Yogi Roth: The man behind the college football announcer is a humanitarian who cares about the people in the game that has brought him so much fulfillment.
Did you watch the Arizona Football versus Colorado game a week ago on the Pac-12 Network by any chance? If you did you were blessed to have the privilege to understand the game better through the eyes of PAC-12 Network College Football Analyst, Yogi Roth, a 10-year Pac-12 veteran announcer. If you only liked Yogi before reading this article, you will love him by the end of it.
I met up with Yogi at a quaint restaurant near his home in Venice, California, he had just finished breakfast with his beautiful wife Amy after they dropped off their four-year-old son Zayn at school. Let me tell you, Yogi is living the life!
Grounded by faith and family and surrounded by mentors who he gives a lot of credit to, they have helped to mold him into the man and television talent that he is today.
"“Family is everything. I never really worried about getting married or having a family. I went to Stanford for a spring game at San José State and some coaches talked me into sticking around for dinner and I walked down to a plane the next day and met my wife. So, football has given me everything. What Amy and Zayn have done for me is that they have allowed me to fall in love with the game more. But it doesn’t mean as much. Coming home, or when they go to a game and I come out of the Rose Bowl and Zayn runs up to me, I forget about the bad call I had on third down or if I mispronounced somebody’s name. I mean the game has given me so much. And now being married with a son and a family I have fallen even deeper in love with the game, but it doesn’t consume me like before. I still watch just as much film, prepare just as much, but it has become lighter.”"
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Roth focuses on bringing the humanity of sport to the world both figuratively through his work and literally by traveling to places like India to communicate through the language of “ball.”
Roth spoke about the work he is most proud of producing so far in his career, including that he is most interested in is using film to teach and bring humanity to sport. He pointed out the documentary he directed and produced, Life in a Walk. The documentary documented a walk along the Camino De Santiago in Spain he took in 2015 with his father, who was battling prostate cancer.
The filming of the documentary, his directorial début, which allowed him to be vulnerable and pass on his father’s life story, “When he [his dad] transfers from this universe to the next, I never want to say I could have spent more time with my dad.” Yogi’s dad told him in 2009 that he had cancer, and in 2013 it hit him “Like a ton of bricks” and he held in his emotions as an athlete was trained to do, and it was the first time he allowed himself to deal with his feelings.
Yogi reminded me that life is precious and although with this project, he wanted to relish his time with his dad on earth and not have regrets. He also wanted to produce a legacy project for his son and family.
Each day his father and he walked the streets of Spain, covering a decade of his father’s life.
As I sat enthralled and listened to his answer, I was amazed at how much he has accomplished so far including writing books (he started writing at 10 years old), producing a film, his current podcast How Great is Ball, playing and coaching football, acting, traveling, sports reporting and announcing. So I asked him for a couple of bucket list items he has yet to check off.
The first thing that popped into his mind was the Rose Bowl. Having coached four times in a Rose Bowl and been a sideline reporter as well (in 14 Rose Bowls), Roth has yet to announce the Rose Bowl game, and that is a dream for him down the road. The second bucket list item he listed was announcing the Olympics. He would be to produce and direct a documentary series focused on players and lastly, he would like to star in a movie or a Broadway show. We both thought a Romantic Comedy would be fun!
What are Yogi Roth’s thoughts on Khalil Tate’s legacy and NFL prospects?
It seems some media and broadcasters in Tucson temper any hype or optimism about Tate’s skills, accomplishments, and potential future NFL Prospects. But that’s not the case with ESPN and Pac-12 Football announcers like Roth,, who believe that Tate staying at Arizona was the best decision he could have made. He feels athletes should capitalize and leverage the equity at their college institution and experience. That’s what Tate decided to do.
If you listen to Yogi call an Arizona game, he is high on Arizona QB Khalil Tate. “Khalil Tate will go down as the best quarterback who ever played at the University of Arizona,” said Roth emphatically. Like Zona Zealots, Roth has covered Tate since high school. He feels that people will feel more this way in the future. For example, you hardly ever heard fans talk about Nick Foles until he won a Super Bowl and became MVP.
I asked Yogi if he felt Tate had the skills and athleticism to play in the NFL. A topic that a lot of fans and media have a big opinion about, it was refreshing to find out that he sees a future for Tate in the NFL as I do. Here are some things you should consider when forming your opinion:
"“Yeah. I think the NFL is changing. You look at Jared Goff, Pat Mahomes, Case Keenum, Baker Mayfield, Luke Falk, Kyler Murray, they all started in the NFL, they are all younger than 24 other than Case. All are air-raid, spread quarterbacks. I’m not even talking about Lamar Jackson or other dynamic athletes that play the position in a different kind of offense. My point is that the league is shifting, it’s shifting younger, shifting more athletic and that’s the reality with what’s coming out of college. The true under-center pro guys are only in a couple of institutions anymore, the pool is tiny to pick from. I think Khalil is more accurate than he’s given credit for. I mean there’s still growth for sure, to be a traditional pocket passer, to take those drops. With the way the league’s going, I’d like to see him go to a team where he can sit for a few years and learn from a veteran. I think a team will find a role for him whether he’s a starting QB or not I think it is TBD, we will have to look at the landscape of the NFL and teams projected to lose guys. He’ll have his opportunity."
Pro Football Focus College (per ArizonaSports.com) also sees the work Khalil is putting in and they ranked him No. 8 out of 130 starting quarterbacks in the NCAA, and No. 1 in the Pac-12.
"The site called Tate “perhaps the nation’s most electric dual-threat quarterback when healthy.” That all goes without saying that he’s improved his passing grades to career-high, near-elite levels this year. He’s completing 67.5% of his attempts and averaging 9.1 yards per pass through the air. … as he continues to play at a healthy level, there may be no stopping him as he’s approaching overall grade levels he saw during his Heisman candidacy season of 2017."
In case anyone didn't know, Khalil Tate has an arm. pic.twitter.com/hK8ISOxdgw
— Stadium (@Stadium) October 6, 2019
I asked Yogi if he has advise for the armchair quarterbacks or fans while analyzing and forming opinions about the players and the game. He loves the passion of the fans but they need to understand a few things.
“Nobody is trying to throw an interception, nobody is trying to miss a cover call, nobody is trying to blow a coverage,” explained Roth, “Everybody’s trying to do their best. It’s important to know why it happened.” And he tries to help fans understand the play and what happened during the game.
For instance, I was asking myself why the Arizona coaching staff kept calling a lateral pass play over and over against the Buffs, something that wasn’t clear to me. Yogi explained it easily, “Because it was working.” He wants you to remember that everyone from the coaching staff to the players to the announcers are trying to do their best all the time.
Announcing the Pac-12 is a dream job for Roth
Right now Yogi is fully enjoying his time working for the PAC-12 Network where he gets to live in Los Angeles and travel to the office in San Francisco and college towns for his weekly game. He has no complaints about his job, he is doing exactly what he wants to do, and doesn’t take anything for granted.
He doesn’t hold back when calling a game and knows the realities of playing and coaching which helps too. What he is very grateful for is getting to ride Ted Robinson’s coattails, a hall of fame broadcaster and the voice of the conference, “An Icon” as he called him.
Yogi cites Robinson as the mentor who has changed his life in the booth, including the art of announcing plays. “If Khalil Tate makes a play,” said Roth, “I gotta talk about the play and then after the replay, I can expound on that play, or I can weave his story into the play call. My job is simple, celebrate the game and coach the viewers. I call the game like I’m trying to coach my mom, that’s who we are talking too. We try to make it simple.”
He also listens to Kirk Herbstreit and Chris Collinsworth for inspiration and credits mentors, Steve Physioc (KC Royals), Kevin Calabro (Portland Trailblazers), and Michael Molinari (Pac-12 Producer) who have coached and trained him for the stage he is on now. Yogi feels he is getting a Ph.D. in his craft.
Pete Caroll is another huge mentor in Roth’s life, “I always say, ‘Pete took the clay my parents created and molded it.” He’s realized now at the age of 38, that since he was 19, having Caroll in his life is a gift. Caroll challenged him to put together a style, theme, philosophy for his life, “I thank Pete every step of the way.” Roth wrote the book, Win Forever–Live, Work, and Play like a Champion, along with Caroll.
Arizona Wildcats Football
Roth has established a reliable pre-game weekly process. On Monday, Roth reviews film (every meaningful snap), reads as many articles as he can, and speaks to both SIDs reviewing injury reports and depth charts. On Tuesday, he flies to San Francisco for the Pac-12 football series show.
On Wednesday, he comes back to Los Angeles and it’s time for player reviews. He also holds production meetings to decide what highlights are needed from past games, discusses what’s going on in the league, and what graphics they want to use. He would like to be done by Wednesday night and he uses Thursday to review the plan and clean up his board.
Roth shares all of his information and intel with his staff. He is all about the teams’ success. He travels on Thursday night, and on Friday, he wakes up and does yoga.
After yoga, he brings the crew together to watch a film. He relies on body type and uniform style recognition to call the game because the press boxes are so high, it’s hard to see the numbers of the players. On Friday afternoon he interviews the local coaches and players, and on Saturday its go time!
When asked what stadium was his favorite for broadcasting, it was not an easy question to answer for Roth. “I bet wherever I lived, I probably would enjoy that stadium. If I lived in Eugene it would be Oregon –living in LA, USC/UCLA are really fun. SC has always been embedded in me a little bit more, I’m more intimate with the team, Clay has been phenomenal – I think I can be honest about them more than any other team.” As far as the best facilities, Washington and Cal are the best so far. He loves announcing games at Oregon where you can “feel the crowd” and the same with Utah which is so dynamic, but the Coliseum and the Rose Bowl are his favorite.
If that question was difficult, answering what goes into his announcing job that was easy. He loves everything about the game of football. It’s the ultimate team game when it’s a packed house, there is so much nostalgia, he told me, it’s the leaves changing and no one is bigger than the game. “Just going on the field when it’s empty, I will just walk the grass. When anyone thinks they are too big for the game they should rethink their job. I think you should have a reverence for the game — We don’t have jobs without the game. I tell the crew (40 of them), ‘We get to go do this, let’s go out and call the game like it’s the Natty for every game’ I get to do this.”
Yogi’s storytelling passion helps him announce football games. About three years ago Yogi met with a man named Ken Black who ran innovation at Nike for 25 years, and his favorite authors Kevin Carol and Jeremy Darlow wrote Athletes are Brands too.
He spent a lot of time with those three sports journalists. He realized the thesis of all he has done to this point in his career and life had come down to one lens, “To seek and uncover the humanity in sports in football and around the globe. So when I’m covering a game, I’m trying to seek and uncover the humanity in the game.”
He’s learned over 12 years, that you are more interested in the game if you know and “fall in love with the characters of the game” and that calling NFL games you can be more critical than when you announce a college game. “I just think it’s different from the NFL, it’s kind of fun, you can be more critical. [In college] There are 110 stories combined on the sideline right now, I can compete to tell as many as possible. Be truthful about when a player should have made a play, but don’t hammer it – that’s to me where the bridge of the human side comes out in your homework and if you love it or not.”
Roth points out how his mom heard sports broadcaster Lee Corso just tore apart her son during a game on a broadcast. It was extremely hurtful. Corso, who now dons mascot heads to predict games on College Gameday, lit him up as a player, he clowned him pretty hard in a game, and it was never forgotten by Roth. It has affected how he announces a game. For example, he told me about a time he changed what he was going to say about a player dropping a ball, he was less critical and the results were precious. The players’ parents took the time to thank him for calling the play in a positive way. He is keenly aware that parents and family, as well as a player, are paying attention to what he is saying on broadcasts.
Roth mentioned that being able to focus on Pac-12 teams helps him be more of an expert on the 12 teams than national announcers, because he knows the players and teams better.
Thoughts on the current state of College Football and what could make it better
Roth’s former college teammate was Larry Fitzgerald. Can you imagine if this Heisman candidate was able to sell his name and likeness? We asked Roth about his thoughts on the recent bill in California signed by Governor Gavin Newsome. He told us that he feels the NCAA is getting pressed to focus on college athletes and how they are compensated as far as what a scholarship overall is defined as and he feels that should also evolve.
“I think that’s a good thing. Back in the day coaches were making a $150K and it wasn’t that big of a discrepancy — every game I played wasn’t on national television. There’s so much happening now, it’s a different game,” he explained, “The evolution of the game has rapidly increased, the evolution of salary [coaches] has rapidly increased and the scholarship has not – We have three years to figure it out.”
But he feels that if Name and Likeness can be compensated, then kids as young as 8th and 9th graders will be vying for Instagram followers pushed by their parents, and at that age, the kids don’t necessarily care as much as their parents. Yogi is concerned about the player’s mental health more than anything else, “There is so much unwarranted hype about young athletes.” In College football, he feels that only top named athletes will get the real money. He polled his former Pitt teammates about how many athletes he thinks are going to make it to the NFL, the answer was unanimous, ‘All of them.’ All or most college football players have their sights on the NFL.
Yogi would change one thing in College Football though, “It’s really easy for me, it would be health insurance for life. If you letter in major college football, you should get health insurance for life.” He broke his neck playing college football and if he hadn’t been working at SC, he would have gone broke. The NFL has elements of this that could be reviewed he feels. The humanitarian would include mental health benefits because this affects most athletes during and after their career.
Speaking of mental health, one big part of that is how an athlete handles and deals with the media. Roth is doing his part to help. Most of the colleges bring him in for media training and the 24 athletes that go to Pac-12 media days. After training UCLA’s football team, 70 kids sent him notes afterward that really meant a lot to him.
Because Roth knows that it’s not easy to handle the media’s hard questions sometimes, he spends time helping student-athletes understand their positioning statement and their brand because it “Transcends the game.”
Fan criticism is only part of an athlete’s life, if an athlete lets it in, it can be difficult to deal with. Roth teaches how to handle fan criticism and preaches using the media to help with their brand, learning how to flip the script.
He advises Athletes that they need to understand that mainstream media have a job and a boss, so he teaches his students to block and bridge. Block the question and bridge the answer to their brand message. Athletes need to understand that a lot of reporters wish they could coach or wish they could play. Answering tough questions gives athletes a chance to tell their stories.
If Yogi is media training or interviewing athletes and coaches, he feels it’s all about the how and why questions, “I think that’s what fun about interviewing college athletes – I enjoy watching how the athletes respond to it.” Yogi trains young players on media interaction determining what their brand, essence, message, and the story is so they can respond appropriately. He feels when asked a tough question from media, the student-athlete can respond while telling their story.
For example, if a QB throws an interception and they are questioned about if they want to take back the interception, they can respond by saying, “Of course I want to take that interception back, but I play with an aggressive fearlessness, so I will take chances to make great plays.”
What doesn’t Yogi Roth do? He is so accomplished and he feels like he is just beginning, bringing humanity into everything he does, and is motivated by the love of the game and his family. Can’t we all add a bit of humanity into our lives? That would be great! We are lucky to be able to ride the wave of his career with him and would like to thank him for sharing himself with us.