Austin Price:
Hello everybody and welcome in for another episode of All Club Confidential. I'm your host Austin Price. Tennessee coming off its bio week as Texas a and m. Tomorrow at three 30 that game on c B s. Of course, Tennessee, coming off that 41 20 went over South Carolina. Just two weeks ago I was bringing in the Vol Clubs, Brandon Spurlock, Brandon at the South Carolina tailgate. Over 2000 people attended that tailgate. It was hopping. You had obviously some former vols from the 98 team there, Al Wilson pushing the sangria and you had the Travis. Is there a lot of former players and just an exciting event? Yeah,

Brandon Spurlock:
We're still blown away by it. I mean 2000, we're trying to figure out how to continue to manage that and make sure everybody's experience is great. I thought everybody was there to see you and me, but Al Wilson and Jamal, when those guys show up, I mean they bring crowds and when we showed up to the tailgate an hour or 30 minutes before the doors the gates open, there was a line down to the pedestrian walkway. So that's very humbling and very cool to see. But also the challenge for us is to make sure that our members continue to have a great experience and we're working on that every day and can't wait for Texas a and m, Texas

Austin Price:
A M tailgate, same location, which is kind of between McClung Tower right there near humanities and the library. And honestly because you're up against MCC Clung Tower, you're kind of providing a lot of shade there

Brandon Spurlock:
For years. That building, you look up at it and you're like kind of like, oh, that building is kind of an eyesore, but man, it's the shade during these games. I've never loved that building so much and we hear comments about that, so there's something for everybody. We got the tent there, we got the grassy area for kids. We're trying to do more for kids to make it a kid-friendly tailgate, talking about face painters and things like that. So we'll see what we can pull off, but just can't say enough about our members that have helped get us to this point to talk about 3,800 approaching 4,000 members and we look across the country at other collectives and what they're doing and not doing. It's a testament once again to Vol Nation and they never fail to.

Austin Price:
I feel like not long ago you were like 2,500 and then all of a sudden it just started to click and you started adding boom boom. I mean, I think you have something like 80 something signups for the South Carolina game. I mean, it feels like you guys are rapidly adding new members all the time.

Brandon Spurlock:
Yeah, I think day of, we didn't experience that last year, day of, I think it speaks a lot to the tailgates. I mean when you got free food and free drinks, alcohol and non-alcohol that you can get your $25 a month worth pretty quick. So again, constantly evaluating that and growing it the right way and then also thinking about how can we add value for our members in the springtime when we don't have those tailgates. So around basketball, around baseball, and really thinking about events because we have a core group of people that seem to love the events so much. How do we do things across the state in non-football season times?

Austin Price:
All right. Let's bring in tonight's Marky guest that being Tennessee defensive line coach, Rodney Garner, coach Garner. You come out of Leeds, Alabama, you go on to play football at Auburn University. Just kind take me through what it was like for Rodney Garner as a young kid, fall in love with the game of football. When did you really start to really kind of hone in and go, man, football's going to be my passion?

Rodney Garner:
Well, obviously growing up I was always a big kid, so I never really could make the weight classes to play the little league football. It was all about weight classes. So really I guess in the eighth grade when I got a chance to go out for football and play on the B team and then I made the varsity as a freshman and I started, man, this thing's got a chance to change my life growing up. I just always thought I'd go in the military like everybody else in my family and do the military thing, come back to leagues and do that, and then started playing football and started being recruited really early and got offered by schools early. Alabama offered me as a sophomore in a lot of other places and it just took off from there.

Austin Price:
What made you fall in love with Auburn when you're getting recruited by all those schools? What made Auburn the pick for young Rodney coming out of high school?

Rodney Garner:
Actually, I was actually committed to the other school for almost a year.

Austin Price:
For Alabama, huh?

Rodney Garner:
Yeah, I really was. And just at that time you didn't have much wasn a whole lot on TV and Alabama was the hot thing. So just growing up, not like anybody in my family went to Alabama or Auburn except for Charles, my cousin, but just they were the hot things. So I committed because they offered me when Bear was still alive and Ken Donahue was recruiting me and I loved Coach Donahue and he was my guy. I just fell in love with him. So I was committed to Alabama for over a year and never would even go down to Auburn. The only time I watched Charles play basketball was when they came to Birmingham and played U a b or when they came to Tuscaloosa and played at Alabama. And then my senior year, Auburn was playing Maryland and some of my high school teammates wanted to go to the Auburn Maryland game, see Boomer Seon. And I'm like, man, I don't want to go down there. And they were like, please give us some tickets, we'll drive, we'll do everything. So went down there with some of my teammates that night Charles gave was his dorm room. He went and stayed somewhere else. We stayed in his room and rest was history. I fell in love with it, fell in love with Coach Dye and just felt at home at Auburn,

Austin Price:
You go to Auburn, you play there, you have a phenomenal career there. Then you go play a few years professionally and then you get into coaching. When did you know that coaching was a path you wanted to take and who had an influence on that?

Rodney Garner:
Well, I think I attribute that all Coach D back then if you didn't graduate on time, you had to, there wasn't a coming back where they pay for your school years and that I was on the extended plan, so I was playing, I got cut by Tampa Bay, I went and played the arena ball for two years in Pittsburgh and I'm coming back working on my degree. So I'm working in the weight room and I'm working in recruiting office, and then I'm just doing whatever coach dod and I'm asking me to do and hosting recruits every weekend, doing all the recruiting stuff for him. And then next thing you know, coach Young, the longtime recruiting coordinator, he retired and I'm working, I'm actually working in public relations for Buffalo Route Pepsi, coach Al and offer me the recruiting coordinator job and I go back to Auburn.

Austin Price:
You end up here in 96, 97, coaching tight ends and offensive tackles. When you first got to Tennessee, what did you fall in love with about this place?

Rodney Garner:
Well, obviously the first thing Tennessee recruited me out of high school. Coach Cut, we laughed. Cut was at one of their earlier games. This season he's Marcus's father.
And I guess when we played Virginia and Nashville, he was laughing. He said, you shit came in first place all that because cut. He did a great job recruiting me. But the one thing you always knew about how passionate the fan base was and just how passionate everyone is about Tennessee football. And the one thing I do remember when I was here the first time, Kim and I, we got married when I came to Tennessee, so we went up to Pigeon Forge, we got married at one of the chapels up there and then my second oldest daughter, Bree, she was born here at Fort Sanders. So it is always been a special place, especially Bree was born with a congenital heart defect at the angel flight or to Nashville. And we always just sit back and think about how embracing the Tennessee family was when we were going through that trying time. She spent two weeks in neonatal intensive care over at Vandy and we didn't know if she was going to live or die, but the Tennessee fans, the encouragement, the notes, people sending flowers, just checking on us, it was just phenomenal. I know Doug Matthews probably spearheaded a lot of it because he was out of Nashville, but the Tennessee family was just, they were just so great to us at that time. So it was just an awesome experience.

Austin Price:
You got five girls, six, six girls. That's right. You just kept trying to get that boy. But Brie, you speak about her born here and now she's back working in the football office

Rodney Garner:
Here.

Austin Price:
How much fun is that from the dad perspective when you're, obviously you're in the middle of a season right now and you're coaching and you're molding young men, but when you see her walking through the office and you're like, man, I get to see my daughter every day. I mean, it's got to be pretty neat, right?

Rodney Garner:
It is unreal. It's phenomenal. It's just so surreal. It seems like everything's come full circle for her to be born here and for us to go through what we did with her coming onto this earth and then for her to have the opportunity to come back here and work and for me to be back here now and then my babies and my twin girls, they're starting their sophomore years here and they live in Stokely and I get to see them all the time. They're in my office hanging out. It is just great just to have them be able to experience this with me or me be able to experience this with them because I do truly feel like it is bigger than me. It's not about me anymore, it's about my family and everybody's just so happy. My girls and they love ut. My twins couldn't be more happier. It's just a perfect fit for them that even though they're identical twins, they have totally different personalities and UT just fits both of their personalities. Sydney's a country western girl loves country music, cowboy boots, the hats, all that hunting. She's involved now with some hunting clubs and all that kind of stuff. Milan thinks she's a city girl, so Knoxville has a little city flare for her. So it's just the best of both worlds that neither one had to sacrifice their identity to go to school together.

Austin Price:
The one that likes to hunt, does that come from you? Are you a hunter?

Rodney Garner:
Well, I grew up a hunter and I do have a farm in Tuskegee. I don't know, but because of my profession, I hadn't hunted in a long time. But that's something that she's very passionate about. In fact, she's changing her major to something dealing with ag and she wants to do that. That's something that she's truly passionate about.

Austin Price:
Fantastic. You look back at your first go around here and everybody remembers you bringing in Jamal and Dion and Cozy and Fred Weary and now all those guys are coming back around from winning the 98 national title and they're 25 years later. How neat is it to see that and then even a guy like Richard Seymour who you coach to Georgia, he was here for the South Carolina game, having him around, having those former players kind of come back and seeing where they're at in their lives and seeing where they have kids or don't have kids and what they're doing now, how rewarding is some of that?

Rodney Garner:
Well, I mean that's why I do it and that's, I've always told Kim that the reason why I've stayed in college coaching and not made the jump to the N F L is because it is just so much more rewarding. Having an opportunity to invest in these young men and have an impact in their lives and watching them grow and change chapters and come out of young men to being men and just watching them grow into being good husbands, good fathers and good citizens, it is just so rewarding. It is just, just seeing Dwayne Goodrich and Travis Henry and Travis Stevens this weekend, just all the guys that it's just so great to see 'em and just see how they've matured and how they transformed. Even my room now, I think back to my room from the day I got here two and a half years ago to where it is right now and just seeing the maturity in some of these guys, it's just, it's so rewarding just to see guys grow.

Austin Price:
Travis Stevens, I think he's got one, maybe at least a game left in him. He looks like he can still go,

Rodney Garner:
Man, I don't know what he's on, but he looked yoked up like, God, ight, geez, he looked great. He like he still playing.

Austin Price:
When you're coaching a kid, do you have a kind of core value system that you're trying to impart upon them?

Rodney Garner:
Well, and I share with them all the time. My first thing, I want 'em to be good men because I feel like if they're good men and they're men and character, they've got talent and they should have talent or they shouldn't be here. So if they're good men, they're going to become good football players. Just teaching them the work ethic and just being able to grind and strain and to fight through adversity because football and life, there's so many parallels that things are not going to be easy and what are you going to do when you hit those tough situations? Are you going to find a way to fight yourself, fight your way out of it, or are you going to cower down? You're going to quit. And that's the thing. That's why I think, and I try to explain to 'em why I'm so hard on them in practice, I want practice to be harder than the game ever was. So on Saturday, I want the game to be easy, that they've been put in those tough situations and they know how to fight their way out and they know how to bond together that camaraderie and they pull one another and they stay together as a team, not as an individual, and find a way to fight through it and come out on the other side.

Austin Price:
You look at your room right now and you talked about the growth in it. I see somebody like Omar Norman lot who's a new piece comes in from the transfer portal. You've got Tyler Baron who's matured a lot. You've got James Pierce matured a lot. You've got Big O who's probably always had the maturity level. What's that melting pot like in that room?

Rodney Garner:
Well, now you've got the guys policing themselves. They have bought into the culture. They see the cultures working, they see the success that they're having because of the culture. We try to stomp out the individualism, which that's so hard now in society because the way we're raising everybody is me, me, me, me. But I always try to tell 'em, and they probably think it's so cliche when I come into that meeting. It's like it begins with the T and it ends with the T. It's got to be about Tennessee first. It is bigger than you, it's bigger than me, it's bigger than all of us. So just learning to understand that there's something bigger than us individually that we're playing for. And if we'll all bond together and we'll play together and play for one another, then at the end there's going to be more accolades than we even have guys to receive 'em.
And I think they're seeing that and they're starting to believe in that because of their having that success. I just look at a guy like Tyler, he's just so much bought in than what he was two years ago and just seeing his growth and I just see his maturity and his level of play as it improved. Same thing with James as last year James. He had those struggles and he had to fight and he'd wrestle with all those angels and all those things. And now he's starting to buy in and he's starting to see that success and that pays dividends for other guys just to see what doing it the right way, what doing it the Tennessee way, what they can achieve if they do that.

Austin Price:
When you look back at your career, are there sights and sounds and smells when you're out on the practice field in fall camp or during the season or at a game or on a road trip that just kind of take you back to almost transform you back into when you were a player? I mean, you know what I'm saying, something, you smell something, you hear something, it's like, wow, that reminds me of this.

Rodney Garner:
Well, I mean I think the whole fall camp, preparation for camp, the season, all of it, it always takes you back down memory lane. And I just sit back and I reflect on my life and my career and just understanding just how blessed I am. And I sit there and I say this, and I mean from the bottom of my heart, this sport has been better to me than I've been to it. So I have reaped so many rewards because of football and because of this game. And I sit back and I think people, they don't understand why Coach Di meant so much to me because he changed my life. Taking a poor kid out of Alabama and giving him hope and giving him an opportunity because of football and an opportunity to go to college and to go to Auburn, it changed my life.
It changed my mom's life. It's changed my kid's life. It's changed my wife's life. This thing is just continuing to pay dividends and that's the thing that I'm sort of apprehensive about what the new transfer portal and all this thing's doing that I don't think the kids are going to have that type of love for their schools and that type of devotion that we had. And it's going to mean that to us. So that's one of the things that I try to instill in my kids in that room that we're all blessed to be at the University of Tennessee. I get up every day and I thank the Lord for the opportunity to be here, and I think it is a blessing to be here. This is one of the most iconic brands there is. And to be able to play in kneeling stadium to run through that tee at night, I mean we're in a one percentile and I tell 'em, we should never take that for granted. And so just trying to get those guys to understand that we are blessed for this opportunity to be here and not vice versa. Sometimes they think that Tennessee's blessed to have them. No, I mean there's been great players before you. They'll be great players after you We're blessed to have this opportunity to be on this stage to be able to do these things right here in this moment. And we just need to cherish it.

Austin Price:
Everybody knows you are a dogged recruiter and you've landed on your fair share. You had over 30 N F L draft picks during your time. What is it about relationship building? And then two, maybe the chess pieces of working or recruitment, seeing something unfold before it actually unfolds. Know, okay, this is going to be the person who I need to deal with the most and this particular recruitment because that person's going to have a big impact on the decision. What is it that has made you such a elite recruiter all these years?

Rodney Garner:
Well, I've always just tried to be real. And that's the thing that I think has helped me throughout my career. It didn't matter where I was or I could always give them parents players that I recruited that hey, you can call them. You can ask them about Coach G. They're going to tell you that Coach G's real what he tells you, you can bank on man. He's going to be a man of his word. Now, is he going to be hard on your son? Yes. Is he going to hold your son accountable? Is he going to make sure that he's doing things the right way? Yes, he's going to do all that, but at the end of the day, he's going to love him just like he's his own. And that's what I try to tell people when I have to make a decision regarding these young men.
Always ask myself, if it was my son, how would I want this handled? And that's my compass in dealing with everything. So that's how I make decisions, that's how I move. And I hope that I'm impacting these young men's lives in a positive way that this relationship is not a four year relationship. It's a lifetime relationship. I love that my players come back, they bring their wives, they bring their kids. I feel like granddad this weekend with Richard and with Tanya and in London. It's like my grandson and my sons my daughter-in-law. That's the way I feel about it. So that's that relationship. It be former Auburn players, be it former Georgia players, be it my former Tennessee players when I was here the first time, Antron Peoples calls me all the time. We cut up Dustin Moore's sons here in school, living in Stokely, same dorm, my kids. And so those relationships, man, those are life-changing relationships.

Austin Price:
You talk about Richard Seymour, Derek Brown's been up here and worked out at Tennessee during the off season even though he went to Auburn just to be around you. How hard is it for some of those guys? I mean, they're Georgia guys or Auburn guys and all of a sudden they're walking in there and they're around Tennessee stuff. You know what I'm saying? I know they're coming here to see you, but at the same time, how much do they tell me about Tennessee?

Rodney Garner:
I mean, I think anyone that has an opportunity to come on this campus or to come into this facility, I think they immediately have great appreciation for this place, for the tradition, the history, the facilities. I'm just blessed to work for a man like Coach Heel who's opening open arms to allow young men to come in and be able to be around our guys and have an opportunity to pour into our guys. And he makes them feel welcome. I could easily be working for someone that would not be that way, but that's the thing that I think is so unique about him. And that was one of the things when we hired him, we came back. He wanted to make sure, first of all, that the V FFLs know that they're forever welcome here. The door is open all the time. These guys, it's their blood, sweat and tears that's laid, the foundation that's built this program, their backs, this program was built on. And they got to always feel like they got an open door and a welcome policy here to be a here. But for him to even just say, Hey G, these guys are important to you. You're important to them, they're welcome here. I really appreciate that because that's something that he does not have to do. And I do know that and I'm very thankful and appreciative to him for allowing me to do those things.

Austin Price:
What's something most people don't know about Rodney Garner?

Rodney Garner:
I'm not very complicated. My wife probably would say differently. I'm more of a homebody. I love my girls. I'm a girl dad. Take a lot of pride in it. Love kids, just don't do a whole lot. Simple guy.

Austin Price:
Now when we talk on the phone, you'll be watching Andy Griffith or

Rodney Garner:
Mash

Austin Price:
Or Mallock or you love old school TV shows.

Rodney Garner:
Yeah, I love man. I'm an old school guy, but I do like new stuff. I like F B I I like Yellowstone. I like Joe Pickett,

Austin Price:
N C I s

Rodney Garner:
N C I s. I like all that stuff. I

Austin Price:
Think Gibbs one of the greatest characters of all time.

Rodney Garner:
I'm a Gibbs fan.

Austin Price:
He's kind of like you though. Old school, you got rules too. Rule 39, there's no such thing as a coincidence.

Rodney Garner:
I'm not quite like that, but I do have rules. I have rules that we go by

Austin Price:
Best show of all times what

Rodney Garner:
Henry Griffith's hard to beat. It really is.

Austin Price:
Barney is Barney the goat character in that show.

Rodney Garner:
Barney's pretty good. I like Ernest T Bass. He's a character too. Well, I like it. I really like it. I love Bonanza. That's probably really, if you had to ask him, that's probably my favorite show is Bonanza.

Austin Price:
I'm not calling him from that one. I'm going to say it's me. It's me. It's Austin P.

Rodney Garner:
Yeah. I told my wife I'm going there doing this show for Austin Price. She said, you know, that's your buddy. I said, really? You think

Austin Price:
If Rodney Garner got to plan the family vacation for the summer, what would the garners be doing?

Rodney Garner:
Well, probably the favorite vacation I've been on with the girls is probably running the RV and doing the RV trip. We've done that twice. We've also done a train, which I really enjoyed the train.

Austin Price:
Where'd you go

Rodney Garner:
On the train?

Austin Price:
Yeah.

Rodney Garner:
We board the train in Atlanta and we went to New Orleans and then we went up to Memphis and we stayed like two or three days in Memphis and we came back to New Orleans, stayed there and came back to Atlanta. But just getting one of those sleeping cars and that thing just puts you to sleep. I just slept the whole time. It was unreal. Didn't have to worry about driving and all that. It was awesome.

Austin Price:
Where'd you go in the rv?

Rodney Garner:
We went from, we went to New Jersey twice

Austin Price:
Now. Is that you driving the whole way or

Rodney Garner:
It just me driving the whole way. I'm not going to put my life in Kim's hands. It's me driving all the way.

Austin Price:
Oh, Kim.

Rodney Garner:
Yep. Not doing it.

Austin Price:
You're a pickup truck guy.

Rodney Garner:
Yeah, I love my truck. I'm not going to lie to you. I'm a simple guy.

Austin Price:
When you're back home at Auburn, when you get time and you go back down there, because you still have your house down there just hanging out at the house, you go see certain people when you're in town.

Rodney Garner:
I got teammates, Benji Rowland's, probably my best friend. We'll go to dinner with our wives. We'll go to, we went to Costa Rica two summers ago. Me, Benji and Kelly and Kim and my buddy David Turner that coached them, Mississippi State and his wife. Man, that blast. So this summer we were back there and we had a little kickback with Benji and his wife, DT and his wife came over. We had some other friends in town came over. Just hang out, just do nothing. Just sit around, tell stories and have fun and fellowship.

Austin Price:
You're such a big, you talk about being a girl dad, you're such a big family guy. Favorite holiday with the family was is it Christmas? It's

Rodney Garner:
Christmas. I'm a Christmas. I love Christmas. I love Christmas. I'm a suckle for Christmas.

Austin Price:
When's the tree go up, Rodney?

Rodney Garner:
When the tree come down. That's what you need to ask Kim.

Austin Price:
There we go. See you wonder why we get along. He loves Matlock. He loves Andy Griffith. He loves all those old school TV shows. I grew up watching Nick at night and get smart and all that stuff when I was a kid. I love old school stuff. And our Christmas tree, I mean, I'm not quite out a diehard like you, but my Christmas tree goes up before the trick or treaters come and I catch so much flack for that every year. Well, I'll be doing zooms or whatever on shows and the Christmas tree will be in the background and it's like October. And they're like, what are you doing? I'm like, well, I was at the Alabama game Saturday and my wife said, Hey, I put the Christmas tree up.

Rodney Garner:
I love Christmas. I love it.

Austin Price:
Love

Rodney Garner:
Christmas music.

Austin Price:
See, I could listen to that all year long.

Rodney Garner:
Me too.

Austin Price:
Best Christmas song of all time. What?

Rodney Garner:
Yeah, king Cole.

Austin Price:
So when will you put on Christmas music? Do you do that in the office at work?

Rodney Garner:
Oh yeah. Yeah. I love it.

Austin Price:
Does anybody go coach? It's September. Well you done listen to Christmas. Well, I

Rodney Garner:
Ain't doing that in September, but I'll do it soon as November gets here. I play it in the dLAN meeting room too. We going to have it in there too.

Austin Price:
How do the kids respond to that? How bet you they like that actually.

Rodney Garner:
Yeah, they it get to see a different side of me. I think they're a little shocked. They love it when my nieces nephew comes around, they think I'm much more amendable to deal with

Austin Price:
The nieces and nephews. Went up to Callenburg this summer with 'em, float down the river and stuff. You enjoy kind of being Uncle Rodney at times. I mean, your girls are all older, so I mean they're all now, at least in college, you guys are kind of empty nesters even though they're not technically that

Rodney Garner:
Old. Everybody's still on the payroll.

Austin Price:
Yeah,

Rodney Garner:
All six

Austin Price:
Weddings to pay for.

Rodney Garner:
Yeah, all six of 'em still in i l for life. I'm trying to get somebody to go in the transfer portal. Nobody won't go.

Austin Price:
What's your goal? I mean, I don't want to ask you how much you want to coach. I mean that could be anywhere from a year to 10 years, but what do you hope to accomplish

Rodney Garner:
If the goat, Lord, if I had to choose, I would really to finish my career out here. I love for us to play well enough and for us to win well enough that we could stay here and we could do well, and this could be the Swan song, but obviously we have to win. We're in the entertainment business. We've got to win. We've got to play well and we've got to recruit well and all that. But I love having an impact on these young men and when I feel that I'm not and I've lost that effectiveness, then it'll be time to move on. But I feel like I still have an impact in their lives. I still feel like I'm making a difference. Just sitting down this weekend with Omar Lot's family and them talking about how much they have seen him change and mature since he's been here in the six months than what he did three years at Arizona State. That's rewarding to me. That's why I'm doing what I'm doing. So as long as if I'm in good health and they'll have me, I mean I plan on being here

Austin Price:
For Gallico Omar Norman lot. How much do you think, I mean no offense to the Pac 12, but the atmosphere is different at those games. How much do you think a game like Saturday was like, whoa, this is different.

Rodney Garner:
Well, I hadn't had an opportunity to ask him, but I'm sure it is mean. He's found out everything's different here. The expectations about how we do things, how we practice, how we do everything. But he's adjusted. I can remember I told his uncle and his aunt, we had that come to Jesus moment where we were at the crossroads that he was going to have to decide which way he was going to go. But I told him he knew what he signed up for and that's exactly where it's going to be. So either he was going to do it my way or he was going to have to go on the highway and take it to another spot. But he bought in and I think he sees himself doing well and he's happy as he can be. Now

Austin Price:
You've got a core group of older guys, Tyler, big o, Omar, Norman lot, Bryce and Easton. All those guys could technically come back next year. They could all decide to go and play pro ball or whatever. But you also got a core group of younger guys with Tyree Weathersby, who I know you're extremely high on before he got injured. David Hobbs, Nathan Robinson, Trevor Duncan. When you look at, and of course the edge guys like Caleb Herring. When you look at that young group does that young group kind of gets you back invigorated a little bit. Not that you were ever not invigorated, but I mean just kind of like, man, I can't wait to get those guys where we got this current group.

Rodney Garner:
Man, my whole room just excites me. I feel blessed to be able to go to work and work with the young men that I work with. I enjoy my guys. I have really good guys. I have been blessed with good guys and I think they're believing in Tennessee and I think they're loving Tennessee. I think they're appreciative of being here at Tennessee, and I think we're doing things the right way. We're not cutting corners. Like I told 'em, this is not just a four year plan, this is a lifetime plan. We got to equip them with the skills that it's going to take for them to be successful in life long after this is over with. They've got to be able to go out and compete in life. And that's the one thing I want them to know that when they leave this place that they know without a doubt that, hey, I'm equipped to be successful in life. It may not be in football, but I know I'm going to make it in life. And if we do that, then hey, we've done our job.

Austin Price:
A deep in depth answer from Coach G, but I'm going to end on a little lighter version. Every show we've done this and it's been with a lot of players, we've done it now probably think about 75% of the coaching staff. I ask everybody, Jordan or LeBron, this guy right here is the cousin of Charles Barkley. He referenced him, just called him Charles earlier. But for you, Jordan or LeBron?

Rodney Garner:
I would say Dr. J.

Austin Price:
Dr. J. See that's the first og. We've had some Kobe's.

Rodney Garner:
I'm Dr. J Guy. I'm Dr. J, I'm Julie Irvin.

Austin Price:
I like it. I like it Best Ford of all time. Is that Charles Barkley?

Rodney Garner:
Yeah, I would say so. For him to be the size he is and the impact that he had on that game, it'll never happen again.

Austin Price:
And the best analyst there is.

Rodney Garner:
Yeah, it is true that true that

Austin Price:
He is fantastic as an analyst. Well, coach Garman, we appreciate the time and the good kind of look at your career and kind of the man you are and we wish you luck the rest of the way. I appreciate you.