Long before she became a regular on Monday Night Football and NFL Live, or took over as host of SEC Nation, Laura Rutledge was a student in Gainesville, learning the radio business one shift at a time.
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Rutledge has now learned to handle live broadcasts when things go off track, ask tough questions on the sideline, and keep a panel discussion moving even when the analysts disagree. Much of that came from her college days’ grind.
“I don’t know anybody who volunteered to do Morning Line. And if you remember, these were not 45-second morning lines,” Rutledge’s mentor, Steve Russell, said on WRUF’s October 10 podcast with Laura Rutledge. “They were a four-minute sports cast. Remember? “
Rutledge still remembers those shifts. The long hours never felt like a chore to her. They gave her a chance to learn the job by doing it, often with little time to prepare.
“Yes. Which trained me,” Rutledge replied. ” I mean, those reps and the time spent, and honestly, the best thing about it was all the mistakes I made that you helped me correct. I would say, doing Morning Line was a huge piece.”
Rutledge also credited her time on Russell’s live talk show with changing how she worked on air. Instead of sticking to a script, she had to listen, respond, and keep the conversation going in real time. That prepared her for the big stage.
“I think you could ask my bosses at ESPN and Fox Sports before that, they liked that I had the ability to think on the fly and to speak off the cuff,” Rutledge said. “And that came from here. That came from radio, not even doing TV.”
Rutledge found her way to the University of Florida’s campus radio station during her freshman year while looking for a way to make extra money. She had hoped to work in news, but the station had no opening in that department. The available job was in sports, so she took it.
Rutledge later admitted she struggled when she first started. She was not used to being bad at something, and that bothered her. Rather than walk away, she kept at it, determined to improve.
Laura Rutledge has said she used to take mistakes hard, especially when they happened live on air. As a perfectionist, she found it difficult to accept that not every broadcast would go exactly as planned.
While working on the Tampa Bay Rays’ pregame and postgame radio shows, Rutledge got an offer to appear on television for Fox Sports. She was reluctant to take it.
Radio suited her better, and she liked being able to turn up in sweatpants without worrying about how she looked. Still, she decided to give television a shot. Her first TV appearance did not go smoothly.
Rutledge was so nervous that she sweated through a pink satin shirt. She was also unfamiliar with the equipment and the language used in a television control room. She later described the experience as a “treading water type” situation.
Then, ESPN turned her down when she interviewed there in 2013, telling her she was too young for the job. She kept working and took a position covering the San Diego Padres, where she could fill in as a host and get more time on camera.
She believed she had to take whatever opportunity came her way because, as she put it, “nobody else is going to give me that chance.” A year later, in 2014, ESPN hired her.
Rutledge started as a sideline reporter initially. She covered different college sports and took on hosting assignments as she gained experience across the network.
In 2016, she became a reporter on SEC Nation, joining the show’s existing team. The breakthrough opening came in spring 2017. Maria Taylor, who had hosted SEC Nation the previous season, moved to a bigger role.
ESPN needed someone to take over as host of SEC Nation, and Laura Rutledge was already part of the show. During the 2016 season, she worked well with analysts Tim Tebow, Marcus Spears and Paul Finebaum.
When ESPN announced the promotion, senior coordinating producer Tom McCollum pointed to her strong working relationship with the SEC Nation crew and her experience as a host.
Finebaum offered a more personal assessment, calling her “wickedly smart, incredibly talented and shockingly funny.” She then began hosting SEC Nation in 2017 and stayed in the role for almost ten years.
Her college radio experience had taught her how to keep a conversation moving without making it feel rehearsed, a skill that came in handy with a live crowd and a panel of analysts.
She left the show this year as her work on NFL Live and Monday Night Football demanded more of her attention. Her versatility and that attitude to take everything head-on, even the less sought-after Morning Line, are the reasons ESPN considers her a top asset. She signed a multi-year extension just last year.