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00:00Greg, I want to rewind a little bit here to a simpler time, because I was doing some research
00:09for this interview, and I got to say, I was a little bit bummed, because, look, we know
00:14you went to Alabama, you got to play for Coach Saban, you won a national title, but you could
00:20have had something special.
00:21You were offered by the University of North Carolina.
00:25We would have beat Smiley Kaufman's LSU Tigers in 2010, were it not for some untimely suspensions.
00:32You could have been a part of that.
00:33Hey, listen, we can get into that on another podcast.
00:36But just kind of going back to-
00:38I was close to going there.
00:39I liked North Carolina a lot.
00:41Y'all ended up with T.J.
00:42Finley, though.
00:43Or not T.J.
00:44Finley.
00:45T.J.
00:46Yates.
00:47T.J.
00:48Yates.
00:49Yeah.
00:50Yes.
00:51Yes.
00:52T.J.
00:53Finley.
00:54That's too soon.
00:56Sure, it did.
00:57But I'm just curious to kind of rewind to, you're a guy coming out of a powerhouse school
01:00in Texas, South Lake Carroll, you're recruited by Alabama, Carolina, a number of others.
01:05You just laid out the current NIL version, how crazy it is.
01:09What do you remember about your recruitment process and what that was like in high school
01:13and the way that went as compared to today's day and age?
01:15Well, it is a lot different back then.
01:18Recruiting just started so much later.
01:20I mean, I remember, gosh, it had to have been like 10, 12, 13 years ago, Lane Kiff
01:26was a head coach at SC.
01:28And he offered a kid that was in like seventh grade.
01:31And we're like, that is the dumbest thing I've ever heard.
01:34The kid ended up being a pretty good player.
01:36He went on to play minors.
01:37No, no, no.
01:38He went on, he was at SC, and he offered him, and the guy ended up being a good receiver
01:44for West Virginia.
01:46I just don't remember off the top of my head who it was.
01:49He offered him as like a quarterback, and he ended up being like a pretty good dude.
01:54But he played wide out.
01:55Anyways, long story short, it just happened way later.
01:58Now kids are getting recruited way earlier.
02:02You know, guys are, I mean, it's like golf, like guys are homeschooled, basically.
02:06And they just are at the course all day long.
02:08And they're working on their craft.
02:10And they basically become pros at ninth grade.
02:14And then they go to IMG, or they have some type, and they play.
02:20I mean, school is there just as a way to just maintain eligibility and make sure that you're
02:25eligible to go through the clearinghouse in college.
02:28But I mean, things are just happening a lot sooner.
02:30I didn't even start in high school until my senior year of high school.