The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz - Hour 2: CHEEZ! CHEEZ! CHEEZ! CHEEZ!

Episode Date: August 29, 2024

Breaking: The Browns have a cut a Pro Bowl Quarterback. Then, the crew reacts to the Suey nominees for Best Musical Performance while debuting a NEW song that will be nominated next year, Mike let's us know about the plans for next week's 20-year anniversary celebrations, and Master Tesfatsion joins us for Thursday Thunder and to chat about Boar's Head. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You're listening to Giraffe King's Network. This is the Don Leventor Show with the Stugats Podcast. Guys, we have huge breaking news in the NFL. Massive news from NFL insider Jordan Schultz. Oh. A Pro Bowl quarterback has just been released. Wow. A recent Pro Bowler has been released. Define recent. Last couple years. Hmm. I think I think this dude might have been a Pro Bowler two years ago. Hmm. Shockwaves throughout the NFL as the Browns are releasing former Pro Bowl quarterback.

Very mobile. Tyler Huntley. Tyler Huntley. Snoop. Thank you, Jess. Wow, Jess, I mean my God. What a pull. Appreciate that. There were some people like, did they actually do it? With Deshawn?

Two months. Restructured his contract. Yeah, they restructured his contract. $36 million. Which is weird. Everyone's like, oh, wow. Yeah, worst contract in sports. Clear up $62 million.

Congratulations. I'm guaranteeing fully in making that contract totally uncuttable untradable. I don't know about that. I'm actually feeling pretty good right now because we just got done with the Zach Seeler interview and I don't feel like I looked that awkward in this one. It was my least awkward I think of all of them.

You were just genuinely nervous around Tua. Lockward. I didn't think Tua was the most awkward one by the way. What'd you think? The most awkward one was Raheem Oster. Did you see River Craycraft? I saw Robert Craycraft. But basically I've been stuck in the middle, you could say, all week. I don't know what to do with my hands. Are you a 90s DJ? So I play with a drawstring on my pants.

Two is to the left of me. God's is on the right. Why am I stuck in the middle of you? Well, I'm stiff and scaring up ahead and holding in my tummy squeeze. And at a minute 54, I I'll release the rub in my knees When I asked him if he played the guitar He looked at me like I'm something bizarre These new shorts are running kinda small

I hope this camera isn't showing my balls Two is to the left of me God's is on the right Why am I stuck in the middle of you? Why am I stuck in the middle of you? I've had that song all week. I got to play it eventually. So here we go.

That's a pocket for Yeti's voice, man. Yeah, he's easy. Where are some talented song-makers on the show? 2025 Sui nominee. John Olerud. Too obsessed and busy with the making of stuff that the Suis actually give you an opportunity to reflect

and say, we've got some really talented individuals here. And so really great stuff on the music front. Yeah! And Taylor. But Taylor probably will win. I think Sports Whisperer should win. And it gave me the idea like over the last, in the upcoming weekend, our show is going to begin celebrating its 20th anniversary. Yeah! The Dan Leventhal Art Show with Stu Gatz began September 1st, 2004.

Really? So we won't be able to be on the air on September 1st, because it happens over the weekend, but we begin. We'll do it live. Yeah, we'll come in. We begin, I guess, our anniversary year. 24-hour marathon? Never doing that again.

Ever. Never, ever doing that again. Is that the pepper? Never doing that again. Don't bring that up ever again. But maybe we cover that over the course of the next year and celebrate that again. Is that the pepper? Never doing that again. Don't bring that up ever again. But maybe we cover that over the course of the next year and celebrate that stuff. But I am feeling a bit nostalgic.

And for a show that's constantly like day in, day out, doing its best to evolve and change with the times, reinvent itself, you kinda, over the course of years, cause we are a legacy show, you kinda wanna shy away from nostalgia because... Why not? Nostalgia, wait a second. I'm still doing stuff that resonates today and I don't want to be known as a nostalgia act, but nostalgia is a big business right now. Play the hits, baby.

Everybody's feed on social media is all Oasis memes right now. Play the hits. Everyone is feeling nostalgic. Creed is having a very successful tour. Lincoln Park is going... Lincoln Park's back together? They is going to be reuniting. And between you and me, I actually think that they can spin this into a win. Our pets' heads are falling off. Nostalgia, there's a big business in nostalgia.

So most people don't know that this isn't actually our 20th anniversary. No, it's our 21st. We missed that entire thing, but we realize there's big business in pretending to reunite and have a nostalgic aspect to your show. COVID year doesn't count, that's why it's the 20th.

COVID year doesn't count, well, maybe it does. Kick, save, and abute. We'll get into COVID. We're gonna get really nostalgic, I think, over the course of the next year, and it's not gonna be like one singular day of celebration. And then we're back to normal the next day? That's not how anniversaries work.

We got a lot of big things planned, so tune in next week to find out everything that we have planned. A lot of big, exciting announcements. Can you give us even a hint, a whiff, of one of the things we can be expecting in this year-long celebration? I think, look, the way that people consume our show

has changed over the course of years. Sure has. We've been on an AM radio dial. We've gone national. We've been on all sorts of TV networks. And I think now we're still kind of in many ways still a pirate ship despite our wonderful partnership with DraftKings, we're on YouTube.

We're rich pirates now. People often say, hey, where do I find you? And usually the answer's pretty simple, but we were still part of their routine. Maybe some people lost track or you guys are too political or you know all the things that's out there about us. I think that over the course of this year, if you maybe departed from our show,

we're gonna give you the good feels inside and remind you of why you fell in love with our show in the first place. And we have really ambitious ideas on how to exactly go about that way. Some of that for your content to enjoy, and some of that for theater of content to enjoy and some of that for theater of mind stuff and some of that big tangible things that you can reach

out and feel and touch and potentially talk to. So it's a it's gonna be a very exciting thing and you can find out more about what we plan to do in the upcoming year next week. As Mike was describing kind of the great celebrations that we have coming up, Master fatty on just walks in such dappin people up and looking at him I think of one thing I think of Thursday Thunder let's go no one makes me think of gambling more than master thought you're gonna talk about the twenty-nine-hour marathon again more than? I make you think of gambling more than Mike. You know why?

Because when I walked in this morning, you were talking about betting on the Paralympics. That was true. I didn't do it, but we're still looking for over-unders on French gold medals. We still haven't found any. That's a nice surprise.

Thursday Thunder is brought to you by DraftKings. Stay tuned because you'll hear about DraftKings and all it has to offer throughout the show. DraftKings, the crown is yours. Tony, what did Juju cook up? All right, Juju has been on the heater two of three the last like six weeks in a row, which is very impressive because getting three legs in a parlay is very difficult. So we're going to start here in the W, Minnesota Lynx at the Dallas wings. And I feel bad because

I've got a Dallas wings person right here. Let'sings, baby. Juju's got the Minnesota Lynx in the first leg of the far leg. Come on. The piece of collier, MVP. Going to the second leg. Clemson versus Georgia at home, big time matchup in week one of the college football season. Georgia minus 13 and 1 half. Juju's going to lay the points there, 13 and 1 half.

I think this is technically at home and that it's in their home state. But is this technically a neutral set Mercedes-Benz? Yeah, yeah Juju's got him 13 and a half for the Georgia Bulldogs and the last leg Of the parlay say it don't say it say it. I don't want to say it, but I'm gonna say it say it Canes money Say it! Cain's Moneyline Yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa Rat Poison!

C-A-A-E-S-K! Rat Poison! The lot of ya! That is your Thursday Thunder again Miami Hurricanes Moneyline Georgia Bulldogs minus thirteen and a half and the Minnesota Lynx Moneyline Juju Gaudi is good for two of three hopefully this one three of three but maybe the two of three will include the Miami Hurricanes. I'll take one of three. The Wings just beat the Aces. I don't know how I feel about that one. Juju's on the W, I don't know.

Yeah, he's pretty hot. You are the links playing tonight? Wings. The Wangs. The Wangs are like one of the bottom. We are, but it's okay, we got Satoosabli back. That's true, she's playing really well. We're not bottom, we're just one.

Same with Arikay, I'm a bigger Enrique fan. You know ya. Enrique stands over here. Yes. We bonded over Enrique. Two of the biggest. Many a times. In the world, some could say.

Enrique, who's Enrique? Santos. Iglesias? Master Tespacion from Gualazzo. I just came here to work out, bro. I could see that, cause you wore your worst clothing ever. I know I I did I got my Real Madrid jersey in my bag Why are you wearing that man? We don't squeeze them boys, baby. Come on now. It's a t-shirt for listening to the podcast

It's not like it's just a cowboy Here's amazing. Oh my god phenomenal came to work with me today. He's like you got a gym over there I'm like, yeah masters got really welcome at 530 Let's go. I lost 35 pounds already Just today today alone. Yeah, it's how good this gym is Master I have a question for you. You come to Miami a lot and you're obviously you You go to a lot of Miami games are Miamians the rudest people in the country. Oh, that's a good question Rude in what way because New way? Because New Yorkers are pretty rude.

Driving, talking. Yes, considering that me and Mike left the gym yesterday, we left the hurricane. There was just a random accident there. We saw two accidents, actually, this week I've been here. It's been crazy accidents. That's Mother Nature being rude, but that's not the city. The drivers are terrible here.

Rude is kind of, they're pretentious. Very pretentious. That's a better. I don't know what that word means, but I don't like it. I'm going to take that as disrespect. But fuck you. Yeah, you're welcome. That's what I say. You're welcome.

You wear that. So you're going to the game this weekend? I'm going to the game this weekend. I'm going to Cleveland next weekend for Cowboys Brown season opener. And then week two, because you know, Tighten Up, baby, let's go Rand Karthon. Big believer in the Titans week two. I'm going to their home opener.

Jets Titans. I'm all football, soccer football, American football, European football, you name it. I do know. You spent like two months in Ibiza and you decided when I come back, I'm going to go to Gainesville and Cleveland. The first trip I took, it's probably like me and LeBron James, whoever done this before, go from Ibiza one weekend to the next weekend, go to Cleveland.

You went there for SummerSlam? Yeah, SummerSlam. It was great. It was so nice that you were like, I like this place, I gotta go back inside of a month. I've been to Cleveland once before, and it was for, when I was working at the Washington Post, covering Brown's training camp for,

actually, it was 2016. The Milan of the Midwest. The Milan of the Midwest, as they say. Now I've been there twice in the last two months. I said that when I was a Browns fan. The Marble Room, they got a great steakhouse over there. I don't know if you enjoy the Marble Room. It's kind of avoiding red meat these days, you know?

Really? Yeah. What do we just got? Boar's head. Boar's head especially. I saw an article about how people went to the Boar's head factory where this like Listeria outbreak came from.

Listeria? Yes from. Hysteria? Yes, it's gonna make you not wanna ever eat deli meat again. Yeah, I've read some of the details on that thing, like bugs and rodents and mold and algae. Oh, it was a Taffer Dream episode. Shut it down. Shut it down.

You're gonna freaking kill somebody! But I will say this, there was a Blue Bell Listeria outbreak that happened as well, and I still eat Blue Bell. We have a special treat coming up here for the listening audience. Foot Girls have reunited. I'm very excited for Foot Girls. You're repurposing the Sui nominated song, right?

Sure, stay tuned and find out. It's on Foot Girls. What's it called? Jen CFP. With that tone, huh? And we have a sponsor this year. Yay! Cheez-its.

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Don libertar Mr.. Mr.. Sher if I may say for a second Miami They were simulating the snap count the entire game and they were clapping at the line of scrimmage and the only thing I want to see Clapping are them cheeks on Mrs. Met in my face, Mike Scherr. All right, so that's one thing. Stugats. They're a bunch of cheaters, Dan. And you know who should be cheating?

Mrs. Met on Mr. Met. And he can watch if he wants. This is the Don LeVatar Show with the Stugats. Welcome back to our first episode of Gen CFB of this college football season. Lucy, week zero has already come and gone and now week one is here. We have so much stuff to talk about. Where do you wanna start?

I think I wanna start outside of the week zero games. I think us, us college football geniuses, we knew what was gonna happen. We knew Georgia Tech was gonna win that game. We at least knew they were gonna cover. We have to talk about the Connor Stallion's documentary because I wasted my evening. I wasted my night.

An hour and 27 minutes, I'll never get back. Was there anything that you learned from the untold? OK, yep. I'm kind of with you on that one. I don't think much more was added to the story that we didn't already know. Any key takeaways other than you feel like you wasted your time?

It made me really mad. It just made me angry. One, we should not be doing documentaries on things that happened within the last year. I think even five years is too close. This should have been something that we saw 10 years from now after Michigan's national title eventually gets stripped or whatever. But the whole thing was just Conor Stallion's been like, I didn't do it, but if I did, this is how. And this is how I was trained, but I didn't do it.

I felt like a lot of it felt like it was meant for people that either don't watch college football at all or was for Michigan fans, but even Michigan fans I think are just sick of hearing from Connor Stallion's like they want to pretend like it didn't happen. And they're like, Hey, we won the national championship. We don't really care about this guy. Like we've we've all moved on. But there was like some sort of like key things in the in the saga that were just completely unaddressed. They like barely

spent any time on Jim Harbaugh, or on any of the various like Michigan coaches who were let go last season during all of this. It was very strange. And I'm with you. I'm not exactly sure what it was for. The thing I was mad that they left out is like, it was over and I was like, where was the vacuum talk? Why didn't they address the vacuums? I mean, I'm here for the vacuums. If you're gonna give me Conor Stallings,

let me read the manifesto. There was also, Taylor just said in my ear, bro-hi-o. That was- That was awesome. That was great. That was really great. I felt like an hour through they did like a montage of Conor Stallion's memes and I'm like, did we have to reach like a runtime quota? Like why is all of this in here? It was so unnecessarily long. Like it could have been 20 minutes and got the same point across, but it was all

just like, hey, here's what people said about it. And Connor Stallions, here's his entire backstory that no one asked for, that no one cares about. Yeah, all right. Well, I think we're on the same page with this one then. Like you said, week zero come and gone. The new playoff system is upon us. I think I counted like 17 times that it was explained during Saturday's week zero broadcast,

so get used to that. There's gonna be more of this in week one from ESPN as they try to like catch fans, get fans up to speed on how the 12 team playoff is gonna work this year. But we have now arrived finally at this moment of conference realignment where we have Cal, for some reason in the ACC. We have SMU playing their first game as an ACC member.

We have come and gone from Big Ten media days where DeSean Foster gave one of the most awkward introductory press conferences in the history of the Big Ten. And he belongs there. And it was magical. And now, Lucy, we're finally we're finally here. We're finally starting the season. It's weird. Like, I'm curious how you have felt like watching like there weren't without outside of SMU like this weekend, there weren't any of like the new teams in action. It's still something that like as people are asking me about

this season and my conference championship predictions and whatever, like my brain still hasn't been able to fully process like, oh, this team is here now and this is how many teams are gonna play. Like I my brain hasn't accepted it and I don't think it ever will. Yeah, it's gonna take some time to get used to. It's very weird to be like, yeah, Oregon's gonna get that Big Ten auto bid in the playoff. That just feels wrong. It just feels so wrong. Yeah, so I'm with you on that. And especially because we were getting the new playoff the same year we're getting Texas and Oklahoma moving to the SEC and the complete like disillusion

of the Pac-12 completely. Now we have the Pac-2 and they're joining the Mountain West. And so like, there's just so much change for this college football season that I feel like it's going to be, some new stuff is exciting and fun, but it can also be a little confusing, I think. Like it will definitely take some getting used to for fans.

No, I agree too. And then you add in the aspect of like, we have lost three out of the four playoff teams from last year, their head coach isn't returning. Like that's crazy. So there's all this like outside stuff. There's no Nick Saban. Like Nick Saban is on college game day now.

What do you mean? Right. What do you mean? What do you mean? He should be busy doing something else. Go recruit. Stop talking and go recruit. Taylor, before we move on, I heard that we have a sponsor for this segment.

Yep, recapping what happened the previous week. It is presented by Cheez-It this college football season. We're feeling the cheesiest with Cheez-It. Cheez, cheez, cheez. Those are my like some of my favorite commercials. The giant wheel of cheese chanting cheese at their coach. I love it. Thank you, Cheez-It. We're we're happy to be here. We're big fans of the Cheez-It bowl.

Before we move on to like what's going to go on this upcoming weekend in college football, Lucy, do you have any lingering week zero thoughts? Florida State Georgia Tech obviously was like the marquee game of the weekend in Dublin. Like where are we at now? I think my big takeaway is I didn't really expect, I think anyone who looked at what Florida State lost last year and what they brought in at the quarterback position kind of was understanding that this was going to be

a major drop off because last year was sort of like they're like all eggs in that basket. They lost so many players, Like everyone was a senior. You lost that much. You bring in DJ. Like there was going to be an adjustment phase. What that showed me is, wow, the ACC is wide open this year. Like it doesn't really feel like there's a clear favorite because Clemson you could put in the mix, but Clemson hasn't been the same Clemson over the last few years. Florida State looked terrible. Georgia Tech looked great. Like, there's so much going

on with the ACC and I kind of want nothing to do with any of it. Yeah, the ACC definitely is going to be interesting. I know Miami is the popular pick right now to win the ACC and I'm not going to lie, I know Lucy, you're making a face. We're all everyone in the studio right now. Everyone in the studio is like, oh God, oh God, I'm scared. Mike Ryan's listening. I'm not making a face. Billy Gill's doing the you down over Taylor's head right now. But it is it is an interesting conference because you're right. This Georgia Tech beating Florida State was something that, you know, a little surprising. But like you said, given some of the

huge changes to Florida State's roster, not that big of a surprise, but it does kind of crack the door open now, where it's week one, already a top 10 team has lost. And we'll see where the ACC goes from here. DJ Ouyangole finished the first yard with negative.1 air yards per attempt passing. That bad? Doesn't give you a lot of hope for a vertical passing game

to come out of Florida State in the future. he's been a player that I mean I honestly felt a little bad for how much like blame he was getting for Florida State's performance in that game when I thought like where is this defensive line that everyone's been talking about being the best in the country they didn't record a single sack Georgia Tech's offensive line played great and were just outstanding in in Dublin so yeah Brent Keenow the Georgia Tech's offensive line played great and were just outstanding in Dublin. So, yeah, Brent Keenow, the Georgia Tech head coach, has gone 5-0 versus ranked ACC teams, beating Carolina twice. Taylor, I know you didn't have to look that stat up.

This was the first time, Meme, where it's like everybody was surprised Georgia Tech's going, beating a top 10 team. I'm like, no, this is something I experience every year. Carolina's going to be a top 10 team and Georgia Tech is going to come out of nowhere. Yeah, pretty much. So for shout out to Georgia Tech, huge win for them in week zero. There was also, like you mentioned, SMU played, they beat Nevada after having a big comeback in the fourth quarter. We've all found out together as a country that Bronco Mendenhall is the new head coach at New Mexico. I honestly did not know that. No clue.

Yeah, no idea. And they were 12 and a half point dogs to an FCS team and they lost to Montana State, but they did cover. So, you know, good teams win, great teams cover, et cetera, et cetera. So yeah, that was week zero. And now we move on to week one in college football. Lucy, I know you're going to a college

football game this weekend and I know you're so excited about it but before we get to Saturday, we've got Thursday games, we've got Friday games and we've got some big nooners on Saturday. So let's start with Thursday. What are you looking forward to on Thursday night? Taylor put on our little rundown North Carolina at Minnesota. I want to just make it super clear I'm not looking forward to that, not even a little bit, not even slightly interested, kind of mad it's on this list. I'm looking forward to North Dakota State at Colorado because everyone learns the hard way you don't schedule North Dakota State. I think that Matt Rule even said it like when he got the job in Nebraska he went up to the AD and was like, don't you ever schedule a Dakota.

Don't ever do it. We all learn the hard way and Colorado has all this hype coming into the season like they did last year. You have the weird stuff with Deion and his pressers that like, it has gotten kind of old to me. I don't really care anymore. But you have all of this culminated to a matchup with a FCS team that is better than at least 50% of all the FBS teams.

So this is like not an easy game by any means and it wouldn't shock me even a little bit if North Dakota State won. I think Colorado will win but I do think it's the perfect game for hot takes on Friday and for the rest of the weekend because if Colorado wins big in this game it's like wow Colorado, look at them starting their season with a really tough opponent and beating them and proving they are head and shoulders above this dominant FCS team. Even though North Dakota State's head coach left last year for a job at USC and now they have a new head coach who was formerly, I think, the offensive coordinator there. So, new coach, but returning quarterback who was pretty good last year. So then the flip side is like if Colorado somehow loses or if it's like a close game, it's going to be like, Oh my God, like all the,

all of the Deion haters and every, every Colorado person that like just has so much animosity towards them is just going to be just, Oh my God, feasting. So it's a, it's a fun Thursday night game. I think. I'm with you on North Carolina at Minnesota. Taylor, if you wanna give us like a 30 second scouting report, I'll let you do it, just cause it's like a power four versus power four game, but don't get used to that.

Carolina has one of the best running backs in the country, Amarin Hampton. Amarin rushed for over 1,500 yards last season. Carolina replaces their defensive coordinator, Gene Chizik, they bring in- Why, what happened? A disaster. To put it plainly, it was a disaster last year.

They replaced their defensive coordinator, they bring in Jeff Collins from Georgia Tech, who was Georgia Tech's head coach. So maybe there's something there. Carolina's starting quarterback is Max Johnson, who formerly of LSU, formerly of Texas A&M, third stop, hasn't really worked out at any of his stops so far. So, but Carolina.

Third time's a charm. Third time's a charm, and we're not asking him to go out and beat Alabama. You're not asking him to beat Drake May. Yes, exactly. Just be you. And last year I said, there's a certain excitement to not knowing what you have at the quarterback position, but as we're getting closer to this game,

I'm like, I would much rather have Sam Howell or Drake. Oh man. Okay, well there you go. Lucy, take us to Friday night. Is there, I think there's 21 games on Thursday. Only six games on Friday, and not really as many super noteworthy matchups. But what are you gonna be watching on Friday night?

This is always the best college football schedule of the year because you're not sharing anything with the NFL, so it's like you have like Friday, Saturday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday, which is awesome. Friday night, TCU Stanford is kind of the big one. I think TCU has like, everyone sort of forgot about them. After you lose a national championship game by 60 points

and then go out and lose your season opener the next year, TCU won what, five games last year? There's like a weird sort of like, kind of like comeback energy with them. I don't know how great they're gonna be. This is a weirdo big 12 ACC matchup now. I don't think Stanford is really gonna see any improvement. They've lost a lot of their best players.

So like, I guess that's the game I'm looking at, but truly the crown jewel of the weekend is Saturday. Yeah, okay. So let's start with the noon ABC game on Saturday. Number 14 Clemson at number one Georgia. This game's at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta. And Georgia has not lost a regular season game since 2020. That is like crazy.

They were, like, I know we talked about Georgia being left out of the playoff last year, but like the national conversation about the playoff was all about Florida State getting left out when Georgia was an incredibly dominant team in 2023. So who are you picking in this game? It's a 14 point spread in favor of Georgia. And like what are you looking for in this one? I can tell you right now. I'm picking the dogs in every single game this season. I don't care who they're playing I'm picking the dogs. They are far and away the most talented team in college football Carson Beck is a Heisman candidate I know that Clemson is kind of like a sneaky pick for everyone right now

Especially like kind of how we talked earlier the ACC feels wide open So people are sort of buying in Clemson again. And I do think this is an improved Clemson team. However, Georgia is so much better than everybody else. They are so much more talented than everybody else. Georgia is the best team in college football. They are number one for a reason. I will never bet against the dogs.

The last game that you were at was the Georgia Florida State game. I believe that was 63 to three was the final score of the Orange Bowl. Yeah, I was there the whole time. Yeah, right. Definitely didn't leave early. All 66 points, I saw them. Yeah, I'm with you.

Clemson has, I think they're gonna have a really good defense this year. I think they're ranked top 10 in F plus, but their offense has been sort of the issue there. Cade Clubnick is back. If you're just looking on paper, I think George is definitely the more talented team. Davoswini's still not doing the portal,

still being a little stubborn about that. We'll see if it comes back to bite them. I think Clemson will do well this year, and I think they'll do well in the ACC, but I agree with you. I think George is probably the easy choice there. At the same time, over on Fox, you've got Penn State, the eighth ranked team in the AEP poll at West Virginia.

This is a tough road game to open with for Penn State. Is this really sneaky? I think what people, Penn State opened the season with West Virginia last year as well, I believe. And that game, Penn State eventually covered, but it was really close until the fourth quarter. Like it took kind of like a final stretch, sort of pull away for Penn State to look as dominant

in the scoreboard as they thought they were gonna actually look on the game. This game is sneaky. West Virginia is much better than they have been the last two years. Neil Brown was on the hot seat last season, ended up going eight and five. And Morgantown is not a joke.

Those fans are absolutely crazy. That is a super difficult environment. I wish it were a night game. I think Penn State wins, but I would not be surprised if West Virginia covers. That would be a fun night game. You're right. Yeah. West Virginia is going to have, I think, a pretty good run game. They've got some really solid running backs coming back as well as their quarterback, Garrett Green, who had 13 rushing touchdowns in 2023, which I think

was the most among FBS quarterbacks. I will double check that. No, I won't. Someone else will do it and they'll tell me if I'm wrong. I'm with you. I think Penn State's going to be really good. They're also like a trendy college football playoff pick. I think if you had to look outside of like the Oregon's and the Ohio State's of the Big Ten, Penn State's like right up there with them in terms of talent. But you know, obviously the James Franklin memes exist for a reason. They struggled against big in big games. Um, so we'll see about that. But after, after that game ends, Lucy, Miami at Florida, Miami ranked number 19 right now, a small favorite against Florida. Florida's got a just insane back half of their

schedule. They have, they're playing like every difficult team for their final six games. And Miami again in the ACC has a really really good roster, super talented team. They've got one of the best quarterbacks coming to Miami that was in the portal last year, Cam Ward from Washington State. Who are you picking in this game? I actually don't know who I'm picking in this game yet. So the't know who I'm picking in this game yet. So the thing with Florida is, for some reason I watched a lot of Florida football last year. They are a...

Big reverse fan. Yeah, but the most accurate quarterback in the SEC. We all know this. He, so like Florida is an incredibly talented team. They're not dissimilar from Miami in that situation, but watching every Florida game last year was like physically painful because you would see most of their games, they were just as talented as their opponent, but just the basic of just like being a well-disciplined team, they just could not get down. Like I believe it was the Florida State game where they were in it and then literally just

got so many penalties in a row that they took themselves out of that game. So Florida, I think one, Billy Napier is on one of the hottest seats in college football. They need this win because like you said, their schedule doesn't get any easier. Graham Mertz is going to need to have a good team. They are good game. They lost their running back. I just I don't know, because if Florida has worked out those little details, I think they can absolutely beat Miami. But I truly don't know if they're going to do it.

I think Graham Mertz will be fine. This whole this game is weird energy. Everything that happens in Gainesville is a little odd. So I don't actually know who I'm picking. Jess, do you have a pick? I think Miami is going to win. I actually, I think Miami's biggest opponent is themselves like I think they're actually going to be really good this year. So yeah, I guess I have Miami in this one. And let's move on to the primetime game because And let's move on to the prime time game because Notre Dame is playing at Texas A&M. Lucy, you're going to be in College Station. Is this your first time going to Texas A&M for a football game? My first trip to College Station. I'm very, very excited.

Wow. I'm so excited for you. This is going to be super cool. So Mike Elko is the new head coach at Texas A&M, took over after Jimbo Fisher got fired and got one of the largest buyouts in the history of any sport for like $80 million. They were like, please leave. And Mike Elko was the head coach at Duke last year. Riley Leonard was the quarterback at Duke. Now Riley Leonard, the quarterback at Notre Dame. Mike Elko, the head coach at Texas A&M.

So they're facing off against each other, which is pretty weird. A story for our times, the times of the portal. Crazy things are happening. So, I mean, look, I could talk about the Notre Dame side of this for like the next four hours and I'm not gonna do that. So I'm just gonna throw it to you.

Tell me what you think about this game. I think Notre Dame's gonna win this game. I think that there's just too much change happening with Texas A&M right now. I said it last year, I'll say it again, Mike Elko was the right hire for Texas A&M to make. If you look at what he did at Duke with literally a quarter of the talent

of what he has at A&M, like I have no doubt that he will succeed in this role, but they're bringing in a new offensive coordinator. There's so much change. They had a lot of players leave the portal. A lot of players come in through the portal. Texas A&M will be an incredibly talented team, and I wouldn't be surprised if they win

seven, eight games this year. Like definitely improvement from the Jimbo area. But I think that Notre Dame as a school is just, as a team they're too well-disciplined, they're too tough. And I think home field advantage works for Texas A&M, but I just don't see them winning this game. I actually think it'll be pretty close, but I'm excited to see the Mike Elko, Colin Klein era

at A&M. I think they're going in the right direction. Yeah. I mean, look, I think this game, I think Notre Dame will struggle in this game because it's an away game and because their offensive line is very young. And Notre Dame's offense needs, they need to like sort of prove themselves, right? Like it's a pretty much a brand new wide receiver room. You've got a lot of players coming in the portal. You've got a quarterback that hasn't taken a snap at Notre Dame before that was injured last year to end the season, has had surgery in the off season. But Notre Dame's defense is really, really good. And so the flip

side of that is Texas A&M's offense has to play against a really, really good Notre Dame defense and some of the one of the best defenders in college football. So I don't know. I kind of have my heart, my heart's telling me Texas A&M, so it just doesn't break. So it just, this is me like softening expectations for myself. I also like to pick against Notre Dame

so that like I can, you know, you'd just be like, oh man, I didn't expect anything anyways. And then if they actually win, I'm like, wow, I totally knew that was gonna happen. Okay, so moving on Sunday. No one wants to listen to me talk about Notre Dame. So moving on to Sunday. I do don't let them tell you that. Let's do a separate like we'll do a separate side episode just about Notre Dame and Iowa just like for us. Actually that would be fun we should put that on the schedule. Okay so

there's another game on Sunday that is very funny because Lincoln Riley has tried to cancel this game. According to reports, he tried to call his agent that him and Brian Kelly share, Trace Armstrong, to try to get this game taken off the calendar. This is the USC-LSU game on Sunday night on ABC in Las Vegas. So USC coming into the season, sort of in a similar place as LSU. Both of them had pretty crappy defenses last year. They're trying to get over that. Both of them lost their Heisman Trophy winning quarterbacks to the NFL. So these are two teams that have very similar strengths and weaknesses going into this game. I kind of like LSU in this one.

I think LSU should be pretty good this year, but who do you have? I have LSU in this one, too. I think they are like slightly more talented than USC. USC did bring in a new defensive coordinator. They brought in UCLA's defensive coordinator, which is kind of like a weird fit. I just like, yeah, the whole vibe of USC and Lincoln Riley just feels like it's going to end really soon. I think that there's a lot of things factoring into USC this season, specifically their move to the Big Ten. I just don't think they're adjusted or prepared for anything that's about to head their way. I know that Kayla Williams is gone and Jane Daniels is gone so like the whole thing is just odd. I don't expect this to be a

game I'm gonna enjoy as an Iowa fan but I think that every other college football fan in the planet will enjoy this. I just think that LSU is slightly better, slightly more talented and I think that we're going to see USC fall out of the rankings pretty soon and kind of stay there. They also have a super difficult schedule too. Like, I don't know, the whole vibe from this game doesn't seem like anything that I would personally enjoy, but I'm taking LSU, and I believe the line is LSU is minus four and a half? LSU is favored in this one, and like, yeah, they should be. They lost a ton of players in the draft.

They're obviously replacing a lot of talent on the offensive side of the ball, but also I think are having to overcome slightly less bad struggles on the defensive side. USC was in the bad place last year with Alex Grinch. And so yeah, like you said, they hired a pretty decent defensive coordinator to come back and like try to fix things there. So we'll see how they look. I love picking week one games because it is really truly like we saw USC's quarterback play in a bowl game and we were like, wow, that guy was really good. But like, who the hell knows? Like we will see him in an actual game now. And not that the bowl games are, you know,

they're my favorite things ever, but you know what I mean. You're playing against a third of whatever team you're actually facing. So we'll learn a lot this weekend. And finally, I think we have time for this one. Monday night, there is also another game. You will see Florida State again, if you are a college football fan watching this game

with Boston College coming to Tallahassee on Monday. Boston College quarterback is really fun to watch. He's actually like pretty cool pretty dynamic. He can run fast. He's he's pretty awesome. But is this the rare must win week one game for Florida State Lucy? It's absolutely must win. I saw a Florida State fan being like tweeted like I'll eat my own if we lose this game. So yeah, it's a must win for that specific guy alone. Like you have to win this game. Yeah, you don't want to do that. I love a week one must win. Like it's just so silly.

But yeah, so Lucy, you're going to a bunch of games this year. You're going to Texas A&M this weekend. Do you have any sort of like, what should we expect from off-roading this year? What are you excited about? I'm excited for this whole thing. Ideally, the plan is to try to go to as many games of places we didn't actually go to last year. So TechSaneim is new.

We are going to Iowa Week too, so that kind of went out the window. Because you should. But it's El Asico. Oh, I'm sorry. You don't want us to go to the grossest football game of the year? Do you not even know me? Of course we're going to El Asico. So it's going to be fun.

We don't have it like, we're still sort of figuring out the schedule, but I'm excited for tech saying M we're going to try to go to midnight yell, which has always been a dream of mine. That's so far past my bedtime. Oh, it's so late. I was like, it's late. It's a night game.

And I mean late, but yeah, this is fun. Lucy will be doing this every week of college football season. Thank you to cheese it. We're feeling the cheesiest coach cheese, cheese, cheese. Let us know what you want to hear from Gen CFB this year. We'll take advice and pointers and questions from fans and follow, like, subscribe. Let us know how you like the show. Howdy listeners, it's Mike Ryan. The Dan LeBattard Show started September 1st, 2004. It's a long time ago, 20 years in fact, a lot has changed over that 20

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