Three Hours, an Entire Country, and Rick Neuheisel

Behind the scenes of Full Ride—and why the most important question usually comes after the score.

Nov 03, 2026

There are weeks when the hardest part of my job is figuring out what deserves three hours.

Then there are weeks like this, when I need somebody to explain how the hell we’re supposed to fit everything into three hours.

Alabama–LSU. Kentucky–Tennessee. Georgia–Ole Miss. The Holy War. Ohio State–Oregon. And Miami–Notre Dame, a game that practically walks into the studio carrying its own documentary.

Oh, and Florida State has an open coaching job.

Perfect. Very quiet week. Plenty of room for everyone’s thoughts.

This is the part of hosting a national show that I absolutely love. It’s also the part that requires more thought than you might realize when you turn on the radio.

Because somewhere, somebody is listening and wondering why we haven’t talked about their team.

And honestly? Sometimes they have a point.

(Above clip is an example of Neuheisel as a teacher)

You’re trying to cover an entire country. Different conferences, different stakes, different fan bases, all convinced—and understandably so—that the most interesting thing in college football is happening in their town.

Meanwhile, I’m sitting next to Rick Neuheisel, who might hear one thing and take us somewhere I hadn’t even considered.

That’s often when the show gets really good.

My job is to make room for that without forgetting where we were supposed to go.

You need a plan. You also need to know when to get out of its way.

Rick likes things to happen organically.

If a conversation is going somewhere interesting, he wants to follow it. I do, too. Nobody wants to hear me interrupt a great story because I’ve decided it’s time to dutifully march to the next item on my list.

But you still need a list. You need priorities. You need some idea of what you’re trying to give the audience.

Otherwise, you look up and realize you’ve spent half the show on something that probably deserved eight minutes.

I can love a tangent with the best of them. That doesn’t mean every tangent needs its own ZIP code. Although I would bet mos most of you would say, Chris, follow your own advice. You wouldn’t be wrong, lol!

The balance is having enough structure to know what matters and enough flexibility to recognize when something better is happening in front of you.

That applies to a podcast, too. Sometimes you have even less time to work with. A team-specific show at least knows the audience arrived wanting that team. When you cast a wider net, you have to give people reasons to care about stories outside their own backyard.

That’s storytelling. And this week gives us a ridiculous amount to work with.

First, a very important hot honey interruption.

Since we’re going behind the scenes, here’s something you should know: my obsession with AR’s Hot Southern Honey has become a whole thing.

I was at a restaurant today and saw the popular competing brand being served.

I was appalled.

Yes, I understand that is a dramatic response to a condiment. I stand by it.

There’s vinegar in that one, by the way. I want the honey and the pepper doing their thing. Give me AR’s. The REAL DEAL!

If you own a restaurant, run a kitchen, or know somebody who does, please try this stuff. Put it on your chicken. Your pizza. Your biscuits. Taste what it does for the food you already make.

They have foodservice sizes, including gallons. This isn’t just me telling you to keep a little bottle in the pantry. I’m telling you I think your restaurant needs to give it a shot.

AR’s will also be at the Smoky Mountain Gift Show in Gatlinburg, November 4–7, with the show listing them at booth 4114. If you’re attending, go see them.

Check out AR’s Hot Southern Honey. Use SHOWPONY15 when you order.

They’re a proud founding sponsor of Show Pony Media, and I’m proud to have them. Supporting these folks helps me keep making the shows and stories you get here.

Now, back to the other thing I’m irrationally invested in.

Miami–Notre Dame deserves room to breathe.

Some games you can cover by talking about the quarterbacks, the lines of scrimmage and what’s at stake.

Miami–Notre Dame needs more.

You have to explain why people of a certain age hear those two names together and immediately feel something. Why an old T-shirt still lives in the sport’s memory. That part deserves lots of reverence.

But you also have to cover the teams playing now.

That’s where preparation and guest selection matter.

Aaron Taylor was on today. Here’s a guy who can help tell the Notre Dame side of that story and, through his work as a CBS analyst, bring a current football perspective to it.

Ian Fitzsimmons was on, too, coming off calling Miami’s win over North Carolina on the radio. He just saw them. That gives us another way into the conversation beyond what everybody watched on a screen or read in a box score.

Those are different contributions. I want both.

I want the history to give the game weight. I want the current analysis to explain what we’re actually about to watch.

And I find Mario Cristobal interesting in that context. His own path included seriously pursuing a career in the Secret Service before football became his life’s work. He also knows what it feels like to get fired: FIU let him go after he had taken that program to consecutive bowls. That decision still baffles me.

The guy has had to work his way through some things.

There’s a story there. Let it breathe.

Rick has changed the way I watch football.

After all these years sitting beside Rick, I can tell you this without hesitation: I see the game differently because of him.

I still get emotional. I still have opinions. You’re not going to turn me into a spreadsheet with a microphone.

But I ask more questions.

A quarterback plays poorly.

Why?

A coach wins nine games one year and struggles the next.

Why?

An offense that looked terrific a month ago suddenly can’t get out of its own way.

What changed?

Finishing my master’s sharpened that appetite for explanation. Working with Rick keeps feeding it.

So much sports conversation starts with the result and gets to the verdict in about four seconds.

He stinks. Fire him. Bench him. Overrated. Fraud.

Sometimes criticism is deserved. Sometimes a coach really did screw something up.

But I’d like to understand what happened before we start handing out sentences.

Who left the roster? Who got hurt? How much continuity is there on the staff? What is the quarterback being asked to do? What can the program actually afford compared with the teams it’s trying to beat?

Those variables matter.

(Above is a clip of Rick going behind the scenes of game management)

You heard that in our recent conversation with Lance Leipold about the razor-thin line in this business. One play can change a result, and that result can change the entire conversation about a coach.

Did the quality of his work completely change on that play?

That’s a question worth asking.

I try to put Rick in position to explain those things. If he sees something in a quarterback’s timing or footwork, I want to stay there long enough for you—and me—to understand it.

When we talked about Ohio State, that was the value of getting beyond “the offense struggled.” What is happening with the young quarterback? How can the people around him help?

That’s useful. That makes watching the next game more interesting.

And it’s a big reason I still love doing this with him.

Your fall football headquarters deserves a better chair.

Now, if you’re going to spend your weekend watching all this and questioning every decision made by a man wearing a headset, you should at least be comfortable.

That’s where 4Topps comes in.

This is a company that makes premium stadium seating. Their home collection brings that experience to your patio, backyard or firepit, with breathable, quick-drying mesh and durable aluminum construction.

That matters this time of year. I want to sit outside and enjoy fall. I don’t want an outdoor furniture maintenance hobby.

The AIRdirondack has that laid-back Adirondack shape, with quick-drying cushioned mesh, aluminum arms and stainless steel hardware. These guys take quality seriously.

If you want a premium fan experience at home, take a look. You put thought into the television, the food and who’s coming over. The place you’re sitting deserves some thought, too.

Explore the 4Topps home collection.

By Saturday night, the conversation will change again.

We get a playoff ranking reveal tonight.

We’ll discuss it. We’ll argue about it. Somebody will feel disrespected.

Then we’ll play this weekend’s games and start rearranging the furniture.

That’s November.

A coach can be the hottest thing in the sport, lose a couple of games, and suddenly have people wondering whether the whole operation is headed in the wrong direction.

I’m curious about those reactions almost as much as the games themselves.

Who gets patience? Who gets panic? Who gets judged on what actually happened, and who gets swallowed by the final score?

We’ll have plenty to talk about.

The challenge for me is making sure we do more than repeat how big the games are. You already know they’re big. I want you to leave the show with something you hadn’t considered.

A detail. A story. A better question.

And hopefully a few laughs, because we’re talking about college football for a living. I never want to get so buried in the machinery that I forget how much fun that is.

Want to learn how to do this?

The final Show Pony University class of 2026 starts tomorrow, Wednesday, November 4.

This is exactly the kind of stuff we work on: building a topic tree, asking better interview questions, writing hooks and teases, and finding your own voice.

How do you prepare enough to be confident and still listen well enough to follow an unexpected answer?

How do you give a conversation structure without squeezing the life out of it?

How do you make somebody care?

Those are skills you can develop. I love helping people develop them.

Get the details and sign up for Show Pony University here.

And if you missed our recent work: