The Kevin Sheehan Show - Joint Practice Disjointed

Episode Date: August 26, 2026

Kevin opened with Ben Standig in Baltimore recapping the Commanders-Ravens joint practice today. According to Ben, it wasn't pretty from a Washington standpoint. Doc Walker jumped on to talk about his Skins' observations so far. Stewart Mandel/The Athletic joined Kevin to talk about the big College Football story of the week which saw a few NFL players go back to college. Plenty of on-the-field College Football discussion as well with Stewart's thoughts on among others, Maryland, Virginia, Virginia Tech, and JMU.   For all your football betting needs: DCRELOAD at MyBookie for a 50% Deposit Match   Chime is not just smarter banking, it is the most rewarding way to bank. Head to www.Chime.com/SHEEHAN. It only takes a few minutes to sign up.   Ready to do your own spring reset? Join Thrive Market with my link www.ThriveMarket.com/SHEEHAN for $20 off your first three orders plus you’ll get a FREE $60 gift.   So if you are looking to make Mother’s Day perfect, or just want to impress your friends and family with an epic meal next time you host, go to www.GOLDBELLY.com and get free shipping and 20% off your first order with promo code sheehan.   Search Whatnot—W H A T N O T—in the App Store, download, and you can start selling right away. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

You don't want it. You don't need it. But you're going to get it anyway. The Kevin Cheehan Show. Here's Kevin. Got this from Bobby to open up today's show. Bobby writes, Kevin, looks like the joint practice with the Ravens was a disaster. Have the boys in the desert adjusted the point spread for the Eagles game yet?

Bobby, I'll answer that here in a moment. The sponsor of this podcast is, as always, Window Nation, if you need new windows, reach out to Window Nation to schedule a fast-free in-home estimate. 86690 Nation or Window Nation.com. I've got three guests on today's show. Ben Standing shortly here in the opening segment from Baltimore, where he witnessed the joint practice today with the Ravens.

Following Ben, Doc Walker will be with me. Just a heads up on my conversation with Doc. actually recorded it before the joint practice was complete. And then Stuart Mandel from the athletic will join me to talk college football. Stewart's been a longtime college football reporter and columnist. Of course, the headline story in college football this week was some of the pro players going back to college. We'll talk about that. But we'll also talk college football and get his thoughts on Maryland, on Virginia Tech,

Virginia and even JMU. So Bobby, I did go check. I am looking at 36, nine different places where the week one odds are up and available

and live. And it looks like Philadelphia remains, including at my bookie, a four and a half point favorite across the board. It's been anywhere from four and a half to five, five and a half, throughout the spring and summer. It's at four and a half right now.

I do see one five and a half. There is one five and a half out there. I don't know if that's a recent jump from four and a half to five and a half. But of the nine shops that I am looking at right now, eight of them still have the number at four and a half, despite some legitimate concerns about Washington's offensive line. of course, and some others, I guess. Ben Standing was there.

He joins me right now. At Ben Standing on X. Ben's got a substack that you should absolutely subscribe to. It's just a couple of bucks a month. I'm a subscriber. He covers the team as well as anybody does. Ben's also got a podcast called Last Man Standing. So how bad was it?

been out there today. You know, the whole whole line, so Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play? Like, kind of had some of those vibes to a degree, you know, as, you know, if you ever seen a joint practice, it's hard to watch. You can't watch everything simultaneously because of the offenses have playing on one field to the defense on the other. I started with the offense, and immediately it was just going sideways. First off, on top of no Nick Allegrety, Sam Cosme, did not practice today because of an illness.

So all of a sudden now the full of the thin line is, you know, even getting thinner. And the Ravens were, it looked like the drive with Jane Daniels against the lines, just pressure constantly. But then you also had a mix of some bad snaps. Matt Goldman was in there at center for the most part, working with Jane Daniels,

giving him a look. One snap, you know, sort of fumbled on the ground, Daniels picked it up and immediately threw an interception trying to rush the ball with some other tough exchanges or some deflections at the line. There were drops. very little seemed to be going right for the offense. So then at one point I went over to the defense.

I'm like, all right, let's see if this looks any better. And all I kept seeing was Lamar Jackson, who obviously is pretty good. You know, it didn't even feel like it was a great day for the Ravens offense, but he had his choice of receivers that felt like most of the time. I was out there. We talked to players afterwards, Jeremy Reeves, said, like, you know, it's like in a game, but we got down like 21-0.

before we started to wake up, and you can't do that, obviously, at this level. And, you know, that's kind of how it went. Of course, again, defensively missing a bunch of guys up front. They're drawn pain away, case on, et cetera. But guys out there who are going to be playing on Sundays, and on both sides of the ball, it just was not a quality performance. And, you know, again, it's preseasoned the results, not that it was keeping the score, but, you know, the quote-unquote result doesn't matter,

but the things that we've all been worried about remain, particularly the offensive line, and I don't see how that's changing anytime soon, even if you tell me Allegretti is back. I mean, there's a lot of questions about that line, and if the line is questionable, so does everything else on offense. What do you think from a game planning standpoint they put into the joint practices?

Because I believe after the Miami joint practice, there was an indication from somebody, and I forget who it was, that not much game planning goes into the joint practices either. But do you think they prepared a little bit differently for this one? I don't think so. I mean, you know, Dan Quinn was asked this week, is this going to be like a high effort performance,

meaning not that you would ever come in playing anything less than your best, but because of where they are in the schedule here. This is the last week of preseason. Cutter this week. maybe you don't want to have some guys get hurt. He said they were going to go full-app and talking to the Ravens people. They just did a joint practice last week at Minnesota, and they said this one felt like 80% less intense than that one did.

So I don't know that, I think it, to me, it just all was more about the finer point, the execution more than just like, hey, let's try, you know, some designed plays here to do these things. But again, I don't even know what you could do because the offense in particular, Jayden just didn't have a lot of time. Like the very last play of practice. Jaden is about the 40-yard line. He drops back. He throws a perfect high ball to sprinting Antonio Williams.

They connect. Touchdown. Everybody's happy. But he was Dayton, after we taught when we talked after, and I asked him to walk us through that play. I'll give you up a free of bone. Tell us about a positive. He goes to that. And he even, he even says, well, did I get it off?

I don't know. It was like he said, she said, in terms of whether I was sacked or not. But even that, it was like an example of like, well, it worked, but maybe it ultimately really wouldn't have if the game was played out. So I don't even know how easy it was to execute. And, like, you know, by the way, this is like up to a point, if this was a real game, they probably would have had things like Andrew Wythew playing guard or something. But in this case, they had Julian Good Joan to guard, but they also had this undrafted free agent. He brought her to think to Noah, who looks promising, but like he shouldn't be out there in the first team with Jane Dan. and, you know, they're getting run over a bit.

So, you know, from a game-thining perspective, I just don't even know what they could do on offense because they just had very little time to get stuff on. And like I said, even when he did have some time through the ball, Chikikon-Conk, who had a couple drops, like it just didn't seem like they had good rhythm for the most part. Terry McCorn did have a nice play down the field. Colton Yankoff did as well, but that was another play where, you know,

it felt like the A. Jadens probably having to throw the ball away or getting sacked before he could even make the play. So I don't know. Even if David Blow had a plan, I imagine so much of it just didn't even get close to being executed. Right. But it's not like they adjusted with like quick game and bubble screens and getting the ball out of his hand quickly and RPO answers, those kinds of things. They were running, you know, when he was getting pressured, it was more dropback stuff, right? Play action or just straight dropback stuff.

Yeah, I mean, that is sort of, again, the point of a lot of it. It's not like, like you said, okay, if the team is pressuring him up the middle, if the Eagles are pressuring him up the middle, now you're going to adjust to do the other things. That's not what the point of this is. The point here is we want to see different players in different spots, try a few different things, and all that's true. But, you know, again, no matter what you're trying to accomplish when you just don't have the time, it's still hard to do much of anything. You mentioned that you did go take a look at the defense. I mean, was there anything that you could take away from it?

Like, player-wise, I mean, there's a lot of players that weren't playing. We know that Payne and Kinlawn and then, you know, Oway and Chase on and a bunch of those players are out. But you briefly mentioned the defense but didn't get into much detail. Is there any detail to get into? I mean, I think they did improve over the course of the session. They were doing Red Zone against the Ravens before I got over there. And from what I was told by the Ravens reporters, that Baltimore was just carving them up defensively. Rashad Bateman, one of the receivers was finding space in the zone all over the place. Amick Robertson seemed to have some struggles.

But as the day progressed, you know, I thought I saw some good work, again from Joshua Joseph, who's been, you know, one of the, you know, bigger surprise and not surprised. One of the better standouts throughout camp. I think Shy Tuttle had a couple of plays. Inside, as well, Mikey Sanders still had an interception late in practice. Lamar through sort of like a jump ball,

like a 25-yard or toward the end zone, and Sanders still the one that ended up finding it and getting it. So there were a couple things here and there, but like I said, there was by and large, when Lamar had any kind of time to look down the field, he was able to get some of his guys. And I will just say watching, you know, Derek Henry,

seeing Derek Henry up close like this, I mean, he's such a monster, obviously. There's no real tackling out here. So the full, you're not feeling the full brunt of what he's bringing, but there were times where you're like, oh, man, he's about to, like, clobber a couple guys. But again, they didn't have to worry about that too, too much. So, yeah, I mean, those were some of the positives.

Like I said, maybe the defense was better than the offense, but, you know, faint praise, yada, yada. How did Drew Stevens do? You know what? Honestly, if he kicked, I didn't actually see it. The Ravens kicker went at one point, but that was on the field where I was at. So if it was going simultaneously, I didn't see it. I didn't hear anybody talking about it, so I don't know if he kicked at all. If he did, I didn't hear any issues.

I mean, what if we find out he was one for six or something like that? That would really put a bow on this particular beast of a joint practice. today. Well, I mean, I do want to emphasize for those of you that might be ready to jump off a bridge. Nick Allegrety, the starting center, Sam Cosmi a starting guard, weren't a part of the offensive line. They had somebody out there that Ben doesn't even expect to be, you know, anywhere near the field in an opener. They had Matt Gulbin as the center. And they're playing a veteran defense. So there is that too. But, look, I have concerns about the offensive line. I do.

But I also know that you can game plan around some of that so that it doesn't look like it's a jailbreak on every play. All right. So any positives? Well, I don't know if anybody suffered an injury. At least there was nothing obvious. I mean, you never know sometimes, but didn't notice anything obvious.

So I guess that's one because ultimately on some level, that's the biggest key for all of this. I don't imagine we'll see any of the starters. The Jane Daniel's obvious type of starters playing. I mean, maybe Dan Quinn's like, nope, that was awful. You guys have to kind of go out there, but, you know, I would doubt it. So I guess to agree, like I said, the injury is positive. You know, I mean, look, I think Jayden Daniels has had a very good summer.

There's only something that he can do again when he's getting rushed. You know, one thing we spoke to him afterwards, and he got asked a lot of questions about the line in the center spot, and he kind of kept saying, he wasn't trying to throw anybody under the bus by any stretch, but he kind of kept saying, hey, you know, I'm just out there doing my job, you know, every else we've got to kind of do theirs. It's the type of answer that in printable will read like, oh, wait, are you kind of saying that, hey, don't blame me for what's going on here?

He was tonally that wasn't the case, but, but, you know, the words were different. I'll be interested to see how that potentially plays over the next couple of days, you know, in your world per se. But yeah, I mean, you know, look, they've got through camp. They've got this preseason to go. One game left, obviously, there's a lot of jobs on the line, rolls on the line, and, you know, they're going to go play, and hopefully whatever they get out of this helps them

solidify what their thoughts are on the roster. You know, obviously a lot of decisions at receiver and linebacker and the secondary and obviously the line. but yeah I mean it's hard to a lot of positive in this moment you know

it's probably not completely fair and I'm not seeing the tape and you can't see everything so maybe there were some individuals that had bigger games but in totality it was a pretty it was a pretty rough one

for me to sit here and go you know what Kevin I think this was positive and that was a positive there really just wasn't much right what happened yesterday in terms of like transactions I know they added DJ Humphreys

I know they released Will Harris, were those the two headline moves, or were any of the other players that they signed players that they believe might have a chance between now and cut down on Sunday at 6? I don't get the sense that any of the other guys they added will be a factor in that regard. You know, they've got to get through this last practice in this game. I think part of that was what they were doing. And also, you know, when they decide to move on from Will Harris, whether it was going to happen, yesterday or Sunday it was going to happen,

so they decided, I guess, to throw him a bone and let him move on, so he's not part of the, you know, hundreds of players who get released all at the same time, and maybe he can find a home in advance. DJ Humphreys, you know, it's an interesting one, right? These guys have been in his league for a while, former pro-bowler with the Cardinals. But the last couple of years, we haven't played a ton.

You know, I think he's sort of on his last legs, yet here he may be the second-best offensive line backed up along with Andrew Wiley. So, you know, I don't think he's, that only has anything to do with the starting lineup. This is just another option. Depth, hopefully he can help them. He was out there a little bit today, but obviously,

I really can't read too much into whatever happened there. And then, you know, Drake Jackson was put on IR, only worth mentioning because he was a guy, you know, former second round picked by the Niners when Adam Peters was there. They brought him in last year, similar to Trey Berks is sort of a, you know, flyer, let's see, you know, let's bet on some upside. And, you know, it just didn't really translate. I remember, like, three weeks in the camp, seeing him, I'm like, oh, I don't think I've mentioned him or thought of him once, which has never been signed.

Unfortunately, and then he was, you'll put on IR, which basically means he's out for the year. He's probably going to get released. So those are the bigger moves. But, you know, I did ask Quinn today. I was like, look, you've got this laundry list of players who are hurt. You've also got to make moves on Sunday, or is there going to be any connection between these guys? like they're a factor in it all to what you're about to do. He said,

no, he doesn't think you've got any of the here's getting put on our other than, you know, Tunsel and Newton and however they play that. So hopefully that means that you're going to have guys back next week. You know, that, that's what, he keeps saying for a lot of guys next week, next week,

but when he says, we hope a lot of guys will be back next week, I'm not taking that at face value, but hopefully some of them start to come back because obviously, you know, again, it's hard to judge much when you have all these guys who are so key figures, not playing. Yeah, I mean, like, that's a really good point. Like, we could get surprised on Sunday with, I mean,

I'm just going to throw a name out there in terms of players that have missed some time here recently, like an Adafioa or a Kalevon Chase on, all the sudden being thrown on an injured list, or, you know, a Kroski Merritt, or maybe Allegrety, even though there seems to be a trend towards him coming back. Yeah, there's going to be a lot of interesting things, including you would agree, right? A major scouring of the waiver wire over the weekend and then post Sunday at 6, and some of those players will be gone before then, or at least they'll be announced before then, looking for some help along the offensive line.

Yeah, you know, I mean, it's kind of even reached the point where if I'm going to do, you know, I'll do a 53 projection after the game. and, you know, there's like, okay, I think in general they'll keep nine offensive linemen, right? But for the purposes of the gamesmanship, boy, I can talk myself into saying they'll keep Andrew Wiley,

maybe DJ Humphreys because they just signed him, and then cut everybody else, and if they need to bring back Trent Scott, Matt Goldman, or whatever, but see what else is out there and then keep other guys, you know, maybe keep an eighth receiver or an extra defensive lineman

or whatever might be because, you know, they don't want to cut some of these guys, But the offensive line, if you tell me they bring in two X, two new bodies on top of the DJ Humphreys, I wouldn't, I wouldn't be surprised. It is that concerning right now. Because, again, even if they're, even if everybody they want right now is playing, it's still Coleman, Paul, Allegretti, Cosme, and Connerley.

Like, that's not, other than Cosby, everything else is either uncertain or developing. So there's a lot of questions everywhere. Well, I mean, the good news is that they've all played. I mean, and you're not going in with guys that haven't actually played in the NFL. Coleman's played left tackle. Chris Paul played the majority of last year. Nick Allegretti's played football for a while, including on a Super Bowl championship team. Cosme has played a lot, and Connerley obviously has played.

It's just interesting how, you know, that the focus can change so quickly in a matter of weeks because this was not necessarily the conversation before Tunsell went down and Allegrety was battling injuries. You know, I did have one more for you because I feel like since the Diggs acquisition, in part because he's not really played in preseason games, but there hasn't been a lot of discussion about him. What do you think they think about Diggs so far? Like, has he fit in? Is he clearly a guy that is above the rest? you know, after Terry, just give me what the vibe on Stefan Diggs through, you know,

coming up on a month is, right? Three weeks anyway. Yeah, I mean, I think it's pretty positive. You know, he, you know, again, if you're talking about some positive, there was some red zone work. And I'm more and more inclined to think he's going to be this year, Zach Ertz, in terms of a guy who just knows how to get open that Jane Daniels can rely on down in that space, obviously, not the same height and size as Earth, but he's just got, that ability. So yeah, I think it's a clear upgrade for there. It is hilarious, though.

It's not hilarious, but from the moment that he came on board, and the high of that, if you started it, it is just gone straight downhill. From then starting the very next day, because that's been tonsil got hurt, and it's only gotten worse. Yeah, he is a positive, but everything around him has just gotten progressively worked over the past a little bit. I mean, like I said, I don't think Bill Kroski-Maris injury is, from what I gather, it's a groin. I don't gather that it's an issue. You know, like a lot of these guys, it's probably they're just being overly cautious,

okay, but then, you know, it'll be so cool to see them get out there and do some stuff. So hopefully if they get there up on the field, they have playmakers, they just don't have, will they have enough time to, make some plays. They were doing some plays in warm-ups where, like, the running back would, like, dart out of the backfield to the left, check a couple japs over back to the middle,

and then cut back to the corner. And I'm watching this play going, where do they think this is going to happen? They will never have time to execute this play based on the past. And they wouldn't run that play in a real game if they had those kinds of protection concerns. Right, right. I'm just like watching a simple

practice playing going, oh, this isn't going to work and that's just not just a bad that's just a bad mojo to be feeling you're like, oh no, this is uh, this is not going to work. But yeah, again, hopefully, it is amazing that so much of this is coming down to is Nick Allegretti going to be the answer. And I actually did ask Jayden. I was like, hey, last year you didn't have Terry in camp. So clearly you got couldn't build on, you know, momentum chemistry that you guys already had. How did that compare to this thing with Allegretti? Because he basically haven't had him all camp. And he was like, hey, I've been around Nick for three years, and we know each other,

and I'm just out here, you know, Matt, Julian, you know, I'm working with them. But, you know, again, that center quarterback exchange, just the chemistry, the one player on the field, that Jane Daniels is definitely going to interact with no matter what, and that guy hasn't been out there the whole time, and we don't, it's not like he's a two-time pro bowler or a guy who's been an eight-year starter. He's a guy's been in the league, but, you know,

he's very new to this position, relatively speaking, here. So it is just a wild scenario that that's so much is hinging on Nick McGregory. And you better get out there because the options, it currently happens, not good. Yeah. Thanks for doing this. I will talk to you later in the week, probably. Cool, man. Ben Standing, everybody.

Doc Walker next. And again, I recorded what you're going to hear next with Doc before the joint practice was completed. this morning. We'll get to Doc after these words from a few of our sponsors. Summer can really add up when it comes to how much money you spend and it adds up pretty quickly. You know, a trip here, a dinner there, a couple of outdoor concerts later and it should have you wondering if you're getting the most out of your money. Well, that's where Chime comes in. Chime is changing the way people bank. They're not like traditional old banks who charge fees and gatekeep perks and rewards.

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What do you make of the 2026 version of our football team at this point here in training camp? Oh, it's a neutral. I try not to ride the roller coaster because it's false hopes is fool's goal. Everybody's trying not to play, trying not to get hurt, which it just, to me, it's stymies growth. How do you get better when you're not playing football? And so it's just one of these years I'm going to not just talk it. I'm going to just take a vacation throughout the whole train camp and come back and they

open it. It's a waste of my time. It's such a waste of time, isn't it? Yeah. And it's like it's not, it's counterproductive. And nobody has the guts to just come out and say, this is garbage and follow what the people who win more than others do. They follow the leader, even if the leader,

wins four or five games a year before. I've never seen anything like it. But it's like social media, you can't stop it. It's never going to change. Thank God for hard knocks and the Seahawks. So I get to see football and see it the way I grew up on it, the way I, you know, the people that coached us

kind of looked at it in a similar sense. It looks and sounds like football. I haven't been watching Hard Knocks, but maybe I'll tune in. Well, you know, I mean, yeah. I think you'd enjoy it. I feel like we have this conversation every summer and have for a couple of decades now. So I'll ask you the same thing that I ask you every summer. If it were you, if you were the head coach, how would you have handled the two preseason games so far?

I've been a little bit more aggressive. I'm more like Andy, like Belichick. What's the guys that win the most? How they handle it? It's not me. I'm just following the leaders. But I'm following the leaders and wins. Okay.

Well, I don't have in front of me exactly what Andy and Bill Belichick did. Belichick played the starters occasionally. They had all the same quarterbacks. Yeah. Has Mahomes played in the preseason so far? Well, he's into, he's coming off surgery. Okay, okay. Yeah, but every other year, yeah.

Okay. So you would have had the starters out there in both games and probably the third game against Baltimore as well. If they're healthy, yeah, if they're healthy. We're going to get a series of two. First of all, we're going to go until I feel it. I'm never going to tell you what you have. It's my decision based on what I feel. because if you tell a guy's got five plays,

why would I do that? There's no benefit in that. I'm trying to get you ready to play the Eagles, the Cowboys, and the Seahawks. Now, you tell me a better way to prepare you for three battles that you'll be underdogs in, and you won five games a year before, and I'm trying to figure out who can play.

Not how long can they play, I don't even know if they can play. Mahomes last year in the last preseason game, all right? Not the first in the last preseason game played into the second quarter and got a lot of run in the Chief's final preseason game last year.

I just went and checked that. I mean, I don't understand how anybody could come to the conclusion that three offensive snaps on Saturday against Detroit and two offensive snaps for the starters there, how they could get any value out of that. Can you explain that to me? No, I can't.

I know you're just trying to talk to walk me into this. I'm not going to take the cheese. Yes. Explain to me what kind of value. Quinn got out of that. I don't understand it. He obviously knows a hell of a lot more than this than I do. but based on my limited football experience,

I just can't figure it out. To me, it seemed like we were scared. We were actually, like they were petrified. Oh, my God. I can't trust these people that I'm paying and training to protect the guy for sport and three snaps. I mean, I just, and I keep going, don't let it phase you,

because the guy's just scared. He's just being honest. And it's so counterproductive to the guy who I really like coach. I like what he says. I like the way he makes me feel, but he didn't live up to the reputation of what he says, who I believe he is. Now, he may have done it to protect his court, and that's fine. He'll be judged by this.

Look, he's the sacrificial lamb, not me. So we got to go with his guns. his career, his livelihood, and still be it. How much of a concern is the offensive line for you? Oh, well, I'm concerned because it's my number one concern all the time. But I'm not in a panic mode. They picked up people. They practice well.

I think they have a pretty good idea. But it happens. Nobody wants to lose their best linemen. But if he's not prepared for it, that's on him. Every coach, you coach, you go through a synonymous. What if this guy goes down? What do I do next? You don't figure it out on the go. You've already envision what could happen. Sometimes when you show up to a summer league game with just six guys in uniform, there's not much you can do about it. Yeah. But at least you think about it. Right.

It's not the first time you thought about it once it happens. And I understand there's no real automatic remedy to this other than you got to trust you. You've got to start to your your instincts and trust your people. I don't think it's a panic. I think they were really blessed to lose a guy like counsel and be able to replace him with the guy that he replaced. You don't usually get that lucky. It's not a panic.

I'm not scared to death. That kid played a lot more football than anybody else that played that was young. And he didn't crap to bed. The key is that he's not afraid. Hell, if he ain't scared, why would I be? So no, and plus, I got base.

And once base gets back in the football gear, that was uncharacteristic of the, you know, your best in-line blocker comes in. A guy beats him on first play. Well, that's what happens when you don't play football. It don't look like you've played football. That's exactly my point. Once you get into a live atmosphere,

if your razor's not sharp, that's what looks like. But he'll recover. He'll be much better than that, the opener. But, you know, we'll see. What does the receiver group look like to you this year? Oh, you know what? I've been confident from day one. Got good athletes.

They just need a chance. They're underdeveloped. They just need reps, need time. But I'm not afraid at all. At all. And I thought I would have brought in the turf. I thought that was a great move. You're lucky to be able to get somebody as good as he is.

and it's all temporary but they fell into that and I thought that was nothing was fortunate and they're just upgraded they've upgraded they've gone from AARP to Jack Mullane I mean the tight end position now

I mean just he's amazing I really have high expectations for both to all three tight ends so it should be definitely upgrade. Did you, did you throw out Jack La Lane?

Yeah. One of my favorites. I mean, wouldn't he like, the exercise guy in the 1960s or something like that? In the 60s, you're always in shape. Yeah, Warda jumps through. Yeah, that's one of my favorites.

Yeah, Jack Louane. So they went from, like, how did you know, how did you know about Jack Lane? Well, when you throw out the name, I I think you've thrown it out before, so you're probably the one that introduced me to him. I just pulled them up on the internet. He made it to 96 years old.

96 years old. And he was America's fitness and nutrition guru through the 50s and 60s. That's right. Your era. Right. All right. Give me some players that you're really excited about, whether some of the young puppies or new guys or whatever.

Give me two or three guys. really fired up about? Quarterback, running back, wide receiver. But the limited time that I've seen, I've not been disappointed in any of it. I think we've got guys

that are biting, the chipping. They look like they're eager. Nobody looks frightened. I just think that they've done a good job. When I've seen them at practice, I like the way they work. They're organized. I have no qualms. I just want to see

their best players play, if possible. And they're not going to do it. So I know they're not going to do it. And I just wait until, I guess the next time I'll be with you would have probably been week three or four. What's so fun? I mean, that's what it is. Yeah, well, that's probably the next time you'll be available.

Yeah, I'm available all the time for you. But I know it's an eight-week cycle deal, so it's cool. next time I'll be on. We'll be getting ready to play Seattle. Yeah. I don't know. Maybe you'll surprise me and say yes the next time I ask. Usually it takes a few times.

Yeah, I think everybody, all your listeners know the truth. No, I know the truth. Yeah. You've done a great job of BSing them. No. But they all know. What do you think of? They're starting off with Neil from Rockville.

What about some of the young guys like Joshua Joseph's 48? What does he look like to? We'll see. We'll see. We'll see. What do you mean? Tarantula? What does he look like? No, no. Everybody's promising. Everybody's promising.

No, I'm not complaining, not disappointed. This is such an unfair way to evaluate people, but it's kind of like all you have, and so I opt out. I go, we'll see. Discrimmage, I'm looking excited today. The only two people I would probably interact my football. team with is the Ravens and Steelers. And they'd think I would never, you couldn't pay me to use Miami for nothing.

Yeah, just the AFC North. Steelers, Baltimore. Yeah, Steelers, Baltimore. That's it. Only two sparring partners I want. You notice how the great boxers, their sparring partners, ultimately won world, won championships. Mm-hmm.

Yeah, Larry Holmes, sure. Yeah, yeah, they got the best. So, Dolphins. Yeah, okay. so um it's funny you you know I'm right you just don't want to lose your sweet

availability I mean did you did you mention it when you were on the boat with with Josh and everybody that you didn't that you didn't think that scrimaging the dolphins made much sense no my invitation got lost in the mail Seattle you would have done Seattle

you would have done Seattle oh yeah but they're not going to I mean you play them yeah yeah there's only about a people that I'm a spar with. It depends on how you approach football. Steelers, Ravens.

Steelers and Ravens. Yeah. Seahawks. And first of all, I'm not crazy. I'm not traveling all the way to Seattle. But in the summer, close proximity, my options, those are two. We had Ravens and Steelers. Baltimore.

Colts, same thing. And Raven. And that's all Joe. Well, it wasn't always the same thing with the Colts. Well, no, it was the Baltimore Colts for us Back in the Stone Ages The Steelers were, I know, I'm just saying That the Colts weren't like the Ravens were

They weren't as good of a test The Steelers were always a good test The Steelers were better and good But the Colts weren't like the Dolphins I'll tell you that Yeah You didn't like the joint practice with the dolphins They're joint practicing with Baltimore

As we speak So we'll find out We'll find out how it goes. But, you know, and getting to some serious talk here, you're so right. And I feel the same way, and I felt this, I feel this way every summer. This is really not the way for fans to find out much about their teams before the season starts. We just, watching what we watch in these preseason games, even if you're at practice every day, it's hard to know. they start playing real games.

I'm glad. I don't want to kill the fan experience. It's great. I mean, Carlisle, what it does for the players is so, and the players appreciate it. It does. But you know practice is rigged, just staged. You know, it's like a skit. And so to, and then to hear all of our colleagues that just make me want to take my up in and just rip my, doing play-by-play and evaluated,

as if, is if they're all pointing, I mean, really, seriously. I know, I know, it's too much.

It's such a mockery. It's too much. But everybody buys into it. Everybody, it's Howard Coast. And I, hey, man, look,

it's not hurting anybody. It's like fantasy. I love, it's great. You know what that means to the game? To the interest level, how many people now care? Oh.

Wouldn't even ever cared? Well, you're, you and I, have the same feeling about this. Like, look, I don't begrudge any of these people, some of whom are friends of mine and yours. Yeah, yeah.

Because there is an audience for it, but it doesn't... Nothing wrong with it. But it doesn't mean anything, people. I start every... I start every training camp the last couple years by reading some of the play-by-play tweets from the previous training camp. I know. I know. Don't do that, though. I mean, I think it's your right.

a privilege. I have an obligation to preserve that. It builds a base. I'm not mad at it. Part of me would love to do it. I'd love to play fan. I would love to, part of me wants to be involved in all, but I just can't. Can't do everything. No. Just let them get to the regular season people, play real games where the starters have been prepped for the game, game plan for the game. They're actually going to play in the game and they're not going to play three plays. They're going to play 60 plays because the game is four quarters. It's not three plays or one series. And you're playing for something because the final score actually matters to the standards. And then two new cords, two new coordinators.

Yeah, I know. So both of those are hiding. They're hiding their best stuff that nobody's ever seen. So people go, what do you think about the new bread? I said, for them being vanilla right now, they're very well compared to they're never going to be vanilla again. It's what we did. We go with Gibbs. We ran an offense. We never run. We ran in the preseason.

We never ran it again. And so what does that buy you? It buys you a little bit of witchcraft. It's stosure. If you have a dumb opponent and let's face it, half the league is completely imbeful. I mean, they only got their job so they know people in high places. Like we used to be.

it's just incompetent, totally incompetent, and almost every area of the sport. A third of the sport has absolutely no idea how to win. They just know how to take a position that's been granted to them by birth or by wealth or whatever the hell they get in those positions. That includes the league and highest run. Everything is contaminated when it comes to that. That's why so many ups and downs.

That's why I'm so proud of the sea-hound. And you like hard knocks because they they're football based man. They ain't playing. And it's good to see part of me just so irritated

of the opportunities that we didn't we weren't smart enough. We were never going to get me. I'm just not who we are. But it's like the center, Lindenbaum, you lose a guy. The best center league, you need a center, you got money, and you don't get it. And then then you're not, you worry about your

quarterback. So you speak with Fort Cung. All right. This was a pleasure and an honor. I really appreciate you doing this. Hey, look, man, I don't know what happened. And I'll be honest. I don't give a damn who didn't come through for you today, but I'm glad to fill in. If it happens again, I'll be here for you. You can go through your normal routine here at the end of our segments together. No, I'm not doing.

Where you try to act like you were the third ass. I reached out to you two days ago. Two days ago to ask you come on. Two days ago. Everywhere I go, people go, hey, man, is she ever going to? I go, I don't know. He will eventually. I mean, I'll get back.

But I just got to be patient. He thinks I'm going to give up. I'm not going to give up, ever, ever. Listen, I'm just really thrilled you were available for me today. I asked you two days ago. I just said this week, I'd love to get Doc on on Wednesday, number one choice, always. Oh, they told me. And you were available.

and you're not always available, so I'm thrilled. No, you've got to leave. I'm saying it right now. I got this call 48 hours ago. Hey, man, you're up this week. And I said, okay, act like you don't know. And I did it. You're up this week.

Yeah, that's how I present it. Thank you for doing this. It's an honor, as always. I appreciate you making yourself available. Let me know when you get back. I know this end of August will be on the boat, probably. And you'll be traveling to the Amalfi Coast or wherever you go. on that boat.

Yeah, tugboat in my bath. And let me know when you get back so I can get you on at the beginning of the season. I don't want to wait until week three. I look forward to it. Doc Walker, everybody. Simply the best. All right. Up next, Stuart Mandel, who covers college football for the athletic,

he'll jump on. We'll talk some actual college football, but we'll also get into the big story of the week, some of these NFL players working their way back into college. That's next after these words from a few of our sponsors. August is the perfect time to hit reset before the autumn rush begins, and honestly, I can't think of a better place to start than my closet. That's why I love shopping at Quince. Quince is all about fewer, better pieces. Their clothes are made with premium materials built to last

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go to goldbelly.com and get 20% off your first order using promo code Sheehan. That's goldbelly.com code Sheehan for 20% off your first order. This segment of the show is brought to you by My Booky. If you're going to bet on football this fall, my bookies are a really good place to do it. Even if you have a place already, you should have a second. spot minimum where you can compare numbers and pricing. To do it the right way, you got to get the best numbers, you've got to get the best prices, and my bookie will allow you to do that.

If you had my bookie as your only shop, I'd still recommend that you go out and find a second place to compare numbers and pricing to. My bookie right now is offering my listeners a cash bonus. You have to use my promo code, Kevin D.D. when you sign up at mybooky.com or my bookie.ag. Again, promo code Kevin, D.C. All right, joining me right now is Stuart's been covering college football for years. He's doing it currently with the athletic. You can follow him on X at S-L-Mandell, M-A-N-D-E-L. All right, I am going to ask you about the latest happenings in college football because they have certainly dominated the headlines this week.

But for some of my listeners, I don't want to bury the lead for them. And that is to talk about Maryland football and where you see them in the Big Ten. You wrote about sort of the Big Ten recently. So tell me and other Terp fans, what's Maryland going to be, in your opinion, in 2026? I think they could be a surprise team. they've got a lot of first of all they have a true legit star quarterback they've got a lot of returning production I was a very young team last year now maybe I'm getting ahead of myself they did lose their last eight games last season

but I would be surprised if they're not better and then so it's just a question of how much better is it they get to a ball game they're six and six or can they actually push a little bit higher than that What do you think Loxley needs to come back in 27? To show progress, to show good progress. I don't think anybody there is under the delusion that it's going to be a playoff team, right? No, no. Right. I mean, you tell me you're closer to me.

What is considered acceptable for Maryland football state? Oh, man, that is such a question that we talk about, especially when it comes to the basketball program, because, as you know, it is a basketball first school, more than a football first school. But, you know, it's been a while since Ralph Regian in the ACC days. You know, they haven't had anything that resembles what they had 25 years ago. They're actually going to celebrate their 25-year anniversary of their last conference championship, which came in 2001 as an ACC member.

You know, I've always answered it this way. I think every five years, they should have. have a winning record and be in a bowl game. And I think one out of every five years, there's enough talent in this area. And Loxley's clearly done a great job recruiting for them to be super competitive in the Big Ten, in the upper echelons of the Big Ten. I don't think, you know, a Big Ten title game necessarily has to be one out of every five years. But competing for the possibility of that one out of every five years, seems. reasonable to me. Does that seem reasonable to you?

Absolutely. And there's no reason they can't have a bowl team every year. Kirk Cigney in Indiana definitely made Mike Locksley's job a lot harder and a lot of coaches like him. Because now you have no excuse. If Indiana can do it, why can't you guys? I do think that coaches these days need to be graded on a little bit of a curve of how much money do you have for your roster. I don't know exactly what Baron is spending on a football roster. I can't imagine. if in the upper half of the Big Ten, it might be in the lower third of the Big Ten. And so can you realistically win Big Ten titles that way? No.

But you can be better than you are. You can be a 7-8 win football team if you hit on the right players. What do you think of Malik Washington? I think he could be really good. He looked pretty good last year and he didn't have a lot of help. I think Maryland, I'm not going to say. exactly because I don't want to be wrong, but a lot of drop catches. I feel like

I saw that on just how many there were, but let's just say a lot of drop catches. And obviously, his supporting cast could stand to be better, and there's indications that they are. The Big Ten this year, very impressive list of quarterbacks, right?

Starting, you know, starting right at the top with Dante Moore at Oregon, Julianne at Ohio State, but also Jade Mayer Maiava at USC, Debonne Williams Jr. at Washington and a couple others. So can he crack that list? Yeah, I think so. Yeah, I think I saw that stat about drop passes. I'd love to know how many of those were called drops, but the ball was just a bit hot. You know, he put the ball in range of receivers catching it, but man, he threw fast balls to guys that were five, ten yards away. You know, there wasn't a lot of touch. Hopefully that's something he develops in his sophomore year.

Let me just ask you about a couple. Go ahead. I was just going to say, not a lot of true freshman. Not a lot of true freshman quarterbacks come out of polished, right? Sure. That's a tough ask. Even you see a big difference between a true freshman and a red shirt freshman. And so all I would say is, while it wasn't necessarily, you know, dependents,

I would rather have Malik, I feel better about Malik Washington coming out his true freshman season than I do Bryce Underwood at Michigan. He was very underwhelming. So, obviously, a lot goes into who makes the biggest strides going into their second year.

Just a couple of other teams that people around here have interest in. What does James Franklin's first year in Blacksburg, what's that going to look like? Yeah, I think they're very promising. They have a very experienced team. team. Obviously, he brought some guys with him from Penn State, including the quarterback,

Ethan Brummeier. Could they be an eight-win kind of team? Sure. And that's a big improvement on what Virginia Tech's been doing the past few years under Brent Pry. By the way, that's one of the craziest storylines of the season to me, that the fired head coach came back as a defensive coordinator. But that should help them. That's some good continuity on that side of the ball, to having to bring in a completely new staff. What about Tony Elliott at UVA, where they had obviously an unexpected season last year? My initial thought on them was they were going to regret

because they had such unusually good luck in close games last year, including winning three or four overtime games. But then you look at the roster, they are officially the oldest team in college football. They are a team full of six, even seventh-year guys. And we have seen in college football recently what an advantage that gives you. They're not, you know, swimming in NIL money, but they've chosen to invest it heavily in their offensive line.

And I think that's very important. So if Vibula comes in a quarterback, I think he can be at least as good as Chandler Morris was and maybe better. So I'm not going to say here and say they went 11 games again, but I don't think you're going to see them, you know, completely fall back from what was a really surprising season last year. All right. Just one other team that people around here are interested in, and it was a playoff team from last year. What do you think of Madison this coming season? Do they have that kind of potential out of their league? Your guess is as good as fine on them because they are one of these group of six teams, but when you lose your coach, you lose the whole team with it. And, you know, I think they may have like one returning starter on the whole team. so you know Billy Napier had a really good run and it didn't go well Florida

he had a really good run in the Thumbelt a few years ago so it's not like you know I do have confidence in him I just have no idea what to expect of their roster this year give me a team nationally that let's just say is outside of the top 10 the preseason top 10 that you've got a strong hunch will end up making a big run and end up in the playoff Yeah, I'm very high on BYU. They're actually my pick to win the Big 12. I don't know really why they're. I mean, this guys went 11 and 2 last year,

and I think 10 and 2 the year before that. I think there's this perception that Texas Tech runs the Big 12 now, which seems a little bit presumptuous based off one good season. So I have them winning the Big 12 and making the playoff. I think there will be a surprise team out of the SEC. I'm just not sure which one, because I feel like the teams that are usually, you know, expected to be the playoff teams there, Alabama, Georgia are vulnerable, especially Alabama, very young teams. And so that opens the door for a Florida possibly with John Summerall coming in there, maybe a South Carolina.

Missouri. And a couple other, Missouri, yeah, a couple others that kind of fit in that group. Give me the quarterback that is projected right now. Remember last year, you know, Clubnik, Arch, Nussmeyer, in terms of not only Heisman candidates, but, you know, first round picks in the 26th draft. You know, coming into this season, everybody's expecting Arch Manning, Dante Moore, C.J. Carr, all to be, you know, in the mix for the Heisman, in the mix for the number one overall pick next April in the NFL draft. Give me the guy that you don't think ends up having that kind of a season because there were several last. last year that we thought would have big seasons and didn't. I was gearing up for you to ask me who outside that list.

Well, fine, I'll ask you that as well because nobody was talking about Mendoza this time last year. Or Ty Simpson. Yeah. I'm really high on Darian Menta, who's now in my he. He was excellent at Tulane two years ago. Flew under the radar at Duke last year, but statistically had a great season. And now he's going to Miami where he's going to have Malachi Tony to throw to. He's going to have Cooper Barkett who came with him from Duke,

thousand-yard receiver last year. Mark Fletcher in the backfield, like just so many more weapons than he had at Tulane or Duke. So I think he has the potential to put up just huge numbers that Heisengovers will take notice of now. Miami will need to have the kind of season people expect of them, which is go to the playoffs. Right. Not going to win the Hizman if they go 9 and 3.

But if they do do that, I think people are going to take notice. Because Carson Beck was decent last year, but he wasn't Ann Ward. And so I think you got a chance for that with Mesa. What about, do you have a, the first part of that question was, do you have, would you short any of the people that people are buying up right now? that's hard to say in the preseason. Here, I'll say this. I think Trinidad Chambliss is a great quarterback,

and maybe he'll be an All-American, but I think Ole Miss takes a step back. They lost so many guys, especially at LSU, obviously, when Lane Kiffin left. And, you know, you have to give hats off to Pete Golding for leading them to the semi-and-almost-national championship game in very unusual circumstances. but I feel like interim coach role, although he didn't technically have that title.

He took over and he still got to have Lake Giff and staff, including Charlie Wise Jr., the offensive coordinator, and now you're starting over with your own staff. So I could see him being really good, but his team being worse, and maybe that has an effect on his staff or his draft stock. All right, quick break. We'll bring Stewart back and we'll talk about the story that has dominated, the headlines this week when it comes to college football, and that is a few NFL players going back to play college football.

That's next after these words from a few of our sponsors. One of the big stories of the week has been NFL players in training camps, in preseason games, getting cut, and then having a chance to go back to play college football. The games themselves start this weekend with six or seven of them in week zero, and then we get the full-fledged week one Labor Day weekend. But man, this story this week has been a wild one, and Stuart Mandel's been covering it for the athletic. Is it as easy, Stuart as saying college football, college sports in general,

they just need to fix the problem that is eligibility? they tried to fix the eligible. That's what the ironic thing about this is that the new policy that they put that the NCA put in, I think was very sensible and a good solution to what we've seen in the past with guys getting six, seven years, dragging on their careers, 20-something basketball players coming back to college. Very simple policy. Everybody gets five seasons, but you have to, you can't start, you have to start your clock no later than age 19. if you start college at 22, you're only going to get one or two years.

But of course, somebody sued, and that somebody is the class of 2022 who just finished their fourth season. And I've been a little surprised, maybe I shouldn't be, that every single judge in America has sided with them. So that's left us in this really unusual situation where some pockets of players won an injunction and they're eligible to play this year. but most of the players aren't. And then the, and it's impossible to keep track of all these, but the one in Louisiana has definitely been the most notable because there were guys who won an injunction who have already been on NFL team,

and that's always been a no-no. So yesterday you saw the Big Ten, and then the SEC step up and say, okay, well, maybe the NCAA is not allowed to prevent them, but we are. Those guys can't play on our team, which is considered to be more legally defensible. And also, these football players are running out of time.

Schools have to lock in their rosters by the day before their first game. So that should, we'll see, but that should at least stem the tide. We'll see if anybody ends up making it true. I'm wondering whether or not you think this is just a one-year issue, or are we going to have the same issue next summer? I feel like as soon as the history of college football is as soon as one person as soon as one person starts to crack somebody else follows.

I could see next year's lawsuit being like college football. Football is different than basketball. Basketball, you can enter the draft, go to the combine, test the waters, and then come back if you're not happy with where your stock is. Football has always been much stricter. You know, if you don't drop out by,

January 20th, whatever the deadline is, you could never come back to college. So I could see the next lawsuit next year being, well, wait, we should be allowed to do the same thing, all right? We need time to figure out whether we're going to make more money in the NFL or college. And I don't know if that would hold, if the judges would buy it or not, but lately they have. But that's why I think it's really notable what the Big Ten and SEC did yesterday. There has been, the FCC especially, has talked about, well, if we can't get this Senate build a pass, we're just going to make our own rule. Everybody kind of rules their eyes. But here is an example of that. And if we start seeing that as a pattern of, hey, there's

just certain rules that we think are, you know, a deal breaker, Brendan Sorsby being a great example of that, we're just going to take matters into our own hands. And in the FCC's case, they do it, despite the fact that one of their own schools is all in on bringing back NFL and pro basketball players. And so for Greg Sanky and he stayed up and say, no, you're not going to be able to do that. I thought it was a pretty notable moment. Yeah, it was for sure. You know, big picture, do you think any of this or all of this, these situations that have obviously popped up over the last five, six years, starting with, you know, paying players, NIL, transfer portal, lots of conference reshuffling, et cetera. The

sports changed a lot. Do you think any of it really ultimately impacts the viewership of the sport? We haven't seen it yet, you know, and I get comments in every story in the offseason. I'm done with college football forever. This isn't the sport I grew up on. They're pros now. And then the season starts, and everybody remembers why they love college football. Yes. I'm not sitting here and saying that could never happen. I do think that it's, if that happens, it won't be about NIL. I think people, once they turn on the game,

are thinking about how did this player get on this roster? It's realignment. And realignment has already blow torched. Great rivalries. I will never get used to Stanford and Cal playing in the ACC, or a couple of those other things. And so now you're really, you know, testing bands limits. Imagine being a Washington State or Oregon state.

State fan. How am I supposed to get excited for our game this week against Presno State when I used to be playing USC and Oregon and teams like that? But right now, so far, we haven't seen it. And if anything, there's been a bump because of realignment, because you're getting more of these glamour, Ohio State versus Oregon type games that or Texas versus Georgia that are a direct result of realignment. You know, you just nailed it for me. These games start, you know, coming this weekend and then we get the first full-fledged, you know, week one of everybody playing. And when the games start, it's just Saturdays are my favorite. And I love the sport. And Daekwon Wright's not really going to be top of mind or the number of players that

transferred from one school to another. I'll get used to it. I'll adjust. But the one thing, the one nagging thing. and it hasn't stopped me as a major college football and college basketball fan from, although basketball is consumed differently now, football isn't. But the conference realignment, the change is I'm still not used to as a Maryland alum. I'm still not used to being in the Big Ten.

And I, at the same time, it's like, oh, great, if we were back in the ACC, our crossover rival might be, you know, SMU or Cal or Stanford, which makes no. sense or Louisville or Pitt or somebody like that. So anyway, yeah, I think that's the part that, you know, I can't imagine the Washington State Oregon State situation for people that loved those teams and it was part of their DNA in terms of being a sports fan. And in places like those places, that's all they had to begin with. And now they're not part of something that was always part of the reason why. they were big fans of it.

They may be the most affected than anybody else, because everybody else has ended up at least in a conference where they're playing legitimate, you know, upper D1 competition. And the concern is that the next round of that will be the will affect the Maryland, right? The next round of it could be a super league type thing. We're already seeing huge separation viewership-wise between the Big Ten and FCC and the ACC and Big 12.

you know, the ACC and Big 12 seem like right now they're one bid conferences in the 12th team playoff. Right. That could definitely have an effect. And I think that the TV exec viewpoint on all this is just give me the biggest brands playing each other as much as

possible. And it's cutthroat, obviously. And if that means you know, the next round of this is we thin the club even more, great for them. But what about all these fan bases? that, you know, eventually they might be smaller fan bases, but you put them all together, and now you're disillusioning, you know, a pretty huge segment of college football fans.

I think college sports leaders just always assume, well, people are so loyal to their schools, they'll stay loyal to their schools no matter what we do. And that might be true. But I don't know. I think that if I'm in college sports, the cautionary tale of NASCAR. And I'm not a NASCAR fan, but I'm pretty familiar with the history. of it got really popular and they started catering more and more to the casual fans and they alienated their their longtime diehard fans and now it's nowhere near as popular.

Like that's the cautionary too. You mentioned something and I guess I have been under the impression that any sort of creation of let's just say a 50 to 60 teams super league separating themselves from the rest of the Division I teams, I've always felt like Maryland would be included. I understand what they are football-wise in terms of the interest level, et cetera. But it's also a big market. You know, D.C. is a top seven market combined with another fairly big-sized market in Baltimore, where it was one of the reasons the Big Ten won in Maryland to begin with.

I've always kind of felt that they would survive something like this. Do you think they would or wouldn't? I just think it depends on what the structure would be. if it's as simple as the Big Ten and SEC go off and do their own thing, yeah, Maryland and everybody else in that conference is protected. If it's more radical, it's a venture capital company or somebody coming in and saying, no, no, no, we only want the top eight teams from the Big Ten and SEC or whatever it may be, or we want these teams plus Florida State, Clemson, Miami, and obviously Notre Dame,

then no, I don't think Maryland would be on the right side of that. They just don't have a big enough football round. Sure. Stuart, thanks. Really good. Appreciate it. Yeah, thanks for having me. Stuart Mandel, everybody. I cannot wait for the games to begin, both in college and in the NFL. College gets underway, as mentioned, this weekend. There are about six or seven games. North Carolina and TCU from Dublin will be the first game of the 2026 season. that's at 12 noon on Saturday. The only ranked team that plays on Saturday is 14th ranked USC. They play San Jose State.

NC State plays in Charlottesville against UVA. Virginia right now, a four and a half point favorite over NC State at my bookie. All right, that'll do it for today. I'll be back tomorrow with Tommy.