Shutdown Fullcast - Have You Heard The One About Indiana Football

Episode Date: January 21, 2026

Indiana won the football gameSurber and Spencer are in a fightHas anybody seen JasonOnce again a disturbing amount of football talk in this episode. We promise to correct this imbalance shortlyNow through March 31, 100% of proceeds from all PTKU merch sales will be donated to TransVisible Montana. Visit preownedairboats.com to purchase BRAND-NEW BLUE SHARKS GEAR #EXCLUSIVEShutdown Fullcast is produced by Michael Ray SurberFullcast theme variant arranged and performed by Trey McClureDID 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

Hey man, I need to go block Rubin Bain one on one. Okay, cool, one play? Nope. Two plays? Nope. Seven plays? How about the whole game, buddy? It took my breath away.

How often they just decided, oh, one guy, one guy, it'll be fine. And it was. And it was. It was mostly okay. I think if you look at it, they settled on this. They settled on, hmm. Well, here's what we'd like to do in a perfect world. We don't live in a perfect world.

Today, we have to play the Miami defensive line. And so, Fernando, buddy, it's going to hurt. Whole game's going to hurt. You're going to run. You're going to be distracted. You're going to be absolutely hairy the entire time. Good luck. It's not wise to upset a future dentist.

Yeah. Okay, philosophical question. Do you think the SEC, and for that matter, the rest of Indiana's peer institutions and the Big Ten, are angrier about losing to a team that spent a bunch of money or about losing to a team that, as you say, won this game via having better dudes? Which is more offensive to the sensibilities? Can I think the answer, oh, God. Dangs, don't it? No, it's also highly situational. Like, I think if you are, I'll take Wisconsin as an example.

I think if you are Wisconsin, you're like, fuck, this, that's like what we're supposed to be. We don't, like, Wisconsin makes no sort of like pretending of, oh, we're going to go out and we're going to get the number four class in the nation and we're going to put together like an offense like you've never seen before. Like, if you had to say, hey, how would Wisconsin win a national championship? It would look a lot like that game that we just watched. So I think for them, it's not offensive necessarily that it was these kind of dudes. But it hurts from a like, oh, God damn, that's supposed to be us. Down to down to your fucking tight end who scored the first touchdown running the ball. Like, that's a Wisconsin fucking shit.

And it also hurts because Indiana's offensive line coaches is their old offensive line coach. Sure. The time and I mentioned is a Wisconsin transfer. Where'd they get this guy? But I think if you are, just to point it inwards, if you are Florida, I think it is more like, why do we even have money? What's the point? What do like we we we knew we were bad with money But now we have to find out we're this bad

What are you talking about? I think they said I think Florida along with some other SEC SAC teams is suffering Maserati owner syndrome where they go well this car cost a lot And it should work And they're like oh no we bought a dodge just an expensive dog Yes I mean like I think the more accessible thing for me is like people who buy expensive kitchen equipment but don't know how to cook.

And it's like, hey man, I got bad news. Owning a Vitamix is not going to do shit for you because you don't know what the fuck you're doing. Yeah, I own a bread machine. Why did I set it on fire? What is... What I put a banana in this blender to make a delicious milkshake? Question two.

What is bread? Yeah. Why am I bleeding to death when I paid so much for these knives? Okay, the banana milkshake thing. It's the first one on the menu of 40 plus flavors. And also, if you're going to choose one to go to bat for, why the banana one and not the banana pudding one or the banana fudge one, like when you have the fruit options and you don't choose peach cobbler or strawberry cheesecake and you don't just go fucking go for it. Why are you at cookout? That's all I'm saying about the banana.

I know what you're doing, Holly. And that's all I'm saying about the banana milkshake order. it would be easier to just kill yourself. I was enjoying this. I enjoyed the way your eyes lit up and then immediately got dark last night because I don't think we've ever had a Cerber Spencer schism. I said the meanest thing I have ever said to anyone last night.

Which is that he doesn't know how to work the double drives. I was driving. I took my dad isn't feeling well and it's his birthday. And I was like, man, that sucks. And so I took him a couple things today. And on the way home, I was like, God, that was a nice thing I did. I was like, it's a good thing I did that

because I think I said the meanest thing last night to anyone. Congratulations to your dad, an Aquarian king. You know what might make him feel better, server? Don't do it. Don't do it. Don't bring his father into this. Don't you bring my dad into this shit. You know what always makes me feel better.

I don't wait to see where this is going. I like the response, by the way, to all of this is, I don't know, I think it's delicious. No. You are wrong. Yeah, that's okay. That's okay. More banana milkshake for me. Blueberry bananas.

But Spencer, you like banana like everything, right? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You have banana pudding. A favorite flavor of yours. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It's just sometimes, I'm going to put it this way. Flavor-wise, I don't want all that mess. When they're like, well, why don't you like the double fudge chocolate stuff?

You know, like, that I want this. No, me dumb monkey, give banana. Right. Thank you. You now understand the level at which I'm working. Server, hang on a second. By ordering the first alphabetical milkshake off the list, are they not then speeding up the process of the double drive-thru?

Yeah, who doesn't understand the driver-thru now? Is this perhaps the best possible outcome? I have no patience for anyone who needs to see the menu to order their cookout. Well, lucky for you, I don't. Because I know what I want, banana milk shake. Pulling up, and they're like, here comes the big gorilla. And I'm like, me want banana milkshake. And they're like, love it.

Co, go, go, go. Right. And then I swerve across the median into the other lane because I don't understand how to operate it. Cut off everyone in the first lane. And then back up for some reason. Oh, no, wait. I'm sorry. Serber's dad's at Capricorn, too.

Oof, server's dad's taken a number of L's. Sorry. It is, it is a, it is a, it is a, it is a, it is a, it is a, it is a, it is a, it is a, it is a, it is a, dead giveaway of y'all ain't from around here are you when they when i hear give me just one second at the cookout drive-thru ahead of me it's amateur hour yeah absolutely amateur word when that when the cookout opened on morland in atlanta overjoyed at the amount of east carolina license plates and stickers i saw immediately not nc state not uncccccc u s u s u.u was all up in that bitch that's not my abiding memory of when that cookout opened

Well, the other thing I remember was somebody just starting an impromptu dance party to blur lines in the parking line. That's my memory. Mine was the all-moms jumping out of the car fist fight in the drive-thru lane. Ceremonial. Yeah. Well, yeah, you had to. It did have a sense of occasion, yeah. They had to break it in.

To the shutdown forecast. You are listening to the internet's only college football podcast. I am Spencer Hall joined as always by Ryan Nanny Holly Anderson and Michael Ray server on the ones and twos by the way Jason Kirk is in commuter condo today due to travel back and forth from Miami which is where they had the national title game in which is where last night Jason himself verified the safe passage and status of one Connor from homefield who is still alive I believe as of this morning I've received a text so unless his phone

has been stolen by someone in Miami, which it happens. But I think it was him because he said, go Hoosiers. And I recognize it the way he texts in his tone. So that is all to say last night, Indiana won a national championship in football. Home field apparel. I mean, you got it. Nice to do you, Ryan. Thank you.

I have more Indiana merch coming on the way. Oh, yeah. Which ones did you, I mean? So I'm not doing any of the National Championship merch, of which there is a lot. I picked out some Rose Bowl stuff. Yeah, I have, I have two Rose Bowl items coming my way. Did you, can we talk about, has everybody seen, I just need to make sure that Spencer and Server, due to their shaggy nature, have also seen the, uh, the Miami-specific Indiana shirt that Homefield has made? I'm not

I am dropping it into slack You may look Oh This is the bison crown Isn't that sick? Yeah He is king of the beach Wow

Yeah Wow That is I need those shades Actually That's amazing You can't have them They're his

They belong to Ferdinand Everything under the sun belongs to Indiana football today, which is just, I think, given what they've accomplished. Can I share my morning experience in Nashville in the afterglow? Yes, please do. Please, please, please, please, please. So I decided I was going to treat myself to a little breakfast at a place in Nashville called Wendell Smiths, which is a meet and three that's been around for like, I don't know, 70 years or something like that.

Like puffy muffin for men. It is a greasy, greasy spoon is what it is. And it brings in, like, I am pretty consistently the youngest person in Wendell Smiths whenever I go, especially when I go with Godfrey because Godfrey's older than me, and I love to remind me of that. Yes. In the restaurant this morning, there were what started as a crowd of four older white dudes, all as Nashville as you could want, all as old Nashville as you could want.

and all as old Nashville as you could want, talking loudly about that Father Ryan kid and how Vanderbilt and Ohio State and Tennessee fucked up. Not getting this. How did they let this kid get away? How did they let Charlie Becker go? Let Charlie Becker get away. Did you say what he did?

Who boy, that fourth down conversion. What was great about this was, as their breakfast party kept growing one by one, the conversation would happen over and over. It was like watching NPCs in a video game on loop, but it was delightful every time. New guy walks in, they'd be like, boy, did you see, did you see that Becker? You saw Williamson County Mullier. Yeah, you were, you were doing, you were doing your own little Nashville Skyrim thing where it was like, hello traveler.

Yes, hello traveler. Let me tell you, it's especially good because they're like, man, Vandy really missed a, we got to drag Vanderbilt into it. Vanderbilt has to feel like Shetty because they didn't offer this guy. I love, I love, by the way, that is, that is a very locally hearted thing to do where you go, how can I make this about us? Hey, Charlie Becker's from Father Ryan. That's right. Hey, you know what my beeps are? Vanderbilt didn't do it.

In this specific case, I feel like they might have a point, though. Sure. He was right there. He was right there. He was right there. And I'm sure that, like, one of the fun things about this Indiana, team is that conversation is happening in different pockets in different places with other players who also weren't offered or secured by, you know, insert town. Like, we know of two prominent

examples at Miami already in Mendoza and Ponds. That's been talked about significantly. But, like, it was just delight. Like, it's such a good little microcosm that, I, you know, I really like, one thing I really like about living in Nashville as opposed to when I lived in New York is that you get a lot of environmental college football talk, especially as Tennessee has gotten better over the last five, six years since I've lived here. Like, you hear more about like, oh, that Josh Hypole. I think, or you get like, I don't know about that Josh Hyple. But either way, I sort of like. The two emotions of every Geneseean. A hundred percent.

You know, that guy. He's all right. I don't know about that guy. But I like being around it. Like, I really do enjoy being around it. Holly, I promise I'm not trying to get into a debate about this. I just never thought. Oh, do you think I'm debating?

Am I debating or am I experiencing both of those emotions at full fire hose volume right now? And I just never thought I never thought I would be in a position where that sort of casual discussion about college football in Nashville would be focused on. The third wide receiver in Indiana and how everybody else fucked up not taking him. It's awesome. By the way, like this is also, it is cool. It is also testament to how well-optioned, intentional, and well-designed Indiana football is. Because, Ryan, let's say Tennessee or Vanderbilt, that Clark Lee, I don't know about him. Let's say that they signed him.

Do you know what Signity would have done? Signed another three-star from some small place. Yeah. and put him in a single coverage, right? Like, well, why don't we double Charlie Becker? We'll throw the other guy because he said single. Well, what if we double him and double him? We'll run the ball.

What if we go too high? We'll run the ball. What if we come down and single? We'll pass. Like, they just at every opportunity, you're like, oh, it doesn't have to be this hard. It just doesn't. Like last night, holy crap.

On the rewatch, let me tell you what they were going, do. They were going to let Carson Beck. They were. They were going to let Carson Beck. Like, I would love to hear the local conversations in Miami about Carson Beck right now. I would love to hear the Liars Club somewhere in Boca Raton that meets and discusses all things Kane's football. Because of the conversation in Nashville is like, wow, you know, that Charlie Becker, how'd we let him go? It's probably got to be like, that Carson Beck, why is he here? Why did we get him? wrong accent but still sure and then there's the conversations happening in athens this morning which are like mm-mm oh come i have a problem can i can i tell you how much of a problem i

kind of have with that because i know you earned it you had cars and beck as your quarterback you you get to do it a little bit okay i've seen some gilding the lily as far as how far that conversation like oh we always do it horseshit horse shit some of you were like we love mr butthole eyes we love carson beck he's going to fuck y'all up Kirby Kirby got it going don't some some of you all allow that for this is a case by case basis some of you were Carson Beck propagandists and I remember it's okay I appreciate that Georgia fans had that moment of weakness and retreated back to their safest place which is we just want We just want some good old boy nobody believes in.

That's what we need. That's what we need. We want the worst pile of crap on the rental lot. That's what we want to drive. Nothing fancy for us. Remember that nice boy from Brooklyn you were dating? Well, it didn't work out. So I've gone back to this lump in a golf shirt.

We work for a... And we love him. And we love him. And he hates Florida more than anything in the whole wide world. And he's the best. He hates Florida and he wants to die within 100 feet of a golf course. everything I've ever wanted in a man. To him, NFL means no fishing license.

Which would never be him. Current and license with the DNR. Check it. I carry it with me. My daily carry list. Season ticket holder Georgia Bulldogs. Fishing license. Nail clipper.

Because I like to be groomed. Yeah. Can we, again, we're not in the ad portion yet. use the channel 6 breakdown of the national championship game. I want to do this in a way that encourages people to go read it because I do think it was very helpful to me in sort of understanding what happens, but I also don't want to just bite directly from it. So how do you too want to sort of like weave it in here to get us going? I can put it this way. It's a paraphrase of some of the things. Indiana trusts its players completely. Like if you want to

want to know what they did and what they do better than anyone else. It's not only developing them, but ensuring that whoever they're playing, they don't have to play. They can play 11 on 11, right? Like that's it. They don't, they don't want to disadvantage a player by putting them in a bad position. They don't want to do anything they can't do. But at the same time, they really trust their dudes. Holy shit, they trust their guys because Miami has a series of very obvious dangers all over the field, Malachi Tony on offense who's that's the guy right like that's you don't like there's a big big circle right like big the no symbol the no symbol the glowing danger like if Malachi Tony

were an animal somewhere out of the wilds he would be neon or have stripes right it would be like don't touch him right like that's bad all poison oops all poison right I'm surprised Miami doesn't have a uniform variant that has frilled crests like lizards it Malachi Tony might as well have one That's a little baby, Dilaphasaurus. He is. He is. And like I, I love, I encourage everyone. Like, I'm going to get like big enthusiast mode here.

But I encourage everyone to just rewatch the game. Like, watch the 20 minute cut. Like, ESPN puts up like a 27 minute cut of the game at 1 a.m. And you can watch most of the important plays, right? And it's not complete if you're a total nerd, but it's enough to go back and go, oh, holy shit. Like, this was a fucking fight along the. The lines, I cannot tell you how intense the play was every single time.

Usually, if you're watching and you're just watching line play, you can find a guy and go, you took a nap this play, right? Sometimes there's a guard who's just like, oh, I'm tired, and he just falls down. Or it tackles like, I'm going to get you next play. This is a second down, you know, like. We're in a slap box for a little bit more. We're going to play a little patty cake here, right? Zero.

None. I did not see shit. There is like starving for bread because there's not a loaf on. the field. Like there is absolutely no let up all around. Ruben Bain, if you think watching Ruben Bain just in snippets, it's like, oh, God, watch him in a sustained fashion and marvel that Indiana's tackles just didn't mostly handle him, but they held their own a lot. And they moved him around. So it wasn't just one guy. Both of Indiana's tackles and sometimes their guard when he would stunt, they'd have to pass him off.

Like, you can see, they're trying. If you want to see people, you ever seen a kid learning to ride a bike and you go, you're on the very far edge of your physical capabilities right now, right? Like teetering all over the fucking place, but staying up, that's Indiana's offensive line because I will tell you, maximum effort, 110% captain, that is what they're putting out and they have to because they are being stressed to the point of breaking on every play. I think that's why they, despite the defensive line,

line they were going up against like i think indiana did a pretty good job of staying on schedule like they did have to have some big conversions they did have you know they had to go for it on fourth down a couple of times they had that big run out of i think second and 20 or something to hit a conversion um but like by and large i think they did a when you when you play a front four like that i think your worry is like oh we're going to be stuck in like third and miserable all night and That did happen at points, but it didn't really happen as much as I thought it would, especially based on like the first driver two. Oh, first driver two, you're like, oh, buddy, they can't protect them. And I think they kind of accept it.

Like in the first half, if you want to know what Indiana did, in the first half, the way that they dealt with Bain and that defensive pressure was RPO's. They would, you know, they would run past option anything that they thought was like a serious disadvantage to them. And that was fine because Miami was down a starting corner, suspended for the first half of the game. And they had pretty much free access to those ride receivers on the outside off of fakes. And that fake would freeze Bain, right? Or it would freeze Mesidor. It wouldn't always freeze both of them. That's the problem.

Or Moten in the middle. Moten's a motherfucker. God, he's the size of a minivan and was a terror to deal with. But that's how they dealt with them in the first half. And then second half, they get the starting cornerback. OJ. Frederic continues to play well. They just, it got real tight, real fast, but they didn't fall behind because they stuck with the run.

They ran the ball 47 times, 47 times out of 72 snaps, like a two to one run pass ratio. They were stubborn. And I was kind of shocked that Miami wasn't more stubborn. Because I thought Miami, I thought, because that's what's gotten them here, right? Yeah. It's also, I mean, it's also not just. from a like what makes indiana i think so good at this and you've seen this and sort of like this was true in the rose bull and it was true to to some extent in the organ game as well

though like the turnover sort of flipped that in some interesting ways like this insistence on like no we will go back to the ground game and we will go back to the short passing game and like we will we will play with in ways that might appear conservative a lot of it is based on in my opinion And like, we're going to keep this. We want to control the number of possessions in this game. We're not doing that because we don't believe in our defense. And we're not doing that because we don't think our offense can move the ball quickly. Like, it's not, again, it's not a fear-based reaction.

And I think there are teams that do that because they're like, listen, we need as little football as possible here. I think it is, I think it is, well, I think it's an understanding that, like, the more bites we give you at the Apple, especially when you have a Malachi Tony, the more likely we are to like, somebody gets confused, somebody gets lost, somebody gets picked by the umpire. And I really do think it's like an undersung smart thing

that Indiana does is that is this idea of like, we will at all time. I can't remember a game going back a while where you're like, oh, Indiana feels like they're scrambling. They're not always like executing as well as you would like, but this idea that they're sort of like, we will decide how many times you get the ball and we get the ball is really, really hard to overcome because it does flip all the impetus onto you to be, like, that's why, as much as the second half was what it was, you know, this like really fun slug fest, when they get all those three and outs in the first half, it's like, oh, those are all opportunities you're not getting back. They're all opportunities.

And Indiana is just not going to get, like, between the way they protect the football and what they do keeping the clock moving. It's just like you are being squeezed. You don't even realize it. You are the frog being slowly boiled. Yeah. And with a real dedication to not just a run, but like using their personnel in that run. So like when they ran on every, like when they ran all of their runs key into some sort

of passing play that they can run off of that. Not an RPO, but like if you're looking at the formation and you go, hey, they run duo out of this. And they run duo out of this all the time. Well, if they run duo out of that, they also run a play action out of it that's beautiful. Or they can audible out of it if you're in single and they'll throw that back shoulder fade. And that is the route you're getting, by the way. Like you know it's coming. You know it's coming.

You know it's coming so hard that Miami almost picked one, almost picked one at a crucial spot. when it was 1714 and they miss and then Indiana goes on to, I believe, score that drive. But like, you know it's coming and you can't stop it because all of your options are limited by the design. Right? It's that if then this, if then this. Indiana never runs out of if then this is, you know? Like Miami kind of had to scramble and, you know, admirable by Malachi Tony late to when they started kind of hurry up. And they're like, oh, cool.

if you don't have a plan and you have no if then and we just throw Malachi Tony in your face, you probably can't defend him, right? Yeah. They score on what is essentially a trick play late to pull it to 24, 21 because you don't expect Malachi Tony to do that. Like the surprises. When Miami played as an underdog, they did really well. And then they asked Carson Beck to make Reed.

I think it was Michael Jr. who on Blue Sky last night in the second half was like, where were all these plays for Miami in the first half? He said, where's Miami been keeping all these good plays? Yeah, yeah. And, like, I'm not going to pretend that I can understand a playbook enough to, like, certainly not as the way that somebody like Golick does. But, like, it did kind of feel that way that it was like, oh, you should have done some of this cool shit earlier, guys.

Like, you were trying, you were keeping things very straightforward in the first half. I think the looks were there. The looks were there. They just didn't take them. They were very much. like, oh, we're keeping this in our back pocket. That's, don't play smart. Don't play cute in the national championship game.

Just fucking hit somebody in the mouth. I think they thought they could bang with Indiana. You think you thought they could just wear them down? Which size wise, you know. It's an assumption, yeah. It's not unfair. No. That wasn't a stupid assumption.

No. Just because it's wrong doesn't mean it was like wrongheaded to make that. No, I mean, Miami, I think Miami fully expected A&M game. I think they thought they could tend three this. I think they thought that they could wear down, get a couple of plays here and there out of Tony, and get it to the red zone and pounded in with Mark Fletcher. And they had to abandon that when they fell behind. Did they panic a little bit too quickly in a single score game?

It's easy for me to say that, but did you see the way Indiana was playing on defense? Like, they were giving up nothing. So like I think they thought they could bang with them That didn't go well So they had to go to gadget They had to go to some of the more clever plays That I think that they were gonna hold in their pocket For maybe even later in the game

The good plays were by and large Trickery or Misdirection They weren't their stand there weren't Miami's standard Line up and hit you in the face Yeah I do want to talk a little bit about special teams Because I think people are going to look at this game

And say well Block Punt touch down that there's your difference if you want to you know add to it you can say miss 50 yard field goal near the end of the first half there's your difference and those things are true but like Miami also had a holding penalty on a punt return where they should have started at the 41 on their 41 and that backed them up to their 23 the punt block possession that happened because malachi Tony fielded a punt at the four and he only got to the seven on that Innocent, innocent.

They had another holding on a kick return where they started to drive at their own nine-yard line. They ended up scoring on that possession anyway, but like, I don't, like, in a game that's this close, and in a game that, like, was largely turnover free until the very end, it's really hard. It's a little bit boring almost, but like, yeah, man, those are the margins you win on. And the fact that Indiana is so good at blocking punts under this administration. And the fact that they didn't have a like huge special teams miscue of, like, did they, did they have their own sort of like fielded closer to the end zone than you would like? Sure.

But like, it's just these little areas where you're like, yeah, they just don't give you, they don't give you gaps to crawl through. And I do think it's sort of like, I don't even necessarily point to Miami and say, like, boy, huge fuck up here. But like, these things just add up. That's the trickiest part about all of this is that so much of playing this version of Indiana is like, yeah, man, we're going to make you make enough bad decisions and miscues and misreads that in the aggregate, it's going to go in our favor. And sometimes you get a game like the peach bowl where you're like, in the aggregate, it gets out. out of hand. But sometimes you get a game like this where it's just sort of like, yep, math didn't math for you. And you can say it's because of one thing or two things, but really it's more like 10 or

12. It's, I love, by the way, Malachi Tony trying to feel that point. I know, I know. It's dumb. It's dumb. It worked out badly. But dude. That's no, man, that's David walking into the valley with a rock in his hand. Right? Like, I love it. I love it. I don't care. Let's make this shit happen, y'all. I fully believe Miami would have won the national championship last night if they don't move away from Malachi, Tony. Like, just continue to feed him on that drive. If they don't call that play and they just call another one of the little gadget things they've been doing,

I think they get down into the red zone and they win the football game. They outthought themselves at the end. They had a thing that was working. They had time. do this. They certainly weren't plenty of time. Time wise. What was it? 54, 48? 40s-ish somewhere.

Like 48. At that moment, continue to feed him the ball five yards from the line of scrimmage behind or in front of like just continue to do that. Live or die with the only thing that has worked all night long. And they strayed from it the least bit and they got exactly what they deserved. But if they don't do that,

I think they were going to win that game. I don't know if that's inaccurate. I mean, like I'm, I think they should. of Fletcher got 17 carries and I don't really see why why he didn't get like 25. Like they, I think they, nobody wanted a piece of him. Like no. All right.

One player in a particular wanted a piece of him. Tyreek Tucker, the 305 pound defensive tackle, was on Fletcher's ass so hard during the game that after the game Fletcher tried to fight him. I heard he. I heard he threw a punch. Is that for you? He did. He threw a punch.

He tried to find him after the game. And to my mind, by the way, well played by both people because I'm a shit loser. And I could totally see like Mark Fletcher. I get it. I don't understand. Right? He's like, I'm going to find that big motherfucker who kept hitting me in the face all game. I'm going to go hit him in the face.

Yeah, that's going to make me feel better. They'll be like, well, you still lost. He's like, yeah, but I tried to hit him in the face. I feel better about things. Yeah. Yeah. I hear what you're saying about Fletcher, and at the same time, he had 18 touches out of 53 plays. Like, it's just, it's just a sort of, yeah, they could have.

There's just not that much to, you know, some of it is, yeah, he ripped off a 50s. That only counts as one play, whatever. And then you have another 10 touches going to Tony, and it's like, okay, man, like, yeah. It's hard to say that an offense that put over half of its. touches in the hands of Fletcher and Tony wasn't doing enough to get it to those guys. Could they have done more? Sure.

And I think, Serber, you are right that in that specific circumstance they could have. But over the course of the game, it's like there were a lot of circumstances. There were a lot of third downs where they were like, let's get the ball to Tony short of the sticks and he'll make something happen. And he didn't make something happen. Let's give the ball the Fletcher and see if he can get us going on first down. and like let's let's go for it on third and one and get stood the fuck up like I don't think it I I there's not a ton I know I I kind of want to but there's not a ton that I can look at

from the Miami side schematically and say like oh these were huge errors you made no they dropped the ball at the end of the game one hunt like bad play calling on the final you know at the end of the game just you know what though what you have in Carson Beck why would you ask him to do that? Yeah. That's a judgment call, not a strategy call. And that's an interesting point server because the strategy was there. That route's open.

Like that ball, if he puts it where it's supposed to be, which is on the pylon, right? Or not where it's supposed to be, but where it could have gone. If he puts it on the pylon, that's six. That's a championship. That's ball game, right? You kick the extra point. You're good. It's not a award, though, right?

It's a different guy this year. different dude who just like I don't know why you put him in that position and I don't know why

it's not Tony on the end of that route right? Like I don't know why yeah like just from a judgment perspective it seems like

they're only serious 100% like misfire on the night like pure misfire where you go that's bad judgment

like from a play calling perspective just because we let Beck decide it. And that's, yeah, that's by the way, like Shannon Dawson, their offensive coordinator did a really cool thing this year. Like he's an old air raid guy. And they really played against type for most of this run that got them into the playoff and through the playoff and, you know, kind of redeem the two regular season losses. Like they really played against type. They became a power run team and limited what Carson Beck did. Yeah. I mean,

to the judgment call thing Indiana has made the correct judgment every single game all year long in every single moment and it just like I said it felt like Miami would win that game at the end there until they made that terrible decision

but it also just felt like Indiana they never made a mistake they never fucked up it all like the fourth and five when they go back out there if like before it happened you knew it was going to happen right like they made one mistake that wasn't the

they made one mistake. The false start on second and one. That was the one mistake. That's the one like really almost lost a national championship mistake. Yeah, you might get picky with them. You can get picky with both teams at the way they managed the end of the first half. That's about it. Like the time, like they were both a little weird with the clock and like the last minute and a half. I think there was a, there's a conscious decision there of also like, we got a long way to go here. You know, like I don't, I don't think anyone thought the game was going to be one or lost in that final Oh, the whole first half was

First four rounds of a Lennox Lewis Or a Floyd Mayweather boxing match really Where you're just like, we're just going to feel like We're just going to dance around a little bit here Yeah, we're not throwing big punches here Can you do this? Can you do that? You can do that?

Okay, cool, yeah. It was very much that Although, like, I also think it was this. They were like, and other teams a handful. I think both teams were like, oh, God. Yeah, that's. And the way they've talked about it after the game sort of reflects that.

Like Indiana's offensive lineland, we're like, that's the hardest shit we've ever had. I adored that. I love it when players like look at the other side and they go, oh, that guy over there. That fellow's real mean. I respect him a lot. To go back to Holly's question, the SEC part of like, what are you offended by? If you are an SEC fan who's like pissed, I think you should be pissed that you would. watch two teams play overall incredibly sound defense and run the fuck out of the ball and neither

of them play in your conference they took our heritage yeah like these were these were both in different ways this team has been playing since 1887 took our heritage it's it's in different ways and it has different wrinkles to it but like these are both versions of Alabama it would of what Alabama's supposed to be. Yeah, Spencer said this after the Peach Bowl, that if we had watched Alabama play that game, we would have been like, God, not again. Yeah.

Yeah. And I think you could probably say that about Miami's run, too. Like, certainly that Ohio State game, that had big shades of like, yep, I've seen Alabama win games like that. And even the Ole Miss game, it's like, yeah, sometimes Alabama get stuck in these, like, shootouts they don't want to be in,

and they find a way to pull it out, too. and there's just like it's hard because I I really struggle. Ole Miss was such a fun team this year. Deserved to finish in the number three in the AP Top 25. Circumstantially had a great playoff. Like I'm not taking any shade away. I'm not trying to shade them in any way. But when you watched Indiana and what Miami became over the last, let's say, two months or so,

you really just are like, is there an SEC team that is like as buttoned down, as disciplined, as good at complementary football as either of these two teams? I don't think anyone was particularly close to it, honestly. No, no. And I think both teams, by the way, you talk about mode. This is right now the game. Because, you know, there's a vein of debate about, okay, well, where does Indiana rank among the all-time team? First of all, they're 16 and 0.

Second of all, it's Tuesday. It's Tuesday. It's Tuesday, motherfucker. Can we like... Come on. You know? We got eight months to pull this thing apart. Can we...

Hold on a second. Holly, can we pull out a thread that you and I were talking about before the show started? If you want to tug on this particular string, yeah, sure. Okay. I'm not... Let me finish this. I just thought real quick. 2019 LSU is the name that comes up a lot.

I love that team. They were terrifying, entirely different mode of football. Spencer, you are actually playing into the stream there, Ryan and I were talking about. Okay, good, good. All right. Yeah, you can throw O-1 Miami in there. Like, all the teams that we talk about, that's fine. And I think what people are going to have to, there is a thing that is happening.

I'm not, I am choosing today to not associate it with certain fan bases or teams, where there is a level of offense being taken, that, Indiana is being spoken about in the same terms as insert great team here. Which first of all, you go 16 and 0. That's really what it comes down to is that I think the paradigm shift. Don't lose then. Try not losing next time. The paradigm shift that we're watching happen right now is because we decided to

inflate the playoff in this way and probably further inflate it in years to come. And we didn't decide this. We were against it. Yes, yes. Still are. Yeah. This sucks. Yeah.

The name was great, and it took a lot to overcome the fact of the shit-ass system. In almost every possible permutation of college football before this, you would say, well, Indiana should have been the national champion without even a bowl game being played. They should have just been the regular season national championship. You should have said, well, Indiana should have had to play number two and the BCS. Pick who you want number two to be. It's probably a team that they beat or would. have beaten.

Well, Indiana should have had to be in a 14th playoff. Well, motherfucker, they didn't in a 12-team playoff. But the larger issue is this. We are going to start talking about the teams that went 11 and 1, 12-0, 13-0. Everybody basically who won a title in the BCS era and beyond, the 14th playoff will get us, you'll get to hang on a little longer. We're going to talk about those teams the same way we used to talk about, like, hey, did you know, like, Notre Dame went 9-0 and 1, one season?

And who gives the fuck? And it's really just like, cool. That's just not the same. Pre-expansion is going to become the new pre-integration. It's just not the same. In terms of the math conversations that we have, which is awesome because then we in turn get to do things like, hey man, Sabin was doing it on easy mode. There is a reason why.

And it's not because, it's not because these teams aren't awesome. Like, it's not because you can't find awesome. some old Oklahoma teams or Nebraska teams or whatever. It's not because they don't exist. But we're going to stick needles in these. But like we don't talk about teams from that era as like you were one of the greatest ever. The sport moved on from you in a variety of ways. But one of them is just like if you only had to play 12 games to win a national championship,

even if you won all of them, it's not the same as 16. It won't be the same as 17 or 18 eventually down the road. You can tell because one of those numbers is bigger. and by the way, lest you guys think that we are just over here flinging rocks in the general direction of Georgia, of Alabama, this is an evolutionary point that is extremely bad for both of our rooting interests. Yeah, please. Like that 06 Florida team only had to beat like. Ryan, what were you saying about the 08 Florida team earlier? The 08, I mean, I think it's 08 Florida that is brought up amongst the like maybe the. bottom of the greatest team ever or like best team you ever watched play they had to beat one team on a neutral field to clinch a title yeah that's the one

yes yes yes and even that was in the state you know sure and like wow it still means something like i was at that game i it's still like it was still awesome i recognize that it's just very different it's in the same way that the NCAA cannot vacate a title yeah yes like you know that that you know that will not you know that will not be taken away it will the luster will fade with time and with derogatory progress and it's just it's the nature of what adding adding these games makes the thing like you can say 2019 LSU is the best team you've ever seen play football and I'll believe you and at the same time if you say cool they have to play one more game against a opponent who is similarly tested and similarly like you know I watched that LSU team have to go down to the wire against Bama I watch that LSU

team have to go down to the wire against Texas it doesn't mean they couldn't win it it just adds a degree of difficulty to it and I don't like yeah I think it's It's going to be weird. Like there is a thing that's going to happen where we're just going to sort of start talking about these championships in a different color than we do of everything where it was just like a one game postseason. This is kind of what I was trying to get at the other, sorry, this was last night. This was like 12 hours ago about how the rate of change in the sport is itself speeding up. Yeah.

And that is going to move the rate of change of how we in turn talk about these teams. You know, it's going to speed that up as well. Like if Tony Petiti wins his bonkers claim to get us to a 36 team college football playoff, I will hate it and complain about it all fucking day long. And the team that wins a 36 team playoff has done something. Fucking wild. I mean, like, first of all, like, I want you to think about the frame in your mind, the 3016 playoff, okay? Frame in your mind, okay?

And then think about what Miami did to get here. Yeah. Okay? Because this Miami team, like, I don't want to undersell what they've done because to get here, they have had to beat. Ole Miss Ohio State and Texas A&M That is a stretch

That if you saw it in the framework Of the regular season You'd be like dead Dead like a good team A good team maybe goes two and one Right And you can throw the regular season game Against Notre Dame in there too

Bucket Sure Like just like they had an extraordinary run Now think about a 36 tournament A 36 team tournament And the runs that somebody will have to go on there here. I am forced by my circumstances to say that if I have more data indicating that a team is good across repeated tests, that they're better. That's it.

Gross. Gross. Don't make me. Not even necessarily that they're better, but they have done something harder. They have done something more, more impressive. And it doesn't, yeah, like, no, I don't, I'm not really interested in like, well, if you put them on a field, we, motherfucker we can't okay for all the money we're pouring into AI I you can't give me 2025 Indiana against 2019 LSU I would actually like to see it but instead we got to get slop nothing but fucking slop why can't you just give me this instead AI would probably tell you the winner is Auburn you know what that's the closest Auburn would take it.

Auburn would be like, ooh, AI, national championship. Football is a game created on the planet of Venus in 1213. As Auburn allowed to learn about Venus, that sounds tawdry. I'll tell your pastor you're learning about planetary bodies. What do you mean? Football was created on my mama's razor. That's what you get for hanging out with that slut, Saturn.

Yeah. So I, like, go ahead. That's going to be like the next eight months. months is everyone doing this. You know what? I'm here. I'm going to give you all your backpacks. Here are your backpacks.

I'm handing them out for you, okay? Like a teacher. Like, hold on, looking at the name tag. Okay, SEC fans. Yeah, we're coming back. We're learning all your tricks. We're getting spreadsheets and getting three stars. That's what we're doing.

We're heading back. Big 10, especially Penn State fans? We can do it too. Here. Sorry, Penn State fans. That was mean. That was very, very mean. His main.

They, boy, they really, like, there are a lot of fan bases that are not happy about Indiana winning, and I get that. Like, some of them, like, fuck off. Yeah, like, 130, whatever. I don't know. I think Charlotte's probably fine with them. Charlotte's all right with it, yeah. I don't think they feel strongly about it.

I think Delaware is probably like, hey, we're just happy to be here now, guys. That's good. That said, I think Penn State might be the most pissed off. Not Miami? I know, weirdly no. I think Penn State might be the most pissed off. Fair enough. Fair enough.

Hey, if Indiana can win anyone can of Penn State fans like... Like that, Jesus Christ. Especially, like, so much of it is, so much of this meat is salted by... Penn State almost fucking beat it. Like, Indiana needed the catch of the year to be Penn State. So they have to sit here being like, I don't even think they're that good. God do it. I would be, I would be Yosemite Sam mad.

Like, my team blows and we're just in full, like, rehab mode. I don't have to worry about it in this, but post-Bed State. Oh, my God. I would have both of my pistols in their holsters firing at the floor and saying fake cuss words like, God, turn it! Like, the other big 10 teams, you know, if you're, Ohio State, Michigan, you've won national championship recently. You're not that mad about it.

If you're almost every other Big Ten team, you're like, you know what? The Hill is still what it was. Like, it's not that if you're Michigan State, if you're Minnesota, it's like, okay. It's still, we have the same problem we always did. If you're Penn State, you're like, oh, all right, we're consistently second third in this league. We're just, wait. What the fuck? Who just went by us?

Are you fucking kidding me? The nurse with the bike? So I had a rule when I was running distance races, which is, you know, you pick somebody who cannot pass you. Right? The guy with the prosthetic leg was that for me. That's how slow I was. Who looks like they need to poop? It turns out, by the way, that's a terrible pick.

A lot of those people with prosthetics can fucking fly. Sure. Right? So you end up, you're like, okay, I'm going to pick this guy. And I'm like, this guy and I, we're going to, we're going to, I'm going to finish right ahead of him, right? And he knows it too. He's like after like three or four miles, they're like, oh, this guy, I can't beat him. That's his whole goal.

And he knows it. That guy just flew by you, right? Yeah. That's, and I will tell you, as somebody who has been beaten by every single pacer I ever picked, it's a bad feeling. An Indiana pacer, you say? From three. Devin Jackson got your ass. Yeah.

Like, it's bad, man. That's a bad feeling. I don't think, too, like, I do think there will be the effect of continuing destabilization because Indiana did this so quickly. You know, it's not going to be, I think, what people think. But it does kind of light of fire under certain people's asses. Maybe, maybe even people like Iowa who are like, well, we've got a guy who can do that, right? Weirdly, I think the whole playoff does.

Like, the fact that the final four was, the fact that you looked at the final four and said, well, who's the most stable program of these? You're like, it's Oregon. Oregon doesn't have some sort of historic claim to like, yes, onward and upward for, like, they are still very much, like, relatively new on the block. I think if you look at all four of these teams and how they were built and, like, how they got where they are, it probably, yeah, probably fucks you up.

It probably makes you feel like, fuck. This is, this feels bad. This feels like, look, I don't, I don't, I don't, I think Miami would not have caused the same level of alarm because they have the pedigree and the history that they do. But that program was in the fucking toilet for 20 years. Like, was, we, like, the jokes about not winning an ACC title in a lot of bad ACC years, only playing for one, are a reflection of like how, how, how, how. old missy they had become. Yeah. That's an adjective, man.

Old missy. Old missy-old Missy-old Missouvian. Yeah, old Missuvian. I like that. Yeah. And I think if you look at it too, there's one key lesson, which is this. You go, well, how's Indiana built? And you're like, well, I've got a bunch of three stars.

And all of your money ball people are like, oh, ho-hoho. Optimization. Oh, we can take three-star linemen from the group of five. I don't like that noise. We can just pipe them in, right? Like data nerds love that. They also love this. Transfer a quarterbacks.

Transfer a quarterback. Sure. You do not need to, like, just go ahead. Go ahead and say this. Let somebody else train up a quarterback for you, okay? Don't. Don't even try. There's no reason to do it.

Someone else will do it for you. You can go find a Cam Ward. You can go find. This is the free real estate of college football. Don't even bother. right sign a couple of people as backups and go find you somebody in the portal because a quarterback's always going to be looking and someone will have already test driven them for you I mean how many teams in the 12 team playoff didn't start a transfer at quarterback I know Ty Simpson is one I know um Ohio State's quarterback whose name is escaping me because I'm very tired Julian that is that is our that is our that is our freshman signy yep

Julian Sanis too. Native, yeah. Ole Miss, Miami, Oregon, Indiana, all transfers. Tulane, transfer. Oklahoma, transfer. JMU, I can't remember. That would be Alonza Barnett, the third. Yeah, I know he's in the transfer portal now.

I think he's committed already. But I don't think he... I don't think he got there through the transfer portal if memory serves. We will, we will check. Okay. Anyway, it's, uh, yeah, it's the thing you should do. That's what I would say. Why, why bother, man?

Like, why, why bother? Oh, yeah, he's transferring to UCF. Yeah. Yeah. So just get somebody out of the portal, man. Don't bother. In terms of all of the, like, how to things and how to do. this um roger sherman who has been i think as as good at tracking how indiana did this is like

any major writer we'll point out it's all three stars it's all a bunch of jm u transfers like you cannot productivity and experience just go get that go get people it doesn't really and apparently it does not matter where this happens if somebody is like football is football if they were productive at a certain level they're probably going to be productive at the next level and that goes for for every single position on the board. You know? And if you can get them with lots of experience, do. I feel like Signetti's been very upfront about that too.

Like I think they're like, oh, our transfer strategy, secret, locked away in a vault. I think they've been pretty straightforward about like, yeah, we care more about getting guys who have production than potential. Like, yeah. It's the clumsiest way to put it. Yeah. And you know who does that? Somebody else. Like somebody else proves.

the production of we go get it. It's also weird that it gets framed that way when it's when there are so many JMU transfers and it's like, yeah, he got those. Those are his dudes. Like, I understand it's all through the portal and I understand it's not the way the sport used to work. But it feels weird that everybody's like, oh, the portal, it's ruining everything. We're not seeing development.

What are you talking about? Why do those guys suddenly not count because they all change teams together? It doesn't make any sense. Like, can I tell you from a college football perspective? how much I love some of the players that this era is, you know, keeping in the game reintroducing. Because there's heritage players to me, guys who are, to me, that guy. Airloom linebackers. Airloom college.

Yes. Yes. No, precisely. Like, quality that guys. Right? Like, if you're going to remember some guys, I will tell you, one of my favorite dudes on any of these teams is Ponds. Like, to me, Dangelo Ponds, 5-9. 170, which means he's 58-165.

And last night, there's an open-wheel route, okay? Open-wheel route, headed downfield, the Miami receiver, who is a 6-5-240-pound tight end. One of the best balls, Beck through all night, too. Yeah, yeah, this is when Beck was kind of in his groove, and Alex Bauman is headed downfield, and he is open. Pons weighs 170 pounds on the record. Okay? And he is inbound. And you can see Bauman go, huh? Like, Balman, like, they both kind of make a business decision that like,

Captain, collision alert, collision alert. It was pull up. Whoop, whoop. Listen, man. A torpedo's not that big. It's fucking bad when it hits the boat. This little five, this little five nine, like missile is impact. right on a guy that he outweighs that outweighs him by you know what 70 pounds nearly and he's like no I'm not doing this

d'angelo pawns made a couple of run stops last night where you're like was that a linebacker what the hell he gets up and he's the size of like an eighth grader noisie tricket yeah there is there is one trend I'm curious if everybody starts or a lot of teams start trying to copy cat from Indiana that I think is really interesting. The whole, we don't practice that much thing. The whole we, we keep practice very minimal. We keep it very focused. We want our guys fresh. We spend more time in the film.

I can see, I can see why this can and cannot work at certain places. But there is sort of like a clinical simplicity. Like so much of what's interesting. The funniest thing about Kurt's saying, is that I don't know if you saw that post somebody put up yesterday about how they were, when he was at JMU they were at some event with him

at like a craft beer place and he was referring to all the beers by their ABV instead of the name of the beer the style of beer. 7% 6.2%. Do you know who it reminds me of at least in terms of player

evaluation? Is Ogeron? Sure. Yeah. Sure. Like early Ole Miss Ogeron, who was very, you know, had that, had that personality that he is, you know, still known for. But it was like, seat one, row one, row one, not a defensive tackle. Seat one, row two, not a defensive tackle. Seat one, row three. Yeah.

Like just a film monster to somebody who was like, yep, get him. Nope, don't want him. Got him. Yep. Like, he was, he's that dude. And I will tell you that there are people who can pull off the short thing. Yeah. One theory that I'm getting to at the bottom of this pickle.

barrel. Okay, Ryan, that now you've mentioned it, I am, I am rooting out. What's happening to the pickles? So, I would mention this, that in an era where we have roster management as a priority and depth as a serious challenge and an ever rotating churn of personnel who are maybe inadequately scouted, continually in flux. Depth as a leveler. Okay.

Do you know what Kirby Smart and other SEC teams in that like kind of saving school are known for? That's known for coming out of the draft, coming into the draft with medicals that are like, good God, what war did you fight in? And there's a reason for that. Why do you have sharp teeth in your knee? Yeah. Why do you?

Son, listen, I hooked you up to this Ford engine code detector and every single code is coming back. Every light on your dashboard is on. All the gaskets. They're all blocking. Yeah, all the gaskets, right? Like OnStar just started yelling help. You didn't even crash. It called 911.

Now I'm thinking of the Carfax on Haynes King. And it's like, no, do not. No. That just says, it just says. yikes. Yeah. No, buddy, they're just listen, they're just selling you to somewhere in Central Asia. Right? Like that car is going straight on the road in Uzbekistan. So that to me is an issue because you bring up short practices.

That's going to have to be the deal. Because I think one factor, there's probably a zillion factors, the biggest one being money, I think, as far as why the SEC did so. And I think it's because increasingly they're going to be a financial disadvantage unless they shift some stuff around. But the other reason, one reason, potentially, is this. The practices are too long and they take too much wear and tear beating each other up. Like, I think that's, I think that's very real. There's very few teams who can maintain Georgia's kind of depth in the SEC, top to bottom. And I think a lot of these guys run their own guys into the ground. Yeah, I'll buy it as a theory.

Like, obviously it remains to be seen and a lot of injuries are, like, there is a luck factor to this for sure. Oh, yeah. But like, it's weird to see, yeah, Indiana doesn't practice that much. And then they play the way they do. Like they don't play like, hey, we're out here just trying to like, you know, we don't really want to hit. That's not what we do. It's like they like it. They're happy to hit.

They're very happy to hit from what I've seen. But they don't, they, that they can do that without living. that in practice is like it's a really interesting strategic wrinkle that I'm curious to see how that involves not entirely new there are success stories particularly at places that were on the come up that needed to be a little more innovative and didn't quite have the depth that did that spurious wherever he has been has had short practices Mike Gundy when things were actually working at Oklahoma State one of the things that he emphasized were short practices I don't think they were quite 90 minutes like signetis but they weren't too much longer so yeah I don't I think that's a real issue

Like, this is a corner, but we're going to have to start talking about little corners that you can cut and little like efficiencies that you can build in because, um, the aggregate effect of those is the distance between Indiana and everyone else. Yeah. You know, yeah. Yeah. They were not like the Nick Saban model, that model's dead. And it's dead for a lot of reasons. But one of them is this. Um, it was inefficient.

Deeply inefficient. Extravagant even. It could, it could afford to be inefficient. It could afford to be inefficient and it was inefficient in terms of it's very odd. I know everyone talks about Nick Savants' organizational capacities. And those are real, right? They were very, very organized. But they had redundancies built in and overkill built in at every step that you're not going to be able to work in this era.

Right? Like you're not going to be able to do that because people have greater mobility. They can leave. It's a time for podcast business. We're now into the podcast. Podcast business. What's the business? Podcast business.

It's a business. Who's your business? Indiana won. And now everybody's going to freak out and think things are different because Indiana won. And they are. Yeah. Hey. We can only lead off with one sponsor and one sponsor only Ryan Nanny.

It's home. Home field. God damn a barrel. Just, it's so strange that this t-shirt company, what started as this little t-shirt company that we stumbled across because like, I think the first thing I bought from them was a North Dakota state shirt. And it was just like, oh, I love that this quirky little company I've never heard of has schools that, you know, are sort of off the radar for a lot of the bigger retailers. They have designs that I haven't seen other places. It was just like, wow, what a quirky little offshoot amongst all the big names and brands that sort of like didn't do anything for me that much anymore. At the time, I want to say they maybe had to power schools.

It was not a big list. Mm-hmm. And now, they have pretty much everybody you can imagine. in FBS. In FCS, they've got schools, they've got Division 2 schools. The depth, it's very, I don't understand how, in the same way that it's like, wow, how did Connor and his wife turn this company into this, like, big, cool thing that can, like, go from, hey, yeah, we got a few schools.

You probably have found it hard to find. opportunities to purchase, you know, gear for that you like into like, yeah, you know a Tennessee fan, you should get them some shit from here. It looks better than the things you can find other places. Yeah. You know, an Auburn or an Oklahoma fan? Yep. Come to home field. It is eerily parallel in its own way. Like, the fact that there is a hashtag- They ran the fucking ball. They ran the fucking ball. And the fact that there is a hashtag 16-win- Indiana t-shirt for sale. Yeah.

Like, I don't know. I'm going to point this out. The entire rest of Indiana football history, zero national titles. The inception, creation of home field apparel. Sure. Afterwards, one national title. All inspired by a pinstripe bowl failure. Finally, a positive use case for the pinstripe bowl.

for fuck's sake. I think people know this who've listened a while, or they have probably gleaned it, but like, we obviously enjoy the shirts and hoodies and jackets and joggers

and hats that Homefield makes, and we encourage you to go check them out. But I think it is okay at this point to emphasize that, like, a big reason why we are in the business with Homefield, and have been for a long time. Like, if I had to stretch the math,

we might have, the full cast might have more continuous business with Homefield than anyone else, including Vox fucking media at this point. I'm pretty sure that's true as of this year. Yeah. Is because we really like their team, their people,

like Connor, Whitney, Josh, a Buker, like a bunch of people that we've met along the way. We really do like this group of people. And I think a big part of it is that we like the way that they treat the sport. And I'm not trying, like, I understand this is a sponsorship and there's business to it. It's a sponsorship, but this is not, it didn't. We talked about this when we were first spinning up to Patreon last summer. If it's possible, you've popped up since back then.

It's a sponsorship, but this business relationship started in a way that the vast majority, of our other business relationships have not. I'm pretty sure they came to us first. And because, you know, we had been talking about North Dakota a lot. They're like, hey, we've got these North Dakota shirts. Would you like some? They sent us all those yellow North Dakota shirts with the green bison. And we said, oh, hey, these are awesome.

These are comfy. Hey, could you guys make some shirts for our show? And they set up a page and we were able to do, you know, like shirts like Garth's hierarchy of need, shirts for all of our shows. And you may have noticed as we entered into this independent era of the show, we don't have those other business relationships anymore. And in cases of all of the sponsors, that is by choice on our part. Like we kept this relationship for a reason. And it is, you know, we like the products.

We wear the products. We are incredibly annoying evangelists about the products. But it's the people that started this relationship with us that made us want to keep it going. Growing and developing our business side by side with them for the past two years has been like, you know, oh, hey, the full cast is playing in a planetarium at the Science Museum. Oh, hey, Homefield's outfitting the Indy 500 opening acts, you know? And, you know, so it's like watching our businesses grow side by side. And then to get to what, like all of this leading up to watching this happen for them last season when it was like, hey, whatever happened?

we're having a good time. And this season where it was, oh, hey, dad's home and dad is Indiana football. Watching this happened to them from our close proximity has been so fucking cool. Because these people are our friends at this point. We like the shirts. We're really sorry about the fact that doggers exist, but we're sorry home field, but we like those two. We're still in this relationship with them because of the people that they are,

you know, they're the only sponsor we moved forward with for a reason. And getting to watch this happen to them has been so fucking cool. I can say with pretty high confidence that one of the biggest differences between Homefield and other sort of like people in sponsorship generally. I'm not, I'm really not trying to like name anybody here. Is that like if Homefield didn't exist or if Homefield was still a like two person operation that Connor and his wife were running out of basically their garage. it would have meant the same.

Like what just happened would have meant the same to them and to all the people involved. And like they are, it's a business and they are there for it to be a successful business, 100%. And at the same time, I have never felt like, oh, they don't care about the thing anymore. I think it is like, and that's, I think that's important to me personally because it's like, I hope that's the thing that we continue to do in our various endeavors is like if we're just doing it because it's like, oh, well, you know, it's good, you know, money's coming in or the customers wanted or whatever. Kind of sucks. Like, you know, I like that. Homefield is in this for the same reasons.

I hope that I am still in it, which is like, this is some cool shit to do. This is, this is such a cool experience to be a part of and around. And if you happen to make a living off of it, that's so much the better. But it is not your reason for getting up and doing it. Well, if we can take this back to, you know, if we can take this back to 2020, when, you know, half of our unit at Vox got furloughed and the other half of us got reassigned into various bullshit gigs, you know, that were. That bad Friday was not a bullshit gig. Hey, listen, that was, I would never, that's, that's giving agency.

for Batman Friday to somebody else. I know. You're right. I'm not. But back in 2020, for those of you who maybe haven't been with us this entire time, we had a friendly and cordial business relationship with them, but we didn't know them, you know, certainly as well as we know them now. And half our team got laid off. Without being asked to do so,

Homefield mocks up a split zone shirt and a full cast shirt and start selling them on their website and sends all the money from that to members of our team that have been laid off. These are the people they have always been, and they expressed those values for us and supported us when there was absolutely no benefit in it for them whatsoever. I wish we had 12 of them. I want all of our business relationships to start like this and to continue like this, and to be with people. people like this, but we have been values aligned with this company from minute one. While we're at it, they would also hire our friends.

We have friends who quit their jobs, their crummy former media jobs who now, you know, work over there. And we never have to dig very deep to come up with stuff that we like to say about home field every week. And it is because they make products that we like and enjoy using, yes. but also it's never an effort with them because of the people that they are. And I, Ryan, thank you for bringing that up because I just, I feel like it's really important that everybody knows that.

Here, here. We mentioned the Channel 6 newsletter and its breakdown of the national championship game, but you know what we failed to do. We didn't give any of the particulars. Where can I find the Channel 6 newsletter? How much does the Channel 6 newsletter cost? Is the Channel 6 newsletter right for me and my family? The answer in reverse order is, yes, your family and you would both benefit from a channel 6 subscription.

How much is it a month? It is $10 a month for two things a week, at least eight pieces of content headed directly to your inbox. Or for the freaks, you can just log into the website and read it. You can do that as well. No one's stopping you. I'm certainly not. You pay it $10. Rome about the place, if you will.

What are you going to get, sports? College football, a little bit more. This offseason, we got all kinds of stuff. Every Friday, you're going to get an overview of just all the things that we consume and enjoy and like. Straight to your inbox, that's going to go to the free subscribers, because I know you're out there too. Maybe you're on the fence, and here's what we do. We're going to show you a little bit of leg, and you're going to be like, that's pretty. And I'll be like, see the whole thing, $10 a month.

And you'll do it, and it'll make your life better. You can find it at channel dash 6.ghost.io. We have the overview of exactly how Indiana. managed to win, I think, a classic of a football game that is in your inboxes if you're a subscriber right now. But we will continue to look at this through the off season as well as right about, I don't know, 300 other things, man. That's a lot of things. That's more things than time that you sat just for the right. Yeah, no, no, no, we're listening. A sinister. I like it. We're going to over, listen, we're going to over deliver. That is what we are going to do for the

low price of $10 a month. Channel 6. If it's cool, we write about it. Damn. Is it all squares or other singles? I'd rather hear from Ryan. Yeah, no, no. I mean, listen, but that's not all the things. That's not

all the things. This world's huge. Someone else needs to write and talk about it. Hi, Ryan. Stephen Godfrey and I, we search through the scraps of things untouched by Channel 6. We say, what other things remain on the plate, Papa? What we... Ryan the Reaver over here.

and we take the things we gather them up we turn them into podcasts for you to listen to one's on Wednesday that one's free one's on Friday that one's not what are these podcasts about one of them can only lie and one of them can only tell the truth

a lot of these podcasts as of late have been about college football spoiler some of them more of them will not be going forward including we have a lovely episode dropping the same time this one is where me and our good friend John Boyce decided to talk about 4,000-yard passers in the NFL and whether this means anything.

And we identified the only Browns quarterback who's ever thrown for 4,000 yards. And I had never fucking heard of him, even though he won an MVP award, because that's how weird this life we live is. You can find out more at phantom island. Show, where you can sign up for a paid subscription. We have more fun long-form stuff going. And because I'll just throw it in here, because maybe you're feeling bad. add. Maybe your team didn't win college football. Maybe Indiana did it the wrong way. You can still go and listen to Who Kill College Football, the mini series that Stephen and I put

together a year ago now at this point, over a year ago. And you can learn a lot about the history of college football as a business, as a geographic entity, as a thing we try to legislate, as a television product. It's all there. That's all free at this point. Go check it out. WK CFB.com We also, even though he's not here until Saturday, the newsletter that's free for everyone from Jason at the athletic. So much college football on it. Do I know what until Saturday will do in the offseason? I do not. So where Channel 6 is going to over promise.

There will still be Saturdays. There will be? Yeah, I think that's true. I probably shouldn't promise. promised that right now. Yeah, that's sort of where I got. Sorry. Like existential dread.

All right. For the record, if there are no more Saturdays after this, we apologize for speaking that into existence. Yes. But, you know. But then the until Saturday newsletter becomes so much more juicy as a title. Jason did have a, there is a slightly ominous complimentary sign off to the newsletter that landed this morning, which was, thank you for letting this newsletter be part of your college

football season. Now it's part of your off season. Bam, bum, bum. Jason Kirk will return in The Avengers. Has anybody talked to him today? I know we talked to Connor. Did Jason make it out of the confetti pyramid alive? Not sure. Hey, buddy. I told them to go. I told them to go to the show. Just kidding. Yeah. I told them to go to La Tubb. So they're probably

very hung over. Where? Le tub. What's the classic, like, intercoastal bar in Miami. Okay. Good shit stays up in late servers who will throw bottles at your head. It's great. Server, any killer ants with a Z updates for us and the listeners.

We, you know, we haven't announced these shows, but we're going to have a show on March 21st in Winston-Salem. We've got another show on May 2nd in Winston-Salem. we're finishing up our first album, picked out some album art. I hope I get to use it. I think I'm allowed to. It's a painting called Elijah in the Desert by Washington Alston from way back in the day. It looks really fucking rad.

So we're excited for that. Thanks people who've been coming to shows. Yeah, we'll have, as far as like physical media for that when it comes out, I don't know what options we'll have. We'll definitely have it on CD. Not sure when we'll have it on vinyl, but you'll be able to listen to it on streaming, be a band camp or any of the other terrible places you can get your music.

Can I also say special respect, props and cheers for you have, there's one lady who's in some of your videos who's dancing her ass off. And I was like, that's the energy we need at every local music show. Everyone, I don't, yeah, that lady, you're doing work. I should have mentioned we're very good. good. Yeah, they are very good. That's true.

Y'all heard this thing on this show. He's got a voice of a goddamn North Carolina angel. It does. Also, we shout out frequently. I'd like to once again shout out, Hand in the Dirt, the podcast. Boo! No, no, no.

Hold on, I have a specific reason for this that you will appreciate it. Oh, God, what they do? On a recent Hand in the Dirt, not the most recent one, I think, at this point, by the time you listen to this, maybe two or three episodes behind. David Hartsell. God.

Who's, who, what he do? What do? No. Stephen Hartzell. Stephen Hartzell, who, who we love dearly. I, who we love dearly and who I don't want to talk about his body specifically. In, predicted, hold on, he predicted sight unseen, are not sight unseen, he's fucking seen him. He's been in person with him multiple times.

He predicted that he weighs the, he has the same weight as Roddy Jones. Which Roddy Jones, you may wonder? Wait. The Roddy Jones, the Roddy Jones, who played running back for Georgia Tech, who in 2008 ran for 214 fucking yards in a Georgia Tech win over Georgia, who played, I believe it's, who started 52 games for the Yellow Jackets. And who is still fucking yoked now that he's moved into the booth. I promise I'm not doing this just to be. a heartbeat? Can I defend Stephen here for one thing? For one reason? Go for it. In looking an ecological worldview of this is possible, is it possible that Hartzell is

functioning as a type of keystone species here, bringing a little bit of balance to the fact that to this day, Michael Felder still thinks he could be hit with a brick from four stories up and not sustained serious head trauma. I gotta tell you, I think Felder surviving the brick is more likely than Hartsl being the same way as Roddy-Fonjohn's Rottie Jones bicep is as big

as Hartsall's head. I don't understand why he thought this was possible. He said it was such confidence too. Oh, yeah, something completely out of character for anybody on hand in the dirt making a ridiculous statement. All right, I will tell you this

in 2011, Roddy. Jones weighed in at 202. That was his playing way. Yeah, he's still playing. He's pretty much at his playing weight. I think he said, well, was it, Ryan, like 205, 207? Yes, he's a little bit, he's a little bit, yeah, a little bit heavier. Just playing weight.

Right now out of the Hartzell defending lane, can I, can I just express surprise for a moment that the, the, the Mech Mile incident did not at all deter him from making future sweeping declarations about things he might be able to achieve on the athletic field? So the reason I bring this up is what I like about hand of the... One of the things I like about Hand of the Dirt is... It's the best podcast there is. No offense to us. It's a super fun podcast, but Hartzell, Serber, Felder, they're all super smart, and they're also super well connected.

So where we would sort of say, like, if I said on this show, like, I think I weigh the same as X player. I think I weigh the same as, you know, insert guy here. Ram Vila. We would have no, we would just sort of like roast me for my bad opinion and we'd move on. But hand in the dirt is different. On this hand of the dirt, Harsall texted Roddy, who I think was live on the radio at the time, but still took the time to text him not only about how wrong he was, but about how insulted Rodney was himself that Harsall proposed that they were equals in this way. and that experience is the kind of thing you can only get on hand of the dirt.

That's true. That's true. By the way, Hartzell, if you're listening to this, if you want to get to 205, buddy. Oh, can we put Hartzell on like horse steroids this year? Can we do experiments on him? Boy. Listen.

I've been doing experiments on Hartzell for the past 10 years. They're just most of the social nature. Ah, okay. Hartzl sound off in the comments. Let us know if we can. use you as like a lab horse. Oh, listen, buddy, we're going to get you the stack of your dreams. We're going to turn Hartzl into a terminator.

Hartzl's built like the point guard on a 16 seed who doesn't see the floor. That's the Hartzell's. He's got real fifth quarter in middle school energy. Yeah. Hartzels on this team to boost GPAs. That's what he's there. I'm going to put this charitably. He's an ectomorf.

He's terrible at it. He's really bad at it. Yeah. Spencer is feeling the need to put something chair. He has a live build. 100%. How's that? Listen, if we're ever short for material in the off season, can we just do an entire episode that's just us listening and reacting to hand in the dirt in real time?

Because it's one of those shows where like I have to listen to it in the car by myself because I'm talking back to it the entire time. Felder, that's insane. Hartzl, that's also insane. Felder, the server, are you okay in there? You sound tired. Yeah, we got to get out of here. 45 minutes later. Have I told you about the server?

Have I told you about my collection of Hand in the Dirt screen caps? No. Is it all like times that he said he's going to get out of there? I have a screenshot of every time or like at least when I'm thinking about it. Every time in show history when somebody on the show has said we're going to get out of here, how much time is left in the show when that is said? Yeah. I think the lowest number is like 45 minutes.

We tape from 9 to 11 every Friday. we typically end at around 1145 a.m. Yeah. Yeah. It's a wonderful show. You should listen to it. Okay, I think that concludes podcast business, right?

Yes? Yeah. Do we have any last things to say about the season or the national championship? I do. I do. I wanted to say this and like I want to get this off. I want to get that. I got something of my heart and I got to say it.

Because when Holly was talking about watching and being happy for Indiana, it really got me thinking. about Andres Cantor, Andre Cantor, legendary soccer announcer who is of Argentine descent but left and lived and worked in Mexico and across Latin America. And if you listen to him at the World Cup announcing Argentina's championship, it is the most emotional, affecting, moving speech display of emotion you will ever hear because you can watch in this man's eyes the pain and the like joy of an entire lifetime of watching this team well up and surface through one man. It's great.

Andres Cantor is an old man when he's calling this, but you can see like 12-year-old Andre's Cantor watching bygone legends of Argentine football fail to win the World Cup. You can see him as an adult calling Maradonna's goal as Argentina wins in Mexico City. You can see him go through the frustrations after that. And it's an amazing tableau to watch someone go through all of that. And I find as I get older, one of the things that I really enjoy is I like watching someone experience something sports-wise that they have never seen before. Not just sports-wise, right?

Like take a kid to see a movie they've never seen before or give someone a book or show them something that they've never seen before and watch it kind of wash over and hit them or not. You know, watch somebody experience the world from a complete. unique perspective. That can be kind of hard to pick up because everybody digest the world a little bit differently and everybody will react to it a little bit differently. And I think one of the reasons sports is such a live wire that shocks anyone who grabs onto it is that it does have that kind of pull. It does have that kind of attraction and it does have that kind of effect on people.

It's not just that you watch it with 70,000 people. You watch it with 70,000 people with the sort of common understanding of terminology and outcomes. And you know, what's coming. We all knew at one point last night that somebody would have to win or lose that game. And yet when it happened, the unreality set in and it was a surprise to everyone. I saw Kurt Signetti smile. I saw Fernando Mendoza weep. I saw Miami players who had put every ounce of effort in their bodies out for four hours and before that for an entire season, just collapse and grief on the field. You saw Indiana fans not know how to process it. And I adore when these things happen because it's not often that you get something truly novel in life and it's also joyous.

And I adored watching that. I loved watching that. I like watching that for all of my friends who are Indiana fans, who I'm sure are hearing this and still can't properly process what happened. And I like watching somebody experience victory. Because victory is rare. Victory, singular victory in a moment is rare. You might get it over a week. You might get it over a month. It might take you three years.

It might take you 10 years. There's not a lot of cinema in your life. There's not a lot of conclusive editing leading to a payoff. And even if it's with a game or even if it's with the outcome of a series of rules executed to finish, take it enjoy it like i i love that culmination i love that instant because you're not going to get that with a lot of the things that you derive joy from it's kind of a slow yield you know you don't get that with like parenting you get it little drips and drabs you know you get a little moment of joy here you get a little moment of joy there maybe you get a big moment that sometimes happens you know

you don't get that with work very often you know i'd say with work it's definitely the rarity. And you don't necessarily even get that with, you know, like the long-term relationships in your life. You do get those moments, you know, but it's definitely like an installment thing. You don't get to cash in all at once. And it's really fun watching somebody break the bank for the first time. So Indiana, thanks for letting me watch your caver because, God damn, what toy? Yeah, and you got a great ass too.