Van Lathan is a newcomer in the college football content universe, but he can already see it changing after star podcaster Josh Pate\u2019s recent interview with President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n
Lathan, a vocal LSU fan who began cohosting\u00a0Ringer Tailgate for Bill Simmons\u2019 The Ringer last fall, is also a politics and culture commentator at the network. And he believes that Pate\u2019s inability to read the political headwinds of the moment has blown up in his face.<\/p>\n
Pate\u2019s controversial sitdown with Trump at a recent political event in Georgia forced the podcaster to record a lengthy explanation<\/a>. After posting the interview as part of a longer live stream, Pate turned off comments and later deleted the standalone version on YouTube.<\/p>\n Watching Pate battle with the reaction to the interview and the significant criticism he received<\/a>, Lathan believes the rest of college football media is taking notes \u2014 or should be.<\/p>\n \u201cJosh, and probably the college football world, learned some lessons here. We know that there\u2019s a conservative leaning within the college football world, we talk about it all the time,\u201d Lathan said this week on Ringer Tailgate<\/a>. \u201cBut President Trump is a deeply divisive character, it\u2019s just a fact.\u201d<\/p>\n Whereas Lathan believes many college football commentators made supposedly apolitical comments in the past to keep left-leaning ideas out of the sport, this was seemingly an example in which Pate ran afoul even of the typical conservative college football audience.<\/p>\n \u201cI think what they found out is having Donald Trump on our college football podcast is not a lot, a sizable, a growing number of college football fans\u2019 favorite thing,\u201d he explained. \u201cAnd there will be a cost.\u201d<\/p>\n Later, Lathan suggested he had spoken with Pate directly about the situation. Lathan nodded to the career opportunity presented for Pate in this instance, and many aspire to host a more casual conversation with Trump.<\/p>\n But Lathan likened Pate\u2019s miscue to similar regretful interviews hosted by comedians and other non-political commentators during the 2024 campaign, many of whom have publicly expressed regret for doing so.<\/p>\n \u201cThis was not worth it. The juice was not worth the squeeze here,\u201d Lathan said.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd I understand how some people would say interviewing the president is this ridiculously prestigious thing, but I think it\u2019s also important to be in tune in the moment with people\u2019s feelings. Maybe we will get back to a point one day where we can have conversations with the leader of the country, and those conversations won\u2019t be colored by people feeling like their lives are on the line and all that stuff. But we\u2019re not there now.\u201d<\/p>\n