MidDays with Gerard Gibert 2026-07-21

**SPEAKER_1** (0:00)
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Get ready to go beyond the headlines and join a meaningful conversation with people from around the state. You're listening to MidDays with Gerard Gibert here on SuperTalk Mississippi.

**Gerard Gibert** (1:01)
Good morning, everyone, and welcome to MidDays. SuperTalk Mississippi.
I'm your host, Gerard Gibert, along with Rhino in the Element Well Studio, guiding you through the middle of your day with facts, fodder, and fine music. And let's see, we're supposed to kick it off right now with Michael Borky, he's the host.

**Rhino** (1:22)
Not quite.

**Gerard Gibert** (1:23)
Not quite, okay.

**Rhino** (1:24)
He said to blame Brian Haydatt.

**Gerard Gibert** (1:26)
Okay, I was wondering, didn't see him up there on the screen.

**Rhino** (1:29)
He's gonna get connected here in just a second.

**SPEAKER_1** (1:32)
When he does, I'll replace my face with his.

**Gerard Gibert** (1:35)
Got it. Just looking at the schedule here, he's supposed to be joining us. That's because he, along with the Sports Talk Mississippi team, is down in Tampa, Florida. That's for the SEC media days. I just can't get accustomed to the idea of talking about college football right now. Maybe it was the World Cup that had our attention from a sports perspective. And then last night, I'm flipping through the channels, and you know, I was on Field of Dreams.
And it's just something about that movie. You always have to stop and watch it. It's just so well done. And it's interesting to see Kevin Costner, you know, in his prime.
Just looks a little different today. You still see him around. But awesome, awesome movie. And so well done. Oh, I see you got the screen up where the SportStalk Mississippi set is. But I don't see Borky. He's coming on.

**Michael Borkey** (2:40)
I'm here, Gerard. I'm here. I'm hiding from you is what I'm doing, you know.
Spent all this time getting down here, and I don't want you to see any of it.

**Gerard Gibert** (2:50)
I gotcha.
Okay, so, all right. So you guys are all squared away in place, and you're set to talk. Tell us what in the heck is going on. What's on tap today in Tampa for SEC Media Days?

**Michael Borkey** (3:05)
Well, today is an interesting day. One that, frankly, Brian Hay, that doesn't particularly like, but that's okay.
This was the day I got to have a one-on-one with the commissioner of the SEC. And, unfortunately, time is never long enough with him. I mean, I could have talked for an hour about all kinds of stuff. But where we started today and the big thing today was centered around, really, two things locally that are of the most interest from the league office. Number one is the game. Week three, Lane Kiffin making his return to Oxford. I asked him if the league has stepped in and been involved in that, and he gave a good answer about, I mean, I'll paraphrase it, but it was essentially, I needed to remind everybody involved that, you see my arm, there I am. Hey, Gerard. I got you.
But he said I needed to remind people to talk about your own team and your own team only. He didn't seem to be very pleased with some of the off season comments that were made in the direction, not only in Ole Miss' direction, but the state of Mississippi as a whole. And then the other thing was Dabo Sweeney calling out Pete Golding back in late January about tampering and Luke Ferrelli and all that. And again, I asked Greg Sankey about that. And I was surprised at how pointed he was basically in defense of Ole Miss when he said, we all live in a glass house. He said, no, hold on. We all live in a glass house. And I thought, that is a very non-political way for essentially a politician to answer that. So you'll hear that full interview coming up later on the show, but it was a very interesting sit down. And he's a guy that is living in your world right now with all the lobbying he's having to do to Congress and things like that. So it's kind of a mess around here, but that's the big interview today is the one with him.

**Gerard Gibert** (5:05)
You know, that's a good point though, Michael. I can't remember a time in the history of college athletics where there's been so much interest from the political world as a result of, I guess you could say, all the chaos that has been inserted into college athletics through the collectives and the NIL and all this other crazy stuff and all this moving around of teams between conferences. And so it's gotten the attention of those in the political domain.