This is an IHeart podcast.

You know, every year we have a new crop of people who come to this sport who become fans. And every year they

love it. They love media days. They love the pageantry. They love the preview magazines. They

love kickoff. They love going to their first tailgate, their first game. They love getting into the

playoff stretch. And they may not love the committee, but at least they love the rankings.

They love all that. We all love conference championship Saturday. But if you're new to this game,

you think to yourself, oh, look, there's the finish line, conference championship week. That's the

finish line. And then we'll have bowl season and I hear good things about the playoff and the title game.

But then you learn about the portal, you learn about recruiting an early signing day, and you

learn that December is a battlefield in this sport. In college football, December is not for the

faint of heart. And you look at yourself, let's say you're from Ackworth, Georgia, and you decided, I'm not just rooting for the Falcons anymore. I'm going to be a Georgia fan this year. It's a good time to jump on the bandwagon. And you may be thinking, hey, won the last two titles, came within an eyelash against Alabama of maybe punching our ticket to try and win a third.

Why are all our players leaving?

Why's the top quarterback in the country maybe decommitting from our class?

What's happening here?

College football is happening.

The consequences of success are happening.

Late kick is live on this Tuesday night, December 12th, the Year of Our Lord, 2003. We were jam-packed

high atop a relatively turbulent downtown Nashville, Tennessee. A lot going on. We could probably

do a three-hour show exteraneously right now. I could throw these papers in the incinerator,

and Jesse's work could all be for naught, and we could just talk about rumors.

I could call Wilfong.

I could put him on speaker, and I could say, Steve, what's happening today? I could call Matt Zenitz. I could say, hey, who's hopping in the portal? Hummer? Who are you hearing's going in the portal in the next hour? I don't know how some folks do it. I don't know how some coaches do it, man. I know they get paid a lot of money.

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