Shutdown Fullcast - Shutdown Fullcast 4.30: Andy Staples and Steve White Do Big Things

Episode Date: August 24, 2016

Two former SEC linemen join Jason and Ryan while Spencer is lost in the mountains. They talk about: - fried chicken chains and the unspeakable world of on-campus food delivery - the merits of blocking vs. muting on Twitter - whether college offensive linemen are really as unprepared as NFL scouts complain they are - strength coaches - the merits of scheduling FCS opponents - the very small difference between Heaven and Hell Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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And we are joined tonight by Stephen White of SB Nation, former Tennessee Volunteers Lineman, played seven years in the NFL. Say hello, Steve. Hello, Steve. Nailed the dad joke. Excellent. We also have with us, Andy Staples of Sports Illustrated. as also an SEC

lineman who played... No, we don't get this in the NFL was it, Andy? That would be zero and played in zero college games but served as a tackling dummy on a team. So we're not even going to compare any sort of football careers because I'm nobody. You have your own achievements, Andy.

You've nothing to be ashamed of. I'm proud of. Well, there was the time I ate the three-pound burger and then dessert. win the t-shirt but that's that's pretty much that's that's more than vanderbilt does in some years that's important that's a good point see i'm here just to make people feel better um see all the all these c c e's people on this show we can't all laugh about vanderbilt here if you can't laugh about vanderbill you must have went to vanderbill that's all i do

no no no and then and then you're just laughing at our paychecks if you're that guy No one here at the SATs to go to Vanderbilt, I'm going to assume. I actually got into Vanderbilt, but yeah. I didn't want to. Okay, well, I'm just talking about myself. That's fine. That's right. This podcast is...

I was back when they had Jerry DeNardo, I was like, nah. So as anybody who's followed this podcast or any of us on Twitter can guess, we're here mostly to talk about lineman stuff, Paisman stuff. If you don't know what the Pysman is, oh boy, how did you wander into this podcast? What were you trying to download? And I hope 99% invisible is as good as it sounds, because this is not that. So we're just going to start with, man, we got a lot of good questions tonight. This is one mostly addressed to Steve.

This comes from Jordan Stewart at Dear Burley Man, appropriately on Twitter. Steve, and Andy may have an answer for this as well. What's the most Memphis thing you've ever seen? Oh, my goodness. You know what? That's kind of hard to say, to be honest with you. Because it's hard to really get into the essence of Memphis if you're not actually in Memphis. Okay.

Like, from the outside looking in, you can kind of think that Memphis is like Houston or Atlanta or some other southern cities. But Memphis is kind of, it's got its own thing. going. And so it's hard to say I mean, you know, we got the gold grills, but we also still have the Jerry Curls, you love barbecue, everybody just, you know, likes to have a good time.

So, you know, what was that movie? The one with whooped that trick was in that. Hustle and Flossil. Hustle and Flow. If I'm really homesick, I'll put

Hustling Flow in, so I guess maybe that's the most Memphis thing ever, but not because of the lead characters, but just because everything else around it. Like, the scene where they're in the parking lot, that was a Crystal Palace parking lot.

I grew up going there to Roller Skate as a kid. So, like, that was definitely the most Memphis thing ever as far as a movie. But it's just it's hard to capture that. Like, the actors in that movie suck. There was nothing

just to be honest with you. The actions were all off and all that shit, but everything else, the only thing that was cool, they had 3-6 Mafia in there. So that was pretty cool, but the scenes themselves, where they shot the movies, there was also a script joint in the movie

that I may or may not have driven by once or twice. That movie takes me back to Memphis a lot. Not because of, like I said, the actors, or the plot or anything like that, but just the scenes themselves. So like I say, it's hard to put

Memphis in a box, really. If you go there, you know exactly what I'm talking about. And that's also the movie they gave us, not just, we don't call them 3-6 Mafia now, now they're Academy Award-winning music group. That was disrespectful on my part. That's okay. We know what you meant.

It's okay. DJ Paul, Ducey, I'm sorry. Andy, do you have an answer to this question, the most Memphis thing that you've ever seen? Barbecued spaghetti I'm sorry pardon Can you back back Barbecued spaghetti

Interstate and a barbecue shop do that And there's actually had some in Kansas Over the weekend But the dudes came from Memphis That's how they learned how to make it But yeah it's basically So think Skyline chili Except replace the chili with some sort of smoked meat

And you put the So the barbecue sauce is the sauce, but you can't just dump it on there. You've got to kind of spin it so that it's just lightly coating the noodles. And you got barbecue spaghetti. Memphis tradition. Okay. I mean, I was picturing somebody just putting

like raw pasta into a smoker or something. So this turned out a lot better than I thought it was going to. One of the two Memphis places actually makes it in this the whole deal in the smoker. I think they boil the noodles first, but then they put the noodles in the smoker too. I hadn't been there. I do want to try that, though.

Good. Have you ever, either of you ever encountered anything, any barbecued thing more wild than that? I sure haven't. Well, I mean, I've eaten face before. Like human face or? No, pig face. Petty's barbecue in Starkville, Mississippi. If you order Snoop, that's what Snoop is the face.

Wow. I mean, not that I imagine a lot of European tourists are winding up in Starkville, but for the ones that do. I wish they were. You know what? That's true. We should start a campaign to convince some tourism board in, I don't know, Austria or something. Like, yeah, if you really want American culture, New York, L.A., skip it. Just go to Starkville. Like, we can organize this trip for you. It's cheap. You're going to really get an idea of what America's like. and just drop them off and say, all right, we'll see you in a week.

You might see Fred Smoot roll up to the Hilden Garden Inn and rolls Royce. Because I've seen that. As we all know, Fred Smoot is, of course, the mayor and local deity of Starkville, Mississippi. The man who is above all laws, governmental and physical. He's the Surgeon General of the city. I have a question for you, gentlemen. from Thomas Holsterman on Twitter. I think I'm reading in what his first initial is.

It's T. It could be anything. What's the best food one should eat to be in peak Piesman shape? And for anyone who doesn't know, the Pysman is, of course, our award administered by Ryan, for the greatest athletic achievement by a lineman doing a non-Linman thing. I mean, it's pie, right? It could be pecan pie, or it could be like some kind of meat pie, but it's got to be pie.

I'm going to go with peanut butter Like anything that has It can be a peanut butter pie It can be a peanut butter cheesecake A peanut butter pie Chocolate peanut butter pie Yeah As long as it has peanut butter in it

That is a fat guy meal right there Is that because you get to lie to yourself And be like well peanut butter has protein So you know There you go protein It's true Lyself to tell yourself One of my

My idea is, I've had, you know, several, gone through several thoughts on this of what heaven looks like. Yeah. But one of, so a peanut butter meal, this is not a peanut butter dessert, but one of the ideas that I've decided heaven looks like is there's a loaf of bread in front of you and a jar of peanut butter and a jar of jelly. And it's all yours. That's it? Like, that's heaven right there. An entire loaf of bread with a jar of peanut butter and jar jelly.

Man, if this... You're going to have unlimited supply of milk to go with that. Like, you need... Yes. You don't have something to drink with that. You are... That's going to be hell real fast. It's going to turn for you.

Oh, you don't. Yeah, you won't be able to talk much. It'd be hard to get it down toward the end of the loaf. So this is the, this is the theology portion of the podcast. As everyone knows. I do... So I have a, this is a question of my own. In my heart, I like to believe that linemen, on both sides of the ball,

growing up, not necessarily linemen. Some of them played running backs. Some of them played linebacker, quarterback, whatever. And I want to know first, for the two of you, did you play, were you a lineman pretty much from the time you started playing organized football, or did you have stints at other positions? The linebacker back in the day, and what Tennessee used to do, it's funny, I was talking about this, is they would recruit guys from other positions, and then they would change you, but they would do it real smooth, like, like, like.

Because they know guys really don't want to change positions. You know, you came out of high school as a linebacker. You want to play linebacker the same way as you're a running back. They'd be like, you know, Steve, you're looking real good at linebacker, but we want to maximize your potential. So we want you to get up a little bit closer to the line so you can get you to move up a little bit closer. Okay, a little bit closer. I want you to get closer.

Because we want to make you have great leverage, a little bit more. Okay, put your hand down and then rush the pass. It's sort of like how you teach a kid to ride a bike And you're like, I'm holding on Yeah, I'm totally holding on Definitely holding on, not letting go Nope, not at all Yep, now you're swimming in the 12-foot section

Now it seems to be a little bit more specialized With all these camps and stuff like that And so, you know, you kind of recruit guys To play what they're going to play in college But back in my day, I mean, if you were the lineback, you probably came there as a running back Or if you were the defensive line you probably came there as a linebacker or a tight-in or something.

So that's changed a little bit, but, yeah, back to the day, I don't think anybody came there and played what they were opposed to, except for maybe offensive alignment. So I was too fat to play Pop Warner. So when I started playing football in high school, I was immediately put on the offensive line. And then when I got to college, I was too small to play offensive line. because for like four blessed years I had the highest metabolism ever,

and now I don't anymore. But then I did, and no matter what I ate, I couldn't gain past like 245, 250. So I should have been a tight end or a middle linebacker, but I couldn't run. So, ergo, walk on guard, who could never play. I take it, Andy, you have not had any, well, I shouldn't assume. That's not fair.

Have you had your own pizement moment? whether it was in practice or, you know, whatever, where you got to transcend your role? No, the only time, there was one time in high school when the tailback fumbled in the end zone, and I had the ball behind my back, and I had it, you know, in my arm, and our full back picked it up, or, like, grabbed it away from me and started dancing with it. You got Paisman. You got Paisman. You did the reverse Paisman. Oh, my God, you got stunted on.

That's brutal. Steve, I know you... It's a vegetable man. I know, I mean, I know Steve has had a Pison... Steve had, like, a pretty notable Pison moment in a playoff game, no less. But what is, like... What is the one that... Is there one that sticks out to you a moment at any level where you were like, yeah, you know,

I got my hands on the ball, and I was really proud of this thing I was able to do? The one you alluded to is actually the only one. Like, I came close a couple of times, but I never really got, like, an interception or picked up a fumble. much but in 1999 and the nancy championship game first play of the game they try to throw a screen and because i was a little slow and so i didn't really get up the field that much it worked out perfectly for me because i was right there against the ball so literally the first play of the nancy championship game i get an interception and you know we didn't get a touchdown we kicked the field goal which is probably

some of why we lost that game but hey you know If things are going different, I might have actually know, been something about it. People might have actually be doing it. But you could have told me nothing right out there play, though. I was going off and celebrating and everything. He had those, the day about celebrating. I got probably 30 yards instead of 15 yards to celebrate.

So I was talking and everything. Yeah. And when the reality was, I just didn't get a good pass for it. So I just. But nobody needs to know that. That's not important. Right. You know, details.

I think that's how you drew it up. All the casual fan saw was you made a great play on the ball. It doesn't really matter why you were there. I saw the commentary out, like the replay. The commentator, oh, the commentators thought I sniffed it out. That was the word. That was the word. You know, I sniffed it out.

No, no. And then do you go to the running backs coach and say, like, hey, see anything you like there? Yeah, no, I wouldn't go on that from. I knew my limitations. I was very self-aware about that. I'm going to bring the mood down slightly with this question. Not too bad, though. This is from Ben Delman, at Ben Delman on Twitter.

Is there anything you wanted to accomplish during the off-season that you haven't yet? And Jason, I'm going to start you with this question. Oh, my God. So, yeah, the off-season, it's very short. You might think it's months long, and you might think it lasts from, like, right after signing day through today or so. It actually doesn't. It's actually about three weeks long. So, yeah, you know, wanted to, we've been talking for a while about, like, we've got to see some national parks.

We've got to get out west, which that's where Spencer is tonight, by the way, in case you're about, what, 17 minutes in. We'll mention where Spencer's at. He's in Montana. Fuck that guy. By himself. Looking for Ted Turner, I think. But, yeah, you know, we want to go on some cool vacations. We went to Disney.

That, I mean, Andy, I know you're a Disney pro, but, man, I'm not. cut out for Disney myself i didn't say i like Disney i just come up with ways to tolerate it well you're you're you're better at that than i am but we we we we left a lot on the table for next year a lot of goals to achieve i guess that's that's very college that's very rebuilding college football program we we this offseason is about eight and four i'd say okay uh Andy what about you anything you wanted to do during this off season that you have not got yeah i was gonna I was going to carve out a six-pack, and it just didn't quite get to it. It didn't quite work out.

Next year, man. Yeah. I keep telling myself that one of these years. It's going to, I mean, technology's getting better all the time, so it'll happen for you. Oh, the wife just got a machine at work. You know the wife works in plastic surgery, so they just got a machine at work that freezes your fat cells. Okay. And then you just pee them out of it.

and then you just pee them out after like four weeks and you're supposed to be skinnier so it freezes the what so you your body pees out all cold stuff well no it's in the fat the cells die

they're frozen they die they just they liquefy and then once they warm back up they liquefy and then your body just process it out of his waist so allegedly those fat cells are gone now you can still get fat again by refilling the remaining fat cells, but supposedly this does make you a little

skinnier. So I'll be curious to see if it actually works. I don't know if I'll get to be a guinea pig or not, but there have been opportunities occasionally for that sort of thing. Hey, it's just journalism. You're just, you know, out there exploring the unexplored. There's nothing wrong with that. That's right. And I don't care if I do it fake, if I do it the fake way, if I don't do it with hard work. Oh. Because it's still a six-pack. If you didn't know me before, you're like, dang, that guy's got some nice abs.

Oh, the hitters. I bet he froze those off because his wife happens to work in a plastic surgery practice. No. No, the haters are going to say you cheated, but you know what? They say that about Nick Sabin, too. Roll tide. Steve, what did you have on your off-season accomplishment list that did not get checked this year? you know what I pretty much did it all

so I was actually productive I didn't really have a choice but I was actually pretty productive this summer maybe the only thing I was supposed to teach my daughter how to drive and that didn't really get done but hey we're still alive so we'll live to try that another time I'm not so you know I'm a little nervous about that

so I might just let somebody else teach her how to do that because my nerve is bad, real bad. But other than that, man, I did pretty much what I was trying to do. I actually lost about, and it's not to pat myself on the back, but I did lose about 30 pounds, so I'm actually back to just being fat instead of obese, like morbidly obese. What was your go-to training method and your meal plan? I don't eat after seven, and I'm just like do my own little.

a workout. You play football for a while, especially if you're in like a college program or whatever or, you know, pro program. You kind of learn what to do kind of on your own. You don't really need a workout program. So I try to work out

two or three times a week and then I would walk or jog twice or two or three times a week. And it worked out. Look, I'm going to tell you something. If you live in Florida and you can't lose weight, something's wrong. because it's hot here all the time.

Hot and humid. All you have to do is go outside. You're going to lose about five pounds of water weight regardless. I promise you. I was going to say this is predicated on people in Florida going outside in the summer. Yeah, you actually have to step outside now. Don't get me wrong. But if you want to lose some weight, you just walk around the block.

You'll lose about two or three pounds just a water weight just like this. But thankfully, hopefully I'll be able to actually keep it off this time because that's been my problem. you know, all that peanut butter and stuff. I'm trying to get off this yo-yo situation where I can just stay down now. Like I said, I'm just fat now. I'm not morbidly obese anymore, so I'm trying to stay in that little wheelhouse. Yeah, going outside in Florida in the summer,

everyone is that kid in high school who is trying to cut weight for wrestling in extreme ways. Like, you are the kid wearing a garbage bag and constantly spitting into a cup. Well, that's it. If you've seen the show Bloodline on, Netflix. It's set in the Keys and Al Marada. And that's the one part of that show they get right. Everybody is sweating their ass off.

Like, they didn't stop the cameras and be like, oh, Coach Taylor, we need to mop your brow here. You got some sweat stains on your shirt. We'll change your new shirt. No, no. It's like, keep it rolling. Keep it rolling. It was good. Let's get some good spread on the back there. That's good. Oh, that's perfect.

Exactly. I think between this and Gary Patterson, we talked about sweaty men for about two months straight on this program. It's the summer. It's what we're supposed to do. Also, Spencer actually hosts this program. What else are we going to talk about? You can't talk about Pizement without sweat.

Exactly. You can't talk about fat guys without sweat now. This program is for gentlemen to go outside with towels on their shoulders. That's who we put on for. And some who go to the movies with the towel on their shoulders. Whatever. You can sweat anywhere. Steve's recent weight loss leads to this next question.

This comes from. Man, I do not know how to pronounce this. It's Anita Zavr. And there are a lot of ours in there on Twitter. And her question is, which other programs should be paying their strength coach $600,000 a year, which I believe, Jason, correct me if I'm wrong. That's how much it was revealed that Iowa's strength coach is currently getting paid,

which is a lot of money for a strength and conditioning coach. He earns every penny. Why is that? I was at their practice last week. I mean, look, they don't have a lot of the physical gifts that you'll see on an SEC roster. So whatever they're doing to get the most out of those guys, they're doing really well at it. So, yeah, whatever they're paying him, not enough. All right, so you guys can probably both speak to this.

how much have strength and conditioning programs changed since, you know, the mid, mid, late 90s when you guys were involved in college football to what they are today? Like, what are the big changes? What are the big differences? Well, now they have to kind of be coaches, too, like football coaches, because of all the different rules changes now, especially during the summer. If guys want to get together and do seven-on-seven and stuff like that, you can't have an actual football coach there. But you can have a member of the straight staff there. So, you know, those guys have to do more than just put together

a strength and conditioning plan for the players. And a lot of times those guys are kind of a go-between between the coach and the players. Now, that's not always a good thing. I saw a story recently about a coach that installed cameras or something, hidden cameras in the weight room, whatever. I think this was a baseball team, I want to say, that did this. Something like, it was weird, like he was trying to catch guys not doing something, whatever. But, you know, if a coach, I was a graduate assistant for a year in 2005 with USF here.

And so, you know, a lot of times that coach, that strength coach will be a guy who could come and tell a position coach or the head coach, hey, this guy is doing this or hey, this guy's doing that, whether it be negative or positive. And so those guys do a whole lot now. Their role is definitely increased. I don't know if it's increased $600,000 worth because I think, look, most strength coaches think they do a good job, right? I'm sure this guy at Iowa does a good job, but who's to say the guy at Tennessee doesn't do a good job? Well, the guy at UT Martin doesn't do a good job. So, you know, it's all relative, but there's no denying the fact that they do a lot more now than they had to do back when I was playing ball. You know, that's a long time ago.

I came out of school in 1995, and back then those guys, that's what they did. They was wait room guys, period. it's pretty much all they did except for you know the agility drills and stuff like that now these guys have to kind of go out and monitor these kids actually doing football stuff during the summer because the other coaches can't do it

yeah they have to play so many roles now it's like they are the observer for everything they're the go between if you say something in the presence of a strength coach it's getting back to the head coach so you got to watch what you say or you could kind of strategically plant some

brown-nosing or whatever you need to do but um they got to be like the psychologist they got to be the cop the parent the guidance counselor all that stuff they have to do because they're around the players more than anybody else uh and then it seems like in terms of the actual workout it seems the workouts have changed they're they're more position specific now than they used to be it wasn't it's not really just all the linemen just do this and all the the because it was before like the quarterbacks and kickers had a different workout but everybody else pretty much in the same workout. And it seems like it's a lot more position specific. They have a lot more help. You know, back in the day, you'd have, you know, the head strength

coach, he'd have an assistant, maybe like, there'd be like two GAs or something. And now it's, there's, there's the head strength coach, five assistants, uh, however many GAs they're allowed to have in there. And there's, I mean, everybody's got somebody pushing them through workouts individually, you could kind of, if you were a walk-on, you could kind of sneak through every once in a while back in the day. Hypothetically, you could. Yeah, I mean, I couldn't, for whatever, I got the worst workout time. You know, when you're a freshman walk-on, you get the worst workout time.

So, you know, when you come in at 6 in the morning, you end up getting, like, the number two guy. And he hates being with you because you're of no use to anyone. So he's just mad, he's just taking it out on you. So, but, no. You're going to be his ticket to the big job because he's going to say, look what I turn this walk-on into. And then, wow, you must be ready for promotion. There were walk-ons like that.

I was not one of those, unfortunately. So I was nobody's meal ticket. Psychologist slash strength coach. I think that's the scariest resume line I've ever heard. Yeah, do all strength coaches have to be the most insane person on the coaching staff? Or is that just like the stereotype that stands out? Oh, they're pretty close. They're pretty close.

Yeah. There's always that one assistant who likes to take hits off the strength coach's smelling salt. Good. Jason, you got a question for us? Let's see. From Mason Dally, Mace, J.D. on Twitter, who's the best fat rapper going right now? I'm going to mention that Fat Joe, who's not fat anymore, had a number one song this year. Rick Ross, who's not really fat anymore, is also around.

I'm gonna go with Killer Mike Oh yeah I'm gonna kill a Mike He's still pretty fat He's still pretty hefty And he puts it down So I think that's an excellent choice

That's an excellent choice That's an excellent And it just makes me really mad That big That name is a lie Yeah Like if Big Sean were big He might

I don't think you could overtake killer Mike But he might have a chance But he's skinny Like it was cool when Big Boy did it Like yeah we get it not very tall. The big Sean, he's just an average size human. Right. Yeah.

It's your average, Sean, in more than one way. Sorry. All right. Let's, oh, this is a question directed to Andy. This is from P. Maramba at PM wearing hats on Twitter.

Andy, why the hate for cake donuts? I don't like them. Raised donuts taste better. That's all there is to it. I don't really have a scientific explanation for it or anything yeah i just you give you give me a a chocolate frosted raised donut and a cake donut i know which one i'm eating okay is there any redeeming quality to

the cake donut or are we just done with them there are there some that are okay like the blueberry cake donuts are usually pretty good uh i but see i never and and i know people are going to think this is sacrilege but i never like those little chocolate donuts the little chocolate cake donuts like for the donuts yeah the ones that come in yeah like the john balusci commercial where he's where he's in the olympics eating little chocolate donuts yeah no i just don't like those i i would rather have like a crispy cream or some kind of raised donut it's just personal preference okay someone did ask us to evaluate bow jangles versus poppies oh boy oh go jangles is trash except for the biscuits wow what time what time of

is it. That's my question. What meal are we talking about? Let's say lunch. Let's say lunch. But if it's breakfast, you go bojangles. If it's any other time, you go Popeyes. Yeah, yeah. I think another factor is how big a hurry are you in? Because if you got to be out of there in five minutes with your to go order, well, Popeyes, you never know. You might be leaving empty-handed. I think it's worth the weight and it's worth the roll of the dice.

but Pop-Pies just is not the place to pop in and guarantee you'll be popping back out of it. Pop-I's, by the way, is the best... I'm trying to figure out how to explain this or quantify it, but the closest fast-food version of the best version of that food. So, like, the best fried chicken in the world is Gus's in Mason, Tennessee. Popeyes is not that far off from that. Okay.

Popeyes is the closest approximation to the peak of what Popeye's is the closest to the peak of the thing that it's trying to sell you. Exactly. Whereas Papa John's, nobody would say, is close to the peak of pizza or something. Exactly.

And Popeyes is so much better on that scale than any other kind of fast food. It's not even funny. I mean, people, you know the end and out, people are going to fight you on this, right? I think burgers are a whole different thing. Why? Yeah, I mean, because there's a fast food burger, and then there's a, you know, what Hardee's would call a $6 burger, but like a, you know, a restaurant-type burger.

This is kind of a different category. Okay. Like, burgers and tacos are probably exempt from this because, like, a real cheap taco can still be incredible. But, like, real cheap chicken, that could be bad if it's not Popeyes, basically. But listen, I got a shout out. This is Good Time Deli makes the best burger I've ever had in my life. It's in Knoxville, Tennessee. and every

I mean U.T football player probably is at one point in time eating at Gus's Good Time Deli it actually burned down but they rebuilt it and brought it back that Gus's Good Time Deli was one of the reasons why I got moved to the defensive end in the first place

They deliver all times of the night man listen Best burgers ever So if you're ever in Knoxville It's right on campus Like right off of campus ask somebody to tell you how to get the gust of good time deli.

Whoever came up with the idea of delivering food to college students specifically, just wrong. It's wrong. Just the richest, like, we probably talked about pokey sticks on this program before. Pokey sticks could not be a more crumulent, disgusting product. Pocky sticks are horrible. They're terrible. No University of Florida graduate will ever admit to eating pokey sticks sober, ever.

No, nor should you, because that says a lot of, things about your personal life that you shouldn't want to admit. And Pokey6 are the exact example of food that you would never ever eat at a restaurant. That you would never say yes, bring me that. But if it's deliverable and you

can eat it with other people. But here's the question, Ryan. And you're the only other person on this podcast qualified to answer. Yeah. Worst Worst food that tastes great when you're drunk. Pokey sticks or that

five Five-star pizza, yeah. Pepperoni pizza that they're selling for $5 when you walk out of the bar because there's a delivery driver with a keep-it-hot bag standing there. And if you hand him $5, he will hand you that pizza. Yeah. So this is a little bit, I don't know if this trick still exists at Florida or if it was around when you were there. There was a thing where people would call in an order to, like if we're at, let's say we're at

my dorm room and you live next door. You come over to my room and we order a five-star pizza for your room and the five-star guy shows up. He knocks on your door. You don't answer and he's like shit. And I open the door and I'm like, hey man, oh, you got a pizza there? How much was it? And I basically buy it on discount just so he doesn't have to. Low ball, a five-star? This was the thing. This was the thing people did in Florida because we were all so poor and shitty this this is why everybody hates florida grads it's not the jean shorts it's

stuff like this there are a lot of reasons why that's like florida that is horrible to you okay so when i was a freshman after the national championship for the entire month of january yeah a five-star cheese pizza was 299 delivered that's so that that's approaching the point where you start to have to question the sourcing of the ingredients. That's, yeah. Hot pockets cost more than it. There is.

The idea of this, of Ryan, low-balling a five-star driver. Hang on, I didn't say I did it. I didn't say I did it. Hypothetically low-balling a five-star driver. I said I saw it happen.

I said I saw it happen. You participated in the evil. That's a mirror to it. Was there a mirror around? What are pokey sticks, by the way? Oh, my God. It's a pizza without cheese or sauce where they put the sauce in a cup. That's it.

It's brushed with it. It's brus, all right, it's, yes, Andy's describing it roughly accurately. They take a pizza crust. It's a little puffier than most pizza crust. They brush it in basically butter and herbs, and they bake it like that. So it's a big thing of, kind of like garlic bread, but like the laziest, shittiest garlic bread you've ever had. They cut it in, they cut it into string. sort of like french toastics and you get it in a pizza box and then you dip it in it comes with

uh i believe mariner sauce and ranch dressing and people people eat this people eat these like it is absolutely the thing that you will look back on at your time in florida more so than more so than any terrible alcoholic beverage you had and say why did i put that in my body it's it's a horrifying thing and they probably sell 50,000 of them a year, conservatively. And they're only a little bit cheaper than the pizza. Right.

So you really, instead of ordering a pizza and pokey sticks, you should order, spend the extra $2 and order two pizzas. But the pizza's terrible. The pizza at Gumbies is terrible. But the pokey stitch are worse because it's pizza without saucer cheese. Yeah, but it's easy. All you got to do is order the $5 pizza,

not show up, have someone else and have that person back out of that deal, have someone next to him off of $3 and rate the process until they pay you for the $5. I'll take $8. You give me the pizza and $8 and you can walk away. Walk away. Walk away, free and clear.

Gainesville pizza economics. This is horrifying. I'm going to ask a serious question now. This one comes from Lorenzo Cortez at Hoya, Texas, on Twitter. Are pro-level coach is right about offensive linemen not having good fundamentals out of college. The pro-level coaches definitely feel that way. Yeah.

And with a lot of these up-tempo offenses, they have good reason to feel that way because with all these run-pass options, the offensive linemen are basically told it's sort of like 20 years. You block basically the play you would block 20 years ago when you had a three-step drop. You fire off the line, and then you kind of, you know, it's essentially you're showing a run, even though you might pass. but you're going to fire off a little harder because it might actually be a run.

And then in some cases, you might actually be comboing up to a linebacker, but you don't know if it's a run or a pass. So you just have to kind of figure it out. But you're never actually pass setting like an NFL offensive line would. And that's a fairly valuable skill. So, you know, if you don't play for Florida State or Stanford or Alabama, you may not be getting that skill because you're not a practice. every day.

Steve, does that sound right to you? I know you do a lot of breakdowns for the draft and things like that. It's absolutely right. And he hit the nail on the head. These guys are doing way more run blocking than pass blocking these days. And that's really why I ended up ranking Ronnie Stanley over Laramie Tonsle this year because I just didn't get to see Tonsul pass block that much. Whereas Ronnie Stanley's pass block quite a bit and looked pretty good at doing it.

And then you have some guys where the few times they do get the past block, their technique is horrible. And so you're almost like, well, okay, I get it. Now, I see why you're not pass blocking that much. But, you know, if you're only doing that stuff, and basically you're only blocking zone most of the time, so it's not like you're even learning the fundamentals of all the different run blocks you're going to have to do in a lot of cases. So now I had to learn my lesson because I was very high on Greg Robinson Because he just looked so athletic Even though he wasn't pass blocking much

Like in the run game I just felt like this dude was so athletic He would get out there on screens and just maw people But when you get to the league man it's a passing league Everybody says that and it's true So it's great if you're a role grader But you're going to end up playing guard more than anything else If you can't pass block in the NFL That's if you actually, if they actually keep you around.

So now, what's the solution to that? I don't know, because so many teams are going to these spread option offices because it's easier than teach, obviously. And you don't have to have that great left tackle to block for your quarterback if you're doing all these run-pass options. So I'm not sure that it's going to change. I'm not sure how they fixed that, but 100% for sure, these offensive alignment these days are definitely coming out with lesser technique

because they're not being asked to do nearly as much as guys used to be asked to do. And that's the tricky part is the NFL coaches have to figure out, okay, who's smart enough and athletic enough to learn this skill? Because you may miss on a guy because you think, oh, he wasn't in that offense, and then he becomes a great NFL player because he works on it, he's smart, and he figures it out, but I mean, that makes it a pretty tough deal to project because, like Stephen was

saying, Greg Robinson looks like a, just a phenomenal athlete. You're thinking, okay, he's so athletic, he has to be able to pick this up. And hasn't. I use the awkward segue about blocking to talk about a real sensitive subject here.

We're going to rip this Band-Aid off, guys. We don't do. Jason, is it fair to say that we've never done anything worthwhile? on this program? Hell no, not a thing. Okay. Steve, I got to tell you,

we came to our attention today. You got our boy Andy blocked on Twitter, and we just want to talk about it and just ask you to open up your heart and let him back into your time line. What did I do? What did I do? Yeah, we just want to, you know.

I'm honest with it. I don't even, I didn't even realize it until you just said something. Well, Steve, you're not missing anything. It's just pictures of food. So it's okay. If you don't, you will not, it will not enrich your life at all if you, if you unblock me. Maybe you caught a stray. I probably said something stupid about Tennessee, would be my guess.

It might have been. No, I mean, he hasn't blocked Spencer, though, so. I mean. I'm close. I thought about it a couple of things. See, I prefer, I prefer the mute feature because it feels like you can torture that person. more by muting them because it's somebody who wants to get under your skin so if you mute them they're they're going to continue trying to get under your skin and then they just can't they're

just yeah yeah it feels the void because why deprive them of your content why why would you do that different perspective on that and this goes back to before we even had the mute function and this isn't about andy obviously but i i like the feeling of we got mad at somebody you hung up on them you can slam the phone down and they can't hear you know somebody's at the door you're throwing them out or it's like you know uh martin back in the day you got to get to step and he slammed the door behind me i was thrown on the note like sometimes i mute them if they're not like really offending me or or really upsetting me i'll mute them because i have the option now but before when you only had a block i was so quick to block people because i just be like i want you to know like when you

come and want to say something else or want to look at my time and I want you to be like oh what just happened whoa that kind of hurt in my chest I want to why why am I block right whereas the mute function is more like when you're talking on the phone to somebody and they're just going

on and you just put the phone down but you don't hang it up and you just let them keep talking while you're like doing dishes and you just like pick it up every five minutes and just go uh-huh yeah yeah and just put the phone back down That's the mute function today. You know who I accidentally blocked?

And a similar circumstance. The other day I realized Twitter shows you a list of who all you've blocked. I don't know how new this feature is, but I just found it. I blocked Phil Steele at some point. Really? God knows why. Unblocked him immediately. Now the blockless is just Darren Ravel and Pierce Morgan, but I have no idea why in the world anyone.

Because, like, what, did we get in a Twitter show? No. Because his tweets are too jam-packed with information. I just couldn't handle it. The self-preservation block is the other good thing to do, where this is my favorite thing now where people are like, oh, you blocked me, and I've never even interacted with you. I guarantee you have interacted with somebody I know,

and I was just like, no, I'm just going to save myself this trouble. It's sort of like reading a Yelp review for a restaurant you've never been to, and somebody's like, there were cockroaches in the food the restaurant's not going to call me and be like hey how come you've never come to our restaurant you need to give us a chance like no i can learn from others i don't have to like not everybody has to give this a go yeah like the oh he's so petty he blocked me i'd ever interacted with them well like you can go and get somebody else's block list and use it you can go block everyone but moni jones has blocked just by you know flipping one switch that's a long list

that's a long and then twitter has like nine people so that's that's a nice exclusive club You know, like, Spencer, me and Spencer and Holly were joking about that the other day, but, like, I'm so quick to block it. It's not even a thing to me anymore. Like, I just self-consciously block people now. It just comes so effelessly. And I'm like, I'm on one day, like, I might have set the record. Like, one day I got FSU Twitter mad at me. Oh, no. Oh, no. Why were you talking about those? So I just basically went down the line. I didn't even check the mentions after a while. I just blocked everybody. right I'm like I didn't even care like you might not even they might not have even been saying something bad but it was just like yeah you look like a seminole yep it just is too easy yeah it's too easy for me because I kind of feel like you know it's overrated anyway to be able to interact with all these people most of these people are just they're annoying man you can't look you know I've covered a bucks very closely because I'm a former I'm here, and I really pull for the team. Man, there's some books fans that are just annoying. You cannot please them.

And so, look, I thought, why, it's just like, I'm going to go ahead and block you. And you'll be fine, and I'll be fine, and we'll be both fine. We just won't interact. I mean, look, Steve, you don't have to do anything. Just search your heart. I don't know why.

Just decide. Just decide if you want. I know what you were talking about. Somebody gets something else. about it earlier, and I was kind of oblivious, like, what? Well, that's what, the only reason I knew is, is they said, you know, we were going to be on the show together. So I'm like, oh, because I read your stuff on SB Nation.

I was like, I was like, oh, I don't know what he said on Twitter today. And I click on it and it's like, you are a block from seeing. I'm like, really? Oh, okay. Hey, man. It's a little sting in my heart. Yeah. You're like, man, why did they?

It just happened to me the other day. I promised. I was like, man, what did I do? But I got too much pride to ask, but I was like, that was, why I had to sit in a corner for a little while and meditate. I'm just, I'm just happy Tennessee got a victory over Florida, finally. I think he just blocked you. I think Celebrity Hot Tub just got blocked.

I didn't say it. I didn't say it. But he did it on here, so I can't block him on here. That's true. I'm not going to do it on Twitter, do you can plug your ears. I also made sure my wife who went to Tennessee is not in the room right now, so that was clutch. All right, I'm going to do this one from Sandlap or Spike. This is a semi-serious question, but this Twitter user would like your opinion about Jimbo Fisher's comment replaying FCS schools, which, Jason, do you remember exactly what his words were on this?

I have, I can sort of summarize it briefly. Yeah, it was, Jimbo was commenting on, like, the, the idea that FBS, you know, the Power 5 should only play Power 5, FBS, only FBS, and so on. And his point was sort of the economics of the sport. It's designed that, you know, you know, FCS schools can sort of support D2. FBS can support FCS, Power 5 can support mid-majors by playing those paycheck games. And Jimbo is in favor of keeping the, you know, keeping the ecosystem the way it is where

everyone can sort of spread the wealth and make sure that these programs can continue to provide scholarships and so forth. So basically, Jimbo's in favor of things stay in the way they are. And some of his argument was also, I believe that if you didn't have these games and you sort of, you'd inevitably reduce the number of colleges that offer football scholarships, and that would in turn mean fewer kids play high school football. That would be bad for the sport as a whole, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Andy, do you agree with Jimbo Fisher? Are these paycheck games with FCS schools that frequently just get steamrolled unless you're

Michigan playing upstate? Are they good or are they bad? Well, I don't care if you play one on them a year. I really don't. It doesn't bother me. Now, if you want your stands full, you shouldn't play one. If you want people to show up, you shouldn't play one. But I do understand that.

And it's interesting, the guy who asks a question. So Sanlap or Spike, San Lapper suggests he's a South Carolinian. Like in that state, if the ACC and the SEC said you can't play FCS schools anymore, the state of South Carolina would simply mandate that Clemson and South Carolina had to play Wofford and the Citadel. So, like, in a lot of states, they would pass a law forcing you to do it. Listen, man. The last thing we need is South Carolina to make its own rules. Listen, man.

Exactly. I think we all learned that. The Citadel is an SEC. level program, at least as of last year. As of last year, that's correct. So let's give them some credit here. Yeah, I think that's right.

Just having the occasional one of these is not the biggest deal in the world. It also, I really find it interesting when people suggest that the label of FBS or Power 5, that these

are clean, sort of permanent groupings that always indicate higher quality. I mean, there are definitely years where North Dakota State is better than a lot of FBS teams and is better than some Power 5 teams as well. So to me, it's less about are you playing FCS schools and it's more a question of when you play these games, how many of them are you, how many times are you playing the team that you know you're going to just destroy because they have nobody on the roster, because they are brand new program, are just getting their feet wet, And how many times are you playing an FCS school that has a real shot at going to the playoffs or has a history of being competitive in these kind of games?

And that's the sort of thing that gets lost in this arbitrary distinction of which division or sub-reference you're in. The other thing that it does, too, is allow some of these guys at those lower levels to play against better competition, which gives then talent evaluators a better opportunity to give them a fair evaluation. You know, if they only were able to play guys, you know, FCS could only play FCS, then there will always be somebody screaming, well, they couldn't do that against the SEC tackle. And I go back and think about a guy like, for instance, Khalil Mack. And he was fantastic on his team. but when he really made people pay attention was we had the big game against Ohio State, right?

And that was probably the only game they played on TV that year. But some of these guys, man, they need those opportunities. The team might be terrible, but they might have one or two guys on their team that can actually showcase their talents against a SEC team as well. So I just think that it's good for football. you don't have to, you know, you're not going to load up your schedule with that. And these days with, you know,

the college football playoffs and stuff and the way that they go into calculating that, the top teams I don't think would go that route anyway because they're trying to get into the playoffs. But nobody's going to really try to load up on these guys. But there's nothing wrong with playing one of those games a year. And there's just, there's a lot good to it. From the things that you mentioned,

And also, like I said, giving some of these players at lower division schools an opportunity to shine against better competition. I think Nick Saban was the one who started this. Like, Power 5 should only play Power 5, and everyone says, yes, it sounds great. There's nothing but big games. But, like, I mean, I believe he really means that. But I think, like, anyone else making this case, well, okay, go ahead and agitate to boot Kansas or Wake Forest or Oregon State or Vanderbilt from your conference then. Make your conference tougher and then come talk. I mean like if if your conference has teams that are just woefully bad and will always be bad

what what argument are you really making you know if you're telling everybody else who not to play uh if you know if if you're the one validating these mediocre programs as deserving of special status fair enough uh jason you got one last question for us to give these guys before we go i do and let's let's start with steve here i got a good sense uh about steve on this one from she dealt on Twitter CW wants to know most low-key adorable animal and CW says raccoons

Oh man Oh man No no no They can't be a raccoon They're They're sneaky and devious And they got rabies It can't be a ratcon

That's extremely low-key Right It's like all the way out of key It's so low-key But um Uh man there was just rodents actually the other day I can't remember the name of it

but I follow all these accounts that tweet pictures of cute little animals or whatever and it almost made you not realize it was a rodent it was so cute you know it almost looked like a cartoon but it's like an oversized rodent which I guess means it's sort of like a rat it sounds like a capy barra

I just said we're talking about a capi barb they're adorable They're adorable. That's exactly what it was. That's exactly what it was. I couldn't remember the name to save my life. But yeah, the other day, I just tweeted, re-tweeted it out. So, yeah, it was very adorable. I had to, like, I was like, wow, this is pretty cute for a rat.

This is a rodent identification podcast. Right. I do find the mouse rat distinction really perplexing in terms of, like, what people think is cute and not. Like, sure, rats are huge. and frequently found in filthy places but like if you tell somebody like oh there's you know there's a mouse in the garage they're like okay well you know i'm gonna i'm gonna go get some some peppermint oil or something like that if you tell somebody there's a rat in the oh man like get the shotgun get the shotgun get the get the gun from aliens that has the

flame thrower yeah we're gonna oh we got to find out of house it's no there's a mouse Oh, that's Mickey Mouse, that's Pikachu. Oh, we've got to corral it and release it back into the wild. Or maybe we'll keep it. Yeah. But, yeah, a rat, no. Now, if there's a copy bar in your basement, then you can, like, you know, make the neighbors pay to come in and see it and ride it. You can open a daycare.

If there's a copy bar in your basement, you should just run. Because something's wrong. There's probably a Burmese python there, too. I told you we shouldn't have moved in this abandoned South Florida. Florida animals shop. Andy, what's the most low-key cute animal? Hedgehog. Oh.

That's perfect. But the raccoon thing is insane. Like, when have you ever seen a raccoon in the wild that's not trying to jump into a garbage can? Yeah, I mean, I would, for our friend CW, I would wonder what part of the world he, I believe it's he, is from because I'm standing on my back court. right now and I'm looking over at a spot where one day I looked over and saw a raccoon

looking at me like with its their eyes glow at night because they're they're filled with with demons and rage I came out and like before my foot even fell in my next step I was already whirled back around like nope this is your backyard now