Green Light with Chris Long - Aidan Hutchinson! Ryan McGee! Ohio State vs Michigan, CFB Playoff, Best Bowl Games & Urban Meyer Fired.

Episode Date: December 17, 2021

(4:36) - Hello, Layup Line and Succession!  (13:12) - Aidan Hutchinson on Returning to Michigan for Senior Year, Beating Ohio State, Rushing the Passer from the Edge, Jim Harbaugh’s Khakis and CFB Playoff vs Georgia.  (43:13) - Ryan McGee on CFB Playoff, Best Bowl Games, Urban Meyer’s Firing, CFB Transfer Portal, NIL Deals, Marty and McGee and Hair Care. Green Light Spotify Music: https://open.spotify.com/user/951jyryv2nu6l4iqz9p81him9?si=17c560d10ff04a9b Spotify Layup Line: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1olmCMKGMEyWwOKaT1Aah3?si=675d445ddb824c42 Green Light with Chris Long: Subscribe and enjoy weekly content including podcasts, documentaries, live chats, celebrity interviews and more including hot news items, trending discussions from the NFL, MLB, NHL, NBA, NCAA are just a small part of what we will be sharing with you. http://bit.ly/chalknetwork Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Welcome to the Greenlight Podcast. Cowboy Reid here. Cowboy. You all have seen the socials already out. You all have seen the YouTube clips. Aidan Hutchinson brings it today. Aidan's going to tell you some great stories, how he kind of transformed his rushing style,

Coach Harbaugh's workout gear, and what he's looking forward to in the semifinal against Georgia. And then Ryan McGee is going to wrap the bow on college football. We're doing bowl games. We're doing the playoff preview. He's hitting transfer. portal, NIL deals, and you all saw this on YouTube, but Chris and Ryan talk Urban Meyer being fired from the Jacksonville Jaguars. We've got more video going out on YouTube from both these

interviews, so check that out at Greenlight Tube. Enjoy both Aden and Ryan. These were fun to do, and here is Thursday Night Time Machine. Make whatever Thursday Night Time Machine. Not whatever, my man up four with a couple to play so you hit two on the nose you win i have to hit two on the nose well no you hit one on the nose and then you win the other and then we have a tiebreaker situation okay that's great read you want to read them wow dick's picks dick's picks chris you say 2724 chargers making 3321 chargers lightning bolts really go charges go we're both charges fit now here's the thing my brother plays on the chiefs oh i gave out the chiefs for amazon because i figure more people see that and i don't want like you know anybody

in kansas city getting mad i don't think anybody cares if you have a brother on a team do you do you pick accordingly or do you just you play it down the middle and be oh integrity all the way i don't care about family i think the chargers win this game i do i do think the charges win this game And I'm going to hit it right on the nose and I'm going to live to fight another day. Okay. I hope you do. Thanks. I appreciate it.

A lot of too high shell. A lot of too high shell. They wrote the blueprint. Not only a lot of too high shell, Chris will be Russian four or five. Chris Jones is out. That's right. That's a big deal. Apache Junction, Arizona.

Hello. Hello. Apache Junction. Apache Junction. When does that come up? elsewhere. Bad Santa. Bad Santa. Right.

Kids on his lap. He says, what's the North Pole like? It's almost Christmas. Nicely done. Billy Bob says, I don't know, like a suburb. Which one? Apache Junction. What the fuck do you care? That's good. It's brilliant. That's real good. My layup line song, I guess, is going to be... Closing Time by Semi-Sonic.

No, we'll go leave in trunk. Johnny Jenkins, because I'm going on vacation over the weekend. I can't tell you where. Virgin Gorda. Fuck you. Somebody's going to find me and ask me for football takes. I'm Bradley Martin. Sorry, I don't know anything about football.

Hey, a couple things. What are the couple things today? I mean, we've got Ryan McGee. I'm going to talk to him about bowl games on the tail end of this pod. You've got to go do some real estate stuff. So that'll be just me. And we got Aidan Hutchinson.

That's awesome. Go blue. Yeah. It's a defensive. Hail to the conquering heroes and the champions of the West. I'll probably ask him which comp he gets annoyed by most. Chris Long, Ryan Carrigan. So we'll talk to him and a few.

I got to talk to you about something. Don't know if you saw this. Go ahead. Have you looked at my Twitter over the last 24, 36 hours? Probably. Hard to avoid. Yeah, if you're looking at Twitter all the time. I like succession.

Oh, yes, I saw this. Yes. I was very excited. I thought it was maybe a set up there for a while. No. But judging by a couple of the replies, yeah, I knew you were earnest. That's great. Welcome.

It was a 90-minute thing. The first 90 minutes of that show sucked ass because everybody was trying to, as read, put it in my statement before the pod a couple of days ago. Everybody was trying to overdevelop themselves. Like, you know, like, we know your X, Y, Z. It's one of my pet peeves. Like, I didn't ask you for that character's history, slow cook this motherfucker. And they were not doing that.

But now, like, episode three of season one, I am all the way in. That's awesome. Who's your favorite character? Probably Tom. Yeah. Yeah, Tom's the best. Shaking the tree. Tom Womsgans.

And we're going to face each other in the fantasy playoffs. I have a side league in which I'm also going to make the playoffs. Team's name is Tom Wamsgans. Really? Yeah, I'm a big Wamsgans guy. You like him, too? Oh, yeah. How about him talking to the guy who's not so quick on his feet a lot?

Greg B. They have a really funny conversation. I don't know if you've gotten there, but sometimes if you need to make a tomlet, you got to break some greggs. Okay. Well, that sounds like it's going to be funny when I hear it. The second time. Well, about that. So last night, I said, I'm going to, I'm going to watch the whole fucking succession. And I'm going to, I'm going to watch it on time for the podcast. 30 hours?

Well, here's the deal. I realize there's three seasons. So that didn't happen. But, you know, I stopped to do something that I had to do, and I had paused succession. I walked over in the kitchen, walked back, hit play, and it jumped me to a scene in Italy where they're riding on a boat. It's a wooden boat. It's a beautiful boat. It looks like they're on Lake Como. That's, uh, that'd be the finale. Right.

So I keep watching. Oh, no. Yeah, I watch. And they roll up to this island and there's a guy there with, uh, he's tall, he's lanky. guard yeah yeah he's got a fuck ton of money calling my man's bluff like kind of just big dick and the big dick how long did you laugh well i'm like man this is escalated quickly the guy just had a heart attack i mean he's out on a boat he's like i'm just watching and watching and they go back and all the sudden the guy's got a shaved head and he's got some like uh weird jewelry on and they're like you almost

x y z yourself a couple you know i don't want to spoil it for anybody who hasn't seen it but i was like, holy shit, I must have jumped ahead. Because I did this with Squid Game. I did this with long straight trip for starting at the appropriate part and then you detour. There are three shows that I've accidentally jumped ahead on. Why? How? Why is this?

Because if you hit play, like you talk into my, my Xfinity remote and I say, Yeah, well, I said, uh, succession. The first time I talked to my remote last night, I said, suck session. Uh, but the second time I said succession, because I'm in. I think it just jumps you ahead to 10 minutes into the finale. Like there, there's no reason for me to pick season three episode nine or whatever. Is that the finale?

No, fuck me running, dude, because I, you watch the whole thing? No, I watched like seven minutes of it. So then I called Ryan,

because you're asleep, to make sure that it's worthwhile for me to keep watching. And he said, dude, what you know right now doesn't matter. It doesn't. Okay, good.

So I'm into it. It's a character thing. And, you know, Words. You'll love it. I could use a little less jacking off onto the window. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, but you're in. I don't want to sound like holier than now or anything, but I'm happy for you.

Thank you. This will be good. No, but you're two for two. What was the other one? White Lotus. Yeah. And this one. Pop culture synergy for you and me. You know, Kendall sucks. He truly does.

But the shirt off thing, I don't know if he does that more. Like get the creative juices flowing. Maybe when we're in a rut here at this studio, we should just take our shirts off. I agree. Disrupt. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, be anti-fragile, you know? Is that what it is?

I can accommodate anything, yeah. That's you in a nutshell. Yeah. All right. Well, hey, I want to say this. If anybody that works at, ORA is out there, it's a, have you guys heard of this aura thing? It tracks your sleep?

A-U-R-A. Oh, U-R-A. It's spelled differently. Oh, kind of like. My wife tried to get me one of these rings. They're supposedly ridiculous. They track your sleep, like, really well, like your heart rate and all this stuff. It's like a step up from an Apple Watch and then some

and it's circled around rest and recovery because I have sleep disturbances. Did you know this about me? No. Bad. I wake up like I'm dying dude. Oh really? Oh yeah. Not like a night terror. Night terror with like a heartbeat of like 115. Could that actually be your dying? Maybe. But I mean like it's a it's a huge cocktees at this point like just do it. Yeah. Or don't. You know, like I'm trying to sleep. Checkpoint. Checkpoint. But she got me these rings, the aura.

My fucking fingers don't fit any of you. They send you like up to size 13. I can't get a single ring on any of my fingers, dude. So, aura, can you get me a bigger size? Can you get me a 14, please? I ordered not something dissimilar. It's called a whoop. Yeah, whoop.

Well, about two months ago, they said it'd be there in about four weeks. Well, now they're saying I'll be there in about six months. So at least you have something. You can maybe cut two and half and tape them together. Sounds like we got two companies that are going to be sending us stuff. Whoop. Would love my order in like 2022 if possible. Thank you.

What do you want me to ask Aidan Hutchinson? Would he rather be known as a conquering hero or a champion of the West? Oh, that's interesting. I can write it down for you. Okay, thanks. Hey, take care. I'll see you when I get back from vacation. Have a great time.

You go sell some fucking house. houses, huh? Okay. Next time when you have a vacation, can you do it over like a bunch of shows or like shows that I'm on? No problem. It doesn't feel like much of a break over here. Every week's a break for you relative to the rest of this crew.

Yeah. Take care. Bye. Aiden Hutchinson now. Tick Pick should be your first choice to buy football tickets because they save fans money by never charging any service fees ever. Visit Tickpick.com. That's T-I-C-K-P-C-C-K.

Got rid of all the service fees that the other side's charge. Tick Pick guarantees the best prices on all of their NFL games. If you can find better prices for the same seats on another ticket site, Tick Pick will give you 110% of the difference in the purchase price. If you're like me and you can't wait to get back into an NFL stadium, visit Tickpick.com. So I got all everything, defensive end, Michigan stud, Aidan Hutchinson on the line here.

and we were just joking. I was like, I've been there before, but I didn't have to deal with a playoff too on top of that. How are you handling all this juggling, all this action? And it's happened pretty fast, huh? Yeah, it's just absolute craziness. You know, it was like when we beat Ohio State, I mean, things just went crazy, you know.

Just with me and everything, with our team, you know, we got to start prepping for a championship. And, you know, we win that one. and now we're in the playoffs. And now, you know, we're moving on to bigger and better things and things I've never seen before. And, man, I am so fired up. And, you know, I got a lot of stuff going on right now,

but it's all exciting stuff. It's all fun. And, you know, towards my career. So I'm all in. And, you know, I'm just, I'm ready to go and I'm ready to, I can't wait for New Year's Eve to become so we can play Georgia. Oh, yeah. It's got to feel like a long wait.

I mean, you know, like Bowlsie. and in general is always a long wait and you're like, damn, we got to put the pads on for like three weeks. I mean, let's just play right now, dude. I know, right. Yeah, you got to wait, do have a couple, you know, spring ball like practices,

get back into it and then it's a little annoying, but, you know, it's okay. It's worth the weight. Speaking of worth the weight, I mean, like, I heard you had a bottom of the first round grade in your junior year. You're like, a lot of people listening don't realize this,

and I went through this process two eons ago, but like you submit to see how high you would go and they'll give you kind of a range, and you got what? You got bottom of the first and into the second maybe after your junior? Yeah, bottom of the first, kind of all the way through the second. I think they had like 30 to 70 or something like that. It was some number, so it's about like late first or late first to, you know,

early third at the absolute latest. Now, do you think if you weren't, and I hadn't heard you talk a lot, but I just heard when you say fire, I can tell you from you're a Michigan man. So I'm picking up the accent. If you were not a Michigan man, do you think you come back for your senior year?

I mean, like, I know you guessed right. You bet on yourself and you bet right, but how much of it had to do with your loyalty to kind of like that program and all that history there for you personally and growing up there? Yeah, I think that was definitely a big part of it. Obviously, as a player, you've got to look individually really to see what's best for you in your career.

But one of those things that was so big is, you know, my dad went here. He won five rings, five Big Ten championships. And I'm sitting here, my junior year coming off just a shitty season. And, you know, we went two and four in 2020. So I really just had such a bad taste in my mouth. And, you know, I made that decision, you know, both thinking about the team and myself to come back. And, you know, it's definitely paid its difficult.

evidence this year. Did anybody call you crazy when you said I want to come back? Like you're getting the bottom of the first round grade. You're coming off of, uh, what was it, a broken ankle? Yeah, broken ankle. Because I remember when I opted to come back, there were a lot of people that were like, eh, I don't know, buddy. Like, you should probably get the money now. Were there people in your circle that were giving you what seemed like sound advice to them? Uh, and you had to just bet on yourself anyways. Yeah, I'd say people in my, in my circle, they were, uh, they were all in. Like, my immediate family and my parents, you know, just everyone around me was hinting, you know, to come back

and do one more year. My mom never wanted me to leave early because I'm already young. I was 20 last year. I would have been 20 going into the NFL. That's just a little bit premature in her eyes. And looking back, I think so too. But yeah, it was, I really had everyone telling me to come back. And so it was really an easy decision on my part. I think guys. in college, I feel like it's more so now than ever feel so inclined to leave early and to get that money. But, you know, I think I'm just a perfect example of someone who stayed and is reaping all the benefits, especially in terms of, in terms of money. It feels good to bet on yourself and win, man. It's like, that's right. Yeah, that's a good feeling.

And like, I know I was looking at your first three years and stats. aren't everything and obviously you had the junior year injury. I myself, I didn't have more than five, seven sacks, you know, my first couple years, my first three years, and then it was 14, my senior year. Like, are you looking up a month into the season? Like, holy shit, I'm at my, my college total right now. This is going to, like, I don't know what you thought. I don't know how high you thought you could go. I know as a competitor, I'm sure you're thinking, hey, number one, but a month into the season, it looks a lot more real than it did, you know, in August.

Right. Yeah. Even with like the sacks too, it's like that's something that like, it felt really easy to me in season, but then I kind of hit a point where, you know, you kind of have a couple games where,

you know, you're so close, you're right there. And it's just like you can't seem to get it. And then late in the season, I just started, I started hitting it, started hitting that stride with.

I had three against Penn State, then three against Ohio State. And it's like the train just, just kept rolling. And yeah, it's just, it was a really perfect storm for me right at the end. Because I really, I really think I've been playing my best ball lately. It's been, it's been showing on the field. Easy to see. Totally easy to see. But when you're in that slump, and I don't, I think maybe the longest you went was like two games without a sack. You know you're really good when that's a slump for you. But I mean, as a rusher, it's got to be, like, what would you

do when you feel like you're slump? And did you have like a lucky deal or, or, some superstition that you try to get out of it. Yeah, it's just very weird because I was playing well. I was playing really good. It was just, it was just, you know, sacks are a very tedious thing. And it's something that everything needs to be right in order for you to get the sack. You know, if one rush lane is bad at quarterback's getting out the pocket and you can kiss your sack goodbye.

You know, if you hit a sweet move and the ball's out in two seconds, it's just, it sucks. And, you know, that was kind of happening a little bit, something that some things that I just couldn't really control. So, yeah, that's what I kind of broke it down to. And you kind of just got to, I just told myself to keep playing ball. Because it is, it does get discouraging when you feel like you're winning so much, but it doesn't show on the stat sheet. What did you do like this year? I mean, because you used to play inside more, right? I mean, like, you rushed inside a little bit more. You, you had more edge time this year. And I don't know, I'm watching you play. I'm thinking, who's this guy's coach? Because like, not taking. anything away from you, the player. It takes a lot to perform like you perform, but I know you're well coached. So like, what has been that process for you and transitioning from, you know, a guy that plays a lot inside to a guy that like, this is the guy we need on the edge, as many third downs as we can get him. And I'm sure at the next level, nobody's going to be like, hey,

let's shove this guy in a three technique. Right, right. Yeah. Kind of my first three years, I had a different defensive coordinator for the, well, I I had the same defensive coordinator, but for those three years, and he put me on the inside sometimes. And then, you know, my senior year, we get a new coaching staff. We get Mike McDonald. He was a linebacker's coach at the Ravens. And so he comes in, implements the Ravens scheme, kind of like the Ravens scheme,

in our defense. And it allowed me to stand up on the edge. And, I mean, it just feels so right. And it feels so good. It does feel right. standing up. It feels so right. And like that I couldn't do spring ball because of the ankle.

But in fall camp I was doing, I was like, God, I can see everything. I got, you know, the cadences in college football are not too complicated. So you can really get a good jump on a majority of the plays.

And so it's just, so many things. I was, I was falling in love with the defense, falling in love with my role and the freedom that, that my, my coordinator gives me. But you're right, that standing up thing.

Like, I started doing it late in my career because I had, like, I had coaches early that were like, no, you need to be in a three-point stance. Who are the fastest people in the world, they get in a three-point stance? So I said, the fastest people on a football field, they stand up before the play. That's right. That's right. So I need to stand up. And when I got older, you know, I noticed the things that you're talking about.

I mean, I knew that, you know, young in the league, but having the latitude to, hey, I can see some of the quarterback mechanics. I can see the back shift. You know, like there's things that I can't see. Tackle stances. When you're in that three point, you can't see anything for the most part. Yeah. The play clock.

The play clock is the most important part. You see that thing getting down to five. I'm going on the next head bob, buddy. I'm going. You know what I mean? I'm gone. You were standing up the one play that's gone viral where you put your Buckeye friend in an invisible recliner

who's a good player and everything, but you know, you got him that play. What are you saying before that play? Because I know you're motioning to somebody. I don't know if you're saying like, you know, come chip me, motherfucker. What are you saying before that play? That's the one thing I'm wondering. Yeah. You know, we're getting late in the game.

They kind of had a long drive and I'm getting a little pissed off. You know, you're on the field for a while. And it's fourth down. And I see that center point to me. Like they're sending a slide to me. And I'm like, let's go, bitch. Send it all at me. I want it all.

And on that play, we had a edge pressure with one of the safeties. So my job was just called a heels charge. You just run through that dude's face. And you got to take the inside if, if, you know, you get stopped. So I took my, I took my lane. And, man, that's probably the coolest thing I've ever done on my life. I don't think anything will ever top that me waving. them over and then put them on his ass.

You looked pretty cool there, man. I got to hand it to you. That'll shoot you up. I said, like, and you're a great player, and so, like, you're going to be a top five pick no matter what, but I, you know, remember when Jadavian Clowney, he exploded a sled and he blew up the guy from Michigan. He blew up the Michigan running back. Like, that was your play.

Like, his play was the Outback Bowl. That play was you against Ohio State, and I could feel all the hatred in that bull rush. Oh, yeah. And I've run plenty of, of pressures like that where your job is to eat the tackle and free up the edge guy and you're supposed to just go through the motions, but it ends up being a centerpiece play for you. So good on you. How much do you hate Ohio State? Like, you know, like I have a

rivalry down here. We hate tech, but tech's been beating us for a while. So I got to, I can't even call that a rivalry. Like put into terms the hatred for Ohio State and Michigan players. Yeah. It's hard to put into words. if I'm being honest with you. Because, you know, a lot of guys, you know, come from different places and play this game. But I'm from Michigan, born or raised. I was born and raised a Michigan fan.

My whole life I've been going to those Ohio State games. So, I mean, it hits a little bit different for me, I think. And, I mean, the hatred is real. It is there. And, you know, I think, like, I mean, you're getting everything from every guy on every play. and that's in every rivalry game. But like in this one, I mean, there is no letting off the gas pedal.

And that's what that's what I love. And I love people, you know, just giving me their all. And, you know, I love beating them when they do that. Yeah, it was funny because it culminated in, in, in, at the Heisman deal in Desmond. That's right. Desmond threw gas on the fire. I was like, holy shit. I mean, do you, do you in that quarterback talk and you guys are cool or like, you know, like, after.

your time at Michigan is up and you've beaten Ohio State can you then bullshit and grab a drink with that guy after the ceremony weirdly enough we actually got along very well at that ceremony and you think there'd be a little more

animosity a little more you know whatever you want to call it but we're actually getting along talking about the game he was telling me how loud our stadium was like even though people told him that it wasn't it was just these little funny funny little snippets but we're actually getting along so you know maybe maybe in a couple more

years we'll be we'll be laughing about it you might be teammates one day it's funny because i always look at like you know two of my best buddies in football and one of them i just talked to recently in the last few minutes i said i called bg brandon and i said i got aiden coming on he's like i train with him he's the best but like he and i'm and malcolm jenkins now you know had to had to share a locker room for a lot of years. And so, I mean, like, it's just funny. You never know who you end up playing with. I was going to ask you this, because the one thing BG said, I said, tell me about this kid.

He said, he's really long, Chris. Like, he's got long arms. He's tall. Like, he's taller than you think. I mean, he's all of six, six. How do you use that length as a rusher? Like, you're cognizant of it. You're aware of it.

What are some ways that you like to use that length as a rusher? Yeah, I think, you know, it has its disadvantage. of being so tall just because, you know, pad level is a bit of an issue, especially when you're standing up and you're not really coming from a lower position. So sometimes I get caught a little bit high, but, um, BG never had that problem. That's right. That's right. But, yeah, I think, you know, in the edge rush, it's, it's great because, you know, like when you try to beat those hands, if you're doing a little swipe or whatever that may be, it is helpful, you know, being very long and getting that rip-in,

because you're hard to block. And then even, you know, when you work on any power rushes, if I can get lower than that tackle at 6-6 and then I have all that leverage from being so low, I think it's really hard, you know, to block ban. No question about it. Jim Harbaugh, you know, like,

I don't think that he's gotten enough credit, like when y'all play well. I think we always, as the media, we talk about Harbaugh, you know, Michigan can't do this, Michigan can't do that. And I thought this year, all anybody talked about was Michigan and not Harbaugh. Like when y'all fail, they talk about Harbaugh. When you succeed, they don't talk about him. And I just wonder, like, how do you feel for him to get over the hump this year and do everything y'all have done?

And what's y'all's relationship like? Because he said y'all, you were going to be special, I feel like, first. I mean, he said it, like, right off the bat. Yeah. it's tough too. Just because he, you know, when we win, they say, oh, you haven't beat Ohio State yet. You haven't done this. You haven't done that.

And then when we lose, it's just a lose-lose situation with him. It seems like it's been that way my entire career here. And, you know, this was one of those years that was going to define him as a coach. I know, you know, there was a lot of pressure on him this year, a lot of expectations coming off such a bad season last year. And there's a lot of rumors going around, all that bad stuff. But, you know, I mean, he deserves all the credit in the world for what this team did this season because, you know, we really defied every expectation. Nobody thought we would be where we're at today.

And I think he was a big part of that. And, you know, especially hiring such a great defensive coordinator. And I think that was so big. And we brought in a lot of young guys on our staff kind of reviving the culture. And then, you know, he kind of, he definitely gave, um, the players more of a responsibility, you know, making it more of a player led team. And I think, you know, those changes that, that he made, you know, were just extremely, you know, dire to the, to the success of our season this year. No question. When I played for the Rams a long time ago, he was the head coach of one

of the most physical football teams in the league. And we, we had many a battle. And I think, you know, like if there's anybody that knows the NFL, it's him. He's someone that me and all my teammates, you know, I think we all trust him and we all trust the plan and, you know, for what he has us doing. You know, there isn't a whole lot of questioning, you know, when he makes a call because, I mean, you know, he's at success everywhere. Have you seen him without khakis on? Like, does he wear other kinds of pants or what, like, do you, does he wear jeans? Have you seen Harbaugh and jeans? I can't say. I've never, I've never seen him in jeans. Um, how about shorts? You're around the building.

I wear shorts. Really? Ever. Even when he works out, he's got his khakis on or some sort or, or the blue, the blue pants. But he works out in khakis? Hell yeah. Like, like, like, cardio or like weightlifting in khakis? Weightlifting?

I mean, he's sweating. He's, he's breathing hard. He's, he's freaking, he's got his khakis on. It's hilarious. You need some, you need some pliable khakis. to be squatting and doing all the lunge in. I think he got some Lulu khakis. They got a little stretch to him.

There's some sort of stretchy khakis. I don't know what brand they are. They're Lulu. I wear nothing but Lulu now, dude. It must be Lulu. They're dad khakis. They're like, I'm not quite ready. They're like cool dad khakis. Like, you know what I mean?

So good on him for finding the Lulu stash. When you're getting ready to play Ohio State, and by the way, Aidan's here with Bose. And when you're getting ready to play Ohio State, you got the headphones on who are you listening to to get your hatred up for these guys so I'm actually pretty weird

with this I with my Bose headphones I listen to instrumental music before the games have you tried the last the Mohicans theme no yeah try that try that last the Mohicans theme what is that it's an old movie do you have you ever seen Last of Mohicans

no oh my god I forget that I'm talking to people that are like much younger than me I'm gonna send you the last Last of the Mohicans theme. You like instrumentals, bro? Sometimes I used to rock out to the instrumentals. I'm right there with you. It's not weird.

Oh, really? Yeah, dude. Because I get judged. I get judged for it, kind of. Fuck, look at my tape, man. You know, you, you know, that's what you all you need to say is when they're like, hey, bro, he's weird. You're like, hey, how about I'm speeding the clock up for you and I'm creating turnovers. I'll listen to Hans Zimmer if I need to.

Hans Zimmer is my guy. Yeah. That is my guy. And I like the instrumentals because I can talk to myself a little bit. You know, I don't have any other voices distracting me. It's just me and some calm music that's empowering. I'm with you, dude, because sometimes the words can kind of like take you out of your element. That's right.

Because a lot of songs don't even like correlate to what's going on. You know? This is a crossover on the Venn diagram. I didn't think we've had. We got a lot of common people say, but this is one that I didn't know. All right, so we've got instrumentals. I'm going to send you the last of the Mohicans music. And this is something that's really funny to me talking about family and football.

I saw that Braylon Edwards congratulated you and said that Steve Hutchinson, who he presumed was your dad, would be proud. This is funny because a lot of people think that Jake Long and I are brothers. Really? Yes, dude. People get confused with this stuff. I mean, I could see it, yeah. So do people, well, the last name and everything, and we were in the same draft class,

like one, two, or whatever it was. It was super confusing for people. Do a lot of people confuse you as Steve Hutchinson's son? Yes. Yes. Every, I mean, to this day, I mean, it never ends. Really? I don't think it will end.

No, it won't. It won't. I don't think it would. Just trust me, from fucking experience, like, there's three longs that have been in the NFL, we're all confusing to people. The whole thing, it's just going to be in, yeah. By the way, Steve Hutchinson, biggest head I've ever seen. played against him one game when I was young,

ran into him on like a loop stunt inside, like I had to cross the B gap. And we headbutted and I go, holy shit, I don't want to do that again. The guy where it's probably a size nine. Holy shit. Did you consider getting an insurance policy or anything like that coming back?

Like that's something kids do a lot now. Yeah, that's something I had before the season. Yeah. Before my junior year, I got the insurance policy. But, yeah, it's only for career ending stuff, though. Yeah, but it's like a side of things that I don't think people even realize. And even in 2008, when I came out, like, I took out an insurance policy my senior year to protect myself. Like it was like up to, I guess, $10 million worth of coverage.

And now I'm talking to more and more kids that it's actually like relatively normal now. Another thing that's kind of interesting, I think, is the NIL stuff. Yeah. I don't want to ask you how much money you made off the field there. But like, was that a big draw? Like, you know, hey, we can get some cash in our pockets. now like this is playing football at michigan's got to it's got to be a nice ticket there yeah yeah it was a little bit slow at first um to be honest with you i got i got some little things going on

but um i would say it's the season progressed and you know i start you start playing better and better i mean the more offers come in and um that's just the that's just the reality of it and um you know it's it's really a crazy thing that you know these college athletes all of us can can can get paid now just compared to like you know my whole childhood growing up just the whole controversy with everything and um you know it's it's just uh it is pretty crazy that what's what's the weirdest nil deal you were offered like the the fucking weirdest brand that somebody wanted you to represent some of these grooming companies you know they want to send you a bunch of grooming kits yeah take a picture with your shirt off buddy yeah like there was one random

product and it actually looked pretty cool. And I actually hit them back, but then I got a little sussed out. And I was like, wait, hold on. Is this even real? So it was, there's a couple you got to, you know, they're a little suss. Do you, do you use your dad? Do you lean on your pops? I know like I lean on my pops. Like your dad has a lot of experience. By the way, broke the, broke his record at Michigan. Super cool seeing you guys, you know, get together after that championship game. Like, I know It's cool, dude. It's cool when you live up to that pressure. You've lived up to it.

And I wonder if you lean on him and use his like kind of his football experience to this entire pressure. As different as things are now. Yeah, yeah. You know, we always talk about how the game is just completely different. You know, the game of football going against offenses, all that. But, you know, a lot of those core principles are the same. And, you know, it's just so great having him. It was funny.

When we played Iowa in the Big Ten Championship, I was walking off the field. It was like my second series. I hear this whistle. And I don't know. I looked and it was my dad. And he's signaling me from the, from the stands going, you got to stay low. Stay lower. And that was just one of those things.

He kind of drops those little nuggets that like are very obvious. And like everybody knows to stay low. But you know, to have that little reminder in my head, it was just so helpful and it was just something that he was seeing well and you believe him that's right oh i'm totally bought in i mean that's the thing like when my dad and i don't know if he has a special signal did he have a signal that like is pretty unique to him or is it like no we don't really have a see we always we tried to come up with a little signal yeah we couldn't quite figure it out see my dad had a whistle like not a physical p.e whistle but he had this like whistle that

had a certain like it was like two notes and I was like you know just you'd be like third down at in high school you hear the whistle I'm like what am I you know like you know so I I don't know if you're ever like looking at this but it's great to have another coach you know that you can really trust and did I hear this right he delivered you as a as a ginormous 11 pound baby 11 pound baby big ass head and um he delivered me that's incredible yep because after after He was at the Browns for a hot second. Went to med school, became an ER doctor. And, you know, the rest is history.

So what are you going to weigh in at the combine? You weighed in 11 pounds as a cute little baby. You're a grown man. Now you're 6'6. What do you want to weigh? And then, like, what do you think you can carry? Because it looks like you can carry what you want. Right.

Yeah. So right now I'm probably about 260 to 265, you know, varying from there. but earlier in my career, in the defense that we had, I was, I probably was like $2.75 just because of, of the structure of it and my role. But man, I feel so much better. It's crazy just what 10 pounds does. Just, just like with my speed and how I feel, you know, you feel a whole different type of way with different weights. and this 260, 265 ranges, I think it's perfect for me.

What's the heaviest you've ever been? Because I can remember we ran a 3-4 and I had to play in a 4-I for most of my career. Really my whole college career. And my weight to make was 280 almost. And so I used to go in the weight room on Way End Day with the 2.5 pound weights in my pockets to just make weight. I don't know if you've ever had trouble keeping weight on.

But what's the heaviest you've ever been? I would say probably, I've never been more than 280. Maybe I hit 280 at one point just because... It sucks going out at 280. Oh, yeah. Like, you just look so shitty

in your whatever clothes you're wearing to the bar. I think the best part about being 265 is just walking around feeling just slim. You feel so slim and it's crazy. You just feel good, dude. I felt like such a fat ass at 280.

Oh, man. So what do you... Like, Combine, number one thing you're working on, you know, impressions of the combine. Do you have anything to gain there, dude? Um, I know people would like to see me run, um, in the combine. I know that's one thing that a lot that allow people want to see me do. Um, you know, I don't know a whole lot.

I haven't talked a whole lot about this, but, um, you know, I, I put up some pretty good numbers in the wait room. So, um, I'm going to be fired up to do that. So what's, what's your highest power clean? What do y'all do you all do up there? Do you all power clean up there? Is it all like camera strength stuff or? We don't do any power cleaning, no cleaning in general.

We do a lot of like glute stuff, a lot of single leg, squatting. Yeah. A lot of close grip benching. We don't do a whole lot of wide grip. Our strength coach is very adamant with the pecks and keeping them healthy and don't want any tears. Yeah, no, no question. No question. Sounds like you got a pretty good program up there.

So last question, because you're getting ready to dive into this college playoff thing. You got Georgia the first round. physical football team. You guys seem pretty damn physical yourselves. Like what are your impressions of how this game goes down? I mean, it is, it's going to be, this is like heavyweight boxing, you know, I mean, this is just, our offenses

are very similar. Defenses are very similar. You know, we play very similar games. Yeah. We both play complementary football, you know, but both offenses like rely on the run, you know, we're not extremely heavy passing offenses. And so, I mean, it's going to be a grudge match, I think.

And we're going to be getting after it. And if we want to win, we're going to have to stop that run. And if they want to win, they're going to have to stop our run game. So it's going to be an exciting game to watch and extremely physical. The last thing is I saw you talking about like you grew up in Michigan. You would not be opposed to playing for the Detroit Lions. So like that would be exciting to you and really any team probably, right? I mean, it doesn't matter.

Is there a scheme fit that you're looking for? Or you just kind of totally open-minded? Yeah, I've been thinking about that. I really think I thrive standing up, to be honest with you. I do. Yeah. It just feels great. And I just, I hope, you know, whatever our scheme they put me in, they notice that.

And, you know, they give me a little freedom or, you know, I just hope, you know, they use me, you know, how I know I can be used. There's one thing that's going to come out of this podcast. Well, two. First thing is people are going to love you. And number two is going to be, I'm going to have a hashtag, hashtag let Aidan stand up. Whoever your D-Lyline coaches next year, let Aiden stand up because he's an athlete. Let's not pigeonhole him. He's an athlete.

A-T-H. Aidan Hutchinson, good luck in the playoff, man. And good luck beyond that in the draft and the league. I'll be watching. You've done a great job, dude. Thank you, man. Thanks for having me on the pod. Yeah, anytime.

Come back soon, ma'am. All right. Okay, brother. That kid was awesome, man. Like, I honestly, I didn't know what to expect because college kids don't always give great interviews. This kid was insightful. He was funny. He's going to be good in the meeting room.

He's good on the field. He's going to be good in the meeting room, too. And seems like a good guy to play with. So wishing Aiden Hutchinson, the best of luck. Listen, one of these days, they're going to start comparing white defensive ends to somebody else. I know this kids don't appreciate being like, who's my comp? Chris Long. I think we should pass the torch to the Bosa brothers completely here.

Or get creative. How about like Aaron Campman for fuck's sake? Go back in the in the Rolodex a little bit of the WD's. I got Ryan McGee coming on. I love Ryan McGee. He's awesome. He does NASCAR. He does college football.

Of all the media members, he's a guy that like, and we've yet to have a beer. He wrote a piece on me back in 2007. I would love to have a beer with Ryan McGee. Got a lot in common, I feel like. enjoy Ryan and then we'll get you out of here. If you're in Arizona, Colorado, Indiana, New Jersey, Tennessee, or Virginia, and you haven't yet tried the Winbet app, I've got great news for you. Winbet is now offering a 200% wager match for new users up to $1,500.

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and Virginia call 1-800-Gambler. And in Michigan, 1-800-0-7117. Tennessee, y'all two. 1-8009-9-8789. So as promised, I got Ryan McGee here, one of my favorite guests. We're going to talk college football. But first, I need a little,

we were just doing dad talk offline. Ryan's at a different weight class to me. He has a high school daughter, so that's something that just can't even, you know, five and a three. But we're going on vacation today. We're going to the beach. Right. Four days. Okay, I'm going to the Caribbean, and I need your advice.

I think it would be really liberating to not pack a personal suitcase. What do you think about that idea? Just set the tone right away that I'll figure it out when I get there. Oh, that's amazing. Just backpack? Yeah. Yeah. You think I can pull that off?

For four days and assuming that the weather is what it should be in the islands, absolutely. You support it. Okay. You need it. You need a toothbrush and deodorant if you want it. Mm-hmm. Some dip because you can't get Codiak in the Caribbean. You cannot get Cotein. Caribbean. Or Copeen. Yeah. No, I think you're good. The big thing is, because they're, what are they? They're like, like three and five, you said. Yeah, three and five. I got a three-year-old and a five-year-old and a five-year-old, two boys. Yeah. You can't. I mean, you can't overdo it. So it's like, you know, no, no, you just put them. in the sand and that's all and and and you can't overdo it for dad either i might i might do this guys i might go no no personal suitcase to the caribbean somebody who is packing a suitcase today is urban mire or maybe he's not maybe he's hanging around jacksville for a while maybe like uh why i don't know did you see this coming when he got hired did you see like fiery crash in the end yeah i mean he

he um yeah i'm not one of these that that subscribes to this college guy that's can't win in the league. I don't believe that. If you can coach, you can coach. But, but there's the biggest issue when they make that transition. I mean, Al Groh, your coach. My God. Yeah. He'll explain it to you more than anyone. He and I've had this conversation, which is you just can't approach the game the same way. And you think that you can, but you really can't approach the players the same way. And so I'll go to down to the Daytona, right, back in February. And I'm doing all this, I had this big Deller-Heart documentary coming out, and I'm down there to cover the

like my 25th, 500 and all this. And I think as I'm doing all these radio interviews that ESPNPR set up for me, that I'm going to talk about the Daytona 500. But just an hour north, Urban Meyer had been on the job for like two weeks. And he hired this, he hired a strength coach that we all knew was a terrible person. And why in the world would you, would you, but he was so arrogant. Yes. That that's the problem.

All the stories that you hear. don't surprise me one bit because, man, you know the deal. The guys that are a little too vocal about how to lead men and the guys that constantly are tweeting Bible verses. Pontificating. Exactly. The ones who actually have integrity will teach you about integrity, but I don't know if they're going to write a book about it

or if they're going to lecture everybody on TV about it. So, no, I'm not surprised. I just, you know, he is a phenomenal football coach. He's one of the, he easily is, I mean, could be, should have been one of it. Everyone's top 10 in the history of college football, maybe even higher than that. But at the end of the day, you can't walk into that building and just expect everybody to do what you tell them to do, which is what he's had his entire career in college. And in the NFL, you know, not only will they not do it, they will tell on you for telling them to do it. Right, exactly.

There's a lot of sources. You're not king shit anymore. and all the players are adults. So, like, if you kick Josh Lambo and the ass, like, Josh Lambo's not going to just be like, shit, I don't want to lose my scholarship. Yeah. And he's thinking,

he's a kicker. Well, he's a kicker who's making a lot of money. Yeah, he's a professional. I mean, he's going to work every day. He's a businessman. That's what it is. You can't kick the kicker. Yeah.

So, yeah, no, you were so right. It was right in the beginning, like, making that, that, you know, that hire and everybody being like, dude, what the hell? That's the first thing you learn about your head coach in Jacksonville and you're a 30-year-old man. Same thing with the Tim Tebow thing, which sucked because I loved Tim and everything, but it was just a funky situation.

Do you think that Urban Meyer gets another job somewhere? You think somebody gets, you know, I could pull this off. You know, like, the egos on some of these administrators are like, we could do it and it's worth it. No, 100%. And if we've learned nothing else over the last few weeks, you know, these ADs and presidents, they don't give it to them. You know, if they think that they could win and win immediately,

then they're willing to write $90 million checks. And they're willing to promise buildings and they're willing to all these things. So, yeah, in the air we're in right now, if he wants to do it and he will, there's no way he will let this be the end, not a chance. His ego won't let that happen. And so if he can walk into somewhere and, you know, turn it into a championship integrity driven, whatever, then yeah, he'll go for a chance. Yeah. Speaking of head coach is making a lot of money, Brian Kelly, we were joking the other day that they gave him a lobotomy and put in like a Bayou brain.

And now all of a sudden he's dancing and he's got a Southern accent. He's like he's like a Bayou robot or something. Like, what's going on with this, dude? do you really think that he's going to be able to recruit down there and given the little preview of strange behavior you've seen do you think that's going to fly? Well, you didn't like the turntable. Right, right one to talk about this fake Southern accent went away.

All of a sudden, he does this turntable thing. But listen, here's the thing. That dude can coach football. He can coach his ass off. He can coach football. And he is not. He's not Irvimmyre. He's not.

He's an asshole to his coaches. That's the rep. He, he, um, he is much better at the job than he was when he took over the job at Notre Dame. He and I've talked before. Yeah. I've written about it. He and I've talked about how difficult the Notre Dame job is.

And it's just he's been there more than a decade. You know, he's got more than a new rocking. And so I think that he can coach football. He is, you know, I'm a Tennessee grad. And so I think about Butch Jones a lot because Butch, who, you know, always kind of replaced Brian Kelly wherever he wants. went and the two of them were covered from the same clothed, whereas behind closed doors, you learned so much.

And he's so smart. As soon as the light comes on, he becomes robertronic. And he's not as bad at as he used to be. Yeah. But now all of a sudden he is. Robotronic. That's funny. I mean, but he's, but he can coach football.

And I know we can recruit. I know we can do what LSU wants him to do football wise, but it was, it couldn't have gotten off to. But you know what? there's getting off to a bad start, which is what Urban Meyer did at Jacksonville. Yeah. And then there's getting off to a bad start, which is, you know, sounded like Dan Aykroyd and driving this day's a-dice.

Yes. Have some of a basketball game. And that's okay. You know, if you're going to make fun of him now, do it now. I'll take that over the Urban Myers shenanigans. Yep. Do you remember a major, like, high-profile SEC higher in, you know, in the past where people question the cultural fit as much, but it was like an analyzing.

football fit because like I know immediately when they hire brian kelly i was like this guy there's nothing like SEC about him like this is going to be interesting do you remember another situation where you had a high profile guy come down not this high profile i mean dan mullen was from the northeast and came from small colleges and and and you know he had his run at mississippi state when no one thought anybody could win down there dack and all that so um before he became Florida Dan Mullen. But it was, but yeah, but people, you know, everybody now takes credit for Nick Saban. Right.

But everybody thought that was a dumb move. Right. Like, you know, you know, he, he couldn't got out of his own way, his one year in the pros. And yeah, he'd won at LSU, but, you know, only won one championship. They really doubted that. I don't remember, like, because I wasn't paying as much attention to the chatter.

Well, and he was getting ripped because of the way that he handled the Dolphins thing. And so it was very, you know, it was like that, but it was, on them. But I mean, Bobby Petrino, you know, that worked for a little bit at Arkansas until he, you know. Crashed his motorcycle. Yeah, but even the Sabin thing, and Cowboy Reed pointed this out from the back, he was like Sabin. But like, Saban had at least a little West Virginia drawl, which, I mean, the people, you know, that that'll play.

He's a hillbill. Yeah. Yeah, that'll play. He's a country dude. Like, so that'll play. That's interesting. Gene Chisick had a tweet. That's all I'll say. Did you see? see the tweet? Refresh my memory. A lot of Chisdom. Chisdom. He has a Chisdom hashtag. I didn't know that.

Chisdom, yeah. Every time I was saying it's first time I said. He's mad about the NIL stuff predictably. You know, people are going to, people are making more money and, and everyday Americans are struggling to make $50,000. And now these athletes are making $50,000 in addition to the scholarship. and I think that's interesting because I'm not sure that he's ever tweeted about the average American trying to make $50,000 struggling to do that until now. So it's kind of interesting.

Yeah, there's an interesting thing happening and it's really happened this week because it's signing day. Which was still weird, by the way. I sat in for Reese Davis yesterday on the ESPN college football pot and it was me and Tom Luganville, one of my all-time favorite dudes. but Lugues is our recruiting guy. And we talked about NIL too. And Luz is old school guy and it kind of leaned the same way, which is, I don't know where the good comes from this. We're talking about recruiting wise. So I think that's why it's on.

This is our first recruiting signing day during the NIL era. Yeah. And so, and the quote I really like was Jimbo Fisher said to Paul Feinball. He said, oh, no, no. He said, this is just official business now. This has always been going on. Yeah. Now we can just legally talk about it. And it's, but yeah, it's, I don't know, you know,

nobody's getting super rich off of it. Not yet. Not yet. You know, what I, what I monitor these situations like a BYU. And Miami, right, BYU and Miami, yeah. Every walk on gets a scholarship. Well, if Alabama does that, then I don't know who's going to play at Tulsa. Yeah. You know, because if I'm going to be a walk on in Alabama

and get a full ride and get a couple rings, you know, why is that even better than maybe starting at Texas Tech? You know, I don't know. Yeah, but nobody's getting rich. I mean, we ran the numbers. The average, the average NIL does like five grand. Yeah. Nobody's getting rich off this thing except for apparently Bryce Young.

Which is relatively rich for a college kid because you're like, you're like, a man, I don't have to worry about anything now, you know, like food, nothing. Now, you could say, hey, players are going to blow their money, but this is America. I mean, like, it was America. before the NIL deals and I think it's still America. So I just, I wonder if you, because the best way it's been described so far as the Wild West. I mean, like, I can remember we did an N.I.L. deal with a kid at the pod because we wanted to bless a kid with an NIL deal. And I remember going through the process and being like, where's the adult here that's like overseeing this transit?

You know, it's just, you know, like, so I wonder if you think that experience is going to be the best teacher here. in a couple years, we're going to have, like, you know, a little bit more of a regulatory atmosphere in the NIL landscape. No, it's Jason Priestley from Tombstone, right? There's got to be some sort of law. Yeah. I mean, there's got to be, right? Right now, there's nothing.

And, you know, it's funny, too, because NIL, transfer portal, you know, early signing day, hell, help the targeting rule. I mean, these are all written by coaches. Yeah. Yeah. All the coaches sat in a room and wrote these things because, They thought they knew how this was going to go down, and they thought they figured out,

all right, this is going to benefit us. And then, you know, oh, no, they gave some power to the players, right? And oh, no, you know, between the pandemic and super seniors and whatever, they don't know, they don't have no idea what's going on. And so to me, the NIL deal is the perfect example that. On paper, this sounds like a great idea. Yeah. And like, we don't need the NCAA.

We just need them to prove it. No, you kind of do because there's no rules. it's one sheet that the entire NIL regulations are one sheet of most of this kind of form that right yeah me too but it ain't the kind of form that you know

if I'm a compliance officer you don't like that for so how do you recruit in NIL in the NIL era is like a big no-no to do what Gene did and what kind of dabbo's done which is you know thumb their nose at this thing and said you know like I don't like this shit

well all your competitors are going to play ball so like do you have to kind of to me, I don't agree with Gene's take, especially in the context of him making $6, $7 million to coach football, you know, and not competitive football at Iowa State, by the way. But, like, I think it's as much about hitting send as it is having to take. Like, if you were a quarterback, that's a poor decision. You know, there's recruiting repercussions to this thing. Like, don't you kind of have to play ball now or at least act like you like it for a little bit? No, you have to.

And I can tell right now that any coach who is, any active coach, who is railing against it, they're also recruiting with it. You know, and, you know, Dad Boggs say whatever he wants at the podium. But the reality is, is that you think a guy who just had his first so-so season and lost all of his coordinator for the first time since, you know, they've made the playoffs, what, seven years in a row until this year. And now they're teetering. Now we got Wake and Pitt in the AST championship. and you think he's not going out and saying, hey, good news.

You know, Bucky Johnson, Chevrolet down here to Lake Norman, who wants to give you a car? You think he's not doing that? Yeah, hell yeah, no, he's doing that. Of course he's doing it. They got a bowling alley in their facility. Right. And that right there along is what you said a minute ago,

and that right there is the point, which is you cannot stand there with all these rings and a Rolex and drove up in your free Mercedes, you know, Rick Flair, Rick Flair Energy. You can't, and we all know how much money you're making, and you just built a $20 million building with a slide in it. You cannot tell me that it's going to corrupt these kids if, you know, if they get five grand from a barbecue joint.

Oh, yeah. Yeah, it's just not, you know, you can't. But you can't make that money and then get mad and tell other people they can't make money. Yeah, we're getting, we coaches, these coaches. These coaches are getting mega churchy money right now. They're just, I mean, so like, come on now. Speaking of the Clemson stuff and that Exodus there, we landed Tony Elliott.

How do you feel about that hire up here in Charlottesville? I was pretty excited. I went to his press conference and I wasn't sure what to think. And when I heard him talk after he got done with his statement, you know, like I really felt like he could command a room. And with his experience, I felt pretty good about it. No, he's great. And he's, he had a tough year this.

past year. He was the co-o-c at Clemson and Jeff Scott left for the USF job and then you lose Trevor Lawrence and I don't care who you quarterback next quarterback is that's going to be a step back. The only person that could stop Trevor Lawrence is Irvin Meyer. I'm sorry. I was sorry

I had to at least that's in the scouting report at this point. Yeah, but no Tony's great. Tony's great and he look at the schools that really wanted to hire him. Yeah. And it's a Virginia

a fit. Tennessee. Tennessee wanted to hire him. Tennessee wanted to hire him. It's the only time we've beaten you in football. Yeah. We took Tony Elliott. Actually, did we beat you in the 90s?

No, we played in the Sugar Bowl, and you should have beaten us. Yeah. Yeah, it was a, in fact, if... Was it the Peach Bowl? No, it was the, it was Sugar Bowl. Sugar Bowl, okay. And that was the legendary 90 team. Yeah, we lost to Georgia in the Peach Bowl and Patrick Kearney.

That's it. That's it. Yeah, and if Shaw Moore doesn't have a hurt hand, Virginia probably beats Tennessee's butt. That gummed. Yeah, oh, well. Yeah, there's a lot of regrets from the early 90s, but we've got to focus on this era of Virginia football.

I'm excited, though. I feel good about it. You know, like we got another hire in the ACC with Mario Cristobal. That kind of scares me. Should that scare me to have him down there? He reeks, like, of competence. I don't know how Oregon fans feel and all that, but like to me,

he feels like he's a football coach and now he's in Coral Gables where he's very passionate about business being done. Yeah, and clearly they have decided that they're going back to not giving the damage,

just doing whatever because nobody come up with what Manny Diaz did the temple and all that stuff. What Miami did to Manny Diaz was like something out of a saw movie. That was embarrassing. Ugly, huh?

But they just don't care. You know, and they're throwing the, they don't mind, they got multiple buyouts going on and they're throwing all that money at Mario and they're just like, you know what, we tried it all these other ways. But I'll say this,

man, he's a Miami guy. I went to Florida State, but his dad was mayor of Miami. He grew up down there. You know, let's all remember, there have been several Miami guys that have come through there and it didn't work. So we'll see. I mean, you know, until they proved, Miami proves

to me they can turn the corner. You know, this pipe dream of we're going, we're going to be like we were back in the day. I don't know, man. It's been, again, Tennessee guy, I can tell you, one day you look up, it's been 20-something years, and, you know, you're still talking about how it was in the 90s. You know, it's, or 2001 in the case of Miami, it's, I don't know, we'll see. They could get bigger jerseys for the press conference.

That was, that was, I mean, for, I don't know where they got that jersey. In the state of Florida, I like the Billy Napier hire, though. That kind of flew under the radar a little bit. Yeah, it kind of got. lost. And yeah, he's, I love that dude. I was surprised, honestly, nobody tried to hire him a year ago when there was a lot more movement than I expected coming out of the COVID year. But yeah, he's, he's great. He is all about the Urban Meyer stuff and he's all about Christobal and Diaz. He's all about all those things because he's just, he's got his head down. He's just taking

care of business. I like that energy, man. Yeah, well, that's, that's how he operates anyway. So, you know, it's, I think that's going to work. Hey, transfer portal kind of action right now. we get Rattler headed to South Carolina. He's got better husband odds than Caleb Williams as a result. And you get Ewers to Texas from Ohio State-ish, especially sticking on the second one. Do you think the Ewers thing is a bad precedent for the NIL stuff because the guy comes out of high school,

makes a bunch of money, signs a bunch of Ohio State gear, and he's gone. Like, what are they doing with that gear now? And are people going to look twice at situations like that in the future? Well, Ratler. I mean, Ratler was, he was one of the biggest guys when it came to NIL, and all of it was basically Oklahoma City-based, and he's gone. But that's the risk. I mean, to me, it's how, I'll cover NASCAR forever.

And there's a lot of sponsors at which they hadn't paid $10 million a year to sponsor so-and-so who, A, didn't want a race, and B was a jerk. Right. I just didn't know it going in. So to me, to me, it's not any different than when somebody goes into the league. And they get deals. And if they're great, then great. But if they're a bust, you know, it's a gamble if you're marketing. You're going to have like a bunch of Ryan Leafs sign memorabilia.

Yeah, I mean, you paid a lot of money for same price. There was a moment when the Ryan Leaf signed helmet was the same value as the Peyton Manning signed helmet. Right. And that's not a shot at my guy. I'm just saying he's talked about this. I mean, so. No, it's a gamble when you're when you're betting on these guys and with money. But, you know, it's just funny to me how these college people don't seem to understand that.

It helps him everywhere else all the time. How about who's gambles going to pay off the most? Which move do you like out of those two quarterbacks moving? I'm a Shane Beamer guy. Yeah. You know, and for him to take that, that's a terrible football team, and they won six games. Yeah. And they're going to play in the Mayo Bowl here in Charlotte.

Fuck, manas, dude. Oh, it's the worst. But I'll say this. You hate mayonnaise, too. I'm not a McMan-Ayes guy, but I'm all in on the Duke's Mayo Bowl because those dudes, it's the best, I follow every ball game on Twitter, and their Twitter account is off the chart. It's a shame that they've hired such talented people to push that devil nectar.

I mean, that stuff is, look, yeah, and, you know, yeah, it's a cool logo, everything about it looks. But it's still mayonnaise. Yeah, it's still manis, dude. So, I mean, like, and also, by the way, a great bowl geographically. I mean like, good Lord. I was looking at it. I'm like, this is too good to be true.

They really knocked it out of the park with these two teams. That's going to be one of the livest atmospheres in the bowl slate. Yeah, no, South Carolina and North Carolina, they should be playing every year anyway. They used to. And our already, and Shane Beamer again, yes, y'all, this is Frank Beamer's son. No, I like Frank Beamer. Okay, like Virginia. I had a beer with Frank Beamer on the award circuit back in 2008, and we talked, and I really

liked this. Yeah, I liked them. And that would pain my co-host to hear that. My co-host didn't hear right now but making fucking hate Shane Beamer. I got no problem. Like, listen, I have a lot more respect for tech than I do, say, a Maryland.

So, I mean, like, I might hate tech, but at least I respect, you know, the Bud Fosters and the Frank Beemers of the world to get that out there. Yeah, they're football people. Yeah. We like football people. Yeah.

But, yeah, but, and Shane is a football guy. Yeah. And so, and all you need to know about him is, this is where Spencer Rattler wanted to go because he worked with Shane Beamer and Oklahoma. I'm really curious to watch it. But yeah, North Carolina, South Carolina playing. That's right here by my house, man.

I have to cover a lot of ball games. Yeah. But that will be the one where I'm just, if you need me, I'll be in Section 3, whatever. Okay, perfect. So you're going to be really as a fan taking in the Mayo Bowl. But I'm looking at the Peach Bowl, conversely, and I'm thinking, how the hell did we get these two teams from like way up north down in this Peach Bowl? What changed this year?

I hadn't been paying attention. Did it become like, let's see how far we can make people travel to come to this bowl game? Yeah, and so, you know, you have your bowl tie. You have your conference tie-ins. Yeah, because you get your ACC with Pitt, which is an irregular occurrence. Right. Right. And so, yeah, but it's weird because when I was at the first Peach Bowl, I think my dad

officiated in the first, like, SEC-A-C Peach Bowl. And that was the first time I heard the SEC chant. And I was like, oh, damn, this is awesome. Like this could be a thing. And then you started seeing other bowl games go for the same thing. But this is not the spirit of the SEC-ACC matchup was not this matchup. But, you know, it's two good football teams and maybe the best quarterback in the country. And so you think he plays in that bowl game?

I hope he does. You know what? If you don't mind, I know it should show. I don't mind that. I've been wanting to ask you about this because the opting out of a ball game. Yeah. I get it. I totally understand. I know why you do it. But I've had conversations. And this started with what? Lennar Fournette, Christian McCaffrey were the first big dogs of debt.

And I've had conversations with some really high profile guys who skipped out on their bowl game. And I'll purpose of a way to like five or six years to ask them about it. And to a man, they all wish they played in the last game. Yeah. Because you tell me, because your last bowl, was it was a gator ball? It was that damn gator ball. a hell of a game. Texas tech and their enormous splits.

Yeah, but it was a hell of a game. Yeah, it was a great game. And you love your alma mater, you still live there and all that. You think, right, when you go to the league, that it's going to be just football. Yep. But what these guys have all told me was it's just so different. It just feels different.

Yeah, I mean, like, obviously the guys you've talked to to say, I regret it. There's nothing you, I mean, it's up to the player. So if that player regrets it, that says it all. Now, there's probably guys, a few guys that maybe were like, you know I'm good the quick lane bowl I'm fine like you know it wasn't I think it I think there's a sliding scale depending on like your legacy at that school I think also like the bowl game you're in factors how your health is like where your draft slot is like if I'm a third or fourth rounder

or a fifth rounder I don't know maybe I'm thinking uh or if I'm borderline getting drafted not getting drafted I'm definitely not sitting out but like a lot of these early round guys, they're afraid. And I can remember when I, when I, um, we played tech my senior year and I didn't know you could do this, but I sprained my ACL, which some people at home are like, no, you can't do that. I didn't like, I hurt my knee during that game, didn't know I hurt my knee. The next day I couldn't walk.

I was in, I was in a brace for like a couple weeks and we were busting my ass to get back for that bowl game. I'm the number two picking that draft. A lot has changed, you know, like that wasn't, I didn't even think about that. I thought about it from a standpoint of if I can't go. I can't go, but I never thought about like, I'm going to sit this thing out. But as you can see, like trailblazing type guys, they create a situation where all the sudden people are looking at an option that maybe wouldn't even occur to them.

So I can't tell you how I would feel, but I do know I also decided as a junior with a first round grade to come back. So that's just the way I felt, and that had everything to do with that sliding scale I'm talking about. I grew up in Charlottesville. I went to Virginia. I cared deeply about my teammates. That's not to say guys don't if they opt out.

But for me, it was worth the risk because I'm a physical football player. I just played through, I was playing 80 snaps a game for 10 games. I'm thinking, what's one more roll of the dice? That's the way I am. I'm a little bit risk averse. So it's just going to vary from guy to guy. And I think for these quarterbacks, a quarterback like Kenny Pickett, and I couldn't tell you what he's thinking,

but this is a class where I think he could make a case for being the best. and what if he goes out there and just shreds these fucking guys? You know what I mean? Would his draft stock go up? So I think it also depends on how much you have to gain in that bowl game. And for quarterbacks, I think they have more to gain than position players. Just me personally, especially in a year where things are kind of bunched in together. Yeah.

My favorite thing about bowl games, and I grew up going to bowl games again because the dad was a rep for me. I went to like 20 of them. And next week, I'm going to be on the sideline for the Myrtle Beach Bowl. and it's, Tulsa and O'DU, right? Yeah. And Old Dominion was in the bottom 10, seven weeks ago,

and now they didn't even play last year, now they're going to be, you know, in a bowl game. Right. But what I'm always love about those ball games, especially the smaller ones, most of those guys,

it's the last time they're ever going to play football. Yeah. Like they might, you know, get on with the semi-pro league. They might go to Europe. They might, you know, back in the arena ball days, maybe that.

But for the majority of these guys, they're done. And so that's what I think about when I think about ball games is it's the last time to put that uniform on. But I totally understand it, 21, 22, you're thinking about the future. But I do think that one day you look back as an old man in a rock and chair and you, damn, if I could, if I could have put on my UVA jersey, my LSU jersey, whatever, one more time, man, what would I give to do it? I could have got a free bag of mayo. Yeah, dude. Get your big old thing of mayo.

Yeah, a watch, a mayo watch. A Mayo watch. Hey, let me ask you this because, and by the way, I agree to each his own. And I certainly, if I had sat out, I probably would have regretted it. And we still lost in heartbreaking fashion to the fucking Texas Tech Red Raiders and Mike Leach, who I then came to be friends with via drunk calls with Danny Amandola at one in the morning. And I, yeah, those guys are okay by me. No grudges.

But I do hold a grudge against Peter Laylik for not knowing the snap mechanics. back in. Do you remember Peter Lelick? Oh yeah. He's sitting there one time like God damn, did I just catch a stray on a podcast in 2021? That's what we're here for, man. So if Ryan McGee is an athlete and you're staring there at the TV

and you're bowl eligible and you're looking at this slate, what's the best bag that you can get from what bowl game do you want to go to to get the best gifts this year? An overall experience. Like taking the prestige of the game, game out. Like you as a guy who wants to walk away with some swag and spend some time somewhere

fun, which bowl game are you looking at? All right. So, and again, I'm speaking from experience here because my dad officiated in 20-something ball games. I went to most of them. And so I would see, you know, the officials get a watch or what a dad literally has a drawer full of watches. He wears his Rose Bowl ring all that stuff. But I'm telling you, the holiday bowl. Oh, it's a great ball. Oh, dude. In Sandia, and you're in San Diego. which is a win brought the bat and they take them to the zoo they take them to this big outdoor dinner at Balboa Park yeah they go down they go they play like football on the beach I mean it's but like an underrated deal is the outback ball in Tampa yep the same thing that's the one

where they're blooming onion they're blooming onion personal blooming on the beach and and I know they have what they call the gift suite and you know there's a limit supposedly for which you can give the athletes, and anybody paying attention to that. And like, it's best buy gift cards and it's Jordan's. And it's like literally, it looks like if you're my age,

you remember when a wheel of fortune used to have the room full of, you know, stuff. No question. You buy all this stuff. Oh my God, look at that. And that's what does gift switchless.

Yeah, you take me to San Diego or down to Tampa. And, you know, we can ride on a pirate ship with our free watches, dude. That's, that's, I'll say this about the Mayo Bowl, though.

They have a deal with Charlotte Motor Speedway. Oh. Where the players get to ride shotgun with like, you know, NASCAR drivers. Oh, I could definitely overcome the fear of the Mayo. If you think about the Holiday Bowl, like historically, what's the first one that comes to mind? BYU.

Okay. For me, it's, it's, uh, it's, uh, it's, uh, it's, uh, yeah, yeah, yeah, I don't know why that one sticks in my head, but Holiday Bowl has got some bangers in their history. I remember Ty Deppner had like two separated shoulders one year and still and still he had won to Heisman and was hurt and went to the holiday I don't know who they play but like he literally You're never going to see that again

And he threw for like you know threw for like 500 something yards Byron left which in the fucking was it the New Orleans Bowl With a broken leg or whatever it was I mean you're just never going to see that again And that's fine but you're never going to see that again All right couple quick hitters here Coach that's coaching in one of the lower bowls that people might not see that's going to get a job in the next year or two. Well, I mean, I say keep a guy right up the road from you.

The guys at Old Dominion, that program didn't exist. And they took a team that I think won one game, didn't play any games. And at one point we're like one in five or one in six this year. now they're in the postseason. Yeah. And those are the guys. When I talk to athletic directors, they're talking about,

show me somebody who's building something. Yeah. And is building it from nothing. And so you look at like Dave Claussen at Wake Forest. And it was a long time ago. He's at like Richmond and he's at these, and the UNC Charlotte, he's digging at these places.

And the 80s just love that because they can get them cheap. Right. Right. Yeah, because us fans, we want to throw money at the big names. but people are doing their homework and this guy has built something up.

So I had Aiden Hutchinson on before you. So we had Aiden on. I loved the kid. He was awesome, dude. I was like, we really hit it off. Did he come out of nowhere to you? Like, we were talking about this. He had, I mean, I knew he got a first round grade,

bottom of the first round, all the way to third or whatever was. But he had four and a half sacks his first three years. And then next thing you know, he's got 14 this year. And he might be the number one picking the first. the draft. Was this a shock? Yeah. Well, and him going to New York was a stunner. So,

I met the SEC championship game and we were doing Marty McGee down there. Marty was going to work the Heisman ceremony and I'd written some scripts and we were all in on Heism. We were talking about, is this the year? This is before Bryce Young just shredded Georgia a couple hours later.

But we were talking about we've got a defensive linemen at Georgia and we've got got a linebacker at Alabama, and in our minds, one of those two guys could be the first in years to be a finalist from the defense's side of the ball. And then the finalist list comes out, and neither one of them anywhere close to it, and Aidan Hutchinson is going. Right, exactly.

No, but you look at what he did, it's in November, man, right? They remember what you do in November. Exactly. And what he did down the stretch, whether it was Michigan State or whether it was a Big Ten championship or whether it was obviously the Ohio State game. But yeah, no, he, he, and I can sometimes get a little SEC obsessed in the middle of the year just because that's the nature of our gig. We do a show on SEC network. But I mean, yeah, he came out of nowhere, but man, he's a monster. He's a bigger. I think the thing that surprised me is he's all of six six. I mean, that's a big deal.

Because when you watch him, you might be like, damn, this kid's really strong, but he's not as Springy is like, you know, like maybe a Will Anderson or something, or he's not as like alien built as Tibido, but what he's got is great length. He plays hard. He's got good technique. I really do believe this kid's a safe pick in the top 10. I was going to ask you, though, if you have Aiden, if you have Tibado in the same draft, if you have Will, like let's wave a magic wand, who do you think turns out to be the best pro? Will's best player I saw on football. Yeah, Will's ridiculous. Yeah, he's ridiculous and he's smart.

Yeah. You know, I tell you this, and this is something that, and I got to visit with Tito. I went out to Oregon the week before the Ohio State game. We got to visit with him. And I tell you, man, the most underrated part of this sport, Marty and I talk about this all the time is all these guys are so damn smart. Yeah. And all they do is work their butt off. And you cannot be a caveman and play football like you could 20 years ago.

You just can't. You know, it's just the nature of the game now just does not allow for that. So that's the part that is always, still that little bit of me, the kid from the 80s and the 90s that expects to sit down with these guys and they just, they can't talk because I experienced a lot of that. When I was a kid going to football stage growing up, all these guys are so freaking smart. They can get in the board. They can talk to the media now. It's like, because everything's trial by fire. Yep.

You know, it's like they don't have a choice. So Ryan McGee, you're hitting a bunch of bowl games. Are you going to the Bahamas Bowl, man, by chance? Did you draw any of these, like, really warm weather hangout kind of bowls? I keep lobbying. Like, as soon as that, so it's funny, you got all these bowl games, and I have no problem with all the bowl games. I think it's great.

And you got all these bowl games. And as soon as the Myrtle Beach Bowl was announced a couple years ago, Marty and I immediately, like we were doing our show in the press release. came out. We're like, why on the hell we're not working this game? So we worked it last year. Yeah. And we're going to work it on Monday. Okay. And we're going to go down to waves, wings, whatever, one of the $5 t-shirts. So we're going to buy some hoodies and

we're going to do the shark tooth necklace. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's where I grew up. Yeah, I grew up going to be amazing. And so, yeah, we're going to do that. Jell your hair a little bit. Oh, 100%. No, I do that anyway. You know Marty, you know Marty does. Marty's got, but Marty's is like incredible. Does Marty worry about the or does the wind just not bother that? I do. So the great myth of Marty McGee, we talk about hair on the show all the time.

The great, the guys got some fucking lettuce, dude. But people are like, people assume he uses a lot of products. And I don't. I use way more than he does because he just does one handful of goop. And he's done. He's Jimmy Neutron. So he's just one, one gob of gel and just, he's done. Me, I got to slack that stuff.

Otherwise, a wind starts. You know what, though? You might be, you might be one of the most under. appreciated out of a duo when it comes to the lettuce. Like I think everybody thinks Marty. This guy's got Ryan McGee's got great lettuce. Marty's just, he's just, it's real showy. It's like my dad's flat top. And by the way, my dad's flat top doesn't, he doesn't do anything to that. Oh, he just, wakes up. He wakes up and it's standing at attention, dude. And I'm not talking about, I'm talking about his hair. Yeah. At his age, whatever standing in attention. You weren't good, dude.

Ryan McGee, dude, thank you so much for coming on and enjoy all the bowl games, bro. Happy holidays. Y'all call me anytime. Yes, sir. You have a great holiday, buddy. Cowboy Reed. I'm going on vacation, man. You don't like burn this place down.

Don't have a party. Well, you could have a party. Just don't burn it down. All right, cool. Yeah, we won't burn it down. So I'm going to the beach. I'm going to be down in the Caribbean. I feel like we should do a scavenger hunt.

Like, if I could do X, I get a certain amount of points. If I see a sea turtle, I get a certain amount of points. If I see a barracuda, I get a certain amount of points. If I get drunk and pass out on the beach, how many points do I get? You can have 50 points. 50 points. And Meg gets 75. Just for dealing with me.

Yeah, just to deal with you. The last time we went to this spot in the Caribbean, I was with Sam Bradford. And this is, I think it was, Meg was pregnant with Wayland. So this was like a big trip for us. And this is before. things got, I can't do what I'm about to describe anymore. I got really drunk on the beach and ended up, I woke up in the middle of night and peed in my suitcase. I just stood there and peed my suitcase in the corner. So that kind of ruined the vacation. She's a trooper vacationing

with me, but I don't know if anybody at home has ever thought the suitcase was the toilet. I did. No problem this week, though, because you're going without a suitcase, right? I'm going without a suitcase, so I'm not going to pee in my suitcase this week. This is what I'm doing. I'm avoiding having a suitcase so I don't pee in it. You think I can pull that off with no suitcase? I do. You also can't forget your suitcase if you're not planning to bring one. Matt, great points, man.

Because the last trip I went on, I forgot my suitcase, and the last time I went to this resort in the Caribbean, I peed in my suitcase. Yeah, and it's 100 points if you can go without buying any clothes while you're there. No, that's not going to happen. You guys Google the soggy dollar. Google that shit right now and that's where I'm going to be

I'm probably going to do that Sunday and I'm supposed to do by the way we should tell you this I'm going to do the show on Monday morning so the show is going to come out Monday afternoon for your drive home now all you guys work at home like what the fuck do you call it like why are you even listening to podcasts

you're not riding in the car you guys are sick listening to me sitting at home yeah soggy dollar it's a swim up bar it's like a it's like an island and it's a bunch of of bars and people come from other islands so i'll be there look for me if anybody's at the soggy dollar uh and listen to the green light pod we're going to have a good time and one more thing we're going to play out with this russian guy so i got a tweet that evidently there's a philly um radio

station that plays their their show out with a russian guy and it's unconfirmed if it's the same Russian guy. But if it is, this is insane, dude. Preston and Steve, I think, is the show. The Preston and Steve show. So I think it's on 933 WMR. And I think I'm going to go on there soon. I had no idea, dude. So I'm sorry to step on your Russian TV turf. But I got to hear if it's the same song or not. We're going to keep playing it out with our new outro. But we will cease and desist if it's the same guy, dude there's no chance i'm gonna be parking my car in the same garage as a philly radio station with the same guy from russian tv so let us know same music can we coexist my sincere apologies all right uh you guys take care here and uh we'll be back next monday afternoon it'll be

myself and um i have no idea who i'll be with maybe just cowboy read not just cowboy read not just read cowboy read all right take take care