The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz - Hour 2: College Football Is BACK (feat. Jessica Smetana)

Episode Date: August 19, 2025

"If you're Avery Johnson and you're not Avery Johnson, you've gotta have a different name." Popcorn expert Jessica Smetana is here to discuss press conference access, weight limits in the Little League World Series, and, of course, a TON of College Football ahead of not-Week-0. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This is the Dan Levatore show with the Stugats podcast. The Suez are back, and they're presented by Miller Light. The 2025 Suis kickoff Monday, August 25th, the only award show where chaos reigns and nonsense wins. Only on the Dan Levitart show with Stugats. That's a lot of production value we put into that, including the fake Star Wars music, fanfare music. Royalty free. Oh, my God. Easy with a fan.

fake. Oh, royalty free. Yes, you're right. I should use those terms. Welcome in Jessica Smetana. She's got the podcast, The Echoes with Mike Golick Jr. Is it The Echoes or just echoes? Echoes, Echoes. Echoes, Echo. It's the Echoes. Oh, you were doing Echoes. I was doing Chris's bit. Yeah. There you go. Hey, I mean, I heard you wanted to talk about popcorn. Yes, I do. I want to start right there because Greg discovered today that Eddie Curry He has a podcast called, what's it called Cheddar and caramel? Caramel and cheddar that he calls with his girlfriend, Eddie Curry's from Chicago. And I said, Chicago people are very, very proud of their popcorn.

How did that start? I have no idea, but the cheddar caramel combo is a Garrett's popcorn thing that people come from all over the place and get in those big, you know, tins of popcorn. And it's a delicious combo. You wouldn't expect it. But, I mean, it's been around as long as I've been around, so it must go back quite a bit. I remember working, I can't know it was a New Yorker in Phoenix. We had like a big-ass tin of garrets.

And I was like, what's the big deal? Literally daily, I'm just shoveling it into my face. It's hard to explain because I've always been like, no, I want fresh popcorn. I want hot buttered popcorn. I mean El-Hasson, I know that this is Jessica's fault, but how dare you? How dare I? What? What?

It's week zero. We got bands in the stands. We got football being played. I don't think they're calling it week zero anymore, though. They're trying to get away from it, but what is it? No, it's still week one. Yeah, it's like a long week one. Why was it ever called week zero?

Week zero's got branding, pal, and it's week zero. Who's trying to get away from week zero? It has been downplayed. I've noticed that. But where? I haven't seen that. I mean, I know on the ESPN schedule on the website, it'll say week one, but that's always been the case.

But in the marketing, Jess, like we're not hearing so much week zero. Yeah, in the past, if you would watch on SportsCenter or whatever, they would refer to it as week zero. And they wouldn't shut up about it. But do you watch SportsCenter daily? Did you watch last night with Rich Eisen? I saw the intro on. I did not. But I saw the Cincinnati Bengals Commanders game that was on before, and I saw that they were advertising it.

What a game, by the way. Has preseason football always been this bad? I'm sorry. I'm taking us on a journey here. But, I mean, it's been bad this year. Jess, let me tell you, old school intro with the saxophones and everything, old school graphic package. Did they do that? Rich Eisen Monologue.

And then he takes the reins. And it's a modern, it's a modern set behind him. He's there solo. The soothing voice of rich eyes and the lower thirds, the old sports center. Did they start in four by three and grainy and then expand? Save this topic for Dan. Dan's going to do a whole bit about they're trying to distract you from NFL being, you know, owning ESPN, whatever, yada. Save this for Dan.

This is a Dan topic. I mean, all that stuff, I saw Ian Rappaport, was host of McAfee. It seemed like yesterday was kind of like the launch of... They take over, right? I guess let me ask you a journalism question because you and Greg have the journalism bona fides here. We'll begin with you, Jess. Naturally, people are going to be very critical of any ESPN's coverage on the NFL, given the NFL's ownership stake on this.

Now, I've heard interviews from Mina Kimes on Football America saying she's never been told what to say. We know from our time over at ESPN, sometimes you're not directly told, but you are certainly given opinions and know which kind of direction they want to steer you in. How do you think ESPN talent is going to navigate this? I mean, it's a great question. And I wonder if there's even, you know, you don't have to be told, but there's just pressure that you know it's a partner situation. And that's something that I think we even deal with on the Levitart show, right? Like we know we have certain things that you don't tell us we can't say, but like we know maybe we should be careful around. So, I mean, that's just what happens in a corporate journalism world, no matter where you work or what you do.

And that is why, you know, I think a lot of people think the concept of for-profit journalism, just it's not something that goes together. Greg? Well, I have a journalism question for Jess, but it's sort of off track of that a little bit. Jess, I'm wondering, why can't Notre Dame pick a starting quarterback and how, you want no part of the journalism? It's all right. No, no. Let them cook. And how is that going over in South?

Ben because it seems to me that if you can't pick a starting quarterback, it means neither one of them is that outstanding. Echoes, Echoes. Yeah, Greg, I think a lot of people are like, what's the hold up here? But I personally, like, I think as long as they name it by the end of this week, I don't think it's that big of a deal because from all accounts, both quarterbacks are getting a ton of reps in practice, so they're going to be ready to go no matter who it is. I think it's at least better than Auburn situation, which is that they have three quarterbacks. And Hugh Freeze has said, all three could end up playing in their opening game against Baylor. That is a sneaky, good, powerful game because Baylor went from being, is Dave Miranda

on the hot seat last season, too? They figured out a little bit of NIL and recruiting stuff that they didn't have figured out before. They had a really solid end of their season last year. Auburn, on the other hand, they're like, we have three quarterbacks, we have three play callers. They've said their offensive coordinator is going to call first down. Hugh Freeze is going to call second down, and then their quarterback's coach is going to

call third down, but Hugh Freeze is like, I can overrule any of it at any time. So there's like three play callers, three quarterbacks. I mean, I think that's nine different combinations if I'm doing the math correctly. And on top of that, they're like, by the way, we're also going to claim all these extra national championships that we weren't claiming before because we were only claiming the AP voted national championships. Greg, I'm sure you remember back in the day when the national championship was something that people voted on pre-BCS era and can explain that a little bit. But very weird offseason. And that's called a transition. That's how I transitioned from your question about Notre Dame to something that I said I wanted to talk about on my little topic sheet today, which I am only allowed to reference when Dan's not here.

How did Auburn just wake up today? So you know what? We have nine national championships now. Thank you, everybody. Moving on. It's a great question, Billy. So I think previously they had, according to on three, they had recognized two national championships in their stadium. And then they had three in their media guide.

So the two in the stadium were the 1957 one and the 2010 one, which were the AP national titles. And then they had three more that were in their football media guide. And then today they were like, there's also going to be four more. And now they're adding 1910, 1914, 1958 in 2004. That was a good year. That's the weird one. Like the 1910s and 1930s, like, okay, whatever. What do I know?

2004, like, I was alive. I know you didn't win the national championship. Yeah. Well, that's my question. And so, like, does it, I mean, I personally have no problem with schools claiming whatever national championships they want to claim. Like, Jeremy's alma mater, I don't give a shit if you want to claim that UCF. Like, that's fine. Good for you guys.

You can use it for marketing purposes and, like, reunion purposes. Like that's, like, that's, I don't get. You can't just claim a national championship. You literally can in college football. At least you used to be able to. It's harder now. UCF stuff, though. Like, if you're Auburn, you should be above just deciding, you know what?

I woke up today and I have now more national championships. A little more dignity. Billy, I think some people would definitely agree with that. But I think that, you know, the national championship has always been something that's been up for debate over the years. There was voting pre-bowl game. There was voting post-bowl game. There was split votes at points in history. So there are claimed national titles and there are unclaimed national titles. And I guess if you want to do it, like I have no problem with it. But people are probably going to make fun of you, especially if you are Auburn. And I think that that's okay. I mean, if you weigh out the pros and cons of are we a good clown on the internet versus are we now saying we have like nine national championships or whatever it is like I guess you do the math in your head and you're like cool I think it's worth it what's the upside in claiming a national championship in the year that everyone remembers like what I don't remember 2004 for the record I think I think that they can get away with that in 10 years also everyone will forget so at some point yeah you just see it says like 2004 national championship and you're going to like look it up you're like Google who they

beat Jason Campbell and them boys I remember that but that was in the BC era where they specifically installed the formula to avoid circumstances like that where you had multiple people claiming a national title. Yeah, an undefeated team that didn't get an invite to the championship. And so ultimately they go undefeated and they say, hey, we probably should have been there. And thus, national champions. Makes sense to me. Right. I mean, yeah, they went undefeated. They won the Sugar Bowl and the SEC and they were like, we finished second in the AP and the coach's poll, but we were 13 and no. We should have, we can claim them. this one because we won all our games. I guess Florida State, the question is now,

have they tried to claim 2023, Mike? Because it feels like something maybe, although they lost their bowl game. They lost like 70 points. You can't lose the bowl game. It lost by 70 points. This weekend, Slate Week Zero informally, I guess maybe possibly FCA, Week Zero does have a bunch of coaching debuts. Frank Reich may be surprising many in the audience. He's at Stanford now. The one that I want to talk about is Dan Mullen because it seems like UNLV finally they had a very messy NIL year last year. Their quarterback leaves, but they have dialed in NIL. And believe it

or not, Dan Mullen, in his first season at UNLV, has better odds to make it to the CFP than Florida State University has. What sickos to light are you locked into this weekend? I mean, all of the games are very tantalizing to me. I think we'll

start with Farmageddon. I mean, what was your question? Because I saw that you wanted to get in here briefly before we start with Farmageddon. I found the quote from the athletic director from Auburn. And it says, quote, for too long, Auburn has chosen a humble approach to our program's story history. And then he goes on to explain why they're going to do, but that's his explanation. It's like, we've been too humble. He learned from the best. I mean, when a team beats you and ultimately wins a national championship doing it and claiming that national

championship, you just got to follow suit with one of the Blue Blood programs. Anyways, we'll go back to not UCF talk. Thank you, Jeremy. Miss you too. I know I brought it up. But anyways, Okay. So yes, I mean, they were, they were like, we were humble. Now we're not humble anymore. We're one of the blue bloods, baby. And I think that that's great for them. So this weekend is the first ever ranked versus ranked matchup in Ireland at the Aer Lingus College Football Classic. Now, you may all remember, I attended this game two years ago with Lehman. And it was, I just had the time of my life. It was spectacular. However, that game was Notre Dame and Navy. And Notre Dame was like two touchdown plus favorite or something. So this time, around. I mean, this is a big matchup. Last year was also a big matchup, but it was because it was an upset. It was because Georgia Tech beat Florida State. And it was the first game of the season. We were all, like, dialed in at Florida State. And we're like, huh, either Georgia Tech's really good or Florida State is not very good. And it turns out both of those things were true. Georgia Tech should have been Georgia. I mean, and I will hold that against them for a long time.

However, this week, this weekend, Kansas State and Iowa State. Both of these teams coming off of pretty solid seasons last year was Iowa State's first ever 11 win season. Their head coach Matt Campbell has done a really good job of raising the floor at Iowa State, but he's still knocking against the season, or the ceiling, I guess, with 10-win season, 11-win season. So are they going to make it to a Big 12 championship? Well, it would help if they won this weekend. So this game actually has pretty big conference implications. And both teams have returning quarterbacks that are going to be starting in this game that are coming back. Rocko-backed. is playing for Iowa State and Avery Johnson is playing for Kansas State.

Avery Johnson's a really fun quarterback to watch because he's kind of crazy. He's like all over the place. He's an explosive runner and like really great at play action passing, but he's not super accurate as a passer. So I am very excited to see how that works out. Okay, guys. Look, every football game is a grind. And if you're like Dan and the crew, you know there's no such thing as one size fits all.

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For additional terms and responsible gaming resources, see DKNG.com. Don Lebatard. I don't like Smatty either. Stugats. Women stay home in the kitchen where they belong. This is the Dan Lebatar show with the Stugats. Clear out because I fear we're having another Bryce Harper, Ron Harper situation. Is Avery Johnson related to the Avery

Johnson? Not remotely. Okay. Is he white? Yeah. It's the same thing with Ron Harper. The white Ron Harper. If you're Avery Johnson and you're not Avery Johnson, you've got to have a different name. He could be a sneaky Heisman

candidate. One of these big 12 teams is going to make a run. I saw that Texas Tech has spent a lot of money. They just lost their USC running back. And I want to focus a little bit on USC, because USC, I don't know if you notice this, Jess, but they have 32 commitments for the class of 2026. The reason for this is they

operate in a state, California. There are some other states, too, where you could actually pay NIL to high schoolers before you actually have to present that to the clearinghouse. So far, I know Miami is attempted to submit NIL deals. I haven't heard of a single school that has had an NIL deal approved yet by Deloitte, who is overseeing the NIL clearinghouse. It seems as though they're kicking the can down the road. What do you make of USC kind of exploiting these rules and paying high schoolers directly. We're talking about juniors. We're talking about 16, 17-year-olds to get their commitment

and get their NIL funded that way so they're not subject to this new screwy way. I did see a story maybe a month ago that the clearinghouse was rejecting some deals, but I don't know if there's been a follow-up, if that was just because of like the stalemate between the collectives and the clearinghouse. Yeah, they reverse course.

Settlement. And now they're like, yeah, collectives are a legitimate business operation. So we're cool at that. But yeah, to answer your question, I mean, I think the bigger, that is certainly a part of it, but I think the bigger thing for USC was that they were losing a lot of the recruiting battles around their region because reportedly, like Lincoln Riley was just not have, he didn't have great relationships around there and just was not really focused on it. And so he was under a lot of scrutiny last season for that. And that's why they hired Notre Dame's, you know, personnel GM guy, Chad Bowden to come in and help with recruiting there.

And they have definitely improved in that aspect. And I think that if nothing else, he's going to really help with the Southern California recruiting because that was like what Pete Carroll, you know, excelled at and why they were such a powerhouse was because they got all of those five-star guys around Southern California. And they weren't leaving to go to Southeast schools or Notre Dame or Texas schools. So, I mean, I really think it's like USC just needs to take advantage of their regional. like you said i mean the laws certainly contribute to that but i think they need to take advantage of their regional advantage there and just like focus on what made them great you know 20 years ago

with sprinkling in portal stuff and just having a better defense generally don't you hate when that happens when you're trying to say something and use the same word twice taking advantage of their regional advantage like yes i wish there was a better way to say that but i just can't think of i feel like austin powers every single time allow me to allow what do you know about or where I allow myself to introduce myself. I mean like saying if you're Avery Johnson and you're not Avery Johnson, you need a different name? You absolutely need a different name. Yeah, I can't have a famous name.

Jess, this is in the same realm as Mike's line of thought, I think. With schools now wanting more and more revenue sources to pay for players to buy transfers, Oklahoma is now selling fan access to post-game news conferences. I'm just wondering what you think of that. I hadn't seen that story. To selling fan access to like a press conference? Yeah, it's like 500 bucks or something. You get to sit in the back and you don't get to ask questions, but you just like,

that's so boring. That's so boring, yes. I remember when I was a young reporter, Greg, I was covering Notre Dame men's basketball and Duke was in town and I had to go to Mike Schepski's press conference. And I had grown up watching men's basketball and was a huge basketball fan. And I was like, this is so cool. I'm going to see Coach K in person at a press conference and maybe even ask him a question. So I rolled up, I sat in the press conference.

I listened to him talk for like 15 minutes. And I was like, wow, these are really, really boring. The game is so much more exciting than this. I mean, if I were a fan, I would probably want to just pay extra to have closer seats. But I guess any advantage you can get in selling access. I think people are going to buy the access. I think people are going to be doing it. You think the losers are going to do it?

No, no, the first game has sold out. Yeah. Losers. It's not a surprise. The opener, and it's like, it's a weird amount. It's like $679 or something like that. I'll just watch it on YouTube. Yeah, like, there's absolutely no advantage to being in that room.

It's usually hot in there. The disadvantage, honestly. It's super crowded. Also, if you lose, it's like really depressing. Like, you rarely get to see a Brian Kelly. slam on the table. Like you rarely get a moment in a press conference where you're like wow, that was pretty... Dennis Green.

Jessica, your first press conference, I'm imagining you were a beret and you had like a folder and stuff and it was color-coded tabs and you were there ready to take like furious notes and everyone else was looking at you like you're crazy. It reminds me of

I was, during the playoffs, I went to Pacers Nix and Greg Doyle was there and he was asking like very kind of pointed questions at Pascal Seacom about why didn't you guys bring it today or whatever, how it's the playoffs, how couldn't you not? And I shit you not.

Every time he asked a question and then Pascal Seaccom would start answering, Greg Doyle would start feverishly typing on his laptop that was from like 2007, and it sounded exactly like this. It was so loud, I could not hear what Pascal was saying. I was just like,

what's happening here? There's no way he's actually transcribing what's being said. Yeah, that's super annoying. That goes on today. You know, you're at Eric Spolster, post-game press conference. You hear Ira clacking away. Always. Am I right?

Ira is a big offender of this. Yes. I wasn't going to mention them, but, you know. But once the name got brought up. Yeah, Jeremy said in my ear. I can't think of like a more boring. I guess if you're just like a regular fan and you don't have a lot of access to the football program, like being in the same room as like Brent Venables, maybe.

is something you can brag about to people or think it's cool, but I just find press conferences to be a very dry venue. I mean, literally a dry venue. They don't sell alcohol there. But I think to just this point, I think everybody who buys this ticket will learn that very quickly.

Yeah, no, we're just being brats because we've done it before. But no, but I think even a fan will sit in one of those and be like, and just be like, I don't need to do it again, though. Like, it wasn't that fun. Like, it was maybe cool, but like, okay, I got it. You do it and you realize,

that, like you said, the Denny Green or the Brian Kelly. So rare. Like, it's so rare. Come after me. I'm 40. That one, like that one, that's the only reason I know Mike Gundy's name. Right. And now he's over 50.

That happened so long ago. Wow. I like the idea of thinking, even though it's not going to be that, because it can't ask questions of it turning into like a UFC, like Connor McGregor press conference where a fan just grabbed the microphone like, oh, Connor, blah, blah, blah, and then they're like, and then they all break out in song, you know. Hey, Jess, can I ask you a question not on the things that you want to talk about? Greg mentioned this earlier.

Greg thinks there should be a weight limit in the Little League World Series. Yeah, we got to get to that. Yeah. Oh, like, no fatty's. Instead of going by age, they go by like heavy weights, middle weights. You got to do both. You got to do both. Yeah, because if the pitcher meets the age requirement, but he's like, you know, 6.1, 210 pounds.

I don't care how old he is. He shouldn't be pitching to a little. little kid who looks like a little kid you know what i mean so a pedro like a little pedro martinez is fine like a kid that's small but just throws gas like you're cool with that you got to go by age and size in my opinion you like the idea of kids cutting weight day before the big game you do what you're you like you like the idea of like a kid who's like bigger that maybe gets made fun of a lot in school being told he can't play because he's too big well he can play he can play in his own weight class right yeah it's like boxing he has to play up up with bigger kids think of it as boxing get rock

I mean, I feel like if kids are that big and dominant in their age group, can't they play with older kids? Sometimes, like, when I played youth soccer, there were, like, some girls that were just, like, you know, way better than, like, most of the kids our age that would play with the older girls. But they didn't do it in, like, a mean way, like, oh, you're too fat. Like, well, I would never, I would never call a kid. Well, I would never call a kid fat. Yeah, what would you call, like, what would you name, I guess, different divisions? They'd be like, the little ones are always like the mighty mites or something like that. right yeah and then like the larger ones like you get like a middle and then like

hefty like porkies something like that no no hefty hefty that's a nice neutral work okay is hefty hefty kids yeah hefty hefty i think we should protect children's feelings yeah and this feels maybe a little but i'm not a i'm not a parent so i don't know so one else can probably tell me this is the last person we should ask about that she hates kids but yeah and i'm also protecting the little kids and you think i'd be the one who'd be like yeah tell that kid he's got to go that kid's sucks. It's like baby of the year. Screw you, Bart Harley Jarvis. I'm going to kill you. Reality switch sides. I mean knows what I'm talking about. Don Lebertard. Mr. Mr. Shirt, 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 Scher. 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. Med. And he can watch if he wants. This is the Dan Lebatar show with the Stugats. Jess, is Indiana going to do it again? Last season, they found a way to have a pretty winnable schedule, even though they're in the Big Ten, which obviously added teams and is difficult.

And now you alerted me to their non-conference schedule, which is an absolute joke, which should absolutely be held against them. It seems as O'Signetti is trying to fool folks in here and just leverage and siphon off of the Big Ten's reputation. He can lose two games inside of that conference, not play anybody outside a conference, and end up right back where he was last year. Let me start from the beginning,

where you said the Big Ten has added teams, yes. And I think that people think that that means it's like automatically your schedule is difficult, which is not necessarily true because there's so many teams that your schedule could be, vastly different than one of your conference peers because there's so many freaking teams now. So the balance of the schedules are going to be very uneven going forward. And some of this is just why having conversations about

like schedule, like strength of schedule and stuff like that is sort of a crapshoot because a team could schedule a game against another team 10 years down the road, which is often what the lead time is on some of these home and home series. And that team could have fired their coach the year before and you would have no way of knowing. So you can't necessarily ding them for that. However, in Indiana's case, Kurt Signetti has, he's not even trying to, like, fool anyone. He has blatantly been like, we're going to do a quote-unquote SEC model of scheduling and schedule FCS teams every year because he, you know, he's claiming and all the other Big Ten coaches claimed at Media Days that the SEC only plays eight conference games. The Big Ten plays nine.

So they shouldn't have to play any of these tough non-conference games because it's, you know, woe is them. It's so unfair, et cetera, et cetera. So he actually canceled a series with Virginia, which is like one of the bottom ACC team. So if you can't even keep your game against Virginia, like what are we doing here? But over the next five seasons, Mike, did you look at what their non-conference schedule is? Because next year, or this year, it's Old Dominion, Kennesaw State, who just moved up to FBS, Indiana State, FCS. Next year, it's Colorado State Howard, Western Kentucky. the year after that, Kennesaw State, Indiana State, UMass.

And then 2028, Austin P, Eastern Michigan, Miami of Ohio. And then in 2029, they have Ball State, Eastern Illinois, and Western Kentucky. So no power for teams, barely a group of six thrown in there, like an elite group of six thrown in there. I mean, you know, Western Kentucky and Colorado State have been decent over the last few years. But like these are all games that Indiana, I mean, I don't even want to say Indiana. Vienna should win because historically they wouldn't automatically win these games. It's just in the last year that the opinion of them has sort of changed a little bit with Cignetti being able to just recruit talent at a higher level.

But anywho, it is sort of an abomination because I think in their minds, like, A, he wants to keep his job. I get that. But in their minds, yeah, it's like you drop a game to Ohio State or Michigan in the regular season or Penn State or Illinois, but you still have these three wins under your belt going into conference play. you don't need to do too much to get that, you know, that at-large bid into the playoff, especially if your conference commissioner is now saying, what have we expanded to 24 or 28 teams in the playoffs? What if we had seven auto bids for the college football playoff for the Big Ten?

Like, it just is really, really lame, I think, and not fun to watch. Jessica, Jeremy wasn't in yesterday, so he had a bunch of observations about yesterday's show that he want to go through. I want you to audit yesterday's show alongside him, if you will. I will. So it's in the form of a top five. O-L-I. Chris's transition to the Jackpocket line read yesterday was fabulous. Incredible.

Once I learned what Jackpocket was, I'm all in. Number five. I think you were in before you knew what it was. Just based on the name. Perhaps. Tony's crash out might be the moment of the year on this show. And that's number five from yesterday? That's number five.

Because we got into it. It's an observation. I don't know how much deeper we need to. But it was incredible. An amazing moment. Jess, did you see the crash out by time? I did watch like the first 40 minutes of yesterday show. And I had no idea.

I had no idea what was going on. I don't know anything about MMA. But it was funny to watch Tony crash out. In a bar in a little Havana. Two-time cancer survivor calling that the worst night of his life was truly remarkable. Thanks, Mark. Number four, we had that whole deal. and Gabriel a conversation without like any context being applied to his quote.

Dylan! Oh, UCF defender coming in, Jeremy. Although I agree with you because I did see that. As he said it before, he claims it. Is there proof? I don't know about that, but I did send you yesterday during that conversation, Chris, the actual question that was asked of him. And the reporter asked, you gave us some fabulous wisdom on how you tune out the noise and don't let it infiltrate yourself.

Will you share that with everybody at home? So clearly he had just shared that line earlier in the week with the reporter who then specifically asked him for it. And when it was clipped for the internet, nobody put the question that was there. Nobody provided the context. And then neither did we multiple days later. So I just felt like we left the kid at hung out to dry. And I'm not a huge Dylan Gabriel guy, but that's a lot. You are a huge Dylan Gabriel guy.

I was in 2019. Also, I will refer you back to my top five list from earlier things people pretend to care about when someone on this show says something funny that might also have a factual error. Yeah, I'm the one guy that cares, which is why nobody likes me here. Number three, the way we talked about the streaming wars was pretty privileged. That's why people also don't like me. We just talked about it like, well, I can afford it. I have all of them. It's just annoying.

How about all of the people who just want actually? to their sports, but can't afford to have all of these different streaming services. But then this is where I'll push back on you. So you're back to where life was like 15 years ago. That would have been great. But I'm just saying, like, all that's happening now is, yes, there are haves and have not. They have not. Don't have as many streaming options, but they're still going to get some of the games

because they have some of these options. You'd like to think that the advancement of technology would actually be a benefit for society, but it's only a benefit for the billion. Where do you live? We have Robot Olympics now. Yeah. Yeah. How about that?

Number two. Yeah, I mean, Jeremy, I think to butt in for a second, it's like things were never free before, but you also couldn't watch every single out-of-market game. So I kind of get why I have to pay extra for that now. Like, if I want to watch Steelers games but I live in Florida, I get why they charge me for that. I agree that it sucks as a consumer, but, you know, when is big business ever cared about consumer output? All right, good conversation. We brought up the consumers.

I'm just happy that we did that. not just through our own lens. Number two, we talked about nicknames in sports. We're always viewing this through the prism of consumers that are spending too much. I don't understand. Congratulations on fighting for the smaller guy, as opposed to the medium guy. Also, we're always doing this through our own lens. You're talking about Dylan Gabriel in a positive way?

Like, what other lens are you using right there? Journalism. Number two. This is making me have to go to the bathroom. Chris, please. Thank you. That was so annoying. Mid-sroom.

You ever stop midstream? You got to do the Austin. Good for your pelvis. I thought he was talking about me speaking. Number two, you guys talked about basketball nicknames yesterday and the, oh man, that is very distracted. And the fact that there aren't very many good ones, so I have a mini top five within the top five. Top five baseball nicknunes. Inception.

No, I like this. Give it to me. Number five, the Dark Night for Matt Harvey. It hasn't retired yet. Number four, El Mago for Javier Baez. Number three, for Vinnie Pascuatino, the Pasquatch. I don't like that one. Number two for Yostinson, and I forget his last name, a minor league player,

but Yostinspun is spelled with like 8,000 letters. It's the password. And number one, Cal Raleigh, the big dumper. Where's Dick Mountain on? on that list. And then number one, we talked about posters, another mini top five, top five posters that I had on my childhood bedroom. OLL, the Abbey Road album. All right. Oh, I, the Sergeant Pepper's album. Wow, look at it. OLLI, the Yellow Submarine album. Number five, a poster of all the Beatles albums. Number four, John Lennon, imagine. Oh, my God. Number three, a poster that I purchased

that was a picture of myself playing in my first 10-and-under travel baseball tournament at Walt Disney World. How much did you win? Why did the sports? Tell me you didn't have a roommate. It was his childhood.

Number two, the 1998 home run chase where Mark McGuire was the center cut of it and then Sammy Sosa and Ken Griffey Jr. were in the corners. Cheaters! And number one, The Joker. Why so serious? Because the Dark Night is far superior

to the Dark Night Rising. No, it's not. Just you're with me, right? Dark Night Rises, a better movie. That's Hindward in it. That's Hound Ward. I mean, I think that if you took out the entire middle hour of the Dark Night Rises where he's just like trying and failing repeatedly to get out of that like hole in the desert,

it wouldn't, the movie would still be okay. It's character development. It's just a long sequence. But anyways, yes, I mean, they're both fantastic. And Dark Night filmed in Chicago, Dark Night Rises in Pittsburgh. It's like, if Christopher Nolan took my brain and was like, what do we do? Let's make these movies weird. Maybe you did the exception to him.

Exactly. That's true. Do you guys want to talk about Hawaii in Stanford before I leave? Yes, please. Timmy Chang and then boys. Chasing, that's the Hawaii game. Frank Reich versus Timmy Chang. Except it's at 730.

Wait, hold on. Is it the Frank Reich or is it just another situation where it's a guy named the same name? Let me explain. Amin. Do you know what happened at Stanford? this offseason to their football program. No, what happened? Their head coach was a, he resigned in the spring slash was told to resign because a story

came out in ESPN that he was bullying and belittling to his female colleagues. And just in general, not great, not up to the standard. So random coaching search had to happen in like April this year. Oh, wow. Do you know who the GM of the Stanford Cardinal football program is? I'm going to guess it's someone who, who. wishes people a happy June? It is Andrew Lux. He brought in Frank Reich to be the interim head coach for this season. And so interim coach in college football, is that a thing that

happens very often for a full season? No, because how do you recruit players to come play for your program if you're like, by the way, I'm not going to be here and here, and I have no idea who is. So they're already sort of starting on their back foot, I guess, for this season, because that was a a thing that I don't think anyone expected to happen in the off season. So Frank Gregg is the interim head coach. They, their quarterback from last year transferred to Auburn. He's one of the three Auburn quarterbacks that might play in the opener.

And so it's not looking good for Stanford this year. I mean, they were very bad last year. They've been three and nine, like the last like four seasons. It's, they have not been able to compete really in the portal NIL era yet. And so Hawaii is actually a two and a half point favorite. Thank you.