more prepared. I could slow my mind down because it's a good list of things. If we made we pinch hit and he got on base and you wouldn't have got on base. 00:08:10:18 - 00:08:33:07 Unknown Driving doesn't get that big hit. There was a lot of, we, you know, the players made us look smart. And then, you know, a lot of we didn't make this move, but, you know, with the comes one, that's that's a moment where it was like, we got this. And there was a moment where Liam Spence, our former shortstop, weighed into our dugout before game three, and it was just like, that's a good vibe. 00:08:33:07 - 00:08:56:09 Unknown That's good karma. He's here. It was a bunch of times that day where it gave you a reason to relax when if you really write it down on a piece of paper, your whole season comes down to one game. That's very rare for baseball because of double elimination. But that was the final moment, of that good feeling of if he's out there grinning and able to slow the moment down like that and still finish the job. 00:08:56:09 - 00:09:21:16 Unknown And it also, you know, the one tangent I've gone on this summer talking about our team is are so well balanced. They were a wild bunch. They're very mature and very intense. But he's also relaxed enough. He can laugh at himself or carry on with a proper conversation or with Cal Stark. The final pitch of the game, you know, they had an argument over what pitch he was going to throw, and he had conviction in them that he wanted to go to the breaker. 00:09:21:18 - 00:09:52:00 Unknown Cal kept on one, one, one and eventually breaking ball strike three. And then the rest is history. But a really well balanced group of guys there for, excuse me, a very well balanced team. Now, few of these players have told me that, like, you're I won't say superstitious, but at the same time, like, I like you look at things like, if you take a path to the stadium on an away game and you win, you take the same path the next day, or if you lose, you'll you'll change it up to make the bus driver go a different direction. 00:09:52:02 - 00:10:08:17 Unknown How much are you like that? If you got rabbit's foot in the pocket, I mean, what we got, not no voodoo or anything like that, but I think a lot of these things look like, you know, taking a different route or it almost kind of feels like common sense to me, or maybe even other people that have involved in the sport. 00:10:08:17 - 00:10:36:11 Unknown And then a lot of them too, you do without really realizing. And, you know, maybe a couple years into work in your university and see it's a different role for me. You realize what, I do this thing in the locker room every time, and I'm not really doing it consciously or on purpose, but it's it's a a checklist or, you know, one thing that brings me comfort or, you know, go get a drink of water at this certain time and the players pick up on it because they're watching you. 00:10:36:11 - 00:10:53:11 Unknown And if anything, you saying that reinforces the idea, the players are the ones that are going to win that win or lose the game on the field. I wholeheartedly believe that. But they're watching their leadership and following their leadership. Kind of like if you can't sit in front of your three year old son, he might not sure. 00:10:53:13 - 00:11:11:03 Unknown so it kind of brings to light that they're they're watching what we're doing. And I say that because we are so blessed with a group of support staff that they're just all arguably the best in the league. I hate to start that argument, but he's the best friend coach in the league and Frank's best pitcher. And now people are real. 00:11:11:05 - 00:11:34:06 Unknown Realizing how good coaching is at his job. And I could go on an our academic coordinator that's not even close. And so that makes life easier on me. It makes me look smarter. But it also puts our players in a position where they can be the very best version of themselves. You told me when we were talking a few weeks ago that like Highlanders won, he's like, you know, we're talking about getting Frank here, and we've talked about it for a while for for ball club Confidential. 00:11:34:06 - 00:11:50:02 Unknown But you're like, Ellen would be perfect for that too, because I mean, he's eventually going to be a head coach sooner rather than later. And he's able to be a little bit more selective, you know, because of the stability here. And you know, the fact, you know, you're able to get more money for the assistants and all that this past all season. 00:11:50:04 - 00:12:14:06 Unknown What is it about him that just kind of clicks and connects and gives you that kind of, you know, like, I don't have to worry about anything? Well, I was when I coached him. I mean, he gave off that vibe. And we talk about, you know, he's a tough cookie to crack. So if you're able to get him in the setting once he cracked it, it would that the knowledge and the humor would come out in a good conversation like no other. 00:12:14:08 - 00:12:35:15 Unknown but he, he's old school and he's kind of been through it. And his favorite thing he likes to do is just have a relationship with the players, especially the pitchers. Josh is different. In order to get him in a setting like this, you got to kind of crack his shell of loyalty. He is so loyal to a fault, to myself and the rest of the staff, in part because we gave him his first opportunity. 00:12:35:18 - 00:12:56:08 Unknown Kind of like I feel a sense of loyalty to Tennessee for the first head coaching opportunity. but he has shown that loyalty rather than saying thank you, he's literally tried to gobble up as much responsibility as possible to take it off our shoulders and do it to a point where he never has to say thank you, because we can see it in that work. 00:12:56:13 - 00:13:17:12 Unknown And, his number one attribute, in my opinion, is his relationships, with the people that he has to work with in recruiting. They all know how hard he works at those relationships and scouting, players so that we get talent here. But then also with the hitters in the cages, there's a closeness there that's, to be honest with you, it makes me jealous. 00:13:17:14 - 00:13:39:14 Unknown I mean, the relationship he has with a guy like Jordan or I'm very close with those kids, but it'll never even be to the halfway point of how close he is with those guys. It's because you're the head coach. Yeah, you get around a bad guy. That's right. And that's how it is in any sport. I mean, you're always gonna be closer with the if you're the linebacker, you'll be close with the linebackers coach than you're the head coach in most instances. 00:13:39:14 - 00:14:03:05 Unknown I mean, you know, most of the time for you, when you went out, you've been mister autograph, mister, picture all that. You know, I've seen a thousand. I'm on my Facebook of somebody saying you had, you know, Mookie Tyson or this or that. what's the oddest place that, you know, you've been approached? I mean, maybe overall, but even since the national championship, yeah. 00:14:03:05 - 00:14:26:08 Unknown Overall, I was in Brazil, which is that's a long way away. but it wasn't a Brazilian native. It was, you know, somebody from Florida that was saying so, but it was it was kind of funny at the time. you know, since then, I think it is just the random airports. And there might be someone was on the flight from Georgia, which they have a huge alumni base or, you know, someone flying out of touch with you. 00:14:26:10 - 00:14:48:00 Unknown But so those airports either recognitions or sit next to somebody is rough because I, our video coordinator, talked about this. We got travel. We kind of plug that into our. So you sleep 2 or 3 less hours and get more work done. Yeah. Because you're going to sleep on the plane. So usually I have the same outfit on the same hat, I sleep on the plane. 00:14:48:00 - 00:15:12:11 Unknown So therefore I need ten 15 minutes to wake up when I get off the plane. getting onto the plane, I'm being you know, it's been hectic and I'm kind of a hot mess getting there. So, yeah, the airport run ins, I guess I'm putting out an advertisement. Cut me a little slack with those, but it is awesome to go anywhere in the world or even just airport and be greeted with people that, you know, really enjoy what our guys are doing on the field. 00:15:12:13 - 00:15:47:08 Unknown How much do you get from fans, coach? I like to see this. Like, you know what I mean? Like, everybody loves to coach. Now, are you referring that not Tony, Leo or other people? Just anybody because, you know, on the radio or things like that, there's always suggest the suggestion box is open. Yeah, but I'm saying this in all sincerity, and it's one of the things that has drawn us, to closer to our fan base and kept us, if I could just be blunt, kept us here at University of Tennessee is our fans are different than other SEC fans, at least for baseball. 00:15:47:08 - 00:16:06:16 Unknown I don't mean to speak, for I know the the watchful eyes on football can be very critical. I sit next to these fans and why do we call this play? You just did so, you know, roll with it. You know we're we're in orange. They're wearing orange. but my point I'm beating around the bush is our fans are so positive compared to some of the other fan bases in our league. 00:16:06:16 - 00:16:30:15 Unknown And I'm not saying, you know, anyone's doing anything wrong anywhere else, but you feel it. And, they're behind us, and I hope that never changes. I realize now it's when can you win another national championship or. I got my tickets to Omaha already. I'm a hotel reservations. But, when people approach the the positivity is interesting, and we appreciate that. 00:16:30:17 - 00:16:50:15 Unknown And we hope that reciprocated. And again, I hope it doesn't change. How many times did you get this past season. And maybe people aren't normally people aren't as blunt to someone's face as they are. Like get behind the the keyboard. Why don't you bring Causey in after one out? Because that was the common theme, I think, from fans like, I don't understand that part. 00:16:50:16 - 00:17:05:20 Unknown Like, well, that's just how they did it. Like that's how we did it and it worked. And there was also times, why did you take stock? Yeah. And there was times where what why are you taking him out. He's your guy. And then was also the other where you know Chris Burke I think is is knowledgeable of baseball guys. 00:17:05:20 - 00:17:26:00 Unknown There is in the country and he complimented one time we left for him. And, you know, we're off again. If you're at home throwing your remote at the TV, you might argue we left him up there to. So again, I fall back on the thing. you know, I just got to meet Vince Vaughn, a couple nights ago, and I could not have messed up that meeting any worse. 00:17:26:00 - 00:17:54:10 Unknown It was terrible, I fumbled. I'd love to go back in time and redo it. That's a situation where you can either do well or not in a game or a competitive environment, a UFC fight or football game or soccer game. It's chaos, it's competitive, and there's a lot of crazy things that are going to go on that makes it fun as a fan, because you can analyze sure, but what you're trying to do is you're analyzing literally combat and you know, things are going to go wrong, things are going to go right. 00:17:54:10 - 00:18:12:04 Unknown You really sometimes don't have a rhyme or reason. You just at the end of the day, you want to compete the appropriate way you've been prepared to do so, and you would like the outcome a higher percentage of the time, and not to show that you're doing it well. And so while it was cool, we won a national championship. 00:18:12:06 - 00:18:42:17 Unknown Maybe I'll change my mind when I'm older, but I would stand by this. Since Covid, we've won more games than any team in the country, and I take more pride in that than winning one game against Texas A&M, because it's a constant grind and we have a bigger sample size. Our sport has more statistics or sample size than anybody because we play so many games, and to have that success over that amount of time, I take greater pride in that whole body of work as opposed to winning one tournament. 00:18:42:18 - 00:19:01:04 Unknown Oh, I may change my mind. I know you're one, I know. No, I was gonna say I'm still. I'm. You're all I hear is blah blah blah. I'm thinking about the Tennessee fans creating the meme or GIF of you with Vince Vaughn from Wedding Crashers, where they put your head on Owen Wilson and he's like, you, old sailor, you. 00:19:01:06 - 00:19:18:22 Unknown I would like that combo. I'll tell you what, that guy is literally super. He's super nice. And, my my buddy is in his new show that actually debuts tonight on Apple TV. But I'm not that throw a commercial out there. But, those little witty comments he makes in the movie. Yeah, I witnessed him do that with a bunch of different people. 00:19:19:00 - 00:19:40:13 Unknown That's all ad lib. I mean, he's got to have one of the minds, than anybody in the country. I'm pretty sure you do that in the dugout, like when you're doing those in-game interviews. Yeah, that's that's pure adrenaline. And but also, you know, my Concho part of that is guys like him and Will Ferrell literally changed the culture with the way people think and the way they joke. 00:19:40:15 - 00:20:10:06 Unknown Yeah. For some of those old comedies coming back, yeah, I, I agree with that. Look back at one game before we take a break to promote alcohol smiles. What's the one game you look back on from the season that you just smile about, and why? That's a tough one. I think. I think one that stands out in my head was the super regional final game on, 00:20:10:08 - 00:20:35:20 Unknown You know, Sunday was a great moment for our guys to feel to feel the tension, the weight of the world. And there was none of that. You can feel it when you show up. And part of it, I think, was guys like more for Kirby. They've already been in that situation. Yeah. Against Southern Miss, against Notre Dame the year prior as well. 00:20:35:22 - 00:20:55:21 Unknown You know we were in a super place. there was none of that. And then the explosiveness that was in that stadium and out of our offense and then ultimately the campers were standing over in the standing over Kirby, beautiful. And, I've never been on the mound and taking the ball from a guy, and he hugged me. 00:20:55:23 - 00:21:13:21 Unknown Zander, you know, was quick to do that because he's got so much love in his heart. And I'm like, dude, right now we're winning if we have more games. So you're making this like it's the final thing. It's bad, bad karma. But then he made me. If you watch, I hugged Kirby, I was the instigator there. And Kirby kind of was me, where he's like, what are you doing right here? 00:21:13:23 - 00:21:25:22 Unknown but but regardless, those two guys coming off the mound the way they did and the way our guys handled that situation was, was pretty awesome. We'll touch on more about Kirby and Zander in a moment. But first, our great friends in Knoxville smiles. 00:21:26:00 - 00:21:46:13 Unknown Knoxville smiled, depending on us to make her smile better. Knoxville smiles. Are you happy with your smile today? Knoxville smiles were all about smiles. Hey, lads, what makes you smile? Pancake looks. I, I thought. 00:21:46:13 - 00:21:50:02 Unknown new this year of all Club Confidential, we'll take questions from the volunteer club apps. 00:21:50:03 - 00:21:55:12 Unknown And in those videos get those questions in first. We have a question from a young man to coach Fat. Hello. 00:21:55:12 - 00:22:11:05 Unknown Thank you much. My name is Cooper Bowman and I live in Jackson, Tennessee. I was just wondering what your favorite uniform combination is. Mine is the black jerseys and the white pants they all wore in the College World Series. Go, Vols. 00:22:11:10 - 00:22:32:13 Unknown Cooper's got a future there on TV, but he also looks like an athlete. That might be a future recruit of ours. He's a he's from Jacksonville. We'll go back there this fall or fall ball ball game in front of. You know, it might be our best crowd again a couple of years ago it certainly was. But yeah best unique combo is a little bit jaded because the black and white has kind of been the favorite of a lot of people. 00:22:32:13 - 00:22:50:16 Unknown And then when you win, you know, the final game in that uni, it's hard to get away from that. But baseball is a tradition based sport. There's a lot of rich history, and cream kind of has that, that flavor. and then Sunday is such an important day as we, you know, talked about our guys wanting to wear black that day against Evansville. 00:22:50:16 - 00:23:09:19 Unknown But a lot of times in SEC series or how you're going to end the week comes down to Sunday. So that cream has got, a couple symbolic meanings for me. Yeah. Burnt toast. That's the heaviest uniform you all wear, though. So, like, you know, like when it gets warm outside, the Sunday creams are not desirable. It is. 00:23:09:19 - 00:23:32:20 Unknown And fortunately, Nike has kind of boosted our, our deal a little bit. So we've got, the new, more modern material coming in at uni and okay, so that'll be better. One thing that was a tough decision was what to do with the black black top. So we wore this year and we're going to retire those. And so you're first to hear that including all of our players don't know the will retire those and we'll see what we do with them. 00:23:32:20 - 00:23:45:08 Unknown And if some of the guys can maybe take one of those, but black will still be in play. Just that particular version will be in play, for sure. And, we'll just kind of get a copycat of the unique. 00:23:45:10 - 00:24:06:01 Unknown You talked about the kind of the the sendoff that the fans gave, Zander and gave Kirby as a coach. are you cognizant of that? Like, because, I mean, it'd be easy to, you know, not stick them back out there, but you still get back out there, at least for a pitch. Just, you know, the to get the curtain call, so to speak. 00:24:06:03 - 00:24:28:20 Unknown Honestly, there's moments of conviction. And again, I get it on TV. When you're watching pitching changes, it's the game's slower for you. You don't have repercussions. you maybe don't know all the scoop, but it was it was tough. Even though we had a decent score on us. Do we send them back out or not? And we, we were leaning towards send them back out. 00:24:28:20 - 00:24:47:18 Unknown And he saw us talking and he came over and said, with all due respect, it's normally that that precedes we go back to Vince Vaughn. But with all due respect, this this is something more of what I want to do. I want to go back out there and I want to walk off that. Yeah, you can come get me. 00:24:47:19 - 00:25:04:17 Unknown Yeah. And so he gets the first hitter out and everyone's looking each other like, is it time? And he's looking at us. And if you rewatch that game, there's an awkward moment in there where we did that pretty easily. Maybe we'll give you one more and then we'll bring in somebody to get the last out. But he was ready to go. 00:25:04:17 - 00:25:21:04 Unknown And, so it's kind of funny how that was a combo effort, but he earned that, right? No question. And then with Kirby, it was a stressor because we had the lead. His role wasn't really up. But you want to preserve him because he's so valuable. And then intensity was the heck for this. We got to get him out. 00:25:21:06 - 00:25:43:19 Unknown You know, you got to get he didn't know the situation. You got to get the guy out. Yeah. He got the his first hitter out. And you have to be cognizant of the crowd because the volume, you know, when you watch on TV and Lindsay Nelson for whatever reason, it doesn't do it justice that that was the loudest I've heard a crowd, you know, including Drew Gilbert's home run Derby, people walking off that Mount Kirby. 00:25:43:20 - 00:26:02:14 Unknown I've always tell him I joke with him. I said, you are Steve the pirate from dodgeball. Because I know the thing is, he's not going to be leaving because he's staying on your staff. Which changes my theory a little bit. But like I've always said, years from now you're going to come back, you're going to have short hair, you're not going to have a mustache like you just go look normal. 00:26:02:14 - 00:26:26:01 Unknown And people are going to go, Steve's a pirate, like Kirby, like, you know, like, I mean, like it's going to be different because he's his his whole get up is just so iconic. You know? I mean, this from the mullet to the to the stache to just everything. And the guy is like, really selfless. Like, I mean, he's out there doing everything, catching the first pitch, running to, you know, get the, you know, the mitts from the runners, whatever. 00:26:26:01 - 00:26:53:10 Unknown Meet the guy just does a little bit of everything of all trades literally. And was that for us on the mound? And, he does look like a pirate jack of all trades. But even this summer, when he cut his hair just a little bit in the back, it was it was kind of shocking seeing him. So with the regardless of, you know, the the mustache is iconic and his appearance and things like that, what is iconic is what you hit on is just how selfless he is and what he means to this community. 00:26:53:10 - 00:27:12:00 Unknown And, and I know Peyton Manning is Peyton Manning, and we could go on down the list. I don't know how you prioritize who fits in where, what he's got to go down. This is one of the most involved in the community and best wraps of of all athletics that the university he's literally ever had no doubt about it. 00:27:12:02 - 00:27:31:04 Unknown for this, you know team, you have so many people leaving, right? I mean, they're gone. I mean, Christian Moore is doing big things already, which I know does not surprise you in the least. You go out and throw the first pitch when they're down and, when the trash pans are down in Chattanooga. it wasn't quite George W Bush was pitch from the, from the World Series. 00:27:31:06 - 00:27:51:13 Unknown He's got a better arm, and I'm throwing as much VP. my arm is absolutely thrashed. But it was it was good to be down. Chattanooga's done a lot for sure. But also what we played in that stadium and then wanted to be there for Seymour was pretty cool. And Frank had a couple relationships. He was connecting with their guys's coach, so that was special. 00:27:51:13 - 00:28:23:07 Unknown But it's also a reminder of how are we going to replace these guys and you're not. and I remember having a team meeting with the 22 team of Fergie and Liam are gone. And, you know, other, other guys on that team that were big personalities and, well, they weren't Fergie and Liam until that 21 season when we made it to Omaha and then Cortland Lawson, I knew who he was and I loved him, and we had a close relationship and he was a good player, but no one else outside of our program knew who he was until the 22 season. 00:28:23:09 - 00:28:52:12 Unknown And next thing you know, he's starting shortstop and a powerful header for us. And on arguably one of the best teams of all time. So who that next guy is. We may know a little bit about him or we may not know anything about him, but the opportunities there for those guys obviously some success in the portal, but, the guys that are returning that were on this team, who has the capability to be that Trey Lipscomb guy that goes from kind of nowhere to somewhere over the course of an off season? 00:28:52:14 - 00:29:13:06 Unknown You know, that's that's an interesting one. because a lot of guys I think will be involved at least contributed. Margot Reese Chapman Peebles but but a guy that I think I wouldn't want to put that on him that I think is a really gifted player is Alex Perry. He just couldn't stay healthy last year. He's really physical. 00:29:13:08 - 00:29:34:06 Unknown he likes to play. He slows the game down like traded. He's going to have an opportunity to lock down a spot every day for us. And he could be a real pleasant surprise out there on the field football fans if that's the case. But again, for Trey to do what he did was, in my opinion, is the best player in the league that you guys like me to share. 00:29:34:08 - 00:29:53:19 Unknown so and we had a great team, so I don't know if that one will ever reoccur. Sure. I got to keep an eye on, there's something about, you know, just a couple of guys on this team. The just the, you know, like a guy like Drew Beam. I thought it was great the way he performed in Omaha. 00:29:53:19 - 00:30:09:16 Unknown Because if you go back there, those last couple of outings at home, I thought he, you know, everybody's like, oh, Drew Brees not Drew Beeman. I'm like both outings. He literally sat on the bench for like 45 minutes because we scored like you know, 15 runs, which I know I'm embellishing a few. But like we were we were hitting for him. 00:30:09:16 - 00:30:27:16 Unknown Right. And then that changed to me like how a pitcher comes back in like that big, long layoff. Is that fair? Yeah. No, I think that's that's tough on the pitcher. Certainly. And it's it's you know a deal with the other team's offense too. So there's a lot of factors. There's a flow to each team. Excuse me. 00:30:27:16 - 00:31:00:00 Unknown And what you're looking for out of your starters is to get you into the fifth inning. Yep a chance to win. And again, I hate to get dramatic, but I'd like to check the record books and see if anyone has done that better than anybody for three years with the saves and starting and things like that. But, the other thing I'd point to is drew Beings record our team records when he pitches is insane, and that needs to be posted in a lot of places because his record itself is really strong. 00:31:00:02 - 00:31:24:05 Unknown But again, if you look at our win loss record in games that he throws in, it's. Yeah, because sometimes he wouldn't get the win even though y'all were up 12 to 2 because he didn't pitch enough. The you know that the rule where you to X amount of me was at five. And then if you want to take it a step further and break down how many times that he, you know, did he leave the game with us, you know, winning or at tied or within whatever you criteria you through out there, it really shows you the value. 00:31:24:05 - 00:31:44:05 Unknown And then if you take a step back again with the Kirby example, the true value is within the character. And you're talking about a guy. We actually went strategy with AJ Russell Friday. you know, Zander was Sunday and being was supposed to be the rock in the middle. It was kind of more just the best overall plan. 00:31:44:07 - 00:32:10:12 Unknown But everybody sees Friday night is kind of a cool thing. You're being congratulated AJ Russell instead of I'm I'm telling you on 99% of the campuses in the country, a team USA guy, two year starter, he's going to see that as disrespect and be upset and be bitter. Not only was he not those things, he took it a step further and made AJ Russell a better player and teammate by saying, go get him and congratulations to you. 00:32:10:14 - 00:32:28:22 Unknown Interesting that again family. You know, Liam and his mom and dad are good people and kind of brought up the right way. And obviously as sisters special to him when you when you look towards, you know, this football season, are you going to be are you going to be a visitor in these road games or are you big on road games for football season? 00:32:28:22 - 00:32:47:12 Unknown We all see it kneeling, but I mean, we have practice and some donors have helped me out, you know, go to Georgia and things like that. I've been to a couple, but it's going to be very difficult. The Oklahoma game is a possibility because we don't have a scrimmage that weekend. But there's all kinds of chaos with more than coming into town. 00:32:47:14 - 00:33:05:07 Unknown so it would probably be that one or not at all, you know, being able to go to bowl games. But we're in the middle of fall baseball. And and again, you hate to miss practice. And Saturday is a big one for us. You speaking of Morgan, you speak about Morgan. We've seen these videos for like Mike Tyson and Tom Brady. 00:33:05:07 - 00:33:23:14 Unknown You're like a company. Is that going to be you and Peyton Manning? Are you all going to be leading him out? And he's going to have some type of jersey on and potential. Nothing's been firmed up. But I got to tell you, I lose interest in being that guy. When you're met Tom Brady and Mike Tyson. that's that's not exactly an equal comparison. 00:33:23:14 - 00:33:46:03 Unknown So but we're down to do whatever. I know everyone just fired up. I'm glad it finally worked out. You know, construction was a little bit of an obstacle for an event like that. And, you know, Tennessee people are welcoming and friendly to everybody, but they're especially that way to people that are their own team. Talking about a guy that grew up not far from from our own baseball stadium and the football stadium. 00:33:46:03 - 00:34:02:22 Unknown So for him to perform like that, it's going to be an epic day. And obviously there's two days, so a lot of people will be able to enjoy it. All right, before we go for we got to get you out of here. New on the show this year. We're not doing Jordan LeBron anymore. Retired that question I want you to pull your phone out. 00:34:03:00 - 00:34:22:17 Unknown I want you to call the one person you know has your back will always answer when you call. All right I can do that. What if he don't answer. Well, then we might give you a lifeline and give you a second option. But I'm betting this person answers and you get put on speaker. We want to hear it. 00:34:22:22 - 00:34:32:09 Unknown Who we call in here? No man, no. He might answer us. 00:34:32:10 - 00:34:37:03 Unknown We're calling our video coordinator. 00:34:37:05 - 00:35:01:03 Unknown He's my mentor. And people don't realize that. And he also was the one who initiated our relationship. And he's our video guy and he works with technology. So for him to not answer, oh oh for one. He'll end up calling right back. Now we will try though. The reason I didn't call my real guy guy who I go to with I don't go to a shrink. 00:35:01:03 - 00:35:25:02 Unknown I go to my buddy. he's a former teammate, but he's a family man. Okay, coach Cassius, we're going to ask you to not cuss right now because you're on a podcast with me, my friend. Okay. How many years do you think we played? And room together as coaches? Total as coaches. Well. And we room together as players a little bit too. 00:35:25:03 - 00:35:31:02 Unknown Right. So. 00:35:31:04 - 00:35:52:09 Unknown Okay. Awesome. If you wanted to give up dirt on me, how many hours you think you could still on the podcast since I basically throw all my my mental trash on you, but, I was supposed to call somebody that's always got my back, and I called Sean McCann, my mentor, but he's probably busy with Frank. So who I really would have called is you. 00:35:52:09 - 00:36:18:17 Unknown And, hopefully that's a compliment to you, but it started with, you know, I didn't make a travel list when I was playing at Missouri. That was the first trip, and it was. And you had to talk you off the ledge. And, we had to practice inside because it's freezing in Missouri. And Ryan Steagall and Lucas Sewell talking to now said, we really think it's best you didn't make the travel to work your butt off. 00:36:18:18 - 00:36:30:08 Unknown And that that was the biggest pick me up I can remember, remember as a player there. And it kept me going. So this turned into a thank you call. 00:36:30:10 - 00:36:54:20 Unknown Luke. Luke, if you really cared, Luke, if you really cared about Tony, you would have went into the coach like they did in Rudy and just put your jersey down and said, you aren't going back. I think I think we're so old. That movie hadn't come out. All right, we'll let you go. We don't want to talk about Chicago sports with you. 00:36:54:22 - 00:37:19:14 Unknown We're going to call Vince Vaughn. We know him now. So you've kind of gone down the priority list on Chicago? Yeah. See, brother? That's fantastic. All right, we'll get you out of here on this one. Over the next 300 days. What what what what are we trying to accomplish? I mean, I know the goal is to go back to back, but, I mean, that's such a hard deal. 00:37:19:16 - 00:37:45:19 Unknown how do you just get this new group, which is going to be so many new faces to jail? What? What's the key to getting them to buy into jail? I think to, doing this off the cuff and I'll say it, I think, to all get on board with a common theme and, you know, one common theme last year was the guys they were frustrated with how long it took for us to get that ball, baseball chemistry. 00:37:45:21 - 00:38:07:20 Unknown And, they made it a point to start in August, not even September, because we don't really get rolling. It's tough to pick up momentum till after Labor Day. But, that team chemistry was a theme and it ended up being our biggest strength. And I think with this year's group, it needs to continue with that. But also what's what's kind of the theme of our group because we won last year. 00:38:07:20 - 00:38:28:05 Unknown So are we riding off the coattails of that and still celebrating? Are you trying to put pressure on yourself to repeat? to me, it doesn't need to be any of those things. It needs to be an appropriate theme for us to come together as quick as possible as a team, and also to find some inner locker room motivation for kind of what's our chip on our shoulder this year? 00:38:28:07 - 00:38:47:09 Unknown because that's, that's been our since we've been here. Some people don't like it. Some people do. but they weren't there with us in 2018. We're getting our brains kicked in by people and getting it rubbed in our noses pretty good, too. There wasn't a lot on Twitter about that. and there's no memory bank, that social media has it that we have it still in our hands. 00:38:47:09 - 00:39:06:02 Unknown And people were upset, in our locker room and in our team meetings. And it became a theme of we're going to stand up for ourselves. And that's going to mean maybe we bully people a little bit, or at least attempt to. And, you know, that chip on our shoulder needs to remain, but it's going to have a different flavor because, like you said, it's a lot of new guys. 00:39:06:04 - 00:39:27:13 Unknown And it's a year after some success. So formulating that over the next two months is probably what's in front of us. And I think that'll speak to what comes the next 250 days or what? Hey, what? We could go with the Vince Vaughn theme. We could go. The theme could be old school, it could be Omaha Crashers. It won't be the breakup, though. 00:39:27:15 - 00:39:40:14 Unknown This guy is not going anywhere anytime soon. Tony. Man, we appreciate the time. And, good luck, this fall as a fan for, for for football and and eventually into winter basketball and and next season. Thank you so much. Appreciate it. 00:39:40:14 - 00:39:45:21 Unknown Appreciate you coming home. And be careful. Thank you so much. You appreciate it.