Closing in on Kickoff

The fit for the 4 former Pac-12 schools in the B1G & my process as an on-air analyst

“So, how do you think the new teams will fare in their new leagues?”

This is a question I get at least once per day on my current Training Camp Tour and after visiting Washington, Oregon, UCLA and USC over the last two weeks I feel like I finally have a pretty good feel for a grounded response.

Simply, the four new teams entering the Big Ten are going to elevate that league.

The Oregon Ducks have the most talented and deepest roster among the four West Coast programs and should compete for everything every college football player desires. This program, under the leadership of Dan Lanning, has the best chance of any team to fill the void that Nick Saban and Jim Harbaugh left at Alabama and Michigan, respectively.

Under Jedd Fisch, the Washington Huskies are better than I anticipated and will make every game a tough out for their opponent. I’ve been saying this for years, but the plan that this staff has each weekend will rival any staff in the nation. Add in an experienced QB in Will Rogers and a legit NFL back in Jonah Coleman, and I trust this team more than I expected to after visiting Seattle.

The UCLA Bruins enter the B1G with minimal expectations, but to remind the CFB world, this team has won 8+ games the past 3 seasons. I’m not exactly sure what DeShaun Foster’s squad will be on offense, but after watching their practice, if the Bruins can hold up on the offensive line then this team will be in every game. Two names to watch, Moliki Matavao at TE and Femi Oladejo at LB. I expect both to get invited to the Senior Bowl.

Across town, USC is going to surprise people. For some reason unknown to me, the Trojans seem to be taking a variety of sucker punches from members of the media outside of LA before they have taken a snap. My approach has always been to read the tea leaves from local media to get a baseline for a national discussion. I’ve yet to hear someone on the USC beat light up the Trojans. Yes, they have a brutal front end of their schedule. But after being at practice, I was impressed by this program's development in all phases. How they navigate physical week after physical week early on will be a test. To me, this is a foundational year for a variety of reasons and I would not be surprised if they beat LSU. If they do, we will be sure to invite a certain someone from the South on the Y-Option podcast…

Which leads me to today’s newsletter and an inside look into my process of being an analyst. I’ve been asking my new colleagues about how each of them began their careers in between practices on the road and on my most recent cross-country flight I began to reflect on mine.

Back in 2009, I began a transition from coaching to broadcasting and I met with my mentor and former boss, Pete Carroll, to discuss it. He asked me one simple question, “So Yogi, who are you going to be as a broadcaster?”

Without flinching I answered, “Herbie.” As in the legendary broadcaster Kirk Herbstreit. We had met when I was in college and I had patterned my on-air career after his. I was not an All-American at Pitt but loved the game and all that came with the preparation. He was similar and always seemed to have a likable way about him on air. As I got to know him, Herbie was the same off air: kind, thoughtful, competitive and all about relationships.  

Coach Carroll heard my explanation and responded like any great coach would, “Well Yogi, if you’re going to be Kirk Herbstreit then what is going to happen to Yogi Roth?”

I stopped dead in my tracks. Great point, Coach.

Coach Carroll then challenged me to write down four things – my broadcasting style, vision, theme and philosophy. Over the course of that summer I went to work. A month later, I showed up to the USC facility and handed him and longtime NFL broadcaster Pat Kirwan my homework. It was 36 pages. Coach Carroll flipped through it, barely reading it. Pat read the first few pages and rolled it into a tube. Within 5 minutes they both looked at me with the look of a teacher about to assign a follow-up project.

“Now, put each of those answers into a sentence.” said Coach Carroll.

I had just spent a month crafting 36 pages of detail, tactics and planning around my newfound career and he just asked me to make that into 4 bullet points? I mean, c’mon Coach!

I should not have been surprised as A) we co-wrote a book about this exact thing and B) this was an exercise we would often do as a coaching staff where the legendary USC and Seahawks coach would ask his staff to describe their personal coaching philosophy in 25 words or less. In essence, he was doing the same with me as a broadcaster.

A few weeks later I netted out with the following:

• Style: Youthful, energetic and honest. Everything based on fact first, opinion second

• Vision: To do things better than they had ever been done before

• Theme: Compete to take the helmet off the player and coach the viewer

• Philosophy: Celebrate the game

I went back into his office with this as a one-pager and that day we had a conversation that will forever be cemented in my mind and is one I think about each Saturday before walking into the television booth. We talked about the concept around each of these words and each of these statements. He challenged me on the depth with each one so when things got hard, when a moment on air was challenging, when a game offered something unexpected, that I’d have a foundation to fall back on. It was a master class from the grandmaster. 

Reflecting back on that experience I’m reminded that while broadcasting may not be like leading a Top 25 program, it must have purposeful and intentional detail to it. Entering Year 16 in the booth those are principles I still read each weekend and I’m grateful for that work he challenged me to do.

So, what is that for you? In your craft do you have a style, vision, theme and philosophy? If so, is it real? Is it just words? Does it have depth? If so, I hope that story is a reminder to check in with your approach. If not, maybe it’s time to start writing? Let us know your thoughts on social media as we pride ourselves on being a community where we can ideate, improve and learn from one another in a thoughtful way.

I’m off to East Lansing and Ann Arbor to visit with Jonathan Smith and Sherrone Moore on the final leg of this Training Camp Tour. I’m stoked to see what the former Oregon State Beaver head coach has curated and of course, take a look at the defending National Champions.

Finally, it’s wild to think that in two short weeks I will have just finished calling, alongside Guy Haberman and Rhett Lewis, the Oregon Ducks season opener against Idaho and Jason Eck. We will be sure to bring you inside the production truck and broadcast booth via Y-Option’s Instagram account, and it can’t get here soon enough.

In the meantime, some things to look forward to this week:

• A detailed look at my time in Tucson this past weekend with new Wildcat head coach Brent Brennan.

• A conversation with Wildcat legend Khalil Tate around his time in AZ, revenue sharing with former players and that one powerful tweet he deleted.

• A breakdown of Michigan State and Michigan from the road.

• The Nike Kickoff Classic - I’ll be on the call this Thursday night on NFL Network’s platforms calling a girls flag football game and a boys tackle game on the Nike campus. I still feel the purest form of the game is in high school.

As always, thank you for being a part of this journey with our team at Y-Option and we look forward to your feedback on the content we have created.

Much love,

Yogi