Not just because he turned down top-5 NFL dollars, but because he returned to Eugene with a purpose — one that’s fully aware that to do something special, it takes everyone.

I’ve known him since he was 16 years old, and even then, it wasn’t his arm talent that jumped out. It was his mindset.

In today’s conversation, fueled by our founding sponsor 76, keeping you on the GO GO so you never miss a beat, Dante talks about pressure like it’s a privilege. Failure like it’s fuel. And “the company” like it’s the whole point.

Ask Dante Moore about football and within a few sentences he’s back in Detroit, back at Martin Luther King Jr. Senior High School, back with the people who put a ball in his hands before he ever dreamed of Autzen Stadium. That’s still home to him. He hasn’t outgrown it, and he doesn’t want to.

The phrase that stuck with me most from this one: the company matters more than the journey or the destination. Or as my Dad has told me for over 40 years, ‘You are the Company You Keep.’

Ain’t that the truth.

That’s a veteran way of thinking for a guy his age, and one every young quarterback should aspire to.

He’s grown over the past few years too, following the lead of head coach Dan Lanning — writing his goals down on the bathroom mirror.

What I appreciated most was how comfortable he was going beyond the X’s and O’s — talking pressure, mental health, what it’s like to carry a platform at 21 and use it honestly.

He’s been one of my favorite guys since we met in 2022 at the Elite 11, doing hot yoga together. Glad we were able to connect ahead of a 2026 season with massive expectations for the Oregon Ducks on behalf of T-Mobile’s Friday Night Lights 5G program.

Hope you enjoy our conversation, as games are only a week away! I’m flying back home to soak in some family time before the cadence truly ramps up this fall so if you need anything, meet us on the sand!

Much love and stay steady,

Yogi

I wasn’t surprised Larry Fitzgerald made the NFL Hall of Fame, as I knew he was talented the day I met him. What surprised me was everything else about the week in Canton. Which brings us to today’s podcast, fueled by our founding sponsor 76, keeping you on the GO GO GO so you never miss a beat.

Four things stood out in profound ways — profound enough that I had to make a podcast episode about it.

To give you the highlights, those four are:

How talented Cris Collinsworth and Mike Tirico are. I was able to see the best broadcast booth and production group our sport has ever seen, up close. Spoiler, they are even better people than the talent they have.

How old I’m getting. Seeing so many faces from the past 25 years had me smiling ear to ear, until I realized how fast time has gone.

How many Pitt teammates showed up. Twenty-five years later, and the bond we built at 18 years old was poignant and powerful.

Don’t ever pass up a Hall of Fame after party! I lost my voice by 9 p.m. and got called on stage to sing with Marcus Fitzgerald and Bruce Arians — I never laughed harder.

Congrats to the new class, and especially to my guy Larry Fitzgerald. What a journey. Hope you enjoy today’s episode and looking forward to recapping this two week training camp tour once back home.

Until then, I’m off to Iowa, Indiana, and Penn State to finish it off!

Much love and stay steady,

Yogi

And after sitting down with him in today’s podcast, fueled by 76 keeping you on the GO GO GO so you never miss a beat, I think he's going to do exactly that in Matt Campbell’s first year.

Rocco and I dove into falling in love with football in high school, the transition from Iowa State to Penn State, and how he’s learned to lead from the inside out. Growing up with an NFL Dad he has had to learn how to handle expectations and navigate praise and blame. That will serve him well this fall as gameday is right around the corner.

I’m back on the road, heading to Pullman, Seattle, Ames, Iowa City, Bloomington and finishing up in Rocco’s new town, State College. When back, Todd Blackledge and I will recap our respective camp tours right here at Y-Option. Wheels up!

Much love and stay steady,

Yogi

I didn’t know he’d be one of the all time greats.

I definitely couldn’t tell he was going to be the 385th player inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. This past weekend, I got to witness that reality and it was one of the most beautiful celebrations of a person’s football life I’ve ever seen.

You likely know Larry’s stats: more tackles than drops. Second all time in receptions and yards. Walter Payton Man of the Year. All time Pitt Panther.

What you don’t know is the work that was done when no one was looking. The inner belief he carried in himself. How he had to process loss in a way that, sadly, some of us have had to navigate too.

And as I reflect back on the past week in Canton on my flight home I am smiling ear to ear in a way I haven’t in decades.

I arrived this past Wednesday after watching the 2026 Michigan Wolverines practice under new coach Kyle Whittingham. After covering the Utah Utes since 2004 it felt like I was home in a weird way. Friends from my past and a team I’ll cover in the future.

Ironically, once I arrived in Canton it felt relatively similar. Past and future, all connected in the present.

It would begin by shadowing absolute legends in broadcasting, Mike Tirico and Cris Collinsworth, as well as their entire NBC Sunday Night Football crew.

I sat in on a production meeting and proudly listen to them trade memories of Larry while getting a masterclass in television production.

I walked the field in pre-game and saw longtime Pitt strength coach Buddy Morris. I watched every member of the Arizona Cardinals wear number 11 in warmups. I ran into Michael Wilson, Gardner Minshew, Dave Canales and so many members of the collective ‘football family’ that 25 years around college football can provide.

And again, perma-grin.

I stood in the booth watching the greatest broadcast crew in our sport’s history do their thing. I looked over and saw Larry getting interviewed by Melissa Stark. All class, all the time.

In between days, I found myself at Michigan State, learning from new head coach Pat Fitzgerald and running into former Pitt Panther Hank Poteat during my training camp tour.

It was then back to Canton for the Hall of Fame. My cup was already full but over the next 24 hours it would overflow in the most beautiful way.

I saw teammates, coaches and administrators from twenty years ago. I laughed with the ones I used to sweat with. I went deep with the ones I used to sit on the locker room floor with after summer workouts. I looked my head coach in the eye and asked him questions I’d dreamed about asking him for years.

Most importantly, I got to listen.

I listened as grown men—former teammates—talked about fatherhood and marriage. I learned as they talked about struggle and growth. And I discovered a hole in me that only teammates could fill.

I started thinking about my time at Pitt. When you meet people at eighteen and go through hard, rewarding things together until you’re twenty-two years old a bond gets built. It’s different than high school and different than college football today. When we signed at Pitt, we stayed there. Memories were made. Relationships were formed and a powerful connection for life was created.

That truth just kept showing up as the day went on.

I watched Devin Fitzgerald present his father at the Hall of Fame ceremony. Listening to him took me back to the day he was born. I got to spend time with Devin on Notre Dame’s campus a few months ago and three weeks from now, we all may be watching him play for the Fighting Irish. How cool is that?

I looked at Larry’s other two sons and thought about similar moments, watching them evolve in life and share in this experience.

I stared at my own teammates and coaches, twenty five years older than the last time I saw most of them, and I just kept smiling.

And then we went to the After Party.

I’d never been to the Hall of Fame, let alone a Hall of Fame After Party.

If you ever get the chance, don’t pass it up.

Music, food, all first class. But the stories. The laughter. The loss of my voice by 9 PM. That was the best part.

By midnight the stories only got better. The connections only got deeper. Kelly James had the whole room going, roasting the crowd, calling friends, coaches and former teammates up on stage. It was hilarious.

I got called up on stage alongside Bruce Arians, who coached Larry Fitz. They asked us and Larry’s brother Marcus to sing a song none of us wanted to. Mid song I just looked out at the crowd and took it all in.

Everyone here for Hall of Fame inductee number 385.

Everyone connected to Larry Fitz from his past.

Everyone so connected to the present.

Everyone smiling.

Hours after we shut it down I arrived on the Minnesota Gophers campus to learn about their team ahead of their opening game of the college football season, which I’ll be calling on NBC/Peacock.

For 2 days the same theme continued: listen, learn and discover.

Sitting on this plane I’m still smiling, my cup is overflowing with joy, gratitude, and love.

I missed my teammates.

I missed my coaches.

I even missed triple sessions in training camp. Yes, that was a thing.

I got to see Walt Harris in a different light, connect with J.D. Brookhart in a new one. I got to see mentors of mine like E.J. Borghetti, Burt Lauten, Chris LaSala, and Bryan Deal.

If you couldn’t tell, it was one of the most enjoyable nights of my life.

And as my friends and I all agreed late into the night while celebrating an all-time great, “we can’t let it be this long again.”

So, what’s the point of today’s long newsletter? Hang for a few more paragraphs as I promise, it’s coming.

When I was coaching at USC, Pete Carroll made me study Abraham Maslow and the hierarchy of needs. He wrote about the five basic levels of needs: physiological requirements, safety, love and belonging, esteem, and self-actualization

My interpretation of that has always been we need to feel seen, to connect, to love and be loved and to have friends. To have a team.

I try to build a team environment every fall as a broadcaster. I think we accomplish that.

My wife and I built a team at home. I know we’re accomplishing that too.

A football team has over a 105 players competing for one goal, knowing success only happens if everyone does their job on every single snap time and time again. It gives me chills to think about that and the bonds formed in training camp, through a season, through an offseason, and then through a lifetime, are bonds that can’t be broken.

Whether it had been twenty years or two days, those bonds were alive all weekend. With Tyler Palko, Kris Wilson, Justin Belarski, Shawn Robinson, Trey McMurray, Brandon Hayes, Joe Stephens, and so many more.

They live on. Strongly.

So here is today’s ask and the point of this newsletter.

If you’re missing your teammates, call them. We want to hear from you.

If you miss the players you coached, call them. They would love to hear from you.

If you have something to say, apologize for or celebrate with a former teammate - do it. Make the call.

For those not on a team right now, create one. If you find yourself on one you might just never stop smiling, and have a cup that overflows with love, joy and regard for those you get to compete in life with. Trust me.

One more thing before I go. Today’s newsletter is an honor to write. Celebrating a teammate who is in the NFL Hall of Fame doens’t happen often, if ever. And I wanted you all to feel it. After all, we are a community who love the power of play and what sports can do.

And this fall, we have some fun plans for this community. If you enjoy this content or want something specific please let me know in the comments below. Each Sunday, I am planning to write this newsletter for you and this fall, it will be behind the paywall. We hope to compete to take you inside the stories, beyond the highlights, into the essence of this great sport.

Thanks for considering and grateful for your support.

Much love and stay steady,

Yogi

I’ve known of Nico since he was 16, and I’ve always felt like people were quicker to react to the headlines than understand the person. And since we launched three years ago the vision was to share insightful and thoughtful stories in college football.

That’s today’s podcast, fueled by our founding sponsor 76, keeping you on the GO GO GO so you never miss a beat.

This conversation will give you a different look at who he is. The way he talks about his parents. The way he processes praise and blame. The way his mom’s cancer battle changed his perspective. The way he gives back to today’s youth via his Wilson football camps.

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There is a lot more to Nico than the noise around him. And if you’re a fan who has resented the new-age in college football, this episode may refresh your passion for the game.

As Nico steps into the 2026 season and the deepest group of quarterbacks in the history of the Big Ten conference, we will see the starter at UCLA as a man who is grounded, grateful and ready to be where his feet are.

I spend my life talking to quarterbacks and today’s podcast was one of the most enjoyable podcasts of this decade-long endeavor. We went back and forth on the craft, how he trains his mind, and the impact of new UCLA head coach Bob Chesney.

I walked in excited about our conversation and left the Bruins facility inspired by the face of the program on so many levels. I hope by the time you complete this episode, you feel the same way.

It’s been a hectic week as I’ve gone from USC to Michigan to the Hall of Fame game to Michigan State to the Hall of Fame induction to Minnesota to home. And I’m heading back on the road tomorrow to prepare for the Apple Cup on NBC, Cy-Hawk, Indiana, and Penn State. Full recaps with Todd Blackledge coming soon and a detailed essay about what it was like watching Larry Fitzgerald get inducted into the Hall as number 385.

Until then, much love and stay steady,

Yogi

So in part 2 of our Media Day recap show Todd Blackledge and I took a deep dive into the most critical position in sports and shared what we learned after being around most of the signal callers in the B1G.

Welcome to today’s podcast, fueled by our founding sponsor 76, keeping you on the GO GO so you never miss a beat.

The West Coast has finally captured their footing in the Big Ten and their signal callers are primed to thrive this fall. We spent time in Chicago with Dante Moore, Jayden Maiava, Demond Williams and Nico Iamaleava, as well as Julian Sayin and others.

It’s a gifted crop of QBs which means that most games will come down to a final drive, which only makes watching and broadcasting these games that much more enjoyable.

I’m off to watch USC practice and later this week, Todd and I kick off our training camp tour. Be sure to follow along on social media and if you haven’t done it yet, please subscribe to our YouTube page.

Much love and stay steady,

Yogi

Welcome to Part 1 of our B1G Media Day recap, fueled by our founding sponsor 76, keeping you on the GO GO GO so you never miss a beat.

A whole lot of what happens and what is said during media days doesn’t really matter.

But, for Todd and I, it does matter as we get to have some genuine interactions with the 18 coaches and 54 players throughout the week, and it gives us something we’ve been craving all off-season: data.

Now, we get the best data on Saturdays. It’s quantitative and it’s 30 days away. This data is nothing like that. It’s qualitative. It’s reading social cues and analyzing word choice. It’s often times about what’s not said.

And fortunately or unfortunately it’s the best data we got right now, so let’s start with the coaches.

Welcome to part 1 of our Media Day recap.

Much love and stay steady,

Yogi

Welcome to the latest episode of THE DAWN, where Boise State head coach Spencer Danielson sat down to talk about what this new chapter means, and why he believes Boise State was built for this moment.

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Coach Danielson grew up in Southern California watching the Pac-10 turn into the Pac-12, and he watched Boise State from a distance before he ever set foot on the blue turf. Now in his tenth season with the program, he called the move into the new Pac-12 an exciting time for West Coast football and a natural homecoming for a fan base that always felt like it belonged in that conversation.

The coaching lineage at Boise State is not lost on Coach Danielson with names like Dirk Koetter, Dan Hawkins and Chris Petersen setting the foundation for excellence on the blue turf. He called it the most humbling experience of his life to lead a program with that lineage.

On the new conference, Coach Danielson praised the coaching talent across the league and called this first year just the starting point. He argued the champion of the new Pac-12 deserves a spot in the College Football Playoff regardless of a perfect record, noting that Boise State and its peers are not ducking marquee non-conference games, opening with programs like Oregon and Washington instead of padding schedules.

For Coach Danielson, all of it traces back to a culture he sums up in two words: built different. Not just because Boise State plays its home games on the only blue field in the country, but because the program is chasing transformation over transactions. He talked about developing players in every facet and pointed to Ashton Jeanty, who had chances to leave and chose to stay, as proof the culture is real and not just a recruiting pitch.

It is fitting, then, that this 40th anniversary season on the blue turf will forever carry the fingerprints of two players who embodied that mindset. Ashton Jeanty and Kellen Moore will have their numbers permanently placed on the hash marks of the blue field, a tribute Coach Danielson calls a reflection of two humble pillars who helped build Boise State into what it is today, and a fitting bookend for a program stepping into its next era with the same identity that got it here.

THE DAWN debuted July 1 across the Pac-12’s YouTube and Pac-12 Insider, the league’s 24/7 FAST channel. The series culminates with a finale featuring never-before-seen behind-the-scenes content from the building of this new league. It drops in August, right before the season kicks off.

Schematically, the Big Ten challenges coordinators on both sides of the ball in so many diverse ways that I often say it feels like NFL Lite. The game planning, the matchups, the in-game adjustments and more. Add in four new head coaches who may end up as College Football Hall of Famers, and it only ramps up.

I’ve enjoyed studying all eight new Offensive Coordinators this offseason as each one is walking into a completely different scenario, and each has a QB who will scare every DC in the country. So with that, here’s the one thing I’m seeking from each new offensive playcaller and what I’ll be on the lookout for in training camp next week.

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And today, with Fresno State entering the new look Pac-12, that phrase is at the heart of my conversation with head coach Matt Entz.

Welcome to today’s episode of THE DAWN, a collaboration between and the Pac-12.

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Matt Entz first fell for Fresno State on a Saturday night in the Midwest, a young assistant watching the late ESPN game, checkerboard end zones on the screen, Pat Hill pacing the sideline. He’d GA’d for Coach Hill’s old line coach, so he had a rooting interest built in, and it stuck.

Now he leads this proud program and seventeen months into the job, he calls it Midwest California, blue collar mentality echoing the small Iowa town he grew up in. It didn’t take long to see the same thing in his own roster, blue collar young men who grew up dreaming about playing for the Bulldogs.

That dream now comes with a new league, the re-imagined Pac 12, and Coach Entz can feel the excitement building as September closes in. There’s pride in it and pressure too, elevating a program and an athletic department that’s now in Pac-12.

THE DAWN debuted July 1 across the Pac-12’s YouTube and Pac-12 Insider, the league’s 24/7 FAST channel. The series culminates with a finale featuring never-before-seen behind-the-scenes content from the building of this new league. It drops in August, right before the season kicks off.

The highlight reels from Sean Lewis’s program show Snapdragon Stadium under the lights and the Warrior Shield held high. What they don’t show is a defensive back on his back in wet sand before sunrise, being reminded that paradise has a price when you play at San Diego State.

That’s the core of SDSU, and it’s led by Sean Lewis.

He joined today’s episode of THE DAWN, a limited series highlighting the re-imagined Pac-12, a collaboration between and the league.

I’ve known Coach Lewis since his days at Kent State when he was a 31 year old head coach, and it was clear then, just like it is now, that his philosophy is clear and his leadership style is one that will continue to thrive.

Two and a half years ago the giant was asleep. Now it’s a 9 win team, a 1st round NFL pick out the door, and a program that was in the CFP discussion last November.

Coach Lewis co-signs the idea without blinking that the champion of this new Pac-12 should be playing in the postseason in December.

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What’s underneath it all is the story behind Coach Lewis’s path to wearing a whistle.

He grew up on the south side of Chicago, went to Wisconsin to play quarterback and ended up at tight end. He was the head coach at Kent State by 2018, took a stop in Boulder to work with Deion Sanders, and two years ago this Midwest QB found himself leading the Aztecs out West. He didn’t draw this up. Nobody could have.

Life’s too short to huddle, he likes to say. One might argue life’s too short to plan out one’s path too. We just have to be present, enjoy the ride, and compete to impact people along the way.

Safe to say Sean Lewis is doing that, and much more, as San Diego State enters the new look Pac-12.

Much love and stay steady,

Yogi

THE DAWN debuted July 1 across the Pac-12’s YouTube and Pac-12 Insider, the league’s 24/7 FAST channel. The series culminates with a finale featuring never-before-seen behind-the-scenes content from the building of this new league. It drops in August, right before the season kicks off.

I’ve called KJ Duff’s games the last two seasons, the one-handed grabs, the 241-yard afternoon against Purdue, but I’d never sat across from him until this past summer. So I did the only thing you might do if you met this star playmaker: I pulled up a video I knew he’d recognize and asked him to take me through it.

And that is where today’s podcast, fueled by our founding sponsor 76, keeping you on the GO GO GO, begins.

The video is a ten-year-old on a Long Island youth field wearing one blue glove and the ball naturally coming his way. He tipped it to himself, caught it, and the clip ended up in a Colin Kaepernick Nike commercial before he’d ever played a down of high school ball. “Numbers started calling,” he told me. “I didn’t really think it was real.”

No NIL check was waiting for him back then. We laughed about that. But what stuck with me wasn’t the play, it was how careful he’s been since not to let it define him. “I never want to come across as the cocky guy,” he said.

“Play Big.”

That’s the phrase his receivers coach, Dave Brock, has drilled into him since a summer camp before Duff’s sophomore year of high school, back when most programs looked at a 6-foot-6, 200-pound kid and saw a tight end. One school told him to get to 250. Duff knew better. Coach Brock knew better too, and told him so before there was ever an offer on the table: keep working, we’re gonna keep watching. That’s the relationship that outlasted every other recruiting pitch he’d get.

Because here’s what he told me that he hadn’t said out loud before: this offseason, he was ready to leave. He called Coach Brock. He called Coach Greg Schiano. Instead of a hard sell, they asked him a question, figure out what actually matters MOST to you, and he did it the way he does everything, with a notebook, pros and cons, still sitting in a drawer at home. “I could go play in front of 105,000 people somewhere else,” he said. “But that atmosphere alone isn’t going to get me to the NFL. The people I’m around, that matters.” He didn’t dress up how hard the process was. “Some of the most stressful times of my life,” he said. “Back and forth, back and forth.”

He announced he was staying at a Rutgers basketball game in front of the AD and the governor. The standing ovation caught him off guard. I think it was the building thanking a young man for choosing to be home. Not just being another name in the portal at a new school for 6 months, but a player who was thinking about bringing his own children back here one day to remind them that Chasing What Matters, with clarity, confidence and discipline is not easy, but it is worth it.

I asked him, finally, what his intention is for this season. No pause.

“First intention is I want to win,” he said.

Praise and blame are all the same. Legacy is the stat that compounds.

Go play big KJ, I’ll be rooting for you.

Much love and stay steady,

Yogi

The class was communication and rhetoric. The professor was Peter Simonson. I didn’t realize it then but I sure am now that that singular class, that singular professor shaped the trajectory of my life.

As I’m flying home, fully transitioning back to college football from a summer adventure in Europe, I am reading the media day headlines: Tampering accusations (Pitt). Defending a programs history (Clemson). A break away from the NCAA (SEC). You get it. The news.

Yet I keep thinking about my professor.

Back then I was nothing more, nothing less, than a Social Security number in a lecture hall of three hundred fifty students at Pitt. Then Professor Simonson started talking about Greek history. About the power of speech. About the Encomium of Helen.

I was hooked.

I started sitting in the front row. I started showing up to office hours. I fell in love with every lesson he taught.

That class became my major. That major became a career. Understanding dialogue, understanding how we communicate, understanding the history behind the words we choose. Being obsessed with it.

Like I mentioned, headlines are headlines. But the players who play and the teachers who teach are what I find myself coming back to somewhere across the Atlantic.

While it’s not going to make news, it is true that college football players still go to class.

‘Class’ may not look like it used to. Some of it is digital. Some of it runs through tutors. But the college experience is still happening for them, quietly, in between practices and game plans.

I know academia can sour on college sports, heck we all can. The money made. The money spent. It is easy to point at that and check out.

As the season is less than 50 days away I am asking you not to. Especially if you’re an educator on campus.

Professors, you still have influence. And the rest of today’s newsletter is for you.

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You still shape how these young people think, speak, and move through the world. A single lesson can change a life choice.

Many athletes we cheer for do not know how to navigate your classroom. They will not raise their hand first. They will not linger after class.

So invite them to office hours. Call on them, gently, before they ever have to raise a hand themselves.

I was that kid once. Quiet. Unsure. Just a number in a room of three hundred fifty.

One class hooked me. One professor mentored me.

As I trade summer vacation for six months of fall, I keep coming back to this.

To every professor standing in front of every athlete this season: you have more power than you know. So use it and maybe you can change a young athlete’s life…in September or 25 years from now.

Much love and stay steady,

Yogi

I’ve known Coach Schiano for over 20 years. First as a wideout at Pitt, then these last couple years covering Big Ten football. This conversation, though, was different because I was embedded within the Scarlet Knights program for the day and what a day it was.

I got to sit in on his team meeting, watch Coach Schiano look his players in the eyes and bridge a football lesson to a life lesson in the same breath. And at the end of an epic day with the team, staff and program he and I sat down, and Coach Schiano took me all the way back to where his leadership began: his kitchen table.

And that is where today’s podcast, fueled by our founding sponsor 76, keeping you on the GO GO GO, begins.

Coach Schiano grew up in an Italian household in Paterson, New Jersey, where his parents taught him and his three siblings one thing above all: you get up, you go to work, and some days it isn’t pleasant but you keep showing up. The standard, even before it was ever spoken, was simple — no matter what, protect your family.

That’s not a throwaway line for him. It’s the whole building now. “Family is everything to me in this building,” he said. And he means it literally, as he’s now recruiting the sons of players he coached at Rutgers when they were in the Big East while currently coaching with his own three sons on this year’s staff.

Full circle doesn’t begin to cover it.

This is the line that stuck with me most: “You can have a goal and at the same time have a purpose.” Greg’s goal is a national championship at Rutgers. His purpose is different.

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He is driven to make sure that the young men who walk into the Rutgers program leave as grown men. Husbands. Fathers. People who can figure it out when nobody’s telling them what to do next. In this era of players getting paid, transferring and being told things from others that may not be accurate I have to say that watching Coach Schiano teach his players the realities of LIFE and how football can teach all of us how to navigate life was one of the most refreshing parts of my off-season.

He didn’t plan on coaching, by the way. He got cut playing in the CFL, came home, signed up for the LSAT, and was on his way to law school when his high school coach — practically a second father to him — talked him into helping out on the sideline instead. That coach later “fired” him, on purpose, so Greg would go be a graduate assistant and learn the business the right way. That GA year? 1989. At Rutgers. Where he told me, without blinking, that even back then, he was building his coaching staff for this program in his head.

Chop.

If you’ve followed this program at all, you know the word. Here’s where it actually comes from: 1999, Miami, a sports psychologist named Dr. Kevin Elko telling the staff a story about a guy in the woods with nothing but an axe. It sat dormant for six years. Then in 2005, Rutgers blew a 28-7 fourth quarter lead at Illinois and lost in overtime. Greg couldn’t sleep on the flight home. He remembered the story, upon landing he sent a GA to Home Depot for an axe, had it painted red, and walked it into the team meeting still wet with paint. We’re all in the woods. We can lay down, or we pick a tree and chop until it falls. Rutgers went on a run and made a bowl game. The axe, and the word, never left.

Finally, Rutgers has both hands free.

For most of his 18 years split across two stints as head coach, Coach Schiano described competing “with one arm tied behind his back.” That’s changing. He talked about vertical alignment: from president to athletic director to head coach, all pointed at the same goal, for the first time in his tenure.

It’s showing up in real terms: Rutgers retained all three of their must-keep players this offseason, including a receiver who very nearly left before Greg reminded him who he was and where he was from. “You’re a difference maker. You’re gonna leave a legacy,” he told him. He stayed. That conversation with KJ Duff is coming up later this week so be sure to subscribe to our YouTube page.

We also talked about his three coaching trees and biggest influences: Joe Paterno at Penn State, Dave Wannstedt and Butch Davis out of the Jimmy Johnson lineage at Miami and Chicago, Dick Anderson at Rutgers. We talked about Pete Carroll and impact of our book, Win Forever, and the sabbatical Greg took in 2014 that reshaped how he leads now.

Demanding, but flexible enough to let a coach leave for four hours for his daughter’s recital. And we talked about his three sons, all working in the building, all grinding it out the long way.

He just turned 60. Says he feels 30. And when I asked him about the word “legacy” landing on him after everything he’s built here, he wouldn’t take it yet. “I’m only comfortable with it because we haven’t started yet,” he said. “The best times for Rutgers football are ahead of us.”

I believe it.

Much love and stay steady,

Yogi

The first-year Washington State head coach grew up two hours away from Pullman, would visit spring practice with his Dad as a child and opens up his head coaching career in the Apple Cup on NBC. Talk about a dream script!

He joined today’s episode of THE DAWN, a limited series highlighting the re-imagined Pac-12 in a collaboration between Y-Option and the league.

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What’s clear in our conversation is how proud he is to be leading the Cougs, has an incredible understanding of the standard at WSU, and has hit the ground running since taking over this proud program.

He shared insights from mentors like Chris Petersen, Kalen DeBoer, Jeff Tedford and others, let alone what it was like growing up in the same home as the current Saints head coach, Kellen Moore.

I’ve visited the Cougs in Pullman since he took over and can attest that his attention to detail, alignment on campus and the players’ focus will have the Cougs prepared for the 2026 season that kicks off on NBC.

Much love and stay steady,

Yogi

THE DAWN debuted July 1 across the Pac-12’s YouTube and Pac-12 Insider, the league’s 24/7 FAST channel. The series culminates with a finale featuring never-before-seen behind-the-scenes content from the building of this new league. It drops in August, right before the season kicks off.

I’ve been tracking Coach Kinne since his recruiting days as a big-time QB prospect, and he’s been on a rocket ship in the coaching profession from the moment he traded his cleats for a whistle.

After sitting down with him it's clear he has an ‘It Factor’ that's translated straight into coaching, and that comes through during our conversation in the limited series, THE DAWN, presented by the Pac-12 and Y-Option.

Coach Kinne inherited a program that had never reached a bowl game, never beaten rival UTSA, and never notched a Power Four win. He got all three done in year one, and he credits it to instilling confidence and an aggressive, swing for the fences mindset from the start.

Coaching runs in GJ’s blood. His father spent decades as a Texas high school coach, and GJ played and worked under a run of respected names including Todd Graham, Gus Malzahn, Chad Morris, Mike Norvell, Chip Kelly, Ryan Day, Bill Musgrave, and Jeff Stoutland. But it was Super Bowl winning coach Doug Pederson who gave him advice early on that stuck: just be yourself.

That philosophy has carried him through head coaching stops at UIW and now Texas State as they enter the reimagined Pac-12.

Watching Coach Kinne build this thing from the ground up, I keep coming back to the same thought: the rocket ship isn’t slowing down anytime soon.

THE DAWN debuted July 1 across the Pac-12’s YouTube and Pac-12 Insider, the league’s 24/7 FAST channel. The series culminates with a finale featuring never-before-seen behind-the-scenes content from the building of this new league. It drops in August, right before the season kicks off.

I heard about Pancho Laloulu when he signed at Oregon. And I’ve interviewed him many times calling his games during his All-American career. But it wasn’t until today’s podcast where I truly felt I got to know him.

You will too, as he shares the story of how he lost his baby brother and the lifelong impact that has had on him and his view of the world.

Pancho was in fourth grade and woke up to yelling in the middle of the night to find his older brother performing CPR on their 11-month-old sibling, Mai. The light of that house. The one who greeted everyone at the door with a smile after school.

Pancho and his family lost him that morning.

And after that Pancho didn’t get quiet, didn’t get resentful. Rather, he got grateful.

That word, grateful, kept coming through in our conversation on today’s podcast, fueled by our founding sponsor 76, keeping you on the GO GO GO so you never miss a beat.

As an All-American in 2025 and projected All-Everything in 2026, he lives with the lens that every day above ground is a gift.

Pancho’s path to center is one he almost refused to go down as a freshman. He envisioned himself playing guard, mauling people and leading the Ducks O-line. But when it came, he took it. And when it was hard and taken away, he went back to work.

Heading into 2026 the Duck’s offensive line, once again, is a frontrunner for the Joe Moore Award and Pancho is the centerpiece of it under Coach Dan Lanning. And like Dante Moore, Pancho chose to return for 2026, as this roster is mission minded.

I’ve written about Coach Lanning’s DNA traits often: Connection. Growth. Toughness. Sacrifice. And Pancho is living them at every turn, with every block.

Hope you enjoy today's conversation. We are also grateful for your support as we continue to grow Y-Option here at Substack and on our YouTube channel.

Much love and stay steady,

Yogi

And without meaning to, he started running an experiment on himself. Every time someone reached out, he noted who it was and why. Former players, coaches, administrators, boosters, church, family. He wasn’t trying to prove anything. He just wanted to know who showed up.

Over ninety percent of it came from former players. And out of all those messages, only one mentioned a game or a score. Every other one was about a moment. Something they overcame. Something that changed them.

That’s the story underneath everything Coach Mendenhall does, and it’s the centerpiece of this episode of THE DAWN, a limited series presented by the Pac-12 and Y-Option.

Coach Mendenhall is the fourth winningest active coach in college football, twenty years in, four programs, over a hundred players sent to the NFL, most of them three star recruits or less. And he’ll tell you the wins were never the point. He says it constantly. Culture precedes performance. He means it literally, not as a slogan.

His first team meeting at every stop starts the same way. He tells the room this will be the highest performing football team in school history academically, and it starts now. They usually think they got the wrong coach. Twice now, it’s been true by the end of the semester.

There’s a theory he leans on, that the brain signals us to quit around sixty percent of our real capacity, purely to protect itself. Coach Mendenhall’s entire program lives in the other forty. Not through fear. Through belief, and through asking more of people than they thought they had.

Now he’s bringing all of that into a brand new conference, in a state that can’t get enough football, with a program built on earning everything and given nothing.

Much love and stay steady,

Yogi

THE DAWN debuted July 1 across the Pac-12’s YouTube and Pac-12 Insider, the league’s 24/7 FAST channel. The series culminates with a finale featuring never-before-seen behind-the-scenes content from the building of this new league. It drops in August, right before the season kicks off.

There’s a switch.

Calm. Cool. Collected. Right up until the moment practice starts.

Then it flips.

Oregon State head coach JaMarcus Shephard will tell you his players saw it for the first time in their first practice together in Corvallis. The room changed. The temperature changed. Guys who thought they knew their new head coach realized, mid-drill, that they didn’t. Not yet.

That’s the story of Oregon State right now. And in a lot of ways, it’s the story of the entire new Pac-12.

Welcome back to THE DAWN, a limited series within Y-Option as we partnered with the Pac-12 as they re-launch this historic conference.

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Coach Shephard is the 33rd head coach in Oregon State history, but he’s really the first head coach of something else entirely. A rebuilt league. A rebranded identity. A program that spent a stretch of time in what he calls limbo, watching the old Pac-12 come apart, wondering if it would even survive.

He’s done wondering. He’s building.

What stuck with me most wasn’t the energy, though there’s plenty of that. It was the discipline underneath it. Coach Shephard has a rule he lives by, and he tries to instill it in every player who walks through the building: never let a negative thought complete itself in your mind. Because your thoughts become your words. Your words become your actions. And how you think about where you’re at determines how you perform.

Simple. Not easy. That’s usually how the best ones are.

And when you look at his coaching tree, it’s crystal clear how Coach Shephard has developed as a leader of men.

Willie Taggart. Bobby Petrino. Jeff Brohm. Kalen DeBoer. And Mike Leach, gone too soon, but never far from how Coach Shephard talks about caring for people. Each one left something behind. Not just plays. Not just systems. A way of being present with the people in the building, whether that’s a wide receiver room or an entire athletic department.

Then there’s the Alabama experience. Walking into Nick Saban’s infrastructure post National Championship game at Washington taught him something he didn’t expect: that even at a place with all the talent in the world, development is the real separator. Not just recruiting rankings. The daily work of making players better than they arrived.

He’s carrying all of it into this new league launch. And he’s not shy about the moment.

Oregon State and Washington State were the two programs that refused to let the Pac-12 disappear. Shephard gives real credit to both universities for planting a flag when it would have been easier to walk away. That decision is why there’s a conference to relaunch at all.

And here’s the part that got me. Shephard already has a Pac-12 championship. He won the last one, with Washington, before the old league dissolved. Now he gets a shot at winning the first one in the new era. Not chasing someone else’s history. Building his own, from the ground up, with a staff that includes people who were in the room for that final title.

That’s rare. Most coaches inherit a legacy. Shephard gets to create one.

If you missed episode 1 with Commissioner Teresa Gould or ep 2 with Jim Mora be sure to subscribe to our YouTube Channel as THE DAWN continues all month in collaboration with the Pac-12 Conference.

Much love and stay steady,

Yogi

THE DAWN debuted July 1 across the Pac-12's YouTube and Pac-12 Insider, the league's 24/7 FAST channel. The series culminates with a finale featuring never-before-seen behind-the-scenes content from the building of this new league. It drops in August, right before the season kicks off.

Who in here did Steve Brennan ever buy an ice cream? Every kid’s hand went up.

Who in here did Steve Brennan ever buy a beer? Eight hundred hands went up.

That’s not just a powerful eulogy. That’s a blueprint.

I sat across from Coach Brennan in Tucson this spring, and it hit me fast. This isn’t a coach who learned relationships from a leadership seminar. He learned it at the dinner table. And now, three years into rebuilding Arizona football, that same instinct is the whole operating system.

Year one was hard. Year two was a breakthrough. Year three carries a different kind of weight. Brent told me the team still feels unfinished. Not disappointed but rather, hungry.

I love asking head coaches what they feel the ‘role of a head coach is’ and with Coach Brennan, when asked that he never starts with schemes.

He starts with trust and how the core of trust is real relationships, and how real relationships don’t exist without time. Time with him, time with his family, time with his staff.

Today’s conversation is fueled by our founding sponsor 76, keeping you on the GO GO GO so you never miss a beat, which feels about right for a coach whose recruiting calendar, staff meetings, and family dinners never really stop overlapping.

As Big 12 media days kick off, I also hope that Arizona’s QB gets the love he has earned as Noah Fifita’s story is rare.

Coach Brennan said he’s never coached a player as high profile as Noah Fifita who still shakes every hand, signs every autograph, and shows up to coach youth football on Sundays like it’s the most important appointment of his week.

In an era defined by the transfer portal, Noah stayed. He grew. He bet on Tucson. Add in elite accuracy, real ability to “see the defense,” and a willingness to do whatever it takes to win Fifita has Arizona in position to win the Big 12 this fall.

Take a listen to my earlier conversation with Noah to learn about the QB that I think the nation will be rooting for.

Coach Brennan and I also dove into expectations and he shared the dangers of looking too far down the road, of chasing a title before you’ve won today’s meeting, today’s rep, today’s practice. And after being there this past off-season it’s clear that his team is stacking the small things, and the big things should take care of themselves this fall. (hello week 2 vs BYU!)

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And on a personal note, his wife Courtney changed my life, literally.

Most importantly, she has been by Coach Brennan’s side since he was a high school coach and as a graduate assistant washing cars and babysitting for extra cash. The players love her too as she defines showing up.

But years ago, I was visiting the San Jose State program and her and Coach Brennan convinced me to stick around an extra night. It wasn’t that hard if you’ve ever met the Brennan’s. So instead of catching my flight home, I stuck around and as the universe would have it, that next day I walked onto a plane and sat next to my future wife! So yea, football gives us a lot of things but for me, it gave me the introduction to my absolute heartmate.

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Three years in, Brent Brennan isn’t chasing hype. He’s chasing alignment and he’s done it one relationship at a time and that’s the legacy this Arizona program is chasing. Not a trophy first, but rather a room full of raised hands.

And this week as Big 12 Media Days continue today, the nation gets to see it on full display.

Much love and stay steady,

Yogi