The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz - Hour 1: Tony's Shocking Report

Episode Date: January 19, 2026

"Why do you have to count on me to carry your bit?" Tony's at La Casa De Los Trucos collecting costumes for Dan, and he even has a fart machine ready to rip. Also, Dan finally remembers there's a pretty important football game tonight, so Dameshek and Lucy break down Mike Ryan's favorite thing: line play. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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So make every dish the greatest and eat the goat. It's the Brobding Nangian Pregame Show It's the Broadding Nanking show It's the Brobding Nanking and Pre game show It's the Brobting Negan pregame show Whoa It's the Brob Ding Neegian free game show It's the Brogding Nengeam free game show

It's the Probting Nagin'N sie Whoa It's Brop Degian I am at a negative. I am at a total loss for why Mike Ryan had to leave early. Like he just had to leave, and he fled the premises two hours early because he's got to get ready for the game to do what. You guys want to guess here.

Josh Allen has played seven overtime games. You guys want to guess how many points he has produced in those seven overtime games? in the overtimes? I don't even know where to start. Three. I was going to guess six, so I was overly optimistic there. And now his coach is fired, and I think the second biggest story, and we'll go out to Tony at Lacasa de los Trucos in just a moment.

I think the second biggest story of the weekend, not the officiating, I think it's the Bears not going for two after you've tied the game there, and you've got the coach in Ben Johnson, who has delivered on his promise of, I'm going to be aggressive, I'm going to be aggressive, I'm going to be aggressive, and then you have a chance to go for two, you haven't been good in short-yard situations,

you haven't been good on Fort Down, and you settled for the tie when you could have ended Stafford right there. Wow, I never even considered that. Like, you wanted them to go for two there. I'm just saying the conversation around it. I'm not saying that. I would also have just tied the game,

but you've got, I, generally speaking, in almost all circumstances, is I want to be in the situation where I have the ball and I need to get three yards. I don't want to be in defense on that situation. I'm guessing Rams fans were relieved that the Bears were kicking to tie the game. And I don't want to give them relief. I want to finish them after breaking their heart by throwing to Colcomette from 50 yards away. I think that's exactly right, Dan.

If you can summon what do they not want us to do more, that's what we should do, first of all. But more broadly, in the QB league, and if you, you can summon, you know, if you can summon, you know, you're in a big time playoff game, you probably have a high-end QB. Do you think he's the best player on the field? Certainly, Ben Johnson took the job with the Bears because that's how much he thought of Caleb Williams. He thinks Caleb Williams is the best player on the field. So which is more likely that you're going to make two and a half yards with that stud QB, or you're going to win the coin flip, but then you're going to make the right choice when you get when you win that coin flip. But if you don't win it, then you have to hope they don't score so that you don't have

pressure on you, but then you have to get the ball, then you have to at least match what they did. All these, the sequence of events, and by the way, it was snowy out and windy out, and it's not a gimmy to make the extra point. So that also should have been a factor in the, in what Ben Johnson did. I believe that Ben Johnson, if he had gone for two there, would have immediately supplanted Mike Ditka as the most popular coach in the history of Bears football. If he had gone for two and gotten it. Boy, oh boy, Dan. How about the completion of that football circle, 43 years old, Tom Osborne had the balls to go for it. It didn't work out for him, but my esteem for him is a man.

Tony, through the roof. Tony, shaking his head no at all of this commentary. Tony is pro-cowardist. Tony, what do you have? No, no, it's not that I'm pro-cowardous. It's just, yeah, playing the result. Man, he should have gone for two after an incredible play, one of the most amazing plays we've ever seen in the NFL.

But they also, you forget, they were down. They had four downs to get a touchdown in the drive prior. ran three times, okay, and then threw a terrible pass between two people. So it's like, it's tough. Don't run the ball. Unless it's with your superhero quarterback, boot them out and put pressure on the defense. Two and a half yards is what you need. Glory.

I agree. I agree. Finally, with Damashik. The thing that I find would have been just great for whatever their next 10 years are together because Ben Johnson and Caleb Williams give Chicago a hope. that it has never had in its franchise's history because they know they have a quarterback. It's just a great sentence to a statement

to give your quarterback here. I trust you with these two and a half yards and this season more than I trust anything else in the world here. Because in the commentary I was listening to and Ross Tucker does a great job on these games, what I was listening to Ross Tucker say, and it's accurate, throughout the game, he is saying Caleb Williams is going to be special

and magical at the end. He's going to be special and magical at the end. The Bears have never had a quarterback. Who's that? This is the first quarterback. So give him the ball, give him the game, give him the season. We need two and a half yards. If I told the Bears before the season,

two and a half yards for your season against the MVP of the league. Do you want the ball or do you want to start playing with all sorts of numbers and randomness in overtime? You don't do it, Dan. You're exactly right. Listen, there are two basic. groups of quarterbacks, high-end quarterbacks. There are the assassins who are Tom Brady. Now, people call them game managers, which is dismissive and marginalizes them. They are assassins,

lethally accurate, calculated in their decision-making. Peyton Manning, Drew Brees, and now Brock Purdy. On the other side, you have the gunslingers, Farr, Rathlisberger, Elway. That's why I call Caleb Williams, Emo Elway. He's going to spray the ball around. He's going to be inaccurate. He is going to cause trouble that he is then going to dig your team out of. He is like Josh Allen. He is like Matthew Stafford. In that spot, one play, and you see the downside of Caleb Williams in overtime. He threw the interception that ultimately...

He's inaccurate. Right. Is this Dammechek segment? Football America is the main? We're coming to you right now. Football America, Mondays and Fridays. Good stuff there from Damash. Caleb Williams has the worst completion percentage among starters.

He is inaccurate. But let's go out to Tony. He's at La Casa de los Rucos. Do you have any OILIs? Thank you, Dan. Just one OLAI for this divisional round matchups. You ready? I'd like you walking around through the two tight quarters there if it's okay.

Is that a bad idea for me to increase the degree of difficulty so we can walk around with you? No, no, no, no, at all. At all, Dan. I'm going to just kind of pull stuff off the shells as I see fit. So this one, this one, a little clown. Little clown. Yeah, for Brad Williams. It's funny when it has the adjective in the front, little.

Okay. All right. O.L.I. Bo Nix breaking his ankle on a kneel down. Hey. You got to gut through that one. You got to gut through that one, okay? Shavers, the guy from the bills, played an entire half of the torn ACL.

Like, you got to gut through it. You want to be a legend? This is what legends are made of. You got to put a boot, a cast. I don't care what you do. You got to be out for the A.C. Championship. Why are they already ruling him out?

Like, you don't want to try, practice. For the season. By the way, Bo Nix did not hurt his ankle kneeling of football. No, I think it's the centering of the ball. When he says the second to last play, are we talking about the second to last play? They're talking from the line of script. No, it was the sweep left, that run play to the left. I'm telling you, it was not on any.

It's a de facto. It's a de facto kneel, though. It's a de facto kneel because he's trying to center the ball, and he's also trying to run the clock. Yeah, you're talking about the end. It's not that play, Tony. It was the play before that. I don't know about that. Guys, I know it's a de facto kneel that.

You're not listening. to me. Tony, you're not listening. It's the play before the de facto kneel down. That's the play he heard himself. Okay. Okay. All right. Number five, it was never Josh Allen's time. I told you earlier on, we were actually at the overpass where Scarface happened that Havangas seen. I told you, Josh Allen is Philip Rivers. He'll never get to the mountaintop. He'll never win a championship. This is just now part of the lore. In an interception, should have been a catch, should have been a pick. We don't know. Bo Bo, Nick breaks his ankle. Like, who knows, Josh Allen, never. his time, Dan.

All right, let's walk a little bit here. Number four. Number four. Let's see. What do we like off the shelves here? We've got some Maracas. Number four, Dan, Seahawks may win a Super Bowl without a QB, which is crazy. See, what's here?

Oh, what happened? One of those snapping pops? You got a snap and pop? What got you? It's a snap and pop. It was a Newport box of cigarettes for Rose. Oh. Here, I'm going to take this one right here.

Hey. They call it Casa Lo Truco. That's right. The tricks everywhere. Enzienda a little. Let me see here. What does that turn on? What is that?

If you pull on that, what happens there? I don't know. It's going to shock the shit out of me. It releases the gun from the basement. Damn. Oh! It shocked the shit out of me. I hate those.

Number three. He's a showman. He knew he was going to shock him. So he pulled it? That's right. That's what happened. He knew what it was and he was scared and it did what he thought it was going to do. See if it shocks you again.

I think if you pull it, not every time. It may not. I don't know what this is. I know what this is. I'm going to put it here. I love this. I know what this is. I know what this is.

All right. So, see, see, see? See? I got to me. Hey. Sorry, guys. A fart machine. Oh, got a

truca, anything could happen, Dano, including a fart machine. High tech, though. That guy just tell you to bend over? Were you just told to lean over to simulate simulate farting? Oh, there we go. We're doing comedy.

Comedy. Oh, all right. Number three. Oh, Jesus Christ. I heard a lot of calls for Davis Mills. over the Sunday here. Ball knowers new, Dano. Ball knowers new.

I tried to tell you guys. A lot of people are like, oh, Davis Mills, he's not that bad. And CJ Stroud was worse. Number two, nothing like a chubby kicker wearing 92 deciding an incredible game with love handles and a beer gut. They went out to him on the sideline,

and I'm like, who is that guy? It's Mervis, their kicker. He's like, got it. He looks what Dan. Dan would look like much smaller Compact Whoa This mid-oh

Whoa my bad He looks like What Zaz would look like With pants And a football jersey on Now that's there Does he have a pulse Number one

Yes Whatever man Why do you have to count on me To carry your bids Number one Number one Dan we spoke about it earlier Let's move a little bit further here

Number one We spoke about it earlier Caleb Williams. There's really nothing we could say outside of the terrible interception he threw to end the game. Aside from the terrible interception that he threw to end the game, it was one of the most incredible plays that I had ever seen. And I was sitting on the couch and I just kept saying, oh my God, the fact that he was running full sprint away from his own end zone for about 20 yards,

the defensive linemen were like, what is he doing? Do we chase him? Do we not? All of a sudden turns around, throws a perfect fade away. maybe a little bit of a push off by Colcomette. I say play on. But a perfect throw ends up going, what, 50 yards in the air? A 14-yard touchdown is one of the most incredible plays we've ever seen.

It sucks that it happens in a loss, but as Damashch will probably tell you, you need these bumps and bruises along the road to make sure that you are ready to get to the level of winning Super Bowl. And sometimes you can't get there without a couple bumps and bruises. This is the bumps and bruises that Caleb Williams needs to maybe take that next step next year. So an incredible play by a guy who,

I was not super sold on to begin the year, but as he's gotten better and better through Ben Johnson's offense, it's been an incredible, just upscaling from everything that he's done from a football perspective. So if there's anything you want down here at Casa Lo Truco, I can bring you back something, Dan.

If you want me to bring you the buzzer thing that lit me up, I can do that. If you want the fart machine, I can do that. Yeah, go ahead and buy the fart machine, bring it back. I'm sure we'll have some uses for it. And I have your clothes. I haven't tried it on. The clothes you brought for me,

I will be wearing tonight at the live stream. I can't wait to see that. You bought for me. I will be wearing that tonight while you're a dead flamingo. Yes, I heard from a little birdie that you didn't think I actually bought the clothes. You were like, wait, he bought the clothes? Like, yeah, no, I bought the clothes, Dan. I'm like, you're going to be dressing like you should be dressing, to be honest.

It should be the way that you should be dressing all the time. And you chose not to. Let's come around the corner here. Let's see what else is going on. How about this, Dan? masks. Here, put on, go ahead and put on one of those masks, but before you do that, I just want to play for you the highlight of this segment for us and for me and what we will remember from that segment. Go ahead and play it. Bro, Bo, Bo, Nick breaks his ankle, like, bro, Bo, Bo, Nick breaks his ankle, like. Yeah. That would rank like six or seventh on things that Zaz messed up this past week.

Bro, Bo, Nick's breaks his ankle, like. What happened with that Angus in the middle of there? Why was there an Angus in the middle of there? Bo Nix breaks his ankle. Because I saw the lady, I saw the lady getting ready to get me with the shocking thing, and I didn't want to get there eventually. So I had to like, I knew the thing on the chain was going to shock me. And I was like, I really don't want to get there.

And she was kind of waving me, like, waving me like, hey, come on, like, let's do it. And then I'm like, uh, Bo, Bo, Bo, Beb, Pepe, Pepe, Pepe, she's a shriegster. Well, this sounds like you were tasered. Bro, Bo Bo, Nick breaks his ankle. If an announcer during the Broncos game was trying to talk about Bo Nix and I came in and hazered him, it would sound like this. Nick breaks his ankle, like.

Let me hear Zaz's mess up. Was Zaz's worse than, was it worse than Tony? Didn't you want to know how that? What were the kids doing? Oh, come on, son of a close. Give me the other one. The Packers winner, the Bears lose. Oh, yeah.

Terrible. It's a new week. You can't speak, dude. Dead Flamingo is where Tony will be. tonight. He breaks, he takes the party with him. So enjoy that. And we will be doing live stream all night tonight during the national championship game. Thank you, Tony. You were the MVP of last week. Appreciate it. We will talk to you. Guys, let me tell you something. One of the greatest joys of my life was when they finally

opened the White Castle in my neighborhood in Phoenix, Arizona. I lost my mind because I'm so used to eating White Castle at home when I was in New York. Now I can have it all the time in Phoenix. But when I come to Miami, there's no White Castle. So you know what I do? Go to the freezer aisle, because right there, they got the variety pack with all the great white castle flavor in there. You're getting a lot of slider styles. You're getting classic American cheese. You're getting halapeno cheese. And if you're a bacon lover, you're getting that new cheddar bacon cheese sliders.

The classic cheese gives you all the taste of a great American burger, while jalapeno cheese sliders give a serving of spicy to each bite. And the new cheddar bacon cheese? That literally brings home to bacon, folks. with real pieces of bacon in cheddar flavored cheese. Guys, I know what you're thinking. Your mouth is watering. My mouth is watering. Just reading this.

That's completely normal. You can find each of these sliders where? In the grocery store. In the freezer aisle. Bonus. They're all in the same box. You don't even have to go to get four boxes. No, it's one variety boxes.

It's got them all in it. Perfect for game day. Late nights. Or any time you just want something awesomely, satisfying, steamy, and unapologetically cheesy. White cats.

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2026 is already getting off to an incredible start because you want to know how I rang in the new year. It was with a bunch of friends in a Dallas. hotel lobby bar ordering a bunch of Miller Lights because that's how you do it. That's how you make special memories. Miller Light has been by my side and many special football memories this year and hopefully we get to write a few more memories with Miller Light. Some of my most legendary moments have started that exact same way. A buddy's house, a lobby bar, a game, no big plan. And then you crack open a Miller Light. You take a sip and you look around and you immediately recognize that

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Don Lebertard. No one else here is willing to do it. Trump or a Biden. That's not true, Dan. Okay, Tony, you can catch up. A thousand impersonations. That's not bad, man. Man?

Not terrible. Pretty good. Stugats. Yours is terrible. You just got to get a little redder. A little pinker. You're right there, man. Yours is not.

You're biting me. What do you mean? That's actually not bad. This is good, Dan. That's not terrible. We got to come together. A little southern twilight. A little George Bush in that one.

This is the Dan Levitar show with the Stugats. He mentioned the Caleb Williams Interception. DJ Moore stopped running on that. He wasn't supposed to stop running. He just stopped his route because he knew it was covered. But I want to go back to the Davis Mills point that he made because I heard, I think it was Swagoo who was saying you got to consider at halftime of that game benching C.J. Stroud. And if you consider that, you're announcing to everyone, including C.J. Stroud, that you're done with him as your quarterback going forward. Because he's still young. Like he's bumps and bruises. You've got to. learn from how sloppy he was in this. He's the reason that defense isn't going to play for a Super Bowl. That defense is extraordinary. That defense totally suffocated the Patriots but could not

overcome its own quarterback. They have an interesting decision now this offseason because he's going into year number four, which is usually when you pick up that fifth year option. So like what are they going to do? Are we picking up the fifth year option? Are we signing him to the extension? Houston's got some, they have a delicate decision to make a trap. Is it fair? Damashek is the host of Football America. No Schultz, no Nico Collins. Not a small loss to not have Trent Brown. Literally not a small loss. 6-8, 380 pounds. You can't bench him there, can you? You can't go to Davis Mills when your offense is already that limited. You definitely cannot, unless we learn in the coming days, nay, hours, that there was something wrong with C.J. Stroud.

because if you look at how he also played on Monday night in Pittsburgh, I mean, he couldn't take snaps. I feel like we're going to hear, you know, he had a little surgery on his, on his wrist, something like that because he just was fundamentally not like. That's what I thought Stafford's problem was last night. Like on the broadcast, I kept hearing them. I don't know why Stafford's missing all these throws. His hand was busted up from last week.

The throwing hand can't be busted up. If it's not that, though, it's very similar to me to the 2017 Jaguars. They thought we're pretty close because we have this mighty defense and we think we have the answer. We used a high first to get the QB, which we have to solve. And now we think solved it. And we can win games in the NFL by kind of sort of hiding this guy or not making him the key feature of whether or not we win games. That was what the Jags did. they rent forward with.

They were high on their own supply and said, let's get over the hump with Blake Bordels. And they could have taken Lamar Jackson out of Louisville. Instead, they took defensive linemen from Florida, Taven Brian, and that didn't work out so well. So it is an inter—if there's nothing wrong with C.J. Stroud, this is just who he is now in big spots. Then I do think you have to consider moving on to Zaz's point at a big time to decide on his contract. He was so good, maybe the best we've ever seen a rookie quarterback two years ago. And he not only is he not progressed from that, but like he hasn't even been that again. So I want to get to the University of Miami game.

I am done with football on the professional level for the rest of the show because we have what Zaz is correctly calling a possible forever night tonight. and I'm trying to come up with a time that South Florida has felt the way that it does right now. I know that game seven of a Stanley Cup final is obviously enormous, especially after the Panthers had blown a 3-0 lead. But hockey is not embraced by every segment of our community in South Florida. Hockey is not the sport in America that football is. For Miamians, one of the lasting memories of Hall of, famer Jason Taylor's career here. He was a rose growing in a sewer during the years that he was here. His

excellence largely wasted because they never had a quarterback was the scene in losing locker rooms of him just busted, broken in front of his locker when they let the media in. And he just, I saw it again and again and again where he would just be what Josh Allen was yesterday crushed in front of his locker. And two laughs on the sideline. It is super rare for a Hall of Fame. Famer to say, you know what I want to do? I'm going to be the defensive line coach on a college team. I'm going to keep going to college practices and try and make sure that college kids are listening to me. Usually the Hall of Famers want to start at the top of the food chain. They don't want to.

Marshall Falk was a running back coach for Dion Sanders, but it's usually pretty rare. I mean, how about even before that? Wasn't he the secondary coach at Aquinas? Wasn't even the head coach? It's becoming more common. Jason Whitten was hired as the tight-ins coach for Oklahoma just a couple weeks ago. I honestly think it's kind of like the Dion effect where you saw him go back to college have so much success and however you want to define that. But I think it's becoming and I think there's more money in college football now.

And it's just it sort of opened up the floodgates, which I'm excited for because I think it kind of makes the sport a little more approachable for people. Also in those first two examples, like Jason Taylor was at Aquinas when Mason Taylor was there. So he was there coaching his kid. and then Dion started in coaching his son as well. So there is that tie, but then it's continued. And Witten is not an example of that. But you say what she's right when she says there's more money in college football. You see that Oregon's quarterback and Ole Miss's quarterback,

they want to stay in college instead of going to the pros, even though they're going to be top picks. But here's Jason Taylor after the win against Old Miss talking about the idea of bringing a championship back to Miami. You played a lot of football in that stadium you guys are going back to. What would it mean to bring a championship in football? South Florida. Yeah, you're damn right.

You get a chance to play for a championship, or not me playing, but watch my guys play because they got nothing to do with me. But it's a blessing, man. I'm happy for the players, you know. My time in the sun is over, so I get to sit back and live through the 17 guys in my room and 120 guys on this team, and I'm blessed to do it. So I'm excited for them. You know, guys like Bane and Mesaedor and the Mod Motin and those guys that are here from the beginning,

when we were lacking in a lot of. things and they fought their butts off to get to this point. Lucy Mendoza gets rid of the ball a lot slower and when I say a lot slower it's a second slower than Trinidad Chambliss. Your thoughts on the advantage that Miami's defensive line may or may not have against Indiana's offensive line. I don't want to go like too far with it because Indiana as Miami has a great offensive line, as does Indiana. Fernando Mendoza usually stays protected in this. I just think he's so accurate with what he does, that that's what my concern is. If you get pressure on Mendoza, are you going to mess with that accuracy? Because he has been pressured this season. Ohio State

has a good defense. Iowa has a good defense. I just think people are underestimating how good Indiana's line is and how good Indiana's receivers are, because he can throw it anywhere and they're going to go out and make that catch. And the other factor is that I'm not sure cynically will carry over to the next level for him, but he can run away from pressure. And people regularly forget about that. He is a factor with his leg. Yes, he's an athlete, but when Indiana played on the road at Iowa,

they were held to 20 points. When Indiana... We do that to everybody, though. Let's go! When Indiana played on the road against Ohio State, they were held to 13 points. That was a home game for Indiana. Forgive me. It was in Indianapolis, so... Forgive me, I confused that in the Penn State game.

They scored 27 at the very end against Penn State. C-A-N-E-E-E-E-E. Yes kids! Yeah, that boy, Sedano! Sadano is in town. He is doing his local Los Angeles show, and he is bringing the extra Cuban in here. You guys got anything like that?

Same time slot I used to be in on 710 ESPN in Los Angeles. Sedano came in and thieved like the night. About 20 years after I left. You have to be careful with those Cubans. They will steal. Does Indiana have anything as cool as that what we just did? I don't think so. They do.

What do they got? Are you kidding me? The thing I will say about the U is that is a cool sort of corner of tradition and otherwise. It feels to me like the alumni are prouder of the Canes than any. I don't want to get hyperbolic, but is that accurate to say? I don't think at the player level there's more puff your chest out among ex-players than we're seeing right now from the Keynes. I thought you met in general and I was about to be like, no, like look at Dan, he really doesn't seem that excited.

Yeah, the alumni, I don't care. And I said, okay, yeah, yeah, they really care. If you're talking fans, most people didn't go there. But the athletes spot on. Jason Taylor was also once in my childhood home. The home that I grew up in, many moons later, my mom was trying to sell the house. And Jason Taylor brought his mom over to take a look at it to see if she might be interested in Pittsburgh, PA. They said no.

Two minutes for a shit contribution. I disagree with that one. Dave Damashek will be with us throughout the live stream tonight. I'm not going. Chris Cody, I don't think he's an official. I don't think he's in a position to sign penalties. I'm not going.

It's not allowed. You've got to respect the call of the official. Getting back to what it is that I was saying, though, Lucy, about the... I'm standing up for Buffalo. I'm not going to stand for the call. You have to leave. And if you don't leave, you will be punished in a way, much more serious than just a little penalty that goes for two minutes.

Yeah, Dan will look at you naked like he did with Zaz. You have to respect. You have to respect the call. Don Levatard. I got a Slater scoop. Stugats. He f***ed us. This is the Dan Levatar show with the Stugats.

When I... Oh, we got some breaking news here, Dan. Tonight, you know, you thought all eyes were on Hard Rock Stadium. until you found out that Matthew Cachuk returns tonight for your two-time Stanley Cup champion of Florida Panthers. That's right. Chucky, in the lineup, season debut. Our hero. Lucy, as I was saying, the total in the game tonight, last I checked, was 48 and a half.

I suspect that most people would assume it'll be a game more like Iowa and Ohio State against Indiana. when I talk about Indiana having a good offensive line, but Miami also having an excellent defensive line. Are you not expecting Mendoza to look more like he looked against Iowa when they scored 20 points and Ohio State when they scored 13, given that those defensive lines are comparable to Miami's, but I don't think as good as Miami's. I do think he's not going to look like he did against Oregon,

but what I took away from that Iowa game, that Ohio State game, is even though he was not like the most, active factor in what was happening in those games when there was the moment that Fernando Mendoza needed to do something he did it that late pass against Ohio State the late one against Iowa he was accurate he was on time pence the two ones against Penn State that are still just like unbelievable like crazy plays those were his Heisman moments every single time you've had to rely on Mendoza he has delivered I think that's sort of an interesting aspect when you're looking at the Miami side of

things because recently that has been the case for Carson Beck but that has not always been the case for Carsonback. When Mendoza from starts to finish this season, the second that Indiana needed him to win, he did, I don't necessarily know if that's always the same case with Carson Beck, who has looked better lately and did that against Ole Miss. It's just a very interesting quarterback match.

Ole Miss is the only time he has done that. It's the only time he's been asked to do it, and it's the only time that he has done it. And I don't know how much confidence Hurricane fans had in him being able to do it after Ole scored with three minutes late. And I think part of the thing that comes into play, play, and it is not irrelevant. It's hugely important. It's the wear and tear of how a defense

feels after four quarters of being manhandled seven yards at carry physically outclassed by 50 pounds per position along the offensive and defensive lines. And I think that's important to mention the type of games Miami has had to play in the playoff, which have all been, you know, pretty much slugfest. And Indiana has not had to play those. Every game they've played has been over by halftime, which is just absolutely an insane sentence to say. And I still sit here. This whole trip this weekend for me has just been me walking around going, I can't believe Indiana is here. Like, none of this feels real to me at all. Lucy, I keep saying about it. If you would have said to me at any point in the last, you know, since I started at IU,

they will beat the mighty Alabama Crimson Tide in the Rose Bowl. They will hammer them there. They're going to beat Ohio State in the Big Ten championship game. They're going to beat Oregon twice and manhandle them in doing so I would say, boy, that would be great if they could do those things in the next 40 years. They did it in one month. It's crazy, but I'm also happy, to your point, I get how the postseason has gone for them. I'm thankful from the Hoosier side that they were tested at Iowa and at Penn State because it, the cross sports. I was think of the Houston Cougars against NC State and the 83 college basketball. They were never tested, and all of a sudden it's got to be a stunning.

feeling, oh my God, we really might lose a game. Thank goodness they've at least experienced that somewhere along the way. No, I agree with that. I think that was part of the issue last season was they didn't really have anybody on their schedule last year, so they play Ohio State. They get beat pretty badly, and then you finally have a close game against Notre Dame and you don't win. This year they have experience with close games, and they've played a tougher

like not playoff-wise, but in general a tougher schedule than Miami. You beat Oregon twice. You beat Penn State, who I know didn't have a great season, but like still a talented team. Ohio State, Iowa, like this is a very, like tested Indiana team who has beaten teams by a lot of points and also like been able to escape. And that all comes down to the way Mendoza played in those like clutch moments for Indiana. So like if you're looking at this game and you're just going, what quarterback do I believe in more? It's got to be Mendoza in this situation.

I know we're talking about the home field advantage for Miami, but Dan, you worried it all about the weather? Because it's going to be cold. This is all of a sudden that home field advantage gone. It's like the Rams going into Chicago. This is crazy. The weather favors Indiana. Like I Tony playing in a game where the weather's in the 50s? Miami, maybe you should be a little bit worried about their own weather.

Dan, very quickly a quick question, because I was contemplating this. If the Bears had won that game last night, do they say dispatch the plan, get rid of the dome idea? We're done with that. Do you see the advantage that being in the cold provided us tonight? Is it going to be a dome? Yes, they're doming it. It's a ridiculous thing. I'm sorry. I don't want to distract from the big game tonight.

It's going to cold, Damashik. be cold tonight, 57 degrees. Eek. That's like warm to Indiana. That's like summertime. Exactly. We are on the precipice when Demashek says what he is saying here about in what world do you have us beating Oregon twice and Penn State and Ohio State and then Miami. We're on the precipice of two things. Not only Indiana producing the single best and most surprising season in the history.

of college football, but also being forever the spot on where we can all say how NIL and money changed everything and changed it like that. Because the idea that program with a century of failure on its resume would go through a run like that, only money explains it. Like you can you could give the credit to Signetti, you could give the credit to Mendoza if you want, but the NIL money changing everything is the only thing that allows a program with this kind of pedigree, which is no pedigree, to run through the gauntlet that it's run through. I think that is kind of like scariest part of all of this is this will be Kurt Tignetti's least talented Indiana team.

Because if you look at what Indiana has done in the portal this year, it's them in Texas tech. It's no one else. They have made an absolute killing. And it's a lot of it is money. It's something like a little stat that we hear on all the broadcasts is that Indiana has the largest alumni base in the country. Is that true? They say it all the time.

I've heard that about Michigan, so I was like, how true is this? I think they count like the like the Indiana satellite campuses and other like towns. But they have so many alumni. And like they all have oil money? How do they have so much money? Mark Cuban. And a healthy, uh, meaty empire, gain Polly on down. It's interesting to see like it's something I've kind of been looking into and I'm going

to look more into in the off season is the way that these like better academic schools are performing more because Indian is going to top. 10 business school. So when you look at the SEC who academically isn't, you know, up to what in Indiana, Michigan is, you can kind of see the difference in how much money is pouring into these different programs, which I think is really like kind of fascinating that we are sort of having to like factor in the school stuff now, which we never really had to do before. But yeah, Indiana's entire run is two factors. It's hey, they have money, they've spent money. And I think people forget, I don't believe Mark Cuban was giving money to Indiana before this season.

He didn't give any money. Yeah, he didn't give them any money last year. He did this year. I think it was like a blank check this year, but it's all Kurt Signetti, what he's been able to do, which will be studied forever. Kurt Signetti has permanently changed. He'll be a Hall of Fame coach. He might be the grads coach of all time for what he's done for that Indiana team, but he has made college football a lot more difficult for everybody else now. He's made it tougher for other schools because you are all going to want what he's done and I don't think it's you can replicate it and it's people who don't watch a sport I can't emphasize enough how truly dog shit Indiana was they were so unbelievably bad the fan base he went eight and three a couple

of times when I was there with Bill Mallory a pin straight bowl was that was the peak everyone would have been thrilled everyone would be reminded they would have built him a statue for eight and four uh ju ju jujoo got he's going to be here in a few minutes for the post game show in order to talk about what it is that happened to his bills. We're going to be doing a shorter show here because we're going to give you another show at night. We're going to go three or four straight hours. Live stream tonight. Tony will be at Dead Flamingo. Got a whole host of surprises for you and guests.

And we're going to do it big on what is a giant game in the history of South Florida, any sport. Let's hear from Rubin Bain here, though, on the tears are a big story today with Josh Allen and Dion Dawkins and Brandon Cook's crying in the Bill's locker room. Here's Ruben Bain telling you he's crying either way. I was actually sitting on the bench at my dad like two days ago. I told him I'm going to cry. No matter of how come a game, I know I'm going to cry because it's really my last game. It's been a long but quick three years.

Spending all my time here at Miami. And it's like a fairy tale story for me because I get to start it off at Hard Rock to end of that Hard Rock. So I'm going to cry. I know I'm going to cry. Folks, listen up. Draft King's Sportsbook. The number one sports book for live betting is turning up to stakes this NFL playoffs. Each Sunday, every Draft King's customer has a shot at over $2.5 million in prizes. Open up the Draft King Sportsbook app and opt in. Place a live bet of just $1 or more on Sunday's playoff games and every live bet gets you another chance to win. The more you bet, the more entries you stack all Sunday long. Download the Draft King's Sportsbook app right now. Use code Dan. Bet live for your share of $2.5 million. in prizes with Code Dan, in partnership with Draft Kings. The Crown is yours. Happy New Year, everybody.

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