Pardon My Take - Indiana HC Curt Cignetti, UCLA HC Bob Chesney, CFB With Joel Klatt, Mt Rushmore Of Buttons To Press + Fyre Fest

Episode Date: July 31, 2026

National sports podcast whip around as we talk training camp, LIV, Tarik Skubal and LeBron’s documentary (00:00:00-00:32:46). Mt Rushmore of buttons to press (00:32:46-00:51:08). Indiana Head Coach Curt Cignetti joins the show to talk about winning the Natty, playing with a target on his back, his swagger and more (00:51:08-01:06:56). UCLA HC Bob Chesney joins the show to talk about his rise in college football, what his plans are for UCLA, Pennsylvania breeding coaches and a new character we need to meet (01:06:56-01:35:15). Joel Klatt joins the show to talk CFB, preview the upcoming season, top 5 QB’s, is Clemson in trouble and more (01:35:15-02:18:05). We then finish with Fyre Fest of the weekYou can find every episode of this show on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Netflix. Prime Members can listen ad-free on Amazon Music. For more, visit barstool.link/pardon-my-take

On today is part of my take presented by Draft Kings. Football is back week continues. We're just dubbing it football is back week because we've got some more interviews from Big Ten Media Week. We have Coach Sig winner. We have coach Bob Chesney from UCLA. Awesome guy. Awesome interview. We also might have a new White Whale guest off of that Bob Chesney interview.

And then we got our good friend Joel Klatt doing a little preview of college. college football. Always great to talk to Joel. We're going to do the Mount Rushmore of buttons to press. We have some training camp news. Terrick Scubel is going to probably get traded. And we have Fire Fest. It's going to be a great Friday show for you. And it's brought to you by our friends. It's Chevy. Summer's in full swing. That means no schedules, no plans, just more of the good stuff. Chevy Silverado makes that possible. There's a reason Chevy's called the heartbeat of America and the Silverado keeps that heartbeat strong. These trucks work hard so you can chill harder, whether that's getting out of town,

heading to the lake, or just not turning around when you probably should. It's got the capability, the space, and the muscle, everything you need for proper summer, coolers, gear, whatever your version of chill looks like, because at the end of the day, Silverado helps you tackle more of what you love. And let's be honest, you've earned this summer. Now it's time to go get it.

So roll the windows down, turn the music up, and just listen. That's the heartbeat of America. That's today's Chevrolet. head over to Chevy.com to learn more today. That's Chevy.com. Okay, let's go. Welcome to part of my take, presented by Draft Kings. The Crown is yours.

Today is Friday, July 31st, and football is back again. Hank, are you getting to the point where you're sick of us saying football is back? This is the last, we're about to enter the month where football is actually truly 100% back. I mean, it's not. Like, I'm down for the excitement, though. I wish it was actually back, but I'm ready for it to be back. But there's practices everywhere. Every team is back.

Yeah. And there's practice. There's fights everywhere, too. That's football. Football is back officially. Yeah. Yeah. Get used to it.

It's not going anywhere. No, it's here to stay for at least six or seven months. That's good. Football's all the way back. Yeah, we have some awesome interviews. We finally got to interview coach six. from Indiana. And we didn't bring this up in the interview,

but we should just say it now. Coach Sig, all-time mental warfare guy. Yes. Because his handshake was beyond a dead fish, and I think he did it on purpose, and he threw us all off, and he's the man. First thing I said afterwards.

How do you describe a dead, dead fish? Come here, come here, hang. I'll show you. It was like, but for the podcast. Yeah, it would be like if I handed you, like some wet noodles, you had to hold some wet noodles But uncomfortable

It was like But I think it might be a tactic I think he did it on purpose Because I There's nothing worse If you shake you guys hand And he's clearly trying Really hard to grip you strong

Because he's like He's been taught You have to really Break a man's hand And then they'll respect you That's a weird feeling Because it's like I know what you're doing

And he just goes He just doesn't give a fuck It's it's something Because it definitely Get you off your game a little bit And I'll say this about Coach Sigg And we have Bob Chesney on as well

Awesome interview. We have actually a couple more coaches coming Monday. Coach Sig, the kids love to talk about aura and four store. Coach Sig has aura, but it's genuine aura where it's like, oh shit, this guy, he's got it. Like,

just something about him. You just, you just pick it up right away. He's a winner. He's a winner. He's a winner. Google him. He wins. Look him up, Hank. But yeah, we have, uh, I got to be honest. I'm shocked that neither of you, you both felt so strong with the handcheck, neither of you said anything to him. Because it was like, it knocked me off kilter, but then I thought, because we shook his hand

right when he first came in. Then he sits down. We do the interview. And I was kind of like chalking that off because he was moving around the room a little bit and he's being rushed in and out of rooms at Big Ten Media Week. And so it was kind of like a blowby. I chalked up to being like a blow by handshake, sits down. We have a great interview.

Then he gets up to leave. And another like a goodbye handshake where we're both locked in on it. Same thing happened. And then I was just like, yo, I can. can't believe that that's actually six handshake. It's crazy, but like, it threw me off. I also wanted to confirm, because everyone has bad handshake days. I wanted to confirm that this was maybe just a tactic he uses all the time,

and I did confirm it with maybe someone that works with us who played for Indiana. Who that may be, we don't know. White boy Rick, yeah. But it was, it was great. It was great finally meeting. And he was a little bit pressed for time because Big Ten Media was here in Chicago. That's why we did these interviews. It was great to actually meet some of these guys.

guys. And so we had about 15, maybe 20 minutes with him. Chesney was a little longer. I'll just say it. We have Matt Rule and Dan Lannin coming on Monday. But it was awesome. This week was like a bonus content week where I don't think we, we, it was maybe a week and a half ago. We're like, oh, shit, all 18 Big 10 coaches are going to be three miles from our office. Maybe we should do something. And we put it together. And thanks to the Big Ten for giving us a wonderful room to do these interviews. Yeah, it was great. It was great. We did, we reached out to them like, probably nine

days ago. And they're like, yeah, we do have one last room available. So we were in a coat closet, which is fine. We, we, we. That's honestly respect, because like, they didn't have a room available. Yeah. They made one. They just moved some coats. Yeah. And then Hank came in the first day and he was like, this room is so small. I definitely don't

have to be here for the rest of the interviews. Big Cat said that. I did. Well, I knew you did. I mean, you didn't. You didn't have to be there. The, uh, it was but I kind of like it when that happens because we've been doing this for so long and we have been the number one sports podcast for a long time that I like when we get the grip factor and they're like hey

here's this room that is maybe a walk in closet size maybe it's like not even the I don't even think it's a coat closet room I think it's like the overflow coat closet room well the door's cut in half so you can open up just the top of it that's if you're taking tickets for the coat

and passing coach back out. That's it right there. So it's definitely meant to be like some sort of service store, which is fine. I thought it ended up being a really good room for us. And then just going through the list of Big Ten coaches, I'll say this. The SEC used to have the crown as being like the most entertaining coaches in college football. I think that's pretty clearly in the Big Ten right now. The SEC's got some great coaches, big personalities.

But if you go like, guy for guy against the Big Ten, the Big Ten clears. Yeah. It's quite a conference. It's I still, I still can't really wrap my head around 18 teams. It still feels real. I mean, they did the media day. It was three days long. Like it wasn't a media day.

It was a media week. Are they ever going to change the name? No, you can't. I mean, they could. I mean, we haven't been. At this point, you can't. We haven't been 10 in forever. Yeah, at this point you can't.

It would be like, it'd be completely logical if you did it in the first year. No. Probably in the second year would still make sense. But after you get to like year three of being more than 10 teams, you just got, you got to roll with it. But yeah, we haven't been, we haven't been 10 since like the night. I think Penn State was what changed it from 10 to 12 What I just sell it to an advertiser

What? It just becomes like a league that's a sponsor Instead of the Big Ten Yeah, the Dr. Pepper 10 It's not for women. The Dr. Pepper. Okay, so what do we got? I have a couple stories that maybe we can do

a little national sports podcast Whip around. Let's start with Zach. Zach? We touched on this on Wednesday. Baker Mayfield took the podium today and he said it's very disappointing to not have a new contract. He's feeling disrespected and undervalued.

Now, I agree with Baker Mayfield. He should have a new contract. Is this a ployed by the Bucks to create a pissed off Baker Mayfield, which we all know is a pissed off Baker Mayfield, is the strongest form of Baker Mayfield? Do we think the Bucks start trying to put a battery in his back? No, because I think if they were to do that and then he has a phenomenal season, it's like pay me more money than what I was asking for previously. Yeah.

Or he raised your pockets. And he could have a great season and be like, you know what? You guys disrespected me. I'm going somewhere else. Disrespected and undervalued. I'm out. Which would hurt. That would hurt.

Not the best video you want to see. What do you think about if there was a secret contract? Oh. If he, like the agent was speaking with the GM of the Bucks, great guy and was like, hey, here's Baker's terms. Here's what he wants. And Jason Light was like, yes. We agree.

However, the only caveat is you can't tell Baker that we did a contract. You have to tell him that we lowballed him. Conservatorship contract? Yeah, I tell him that we lowballed him, and the money's all going to go to him, and he'll be motivated, and just at the end of the season, he'll know that we paid him. That's what I would do if I was in that space. Unorthodox, yes, but effective. Not the worst game plan?

Maybe try it. Yeah, we're in a bad spot. It might be what you're trying. You do have to pay Baker. The vibes feel very bad. They don't feel good, no. Like, it doesn't feel like a competitive edge. He said it won't leak into the locker room, but they're all adults here.

It's their job. I feel like it could very well leak into the locker room. Is that? And Vita Ve-Ve wants to trade? Yeah. Like bad vibes to start. These are not the two things that you want to hear to start. Hard and solo defense is like, I'm out too. So yeah.

Yeah. We'll see. It's so early, you know what I mean? Yeah. And then the Bengals got into a fight. Jamar Chase was throwing. I actually didn't see any punches thrown, which is good. It's smart.

And then afterwards, Joe Burrow was like, yeah, I kind of actually respect what Jamors. Excuse me, not Jamar. One. One. Number one's doing out there. number one you know you gotta have a kind of like a dog's mentality and then he referred to zero he's only calling guys by numbers in Cincinnati i like so it feels like there's there's a little bit of back against the wall going on yeah with bangles right now which i like we also had tony romo's uh arrest video hit the internet yep i listen don't drink and drive we've established that or drink and operate or operate uh bad you put everyone's life at risk i i watched that video i was like he seems okay I don't know

he also When he started stretching was like laughing out loud so hard It was it's so objectively funny He's firing up the hit Yeah I thought he was gonna run a 40 at one point He got into a stance

I also the moment that he They asked him if he had any head injuries And you could see his like brain flashback To like all the times he was just Like put into the dirt And just fucked up He's like yeah I've had a few concussions

Cushions. Yeah, the, uh, he should have done the Dac Prescott with the hips, like, gotten those ready to, to walk the line. But yeah, I mean, I walked away from it. I looked at the video. He said, I'm going to see grandma and grandpa, which I don't think he's talking about his grandparents. No, there was some guy is like a got you like, they like one obituary, and they're like, yeah, according to the obituaries, all four of Tony Romo's grandparents are dead. He was referring grandma and grandpa like his parents. Well, he was, I think he was going to pick up his kids at his parents. Yeah. They were then referred to as grandma and grandpa. Yeah.

That makes sense. Yeah. If you're picking up your, if your kids are with your parents, you would, you, you sometimes refer to them that way. Yeah. He's like, I'm going to go see Nana and Papa. Yeah. Wait a second, Tony.

Oh my God. They both passed away 30 years ago, Tony. Also would have been a nice, sneaky, good move by Tony Roma. Like, you know, in, in high school or middle school, you do the move where it's like, you just have like 15 grandparents die so you can get a day off school. Yeah. She's like, oh, yeah, my grandparents died again? If that is your.

excuse, I think then you are allowed to drink and drive in Wisconsin. I mean, Wisconsin, it's a different place. Wisconsin's going to put in like a special lane. Like in a middle of a set of high occupancy. It's just like high, high alcohol content lane. Drive at your own risk. But yeah, the video of him stretching was quite something. That's good.

He looked like he was getting loose. He was getting ready. I'm not a lawyer. I am studying for the bar exam. But I do feel like he's probably going to get off on it. I'd be shocked if the charge is stuck to Tony Romo. The question is, does CBS, and I don't know where CBS stands with Tony Romo, but do they use this if they, if they do in fact, or if they do have buyer's remorse on his contract, do they use this as a catalyst to say, hey, we're going in a different direction. If the video was bad, I think.

Yeah. Yeah. I think they use it as training. Like the next guy that they sign. It's like, hey, here's how you're expected to conduct yourself as an employee of CBS sports. If you're ever pulled over for drunk driving. Make sure that you activate your glutes. Yes, exactly.

For any type of test. It's like Tony Romo does this. Oh, you're so sweet. Mark Sanchez does this. Oh, hello. Human Resources. Yeah. Yeah.

Well, I mean, it is funny also to think about Tony Romo sitting in his car and the police officer was like, no, you cannot call your lawyer. We're taking you in. Meanwhile, Tiger Woods flips his SUV. He's just talking to the president. In the woods. He's just walking around the woods being like, just talking to the president. I think Tiger's car probably had that, like, instead of OnStar. If it flips, it just dials Trump's cell phone.

Yeah. Okay, other other stories. So Terrick Scruble is going to get traded. The question is where? Dodgers. Dodgers. I think actually, who released Terrick Scuba? Because I saw there was like a five teams and the Cubs run on it, which pissed me off.

But yeah, his, his, so he, in his last start, maybe his last start for the Tigers, he leaves the game up seven to one. and then they lose in like 12 innings, blow that lead. I think his catcher got DFA'd, so that's a pretty good sign to say that he's going to not be on the Tigers. I saw the list, yeah, so it was Dodgers. I think the Brewers were on it, which would be,

that would be an interesting move because brewers are not known for that type of stuff. Maybe the C.C. Sabathia trade, like we're like going all in. Braves, Cubs, Rays, and Yankees. I want them on the Cubs so bad. That would be great. So, so fucking bad. I just feel like any good player will become a Dodger unless we hear otherwise.

Yeah, well, it's even if he's not a Dodger, this trade deadline, he's going to be a Dodger after the year. Yeah. That all roads lead to Dodger. What are they saying that the expected price is going to be for Scoobo? A lot. Oh, in terms of contract? No, in terms of to get him, because it's just for the end of this year, right? Yeah.

There's no, or he's a free agent at the end of this season. Yes. So what is it, what's the price for a rental for scuba rental? I think it's going to be like a couple prospects and probably a big league player. Like it's going to be a lot. Brewers, it kind of sounds like the C.C. Sabathia. Well, I mean, the Brewers have a loaded farm. I mean, the Brewers never lose and they just, they just shit out like good players.

So that would be fun. No, I would not have fun with that. Cubs would be fun too. The Brewers would not be a fun thing. Brewers are already, they, they win every game anyway. So kind of a fun team, though. Yeah. But it is, yeah, it would be very similar to the, to C.C. Sabathia.

All right, let me do Draft Kings real quick. Then I have a couple other national sports podcast topics. We can, we can chew on for a second before we do Mount Rushmore. Draft Kings this summer where whatever you're watching baseball, golf, soccer, racing. Draft Kings has you cover for every single moment of it. The Draft King Sports app is now available in all 50 states, bringing the game straight to your fingertips, wherever you are from Florida to Texas to California. You're in on the excitement at the speed of sports.

follow every buzzer beater, every walkoff, every photo finish, sweat the moments that matter in real time with a seamless experience built for the biggest season of the year. No matter where you're watching, you're always connected and in the game with one app. New Draft Kings customers sign up with Code Take, spend five bucks to get 150 in rewards within 14 days. Includes all markets that's Code Take in partnership with Draft Kings. The Crown is yours. Speaking of Draft Kings, Hank, do you have the leaderboard for the golf tournament that's going on right now? Yeah.

The Rocket. Can you look up... I did something on Draft Kings a couple days ago that might be stupid. I placed a bet for $500 to win half a million. On? Can you guess what it might be on? Brad Dalke. Correct.

Why not? Why not Brad? He's got to win? Yeah. Why not? I saw him win the Internet Invitational last year. Yeah, no. Dude's a fucking stud.

Yeah. Is he already teed off? I'm looking at the, oh, I know he hasn't teed off. Okay. I was, I was scrolling bottom of the top.

Still alive. Still alive. Is the competition, are they better or worse than Francis? Uh, depends. Depends on the day. Yeah.

Slightly better. Okay, yeah, on the day, that's fair. It depends on the day. Yeah, I just saw it and I was like, I know that name and this number is so crazy.

What's the field like? Is it a stacked field? I mean, it's pretty stacked. There's some good players there? Yeah. Fuck. I mean, like, not Scotty and Rory, I don't think.

By the way, shout out Wyndham Clark. Did you guys see Wyndham Clark's first pitch? No. It was nasty. Where was it? Where was it? Tigers game. It was really nice.

Like, rarely do you see, you'll see guys throw a nice first pitch. Like, oh, okay, he did. He kind of, he had some heat and it was painted. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Look at that thing. That's the dream. That's a great first pitch, Max.

Is it not? Yeah, no, I would kill. for that first pitch. Yeah. He hit the corner perfectly. Dolkey is tied for 41st right now. All right. Because he has a teed off.

Oh, okay. Yeah, yeah. We're good. Listen, we got a little bit of... Striking distance. There's some names in this tournament. Brad Dalke is one of them. Correct.

He is one of the names in the tournament. What are some other names? We got Paige Spragly. Frankie Ferelli. We got Shafley, Ricky Fowler. Nade shot. No? The Duke.

Seawoo King. I can't wait to get back with the boys Windham Royne Ruffles shot her up I mean it would be It would probably be one of the most shocking results In sports Yeah

If he won Has he played any other tournaments this year? He's played like a couple of DP World Tour tournaments How do you do? He made the cut in one of them I mean if he like winning would be shocking I think he could make a cut and do decently What if he just won?

But if he won't that would be, I'm doing it too. Oh, yeah, right? I mean, I, I, I have to at least, I can't endorse something. Put $5. Every day they put the words gamble responsibly underneath our faces. $5.000 is a good conscience. It's a little, it's a little baby unit.

I don't think I'm allowed to bet on, it's kind of like the WMBA rules. As somebody that's going to be competing against them, I don't think I'm allowed to put money on them. Yeah. Okay, other stories. Did you have any PFT? Because I have another one that, I mean, we're, it's. Yeah, we got a quarterback bat. Oh.

We got to keep people updated on the quarterback battle. Okay. So is it going to be our good friend Deshaun Watson? Or is it going to be Shador Sanders in Cleveland? Because the way that their coaching staff is putting it is like, we don't know. The players are going to have to be the ones that tell us. I think I think I said it's not up to the coaches to make that decision. It's up to the players to make that decision for us, who the leader is going to be.

And then somebody asked Jerry Judy on a live stream who it was. and then he just held up four fingers. That's Deshawn. That's Deshawn. It sounds like Deshawn might be coming back. Or is it Mr. Fourth Quarter Shador Sanders? That's a valid point. I don't know.

I didn't think about that one. But the funniest possible circumstance would be if it was Deshaun, and he plays really, really well. And then the Brown's given another contract. Yeah. They're like, oh, yeah, we actually are committed to you long term. That might be the funniest possible. I hope it doesn't happen for my Cleveland people out there.

You guys have suffered long enough. but you have to admit, like, if you're going to lose, you might as well be hilarious, and that would be the funniest way. Yeah. Okay, the other golf news that we forgot to talk about, Hank. Yeah. Congratulations. On what?

Live. Would you like to apologize? No. Why? Because I don't want to. You should. You should apologize. No.

I will not. Live is not dead. It is on life support. Potentially. Potentially not dead. So what happened, Hank? I don't want it to die, by the way. That's the one thing.

I don't, you know, we've maybe called it too early with it being dead. We might be calling it too late with it being back. There's reports that they have gotten a $250 million investment to be able to put on future events. From who? It's undisclosed. And how many future events? It might be a Ramco. Yeah.

A Ramco. They make good oil. Well, I don't know. They would, obviously, they would have to restructure everything. Like, it could be less events. Oh, no. They're not good at restructuring. No.

They should just go back to three rounds and shorts. Yeah. So $250 million doesn't feel like it would keep the league going for very long unless it's like the league just becomes a hole in one stream or something. Well, that's like half of, that's like half of Phil's contract. Yeah. What? That's all of John Rom. The funny thing is like, yeah, that's the thing.

The players, I don't know who would stick around. But lives, like the teams, the IP, of the teams, the four aces, like there will be four aces. Dustin Johnson might not be one of them. Like they just might have, might be like a, you know, like the corn fairy guys just are now live guys. Smash GC. Bryson was saying like that's one of those options.

That's gone, come on. Is that Bryson? They're the Oklahoma. They're the Oklahoma golf club now. But Bryson was on the on Smash GC, right? No. What was he on? Bryson's the crushers.

Oh, my bad. Crushers still gone. was smash. Okay. So Bryson was saying, though, that when it came to the crushers, the IP and the crushers, that's worth at least a half billion dollars for. So he'll be okay. I'm just thinking that if you're on the live tour and you've been on the live tour, the players get accustomed to a certain lifestyle over the years. They get, you know, first class flights, great spread, nice meals, great transportation. No cuts. No cuts. Are they going to be running this on like a shoestring budget? Because you might lose some of the players that way. Definitely.

Yeah. I mean, there's, yeah, Saudi money and then like a regular investment, it's different, different companies, different worlds. Yeah. All right.

So congrats. Thank you. You're going to take the congrats. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you said it was dead. So if you're going to say it's dead, then you know,

I still think it's dead. I think you should apologize. I'm not going to. So we're going to standoff. But you took the, I'm not apologizing for saying it's dead, but you're taking the congrats for it being alive. Yeah.

Interesting. Yeah. But it's not alive yet. It's more alive today than it was the last. is it more dead or alive alive? I disagree. It's a zombie. I think it's dead. Zombie live. I think it's far more dead than a lot. It's critical condition. Okay. Okay. So, but a lot. Does it, is there a picture of it holding new

a coma, but like, it's Kyle Shanahan. It's stable. With his, with his, uh, red button down. Did you guys see WGN? Yeah, his older Asian wife. Yeah. Accidentally used that beam. Yeah. Pretty funny. So yeah, I, I just think, Hank, um, 250, they're going to need, maybe it's just the start. Maybe they just need to see one go through. One domino falls. And there might be a bunch of other Fortune 500 companies out there and they're like, we've got, we've got about a half billion in marketing money that we like to light on fire. Where are we going to spend it? And then they see this and they're like, oh, I know. Yeah, that sounds good. Let's invest and live. It might just take one company to do it. And then the damn breaks. Us? Us. No, absolutely not. How much?

We could put all, we could sponsor one hole. We could sponsor John Rom. walking from the clubhouse to the T-box. That's what we can afford. What do you think that our name got brought up and the negotiations been like, it's not that relevant, but this show talks about it every episode. Yeah. Yeah, they're like, as long as they keep talking about it, we got to try to save it. I don't think it's a zero percent chance that we got brought up.

It is kind of crazy that we made zero dollars off Liz. Yeah. Like, we should have gotten fucking. We don't make money on any league. We're the number one live podcast of all time. We are a sports podcast, a national sports podcast, my view. We have not gotten paid from any league. But if there was ever a lead to get paid by, it would have been lived.

They paid everyone. They asked me. I said, I said, I don't want to know the number because if you tell me the number, I'm going to want to do it. So no number. What do you mean they ask you? It's also a lie of what Hank just said. What? I said pretty much.

Yeah. No, this is a PLL, F1. Yeah. Good point. Excellent points all around. I've won't pass. I mean, oh, I guess it was advertisers? Yeah. Okay.

Yeah, but I mean, they did. They didn't. Okay, anyways, there's definitely been a pitch. There's been a marketing meeting at Live where they just say like the, here's how much buzz we've generated across media. And they say like they've been mentioned for like 70 minutes per week on the number one sports podcast. They don't disclose with the content of that. discussion is. They don't say what we said, but they're just like, we're generating buzz. Invest and live. This guy's in a four aces hat and shirt and tie talking to the former president

of the United States. Just use that screenshot from the Joe Biden clip. True. Yeah. Okay. I mean, it would be funny if we are the reason why Liv is still trying to stay alive. Yeah. It's chicken and our egg. Are we saving live? Is Liv saving us? Who knows? Who knows? All right, last story I had. LeBron James is doing a full documentary He signed a deal with ESPN. Welcome to The Clown Show. That's a great intro.

Is that the name of it? Yeah. The Clown Show? It seemed like Michael Jordan had some cameras following him around. Yeah, I mean, that footage didn't come out for like 30 years. So the cameras weren't there?

Those cameras. It also way less, way less cameras than today's cameras. The cameras just appeared out of thin air. There's so much cameras. And there's going to be real-time clips. Yeah, there's way more. cameras in the world today than there were back then. Yes, so you're proving my point.

With inflation, it's the same amount of it. It may be fewer cameras. I think it's actually fewer cameras. You think it's actually fewer cameras? You think it's going to be a distraction? I don't think that, George, did any confessional one-on-one interviews during that documentary. It was more like after, you know, the season.

It wasn't while he was playing. He didn't like get changed out of his uniform, take a shower, and then go sit down for a camera. I think LeBron might be doing that. That's not true. Documentaries didn't exist back in the day. What? Not like that.

Yeah. What? GIF she's right. It was a lot of cameras that were filming stuff that were not like it wasn't, hey, LeBron, what do you think about this game? Compare it. Do you think that there are more sports documentaries that are in season now compared to the 90s? That's true.

Yes. But there were such things as documentaries. I'm talking about like day-to-day basis, Max. I'm talking about in-season documentaries. There's a documentary for everything now that follows everyone in every sport and every league. And everyone's distracting. And everyone's distrax. It happened.

I think what me and Big Cal were saying is that... People are just talking about LeBron because everyone talks about LeBron. I think what we're saying is that... What about the quarterback show on Netflix? How about Jaden Daniels? Yeah, that worked out real good last year. Didn't go well. That was a great season that Jaden had last year.

What about Patrick Mahomes? How about that? Didn't go well. Last year, Jaden didn't have a good year. He stank. He got hurt all the time. Be a real shame if that happened to LeBron. We'll see.

Real shame. The Chiefs were trying to do it. I think they weren't they doing a three-peat documentary when they were trying to win a third in a row and they didn't? Oh, no. Distractions. We'll see. Are you excited about this?

I don't give a fuck. Actually, yes, I am excited about it. I want to watch it. Even if you lose. When he wins, I'm going to watch it. I'm going to watch it so fucking hard. And you two are just going to cry and I'm going to drink your fucking tears

after LeBron doc just shows him. He's finally stepping up. Hold on Larry O'Brien. I forgot the name of the trophy. He's finally stepping up. You're becoming a bronze sexual. Yeah. You know what?

If he decides when they get knocked out in the first round, they still have to put it. out. They have to put it out. Then it would be the greatest thing ever. They don't make the playoffs? He wouldn't. He wouldn't. No, he wouldn't. I guarantee you that they will put this. If there's a signed deal with ESPN, that documentary is coming out no matter what. Do you think that it's going to be like weekly basis? You think it's going to be monthly? How often can we expect nothing? It's after the, it's after he's retired. It's coming out. Oh, so it's nothing in season. Post mostly. Yeah, if they, if they lose in heartbreaking fashion, zero, zero percent

chance it comes up. that's it's coming out what do you mean there's is it's coming like they sign they're signing a deal okay so you're pumped for this documentary pumped fired up it's gonna be sick yeah welcome to the clown show welcome to the clown that's actually a good name yeah yeah welcome to the clown show i mean you got it like if you're like joel and bead you see lebron going to the confessional you're like what is he talking about yeah you have to

wonder yeah Yeah. And then you're not going to find out for another year. Mm-hmm. Give me a break. Give me a break, Max. Give me a break, dude. Give me a break. Come on. You kidding me? You're not ready for this.

No. I just nailed that. Yeah, you finally showed a little of a fight. You showed you a little fight. Well, I think that it is reasonable to say that when they did the Michael Jordan documentary, like after a game during the season, he wasn't spending his time going into a room, talking to the camera. And it's a different world now

throwing his teammate on the bus. Yeah, I'm saying it's more distraction. People do it all the time now. And it's not, I don't think it's always great. If you haven't figured out by now on this show, specifically when it comes to LeBron, we're going to be playing the results. So whatever happens,

then we're going to fit our narrative around that. What are you going to do if he wins? Oh, we'll get there. We'll get there. We'll get there. I already said it. It was the 14. teams. You can't be the goat. And then someone pointed out, Wayne Gressky played for four teams. But listen, that's why we stay fluid. That's why we're always fluid here.

That's a good point. I wish I had that one of my back pocket. So LeBron, is, is anybody else on the Sixers going to be baking money off this documentary or just LeBron? LeBron has taken enough sacrifice for the money of this team. So he's going to be. Did you see that he turned down 20 million from the Clippers to go to the Sixers for 3.8? Yeah, I'm just saying, so he's going to be making money and he's really, hey, everybody has to be in my movie that I'm getting paid on. Yeah. Correct. But you guys don't. They're getting paid more than him.

It sounds like Pablo Tori needs to give him a call. Correct. Sounds like he should look into this movie business. I'd agree. I'd agree. Okay. Let's do, should we do Mount Rushmore? And then we got some interviews?

Yeah, Kumbaya. Yeah. Kumbaya. All right. Before we get to Mount Rushmore, it is brought to you by our friends at Reese's. There's something for everyone when it comes to Reese's. I have a new favorite. No, wait.

It's not new because I've been doing it a lot, but Reese's sticks. Rees sticks are just so. I've been on a Reese's sticks kick. Reese is the best candy out there. They got everything. You can go with just the traditional 1-1 Mount Rushmore pick of the Reese's peanut butter cup. They also have with marshmallows or Oreos. Or you can do the Reese's sticks.

Or you can do the Reese's pretzels. Or you can do the Reese's with Animal Crackers. It's all there. Rees is the best. Reese is like the Spanish national team. They're like the Carolina Hurricanes. They're like whoever won the NBA champion. championship this past year.

Reese's is the goat. So Reese is the official candy partner of Barstool Sports. Go get Reese's wherever you shop and make sure you get in on a Reese's. Okay, boys, the Mount Rushmore of buttons to press. We are now the updated standings. We had the closest Mount Rushmore poll, I believe,

of the season. Yeah. What were you tweeting, PFT? What do you mean? That you tweeted some chart. What was the chart? Oh, yeah. chart of the 2020 election. Where mysteriously in the end of the night, one candidate took over another one.

I'm just trying to muddy the waters. So I honestly think I have no regrets. I looked at the graphic. I came in third. It was a very close vote. I liked my team. I thought I had a great team out there. No regrets about that way.

I have lots of regrets about maybe the way I performed in some of the other Mount Rushmore's, notably the two prior to this one. This one, I was back. Statement loss. Statement loss. And I'm a process. guy. I don't play, the process was good and I think we're trending

in the right direction and now you got to stack days. That's the next step. Yeah. So you lost, so you haven't you don't you need to start to then stack? No, we're stacking days. That was a good. But you're at the, you haven't you're, you need to, you're one to start the stats. I'm a process. I'm a process.

You're playing the result. Got it. You're stacking. You're stacking. Yeah, you're stacking. I'm stacking. Yeah, good process. Okay. Um, because that was a, like, look at that team. That's a team I'll lose with. So it was what was the final? It was 39.3% for me Max and memes and then 30.6%

for Hank and Zach and 30%. That's as close as we've had in a very long time. Going to sleep coffee, watching golf on TV and spanking. That's a team that I will lose with. You'll go to war with them. I'm happy with that team. Yeah. Okay. So it's 35 points for me, memes and max, 25 points for PFT and Hank and Zach are 24 points.

Mount Rushmore of buttons to press Who's up first? We are I thought, Zach, I, Those two I just texted one, you pick, I honestly,

you pick. We're going to go with the order now button. Order now. Order now, okay. Order now button. It's a good button. Okay.

I had it on the list. Order now. So that could be food, that could be shopping. Yeah, yeah. Order now's a good button. You're getting food delivered. You're getting new clothes, whatever. You know, it's fun to buy things and hit that order now. Yep.

Okay. My 1-1 is on the table. So I'm going to go with it. I'm second, right? Yeah. Okay. Snooze. The snooze button. It's good button. I love the snooze button. That's a really good one. Just delay the waking up. Yeah. That is a good one. I didn't even. I didn't even. I was like, no, it's actually the worst button to press and I didn't even. The next, the next thought should have been.

Snooze. Yeah. That also would have been a bad one, maybe for. act depressed. Yeah. But we're yeah it means I feel like we both love the snooze. You do love the snooze. Snuse bun's worst button you can hit. Okay boys what do we do?

We have our first two. Wait, which ones are they again? I just texted it. Seven. Oh, do seven. Okay. Should we not? Should we not say that that first one that we initially thought was one one? Yeah. I think we might be able to get that. Okay. Right? Should we do it?

Should we do? So five, five and 19? Five and 19 you're saying? 17. 12. You guys shut up. Six.

No, no, no, no, no, no, no, two five, two seven. No, stop it. You have, three of us.

Yeah. Seven is a good pick. All right, go eight. You're, you're fucking us up now. Yeah, so, but like you, this needs to happen

so you can be decisive. Five and eight. I like five and 18. I like 12. Okay, all right. All right. All right. First one,

uh, first one we're going to take is, the T, TV remote. Press power on for the TV remote. Power on TV remote. Okay. TV remote.

And then the second one we're going to pick is Hotel AC down. Just jamming that button. Yeah. Getting it as cold as possible. A million times. So many times. But yeah, there's nothing better than turning your TV on when you sit down and you're just like, here we go. Turning my TV on.

What do we want the exact phrasing to be for that? TV power. TV power on. Yeah. Remote? Yeah, remote TV power. I don't know how to phrase it. TV remote power. Button. Button.

And then Hotel AC down. Yeah. There's something getting in the 50s. Yeah. But they don't actually get in the 50s. No, it doesn't. They just let you click the button because they know that it's satisfying to do. And honestly, they're right.

Yeah. Yeah. Okay. All right. Um, my second pick, I'm going to take skip ad button. Okay. The skip ad button on a video. I love that button.

I actually disagree. I don't think anyone should skip any of our ads. Yep, I agree with you. Ads are very important. I disagree. Ads are very important. Ad support the show. I would argue that.

Terrible pick. We get, we get paid either way. We really need that. Skip the ads. Nope. No, no. No, that's not true. Definitely not.

Do not skip the ass. Get the ads. Way to go PFT. Don't skip the ads. skip the ads. Right against ourselves. Skip the ads. Nope.

Do not skip the ads. Or does it pay for YouTube premium? You could pay for YouTube. You're rich. But there are sometimes ads on not YouTube. I'm not necessarily talking about YouTube. We don't want you to skip those ones either. Keep listening to the ads.

Please do not skip those. Skip ad button is pretty sad. Nope. You know it is. Your entire job. All right, Zach, I think we go with one and three or three and one. I don't know if it matters. Oh, three and one.

one out one and three one two go two go four the tv what about seven that's a good impression yourself what you think about uh yeah yeah those are both good picks all right we're gonna go with 13 the chair recliner button we had it and we're going to go with your best friends button okay pushing the buttons are your best friends yeah i had a similar one fun okay chair recliner best friends yeah thoughts I like you

your picks yeah I had recline too we had his recline as well I'm gonna go with exiting a video call it's a good button especially if it's work related if you're in a team's meeting

if you're doing some sort of remote thing with your boss exit the video call very satisfying okay but in yeah it makes a noise too What are we doing, boys? I mean, we could do four. Easy.

Right? Max, memes. Yeah, I know. We could do four. Look at Max's left. I also like, I like 14. That's got to be the best of all. Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, let's go four and 17.

Yes. Yes. Yes. Okay. The podcast button. The PMT button needs to be the PMT podcast button. It's got to be pressed. It's a great.

Max press in it. They're relatable. Yeah. Well, yeah, because everyone listening right now, they need that button to be pressed. That is correct. They've never pressed. To listen to me. Anyone voting for that has never pressed the podcast.

No, they need the button to be pressed. Jacob is going to vote. Yeah. It's already been pressed, though. You're going to vote. You've pressed it. Yeah. Memes is going to vote.

Mimes is going to vote. He's pressed it. Colton. Pug's going to vote. Yeah, we're also thinking about the people. Yeah, we're thinking about the people. Yeah, we're going to press the button to listen to this podcast. If anyone is allowed to make that pick, it's us.

we're allowed to you're allowed to make whatever pick you want I mean yeah but it wouldn't make it welcome America sure because I never even press the button I can't press the button you want me to press the button tonight I'll do it we need a podcast now I just I just text you guys what our actual last picture be yeah yeah okay

yeah covers everything video game console turn it on yeah best like you know you're about to sit down and do some gaming yeah it's great fun fucking feeling. That's gonna be your next pick. I thought about taking it 1-1.

Yeah, it's, Zach, you know. Yeah, it's a good pick. It's a good pick. It's a great pick. Thank you. You do all four of ours at the same time. What was ours?

TV remote. Yeah. Video Game Council. Yeah. AC down. Yeah. And listening to part of my take. Yeah, it's true.

I'm gonna go with voting in an online Twitter poll as my last pick for button to press. Mm-hmm. I think everybody that votes in this is probably going to agree that that's a pretty important button. It is.

Very important. That's your pick? Yeah. I think it's a pretty good pick. And it's worded like that. Voting. Great pick. Yeah, voting in an online poll.

You can't change it now. You should have just said team two. Okay. Voting for team two. But yeah. Well, I don't want to exclude anybody that is thinking about maybe not voting for two. Okay. It's true.

And they see that. And they're like, you know what? This one, we always get to an event. You kind of nailed me. I'm about to vote in this poll. Yeah. And not pandering. You can vote for whoever you want.

You also hate our sponsors. You do. I don't. And you wouldn't be able to listen to this if the podcast button was impressed. That's also a good point. Yeah. It's a good point. It looks like we've all just done a really good draft.

That's where it sounds like to me. Kumbaya? Yeah, Kumbaya. Yeah. I mean, I think, do you want to do that one, Zach? You want to just take a safe one? Do we just say fuck it? Oh, I hope.

I hope. Yeah, say fuck it. I think the fuck it is probably could be the one that we've, that we were thinking doing one and one. I think say it. This last text at 1132? Yeah. All right. All right.

Actually. Not bad. I love that. Yeah. Any red button's good. That's, we, nuke. We were thinking about doing. Yeah.

But then we're like, it doesn't. It's the most powerful button, but it's probably not a good button to press. You don't feel good, probably pressing that button. I think you probably do though You probably feel In the moment No way You feel bad after you press it

I mean adrenaline rush of a lifetime And then Yeah You're probably dead I also had I had right trigger Like on the gaming console

We had spin move Yeah Span moves A perfectly tight Spin move is the best One of my One that Is not relatable to anyone

But must be the best But in press of all time Is the confetti After a championship That's gotta be We also fuck What about confetti when you're going into overtime? That was a bad one.

That wouldn't have been my pick. We also fucked up. Because one of my favorite picks we just didn't pick. We should have. The submit bet button. Oh, fuck. So stupid. That is stupid.

We had, we were planning. We had too many on the list, honestly. We got 19 buttons. Did you have clit, PFT? We actually had more. We had G-spot. I did not have clit, no. But we didn't know where to find it.

Sick brag, Hank. Yeah. closed door elevator great button to press I've heard that those aren't connected Really? Most of them like if you ever call on a repair man And if that button's not working

They just never fix it Yeah That well that's But it's still a good button to press Yeah it's good but yeah It feels like you're doing something Yeah yeah sneaky button that really has no meaning But it just it's actually

It's fun to press Microw door open The one that goes in Yep It's just a fun button to press It's nice and mechanical yeah Yeah. What about the hit stick?

You miss so many tackles. Not a button. Yeah, it's not a button. It's not a button. But you have to, don't you have to click it? Nah,

this is, you're doing the, the glorious bastards three thing. Okay, well, how about the Fox three, Fox three, launching an Amram.

Shit. That's a good button. This is about to be a gunfight. Um, I love, Max hates this because Max is a pussy. I love the garbage disposal. I think it's awesome.

Hitting that button. What does that mean? He makes you uncomfortable. Have you ever lived, dude? Living in New York without a garbage disposal and then getting one back, it's like it's the best. There's just nothing better though.

It's one of the greatest invention. And you like pile it up with shit and you're just like or like even weird like when you do eggs or something like that. You're just like I'm going to go for it. And it sounds like it's good. Yeah. When it's like full and you can tell it's really like carving through. Yeah.

It's like are you throw like a like a lime in. there and you're like, this is going to take some work. I'm going to have to, I'm going to have to really run some water and listen to this. I think my biggest fear is having my hand stuck in the garbage disposal when it's on. So I think that. Oh, is that because you're just trying to get one last bite. Like, what? If you're trying to shove something down to last bite. Ten minutes later, you're like, oh. I know, something down the garbage disposal that you have to put your hand in and take out. I didn't press the button. I know, but like that. If it does turn on, not really. PFT. Well, no. What do you mean you've never. had to take something out of the garbage disposed. You've never used a sink. I've never reached my hand down there, but you have to, like, clear the top sometimes. And when you clear the top, but it's not on.

I see what Max is saying. It's not on. There was one house that I looked at, and this was like probably 10 years ago. I was going to move into this place. And the garbage disposal button was a little light switch that was in front of the sink at your, like, stomach height. That's, that's, that's crazy.

It was just terrifying. It was the most terrifying switch that I've ever seen. I was like, no, this house is cursed. I'm not losing hand. That's crazy. Yeah. All right. Other buttons.

Yeah, but Max, don't eat from the garbage disposal. Okay. I had pressing Max's buttons. Yeah, we did too. We had that. But they kind of took it with best friends. It's just a worst version of it.

Max is my best friend. I had to explain in the car PFT to Max and memes the CBS boss button. Oh, the boss button. Oh, the boss button. Unbelievable button. The, for, for anyone who doesn't know what we're talking about CBS when March Madness,

it was probably like 15-ish years ago. you'd watch March Madness on your computer at work and they put in a boss button on the browser where if you clicked it, it immediately went to a fake Excel spreadsheet. Yeah. The boss button. Great button.

I had the button that sends the vacuum tube at the bank. Oh, that's good. That's a good button. That's good. It just sucks it away. We had walkie-talkie. Yeah, that's good. Yeah, that's good.

The I'm over 18, the yes, I'm over 18 button. That allows you access to certain websites. sites yeah that's a good one for sure that's good that's a good one probably should have gone with that one yeah push to walk

I still press it doesn't do anything but it's kind of fun to press it yeah push to start push to start we had push to start add to cart was you kind of guys took it with but add to card is fun oh

soda fountain great yeah it's not really no there's buttons you turn like the one where you press on the front the new age ones I like the one. And the old ones.

I like the one where you click it into the level. Yeah, but there's new age ones. And now there's old, like the old ones that used to press, but the new age ones too where you have like, you can make whatever so, like you, there's like 7,000 sodas. Also the ice button when, in a hotel, that's fun.

Just filling it up. Like I'm getting all the ice. Ice button's good. Like submit button when you're submitting a resume or submitting like a turn paper. Yep. Yep. Max AC button. Max AC, pretty good.

Yep. What about the mute button? I said that. Max said he liked the unmute button. But it's the same button. Yeah. Yeah. It's just, I was thinking going back to what you said the other day when it's like,

oh yeah, you're watching sports. But then it's like, could you mute that? I want to listen to, I want to listen to music. There's people here. We don't need to listen to the audio. And it's like, that's a tough button to press when you have to click the mute. Yeah. You can listen to the music.

Garage door. I love pressing the music. garage door button. It's a good one. It just makes you feel kind of, it makes you feel like, uh, Walter Wright. I did a project. Yeah. Yeah. Just like, I'm gonna, it's just the whole world opens like, shit, that was cool. Or closing it.

And the play button. It's actually we're in bad spots. Yeah, it's a good button. I think we're in good spots. I think this is going to be a tight race. I think it's a really tight race. We've no way to know. We got all, I mean, video games, we probably should have taken. But we we got our top, we had four about out of our top five. We could have video games. We just didn't. What if your top five

wasn't great? I think I like our top five. What was your first one again? Order now, your best friends, chair recliner, any red button. Yeah. That one. Any red button is good. Okay. That one I'm... No, I like any red buttons. I think it's better than your best friends. But that's the best

button to press. Yeah, but Matt, we would have, if you hadn't taken that, we would have taken Max's buttons because that's my favorite button to press in the whole world. You guys are... Max didn't understand when we first started talking about it. I was like Max's button. He's like, oh, you mean like for the podcast? It's like, no, dude. Like for you. And he's like, oh, yeah, I do. I like to press it. I like pushing your guys buttons, too, though.

It's all it's any, any of your friends. We never, we never push your buttons. No. Hank is one giant button. We play it straight up with you, Hank. He can't exist because he's just, he is a button. All right. Good Mount Rushmore, boys. Let's get to our interviews. We got coach Sig, Coach Bob Chesney And then we have our good friend Joel Klatte talking football with all three Coach SIG is going to be brought to you by Mountain Dew Summer is coming I can't wait for Camp Barr's stool

I can't wait to hang outside with boys Can't wait to spend some time by the lake Nothing goes better with it in the lake And hanging with your friends than the refreshing citrus kick of Mountain Dew Mountain Dew is proudly born in the foothills of Tennessee You can enjoy the refreshing citrus kick of Mountain Dew It's an American original Check it today

Mountain Dew Grab a Dew tasting great since 48 And now here's coach Kurt Signetti. Okay, we now welcome on a very, very special guest. It is Indiana head football coach Kurt Signetti, National Champion. Am I allowed to say that? Because I know that you've banned those words from your office. They're not banned, but we're getting ready to start a new year, that's for sure. Okay.

How many times has it been said in your office since you won the national championship? Oh, I don't count. I'm more interested in converting on third down and scoring touchdown. touchdowns in the red area. I like that. You did get rid of all the trophies, though. You put those away. You stash those away so they're not staring you in the face. Yeah, the trophies, we got a new trophy case. You know, we had to create, build a new trophy room in the facility because for such a long time, there wasn't much to put in it. Right. So it's almost done. It's going to be big time, first class. I like that. That's great. So we got a few little items in my office. You know,

my office has always been very Spartan, secondary to me. You know, I've never tried to create a monument, but there's been so many that we don't have enough room for them yet. So they end up in my office somehow, some way. I just put them where I can't see them. Yeah. Maybe bring them out when a recruit comes in. That's got to be a nice, like, reminder that, hey, this thing has, this has worked pretty

quickly because you had to build an entire trophy case, finally, to put all the trophies in. Yeah, now we've got to build a new stadium. Yeah. No, I'm just kidding. Maybe a little bit. Maybe you're a little bit serious about that one. So this is two years almost to the day that you sat down, Big Ten Media Day. You said a lot of things at your first Big Ten Media Day.

Was that a strategy? Were you like, I better burn the boats. I better say all of it. That way I feel like I have to back it up or else. Well, I was out there on a limb. Thankfully, it was a strong limb. Yeah. But, you know, it all began really with my first day on the job.

and it didn't take long to feel the doom, gloom, despair, and hopelessness. And so at the basketball game that night, you know, what was said was said. And I had to find out if the fan base was on life support or dead. And, you know, said a few things. Obviously, the Google Me caught fire. That was just being asked the same question for the 15th time. Media Day, actually two days ago, somebody sent me something on our first media day here, where I talked about being picked second and the last.

some historical facts and I looked at it and kind of laughed like wow I was really out there you know yeah so two years you know a lot of wins 27 and two called National Championship but done a lot of good things so chapter three getting ready to turn the page I'd say you backed up pretty well and I was a big fan of yours at James Madison when you're the coach there I'm sorry for jinxing you after on the college game day appearance the one loss that we had against app state that's on me I don't know who else you can blame about that one. So I apologize for that.

Because I was watching you last year. I was like, how did this team lose to App State at home? I didn't get it because you had so many guys from Jamie that followed you to Indiana. And I was curious because after you guys won the national championship, the one thing I noticed immediately, I believe the first five guys to touch the trophy

were all guys that came with you. Was that intentional? Or was that just like these are the guys that were naturally towards the front because they're the leads. Well, I think Mendoza was up there also. Yep. To be fair. at Coogan also, but you did have Camara, Ponds, Surratt, Tucker, I believe. That was a nice nucleus.

You know, we had been together a long time, recruited those guys out of high school and developed them. And then, you know, they wanted to play on the biggest stage and prove themselves because, you know, why wasn't I recruited by Virginia, Virginia Tech kind of thing? And they came here and proved that they can play at the highest level. And a lot of them are in NFL camps right now. high draft choices. Not only good players, but high character, smart guys. You get good players that are smart and have good character. You can do a lot of things.

Yeah. I had a question about your path as a coach because it's an interesting one. A lot of people, if they're at Alabama with Nick Saban, that is kind of the last stepping stone to something bigger. But you realized, hey, I have to go somewhere else, be a head coach at a lower level and work my way up this way. Was there a moment where you're like, hey, maybe I'm not going to be a head coach?

Like, this isn't going to work out for me. A lot of them. And then, you know, I was hitting a big 5-0. And being a coach's son, you tend to, like, follow the other coaches through all the years from the 70s that were on staff and their career paths. Yeah, the market for a 60-year-old assistant coach at that time, it's not a great market. Right. You know, I was turning 50. And so I always wanted to be a head coach.

I always thought I'd be a good head coach. It was a very unconventional move. It was a huge pay cut. But when I took that job, like, you know, if I was there 20 years, I was going to be there 20 years. Like, I didn't take that job every day waking up thinking, I got to get here, I got to get there. We just, we got good. We found a path. And the opportunities came.

Yeah. You started winning and you just never stopped winning, really. Yeah, pretty much. That's kind of what has been the story of Kurt Zignetti. Yeah, we win. Yeah. How did you identify, like, the different jobs that you want to take? Were they the only ones that were offered?

Or like was Indiana University of Pennsylvania? No, there were turned down jobs. And then sometimes you interview for a job and you don't get it. I mean, I was as I UP for six years. Yeah. And I mean, I had two great teams coming back I thought could really contend and maybe win the national championship. And then, you know, this opportunity at Elon came. And, you know, I was in NC State before.

I knew Elon. There wasn't much down there. I wasn't even going to go talk to my agent convinced me. I was on playing. What am I doing? I get down there, man. They had built. The school had doubled in size.

that looked like a country club. They'd build all kinds of new facilities back then. That was the top one AA conference in the country, then in Missouri Valley. And we went in there and everybody thought it was hopeless, much like Indiana. It was probably even worse shape than Indiana. And shoot, you know, we lost a Toledo in the opener,

and they won the Mac. And then we ripped off eight in a row, man. And we were beating teams that beat them a year before, 566. People couldn't believe it. And, you know, a year later, turned down a couple jobs. up at JMU and you know I liked it there I wasn't looking at the league JMU now Jeff

Bourne was retiring I loved him and he told me all for like people are going to come after you people are going I said no no no I like it here you know a little myth that you know we had transitioned to some belt one the east two years around couldn't play in the championship game yeah yeah wasn't very pleased about that but this one here had been here a couple times the Big Ten TV contract really caught my eye I knew they had had some years with Mallory. I really didn't realize how it had bottomed out in terms of fan support and the long-term record because it was such, it was a three-day process.

I get here, but we got 10 offensive starters and a transfer portal. The whole defense is gone. I mean, we have a lot of work to do. And it just sort of all came together. Yeah, it really is one of the best stories that's happened in sports. Like I, I, I, you can't really look at many teams, franchises, schools that have had this type of turnaround this quickly that if you told someone five years ago Indiana is going to win a national title in football, they'd be like, well, you're, you've, you've died and you've gone.

I think most people to know would agree it's one of a kind. Yeah, yeah. Story. Yeah. And it doesn't happen without great support from the top, Pam witness, Scott Dolson. And I don't take this job without a great feeling about them, who I got to know in a 72-hour period. And, you know, as you guys know, nothing great gets done without a commitment from the time.

talk. Yeah. So, so in terms of turning the page, and like you said, chapter three, I, I, I would assume you're a type of guy who has no, no problem turning the page. No, no problem. Yeah. But in terms of your staff, in terms of, you know, some of the guys that are coming back who have had all these, the other, the rocks. Staff. Staff don't have a problem either. They wouldn't be on staff. Yeah, true. Okay. So, but, but the player, like, you know, these are 20, 21 year old kids that are rock stars now. No question. And they've gotten all the success. How do you get them to be like, hey, we're back to zero and zero. No one's proved anything. I think our people that went to dinner last night would disagree with who the rock star is right now as the pretty young girls were passing up to 20-year-olds. But no, I think we have enough core guys in that locker room that we've been together that know how we operate. And they've done a great job of bringing the new guys in and helping them assimilate the culture. And, you know, that's what coaches get paid for is, you know, we don't talk enough about development, which is what it's all about. You know, and I think that's where we really excels in development and getting everybody think alike and creating the intangibles on your football team. And I think this is going to be a huge fall camp for us because playing a 16 game season and some of the portal guys we brought in had injuries at their previous places. Those guys didn't get a chance to work together a lot.

So this is a huge August camp for us. Yeah. And then getting them to do things our way. You know, the marathon is not a sprint. marathon the season is a marathon last spring and once you kind of develop and maintain consistency and performance in terms of your standards in terms of the way you do things day-to-day and prepare than anything's possible yeah how are you going to handle being the the hunted now that you're at the top it's like now you've got a big target on your back it's a I bought a bigger gun that's a

great answer okay all right that's I also like you we kind of passed over it you just won the championship again like you're going to win again with an answer like that yeah we passed over it but when we were talking about you winning and you just like you kind of mumbled under your breath like we win we win that's what we did we win like that's just you're just it's just coursing through your veins winning i mean i believe in our um blueprint plan process and the way we go about doing things and our ability to get everybody think alike and perform to a standard uh it's worked in the past and i don't see any reason it shouldn't work again all right so now here's a tough football question do you go shirtless i'm under your Q-Zip?

I do. That's weird. Is it? Yes. Get the zipper caught in the chest area. It gets on the zipper sometimes. Like, what do you do? Does it fabric not feel weird?

I don't like things that are tight. Like this button up here, you know, on this type. It's nice and loose and I feel comfortable. It's kind of like a psycho killer move where it's like, I don't trust that guy, but he's got something to him, like, going to stay away. You got a little killer in this business. But I think I first remembered it when. the Rose Bowl.

I was heavy on like, hey, I think Indiana's going to kick the shit out of Bama. And I, you came out with that Q-Zip with nothing underneath. And I was like, this guy got a screw loose and they're about to lay the hammer on them. Wow, you're really looking. Yeah.

No, that's a, hey, it's attention to detail. We can help you out with that. We notice all the dumbest stuff that happens during a football game. Somebody has to, right? And when you're sweating on, directly on that fabric, there's got to be some chaffish, there's got to be the chester getting caught in the zipper.

But that's a man that's only focused on ball. You don't care about that. Yeah, I've never noticed. Go ahead. I was going to say, you talked about bringing a bigger gun this year. Where's that gun manufacturers? Is that Cuban? Is that a Cuban gun that you're bringing this year?

You know, Indiana has the largest alumni base in America. I think Penn State's number two. And as you guys saw, we took over the college football playoff. I mean, we probably had 75% of people at the Rose Bowl. 95% at the Peachball and 60% in Miami on Miami's home field. So a lot of wealthy Hoosiers out there. Mark played a role last year, and hopefully we can keep them in the program. But there's a lot of wealthy Hoosiers out there.

So when you were hired, I don't know if we said it at the time. I was confident that you would do a good job because I'd gotten to senior coach. I knew what you were all about. I don't think anywhere you predicted this. But after you won the championship last year, I think we said, on part of my take, you might be the best hire for any job. I'm not talking about football. I'm talking about just any occupation, anyone that's ever been hired in American history, you might be the best. Would you agree with that statement? Do I get a trophy for that? This is your trophy. One that you're

going to put in your closet and not have to stay in your face. I really can't think that way. That's counterproductive to what I've got to do in the way I operate. I bounce back from wins real quick. We stock complacency. If you're not striving and getting better, somebody else is so you're getting worse. What are you doing now? What's important now? And I always like to be productive in my work in the moment, organized, structured, work smart. I grew up in this business, you know, and if you want to be the best, takes some different kind of qualities and traits. And you can't always have a good time. You can't always be a good guy. You're the leader.

My job is to get the most out of every single person in that building, coaches and players. I read something Mendoza said last week about he squeezes all the juice out of that orange you can. That's the key of the drill. And then you got to get them all think alike. Yeah. How long did you give yourself to celebrate, though? You had to have like a couple days where it was like, this is pretty cool. I think it's just so chaotic and hectic.

You know, you don't go to bed until three in the morning. maybe go up to the president's suite, right? And then you're on with ESPN at 8 in the morning the next day, and then you're traveling back, and then you get in the office, and you're way behind on everything. And really I feel like I'm just getting caught up here as we get ready to go to camp.

Yeah, yeah. All right, I know you've got to leave in a second. By the way, what makes Pittsburgh such a football city where it feels like a lot of coaches come from that area? It's something about it. Well, probably back, Back in the day, the steel mills, you know, I mean, way back, Ditka and those guys. Yeah.

Joe Walton and Schottenheimer and, you know, then it was Cowher and, you know, and then the steel curtain, right? Yeah. People got fanatic about the Steelers. And after they got done, you know, all those one and 13 seasons. Yeah. Joe Green and Elsie Greenwood and those guys. Yeah. Yeah.

And, you know, so tough people are not given. Yeah. All right. Last question. Roeback question. R-H-O-B-A-C-K-com, promo-code, take. 20% off your first purchase.

Q-Zips, polos, hoodies, joggers, shorts, rowback.com, promo code, take. We got Zach here. Zach is... Can ask you a question. Come on, Zach. Did have a quick question for you? You know, just us right now,

a couple guys talking football, having a good time. I was wondering if you can give us a peek at the secret formula on pretty much how you got it done last season. He asked for a secret sauce. Wow. He watched your secret sauce.

He did it in a very nice way, though, so you should probably... Blueprint, people, plan, process, standards, consistency, and performance. Say that again. What's that acronym? Wait, say that again. Blueprint. Blueprint.

Standard. People. Okay. Process, plan, standards, consistency and performance. Preparation, accountability. You're just throwing extra ones in there. You just threw a little extra salt, a little extra pepper. Yeah, it didn't.

Do you know, you definitely have a thesaurus? Huh? You got a lot of stuff. synonyms. A lot of those kind of mean the same thing. All those words mean something. Yeah, I'm going to break that. We're going to have to break that down later.

Certainly. Yeah. You work on that. Well, Coach, thank you so much. We really appreciate it. Maybe next time we'll come down and visit you. We'd love to do an extended one, but appreciate it anytime you gave us. All right, guys.

Thanks so much. Appreciate it. Coach Sig was brought to you by Cuervo and Cuervo Devil's Reserve. Pineapple jalpino infused tequila. It's like a spicy marg and a bottle. It's smooth. It's delicious. Devil's Reserve is the perfect drink for when mischief is on the menu.

It's available with multiple sizes, included 50 millimeter shooters, perfect to bring to your party or your tailgate. It's time to listen to that little devil on your shoulder. Pour a round of shots. Get ready to raise a little bit of hell. Check out Cuervo today. Go to your local liquor store or go to quervo.com. Get your own bottle of Devils Reserve, raise a little hell. Please drink responsibly. And now, here's UCLA coach Bob Chesney. Okay, we now welcome on a very, very, very.

special guest. It is UCLA head coach, Bob Chesney, coach, uh, thank you for joining us. How's, how is your first big time media day? Because this is, you're in the big boy league now. This is the start. We're the start. Yeah, this start. So I'll let you know in a five minutes or so when we're done here. Okay. Is it still like, uh, you know, obviously not a, I don't want to say whirlwind because this is something you've expected your whole life, I would assume. But you are now, like you've graduated to the top in terms of like the Power 5 conference, the Big 10, has it kind of set in like, hey, stakes are different. Like this is big, big shit.

Yeah, I think I respect the fact that the margins are a lot thinner up here and that the competition and the coaches and the players and the, you know, stadiums will play. And I recognize all those things are going to be different. But at the same point, I think when you're building a team, there's those foundational elements that regardless of where you're playing have to be held true to. And they have to fit you. They have to fit the players you got, you know, schematically, culturally, what environment am I in?

You know, who are the connections I got to make in a new area? Because for me, this is very different on the West Coast. So there's a whole lot in there that you got to do. But you could pull on previous experience. And to me, my confidence doesn't just come from my previous experience, but it also comes from the fact that I'm willing to learn and grow as much as humanly possible on the day-to-day basis. Yeah. Are you ready for an entire off-season of people anointing UCLA as the next Indiana specifically because of coaches? That's not me. That's for sure. That's not me. But I get the parallels and I guess what I get what they're saying.

And that's just to me a very easy little, you know, I don't want to say cheap, but an easy, you know, connection to make. But realistically, time will tell. Do you have any relationship with the coach stick? A little bit, not much. So, you know, a couple of our guys on staff were there when he was there and then getting a chance to see him at the Bear Brian Awards. Last year, I had a chance to hang out with him for three to four minutes. You're not going to get a whole lot much more than that. I don't think from him anyway. But I had a chance to hang out with him, you know, a little bit. You're a smart guy because I think along the way, you've kind of built up your career. You've had protection from the media to a certain extent because at Holy Cross you've got

Bill Simmons running interference for you. At JMU, I'm going to go to bat for you. And now you finally upgrade to the final level. And now you've got Liam Blutman ready to die on his sword for you at UCLA. You're at the pinnacle right now. Are you just looking at bloggers and you're like, yeah, I think I'll go to their school next? Yeah, and I'm following the hierarchy of them. And clearly Liam's significantly higher than you in this hierarchy.

Top of the food chain. We got to figure out where the belt boys went. Yeah. It seems like an awesome opportunity. And I'm curious, like, you don't, like, be honest. At JMU, it was a great thing that you had going. Awesome season last year. Great second half against Oregon, by the way.

Excellent last drive. Was there any part of you that thought about not taking that next step and going back to Harrisonburg? I think that Harrisonburg is a tough place to leave, you know, as you know. Like, that's a pretty special place. Yeah, because you don't, you get drunk all the time. I mean, I'll graduate four years. That's why you're stuck there for seven years, doctor.

But I think for me, it was, you know, just the right opportunity. And there's other opportunities. But I think when I look at this one, you know, has every positive from every job I've had or every place I've been a coach all exist in this one place at UCLA. It's, you know, to me, the perfect match for, you know, what I was looking for. And then when you start talking about alignment, you start meeting the people and the search committee and the just sort of the, you know, the, the, you know, the, the. leaders in the sports world that you can glean in, you know, information from and be supportive of you is really special. Like, and that was the thing for me that I just saw it as, you know, all of it combined into one from my previous past, along with the energy of the people with the alignment

from the top down that made it feel like this is the right thing. LA's great, but you're going to miss it when it's rainy outside in Harrisonburg and the whole town smells like dog food. Right. I will miss that. I went back recently and it was hot and humid and spelled like talk. Which might take the rain, I think. Can we address a potential negative for UCLA? And I'll, listen, I'll just, we'll do truth talk here. All right.

It's tough when you don't have a football stadium on campus. And the Rose Bowl, I love the Rose Bowl. I think it's one of the best venues that we have as a country. Yes. But it is a challenge when you're playing against some of the other big 10 teams that have massive, massive on campus stadium. So what's the plan there? How are you going to change that culture?

Yeah. So I think for me, as I look back through the history of it, when you're winning, they will come. And I think that's just the truth of it. If you put competitive teams on the field, people will support it. If you're involved in their lives, they'll support it. I probably, I would imagine more than any coach in the country spent more time, you know, with our alums, with different sports teams, you know, traveling around, doing whatever

I can to make sure that they understand that I'm connected to them and that we need their help. As far as the Rose Bowl is concerned, Bill Plashky was just at our place the other day, and, you know, he thinks it, you know, and thinks extremely highly of it, that it is the Augusta of college football. It is beautiful. And it really is when you go there and you feel it in the setting of it, all of it is perfect. You got to get there. Right. You got to get people there. And I think, you know, if without incentives, without a good football team on the field is probably challenging, but that's things we got to change.

Because it also doubles as, you know, all the other Big Ten schools, a lot of, you know, Midwest footprint. And, you know, it gets, you know, cold in October, November. Hey, we want to go to the Rose Bowl. Like, that was. So it makes it a little daunting. Yeah, that is a battle just because of the fact if you're looking at the schedule and you have a chance to go to the Rose Bowl and play, you're probably doing that. Right. So we got to shift those numbers and get them more in our favor.

But, you know, I understand the challenge. Okay. Maybe more like free hot dogs or T-shirt canons. Yes. Like, do something like that. Nice. Yeah. Or a flyover before every game.

Yeah. Promise a flyover. I mean, we have shuttles. We have buses for everybody to be able to. you know, come over. We have every fraternity has their own setup over there. We have DJs. We have buses that take them to the game and back.

So I think we're doing everything we can. We just got to make sure that we put a better product on the field. I feel like you went too fast past the T-shirt canons. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like a head coach doing a T-shirt canon would be awesome. Oh, myself doing it. Yes. Yeah.

In the middle. Yes. After the first quarter. I think it's like any commercial break. Any commercial break. Don't go to the team. Yeah. Don't go to the team.

Don't take it off. Yeah. You have, you wear the t-shirt. can like the backpack and then maybe yeah you shoot off in commercial break i hit a time out or say and then turn around just fire you can keep talking to the team like you can be in the huddle just like have your you know just be firing away like hey guys we got to really focus on this third down yeah you know watch for the for you know the run pass option boom yeah i thought being like totally present but you don't have to do that i'm just thinking let me bring up a good point also i love when they

do the the the little pair i know it's not in like a NBA arena but the parachutes so maybe we get like mini parachutes like when they drop like burritos and stuff. Oh the drones. Yeah, drone strike people with burritos. Yeah, that would be cool. Nice touch, I think. Yeah. You got the right people back here to run this all by. I mean, they're taking notes. They're taking notes and that's the whole support. We got more ideas. You're known or at least last year was you were probably the best second half team in America. Certainly like defensively. It was incredible what Jamie was able to do in the second half. I forget how many months you went without allowing a single point. At what point were you like, I would like some of the second half magic to be there at the start of the game.

Like at what point did that almost become frustrating where you couldn't start out like that? Every point. I'll tell you what, though, when you start off a little slow, but you know you're getting to halftime and have some adjustments to make. And I don't understand necessarily why that that work. We didn't change like a ton of things. We just had the opportunity to, you know, settle down and do what we needed to do. But yeah, yeah, you would like to start faster. But when you at least know you got a good second half coming, you could deal with the first half. You had to slow first half, then a slow second half, that's just tough living. But I, you know, I thought our guys, by the end of the season, started to turn it up a little bit.

The ODIU game is really the one that I thought we just started to exchange score for score. Both quarterbacks were playing elite. And then we got to the second half and just held them the 10 yards of offense, you know, in the whole second half. I thought that was a big deal. Yeah. You went to a UCLA basketball game this year and said you're going to win the big 10. Yeah. Okay.

You said you're going to win the big 10. Yeah. Was that this year? Well, it's open-ended. You know, answer realistically. Like at some point. Yeah, it's a goal, right? It's a goal.

It should be our goal. Yeah. We should not be sitting in a spot to me, you know, lowering expectations and hiding behind the idea that we're rebuilding and we're not. We're building a program, period. And I think that's it to me is that that has to be the goal. That has to be where we're setting our sights. It has to be how we recruit.

It has to be how we develop. It has to be, you know, how we play. It has to be every little thing in it. We have to understand what everybody else in this league is doing and find a way to close the gap. It is kind of funny when you, when you like, answer that. It is funny that whenever a head coach gets hired and they say something like that, everyone's like, oh, look how cocky he is. Yeah. Whereas what would be the alternative? Yeah, what is the alternative? Said like, hey, guys, we're going to suck. Yeah. Like, that would

probably not go well either. No, that won't. That won't. That won't know. Or let's get to 500 if we can. Yeah. Yeah. Let's try to go six and six. Did anyone talk you out of like saying the big 10 thing, though? Or are you just like not? I don't think anybody knew what I was going to say, honestly, until I got up there. Okay. And that's just what came out of my mouth. Okay. And maybe say like, we're going to have the most fun in the Big Ten. And that's what's really important. We're going to do the most T-shirt candidates in the Big Ten. Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly.

Fun is at the top of the list. It's about the journey, not the destination. That's right. That's what I always say. Yeah, so your coordinators that you bring with you. Yes. How have they adjusted to the Big Ten so far? And like the different caliber of players that you're playing with, specifically your quarterback, who I actually have a lot of faith in this year, some people may have taken a future on them,

win the Heisman trophy in this room. But how they enjoyed the kind of the leveling up? Do you think that they're ready for it? And what have you seen from them? Yeah. And I think for me, the idea of always doing more with less is what we had to accomplish. And now we have a chance to do more with more. And I think in the transfer portal, we ended up as the top 11, you know, team in the in the portal rankings, which was really strong, given that school had started the day the portal opened. And we had two weeks to do it, probably did it in a week and a half. And, you know, we're able to secure a pretty good class. So I think that to me, when I watch our coaches and I see them and their excitement of the caliber of player that we're dealing with, and not that it was bad anywhere else, it's just

different here, right? The stakes are raised a little bit. And I think it just opens their eyes a little more into the possibilities of, you know, things you can do or can't do before. It was more about what you couldn't do on offense. And I think it just opens up a little bit more possibilities. Yeah. So in terms of your career as a coach, because you did it, you know, I would say probably the hard way where it's like, you know, you start small, small schools and go, you know, a lot of guys they do it and they're starting at the big school as a GA and then maybe get a position coach, and defense coordinator that, but you did head coach small schools. Was there ever a moment in that path where you're like, I, no one's giving me a look. Like, I keep winning games. Yeah. And I'm winning

at a crazy clip, but I'm not getting the interviews and maybe this is just what I am now. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. And I think every step of the way, you know, even at the D3 school I was that, Nobody ever heard of in Newport, Rhode Island. You know, we became a top 20 team in the country. And, you know, you were trying to take that next step. Right. All right. Now we need a new locker room.

We need to do something about this field. We need to get admissions. And eventually, it just, they're not ready to climb that quickly with you. So that was really the, you know, the reason the move had to happen next. But there was an opportunity. And now you're at a D2 world, right? And the D2 world now first time dealing with scholarships. Then you go to the FCS world.

First time you got to recruit nationally. because of the academic rigor of that school. And you're dealing with no grad students and no walk on or no 50 years or no red shirts. So you got to really develop now. And then you got because you got to go stand toe to toe with South Dakota State and these types of teams that have sixth and seventh year guys. You know, grad school and Jucos and transfers, you don't have that. And I thought we did a nice job of that. And then you get to JMU and you learn about the portal now.

You know, and the portal pieces, holy, you know, we have very few guys left. 67 new guys come into the portal. Yeah. win the first ever bowl game and then go to the playoffs. And then you get to UCL agents. All of that then comes into, you know, in this one cauldron kind of, right? So I think every step of the way for me, I never felt like I was stuck anywhere. I felt like if this is where I end up, it's where I end up.

Like I think it was my mother was like, just grow where you're planted and the rest of it will figure it out. Because as a younger coach, you're looking all the time. Right. Right. And then as you become a head coach, you know, the ties are a lot deeper, right, to the players, to the community to everything. You can't jump after a year somewhere. Right. And I think for me, those were the things that just changed a little bit for me.

But every step of the way really helped prepare me for the next. Yeah. Did you ever think in that process, like, why don't I do the maybe the shortcut? It's not a shortcut, but why don't I do the thing where I go be a defensive coordinator at a power four school? Yeah, I did. And then, you know, honestly, for me, I visited a lot of them. And I went around and saw a lot of them. And I just felt like, oh, man, I don't know if I want to work for that guy.

Yeah. It's ultimately where I felt like. I was at. And it came down to the idea of, I know the environment that I create as the head coach. And I know, you know, the culture that's there. And I know, you know, that we all enjoy going to work every day. We don't have to. We're not beating people down and forcing them into our way of thinking. This is a place where they, you know, get to go and enjoy it and not have to do it, but get to do it on a day to day basis. And I think that's the difference. And everywhere I went, it didn't feel like that. You know, so as I thought about it, I'm like, all right, be cool to work for that guy. But then go and visit that wouldn't be that cool in my mind for me. And I think not fun, but quality of life, you know, comes into play a little bit. And when you're the head coach, you get to control that a little bit more than, you know, who's above you and, you know, how challenging is that relationship going to be? Because the energy you bring into that room, the positivity changes the entire culture of the entire community. Yeah.

Realistically. Fuck, I think I'm buying stock in UCLA. Yeah. You should. You should. You're hired. I think, I think Sahir West is a name that people are going to start. to figure out pretty quickly this year.

Can you just talk about what he is like as a player, the impact he makes on defense? And like, obviously he was probably your number one guy that you wanted to bring with you to UCLA and how good you think he could be in this league. Yeah, well, Sehir West was coming with us to Holy Cross at the beginning. And then we ended up going to JMU. So he came with us to JMU. We redshirt him that first year, knowing full well how good he was going to be, but needed to redshirt him because he needed another year mentally.

And then that second year, he just the second half of the second year. two. He just really came alive. And he is just a, he's a different kid as far as the work he puts in, as far, he's around the facility all the time, constantly there. You know, he's in the wait room all the time. He's out on the field working on stuff all the time. It's just a guy that's fully committed not only to this program, but also to his own personal development. Miles Garrett was there the other day and he was working out with Sehir and helping Sehir a little bit. And those were things to me that any opportunity he has to, you know, find a way to get better. He's going to do that. Yeah, yeah, he's an awesome player.

Violent dude when he hits the quarterback. People at UCLA are going to love him. I don't know if you know this story, but at JMU when he was redshirting, he didn't, obviously didn't play us. I think we played him in a game or two maybe, but we're trying to save his redshirt. But before he ever played a game, I think it was a punner that ran a, something happened on the sideboard and a fight, like sort of a fight happened. And everybody else was breaking up and see here punches the kid in the face and takes a 15-yard penalty. And I remember being like, you don't even play. You're not even on this field.

and you're already collecting a 15-yard penalty. But that's the type of player he is. And I think for us to be able to rein him back in a little bit and use that violence and that, you know, aggressiveness for good. Learn when to unleash it. That's right. Exactly. Was it weird at all coaching JMEU last year,

knowing that you were leaving after that happened? I know that there was like an agreement, like I'm going to do this. But you were able to. And then Billy Napier obviously kind of in the mix too. What's that like watching another man coach your team? Well, it wasn't that way. So Billy Napier was there and just there, as an observer, all of his assistants stayed up in the press box, and they were just kind of

collecting numbers on what kids what. He and I spoke, we're very transparent about who I think would come with us, but I told them, we're not having a single conversation right now with these guys about that. We are, and I refuse to let our coaches have that conversation. So we're going to play the season out when the season's over, then we'll have those conversations with them. But then it gets a little tricky because they're not in the portal yet. Right.

But you're now coaching at a different place, so it's technically tampering. So we didn't talk to these guys until the portal opened. And when the portal opened, we called, they're like, guys, where were you? Everybody's been calling us. I'm like, well, we didn't want to get caught up in like this tampering thing, but I guess everybody else was except for us. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But it ended up working out that 10 of them were able to come with us.

But it wasn't weird. It was something that I felt strongly about because I think when you have a new coach coming in to a program that's had success, that's a challenge in and of itself. I did it. You know, when I came for the bowl game, the issue was none of the staff was last. Right? It was just, you know, a bunch of guys put together to finish that bowl game in that Armed Forces Bowl or whatever it was. But if I had the ability to say, why are you winning, let me watch how practice works, let me watch a lift, let me sit on a meeting, let me be present.

I'll be a fly on the wall, but I do want to see what this culture is like because I don't want to dissolve at all the minute that you walk out the door. And I really, you know, I think that's a brilliant move. And I was really proud of, you know, Billy for putting an ego aside and say, no, let me learn how they do it because there's a great culture here. How do I just keep this culture advancing it and accelerating as opposed to get these guys out of here and let me become the new head coach? That makes sense. Can I give you a tip? Yeah, please. Okay. So you're a good looking guy. I feel like I can say that. Guys can compliment guys. We should normalize that more. Good looking guy, UCLA, LA, big city, people have thoughts about California. The colors are cool.

I think you've got to do something to remind people that you're from a coal mining town in Pennsylvania. You know what I mean? Because that is, that's where coaches come from. Yeah. I don't know what it is. Maybe you can tell me. But like if you're from like Youngstown, Ohio or somewhere in Pennsylvania, west of Philadelphia, I'm like, that's a coach.

Yeah. Well, I think it's, first of all, it's the entire community. You know, you go to a Friday game. There's not one restaurant open anymore. There's not one store. There's nothing. The whole entire. That's the time to go rob any house you want to rob in those towns because everybody's at the game.

So it's one of those things to me that I think, first of all, that's it. right, the culture and the community is part of it. So it's not like you kind of like football. You're living football every single day. And so is your grandmother. And so is your grandfather. And so is your cousins. Everybody is living for this team.

I think that's one. So the passion's different in those towns. The other thing I think is this is not an easy job regarding the work ethic. And in these blue collar tough towns, like everybody works. I mean, I picked up a shovel for my entire life. You know, even when I was still coaching in college for the first two years, I was going back and working job, like labor jobs. I started at 14 and was doing, it was just what people did.

You didn't complain about it. So the hard work, the passion for the sport, right, and the toughness. I think all those three things, you know, come into play. And I think that is a lot to do with why you see guys from those types of areas, you know, succeed. Yeah, so you need to figure out, I don't know what it is. Like, maybe a shovel in your office. I don't know. But I could see it going sideways on you because, again, you're a good looking guy in like the light blue colors in L.A.

Yeah, I'm going to just remind people. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Maybe you, let's think about that a little bit. You and Mick Cronin could, like, team up and beat up Ryan Gosling out there. Like, just go get into a bar fight together. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I feel like he's got the same thing where, like, he's a hot guy.

Yeah. And so he's got to like, yeah, he has to remind people like, hey, super tan. Behind the, behind the pretty face and the nice tan. Yeah. Like, these knuckles still work. That's right. Right. Yeah, right.

I'll talk to him about it. I'll talk to him out. It is a good idea. It is a good idea. He is a blue guy. He actually has done a good job of, like, keeping that grit. He is still great in the UCLA basketball program. And like everyone thought it was a weird fit, him coming from the Midwest out there.

And so he's obviously a great coach. I would love to see you two teaming up, like the new Bash Bros. Oh, I like that. You guys have good ideas. This early in the morning, too, it's unbelievable. Do you have an acronym that you go to for your team, like a saying? Mm-mm. Okay.

No, I mean, are you talking about like what our core values? Yeah, what are your core values? So what we talk about is, and this doesn't have to do with football. I'm going to present it in football. we talk about attention to detail, positive attitude, urgency, and a relentlessness, right? So here's my, that's a problem. Yeah, that doesn't really work. That doesn't work.

But that's the feeling for me. That's the feeling for me. It's like when I think about everybody successful in my life, they all paid attention to all the little things. Yeah. Right. They stay positive once shit gets tough. And at the same point in time, right, they attack it relentlessly and urgently over and over

again. I think if you go through life passive, negative, and don't pay attention to anything, you're destined for failure. I agree. And if you do these other things, these are not lessons for football. They're going to be presented that way. But ultimately, it's anything in life that you want to be good at. You better pay attention to the thing about, I don't know, going skiing or something, right?

You got to pay attention to little things. You got to stay positive when you fall down. You got to attack it. And then once you, that happens, you got to get up and do it again and again and again until you get it right. So I think those are the things for me that I want to make sure that our team understands is it's not just football lessons. They have to be life lessons.

And I want to lead the nation in development. I like on and off the field. That's important to me. Blutman, do you have a question? Yeah, yeah, I do. Come on up. Come on up. This is the guy that's going to be holding your feet to the fire.

Yep. And he will. He also, he, I'm going to, I'm going to toot my guy's horn here for a second. He's got an eye for talent. So you should, you should maybe have someone talk to him when Transfer Pro comes around because he has, like, receipts of guys that he's called out from lower level. Because he watches basically every college football game, lower level guys that end up being like studs done yeah direct line towards i was watching dobs at holy cross yeah yeah

that's why we took him okay question time all right question time your dad what a character he is involved in practice no not kenny okay his dad's an incredible figure that shows up at practice has a blast with the players and everything how's he been doing how's he enjoying l i so as just so you know my father is in amorello texas right now driving across the country with with my mother okay Because he learned that it was going to cost $3,000 to ship his car. But he could do it for $2,200 so he could save $800 and drive across the country. Okay. He's in the process of doing that right now.

So he's moving out to L.A.? Yeah, for the season. That's awesome. Yep. Okay. I love that. How about Mikey V? Mikey V.

We'll be back as well for camp. Yeah, so those two are important. I'm not joking either. They're really, really important to me. Like, they're disguised. Who's Mikey V? You want to share some of these inside jokes you're doing in front of us? When we went the other month, Katic and I are just watching practice.

And Mikey V goes up to us and he's like, all right, here's what's going to happen. They're going to do this, this, this. They did none of that. We end up learning Mikey V's not on staff. He's there. He thinks he's a coach. He thinks he's a coach. He owns his subway.

How do you know him? So he was our football app. He was in charge of our football ops when I first got there. He coach our running backs into D2 World. Okay. But it's like one of our players, there's a windstorm, a tree falls and on their porch. And hits that. So at 5 a.m.

He shows up, gets a call, shows up with a chainsaw, removes the tree, cuts it all up. So is your big dom? I mean, he has anything. He takes care of. He takes care of. Mike E. V. What's his name?

What's his last? The golf carts. Volcano. Oh, yeah. He's in Paison. I love that. Wait, wait. His name is his Mike Volcano.

Yes. All right. We're Mike E.V. Guys. Oh, you're huge Mikey V guys. And you put senior and Mikey V in the same room. Forget about it. Yeah.

That's awesome. He still got the subway. Yes. All right. I like this. He owns a subway. Is it in Walmart? It's in a Walmart.

Okay. Yeah, I like everything. All right. Blubbin, your question came around because for a minute there you were just literally having a private conversation. We're talking in code.

That's my bad. Final question from me. You've found the job for a few months now. What do you hate about USC? What have you learned to hate about USC? I don't worry. Honestly, to me,

we have enough things we got to work on, you know, and that game so later and so much later in the season that, you know, who knows where we're at, both at when we get to that point in time. So for me, it's not about that.

It's about how do we handle this on a day-to-day basis. And I understand, and I respect the rivalry and the bad blood between them both. And that's great for the town. It's great for the community. We just got to do a better job of holding up our end of the bargain in that game. And that's what, you know, we're focused on. We had Coach Riley on the show. And I'll tell you right now, stinking Riley does bother him.

So just hold that in your back pocket. Yeah, we brought it up. And it was, you know, you could see. He was a little like, ah, fuck, the guys brought up the stink. thing. Yeah. That's actually a great way to answer that question. It's like, I don't really think about them. Yeah. Yeah. They hate that. They hate the fact that you didn't come in here. Like, I can't wait to get there. No, I think we've enough stuff of our own to keep working. You already promised a Big Ten champions. That's right. I got it to work on that.

Yeah. Are you intimidated? There's a lot of great coaches in the Big Day. Are you intimidated by Ryan Day's nipple ring? I didn't know he had a nipple ring. Well, he could have one. It might be a Photoshop. I don't think it is. Okay. I got us back on this. I'm pretty sure it's just a Photoshop. Well, what if he wanted one? Then you have to have his back on people living their truth. Right? Yeah, I guess so. Okay, all right.

Would you get one if you won a national championship? A nipple ring. Yeah. No, I would not. Okay. Would Mikey V? Maybe. No, I think you've got to just say it right now.

Mike V's getting a nipple ring if you want the title. Put that out there. All right. We got one last question. Zach, come on up. Roback question. R-H-O-B-C-K.com. promo code take 20% off your first purchase.

Q-Zips. polos, hoodies, joggers, shorts, rowback.com, promo code take. All right, Zach, let's go. Good hustle. Good hustle. Sir, how are you doing today? Sir, I did have a quick question for you. What do you say to the haters that say there's no grit in Los Angeles? I say that at first I don't, I did not hear that myself. Oh, no, the haters are saying. When I look at our team, when I look at our team, I see a lot of guys full of grit at this moment. And I think that's what we have to just continue to develop. I think, you know, Liam could talk about it. Katie could talk a little bit about it. But the competition and the way that we go about our day to day basis,

There's nothing that's easy about it. It's tough. It's physical. It is demanding and it's competitive as hell. And that's what they have to be thrown into that furnace every single day. That's just to play football. I don't care where you're at. If you're in Harrisonburg, Virginia, you're in the coal mines of Pennsylvania.

It doesn't matter. The game gets played a certain way, period. And I think that's important for me to make sure that our guys understand that and make sure that I don't understand it. But they also live it every single day. And they've done a great job accepting that challenge up to this point. Good job. Do you want a follow up? I got no respect for that answer.

Thank you for your time, coach. Yeah, thank you. Yeah. Well, Coach. Thank you so much. I'm a believer, especially this Mikey V thing. That was like late breaking news. I'll bring him back.

Listen, that was late breaking news. That's the type of guy we like. We have to have to meet Mikey. Super Bowl week, we're going to have to come and meet Mikey V. We'll be out in L.A. Oh, easy. Okay. He might have to drive us around.

He will. He actually will. He actually will. That would be. He owns a subway in Walmart. That will be. He thinks he's a coach. I like this guy.

Oh, he's a coach. He is a coach. He's one of our best. better coaches. All right. Well, thank you so much, Coach. Best luck this year. Yeah, thanks, guys. Appreciate it. Coach Chessing was brought to you by our great friends over at Twisted Tea. Twisted Tea hit the river, hit the beach this summer, grab an ice cold twisted tea, bring it out on the course with you. Summer is here. It's the perfect drink. And now we've got the Twisted Tea summer party pack.

That's where you got the brand new twisted lemonade. It's twisted tea is refreshing hard ice tea. It's made with real brewed tea and 5% alcohol. It's got a summer party pack. That's where you can find the twisted lemonade. It's refreshing hard lemonade made with real lemons. It's only available in their new party pack. Grab it while you can. If you're hanging out at the bar, hitting the lake, hitting the beach for a weekend. If you're day drinking with friends, twisted tea is there to turn your day up a notch.

Make a good time, a great time. Keep the good times going all day, all summer long. Keep it twisted with twisted tea. And now here's Joel Clatt. Okay, we now welcome on a very, very special guest. It's our good friend, Joel Clatt. We're here at Big Ten Media Week, I think it is. I would guess like three days now.

Yeah, they have to split it up. But it's great to see you, Joel. It feels like football is right around the corner. Cannot wait. Cannot wait for football season. This is the time of year I'm like Jones in to get back out there. And it should be a great year. I keep saying this.

I feel like I'm the guy that's like, hey, everyone talks about the problems in college football. College football is amazing right now. The product has never been better. Interest has never been higher. And we got a bunch of teams that could go win a national championship. Yeah. Which I love. Like the parody.

Maybe not Wisconsin. Sorry. Listen. We're still trying to build something back. I like it. I like it. You're right. Like I think that we do way too much of focusing on the negative where like two years ago,

the playoff wasn't very competitive. Right. And everyone talked about how it was broke. Why don't we talk about the fact that last year's playoff was awesome? It was incredible. We had some incredible games. We had a Miami team that came out of not nowhere, but like no one thought they'd be to the national championship. Indiana is an unbelievable story. College football is awesome. No doubt. And I think that

there's a giant myth. And it gets perpetuated by other platforms that like Indiana bought a championship. That was not an expensive roster all things considered. And Miami was actually older than they were. You know, this idea that they were all 24 and 25. Like that team, I don't know if there's ever been a better story in college football. To be the losingest program in the history. of the sport and to get all these guys from JMU and this cast off from Cal and you go win a national championship in this era and this day and age. I thought it was remarkable. And it really, to me, signifies what this era can be about, which is development. Like there are, so I think that the most important factor in now the sport is experience. Yeah. Yeah. And if you're not experienced,

I don't think you can win. So last year, the speculation was that that Mark Cuban and the boys didn't spend that much money on the roster that they spent a little bit. But what have you heard? Because I feel like Cuban, after seeing what happened last year, now the checkbook might really be opened up for him. Yeah, I mean, I don't think it's nearly what like an LSU is spending or what a Miami is spending. But it's absolutely on par with some of the other teams that can go and win a national championship. I don't think Indiana is spending the most money in the Big Ten. And I don't know these numbers to be actually.

know, like I don't have access to the actual numbers. And candidly, I don't really want them. Yeah. I don't want to have that type of pressure on my shoulders. But yeah, I mean, they're spending. I don't think that you can realistically compete for a national championship unless you're spending at a minimum $28 million. Yeah. It's kind of the nature of the beast now. I want to push back on one thing, though. Yeah. You said experience is like the biggest factor. I actually disagree. I think the number one factor is scheduling. Because with all these super conferences now, and I know you've broken it down,

there are years where teams will just have an easier schedule. Yeah, it's like a lottery. You win the lottery in your conference. Right. You have a gauntlet year. Then you have a year where it's like, hey, we don't play any of the other big dogs. We can have our team healthy.

We can be at the finish line because that was part of it. I mean, even 100% deserved a national title the way they did it. But they also had a few, nice things happen in their schedule where they were able to be healthy at the end. Is there one team that you've looked at? Maybe even you can go like conference by conference, Big 10, SEC, Big 12, where it's like, hey, this team has a spot where it's like,

this is their season. This is their chance to make some noise because of the schedule. I think it's a combination, though. You're not wrong. You're not wrong at all. I think the combination is that you have to have the right roster with the right experience and maybe hit that lottery that you're talking about. In particular, I think what you're referencing more,

is the in-conference schedule lottery with the big conferences. Two that jump out to me wildly is Georgia and Penn State out of the SEC in the Big Ten. I think Georgia got a really preferable schedule. I think they're all hard in the SEC. I think they're all hard in the Big Ten. But when you're avoiding like two or three of the other real playoff contenders, that's like, okay, this is very favorable. I think Georgia has that out of the SEC.

and then Penn State schedule, guys, if you look at it, that's a 10-win schedule. Easy and maybe more. So even though I don't know if they're the best team in the Big Ten, I think that they're going to have a real chance to compete for a spot in that Big Ten championship game. Yeah. Yeah, it's weird. It's not that you have an easy schedule. It's just if you happen or even if it's like the home games or, you know,

lines up that you play Ohio State at home. That's right. Like Georgia plays, I don't know. Does Georgia play Alabama this year? They do. Okay. And I believe it's in Tuscaloosa, but that's really their hardest. You're never going to avoid.

You're going to have one, maybe two really tough games. Let me give you a great example. So Penn State, they've got to go to Michigan. That's a tough game. And they have to have USC come to them. Well, I think USC is going to be really good, like really good. This is going to be Lincoln's best team, I think. But it just so happens that USC, you know, they've got to,

to face Oregon. They've got to face Indiana and Ohio State and go to Penn State. Right. You know, like that's a really difficult schedule for a USC team, whereas Penn State doesn't have to deal with that. They don't have to play Ohio State, they don't play Oregon, they don't play Indiana. That's right. If we went gun to your head, would you say Big Ten, another championship or the field? I would take the Big Ten over the field right now. I think that the field, so let's break it down. Like how many teams right now do I think have like, like, legitimate before seeing them, because I think LSU could jump into this, but I think there are seven teams that I'm like, yeah, they could absolutely win the national championship. So you've got, and maybe not an order. I'm going to come out with that in a little bit, but not an order. You've got Georgia, Texas, you've got Indiana, Oregon, Ohio State, you've got Notre Dame, you've got Miami. I think those are the seven, again, no particular order. Those are the seven that I'm like, okay, those teams can absolutely win a national championship. It's weird you have Notre Dame ranked sixth.

I don't. No particular order. No particular order. I would take the Big Ten only and let me, I'm tipping myself a little bit here. Oregon's the only team of no questions. Number one. Yeah. Well, can they win the big one?

That's the, okay. That's a big question. It's not a roster question. Right. Right. where everybody else, like if you go down the rest of those seven teams, Notre Dame, how are you placing the running backs and the running game? Now, maybe it's C.J. Carr in the passing game with Jaden Greathouse,

and yeah, that could be good. Ohio State, how you're placing the defense? Who's catching the ball at Georgia? Can you run the football at Texas and protect Arch? How you're placing the line of scrimmage at Miami? Who do you, you know, is Hoover as good as Mendoza? Can you replace the running game? You're having to replace DeAngelo Ponds at Indiana. And then you look at Oregon and you're like, oh, football-wise, on the field, there's no questions. They're going to have maybe the best defensive line in all of college football. They've got a Heisman Trophy candidate at quarterback.

They've got backs. They've got receivers. They've got an excellent defense. So I would take the Big Ten over the field. And it might be the fourth different Big Ten team to win it. Yeah. And no LSU. You want to see LSU.

They're one of those, they're that team that like shows up to the party. And the party's already going. And they're kind of at the door and they're like, this looks awesome. Yeah. You know, like, I think it's going to be really good. They, I think that we might turn on the TV when they're playing Clemson and we're going to be like, oh, this is legit. I think their roster could be that good. Now, here's one thing.

And I'm going to, I always get labeled as like an SEC hater. I'm really not. No, that's fine. No, you said before we started taping, it's like, really glad this isn't an SEC. media. Yeah, you're like, yeah, team me up so I can just bash the SEC. We're like, we got you, dude. So, LSU, yeah, that's great. LSU. No, why do you hate the South? Yeah, that's right. Well, let's,

let's get into this, philosophically. Hold on, there's been forever, it's been, there's people who have carried water for the SEC. We, it's fine that, it's nice that we're fighting back, you know, guys like us being like, fuck the SEC. Well, even, even when, but when they were the best, I called them the best. Yeah. You know, and they were the best. There's no doubt.

It's not the case anymore. No matter what anybody says and no matter what his credentials are, it's not the best conference down there right now. Yeah. It's just not. You can get it's, and by the way, it's not just that the Big Ten's winning national championships. You can go down the metrics. Okay, college football playoff record. Big Ten owns them in the last three years.

First round draft picks last year. Big Ten, most first round draft picks. Overall, Bull, bowl. record, Big Ten, over the S.E. Like, you can go down the list over and over again. And right now, the best conference is the Big Ten. LSU, they're expecting Lane to do something he's never done. So, like, think about that. Stick around for five years. Well, no, stick around. And he's never won a Power Four conference. Yeah. You know, like, that's the thing, too, with the new setup, like, is winning the conference even? Like, you, like, going to the conference, yeah, that's the championship.

game is not the SEC championship game, which is a bummer talking about the landscape of college football that it doesn't feel like it means as much. But it might be an advantage not to play in that game. Possibly. And that's why most coaches will tell you they want to get rid of championship games and that they want to expand the playoff and have those games played at home on campus. But they're also asking Lane to, you know, he was a 10-win guy at Ole Miss and built something really special. There's no doubt. This is a program that in the playoff era since 2014 has been to the college football playoff one time.

Yeah. It's crazy. Now, it was a great run. Yeah. But they had a historically great offense, historically great with Borough Warren and the Heisman and Chase and Jefferson on the outside. Like that was an incredible, well, think about that offense was wild. And now Lane comes in and they should be really good.

You know, they also had the number. number one transfer class last year? How'd that work? Yeah. So I'm not throwing shade at LSU. I think LSU could be really good. And they would be that eighth team for me that has the chance to jump in that category of potentially winning the championship. You mentioned week one in LSU playing Clemson.

Is Dabo on the hot seat? Like, what's going on here? If Clemson and the ACC is not, the SEC and the SEC have separated themselves from the ACC and the Big 12 a little bit. and if he can't win the ACC or at least get to the ACC championship game, like what's happening with Clemson in the future? I hesitate so much to even talk about Clemson. I had them winning it all last year.

Yeah, a lot of people did. I did like a preseason. Brandon Walker did, yeah. And what am I? And they just totally flopped. I have no idea what to think about Clemson, none whatsoever. It wouldn't surprise me if they won the ACC and it would. wouldn't surprise me if they won seven games.

And is he on the hot seat? Probably not. Like, a guy like that is not on the hot seat. He won two national championships. You know, I just don't see them walking in and being like, hey, man, like, thanks. You know, we're going to go in a different direction. But you never know. This is a crazy era in college football.

I think it's more likely that Clemson is on the hot seat from Dabo. He puts them on the hot seat. You don't put me. me on the hot side. How does he do that? At the end of the year, it feels like it might not be a great fit anymore. I mean, if we're being honest, Dabo's probably not happy. He hasn't been happy the way things have gone the last few years. I don't think he's happy with the structure of college football. Overall, with the sport. I would say that's very fair to say. I would, there's a better chance of Dabo saying, you know what, like, I'm good and retiring early like a Bob

Stoops or even Urban stepped away at a fairly young age, you know, all things considered. Nick kind of stepped away suddenly. There's a better chance that Davos steps away than Clemson fires him. Yeah. The whole sport's on the hot seat. He might leave. Yeah, that's right. He's putting the whole sport.

Yeah. He's like, he's like, he's like, it's not a shot at him. It's the facts. Like he hasn't adapted as well as some of the other coaches in this. Nor has he wanted to. He's fought it. He's actively fought against it. Right.

Which is always like, it's so weird to me because, you know, like the one thing about Sabin, And you could say anything because he's the best college football coach of all time. But I don't think people ever give him enough credit for the way he adapted to everything. Oh, this is such a good take. It's like the way he won with defense and pounding the rock. Then he went spread. And like he was able to win in so many different ways and different schools. And you think of a guy like that.

It's like, oh, he's got one way. It's Sabin. It's his old school way. It's like, no, he adapted. He was brilliant at adapting. As soon as he saw, you know, he got into games. when they're winning with defense, right? Like, they're just grinding people out in the early 2010.

Remember that Notre Dame national championship? It wasn't even a contest. It's just like, we're tougher than you. We went it at the line of scrimmage. It's the Mark Ingram years. It's beating the Texas team in the Rose Bowl for a national championship. And then he started seeing it in like Johnny Mansell. And he's like, ugh, like, what am I supposed to do with that?

I can't hold that guy to three. I can't hold that guy to nine. in a game. Then he sees Deshawn. And he's getting in these games with offenses that are not built to go score 35, and he has to go score 35 in order to win.

And he changed. And he changed the defense, too. And he brought in Lane Kiffin, remember? Who was like a pariah at the time. Brought in Lane Kiffin. Didn't emphasize defense quite as much, although they still played quality defense. He just did in a different hybrid type of way, more modern way.

So you're exactly right. He's done, and he's also, I've gone back and I can't, like, I cannot think of another head coach who has won national championships over multiple cycles of recruits at the same place. Yeah. If you look back through the history of college football, normally what you see is what Dabo was able to do or what Kirby was able to do. And I know they're still trying to go on and win. What Urban did at two different schools, you know, all these. They build up their program. They have this window. It's open.

They win multiple championships with a very similar recruiting cycle, even Tom Osborne in the 90s, and then it goes away. And they can never replace it. He won a championship with every cycle of recruit. If you committed to Nick Saban, you won a national championship, which is bonkers. So, like, my praise and admiration for what he was able to do, he's the greatest of all time. Yeah. Yeah.

What about the 40 acres? University of Texas. I feel like going into last season, the expectations were pretty high. Yeah. This season... I mean, sky high. They're higher. Arch had to win the highsmen.

They had to go undefeated and win the national championship. Right. That was it. Right. And Arch, you know, he struggled a little bit at times last year. Early. But he looked good. He ended up looking good.

This year, do you think that the expectations should be higher on Texas? Yes. And then the excitement level, I feel like... I put myself in the shoes of a Texas fan. I'm thinking about Arch coming in this year with a little bit more. My expectations are more in reality than they were last year. Because I think most fans saw him stepping in and thinking like, what if he just dominates the entire sport?

Yeah. And now it's like, what if he's just really good? I think that they were unrealistic last year. And I think that they are, I think they're unrealistic this year on the opposite side. I don't think people realize how well he played late in the season. everyone just blankets are struggled last year. Not in the second half of the year.

He was one of the three best quarterbacks in the country with an offensive line that was not very effective, no running game whatsoever, and a stable of receivers that was subpar for Texas standards. And he still was outstanding late in the year. In fact, his last three games, he averaged, I think, 350 yards close to that. Don't quote me on the exact number, but right around there, like 12 touchdowns, no interceptions.

He didn't turn the ball over. The last half of the year, he had like 20 total touchdowns and only two turnovers. He was fantastic without a great, I would say, cast around him. And now they've fixed that. They've brought in some transfers. They've fixed some part of the offense. Their offensive lines should be better. They have to run the football more efficiently, and they should be better on the outside with a guy that I think could just take the sport.

by storm this year, Cam Coleman. So my expectations for Arch elevated from a year ago. My expectations for Texas elevated from a year ago. If they're not better, something went horribly wrong. Yeah. That Ohio State came early. It feels like that will be the, hey, measuring stick. Where are you from last year where that couldn't have gone worse for them? I know it was a close game in the final, but we all watched it. They didn't. They weren't. It wasn't. It wasn't. It wasn't that close. Right. And it didn't force, Ohio State didn't have to do anything with Julian Zane.

And admittedly so, talking with Ryan after the game. That's a monster game, both of those teams, because they each have tough conference schedules after that. And so a loss in that game puts you really behind the eight ball in terms of, like, are you going to make a playoff run or not? You know, that game at home, if Ohio State, I just keep saying, thinking to myself, if Ohio State were to go down there and lose, what's the impact on Ohio State? Right. I don't know. Probably not much. They'll go on and, you know, again, tough schedule. We'll see. Right.

I know that's a very passionate fan base, but it ain't like losing to Michigan. Right. Right. If Ohio State goes down there and beats Texas, what's the impact of that result? And I think that's a much more dramatic result and impact on that program, meaning Texas, if that result were to happen with this team, with the money that they've spent, with what's happened over the last couple of years, the beginning of last season, I think people would be really frustrated down in Texas if Ohio State were to go down there.

I would agree with that. And with Notre Dame this year, if the over under, over under half. What is it, 11 and a half? Yeah, over under half a loss for Notre Dame before we get to the playoffs. Talk about the schedule lottery. Yeah, no, I mean, they make it. You make your own schedule. They make the lottery and then win it.

That is, which is nice. Yeah. That's a good team, guys. No, it's really good team. But it's the same thing as last year where it's like easy schedule, great. But when you're an independent like Notre Dame, if you lose two games, now. They won't go at 10 and 2. You don't get the makeup games later in the season.

That's what killed them last year. They have to be 11 and 1 this year in order to go because the schedule just won't allow it. There's too many, again, like a 9 and 3 Ohio State or a 9. and three Texas is much better than a 10 and two Notre Dame this year. No question. You go look at the schedules and the games that they would have had to win to be nine and three, much less 10 and two or so on. So I do think that it puts some pressure on them to win those games,

but the Miami game is really, but they only have really two games that they could potentially lose, all due respect. You're not counting the badgers. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. No, it's fine. Hey, listen, everyone's going to sleep on us and we'll probably go seven and five.

So you're saying Miami and then... He says it no so... Nonchalantly, 7 and 5 would be incredible. Yeah, it would be great. We got the schedule lottery this year. Yeah, that's true. Last year was terrible. Last year was the worst schedule in the league.

Terrible. So yeah, Miami, maybe BYU. BYU and ProVote, that's a sneaky, really tough place to play. Yeah. And then Miami. What about UNC? Things seem to be in the right direction down there. They do?

Yeah. Okay. I mean, we just spent some time there a couple months ago, unless something's changed in the last couple months, I'm buying all the stock in UNC. Are you? Yeah. Okay. Well, we'll see what their internal, you know, I don't know.

I'll decline to comment until after whatever. Seems messy. It seems very messy. No, I don't think UNC is, I don't think that's going to work. Yeah. What are you buying Bryce Underwood stock? I can't figure it out because last year there were flashes, but then there were games where it's like, what's going on? And I don't know if that's coaching where it felt like they were holding them back a little

bit or if it's hey they were holding him back for a reason he wasn't able to do the things that you wanted to be able to do i think that there was elements of both i think he um needs to develop um true quarterback uh skills and i also think that they were trying to be patient calm whatever you want to say uh hold him back a little bit now this match i think fits him perfectly with Jason Beck. If you look at what Beck did with Devin Dampere over the last couple of years, it was dynamic. Dynamic.

Dampier led all of FBS quarterbacks two years ago in New Mexico in terms of running the football and his production as a rusher. Then he came to Utah. Between him and Bird Fickland, who came in at times when Dampier was injured, they led all of college football in terms of quarterback production on the ground.

I'm not saying Bryce Underwood is going to lead the nation in quarterback production, but if it just increases, then Michigan has something. And there is going to be a sweet spot. If Bryce Underwood can run for between 500 and 800 yards this year, and what that would mean to their run game with Jordan Marshall and Savion Haider, who's apparently incredible, and I can't wait to watch him play, they've got really good players on the outside. And I think defensively they're going to be sneaky, very, very good.

John Henry Daly, this transfer from Utah. See, you were out there in Utah. Remember we? It's an incredible place and their players always get slept on. A couple of them drafted in the first round last year. I think Michigan has a sneaky chance to be pretty good. Their schedule is horrendous and very, very difficult. No, I think Kyle Woodingham is like he's been probably the most underrated head coach for a decade now.

Yeah. It's like he, you know, every single year. And then it faded a little towards the end here. But it was always so consistent. Right. Okay, maybe he didn't win a championship or a national championship, but so consistent. I used to say all the time on my show, it's like death taxes and Utah football. Yeah, Utah at night especially.

Yeah. And if he can bring that level of toughness and line of scrimmage play to Michigan, I think that they have a chance to be pretty good. Yeah. Can you give us your preseason top five quarterbacks? Yes. Do you want them in order? Yes. No, actually, no.

I want them in order. guess the order. But Big Cat doesn't. Give us jumbled and then we'll guess the order. Okay, great. Okay. J. C.J. Carr. 1. Julian Sayan. Two. Dante Moore. No, he's one because you had Oregon wrecked one. Okay. Dante Moore. I'm forgetting one. Trinidad Chamblis. Okay. And I'm blanking on one. So this is definitely not high. Jade Maiava. All right. So he's five. All right. So Jayden's five. I think it's, I think C.J. cars one. And Arch. I need to put Arch on that. Sorry. All right. You really Arch. So Arch is not top five. All right. I think it's I think it's got to be more because he had Oregon rank number one. All right. I'm

one, car two, say in three, Maya have a five and then who is four? Trinidad. Trinidad. All right now tell us your top five. That was that was very good. Okay. I'm still debating right now between Carr and Arch one and two. Wait, you don't even know your own top five? Uh-huh. You don't know your top five? I haven't done it yet. Oh my God. I'm recording it this Thursday. You set us up for failure. for this exercise that we created 10 seconds ago. We could have guessed anything and you could have just switched your pick in your head.

That's right. That's right. Like true digital media guys. You know what I mean? Like what are we talking about? This is a real who's on first segment. Yeah, right? Exactly.

Okay. So Arch tied with who? Carr. Number one? I think Carr could be outstanding. I do too. Dante Moore, three, Julian Sane, four, and Trinidad Chamblest at five. Okay.

And which one of those guys do you think would be the best NFL quarterback? Oh, that's a, that's a great one. CJ Carr. Yeah. Okay. He looks, is he too jacked? He looks real now. Is there too much muscle you can put on as a quarterback?

I know, we'll have to ask Brady Quinn. Yeah. Those EA sports or the EA drinks? Yeah. Like, now I'm done. Yeah. Maybe he was too jacked. Yeah.

Hey, do you get, do you get to watch the NFL? A little bit. I watch as a fan. What is, what is a little bit? Like, what are we talking? Well, we, so I get home Saturday night, usually, and then wake up. We always go to church as a family, and then we come home and, like, football is on. But unless it's the Broncos, it's just kind of like on as we're hanging out.

Okay. But if it's the Broncos, I'm all the way in. Would you think about Sean Payton saying that he was going to hire Bill Belichick to come in, break the record, and then afterwards, Belichick could leave, and Sean would resume coaching the team? That sounds like, Sean. It does. I actually played for Sean in New Orleans for, like, a couple of months. but in OTAs, he gave me a contract as an undrafted free agent his first year before he had coached the game.

Quick story, that's the Reggie Bush draft and Marcus Colston draft. And so I go down, I'm on the flight to go to rookie minicamp, don't have a contract undrafted, unsigned. And I go down and I'm in like 35E in the plane, you know, and I walk past and it's a flight from Denver and they had flown Reggie commercial and he connected in Denver. and Reggie was up in first class and I was like, we've got to remember in 2006, I was like, that's Reggie Bush, right? And even I was super impressed. We get down to the baggage claim and I just kind of had like a regular like, you know, sweats on or whatever getting ready to go to camp.

And Reggie thought that I was one of the GAs or like the quality control coaches from the Saints. So he rolls me his bag off of the carousel. And I was like, do I tell him right now or do I? just take the bag and I was like, definitely just taking the bag. So I just carried his bag to the bus. Oh, that's brutal. I get on the bus and I'm sitting behind him and he was kind of like, oh, hey, man, I'm sorry. And I'm like, no worries.

And then I was handing him the football off. He's like, first carries the NFL. I'm the one handed him off. Oh, gosh. I guess Colorado was in the Big 12 then, right? Yeah. Yeah, so he wouldn't, that would have been really tough if it was Colorado was in the PAC 12. Oh, yeah.

He didn't know. Out of the ultimate disrespect. It wasn't happening. Oh, my gosh. You just give you a tip? Do you hand your little folded up 20? Like, thank you? No, he didn't.

That's a, he hadn't had his bonus yet, I guess. Signing bonus. Oh, my gosh. Another real quick story. You guys, I mean, you can cut it out. But we were throwing one-on-ones. And I thought Sean was really impressed with me because he came over and he kept being like, all right, hey, throw him on the back shoulder here.

Okay, now that guy over there, lead him down the, down the field. Okay, make him jump. And I'm like, this guy thinks I'm so good. I can just put it all over the place. He was so impressed with Marcus Colston out on the outside. So he was having me throw him footballs in different spots so that he could go get it. Marcus Colson was a beast. He was so good.

So he was, yeah. Yeah. And he was like a seventh round pitch. Yeah, right. Right. Probably like Joel's going to throw a slightly inaccurate ball. So Mark's going to have to dive for it. This guy looks like he's throwing absolute ducks.

Yeah, we'll cut this. We'll cut that story. Terrible story. It's funny. I mean, the fact that Reggie was like, hey, can you grab this bag for me? He didn't even ask. You just hold it to me. Oh, just silently?

Yeah, just like, you know, and I was just like. Yeah, but now you have an answer if anyone ever asked, what was your welcome to the NFL moment? There you go. Yeah. Well, it didn't happen on the field, but. But that's right. And I'll pay you a compliment. Like, I do feel like listening to you, whether you're, you're commentating on a game or listen to the podcast.

I do feel smarter about the game about college football after. You're able to explain it. succinctly in a very clear way that I think is pretty valuable for a lot of people out there. Do sometimes when you're thinking of, because you put a lot of thoughts into your take, I can tell, do you think like, just know, this takes too dumb? Yeah. And then you have to go back and re- because we think that all the time. Yeah.

We just go with the dumb taste. I mean, yeah, as you guys know, like, if you talk enough, you're going to say something, you're like, nah. You hate March Madness. Oh, yeah. That's right. Remember that? That was a bad.

And the SEC. Yeah. Yeah. That was a really bad one. And what I get frustrated more, I'm too, listen, I'm too proud to actually have the take be wrong as much as I'm like, I didn't say it right. That's cop out. You guys just be like hand up. I'm an idiot.

Yeah, that's right. Yeah, that's what we do. Yeah. So we're always wrong. But then in the game, my, the thing I love more than anything is if I can unlock the game like a Rubik's Cube and like, like, bring the viewers into the game. What's happening? What's going on? What are the coordinators thinking about right now?

And so I always just think about, don't commentate the game through the rearview mirror. Like, everybody knows what just happened. You know, stop talking about the replay. Look through the windshield. You know, try to take the viewer forward, push forward, and explain why. Why is this going on?

Why is this coach thinking this? Why is this quarterback being successful? Why is the defense being successful? So that's what I'm constantly like churning in my head. You've also reached, I think I've given you this compliment, but I'll do it again because you've reached the big game voice status too. Oh, nice. It's like it's an innate feeling of you turn on the TV and you hear certain guys, you're like big game. I love it.

So you've gotten there. I'll take it. Yeah. I'll take it. You can feel it. Especially like the Northwestern Oregon game that remember. Yeah, that was big game. On the lacrosse field.

Tough place to play. Yeah. I said it. The whole pregame we did Big Noon. I was like this, like you played Northwestern 11 a.m. at Evanston. That's a sleepy spot. Yeah, what are you going to do? There's tents everywhere. I don't think they did. Yeah, they won easily. I remember Dan was all pissed after the game. We didn't stop the run. It's like, you didn't stop it against Indiana either. Yeah. So, you know.

Tough place to play. I've got a really dumb question for you. I love it. And you're probably going to be asked this a few times. I feel like it's going to be a popular topic over the next month or so. Who is this year's Indiana? Which is such a stupid question. Yeah, it is. but that's okay, a team that we don't think of as anything right now that could, are you saying Indiana to win a national championship or Indiana to just do what they did in SIG's first year? I think those are two different things. Right. I think the question when it's typically asked will not get any clearer than that,

but I think what I'm really asking is what's a major, like a major conference team that might look to make some noise, be included in some of the projections for the playoffs, maybe even sneak into the playoffs. at the end of the season that you don't think about. Okay. Turn it around pretty quick. Yep. I mean, it's the exact same blueprint. You get a guy.

He brings everybody with him, including players. You know, I think that's a really fascinating one for me, especially in that conference because they're all so, they're also similar. There's no one that's running out out away from them. Maybe Texas Tech is. I don't want to take anything away from Texas Tech. And then the other one, this might not be a playoff team,

but like sneaky UCLA. Yeah, well that's the right answer. Sneaky UCLA. Yeah. Okay. That's the right answer for the Indiana question

because it's Chesney. And he brought the whole Harrisonburg West with him. Yeah. And they also have a great quarterback. Yeah. I agree with you. Not a bad rap with everything

that went down with Tennessee, but Nico I amaliava is a really good player. You're really good at saying his name. Oh, thank you. Yeah, yeah. I had to practice. I got a little long shot on him

to win the Heisman. very long shot. I love that. Probably won't happen, but he still has that skill set. He could be good. And he did take major steps forward last year. Yep. And so he looked like you saw flashes where it's like, I get it,

I understand why maybe there was a lot of hype around this guy, even if he hasn't like fulfilled that yet. But I do think that they could, I think the win total might be five and a half this year. And I would. I'm over on that one. I would take the over on it. Yes. For sure.

Who's this year's Penn State? Lose a close game, then everything falls apart. people get fired everyone freaks out mass hysteria buildings on fire holy fuck that's a that's a great one that's a great one um you have to you guys will i think you'll appreciate this i really hesitate to to answer that question right because you don't want to put that out into the atmosphere but alabama is the one yeah i mean you have to say it feels like this is the year like if if if things go sideways he go really sideways yeah that's right and um i don't see that happening the the other one is texas yeah like if if you all the sudden lose ohio state

you lose at tennessee and you lose red river and you've got three losses at texas by the time we're in the middle of october then that's you know that's panic that's going on fire yeah but then The Alabama thing, man, is I think Kaelin is an excellent coach, but he doesn't run the football well enough. And there are times, and you know this better than anybody at Wisconsin, there are times when a fan base expects a certain brand of football. And if you're not giving them that brand, whether it could be successful or not, they don't like it. It's just like a, it's like a taste at a restaurant. Could be a really good restaurant, but you don't like it. And I think that that fan base and Kalin, like it could.

be headed towards that type of deal. I told Fickle this. I was like, listen, we, there's games that I'm okay with losing, but if you lose when you try to run the ball on fourth and one out of shotgun against USC, it's going to kill me. Like, you know, that's, that's going to drive me insane. And I won't be able to handle it. When you, when you hire a guy to go air raid offense, right, you know, and, and change the defensive structure that we ran for years. Right. And it's like everything I've known about football, Wisconsin should be able to get one single yard against USC. Of course they should. They maybe can't get 10 yards. Maybe.

They can get one. That's right. Third and eight, maybe we're in a sticky spot here. But one yard, this is what we're built for. Yes. Yeah. Zach. Oh, go ahead.

Yeah, who's this year's Michigan? Mm. And you can take that whatever way you want. So, and, like, scandal. Yeah. I just want to put you on the spot. Yeah. I want to think of the worst possible school to ask you that question for.

I think it's probably Michigan. Or we could just do like, um, who's, who's this year's let's see who's this year's I'm trying to think of a team Georgia they did okay which team do you think

rack up the most speeding arrests yeah they did okay they had a pretty good year they didn't really do that great but they went to the playoffs is it fair to say like it might be an indictment on Kirby Smart as a head coach that he hasn't embedded himself and made enough friends in the Athens Police Department I feel like back in the day Like this doesn't get

Yeah We don't hear about this Yeah You know Cell phones are a hell of a thing Yeah Back in the day when no one had cell phones I don't I don't know what's

You don't have to answer any of these stuff You don't have to answer any of these We've gotten too far We just try to make you uncomfortable All right Achieved Roeback question R-HOBACK dot com

Pro-C take 20% off your first purchase Cusips, polos Hootie joggers shorts Roeback dot com promo code take Joel has been awesome I love having you one I love being on. I appreciate you guys.

We had a golf video planned. It was a bummer. We're going to do it. We're going to do it. Zach, finish us off. I did have a quick question. Could you give us Joel Cloud's official Heisman Trophy winner for the season? Oh, the official. Yeah, sir. And it better be right.

It has to be. It has to be right. My only claim to fame is that I called the Florida State quarterback. Now I'm blanking this. James? James. I called Jamesis. How do you forget James?

I know, right? That's crazy. The crab legs and everything. How did I forget James? If I have to be right, have to be right. You sir? I've got to take Jeremiah Smith. Ooh.

You don't think there's going to be a split vote situation? Yeah, certainly that's going to be a part of it. And Julian went last year. But this could be a year where a player's body of work is respected enough where they're like, no, he's been. He should be. He should be up there. Now, does that always happen? No.

I think Peyton would have gotten a body of work. Andrew Luck would have gotten a body of work, Heisman. But if you said, you have to be right. You have to bet your own money. I have to take Jeremiah Smith. He's the best player in the sport. To pivot, is there anyone, a lot of people are maybe talking highly over right now that you just know doesn't have a chance?

If you were going to put that same own money on it. Is there a 20-year-old you hate? How about reverse that? Can we go back to March Madness? Do dark horse. Do dark course so you can talk positively about it. We're going to pivot, flip it, and reverse it, dark horse for the trophy.

Okay, dark horse, dark horse for the trophy. I think Jaden Mayava at USC, Lincoln has a knack for getting his quarterbacks to the finish line. He's got a schedule. If they all of a sudden mid-year beat Oregon in the Coliseum, Maya was going to be right up there. and then way dark horse, watch out for a guy like Turbo Richard,

the new running back at Indiana. I'm in. I'm in. Tell me more. I mean, that's a husband name. Right? Yeah. That's crazy.

Turbo Richard? Turbo Richard. Are you kidding? Where's he from? He played at Boston College last year. And here's the one, a couple of things that we have to know from Indiana's recent run.

Kurt Signetti, incredible evaluator. They're going to run the absolute heck out of the football. Look what they did to Alabama and the Rose Bowl. 50 runs in that game, which was astonishing. And they have to run it in order to throw the RPO's and they're going to have one of the best offensive lines in the country with Carter Smith, All-American Back at Left tackle. And he's not going to have to split carries as much as last year they did between Hymie and Keelon Black. So watch out for Turbo Richard in the like 1,400, 1,500-yard range.

Yeah. That's just kind of a, yeah. I mean, I would throw personally Malachi Tony in there. I love Malachi Tony. He's, I love Malachi Tony. So dynamic. I think he's the second most dynamic player in college football to Smith. I think you kind of have to give Smith. Yeah, no, I agree.

Yeah, it's a good point. But Tony is unreal. Yeah. Love that kid. All right. Well, Joel, thank you as always. Appreciate this. You're the best.

And we will get this golf set up. Although we didn't realize you were a plus two and a half. so that's that makes that kind of like cur yeah we thought you were you guys want to just scramble we could play like so Shane bacon you got everyone knows Shane he's an excellent excellent player he and I could just like best ball against your scramble or something like that we're saying do you think that six of us can beat you two of you in a scramble if we're scrambling I don't think you can yeah I don't think so if we're doing bestballing and you're scrambling I think that could be a good man I actually think that that's probably the way to go yeah because I don't think so he's doing bestballing if we're doing bestballing and we're scrambling I think that's probably the way to go yeah because we're not. What would you scramble like the six of you? Would you shoot like four or five under? Sure. Yeah. Yeah. Probably. Why not? Why not? Okay. We played in, uh, Jim Harbaugh's, like, golf tournament 10 years ago about it. Yeah, it was a long time ago. And we just scrambled as myself, Big Cat Hank and Tony Schaeffler. And this is before we played golf at all. Yeah. And I think we ended up shooting like three over. Yeah. But now you're, you're,

Harbaugh was so mad at us. Was he really? Oh yeah. He was like, what do you got? It was like, it was at the turn and he was like, what do you guys shooting? We're like, plus one, he's like, you know, it's a scramble and you just drove away. Yeah, he's so upset. He's just like, these guys don't want to compete. Yeah, they don't want it. They don't want it, you know? All right, well, thanks, Joel.

I appreciate your time, guys. Thanks for having me on. Okay, Fire Fest of the week, wrapping it up. Henry, oh, you don't have one. Not really. I see that face. Yeah, I mean, it's the same firefest that I had maybe like a month ago. I'm and I'm it's so I don't even want to I don't want to repeat the

Spiders back no the we got crazy rain my car roof is still Fuck oh it like ever since you said I didn't have a sick car your car has been Yeah I'm honestly I'm I'm thinking about just I actually you were doing the ad read earlier And I was listening because I love listening to our ads Thank you I actually might get a truck oh Chevy Silver Auto guy Wow pivot from the sick to just like Man yeah I mean, truck's gonna be sick too

You're not that guy, pal Why don't? What are you gonna use? You're not that guy, pal You're not a truck guy First car ever had was truck Uh I'm not that guy

I want to be I will get a Chevy Silverado If you get one You want to go Matches Yeah Same color Not a big truck

I'm not gonna be like The It's almost like you want a car That's like Part car and part truck It's useful I mean There's cars

I have like Silverado Every time we get to drive it It's so sick So yeah But yeah If that only existed My car

Look There's a Silverado That's towing The El Camino Oh look That's that's Hank That would never happen That's Hank

Right after the Wizards Yeah that could be Yeah That would never happen Yeah Because I'm gonna have a sick car In like eight months anyway Yeah sick like hospital sick

We saw NBA Johnny today And he was like PFTE was like What do you think about the Wizards No I was like If you're gonna be NBA Johnny You gotta You got to talk about the wizards.

Yeah, and he said, I think it's going to be like the Hornets last year. I'm like, eh, that's not good. You need a little better than that. I know. Then he clarified, he said playoffs, one through eight, somewhere one through eight and not one through six. Just to clarify, he never said that. What do you mean? He never said playoffs.

Yeah, he said one through eight. No, you were cutting them off by when he was saying that. He was like, yeah, it might, they might be. And he said one through eight. And then he said it's going to be tough to be in the top six. He said, we'll see. You're gaslighting. This is some gasoline show.

Don't gaslight. Watch TV TV. Okay. Good. Firefest. Yeah. How wet is it? Pretty wet.

And then it, like, smells now. So it's, it is what it is. I've got to get it fixed. Yeah. I had a pretty good week. What? I had a really good week. Huh?

I had a pretty good week this week. you can't walk you've literally been in traction I know pregnantly you walked in the studio I I don't know if that was yesterday or two days ago and I felt bad yeah you're screaming out of nowhere for like I could see the pain there was I had a spasm I had a couple spasms but I took steroids this morning so I'm feeling better I'm feeling strong um but if anybody has anything better than steroids I'm all years to hear what it is so not a great not a great and in fact a pretty a rough physical week but you have a four million dollar tournament coming up like in a Every day you wake up above ground is a good day.

You're the most injured podcaster ever. I know, I know. But that's why I don't want to talk about, like, no one wants to hear me complain about like an injury. But it does say, having a fucked up back is bad. It sucks. It's the worst. It's fire fest.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, he has had an injury like every week. Yeah. It's been like one thing. This last year has been really, really bad physically, which is tough. And I don't, I, it's hard to get out of it when you have a bad back. But yeah, like Tuesday, Wednesday, this morning.

It took me about like 30 minutes to get out of bed to, to like find a position. where I can like finally sounds like a pretty good week but then once I get here I can't complain got the best job in the world hanging out with the boys living the dream but just

my days get off to a slower start than they used to and hopefully the steroids just work like because I'm sick at doing the like take really strong aspirin stuff yeah so the steroids they're that's that's my bitch right now okay so we're gonna see what happens with that I should be good by the end

the weekend okay I got two fire fest real quick one is I definitely had the diarrhea disease. I did white knuckle it. I've just been chugging peptobismal every day. But it was, I think I'm in the clear, but it was eight straight days.

So I had it. I don't know how I got it because I didn't eat salad. I had it last week. Lettuce? Yeah. Yeah, I don't eat lettuce. So I don't know how I got it. How many burgers do you have that summer?

I'm at like 58. Zero with lettuce. No, there's been some lettuce. There you go. Okay. I need to, by the way. I'm in some trouble with the burger. I've slowed down significantly.

I'm going to have to have a week where I eat like 20. It's going to be a problem. I'm about to eat two. Donnie's about to make me two. What am I at? 59. And you need to get to 100? 100.

By Labor Day? Yeah. I've slowed down. You've got a big weekend, didn't you? I got to do, I got to stack some days. I got to stack some days. So it's going to be camp week. Well, Camp week is going to be the final push.

I got to do it. Yeah, I can't believe it's going to be big. And then my real Firefest, though, is last night the Pugs, 10 p.m., first pitch, showed up. The other team, no showed. No email, no text, 10 p.m. Quacking balls. Fuck you guys. It is such a kick in the dick to have this happen.

And I know, like, 10 p.m. sucks, but it's like, all right, you're going to have to do this probably once a season. Right. And everyone has to do it. And you got to just, it sucks. You got to suck it up. Like I did a whole, I had a whole, like I went out to dinner with my wife. I came home. I watched the last four innings of the Cubs game.

That sucked because the Cardinals walked off the Cubs. And then I was like, all right, time for softball. Like get out of bed. I was laying in bed. Get out of bed. Go to play softball. Once you get there, all you want to do is play. Guys, completely no-showed nothing.

The only thing they did was one guy DMed max 30 minutes before the start of the game being like, hey, we're not going to show. That is not enough. We were at the field already. Just fucking email. You knew you weren't going to play. That is, you should be in jail. You should be in jail if you do that.

If you, if you, if you know show a 10 p.m. softball game, you're just a piece of shit human being. I think that's fair to say, right? I think half the, half the games that are played at 10 p.m. must be no show, no calls, right? No, no, no, no, the guy. Yeah. You take it seriously.

Yeah. Like that, I would never do that. In our team, the Pugs, we have had to forfeit a couple games because of our travel schedule and stuff. We know we're forfeiting like two days in advance. We email them because it's like that's just the right thing to do. You don't want to make people just show up to a softball field at 10 p.m. Anyone who's ever played any type of adult intramural sport knows exactly what we're talking about. It is a true kick in the dick and you are a true scumbag if you do this.

So quacking balls were coming for you. I don't know what else we're going to do. I actually had to call off the dogs last night because memes is like I found the guys linked in. I was like, dude, chill out. Mims is one of those guys. You got to every now and then pull on the leash. He's somebody that goes too far though. Yeah, but you got to pull on the leash every now and then.

This kid got cooked. He got ratioed to hell. He's got 1.3 million views. 1.3 million views. Yeah, no, we were just warming up. And you know, that's the worst feeling is showing up. to the field warming up was the umpire there yeah yeah oh i guess he was there for the game yeah warming up and being like you know it you know in the back of your head when you don't see a single person 10 minutes

before the game it's a it's it's a no show but in the back of your head you're also like maybe what the wrong field yeah what if they're yeah like someone's like oh maybe they're down there at that feels like no that's another game so you you're doing the the coping mechanisms where you're in denial and then it just it was it sucked it sucked it It sucked. Max memes, it sucked. Yeah, well, the 10 p.m. aspect, because it's like, we both did something earlier in the night. I went home and I was like, fuck, I got to like kill time before I go to this softball game.

You go to the game super early because it's like I got nothing else to do. I may as well just show up. We're waiting around, watching other people play. And then it's finally our turn to play. You just got to go home. All you want to do is play. Like, I could have just stayed home. I would have had a great night just.

staying home and not having to go to the 10 p.m. game. I would rather lose a 10 p.m. game than win with a forfeit in a notion. Oh, 100%. You still get to play. Still get to play. We still get to play. We just wasted our night. I just got blue balled with softball. I wanted to play so bad. We just wasted our night. Yeah, because it is. It's like a mental thing that you have to get yourself pumped up for a 10 p.m. game. And once you go through that process to have it ripped from you, fuck quacket balls. You may as, it would have been so, it would have been so, that would actually been a great cancellation if we got a call from the league being like, hey, the other team.

Yes. That would have been an awesome, an awesome night. I was already in bed. Yeah, I can stay home. Yeah. The fact that we got up, went to the field, waited around for 30 minutes just to get back in the car and go home. Bullshit.

Absolute bullshit. And some people got parking tickets because of it. Jack McCarthy. But he also drives a bends, which is so sick. Yeah. C class. Did you guys see that? The Jack McCarthy's tweet.

He was like, paid for my parking ticket. Yeah, I'm okay with that. But it was also, yeah. He got the, he made sure to get 100%

of the Mercedes-Benz logo in it. Yeah. Really let everyone know. The C-class. I fucking drive a Ben. That's what he's telling everyone. All right, Zach,

finish us off. My favorite Fes's week is just, I guess, semi-related to the fact that I have recently unlocked the square footage for a couch. So I've been in the market for a couch.

And it just seems like everybody who sells things online just lie. Because every couch is the best couch you've ever clicked on. And I just don't know who to believe. And I kind of just have furniture trust issues all week. I've been trying to do due diligence in being adult and like research these things. And there's just no way around it. Every guy with the couch says this is your best option. That's just pretty much what I'm going through.

Have you tried it out? Are you on like Facebook Marketplaces? I'm on like TikTok, Instagram. So are you learning all about the couches? Are you reached a point where there's like too much information about the couch? No, there's this weird thing. There's like a pop in the couch market with boneless couches now where there's no frames on the inside. Oh, the one thing.

So they pump fake you. China that you just like, they come like vacuum sealed, then you just let them open. Like amoeba couches. And they're, they hide those in the listings of the couches that are structurally sound for guys who fluctuate. Yeah. So you just never know what you're going to get. You can't get a boneless couch. No, I know that, but they hide them well.

Because it looks, some of these photos look at it. I have a suggestion, Zach. It might, it might be time to go to a furniture store. Yes, I'm saying. If you buy a couch online, there's a non-zero chance. It might be boneless. You're not taking it for a spin. You've got to take it for a spin.

There's quite a bit of couch clickbait going on in the market. This needs to be a pen and paper, flesh-to-flash transaction. Ass on cushion. I would not buy a couch online. No. Also, no free ads, but someone in Chicago land hook our boy up. Let's get him a couch. Someone out there listening right now is,

has some couches, furniture store. Let's get Zach in there. Off the truck, on the truck. Yeah. Get you in there. Feel a couch. Lay in a couch. Now, Zach, the question is,

do you have enough room for a full couch? Or is it a two-seater? I've got like 103 inches to work with. If we're just going to go. What's the 103 inches? What is that like? 8.5 feet? 9 feet?

9 feet? What's, Max, what did you? Just search. 8 feet. This is 103. inch couch right here. That's, yeah, that's, yeah. I felt like that was a, that was a good visual representation.

Oh, no, I was just looking for what a hundred, I eight and a half feet. I was, I was looking for that. But, but now you can see what, what a hundred and three inch couch it looks like. Zach, you might be getting a couch so you can go fully sleep on. He kind of eliminate the bedroom. Nothing better. Yeah. Maybe get the L.

Yeah, get an L. Yeah, but if you get the L, then you have to like more socializing. Because like if I have this many seats, you have to like hang out. You don't have to invite anyone over. You just get the come, you get the one. You just go full L solo? Yeah, you just sleep on. What do you mean?

All right. Of course you get it. That's a good idea. That's the best place to sit. That's where you're going to eat your meals. I'm confused. Why does that mean you have to socialize if you have the L? The LL just makes it more comfortable for you.

For a second, I just thought looking at that many seats. It might be like, oh, I got to fill these seat voids. But never mind. You guys are correct. You can sell seats to your living room? No, I wasn't talking about charging coverage. I preface was socialized. Okay.

No, no. You get yourself an Lever. dude and someone please hook Zach up let's get that hooked up we're also gonna need Zach to learn how to donate those big uh everyone was commenting he's got to donate those 90 shirts and just definitely yeah don't throw those out those shirts just they they like fall apart you wash them once like they're not they're like not they don't have the longevity of those are the shirts you're waiting on back order for the shirts that you can only wear once yeah but that the low price point you get the wares

They tend to fall apart, that's all. I'm going to get you in some black shirts. I'm going to get you some new shirts. Okay. Good show, boys. Numbers. 23. 5.

89. 96. 86. 69. 6. 24. What did you guess, beams? 23.

98. Oh. Oh, no. It was two off. What'd you guess? 89. I guess 96. Dang.

As long as memes doesn't win it, we're good. I'm going to take five. 59. Anybody. No one. PFT? No. What's that?

You get it? What did you pick, Colton? Happy birthday to Brian Arakpo and Mark Cuban. Happy birthday, Tim Couch. Happy birthday to Bobby Altoff and Kippa Key, the rare spotlets draft. And happy birthday to Scotty Barnes. And happy birthday to Francis Scott Key. Bars.

Bangers. Love you guys. Thank you.