Dawg Football Weekly: Two Westfield students take their passion to podcasting

PERRY, Ga. — Football is one of, if not the most, popular sports in all of the United States.

From middle school, all the way to several professional leagues, there’s support for the sport. Behind those leagues are passionate fans, boosters, and volunteers.

But it takes a special type of passion to join from the outside: to show up to every game, week in and week out, to follow what happens even though you can’t directly be a part of it.

That’s the kind of passion Reid Black and Russ Hiley have.

The two rising juniors at Westfield decided to take their lifelong passion for Georgia football and put it into podcast form.

“We both grew up lifelong Georgia fans,” Black said. “As we’ve gotten older, we’ve become more passionate and we’ve been to a lot of games. Really, the main reason we started it was because we wanted to get our opinions out there, have a way to voice our thoughts and meet more people like us.”

The duo voices their thoughts on a plethora of subjects, and not just game performances for Georgia.

“We cover the recruiting side of it, games and practices. But we also cover what goes on in the conference and any major college football news or anything that has implications on Georgia,” Black said. “Whether it’s name, image and likeness. Whether it’s a NCAA ruling, or whether it’s just some other team. Alabama, USC, Texas or Florida, we cover all of it.”

Plenty of media outlets cover the same type of material and there are plenty of people with microphones who could discuss the same topics. What makes Dawg Football Weekly special?

“I really say we’re just authentic. We say what we truly believe. We’re both passionate about what we talk about. That’s really the main reason we do it, because we love it,” Black said. “Really when it’s just the two of us talking it’s really like any other day just having a discussion. Just two friends having a conversation. Sometimes me and Russ don’t agree on what we’re talking about, but that’s okay. I’d say what makes ours different from the others is that we have real discussions and real arguments. Really if you look at the mainstream as far as ESPN and other networks a lot of their debates and conversations are kind of staged and everybody has to pick a side. But with us especially, sometimes I think one way and he thinks another way and sometimes we both think the same thing.”

For Black and Hiley, the passion goes back a long way and it’s helped them not only find their love for football, but sports in general.

“Probably when I was going into middle school,” Hiley said. “I really started following and watching Georgia football, and I started having favorite players.”

“I think back to the moment — I’ve been going to games my whole life with my dad. I remember 2017 — Jake Fromm, he’s up at Georgia his freshman year after Houston County, so everything was kind of like, ‘what’s he doing?’ Then I remember the first game of the season they were playing Appalachian State at home, it was a 6 p.m. kickoff. Jacob Eason, the starter, got hurt and then Jake Fromm came in, and the rest is history. That’s really when I jumped on this obsession almost with the sport and the team.”

Though hosting a podcast is a hobby right now, both Black and Hiley would like to pursue a career in media in some form.

“I really want to pursue a media career any way possible. Whether it be radio, studio television or even writing,” Black said. “I’d love to pursue a career and talk not just Georgia football but college football and even just sports in general.”

For listeners interested, they can find Dawg Football Weekly on all major platforms, including Spotify, Amazon Music, Pandora and iHeartRadio.

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