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

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.

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

Jim Mora lives it.

Every job. Every challenge. Every program down on their luck handed to him with a handshake and a good luck. He doesn’t flinch. He leans in. And he loves it.

Coach Mora grew up in Seattle with mountains everywhere and vistas saying, can you get there? As you might imagine, he never stopped answering that question in the coaching profession.

I’ve known Coach Mora for almost 15 years and what struck me most in today’s podcast was that his essence, at this stage, is about impact and in this conversation, you can feel the intentionality behind that mission.

He arrived at Colorado State with nineteen players from UConn and a gut feeling. Not blind optimism. Earned optimism as he’s done the reclamation project before and he knows what it feels like when it’s working and he knows how to set and maintain a standard. (Hey IU fans, does that remind you of someone?)

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From the players to the staff to the kid folding towels at six in the morning. It’s real. And in the latest episode of THE DAWN, presented by the Pac-12 and Y-Option, Coach Mora’s mission will inspire you with relative ease to Chase What Matters in your own life.

Much love and stay steady,

Yogi

THE DAWN debuted on 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.

Teresa Gould had something else. She had conviction and a vision.

In two short years, Commissioner Gould built back a team of 30 who raised their hands and stayed while navigating a rebuild that nobody had a roadmap for. And she did it while trusting her team and leaning on her 36 years of experience in college athletics.

Now the historic league is back. Nine schools. A new logo. A new season on the horizon. And we are celebrating that with a new series titled THE DAWN, presented by the Pac-12 and Y-Option.

Ten episodes. Eight head football coaches. One commissioner. And a never-before-seen short film from behind the scenes of the rebuild. All of it candid, all of it in-depth where we cover culture, leadership, expectations, and the vision driving the next chapter of Pac-12 football.

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For those of you who have been with us at from the jump, this series is for you. We are grateful for your support, the community we’ve created here at Y-Option and the love for college football that we all share.

For those just joining this newsletter, we hope to bring you thoughtful insight into college football and THE DAWN seems like a great place to start. Hope you enjoy Commissioner Teresa Gould as she opens up on resilience, reinvention and what it took to bring the Pac-12 back.

After all, who doesn’t love a comeback story?

Much love and stay steady,

Yogi

THE DAWN will debut today 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.

This week’s episode of is with a QB who knows that better than most - Demond Williams Jr of the Washington Huskies.

Demond heads into year three at UW with a chance to be one of the most dynamic players in America and in my eyes, is the most challenging quarterback to prepare for in the nation.

As always, each episode of Y-Option is fueled by our founding sponsor, 76, keeping you on the GO GO GO so you never miss a beat.

Demond and I sat down at the Elite 11 Finals, where he was pouring into the next generation of quarterbacks as a counselor. It was a full circle moment as Demond was a camper there himself. When he showed up in high school I shared the same note with him as we shared with every QB each summer: the only guarantee is that your path will not go as you envision it.’

That’s the thing about playing QB, the path never goes as planned.

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This past off-season tested Demond in a way most people will never experience, but all have an opinion on. For the UW star, what came on the other side of a hectic 48 hours wasn’t bitterness. Rather, it was growth.

He and I talked about leaning on his faith. His family. His support system. About having to go back and rebuild relationships, brick by brick, and how that work shaped the leader he’s become. Not a quieter version of himself. A more outspoken one with an edge.

And the difference shows up in the small moments. Where he used to stay after practice throwing extra routes, now he’s just as likely to be hanging with his teammates. One might say they are building the culture from the inside out. That’s not an accident. That’s a veteran understanding what actually wins football games.

His bond with Jedd Fisch is 4 years deep now. Built on trust. Built on what they call PCP in their offense: play caller purpose. Knowing exactly what’s being asked, then making it happen.

Washington has a loaded schedule this fall. The Apple Cup to open on NBC. A trip to USC. Penn State at home. Indiana at home. Finish in Eugene. Overall, a real chance to make noise in the Big Ten and push toward the Playoff conversation.

And I can’t wait to get there to see it in person week 1 as the season is right around the corner.

Much love and stay steady,

Yogi

The Auburn quarterback sat down with us at the Elite 11 Finals in LA, and what you notice first is the presence. Not the stats. Not the ranking. The presence.

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

He talked about the injury that stopped everything. The redshirt season that had him flying, then the fracture that brought him all the way back to the most basic question an athlete can ask: Am I going to be the same?

He answered it. And the answer is on the field. And this fall it will be at Auburn.

But what stayed with me is what he said when I asked what he wants people to know about who he actually is, beyond the arm talent and the production. No hesitation.

Just this: a guy who loves his family, loves his teammates, loves soaking everything out of every single day.

That’s not a recruit pitch. That’s a foundation.

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Byrum Brown is one to watch. Not just because of where he’s going. But because of how he’s going there.

Also, if you missed the first episode of our QB Conversations, be sure to watch Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele.

Thanks for the support and if you’re not, be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel as we continue to compete to bring insightful conversations to college football.

Much love and stay steady,

Yogi

He was a three star recruit who showed up at the Elite 11 and became a legend in the 28 year history of the premiere QB event in football.

At every turn JSK took the opportunity he was given and never looked back.

He shared many of those in today’s conversation, fueled by our founding sponsor 76, keeping you on the GO GO GO so you never miss a beat.

Two years ago at the Elite 11 finals, he went throw for throw with Dillon Gabriel - a counselor that year, as well as a former state record holder in Hawaii and a QB Jaron-Keawe had watched since middle school. They could have gone throw for throw all night. Trust me, I was front and center. In the end, Gabriel graciously stepped aside and Jaron-Keawe won the rail shot challenge.

It was clear watching it - something shifted in that moment.

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Looking back, in that moment a three-star kid from Hawaii had just introduced himself to the country.

When I asked Jaron about that moment, he was direct. He came in with the mindset that he was going to win it. No asterisk. No footnote. Just belief, out loud.

Last year he started as a true freshman, taking over for Fernando Mendoza, who ended up winning the Heisman Trophy and being drafted #1 overall. We spoke about that journey, and what it was like to have his head coach, Tosh Lupoi sleep outside his home the night he was named Cal's head coach.

This conversation will inspire the quarterback who isn’t getting the attention he deserves - and nudge the highly recruited ones to keep working, because the craft is never complete.

Hope you enjoy it. And be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel for more conversations at the heart of college football.

Much love and stay steady

Yogi

We also dive into the Big Ten vs. SEC debate — and what the Big Ten gets wrongfully dinged for — Elite 11 takeaways and what stood out most this year during the QB camp. We also analyze Bryce Underwood's development and explore the Big Ten quarterback tiers keeping defensive coordinators up at night.

is fueled by 76, keeping you on the GO GO GO so you never miss a beat.

🎧 Tune in to hear:

• Brendan Sorsby eligibility case

• The “there’s no easy place to win” argument, and inside the reality of Big Ten stadiums.

• Elite 11 takeaways, and what stood out most this year

• The scariest quarterbacks in the league, and why they keep defensive coordinators up at night

• Who would have been the Elite 11 MVP in the famed QB class that Todd was a part of?

This year, the room was Big Ten spring meetings in Southern California.

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Head coaches, athletic directors, commissioners, all in the same space, hashing out the future of the game. And what came out of Terranea this year was one the entire sport was anticipating — a playoff expansion debate that isn’t slowing down, a new punt rule nobody practiced for, and a conference room full of some of the best coaches in the sport figuring out what comes next.

Todd Blackledge and I brought Illinois head coach Bret Bielema on this weeks episode of to break it all down, fueled by our founding sponsor 76, keeping you on the GO GO GO so you never miss a beat

Here’s what stood out:

• Coach Bielema wants 24 teams in the playoff — And he has receipts. He was leading a 12-1 Wisconsin team in the BCS era that got left out and that experience never left him. His argument now, is that the sport has changed too much — NIL, revenue share, roster management — for only 12 teams to have a chance at winning it all.

• The punt rule landed wrong — Not because it’s necessarily a bad rule, but because it showed up after spring ball, with zero preparation time. In 18 years as a head coach, Coach Bielema has never seen something this consequential arrive so late and so unannounced.

• The Big Ten room itself is different — He described it with real affection. P.J. Fleck to his right, Matt Rhule to his left, Dan Lanning and Curt Cignetti in the mix. Coaches who are who they are, every single day. And above all, Tony Petitti — a commissioner who communicates before the meeting, not during it. Nobody walks in cold. Nobody gets defensive. That, Coach Bielema says, is what separates this conference right now.

Then we turned to Champaign — and what’s being built inside that building.

48% of his roster is new and for this program to meet its expectations and recent standards they must develop a true connection with one another and that is the focus of this off-season. The way Coach Bielema guides that is what will stand out.

On the field, he’s as excited about his wide receiver room as he’s ever been, his safeties could be among the best in the conference and quarterback Katin Houser heads into fall camp as the guy.

But the line that stuck with me didn’t come from the coach. It came from Houser himself, during our spring visit.

“Around here, the hallways are warm.”

Hope you enjoy today’s conversation and we are so appreciative of the support as we continue to grow Y-Option. Please be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel so you never miss a beat.

Much love and stay steady,

Yogi

Not just because athletes can now earn money, but because 18, 19 and 20-year-olds are suddenly being asked to make decisions that most adults still struggle to navigate.

That’s why this conversation hit different.

Welcome to the latest episode of , fueled by our founding sponsor 76, keeping you on the GO GO GO so you never miss a beat.

In advance of the Elite 11 Finals, I sat down with Ohio State offensive lineman Luke Montgomery, Georgia quarterback Ryan Montgomery, and Dane Burkholder — a partner at Roseville Wealth, where he and his team manage over 2.1 Billion dollars every year. Dane also coined the phrase and founded the company The Financial Athlete.

Today’s guests unpack the new reality in college football: The Rise of the Financial Athlete, and the way an All-American offensive lineman in Columbus and his quarterback brother in Athens navigate it all.

For those seeking to surround themselves with athletic minds who are succeeding in the Financial Athlete world of college football — look no further than these two, and Dane, for role models.

To be blunt: athletes and parents need to listen to this.

The Montgomery brothers didn’t just talk about contracts or NIL deals — they talked about patience. Discipline. Delayed gratification. Building a trusted circle. Protecting their future. And understanding that money can either become a blessing…or a distraction.

In other words, they used football analogies and applied them to their business life. As they should.

Luke opened up about what it’s really like navigating the NIL era at a powerhouse like Ohio State — and how head coach Ryan Day embraces his responsibility to impact his team off the field when it comes to balancing football, expectations, leadership and real financial accountability at an incredibly young age.

Ryan shared why development mattered more than chasing the biggest payday when he chose Kirby Smart’s Georgia Bulldogs, and how keeping the bigger picture in focus has shaped every decision he’s made since arriving in Athens.

What stood out most to me was their perspective.

Throughout our conversation, I kept thinking about what all of us who love sports so often preach — that the skills that allow you to find success on the field will always transition into life.

And that is exactly where Dane Burkholder and his education around being a Financial Athlete meets the moment. Dane’s team and their content continues to impact this generation of athletes, parents and coaches in ways that are helping athletes on countless levels.

As our conversation wound down, I was struck by how consistently Luke and Ryan kept thinking 20, 30, even 40 years ahead.

About setting up their future families.

About investing instead of reacting emotionally.

About understanding that football won’t last forever.

And maybe most importantly, they spoke about the power of environment.

The right coaches. The right teammates. The right family. The right mentors.

Or as my father still tells me: “You are the company you keep.”

This episode will resonate with athletes, parents, recruits and honestly anyone navigating pressure, opportunity and long-term decision-making.

Because the truth is, The Financial Athlete isn’t just a football conversation anymore.

It’s a life conversation.

It’s also Elite 11 Finals week — where every quarterback, parent and mentor will have seen this podcast and will get to be part of our powerful curriculum, Beyond the X’s and O’s, which we’ve been running for nearly 20 years.

The people who taught Luke and Ryan how to navigate life from day one — Mom and Dad — will be special guests in an intimate conversation with Dane and me, going behind the scenes on how they raised their sons to thrive on the field while staying so level-headed off it, as Financial Athletes at two of the most pressure-packed universities in the nation.

I can’t wait for this one — as a college football analyst and as a parent.

Be sure to subscribe to to get it right in your inbox, and on YouTube as we continue to grow our community.

Much love and stay steady,

Yogi

That’s what stood out most to me after sitting down with Noah Fifita on the latest episode of , fueled by our founding sponsor 76 — keeping you on the GO GO GO so you never miss a beat.

Noah has become one of the defining faces of modern college football, not because he chased the spotlight, but because he stayed put long enough for the spotlight to find him.

In today’s game, quarterbacks transfer. Rosters flip overnight. Coaches leave. Expectations shift weekly. Yet here sits Fifita entering his final season at Arizona as one of only 5 senior starting quarterbacks still playing for the same school they originally signed with.

And the wild part?

That loyalty isn’t performative. It’s personal.

You can feel it when he talks about Tucson, his teammates, his family and especially his grandparents — whose sacrifices created the foundation for the life he’s now living. The humility is real. So is the conviction.

That combination is what makes him fascinating.

While Noah carries himself with gratitude, there’s also a very real edge underneath it all. He believes Arizona can do something the program has never done before. He believes this team can compete for a conference title. He believes they belong in the Rose Bowl conversation.

And yes — he believes he belongs in the Heisman conversation too.

Not in an ego-driven way. In a competitor’s way.

That distinction matters.

The best quarterbacks I’ve been around often carry two seemingly opposite traits at the same time: humility and unshakable belief. Noah lives in both spaces comfortably. He speaks like someone grounded by family, faith and service, while simultaneously preparing like someone who expects to walk onto the field as the best player every Saturday.

That’s rare.

And honestly, it’s part of why this upcoming season feels so compelling for Arizona football.

Noah isn’t trying to become “the guy who stayed.”

He’s trying to become the quarterback who won.

That mindset changes everything.

After talking with him, I walked away thinking less about statistics and more about legacy. About what it means for a player to choose development over escape routes. About what happens when belief inside a locker room becomes stronger than outside noise.

Arizona enters this season with expectations, but also with a quarterback whose story feels bigger than wins and losses.

He’s dynamic enough to put up massive numbers.
Tough enough to carry a program.
Grounded enough to lead it.

And if Arizona takes the leap many believe they’re capable of making this fall, don’t be surprised if the rest of the country starts talking about Noah Fifita the way Tucson already does.

Not simply as a great college quarterback.

But as a legitimate Heisman contender.

Much love and stay steady,

Yogi

A note on The Honor Roll

For the next few weeks, every Y-Option newsletter is free to read in full, no paywall, as a thank-you to this community. Subscribers are automatically entered into The Honor Roll, which includes a Pac-12 helmet from my collection, a Madden family football Sunday experience at Goal Line Studios, and more. Free subscription is open to anyone at y-option.com.

In today’s podcast we explore the conference that has crowned the last three National Champions and this past December, welcomed four new head coaches. And for the first time on this podcast we went LIVE on YouTube and X. If you haven’t subscribed, please do so you never miss a conversation around college football, Coast to Coast.

Todd and I share our lessons learned and intel gathered from Penn State, UCLA, Michigan, Michigan State, Northwestern and Illinois.

As always, every podcast is fueled by our founding sponsor, 76, keeping you on the GO GO GO so you never miss a beat.

As always, much love and stay steady,

Yogi

So long that when I walked into his building this spring, I didn’t just see a head coach in year three — I saw the same guy from 2019 sitting outside his home in Hermosa Beach, pulling out notes and asking, what do you think of this?

Back then, it wasn’t a job.

It was a vision.

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I remember him walking me through it — how he’d structure a program, how he’d communicate, how he’d build it for players, his PRO mantra and more. It was detailed. Thoughtful. Almost like he was already living in a future that hadn’t arrived yet.

Fast forward to today, and you can feel it the second you walk in the Washington facility.

The building looks different. The roster looks different. The energy feels…settled.

Not comfortable. Just clear. There is a steadiness to it.

But every head coach has a starting point, and for Washington head coach Jedd Fisch, it all started with his curiosity to learn about the game of football.

And that is where we started on today’s podcast, fueled by our founding sponsor 76, keeping you on the GO GO GO so you never miss a beat.

Not the buzzword version. The real kind.

The kind that shows up when you’re five years old asking questions during the entire drive from New Jersey to Florida. The kind that never really turns off.

That curiosity didn’t just make him a better coach.

It made him a collector — of ideas, experiences and people.

And when you sit with him now, you realize his program isn’t built off one philosophy. It’s built on years of filtering what fits, what lasts and what actually connects with players.

Personally, this conversation was a fun one for me.

Coach Fisch and I first crossed paths in 2009 when we were both interviewing with the Seattle Seahawks. He got the job. I transitioned into media. But we stayed connected, and over the years we’ve had countless conversations around football, leadership and quarterback play.

Which is why this episode felt different, as I only asked questions I didn’t know the answers to.

And honestly, those are usually the best conversations.

Topics Covered

• Demond Williams and why scars are unavoidable for quarterbacks

• His relationship with QB1

• A deep dive into Jedd Fisch’s mind as a play-caller

• His kitchen table as a child — something we ask every Elite 11 quarterback

• Why Year 3 feels different in Seattle

• What discipline looks like with this Washington roster

• The potential of the 2026 Huskies

• Why joy isn’t a tactic — it’s a byproduct of trust

Hope you enjoy this week’s Y-Option conversation.

And if you’re just joining us, thank you. Take a look back at some of our recent episodes and be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel, where we pride ourselves on bringing thoughtful and insightful conversations around college football every week.

Appreciate you being here and following along this spring.

More coming soon.

Much love and stay steady,

Yogi