Big Shot | ✓

12 | the gauntlet

The Atlantic Coast Conference Kickoff Event was, at its core, a dog and pony show.

Newly minted Head Coach Chris Riley (who'd been promoted from offensive coordinator at the end of last year after Clemson's long-time, two-time national championship winning coach moved on to the NFL) would lead this season's captains around by a metaphorical leash, have them do a few tricks and pose in front of every single media outlet that covered college football. 

And it was mine and Mara's job to make aesthetic, entertaining content out of that for social media. As we both sat on the floor of our hotel room in downtown Charlotte that Saturday morning before the first phases of the event started, we were still trying to figure out what exactly that content would be.

"I know it's not that original, but I like what Kayla did last year," I mentioned as I finished putting together the handheld rig where our shared department iPhone would go to capture all the quick, necessary media content. Mara would have the DSLR camera and be in charge of more professional photos that would be posted on social media and the website. "Like the whole go through media day with us type of thing. I think that goes over well on Instagram and stuff."

"I'm still not clear on this whole schedule," Mara said with a shake of her head. "Is media day today or tomorrow?"

"So today is radio interviews, television press conferences which they air on ACC Network, and all kinds of panels they'll have the guys and Coach Riley on, along with the rest of the teams," I explained to her. "And then tomorrow is like these breakout sessions that I still don't really understand, Reid has some special College Gameday interview, and then the preseason rankings release and that dinner at the end to close it out."

"Right, right," Mara nodded, the corners of her lips upturned just slightly. "Can't believe Reid even agreed to a special interview."

The only reason I was really privy to information about Reid's interview was because of my work study internship. Since I was there for Clemson media and not ESPN, I wouldn't be involved in the interview at all, but Mariah let me know that Reid had agreed to do it in the first place - and for some reason, gave me credit for his willingness to do so.

I just offered Mara a shrug. "I think it's meant to be aired as part of the College Gameday content when Clemson plays Georgia in the season opener."

"It's still crazy to me that people are that interested in him. He's like a football Kardashian." Mara turned the Nikon on and pointed it in my direction. "And we're just part of the paparazzi crew."

I chuckled. "Well, that is kind of our job. And we need all the content we can get if we're going to do this right."

She put the camera down and smiled one of her big smiles. "At least there's free food!"

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The media workroom opened at 9 AM, where the ACC Network analysts and reporters who were more or less the emcee's of the event would start their TV broadcast, and it would be nonstop throughout the day until the event closed at 4 PM. In between the press coverages of individual players and coaches, they'd pull in other players and coaches to speak with to fill the time.

I couldn't begin to fathom how someone could handle so much talking and schmoozing, getting poked and prodded like a piñata and being expected to spit out candy all day. As we waited in the hotel lobby for the guys before we all walked into the controlled chaos together, Reid Thoughts™ rattled around the inside of my head. Reid's injury and his readiness to play would undoubtedly be at the forefront of every conversation and interview he had. I only wondered how much candy he had before he started spitting flames.