Kendall Kaut Says Goodbye and Thank you for Reading

It’s been an incredible 5.5 years running things here at ODB. I’m grateful for the time I had here, and each of you who took the time to read anything I wrote or listen to any takes I had. Even some of the egregious ones; especially some of the egregious ones.

When I took over, I figured we’d dive into covering Baylor football and then get ready for Baylor hoops. Just a few days into the gig, the scandal exploded. Although it was a chaotic time, I’m proud of how we covered things. You can look back and think we were off one way or the other, but we tried to always offer our sincere thoughts on the situation. Some people stopped reading. Others started. But we tried to provided what we thought, regardless of what others wanted to read or hear.

I’m most grateful for the relationships we built over this time. I had the opportunity to cover the national championship game and write a book. I spent hours interviewing Jared Butler, Davion Mitchell, Mark Vital, some coaches and a host of others. I’m eternally appreciative of David Kaye for credentialing our blog and letting us cover Baylor athletics.

Over the years, we wanted to be smart and, when warranted, funny. I think we did that. We wrote about Pilot Pete being the Bachelor. Matt Wilson—an excellent selection to take over the site—had hysterical pieces. Peter, Fank and Coffey continued to have the best Baylor football podcast—with zero assistance from me! Greg, Fielding, Travis, Michael and a host of others provided unique and intelligent content (I could write paragraphs about each, but I will keep it shorter here). I am excited to see what Michael has in store covering basketball! Andrew Miner, a great man and a friend, wrote a few fanposts for us and now has a wonderful substack.

I’m deeply indebted to Mark. He started this site and let a man—with wild takes about chicken and life—guide the site for half a decade. He runs the Twitter account and has been one of the key voices in Baylor coverage. He’s also an outstanding person.

If you didn’t see, I’m heading to SicEm365. Everything came together quickly, but I’m excited to focus on basketball and at some of the opportunities I’ll have there. I’m also thrilled that Travis and I will still work together. Travis is unmatched in terms of X’s and O’s and simplifying the game.

David Hornbeak and I will have one final podcast that should drop tomorrow. David has a wonderful family and has been the perfect person to share a podcast with. He mixes exemplary questioning with an ability to entertain. I look forward to listening to the podcast with David and whoever he taps to replace me.

When I think back over the last five years of my life, almost all of the best moments happened because of ODB. We covered championships and celebrations. When COVID had me down, I could always look forward to covering Baylor basketball or talking with someone in the program. Or hearing Jared Butler shout, “Kendall” before I asked a goofy question. There are few places where you can write about an Olive Garden Pasta pass as a metaphor for the Iraq War, and offer a 3,000 word preview about a Baylor-Kansas game. You can here.

In the internet age, we can read a litany of publications for free. Or we can re-watch Seinfeld and appreciate that nobody will top Jerry Stiller as Frank Costanza. All Seinfeld tangents aside, these man hands have to type out my abiding appreciation to those of you who waded through the Barry Goldwater references and all other wacky stuff we did. The site would not exist without you. It’s been the honor of a lifetime to have written here and led the site. I look forward to seeing Matt lead it into the future.