From Calling Games for Free to Calling SEC Football | Matt Schumacker

Seth Saunders: Nobody else has to see it as long as you see it. I have become a huge believer in if you can feel it and see it, you can make it happen. It doesn't have to be a present physical reality for it to be true. Like any young broadcaster, you start out calling games for the most part. You start out calling games in front of nobody for no money. There's no environment. But I would lay in bed at night and envision myself in an eighty thousand seat stadium calling a two minute drive. And what does that feel like? Well, it gives me goosebumps. So I would literally lay there and feel the goosebumps because I could see it in my head and I could feel it in my body that I was there. So I'm a big believer in that. I think if you can see it, that's all that matters. And then really lean into that. Yeah. Yeah. Fire up the grill, crank the speakers loud. Saturdays feel holy in this college crowd. Sethin James on the mic. Preaching gospel true, talking rivalries, legends, red, black, old, and blue. From dead valley lights to the camp, Randall Cold. They're telling stories, they never get old. Ain't no bench warm hearts on the show tonight. They're walking on proud on the stadium lies. Let a preferred walk on. No scholarship still putting it on. From the church until gate, hands in the air. Welcome to the Preferred Walk-on Show, the People's College Football Show. I am your host, Seth Saunders. And look, some jobs in sports come with more than a microphone. They come with pressure, expectation, and the responsibility of telling the story when the moment matters most. This fall, our guest steps into one of those seats. As the new lead play-by-play voice for SEC Network Football, he'll have a front row seat to one of the loudest, most passionate, and most demanding environments in all of sports. But his journey to that chair didn't come overnight. It was earned one broadcast at a time through preparation, versatility, and repetition, through doing the work long before the big opportunity arrived. Today we talk about that climb, the preparation behind great broadcasting, finding your own voice, performing under pressure, and what it means to now help tell the story of SEC football every Saturday. An enthusiastic, preferred walk on welcome to Matt Schumacher. Matt, welcome to the show, brother. Wow, that was one heck of an introduction. You made it sound like a lot more difficult job than maybe it can't. Yeah, man. Well, we're fired up to have you. And and look, let's get this out of the way quick, okay? You're St. Louis guy. So let's let's settle this debate for everybody who's not initiated. Boy. Toasted Ravs, most underrated food on all the planet. Wow. How first off, I'm I'm not gonna disagree with you. Secondly, how do you know about toasted raves? Okay, so I got Three siblings that all went to KU. One of them, one of them settled for gosh, the last, I guess, 25 years outside of Kansas City. And his wife's family has gone to St. Louis every summer since she was little to go watch the cards play. And so I became well versed in the toasted rab through them. And I am all in, brother. Like, dude, I was flying back from San Diego with my kid a couple weeks ago. We lay over in St. Louis. And I told him, I go, I don't care what we do while we're here, but I gotta find some toasted raves. So we hit like the blues bar at the St. Louis airport and got got us a whole plate of toasted raves before we got on the next plate. That's awesome. Yeah, it's ⁓ I don't live there anymore, but I obviously grew up there and you know lived there until I was twenty something. And every time I go back, we have to get emo's pizza. Yeah. And we have to get toasted ravioli. A little bit of the goo from the loo. Yep. I'm here for it. Exactly. Exactly. That's outstanding, man. Well yeah, dude, I always tell people this. St. Louis is a super underrated food town in my opinion. Like it is. It it's it it's a gem, man, to go there and watch the cards play and go to New Bush and go to Broadway Oyster Bar and I don't man, it's just it's awesome. I love ⁓ I it. Look at you. All right, now let me ask you this. Now I'm hosting the podcast for a second. What's your if you had to boil it down to one, your favorite spot for food in the SC? Gosh, this is an impossible choice. There's a lot of good ones. There's so many good ones. I this is my Matt, this is my favorite part in all honesty about college sports and college towns is that they all have these spots that are awesome and like d this may be an unpopular choice, but I really, really like Ian's Pizza in Madison, Wisconsin. Is that a bad pull? Hey, you went out of the NCC. But hey, ⁓ if that's your spot, that's your spot. I well, okay. If we're staying SEC, sorry, I I I I flubbed the question there. ⁓ I'm a little biased, man. I I love Athens and last resort grill is really tough to beat. Like that's a good one. There's a couple locations in SEC towns, I think, but ⁓ Chuck's Fish is good. I like Chuck's fish. Chuck's Fish is good. Yeah. Yeah. ⁓ I don't know how about you? Who Wright's barbecue in ⁓ Fayetteville is real good. I'm a big barbecue guy. I love barbecue. Chuck's fish is really good. I've never had a bad meal in Chuck's at Chuck's in ⁓ Tuscaloosa. I I really do like Athens. I like Knoxville. Like those two they're not areas with really good food. I don't think you you can't go wrong, really. There's a there's an Italian I think it's Rafino's in ⁓ Baton Rouge. Yeah. Really good Italian food. Yeah. How about we could go on and on? Yeah. Comment on this for me because I'm a I'm a pizza guy. Have not been to Columbia. How is Shakespeare's pizza? Shakespeare's pizza is good. Yeah. Yeah. It's good. Yeah, that's on my that's on my list. I really, really like thin crust. So yeah. Like any anything St. Louis style, I'm all in on. And then like if it's New York style, I'll have a slice or something. But like if I get a full emos pie, I might take it down. You know? I might take the whole thing down. Well, so tell this. We're gonna step outside the SEC box because now I'm interested in the food part. Cause I also love barbecue. Like I told you, I got my brother's been in Kansas City, so ⁓ I love the f the artists formerly known as Oklahoma Joes, now K C Joes. That's that's one of my favorites. But where if you were pinned pinned down, what's the one barbecue spot you gotta have? What's your death row barbecue spot you gotta have? That's tough. La barbecue in Austin, Texas is unbelievable. Okay. Love that. Have not been there. Yeah. My brothers and I are kinda like we kinda have started this little thing now where we'll text each other about barbecue spots. They So my little brother lives in Austin, diehard Texas fan. My older brother went to Texas, big Texas fan. So I had a UT game in the spring and we they happen to both be there at the same time. So we went to the barbecue. The only thing is if I'm on if I if I'm like, hey, this is the last barbecue you're ever gonna have, I also want the sides. And there's probably other places where maybe you like you get the more traditional barbecue sides, but The brisket was unbelievable at La Barbecue. So I'll probably stick with that. Okay, so this is off the beaten track and it's probably not a close enough drive for you to trek there if y'all end up being in Columbia, South Carolina at any point. But just from a vibes perspective and like a what you want barbecue to be from an aesthetic perspective, if you ever find yourself near Hemingway, South Carolina, you need to get to Rodney Scott's or or the original Scotts Barbecue. I mean. Dude, it is legitimately a cinder block building. They have a homemade smoker in the outside in the back. They make their own charcoal and they serve it till the pig runs out. They they smoke a whole pig ⁓ and they serve it till it runs out. It's excellent. Excellent. ⁓ and cracklings. You can get cracklings there. So correct me if I'm wrong 'cause I'm I'm a little bit I am uninitiated to Carolina barbecue, but pork is what they do, right? Pork yeah, if you're gonna be in North Carolina, South Carolina, pork pork pretty much what you're gonna get. Like okay. Yeah. You know, the beauty of America now is there are folks that come from all over the country and you can get like dude, there's a place in downtown Charleston, Lewis Barbecue, that does magnificent brisket. Like he's from he's from El Paso. And that means he apprenticed in Austin like legit Texas brisket. But yeah, if you're getting true Carolina barbecue, like you go to Scott's, you you're getting the divine swine. Love it. Yeah. Love it. All right. Well, look, I could talk food with you the whole time, but I wanna I wanna talk about your story too. ⁓ so tell me this. You were before you got into broadcasting and calling some ⁓ college sports biggest events, you were a college track athlete, which I'm very interested in because I used to time track when I was in high school and college as like a side gig. We would do like laser times. It was awesome. Nice. And man, regardless of what your sport is, I think competing at the collegiate level, the preparation. Preparation, the discipline, the time commitment, learning how to do the work when nobody's watching so that you can perform when the lights are on. That stays with you in so many ways. And so how much of your journey as a college athlete still shows up in the broadcaster that you are today? Well, I think it shows up probably in a way that a lot of people may not initially assume. I was not as prepared an athlete as I would have liked to have been. You know, looking back on it as a, you know, 30-something year old now. Through the lens of like I've had 10 years to to reflect on everything. I had a lot of injuries in college. I partied a little too much. ⁓ so you know, leaving there, like of course I had great experiences and I wouldn't trade it for anything because it's it it made me who I am, but I also had like some regrets too. And so that has honestly motivated me to make sure that like this next passion that I have, which is broadcasting, like I don't have any regrets. I'm prepared for everything that I do and I can look back on any show or any event that I'm at and know that like no matter what, I was prepared. No matter what, I gave it my absolute one hundred percent. And so that honestly is how, you know, my experience as an athlete still kind of shows up all these years later. Okay. I gotta stay on the track, Vane, with you for a second, because given recent events, Josh Kerr just ran the mile. in 342, which to me says that he probably graduated from Xavier School for Gifted Youngsters at some point because he is he is a mutant that's not of this earth. But ⁓ given your experience, speak on that and how incredible it is to post that number. Well, I mean that that is a freakish like otherworldly time, but honestly, this is the trend now for like the last five years in track and field. I have a buddy of mine who still who still coaches. ⁓ collegiately and and he'll he and I will text every once in a while just about how crazy the times are getting like you know ten flat to ten two five is not out of the ordinary now for a high school guy who's running really well. And I also think back to like Cindy McLaughlin at the ⁓ at the last summer games where she ran fifty point something in the hurdles, which would have made her a male all American in track and field c collegiately. Like when I was running, which is just it's crazy what what some of these top athletes and even like the middle tier are running now. But yeah, just to just to bring it back to Kurt, I mean, I had people I had people sending me that video who don't know anything about track and field. Yeah. But that's one of the cool things about the mile, and I would say the hundred meter dash as well. No matter if you know anything about track and field or not, you know if someone runs 10 flat. Wow, they're fast. Similarly, if someone breaks four minutes in the mile, like you're impressed. And then to hear that they ran 342, that's that's blazing. It it it it's unreal. My my nephew is a very, very competitive miler entering his sophomore year. And I always tell him, I think the times that he runs are otherworldly. And then you see you see that and it's like, man, this is just crazy. But I do think like the way we have reverse-engineered nutrition and hydration and to be able to carb load. And ⁓ to pace and all those things. It's man, it's just so different. Like my wife ran the Nashville Marathon back in April, and that was the weekend two different guys ran world record times in the marathon. Like even at that level, it's getting to the point where the speed is crazy, man. Like the repeats they're gonna do are unreal. You're you what you said about reverse engineering is totally accurate. Also, like the strength training is totally different now. Yeah. Yeah. You know, like for for a decent portion of when I was in college, it was like some some people on my team like didn't even lift because the o the other option was like lift like a football player, which is not it's probably better than doing nothing, but it it's not gonna get you running straight line, like as fast as you need to run in a four hundred, you know, meter dash or whatever. Yep. And then also like the nutrition and the recovery and the sleep and everything. It's just The spikes, everything's just developed so exponentially in the last ten years in that sport, I think is especially. Yeah. Okay. I want to talk about the broadcasting piece. You know, I to me, broadcasting is a profession where dude, like most things really, you know, we live in a I feel like in so many ways, and a lot of this is probably social media driven, but very much a microwave generation when in reality success is so much more of a slow cooker. And I feel like probably more than any man, broadcasting is one where we see the person when they've gotten to the mountaintop, right? To the spot where they were trying to get, but there's so much behind that. And so was there ever a point in your career early or middle or or even close to this opportunity where you wondered whether this chance was gonna come? And and if there was, what kept you going? What kept you pushing? Dude, so many, so many moments. I mean, I graduated college in twenty fourteen. It's now twenty twenty six. You know, I I didn't do much my first year out. So maybe I've been at this for let's just call it, you know, eleven years. Mm hmm. There were stretches of time, like even just right out of the gate out of college, I had people close to me asking me, like, When are you gonna give the hobby up and get a real job? Yeah. So th so there was that just right out of the gate. But you know, I was twenty-three, twenty-two, you know, brash, bold, didn't care what anybody said. I was like, nah, I'm gonna do this. And then there's, you know, little moments along the way. I can think back to, you know, years like twenty sixteen, seventeen. I was calling minor league baseball for free. You know, the team put me up with a host family. So my room and board, so to speak, was paid for, but I didn't have a salary. Mm-hmm. You know, I'm driving four hours one way, four hours the next to make two hundred dollars to call a basketball game at a local you know, university. So there were many moments like, you know, along the way for sure that, you know, I'm sitting there in an ice storm at two o'clock in the morning driving for 200 bucks. I'm like, what am I doing? But I would say the biggest one was 2019-20. You know, I ⁓ I was freelancing a ton. I had like a a small deal with a network and then COVID hit in 2020. ⁓ my wife got pregnant and my contracts all expired. And I was like, shoot, I gotta go get another job. So I got a real estate license and started selling real estate. And dude, for a year I thought, like maybe even two years, I thought this is it. Like I'm I'm just gonna sell real estate and this will be fine and I'll, you know, make my family and the rest will be history and broadcasting will be a story I tell about, you know, my twenties. And my wife kept me in it, God kept me in it. And I'm just super grateful because now I look back on that five, six years later and I'm like, wow, you know, what a journey. But I think a like kinda like what you said with anything, you know, if you're chasing a dream or a passion or whatever, there's definitely gonna be moments of doubt. And then, you know, how much do you love it? I think how much you love it keeps you in it too. And certainly that was the case for me. You know, I'd call games for free, just just for fun, even if I wasn't doing this as a as a profession anymore. I wanna flesh this out 'cause I love so many parts of this answer a and notably I wanna talk about your wife. And you spoke on your faith as well, because one of the things I talk to my own young kids about when you're chasing a dream, man, you're the only one that has to see it. And part of the affirmation and you being the only one that has to see it is the reason that it's in your brain is because God put it there. And so between you and between your faith and God, you got all you need. But we're all human and we all need some affirmation sometime and some type of external keep going and an external this is working. And it sounds like to you so my question to you is number one, what is the lesson and what is, I guess, the the courage that it takes to believe when maybe everybody else doesn't see it? And then also, how important are the people like your wife and others that do give you the affirmation when you're like Man, I don't know if this is gonna work. Yeah. Well, first off, amen to you saying like it's in your head because God put it there. It's in your heart because God put it there. I'm I'm a big believer of that. Secondly, I g I gotta just say like I have had an unbelievable support system from the jump. Yes, of course there's a a few people here and there that would, you know, ras me a little bit in the beginning and be like, Hey man, when are you just gonna get a real job? But for the most part, like My best friends have been there from the very beginning saying, like, dude, it's coming, it's coming, you know, my parents, my wife. So I've I've been very blessed to have other people, you know, speaking life into me, even when there were moments where, you know, I was hanging my head a little bit. Mm-hmm. ⁓ you know, the lesson I think is just like what you said, nobody else has to see it as long as you see it. And also, like, I have in the recent years become a huge believer in if you can feel it and see it, you can make it happen. It doesn't have to be a present physical reality for it to be true. And so in my head, I can't tell you how many c game SEC football games I've called or NBA finals or you name the big event. Like I would, you know, like any young broadcaster, you start out calling games for the most part. You know, there's some outliers, but you call out you start out calling games in front of nobody for no money. There's no environment. But I would lay in bed at night and envision myself in an 80,000 seat stadium calling. A two minute drive. And what does that feel like? Well, it gives me goosebumps. So I would literally lay there and feel the goosebumps because I could see it in my head and I could feel it in my body that I was there. So I'm a big believer in that. I think what you said about, you know, if you can see it, that's all that matters. And then just kind of taking that to the next degree of like really lean into that. So given all that, you're stepping into a pro. prominent chair at a time when the SEC continues to be one of the biggest stages, if not arguably the biggest stages in American sports, especially American and collegiate sports. So given the journey and given believing and going through all of it, when you first learned that this opportunity was going to be yours, what did it mean to you? My gosh. I mean it was I mean it's a dream come true, honestly. ⁓ and and like we've been talking about, you know, there were definitely moments where you have those doubts of Is it ever gonna happen? Or when is it gonna happen? But for the most part, I believed that it would happen. And so it's just like it's a it's a mix of emotions. This gratitude. It's like, thank you, God, for for bringing me to this point. Thank you, God for this blessing. Thank you to my bosses for, you know, the opportunity. Thank you to my wife. I mean, I got the call when we were road tripping actually back to St. Louis to make this a real full circle conversation. Mm-hmm. We were road tripping back to St. Louis to visit my mom 'cause she still lives there. And I got a call about halfway on the drive and we pulled over so I could take it 'cause I have three little kids. And I got the call and I'm like fist bumping and my wife looking at me, she's a little bit nervous to know like what what is this call about? And I just I just walk back to the car and she's like, Well and I'm like, Let's go. You know, it it's it's ⁓ it was an awesome moment, man, and and it means a lot. I'm super excited. I feel like I have the best job in the world. Well, one of the reasons that you're in the chair you're in, and I think your colleagues are in the chair they're in, is they make something very, very difficult look easy and seamless. And so given all that, what is the hardest part of calling football or calling any live sporting event that the average viewer sitting at home has no concept? of all of the things going on and all the things that could potentially go wrong. And man, you guys just make it seem like we're we're sitting at the bar having a conversation. That's the beauty of it, right? But but what's the difficulty in that and what's the average viewer not seeing? Man, that's a great question. I think it's probably multifaceted, but you just say you kind of saying like what's something that nobody else really knows is happening when you're watching the game. Like we could we we could have major communication errors, you know, where like my headset stops working. You can hear me speaking, but I can't hear myself. I can't hear my partner. I can't hear the producer. Those have happened in the past, and that's a problem. You know, because the producer's gonna the producer does a lot, man, and nobody, nobody at home really knows. Everybody at home watching just hears me and my partner or sideline reporter, you know, maybe a rules analyst pop in every once in a while. But there's just so many other people that have immense responsibilities behind the scenes. To bring the game to you. And one of those is the producer and they drive the ship. So if I can't hear a producer and they're saying, hey, we're going 10 seconds to break, well, I don't hear that. Or, hey, we're gonna pop this graphic next. And I need to know that because I'm gonna steer the conversation that way so that then we can speak to the graphic. So that's happened before, you know, just just dealing with little and look, it's live TV. Something inevitably is always happening. Right. And there's a there's people that are putting out fires all game long. And you know, credit to those people because most of the time they make it so that we don't even know that a fire's happening, so that we can go out go out and do our jobs. You know, I think some of the other things that are imperative to a broadcast that maybe the average fan doesn't really pay attention to is the amount of prep that goes into it. Mm-hmm. You know, I think some people may just think we just roll up to the game and put the headset on and and call call it how we see it. But, you know, meeting with coaches, meeting with players, reading articles, you know, wa listening to podcasts, you know We spent a lot of time doing that so that when we sit in that seat, we feel like we know the team as well as a fan of that team. Maybe not as well as like a diehard fan, but you know, my goal is to know like what is the heartbeat of this team, what is the pulse of this team, so that I'm not just rocking up and putting the headset on and and acting like I know what I'm talking about. Well, you talked about the prep. So I want to talk to you about your tag team partner in this whole journey, and that's gonna be your color guy, Aaron Murray, SCC great. You could make the argument in the SEC Pantheon given his career at Georgia. We've had Aaron on the show a couple different times. So I know he is A prepared and B a wealth of of football knowledge. I don't know that there are many people that I think break the game down better from the offensive side and the defensive side than Aaron does. How excited are you to work with him and ⁓ yeah, kind of the team that y'all will be come fall? Yeah, I'm I'm pumped. You know, part of that. phone call that I got was not only the, you know, the new role that I was going to have, but also who was on my team. And that was a big reason why I was so excited. We have an unbelievable production staff that follows us around every week. It's going to be a big travel party and we have some of the best producers, directors, graphics people. I'm just so thrilled with our entire team. But specifically talking about Aaron, I think we're going to have a lot in common. You know I I've actually only met him once and that was at a ⁓ I might have been, I think it was last year, we were in Dallas at the mock college football playoff selection committee exercise. Okay. Yeah, yeah. Two days in Dallas. We actually got dude, it was so cool. We got to sit in the actual room that the CFP committee sits in, in their chairs with their name placards, the binders that they get in front of all the the ⁓ the software and the tech and everything that they use to make the decisions. And we went through the whole exercise. But he and I were in the room together, kind of like deliberating on, hey, this team should be eleven, not twelve, or this team should be twenty four, not twenty-five. And here's why. So we had a lot of fun with that. And I could just tell, A, he's a great dude. B, he likes to have fun. And C, like you said, he's very prepared. I'm I'm thrilled to be with him. It'll be fun to be in the booth with a guy too that played in the SEC that still lives in SEC country. Cause he's so embedded in it. You know what I mean? And I know he's very fired up. And then I would be remiss if I didn't mention our sideline reporter Taylor Davis, who is ⁓ yeah, who is a wealth of SEC knowledge. She hosts SEC State of Mind podcast with Jason Campbell. I'm gonna plug that real quick. If you haven't watched it, it's really good. Yeah. It's really good. Yeah. ⁓ and she's great people too. I actually worked with her for two weeks last year on on a crew that I was filling in on and we had a great time. And she's a she's a terrific reporter. So Man, now you got me ready. Like I wish we were kicking off tomorrow. Got him right there with you, brother. Well ⁓ I I can't I can't leave that C F P piece. That's fascinating to me. What what was that like? What was well tell this, what was the biggest takeaway from that? Where cause we're all sitting at home, right, going ⁓ they screwed this up or ⁓ they didn't think about this, or everybody's ringing their hands, but everything the CFP committee does wrong. But after having that experience, what did you take away and go, ⁓ wait, maybe I should pump the brakes on that a little bit? Yeah, well, that that's so true. We all are, you know, Monday morning quarterback in that thing when the when the CFP bracket comes out, especially the final one. Two and I might butcher this a little bit because it my memory of the exact terminology and everything's a little fuzzy given that it was over a year ago, but two things really stood out to me. Number one, they care tremendously about ranking not just one through twelve, but one through twenty-five. So even in the final week where, you know, the general public only cares one through twelve, they are under great scrutiny and very meticulously ranking one through twenty-five. The other thing that I thought was crazy is that they at least then, now this may change, I'm not sure, but at least going into last season, they do not look at the bracket at all. when they're making the selections. So they rank one through twelve and then however those selections, you know, come out, that's what the bracket is. So they actually don't even see or look at the bracket until they've selected the top twelve teams and given them seeds. ⁓ I thought that was really interesting, right? Because like if I'm general, you know, general fan of the game, I'm thinking like, well, of course the p the committee wanted Alabama to play Michigan in this game because it's great for T V and whatever. But they don't They don't care. They don't look at that. It's just about ranking the teams. And then, you know, inside all of that is just a a ⁓ wild system of well, how do they weight this win versus that win? And common opponents and strength of schedule and this team's offensive rating versus that team's offensive rating. It is crazy to see how deep they go to try and put together the the top twenty five. Man, that's fascinating. Well, I I appreciate you sharing that because that's that's just something a lot of us we're we're not behind the curtain on it, you know. And I think it's one of those things where it feels like the Wizard of Oz, right? And so to get some perspective on that is super valid. And just to not to cut you off, but I think like part of why they brought us there and I I think they brought other people from other media outlets there as well. But when I was there it was just ESPN announcers. They want they wanted us not only to know what was happening behind the curtain as people that cover the sport But also then to go out and share it with fans, with people like yourself who host podcasts that a lot of people listen to, because they're trying to have a l a higher level of transparency, especially, you know, you think about some of the controversies that these fan bases have have experienced. You know, I think back to the Florida State team, that still gets talked about when it back when it was a four-game, four-team playoff. So to have a little bit more transparency, I think also helps with that conversation. Okay, I'm gonna give you opportunity here, maybe to pump some tires on Hinkle, but give us. Three college sports venues that every college sports fan should visit if they have the opportunity. Wow. Not just football, like any venue. I I love college basketball, love college baseball too. So like any venue, man, like e I ⁓ you know, even like a like the palestret pin or I just feel like there's lots of places people don't think about where if you love college sports and kind of what's at the foundation of that, these are places that'll make the hair on your arm stand up when you step in the building. Dude, that's a question, I know. Impossible. Yeah, yeah. Impossible. But now that we've gotten that out of the way, that this is an impossible question. I'm gonna limit it only to campus. Love that. But I but I am going to add an honorable mention. Okay. Because I covered the big east men's basketball tournament at the garden for a handful of years. Mm-hmm. And that'll make your hair stand up. And there's nothing like a Friday night at the garden with two East Coast teams playing college basketball. That was unbelievable. But yeah, I mean, Hinkle's cool because it may not be like the craziest college environment just because of the way the seats are and the student sections broken up behind behind each basket. So it's not like there's definitely louder stadiums, I guess is what I'm getting at. But the history of that building and all the events that have been hosted there. I mean, presidents have spoken there. World War II barracks was there. They've run track meets in that building. And then there's been unbelievable games played there. So definitely Hinkles a bucket list if you're a basketball fan. Death Valley at night. The real Death Valley. Sorry, any Clemson fan that's listening to this. That'll make your hair stand up. I mean, just it's unbelievable. 100,000 people packed in there on a Saturday night. And then, golly, I'm gonna say assembly hall. Ooh. So I'm showing my bias a little bit here. I live in the state of Indiana, which is a basketball state, but ⁓ when I was working for Fox and Big Ten Network, I did a lot of college basketball there. And I'm gonna tell you right now, when that place when that place is full and it's loud, you cannot hear yourself think. And actually I caught a game there one year when Caitlin Clark was still playing. I think Indiana was number two and and Iowa was three. And the refs had some sort of a device. I don't know if it was on the whistle or on their on their watch or whatever, that the the the noise of a whistle would stop the clock. Right. Twice during the game it got so loud that the clock stopped because the device picked up the decibels of the cheer thinking that it was the whistle. Yeah. It was awesome. So those are my three, but you could add so many others in there for sure. And I know I'm probably after doing my first full season in the SEC for for football, I might add a few more. I love this list. Number one, I'm so happy that you mentioned the Garden for Biggie's tournament. I I got bored on a plane one night. And so I took a cocktail napkin and I wrote out my sports sports bucket list. So the 25 sporting events I want to attend. Yeah. And Big East tournament at the garden was one of the things on the list. So I d I note that. I I'm I'm definitely gonna make that happen. The other one is I am so happy you mentioned IU. We had the good fortune two years ago to go cover Old Oak and Bucket, last game of the season in Kurt Signetti's first year. And I I was I am so romantic about Bloomington now. Number one, incredible college town. Yeah. But dude, their athletic facilities are second to none. Like, dude, their baseball field is outstanding. Incredible baseball facility. And we walked through Assembly Hall. The actual court area wasn't open. So you couldn't like go in the arena, but you could obviously partake in like the outside corridor and everything. Man, I ⁓ that that I want to go back to watch hoops there. because and n now giving your testimony, I thousand percent want to go back. So plus yeah any excuse I can get to go to Nick's and play a little sync to biz or maybe head over to upstairs pub, like I'm I'm all for that brother. So now you're now you're speaking the language of my in laws. They all went to Indiana. I married into a big IU family and ⁓ well just not not even just the ⁓ the facilities and you know the environment, but also the history of that building. Mm you know, assembly hall, some of the great teams that have played in there and the games and it's and and the cool thing is they really lean into that. You know, like there's old jerseys and old memorabilia and photos and trophies and stuff all throughout assembly hall. So it's it's almost like you're walking through a basketball history museum and there's a court in the middle of it, which is pretty cool. All right Matt, last question and we ask this of all of our guests. You get Doc Brown's DeLorean for one day. You get to go back and put your arm around the shoulder of young Matt as he walks off the track. For the last time. What is the one piece of advice that you give him to help prepare him for the road ahead? I wish I could go put my arm around Matt before he started running. Yeah. So I could tell him what not what mistakes not to make. Yeah. I would just say, you know, your faith is number one and it's going to carry you through the best times and the hard times. And, you know, surround yourself with people that speak life into you and the vision that you have for your life, because those are going to be the people that. in the end, you know, help you make it a reality. Well, Matt, we so appreciate you taking time to to tell us a little bit of your story. And before we let you go, please tell all of our listeners how they can support you and follow ya. Well I'm on Instagram and Twitter at Matt Schumacher underscore. And ⁓ other than that, man, just tune in every Saturday. We're gonna bring you the best the best college football can deliver. And ⁓ Join in on the conversation too. We'd love to hear from all college football fans, but especially just 'cause we're gonna be in the SEC. Let me know your your favorite food spots. I'm gonna be hitting them up. That's it right there. That's it right there. Well, look, Matt, love talking with you, love getting to to learn about you, learn about your story, certainly rooting for you and have no doubt you're absolutely gonna crush it on ⁓ Saturday nights this fall. So we're looking forward to listening, brother. Thanks a lot, man. Appreciate you so much for having me. Looking forward to the next one.