The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz - Local Hour: The U Is Back (pt. 5)

Episode Date: October 6, 2025

“If there’s a problem, he’ll solve it. Check out the hook while his DJ revolves it.” Dan is officially in “not a prisoner of the moment” mode: The University of Miami is the best team in the country. They’ve taken the state back, which is what Mario Cristobal was hired to do. Mario knows more about analytics than NFL coaches do. Miami has its most complete team in over 2 decades. They have the best pass rushers in school history. They have their next Devin Hester. They even have their greatest ever mascot. But don’t worry, Mario, Dan, and Mike all know the standard. Today's cast: Dan, Chris, Billy, Mike, Tony, and Roy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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where the path to support is clear and every step forward feels like progress. Not another wrong turn. Visit camh.ca. forge a better path for mental health care. The Mariners, huh? Home game? Hadn't won a home playoff game since 2001.

That's our wheelhouse. That's Griffey. That's big unit. That's A-Rod. Mike, you got wrapped up in the Seattle Mariners last year. Were you paying attention to them at all this year? Have you checked in on them even during the playoffs? So I'm in a Mariners group chat with Mina and some other.

They're sports media luminaries, so that's how I've been able to follow them. I haven't watched a single game, but they're all over my Algo, big, big dumper guy. I'll check back in this week now that the football weekend is over. I have to be careful on this one, because I'm not 100% sure. Why were we acting like Julio Rodriguez is dying? Like, I was super confused about, like, all of the honors and everything that we were doing for Julio Rodriguez. He got a hit in an RBI good, but like

we were acting. He's not retiring. He's like 32 or something. Seattle badly wants a superstar. He is part of... They have one, big dumper. He's going to be the MVP of the league potentially. Yeah, but him. He's now the old guy.

He's now whatever Ken Griffey Jr. was when Arod was coming up. He could never. He could never. He's 24. Didn't you have a jersey? I do have a Rodriguez jersey.

That's the Rodriguez. He's 24. Why are we acting like this is the end for him? He's one of the old-timey mariners. He's been there suffering for years. He's 24. Older than C.J. Stroud. Man, they're making high school players who are dominating FSU who are 17.

Like, I don't even understand how it is a 17-year-old can run a college. football sport on the road with perfect passes. He's 17. You guys do know the U is back, right? To work. This is the Dan Levator show with the Stugats podcast. I meant to get to the Panthers fighting the lightning when we were talking earlier because the delight on Roy's face.

as the two-time champions return to work by just creating a riot that if it happened in any other sport, a riot of such intensity, we would ban the teams forever in organizations and say you cannot behave that way. That was supposed to be a professional hockey game.

You cannot have 7,000 penalties and a guy getting an assist who'd been ejected. Well, I can tell you that the Panthers didn't create that riot. It was the lightning, and that was in response to Thursday's game when A.J. Greer... It's in response to the... last 10 years, Roy.

Okay. It's not, it's in response to the last 10 years of the fight for hockey has been in this state, which is funny at Canada's expense. And they're fighting the lightning because bleep you, lightning, we took what was yours. That's why they're fighting the lightning.

You're going to go to the micro on that. Yeah. These are organizations that hate each other because the Panthers took what the lightning got because the lightning taught them how to take it. Well, I mean, the Panthers kind of taught themselves with what they did with Vegas and losing that series.

So yes, yes, you're exactly right. The Panthers had a goal removed that they scored in that preseason game because Mikaa assisted it after he was ejected. Think about that for a second. I got some stats from you here. There were 20 roughing minors. There were four majors that weren't fights. There were five fights, two match penalties, six, ten-minute misconducts, 12-game misconducts,

65 total penalty for the season. They didn't play a hockey game. It was a right. You know how I'm watching football and every once in a while? soccer breaks out with the kickers and rugby breaks out with the tush push or punching boxing breaks out we're like don't put this with my sports this was a full-fledged riot 32 that was not a hockey game that was the panthers and the lightning have been fighting over the state for the last 10 years and in college football the three teams have been fighting for the state for the last 50 years

and I am not going to be a prisoner of the moment on this so I'm going to offer you some qualifiers. And I'm going to say that I understand that the University of Miami is fully capable of losing a football game to Duke or Georgia Tech. But the team that I saw do that in Tallahassee to that Florida State team, that was two and ten last year and confused us all with what happened at Alabama, the University of Miami can beat you more ways than any team in college football. They are the best team in college football. Maybe Ohio State could beat them in a game because whatever. But the talent they have, they have more ways to beat you than any team in the sport. It's obvious. What Texas just had happened to them in Florida, these are not one game

samples. Over a month, the best athletes are always in Florida and Miami has ransacked them. I saw USF. USIF is a good football team. USF has a ton of talent. And look at what happens when Texas goes into the swamp. An offense that was incompetent with the Gators, suddenly makes what's supposed to be the cream of the SEC and the guy with the quarterback chromosome. Oh, no, Texas. You're not even going to make the playoff. You're Penn State. Fraud. It's bogus. Florida takes the sport back. So now it's Florida on a higher state. Because what you saw from Miami in doing that to a physical FSU team that did that to Alabama is, oh, you can't play with them. They can beat you with big plays now. They can beat you with

defense. They're not going to do all of the dumb things. They'll take a touchdown off the board because of an illegal procedure fine the kid turned 18 had three touchdowns one of them taken away the one that was taken away was more was prettier than the others and one of those was a pro throw so florida state got ransacked do not let the score fool you maybe Miami loses a game because whatever the stuff that's been at the end where they go conservative in the second half maybe they lose a game but they're better than anybody else in the first half because when they take the field they're extraordinary like They are the balanced thing that doesn't exist in a sport that's gone true parity.

FSU did a really good job against Miami's run that kind of sold out for that. Miami was prepared for that game plan, knew that they could take some shots on some corners, that gamble. Entering the game for his career, Carson Beck was three of 15 on balls that traveled over 40 yards in the air. In the first half, he had two of such passes. The third bounced off of Malachi Tony's hands. It was an absolute dot from Carson Beck. I think maybe we should apply. the context of it raining down here for a month straight when we have conversations about

Carson Beck. He was dynamite. And I heard a, I did a lot of listening to FSU podcast, both before and after the game. And a pretty good analogy was made by one of the FSU podcast is Miami's that power hitter that pitcher decides, if you want to beat us, you're going to beat us, we're going to throw a low one away. And you're going to have to find a way to beat us. Okay, we'll go Woppo. Like, okay, that's what you're going to give us. We'll beat you whichever way you want us to. Miami is a very deep, very balanced. team. Why are your hands tied? Your hands have been tied? This program's hands have been tied for 20 years. Why are your hands presently tied? That looks like a good tight. I cannot tie the kind of knot that is required. A fisherman's not to get Mike Ryan so that he is not able to move his hands. What's happened here? This was my second loss at the Dentech bucket. I thought I was definitely going to have another loss this last week. Shout out to Mack Jones, who saw a dead body before the game. Appreciate that. One of the more improbable. Straight up, Vic. victories. So thankfully, this, this settles my account at the Dentech bucket debt.

Does someone look cooler than they ever would? Like, the coolest anyone ever looks is roping a boat. When someone gets on the dock and they do that thing where they can just, by flinging the rope, tie the knot, that is the peak of humanity. What are you looking at? You're, it's a, I think. I'm just listening. I'm here. Give me something cooler. Beat it. The guy hops off the boat. Everyone else is still on the boat, and he's tying that thing down without even having to use a second hand. How about pushing off when you're untying it, you're pushing off the dock. No, the untie is not as cool as the tie.

No, you don't know what you're talking about. The untie. It's cool. You kick off the dock and then you get back on the boat with one leg. Cool. That is cool. You're on basically both. You're on the dock and the boat.

Untying. Hey, we're off back here. Boom, I kick off. And we're on. Love a boat or not. Love a boater's not. Chris, are you saying that you could apply yourself and then feel cool if you are coming in off the boat? and every all the part what you're saying is the part that you've got covered you're

basically saying a crew member is able to do something with such dexterity well it doesn't have to be a captain it can just be somebody it's not the captain's driving the boat with someone it's like one it's not I don't have a yacht okay you get like a captain that he's the only guy in the boat he ends up doing it all you guys you got to help him in that spot yeah you got to help I'm just telling you I've been on a boat where the captain does it all fine Chris these are details that are not particularly no they wanted to jump down my third of all the captain. Yeah.

Well, because you're saying it's the coolest thing. Like the captain would ever do that when they always do that. It depends. It depends the size of the boat. You made yourself a man of the people by being on a smaller boat where the captain does all of the work. No, a man of the people ties the knots of selves and drives a boat. They don't have a captain.

Chris is like upper middle class trying to relate to the pores. We hired somebody to drive us. Every three years, I rent a boat for the day and we have a captain. once every three years though don't get crazy i'm saving up for this chris has got it right for him because he likes the idea of a captain who's in control of the seas down here where where it is difficult any one of us would try to tie up that boat and we would do real damage to that boat banging against the side because it takes the dexterity and the winds do not cooperate and neither do the waves i've seen hanover beach swallow all these amateurs who don't understand the inlets around here

Tony's over here, Captain Tony's. Hold on, why am I being? How many boats has Tony lost? I'm defensive right now. Thank you, one, and two, I'm the... You lost what? No, none, I'm saying. The first mate, what I usually am, on the boat that my father-in-law has.

You call yourself that? I'm the guy, no, because he's the captain. The captain can't drive the boat against the dock and then jump out, tie the boat, and then come back and then tie the other side. Chris is saying he's had a one-man crew who's an amazing one-man band. And you guys just sit there and watch him? Because he's... I'm hammered.

He's doing middle-class. That's why it looks cool probably. This is what's happening. middle class drinking and he just gets on a boat. Your captain takes care of everything. He'll bring out some pigs. He'll bring out some pigs in a blanket that he got at Publix and Chris is riding the high

seas on a Sunday like a baller. Because he's got a captain but it's a one-man show unless he brings his son on Sundays. Just shut up and sit down. All right. Thank you. Maybe you just think the captain's cool. It's not the act of it. You just like the captain. It's the act of that. No, the thing I'm saying that Chris has

right is that captain can get off a boat and he'll lasso the entirety of the seas. And it's impressive that he could do it without any help because our wins are strong. And so is our local college football team. The University of Miami, because it now has, and look, health matters and all the qualifiers, okay, in a one game sample, anybody can lose. But what Ruben Bain does to get that 15-yard penalty, he's physically more menacing than everyone who is out there on the defensive line. He's a clear top 10 pick. And you will not throw against them consistently because they will keep plays in front of them, even if it's

Castellanos. And Castellanos is good, but he felt a little bit like he was out there by himself. It's like, I'm as good an athlete at some of these other guys, but my front lines aren't as good as their front lines. And it's on both sides because you say Carson Beck in the rain, no, not Carson Beck in the rain. Carson Beck, with no one around him playing a different sport, because it's not loop-de-loops. It's because those defensive linemen are not going to be able to get past those offensive linemen. And so that's an easy game. Carson Beck can play that game for any team in the land if you're going to protect him

like that. He'll get receivers open to Ken State that way because that's, Castianos was not allowed to play that football game. Castellanos. No. Hold on. Why is it Castellanos? He's saying it wrong?

I'm with you, Tony. They keep telling me that I can't change his name because his mama call him that. And I'm like, his mama doesn't call him that. His mama call him Castellanos. Yeah, yanos. He can't change it. He's not allowed? I think that's usually how it works.

No, it doesn't work that way. Really? That's all right. Ruben Bain had 11 pressures. This duo of Mezador, there was a great moment. And it was, if you were there, you could notice it. Costalanos is doing his thing in the backfield, very slippery. He runs into Ruben Bain, who has his arms outstretch.

I can't display it because my hands are tied. But he's like, you're going to run into my arms. Casalanos puts a foot in the ground and decides, I'll just run into Mezador's arms instead, please. Thank you very much. 11 pressures. The sack numbers aren't there for Ruben Bain, but if you're watching these games, Ruben Bain and Mazzador are absolutely wrecking these things. So here's, having watched, like this has got some history behind it, okay, when I'm talking about what championship teams look like at Miami, just physically what they look like, how you can't get side to side

on them. And even if you're a six-six wide receiver, you can't get past their secondary either because we've had down here some champions, and we had down here that before Burrow and Jamar Chase was the single best college football team I'd ever seen. It was Butch Davis learning what needed to be learned so that all of the athletes out there, you were like, oh, oh, I see now in the pros why it is Ohio State's been good for 10 years. Look at all those receivers that came out of Ohio State. Of course, that's how it happened. Miami has never had this as an edge rush.

Like, never had it. Like, I'll go back to Daniel Stubb and Bill Hawkins, but they've always gotten the pressure up the middle. It's never been too beasts on the side that you can't. get outside of either because they're too big and strong. Yeah, two guys at the same time, like, again, try not to be hyperbolic, but this season goes away that it's luck. And you can talk about Mesodor and Bain as potentially the greatest edge rush duo in the history of Miami. You mentioned Ohio State. Miami, I know nationally everyone just is going to make the

assumption. Well, NIL, they're going after all these blue chippers. And yeah, there are some blue chippers here. But let's look at the guys making the impact in this game. There was a sequence there, and this was highlighted by Gabby Uriotia of Through the Smoke, there was a two-play sequence in which Miami got 80 yards from true freshmen. Bryce Fitzgerald, a four-star true freshman, gets an interception, runs it back, and then Malachi Tony, who was a three-star, gets a huge bomb, and Miami wins the game there. Ruben Bain, four-star, should have been a five-star, led the state in Sacks, was a four-star. Jacoby Thomas, who was absolutely flying all over the field. This was a rotational guy for Tennessee

that Miami gets in the portal. Miami is also doing some really good talent evaluation. What's up, guys? It's a mean. And those of you that listen to the show religiously know that I always talk about I'm not going to movie theaters anymore. There's nothing that can get me to the movie theaters. Just let me know when it comes out on

streaming. Well, turns out I'm a big fat liar because one of the things that I watched in the movie theater this summer just a couple of months ago was the naked gun and I laughed my ass off. I enjoyed it. It's so much being there in a movie theater full of people, everybody laughing, the communal experience, but now it's on Paramount Plus, and I get to do it all over again from the comfort

of my home, and I'm going to grab my family, we're going to gather around, we're going to watch it. That's what you should do. You should grab your friends or your family. Watch the Naked Gun. It's hilarious. Liam Neeson kills it as Frank Rebben Jr. Yes, Frank Drevin Jr.

They're continuing the legacy. There are a lot of little callbacks and Easter eggs from the old naked gun movies. This one right here captures that spirit, captures that comedy, and why wouldn't it? It's produced by Seth MacFarlane. You know how much I love Family Guy and American Dad. He's a producer. The director of Akiva Schaefer. You know him from S&L.

He directed pop star, never stopped popping. He's hilarious. You got Pam Anderson in it. You got my man Danny Houston, aka I'm surprised. Oh my God. You have to go catch this movie on Paramount Plus. And why wouldn't you? Who doesn't like to laugh?

It's fun times in your household tonight, Paramount Plus The Naked Gun. Hey, Jeremy, old buddy, old pal. Hey, Mike. I want to talk to you about Miller Light. You and I have bonded over these last few weeks talking about our shared love of Miller Life. That's right. A great partner of our show for practically its entire existence. It's been a partner of this show since I was 10 years old.

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That's pretty good. You think I haven't been practicing? Stugats. Oh, oh. I didn't realize we had a substitute complicated legacy. Brought to buy a headquarters, Toyota, huh? 441 and Powerline Road. Second out of nine.

This is the Dan Lebatar show with the Stugats. The way Alabama lost when it went to that stadium, and that's Alabama, and we erased how quickly all of Alabama's last 15 years in saying, ah, Alabama's done, and Florida State's back. No, Florida State has really good athletes, but they're not the best in the state. The best in the state has ransacked the state, and the best in the state has a football team that I haven't seen. down here. This was not Rick's football team that got into the top five. I doubted that team all season long. I never thought that team had the best players, but this thing steps on the field and what I'm telling you, haven't seen what USF actually is. To drag them physically is to look at what happened with Texas when they went into

Florida and are like, no, they're playing Florida football down here. Now, SEC, all that shit's been erased. Like whatever the gerrymandering is in the jurisdictions, no, no, no, no, no, no. You get all the Florida. of kids and you can win the state. Everyone in the country knows you can fight with Ohio and Alabama and Georgia and anything else that you want to put out there because physically what Miami is doing is C.J. Daniels is in Doe Campbell Stadium and I can hear him on the microphone in the end zone doing the war chant at 28 to 3 because it's gone that dead after Jimbo Fisher who knows what champions look like is weeping during the pregame because they're doing

the war champ. But no, not yet FSU. Like not yet because the state has. has been taken, it's fixed. It's like, have no question that when Castellanos is being pressured 31 times and Beck is being pressured six, it's fixed. Like, whatever you had on, you thought their defense could not be trusted? No, Castiano is a tremendous athlete.

He did that to Alabama in that stadium. He was fighting at the end. It was impressive to watch him. Lanos. Yanos. What's fixed? Everything at UM is fixed. Yeah, but Beck's gone next year,

so I have to start again. Yeah, Cameron Ward was gone. last year. Okay, I'm just saying, you can't just say blankly it's fixed with NIL and the way things work now. I think Mario Chris Ball has shown over the last, you know, three years. If there's a problem, he'll solve it. Check out the hook while his

DJ revolves it. Beck can get hurt, Billy, and it can render moot some of what I'm saying. Health can render moot much of what I'm saying. The playoffs also, by the way, with so many rounds, I mean, they'll probably get a buy, right? But you have to win multiple rounds to

get to the national championship and then win it. It's not just... That's insight we only get here. Well, I'm just saying it's not just, hey, finishing the top four and you have to win one game and you're in the championship anymore. I think we're aware of what the standard is. Okay. But, Billy, yes, they can turn the ball over four times in a game and lose.

I've seen Miami lost a Penn State in a championship that made Penn State because they had a team that was that good and then had six turnovers and they lost. What I'm saying is that what I'm watching physically is as good as anything. It's obvious. It's obvious to the opposite. Like, they could turn the ball over five times and lose a game. It wouldn't change my opinion on they just dragged monster athletes through Florida, through USF, and through FSU, dragged all of them.

Which is going to be the scary one on the sketch? Come on. There's a couple coming up here. Which ones are going to be, Mike? Yeah, look, looking at the landscape of college football, if you ask yourself, honestly, is there a team in this country that can run the table perfectly? I think Nick Saban, who, by the way, is unbelievable on TV and is found a way to be really good and insightful on TV without.

being overly charismatic. Honestly, Tom Brady should borrow a page from what Nick Saban is doing because the audience is rooting for Tom Brady. Lean on your insight. Tell me your knowledge of the game. Give me a little sneak peek into that brain of yours. Nick Sabin does that routinely. And Nick Saban was tremendous on college game day this last week. And he made the point, you know, we had a lot of great teams. I've won seven national titles. You know how many of those teams went undefeated? One. Teams have adversity. Miami is going to face adversity. in these games. They face adversity. I think they're really well positioned. Miami looks like they can beat anyone in the nation. I do think that there's this upper tier in the nation like

Oregon, Ohio State certainly. Texas Tech. Well, Texas Tech, we'll see. You know, Texas Tech's defense, no doubt, looks like they're formidable. I'm not ready to write off Texas. But I'm really shocked at what Texas's offensive line looked like against Florida. Florida's still missing guys on defense. They got one guy back on offense. Dallas. Dallas. Wallace Wilson seemed to make a difference, although them running the ball seemed to be the key thing there. I was stunned. This is a program that famously had an NIL program where every offensive lineman got a million dollars, got a seven-figure deal, and Texas got dominated at the line of scrimmage. Archmanning had no shot in that game.

The thing that I am saying, Billy, and I understand anybody, I have not done this before with the University of Miami. And I'm telling you, I didn't do it when they were 10 and 0 for Mark Rick, because that was an inferior team physically. I haven't seen what Malachi Tony is here since like Santana Moss and Kevin Williams where they have a little jitterbug who's faster than everybody out there. And is it, you can put him back on punt returns and he just knows how to do what Devin Hester does and you can't teach it. Malachi. It is funny. Devin Hester is actually a good one. Like if you clocked his speed, straight line speed, Devin Hester, like what you remember of Devin Hester doesn't exactly compute there. And Malachi Tony does look fast on the field. He is, he is not this speedster guy.

he's doing it by putting a foot in the ground and going, being decisive, having incredible vision, the stiff arm that he had on the one that got called back. Like, this kid is an unbelievable natural at the game. It's a Restrepo with deep threat capabilities that are larger than, and more obvious than Restrepo's. Like, again, any of these guys can get hurt, but the way that he's trending is not something I've ever seen in the history of the school from someone who just turned 18, where it's like he can go and into any swamp in America and beat your football team with 60-yard plays, that's not something that's very common. Even Miami has had plenty of big play players. He was forced to play a lot

of quarterback last year, because he was at a school in which our best players are going to touch the ball every time. So that's another reason why he came in as a three-star. Malaki. So if I can here, because when I look at the entire history of what it is that Florida, and FSU have been. Michael Irvin and Dion Sanders right now are playing out their last act on television, figuring out how to dominate the media landscape for the last 30 years like they've dominated it. And Dion just got passed and he's in bad health and he's saying he's in pain during the press conference and he's got blood clots. And I'm guessing that Dion doesn't need or want to do that that much longer. He did what he wanted to do with his son.

And I guess that physically he's beaten up in a way that makes all of that very hard. But he conquered, got to college football, grabbed one last grift here. And I'd assume that Dion will look for an exit ramp here. And I'm not accusing him of quitting in any way. I just, if you're in harm and in pain and your health is bad and it's hard for him to walk and he's in and out of hospitals and your son no longer plays there and you got Travis Hunter and your son to the big day. Like, maybe you think he's got a greater commitment to Colorado than I do.

I think he's a mercenary who's always been about Dion and got, you know, got a big bag of money and we'll probably get out soon. I would have thought that too, and I think it's unfair, considering he's there right now. All the reasons that you just outlined were probably even more serious when he felt like his life was in grave danger and he decided to tough it out. Maybe he's decided maybe it wasn't worth it, but I think he's earned a lot because of what you outlined. I've admired these two men, flaws in all, Michael Irvin and Dion Sanders, because they taught me how to love this thing that felt like it had returned on Saturday, where Miami's going to FSU, FSU's priding itself on being the scary place with the culturally appropriated war chant that makes Jimbo Fisher cry because he'll never feel as good, even as the highest paid coach in America than he did when he had James Winston and he was able to do. What Bobby Bowden had such a hard time doing, his teacher, his mentor, Jimbo got to highest paid salary,

won with the greatest quarterback that there's ever been as a freshman in the state, and cries with the war chant. Miami goes in there and throttles him. And FSU's been at the top. They go from 13-1 to 2-10 to you know they're good enough to beat Alabama by two touchdowns at home. Whatever else they are, you know they're good enough to do that, and that means something. Still, no matter of the state of Alabama. to see Michael Irvin attach himself now because he realizes.

No, that looks like the championship things. And I am still the guy who used to call my old dorm number from the champion cowboys just to make sure that those University of Miami kids were doing the right things. He has now become the new mascot for the University of Miami at 50. He's reinventing himself. Television jobs are drying up. They're hard to get. Like he's on first take with Cam Newton.

But there aren't a lot of spaces right now for Michael Irvin. So what's he doing? had one until he cost himself the job. Seems to be taking a belt to the side of the wall. BTA, Dano, BTA. That is correct. He's on media hard times, but he's officially allowed to be the University of Miami's

mascot. Who? Can you guys find this for me, Lewis, in the back room? It used to be that the mascot, the Ivis, the Ivis has had two legendary scandals. One, he was handcuffed on the field at Doe Campbell. There's

a photo of that somewhere. The Ivis mascot was handcuffed on the field. The other illegality was an Orange Bowl game that wasn't supposed to be a home game. The hurricanes weren't allowed to come through the smoke, and he still brought out a fire extinguisher anyway. Those are the two great scandals of the greatest mascot there's ever been in South Florida. Michael Irvin's better. Michael Irvin should forever be the mascot for the University of Miami football team. He could be Yama Yama. He could be Dolphin Denny. He could be all, he could be the greatest mascot there's ever been for the University of Miami football team. Does anyone here not endorse that? Will you guys all notarize that if I allow that for

the rest of time? You see him get bowled over during the game? He and Holly Roe. Hally Roe, tough as nails. Went to the ground twice during that game. Put it on the pole. Holly Roe, tough as nails. Yes and no. What a run. This champ is picking up speed. But they found a lane. Phenomenal launch into the air. Absolutely incredible air transats. Why the seven time world's Best Leisure Airline Champions, Air Transat. Don Lebatard. I don't think in 2021 I can get away with Michael Irvin radio show Impression. No, probably not.

Stugats. Pa, pop, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. Kiv. That's okay. I think that's still okay. I think you could do that. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, papa, ha. Kiv.

This is the Dan Levitar show with the Stucats. The University of Miami, people are going to see it as an overreaction, I think. Billy, you want to pull the other side of this today and say? No, it's the best team we've ever seen. It's not, but it's the most complete one I've seen since the 2001 one. Just complete? ways to beat you like yeah i think everyone understands that this team is uh got to prove it and and like i said there's a lot of man the parody is so great i think this was a first time since

1996 that teams this far under 500 UCLA who i believe was winless and a one law uh one victory florida that teams that were that bad in win loss records on the same weekend upended two top 10 teams. NIL has leveled the playing field. Parity is fun. I think it actually makes sense to have an expanded playoff field, although people have their feelings because what teams are right now, they're not going to be come December, come January. Chris, why are you laughing? I could watch Michael Irvin all day. I keep put it up on all the televisions here. Just put him up. Look, I just want him everywhere. The belt on the wall. That's not even the best one, Dan. The best one is him doing push-ups in the locker room when everybody's walking in. I go belt. Who's got a better

mascot than Michael Irvin is the University of Miami's mascot. Flaws in all. Flaws in all. All of it. I mean, he's literally in a couple of these standing right next to the mascot and just out shining him. The mascot's like, yeah, go ahead, man. He was all around town.

Just like in overalls, just talking to FSU fans, getting into the banter game. He's about this Miami football life. Don't you think it's funny though that he was from afar envying what Dion was getting in Colorado because Michael can't do the things Dion can to become a coach and leader

that way. Nobody would ever entrust him with anything except this. I'll give him this and I'll give him a lifetime. Where does he find the energy, Dan? Push-ups in the locker, Dan. That's all you got to know. Limitless energy. Right here. What is it? I feel like I got to do push-ups. The mascot is hyping him up. This guy's tank is always on F. How? How does he do? it. He's an older man. Danny Canal was on satellite radio interviewing Joe Zagaki last week, and I got out of the car but was legitimately interested in what Joe's answer was to this, because he was asked, what's the best of the games you've ever seen with the Seminoles and the

hurricanes, which is the one that you remember the most? The one I remember is the one that Michael Irvin in the fourth quarter, down 19 to 3, came back and stole their championship, running down the sideline and Tony's faster than Michael is. Like, Michael wasn't even one of the faster guys, but that's what those champions look like. And this team looks like that. This team has Jason Taylor coaching the defensive ends. Like, do you guys realize that how Jason Taylor's going to get into this game

trying to be a head coach by having to do what he's done with those defensive ends? They are learning from the best person to ever rush a passer in the state, in this region. Like, Jason Taylor's working as an assistant coach, a Hall of Fame assistant coach coaching these defensive ends because they know it's championship good. They know they have the bodies and the money to compete with anybody. When I say it's fixed, you're right, Billy. They'll have to buy another quarterback next year.

But those recruits saw what they did to Florida. Like, this is Miami taking the state back. They haven't been able to do that for a while. It's been a minute. I mean, but that's not what they hired Mario Cristobal to do was to win the state. Yes, it was. That's correct. Yes, it was.

It was. It begins down here. You win the recruiting battles down here, and you feel like if you win the recruiting battles down here, you have the guys to develop and give your team a chance. They are nationally relevant. He's done it inside of four years, and he knows the job's not finished. He is back here to win a national championship for Miami, whether that's this year or down the line.

It now feels like we are on that path, and it hasn't felt like that in a very long time. in terms of being sustainable, in terms of being real. Yes, Billy is absolutely right. He was brought here to win national championships. You know who said that? Mario Cristobal. You know who says that privately? Mario Cristobal.

You can't get there without having these benchmarks along the way. Winning the state, back-to-back state champs, dominating at the line of scrimmage, looking like the best team in America at times. Yeah, they're on their way. Does it feel like the tide has turned a little bit on Mario? All the tide. Is it early to say or is it?

When Mario Cristobal knows more about analytics than people in the NFL right now, because for the life of me, if you think making a two-score game, a two-score game with a field goal is the right move, don't talk to me. Don't talk to me. You go to kill that game. And he made the right call there. The execution was bad. They probably should have called the time out because it was rushed.

Malachi, by the way, had a touchdown if he doesn't run into his offensive line. Alaki. Billy, I see your face. Now, I want to go down a couple of paths here, Chris. Help me do it because Mike just threw in a privately there that seems like it's bigger than happen to know and needs imaging. Like that Mario has said something privately suggests that he's talking to Mario or listening, eavesdropping on Mario on private conversation. So when Mike says he's been saying it privately, okay, I want imaging for that because that seems to be a higher standard of journalism than even happen to know. Don't you agree?

Like what was that? He said it privately. He knows what the standard is here. He knows what the standard is here better than I do, better than you do, better than Billy does. He knows what it means. So to that, for a second, for a second, knows what the standard is. Yes, this is a very emotional story for Mario Cristobal who can tell you the exile story and what it meant to coach both FIU and Miami.

And he's a lunatic, okay, just overzealous beyond all measure, indefatigable. I guess if Jason Taylor were sitting here right now. now when I asked him, are you scared of Mario? He'd probably say yes, I think. Just the intensity is not sane. It's, I've got to be better than my brother. It's, I've got to be better than all the other Cubans. It's, I've got to be better than them at Miami with the Columbus crew behind me.

I've got to represent Miami. I've got to represent Miami for people Tony's age because his dad knows what I am as an offensive lineman who shouldn't have been playing 100 pounds heavier than I was because I was willing to get, you know, ravage my body in the name of what you do to win this game. I guarantee you it's more like title good. Yeah, but this person is infected with I'm going to win at we're tougher than you up front. And he's got his lifelong friend next to him, doesn't come up to his knee, who's the offensive line coach. And what I'm watching that I'm telling you is championship good is no, they'll devour you up front too.

Like it's not what it was last year with Cam Ward. The secondary will beat you. You want to do it with the linebackers? If that team stays healthy, it's just very clear that there hasn't been this balanced a team here in Miami in 20 years. You can't say this feels like the Stephen Morris University of Miami, Billy. Can you? Do you feel like this is all hyperventilation and absurdity? And that we're all on Michael Irvin's stuff.

No, I'm just saying you brought in Mario Cristobal when there was a four-team playoff. did not make the 14-team playoff. It was expanded to a 12-team playoff. He did not make the 12-team playoff with the number one pick in the draft. The team looks good now, but you didn't bring him in to simply say we beat FSU and UF every year. All correct. So, like, you still need to make it. And we've seen good teams that make it to the playoffs that don't end up winning. So when the standards of the national championship, you can't be going around saying 5-0, everything's fixed. I think you can say the major problems facing this program. fixed. They're getting, you can't get back into that conversation being national title good without

the guys getting picked at the top of the draft. Miami just hasn't been doing that. They had this unbelievable streak of getting first rounders drafted and now we're looking at a roster that potentially has four top 20 guys on it right now. It's, it is, to get there, you need the horses to get there. And he's getting that. So let me, let me just to ask you this. But recruiting's never been his problem. Coaching is his problem. That is correct. So like saying that the team is well rounded and you have all the recruits, that's fine. What they need. need to overcome is him yeah is this not a well-coached team it's five games into the season all right and they've had the hardest they've had the hardest schedule i think in the nation and i think that

i hear you no one's debating whether or not miami needs to win a title to get absolutely back there's times for mario chrysabal's criticisms there's been plenty of ample opportunities for you to criticize mario chrysabal i'm not criticizing i'm just not throwing a championship parade He's criticizing the they're officially back statement. I mean, they're back and being in the conversation. They were in the conversation last year. Can I give you some of the history, though, when I tell you in all of the last 20 years, you've never heard me say it.

I don't do that. I haven't. And so maybe it's my arrogant saying, no, I know what looks championship good down here. I've seen it six times. I'm saying, oh, no, I'm looking. It's not just that. It's what happened to Texas in Florida. And it's doing like, oh, the SEC's not actually out in front of anybody.

It's all just mirage now. Saban took all that with him. Miami is so good this season that they're changing people's minds about teams after they play them. I guess Notre Dame must not be that good. USF, they were ranked. We forget everything that we were saying about them being able to go into the swamp and beat Florida. But they must not be good because Miami throttled them. Look at Florida.

They're broken. What happened? their very next game, they beat Texas and not just beat Texas, dominate them in the way that Miami dominated Florida two weeks earlier. Miami's a good team. I'm not going to allow people to reverse, to change a narrative around FSU's offense too. Look at those numbers. They've been moving the ball crazy well. This is what I'm telling you. It's not just the ego of arrogance and what I feel like is expertise. It's because I watch that Miami team, and I'm like, no, I trust that all that I'm seeing there is so, that all of that

is durable, sustainable, solid, because those are all athletes, because when I'm watching the USF game against Charlotte, and they're getting up 23-0-and-I know it's Charlotte, but six U.S. I've never seen this before. First quarter, six dropped passes right in the chest of USF players, because they haven't learned how to play football, but they're unbelievable athletes. They have to go to USF because they can't get into the other three schools. The other three that are taking the players are UFSU and Miami. And what Miami did to USF to me is more impressive than what they just did to Florida State. Because in the USF game, they finished it. There were no questions. Like this one will be 28, 22, and people will wonder because they

didn't watch the entirety of the game. They're like, oh, Miami's playing close games late. They're going conservative. But I'm watching what is clearly a team of better athletes, top to bottom, front to top, like all of the position. in a way that's obvious. Stephen Morris's team didn't feel like this going in top five to pit. Like it wasn't. You did not trust them. I trust them despite their coach.

I feel like their coach might botch one of these late. I've seen him do it a number of times. Dan, what other team in the nation is putting belt to ass on a brick wall? Okay? What team, Dan? Hey, Jeremy, old buddy, old pal. Hey, Mike. I want to talk to you about Miller Life.

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