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How Taylor Lewan, Will Compton created the Bussin' Bowl, a trophy game between Michigan and Nebraska

clayton-sayfieby:Clayton Sayfie•09/28/23•

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Will Compton Taylor Lewan Bussin' Bowl
(Photo by Taylor Lewan / Twitter)

Taylor Lewan and Will Compton aren’t your average podcast hosts. Lewan, a two-time Michigan first team All-American and three-time Pro Bowl left tackle, and Compton, a former Nebraska captain and NFL linebacker, struck up a friendship while playing together with the Tennessee Titans in 2018. In the summer of 2019, they started ‘Bussin’ With The Boys’, the first active NFL player-hosted podcast, which joined the popular Barstool Sports network in 2020.

Lewan and Compton bring on guests from NFL players and coaches to world-famous comedians (and everyone in between), keeping the conversations light and funny. During their spring football tour in 2022, which included stops at Michigan and Nebraska, Lewan pitched the idea to then-Cornhuskers head coach Scott Frost for Nebraska and Michigan to play for a bus trophy.

“If you make the trophy, and you get [Michigan head coach Jim] Harbaugh and their A.D. to sign off on it, then I’m all in,” Frost said, before Lewan and Compton lost their minds with excitement.

The following week, the podcast took its talents to Ann Arbor. ‘Bussin’ With The Boys’ social media manager Jack McPherson was tasked with drafting up a scratch-paper document for Harbaugh to sign. He agreed to it before Lewan and Compton even finished trying to convince him to do so, putting pen to paper.

“Why not?” Harbaugh said. “It’s Nebraska, it’s Michigan — we can do whatever we want. You guys make the trophy, and then we play for it.”

“He grabbed it and signed that thing no problem,” Lewan told TheWolverine.com. 

The Bussin’ Bowl was on. Previously, Michigan was a part of three trophy games, competing with Minnesota for the Little Brown Jug (began in 1903, is the oldest trophy game in college football history), Michigan State for the Paul Bunyan Trophy (1953) and Northwestern for the George Jewett Trophy (2021). Make this the fourth.

Michigan won the first meeting, 34-3, in Ann Arbor last fall. The Wolverines celebrated with the bus trophy in the locker room afterward. The Cornhuskers fired Frost earlier that season, so Nebraska didn’t fully recognize the game in 2022. But since then, both first-year Nebraska head man Matt Rhule and athletic director Trev Alberts have jumped on board in support. This week, Bussin’ With The Boys received further confirmation that the rivalry is unofficially official.

“If you look at the trophy games that Michigan plays, this is by far the most agreed-to, buttoned-up trophy game,” Lewan pointed out. “The Little Brown Jug was literally just the 1800s and Michigan forgot a water bottle and was like, ‘We want it back!’ They’re like, ‘You gotta win it back!’ That’s how the game started. The Paul Bunyan Trophy, it’s basically like the state championship game.

“If you really think about it, no other trophy games actually are for real. None of them actually count, except for the Bussin’ Bowl.

“We just got an email that both ADs talked about it and they both agreed that they are playing for a trophy game. I’m pretty sure that it’ll be presented this week after the game.”

“We got a message that the ADs spoke, they’re in line with having fun with it, being like, ‘Yeah, this can be a rivalry game,'” Compton added, speaking with TheWolverine.com. “However, because those are the two signatures we need to make it official, they just don’t want to ink anything contract-related because no trophy or rivalry games have contracts that are binding. But they don’t mind that this is an organic thing that’s happened and they can present the trophy to whoever wins this Saturday.”

The roots of conflict between Michigan and Nebraska goes back to 1997, when the Wolverines finished the season ranked No. 1 in the Associated Press poll and the Cornhuskers sat atop the coaches poll.

“It’s awesome, and it’s cool you’re even doing an article about it,” Lewan said. “With rivalries, it takes time. And it’s so funny … and if you think about it, the seeds of the rivalry between Michigan and Nebraska go back to 1997. You can see the blueprint. Luckily enough, Will and I just played each other and we met at Tennessee.”

‘The players have bought in’

Lewan and Compton were on opposite sides of Michigan’s 23-9 loss at Nebraska in 2012, the game in which Wolverine quarterback Denard Robinson was injured. During a fourth-quarter play, Lewan blocked Compton into the sideline. Recently rewatching the game at Lewan’s family’s house in Arizona, the two took a moment to think about how far they’ve come as friends and in the content game.

“We were just laughing about us being on the field together,” Compton said. “We had no clue we would be where we are at right now as boys and best friends. Having a trophy game for the teams we played, and in that moment in 2012, we had no idea. Taylor pushed me to the sideline on one play, and I kind of swing and pushed back. Taylor’s like, ‘Oh, I bullied you here to the sideline,’ how he finished the play.

“We just laughed at how crazy it is, and fast forward to now, and we’re operating a podcast that has created a trophy game for our two schools we played for.”

Added Compton with a laugh: “This will be the smartest thing they will have done.”

The Michigan program — players, staff and fans — have had fun with the new rivalry of sorts over the last year, and the intensity for this year’s game has ramped up now that Nebraska is committed to playing for the trophy.

“The boys all had it in the locker room, we’re taking pictures,” Compton said of the trophy at last year’s game. “The Michigan recruiting department made the weekend around the Bussin’ Bowl. When you walked into their recruiting area, the white lights were spelled out, ‘Bussin’ Bowl,’ and there were balloons. That was awesome.”

This week, Lewan had to make sure the current Michigan players were ready to go for the Bussin’ Bowl.

“It’s funny, because the players have actually bought in,” Lewan shared. “Sunday night, I put [graduate left guard] Trevor Keegan, [senior right guard] Zak Zinter, [senior running back] Blake Corum, [junior quarterback] J.J. McCarthy and [junior running back] Donovan Edwards all in a group chat on Instagram, and I was like, ‘Bussin’ Bowl Week! I need this more than ever,'” Lewan said. “And the boys were like, ‘We’re eating corn.’ ‘We’re going at it.’ We’re essentially in this hate Nebraska group chat. It started four days ago. It’s just the early signs of a rivalry.”

Where will the trophy be?

The ‘Bussin’ Bowl’ trophy will be in Lincoln for Saturday’s game between Michigan and Nebraska (3:30 p.m. ET on FOX). Lewan and Compton don’t know for sure but guess that it will be presented to the winner in the locker room. If they had it their way, though, it would be a bit more theatrical.

“You want that thing to be taken on the field!” Lewan said.

“I want a stage to be brought out, and Taylor and I with microphones with the trophy and then hats — ’Bussin’ Bowl champions’ — and having an MVP on both sides,” Compton chimed in.

“Confetti, fireworks, the whole thing,” Lewan added. “Maybe a light show to go along with what me and Will are saying. Something like that would be fantastic. Maybe next year.”

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