Jake Louque and Spencer Schultz are in the midst of Episode 4 of The Jumbo Set, a budding Baltimore Ravens podcast under the The Exit 52 Podcast umbrella.
On their latest episode, the two discuss the intricacies of sports betting application “Underdog”, which Schultz calls “awesome”. Then, they break into discussion about possible division winners and playoff contenders. “Let’s finish with the AFC North,” Louque said. “Keeps the people guessing and waiting.”
This is just a microcosm of how they parlayed their love of football to the digital airwaves with The Jumbo Set. With their unique insights and dedication to consistent episodes, they’ve blitzed the ears Ravens fans everywhere.
Baltimore Sports and Life: Did you grow up as a Ravens fan? And how did it bring you to Baltimore Beatdown?
Jake Louque: I did grow up as a Ravens fan, though my relationship with that fandom is a bit unique. We moved to South Carolina in (if memory serves) early 2002 when I was still six years old. I was a bit young to really remember much of the 2000 season, and moving away made it harder to really dial in on the team during the Boller years (blessing in disguise?) because of the market I was in, plus the fact that I couldn’t really bond with any friends over them. We came back to Baltimore around Christmas of ’05, which for a developing young Ravens fan was pretty fortuitous timing. I don’t recall following the ’06 offseason super closely but for a few of the big moves they made, but I remember that team (and their amazing regular season) being the first one I was really able to get my head around, and follow on a week-to-week basis. Steve McNair and co. really captured my imagination for the first time as a sports fan, and while their loss to the Colts in the divisional round was devastating, it’s the first game that I can really remember registering that intense of emotion surrounding a team. From there, I was more or less hooked.
Spencer Schultz: I’ve been obsessed with football since my mother, Lisa, took me to my first Ravens game when I was a baby. We sat in section 513 from 1998 to 2021, which provided me a picturesque All-22 view of Ray Lewis, Ed Reed, Terrell Suggs, Jamal Lewis and company my entire life. I grew up playing football most of my life, linebacker, quite violently, but I was never anything special. Lewis has been my idol since I was a boy. The pure emotional sacrifice that he made to the game has never left the forefront of my mind. He also drew strength from the absence of his father, which I greatly admired as a kid, and I’ve held an admiration of his fortitude, which I’ve always desired for myself. My mother took out a loan to take me and my brothers to see the Ravens win the Super Bowl in New Orleans, which is a story for another time, but solidified my love for Baltimore Ravens football until the day I die.
BSL: How did both of you get your start in the writing/podcasting world?
JL: Our old Beatdown co-worker Logan Levy eventually brought podcasting into the fold at Beatdown and after he left the site to pursue coaching, I saw an opportunity to take up that mantle and jumped at it. As a more naturally talented writer than technically skilled producer, or on-air talent, it was definitely a long process of trial and error to really dial in on what was going to make the Baltimore Beatdown Podcast a relevant voice in the burgeoning space of talented Ravens content creators. Thankfully I had Vasilis Lericos there as a great first co-host to get the show off the ground, and was lucky enough to have Spencer eventually join the fold a few weeks in. Pretty much from the get-go, we recognized that we had a great dynamic that made the podcast similar to the ones that I enjoyed listening to.
SS: My journey through college was a long, winding, and often unfruitful one. Without a true sense of direction, I eventually became a mortgage loan officer out of school, but the 9-7 cubicle life wasn’t a sustainable option in my mind. I returned to school and studied electronic media and film while working odd jobs, with a passion for screenwriting. One of my lifelong goals is still to write a script for the next great football movie, something to the tune of Friday Night Lights (the movie is ten times better than the show could ever be, and is undoubtedly the zenith of football films.) I started writing articles for Baltimore Beatdown in March of 2019, then teamed up with Jake to start the Baltimore Beatdown Podcast where we grew together from neophytes into self proclaimed podcast Titans.
BSL: How did you all join Exit 52? What’s the most rewarding thing about joining Exit 52?
BSL: You both interviewed Hall of Fame safety Ed Reed and others. What was the experience like and who were some of your favorite interviews?
JL: I always get pretty nerve wracked in the lead up to a big interview, but once I’m in it and going, I never feel more present or engaged than any other time making content. With Reed specifically, we got to chat with him a few times, and it never ceased to me amaze me that I got the opportunity to sit in those zoom calls, much less actually chop it up with him a bit – asking him about his dream golf foursome (Barack Obama, Martin Luther King and Malcolm X) was a particular trip. A personal highlight for me was Jonathan Ogden last year. Spencer’s computer lost power about a minute into the interview, and so with only enough questions to cover about half of our allotted time, I had to go off the cuff a bit and try to get as much out of it as I could.
SS: Jake and I have had the opportunity to interview a slew of players over the last few years. Ed Reed started calling me “Spence” after our third interview, that made me feel like the man. Mark Andrews was hilarious and genuinely easygoing. My favorite, by far, though, was interviewing Patrick Queen. I had him as my highest rated inside linebacker in his draft class and was fired up when the Ravens turned in the card. PQ was the seventh youngest player to ever start an NFL game in 2020 after an COVID abbreviated training camp and thrown into a starting role after only a handful of starts in college. He actually blocked me on Twitter 15 minutes after a game once because I tweeted, “Patrick Queen just got run over in the hole. Damn.” A running bit that Jake started eventually got me unblocked, which we talked about when I interviewed him. He’s one of the most underrated, misunderstood players in football in my opinion, and you can feel that he knows it with every word he puts forward. I asked him what the best moment of his young career was to that point and he told me, “when I found out Mike Macdonald became our DC.” Watching him turn in his best season to date and play like a man possessed brought me joy last year, and I’ve loved his self awareness after lashing out when the Ravens declined his fifth-year option this year. He’s a grinder and is going to be a good ball player for a long time.
BSL: Spencer, you’ve done film breakdown and were published on NFL Draft Scout. Is that knowledge taken from your football-playing days and what are some things you learned along the way?
SS: I worked collecting data for Pro Football Focus. Then in 2020, I took a job with Sports Info Solutions in Allentown, Pa. during the heights of the pandemic. My mother has called me “an idiot savant” regarding statistics, analytics and generally my football knowledge since I was a kid. I stay up until at least four a.m. multiple times a week watching coaching clinics, filtering through data sets to find answers to the questions that my restless mind sears into my brain after midnight. SIS made my ability to identify coverages, run concepts, route combinations and blocking schemes almost as quick as my ability to blink. One of my proudest achievements was being published into the SIS 2021 NFL Draft Guide with my scouting reports. The NFL Draft is my Christmas every single year. My playing days probably allow me to gauge what’s possible on a field some, but frankly, I wasn’t that talented of a player and I was never on a team with a winning record from seventh grade through my senior year. Anyone who plays 10,000 hours of Madden has a stronger foundation of football knowledge than someone who doesn’t, I will die on that hill proudly. I can’t quite explain why I’ve spent so much of my life obsessing over football, but I love it. I love it. My mom’s probably just right, I’ve got some weird football idiot savant obsession. It just makes sense to me. I love the violence. American football is the closest thing we have to gladiators in The Colosseum.
BSL: Jake, you’re an avid golfer and someone who enjoys the game at the professional level. What brought you to your love of the sport and playing it semi-regularly?
JL: I always followed golf casually growing up, and would tune into the majors and maybe one or two other big tournaments per year, but my love for it really started to grow about four or five years ago. Tiger Woods’ comeback from his 2017 DUI and all his prior health/personal issues was super compelling to me on a human level, and his pursuit (and several near misses) to win another major in 2018 was something I started to track really closely after reading Armen Keteyian and Jeff Benedict’s biography on him. His win at the Tour Championship in ’18, following finally getting it done at the Masters in the Spring of ’19 will always be one of the most impressive sports accomplishments I’ve ever seen considering the insane life he lived, and all of the tribulations (many self-inflicted) that he endured. I would play maybe two to three times a year growing up, but never found the time or money to really throw myself into it, so it was right around the same time after entering the workforce and finally having some disposable income on my hands that I decided to give playing it consistently a shot.
What advice would you give to people who want to join this field?
JL: For years, I sat around thinking about getting into all of this stuff, but let the fear of not being good at it hold me back from actually doing so. And the fact is, I wasn’t very good when I actually did start – it’s been the years of experience and trial and error that’s gotten me to this point… whatever *this* point is, I’m not exactly sure, but if I look back to when I first started, that version of me would probably be pretty proud of how far I’ve come. So if all that’s holding you back is fear of failure or what your friends think, the solution is as simple as starting a blog/podcast/YouTube channel, and not tell anyone close to you about it until you’re confident the product is good. Or better yet, don’t worry too much about what people think anyway; anyone who’d hate on somebody for pursuing their passion isn’t worth your time anyway.
SS: My advice to people who want to join the field is first to love it. Obsess over it. If you do, there are enough bloggers, content creators and folks who truly don’t understand what’s happening on the football field. I don’t think 99.2% of people who watch football come close to comprehending what they’re watching. It isn’t possible to watch a 3-second car crash, once, from one perspective, then understand what you saw. Even coaches have to watch tape. So you, without tens of thousands of hours watching variations of it, think you understand what you saw, live? Why do you think coaches spend so much time watching game film? Why do you think the amount of time they spend emphasizing the minutiae of a variety of techniques is so meticulous? To assume that you can fully comprehend every aspect of 22 world class athletes attempting to run through each other at the same time — once — is disrespectful to the game. One of the greatest compliments I’ve ever received was, “you know what you don’t know, and don’t pretend to.” You will never know everything about the sport. It grows, evolves and changes like a living, breathing organism. Be emphatic and intentional. Finally, be yourself. There are enough content creators trying to be someone else. Follow these rules, then maybe you can too end up being a part time podcaster!
What’s your prediction on the record?
JL: 11-6, I have them beating the 49ers in the Super Bowl.
SS: 12-5, losing to the Chiefs in the AFC Championship Game in an epic battle.
Kyle J. Andrews is a 2018 University of Baltimore and Mount Saint Joseph High School graduate, along with former sports reporter for the Centre Daily Times in State College, Pa., the Baltimore Sun Media Group, 105.7 The Fan, Baltimore Beatdown, and Fox Sports 1340 AM. He has covered the Orioles, Ravens, high school sports in the Baltimore area and Central Pennsylvania, minor league baseball, Penn State and Maryland athletics and more.