The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz - Hour 1: The Modulated Voice is Revealed

Episode Date: September 3, 2025

"I'm the man in the arena." Ray Lewis and Shannon Sharpe have words, Billy votes on the AP Poll, Dan beats a 'Stat of the Day' into the ground, and the secret voice behind our show-long voice modulation is exposed. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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That's 20% off your first. order with code Dan at checkout liquid ivy.com. Mark Stein, one of the long-time journalistic voices in basketball, not unlike Tim Kirchon. He's someone who only cares and knows anything about his sport and knows very little else by his own admission, knows basketball, says the alleged violations in this incredibly detailed Pablo Tori report are staggering and without precedent, a story that has shaken the NBA already like very few. should mention that Steve Ballmer and the Clippers have sent out a response, quote, neither Mr. Balmer nor the Clippers circumvented the salary cap or engaged in any misconduct

related to aspiration. Any contrary assertion is provably false. The team ended its relationship with aspiration years ago during the 2022-2020 season when aspiration defaulted on its obligations. Neither the Clippers nor Mr. Balmer was aware of any improper activity by aspiration or its co-founder until after the government instituted its investigation. The team and Mr. Balmer stand ready to assist law enforcement in any way they can. So case closed. The funniest part of this statement is the Mr. Balmer is capitalized, and I'm certain that's how they refer to him.

Everyone refers to him there. It's not Steve Balmer, it's Mr. It's not even MR, period. The Mr. is capitalized and the Balmer is capitalized because he is referred to by capital M. Mr. and Balmer in press releases and in person. Do you think they pronounce it like the way you would, if it were all capitalized? Like, Mr. Balmer, that's how you would say capitalized.

It should have an exclamation point on it. That's how he talks, right? Like, that's it. Like, Mr. Balmer. So does Pablo owe Mr. Balmer an apology now that they've come out and clear this all up? You're going with the defense there? I mean, it feels like this could have just been resolved over a phone call. Like, hey, did you do it?

Like, nah. I'm like, okay. Traditional media versus a billionaire. I know how this one goes. We can move on to other subjects, but just to close the loop on what it is that not Greg Cody accused me of earlier, poor journalism judgment in a story from 30 years ago about the White House in Dallas. The story was about sex and the Super Bowl. That's the story that I was doing.

And one of the other things in that story that I've told you about recently was that I called Derek Thomas for that story. the late Derek Thomas, to ask him if it was true that when he and Shannon Sharp got into a fight on Monday night football that got Derek Thomas ejected for three straight or two straight penalty flags for unsportsman like conduct because Shannon Sharp had enraged him, I was calling Derek Thomas to ask him if all Shannon Sharp was doing was repeating a woman's telephone number that he cared about. And Derek Thomas hung up on me as soon as I called him. And Shannon Sharp, because Derek Thomas has passed away, says, I will never say what it is that I was saying to Derek Thomas. Shannon Sharp has been in the news recently, let go by ESPN, fumbled a bag like very few people ever have. And we have some sound. These guys were teammates, Ray Lewis and Shannon Sharp, for a championship team. Shannon Sharp, among the best tight ends I've ever seen before we started making gronks. and Travis Kelsey's really prolific, productive, and given that I saw the 30 for 30 on the Ravens,

given that I saw Ray Lewis and Shannon Sharp interact, I didn't think that where we've now arrived in public discourse would be a thing that I saw, given the unity of the huddle. Here's Ray Lewis talking about Shannon Sharp, and listen to what Ray Lewis has to say before you hear Shannon Sharp hurt by what Ray Lewis had to say. Yeah. So you're not surprised by the success he's having with his podcast and TV and him and Skip and Stephen A, all that stuff. No, I'm not surprised. I'm, I'm shocked at his content.

I wouldn't, in a million years, the things that Shannon has said now or did now, I would never believe that Shannon will say or do anything. Yeah. And then so I kind of started to watch him and then we kind of went on separate ways because I'm like, you're going to take that route. I can't go that route. Never can go that route. And that route is to become so worldly that you become popular

because you're talking about ignorance. A lot of times, a lot of these gossip conversations that they have in and bringing up all this stuff. I'm not going to do that to nobody. I'm not in the business for that. I'm in life to try to teach people what does it mean to be a better man or get back to the kingdom.

Ray Lewis is not the only one who feels that way Shannon Sharp. All the smoke guys say that they don't like some of the stuff that is being done in modern media that Shannon Sharp is also doing. But I do feel like Shannon Sharp is pretty close to authentically himself in public because this is the guy that during games would pick up the phone that goes to the offensive coordinator when they were scoring and scream on the sideline. Call in the National Guard. They're in trouble. Like this is the personality that Shannon Sharp was. But Shannon Sharp because of everything going on around Shannon Sharp, was hurt by this and is trying to take the high road i want you to listen to this though and not just for shannon sharp's hurt i'm here to maintain that ochosinko uh does the stu got's job better than anyone does the stu got's job except for stu got's ocho sinko the perfect sidekick to help shannon sharp do what he's doing i got nothing bad to say because a lot of things when when when you tolerated i'm going to say my thing whatever fired, I'll bite my tongue, I'll be the bigger person. I'll walk away, hey, you right.

Because you know why it's your low-hanging fruit. Yeah. You know how I know? Because your boy, you're looking at him. He's low-hanging fruit. And there are a lot of people taking your shot at your boy. Come on that. Y'all can have it. Y'all got it. Y'all got me. It's all right. Yeah. It's okay. It's okay. We're going to be all right, Ocho. Yeah. That's everybody said, we're going to be all right.

Listen, I could have told you that. I can tell you, I've been telling you that. Yeah. Everybody wants to pile on. Everybody jump on now. Hey, we got him down, Ocho. We got him down. The best time, hey, let me get my lick now.

Mm-hmm. Everybody want to get a lick now where your boy was doing good. you hear a lot of people that have a whole lot to say everybody got something to say what are you guys shaking your heads about I think Ocho said more than Shannon did I don't know what anybody's saying

why is everything got to be talked about in code I care about this even less than when it started it's not code he's saying that he's low hanging fruit everyone's taking their shots and he's hurt by Ray Lewis being one of the people who's taking the shots there don't forget it was a very famous scene ahead of that Raven's first Super Bowl win where Ray Lewis was going through it, you know, with all the legal stuff.

And Shannon Sharp invaded the media day, put his arm around Ray Lewis, and did a whole deal about what a great man this is. And I don't like the way that you're treating him. That was a big thing back then. I don't think Ocho really helped him out there either. I mean, you've got to talk. So much silence. At least two gods will, like, fill the gaps with a fake laugh.

Ocho, he didn't even say anything. Did he? Like, literally, did he say five words? I mean, it sounded like calling and response while you're in church and like, well, that sort of thing. Did we change the numbers, the technology on your modulated voice? What just happened there? Who do you mean? I'm up in here the whole show, that kind of thing? Roy sounded fine.

Chris sounded fine. What are we talking about here? The thing that I saw while. I was on vacation that actually made me feel really bad for Shannon Sharp, even though you may not feel bad for Shannon Sharp, was when he was lamenting the fact that he implored ESPN to not release the news that he was being released until after his brother's Hall of Fame weekend. Obviously, that's not how the news works, but I did feel bad for Shannon Sharp having to be around Sterling Sharp profusely apologizing when Sterling Sharp is telling him, please don't apologize,

but he ends up soiling what was a, you know, one of the great knights of Sterling Sharp's life. I think given the three, because Chad had stuff in the pros too, three of them, generally to most people, they elicit very strong opinions and I don't think empathy is usually one of them. Anyone can understand, though, embarrassing your family, though. No? Like you, anyone, I understand that empathy can be hard to come by when we prefer to laugh, especially as cruel as social media is. But who doesn't understand loving your brother? It's his big day. And look at what you've done. You're more famous than your brother. You're a better football player than your brother. Your brother is getting one moment in the lights that is a fountain of youth. And that week, you're the news, not your brother. Maybe if there was more separation from the events, but, uh, you're, If you've got an empathy bandwidth, and it's directed around whatever is surrounding Shannon Sharp. I don't think it's going his way. Why would anyone have an empathy bandwidth? I do. I can't muster up the same kind of empathy for Shannon Sharp that you are, obviously.

But it's not, these things can both be true, though, that you can not feel bad for Shannon Sharp and see a situation here that anybody would feel bad in if they were the one responsible for it. Empathy bandwidth sounds like you have only so much empathy you're willing to give out. That is what are you saying. When it sounds like you just, you only have empathy for certain people deserve it. I just don't care. I just don't care. I just don't care. I think the two brothers handled it very well on the Hall of Fame stage that day.

Right? If there was apparent acrimony, then I would feel bad for one of them. but they seem to handle it very well. Good for them. Howdy, folks, it's Mike Ryan. It's also NFL season. Lots of big-time matchups. You know your boy is an NFL-free agent,

so he's looking all across that NFL schedule for the very best games. And when I do, my very first and only stop is the GameTime app. Because the GameTime app gives the advantage back to the fans. It's a hack for unlocking amazing tickets and experiences in just a few taps. It's incredibly easy to use, and the game time guarantee means that you can trust that you'll get 100% authentic tickets on time and at the very best price. Plus, fees are always included.

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Swipe, tap, ticket, go. Download the GameTime app today. What's up, listeners? I don't know about you, but when I was a kid, I certainly dreamed big. I think when we were all kids, we dreamed big, whether we wanted to be astronauts, presidents. Personally, I wanted to be a pitcher for the then Florida Marlins. Now, we're dreaming of something else. Like owning our own businesses. But let's be honest, launching it is total chaos. Websites and shipping, your cousin who wants to collab. It's a mess. That's where Shopify comes in. They power 10% of all e-commerce in the United States, from brands like Mattel to your aunt's candle shop. Can't design a site? Shopify's got ready to go templates. Need help writing copy or

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I got somebody here making fun of me. How old do you have to be to reference? Shecky Green. Man, I went comedically there with the funny name of a comedian. That's on you for not knowing who Shecky Green is. You got to know who Shecky Green is. You don't have to know who Shecky Green is, but I... You're your ally. No, no, yeah, I don't like my allies here. The King of the Borsh Belt. Stugats. I have the soul of a borsh belt comedian. I should be in the Catskills in 1945 opening for Shecky Green. That's why I was destined to be. This is the Dan Lebatar show with the Stugats.

Do you guys want to play the game? Do you guys still want to play the game? Do you guys still want to play the game where I turn my back and try to figure out whether on the voice modulator, who's on the voice modulate? Should we go back to the monster or leave that one? This is a fun game. Do I still want to play the game? Suggests I want to play the game from the start. And also, Ray kind of lost me with all the signatures behind him on that podcast. Let's try it one time. Turn around. And then we're going to have someone talk and then you will have to guess who it is. All right, but Zazlo was saying that he saw Ray Lewis recently not wearing a baseball cap. And because he was not wearing a baseball cap.

All of a sudden, Ray Lewis wasn't as intimidating as he used to be. Yeah, he's got the horseshoe going on. He's got to go home? Mike, also, what was suggested is that the original voice modulation sounds a little bit like Andrew Luck, and I was wondering if at some point we might be able to get Andrew Luck or fake Andrew Luck talking on the voice simulator to see if we can distort that a little bit. But I'm going to play the game that Mike doesn't want to play right now. I'm going to turn my back here to the proceedings, and I'm going to try.

and guess which one of you is talking, but I don't see, I don't think you guys are much for getting out of your seats and scrambling, so I'm going to guess before I even do this, that this is going to be Greg, that none of you are going to move and it's going to be Greg. All right now you're hearing shuffling around, like we're moving. A lot of people are moving. All right, let's see here. I'll go over there. All right, okay, a lot of shuffling, all right.

That kind of thing. Is that Roy? Wow. Wow. That was Roy. We stink at voice modulation. All right. Game over. Good game. Nobody moved. As a company, we stink at voice modulation.

Let's continue to see if we can get better at this as we go along, shall we? Would it kill you to talk some football? I mean, not football for 20 years ago. He didn't know it was starting tomorrow. I mean, damn. Give them a day. Ravens. Biggs. Huge game.

We got Cowboys Eagles. We've got so many big games that people are going to want. Chief Chargers? These games are sold out. You don't have the option to go to the primary market because these tickets are flying. So what do you do when you want to see these teams in action? That's right, Chris Cody.

You download the GameTime app. It is super easy, guys. I'm telling you, time and time again, I go to this app because it makes it so easy. It takes a guesswork out of buying NFL tickets. Download the GameTime app, create an account, And use code Dan for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply.

Swipe, tap, ticket, go. Since you want to talk about football, I am very pleased to have Greg Cody in studio as a longtime NFL writer, one of the longest-timed NFL writers. He is entering his 35th year of making NFL predictions weekly. I believe my brother did the first art for the upsets. bird that he consults whenever it is that he thinks there will be an upset in the NFL? Over the 35 years

Greg, have you tallied your overall record? Do you know your overall record over 35 years picking games both against the spread and straight up? Greg's not here, but let me speak for him. He does know his all-time record.

I don't personally know it right now, but I can tell you overall. Oh my God. Overall. The massive is What happened? Wait a minute. It's you!

Wait, I'm back. It's Greg Cody. Wow. You guys tricked. You fraud. Where have you been, Greg? You missed a show. What's going on here?

No, my overall record, meaning not against the spread, is in the neighborhood of 650 to 60. And my record against the spread is so distracting. My record against the spread is over 500. I want to say about 520, 518, 522. There's an echo chamber in here. What's going on? The echo. What else is new?

This is not, not, not an echo chamber. Now people are going to think this is Greg the whole time. I know, right? That's not terrible, but it sounds like you have spent 35 years picking games, and basically, if you had been doing that with your money, it would have cost you money because the Vig would have made it so that you would be a career loser in money at that clip.

Again, I'm guessing on the percentage. You wouldn't be, though, if you were at 73%. That's not... Seventy-three percent? What are you insane? Anybody who says there is 73 percent is lying

or hallucinating. You must be high. I mean, come on now. Let's get real. I had a great season last year. I was my 608, 69% overall, and about 53, 54% against the spread. It's difficult. You know, this isn't the NCAA where, you know,

Miami's favorite of Barthune Cookman by 115 points. This is King's Sport. This is the NFL where the biggest points for... ...of the week this week is like seven and a half or eight points. It's ridiculous. Every game is close. Everybody can beat anybody. And I'm slaying the direction.

I'm the man in the arena with his sword slaying the mighty points friend. You like the pros better than college, don't you? I do. No, I do for that reason. You know, you can pick whoever you think is the best team in the NFL, let's say Philadelphia. Whoever you think is the worst team, let's just say New Orleans. It could be a competitive game. In the NCAA, you have a couple of difficult games, and then you have five or six wins that are just baked in, okay?

You start the season with five wins, and then you have the Bethune Cook wins, and no offense, Billy, the FIUs. I mean, Penn State versus FIU, come on. What are we doing here? I mean, FIUs, others receiving votes, and the coaches pulled up. I saw that. I didn't know you had a vote, Billy. Since I prefer to talk about games that have been played than games that are going to be played, let's talk about college football for a second.

Let's talk about the polls. Let's talk about the coach's poll. Let's talk about the fact that Florida, Florida State, and Miami are all in the top 15 after week one. One of the things every year that I guard against because I don't believe that before week one, anyone knows much of anything, which is why you get the FSU Alabama result that you get and no one sees it coming. But I also feel that while coaches always say the biggest improvement always gets made from week one to week two every season because of what happens in game one with jitters and people being off, I also believe it can be hard to detect in watching games like Notre Dame Miami,

for example, if Notre Dame is actually going to be good this season because I don't believe their quarterback is going to carry them this year. I don't believe that C.J. Carr, I believe Miami's defense is good and I would have believed it was good before what I saw yesterday just based on some of the things that they did in the portal and in the off season and just revamping the defense. But I don't actually know, after watching Miami and Notre Dame, if that Notre Dame offense is going to be limited all season because I don't believe in their quarter. and though he played well under the circumstances, seeing what I saw, I know now it's a signature win, but I also know that anyone that was in your top 10 in week one was made in

your top 10 by a lot of people who don't know anything. And so some of those things can end up being a mirage. And so today, I don't know if FSU is really good or if Alabama is really bad. Oh, at the end of the season, that could look like an eight and five team be, you know, a seven-win team. I think that that's probably more likely for FSU and Alabama, given that Alabama's five and five in their last 10, and FSU is coming off a season where they had two wins. Gus Malazahn, he can do that to certain teams that are unprepared to play, and it certainly looked like Alabama was unprepared to play. There are so many highlights on social media of guys giving up, jogging to where they think the play is going to go, not caring whatsoever.

I do think that Miami's win over Notre Dame will age while I rewatched a game a little bit. That game was actually pretty close. It's just that Miami won that middle eight. The last four minutes of the first half, the first four minutes of the second half, and that's when Miami looked their best. But other than that, they were kind of matching blow for blow over there. And C.J. Carr, I think, really impressed because... I thought he looked great.

For a dude that never played, and yeah, maybe he kept it. Certainly nervous in the first half. You know, the throws weren't good. He looked nervous. They were conservative with them, the short passes to kind of get him going. And then when he had to start making plays, he was doing show with his feet. And Minchie was supposed to be the more mobile of the quarterbacks. I think Notre Dame is going to be all right.

And historically under Marcus Freeman, that is a team that gets stronger as the year progresses. And after that – It was week two last year they lost in Northern Illinois, right? And you see games that could be tricky on their schedule like Arkansas and Boise. Well, Boise looks like they've completely fallen off without Gentie. So I do think that Notre Dame is going to be in that conversation. And I do think we'll look back on Sunday saying, oh, those two teams have made sense. They kind of remained in the conversation.

To the FSU point, though, like they looked great on almost every side of the ball, right? Offensive line was going and attacking people at the point of attack. Defensive line looked good. Their defense was actually something that last year was obviously embarrassing. This year they stood up. I don't really like Ty Simpson that much. I think that he's kind of a stopback quarterback for whoever they get next. But their offense, Tommy Cassianoos was dynamite.

Yeah, and he didn't have to have to throw. And I was laughing at things. But even the throws he did make were like spot on. You don't really see that from him. Yeah, I think early on he kind of grew into the game and he's one of those front-running quarterbacks that as soon as he knows that he's got something, he feeds off that energy and to the other team from the state of Florida that is also ranked in the top 15, collectively with the big three for the first time since the pre-ranks in 2006.

I actually came away with a ton of concerns for Florida, which is rare in a game that a team wins 55-0. You get zero sacks against a Long Island school that we all learned at the same time has a football program. They surrendered 11 tackles for loss. That is a team that is not winning the line of scrimmage as impressively as they should against a school that again, we just learned as

a football team. And that schedule? Have you seen that schedule? It gets tough. Holy crap. With Amex Platinum, access to exclusive Amex pre-sale tickets can score you a spot track side. So being a fan for life turns into the trip of a lifetime. That's the powerful backing of Amex. Pre-sale tickets

for future events subject to availability and varied by race. Turns and conditions apply. Learn more at This episode is brought to you by Defender. With its 626 horsepower twin-turbo v8 engine, the Defender Octa is taking on the Dakar rally, the ultimate off-road challenge. Learn more at landrover.ca. Hit pause on whatever you're listening to

and hit play on your next adventure. This fall get double points on every qualified stay. Life's the trip. Make the most of it at Best Western. Visit bestwestern.com for complete terms and conditions. Don Lebertard. Greg Cody of the Miami Herald. He's actively playing defense against my ability to do the show because what are you laughing at?

You're just laughing at it. Honey Booble is embroiled in controversy. It's funny to me. Sorry. Stugats. He couldn't stop laughing just looking at the picture. sure of honey boo-boo. That doesn't sound healthy.

It's his laugh. We can't make him laugh like that. It's how he's going to die. Right here, just laughing and coughing. I want to die like that. This is the Dan Levitar show with the Stugats. Breaking news. ESPN, Stephen A. Smith, and first take are talking about the Pablo Torre blockbuster.

I like on the screen, it just says, according to documents obtained by Pablo Tori. It's just his name. It's not Pablo Tori. It's the documents that he has. No, but it's just Pablo Tori. They're not even saying Pablo Tori finds out. They're just saying Pablo Tori has documents. You don't normally see somebody by name being referenced as having documents on ESP.

and I want to ask you guys from among all the stats that you saw in Alabama, did any of you see a better stat than this one? I gave it on the show that we did on Labor Day. Chris Cody, can you please get me the stat of the day music? I want to ask you guys, of all the numbers that you saw, did you see any number better than the one I'm about to give you here? Start of the day, start of the day, and this year, start of the day.

Start of the day, start of the day, and this year, start of the day. Start of the day, start of the day, it is the start of the day. Start of the day, start of the day, and this year's start of the day. Zaz, you want to take a guess as to how many times, if you don't know it, how many times Sabin in 230 games, lost to an unranked team? Oh, man.

230 games, all Alabama. All Alabama. Do you guys have any guesses on this? I want to guess. Because he played obviously against a lot of ranked teams, but he played against 230 unranked teams. You know, I'm going to say zero. Zero.

I'm going to say four. Four is exactly right. I do my research. My due diligence. He just asked the question. How do you do it? any research. Only undercut the whole bit, too.

I knew it. I mean, I knew it. That happened to be in my... So that's not research. That's not research. That's the thing about sources. They know the information. That's why you have to cover his voice so you don't know who knew.

That's not the stat, though. That's the first part of the stat. Oh. DeBore has coached 14 games at Alabama. You want to guess how many times he's lost to unranked teams? Ooh, yes, yes, yes. I'm going to go one, two, three. now. Four.

Oh, I was going to say 35. I'm pretty done with that bit. Also, Jeremy read that stat yesterday on the year. I know. So we did it. We ran it into the ground. The stat. All right, we did it. Oh, okay. Not the modulator.

That still got legs. Do you guys have a better stat than that one? I mean, I liked that Kalin DeBore. He has lost in four of his five losses. are when Alabama was a double, what was a two-touchdown favorite. Four losses so far as a two-touchdown favorite. Like, that's pretty wild to me. If you want to play devil's advocate, though,

Marcus Freeman had that reputation. He's lost some big games as a multiple touchdown favorite, and they usually grow into seasons, and everyone would concede. Marcus Freeman's a very good head coach. I thought Carr looked good under the circumstances, but I'm bringing in previous knowledge and Jeremiah Love when I say I think that's going to be a big play offense. I didn't see a lot of examples of a quarterback who was going to produce a big play offense against Miami.

Might be circumstance, might be Miami's defense. I expect Notre Dame to be good. I'm just telling you that I often see games before week one and after week one where two teams are playing, and I can't quite tell you how good they are. because I don't know if both of them are bad or both of them are good. I don't know if both of them are somewhere beneath where I expected them to be or whether they're going to be better. When I'm watching Miami and Notre Dame play against each other, though,

the thing that did jump out to me, and it's why it is I understand the Miami fan base's criticism of Mario Cristobal. What we did see is a team with a two turnover disadvantage have mallers on the offensive and defensive line. and usually when that combination of things is in play, I can tell that this offensive line can't handle this defensive line, and I can tell that Miami's offensive line can handle this defensive line. If I give that team a two turnover advantage, put them at home,

they're not kicking for the game with a minute left. And then you have to remind yourself that's a Notre Dame team that, yeah, leaned on Riley Leonard a lot to make plays, but they brought a lot of dudes back from that team that ran through big-time programs all the way to. to a college football playoff final, you could argue that's the best secondary in the nation. In fact, many are, and Miami was making plays against that secondary. So, look, we've been there.

There was a Labor Day night game with Jacori Harris where we all thought Mark Whipple was the next greatest thing, and Jacori Harris was a Heisman favorite, and then it turns out neither FSU or Miami were good. And who's to say, I'm sure there will be games like that when we look back and look at week one under a microscope. I just happen to think, given the very. recent track record of Notre Dame and the fact that Miami looks a certain way that those two teams seem to be legit. Well, that's what it is for me is Miami looking a certain way.

You know, like that hurricane team that we saw Sunday night, those bodies, the physicality that they showed. All right, the canes, you know, you go back the last eight, nine, ten years. They've had some, they've been few and far between, but you've had some big wins, you know, specifically 2017 against Notre Dame. But like, that to me, you won that. You won that. You that game, 41-8 that game against Notre Dame, you weren't 33 points better than that Irish team. You know, you look at this win Sunday. The fact that it was a close game, I thought that spoke better for Miami. If they go up 21-7 and they keep pouring it on Notre Dame, it's like, you're not this much better than Notre Dame. The fact that they won a tight game,

it turned out, against the Irish, I thought that spoke a lot about this Kane's team. And they left some points on the ground. They were very spooked by Notre Dame's special teams. They called a timeout on a punt return because they didn't like the look. And then they rushed another field goal because they didn't want to take two timeouts on special teams. And they end up getting zero points from that Justin Scott Forst turnover. I think that Miami still has a much better performance in them. And it's great to lean on the defense and win a game in which you feel like you left some points on the board. But you thought blowing a 10 point lead and winning a close game was better than laying it on and blowing them out?

Yeah, because if the canes go on, and they win that game, let's say, by 28, 31 points, you're not four touchdowns better than Notre Dame. Like, I don't know, I don't know what that proves in that spot. The fact that they were able to have a 14-point lead at one point, and then, okay, Notre Dame makes the comeback, and then you were still able to respond in a tight game and pull that out. That to me meant something.

I think it means more than a blowout victory. I think I see your logic. I would have preferred, I would feel better about Miami if they did. Well, you'd feel better about it because you wouldn't have been nervous at the end of the game. Right. I do think that there was potential for that game to get out of hand and a slip here on a wet field, a big, a busted coverage here and there. Like there were moments where Notre Dame just made certain plays, maybe got lucky or whatever, but they hung around the same exact way they hung around last year to an annoying degree that made me think, Notre Dame, CJ Car, they're going to be all right. I wanted to see them just, I wanted to see them pulled out in a big spot. We saw they were capable of building a double-digit lead. and we also saw they were capable of responding and pulling out a game in a big spot.

But they blew a lead. And if you didn't have a freshman quarterback at two minutes or they could have lost that game. They blew a lead. They also have more confidence in their kicker now. There's four of 12 last year at FAU. Yeah, yeah. Well, that was my problem with the final drive. I didn't like settling for a 47-yard field goal.

Which you nailed, by the way. It was four of 11. I want to attack a couple of things here. You said that Miami fans were just nervous. That is absolutely where all of the spoiled entitlement is coming from the loudest people who aren't satisfied with a win over Notre Dame. You didn't like that you were scared at the end of the game and so you're mad at Mario Cristobal because you were scared at the end of the game. That happens all the time. I told you guys what I saw between championship locker

rooms when I walked in as a freshman University of Miami, they never lose a home game while I'm in school, but I don't have any context for what college football players are supposed to look like. So I walk in as a freshman and I see Jerome Brown and I'm like, that's not a fellow student in the locker room, but years later when they were on probation, and I'm going in there, and it's Ryan Clement and a bunch of kids with pimples, when C.J. Carr took his helmet off on the sidelines, and I'm seeing that guy being chased by Ruben Bain. I'm like, that's a child. That is a young, that Carr looks very young. He's taken off his helmet, and he looks like the leader of Notre Dame is not yet grown up because he's very young. And so what I didn't see was a big play offense

in that game from either team. Like they were, I understand that there were three fun touchdowns of 30 yards in the first half, and there was a broken play late in the game. Two pretty good secondaries, it would appear. But there were not big plays in that game. Two good defenses. Yeah, I mean, that's what it is. And there were, like, I watched that.

I love the first touchdown pass from Beck, and I gave him more credit to Malachi Tony because I thought everyone was hyperbolic about the 17-year-old. And in watching the game back, seeing Malachi Tony, shorten his route, adjust to the ball the second it leaves Carson Beck's hand against that secondary? It's a pro move. It's a 17-year-old boy that is making that decision in that play. And to the second touchdown pass, I came away more impressed with a throw from Carson Beck, especially knowing that that was something that they recognized in their prep and knew that specific two-foot-by-two-foot area was going to be there for that play. Perfect execution there.

I think Miami's in good shape. Yeah, I thought calling, Carson Beck's throw lucky on that second touchdown pass is garbage. You know, you had to make a great throw and also a great catch. Both of them were necessary in order to get a touchdown there. And they did both. It was a great throw and a great catch. But the thing being lost on both of these, the thing being lost is that his eyes are still downfield on both of them right before he's about to get crushed. Right? Like, he waited until the last possible second to make both of those throws. Put it on the poll here, please, Juju. Did you ever think Mark Whipple was the next greatest thing? And also put on the poll, can anyone named

Mark Whipple ever be the next greatest thing? I want to play for you some sound here and see if you recognize anything about it. It's not sports. It's that cracker barrel, that silly cracker barrel controversy. The Wall Street Journal has a podcast called The Journal. This is not a sports story, and I want to see if you guys notice anything about this reporting done by the Wall Street Journal's podcast on this crackle, Cracker Barrel story. All because a new streamlined logo erased that old timer and set off a digital pitchfork mob. Our colleague Heather Hadden has been covering the story. A lot of commentators were like, no, we do not like this.

So Cracker Barrel has made everybody crazy today. Yo, that's me. It would have been good to leave the trailing sound of other serious podcast voices at the end of that so that people would have noticed that that was you on the podcast as opposed to you speaking right here next to me for the audio audience that's not watching. Well, I was shot. I didn't expect to hear myself. That was me. What was this? Yeah, what is that?

This was a serious Wall Street Journal podcast breaking down everything going on with Cracker Barrow. And they wanted to give some context, so they just dropped in Zaslo. I told you he's a rising star. I told you that he, everyone in media is noticing what it is that Jonathan Zaslow is doing these days. And so this is not an edit. This was something that the journal put together, and we were all shocked when we heard Jonathan Zaslo's voice inexplicably in the middle of the Cracker Barrel controversy. All because a new streamlined logo erased that old timer and set off a digital pitchfork

mob. Our colleague Heather Hadden has been covering the story. A lot of commentators were like, no, we do not like this. So Cracker Barrels made everybody crazy today. His voice is so distinctive. I wasn't on that show. No, you were not. They stole that sound from our show. Copyright. Yo, that sounds like some AI nonsense. I'm entitled to some kind of money. Wait, what is AI? I wasn't on that show. They used it my voice. Have you, I mean, you've done radio shows for how long? You don't know how playing clips work? yes you know what you know what you are entitled to money you know what you should play the lottery you should play jackpocket we're teaming up with jackpocket america's number one lottery app play powerball

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Terms at jkpt.com slash draw 5 and September 30th, 2025. Howdy, folks, it's Mike Ryan. It's also NFL season. Lots of big-time matchups. You know your boy is an NFL free agent, so he's looking all across that NFL schedule for the very best games. And when I do, my very first and only stop is the GameTime app because the Game Time app gives the advantage back to the fans. It's a hack for unlocking amazing tickets and experiences in just a few taps.

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