The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz - Jessica and Dave Take a Trip To the Shire | Hour 1

Episode Date: October 9, 2026

"My mother told me, 'You're great'..." Jessica Smetana is here to talk WNBA Playoffs and the wild world of College Football, but Dameshek has a hypothetical that gets us down a path we may never return from. Plus, Amin has a genuine question: what's wrong with Dave Dameshek? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

There is nothing casual about football season. You can tell yourself, you're just going to watch one game, and six hours later, you're emotionally invested in a fourth quarter between two teams you don't even care about. That's what I love about this time of year. The entire weekend becomes football. Your texting friends, tracking games, second-guess and coaches, convincing yourself you saw something before everybody else did. And then Monday comes around and you get to do the whole thing again.

Those are the weekends you remember. And for me, some of the best ones have usually involved some good people, a great game, and a cold Miller Light. No matter what triumphs are in store this season, legendary game days start with Miller Light. Cold, crisp, refreshing, that clean finish. And it's part of plenty of memorable football weekends. Make Game Day legendary. Go to Miller Lite.com slash Dan to find delivery options near you, or you can pick up some Miller like pretty much anywhere they sell beer.

Game time is Miller Time. Celebrate responsibly Miller Brewing Company, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 96 calories, and 3.2 carbs per 12 ounces. Now more than ever, quality matters, but so does price. At Marshalls, you don't have to choose. You can get the good stuff for less, the stuff that lasts, because there's no point in tightening your belt if it's just going to break when you do. Get the good stuff in store at Marshalls today. Hold music. Not what you want to hear when a pipe dispersed in your basement is flooding.

That's why Intact Insurance answers 2 million claim calls per year within 20 seconds. So instead of hearing this lovely track, you'll hear this in seconds. Hello, Intact Insurance. You're listening to the Dan Levitar show, in partnership with the Draft King Sports app. Now live in all 50 states. This episode of the Dan Lebitard show is presented by Draft King Sports. Draft Kings, the crown is yours. We bring in Jessica Smetana.

I'm going to turn into Zaz now, Jessica Simetan. No, no, no, no. It's infectious. Jess, big doings in the WMBA playoffs. We've got two close-out games tonight, but I want to go back to game two of Liberty versus Dream and the timeout situation. Juju wanted to fire Krista Marco, my good friend, Krista Marco.

I said, hey, that's going too far. Because, again, if I ask the ref and the ref says, I don't have timeouts, why am I supposed to defy that order and go call a timeout? I mean, this is such a class. classic officiating cluster F in the WMBA. So if you weren't watching Game 2, the Liberty are down a possession

while Angel Reese is shooting at free throws. She makes both free throws. There's four seconds left in overtime. Important to note overtime. So the timeouts are different. There's two team timeouts and one reset timeout in overtime. Chris DeMarco, who's the head coach of the Liberty, who are now down a possession,

has never coached in the WMBA before. One of the big criticisms about his hire was that this was his first head coaching gig and he was coming in to a team that was in Win Now mode with Brianna Stewart. Go ahead, Amin. His first head coaching gig on the pro side, he is the head coach of the Bahamian national team. Yes. In the WMBA, first WMBA head coaching gig.

Like in a league he's never coached in before. And that he brought in mostly a staff that was not very experienced either. So that has been lingering over the liberty this whole season as they've been relatively inconsistent, not really playing up to the standard of what fans were expecting of them this year, because they let go of a championship winning coach in Sandy Brandello at the end of last season to bring this guy in. And so people, you know, Liberty fans definitely on edge about this to begin with. So Brianna Stewart says in the postgame that the referees told her they did not have a reset timeout. And if you're watching the game live, Ryan Ruko and Rebecca Lobo,

are just having an absolute meltdown over the fact that Chris DeMarco is not calling the reset timeout. And so the Liberty don't get a clean shot off and the game adds the dream win. And so in the post game, Brianna Stewart's like, they told me we didn't have one. And in the pool report, that came out over an hour later, the referees were like, well, that, we didn't actually,

no, we told her they had one. That didn't happen. So contradicted a league MVP, like one of the leaders, in the WMBA. And Chris DeMargo, you know, backed up what Stewie said. And then, of course, fans went back and watched the broadcast. And you can see her clearly asking the officials, do we have a reset? And then waving her off saying no.

So the criticism of Chris DeMarco is that, A, you should either know the rules and fight the referees over this and be adamant that you know you have one or you should have an assistant or someone who's keeping track of this. They do. And you shouldn't. And I'm sure they do. You should maybe go to the scorers table. Don't inbound the ball until you have this figured out, right?

This is the last possession of the game. But I think the bigger issue here is that the entire game was officiated terribly. There were so many foul calls in the first half. And it was absurd. Like Ryan Howard, her fourth foul coming in the second quarter when she barely touched Sabrina. I don't, I mean, they replayed it five times. You can't see where the foul is. And then in the second half, the whistle stops.

There's nothing. And then this happens at the very end. So this entire game was just absolutely, you know, if you watch WMBA games, you know this is an ongoing issue. But I think the real issue now is that you have this pool report that's contradicting what one of the most trustworthy stars in your league is saying happened. And that, to me, is just as big of a problem as Liberty head coach, not knowing whether or not he has a reset timeout.

I love the idea of saying, hey, they said you say, said that they didn't have any time. I was like, no, I didn't. And then, and it's like the scene from role models where we see the clip, who would believe me? David Garvin, stealing TVs. Like, it's on camera, my man, like, that you can't, you can't fudge your way around. He's like, how do you know that's me? And then they cut to the audio. Yeah, me, look at me. It's a video. Yeah, he's bald. It can be any ball guy. But just zooming out here a little bit, you've got the Dreamer up to O in their series against Liberty. You got the Valkyrie up 2-0 in their series against the Aces.

And I'm wondering because I'm not as day-to-day like you, I kind of zoom in and out of all this. But how shocking is it that we're on the precipice of one team that's been awful for a few years now and one team that's only been alive for a few years now beating the establishment. One team at a five-time MVP, the other team, you know, how far removed from winning a championship? Multiple MVP's. Yeah. So how shocking is this potential? matchup. I think it's pretty shocking, especially after just the first round of this year's

playoffs where the fever had the best offense in the WMBA this season. And then they go up against this experienced Las Vegas Aces team and they get shut down in three games. And, you know, they had a really good game two at Cambridge Fieldhouse. But the Aces were totally in control. And now the Aces are kind of on their heels playing against the Valkyries because, frankly, I think that they just don't have the bodies. They don't have the depth anymore to compete with the Valkyries because they have so many players that are able to sub into their games and contribute. And they have an incredible coach in Natalie Nakase, who, you know, we saw Todd Bowles fall to his knees at the end of the Bucks game last night. And it kind of reminded me of when she

was like passed out during the Valky's game last week and then got back up on her feet, like, nothing happened. And she's just apparently been described as a basketball sicko. And the The Valkyries have done a really good job of having an identity in the WMBA after only two years of their existence. So yeah, it's pretty surprising. The Liberty side of it is, I guess, like both games have been close. Game one, I guess, less so against the dream, but they were just a really bad matchup for the Lynx, who were the number one seed because of how tall they are, how long they are, how good they are defensively, and how much experience they have. But this, I could see this dream series dragging out a couple more games because they have. have been close and I think that, you know, the Liberty do have that veteran experience.

They do have a slightly more legs than the aces do, I guess. I would be surprised if both games were sweeps tonight, given who are on the, you know, the zero side of the two O leads, I guess. But yeah, it's pretty, it's pretty surprising. Like Atlanta's story this season has been, has been really fascinating to watch after they traded for Angel Reese and she won defensive player of the year and they have been just just a really strong defensive team. Ryan Howard leads the league and steals.

It's just a crazy, crazy story for both of those teams to be on the precipice of a finals. Every WMBA conversation reminds me that the WMBA has the worst collection of team names in the history of people. It is the worst collection. No, I agree. Valky's dream, fever.

A team's named after sickness. Quick turn to college football, Jess. You hate the USC trojan. Didn't allow for a rebuttal? That's expertly done, David Amishek. If Jess would like to respond, I wanted to talk college. No, give her a chance to respond. No, no, a team named after sickness.

Pivot to college football. Shut the door behind you. All right, listen, Jess, your response to my charge that the WMBA has an atrocious collection of team names? I think Velkeries is a great name. Me too. What's wrong with Velcaries? It tries too hard.

It's a logo. Tom Cruise's fake ass. Oh, man, what a movie. Oh, Jesus. I don't want to talk about Tom Cruise. Half the teams are singular. Correct. Which I've raised the grammatical conundrum.

And, you know, the Miami Heat, I think are the first one to bring this plague upon us. Orlando. You'd be careful. What about the Stanford Cardinal probably started? Touche, touche. Look who's brain is on Notre Dame football. I never hit him far away. I was worried.

I like the Irish minus 30. with the hook in there. I don't know. The line keeps going up. I don't know what is going on over there at Stanford. They are just not a good football team. You might be to speak to that. Miami already played them.

Sanford's the only team. Sanford's like the only P4 team that if they have two injuries, they're toast. They just have zero depth. Like any time you're trying to like place a wager on Stanford, you have to look to see if ad defensive linemen is out. Because if they are, they're cooked. Apparently they weren't out in the second half against Georgia Tech because it was amazing. I see my time to Dave Damish.

I don't know what his name is. Pitt does not suffer from that problem. They've lost their Heisman-level quarterback Mason Heinchell. We don't skip a beat. The Pitt Panthers roll on. Oh, okay. Wait. Holden Garoner or something like that.

Are you taking the Panthers to cover tomorrow against the Tar Heels then at home? Jess, I'm worried sick because I don't know the Dues era. He pulls off some big wins. Yep. I think a lot of people don't appreciate them on the banks of the Three Rivers. This is the kind of game that worries me sick. We're trying to get down to Miami to vanquish Mike Ryan's favorite team, the one that he wishes for his birthday. He'd rather see them win a national championship than he would see any concert in the history of people, Jess.

What do you think about that? Just, just, Jess, would you rather see Notre Dame win the national title or have a time machine that apparently only can take you to a concert from any time? time in history one time. But that means Notre Dame won't win for 10 years. Won't win for 10 years. I'm not, but you guys know I'm not like a music person, really. I mean, it's just It's a dumb time machine. It's a long weekend in the Shire. But it is

a great cocktail story. It'd be like I saw Beethoven. Say that again. Dave. You get to go to the Shire. Like the real Shire? No, the Shire. You get to hang out with all the Hotto. Like they're all going to be hanging out there. It's built. In fact, you get to 10 Bilbo Baggins birthday party.

How about that? Oh, my God. Bilbo's, his 11th birthday? That's right. It's sort of like hanging out down on the field in South Bend with their version of a Hobbit, right? Ten years, Jess. That little guy running around out there. Wait, I get to live in the Shire for 10 years?

No, like 10 years before Notre Dame wins a championship. I mean, she's used to the long wait. Yeah, I mean, 10 years, okay. Like, I'll be 40. That's fine. I'm glad you're here, Sam. Oh my God. That was Bill Simmons.

It was your Bill Simmons, yeah? That's not your Bill Simmons impression. They sound the same. That's a really, this is very enticing. But I don't want to stay in the Shire. Can I go to Rivendell for a couple days? I like, I don't know what's happening. It's making me feel better.

Just answer the question. So is that a yes? I'm going to put you down as a yes. And I'm taking back my time from Dave Damashek. AI isn't something that's coming five or ten years from now. Businesses are already using it every day and it's changing everything from the questions they ask to the decisions they make and even the routine work people don't have time for. That's the idea behind NetSuite Next. The next generation of the business management suite trusted by over 44,000 companies with AI woven into tools businesses already rely on.

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Going for two when you're up by five. Switching the zone when man isn't working. Oh, and building your new stadium in the state your team actually plays in. In sports, some things just make sense. You know what else makes sense? Drinking Yeagermeister shots. Ice cold. Drinking it any other way would be like,

punting on first down. Or letting your worst hitter back. first are like going for two when you're down three with a second to go. It wouldn't make any sense. So don't let the team down when it comes to Yeagermeister. Drink it cold. I don't drink it at all. Yeagermeister.

Damn, that's cold. Drink responsibly. Yeagermeister liqueur, 35% alcohol by volume, imported by master Yeagermeister U.S. White Plains, New York. Down levatar. 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, Mac Sure. All right, so that's one thing. Jessica is Matana. 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 Dan Levatar show. Jess, last week in terms of college football games, a rare dip in action. Not a really good marquee game there. This week, though, there's big time games. And for all the people, the naysayers that say an expanding. college football playoff means the regular season doesn't matter as much. We essentially have some play in games this weekend. Georgia, Alabama, the winner of that game is going to be heavily favored to make the CFP. And a sneaky one is UCLA versus Oregon, because if UCLA wins

that game, find three losses on that schedule. What say you about the upcoming weekend? You've missed Red River, which I think, you know, Texas is obviously a heavy favorite because Oklahoma's been so disappointing this year, but I still think that's going to be a really fun game to watch. Yeah, I think the really curious thing about the Alabama-Georgia game is that there is a hurricane barreling towards Alabama right now, which is not ideal. Did you see Ron DeSantis refuses to call it by its name because he doesn't like Isaiah? He's like, I'm just calling it Isaiah. Wait, no, I did not see that.

Like I've said before, and I'll say again, we really are missing a great opportunity. We should be naming our hurricanes after great football players. Hurricane DeBricotcha, Hurricane Dick, Hurricane Mean Joe. These are great names. I'm sorry, Jess. And that's okay. I'm really interested about Dave Damachek's Indiana Hoosiers this weekend at Nebraska, another Big Ten team that's 5 and O. Sorry, Willow is really interested in this conversation, too. Yeah, Mike, there's a number of really exciting games this weekend. The U.S. UCLA Oregon game, I think, is interesting because obviously Dante Moore is still out. So Dylan Raola is getting his first start with the Ducks, which will be interesting to see.

UCLA has been an incredible running team. Like, their rush yard numbers are crazy. We went over this on my show with Lucy this week. But this is another game where it's like, I think, you know, Oregon's defense was a little disappointing to start the year. But if they are turning a corner and they're legit, this is going to be a really great game for them. if they can shut down that run game and make UCLA a little bit more one-dimensional. I also, I'm really intrigued by some of the Big 12 matchups this weekend. There's a couple interesting Friday night games tonight.

Florida State at Louisville. Louisville's been pretty disappointing the last few weeks, but they've lost a lot of close games, whereas Florida State just beat the crap out of Virginia last weekend. And like out of nowhere just absolutely destroyed them. Iowa State at BYU is another game tonight that I think is kind of interesting because BYU's best player, their running back is going to be out for four to six weeks and they host Notre Dame next weekend. I think the Friday games are always a little bit weird and wonky.

And Iowa State is, you know, they're not a great team. They're a 10 point underdog on the road, but they are feisty. They have a running back who rushed for over 200 yards last weekend and through two touchdown. He's awesome, dude. Yeah, Aiden Florida. So, and also Iowa plays at Washington tonight. I don't know how many. I'll take the under in that one.

So that's some vintage Big Ten West West football tonight. But yeah, there's tons of great games. I agree with you, Jess, what you're hitting at there. Do not schedule. If you think you are relevant to the tournament, the postseason tournament conversation, do not schedule any Friday night games. Weird things happen in those.

I am worried about the game that looks like a scrimmage. in the Big Ten, the Hoosiers at Nebraska, also you could loop in Wisconsin to that. And you would never be able to distinguish between three teams based on their uniforms. But the game that intrigues me, you hate USC. I hate Penn State. Which team is spiraling even further with a loss in this one? I mean, that's a fascinating one with Lincoln Riley and Matt in a real bad spot. It's getting dark early for one of those two guys.

It's getting dark early for sure. And last Thursday night as Pitt was blowing the game against Virginia Tech, which they did end up winning because of the field goal that was definitely not good. Definitely not good. Don't do that. Don't be a weirdo. That was obviously good. I'll send you some angles, Dave. There was a moment where I thought to myself, the state of Pennsylvania is so down bad right now with football. No one knows how to tackle. We have lost the recipes to tackling in football games in the state. The state situation is not great. I've seen that the ticket sales for the whiteout game, which is, you know, obviously the big game of the year usually cost a fortune to go to. They're dropping precipitously. And it's definitely a game where, you know, I think I mentioned like factory of sadness games a few weeks ago with USC and Oregon being one of them. This is another USC game where there's been more hot seat conversations about Lincoln Riley. He's obviously been terrible in the Eastern time zone on the road in the Big Ten, even in a shootout against Rutgers like three weeks

ago. Whereas Matt Campbell is all of the things he said after Penn State losses have been the wrong things, right? Like blowing the lead to Wisconsin and admitting that that was, you know, he called the game differently to manage the lead, just not what you want to hear from a head coach. I didn't really think Penn State was going to be that great this year to begin with, but they did have one of the easier Big Ten schedules that they could have asked for. So I think it's been disappointing in that sense. But again, like we talked about with, you know, Oregon and USC, it's like stoppable, force, movable object with USC, their defense is, again, so bad. I mean, if you watch the Washington game last weekend, the tackling was terrible. They did make a stop at the end of the game,

which I think speaks just as much to Washington's offense as it does to USC's defense. but it's just been so bad in these road big 10 games and Penn State has just been so underwhelming this season. Rocco Beck was really not great against Northwestern last weekend. So that's definitely a disgusting game. And I like that the sports books are like, yeah, we'll give Penn State a point here. We can't project what is going to happen in this one because the advanced statistic models still like Penn State. like they still are pretty high up in a lot of the like advanced efficiency data and indexes, but the product on the field has still looked so bad.

And USC still great offense, terrible defense. How do you measure for that? So yeah, it's going to be disgusting. Imagine when they, when USC joins the Big Ten, the fantasy, the matchups that we'll get to look at, Penn State hosting USC, this is not what they are. Let's say that you get. this question wrong, Jess. Yeah.

That means that you have to sleep on top of that tower like Gandalf did for one night at least of your life. You have to spend it. You know what I'm talking about. Eisengard, yeah. Right. Saran puts his friend up there, but they jump on. Saramon.

I don't want to get sidetracked with the jumping onto the eagle flying away. But anyway, you get to choose one, which will win the national championship this year. The Big Ten, the SEC, the ACC for Notre Dame. Actually, let's take Notre Dame out because you'll take it. One of those three conferences is going to win the national title. Which one is it? Hard to pick against the Big Ten, but I think if you lump Notre Dame in with the ACC, I'll take my bet on Miami or Notre Dame over the SEC or the Big Ten.

I agree. You know what? I would just about bet Miami, period, against the SEC this year. Yeah. I mean, I think I honestly do think Alabama has been really impressive to start the year. They've been scoring so many points. Their quarterback looks really good. I do think it's to the point.

in the national conversation, though, where now it feels like Georgia's a little underrated. I don't know if you would agree with me there. Georgia. Well, can I ask you about that game? Because the weather's going to impact it. And I have all sorts of questions about the SEC. I think whoever comes out at the top end at the end of the season is going to be a problem. I think Texas has such great high-end talent.

But for whatever reason, their games are kind of weird and they never fully put it together. It might be just the head coach. but Alabama looks incredible this season, great quarterback, running game finally looking better. They were terrible last year. And Georgia Socton continues to improve, and their defense looks formidable. But Georgia's defense has not played a good offense. And Alabama's offense has not played a good defense. We're going to figure out a lot in this game, huh?

Yeah, totally, Mike. I think that the criticism of Georgia over the last few years has been like the lack of explosive plays. And they've been better in that regard this year. but also, yeah, you're right. They haven't played any incredibly high top-end defensive talent. They're not playing Texas in the regular season. The rest of Georgia's schedule is actually not terrible. If you consider that Ole Misses' defenses looked pretty bad this year.

I do think Missouri has, I know you guys are disappointed to hear, has been pretty impressive so far this year. At least they were last weekend against. We're taking the Aggies plus three and a half. Thank you very much. Yeah, I know. I am excited to see that game too. But I think, you know, but Austin Simmons has been definitely better than Marcel Reed.

He had some passes in that last game, Jess, that were like, all right, now I see why he was Ole Misses starter last year. Yeah, and they have good receivers and Texas A&M's been a little banged up on offense, and their defense has been a little disappointing. But I hear you on that one. Yeah, I think that this Alabama-Georgia game is going to be awesome in that regard. And I think that what I mean about Georgia being a little under bit underrated, now is that Gunner Stockton is a quarterback that's now had a lot of experience and a lot of

playoff experience. And what Keelan Russell is going to have to play against is something that he probably hasn't experienced yet this season. And that's a really aggressive Georgia team that puts a lot of pressure on you and tries to pressure you to make the wrong decisions. Whereas Gunner Stockton has faced that before. And so in a game where it might come down to a few plays and it might come down to like gross weather and managing the game and field position and not giving up a big turnover. I do think Georgia's just got a little bit more there. But if it does come down to who can make a few big explosive plays, I think Alabama's done that so far this season in a way that's been really exciting and harkens back to teams of years past. I mean, even not that far back,

like 2024 when they play Georgia and got up to the big lead. And then, you know, Georgia came back and then they won on an incredible play. But yeah, I'm excited to see this game. I do kind of wish there wasn't a hurricane because the weather situation might make it a little bit less exciting than it would have been. But either way, you know, neither team, like I said, has to play Texas this season, who's the other team at the top of the SEC right now. And if you think those are definitely the three best SEC teams and the most likely to get in the playoff, then this could set up a really interesting SEC championship game. So in Miami Hurricanes chat, someone put in a video of Lucy and she was taking shots at the ACC and I was like, all right, let me get mad at this.

And then points were made and I agreed with all of them. But I do think that the SEC is a lot like the ACC in terms of that middle pack and bottom pack, but they've got the branding there. But if there is a second good team in the ACC, from what I've heard from Miami staffers after that Wake Forest game. By the way, I mean, Miami glazed Wake Forest pretty good. And for their head coaches say, like, we out physical them. It's like, what are you doing, pal?

But Wake Forest, I think, is legit good. That being said, they're susceptible to the obvious ACC loss, right? This conference just can't ever get marquee. Any results that could help the conference in terms of national perception, the ACC will always do the wrong thing. That's part of the problem. I think part of the problem is, like, you know, you have your Louisville who's a top 40 team,

but they lose in the most pitiful ways imaginable. They're one of the worst teams and penalties. They turn the ball over. They just do a lot of stupid things. SMU is, I believe, still ranked, but they have looked pretty shaky this year and also are extremely turnover prone. Wake Forest, like you said, yeah,

they're like top 40 right now in FEI. Florida State is even up there. They have not been terrible this year. And that game against SMU with the power outage at the beginning of the year could have had more far-reaching implications on the ACCC title race than any of us thought at the time. Clemson obviously looks terrible, Mike. You saw that in person over the weekend. Yeah, but their schedule is super light the rest of the way. Like, they can absolutely win the rest of their games.

And you mentioned SMU. I'm with you. They're down compared to years previous. But Ret Lashley and SMU just find a way to win the ACC games that all the other teams find ways to lose. to lose. Right. That's true. I mean, that's my point about Louisville. Like, they should also be one of those teams that has a little bit of an edge, but they just lose a lot of stupid games close. But yeah, I agree. Wake Forest, their offense has been really fun to watch this year. I think one of the other, like, oh, somebody's at the door.

One of what's happening? Someone's at the door. Who's at the door? You're forgetting somebody, aren't you? Just because they're quarterback. I heard doesn't mean they're not undefeated and ranked. about Wake Forest? Come on. I mean, I think I would feel a lot better about Pitt if they beat North Carolina by double digits this weekend and their backup quarterback looked awesome. If that happens, I will, I'm not trying to write them off just because the quarterback got hurt. But a big reason why they were so good to start the year was because they had a good quarterback. It is the most important position for a reason.

They basically had a nice TV window to themselves to showcase, and it was a 12-7 game against UCF, so shut up. Awful. That weather, though. That weather, that weather changed everything. Enough. Us, us Big 12, folk, we don't like that weather. Shut up.

I'll also say UCF's defense, that's not Willow, by the way. That's a good defense. That's not Willow? Yeah, you know about that defense? No, that's not Willow. That's a second dog? No, it's a different dog. It's, I don't know who it is.

But yeah, my third, I think part of it is that, like, Georgia Tech been a really solid like upper tier ACC team over the last few years. They are, they are awful this year. I think the only. Those are. That's lost to Stanford. Duke is also undefeated. But again, like, they beat a pretty terrible Illinois team.

They beat Stanford. They beat Tulane, who has not been good this year either. So there's just a lot of like not really exciting teams in the middle of the ACC. Unless SMU. And again, like they, they just love turning the ball over really. and keeping games close. But unless SMU does go on a run, like you said, and they also play Notre Dame this year.

That's probably the second best team, Notre Dame plays from the ACC behind Miami. So they could definitely go on a run. They could be a 10-win team, 11-win team. But, yeah, it's just there's not that much excitement right now in that middle level, especially if you have a pit team with a starting quarterback who's out for the season.

I'm talking where the excitement is. It's with that dog. By the way, I just have to. I have to apologize. I used to give Willow a hard time. Willow, not that bad of a dog. Compared to Ethan's dumb-ass dog. Yeah, okay.

He tries to step up and get on the counter and eat food and stuff. He tries to eat everything. Like, I'm like, yo. And the dog doesn't pick up on hints. Willow, at least at some point, realize. Willow's a smart dog. I'm going to stay away from him. Oh, this dog keeps coming up to be like, hey, we're friends, right?

No, we're not. Stupid-ass dog. All right. You can catch Jess on college football happy hour with Lucy Rodin. and also her weekly Notre Dame podcast, The Echoes, with Mike Golox Jr. Thanks, Jess. Go handle that dog. Hurricane Bilbo.

Hurricane Bilbo. He said Bilbo. Oh, man. Tony, you know that moment at a party or a tailgate where everything just sort of clicks? I know it well. It's usually when I show up. Everybody goes crazy. Yeah, you usually take all the credit for it.

But it's because Tony usually walks in with Quare. I'm walking like this. Yeah, yeah. yeah, Cuervo is a thing that turns hanging out into this is the night. It has that effect on people. It does. You usually take the credit for it. But again, it's the Cuervo effect.

It's like that moment in a big game where everyone in the crowd just starts standing up, hooting and hollering. Keep it quervo. Keep it quervo, baby. Ah, folks, listen up. You wouldn't want an offense alignment to play wide receiver, would you? No, you wouldn't. You need the right person. You need the right equipment for the job.

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Find Manscape and the lawnmower lineup today at Target and CVS. Dan Levitar. No one would. Yo, Lely, O'Ley, L'ALEO. PJ. Dave Demachick. That's pretty good. This is the Danlevatar show.

What's wrong with you, Dave DeVichick? What's your issue? What's your problem? Just tree top view. What's wrong with you? Yeah. I don't have enough time to list. All the things.

So I just want you to give me one kind of catch-all. I do have to get into a cozy position because this is going to take a while. What's wrong with me? Well, you see, in kindergarten, that was actually, I was actually saying, I was going to be an iconic

GISA for two hours. I couldn't, I can't believe. That's the first sign that he ever has nothing to say. Here's what happened to me. Here's what happened to me for real. I was loved too much as a child. I was told by my mother that this

the thing. If you are, if you have bad parents who don't take care of you and don't give you some self-esteem, you can wind up in the same spot where I am. My mother told me, you're great. You can do anything. And then I opened the front door and I went out into the world and found it very different from what she had explained and I felt betrayed by the world. And in the same way, at the same time, the Pittsburgh Steelers are the greatest football team known to man. their arch rival to Dallas Cowboys. When they get on the big stage against them, the Steelers always come out on top.

You understand as a young child rooting for and identifying with the local football collective how my self-esteem was soaring. But then the 80s started. And then the Steelers fell on their face. And again, I felt betrayed by the world. What? This football league, my team doesn't always win it in the end.

And this has landed me where I am with a complicated sense of self. First of all, that's an amazing answer. Yes, it's a great answer. I didn't think the Steelers Cowboys would be invoked, but great. Speaking of the Cowboys, they lost last night in the embarrassing fashion. And this gives me pleasure and joy. T.T.A.

I tried to tell people, number 32 ranked passing offense versus number 32 ranked pass defense. Cleve analytics. Once again, these game notes are good, folks. The movable object versus the stoppable force. I don't know which one won last night. but watching it and deriving joy from that. And it got me into thinking, if I'd say the Dallas Cowboys, who's a team that people love to see in misery more than the Dallas Cowboys?

I had no dog in the race yesterday, but I just like watching them lose. I would have said Knicks before this recent run. College rivals. No, no, I want the most universal. Generally, no, no, no, no. Generally like the population in large. Everyone hates the Cowboys other than Cowboys fan. Yankees.

Notre Dame is up there. Notre Dame is up there. Yankees for sure. People get joy. I mean, they stink so much over the last two decades now that it's not the same as it was. But the Dodgers. Right now, the Dodgers. If you would have come to me in 2011 when they had still recently been to a World Series

and were coming off of winning all of the other ones, it would have been the Yankees. See, this is why the Cowboys are so special. Yeah, Cowboys are top of the heat. It has nothing to do with how good or bad they are. Right. It's just I like seeing you in the Middle. People still like seeing the Yankees loose. Not like.

Because of what they represent. Yeah, I guess, but like I feel like that feeling's not there as much. I hate New York. Roy set off, Mike. Toronto Maple Leafs. That's a great one, Mike. The people of Canada, I don't think people in the U.S. know this, but the Leafs are hated outside of Toronto. People, it's really weird how much the rest of that entire country hates that team.

Great point by me. You're right. Obviously, the Dodgers, any team that's at the top of the pile, people are going to dislike. But the Yankees are eternally hated. And I got to tell you another one that really the Miami Hurricanes of recent vintage, obviously the old dogs like Notre Dame are hated and everything else. But the Lakers are in that conversation too. People really dislike that.

Brandon people also dislike the Celtics brand. The Germans? Or the country they moved to Argentina. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Column A, column B. I think I, yeah, I enjoy watching Argentina lose more than I watch the Cowboys lose. I'll watch the Cowboys win three Super Bowls in a row again

before I want to watch Ardina ever be good again. A means a type of hater that I think gets more happy when the team he hates loses and when his team wins. Oh, no. Brazil wins. That's euphoria. I just haven't seen it, I guess. Are there any people in the individual sports

that falls into this category? Like tennis players, golfers? I'm trying. I can't think of any. Yeah, no, no. Yeah. Manu. A lot of people don't like Joker.

a lot of people don't like Joker I mean he has a lot of fans but the people who don't like him are massive yeah sinner's got a lot of hate now sinner yeah what's the deal with him man what's really something someone needs to find out

all right what's going on yeah a certain someone is Bryshin de Shambo that of golf yeah it's up there yeah yeah that that makes sense the sinner thing because we're talking about this is sinner this is the conspiracy theory sinner is serving a shadow ban

right now That's why he's at all these tournaments. Because you guys remember, what was it? It was the Australian Open where he took something? He did serve a formal one, but there is a notion, like he's disappeared. Yeah. And people are, yeah, people are assuming that there's some sort of shadow ban. You know who's worked their way into the conversation recently through deed or misdeed is Michigan.

Michigan, obviously the Jim Harbaugh thing. And then the way their coach goes out at the end of last year. year and all that melodrama. And now the Cardinal sin for just football fans level is, as I said, whenever it went down against Western Michigan three, four weeks ago, the best thing they could have done was for Whittingham to go to the microphone and be like, we're vacating that win. We saw what everybody else saw. We know we didn't win that game. And we would be on their side now. You would say they are the righteous team. Instead, they said, well, whatever, it's a win. We're counting it.

And now everybody celebrated when I would knock them off. And that's not going to be enough. People will continue to be delighted to see Michigan lose because of that win against Worcester, Michigan. See, I think the interesting thing is all the other candidates that you guys have said other than Argentina. They're all rooted in a very specific thing. Like Michigan cheated. That's why we root against them. The Yankees were good for too long.

That's why the Dodgers have so much money. That was the Yankees, too, by the way. wasn't just that they were good. It was the George Steinbrenner, like, we have more money than you, and F.U. for not having as much money as us, and that was happening in New York, and that's why the L.A. dynamic of the Dodgers

as well. But to your point, like the Patriots, that was a huge one for a long time, and it was the combination of success and cheating, where you had championships, where everybody had to, like, sort of respect how good they were, but in the midst of all of it, there were all of these other cheating scandals that existed, and a murderer.

And so because of all of that, you had, a situation where it was like, oh, no, we don't like that team. I want to see them lose. A new one that has invited dislike for most people, you guys aren't going to like it. It's the Florida Panthers. They have the two cups. So some success. Success brings that on you, but their manner of play and their head coach is not apologizing

for being a, for winning via brute force, much like the Flyers did of the mid-70s, broad street bullies. They are the modern version of that. They have announced we intend to kick the shit out of whoever we play physically. And the Kachuk brothers for all the celebrating that you guys have done, you know, they're kind of prickos, the two of them. And then also the Florida thing that they are taking away all the Canadian farm boys who no longer want to play for Canadian teams and instead want to live down in South Beach,

people are resentful of that. It all adds up to people. But like, we're trying to play this game with a mean, and there's no other example except the Cowboys. Every other example just falls back to it's something winning related. Like winning or money. It's the Cowboys. Cowboys are the only team. I actually do think Jeremy, I think the Yankees would be second place here.

Has to be just like, doesn't matter if they've won recently or not. People if you're not a Yankees fan just kind of root against the Yan. Because they're still like they have not won a World Series in a long time. I know. Like it's been a while. And so the fact that there are still major Yankee haters, like especially I know, despite your amazing baseball, acumen and memory that we heard about yesterday. I know you're not quite as tapped into baseball fandom circles.

Baseball fans were ecstatic to see the Yankees swept at Yankee Stadium. I went to Game 1 of the World Series in 24. And everyone was like, you're going dressed like that to Chavez Ravine. And I'm like, yeah, and I was so ready for like, oh, we're going to have some shit talk. And it couldn't have been more pleasant. Dodgers are bad fans. They've got bad fans. It was.

Like they got good fans. Like, is he going to get busy? You could go to a game wearing another team. Very hard. Dog, they were telling me, they were telling me, like, I was going into, like, a lion's den wearing a meat. Only, like, international soccer or, like, Premier League games. You actually have to worry about wearing stuff. Like, in America, you could go places.

You can go to a game wearing the opposing team. It was a killing. Yeah. But it wasn't even trash talk. It was just, like, very pleasant. Everyone had a good time. They knew they were going to beat you. No, that was a game.

Freddie Freeman crushed that. God, that was so awesome. Happy Halloween. Let me tell you something. I saw the video on my phone. He gets up the back. You know, one more out. We just sold game one.

He hit it. And I literally, my video doesn't even follow the ball. It just goes down because the sound of the bat, I knew this thing's out of here. My friend Kevin Hensch said after the Yankees got swept, and he is a diehard Red Sox guy. He said, and he's on that fancy Boston sports fan group chain. and they celebrated the Yankees losing. Who cares about the Red Sox? All is right in the world so long as the Yankees lose too.

I prefer that, an arch rival and the legit hate versus the apathy that I feel. The teams I resent most, the fan bases I resent most are the ones that don't seem to care as much. I do love to hate other entire sports towns more than I do to kind of look at the team, be like Tampa won the title? It feels like the whole season counts for about half now. That's a great one, Mike. Tony, you know that moment at a party or a tailgate where everything just sort of clicks? I know it well. It's usually when I show up. Everybody goes crazy. Yeah, you usually take all the credit for it, but it's because Tony usually walks in with Quervo.

I'm walking like this. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Quervo is a thing that turns hanging out into this is the night. It has that effect on people. It does. You usually take the credit for it. But again, it's the Quervo effect. It's like that moment in a big game where everyone in the crowd just starts standing up, hooting in high. Keep it quervo. Keep it quervo, baby.