Green Light with Chris Long - Steve Sarkisian! Texas Football, Nick Saban & Arch Manning. Sean Payton vs Aaron Rodgers & Jonathan Taylor vs Jim Irsay

Episode Date: August 1, 2023

(2:34) - Layup Line, Hello and Montana Weddings (15:00) - Chris Long is Chase Long on the Golf Course (34:56) - Steve Sarkisian on Texas Longhorn Football, Quinn Ewers and Arch Manning, Building Culture and Buy In, Moving to the SEC in 2024 and Learning from Nick Saban (1:03:30) - NFL News: Jonathan Taylor vs Jim Irsay and the Colts, Sean Payton vs Aaron Rodgers, Danielle Hunter and the Vikings, Impact of Joe Burrow's Injury and Tyreek Hill and Eli Apple are now Teammates in Miami This podcast is brought to you by Cash App. With multiple tools for saving, spending, and sending, Cash App is the easy way to stay in control of your money. Cash App is a financial platform, not a bank. Banking services provided by Cash App's bank partner(s). Make sure to check out Fax and the King every Wednesday on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@FaxAndTheKing Have some interesting takes, some codebreaks or just want to talk to the Green Light Crew? We want to hear from you. Call into the Green Light Hotline and give us your hottest takes, your biggest gripes and general thoughts. Day and night, this hotline is open. Green Light Hotline: ‪[phone]‬ Send any Talent Search submissions to: [e-mail] Include any video of your talents, takes and bits as well as a little bit about yourself. Love hearing from the Green Light fans. Also, check out our paddling partners at Appomattox River Company to get your canoes, kayaks and paddleboards so you're set to hit the river this summer. https://paddleva.com/ 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 Tube YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/GreenLightTube1   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. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Head on over to oakley.com, O-A-K-L-E-Y, for more information today. Welcome to the Green Light podcast. It's a good day to enjoy some college football and a little Long Brother update from Montana. Texas Longhorde head football coach Steve Sarkees. joins from Austin, Texas. He's going to talk to Chris about his goals for the Texas Longhorn Football Program,

having both Quinn Ewers, Arch Manning, and Belique Murphy in the quarterback room, an embarrassment of riches, really. Steve's excitement to move to the SEC in 2024, what he learned from Nick Sabin and a couple of his other coaching stops throughout his career, and talks a little Elaine Kiffin and Coach O. To start today's show, we've got Chris and Kyle, and they're going to recap a great weekend from Montana. Howie Jr. is married.

we want to send congratulations to the happy couple. Chris and Kyle will tell you about the ceremony. They'll also tell you about how Chris's golf endeavor is going. Is he picking it up? How's he doing? How's he playing? Is he betting on it? You know, Chris loves to bet.

Is Chase Long coming out on the golf course? We'll end with some NFL topics. Chris runs through news stories from around the league. He'll give his two cents what a few of these things might mean for some of these teams and some of these players. Please enjoy. Don't forget to check out Dr. Fax and The King, every Wednesday and come back Thursday for a little more green line. See you soon.

Got a layup line today. Y'all's today. It's August 1st. Welcome to August. Kyle, it's nice not being in training camp. Yes. My feet feel good. Yeah, everything feels good, Kyle. But it is Jerry Garcia's birthday, August 1st. Yeah, Matt just gave me the American Psycho nod. Got Giff. He is a huge, grateful dead fan as am i uh what do you think on jerry garcia's birthday i was going to play this the other day on uh on on on x it's taking me a minute to to make the adjustment here but um overrated underrated give me an overrated uh grateful dead song and an underrated grateful dead song overrated trucking underrated um black peter okay we'll go black peter pretty fucking depressing uh uh Kyle, how many Grateful Dead songs can you name?

I can't. You can't name a single one. No. But you'd know a lot of them if we play them. If I were to hear Grateful Dead music, even if it wasn't a popular song, I would say that sounds like Grateful Dead or something that was born because of Grateful Dead. You know, Touch of Grey? Yeah.

Okay, that's Grateful Dead. Okay. You know, Trucking, probably. You know, Friend of the Devil, which would have been my overrated. I heard all these songs. Okay, all right. And I enjoy it. I just, I just.

I'm at capacity. Happy birthday, Jerry Garcia. He might come up later in the pod. Good ice cream. Yeah, great ice cream. Okay, hello. I'm going to say hello somewhere just random as fuck. I let it run out.

Kinston, North Carolina. Hello! There is a place called Kinston, North Carolina. I played AAU ball there, baseball. We went down there and we stayed at the Royal Inn. It had outdoor, it had outdoor hallways, my favorite kind of hotel. easier for players to sneak out and that sort of thing. One time at the Royal Inn in Kingston, North Carolina,

Rodney Knight walked in on me and Kirk Knight packing a fat dip. 13-year-old year, we had to sneak around the corner into one of the ice machine crevices, and we hid there for two hours. I can only imagine how frightened you guys were. We were terrified. So I said hello to Kensington, North Carolina. I don't know if anybody in Kensington, North Carolina listens to Greenlight Pop, but that is a country-ass place.

We'll find out. Hollar at us if you do. Yeah, for sure, for sure. Okay, so Kyle, a few things I want to talk to you about. Number one, a big congratulations to Howie and Erica Long. Yeah, a little golf clap for these beautiful young people. Howie, our youngest brother, finally got hitched. He found the one.

Erica is just awesome. She shouldn't take any of his shit. She's funny. She's self-confident. She's sweet. She's warm. Like, they go do fun. shit together, you know? Like, they do things

as a couple. It's not like Howie's hanging out with his buddies and she's hanging out her buddies. Like, they go do fun things together. So we both had to do toasts. Is there any advice you have for a married couple in general? Somebody getting hit since we're on marriage. Let's start with the bride and the groom. Hey, Kyle, I'm a huge

bears friend. My advice for, oh, you guys are just getting married. Yeah. Congratulations. Give us one piece of advice. Man, I would just say, just work at it. can I get an autograph? No, I don't. We said this in the toast.

I think the number one thing about marriage is you have to fight for it. It is an everyday battle. And that's not with your spouse, but it's like it's very hard to prioritize as your marriage goes on, the marriage itself. And that is the center of everything. It's like, it's like when you're on an airplane and it starts to go down. or it's depressurized. You're supposed to put your flotation device on first. You're supposed to put your oxygen mask on first

before you help people around you. And that might include your kids, but you have to make time for each other. You have to fight for each other. Sometimes you're going to have to swallow your pride. More often than not, you're going to have to swallow your pride. Marriage is going to make you better, but you got to have the right attitude for it.

It does forge you in a way. It's like, yeah, because I think when something's forged something that's resistant to change meeting it like a like a swore a swore and the unstoppable force is like you know when you have a family together stuff like that and then you put like i'm thinking about my personality and so many things that have changed in the last few years that you have changed a lot so many things that had to change not negotiable and if they didn't change it wouldn't be uh you know forged it would be broken you know what i mean like so get forged Get forged. Get torched.

That's how strong beautiful things happen. You got to get fully torched as Bo Allen would say. Shout up the Fax and the King. But I think that's the hardest thing. When I said this about Howie, you know, your brother, I was like, he's a fighter and he's got a big heart. These are the two things you're going to need. You're going to need a lot more than that. You're going to need like a solid bank account, like a 401k.

You're going to need like a plan when she turns on Netflix. What are we watching tonight? What do you want for dinner? You know, all these thousands of little decisions that you're going to have to make. But the biggest one, you're going to have to make. But the biggest. one is just committing to that person and realizing that it's not like you know you look around at everybody else's marriage one of the biggest problems we have in our society is the ease of which we

can compare and you know i talk about like you know putting a filter on an instagram post or that sort of thing it's not just that you see the tip of the iceberg with everybody else's marriage it's not always going to be that easy it's not always going to be that pretty um it is it's a labor of love. It truly is. And that's not to say it's not fun and all that stuff, but anything that hard and that rewarding is going to be you're going to have to work for it.

And on a lighter front on that like newly married, I would also say work at it and travel as a couple and enjoy each other as a couple. Before you have kids. Before you have kids. Take some time. And date nights. You've got to have date nights. When I met

Sarah McLaughlin. Yeah, that's right. I met her. We were on And what's the show with Cornyor? No. That's a song. Hell's Kitchen. Hell's Kitchen. We went on Hell's Kitchen and they did a water boys thing and then they had Sarah

McLaughlin there also like as one of the guests at the deal judging his food. Anyways, I got to talk to her. She is lovely. She's like the best person ever. There's no surprise to me that she's saving all the dogs on the planet. And her one piece of advice for me was and I believe it was solicited because we were talking about like her husband and their work schedule. and that sort of thing.

She was like, you have to take your date nights. You got to have your date nights. And this was at a point before I think we had our second child. I think this was like when things were still manageable. As time has gone on, that has proven to be so true. You guys got to go out, get a bite tea, go to the movies, do shit like that. I love doing stuff like that. So it works for me.

Anyways, the wedding. The wedding was great. It was an Irish and Mexican wedding. It was incredible. It was beautiful and culturally diverse. was very culturally diverse and Erica's family's awesome. Top five hang, like a Mexican wedding. Like I can't think of a better place to be.

And, you know, I thought everybody did a good job. There were no major incidents. The toasts are always a thing, man. Like, I thought everybody delivered a great toast at this wedding, bridesmaids included. Everybody was a 10 out of 10. They were going to send us up there to do our speech in front of, you know, in front of the bridesmaids.

And I was like, nah, we're like the home team. This wedding's at my. parents' house, we're going to be the home team at the bottom of the inning. And that's a major, major advantage in giving toasts at weddings. I thought everybody did a great job. The wedding moved along nicely. It was like, I think I had it at 13 minutes, like end-to-end, wire-to-wire. Yeah, there was a few different traditional events that went on there. There was a lasso ceremony. Yeah, Mexican lasso ceremony. Which was something that I've never seen before, which is actually really awesome to be coupled like that.

But that took a little bit of time. We were running into extra minutes. So the bottom line is Friday night, we got this rehearsal dinner. And on the fucking on the invitation, it said, dress like Yellowstone. And I'm like, yeah, that's just stupid. It's in Western. I've seen like, you know, the Dutton's and that sort of thing. And so I go out and I get a denim shirt, Wrangler from Murdox.

here. I've got these Wrangler boot cut jeans. I borrow my dad's cowboy boots from back in the day. I got Kyle a pair of cowboy boots. I looked good. I had a bolo. I had a big bucket cowboy hat. And I walk into the backyard and to my fucking horror, nobody else got the mellow. Like, you wore Canadian tuxedo. You wore Canadian tuxedo. You wear a cowboy hat or anything. How many cowboy hats are you going to post on? People drop the ball on the Yellowstone thing. But I, I, I, I wore a Canadian tuxedo. I, I wore a Canadian tuxedo. I, but I, I, I wore a Canadian tuxed. I. I was a I looked pretty good. Kyle, I was going to ask you to cast our family as Yellowstone people

because I haven't watched the show. It's tough. Lee Dodgers. He's the one. That's correct. I think you cast me as the dead guy. Yeah. Not dead.

Casey is kind of a blend of, I would say, Hallie and I, because he's just, like, got so many demons. He's, like, his biggest enemy. He can't get out of his own way. Yeah. But he's a good dude.

Yeah. He's a good dad. And then, you know, the other brother's just weird. The other brother's different. Doesn't fit our bill. He's the guy who wears a suit all the time. It doesn't fit our bill.

Yeah. I feel like, yeah, I mean, dad is more ripped than he is John. Oh, that's interesting, I think. Dad's very much more ripped than he is, John. Okay. Yeah, so everybody struck out on the Yellowstone thing, except for me, I kind of overdid it. Wedding speech, do's and don'ts. Yep.

Do not say this one time and then not have a good story. Like that's why it's a cardinal sim when it comes to a wedding speech Like don't reference X's this one time And then it's like she was laid to algebra Yeah and everybody's like is that the fucking story I first met Chris And I'm not I didn't I didn't lead with the anecdote With the she

Because I think bridesmaids are worse at speeches than groomsmen But I do think that I do and that's not sexist to say I just think we're better at it That too and I'm pretty nice, Jim I do do think we're better at it. Now there's some young ladies who have probably aced

a speech or two at a wedding but I got to say from experience this is just anecdotal and you guys have a laundry list of things that you're better than us. Guys understand that it's charming to be raw and expose yourself in a speech like that. And not read off of a piece of paper or a cell phone.

Which means me to my next point. Don't fucking stand up with an iPhone at your friend. Now both the groomsmen did but they did great. Nobody should stand up with an iPhone note. You should shouldn't be reading off of a, it's, it's, I'm going to say it, it's less than high class. You know what I'm saying? How about, here's a little word, decorum.

Decor is that the word? Yeah, decorum. How about, there's, you know, people need to just tap into that word, maybe check it out. Decorum, what do you think decorum means? Like, there's a procedure, there's a posicomatonist. I don't know that that's the exact definition of decorum, but that's good. You get what I mean. Decorum!

Chandra. When I walk into the pro shop. Put the iPhone now. It's like when I'm at the golf course, I walk into the pro shop, I take my hat off upon entry. You know, it's like when you get to the putting green, you take your glove off. You know what there's certain things. I don't know what that would be. Behavior in keeping with good taste and propriety.

So, you know, it's kind of in between. Etiquette. Yeah, it's etiquette is kind of like it's bad etiquette. Put your iPhone down at the wedding. You know, some people have had a few drinks. You know, pace yourself before the spills. Girls are guilty of it. Get three main points you want to make, make them and sit down.

Everybody you run into will say, great fucking skis. Here's what I do for about 30 minutes before I get my speech. I walk around and I'm like, I'm the fucking worst. This is going to be terrible. I have major anxiety talking in front of people. I bombed the last one. I did everybody. He's like, you do great.

And then they expect you'd get up there and be training wheels. But I got to fucking, I'm up there on my fucking Harley going to 100. miles an hour just acing the the speech that's under promise over deliver is the way with wedding speeches yeah i mean i thought we did good giving a speech is i'm not saying it was good giving a speech is a lot like being an o-line man if people remember your performance uh it probably wasn't good also uh don't walk in the kitchen with all the caterers and say too many cooks in the kitchen huh Kyle that bombed I walked it to my family's kitchen, which had been transformed into the bear, a scene from the bear. And I walked in, and they were working pre-dinner hard.

There was a bunch of them. And somebody looked at me funny, and I said, too many cooks in the kitchen. They're like, we've heard that joke before. You can hear a fork hit the ground. Fucking troglodyte. And I read. I immediately went, shortcut, sandlot, and I spit it out the side door. Nobody said a word.

No, there was a great wedding. There was also, it's lakeside. So, like, halfway through the, and I don't know if this is a code break, but halfway through the reception, I went swimming. Speaking of decorum, we went near skinny dipping after all. Nice. I grew up in the toast, guys.

We made sure the toast happen. The music. Was it just you two? Or was there a group, a swim group? It started where I was like, for about three days here, I've been, and this is a good segue into golf. Because the whole time I was golfing, Kyle, I'm not going to lie, I want to go swimming.

You know, golf is probably a little bit. lake and I'm like, can I do this? Can I not? I tried to swim in the pond. One of the guys was like, don't do that. And then, you know, you get to the wedding and around 10 p.m., the second wind hasn't hit. I turned to Bill Pekyll, who's my dad's teammate from back in the day, great player. My godfather, actually, and I'm like, Bill, he's a man in a few words. I'm like, you want to go swim? And he's like, yeah. And that's all there was doing. And then there's two big dudes in a suit walking down to the water. and all of a sudden it was like Forrest Gump when he decided to run across the country and there's a bunch of people behind him.

I mean, we had a group of three to five strong in their underwear hopping in the lake in the pitch black darkness. It was great. So definitely get a chance to go swimming. You got to do it at a wedding. Otherwise on the wedding, I thought, I've just congratulations, Howie, and it might have been the best wedding I've ever been to. It was so much fun, dude.

It was a wedding that I made a tea time for 7 a.m. the next morning. It was like one in the morning and we made a tea time for 7 in the morning. And I made it on time for my tea time. But man, I felt like shit. It was so worth it. That wedding was spectacular. So my kids did the ring bearer thing. Yes.

Yeah. And they did great. They looked awesome. Yeah. Yeah. So it was cool. I got pictures, more pictures to come. Happy trails to Erica and Hall.

Okay, but the day before, that's what got me out on the links, Kyle. Like, you know, I never golf. Like, I'm not into it. I mean, it isn't even a bit. Like, I feel like in the beginning it was a bit where I was like, I don't like golf. And I just wanted to piss people off because everybody loves golf. But as time's gone on, and even through my round the other day, like, I have not caught the bug.

Like, you still don't have the bug. I just don't have the bug. But I went with Howie because he got our whole group together and we played 18 holes. By the way, it's way too long. It's a fucking marathon. It's way too long. By whole 12, I was out of it. And I was hitting really good shots, Kyle.

What did you hear? I heard from multiple sources that are reputable sources that are sticks, single handicaps that were playing with Chris. They were showing him some pointers. Obviously, Chris has swing speed and athleticism, and he played baseball and all that shit. But golf's a different animal, and this guy, Dean that were buddies with showed him some stuff.

Shout out to Dean. And Chris was able to have some, like, 140, 150 in wedge approaches that were landing more than like a dead radius um and then i hit the ball over 300 yards Kyle which felt really good too 300 yard thing is just going to happen because you're big and swing on yeah but the wedges is like the impressive part well that's the that's the score that's my favorite shot to hit scoring at i'm glad it in my limited experience with golf is like when you drop it on the green in a part three i just throwing dart i love hitting the ball out of the rough read i'm not a driver guy you know um it's too make it it it harder on yourself.

It's too, yeah, it's too perfect up there. I think you learn a lot about golf. I was telling you, I've heard somebody say this before. Like, you learn about yourself playing golf. And I feel like I learned about myself in like 18 holes of golf. Like, one, it can't be too perfect. I got to fuck it up. So I don't want to be like on the T-box with a teed up high and a big driver.

Like, I want to be in the rough. Two, I don't have the attention span for something like this. I also struggle when it's like stop and start, stop and start. Like, that's another thing. Golf, there's a lot of stopping and starting. this fucking game. And the other one was, I need good coaching. If I have bad coaching or no coaching, it might as well be like nothing. But like I'm very coachable and I need good coaching. And this guy, Dean, I want to take them in my fucking pocket with me. People are like, you're going to get the

bug. You're going to play at home. Like I'm like, well, Dean moving in with me. Because unless somebody's telling me, Chris, visualize the ball in front of where it is. You know, like that was a big one for me. I can see you hit out ahead of it or whatever it is. So adjust your, gaze to three inches before the ball. It was like, boom. It was like a light bulb went off. And then I was kind of like for a second, I get it. Because I felt like a TV character or a movie character who's seeing the thing

through their lens and all of a sudden they're getting a bunch of high fives and shit. It was dizzying. Like, people were high fiving me. Like, people were genuinely happy for me. And that's a feeling I hadn't had since I was playing team sports. But on the other end of it, maybe I'm a little bit selfish because it was really hard for me to get into other people's successes. Like I did not care.

You know, I'd get up there and be like, out of boy, Dino, you know? But I didn't give a fuck how Dean hit it. You know, like, people were like, this is a big puck, Chris. I'm like, I don't care. I just got it on the green. Like, I'm done for this hole.

I know we're playing best ball and you need me. But I don't care. Like, I'm not competing right now. The cool thing about Dean is he could go and shoot par and you wouldn't even realize because he'd never be like, I got a birdie. I got a par. I got a, you know, he would never tell you.

Another thing about golf in life, Kyle. You think you hit a great shot. and then you drive up there and your buddies are out ahead of you and you're just like oh they're not going to use my ball like I was so excited you guys played best ball yeah we played best ball that's a great win to play because you get to hit every shot by the way me and me and tom split a bag of mushrooms before we played and I we were like I was like VJ sing out there dude it was incredible uh and Tom was bombing it dude it was insane Tom looked like and he's like 270 Tom looked like one of those long drive guys like he'd grunt and then everybody would cheat and then everybody would

It was like there was some really good stuff going on, but I have some notes here and read well, so you were cheating if you're calling yourself Vijay Singh you were cheating. Oh, is he a cheater? Is it he's questionable golf etiquette? I don't care enough to decorum, I guess. I don't care enough to cheat, but let me ask you this. I was playing with the guy who was trying to get in my head. First off, he'll go unnamed. But like he'd be $20 bet with me that I couldn't put it in the fairway on one on one hole.

Put it in the fairway. No problem. Okay, boomers are, they're working. Then later on, I whiffed the ball, like completely. And he's like, I'll bet you another 20, you don't hit the ball this time. And so guys are like, oh, pressure's on. I hit the ball. Then he does another, like, I bet you you don't make solid contact when I was, he's on my team, too,

which is kind of like a fucking weird thing. At the end of the match at 18, we're like, let's put $50 on a hole. Now, meanwhile, I've been chirping this guy for being six. up on them all day. So we're like, yeah, let's put 50 on the hole. I know I'm not going to win. Everybody's hitting the ball, right? All of a sudden, it's not best ball anymore.

And I'm like, well, I'm playing with house money. Fuck it. Yeah, I'll throw it in. So meanwhile, I don't really care anyways. We go to golf. I shank it. I shank another one. He bets me another $20 or whatever it is.

We get to the top of the hill and we're sitting there watching the two that are still in it. And one of my buddies, Danny's like, hey Chris go get us a drink because I've been playing head games with this guy Danny he's like a mental LP you know like I was just in his head he was how he's groomsman I just decided to target him so he was getting me back he was chirping me back he's like go get his drinks Chris I'm like shut the fuck up I'm like did you just lose $50 or did I because I didn't and I turned to the guy next to me owe me money and I'm like that's right I'm playing with your money right now don't forget that and he goes I don't know what you're talking about he said the $20 bet was

real, but the other two bets weren't real. He goes, ask anybody you play golf with. Would they bet you $20 that you don't make solid contact with the ball? Those aren't real bets. I owe you 20. Code break. That's a code break, right? That's ridiculous.

If you say, I will bet and you lose, you have to pay. Anytime you say, I will bet. Now, what does he call these bets? Well, that's a side bet. No, but what does he call him, but either? He doesn't, oh, pay or no, Pay or no pay bets. I'm like, what planet are you living on?

I got a pay bet that I played against him today, and I won. Yeah? Did you get your money? I got money right here. I'm not betting with him anymore. I thought that was total bushelier. That's crazy. Yeah, I had to go home.

What did you, did you raise it to the group? Like, did, or was he just like? No, because that's not my style. I'm not going to go to the group of seven guys and be like, hey, help me out here, guys. Is this wrong? I'm going to go to our 10. of thousands of listeners and ask them. You know, like, this is bogus.

I was heated. We worked it out because we're boys, and I texted them. I'm like, you know, what the fuck was that? But I don't want your money or anything like that. But it was some Bush League stuff going on out there. Also, rental clubs suck, Reed. Oh, yeah. They never have enough clubs for me.

And, you know, like, I used my dad's driver. That was the one that went 300 yards. What's it like living next to a one? waterhole. I don't mean a waterhole, but like the place where people get, does that drive the real estate value down? If you're like beautiful, you know, bungalow on 16, it's right in front of the igloo cooler. People are going to be stopping a lot. Does that is, is that a less desirable house to live at? I'm sure if you're on a golf course, that is a less desirable house, but any house on a golf course is pretty nice. Is it appropriate not to have water on the course period because all these were

in. Yes. complete code break you have to have water in the course that's a must car girl the car girl wasn't out car girl well if yeah if the car girl's coming around frequently oh not that day she was on she was on the right the writer strike kind of thing i don't know like yeah she was a uPS strike i need some air conditioning in my cart but like uh

it was fucking wild man like you know we're on the boomers and we it's like we're in the desert we can't find it's like there's we we came up to this one fountain it turned out to be a morrow It wasn't even running. It was 93 degrees out there. And I'm going to cut off t-shirt and thank God I'm in a cowboy hat because I didn't get a single bit of sun. You didn't see a picture of me golfing, did you?

I did not. And I'm impressed that the golf course lets you go out there and a cut out of a t-shirt. There's no dress code. There's no dress coat. That's awesome. That's a place you need to go. Exactly. There's a place.

Here I'll tell you, there's a place around Charlottesville, we can go up there and play. I have seen both men and women shirtless playing their shirtless before. Swananoa. Swanano. All right, we're going to know it's for sale. I'll play at Swananoa. Oh, anytime.

Okay. Perfect. Let's go play swan. Here's another question. If you live on a golf course, is it a code break to stand inside your house and watch the golfers? Like, there was a guy that had his screen door shut and he looked like he was like America's most wanted. He was just, no, he just, I don't remember which hole, but he was just standing there in his inside the screen watching us tee off. You got to come outside to watch the golfers, right?

No, no, no, no. Sit inside because that's a, that's a tough fucking. and move. When you're sitting aside, it adds the pressure because you as a golfer, you're like, well, shit, now I really got to perform. And it's even better. If you live on a golf course, you got to mess with the golfer. So say a ball lands in your yard, right? You run out there really fast, lay down next to it, like the ball hit you and knocked you out. That way, when the people pull up, they're like, oh, fuck. I knock this guy out. That's perfect. And then you get up and just rub your head a little bit, and then the golfer's like really freaked out. And then you collect.

Have your wife come and collect you out of the yard. So another question I have is, is like, what's the speaker hierarchy? Like, how do you work that out? Like, if multiple people have speakers in different, you know, in different golf carts and then also, like, how loud do you play? Because, you know, first off, read, I'm sorry about Randy and his passing. Randy Meisner, Eagles, legend. I appreciate it.

He died during my round. And, you know, we were like on the turn, or not on the turn. That's like ninth hole. We were about to go to the 18th. And I was blasting, take it easy or something. And I put it on the story. people were like code break it's too loud but people told me in our group to turn the music up what what's i think that's me back to decorum which is a really you can everybody

listens to versatile words a lot of people listen to music on the golf course yeah but it should be for you to listen to not for everybody around you to listen to mm-hmm that's good okay uh do you like when people are on uh like listening to videos in public like loud on their no but it's different here's another here's another note Don't know what hole. Didn't know what hole it was. They should make that easier. Hit a wedge 100 right on the green.

Got caught being positive with Frank's bad shot. Oh, this is a good one. So, like, I don't care at all, right? So I'll just be like, oh, it's good, good shot. I do like Matt, you know, when Matt's like, yeah, it's good. And like, he doesn't look it's good. He's just saying it. I got caught being positive in like right at the swing.

And this dude shanked it into the woods. And it was like, nobody but me. was like, that's a good shot. Then you come out sounded like an asshole, right? Because I'm not being sarcastic. I'm just a positive teammate. So you got to be careful with that in golf. It is interesting because there are some like scratch golfers where they hit a shot

and it looks like a good shot for you and you say, oh, that's a good shot. But then they're like, I'm not trying to be 25 feet from the pin on this hole. This isn't a good shot for me. This is a bad shot. That's a tough one to. Yeah, for some people. And I'm going to miss that target all the time because I have no, I have no contact. My last note was another hole, which again drives home to the point that if I'm going to play again, it's going to be nine holes.

It's not going to be 18. I hit like the shot of my life and within three minutes pulling up to the 13th hole, I was like, another hole. And that just tells you where my head is with golf. But striking the ball solid, I feel it, Kyle. Maybe we can get a maybe we can do a little foursome action with me, you, Kyle and Macon. Because Macon just got into it. We definitely can. somebody on Twitter or asked, you know, they had a great suggestion, the match, me against

making. Because we're both cheats, I would assume. I don't know if you've seen Making Golf yet, but I'm not. Well, we heard he went out for his second round. First round in 17 holes, he shot 103, and then he played nine whole or 10 holes the other day and shot much higher. Well, on average. So he saw it, he shot a 62 over 10 holes.

I think I might be able to beat him. He shot much high. Did he shoot better or worse than the first out of it? Worse, worse. Yeah, yeah, yeah, 62 over 10 holes. Yeah. So look out for the match when we go back to Charlottesville. Kyle, I know you got some shit to do.

You'll come back from the draft. I'm happy you're into golf. Yeah. I'm super happy you're into golf because those of you who are listening to play golf, understand, like when I first get, when I first get this hooks in you a little bit, and you're like, I'm not that into it. It's like smoking crack, bro.

I mean. No, with crack, it's like, hey, I'm dropping everything. You know, like I'm doing crack. Like, I am going to be doing this crack every fucking day. With golf, it's like, oh, maybe I'll play when I get back, but only nine holes. You know, crack's totally different. All right, so special treat today.

We don't get a lot of head college football coaches. Maybe we should get more on. But Steve Sarkesian is joining us, Texas head football coach. He's obviously been a USC, Washington. And if you think about college football and you think about blue bloods, like your Dukes and Kentucky's of the basketball world, like Texas is up there. But they haven't won a lot. Like, not lately.

They're kind of like the Cowboys, but I like them a lot better than the Cowboys. I want to see Burn Orange be powerful again. I do. I'm just a bystander. I have no allegiance. I'm not like a Big 12 guy. I'm not an SEC guy. But I like seeing Texas playing well.

and I think he's got the juice. I mean, he seems like a guy who's trying to build that culture back up. We'll talk to him about that. And I actually caught him a couple games in the NFL as a Falcons offensive coordinator. Playoff game, first game of the season in 2018 as well. So we crossed past, so it would be good to catch up with him. And then after that, stick around for some NFL news and notes. I'm so excited to announce our new sponsor, Oakley.

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Try for yourself. I've worn a lot of sunglasses brands, my life and I can assure you Oakley is not only the best looking but the best quality out there head on over to oakley.com oakel le why for more information today coach what's up how you doing man i'm doing good good to meet you i've been a long time admirer watch you coach a lot of ballgames and uh stanford steve's a good buddy he uh he's a big fan as well so yeah you know you kicked my ass twice which one which which game which games i'm i i'llkees Yeah, the Falcons, yeah. Yeah, you got there after 283, right?

Yeah, fourth and two from the two. I know. Ridley, not Ridley, Julio almost had that thing. It would have been. You kind of slipped on the icy corner of the end zone. Yeah. Then we had to go play you guys again the first game of the year. That was, yeah, we played well that game.

That was an ugly game. We made it ugly. We were happy it was ugly. So, man, it's good to talk to you. It looks like you got a pretty sweet facility behind you. Yeah, it's cool, man. This is a really cool spot. That's awesome.

Well, I want to start there then. I mean, Texas, culture. You guys have culture Wednesdays, I hear. Yeah. You know, I talked to some of my buddies who played at Texas, and they were like, you know, since Mac, there hasn't been a guy yet that's embraced the culture. And it looks like Sarks doing that.

What's that all about? you know what it is i i um i just try to connect to the guys and so we we try to find a topic every wednesday and i always try to share first on whatever that topic is you know and there's a variety of things that we touch on and then i'll break them up into subgroups i know it's hard for guys especially the younger players to get up and talk in front of a team right and so sometimes a little easier if we do 10 subgroups in and around the facility and then they share and I always got a member of our leadership committee on there that kind of runs it with a, with a position coach.

But while I'm really trying to do is get some transparency, right? Get a little bit vulnerable, get honest, have some empathy for one another and try to create a connection that ultimately can lead to more love, right? And then more respect. Because I think that culture is what wins, in my opinion. I've been around some really good programs and teams over, over the. the time I've been coaching, and culture wins. You know, talent's great, but culture wins. And because culture finds a way to win through adversity. And so that's what we do. And it's been really

effective. And if you ask any of our players, that's probably one of the top two things they mention of what they like about our program are those Wednesdays that we spend together. So as you build out the internal culture, because it seems like you build it from the inside out. I mean, obviously there's a lot of great outside cultural influences in Austin and with Texas's history. But like, what is that culture? What is the personality of your team as you've seen it kind of organically form? Yeah, I think first and foremost, it's authentic. It's real. I was talking to the staff about this this morning. Our culture is real. It's not a sign on the wall. It's not a t-shirt, you know, culture tap it on your way out to the field. It's real. It's genuine. It's organic.

and it's something where I think players are very comfortable with one another because they get vulnerable with one another and they get to know each other. In this day and age with the kids that we're recruiting, you know, they spend the majority of their lives in their cell phone. Yeah. They're texting. They're on social media. They're on Snapchat.

They're on Instagram. They're on Twitter or X. I'm not sure what to call that. The reality of it is that that is almost their reality. And I'm trying to get them back into the real world of having authentic relationships with guys that you share a locker room with. And ultimately, our culture has become just that. It's one that is real and it's authentic and it's definitely organic. And, you know, I had a vision of what I wanted our culture to be when I took the job.

And I have to say, I told the staff this today and I told actually the team last week, they not only bought into this culture going into. to year three, they've contributed to it and they've elevated it. It's better than I thought it could be. And I'm really just proud of everybody for taking a risk to get vulnerable, to share, and to get to know people, because that's not what society is telling us to do these days. Yeah. And it's hard. I mean, with the transfer portal and that sort of thing, it's harder to keep a culture together, keep those players together, has being an NFL coach, and we just talked about, you know, your time in the NFL and the times we cross past, but with free agency and the way things change,

I noticed that going from being a college captain to a pro captain, you know, it's hard to be a leader when things are changing every year. Has that helped you and how much different is it like soup to nuts from when you coached it like Washington? Yeah. No, I think it is very different. You know, we don't major in the portal,

but we do go to the portal for needs. Very similar to the NFL. right when you have a need you got a you got a need for a second wide out you try to go find that second wide out and free agency or via trade to to bolster your roster or a pass rusher or a three technique whatever that is so we we've kind of taken on that approach uh and inevitably if your culture strong enough those leaders will welcome that newcomer in um and they and they they kind of get him kind of caught up to speed you know in a way that that is really effective you know we we were just mentioned my time in Atlanta.

I mean, Matt Ryan, Julio Jones, I mean, that group of guys, Alex Mack, you know, Matthews at tackle.

I mean, those guys were mainstays for the Atlanta Falcons for years. And so there may have come and gone some new faces along the way, but those guys were the culture. And then it was like, buy into what they're,

what they're selling, you know? And if you don't, it was going to be hard because they were the ones that kind of set the tone in that building. every day. You talk about, you know, the incoming transfer cats, but, you know, I've never asked

to coach this. What's it like when you kind of got an eye on your team and there's so many guys to keep tabs on? Earlier, you made me think of a parent that's like making sure that their kids don't get enough screen time. It's got to be a tough job. But just to get to know the kids and know where the danger zone is for an individual kid, where that kid is starting to feel like maybe this isn't a home for him anymore, you know, that part of being a head coach has got to be challenging. Do you have kind of like a way you keep tabs on everybody and then like a formula with which you say, hey, maybe this isn't the right place for you, but we can have that conversation. And when do you do that?

Yeah, I think a couple things in that. The first is, man, I just try to pour into every guy that we have on our team. You know, I try to forge a really authentic relationship with them. A lot of that starts in recruiting. I'm a really hands-on recruiter. So I get to know the families, the siblings. I get to know the player. And then when he's here, we just keep pouring into him and keep developing the relationship.

The one thing that I do, regardless of the player, I don't care if you're a fifth year senior, three-year starter, or if you're a true freshman. At minimum, I meet with every player on an individual basis twice a year. And we do exit meetings at the end of every season, just like you would in the NFL. And then we do another exit meeting at the end of spring practice as they head into summer. And essentially, we tell him, hey, here's your strengths. here's your weaknesses. Here's the things we want you to work on.

But we do the same thing academically. We do the same thing in the weight room. We do the same thing in the training room. We do the same thing for them socially. Just where we see them at and what they need to do to work on to kind of enhance their value within the organization. And then the reality of it's some guys to say, hey, this is where you're at. I'm not sure if this is a great fit for you. What do you think?

And sometimes they agree. Sometimes they say, no, coach, I want to be here. This is what I want to do. And I'm going to work on these things and I'm going to show you. And that's great too. But in the end, I think being honest with them and being transparent, but also letting them know you care, that matters. You know, that still matters.

That if they know you care about them, they will work and they'll try to do the things necessary to contribute to the team. So training camp is coming up. Great time to get to know your buddies. great time to know your players. I mean, like, there's two sides of the coin to training camp. It is a grind, but on the other side, it's a great time. I mean, you know, the team dinners, you know, meetings late, like hanging out in the hotel room, bus rides. If you look for it, you can find the silver lining. How do you build that thing out? Like, is there a process

sequentially that you go through as a coach in building out a training camp schedule? And then how have the influences of the various training camps that you've been in the league, you know, with the changing of the CBA and the changing college football landscape, how does that factor into how you build your training camp out today in 2023, as different as it might be from the years past. Yeah, I mean, I used to think back in the day when I was playing, man, like, it was, you know, double days, you know, and just like, I can't even touch what we did. You know, that was.

Damn, up at BYU, too, dude, with the altitude? Wow. Yeah, that was crazy, you know. But now, now we're into the whole ramping. up model, right, where you're gradually building. There's the, you know, you're getting acclimated period. What we do essentially is our first four days, you know, we go, you know, we go helmets for a couple days and we put our shoulder pads on and then boom, we take a day off. And then we're pretty much into that routine. We're off on a Sunday. We practice Monday, Tuesday. We're off on

Wednesday. We practice Thursday, Friday. And then we scrimmage or simulate a game on Saturday to work our situations and whatnot. And so there's a formula to it in a sense that I don't ever want our guys to feel like they're saving themselves because they know there's such a grind of days in a row. I want them to feel like they can exhaust themselves for a couple days knowing we're going to have a recovery day every couple, you know, two, three days in there to get their bodies back, to get their minds back, to be sharp, to have developmental position meetings, to work with the younger players so that they can stay up to speed with the installation.

And that's drastically different. It is much more of the NFL model that way. But to make that work, you have to have highly competitive practices. You know, in the NFL, you get to do the crossover practices. You get to, you know, bring in the Patriots for three days before your preseason game. We don't get to do that. So we have to make sure that our practices remain really competitive across the ball from each other, but also competitive within position groups so that guys don't feel like, man, I started out

training camp is a two or a three on the depth chart, it doesn't matter what I do. I can't move up. We have to make sure that we're really evaluating the team and giving players opportunities to move up the depth chart and obviously give players the opportunity to move down if they're not doing the things necessary to help the team be successful. Yeah, is there like a ledge that you go off in college football where you're like, all right, here we go. I had no idea. I mean, I'm sure you you know who your players are, but I have no idea how it's going to shake out. Whereas like in Atlanta and the places that you'd seen at the top, you know, you get your preseason to see, you know, who can play a little bit, who's dependable,

who's making mistakes. You've got Bama two weeks after camp. I mean, you know, like talk to me about the mystery that kind of unfolds when you take the field as a college football head coach. Well, it is, it is different, you know, for us, you know, especially for our younger players, you know, the first time they run out of the tunnel here at DKR Labor Day weekend, there's going to be 105,000 people at 2.30 in the afternoon. It's going to be about 105 with about 125, 130 heat index.

So they've never experienced seeing the crowd, the heat, the things of that nature. Some guys rise to it. Some guys, you know, I always say there's your practice players and there's your game day players. And sometimes you don't know until they get put in that arena. until they get put in that environment. So we're constantly trying to gather information as we go along the way. And then sometimes you've got to make those in-game adjustments. A guy who may have practiced great all of a sudden isn't quite responding to the bright lights

the way you would have liked. And so you have to make that adjustment. And a guy who maybe all of a sudden you're gauging his catapult numbers throughout practice and there's some explosive movements. and yeah, the top speed is 20 or 21 miles an hour. You get in the game and all of a sudden, this guy is running, you know, 22, almost 23 miles and now. Yeah, it happens.

He's making competitive catches. We've all seen it. And so that's the stuff that we have to constantly monitor and watch because to your point, I don't get preseason football games. I have competitive scrimmages, but there's nothing like playing in front of a real crowd and going through your pregame routine and all the things that that looks like and who can clam up and who can.

feel like, man, this is this is the moment I'm supposed to be in. So two-part question, how old school are you? How much live are you doing in camp to get those reps? Because there's no, you know, there's no practicing for Bama. I mean, it's almost impossible to do. You got to go play Bama, but you can get close to it. And then on the other side of things, you mentioned the catapult numbers. How new school are you with the tech and the, you know, the analytics even

and just some of the newer at the forefront kind of football bells and whistles? I'm a total believer in sports science. Yeah. I totally believe that science has given us tools now that, that I, you know, we just didn't have before. Whether it's workload, whether it's explosive movements, whether it's change in direction, acceleration, deceleration, whether it's, you mean, hydration tests and all the things, the sleep patterns, all the things that go into it to put yourself in position to be, you know, optimal success. but I also don't lose side of what the game of football really is about.

You know, you got to block, you got to tackle, right? You got to run. There is a level of, you know, physicality still to this game that matters. And there's a level of toughness that matters. There's a physical toughness and there's a mental side of it, toughness side that matters too. And so we are a physical football team. We still believe in running the football downhill. Yeah.

We do team run. there's no passes and everybody knows we're going to run it because I think you got to know you have to have the ability to run the football when your opponent knows you're going to run it and how are you going to find those yards? And sometimes you can't find that out until you put players in that position to make that happen. And so I would much rather know that our strong safety can make that tackle in the hole on a Wednesday in training camp than then leaving it up to chance on a Saturday evening in Tuscaloosa. So we definitely put our players through that through that gauntlet to find out about them. My burning question is the Tom Herman P chart. Is that still in existence of Texas? I don't know if you ever saw that. It was just color-coded. That was sports science back 15 years ago. Do you guys still have a P-chart?

I think everybody has a P-chart. We probably got blown a little out of proportion, but I think everybody's got a P-chart nowadays. Remember going to training camp, like if you're looking at a brown, you're probably like that's not. not really rocket science going on right there. Yeah, that was sports science when I played in 2008 under Al Groh. We had a P-chart and the whole thing. So, you know, you talk about the run game. You've always had a thousand yard back. I mean, as synonymous as you are with, you know,

airing it out and that sort of thing. Bejohn Robinson, a guy that's found a way to transcend the way we think about how do teams value running backs. I mean, Gibbs went in the first round. You know, Robinson was a, you know, a top 10 pick. When guys were coming in to see Bejohn, Robinson. What were some of the things you heard as guys watched him, you know, make those spectacular cuts and bounce the ball on the edge and run the way he runs? Like, what were some of the things anecdotally that you heard about him that you didn't think about because you're coaching him in college? You know, I think that probably the biggest thing I heard, which we knew, but you heard, was complete back. Yeah. Everybody kept looking for a hole in his game. Like,

where's the hole? What's wrong with him? That was the first thing. The second thing I heard a lot of, I got asked a lot was, is this kid really this good of a kid? Is this kid too good to be true? There's something wrong. Like, what's wrong? And I tell them all. I thought the same thing when I first got here too. When I got here and I inherited him. I said, I called him in one day. I said, all right, man, you've gone on now for about a month. Just what's wrong with you? It's kind of a laugh. And he isn't. I'd say it all the time. He's a better. human being than he is a football player. I mean, the guy gives back to the community. He's a great teammate. He picks people up. I sound like every once in a while, be a jerk. Like just be a jerk for me,

man. And then that'll make me feel better to know you're human. Like you just didn't, you weren't like made in the lab somewhere. But now he's a he's a he's a great person. He's a great teammate. And as I told Atlanta when that when they took them, not only are they getting a great player who's going to make their team better. I think the community, the city of Atlanta, it's going to be better that Bejohn Robbins is there. He's going to have that much of an impact on that place. That's great. And you're going to need to run the ball in the SEC, man.

You know, like how different is that? And how, like, what's your mindset right now? Because you guys are big 12ers, but you know, a big change on the horizon. You've coached in different conferences. There are kind of these generalizations about way styles of play in different conferences and that sort of thing. Big 12 people talk about defenses negatively in the past, but there's been some really.

good defenses lately. SEC's supposedly big and physical and fast and all those adjectives. Like, how do you tailor your game to play in a different conference and does that process start in recruiting? Yeah, you know, I think it's twofold. I think it's both. It's recruiting and what we're doing on the field. You know, when I took the job, I was coming from Alabama.

And I came to Texas to win championships. You know, I didn't come here just to say that I got to be the head coach at Texas. It was okay. I want to come here and I want to compete. and I want to win national championships. All right. To do that, you're going to have to beat Alabama. You're going to have to beat Georgia.

You're going to have to beat Ohio State. You're going to have to beat Clemson because those were the schools year and year out that were playing for the college football playoffs. So initially right when we got here, I was already building a roster that could compete with those guys. I mean, in my mind, I'm like, we have to build a roster that can not only win the Big 12, but that can go beat those teams in a college football playoff. and then come to find out,

then they tell me we're moving to the SEC. So it wasn't this big shift, you know, that where now we really need to change how we recruit. We were already recruiting that way. And you have to recruit big people up front on the line of scrimmage. And you have to be able to recruit speed on the perimeter. And then it's your scheme. And then it's your quarterback play.

And then it's, you know, what do you do when you do from there? But you have to have those pieces in place because the thing that the SEC does, it takes its toll on you. And when people get nicked up and when you lose people, you can't have that major drop off. Your backup needs to look, smell, taste, play, just like the starter.

Or that's when you can get exposed. It's going to be exciting. Quarterbacks, it feels right for Texas to have two household named quarterbacks right now in Quinn Ewers and my guy, Arch Manning, who took a hiccup of a look at Virginia. I know his dad, Cooper. And I know he's got some Charlestville ties. It was nice of him to just fly through Charlottesville on the way to Austin.

But specifically with Arch because, you know, like he has a famous family. You know, I had a dad who played. My brother went through the same thing. This is the NIL era. He's a quarterback. It felt like, you know, these guys are famous before they take the field. How do you walk that line as his coach and his like kind of big brother on campus that can kind of show him the ropes? Like, I want you to get yours in NIL.

I want you to soak it up and be a quarterback in Austin, but I also want you to do your work. Is he the kind of kid who can balance that? And where do you step in and help him with that? I really think he can. You know, one thing I was really impressed with, with Arch and his, you know, his dad Cooper and his mom, Ellen, like that they really handled the recruiting process extremely well.

You know, as much as we recruited a bunch of kids every year, they handled it like pros, which they are, right? They've seen it. They handled it really well. They asked great questions. They look for the things that were important to them. And in the end, I think Arch has come in with a really good head on his shoulders. He works his tail off.

I mean, this guy goes for it. He's got it in his DNA from a work ethic perspective. But I have to remind him and I have to remind other people, he's still a true freshman, right? He's a good. You know, he just really should have just graduated high school. He graduated early and got here in January. So he's already ahead of. where he should be. But it's a process, man. Like, you know, we don't, we're not running your

just your traditional, you know, college offense. We were, we were running a lot of the same stuff. We were running in Atlanta from a protection standpoint, the play action pass, the run game, the amount we put on the quarterback at the line of scrimmage. And so to do it, we're trying to train him to play in the NFL as well, along with, I think it's a system that's withstood the test of time and has had a lot of success over the years at different stops. So, I think that for a variety of reasons, that's why he came. And he also knows he's smart enough to know, well, that's why I came. I got to put in the work.

That does mean he's not a college kid. He's still a freshman in college. I mean, his first two weeks here, he lost his ID twice. I mean, you're all good. But that's part of it. That's part of the growth that you're supposed to have when you're a young player in a program. I think I might be an 18-year-old freshman. I lost my ID twice this summer.

So a couple guys, before I let you go, a couple great names, that you've coached or coached with. I just wanted to ask you one question on him. How do you piss Nick Saban off in a way as an assistant coach that people might not know? Wow, man. You're like, how long's the list? Well, the biggest one is, you know, when you've got a good lead, you don't run it enough. I learned that lesson.

You know, you throw a little bit too much. And then two, you just don't see your right. the corners. The biggest thing with Nick, you've got to know what's expected of you, what the standard is. And if you can see around the corners, life's good. He trusts you. He doesn't hire you because it's a place to come and learn. He hires you because you're supposed to be good at what you do. So if you can see around the corners and expect the expected, you can stay ahead of the game and have a great experience. I loved my time working with him. Do you believe this story? It's a story we've talked about on this podcast in the last couple of days.

There was a Reddit thread where Nick Saban, there was a rumor that he had golfed a hole in one and told his caddy he would kill him if he told anybody because Nick would then have to buy beers for everybody at the clubhouse. Do you think that story's true or false? I think it's partially true. I can definitely see him not wanting anyone to know if you've got a hole in one. Yeah. And I don't think it's for going back to the clubhouse.

I think it's because he should be in his mind. He doesn't want people knowing he actually has a social life. Oh, yeah, that's good. All he does is football 24-7. When in reality, the guy actually has got a great personality. He does have a lot of fun. But I would say it's probably a split decision on, is it completely true or not? Last one on coaches here.

Eddo and Lane Kiffin, same staff. You were there to see it. Did they ever have conversations? I want to see what those two human beings would talk about. how that chemistry was. Did they ever sit at the lunch table? Like, what was that like? All the time, all the time, man.

We were young back then, man. Yeah. You know, Coach Carroll had an awesome staff. We had a bunch of really good coaches on that staff early on. You know, obviously Norm Chow, Ed Ogeron, you know, Lane Kiffin, Kennedy Polo was on that staff. There was a lot of really good coaches. And coach let us be us, you know.

Our personalities definitely came out. And Coach O'Don definitely came out. out and Lane's, you know, smart remarks came out. And that was what made it fun, though. I think that that's why we had a good team in that era. And this is it for you, man. Give you a chance to plug this facility and twist the knife a little bit as a guy who grew up in the McHugh Center in Charlottesville, Virginia, which has not since been updated. It is soon, though. So look out SEC schools. We're catching up. What is in this facility in Austin that you think is badass that has little to do with football? I've heard about like bowling alleys.

in some places. I know some people have the sleep pods, movie theaters. What's going on in Austin when I walk into that facility? You know, quite frankly, we're just really efficient, man. This facility is very efficient. You know, we definitely have the sleep pods. We definitely have the sauna beds. You know, we got all the kind of bells and whistles there. The one thing I think that's really cool, we have our, like, our doctor's offices in our facility. So whatever you come in with, you never have to leave. And so I think that that part is really efficient. You know, ours is about time management and trying to take advantage of making sure we're not wasting the guy's time because it's a real deal now of being a Division I Power 5 football player. When you start juggling school, football,

and wanting to be great, and now you're throwing NIL at responsibilities where you have to go handle those things too, it takes up a lot of their time. And so we want to make sure that we're efficient. Coach Sark, appreciate the time. We're pulling for you and hope you come back again after a big win, man. Appreciate it, man. Thanks, brother. Yeah. Have a great day. Good camp. This podcast is brought to you by Cash App, the ideal app for spending, sending, and setting easy to track savings goals. Personally, I love using Cash App savings tools whenever I'm planning a family vacation. I just took my first family vacation as a father. We went to Italy, Kate, myself, and the baby, but keeping track of all our expenses can be tricky, and it was, but it wasn't as tricky with Cash App because when all the

prices are in Euros, nobody knows what the hell's going on. So when we're renting a scooter, getting an espresso, or sitting down to a course of the Tagliatel, Cash App had us covered with a separate account that let me track spending and set goals. So whether you're saving up for a trip, a rainy day, or a sunny life, Cash App has the easy tools to help you take control of your money and financial life. Download it for free. free in the App Store and Google Play and see why it's the number one finance app in the U.S. App Store. Good news.

The Thursday show we do with Amp will continue 4.30 every Thursday, the Greenlight Team, Cowboy Reed, Facts, Kingston, I'll pop through there sometimes. On Amp, you can interact with us really easily. There's a call-in button. We invite call-ins all the time. You can talk directly to us, ask us questions, ask us our favorite music. We might even play some. There's also a live chat during the show.

If you have a question about a topic we're talking about, fired off in the chat, we'll answer. We're going to be doing what we've been doing all fall every Thursday at 430 on AMP. Check us out. There's a lot of NFL news this past weekend and you being in Montana, were you able to keep up with everything going on? I was, Reed. In the middle of my magical round of golf the other day, I got a bunch of alerts about Joe Burr. And I mean, first off, my heart sank because you're just like, again, the whole thing, he's about to get paid. I mean, like for a second there, I thought it was Achilles for sure.

And that's what you fear, right? I mean, like, they say it's just a calf, right? It's going to be. There's no just the calf, to be exact. I mean, like, I can only go off my anecdotal information. But one time I had a calf strain, I had it for two years, you know, and it calcified. and I could feel, well, it's probably not calcified. It's probably not calcification if there's any, you know,

physical exercise specialists out here. But like, I have a knot in my cap that never went away from it. And at times it would kind of mimic the symptoms of a pulled cap. And so you'd be out there running around like, did I pull my calf again? And, you know, it's just discomfort. It can affect the way your Achilles functions. It can affect, you know, a lot of your quick Twitch stuff.

And one of the things we talk about with Orlando Brown last week was Burrough, he's an on-time guy, he climbs the pocket. He's not always looking to extend. But one of the things that makes him very good and I think separates him from Tom Brady, if you want to compare the two skill sets or whatever, is that this guy can really tuck and run. And, I mean, you look at the first two games in the season. I think they played Baltimore. And I think they play the Browns. And then they've got L.A. and Aaron Donald. You know, it's a Super Bowl rematch.

I don't think LA is going to be very good. But when 99's on the other side, you've got to move off the spot. The first two games, I mean, Schwartz, not a big blitzer, McDonald in Baltimore, not, you know, the blitzer that his predecessor was. So it'll be interesting just in a very micro level to see how they're game planning for Joe Burrow coming out of the gate. And they have to start hot. It's the AFC. They're in one of the toughest divisions.

So when it comes to Joe Burrow, one, there's no just a calf. And I fell into that trap earlier and just saying that. But number two, thank God, it's not an Achilles or something like that because it would have been bad for the game, bad for the game. And then like, you know, when somebody like Joe gets hurt the first time, it's one thing. But when guys get hurt two and three times, you start to write them off as maybe this is one of those careers that it's like a what might have been thing. So I was, I was petrified. And I didn't want to comment on it because, like I said, I was on boomers on the golf course. I got people hitting me up like I'm Adam Schaefter, like, you're not going to comment on the Joe Burrow thing?

I'm like, dude, it is not fucking Thursday to me. It's a wedding weekend. I have no responsibility to get on, you know, the X machine and say the same thing everybody else is saying. My first reaction was, man, that sucks. And I'm very relieved that it's not something worse. And it seems, so I guess he was spotted with the, with, with a brace on today, a calf sleeve. And also, they're varying reports.

Some say he could be ready by week one. Some say he's in eight weeks, so it might be two, three, four. And there was one report saying that he's in a better place now than he was with his appendix last year. So we'll see Jake Browning and Reed Sinat, both backup Bengals, quarterbacks. Jake Browning had a reportedly good camp day. today. So maybe they will be solid in those first couple games. They got Simeon. They got your boy Simeon from Denver. Yeah, Trevor's on there too. And Trev is, you know, he's got, first, first glance, I'm not going to lie. I was like, man, you know, he's not a name that jumps out at me as like this

like really capable backup. But when you look at his body of work, guys got 30 something starts. I think he's, or 24 stars, 35 games in the NFL. Most of them with your, with God's team there. And he's no stranger to having to step in in an emergency situation. I mean, like James Winston, Sam Darnold, of course he got hurt as soon as he stepped in for Sam Darnel. But the thing about this is if you want something like this to happen, make sure it's the beginning of camp and make sure it's not the, you know,

the middle of the season because another thing this does when every game counts in the AFC, it gives you a chance to get ahead. I mean, you know those coaches are doing a lot of prep for their first few opponents during camp and even more so now because these are going to be game playing games if Trevor Simeon plays and not Joe Burrow. So, you know, what I mean by game playing game is you're going to be departing from your status quo to try to, you know, eat together a win or two. You got to come out of that first three game stretch, in my opinion, two and one to be really competitive in the early part of the season. But they started slow before. And that's another thing. The Bengals have been notorious for this, starting slow, finishing strong, the offensive line, that sort of thing.

It's going to be another challenge for them out of the gate. And we'll see how they respond. When a player like this goes down, I was watching Joe Burrow running, but I watch everybody on the field, like to see their reactions. And it's a crazy thing when you've been working for a calendar year. And really there's no like I've been working for a year. We've been working for years to try to win this championship. You know, guys like Sam Hubbard and, you know, homegrown Bengals guys that maybe got drafted when this team was shitty. And you get this massive infusion of hope.

And you've seen him go down to see him go down and clutch at his lower leg like that. Your entire life flashes before your eyes. Like your entire existence is not just all these thoughts come into your head right away. Because I've seen it happen with Sam Bradford. You know, I saw him go down with an ACL more than once. I saw him go down with an ACL in Carolina. I saw him go down in ACL in Cleveland. I've seen him roll his ankle up real bad,

and our season kind of go up in flames after that. But like, each time that happened, it's amazing how quickly in your mind you can take inventory of the rest of your season. You know, like you think very pragmatically about it very quickly, and all of a sudden you kind of click into this mode in the day, until that MRI is read, that you're like, we could be a fucking six and ten team or a six and eleven team.

And that's usually what ends up happening to a contending team that doesn't have a great backup option. If the guy's out for a year, it just changes the entire, you know, tone of the season. So I felt for those guys, but I'm really relieved for them. I know that was a long night. Did you have that type of mental panic when Carson went down? Yeah, for sure. I mean, like, it was a totally different one. It was like, okay, now I'm playing with house money, but this was.

was a magical ride, now it's going to add. You know, and the mixed emotions of walking in that crample of the locker room at the Coliseum, and we just did this great thing. We went on the West Coast. We lost Seattle. We come back down. We win this thriller against the team that was probably the class of the NFC at the time with us. And that was a major barometer for us.

And we should be celebrating like crazy. But instead, it's this more, like kind of somber tone in the locker room. And I know that that facility was like, or a dark cloud until the MRI was read. And it's something I can definitely identify with. Being a guy who's like, when you put so much into one thing and you have zero control as a position player in the NFL, I mean, it's like a basketball player goes down,

oh, we'll pitch in, we'll score more, we'll do, like, you lose your quarterback, it's over, you know, for the most part. And so very thankful for the Bengals and for Joe Burrow. And in Denver, as you mentioned a minute again, go things you can control. Sean Payton, as he said it, put on his Fox sports hat, his analyst hat and kind of went at the, the 2022 Broncos coaching staff, essentially called them Bums and said it was one of the worst coaching jobs in the history of the NFL.

I, as a Broncos fan, didn't want to see that kind of heat being brought on us, but maybe he's doing it strategically. Do you think, you know, is doing this in a type of way to either protect himself if the Broncos aren't going to do as well this season? Or why do you think he went out on such a limb to go after the new offensive coordinator of the Jets? Well, I think people have it wrong. I think Aaron Rogers has it wrong. Although I don't blame Aaron Rogers for his reaction because what else is he going to do? Like, that's his guy.

He brought him to the Jets. I mean, like he needs confidence as bad as Russell Wilson needs confidence. So it's kind of like two people trying to build the confidence. of the people that they're dependent on. And, you know, I think a lot of people miss the point here. I'm not saying Sean Payton calculated this, but he's a very smart guy. People are acting like he's sandbagging. Well, somebody would have to explain to me why saying it's not the players that are

fucked up here. It's the coaching would exonerate him if they didn't have a good season. I mean, we would do quite the opposite. Sean Payton's saying, hey, the players are all right here. Russell Wilson is not broken. And I think that's the guy he's talking to. I mean, like Nathaniel Hackett is collateral damage in this whole thing. And I don't agree with necessarily coming out and saying it the way he did.

But I do believe there was a calculus here and being like, hey, it was not these guys' fault. Which the reality is, it probably wasn't entirely their fault. I mean, no one's going to have any qualms with the assertion that that was a dog shit coaching job. And I think two things can be true at the same time. It was a dog shit coaching job. Nathaniel Hackett is so far a terrible head coach. But he has something to offer as an offensive play caller. And he has tremendous value to Aaron Rogers.

And so all these things can be true. And so I think that's the big thing is like if he were sandbagging, he wouldn't be taking a blow torch to the last guy. Because the whole thing is like, hey, Russ, hey, you know, Javonte Williams, hey, you know, Brandon Brown. And hey, these guys that I'm going to need to depend on, you guys aren't a bad football team. That was just a bad year and you were coached poorly. Now, he could have said that privately.

Somebody brought that up to me. He was like, well, I didn't he do it privately. We cannot ignore the fact that Russell Wilson is not a private commodity right now. His public image is being traded every day in public. And I think the stock is way down. And I think Russell probably feels that. And him knowing how Russell operates, like Russell is probably affected by that. And so to say, hey, it wasn't Russ's fault completely.

It wasn't these guys' fault completely. This was a bad coaching job. Yeah, it looks bad. And the collateral damage is Nathaniel Hackett. But it's something that I think he might have done on purpose. Because if you saw what he said when he came out of it, Reed, he used words filter. He used restraint. He said mistake, but he never walked it back because it's true.

And I think, you know, for Aaron Rogers, while I totally hear what he's saying, and I wouldn't have reacted much differently because that's my guy. This is a quote from Aaron Rogers in the past. I don't think it should be a problem to any of those guys to hear criticism. We all hear criticism in our own ways and we've got to be okay with it

and take it in, process it. And if it doesn't fit, it doesn't fit. But if it fits, we've got to wear it and prove on those certain things. I said it, I'm not going to be a robot. I don't understand why people have a problem with things that are truthful. I'm calling things the way I see it. People who don't think I need to air

that stuff out. That's their opinion. But I'm doing what I think is in the best interest of our guys. And in a twisted way, although it's not apples to apples, that's what Sean Payton's doing. And the collateral damage, unlike Aaron Rogers throwing his receivers under the bus, and this is not a critique, because I do believe in airing things out sometimes. The collateral damage in this circumstance was outside the building. And I think that's where it gets kind of sketchy. So, you know, Roger says keep, keep coach's name out of his mouth, good on him. And for Sean Payton, a really sloppy way if he did it intentionally to get his point across, but he has not walked it back. Now, I don't think this is all about 38 to 3 the last time these two teams played each other.

I just think this is the thing where Rogers was truly blindsided by it and Schrager. It's interesting to know the way these things go. Shreger goes to get an interview with Rogers. they talked for 15 minutes before or five minutes before. And, you know, of course, he leads off the question with, now I'm not going to ask you directly about Sean Payton, but you'd better believe he talked to Aaron Rogers before and was like, hey, can I ask you about Sean Payton? Well, maybe don't make it seem like I'm willingly answering the question.

But this is all, this is chess. You know, this is sound bite warfare. And I cannot wait to week five. It's pretty interesting. Denver's been in a couple of these games over the past couple of years where Seattle was the pissed off team when they went to when Denver went to Seattle and they got their asses kick. And now the Jets are coming to Denver and there's like bad blood in a way. And I cannot wait for this storyline to unfold. We'll see who jumps who, but it's going to be an emotionally charged game. You know, Sean Payton's saying is going to make it right. I don't know what's going to make that right. I try to put myself in Nathaniel Hackett's shoes. I don't know that I'd really be excited. to accept an apology, but it is what it is now. I mean, maybe by saying that Sean Payton saying he might offer Aaron Rogers, whatever Sean Payton smoked in that, you know, out of that, in that video.

Is that really Sean Peyton smoking a bong? You know, it looks a lot like him, doesn't it? Okay, so here's the weird thing. And maybe there was so much juicy news last week, but I saw the bong video. And I was like, yo, this is going to be the biggest thing in the world. And then it just hasn't. Oh, at all. It got swept right under. I think Joe Burrow was just like shortly thereafter. And then Jonathan Taylor all followed. But one more thing to add to the, you know, rough Hackett job to take to put more blame on Hackett than Russell Wilson. Russell Wilson had 19 total touchdowns last year passing and rushing. 31 or 32% of his touchdown output came in the final two games when Hack it was no longer the coordinator. He had six touchdowns over those two games. Was that the Kansas City game?

Was one of those games in City game? They scored up. That was week 17. Yeah, we lost 27, 24. Yeah. So, I mean, late in the season, you know, like sometimes you have a scheme that's just not working and it'd be better to have no scheme at all. You know, because forcing things in the NFL is tough.

And I think the whole key is going to be, you know, Sean Payton being able to get Russell Wilson. I've said this for a couple years and I've said the profit to take the checkdown. to work the middle of the field. That's going to be the story. We're going to be really focused on the Nathaniel Hackett scheme and that sort of thing. Like the scheme's going to matter, right? But part of the scheme is getting somebody to buy into a way of doing things and a way of thinking as a quarterback in the system.

And Russ has never had to do that, right? You know, if you go back to Seattle, like kiss the middle of the field goodbye. Like that wasn't really like timing stuff really wasn't what they did. Sean's going to try to get him into more of a rhythm and to raise the floor on on who the Broncos are offensively. That's the key. And so, yeah, he's got a tough job ahead of him. And Tim Patrick went down today. I hear it's not good. I think it's season ending. And that's really bad luck for him. Because, you know, the guy is a really good player. He's flashed. He's had injuries. Bad luck. And then K.J. Hamler with a heart condition. And it's bad enough that they got to wave him.

So, like, you know, tough job getting tougher. And with KJ Hamler, our hope is that his condition improves as soon as possible. Hopefully he'll find himself back as a Bronco this season. It's unfortunate it comes to both KJ. Hamler and Tim Patrick. It continues a negative trend for the Broncos wide receivers being injured before the season even starts over the last couple years. So hopefully that trend ends soon. Now, this next topic kind of falls into injury news. It started as an injury story.

Jonathan Taylor, probably the biggest news story outside of Aaron Rogers this weekend. Jonathan Taylor versus Jim Ursay is kind of was what everyone was talking about. There were tweets, there were sources, there was this, there was that. There were buses. There were meetings on buses. Has Jim Ursay taken over Dan Snyder's title as the worst owner in the NFL? No, I think he's more in the general. Jerry Jones, like he's a psychedelic Jerry Jones.

Like he, here's the thing about Jim Ursay, okay? Like, you know, when NFL teams tweet on behalf of like that organization, I'm always nervous for the people who are punching those tweets through because like they really hold the future of that organization in the near future, at least, from a public facing perspective, like in their palm. and I'm always like, I hope that guy's not a fucking idiot or showed up to work drunk.

I can remember the Rockets guy did a, they were playing the Mavericks and I guess they beat him one night and they were the main character on the internet because they did like a gun emoji back when you could have a gun emoji. We can't have gun emojis anymore.

We can have a lot of guns, but like no gun emojis. Gun emoji, horse emoji. And needless to say, the Rockets guy was swiftly fired. But it goes to show. It's like it's scary.

That's a very, is a bit Twitter X is a very thin line, a thin barrier between all hell breaking loose and things being status quo in a building. And Jim Ursae has no boss. Okay? And he tweets on behalf of the entire organization in a way that's more dangerous

than, you know, the Rockets guy choosing the wrong emoji. Like this is, and this guy's Zooted sometimes. Like he's having a good time. Like Jim Ursa enjoys the party. And I'm just thinking sometimes like Jim Ursa gets off his plane or he,

He's like, he's got his aerosmith guitar and all this cool shit. And he's just having a, he's having a rager. And then he gets, gets back to his laptop and just fires off a tweet that changes everything for the Colts. And I just, as a sidebar, I think that's an incredible dynamic that we have that plays out. Because Dan Snyder didn't have Twitter. Jerry Jones doesn't use Twitter. Okay.

But he is becoming like kind of a Jerry Jones. Like he's, he's settling into like a more unpredictable Jerry Jones. role. And I think when I look at this, this story, number one, I don't know everything. I don't think anybody does. Nobody knows what Jonathan Taylor's asking for. I mean, setting the backdrop for this whole thing. Sequan Barclay, interesting point. Signed that deal last week for like 11 mil a year. Back in December, he wanted 12.5, I think, and then the Giants offered him 11. So the difference in possibly all this, Jonathan Taylor, and I'm not saying that, you're not saying that, you're guy in Vegas wouldn't be making a stink regardless, but like a lot of the momentum that has

built up with this running back thing, because this is always a problem, but this year it's, it's just blown up. Part of it has been Sequan. And I'm not going to put it on Sequin, but the Giants in Saquan were a million dollars apart, a million and a half dollars apart back in December. We might have been able to not have to deal with any of this. There'd be issues, but this has become a movement. And I think for Sequin, it's interesting because I know these runnerbacks getting together on their Zoom calls, that whole thing. There's a major picket line kind of mentality when it comes to like getting money as a position or being a football player and trying to leverage all the, all the advantages you have for him to take that $11 million deal. I'm not blaming him at all because I probably would have just took it anyways.

I've never been that good. But it's a million and a half dollars. Teams are making 40 million a year on parking. And I know that's not tax or that's not cap relevant money. And we're talking about two different things. But in the business we're in, this seismic shift has at least been very accelerated by the difference in a million and a half dollars. And so here we are. And like, you know, last week, Sequin off the Zoom calls like, hey, I'm going to play.

I did not want to sit an entire year if my team plays poorly and I'm sitting, how hard would it be for me next year to go back to the table and ask for $15 million? Easter egg there. Pay attention to that number because I think that might be what Sequin wants all along. And maybe that's something based on the Christian McCaffrey $16 million deal, which of course the caps changed since then, but somehow the running backs haven't gotten paid much more. Is some sort of a benchmark for a Jonathan Taylor? I don't know how far off they are.

They have the cap space to get it done. Here's the thing about Jonathan Taylor that's a little bit different than Christian McCaffrey or Alvin Kamara. Screen game, yeah, you can get him involved, but he's not like a guy out of the backfield that's like a real asset the way those guys are. And I think when you look at Sequan, it's the same thing. Sequin is more of an asset in other areas. And Jonathan Taylor not as good of past protector from at least where I sit. These are all relevant things. I'm not making excuses for the Colts.

because what I think the Colts are doing here is they're making a major, major mistake. They're cutting their nose off despite their face. And of course, if they go and pay them tomorrow and they suck anyways and Jonathan Taylor gets hurt and they flame out, people will be saying, I told you so, and maybe I'm wrong.

But I do think, you know, you're cutting your nose off to spite your face for a couple reasons. Number one, free agency is a thing that's not going anywhere. And so when you pull this NFI rule after the guy was on PUP for his ankle, all of a sudden we're like,

oh, his back's fucked up. And Jonathan Taylor's like, no, my back's not fucked up. And of course, what they're trying to do is put him on the shelf for a year on this non-football injury list, which keeps them from having to pay him this year, accrue mileage, because all they're going to do is just tag him, right? They're going to get him in a year. They're toll the $4 million contract or whatever it is onto his next year. And we'll kick the can down the road. But everybody's watching.

You know, all the running backs are watching, but the wide receivers are watching. defensive linemen are watching. This is the guy that I believe kept Josh McDaniels from taking that job in Indianapolis. When have you ever heard of a guy getting an NFL head coaching gig? And I know he was a New England guy and things are a little bit different,

leaving the nest there. But there's no reason a guy wouldn't want to go coach Andrew Luck. I think it was at that point. I don't know if it was Andrew Luck. I can't remember. But Josh McDaniels was visiting the Ursa household, and then it went south. And I'm not saying I,

know what happened, but the writing on the wall is that some conversation was off the wall enough to scare the dog shit of this guy that he'd want to go back to New England and buy his time and wait for the next opportunity. So this is the guy that that's tweeting. This is the guy that's that's that's tweeting things about Jonathan Taylor in negotiation, bizarre things. Like, if we, we both died tonight, you know, the world's going to go on. Nobody's going to miss us. Like, excuse me, what? You had a disagreement over a contract. What are we even talking about?

Which goes to show you how dug in Jim Mersey is. Jim Ursay treats this thing like it's a casual thing. And I know some owners are like that, but you can't apply all of your very erratic sensibilities to every contract dispute and every turn in the road.

And I think guys are worried that if I go to Indy, it's going to be a shit show. Or maybe even worse, I'll hold it against the guy because he fucked over Jonathan Taylor. This is like unheard of. I think the only guy besides Sequin too, by the way, this popped into my head to go through

that exact process that Seacuan went through and to sign a deal like this, which had to be signed after Thursday, you know, reset the clock on getting a deal done, was Edger and James on a one-year deal. I think he was in a dispute and ended up in the very same situation. As unprecedented as the Seekwon situation, as as the Sequin situation is, I think this is way more unprecedented. I don't know if I've ever heard of this.

I mean, this is like malpractice. I'm not making a determination on whether or not you should pay Jonathan Taylor. I don't know who he's asking for. He could be asked for 20 million a year. But the forward-facing piece of this is bad for the Colts, especially when you consider the fact that when Andrew Luck retired, they bet wrong on him coming back and paid him $24.8 million on the way out the door. Now, I know Andrew Luck got the shit beat out of him, but what do you think it feels like to be a running back?

So I'm not making an apples-to-apples comparison, but this is not good for the Colts. Ballard in, I believe it was like, well, recently he said, you know, he used Mike Tomlin's phrase, you want volunteers, you don't want prisoners. But back in January, this is a quote from Ballard, when they're great players, it is worth it, parentheses, to pay a running back. when they're a special player it is i'm not going to get into what we're going to do contract wise but when you're a special player and a special playmaker yeah okay so ballard either completely changed his mind was never talking about jonathan taylor or he doesn't have any control and i'm not sure which is the the issue here um does he have any power uh who's making these decisions and do they realize that as they cut their nose off despite their faces just keeps getting

worse. Today, Zach Moss, who they traded for and gave up Nahim Hines, who, you know, he probably wouldn't have been on a fucking jet ski. You know, he would have been like, yeah, I don't need to get out of Buffalo. It's not depressing. Well, it is indie. I don't know. Butterfly effect kind of thing. But bottom line is you just lost your starting back to some sort of a standoff, a holdout that doesn't look like it's going to go well. And then the next guy's hurt. And now you've got. that a guy with 68 career carries carrying the ball. Dion Jackson, here's the last part that really doesn't fly straight to me is you've got this young quarterback in Anthony Richardson.

How best can you help him develop? You know, like it's not just the fact that you have a young quarterback like a Bryce Young. This is a guy that you're going to have a quarterback run game identity baked into what you do offensively. Shane Steichen, who, you know, the cop out is we want to see what all. all these players look like in his scheme before we pay them. Well, you already paid Miles Sanders. Well, I guess, you know, there's a Philly history there and that sort of thing.

And he's not Jonathan Taylor. He's not going to command as much. But he was a Pro Bowl kind of guy last year. Shane, you know who did the run game in Philly? Jeff Stoutland, one of the best offensive line coaches in the game. Me and Nolan were talking about this earlier. Stout draws up the run game. I mean, and that's gap scheme.

It's zone stuff. It's all over the map. Like, their run game was a big old play sheet. And so, like, Jonathan Taylor, you're going to tell me you can't find some place for him in some of the things you've been running. Like, I don't buy that. And now you're stuck with guys with little experience and a rookie quarterback who doesn't get to enjoy Jonathan Taylor. And what that tells me is that maybe you don't like what you see so much like today and Anthony Richardson. Maybe, like, I'm just totally spitball in here.

maybe you weren't going to pay them anyways. But if the determining factor is how close we are right now and not wanting to waste money and mileage on a running back that we're just going to keep paying, the only way you don't pay that, guys, if you don't think you're close. Because the AFC South sucks, man. You have a real opportunity with the nucleus here

to at least make a little noise and to help Anthony Richardson develop. So I don't know if there's something, you know, over the first couple months of the offseason where they're like, yeah, this guy's got a ways to go. We're going to see more Minshu. We don't need to protect Minshu with a run game that's going to cost us 15 million a year. Maybe Richardson's not going to be good for a year.

Maybe he's not going to be good for two years. In that case, we don't want to pay Jonathan Taylor twice over and, you know, for nothing. I think it's worth it to have a guy like this in the building for a young quarterback. So for all those reasons, I think they're botching this thing. Now, I'm not saying I would have paid him $15 million. So maybe I don't know. but the court of public opinion is going to be harsh on the Colts for this. And, you know, as Anthony Richardson develops, if he's not playing well,

guess who's going to look like an idiot? Jim Mersey. So you make this huge investment in a young quarterback. He's rough around the edges. He needs development. And then you take his security blanket out from under him. It's not like they have great receivers out there. I mean, I like the guys, but they don't have any solid playmakers outside Taylor

that are just like guys that keep. you up at night. And so, you know, as Jonathan Taylor said, you know, in response to Jim Ursa comment about bad faith and the fact that like, you know, we did the CBA a while ago, you know, we should have covered this. Bad faith is not paying your best player. And, and I think it's messy and I don't think it's going to end well for Andy. Or maybe it does. I don't know. But I think he also, here's another thing. Fuck, we were just kind of talking it out as little as we know about this, this thing, how it might end. You know, you could still trade Jonathan Taylor.

I mean, Jim Ursay saying, you know, I'm not trading him, a coach saying, I'm not trading him. Like, when you want to trade somebody, you don't say, yeah, like, we're ready to give him away. But the problem is on the other end of that, I don't see trade partners. Like, I just don't see any trade partners this year, at least before the season. And the only critique I'd have Jonathan Taylor, other than maybe you're asking for too much money, is maybe you should have done this in March when teams have more cast space and runway to plan their seasons out.

So I don't know. We'll see. That is a situation where the team and their star player is they're far apart and it's not a great relationship. Up in Minnesota, it's kind of a situation where the team and maybe not their star player, but someone who's very highly liked in Minnesota, DeNeil Hunter, is they look like they're on great terms. He was just given a one-year deal, $17 million guaranteed up to $20 million with his incentives.

What do you think is going on because the Vikings don't seem to be, with all their other off-season moves, it doesn't seem like they're playing for next season. It seems like they're playing further in the future. Man, I have no idea. This came up a couple weeks ago when, you know, some sites reported that,

you know, the commanders were trying to shop Chase Young. And I think there was an overinflated value for what Chase Young was worth, you know, among some people that were reacting to that news. But to me, Chase Young to Baltimore wasn't the answer because we were talking about the Ravens and them needing a pass rush. You know, the Ravens are very inexperienced up front, you know, like a little up and down, like always, you know, a possible game changer, but he had his one year and he kind of cooled off. What they need is like an established guy.

And I wouldn't consider Chase Young an established guy at all. But I think he's exciting. I think he's young. If he can stay healthy, he's going to be a good player in the league. But I would have said take a big swing out and go get this guy up in Minneapolis because they're selling everybody. But this guy's still collecting dust. And there were talks about a trade. I don't know if that could still happen.

I mean, it conceivably could still happen. I don't think this necessarily makes him easier to trade. I'm not really sure because it's just a one-year deal. You're going to have to do his deal at the end of the year, no matter who you are. It's curious because there was no real reason for them to do this. Maybe the concern is that if in a year this guy's holding out because he doesn't like his paycheck, you can't get anything for him. But if he plays and he's happy and he's got 10 sacks at the turn here this year, and all of a sudden there's a contender and needs a rusher,

you're in a rebuilding stage. In my opinion, you're in this weird stage where it's like Kirk's Twilight Zone. We've sold off Adam Thielen. You know, you've sold Tomlinson. You've sold... There was somebody else forgetting. Kendricks has gone.

Yeah, Big Z. I mean, you're unloading talent. To me, that reads like, hey, we want to hit the reset button at quarterback in a year and start to accrue some... some money and some picks and you know like if if if hunter is playing really well at midseason and your 500 it's probably not your year you could probably still trade it makes it makes hitting that reset button way easier it lines everything up to end at the end of this season but at the same time it does the opposite of what the colts are doing where it says to future potential free agents and we know

that minnesota is not like a glitzy destination it says like hey we'll pay you yeah you know like if you deserve to get paid on a one-year deal, even though it doesn't really benefit us, we will pay you. It's interesting. I've got to say, I haven't seen one like this that tracked exactly this way and ended this way, and I don't think it's over. I mean, like, if I had to guess, it doesn't mean that Hunter is going to be a Viking for the next five years or that, you know, he's even going to be a Viking at the end of the season. But good on them for paying who I think is a really premier talent, even in a situation where

I'm not really sure what's going to happen. A situation that we also didn't know what was going to happen. Miami has a new cornerback. Jalen Ramsey went down with an injury. They had to sign his replacement. His replacement turned out to be Eli Apple. None other than Eli Apple. As you remember, Tyree Kill and Eli Apple had traded a few words on Twitter after the

2021 AFC championship game where the Bengals beat the Chiefs. Eli Apple tweeted after that game, Hey, Mikul Harman and Tyree Kill, do you guys want tickets? gets to the Super Bowl, I got you. Now they're playing on the same team when that news was announced the other day. Tyree Kiel said, oh, Monday's practice is going to be fun. And apparently they saw each other at the facility over the weekend. And it was all, they were all good.

They were dapping each other up and having a good time. But maybe talk us through how that, you know, you might have had a beef with somebody in the NFL, talk some shit. And now you have to call them a teammate. You know, how does that professionalism work? It's interesting. I mean, look at this situation. You think these two guys hate each other and they do on the field, right? But if it doesn't go past that, usually guys can get over it. I mean, like, Tyreek Hill's one goal is to win a Super Bowl, right? Like, he really wants to prove. Because if they do win a Super Bowl, to me, Tyreek is one of the biggest reasons. And like, you know, the chief's question of, was it Patrick? Was it Tyreek? Like how much if it was Tyree? It seemed like last year Patrick got the last laugh. And I think Tyreek really, really wants that ring. If not for all the other reasons anyways, it's not like you need more motivation to want to be

a champion. So these guys put things aside, especially when you're the alpha. It's easy. You know, Tyreeks's the alpha in this situation. Eli's the guy who's taking a lot of shit. His mom's been on Twitter. He's gotten flamed. It's the loneliest position in sports.

So I think it's pretty easy for Eli Apple who, you know, has made a career of, you know, competing, you know, route in and route out. and they're not all going to end in spectacular fashion for a corner, especially one that's kind of a middling guy. I think it's easy for him to look past it, especially when he got the last laugh. But for Tyreek Hill, it's just another day at the office.

It's just a new guy that I used to talk shit with. I'm going to talk shit to him at practice. We're going to keep it in bounds because we're teammates. But that's just the way things are in the NFL. I remember offensive linemen coming. coming in that were dirt bags and all of a sudden were really cool. Like I used to play against him like Harvey Dahl, who was one of the dirtiest guys in Atlanta and they had just this dirt dog offensive line.

And then he joined the Rams and we were, we were tight. And I loved playing with Harvey. And so, you know, this was personal, but it doesn't seem like it's going to carry over into the facility, does it? And then the other thing in Miami is, you know, he's going to have to play. because Jalen Ramsey, who was going to be a big key to that defense. I mean, I know some people are down on Jalen, but he's still Jalen fucking Ramsey. When you talk about guys that get hurt and make football less fun to watch on Sunday, Jalen Ramsey's top of the list for me.

I just love watching him play. They're going to miss that, and it's going to be a really exciting year for him. It still might be. I think the most interesting thing about the Ramsey thing is going through this as a player before. when you get hurt, teams will try to beat you to the punch and make public your timeline, which, of course, puts pressure on you as a player in the court of public opinion. It also puts pressure on the player in the building. And I've been there.

Like, I've been there with a high ankle sprain where I took no time off and was shooting it up every week. And we're listening to it as a rolled ankle, you know. And, you know, I was missing practice four days a week, five days a week. And I'm anxious about the fact that people think my teammates know what's up, but I'm worried that people think that I'm milking an injury. It's not that bad. Meanwhile, I can't walk to the game. You know, I would limp out the tunnel and warm up and then go get a shot up and play.

Jalen tore his meniscus. We don't know how tour it is. But when the news broke, it sounded like he was going to get it partially repaired, right? Because those are the options you have. You could just do the thing or partially repair it. And the timelines on recovery are a lot different. And the first reports you saw was that he's going to be back in, what, eight weeks or something like that. but Jalen Ramsey smartly is tweeting,

hey, this is my timeline. It's the end of the season. I'm not being specific, but I'm going to make a run at this thing and try to be back in uniform by the time the playoffs come. That's him saying, nah, Voltaire, you know, because even though he's an alpha and even though he has a big voice,

teams can manipulate that process through just putting a fake date on it or misrepresenting what the process going to be like. And I think I really liked, yeah, I like it when players set their timeline, because we know. And we know it could change, but it's better to under promise over-deliver than here week eight and still be on the fucking exercise bike week nine. And people are on your head, not the doctors. And if there's any team that should not rush a player back from injury, given what happened last season, it would be the dolphins. That's right. That's right. And a big loss for them.

But that defense has got plenty of talent. I think they're going to be fine. It all comes not a quarterback play and, you know, that their ceiling can be very high, even without a Jalen Ramsey.