Uh-huh

...

but perhaps a low floor, just depending on [laughs] like how those guys come together.

Uh, you know, you're bringing 41 transfer players.

Yeah, Lane Kiffin has done it before, but this is a new place and a new era.

Who knows how those guys gel together, but they had, they have the talent.

I mean, I look at, I look at the team in Oxford, look at Ole Miss.

Yeah

men being husbands and fathers, particularly black men being husbands and fathers?

Yeah.

Manhood is uber important in general, but in the world we live in, it's important.

It's important that we challenge our young men.

It's important that we challenge ourselves.

And it's also important that we're transparent about the difficulties and how hard it is when everything's trying to pull you away from being the priest, prophet, protector, provider in your home that God has uniquely created you to be.

Men have a specific role.

How does it make you feel about football? And then how does it make you feel to see his amazing wife sit there beside him and take care of him for better or for worse?

Get into 1999, Ben Watson's head, and tell me why you went to Duke, and tell me if you were 2026. high school senior, you would maybe, because of the fat stacks being thrown around, maybe still have the same priorities?

Well, man, that's a...

There's no failing if you don't.

That's a great question.

Going to Duke.

So my heart was really set on Notre Dame.

And coming out of college, I was recruited by Georgia Tech, Duke, Clemson, Notre Dame, South Carolina, you know, the kind of ball down there.

Tell me how Kalen DeBoer deals with that.

So maybe Athens won't be the only time the Sooners and the Dogs meet.

Yeah, I think Oklahoma was in that conversation last year.

And you look at what happened with Oklahoma, tremendous on defense.

I thought John Mateer last year played well in the first part of the season.

He has the injury, goes down.

He came back, showed some leadership in Moxie and coming back, even though I know he wasn't fully healed, then struggled.

But Oklahoma was a team that I watched and said – Man, if this offense ever gets going, if this offense can stay healthy, they've got a defense that is better than anybody.

I mean, you got to go need a search party to find a conversation about the Crimson Tide, Benjamin.

I mean, we think they're sitting at home doing nothing, but that isn't what they're doing.

You know what? What you just said right there, another conversation that I've had in my workplace at times was we're here doing this.

They're over here doing nothing.

Right.

And I always look at the guy like, What do you mean by that? They're keeping your kids alive.

They're keeping you alive, actually.

Many of you would have forgot to put on your underwear if your wife didn't tell you.

Now

When you look at something and you call it a whole-life agenda – What does that mean? If you put feet on that, if you put it on terra firma, what does that look like?

Well, I think for me, and as I read through Scripture, I see a God who never does things halfway.

He doesn't restore halfway.

He restores completely.

Now, that takes time.

We as human beings fight against it sometimes, and we don't help out.

But the idea of justice is about restoration completely, totally, as an individual, as a community, marriage, families, nations.

How do I engage by still speaking truth, but going to that very important element of empathy that we talked about before? Is it doable? And if the answer is yes, how is it done?

So as the opposing team that year, what was the whole T.O. going to play, not going to play? How did you guys in New England view his disappearance from the playoffs and then potential return to that game?

Well, you know, you've listened to Coach Belichick enough times to know that it was not a big deal, and we're going to play whoever's out there, and whoever's out there on the field, that's who we're going to deal with, and we're worried about what we have to do.

And I've got enough to worry about here, going over first down, second down, third down, and we're all trying to just do our job.

Did I sound like, did I give you the? Yeah, Bill.

Doesn't sound like a Hall of Fame answer.

Clearly not.

But that's what it was.

You, you mentioned, uh, and obviously what's going on now, he doesn't get into the Hall of Fame, but what is it like, the dynamic between such a high-profile coach and quarterback when you're on that team?

What was it that Kirby Smart brought to it or did that got that thing to where it is right now, given that talent was always there?

Yeah, um, you're right about the talent.

Uh, the, the ongoing joke that we used to have in the locker room was that, uh, Georgia players, we would have a bunch of them in our locker room, but we never won national championships.

And then when Kirby came, we started winning those national championships.

105, I wrote it down, 105 and 19 in nine seasons, Kirby Smart.

Two national championships, three SEC championships.

Um, you go to the practices there in Athens, and there is a certain type of work ethic and accountability that is bar none.

How do you see the top of the conference this year?