The Dan Le Batard Show with Stugotz - The Big Suey: The Pocrisy (feat. Nick Wright)

Episode Date: December 3, 2025

"I'm a bit of a loser? You son of a b****." Nick Wright wants to discuss anything OUTSIDE of the Kansas City Chiefs, but instead, Dan badgers him into sharing his thoughts and a sympathy text from Nacho Barbero. Also, Nick calls Zas a liar. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Obviously smart, but not a rule. Rule. Never pee-pee on an electric fence. Okay, maybe there are two rules. But the one that is 100% that I insist on completely, Yeagermeister must be drank ice cold. Or don't drink it at all. Damn, that's cold. Exactly. You're finally starting to get it. Drink responsibly. Yeagermeister liqueur 35% alcohol by volume imported by Mass Yeagermeister U.S. White Plains, New York. Welcome to the Big Suey, presented by Draft Kings.

Why are you listening to this show? The podcast that seems very similar to the other Dan Levitard podcast. I'm sorry, I'm not going to apologize for that. In fact, the only difference seems to be this imaging. I have been tempted in restaurants just walking past tables to grab somebody's fries if they're just there. That hasn't happened to you guys? I've done it. And now, here's the marching band to nowhere, fat face, and the habitual liar.

This episode of the Dan Levitart show is presented by Draft Kings. Draft Kings, the crown is yours. Nick Wright is going to join us here in a second. He's got to be in a state of near total despondence. He has been, for many years, crowing because he's had the football team of a lifetime to support. He has become friends with players on the team. They love what an ardent supporter of the team he is, and they had a bad loss against Dallas, and they could have lost to the Colts.

He was hopeful. after they played the way they did against the Colt, they lose at Denver, and now are you done, Nick, with the season? Like, are you still holding on to some sort of hope, or are you checking schedules and being like, well, the AFC is super weak, and if they get to the playoffs,

they'll still have the best quarterback in the playoffs. Well, if they get to the playoffs, they'll win the Super Bowl, but now they have to get to the playoffs. And hi, Dan, I mean, it's Wednesday. They haven't played in six days. I didn't know we were going to lead with the chiefs, but cool, no problem. It's the most topical thing. I mean, you know, fourth greatest point guard in the history, the NBA gets sent home.

We could discuss that. There's a lot of things we could get into, but in Miami, fighting for its life college football playoff, does head-to-head even matter? You know, a topic right up your alley. Lane Kiffin lying allegedly, you know, going to LSU. There's a lot of more. Don't deflect here, Nick. Nick, when your team wins, you're not talking about the psych guys. It's Wednesday. They played on Thursday. I'm just telling you. It's just how the calendar works. We move forward. But no, the biggest story in that sport is every week is when the Chiefs lose. It's the biggest story every week in that sport. I agree. I agree every week. And that was last week, Dan. But it's fine. It's your show. So I will deal with it. Is it fine, though? Are you dealing with it? Because you're coming, you come in whimpering and hot because you are for the first time in a while.

a bit of a loser. I am a bit of a loser. This son of a... You're right. You know what? You're right. I am a loser. A bit of a loser.

Not a total loser. Just for the first time and a long time, your football team is a bit of a loser. Well, the football... I'd rather you call me a loser than them. Well, you're associated with a loser. They... Cody?

Yeah. Relax. I couldn't be more relaxed. I Here's the deal That team's almost as bad as yours Okay Oh god All right

So let me There's a lot to unpack here And I know what you're trying to get at Is how this swoon That I didn't see coming Has impacted me Emotionally but really more so financially And the answer is

As bad as you thought Um One of my buddies That I bet with Yesterday text me I'm just going to read you the text I mean it's real quick and then I'll give you actual football analysis but this is what you want

this is from my great Argentinian poker pro nacho barbaro I don't mind telling you this this is what he texts me can you zeal I say yes he then writes

no more betting for you bro I don't want you to feel bad You can't just keep betting the Chiefs more and more. They don't have it this year. He feels bad for you. You've got his own, wait a minute, he's taken to pitying you? He's cut you off? I mean, I know Draft Kings does no sweat bet sometimes and parlay insurance.

You never really see that from the standard bookie. That's great. Well, the thing is this, he's not even, it's not even a, it's not a book. He's not a bookie. It just, if we're on opposite sides of a game, we bet as friends, but that, you know, When you're on Draft Kings, you know, every once in a while, they send you that little alert. They're like, hey, I think they're like, hey, let's reality check. You don't really get those when you're just WhatsApping in a private gambling consortium.

Neither here nor there, Dan. It's such a, you just told on yourself so bad that you're getting those prompts. Hey, is everything all right, Nick? I've never gotten one of those. You have it? I thought they were automated. I am not your volume. It doesn't matter, guys.

It doesn't matter. As I texted Nacho, I've got plenty of money. Don't worry about me. It sounds a bit like an intervention. It's not your bookie. It's just a friend worried about you. Yeah, I mean, okay. Nobody cares about me.

I'm a vessel to give takes on sports. Let's talk about the team. So here's the deal. It's very, very simple. They are fly. believed in the chiefs last year when the metrics were terrible but they won these games now last year dan if you know what i'm just going to go full-on attack go on last year last year dan you and others try to folks that wish that we didn't even that the the way we figured out who the super

bowl winner was was a total point differential of the season plus dv oa rankings plus see what barnwell and Mina and Solak think and then just hand them a trophy. You guys last year all were like actually your team's not that good. They're 15 and 1 but they're actually not that good. Well by that logic this year they they my home's number one in the EPA they're top five in all of the smart stats they have a great point differential they're a great team. However because I unlike the nerds who think they understand football actually understand football get winning is a skill and this year's chief's team has found ways to lose no other chief's team has in its history. It has the, or in the Mahomes era, it has the bones and a lot of trademarks of

really good teams, but they can't get off the field on third and long. They, the, the fumble at the end of the game when Dallas tried to give to Kansas City, they couldn't get to those moments are what decide championships. So right now they're up against it. With that, with that, said, if they win out, they are guaranteed to make the playoffs. And if that happens in the wide open AFC, then of course they'll go back to the Super Bowl and be the most dangerous team. However, this weekend, they are playing the best defense in the NFL, in my opinion. They won't have their starting left tackle because he got his wrist broken by his teammate helping him out with a block. And they might not have their starting right tackle. So here is where I am with

the Chiefs. They could lose this weekend. If they do, they're done. If they win this weekend, if I talk to you next week, what I will say, and I could take a polygraph to attest to it, because I will believe it in my bones, what I will say is, if they beat the Chargers the following Sunday, steady themselves, and then have those tiebreakers over Houston and the Chargers, and then in that point maybe have a game to play with, they're going to go back to the Super Bowl. So they're a game away from being a game away, but for a team that hasn't faced any regular season pressure in eight years,

there's a lot riding on this weekend, and there was a lot writing on the Denver game, and they lost it, and there was a lot writing on the Dallas game, and they lost it. I have one unbelievable stat for you, and then you can take your show back. Let's give him the stat of the day music. Chris, please get out of your phone and get him the stat of the day music. Thank you.

this season, Patrick Mahomes has led a fourth quarter comeback in a game he ended up losing because the defense then gave the lead away. Three times this season. That Tom Brady did not have that happen to him three times in his career until year 15. So that's the other piece of... What are you describing as the last few minutes of the game? No, just trailing in the fourth quarter, go take the lead, and defense doesn't hold it. The third time that happened to Brady, it was 2014. It was the 15th year of his career.

That has happened to Patrick three times this year. And that fundamentally, if we're actually going to get to... You know the actual football issue with this chief's team Since they traded Tyreek they have been third best in the NFL in third and long defense this year They are fourth worst they have the fourth fewest turnovers for us. They have the sixth few of sacks They got the Cowboys to third and eight third nine third and ten all game long like they did the Chargers like they did the Broncos like they did the Jags, for that matter, and they couldn't get off the field. And that's the problem.

What is Roy laughing at? Someone in the back must be making fun. No, Chris is still in his phone, and he knows. Roy knows I need sound, and Chris is in his phone. Can you get me the sound? Explain to me what your coach was saying here. I was surprised to hear Andy. Oh, tickle the tonsils?

Hold on a second. Explain it to me. We're going to try to tickle your tonsils on every play, every game. I don't know. His little smirk. He has like a little laugh. I think he knows. Listen to the laugh through the gravel.

Listen to the laugh. He laughs at himself because I think he does know. We're going to try to tickle your tonsils on every play, every game. I think he knows once he, sometimes you say something and you're like, oh, that came out weird. And so I think that's what he knew. It was like when our show a couple weeks ago One of the greatest men I've ever known And devout man of God, Chris Broussard

We were discussing the New England Patriots Having a better wide receiver core Than we anticipated And Brue just said matter of factly No man, booty is nice And then we all just sat there like And so he wasn't trying to make a joke but it just came out that way.

I think so I think what Andy's saying is we're going to continue to try to put pressure on you and push the ball down the field and play an exciting brand of football. Here is what another, again, we're going to do the whole thing on the damn chiefs. Here is another thing that I found interesting. For the first time in Patrick's entire career

at the post-game press conference after the loss to the Cowboys, he didn't take it one game at a time. Like he's always done the cliche next week, next week, that's it. He said, we have to win the rest of our games. Andy, in that press conference you played, was somewhat defiant the whole time

basically saying, we know what we need to do, and we're going to do it. The glass one quarter full view of this is, the Chiefs have been, a superb home team this year. They're four and one. The one loss was in week two to Philly

when they weren't whole and they had that game and the ball bounces off Kelsey's hands turns into a pick. Their three games against good teams, Texans, Chargers, Broncos are all at home. They have been an awful road team.

Luckily, they play the second worst team in football, the Raiders at home, and the worst team I've seen in the NFL in 10, years the Tennessee Titans at home. This time a year, it's a lot. Lights,

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38 for 45. Stugats. Shredom! This is the Dan Lebatar show with the Stugats. There is a path, but it is this narrow, and that's the only way they get in the tournament. They get in the tournament, then they're all of a sudden, the hottest team with the experience in the most wide open AFC ever. To me, the biggest story about the AFC this season, other than the Chiefs, you know,

every team that won 12 games last year is worse this year. Philly is worse. The Chiefs are worse. Detroit's going to miss the playoffs. Baltimore's far worse. Minnesota fell apart. Buffalo is, and I'll get to them in a second, at least a little bit worse. and there's one other team I'm leaving out that I forgot.

All those teams regressed to varying degrees. What's happened to Minnesota is crazy. We were talking at the beginning of this season of Kevin O'Connell being a quarterback whisper, and now look how far behind everyone in the division they are. Well, you can't be a quarterback whisper if your quarterback's death. So the, the, what I was going to say is, if you're Josh Allen and the,

the Buffalo Bills, and you don't make the Super Bowl this year, it's assuming the Chiefs missed the playoffs, it's a Shakespearean tragedy. This borough's done at what missed most of the year. The Ravens are a disaster. By the way, I need to check in again with the smartest people that cover football that have explained to me how over the last three years, Lamar Jackson, if he never ran was the best quarterback in football. He's the most refined pocket passer. We all need to accept that and recognize that. I wonder how they have taken this last month

where the guy is a foot injury and all of a sudden people aren't afraid of him running and he's 14 of 28 for 104-yard-zero touchdowns every week. Curious how that's landed again at the smartest people's desk. But if Josh Allen, and I think they will, by the way, if the chiefs miss. has to be Josh's year. This is, there's a very 2008 feel to the season. The year Brady blew his ACL, Peyton didn't quite have it, and it was wide open. And I wonder if Josh can step

through that void. Put it on the poll, please, at Lebitard show. Would you be okay with Mina, Barnwell, and Solac just handling all the CFP rankings? Let's talk about other things outside of football. You mentioned Chris Ball. I've been delayed in doing this. the middle of the night, the clippers who are god-awful and will end up making OKC the champions for the next 10 years because they're god-awful. Wave, send home, Chris Paul. This was supposed to be a retirement tour, kind of. Yeah, I don't get it.

So there has to be more here, right? Like, behind the scenes, Chris Paul, while a pillar professionally in front of us, he has been a union leader and someone who a lot of people think that behind the scenes does some things that don't end up in public. The Clippers sending this person with this resume just home in the middle of the night? What is that about? Well, I mean, I am, I woke up to it, you know, as well, and I have no idea, but it is bizarre. It is, and then they, you know, they sent out conciliatory messages.

Lawrence Frank, you know, it was like, we're not blaming Chris for the position we're in. But then Bobby Marks explained how this doesn't actually really give the clippers a bunch of extra flexibility. This is all-time bizarre. So I apologize. I don't, when I was, I was flailing at the beginning when I said you, I thought you'd want to talk about Chris Paul. I don't have actually anything inside. I was just, I was just throwing things. I, what I will, I will say.

I thought you were begging me to ask you about it. I just didn't want to do 20 minutes on the chiefs, Dan. I will say this, if this is something I have a take on. Everyone complaining about LeBron staying in that game to get to double-digit points is a liar. So here's what I mean. I don't think anyone actually is bothered by it. I think people just understand that they can pretend to be bothered by it. And I think we would go 100% at people privately, if you ask them,

Did this actually bother you and why? They'd be like, no, I don't care. I have six minutes left. I think it bothered Zaslo yesterday. Yeah, I mean, Nick, I think the part... And I'm saying he's lying. You don't ever call me a liar. I always tell the truth, even when I lie.

I didn't call you a liar. I said you're lying. I think what happened there, I think what people are upset about is the hypocrisy of it, where the night before... Do you swallow your ages too? The hypocrisy? The hypocrisy! Okay, we just heard hypocrisy.

It's an hypocrisy. It's an hypocrisy. Okay. I own an apothecary store. Go ahead. The hypocrisy of it is the night before, which is the first night of a back-to-back, LeBron, because he's old and they want to save him

and they want to maximize his availability, sits out that game. Well, are you maximizing his availability if he's in the middle of the fourth quarter down by 26 points? So this is where I'm saying you're lying. And I will say it. Do you actually think

there is any relation whatsoever to the rest LeBron James gets from knowing at the beginning of a day I'm not playing tonight I don't have to do the five hours to get myself ready plus play in the game that's in one bucket and the other bucket is hey in a game you've already played in we are going to let you stay out an extra 90 seconds of game time to take a couple threes do you think those are at all similar in wear and tear on the body. And the answer to that is, of course, no, but folks who have made it either a small part, you know, maybe in your case, and in other people's folks, the entire part of their public brand is like, oh, there's something, you know,

something possible that I can say LeBron did that I don't like, even if you don't actually care. Well, now I'll ask you one more thing then. If he was already at 10 points, would he have been in the game at that time? Probably not. That's right. Probably. Yeah. Everybody knows. See, that's the thing. This is the second time, Zads.

I'm going to do something that I think can be very uncomfortable for people with your argument style. Finish the thought. Yes, I agree with you. He would not have been in if he had 10 points. So then is it about a record or is it about

maximizing availability. That's that's no. But so again, hold on. Are you saying, are you saying that you think his availability for the next game or the rest of the season or any amount was impacted by him jogging up and down the court for an extra 90 seconds and shooting that three? No, but then why? No, no, but then why if he had already extended the streak, would he have been out of the game? Apocrycy. No. Hypocrisy. It's an outrage.

Zaslo, because he stayed in the game to extent. What you're saying. A record, by the way, that nobody cares about. Can we agree on that? Nobody cares. Well, everybody, it's like most NBA records, it was hallowed and untouchable until LeBron blasted it. It was, it was a record.

I don't even know what the record is. I don't know who had it before. It's Michael George. Oh, right. Hold on. And again, all right, now Zaslo, I'm now again. Now I, you know what? I'm now just going.

going to call you a liar. That is something that was an obvious lie. You have a lot. I have no idea what the record is. No, no, no, no. No, that part, that part, I believe. You said and I quote, I have no idea. I have no idea. You're saying it was Michael Jordan. I had no idea. It's a completely inconsequential record. Double-digit point streak. Who cares? Then why are you demonizing the record if you don't care about it? Because there's an hypocrisy. I thought players, We need a rest. He didn't play the night before. It's very important to be available

unless I only have seven points down by 26. Come on. This is so... The guy who's played more games, more minutes, been more available than literally any athlete in the history of the sport, you're banging on him for not playing the front night of a back-to-back,

while also banging on him for staying in a game an extra 90 seconds. Just admit it, bro. You're not over that. he left you. No, that's not true. Like, it's been 10 years, man. No, I'm very grateful for LeBron's time down here.

My career is not where it is without LeBron being here. I'd be an ingrate if I wasn't grateful. I can't imagine feeling that way. I got to go. Okay, see you later. I wanted to ask an assortment of other questions, but what's right about MLS Cup. What's right with Nick Wright? We're going to talk.

MLS Cup on Fox. You're going to. Dano, I had a hard out three minutes ago. I hate to do this to you. I have to go. I'll see you next week. See you later. You don't ever call me a liar.

F.S. 1. It's too late for that. He's the host of F.S.1's first things first. He's also the host of What's Right with Nick Wright, the podcast he does with his son. Just called you a liar, right to your face. I know, but then I owned him in our discussion. So it's all good. Did you? You should go back and listen. You clearly weren't.

Okay. Now, come on. Nick's right. I got to go on Nick's right. Nick Wright. He's right. You were wrong on this one. Eat it. Because. Own it. because there's nothing wrong with LeBron James wanting to continue a 10-point streak. I agree with that part.

Okay. Then why are you faulting them for staying in the game? I told you because of the hypocrisy involved. There's no hypocrisy there. With making sure that we rest. Well, why would you play in a blowout late in a game if being available is the most important thing? It's not more important, though, than records. It's the holiday season fantasy football probably not going your way like most.

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We live for live Streaming now Mike, you know I have one rule to live by right? Don't place parleyes on multiple long shots Don't say a game is one

when it hasn't hit Triple Zero Always drink your Yeagermeister ice cold That's the rule Everything else is merely a suggestion Everything else Everything else

Wearing clean underwear every day Well that's just a personal decision Brushing your teeth Obviously smart But not a rule Never pee on an electric fence Okay maybe there are two rules

rules, but the one that is 100% that I insist on completely, Yeagermeister must be drank ice cold. Or don't drink it at all. Damn, that's cold. Exactly. You're finally starting to get it. Drink responsibly. Yeagermeister liqueur 35% alcohol by volume imported by mass Yeagermeister U.S. White Plains, New York. Don Lebertard. This is the quickest it goes. Hey, this is the quickest it goes. Stugats.

Everybody, this is the quickest it goes. Yeah. This is the Dan Levitar show with the Stoogads. I don't want to do this again. We did it once, and I believe we got the dismount we needed when he simply called you a liar. Thank you for getting out of your phone, Chris, long enough to hit some of those buttons. I appreciate it. What is happening right now at Penn State, I believe, is something that people should be paying attention to because if you fire James. Franklin just because he lost to Northwestern. You have to have a plan after that. You can't be the first

one to fire your coach when everyone's going to do all this stuff of fighting for coaches. Today's National Signing Day. Penn State's recruiting class is the worst. Like they don't have order there, so they are in a position where however good James Franklin did make them. And Penn State was at the center of the single biggest sports scandal of my lifetime and recovered from it in a way that was a little faster than I thought given everything that happened there. And it's why James Franklin was as wanted as he was because he repaired everything about Penn State except for winning some of the games at the end that they expected him to win because they wanted to go even further after the biggest scandal I've ever seen in my sports lifetime. The fact that they are in

complete disarray and that they've got a bad recruiting class and they've got what is what can be said about how it is that their power is getting in the way of doing this correctly like their their their their leadership that that you have that yeah that Penn State's a kooky place Happy Valley is strange we know that about this place there's a lot of old school paterno people that have a lot of influence and you kind of have to check search and boxes to get a lot of influential people in your camp. But what happened to Penn State is pretty fascinating in that the reason why all these other schools are hiring coaches and they hadn't was they had their guy.

They had them locked up. Their guy was playing in a conference championship game of consequence. So that's why we hadn't heard anything about it. And Kalani Sataki, the- That's a BYU guy? The head coach of BYU left them at the altar because the CEO of Crumble came to the table and gave Sataki an offer he couldn't

refuse. The cookies are good. They are. And now the team that had the longest runway is scrambling to fill what was thought to be one of the more... It's so much time. What was thought to be one of the more desirable head coaching jobs in the history

of the sport, today is National Signing Day as Dan announced. They have the worst class in the Big Ten, and it isn't by a little. Every single person that committed to James Franklin apparently didn't care about Happy Valley because they're all going to Blacksburg. There's no loyalty amongst those recruits to Happy Valley. So right now, where does Penn State go from here?

A couple names that I've heard. More coaches that are playing in conference championship games. We have to remember, Mani Diaz is actually rated by those people because he did a good job as defensive coordinator. Seems to be doing an okay enough job at Duke. So as a plan D, I guess, Manny Diaz. And Jeff Brom's another name. Jeff Brom's at his alma mater.

I think if Jeff Brom leaves, it might be for the NFL, but Penn State is a really good job, and they may be panicking here, but I cannot believe that Penn State has found itself in this situation. Shouldn't have fired James Franklin, period. There is debate to be had around that because people were fed up about the fact that the last three games of James Franklin's career, he seemed safe,

and then losing to Northwestern is the thing that got him gone. but I want to examine some of what it is that's happening in college football because if you're Oklahoma State, which has been terrible for the last three years, everything collapsed on Gundy and you want to get back in the game, you just take North Texas's coach and quarterback. I guess we've kind of gotten used to that, even though it doesn't seem like any version of college football I've seen before. But the idea that players would follow James Franklin to Blacksburg and choose the coach over a program of the pedigree of Penn State makes it. So you've made almost fundamentally irrelevant what the program is. Like, it really is now about is Lane Kiffin outside your building trying to steal your children? Like, it's just what's the one guy if you can get Mario Cristobal and he's going to be the guy who gets the players? it doesn't matter if he can coach it doesn't matter if he can call plays nothing matters

except are you good at convincing 17 year olds to follow you any place in the country talent acquisition is the the name of the game right now also being in a big conference helps because revenue goes to that whole talent acquisition thing yeah like they wouldn't be following him if he went to a g5 school right look there's a real possibility here that Penn State ends up firing one of the better talent recruiters in the nation a guy that's as we mentioned stealing their entire class and taking them to Blacksburg and they're replacing that guy with Mani Diaz and that couldn't have been the outcome that people envisioned. But how did how did we get exactly to the point for all the consternation that we have about talking because what we've seen

over the last 10 years is indisputably minor league football has become the second biggest sport in America. Saturdays are the second biggest day in sports. Football Saturdays are the second biggest day in sports. It tops baseball, World Series, hockey, Stanley Cup, basketball. Saturdays are enormous. When did it happen? Landmarket forming where James Franklin is more important than Penn State. That James Franklin is the one that travels with the players, James Franklin rehabs himself and the program in Penn State and then just takes it all with him. That in my lifetime has not been the case that there can be all sorts of upheaval in the coaching position. And when a coach leaves, it's always bad for recruiting. That's always been so. But it's never been so that

the coach can just take Penn State's recruiting class to Virginia Tech. But isn't it, isn't it the money? Like that's the big thing. It's the money. I think the moment in time that you're looking for is either Petrino going back to the college game and leaving the Falcons. or Sabin leaving the pros for the college game, which started this whole arms race for high-price coaches that come to your program and promise one thing. We're going to have the talent. And then people started cheating and the SEC totally blew up.

And now everyone's jealous of one another and that created 20 teams, 20 programs, that think that their way into the game is to outspend the other. James Franklin, though, did not get what I consider to be one of the good jobs. You can make all the arguments you want on behalf of Virginia Tech, and I'd listen to them, but I don't think it's one of the coveted job. We have a tarnished James Franklin moving to Virginia Tech. And I wonder if any of these openings that are now open, if any of these other teams would have gone to James Franklin,

if it came with the promise, hey, we'll get your Penn State's recruiting class. The whole thing's coming with James Franklin. It's no longer about the program mattering the way that it should. about the coach who's Tarnish, who's taking a secondary job. A Tarnish coach is taking a demotion to go to another job. And I'm being told that the recruiting class, because I don't know these things, I'm not following recruiting classes or signing days, I'm being told that basically Penn State's class is just going to Virginia Tech.

That's just not something that's been so before. I'm surprised you're using the word tarnished to describe his reputation. He got fired, but he got fired from a major problem. program that was always in contention every year that he was there. I'm saying tarnish just because it is not one of the top jobs. He didn't have his choice of options. His last act in public was losing to Northwestern, and he had to settle for a job that I'm guessing he thought was beneath him two weeks before he got fired.

He's absolutely tarnished, even though I think he raises the floor of any program that he goes to. I mean, tarnish means you think less of him. Yes, I do. I think he's become a cliche. You want a coach that can't win you the big game? Here it is. It's James Franklin, the same way that Clemsoning was a thing before. You're not going to be able to get over the hurdle, but if you're a program like Virginia Tech,

come here and raise that floor. We'll worry about losing the big games because we flatly haven't been playing in big games. Come here and make us play in big games, and then we'll talk about how you can't get over the hump. If Mario Cristobald doesn't get into the playoffs and he has another season in which maybe he's hovering around that 10 win frame, I'm sure that act will wear thin over time to Miami fans. But right now, you're thrilled that he turned things around and you're relevant again. Let's get to the useless sound montage. I am never happy that we go this late into the week of the middle of Wednesday before getting to the useless sound montage.

It has been refurbished. It is no longer tarnished. It is now strengthened. Let's see who we have in the NFL's useless sound montage this week. How are you guys doing? You going to ask me? Thanksgiving, it is Thanksgiving, so that's bigger. You hope they can, and the beautiful thing is they did.

One week at a time, one and O. It was wet, they were loud. They all know what good football looks like. We really wanted to win. In no way, shape, or form, can we play offensive football like that? I can't wait to lean in. I'm not going to get into all that stuff. We're just going to keep playing football.

Certainly not going to feel sorry for ourselves. That's this business we're in. You think you have the right type of guys, but you don't know until you know. Man, there are a number of guys that did a number of things. It's easy for those young guys to come to work at every day and just look at how these old heads are going about their business and you just kind of fall in line.

The rest of the way, you've got competitive, meaningful football games, and I think that that's just an important thing for us to go through as a team. This is football. You've got to be able to handle some tough moments. There's an NFL game. I wish I could tell you this is exactly what it is, and this is hard. Well, I like when we win. This was a nice microcosm of how the world should be where it's competition.

Doubling down on our problem. every week and really trying to just be dedicated to playing our style of ball. I think it's the same message we've been sending every week that we're just going to compete our tails off for 60 minutes. Man, just ebbs and flows of how a gang goes. We're together. This was a great team win, and our fates are intertwined. When things go well, these can be blessings in disguise if you use them the right way.

It's an awful performance by us, but it's us. I don't think there's room for complacency in the NFL. There's no room for any team to get comfortable. When I watch our defense play, man, I see violence. Shoot, I'm the guy that they have to calm down. sometimes, which is a great sign. The team that made the least number of mistakes was probably going to win this game. Didn't think that we weren't not ready to go, didn't think we took this group lightly.

All of those questions are reasonable given what we put out there. Obviously, if I knew exactly what it was in everything that it was, then we'd have fixed it. And listen, even though we have this long-range vision of what we're trying to get to, the now is what's important for all guys to continue to understand, man, how do you win games? The idea is to end the game in the stadium with more points than the opponent. What I'm supposed to do as I go out there to lead that offense, score one more point or however many more points than the opposing team. This is a disappointing day, but we're not going to stay in this moment for long.

Solutions to turn this thing around exist in your building? Certainly. You can see the confidence that they do. Keep watching. If you're coming to me on this, Matt, I'm telling you, we're going to go after you every game. You know, that's how we roll. We're going to try to tickle your tonsils on every play, every game.

Chris Cody, can you get out of your phone, please, and get me that Aaron Glenn throat clear. I also, I heard a couple of times from Brian Schottenheimer in there, and as I've watched the Cowboys play this season, specifically what they do on Fort Down, and they've got a great field goal kicker, but they love to go for it on fourth and four and fourth and five. Brian's daddy would have never done that. Brian's daddy is spinning in his grave, even though Stugats was somehow happy about hearing of the death of Marty Schottenheimer. Hey, Mike, Marty Schottenheimer died. Marty Schottenheimer loved to punt. His daddy put it on the poll at Levitard show. Did Brian Schottenheimer's daddy, pappy, loved to punt?

It's crazy what's happened, a fourth down. It's nuts. College, too. Even in high school. I mean, you can kind of understand that because they're specialists aren't. that good, but everyone's just going for it now. Early in games, their side of the field, even when you're like,

it makes all the sense in the world to add a field goal here, to give you some space. And they're like, no, we just go. Remember, it was like 15, maybe 20 years ago, where ESPN did that special the one time about the high school team, this crazy coach

who never punts. They always go for fourth down. Yes, let's listen to Stugats here, a great old memory. Mike, Marty Schottenheimer passed away. Now is a good time to remember where tequila's story truly began. In 1795, Cuervo invented tequila. Quervo.

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