SPEAKER_01 0:02

I thought the offense moved the ball really well. Got a finished field goals at the end, but but also in the two minute drive got the touchdown and then the two points the uh the field would have tied back up and then got it done on the two-point plate to win it. But overall in all three phases, I thought guys were locked in. Got a lot of reps, and then I know I said 90. I think we ended up with over a hundred. But thank God for the weather a lot allowed us to do that. Yeah, it's it's not perfect. It's just but to go through being locked in for special teams, just having all the different transitions. What's not realistic is going on to twos to threes. You know, typically you're gonna be, you know, uh, and we're trying to mix it up too with the ones, twos, ones, threes, and just trying to keep it off, keep them off balance so that way the break in between wasn't as long. But we did the best we could with wood under the circumstances, but it's it's as close as we can get in preparation for next Thursday.

SPEAKER_03 1:13

Good morning, afternoon, or evening to you wherever you're listening from. It is Saturday, August 8th. My name is Russell Reese, and you are listening to National Sports. Alright, well, we started today's show with a clip from Robert Stala's press conference after last night's blue and white scrimmage at Nissan Stadium. Titans training camp is in full swing. The Pads came on this week, and so far it sounds like the offense is really looking good. It's kind of a surprise when you have a new offensive system and the team is trying to learn it and react to defenses, but that's a great sign. Alec Iomanor has been a standout in the wide receivers. He was, I think, originally thought to be maybe the fourth or fifth wide receiver, but is currently challenging Calvin Ridley for the third wide receiver spot. That's a great, great thing to see happening. You know, the Titans' wide receiver depth is the best it's ever been, but to have them pushing each other like that means it's only going to be better. Yesterday, the Titans also announced that they have signed guard Peter Skoronsky to a record-setting extension. Four-year $100 million with $88 million guaranteed. That makes him the highest paid guard in the league presently. You know, these things change pretty quickly. But here is a clip from Salah's press conference last night talking about that extension.

SPEAKER_01 2:48

I think when when you have a an elite talent like that, I it's like I said, you you pay people who who change games, you know. And I know it's hard to quantify how an O lineman changes games, but when you can count on a guy to win in one his one-on-ones and keep keep the pocket clean for the quarterback, it's those guys are priceless. And you know, so anytime, and it really goes throughout the entire team, if you're if you change the game in a way where the opponent needs to adjust to you, then then you probably should get paid a little bit more.

SPEAKER_03 3:18

On Monday, the Titans head to San Francisco to have joint practices with the 49ers in advance of their preseason game, which takes place Thursday night at 8 p.m. While the game will be televised and free to watch here in Nashville, I believe at least that it's more important to pay attention to the news coming out of the practices themselves. That's where the teams will really be challenging each other. That's where I think the meat will really be happening, where the rubber will be meeting the road, so to speak. And this will be the first step for the new Robert Salah Titans as they face actual competition outside of the organization. So it should tell us a lot about the current state of the team and where they're headed. Here again is Salah from last night's press conference talking about the trip to San Francisco.

SPEAKER_02 4:08

Well, yeah, importantly for San Francisco, just what do you kind of physicality-wise experience-wise want from the guys in the joint crack, that's just what is the emphasis of that for the You know that it's one, don't make anything up.

SPEAKER_01 4:20

We're going out to compete against a championship team. And it it doesn't mean if if you feel like, well, now it's time to go get it, then you've been doing it wrong this entire time. You should have already been gone to get it, then gone to get it, if that makes sense. Expecting our guys to go out and execute the way we have been, compete the way we have been, and uh it'll be it'll be awesome to work with those guys.

SPEAKER_03 4:41

Do you have any conversation with with Kyle with John about any concerns on their injuries?

SPEAKER_01 4:48

And no, they're yeah, we've talked. You know, we're we we've been talking you know, they're they're a week ahead of us because they play earlier, so they reported earlier. So it's been tricky to kind of find a compromise with regards to reps. But but they're actually getting a lot of guys back, they're getting much healthier, and they'll they're they're more than confident that they'll be ready to go come uh Monday, I believe.

SPEAKER_03 5:07

In other Titans news this week, Netflix released the trailer for The Testimony of Vince Young, a documentary about Vince Young's time in college and the pros, what went right, and more importantly, what went wrong. It appears to have a large focus on how the death of Steve McNair affected Vince and his career, which if you've listened to the pod before, you know that's something that I've mentioned is thinking was crucial to his development or lack thereof. A link to the trailer in the comments below, but also that will be released on Netflix on August 25th. Finally, in Titans News, yesterday the Titans announced a brand new look for their mascot T-Rack. It is quite the departure from the old look. Some might say more realistic, if that is even possible when talking about mascots. Some might say it leans more towards a furry convention kind of look. I am still out on it, and to be honest, I don't think my opinion as an adult really matters that much. Mascots are generally, I think, for children, so we'll have to see how kids react to the new T-Rack. But definitely opinions are mixed out in the world. Moving on now to Nashville SC, who lost on Wednesday evening to Club Lyon in their first match of the League's Cup. It was a heavily rotated team. According to Ben Wright of 615 Soccer, it was actually the youngest average age of a Nashville SC starting team in either the USL or MLS eras of the team, a little over 24 years of age on average. While the loss is kind of disappointing and more than likely puts Nashville SC out of the running for advancement in League Cup, it makes sense just from where the team is right now, a bunch of injuries to the starters. This is also something BJ Callahan has said he was going to do, which is to play the young guys. They've got some real meaningful experience this way. And I personally think it's the right call. There will still be two more League Cups games coming up tonight at 7 p.m. against Atletico San Luis, and then again Wednesday versus Monterey at 7 p.m. Both of those matches are at Geodis Park. However, strangely, Nashville is listed as the away team on Wednesday against Monterey. Expect to see more heavily rotated side, a few starters, a bunch of the backup guys getting good experience against some pretty impressive international competition. And then next Saturday, Nashville SC returned to MLS action with a huge matchup against Inter Miami. It'll be a clash of the top two teams in the East, Miami nipping at Nashville heels in the standings. It was also just announced yesterday that Lionel Messi's father has passed away. My condolences to him. While I'm not a big Messi or Miami fan, having lost my own father, I understand the pain that that causes. It'll be interesting to see if Messi's on the pitch next Saturday when the two teams clash. Moving down to the Nashville Sounds. Sounds are 61 and 51 and currently in third place in their division. They are now six games behind new division leader, St. Paul. At the moment, they're in Memphis in the middle of a six-game series. They've split 2-2 so far against the Redbirds, with two more games coming up today and tomorrow. Then on Tuesday, they will be back in Nashville to start a six-game series against the Indianapolis Indians. My guest this week is Ricky Thrash. Ricky is the Associate Athletic Director for Strategic Initiatives at Vanderbilt University, where he's worked for the better part of two decades. Yesterday I had a chance to chat with Ricky about the work he does at Vandy, the current state of Vanderbilt Athletics, and the start of the new athletic season with the upcoming school year. There's a lot to be excited about at Vanderbilt these days, and Ricky has been a part of it for some time now. I hope you'll enjoy my conversation with Ricky Thrash. All right, Ricky, thank you so much for making the time to come on and speak with me today. I really appreciate having you on. Happy Friday. Man, thanks, man. Happy to be here. Happy Friday to you. All right. Well, I'm going to dive right in. I ask everybody sort of the same set of questions and then get into sort of more specific stuff. But what is your favorite sport to play?

SPEAKER_02 9:52

I I saw when you when you when you put that on the list, it's present tense, which is a little tough because I don't know that I play a ton of sports now at all.

SPEAKER_03 10:02

But this is outback steakhouse. There's no rules, it's just right. However, you want to answer the question past, present, future. Right on, man. Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 10:10

Yeah, let's go. We'll go some loose interpretation. I love lifting weights, so so I'll say that that's you know, keeping me somewhat adjacent to to to some world of athleticism. And yeah, I played golf and football in high school and enjoyed both sports at the time. Yeah, if you hit me now, I'm calling the police. You know, I'm I'm I'm I'm out of the world of uh of contact sports, but uh but no, back in the day, those are my those are my true.

SPEAKER_03 10:39

Right on. Yeah, I I claim to play golf as well and have played once in the last three years, but you know more of my the image I keep of myself. Uh I like that. I like that. Yeah. I also think of myself as a skinnier guy, but you know, it's neither here nor there. Uh all right, so what is your favorite sport to watch?

SPEAKER_02 11:01

Man, I mean, honestly, anything, but the football is my first love, like, you know, watching football in person, probably baseball or battle. Like, just I mean, I don't know that much beats a summertime baseball game, you know, especially in a stadium. And then soccer's grown on me, man. Like, soccer's grown on me a ton. I used to make fun of of, you know, kind of like that sad, stereotypical, like American kind of, you know, you know, soccer was invented by European housewives as something to do while their husbands fought war or whatever. And then actually kind of got into it. And and and what got me into soccer was working here at Vandy, going to the games, like going to the Van Die women's soccer games, and really like I don't know, just being really impressed with the athleticism and all that. And so now, man, I can if you put on if you put on a soccer, like a football match, it can kind of be anybody, and I'll I I can find a way to so that that's quickly moving up for me.

SPEAKER_03 12:02

That's awesome. It's always fun to discover a new one. And I think particularly with soccer, there's just so much of it out there that uh Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 12:12

Man, I I mean I I agree with you, man. I think the culture of it and like you know, it's like it's it's kind of this thing that I stumbled upon, you know, in my in my late 30s, and just really diving into like you know, in English like English football and Premier League, the sports culture that they have. It's it's phenomenal. And it honestly reminds me a lot of once again going back to my first love, which was college football and the the deep culture, the history, the traditions, the rivalries. You know, it it it definitely, I mean, obviously there are a lot of differences, but there's some things that really rhyme between like English football and and especially southern college photo.

SPEAKER_03 12:53

I totally feel that. Absolutely. Yeah, that's a great answer. Well, going back to your earliest love, what is your earliest sports memory?

SPEAKER_02 13:01

I mean, my dad was a my dad was a coach when I was little. So my dad coached basketball and football a lot. And so, you know, their games like LeGrange High School, the Le Grange High School Grangers. So, like watching some of those like games, like they won the, I guess it would be like the national championship. They won the state championship, and they were determined to be like the best team that won the state championship in the country. I don't know. Like in 1991. So, like some players off that team, like a guy named Rodney Hudson, a guy named Jarrett Revere was a quarterback. That that was like probably some of my earliest, like those dudes were like to me, that's pretty deep in the sports lore. The Dallas Cowboys of the early 90s, bonding with my dad watching those games, because my dad's a big Dallas Cowboys fan. So, like the that run of Super Bowl is like 92, 93, 95. And then the last big sports mini, like of watching on TV that was really formative was probably Florida State, Florida State football, specifically Charlie Ward. That Heisman run that he went on. I don't know, man. Like he just that that that was like my first favorite college football player. And so so love that. You know, I'll give you another one that was a little bit later, but the 1996 Olympics was pretty formative for just like developing a love of sport. Growing up outside of Atlanta, the torch came through our hometown. Oh, 2,000 people in Hogan's, Georgia, like this tiny little town. Yeah, so like the Olympic torch. Like I got to hold it. That was cool. The the race walkers, like the Olympic, you know, like the race. They they practiced at LaGrange High School on the track. So we would like after school, we'd go watch and see him like walking around the track and stuff. So just like some some pretty, you know, some pretty funny, pretty cool memories around that. I met Joe Frazier at the Olympics in 1996. We went to boxing, so they did it in a Georgia Tech's basketball arena. Just so happened that Joe Frazier trained like one of the boxers, and he was like sitting in the robots, and he like I have a signed 1996 Olympic boxing ticket stub signed by somewhere in my house. Yeah, that's incredible. That's really cool stuff from from when I was a kid, yeah, yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_03 15:30

Man, wow, yeah. And yeah, those 90s uh Florida State seems too uh I think of that as almost like quintessentially 90s football, you know, the the way the the baggy, the hanging jersey and you know, the the big pads. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 15:47

For sure, for sure. I love, you know, I yeah, the game is on. You know, I I think we all have like those things that are like those kind of core like imprints, like this is when it was imprinted on me. But yeah, man, I love I love ranting at the the current, you know. I I work at at Vandy now, so I get to talk to a lot of the number of times I've been like, you know, if Peter Warwick is not on your list of like best players, you don't you don't know what's going on, man. Like you gotta you missed a lot of very key guys. Um it's it's it's funny giving the kids a hard time, but I agree, man. That like 90s, 90s college football, it honestly the state of Florida, 90s college football is like that's pretty pink, man. Those some of those Miami teams, some of those University of Florida teams, Florida State, all the wide rights, everything, man. That was that was a good time.

SPEAKER_03 16:38

Absolutely. And yeah, Peter Wark, I uh I grew up a UT fan, and so going into that national championship game, it was like, this is the dude. If we if we can not not gonna shut him down, but if we can slow him down, like yeah, and then they ended up doing all right, and and of course winning it. But yeah, Peter Warw is definitely one of the all-time put the fear of God in you as an opposing fan kind of players for sure.

SPEAKER_02 17:04

Dude, he was something else, man. He was something else. I got to go to a my first Georgia football was in night, and it was Georgia versus Tennessee. So so I got to see uh like T Martin and uh Bill Goldberg came back and he was like on the on the jumbotron, you know, like for Georgia and hyping them up. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was uh it was really cool. That was really cool. That was um that was probably my transition from rooting for Florida State from kind of as a kid starting to pull for for the a little bit more in, or at least like that's where Georgia kind of entered my uh fandom because before that I wasn't I wasn't super kind of cued in on UGA football and Florida State stuff because of Charlie Ward from before, but but yeah, that's funny.

SPEAKER_03 17:55

That is right on okay. Well, having said all that, how did you end up in Nashville?

SPEAKER_02 18:01

I mean, it's this one's a quick one, man. Like just work, you know, just just work. I I didn't know anybody when I moved here, but a job opportunity at Vandy opened up, jumped on it, and you know, that was 17 years ago now. So yeah, I've been here ever since. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_03 18:19

I want to ask you a lot more about Vandy here in a little bit, but force you through the rest of these first. What is your favorite national sports memory or moment?

SPEAKER_02 18:28

Yeah, so I I I couldn't narrow it down to just one, but I'd say I mean Vanderbilt beating I mean that uh recency bias, sure, but that that one's gonna rank, you know, pretty much always. And I I even feel like you get some some respect from Tennessee fans on that one.

SPEAKER_03 18:47

Oh we loved it. Yeah, it was fantastic. That's cool too.

SPEAKER_02 18:50

Yeah. The coom the Kumar Rocker, no hitter. That one was that one was insane in the in the super regionals in 2009. Honestly, Van D baseball just in a role. There's some really big memories, you know, like just being really invested in like that payoff in 2004, that team that or 2014, team that won the first national championship for Van D baseball. Music City Miracle, I think, probably has to rate for for pretty much everybody. You know, that that's a big one. And then the last thing to me is it's just Memorial Gym kind of in that lore, like in general, and like seeing some big wins there. Obviously, I I wasn't living in Nashville at the time, but I remember watching this game, the game where Tennessee got the number one ranking in the country when they beat Memphis. I just beat Memphis, yeah. Yeah, yeah, and then came to Nashville and lost to lost to Vandy. And Vandy beat the number one team in the gun. That that's I mean, that was that was pretty great. And talking to like Vandy from that, I feel like almost everybody, like if they were in the gym, they're like, oh man, I was there, but it's pretty cool.

SPEAKER_03 19:59

That is really cool. And I think Memorial too, like I grew up going to games at Memorial, but you don't realize how special a venue, like you know, okay, the the teams sitting at the ends, but like the elevated court from the sides and just the intimacy of the of the gym, but also like it can get really packed and really crazy. And I I didn't really appreciate that because it was what was normal to me growing up, but yeah, Memorial is such a unique and special place. And uh, I was at the Alabama game last season, and just when that place gets rocking, man.

SPEAKER_02 20:34

Man, it's it's it's it really is. It's it's um, you know, I'm not gonna go so far as to say it's like it's you know, there's nothing else like it or something, but it it really is special. And you know, I I've I've listened to your pod, and I know you've you've kind of mentioned like you know, if people want to go to a game, going to like say like a Van Domen's basketball game, it's always there, you know, and it's in the you know, it's um it's and it's a lot of fun. But being in that venue is really cool, and you know, it's it's got its, you know, it's been around for a long time. But there's something that's really special about that. My first Vandy sporting event was a basketball game. I it was right when I started working here in Vandy Plate, Tennessee, and then and four of the colleagues. We were we looked young enough at the time that this would not have been, you know, really weird to look over and see me in the student section. But uh we we we we watched the game in the student section, and like, you know, the students are standing up like on the front row, they're pounding on the gym floor. And that was that was once again just like a really formative, like, man, that's really cool. Vanderbilt won the game, which was which was great. That was one of those teams with like John James, Jeffrey Taylor, you know, they that that had a good squad, Festus Azale. Oh, yeah, man. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 21:58

Absolutely. Some great. Names. Man, I love recalling some guys from Vandy Ball. I've I've probably mentioned it five or six times on the pod, but like Ronnie McMahon, Kevin England, Billy McCaffrey, like that whole crew, Eddie Fogler's teams. I know that'll be before your time, but like that was the formative stuff for me. And yeah, I still think about going to games and they yeah, you know, there's something the age of the gym, I think is benefit and a credit to it. Actually, you you can feel the history, you can experience a game. Like, there's obviously been some renovations and some things made nicer, and they got rid of like the urinal trowel and the toilets and and whatnot, but like you can still go in and feel what was felt and understand that you were following many years and generations of people. Also, interestingly enough, I don't know if it's still on there, but years ago when I looked at the Memorial Gym wiki page, one of the nicknames for it is the Fenway Park of College Basketball, which I always thought was funny.

SPEAKER_02 22:59

You know, I mean, low-key, like I feel like that if it's not memorial, you know, I'd love to take by all means, send me other, you know, send me other suggestions. It it kind of feels like um it's gone so long in its current state that it's gone through like those waves of time where people would have, you know, maybe demolished it, built something new, do it that that now it's like it's kind of gotten past that. And now there's something that's really neat about the fact that it is still it's still standing in it, basically in its original. You know, there's there's a guy that works in in my office. He's he's a phenomenal person, he's an author. I don't know, he's a New York Times bestselling author. Like he's ahead of our special primal, but he wrote uh the biography of uh Perry Walling inside. Yeah, great book. And you know, it's Andrew's great, and he uh he's also like the university in it. And so, you know, getting him going about Homingson, he just has so many, just so much knowledge about it. You know, like one of the one of the cool features of the gym is if you ever look at the the floor, the gym floor is huge and it's like wide open and you can kind of like run around. And so it's it's because whoever designed this, you know, originally, I guess lived in Paris and played basketball in in this like gymnasium that was the first basketball gym built in Europe. And whoever designed it, the floor stops and like you maybe have a foot, and then there's a brick wall. And so he said the number of times he like slammed into that wall, it was almost like trauma. And so when this person who went on to be an architect designs Memorial Gymnasium, it's like you could do like a 40-yard dash after you after you got a bounds and you're fine, man. I love that uh you know, just little things like that. It's a it's a it's a cool place.

SPEAKER_03 24:58

That is really cool. Okay, so moving on from that. Now, this is specific to you. Who would you put on your Mount Rushmore of Nashville sport? No, Russell.

SPEAKER_02 25:10

I had to do two. I can't, I feel like I can't like there you go. Yeah, no rules just right over here, man. I did two. I did a I did a I did a legends list and then I did a contemporary. Now my Nashville Legends list, I had to put Perry Wallace on it because Perry Wall is, for anyone who doesn't know, Perry Wall, essentially like the Jackie Robice. He breaks the color barrier in the SEC. He graduated from did not have a great relationship with the city of Nashville, even though he's from that, didn't have a great relationship with the with the university when he left. And just the redemptive arc of bringing him back into the fold, retiring his jersey, you know, having him come back and have that reconciliation is is such a powerful story to me. But, you know, Nashville, a native son that comes to chooses Vanderbilt, he could have gone other places, he could have played basketball up north where there would not have been as much pressure around him and the fact that he was breaking the color barrier in the SEC. He endures all that abuse, comes back, and when he passed away, he actually had his memorial service at Memorial Gym, which kind of speaks volumes to the repair that was done to him. So, you know, always got to honor him. So Perry Wallace has to be on the list. I'll try not to talk too much, but man, Wilma Rudolph has to be on a on a legends list of of locals. Clyde Lee has to be on a legends list to me of locals. That last spot to me goes to someone who's probably not as as well known, especially not as like a Wilma Rudolph, but Norman Turkey Stern. Is that a new name for you?

SPEAKER_03 26:58

Uh no, I'm familiar, but I love this answer.

SPEAKER_02 27:01

There you go. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So we got to put Turkey Stearns on. I mean, I want to say he's like top 10 all time. You know, once they in once they moved in the the Negro League stats to Major League Baseball, you know, to be considered. I he made he's top 10 in both slugging percentage, batting percentage. He led the Negro Leagues in runs like seven seasons. I mean, he's a baseball hall of famer. But, you know, a lot of people say like because he had a very soft-spoken personality, like he didn't have like a big person out and like cool Papa Bell, or he likes some of those like Josh Gibson, like some of those really legendary satchel page, like legendary Negro League stars. That sometimes he was overlooked, but you know, he's from Nashville. I mean, that's a that that's huge. I mean, you know, no city has that many representative. So so there you go. We got Cray Wallace, Turkey Stearns, Wilma Rudolph, and Clyde Lee. Contemporary list. I got three and I got an open spot. I got Steve McNair, Peck Arena, CJ2K, who that that that spot was gonna be for Derek Henry. And it it you know, everything that's going on with Chris Johnson right now, too. I I just feels like I gotta like, I'm leaving that that that's his spot. And then the the open the open space, I feel like it's either got Candace Lee or Hani Mukhtar's name on it, and you know, and and and I might need a little bit more time to see how things shake out, but but definitely Steve McNair solidified, Pecorine solidified. I think I think Pecorina just made the NHL Hall of Famer. Yeah, yeah. Um first ballot. First ballot Hall of Famer, Pecarina solidified, and Chris Johnson solidified on my on my contemporary belt record.

SPEAKER_03 28:50

I appreciate that. And I think Candace Lee or Hani would be fantastic final entries. I mean what Candace what Candace Lee has done at Vanderbilt, you know, and again, let's get into some of that here in a minute. And then Hani too. I think they're both still like in the middle of building what will be their final legacies, and you know, I think both of them will probably be statue worthy in the end, it seems. I agree, man. I agree.

SPEAKER_02 29:17

I think we were just at a Nashville SC game, the the one a few like a couple months ago, well a few weeks ago, where he had he had a brace against I think it was when uh son was in town with uh oh LAFC uh Patrick. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It just you you watch him and it's like, man, this dude's still got it, man. Like he's there's a lot left in the tank. And so, you know, they're they're on a they're on a really serious run right now, and I think they've got potential to do to do to do something special, like this squad that they have, you know, if they can kind of battle through some injuries, it could be that you know, maybe Hani Muttar solidifies a spot uh on Ricky Thrash's contemporary Mount Rusford, which I'm sure is at the top of his list of accomplishments.

SPEAKER_03 30:04

It would be it would be a feather in his cap, no doubt. And you know, I want to say too, I think a lot of the Eastern Conference, it seems like in MLS has kind of ceded to Miami and just sort of said, oh well, uh and unlike the National SC that said no, like we're come through us, like you know, win it. Don't, you know, we're not gonna just give it up. And I I really love to be the thorn in their side and be the ones who are pushing them because nobody should be acquiescing to big money like that. All right, gonna push us on a little bit. I am up against a little bit of a time crunch. Do you have any national sports conspiracy theories or hot takes that you want to share? You don't have to. It's it's you know completely optional. But if you got them, we'll take them.

SPEAKER_02 30:52

I I don't, I don't. I my only my only real weird kind of sports conspiracy theory is Atlit, because like I I grew up uh, you know, a fan of Atlanta sports. I don't know what Targaryen blood magic happened for you know Atlanta to get the Olympics in 1996, but I think it cursed the city. The Braves win this the World Series in 95, Atlanta gets the Olympics in 96, and then they go on a drought for for quite some time, no titles. I I have to imagine that whatever whatever happened in the Super Bowl against the Patriots was so devastating that maybe it has weakened the curse a little bit, like that these people have suffered enough, right? And it allowed the Braves to eke out a World Series. But but other than that, man, it's been pretty tough. So that's my only I I know there's a cur there's something, there's some sort of weird something that's buried somewhere in Atlanta that allowed it that allowed Atlanta to get the Olympics and since has put their sports fans through me being one of them.

SPEAKER_03 31:54

Fair enough. Yeah. Yeah, there have been some absolutely brutal moments for you guys, no doubt. Okay, my one non-sports question is what is your favorite restaurant in Nashville?

SPEAKER_02 32:06

I love to eat. Knockout Wings, rest in peace, who would have been my home, and sadly I'm I'm not over it. I'll go with uh Sonobana, the west side of town. Love that answer. Great sushi spot. Yeah, we love it, man. We love it. That's that's like my place. I can call and they know my voice, and they will just like say, like, hey Ricky, same order as last time. I'm like, yeah, man, same as last time. So yeah, that's um that that's my spot, man. I love it. So definitely check it out.

SPEAKER_03 32:36

You got a go-to order there, it sounds like what's your uh what's your fave?

SPEAKER_02 32:41

Man, so we have a we have a the whole family gets something, but I'm a big I love rainbow roll. So we do the rainbow roll, then we do the Rebecca roll, which is absolutely fun. It's sushi, but then it's like, hey, why don't we deep fry it? So bless them. You know, and then it's got uh like shrimp and it's like sauce. It's awesome. It's so good. That's so good. That's really good. A rainbow and a and a Rebecca will will cure pretty much anything, LG.

SPEAKER_03 33:06

All right. I've not had the Rebecca roll. Definitely check that out next time we're over there. All right, so I want to pivot a little bit more specifically to the work you do with Vanderbilt. You are officially listed on the website as the Associate Athletic Director for Strategic Initiatives. Can you tell us a little bit more about what that is?

SPEAKER_02 33:28

Yeah, man. So it's it's all sorts of stuff, honestly. It's a little bit of a it's a little bit of a mixed bag. I I I've I've been at Vanderbilt for a long time. I worked in admissions for like before before I joined the athletic department. When I came over initially, it was the kind of bridge between, you know, the enrollment process for just students and student athletes who are starting at Vanderbilt. If this was kind of like it was still during the pandemic, like it was February of 20. So, like, you know, we're not we're not fully out of out of that. But you know, uh that put a lot of strain and kind of caused us to just kind of top to bottom everything that we're doing as an institution. And at the same time, that's when Candace became the athletic director. Um so, you know, she had a vision for you know what she wanted to student athlete enrollment. Like, you know, she reached out and was like, I'd love for you to play a role, do it, or help me train someone who who we hire. And I'm on the first thing, you know, I've had a chance to work with really admire her. And so that that's what drew me to the athletic department. And the strategic initiatives piece, I work in the what's called the Ingram Center. So I work in the academic center, and and I find that I'm just like a good connector. So, you know, I do a ton of work across campus, like working with different offices, bridging that gap between the athletic department and the university. So it gets to kind of be a liaison between the two. And then just recently, I I also became the administrator, support administrator for though. So I also kind of have some administrative women's bowling, three-time national champion.

SPEAKER_03 35:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 35:12

Uh, you know, with those. So yeah.

SPEAKER_03 35:13

That's really cool. Yeah. Definitely, I think uh one of the maybe lesser acknowledged but like real powerhouse teams over there at Vanderbilt is women's bowling. They've they've been doing it longer than anyone, it feels like. But uh, they have. So what are what are some of your favorite aspects of the job or some of the things you've been able to do that you're really proud of? Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 35:34

I mean, honestly, most of it is is very much by the scenes. It's like, you know, you see a player who's thriving and you know, getting the I think a lot of pride comes, you know, from me when they're able to do that, right? And knowing that, hey, that that student, you know, we needed to kind of do a little bit of work to make sure that they were able to get admitted. Um, like one of my favorite players ever at Vanderbilt, one of my favorite students after a women's tennis player named Celia Beller. And Celia Bell is France, and she was, to my knowledge, the first ever, but she's the first ever that I know of international. So she transferred from Vanderbilt, and everything came obviously in French. And so I'm trying to like prepare all her documents to send them over to admissions or send them to the registrar's office, and it's all in French. So, you know, I'm using Google Trends. I'm trying to like just figure out like how to how do I even explain what this class is and the syllabus. And you know, I'm at work, it's like 7:30 at night. And I was like, man, this kid better, man. Like, just what like what are we doing here? You know, like there's no one, there's no one in America who can do this, or you know, whatever. And we finally figured out we worked, she comes and is just like the the loveliest person you met. And and also a phenomenal tennis player, and she kind of anchored our our our women's program for for the three or four four years that she was here, but it's stuff like that, man.

SPEAKER_03 37:07

As somebody grew up in Nashville, and I've talked about going to Vanderbilt games in in the early 90s, Vandy football in particular was empty. And from the outside looking in, it really feels like Vanderbilt athletics have entered what I'm gonna using my dad joke prerogative, call a black and golden era of athletics. Yeah. Do people on campus feel that way about sort of what's happening with the athletic department? If so, can you kind of pinpoint when and how that started? I feel like a lot of it came through Candace Lee. And and then sort of a third part of that is do the current students understand that this is kind of a new phenomenon, this level of success and and you know, really uh motivation and and sort of goals to be what Vanderbilt is becoming athletically?

SPEAKER_02 37:56

Yeah. Do the kids know? I don't know. I mean, yes, they do, like in that it's it's cool and it's trendy, and it this definitely I agree with you that that there seems to be a a golden effort that that they've entered into. I think it's the result of a lot of hard work. I think that it's the result of an of an AD with a vision of what it used to be like, and and probably a feeling of real frustration. You know, I think Candace has been at Vanderbilt 20, 25, 26 years, you know, and so she uh she she's seen it, she's seen it in in pretty much all it's for. And I think it's also, you know, uh there's probably two conversations have there is an external conversation, what fans see, what they experience, and uh I think it's very easy to see that Vanderbilt is clearly invested in the fans experience, engaging fans more. I mean, we were at a the Vandy, Kentucky football game last year. I don't know that I've ever had more fun in a game. Like just the vibes are high, you know, the food is good, the music is great, the stands are full, Vandy's blowing out Kentucky. And it was just one of those, like this, it felt like what you would think going to a football game in one of the coolest cities in America would be like. You know what I mean? And it and it hasn't, it's for a long time. I felt like I was like, you know, like in my mind, like, okay, like Vandy's doing the best I can or what, you know, when I was just a season ticket holder and worked in the admissions office. So that that to me, that's one side of it. The other side of it is the internal and the internal conversation around what is Vanderbilt doing to me is a reflection. This is what it looks like when Vanderbilt has investment and alignment from top down from their administration to say, yeah, we we're we're competing. We want to compete. I remember when the chancellor started, Chancellor Deermeyer, and he came and met with everybody in the athletic department. And I was new to the item. And, you know, he said that we're gonna be competitive and and we we're there's a new standard that's being set. And I remember like I raised my hand, I was like, what does that look like? Like, what does success look like to you? And you know, he said it's it's about being competitive, it's about whatever that means for that sport, but we're playing for the postseason, we're playing for, you know, we're we're we're pushing to we're pushing to to deep runs and and and seeing how far we could take it. And so that that honestly, Russell, has not been my perception of the Vanderbilt University administration's relationship with the athletic department before Daniel Deermeyer. That it was, you know, if we win some games, great, and that's cool. But you know, we have all these other things we're focused on too. And and now I think the shift has been wait a minute, this is something that makes us really different and really, you know, it it causes you to stand out in a marketplace where, you know, I don't know if, you know, I think colleges spent the last 30 years trying to market themselves as all the same. We all use the same stock photos of, you know, a group of kids laying on the quad, like laughing outside, or whatever. And now all of a sudden we're in this marketplace where all these students are saying, y'all kind of seem the same to me. And how are you different? And so this is a way that Vanderbilt can very with their full chest, full throatedly say, we are very different from Harvard or you know, insert whatever school they're competing against. You know, Yale's not carrying the goalpost to the river and throwing it in the river after they beat Bama, you know. So I think that all these things have aligned in a way that's been really, really fortunate for Vanderbilt, and the students see it and have responded well to it, but I I don't know that they grasp like just the gravitas of this. You know, I I I think to to students it's it looks like it's just kind of, you know, it's like a flip, you know, the switch flipped overnight. But you know, it's taken a long time, and I think it's taken some visionary leadership uh to get us to the place that we're in. But it also feels like everyone really likes being in this place. It's so there's a there's a real hope that we can continue to build this momentum up. That's a long-winded aim, but but maybe hopefully.

SPEAKER_03 42:51

Oh, that's a great answer. That's sort of what I was interested in in finding out. I'm gonna have to wrap pretty soon, but I do want to ask, so Door Jam is coming up into this month, and that's sort of the celebration to start the new year. And as we go into new academic and sort of athletic year, what are you really excited about for Vanderbilt or for the sports and athletics department at Vanderbilt heading into this year?

SPEAKER_02 43:15

Yeah. Evergreen answer football. Love it. I'm the I'm the Michael Scott meme. I'm ready to get hurt again. It's been long enough. I'm ready to put myself back out there. You know, football stresses me out. I get notifications from my watch about like, are you are you okay? Like, what are you doing right now? Like, please sit down. Oh, it's my heart rate, like, goes through the room. So, I mean, football is evergreen for me, but honestly, I think this is the Vanderbilt started this new campaign, you know, anchored for her. And it's it's Vanderbilt's, I guess, like external declaration that we are fully invested in women's sports and wanting to see those sports thrive. And and a look, I mean, this is. This is the year of a lot of like women's sports teams at Vanderbilt have some real opportunities. The soccer team, their preseason, I think they're in the top five of the preseason rankings. Uh Florida State has only lost in the NCAA tournament to one team the last three seasons. It's Vanderbilt. The only other ones they won a national championship. So, you know, it's I think Vanderbilt Soccer is poised. They they're picked to win the SEC this year. We'll see. But they're in a really good position. They've got they they they have a chance to really do something special. I think the women's basketball team has a chance to do something really special. I think we are, you know, we'll keep the the the golden age going. We're in the golden age of the Caleb Lakes right now. And uh she's special. And I think if they can if they can kind of pull a run together and you know learn from what they, you know, kind of some lumps they took in the tournament and everything like that, and just kind of apply that, they have a chance to to to really do something special in a conference that is stacked and really hard to be successful in. But what they've already done is is really impressive. But they they they have uh a couple of new pieces that they got out of the transfer portal or new new first years of natural. I love, you know. So I'm let me stop before I just list every team that we have. Uh I'm gonna let I'm gonna let that sit. But football, I'm really excited about. I'm really excited to see what Jared Curtis can do. And then, you know, I just I really soccer, man. Like, I was I was watching practice today, like they just they've got an edge to them this year that I'm excited. I mean, they're they're they're half season tickets. I guess this is a plug anybody who wants, you know, I think season tickets are like 30, 40 bucks, come out, have the kids run around. And they play a really fun brand of uh brand of soccer. Their coach is from Sheffield, England. He's a big Sheffield United fan. And I don't know, like he he plays a really cool kind of possession style, possession-heavy, really aggressive form of uh uh of soccer. So it's it's it's a fun team to watch. So there you go.

SPEAKER_03 46:14

That's awesome. And I I'll make sure to put a link in the description where people can click through to get tickets for that. Because I think that's yeah, I you know, I I've said it before, women's basketball, I think, is one of the best value for money in Nashville going on. It sounds like the soccer is very similar. Like that's that's a small outlay to get season tickets, and for such a high quality team, that's really exciting. Uh I hate to you know chat and run, but I am gonna have to drop soon. I'd love to have you back on sometime soon. We can talk more if you're willing. I love it, man. I love it.

SPEAKER_02 46:48

We'll whatever you want, man. We'll talk. We'll go down rabbit holes. We just name dudes. I just I love just naming dudes, man.

SPEAKER_03 46:56

Let's do it. Right up my alley. Ricky, thank you so much, man. I really appreciate it. And uh yeah, we'll talk again soon.

SPEAKER_02 47:04

Awesome, man. Hey, thanks, Russell.

SPEAKER_03 47:06

Yeah. All right, that's our show for this week. My thanks again to Ricky Crash from Vanderbilt Athletics. I had a great time talking with Ricky and do hope he comes back on again in the future. As always, you can reach us on social media at NSH Sports Report on Twitter and Blue Sky. There is also a link in the description below. We'd love to hear from you. If you want to come on the show or if you have something you'd like us to talk about, just reach on out. We'd love to know what it is. If you're listening on YouTube, feel free to like, subscribe, comment, do whatever else people do on YouTube. We'd love your support. And any other uh podcast platform. If you have the chance, please give us a review. Let us know what you think of the show. All right, that about does it. My thanks again, as always, to you for listening, and we'll talk to you next week.