The Okay Podcast Powered by The Strength Co. - EP 34: Gamecock Legend Stephen Garcia

Episode Date: August 23, 2024

Podcast Hosts: Grant Broggi: Marine Veteran, Owner of The Strength Co. and Starting Strength Coach. Jeff Buege: Marine Veteran, Outdoorsman, Football Fan and Lifter Tres Gottlich: Marine Veteran, Texan, Fisherman, Crazy College Football Fan and Lifter Join the Slack and Use code OKAY: https://buy.stripe.com/dR6dT4aDcfuBdyw5ks Check out BW Tax: https://www.bwtaxllc.com PJ's Wedding Registry: https://www.theknot.com/us/jordan-long-and-kaitlyn-davis-aug-2024/registry TIMESTAMPS: 00:00 - Tres Is All-In On Bitcoin 07:12 - Lifting Update 10:03 - PFT vs CFT 31:30 - Stephan Garcia Joins 33:08 - Business 40:47 - Recruiting 44:34 - Conferences 46:25 - Huskies vs Gamecocks, What Happened? 48:43 - NIL 53:24 - HBC 56:37 - Rule Changes 58:23 - Training 01:02:36 - Strength Coaches 01:04:33 - Freaks of Nature 01:07:09 - Nick Fairley 01:07:57 - Favorite Memory 01:12:11 - This Year’s Schedule 01:15:47 - Marine Corps Class 01:19:04 - New Podcast 01:24:53 - Stephan Is OKAY! 01:32:21 - Chinese Weightlifting 01:42:46 - Saved Rounds

All right, and welcome back to episode 034 of the okay, okay, guidons, okay, podcast powered by straight code. Today's date is August the 13th in the year of our lord 2024 the price of bitcoin is sixty thousand seven hundred and sixty dollars yes i'm your host grant brogy uh coming to you live but yet in the future because we're ahead of everything from the upstate the beautiful upstate of uh south Carolina. There's only two upstates in the world. There's upstate South Carolina. There's upstate New York.

And no one likes the latter. But today's episode is a little bit different for a lot of things. One, we got the boys on already. What's up, boys? From the south. And PJ's gone because for some reason pj decided he wanted to get married this weekend so uh yeah actually let me do let me do him a little solid we'll also put it in the show notes but um if you like pj and you've ever been married you know that weddings are not cheap. So you can go to thenot.com slash Jordy Long and Caitlin Davis.

Just Google it. It'll pop up. Buy them a gift. Links in the show notes. You can donate some money to their future house. You can put a little cash in their pocket for their honeymoon. You can do all sorts of things. But today's a little

unorthodox style of podcast. We're going to have to talk Bitcoin, so I think we have some good Bitcoin updates, but we got Jeff here joining us from beautiful the greater Salt Lake City area. Am I right? Salt Lake City. Indeed. Yeah, Salt Lake City, but it's not technically, right? Are you a Salt Lake City address?

I'm in the city. Oh, my bad. My bad. My boy's in the city. My boy's in the city. Oh, my bad. My boy's in the city. My boy's in the city. My boy's in the city. He's in the city. And we got Mr. Robert Gottlich III, commonly referred to as

Trey. You're not in Frisco right now, are you? No, not in Frisco anymore. I am in H-Town, baby. Houston. Houston. The Gulf. Garbage town for garbage people. Yeah, that's the city

motto. That's what they say. That's what I've always said about Houston, H-Town. Humidity. So do we have some Bitcoin updates from the the host here are you talking is that talking by hosting are you yeah you want third person the host the host plural that's a hard word to say plural oh yeah yeah oh not to sorry my mic

is just driving me nuts right here. PJ usually sets everything up. I sit in here, he powders my face. And yeah, I feel like I'm looking at you guys sideways. But yeah, no, don't we have a new person in the crypto kingdom? Oh, baby, dipping my toes in. Yeah. You need a bumper sticker for your car. Yeah.

My treasure's on the block height. sticker for your car my yeah my treasures my treasures on the block height yeah yeah the block height is 80 85 6671 the number's so big i i can't read it in thousands so you guys can't even see it because the camera change is different but anyway shout out zach copley all right go ahead i'll take your word for it man yeah did my definitely keep talking about him i might as well see what the fuss is about. Well, you bought it a good time. You bought the dip. I did.

Yeah. You said buy at the dip, right? Yeah. You always want to... So like a basic economics, and this works well in crypto, you want to buy when the prices are low. Makes sense. And then you want to sell when they're high.

So... But you say don't sell. Did you write that down? Yeah. You don't... Well, you... No, we're going to sell when they're high. But you say don't sell. Did you write that down? Yeah, you don't. Well, no, we're going to sell. We're going to sell when they're high. They're just not as high as we think they're going to be. Oh, yeah, okay.

I think I'm up $21 right now. So I was thinking about sell. Sell, dude. Don't do this. Sell. Dude. 20 bucks? What are you waiting on? 20 bucks, dude. Don't do this. Sell. Dude. 20 bucks? What are you waiting on?

20 bucks, baby. That's a can of Copenhagen and a monster for this weekend's drill. What zine you could buy with that? Not a zine. One zine. Yeah. These days. Anyway, that's how we usually do that that's how we usually do the

intro with me and pj and then i say well let's get these guys on here and then you're here so we're on hey look at us yeah we're all caught up yeah i wish i knew more i wish i knew more about it but it's uh i don't know it's kind of you put a little money aside it's fun to watch yeah i took your advice i think we talked about it It's like you put enough in to where if like you completely lose everything, you won't lose any sleep, but it's fun. I think you put it. I think you put enough.

Yeah. I think you put enough in that like you're not worried about it. Yeah. But then at the same time you put enough in that it actually does do something. Like if it goes from 55 to one 10, that like you actually made something right. Like, yeah,

you put $5 in and you're like, well, cool. Yeah. So I refinanced my house and I took half that. I hope, you know, yeah,

you played a conservative. That's good. And Southern, and Southern Baptist, um, accounting, they call something the envelope method or budgeting, I should say, where it's like, you know, you put, it's not just Southern Baptist accounting, they call something the envelope method or budgeting, I should say, where it's like, you know, you put, it's not just Southern Baptist that do this,

but it's where I learned it. And it's like, here's my car payment. I put it in this envelope. Here's my grocery bill. I put it in this envelope. Here's this, here's this and all for the month. And then like, when you go to buy that thing, you take it out of that envelope. I know it's very 1990s budgeting, but I told Trey, I said, wait, wait, wait, buy more. And then say, this is for one kid. This is the other kids. This is my wife's. This is mine. And then if it all goes up, everyone gets rich. Yeah. Yeah. That's how that works. I took your advice on that.

All right, cool. It's good, man. I'm excited. It's fun. Just kind of watching Coinbase. Do you know what you bought at? No. It was 50. It was like 59. Oh, so you're up. Yeah, I'm up right now.

Yeah, you're up. Yeah, sell, baby. 21 bucks. 21 bucks. 21 bucks, baby. Might be 22 now. I'm out. Check. Ooh, it, baby. 21 bucks. 21 bucks, baby. Might be 22 now. I'm out. Check.

Ooh, it could be. Well, tonight's special in about 20 minutes, we've got a special guest on, Gamecock legend Stephen Garcia. We'll talk about him later. So we've got 22 minutes to get through the slide deck, because as we talked about in the pre-slide tech show, I think we're going to stroll down memory lane of SEC lore with Stephen and be there a while.

So, Jeff, what's on the slide deck? I mean, I think it could be a very short segment. It could be a slightly longer segment. We'll see. Trey. No, we can. Yeah, I got. So, yesterday morning, woke up early.

Kids woke up, went back to sleep, so I was already up. I'm like, oh, might as well get a little workout in. Cleaned out the garage the night before, so home gym's back up and running. Nice. Did a three sets of five bench press and then followed that closely with a HI a hit exercise that i was worn out so it probably didn't last long and should have no it's gone down it's gone down man yeah i i did i did three sets of pain i started 225 no pain no pain no gain so i. I just started light. Something I felt confident in. I just did 225, three sets of five.

Yeah, just humble brig. Just got something light, super light. Just something out, 225. I did close grip. I did single arm bench with the barbell. Yeah.

Okay, back in the gym. Yeah. Yeah. But. Okay. Back in the gym. Nice. What was the hit workout? I did. Let me see. I think I went for seven minutes and I did like three pull-ups,

10 push-ups, 15 air squats. And I would just kept going. I did as many as I could in about seven minutes. That's good. Then you got baby started crying, so I had to go back in. Which one? Ray.

I think it was Ray. I can't remember. You can't tell them apart at this point? When it's 5.30 in the morning, I'm like, it doesn't matter. I get it, man. I'm a dad. I totally get it. Luckily, my cats are different colors.

Yeah, you tell them apart. This is Calhoun, a.k.a. Joseph, because he has a coat of many colors. A little Bible joke for you non-Baptist types. All right. Well, that wasaptist types. All right. Well, that was a short slide. Next slide. Yeah, man. Jeff and I did the same workout this weekend.

That's what I was going to say. We did the same workout. We did the same workout. We just went to the main site, pulled up the most recent Mar Admin, and they were like, you will conduct a combat fitness test. And we both did the same thing. Wait, just like on your own? With our batteries.

I mean, yeah. I thought you didn't send it out. You're just like, hey, do this while you're at your house. That would be fun. Man, I... You post that, man man i've always been i've always thought one the cft makes so much more sense than the pft and yes i actually enjoy doing it unlike the pft i was just like dreaded doing that but i don't know i guess maybe explain if pj was here what was the cft

encompasses oh you're you're as the as the furthest removed from active yeah yeah has it changed yeah yeah you're taking you're taking pj's spot uh why don't you explain the two jeff and then i'll give my takes so marine corps basically divides the year in half six months of the year is your physical fitness test season so kind of your classic military physical fitness test with some for Marine Corps three mile run some pull-ups and now the plank and then the other half of the year so is it June through December is the combat fitness test. And that consists of an 800 and was it 880? Yeah. 880, right?

Yeah. Half mile. Yeah. Yeah. Half mile sprint. I always get this confused. Sometimes they refer to it in yards and sometimes they refer to it in meters. I think it's 800 meters, 880 yards.

That sounds right. Okay. That sounds right. But. That sounds right. But I'm going to be PJ for a second. It's 880 yards. Okay. Yeah. That's how they're recorded.

Because we're Americans. Yeah. Freedom units, baby. Yeah. Okay. 880 yards, which is two laps around the track. Yes. Yeah, yeah.

And you do that wearing, so like your utility pants or trousers t-shirt like dickies and there's like a carpenter little strap you have a hammer hanging is that what you mean by utility your camouflage pants oh okay and then your your boots so you're running in boots which is always super fun but um yeah half mile sprint and then you do ammo can lifts in two minutes uh 30 pound ammo can basically pressing it from below the chin to locked out overhead but you can also like press it out in front of you i don't know it's kind of a weird you have to extend the elbows and it has to be above your nose but you can also use your legs. What do they call that one?

Ammo can press. It's like movement to contact and then you have ammo cans. That's lame. Then you have movement under fire. Maneuver under fire.

Maneuver warfare. MCDP tech one uh so then the maneuver under fire you you're wearing yeah your boots your trousers and your blouse your camouflage uniform your camouflage like utility uniform and then you do like a sprint to a high or to a low crawl to a high crawl. And then you zigzag through some cones. You get to the end of the zigzag. Okay, I know we're calling it a baby crawl. We've got your buddy that's waiting for you at the end. Oh, nothing like a good buddy, Kerry.

And you scoop him up and you drag him. So you kind of like are holding him basically from behind. His legs are dragging on the ground. So you kind of like are holding him basically from behind. His legs are dragging on the ground. And you kind of drag him backwards and then kind of diagonal to the first zigzag cone. And then you grab him, throw him on your back for a fireman's carry. And you run him all the way back to the starting line.

And then at the starting line, you pick up two of the 30-pound ammo cans. And you go back through the course. So you like use zigzag. And then you get to like the halfway point there's a fake grenade waiting for you okay blue body a friggin blue body you got that waiting for you you pick it up and you throw it i don't know how far away the box is like 20 100 yards 20 yards oh 20 yards that's right yeah um there's like a 10 by 10 box or something or five by five ten by ten uh whatever the box precision three by three blocks that's kind of drawn with some cones if you land the grenade in the box you get five seconds deducted from your time so like you get faster if you miss you get five seconds added to your time

so then you throw the grenade drop down do five push-ups hop back up grab your one for chesty and then you go all the way back through the little zigzag and then it's a sprint all the way to the finish and it's like so for listening, that sounds like really long. It is, what's max time? 2.15, 2.05, depending on age, somewhere. It's like low two minutes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

So it's like a two-minute gut check. Before we talk about the difference between the PFT and the CFT, Jeff will love this. So we have like half the battery drilling this weekend because the other half had shot the rifle range, and there's only so many days, this, that you and so we're doing the cft and i'm like hey everyone's gonna run the cft if they're here like we need to start you know knocking these things out so they got two lanes going and of course gunny's like okay okay we only got two lanes put up a third lane and you know the sergeant's like oh gunny but and he's like oh

you're gonna put up a third lane this is why why we're like, we're doing the movement contact. So he puts up the third lane. So I run mine. I guess I'll just go into my recap. You can tell me yours, Jeff. I run the 880. What's maxing on that? 245, right?

250? Again, depends on age. I think I know mine's 245, but I'm above. Okay. No, I think my max is 245 too. I ran it in like 256. I did not max it. Right. But I like went all out and here's how I know. So do that. All the Marines go through that. They run like 15 at a time. And then we go do the ammo can lifts and the ammo can lifts for me is like 120 in two minutes. So that's like

kind of easy for me. And I finish. And I'm like, man, I am sweating my butt off. And so I go and I just chug a bunch of water. And then I'm doing everything first because I'm the officer. You do it first. The leader. And I'm like, they're briefing the maneuver under fire. And I'm like, I'm going to puke. I'm going to puke. And I'm like like i've never puked i'm like i've heard stories about people puking i've seen marines puke and so i just like walk away like a few feet and just like all the water and coffee i had had that morning you know because that's all i'd had

for like two hours amazing after that i felt great in the marine saw they're like sir and i'm like i get down to the low crawl where you start you know before the sprint i'm like let's go so i run it i come back i'm gassed i think i did max that one or i was really close to it i'm gassed and so i'm catching my breath you know i'm trying to get some fluids back in me and then i see this third lane getting set up and marines start going it and like my driver godfather six delta uh is doing it and so i go to like you know watch him do it and he goes up and he gets the grenade portion and like i'm walking up you know like 200 yards down or however long that whole course is and there's a tree right in front like literally it's like, here's where I'm throwing from. Here's a tree with tons of branches on the other side is the target. And so he like throws it like really well.

And it's like, I'll probably get fired for telling the story. It's like branch drop. And the Marines like, yes. And I'm like, what? And it's realistic.

Yeah. You're like, okay, yes. Also. And I'm like, there's trees on the battlefield i'm like if they hit the tree it's not really fair uh you know so anyway we we adjusted course but it was just i was like of course the marine corps does that hey you're in lane number three thump tree and no one was like oh this course was set up on a tree the other two aren't they're just like that's a miss he didn't hit the box

anyway how'd it go for you jeff 300 it was good yeah back in the back in the 300 club oh nice 290 last year was really really really, really sad about that. Yeah, I think I was 287 or 23 this year. Yeah, last year was the first time I had not. But I think going into last year's, I was having some back stuff. So I remember not really training a ton just in general going into it. Yeah. So I felt pretty good. I was like, okay.

Did you miss a grenade too? No. I don't think 300. 300 with a miss is like a badge of honor. That'd be crazy. True. But I've done it before. I did 300 and I miss and drop me down. So I've been,

I've been there. I did. Yeah. I had one time I like pick the guy up to do the fireman's carry and like took my like first step and just like fell over with the guy on my back. And I was so embarrassed that I like grabbed him up and just like I just booked it the rest of the way. And I think I got pretty good time that year. But yeah, we did the 880.

I got like a 233. I don't know if the course is necessary. I would be interested to is necessary. Okay. Okay. That was nice. It is nice. And that like, where like you take this turn for like the last, like 50 meters.

And that it's like a kind of like little downhill there. Wait, did you, where did you run it on seal beach? We started kind of over by, so the road that goes back behind the gym. Oh, that one. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I've run that course. Yep. Yeah. And then started... You started up at the top, kind of by the gate. You ran down. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah.

Kind of like winds a little bit and then you take a right at the stop sign. Yeah. Yeah, that's cool. I ran this one on a track for the first time. That sucks. That's kind of nice. I thought it was nice because i was like one time i liked yeah it was nice because it was accurate but then i was like i'd rather have some hungover

staff sergeant measure my course and it's actually 800 yards my truck my truck also has giant tires on it's not calibrated i just grabbed my my iPhone and hopped into my F-350 and that's 880 yards. You should go to the Olympics, sir. You just broke the world record. Yeah. Oh, man. I don't know. Yeah, it was fun.

I was asking people because I hadn't run that course before. So you're kind of like asking around like, what's usually your time? So I could like, okay, who can I kind of like pace off of? Cause I didn't really have any like landmarks, but so did that ammo can, since I'm a, I'm an old guy, I only have to do 110. Okay. So no problem. And then the, the maneuver under fire was, I was just like like it was on a turf field so that was kind

of nice oh yeah yeah that new turf field i wasn't worried about like a little stepping into like a little divot and like blowing out my knee with somebody on my back so i did enjoy that yeah but it was fun it was really fun being out there with the battery and just like yeah it's one of those things like that you dread and then while you're doing it you're like oh this is actually oh yeah really fun yeah yeah i remember always pre pre like sleep uh pre like pft or cft sleep where like i wake up every hour on the hour just like just terrified that i'm gonna miss miss my alarm. I love it. Because if you didn't get a 300, you would have been fired.

So I'm glad you stressed about it as much as you did. I remember always apologizing. Because you're supposed to match up on the moving under fire with somebody who's roughly your same size, right? Yeah, within 10 pounds. Within 10 pounds. I just remember always apologizing to the guy. I was like, sorry, dude. You're stabbing me now, dude.

Yeah. I feel like you got me one time. Yeah, I think I did get you one time. I think you got me one time. I was like, oh, sorry, dude. When you're like 22, though, it's like nothing. True. Oh, yeah. When you're 35, you throw the guy on your back. You're like, come on,

man. Put your hand on my low back. Like, what are you doing? Really push it in there. Push harder. But back to the initial part of this. Yeah, Trey, what I like about the CFT, and I didn't max it, you know, it was 15 points shy or whatever, but if you are in good shape, you can go out and get a really good score.

Yep. And with the PFT, if you are in good shape, you can go out and get a really good score. Yep. And with the PFT, if you are in good shape, you can go out and get a really bad score because if you haven't trained, what I would say is endurance on chin-ups, right? Like you could have a strong fit guy, whereas max chin-ups is, you know, 13, 14, 15, bad score. Or you could have a strong fit, low body fat guy, and it's three mile time.

Sorry, this cat's biting my foot again. It's three mile time is 24 minutes. Winch, like if you put that out across America, like, hey, I can deadlift 405 and I'm 15% body fat and I can run a 24 minute three mile. People are like, that's great, but no terrible time. Um, so I just like that for the way I train, I'm not a runner. If I just stay fit, I can go run a great CFT. But if I want to score well in the PFT, I have to like specifically

train for it. Like it's more specified than the cft is and forget that i like lift weights just in general like if you're in good conditioning and strong cft you can knock it out of the park it's a better gauge yeah i think so i think so especially for like the mission of ring corps it's like they always say train like you fight and then like you're doing a test in combat boots and like carrying people. I've always, I've always ran. I've always ran three miles to the enemy and my go faster every time. Hey, look, the Taliban. I don't know.

I've always, I've always liked it so much more. I never really stress about it. I stress about PFTs, but pro CFT, very much so. Well, I like them both. What I do like about the PFT is it makes me do something that I wouldn't do. It makes me train for my three mile because I care about my score. I go out and I work that. And I do think that one of the – I think – Jeff can tell me if he thinks I'm wrong.

But I think one of the PFT's functions is just overall weight control. Because if you're really fat, three miles is tough. Yeah. And it's like just running three miles. Yeah. I think it's just like they're like, yeah, we know you'll never run three miles of combat, but if you have to run three miles once a year, you can only be so fat and still do that.

What's the minimum time? Like 24, 45, something like that? It's under that. It's under nine-minute miles. What's failing? That's what I mean. Well, failing score-wise or failing run-time- i mean well failing score wise or failing run time wise failing score wise uh well your first class second class third class yeah it's bad i think you can do

like five pull-ups see i always you lose on the on the three mile you lose one point every 10 seconds? 10 seconds. Yeah. Off of 18 minutes. So if you run 18 minutes, it's 100 points. If you run 18.10, it's 99, so on and so forth. What's your highest PFT ever? My highest PFT ever was at 298. I ran it at 299 OCS. I ran it at99 OCS. 1814 on the last

one and I've never broken 19 since. And I've only broken 20 like once. Would you once? I don't know. Now I just pray to break 23. Come on, Lord. I think I ran an 1803 at OCS.

That's really frustrating. I was like, was that 18? There's like now 18.03. I'm like, you sure? You sure? You sure you want to check that again? Double check that for me. It's like the.

So for like 18 or 17 to 20 year olds, the like lowest score on the three mile like scoring table for males is 2740. That's that's 40 points. I don't I don't know if that's necessarily assuming you max everything else. Slow 2740. So that's nine minutes. That's nine minutes and 15 seconds. Roughly miles. Yeah.

But I mean, I think for most people in the u.s oh 100 like just 30 yeah they'd be super happy with a sub 30 minute three mile um i'm not saying that the standards should be lower i i think they should be right where they are but i just mean like we all know hey you just have to work out consistently and every now and then and you can run nine minute miles um but at the same time if you if you just were doing the comparison to the general public like nine minute miles for three miles like it's not bad like i don't know a ton of people that can do that so you're saying general public needs to raise their standards, is what you're saying? Yeah, general public needs to raise

their standards so that we... No, because in the Marine Corps, raise theirs. No, general public needs to lower their standards. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like where they can't walk 400 meters, and then it'll be like, all right, new physical fitness test. Walk to... We've got to revisit these standards.

Walk to Arby's. It's a five for five roast beef and cheddar waiting for you. Then we're going to have a mental exam. We have to place an order. A third class PFT is between 120 and 199 points.

So 120 is the passing score, I guess. So if you got 40 points in every event, that would be... Man, that is rough. But you know what's good? What's good? We didn't know what the minimum standard was. We weren't even... We just focused on those maxes, baby. We're just good Marine Corps officers.

Hey, Max, Max, relax. That's what I always say. I will say I came home 0811 day. I woke up Monday morning and I was driving to the gym and I was like, I've done a PFT and a CFT. It's only August 12th. And I don't have to do anything again until after January 1st. Wow.

This is a great feeling. Cause everyone, you know, you can put them off, but like, especially like in the reserves, like, Oh,

you're going to do it in August. Like I'll do it in October. Like I'll do it later. And then it's just like haunt you and i'm like it is all and we are 12 days into august and i'm good it's great it's a great feeling yeah we did a year where we cut we i think we caught the pft on the last week and then we just turned around did the cft on the first week and we were just done with everything. Yeah. I've done that one time. I actually did that my first year in the reserves because I got out November, I think November 25th was my last day.

And then I joined and I thought, I didn't have my orders didn't report until January, but I was joined to the unit in December. Okay. And so it was like, I was going to get a required, did not take. So I went down to Pendleton on like between Christmas and new years and had master guns or take administer my CFT did it. And then like, so between Christmas and new years, it did the CFT,

excuse me, CFT. And then I reported to third Anglico and the very first drill was a PFT. I did them within like 13 days or something. That was great. Yeah. I don't know about that. That was the same way I joined to the reserves and it was like

I think the exact same thing. I was supposed to, I was going to drill in January, but I was on the rolls in December. And so I remember getting hit up by Master Guns Rotation. You got to do a CFT. And I was supposed to, I was going to drill in January, but I was on the rolls in December. And so I remember getting hit up by, it was like, you got to do a CFT. And I was like, uh, low Raleigh.

Oh, all right. Let me, yeah. It was like a recruiting station in salt Lake. So I like hit them up and got some random Sergeant. That's like their ops training Sergeant to like do a PFT at East high school, which is like the the high school that the school in high school musical was filmed at so no big deal love that musical definitely i got the altitude score too because the track was like right above the threshold

old man times altitude equals major um all, let's get this guy in here. What's up? What a nice shirt you got there. Hey. Yeah, I'm wearing the same thing in blue, but for the listeners, welcome Steven Garcia to the OK Podcast. Where are you joining us from tonight? Home, Lutz.

Ah, what do you call it? The roach pad or the... The roach nest. The roach nest. That's where you live? That sounds lovely. That's where he's spinning piglets. Who's the A&M guy

and who's the Auburn guy, just so I know? Oh, good way to start. Jeff. So Jeff's the guy and who's the Auburn guy, just so I know? Oh, good way to start. Jeff. Go ahead. So Jeff's Auburn Tiger. Auburn guy. And I'm an A&M guy. Gotcha.

Oh. Yeah. Interesting SEC little thing I saw today. It was how SEC you are based off your closest proximity to a Waffle House, University of South Carolina Gamecocks 1 at.2 miles. How SEC you are based off your closest proximity to a Waffle House, University of South Carolina Gamecocks, one at.2 miles, and then last place at number 15 was Texas A&M. They got to drive 69, nice, miles to get to a Waffle House. You got to drive to Austin.

Crazy. Yeah. That's how you know it's fake. That's unbelievable. It's unbelievable. Is the South Carolina, is it in the stadium? Not quite. It's right next to it.

Might as well be. Okay. The one in Auburn is relatively new. I remember that it was not there when I was there. I know that. Even though it was like 0.9 miles or something like that, it was not there. So it's newer.

It's newer. Well, we got a 0.9 miles or something like that. It was not that. So it's, it's newer. It's newer. Well, we got a lot. We want to talk to you about, uh, and it'll be, it'd be exciting. Everyone that probably likes you is kind of like us. Similar age remembers when you were playing, we could talk all the football stories, but before we get into all that, uh, I'm kind of curious, you know, college football quarterback, but you run your own business now. I see you training kids online all the time. You kind of took what you love and made it into a

business. You know, I've always liked the gym and strength training. I've kind of done something similar. But, you know, before we go back down memory lane, like what's your business and how did you get into that after college and like is it growing are you like content where you're at or like how's that going never and i say this all the time never in a million years did i think i'd be making a living doing this um and i hear myself sounding like coach spurter way more often than i care to um but yeah i mean it started it was my first off season when i was up in uh canada i came back down here to tampa and i was out there throwing on the turf field and there were some other guys

doing some training and you know one of the guys that was doing speed training came up to me he's like dude who the hell are you like you can throw the laces off the ball so we just started talking he's like okay well this kid um you know he's a seventh grader and you know his his dad is trying to look for a quarterback coach. Would you want to do that? So long story short, I talked to the guy on the phone and he's like, you know, what do you charge? And I was like, dude, I have no idea.

I literally don't know what you're asking me. He's like, well, I'll just do it. He's like, I'll just give you a hundred bucks this session. I was like, oh, all right. Yeah, that works. We can do that. It's a lot of beer. Yeah. And it, and it just kind of blossomed through that and, you know,

just word of mouth. And I got kind of a half-assed website that doesn't really drive any traffic, but you know, it's all, it's like, you know, Greg, as you know, like our brand, as you know, like, uh, the social media marketing is, I mean, it's, those are the new commercials, right? Yep. It just kind of spreads through the word of mouth. Tampa is a small town.

And yeah, it just kind of blossomed. So do you have like any, so, well, you graduated in 10 or 11? I was removed from school in 11. Yeah, there we go. There we go. 11, it was over. Because I graduated college in 10. We'll talk about this later. But I remember when you got kicked out, I called my older brother, alumnus, and I was like, dude, I can't believe Hyman did this. But we'll get into that later. But anyway, 11, you get kicked out, whatever. You get removed,

whatever you want to call that. How long has your business been running? Has that been the last five years or has it kind of been like since? Because you did the Canadian Football League for a while. Yeah. So I was up there for two years and then I came back down here and did the Arena League for a year. So yeah, so 2014-15 is when this whole thing kind of got kicked off. And has it like, you know, I'm kind of similar. I got my coaching certificate, you know, in 2016.

And they automatically, like the organization, put you on a database. And I had a similar thing. Like people called me. They're like, hey, I'm in Las Vegas, and you're the only guy on the West Coast. Like, can I come train? And I was like, yeah, it's a one car garage he's like great what are your rates and i was like oh you know a hundred dollars of same thing and he was like great can i come saturday and so that's kind of how i started but then it's evolved into

a lot of things you have systems in place like do you think you're like business acumen has gotten like a lot better to where now you like know exactly what you're doing um for absolutely absolutely absolutely you know when you know as you know when you first start doing it you kind of don't know what to charge people don't know how long it's just to be i mean you really don't know what to what to say or do and you know as you you know keep growing the business i mean it's it's you're obviously going to get better it's like anything else you know, keep growing the business. I mean, it's, it's, you're obviously going to get better. It's like anything else, you know, you practice it long enough, you're, you're going to get good at it. Um, so yeah, I mean, and, and what's cool about it is that like, you know, I've done stuff with some of the kids, parents who own businesses,

I've done marketing stuff for them. I've helped them do, you know, connection with other stuff. And yeah, I mean, it's, it's, it's kind of blossomed into a lot of different, you know, avenues. And that's your full-time gig. Yes, sir. Yep. Okay. Okay. And then, uh, yeah, that's, let's do, Hey, love what you do. You'll never work a day in your life. Am I right? Exactly. And it keeps me in somewhat decent shape. Yeah. Yeah. Somewhat decent. You know, we see it up and down. Have you fasted recently? No,

I was talking to my wife and a couple of my buddies. I want to start. I may do it next week actually. Well, text me. Maybe I'll do it with you. I'm due for one. I'm back up over 2.30. I'm like, it's time. Yeah. You got any studs in the pipeline?

I'm more towards the younger guys as the business has gone on gone on because, you know, obviously the kids get older. They go to play college and, you know, they rarely come back when they do. I'm here for a month when they're in town. So the business has kind of gone towards the younger side of things. But there's a couple of high school kids. It's just, dude, it is so competitive these days. school kids it's just dude it is so competitive these days i mean seeing some of these guys like on instagram and seeing what they're doing and in games it's not like you know just you know

throwing on routes on air it's like in games and you gotta think like every single quarterback in in high school has a quarterback coach now so i mean the the the level that these kids are at now is significantly different than you know when i was coming out of high school really so what were you ranked out of high school you're pretty high up there right i think i was the third dual threat guy in the country behind cam newton and tyrod taylor i don't want to talk about Cam Newton. As soon as I said Cam Newton, I knew he was going to say something. Go ahead, Jeff.

You don't mind if I say your name, do you? No, please. Ooh, classy. Classy, a little lime. Yeah, okay. And so now, wait, when you say younger kids, real quick, you're working with kids younger than high school? Because I'm just thinking like I watch your Twitter really actively ever since like we connected.

You bought some gear in 2020. Like I've followed it. And like when I watch those kids playing, I'm like, man, these kids are good. And I don't know anything about it. Right. But are those kids not like freshmen or above? Are they younger than that? There's, there's, you know, young high school kids and there's middle school. And I mean,

even elementary, you know, I try to keep the age limit to like eight years old, but some of these kids, and I was telling my wife, I was like, there's no way that kid's eight years old. I asked the kid, I was like, Hey man, you know, when you turn nine years old, he looked nine. I turned, I turned seven in like three weeks. I'm like, I was like, hey, man, you know, when you turn nine years old, you look nine. I turned I turned seven in like three weeks. I was like, look, I'm not trying to do like a babysitting type operation. So, you know, that's a different conversation. But, yeah, I mean, there's from, you know, obviously six years old all the way through, you know, professional guys. OK. All right.

Well, we we got a lot of stuff, you know, every week we we. All right. Well, we, we got a lot of stuff, you know, every week we, we use a Slack channel to communicate podcast topics. And, you know, we've had you booked for, I don't know,

a month or so, even before tailgate talks two, four, seven, which we want to make sure you plug a lot this episode. But we got a lot of questions. And so I don't know, let's go around the room.

Trey, why don't you hit, hit them with some of the ones that you have? Man, you mentioned recruiting. So I remember we were all in the Marine Corps together. Grant would give me a hard time because I would just like, my happiness would just like depend on the decision of like 18 to 20-year-olds every day. But I used to follow pretty closely.

I got a life, got a family, so I don't follow it nearly as closely now. But I'm always interested in recruiting stories and just kind of why you chose South Carolina. Who else was you interested in at the time? Kind of how that goes. I mean, recruiting nowadays is significantly different. My son's going through it now. Big Mimpy, shout out. Follows the strength on Instagram. We love them.

It's, it's completely different, dude. But I mean, as far as like when I was getting recruited in 2005, 2006, you know, it was, it was the old school. Like, you know, you got five official visits, you can come and, you know, hang out with the boys and kind of talk, you know, what the atmosphere is like, go out and visit it. And, you know, nowadays you have guys that are getting paid to come on official visits. So, I mean, the landscape has completely changed. But that being said, I mean, my recruitment was freaking awesome. To answer one of your

questions, you know, the reason I chose South Carolina was, you know, Coach Spear said in my living room and with my parents and he's like, you know, you can chose south carolina was you know coach spirit said my living room and with my parents and he's like you know you can go to oklahoma you can go to florida go you know to all go to these other schools that have you know a rich tradition they've historically won or you come to south carolina where historically we've been fucking terrible um and you know kind of start your own tradition and i was like man man, that's kind of a cool recruiting pitch. And, you know, I believed in it, and I started telling the other guys about it.

And, I mean, I like to think that we kind of did that in our own little special way. 100%, man, yeah. Oh, yeah, definitely. Wow, three, yeah. I mean, that was the best it's been. I mean, what, before that we had Taney Hill, and that was it. But when you say other guys, like that team,

and I can sit here and name all the players, like if I were in the locker room with you, and I was just up in the stands watching. But what other guys do you feel like you pushed over the edge? Like, hey, don't go there. Come to South Carolina. It's kind of hard to say. I would kind of stay all of them.

I was never allowed to have a recruit as a host for some reason. I don't know why they didn't do that. I have no idea. But Coach Mangus, our quarterback coach, every single time, he would text me like, hey, make sure so-and-so gets to your party that you're hosting tonight. All right. Sure as shit, they did, and that was it. Mission accomplished.

All right. They were sold. But, I mean, you could say that for really any university. Especially in the SEC, you go anywhere out here, and you're university that, you know, you, and then especially in the SEC, you go anywhere out out here and you're going to have that kind of operation going. Yeah. I mean, I wanted to go to Auburn, take a visit there. Obviously, you know, kind of made the decision to go to South Carolina before, but yeah, I mean, the, the, the,

the SEC is a completely different level and I mean, it still is 15 minutes later, or 15 years later, rather, than when I was playing. It's just the amount of athletes and the loyalty to the fans, just the atmosphere, everything is – I wouldn't change it for the world. 100%. Yeah, it's like we let Texas A&M in, and it went down, but it wasn't ruined. It's still hard. You still have to play hard.

For sure. For sure. Now we got Texas. Now we got Oklahoma. And God knows who else is in there now. Yeah. Yeah. Jeff, what you got?

Okay. So kind of touching on that, right? Seeing the kind of whole, like, you know, the classic Big Ten and SEC and all these conferences that we kind of all knew growing up. And now seeing them just, like like becoming these big super conferences. Kind of what's your take on just like the general landscape of college football in terms of, all right, we have these now these power conferences, the playoff now soon moving to 12 teams. Like, do you think this is overall good or what's your kind of just overall feeling towards that? I am completely torn. I thought the system was fine where it was.

But, I mean, I think it's, you know, you got to kind of adapt and you got to adjust. And that's just the way the world is right now. I mean, you look at the NFL, there's Tyler Catt, there's, you know, guys getting traded all the time. It's trickled down to college football with the transfer portal and nil and now you got high school kids i don't know what it's like where you guys are at but in florida high school kids can get paid now it's absolutely insane um so that being said i think you know i think players should get paid but that's that's a whole different conversation but as far as you know your your question i i it's yet to be seen. I like that there's at least more than 14 playoffs. I think that's a huge benefit.

But as far as the Super Conferences go, I don't know. I think that's just what it's coming down to, and that's just the future, and that's obviously what's happening. So I don't know. I guess we just got to sit back and enjoy it. I mean, it's all we got. Yeah, that's all we have. So, all right, before I kick it back to Trey,

because I know he's biting at the tooth that talks about NIL, I want to ask you about a game. So my brother, I'm kind of like the black sheep. I'm the least successful person in my family. One of my brothers is the president of Home Depot, Gamecock grad. He just spoke at like the graduation keynote speaker and i'm like dude are you kidding me like we were watching boo williams in the 90s i'm like now you're speaking at graduations and i texted him today i was like hey i got garcia on the

podcast tonight he's like no way and i'm like uh yeah like you know i've been like talking to him for a few years so he thought it was funny but he was like ask him him and a few years. So he thought it was funny, but he was like, ask him. Him and I went to Birmingham for the bowl game against Connecticut and we laid an egg, lost 20 to seven. I'm not, Hey, this is a tough podcast. We asked the real questions, but he was like, and I was like, you know, if I asked Steven this and he gives a good answer, he's now connected to the president of home Depot. So, you know, he's good. But he was like, what happened? And yeah, there was so many ups and then random downs. And there's so many things that go into it. All of us as Marines, you'll perform, you'll shoot artillery at this high level, and then an evaluator will come in and you'll do everything wrong. And you're like, no, the team

was great. You don't understand. Everything was was in place, but like this guy did this one thing, but like that game, I froze my butt off. What happened? I think you just, I think you just answered your stuff, man. It was ice cold, absolutely freezing. And you know, we're playing against Connecticut. And I mean, I remember that first drive. Do you remember that first drive that Connecticut ball? I think they took the entire first quarter and just ran, ran, ran the entire time. It was like 12 minutes or something.

I don't want to give excuses. It's just... Yeah. When you've got guys like Alshon dropping the ball, it's crazy. It was crazy. I remember what it is. And you know, that, that, I remember that game, you know, distinctly, especially the post game stuff,

sitting next to Eric Norwood and, you know, just, just tearing up. I was like, man, I, that's, that's so shitty how, you know, these seniors went out, you know, that's not at all how we wanted to perform. And yeah, that was. That was a tough game for sure. We'll talk about toughest games in a minute. All right, Trey, back to you. It's all right. At least you didn't lose to App State at home. At least you were on the road.

You guys just did a bad job at the midnight yell. You didn't say, that's probably what it was. Dang. Oh, man. I don't know. Yeah, I mean, I don't know. I'm not naive.

I think we kind of talked about it before. It's like kind of going back to NIL. Like, I'm pretty aware that players at some point are getting paid at some level even before NIL. And I don't know. Like, I think I agree with you. It's a billion-dollar business, and, like, the NCAA is. And so I think they deserve to get paid at some level. But I don't know if it's gone out of hand or kind of what it's become.

It seems like it's just out of control right now. Kind of what are your thoughts on NIL? No, absolutely, dude. I mean, you've got guys that have never even played a snap of college football. Archie Manning, he's the second highest paid NIL player. The kid's making like $3 million a year or whatever the hell it is. Yeah. It's just – it's absolutely insane.

I think when you have guys that have kind of shown that they are valuable, then that's safe to pay them. But when you're telling some high school kid, Quinn Ewers, when he went to Ohio State, I don't even know what they offered him. He left high school early. I mean, it's the Wild West, and they're trying to put a lid on it. I don't know. But again, again to your point and to what i

said earlier if it ain't broke don't fix it and you can bet you can bet your ass the guys are getting paid i'm not saying who i'm not saying who from where we don't want i did not i got nothing i got nothing i remember they told me that i was, I was white and had rich parents, so I didn't need any money. And I was like, you're like defined rich parents. I said, my parents have money.

They don't give me a damn. I'm not rich. Yeah. So, so yeah, but yeah, it's, it's,

it's, it's the NIL. It's changed the entire landscape, man. There's no, you know, me and Pat were talking about this the other day. Like, there's no real loyalty anymore.

And I talked to Coach Beamer. I see him after a practice, and, you know, he looks exhausted because you have to recruit these guys out of high school. Then you have to recruit them again every year. Continuously. Yeah, every day. Because every single day they're saying, hey, you know, so-and-so got paid this much, so now I need this much.

And if you don't pay them, they're going to be like, all right, well, I'm leaving. And that's just the loyalty of college football has been tainted for sure. Yeah. Like I look at – was it Oregon this year? Like A&M put together a killer class based off NIL like a couple years ago, they had a great class and it fell apart because everybody left. But I like at Oregon this year, the Nike guys just like shelling out money just to win a championship for you guys. I saw that. Phil Knight, right? Yeah.

No, it's weird. And like you look at even someone back to like the social media and that's where the stuff is and the commercials. Like who did it well? Deion Sanders, right? like the social media and that's where the stuff is and the commercials like who did it well deon sanders right like i love like all the memes that say remember last year we were all buffalo's fans the first three seasons or first three games of the season and like i'll tell you i was and jeff was i actually bought jeff a pair of the like blenders sunglasses because i just liked like all deon's speeches and he did it, but then it didn't work. Right.

And it's like, and then, and then all the guys all left. And I'm just like, man, you know, it's, there's something about,

and maybe it's just a Marine in me, but it's like, Hey, you get these people, you're deploying with these people. And it's like, I don't have the perfect people. I could have a better guy over there.

I could have a better guy over there, but this is who I got. And we're all stuck together. And like builds momentum and so like i i like guys getting paid i hate the transfer portal i think it's like the worst like don't get me start with uh what's my boy's name wells juice juice juice well like yeah like i mean it's like i want you to be paid but like you gotta have some skin in the game that I'm getting paid because I'm a Gamecock or whatever team. But because you lose that and it's like, oh, well, I want to go over here next year. So I'm just going to stop trying this year.

It's wild. Grant, don't let me forget before we get off of this podcast. I got to tell you about my amphibious warfare class. Oh, yes. That I took with a bunch of Marines. Just don't let me forget before we get off of this podcast. I got to tell you about my amphibious warfare class. Oh yes. That I took with a bunch of Marines. It just, don't let me forget that story. You got it.

We won't, we won't forget that. All right. While we're hammering college football home, Jeff, you got anything for him? I mean, there's a good chance to talk about the sec championship.

I was there. Jeff wasn't, but I was, you know, what do you want to talk about there? I was an ass. gonna ask see like what's a good uh hbc story you got like i remember growing up like kind of really starting to get into college football uh at the time was a georgia fan just because like my best friend was a big

georgia fan like went to a bunch of games and like man just couldn't beat Florida and like Spurrier was like just the guy that was just impossible to beat and just like almost like that original kind of Nick Saban for me of like oh this guy is just don't give Saban that much credit he just stacks the deck again and again uh but how how crazy was that having Steve Spurrier as your head coach. That's gotta be so cool. It was not that cool to be honest with you. I'd also love to know the, how you felt then versus how you felt now. But I love, I like,

yeah. But I mean, it's, you know, it's what I tell my son. That's what I tell these, these high school kids and even the young kids. It's like the one thing I regret is that I was extremely hardheaded.

You know, I would come to practice with a lot longer hair than this and a giant freaking beard. And, you know, Coach Spur to be like, you're going to cut your hair and shave your beard, right? I was like, no, I'm not. And that's all they would talk about the entire practice. He wouldn't talk about, you know, a good throw, a bad throw, a bad read, a good read.

He wouldn't talk about any of that. All he would care about is my hair and it's like why does this guy give a shit about my my facial hair my my hair so much and so it's like man i just wish i wasn't so hard-headed i wish i would have just shaved my face cut my hair toed the line i mean you look at this success that connor shaw had he did and i was hanging out with him the other weekend he's like dude i i was so like envious of like your talent but i just saw how kush fear interacted with you and i wanted the complete opposite so i shaved my head shaved my beard the whole deal so yeah i mean it, it was chaos back then, and I wish I did myself a little bit better favors.

But, man, we have a great relationship now. Like, I talk to his wife all the time. I talk to Coach all the time. Yeah, I mean, it's a tremendous relationship we have now. You know, it's kind of water under the bridge. Yeah. He's also one of those guys that, like, there's been lots of good coaches that we've seen.

And obviously I'm super biased as a Gamecock fan, although he'd brand himself as a Florida guy. But, like, that kind of personality and energy with, like, the press conference, like, talking about how the team played. Like, I'm almost like he was like a precursor to Trump, right? I don't care what you think. I'll say whatever I want. Screw all of you.

You're an idiot. I'm leaving. I don't know. I always just love that guy. I mean, yeah, you're 100% right. We talked to him the other day, and he is the exact same way. He says what he wants to say when he wants to say it. And if you don't like it, then too damn bad.

Yeah, that's right. Get out of there. All right, Trey. Let me see, man. I know they're making some changes this year to pick your brain kind of like on the quarterbacks. It's evolved since you've been there and kind of the, the game today. I got like probably four questions we can get into,

but I don't know. One of the main ones is like back at like what kind of offense, I know Steve Sawyer was, he had a pretty wide open offense as far as throwing the ball a lot. This kind of what he was, his MO. Do you think, and that's kind of been adopted by everybody, like do you think it's cyclical?

Do you think it's ever going to go back to like three yards in a cloud of dust? Or do you think this open offense is here to stay? That's a great question. I don't know, man. As soft as, you know, they're trying to make the NFL and it trickled down to college with whatever the hell they have on their helmets now with practice. I saw it the other day. I was commenting.

I was like, dude, what the hell is on your helmet? Have you seen it? It's like a stormtrooper type deal. Yeah, it's ridiculous. It looks wild. So I don't know if they're going to make the game expand wider or if they're going to shrink it down to where it is three yards in a cloud of dust. I mean, who knows? They could be playing flag football within the next five years.

It's in the Olympics next time in Los Angeles, I think. Next quarter, yeah. There's going to be flag football in the Olympics? Yeah. I might have to start boosting it up. There you go, Dean. Go get that gold medal, baby. They're testing it or whatever.

How like break dancing was in the Paris ones. Like the U S got a pick, like, okay, we're going to do like a, a trial run of flag football. So we'll see. Oh yeah.

I might have to. All right. So I asked a question that these guys won't get. You'll get it immediately, and then I'll qualify it. Craig Fitzgerald or Luke Day? I don't know Luke Day like that. Okay. And I don't want to put you in a weird spot.

I know your podcast is Gamecock Central, all that kind of stuff. I don't think it's unfair to say that I like Fitzgerald more often. I mean, he was freaking awesome. That guy was an absolute savage. Absolute savage. We're talking about strength and conditioning coaches. The current one's name is Luke Day. And so amongst my Gamecock network,

there's like a group thread whenever a game happens. And whenever the Gamecocks are looking weak, particularly like on the O-line, someone will say, fire Luke Day. And then people will reply, hire Strength Co. And it's like our joke, right? So Garcia, you're not endorsing this. It's just what we do. So someone was like, hey, ask them about Fitzgerald.

But we do talk a lot about weightlifting in here. As you know, my company makes weightlifting equipment. We talk a lot about coaching and stuff. As you're a quarterback at a high level, what kind of stuff are you doing? Are you doing squats and deadlifts? Are you doing plyo box jumping? When you talk about your young kids that are throwing ball, because I know you've messed with me a few times about your son, and you tag him, like, watch this video. And And I always like, wait, which video is this? And it's like, hey, squat, drink milk, get bigger. And that's why like me as a strength coach,

I was like you as a quarterback. So I'm like, yeah, it was, what were you, 230? I was, my playing days were 250. 250, right? You're big, right? You trucked people. And I'm like, that's how, like if you're stronger, you're better.

I think that in general but also it's good for my business but like what kind of stuff did you do strength wise or were you just 250 because it was like 24 natty lights every Friday I mean that was I got to South Carolina like 210 215 okay and uh I remember doing like a zone read and running out and eric norwood again yeah ran behind me and caught me and he was 260 or 270 i was like okay well i'm clearly not fast enough to outrun these guys i'm just gonna put on a lot of weight so at least this shit don't hurt so um yeah i mean my first strength coach was Black Iron. Coach Burry brought him on from Florida and he was a deadlift squat, just heavy, heavy, heavyweight.

And I think that's when I tore my labrum. So then we've got Coach Fitzgerald the next time. And, you know, we didn't do any of that. We were doing kind of like the TV 12 method to where we're doing more resistance bands. You know, we were still like benching and squatting heavily, but you know, we weren't doing any sort of the power lifting or, you know, any of the other kinds of crazy stuff. So it was more just like resistance and kind of stuff like that, but I still maintain the two 50 weight. Okay. So you're 250 right now. What are you after fast?

Like two 38? No, I'm like two 30 now. Okay. Okay. Oh, you're two 30 now. Yeah.

Yeah. Okay. My wife's in the background laughing her ass off. She doesn't, she doesn't think that's accurate. Yeah. Yeah. I know.

I said too, but like, you know, you just had a baby. So I, I was like my best, like power lifting. I was two, my best like powerlifting, I was 250. And then I went down to 210. And I lived there. And then my wife got pregnant.

And it's like, all she wants to do is eat. And the best way to make her happy is to take her to eat. And like, I'm not gonna like sit here and order a one piece of chicken while she eats a burger. And like, all of a sudden, I'm like 235 again. And I'm like, oh man, that happened fast. It happens in a, in a very, very quick moment. The blink of an eye. Yeah, for sure. She's over there laughing right now. I don't know if you can hear it. I go play golf with some of my buddies and, you know, we drink a couple of beers and I'd come back home and she's like, I'm really hungry. Let's go get a burger. I was like, that sounds great. Say less. Quite a great idea.

Great idea. I heard they got pitchers there too. Let's go. Let's get a milkshake or an ice cream. That sounds even better. Hell yeah. Perfect. Oh my gosh.

Man, I was going to kind of piggybacking off Grant's question. Like how much does the, I don't know, I've never been in like a football locker room does the strength and conditioning coach like does he set the tone of the culture like head what's that relationship like with the players he's kind of fast forwarding 10 years to where you're the head coach of the game cocks on luke day and you know he's just thinking about how it's going to be so yeah go ahead i don ahead. I don't think they can ever hire me. I got too much baggage.

I'm too crazy on social media for them to hire me. That's right. But, yeah, Trey, to answer your question, yeah, it's 100%. And that's, you know, I forgot who talked about it, but one of the coaches in college, it might have been Saban, actually. It's like the strength coaches who these guys are with 90 one of the coaches in um in college it might have been Saban actually it's like the strength coaches who these guys are with 90 percent of the time you know you got winter workouts the coaches can't be there you got summer workouts coaches can't be there you know so

realistically the the position coaches and the head coach can be there for spring and fall and that's that's it um so you know we were with the strength coaches all year around and you know i as big of a knucklehead as i was i had a pretty good relationship with coach fitzgerald and you know we still talk to this day so which is which is kind of cool and uh yeah i mean those guys definitely set the tone man it's it's there's no question and i think that's why we were so successful is because he was an absolute psychopath. And I think it kind of ran through the rest of the team. Yeah.

I don't know if we can call him a psychopath, actually. No, we can clear that up in post. We'll let you listen to this. If there's anything you want to take out, we can clear it up in post. But in the Marine Corps, if you say respectfully first, everything's forgiven. Yeah. With all due respect. That's true. Yeah, with all due respect yeah with all due respect yeah with all due respect joe biden you just crapped your pants um so yeah we're on the same page um okay so you went through with a

lot of like freaks again i'm biased you got ingram norwood uh jeffries latimore um shaw was on the Ingram, Norwood, Jeffries, Lattimore. Shaw was on the team with you there at the end, right? Yep. Like when you think of – because I feel like you're super talented but also just like, no, we will win mentality. I've always told people in the Marine Corps, I'm not that smart. I'm just like, but I will make sure we get there. When you go through the people you played with,

who are you like, wow, that dude is a freak. You got to put Gilmore in there too, obviously. I'm forgetting a bunch of names, but not that any of them are going to listen to this. What do you think of?

As far as like just athletic, just animal, or you just mean like, just like, what do you mean? I just mean like just natural given, like, like, like for example, your business is to take kids that maybe they're gifted, maybe they're not, but you're teaching them how to throw the football, but like you're teaching them something I'm talking about. Like just like natural, like,

wow. Like how can this person do this? Like regardless of position. The easiest, the easiest answer in the history of answers is genetic ecology. I mean, that's, yeah.

But did you see that on your level? Like, like in like, were you just like, what is happening here? He, he had two, two reps, two reps when he first got to south carolina and just blew past blew past our second team all sec left tackle blew past them and spurry goes all right connor you're done you take your shit off take your pads

off you're not practicing anymore i literally cannot get the ball off i took one two done wow so yeah i mean that's he he was by far the the most freakish athlete that that i've ever seen but then i mean there's there's other guys that are lesser known like jared cook jared cook yeah in the free throw line um wesley saunders was unbelievable athlete saunders was fantastic actually his his social media is fun to this day. He works at it hard. It's a little different than my style, but I love it, right? Yeah, he's over there in Miami doing Miami things.

Yeah, he's very Miami. All right, before we wrap up college football and get into this amphibious warfare, you guys got anything you really want to ask? Number five. Let's get – and this is – it doesn't have to be necessarily, but I had a buddy that was on the practice squad for Auburn, and he would always go against Nick Fairley.

Do you ever get into it with Nick Fairley? I know there's a huge overlap between you all, but – No, we played – or I played against him twice. Yeah. He was, I think he was voted the dirtiest player in the NFL his rookie year, right? Yeah, he was. That sounds right. Yeah, yeah.

I can't even describe some of the stuff that was said, that was done underneath that pile on those little three yards in a cloud of dust. I mean, fair game. I mean, I said a bunch of crazy shit too, so I don't feel too bad. But, I mean, Nick Fairley was on a different level. Just weird stuff, man. Yeah. So, obviously, before we leave now, I got more.

Obviously, beating Alabama has to be your favorite memory, right? Or no? No? Okay. All right. Well, let's just ask. That's to be your favorite memory, right? Or no? No? Okay. All right. Well, let's just ask. That's just Creed's favorite memory. I was in Section 307.

I'll tell my story real quick. I'm sitting up there on the upper decks. I'm next to a guy named Mark Lipshay. He got me the tickets. I had graduated the Citadel. I was living in Raleigh. I drove down for it. I thought we were going to get smashed.

We're up there. And I just remember in late in the second quarter, I remember looking at him. The guy was like 55. I was like, we're going to win. We're going to win. And I've said that in a lot of Gamecock games, but I believed it. I was like, we're going to win. And so for me, like that was probably one of my favorites, but, uh, yeah, if it's not Alabama, what is like your favorite,

I mean, putting the five wins on Clemson. Oh, that's, that was, it's, it's either beating Clemson in Clemson or beating Florida in the swamp. I mean,

you know, being from Florida and yeah, having uncles and cousins that are gator fans yeah like that was that was definitely the best you know kind of shutting all those people up especially in the swamp um i mean that's that's you know just being from here that's probably my favorite one but the second one believe it or not it's not it's not them it's it's it's beating clemson in clemson yeah same thing anytime Anytime you can beat teams that you're not supposed to beat in their stadium, it's indescribable.

Would you say – so my nephew is a freshman at Georgia this year, and I have 17 nieces and nephews. We're a big family. He's the oldest one, first one to go to college. And I always hated Georgia growing up because they beat us all the time. But I don't hate him like I hate Clemson. I live in Greenville and I see the colors and I'm just like, I hate you. You're not a man. You're a man for Kamala. You're the worst. I hate them. And he goes to georgia and i'm like hey man i'm gonna

come to a game with you this year and i'm gonna be the biggest georgia fan like who's coming down the track like i'm in right but like when you talk about old school south carolina gamecock rivalries or you just talk about rivalries in general like people like to make Georgia a big one, Florida one, especially during the Spur era. But I just always go back to, there's no pro sports in this state. You got two options. And I think that's what... And Trey will argue with me about Texas, but now he's an SEC guy, so whatever. But when there's no pro sports in the state, you have one option and it's pick your college team. And there's two to pick from, you know, like what are your thoughts on the rivalry?

I mean, to be honest, I had no idea where Clemson was on the, even on the map. No idea. So as soon as I get up there in January of 2007, I'm like, Oh yeah, you know, you're going to beat Clemson, right? And I was like, sure. I don't know who the hell that is, but sure. And I came to find out just how big of a rivalry that was.

I mean, they've kind of beaten our ass over the last decade. Yes, they have. It's hard to say too many negative things about them. Yes, they have. It's hard to say too many negative things about them. But, yeah, I think beating those guys, you know, those five years in a row, that was – I mean, those are the glory days, man. We got to find a way to get back to that. And it ain't easy.

It is not easy. But go ahead. Did Beamer get them last year? No. It was two years ago. Two years ago. Okay. Yeah.

Yeah. It's ago. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. It's been rough. They finished the season beating Tennessee and Clemson out of thin air. Dude, that was a great year. And A&M. Yeah, I was in that game. The guy had the kickoff return. That's rough.

Yeah. Rough for you. Great for us. That was rough, man. Yeah. All right. Before we move on, sometimes in this podcast, we take a college football team and we go through their schedule. But I'm sure you've looked at the Gamecocks schedule pretty in-depthly.

You've been there. I've seen you at the practice stuff. Tailgate Talks 247. Look it up on Instagram. Look it up on X. Follow Steven Garcia. we'll get to all his links later but you're you're involved with the team to a point you know you're a fan obviously you care about your alma mater like what do you think realistic as a former player being there

like what are you thinking about this year um i mean yeah i got a chance to see him for media day and for the first practice and it's definitely a significantly larger physically larger team than than i've seen in a while um at every position literally every position that i I mean, it was kind of remarkable to see. But, you know, that doesn't always translate into wins. So I think it's going to be interesting, man. You saw the schedule. I saw the schedule. It's going to be a challenge to make a bowl game.

Okay, so that's kind of where I am. That's what we signed up for, man. Yep. I mean, you come to play in the SEC, you're going to play ball every single weekend. And if you don't, I mean, you got a teammate, Old Dominion, you come in there and smack your face week one. You take them lightly.

So, yeah, it's going to be interesting. But I think it's good for us, to be completely honest, because I think a lot of people are, what are they, estimating we're going to win like two or i think it's good for us to be completely honest because i think a lot of people are what are they estimating we're gonna win like two or three games or maybe four so i think flying under the radar is going to be you know to our benefit okay so you would say my kind of take is eight wins is a great season oh yes six six is a good season and like if we win four to five like i i wouldn't fire beamer right like you know i don't think he's he's uh fireable just yet yeah i don't really think he's like if i'm shane beamer i think the point that i'm making right now is like with the transport portal and the NIL,

like you're navigating a whole new system. For sure. And that should buy you some time of like, because when I look at Beamer, you know, you got three kids. You got one, like, well, how old's your oldest son? Is he 16? Yeah. Right. So like, you're like thinking actually about college.

But I just even think of like of when I look at these coaches, who would I want my kid to play for? And I'm like, Beamer seems like he cares about everybody. There's no question. And he wants to win. And he's just navigating a system. And because of his dad and his own coaching pedigree, we know he has the capabilities.

So I'm just like, hey, when people are like, oh, is he on the capabilities so i'm just like hey when people are like oh is he on the hot seat this year i'm like no way i don't think no chance no chance and i can tell you man just just uh from being out at the practice field i mean the energy is palpable and there's one thing that coach beamer's gonna do and coach elliot and coach robinson who i've known for you know over 10 years i love la being back there. They're going to, they're going to get guys fired up to play. So, yeah. Yeah. I mean, I'm on team Beamer and I hope he has a fantastic year and it's going to be tough, but I mean, that's, that's, again, that's what, you know,

you sign up for when you're, when you have that, as you see. For sure. All right. Anything guys, before we leave, just straight college football talk, Jeff, you're good. No, I want to hear about this class. Yeah. Yeah. Tell us about the Marine Corps class. All right. So it's 2011. I graduated already. So I'm taking a bunch of electives and I take this amphibious warfare class. It's on Tuesdays and Thursdays. I'm the only civilian in the class, and they made sure that I knew that. You know, I show up to class like this, this backwards hat.

Everybody else in the whole, you know, the battle suits and everything else, the camo. Ask them to shave your face. I think it was Navy, um, week four or something. No, I did not shave my face. No. So we played Navy and,

you know, right before class, he's like, you know, it was Colonel Reisner. I still talk to this guy to this day. It's my favorite professor, favorite teacher.

Was he a Marine Colonel? Yes. Love it. Colonel Reisner. So, so, you know, class dismissed or whatever. Everybody stands up, you know, the whole salute and everything. And, you know, I try to do it.

I'm trying to, you know, I'm trying to be respectful of everything. And before he leaves, he goes, all right, as you guys know, there's a civilian in the class. He just so happens to be the starting quarterback for the team so i want to make one thing clear to you mr garcia beat those fucking faggots from navy and i was like you know all the marines like let's go you're like you know pushing me and shit. I'm getting goosebumps even talking about it. We beat them.

We beat them. I was at that game. Yeah, but I was like, hey, man, aren't we all on the same team? And they go, yeah. Heck no, dude. No way. Heck no. Marine Corps Zuber, baby.

Exactly, exactly. He goes, we'll call it when we need a ride. I was like, dude, that is unbelievable. So yeah, that's, that's probably one of my favorite, you know, stories from, from class ever. Yeah. That's, that's, that's what we call good Marine Corps leadership right there. Like knowing your audience and like getting them fired up. Yeah, that's cool. Yeah. I was at that Navy game actually for Trey's sake, my brother-in-law is also named Grant. He had just married my sister. And my brother Jordan, the Home Depot guy, and I, like, we're the –

I had another brother who went to South Carolina, but he's not big of a football fan as Jordan and I are. And we were like, dude, you don't understand. Like, your 12th man is gay. Like, come to South Carolina and see Sandstorm. Like, see Cocky come out. And so he came and he's like, you're almost about to lose to Navy.

And I was like, no, no, no, just, you're not even in the SEC. You don't know. And then now they're in it and it's like different. So, but the great thing about Texas A&M is you can always make fun of the male cheerleaders and the midnight yell. And so like, even when they're good,

you're just like, oh, we can just make fun of that. That's true and the midnight yell. And so like, even when they're good, you're just like, Oh, we can just make fun of that. That's true. Very true. Very true. All right. So we just don't care. Yeah.

They don't care. Yeah. No, it's good. A&M's got what I'll say. A&M's tradition is legit, right? Like what?

Like I, it's fun to make fun of, but it's, it's been there a long time. We're cold baby. Drink that Kool-Aid. Yeah. Drink of the Kool-Aid. Yeah. Drink of the Kool-Aid.

All right. So we have a couple of things we do in this podcast every time. Uh, one of them is we have a sponsor, as you know, we're sponsoring new, new, new podcasts.

Actually, before I go into my shtick, tell us about your new podcast. The first day it's dropping, you know, plug some of your sponsors where they can find it all, all that kind of stuff. Well, the, uh, the first episode is dropping in dropping in, I don't know what time, but tomorrow.

So that's pretty cool. Yeah, it's called Tailgate Talks. I'm sorry? You said that's awesome. Oh, yeah. I'll tell you what, man, this podcast shit is exhausting. Yes. But it's Tailgate talks 547 um yeah so the first

thing drops tomorrow we got uh we got your boy yeah um yeah so there's there's a couple other sponsors and yeah i mean it's it's it's exciting um but like i said it is a lot more work than i anticipated doing yes uh you know it's i'm gonna talk to you grant here uh in a little bit i don't know how you guys do the um you know being in different areas because i do not want to go to columbia to film this stuff yeah it gets expensive yeah text me i'll i'll tell you but yeah, the podcast game is tough. And shout out to like, there's podcasts that I followed extensively that made me think we could do this. But then when we did it, I was like, wow, this is a commitment. And that's like, well, when you were doing it, I was like, well, it's Garcia. He's going to stick with it. Like, yeah, I'll support it. see ya he's gonna stick with it like yeah i'll support it uh because it's it's uh there's so many podcasts you look up and you like it and there's like 10 episodes and then it just stops right and now that we're this is episode 34 for us and i mean we got a guy missing so the guy that

usually sets up all the electronics and stuff for me and it's here in house is getting married so i'm like dude don't worry about it he's like no i'll do it from the road i'm like don't worry about it um but like it it becomes a lot but okay so tailgate talks five four seven right so number five four oh demarco what's the seven he was 47 i thought i thought he was four oh demarco wasn't the nickname because he had a 4-0 DeMarco. Wasn't that the nickname? Because he had a 4.0 GPA. That's what it was. I don't know.

Yeah, you don't even know that. Yeah, that was your roommate. You didn't even know that. I knew that as a fan on Reddit. Okay, so he was 47. All right, so Togetalks, you're on Instagram. You're on X, right? We got to say X in respect to Elon, right? You're on X.

Yep. But you're also on Gamecock Central? So they're doing the audio. It's a weird deal, man. Gamecocks Plus is producing it and editing it. Okay. So they're going to have the visual feed. And then another company, I guess, is getting the audio feed.

And I'm not 100% sure if I'm allowed to say that or not. So yeah, we can clean it up in post. I'll let you listen to this beforehand. You can clean anything up you want. So yeah, but as far as everything else, I talked to the guys. And so I didn't know who this was, but it's called Learfield. They own all the marketing to south carolina and they basically said like if you're going to have sponsors on visual we're going to take all of it

yeah it's they protect it pretty violently so um you know they're going to do the recording the audio and you know we're just going to get likeets, and we're going to post it on, kind of like how Tucker Carlson does his stuff. Yeah. He's got a full video, and you know what I mean? Yeah, you can't give a left-wing example. You always got to go to the right. Yeah, you know how Tucker does stuff. That's the only way.

Is it purely college football, or is it purely South Carolina, or what? So it's going to be, you know, main point is going to be South Carolina. We're going to talk kind of SEC in general. I'm going to get a bunch of former guys on South Carolina guys, trying to get some, some, you know, opponents of that week that we're playing against. So if they were playing against Clemson and try to get Taj Boyd on there, get, you know, Jordan Rogers to be on for Vanderbilt, you know,

a couple of guys like that. And then go from there to the NFL, from the NFL to college basketball, college basketball, college baseball, kind of stick with the South Carolina theme. Yeah. That's awesome. And you're looking for a weekly? Yes. Yes, sir.

Yep. Okay. So once a week. Cool. But we'll probably – you know, we're, I'm, I'm hoping that we're going to do, you know, a couple episodes,

you know, when I do go up there, you know, film two or three, four or five episodes so that we have kind of a backlog of stuff to do. Yeah. You should definitely do that. And all the people that want to start a podcast are listening.

We're like two episodes ahead right now because one guy's getting married. This is going to release the weekend of like college football launching. But man, when you are ahead, it is so great because you're just like, oh man, I'm ahead. But at the same time, podcasts are like, for what we're talking about, sports and fitness and politics and whatever, like, Hey, like it kind of has to be current. So it's, it's a weird, it's a weird line to ride. Okay. So, uh, at tailgate talks two, four, seven, five, four, seven, five, four, seven. My GPA was not 2.0. Yeah. My bad. My bad. My bad. That's where I went.

That's where I went with that. Yeah. Five, four, seven, five, four, seven. We'll put the link in the show notes to check that out. Okay. Also, we have a sponsor. You like sponsors because we're your sponsor. We have a sponsor called BW Tax. And what we do is we do an off the cuff ad read. So we'll each give you like a couple facts about the business.

And then you just like chug the wine and give it your best go. So what I will say is, this is actually interesting. And I'm going to go into more detail than I usually do. He's a guy from Massachusetts, which is where my family's from. So being a guy from South Carolina, you can only pick one thing college-wise, and I picked the Gamecocks pro sports wise. I have nothing to choose. So I love Boston sports. That's why I like your buddy.

His name slipped in my mind. Like, uh, it's Uwe, Uwe, Uwe. Love him. Like, love that guy. No one has ever, like, understood my sports life more than him. Like, he loves the Gamecocks and he loves all Boston sports. So anyway, we give a couple facts this guy's from massachusetts he comes down here and i'm telling him all about the game cocks he's like i don't care i take him to the night game against kentucky with the fat

quarterback from kentucky who did we beat what was that guy's name? You remember that game? Yeah. Jared Lorenzo. Yes. Yes. We win. Yeah. Yeah. Seriously. I didn't mean any disrespect. I've never seen, I've never seen anybody drink a beer as, as, as well as he did, by the way. That's a side note. That's a strong comment. I consider myself a good beer drinker. This guy put me to shame. Yeah, so that game I took him to, he's like, I'm in. And then I take him to a College World Series game. Or not to College World Series, like super regionals.

And when the ball's going back from the catcher to the pitcher during warm-ups, I was like, whoop. He's like, dude, you guys are in. And I'm like, oh, yeah, this is all we have. So he's a big Gamecock fan. He's from Massachusetts, big Gamecock fans. He's a CPA. You're opening a new business.

He can do your taxes no matter where you're from. Trey? I would say kind of his big selling point that I really like. Small company has this family feel to it. And so whenever you call him, you won't get a machine or some AI bot. You'll get a human talking to you, giving you the facts. Yeah. Jeff?

Just know they are the tax experts over there at BW Tax. They know the ins and outs, all the crazy ways that the government tries to take your money. They know how to work around all those tax codes and stuff like that, cut through the red tape, and get you as much of your hard-earned money back in your pocket. There you go. So with all that information, Stephen, you feel like you're ready to do a quick ad read of why people should reach out to BW Tax LLC? The bar's down here.

It's low. It's low. I think you guys are going to like my response. I don't know, though. All right. Go for it. BW Tax, they send your money right to Ukraine. No.

They keep your money coming from ukraine i love it we'll let that one we'll we'll let that one ride as soon as you said text that's all i could think of man yeah i'm sorry that's okay that's okay you drive a you Humvee, right? Every now and then. No, but for these guys, they probably don't follow you as closely as I do, but you have what they will get a kick out of. You have a, I think we call it an M1152 in the Marine Corps, but you have an actual Humvee, right? Correct.

Yep. Oh, dang. Do you drive that on the streets of florida all yeah not all the time but a good amount of time the gas is really good does it work it does it's got it's better than wow yeah but yeah seriously who's your mechanic we need to yeah none of our AC works. Jeff, you think you can get a good okay from him? Maybe leaning back on his Marine Corps amphibious training, his, you know, his strength coach, his spurrier, you know, wherever he thinks he needs to channel it from.

Okay. Yeah. So we always get the guests to like kind of our little like, I don't know if you want to even call it a tagline but it's okay well you know kind of get like real like guttural have it have it come deep deep from down inside you maybe you heard a couple marines say something like that when you're in your class or like it might have been shot it's a big let like a big lift in the weight room they're like okay okay, okay. So let's hear your best okay. I'm going to have to go outside for this.

I got my baby sleeping in the other room. Can I move? Oh, yeah. We like it. That's good. We like preparatory stuff. Are you burning Christmas trees out there? Look at that. Look at that.

Look at that. I love it. Look at that. It just happens to be sitting there. Product placement, my favorite. That's his cushion. My wife had an idea. She's like, yeah, before you call in, start curling that thing and just enter the chat.

You know, I think your wife needs to be a future guest. Yeah, just have her on next week. She's been a great contributor thus far. For sure. She's unbelievable a great contributor thus far For sure, she's unbelievable Alright, so I gotta just do an okay like a roar

Like Sean Elliott pumping up the O-line, get him ready Just a good old-fashioned okay A good old-fashioned okay Now? Yeah, whenever you're ready. Okay! Yes!

That's up there. Yes. When people do it well, we put it on the soundboard. I think you're on the soundboard. Get him on the soundboard. That's number one. That was awesome. I'm going to show you this thing real quick.

Okay. Well, you guys are still here. Okay. Okay. Oh, there's the Hummer. Look at that. There she is. I told you.

That's awesome. It's not on blocks. It works. That's a half-ton bitch. Yeah, that's good. Well, Stephen, thanks for coming on. Text me after. We'll talk about podcasting, whatever you need.

But we really enjoyed you. We'll link your podcast in the show notes. We'll link whatever you want. Just text me later. We'll put your Instagram, whatever. We don't have the biggest following but the following we have is super loyal and so uh we'll get them over to you guys and being based in south carolina they'll probably come and find you uh anything you want to say to anyone

before you log off here just swallowed a giant mosquito right there welcome Welcome to Florida. No, man. That was fun as balls, man. I appreciate you guys. Hoorah, motherfuckers! Yeah! Alright, man. We'll talk to you soon. Alright, man. We'll see y'all. Good dude. Good dude. good dude good dude i feel like he enjoyed that

that was awesome that was awesome you think bw's gonna take that uh the ukraine tagline now just use that as oh yeah basically steven doesn't want to pay taxes yeah that's what I got out of that he was like texting me before and he's like can I talk politics I'm like yeah I don't care you can talk whatever you want to good dude good dude

first football player we've had on I think that checks out yeah Jeff played football in high school that also checks out. Yeah. Yeah. Jeff played football in high school. Yeah. That also checks out. So technically second.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. What else do we need to cover? I mean, what else can you cover at that point? I don't know. What else can you say? Any slides you need to cover? Trey was commenting about how good China is

at weightlifting. Maybe you need to bust into that market. Just when I think I'm down, you're bringing me back up. Throw a reversal. Olympics ending and I guess, yeah. Throw a reversal. Olympics ending. And I was blown away. I was like, because I kept thinking, I was like, okay, US is going to start.

They're going to start pulling away on the gold medal count. Because that's what I was kind of following low key. I hope you weren't thinking the weightlifting was going to be the spot that we're going to do it. No, I thought track and field. And I thought like, I go ping pong's over. China's china's done winning gold medals hey i know more in the tank yeah they diving's over ping pong's over artistic dancing's over they got nothing left and then out of nowhere it's like all these like chinese people are just like smoking them dude they're phenomenal at

weightlifting especially on them yeah it's funny it's funny that you weren't privy to that's how it goes because we actually medaled for the first time this year since 1984 i saw the uh what's your name women's gold medal yeah yeah she had a bronze she had a bronze right jeff i? I thought she broke a world record. I don't want to take it from her. I think we bronzed for the first time in 30 years. I don't want to take anything away. No, it would be 40 years. But I think it was the first bronze.

But in any event, if you want the long and the short, why Jeff looks it up china has way more people than we have true and we have way more money producing sports than they have yeah they care way more about weightlifting like they care so much to like they are like oh you're four and you're genetically strong and whereas whereas here, it's like if I'm an athlete, I play football. You're playing a sport. I play basketball. Weightlifting is a sport, Trey.

Come on, give us that. I play basketball. I play baseball, right? Like there's like a lot of things. And over there, I think they care about gold medals more. But what was the last time we – who won a uh but what was the last time we who won a medal was last time we did so olivia reeves uh won weightlifting gold at the olympics uh second since 2000 okay so i've been over 24 years 24 years yeah no we're bad we're bad. We're bad.

And I don't think we're going to get any better anytime soon. I think people that are even gifted, like most, no knock to any of our Massanomics listeners or people like myself that have done over a dozen powerlifting competitions. But even people that get into power lifting it's like a hobby right yeah i don't think there's any hope like you need the nation's genetically gifted people to care about weight lifting and the payout is so low compared to i mean i I thought CJ Cummings from my hometown Beaufort was like a bright spot and he's still good. Like he's still doing it, but like he's literally from my hometown,

like grew up five miles from where I worked on shrimp boats, like awesome kid and genetically gifted. And you know, he's done fine, but, um um it's you need like not just like a genetically gifted kid from a hometown you need like hey give me all the best nfl players who's the best at weightlifting put them and make them do this sport and like they're like why would i do that so you're saying it's going to be dominated by

the soviet bloc and i think the soviet bloc and the chinese bloc for one they pump the kids full of steroids which is not saying that americans don't but like they do it like strategically they do it strategically and two they care about it and like in this country we don't care about it at all like like you have lifted weights since i lived with you in 2016 17 wherever it was and now you're telling me wow china cleaned up right like like like we just don't care we care about the stephen garcias and like why did he get kicked out of school he should have been left as a quarterback right we care about other things and so i yeah i don't think not to knock any olympic weightlifting coach out there but

or as as jim denofa previous guests would say in the podcast, everywhere else in the world, we just call it weightlifting. Only in America do we call it Olympic weightlifting. Not to knock on any of those coaches, but I just don't think we're ever going to put the talent forth to win that. And I hope down the road,

people listen to this podcast and are weightlifting, that we do. It's up to Grant and Mason are weightlifting that we do, but I, but I, but I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I,

I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I,

I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I,

I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I,

I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I,

I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I,

I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I,

I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I,

I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I,

I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I,

I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I,

I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I,

I, I, I, I, I, I, I, gold medal weightlifters consistently. It's crazy. Yeah. So PJ's not here. And usually there's like buttons that are lit up. But there's no buttons lit up. And when the buttons are lit up, I push one

and I pull a slider up and a thing plays. But there is one button lit up. Let me, let me, let me press it. Ooh, we'll be careful.

Grant. Ooh. Not what I wanted to happen, but kind of perfect. That kid, that was, that was pretty good. You playing that?

No, I did not. I promise you. Yeah, I was 100% playing. I know. I swear I did not plan that. Grant thought about this joke like last night. He's like, you'll be funny if I played this shit. Yeah, he's been thinking about it for a week. Once PJ was like, I'm not going to be there. He's like, I got an idea. I don't even know if I can

replicate it. Let me try. Nope. I feel like that was perfect, too. Yeah. PJ stacked the deck ahead of time. He's like, all right, Granger, hit these buttons. I have two buttons. I've not pressed them both.

Let me make sure I do the same thing every time. Okay. They do. Great. Yeah, anyway. They do. Great. Yeah, anyway. But we're going to call BW Tax one more time. Yeah, we can just go around and just say our favorite things. Yeah.

Trey, what do you love about BW Tax? Man, I love, like, he's good at taxes, but BW is just a great, like, he's just a good human. You know what I mean? Like, good dude. But he's better at taxes. Jeff, what do you like about him? It's a small operation, but

that's on purpose. They want a leaner operation where they can take care of their clients and get them the help they need when they need it. They're not this big bloated organization where they got so many people that they'll respond to your email 72 hours out. No, you call them. They're going to pick up the phone. They're going to be on the line answering your questions, getting you the best refund possible. On that note, I texted BW today and I said, Steven Garcia is going to do your ad read for your business on the podcast tonight. What questions do you have for him?

And he said, pregame ritual, Alabama game memories. Did he pee on a professor's car or not? Favorite spot in five points. NIL takes and future of college football. Best and worst college stadiums and locker rooms. Worst hit he ever took. What did Clowney look like in practice? Spur your stories. And what I like is that you have this gigantic business owner named BW, but yet he sponsors a podcast and you don't talk to the vice president of media. You don't talk to the vice president of media. You don't talk to the vice president of marketing.

You just talk to the sponsor himself and he has real questions. And I'm glad that we hit a few of those. So if you don't know what to do with your taxes, well, before I say the website, go ahead, Trey. I will say if you're a college athlete and you're getting NIL money,

you're getting better at BW. He would BW. You better hit up BW. He would know exactly what to do with that. Seriously, you're 18 and you haven't even taken your first snap and you're getting money? BWTaxLLC.com. Trace.com. Dad.

Go. Yeah, there it is. Dang. At this point in the episode, we always have Trey take us in for a landing. Big Trey, go ahead. One save round. We got a save round.

Do we get a save round? It's not going to add anything to the plot. You're like, why did you speak up about this? But have you ever seen anyone wearing, that's cool cool wearing transition lenses meaning like the lenses that like when you go outside they turn into sunglasses you come back inside they turn into regular glasses like i have strong opinions on this but i'm gonna let trey go first they're the funniest thing in the world to me first of all don't sell yourself short that's a

great safe route uh to answer your question. No, but I feel like it does the opposite because I see the lens change. I'd be like, I know I don't want to talk to that person. Like it helps kind of point them out. You know what I mean? You kind of appreciate it.

Yeah. I feel like sometimes Jeff, are you kind of the same opinion? I think that, I mean, I get the practicality of them. Everyone I've ever seen is the same type of person. And I'm just like, this poor kid needs help. Okay. I'm going to go to the, when I say kid, I don't mean kid.

I mean, young. um when i say kid i don't mean kid i mean young and so i have my driver godfather 6 delta and he's lost 25 pounds he's doing a great job good dude great dude great he's mexican he loves my music choice when we drive on my phone which we can barely hear in a Humvee with the windows open. And we went on a battery run. And I was like, you're my driver. You're my guide. To be fair, classic Marine, the battery guide crashed his motorcycle in between drills and broke his leg so he can't run just as every Marine would do. So I'm like, you're my guide. legs so he can't run like just as every marine would do so i'm like you're my guy and he's like sir i won't be able to keep up i'm like not with that attitude like you're my guide so he comes up

he's got the guide on and we go for a run you know quick time march and we go and you know some gunnies out there screaming cadence and i look and like we're holding the guide like a fishing pole and i'm like hold it cross body arms you got this driver and very quickly a staff sergeant grabs the guy down like runs around the platoon and like the driver just like falls to the back. And then, but I'm like, this is my driver. Like you are my driver. You can't do that. So I'm like, stop the cadence. I'm like, the cadence stops.

I'm like, driver, just like Master Sergeant Cad used to do. And like, he comes up to the front and I look at him and he's wearing sunglasses. But like, I can tell he just worked really hard to get from the back to the front because I like publicly shamed him. So I'm like, I'm not going to talk about his glass right now. Give him the guide back.

We finished the run. I think nothing else of his glasses. Like I think nothing else until final formation. And I'm like, you know, school circle on me fall out and they do. And there's my driver. And like, I'm on the, I'm on the brand of,

I will publicly humiliate you because you are my driver. And like, you will like that. And like, you will get better. And I'm like, why are you wearing sunglasses and formation in front of all the Marines? He's like, sir, they're transitions.

I don't even know what to say right now. I forgot those existed as you were. Take them off. Sir, where'd you go? Yeah. Driver. He runs the other way so yeah transitions are interesting but anyway at this point of the podcast trey does this thing we're at 034 football weekend this will air on the friday It'll be after the first college football game. Okay.

That happens Thursday night and before Big Saturday. So however you want to take that, Trey. Let's put ourselves at that date. We're all excited. All of our teams have won. And we all say. Okay. It took us a minute, but we all say. Okay. It took us a minute, but we got there.

You've been listening to this episode 034 of the OK Podcast. I want to thank everybody for listening. I want to thank our guest, Stephen Garcia. A lot of fun to talk to. Hope he comes back at some point in time. Good dude, as we like to say. I'd like to thank our sponsor, VW Tax, keeping the lights on. Are we still

powered by the Strength Co? Last I heard. Yeah, last we checked, we were. Hey, we have a Slack channel, Strength Co does, that we'd like you to join. We'd love to interact with you there. Links in the show notes, click that. I'm sure Grant would love to throw you

a discount code if you use the... If you're not watching on YouTube. It's below. But yeah, sure. Grant's doing hand and arm signals. Yeah. Thank you for narrating that. On that note, yeah, go to YouTube.

Like and subscribe that channel. Leave some comments there. Go to www.theokpodcast.com. Find all of the social media there. We all have our own individual, I don't know, social media accounts that we like to talk about. Some of us are more active than others. Very true.

Jeff's live as we speak. Follow us. Shout out to all my followers. Yeah. Coach, did I miss anything? No, man, it's good. If you need help with lifting, reach out to TheStrainCo at www.TheStrain.co. If you need help with taxes, reach out to the person that sponsors this podcast, BWTaxLLC.com.

See you next time.