Shutdown Fullcast - 40 FOR 40: The 2025 Las Vegas Bowl

Episode Date: December 31, 2025

WWWWWWWWELCOME to the return of 40 For 40, our bowl preview series where every bowl game gets its own episode and each episode is exactly as long as that game deserves.Who decides what “deserves” means? We do! Thank you for askingNow through December 31, 100% of proceeds from all PTKU merch sales will be donated to Trans Ohio. Visit preownedairboats.com to purchase BRAND-NEW BLUE SHARKS GEAR #EXCLUSIVEThis episode was produced by Michael Ray SurberFullcast theme 40 For 40 intro arranged and performed by Russell PowellFullcast theme 40 For 40 outro arranged and performed by MattDID YOU KNOW: Spencer and Holly write Channel 6, a year-round newsletter that is mostly about football, until it’s notBefore the world ends (again), treat yourself to Jason’s critically praised novel and other workTravel in your mind palace to Phantom Island, Ryan’s new show with Steven Godfrey, which is not a college football show because another simply cannot existCheck out Surber’s band Killer Antz and his new show Podcasterino

I'm sorry I did it. Are you a horse? Are you a horse? Are you Elvis the horse? Well, it is the Las Vegas Bowl. It is the Las Vegas Bowl. Are you in Las Vegas? Are you going to go help bail Bruton bars out of this mountain of gambling debt

by seeing him at one of his nine shows a night that he has to do because he lost $11 million in one go at the crafts table? Yes, yes, you're going to do that. And do you know what else you're going to do? You're going to look up when you're on Fremont Street, okay? About one in the morning. And do you know who's just there for the zipline? Matt Ruhl.

That's right. Nebraska's coach Matt Ruhl, who's just there for the zip line because did Matt Rule get any other jobs, including the Penn State job? No, Matt Campbell's there. He's not Matt Rule. That's crazy. No, he's still at Nebraska. Stuck there.

I mean, happy to be there. And currently at the Las Vegas Bowl with his 7 and 5 team. A question to all of you. Why am I talking about him on the zip line? Because Matt Rule was literally flying above his team that did not know he was there to surprise them. Do I think this is kind of goofy? Absolutely. Was Matt Rule trying to motivate his team?

No. No, he wasn't. No, he wasn't. He just likes the zipline. He was like, yeah, it's going to inspire my team that they can fly and achieve their dreams. Bullshit. Bullshit. You were like, I can do the Fremont Street Zipline on company time. He's going to be in the shark tank at the Golden Nugget. He's going to be in the shark tank.

He's going to get pictures peddling the lions at the MGM, right? He's going to do all that stuff. And he's going to be like, oh, this is for team building and team bonding. Bullshit. Matt Rule is the only person I know of for sure. sure. That's using bowl season for its purpose, which is junketeering. Crab legs. Crableg. Buffy crab legs. That's right. Dicking around. Tick it around. Horse play. You're a seven and five team that nobody knows if they're good or not. Nobody. You're stuck in the middle of the Big Ten,

probably forever. Feeding on the easiest food in the world, which is buffet crab legs of football, which is Maryland, ironically enough, you know, UCLA, you could do this forever, be 8 and 5, or 7 to 5, 8 and 4, go to a bowl game, and just to be like, I'm doing my best. I love this, Matt Rule. I love it.

The lack of ambition in this bowl trip is inspiring. He's going to hit the Cupid Zirconia outlet. Is it possible Matt Rule is the Las Vegas of coaches? And by that I mean that the first couple of years, you're like, Those are like day one and two in Las Vegas when you're like, this is fun. The energy is great. Oh, my gosh.

Great. I feel like we're rounding into like day four in Las Vegas of the Matt Rule experience. Where we're like, oh, my God, I got it. I just want to sleep. I need to go. I can't do this. I don't know how people live here. There's slot machines in the doctor's office.

This is total garbage. What's happening here? But that rule, as Las Vegas is still like, yeah, man, let's go see Karen Topps fucking rules, dude. I think that's because Matt Rule is Reno, and he's just, he's on. An emerging technology hub? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, because segment paid for it by City of Reno. Reno is, Reno and or Day 4 in Vegas is a real divider of souls because day four is when you go, am I the kind of person?

We should have gone home yesterday. Right. am I the kind of person. Four is aggressive. Four is aggressive. This is end of day two. When you stop being able to easily count your time in the city by hours, that's when you should go home. Right. Like, like, if you're still really hardcore in on the mat rule experience at this point, you're a degenerate of sorts. That is no one. That is absolutely no one. There's someone. There's someone. There's always someone. There's someone. There's someone who on day four of Vegas is like. I should put a fence up at the beginning of this to tell Nebraska fans we had to talk.

about them for an entire segment the person they should know it's it's their bull game this time no but i feel like we should warn them because they always act surprised by the way like on day four some people most people are like i feel diseased my body is breaking down i need to leave but there is a seven to eight i've been outside but i haven't seen sunlight somehow for days i haven't breathed air that has not been hyper oxygenated and passed through a thousand anti-cigarette filters and yet i feel like i just smoke nine packs of cigarettes, right? Even though I've not been near a smoker, the Vegas experience. There's 7 to 8% of the cohort here who are like, you know what?

All I've done for the last four days is gamble, fucking eat and drink. And then you know what I'm going to do? I'm going to, I'm thinking about just stay. I'm going to cancel my flight. I'm going to start an auto detailing business. That's easy. It's over, Cheryl. I'm staying.

I got a sponge. Right? I can get a bucket. Which is good for my body. and the cars. Don't ask. Don't ask. It got weird.

Cars need exfoliated. Yeah, it got weird at the hard rock last night. I have a sponge. I need to clean it before I put it on a car. This is taking inventory in the first hour of disco elysium.

If you stay at the PeiGow table at Treasure Island for 12 hours straight, you get a free sponge. Nebraska lost. Three straight wongs. Nebraska lost. Three straight wongs. Yeah.

I'm once again asking what kind of sponge. Nebraska lost their last two games of the season, 77 to 26, a combined score of 77 to 26 to a but Penn State team and to Iowa, which is also kind of an equivalent but Penn State team, right? There's no reason they shouldn't be all on the zip line. There's no reason this Nebraska team with Dylan Rayola out and in the portal and with Emmett Johnson and the running back out as well. There's nothing that says to me, you are here for anything but the zip line. That's the thing here. Nebraska should not return to Lincoln.

The football team should live in Long Vegas. Listen, you have bucket technology. Start the car detailing business. Okay, get a couple of guys together. Get one house. Hey, Dan Bullitt. It's me, Matt Ruhl. I live with you now.

We're going to party. Remember the property brothers. Remember them. Not that they're dead. You mean that sound like the animal? Yeah. Remember the property. They're also horrible.

Remember how the property brothers at the battle of San Jacinto. But edit back. Oh, man. Property Brothers cited. No, no, no, wait, wait, wait. That entire war was, like, literally Property Brothers. It was. Damn.

Whoa. So they started that show and their business before that because... H-T-TV, Louisiana Purchase, would have been wild. Here we have... Thomas Jefferson, stop leaking the help. The Wyoming Territory, if you want it. So the Property Brothers... only became the Property Brothers because they had all of the equipment from their previous gigs stolen and stranded, right?

Their ships burned like the Sailors of Cortez. They were forced to embark on their journey to the New World because they were in Las Vegas because their dream, their dream, y'all, was to be professional magicians. They were on a boat in Las Vegas? Yes. In the Venetian Canal. It's the only way you can get to it, Jason. I keep forgetting that part. They had all of their magic equipment stolen.

legitimately can't tell if you're making this up i am not that is the property brothers you sail up this you sail up the aisle to get to the lexor so the boat was like sitting on the side of the road it wasn't like people people were carrying the boat or something like an abandoned boat hull they had that sponge bob boat car oh right yeah so the property brothers like nebraska football they just need to go ahead start a new life don't go home don't go home. Nebraska can find another football team. They don't need another one. They have done,

they have had enough. The chiefs are slowly moving Nebraska-ish. By the time they get there, by the time they get there, they'll be long done with all their winning. Just give up on football, Nebraska. Yeah. You have all your old stuff.

You don't need it anymore. You don't need it. Just put a blanket over their cage, like a bird. All this, oh, stop talking about a stuff. Well, there's one way to make us stop talking about you. Yeah, the forever sleep. Yeah, actually, you know what? I think you should dance your cares away at Bruno Mars show, 500 shows a night

until he pays off his debt. What's 24-carat magic? That's right. You can find out by buying hot tickets to Bruno Mars right now. Listen, man. Zirconia store. Las Vegas, for all, for all its Raidersness and this, that, and the other. Las Vegas, I would say, is still a basketball town, right?

Yeah. There are two teams in the Big Ten and men's basketball. ball standings that are undefeated this year. Michigan and Nebraska. It's time to be a basketball school, Nebraska, in Las Vegas. Nebraska. Bring the basketball team out. Just be a basketball team in Las Vegas with magic.

Nebraska Vegas. Nebraska Las Brasca. Yeah. Just do it. Nebraska themed casino. Ugh. Corn Palace. The corn palace.

Yeah. No, I'm feeling it. Yeah. Yep. I like this. Tom Osbournes, it pays out, right? Bing, ping, ping. They all start quietly lecturing you.

Yeah. I'm so disappointed that you put a dollar in this machine. The Cord Palace, where it's always, 1994. This could be sick. A bunch of Marlboro train t-shirts for sale with the one wolf with a cigarette in its mouth. Come on. Come on. Joe Camel is here.

Just Mr. Jones by counting crows over and over. we can probably get them too god I'm hearing my head server fuck you man I didn't even know I was sick of that song until it started playing on my head oh hey girl fuck that god

this shit is going to be the the residency for the Nebraska Florida game yeah it's just like this is where it lives now yeah you can go see it anytime they're like they're reenacting it So y'all stay. And then you hang out with all the good people from Utah who are going to be there because I know everyone in Utah, they might appear clean. They might appear nice and polite. And they are. But when they go to Las Vegas, they turn into pigs. So you can just go. They do. They turn into clean, intelligent mammals? Yeah, they turn into clean intelligent pigs who know way more about Las Vegas than you do. Because if you are, if you are a Mormon light or non-Mormon from Utah and you're within striking distance of Las Vegas, guess what you need at least.

once every three months just to keep the levels in the bloodstream correct that's right oxygenated air filled with cigarette smoke somehow i do love that we are continuing the tradition of having the utah coach photographed with the the showgirls with the giant headdresses yes at the opening press conference yes we keep to the old ways here also these are these are utah fans not b yu fans so these are the hardcore intelligent nice pigs that's right they're the hardcore and they're the ones who drink like minors yes uh they are also going to be there and they have a lot of people coming back there a couple of offensive linemen who are going to be opting out but otherwise we got devon we got devon damp here so thorough yeah so this is a full strength

mostly like not full strength but like 85 percent strength utah team which we've discussed utah before that is a 180 proof team so hence this is about a 150 proof shot that you're taking nebraska straight to the head of utah football and uh this is why nebraska is is giving 14 points because they're they're not good this is not going to be good Nebraska so enjoy the zipline coming back to that theme enjoy the zip line stay there achieve bucket technology get a house with five or say there you just find mat rule has made like a little nest in the zip line in the little harness a lot of room and freedom out in that desert brother found area 52. That's what you need to do.