The Kevin Sheehan Show - Mikey Sainristil & SVP

Episode Date: January 9, 2025

Kevin was joined on the show by Commanders' CB Mikey Sainristil and ESPN's Scott Van Pelt. Before both of those conversations, Kevin talked about the unprecedented strength of the NFC Playoff field and how many playoff games Washington can win.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices 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 Sheehan Show. Here's Kevin. Two guests on the show today. Mikey Sanristill, Washington's starting corner, starting outside corner, will be on with me in just a few minutes. He'll be followed by my good friend ESPN's Scott Van Pelt.

We'll get to both of those conversations pretty quickly in the show. The show's presenting sponsor, as always, is Windon Nation. call them if you need new Windows 86690 Nation or head to windownation.com. So over the last week or so, I've said that the NFC playoffs are deep and a bit wide open. You may not agree with the last part of that. You may think Detroit and Philly or head and shoulders above the others in the conference, but the depth of this NFC playoff field is unmistakable. The aggregate record of the seven teams in the NFC playoffs is 86 and 33.

That's a 723 win percentage. I cannot imagine that there's ever been a stronger playoff field record-wise in either conference. I was thinking that maybe somebody had done the homework on that and had written about it, but I can't find it anywhere. I did find this, however. This is the first year in the NFC since 2012 where all of the NFC playoff teams have at least 10 wins. Now, back then, six teams in each conference went to the postseason.

And, of course, we remember 2012. Washington was a 10-and-6 division winner. They hosted Seattle, who was an 11-4. wildcard team. But it's been since 2012. So January of 2013, 12 years ago, that the NFCs had every single team in its postseason have at least 10 wins. And remember, we now have a field of seven teams.

I did go back and just look at the last four years of the NFL playoffs once they went to a 17 game schedule to see if there was anything. close to a seven-team field in either the AFC or the NFC with 86 wins. The closest 2021, the NFC seven playoff teams had 80 wins. But that's six short of what you have this year. Detroit's got 15 wins. Philly's got 14. Minnesota's got 14.

Washington's got 12. Green Bay's got 11. All right. The seven seed. in this postseason has 11 wins. And then, of course, two division winners, L.A. and Tampa, both at 10 and 7. 86 and 33, man, that is a strong, regular season that produced a pretty deep playoff field in the NFC.

It's also, by the way, the first time for Washington in the playoffs, where they've been a road team with a better record than the team they're playing. You know, they are 12 and 5, the bucks are 10 and 7. They've never been one of those wild card teams or even a division winner that had to go on the road in the first round back when division winners didn't automatically host a first round game. First time ever for the skins in franchise history where they've gone on the road and been the better team record-wise.

They've gone on the road where they've had the same record as their opponent. They did it in 1974. They were 10 and 4. The Rams were 10 and 4. They played that game in the Coliseum. The skins were the wildcard team and the Rams were a division winner. Interestingly, that year, very late in the season, Washington beat L.A. in the Coliseum on Monday night football, 23 to 17.

It was a game that clinched a playoff spot, a wildcard spot for them. But they didn't win the division. The Cardinals did that year. So wild card teams never hosted or, you know, it didn't matter if they had a better record than the Rams. They would have gone on the road. But they had the same record as the Rams in 74. They had the same record as the Bears in 87 when they went on the road and beat the Bears at Soldier Field. Both teams were 11 and 4, but the Bears won the head-to-head tiebreaker.

And then in 1990, in a wildcard game, they went to Philly. They were 10 and 6. The Eagles were 10 and 6, but the Eagles won the tiebreaker and got home field advantage. But they've never until Sunday night gone on the road as a team with a better record. We see that all the time in the NFL playoffs. Washington obviously was a 7 and 9 team a few years ago hosting the Buccaneers who were 11 and 6. Anyway, deep field in the NFC

and just an impressive number of wins for the teams in the NFC. If you look at the Super Bowl odds right now, like my bookie, I went and looked at those. The three AFC teams with the longest odds to win it are Pittsburgh, Houston, and Denver. All of them have longer odds than Washington. who right now is the longest shot of the NFC teams to win the Super Bowl.

Washington's plus 4,200 to win the Super Bowl at my bookie. The Steelers and Texans are both plus 8,500, and the Broncos are plus 6,600. So of the 14 teams in the playoffs, Washington has the 11th best odds to win it all. Washington is the longest shot in the NFC to win the NFC championship, even though they are the 6 seed and Green Bay is the 7 seed. Green Bay has got better odds than Washington does to win the Super Bowl. Washington's plus 1675. Again, comparing it to the AFC. The AFC's bottom three odds teams are Pittsburgh at 3,100, and then you.

Houston and Denver at a little bit less than that, they're all longer shots to win their conference title than Washington is, and Washington is the longest shot. Again, another kind of point to say that the odds makers clearly think the NFC's bottom odds teams have better chances to win a conference title than the AFC's bottom three teams. You know, look, the NFC, I think, is a bit more wide open. Part of it, too, is. is that the AFC is incredible at the top, right, with Kansas City, Buffalo, and Baltimore. You know, the Super Bowl odds are right now, hold on, let me pull those up again. Bear with me, because I think three of the top four teams are, yeah, so here are the Super Bowl odds at my bookie.

The Detroit Lions are currently still the favorite, plus 295. And then it's the Chiefs at plus 350, the Ravens at plus 580, and the Bills at plus 610. So three of the top four Super Bowl odds favorites are AFC teams, just one in the NFC. NFC just has, I think, you know, a deeper field and a less top-heavy field. I think the odds are kind of proof of that. So anyway, on the radio show today, I asked everybody to call in and give me their best case for wins in the postseason. You know, I think everybody believes they've got a shot on Sunday night.

Actually, not everybody. I did get, and I read this on the radio show, early in the radio show. I got this from Ted. Ted wrote, delusional Kevin is back after 10 years. He said, I'll give you credit for your preseason call, but we're not a good team. We have a great player. This is kind of Tommy's motto right now. He writes, Tampa is much better in the season ends Sunday night in a blowout loss.

First of all, you know, I'm not delusional. I know what they are. I'm not predicting them to win the Super Bowl, but they haven't been blown out, Ted, by anybody other than Tampa. And that was all the way back on September 8th. They're a far different team. You know, their other four losses were all games in which they had a chance to win. And so they don't get blown out. That just hasn't really happened to this team.

And as far as being delusional going back 10 years, I know you're talking about going back to the Kirk teams, which I was never delusional about. I always said that those teams were really good offensively and terrible defensively. They were actually worse than this team is defensively, much worse. And those teams weren't anywhere near as good at quarterback. I mean, I'm a big Kirk fan, but he's no Jaden Daniels. Now, they did have a better supporting cast offensively.

Think about Deshawn Jackson, Pierre, Jameson Crowder, Jordan Reed, Chris Thompson. They were loaded. Trent Williams, they were loaded on offense. And they had, you know, a very good quarterback, just not. a great quarterback, not an elite quarterback. But yeah, I mean, I'm not delusional. I am certainly more optimistic. It's based on what I've watched.

I've watched a pretty, you know, decent team this year, win 12 games with a very, very good offense, if not at times great offense, and an elite quarterback in his rookie year. So, yeah. So anyway, I, my prediction, or my guess was, I think they've got a playoff win in them. I mean, look, Tampa is not, you know, anybody picking Washington over Tampa isn't nuts.

They're a three-point dog. If this game were played on a neutral field, it would be even. The odds makers think that these two teams are exactly the same, and they're giving Tampa three points for playing the game at home. But I think, realistically, one playoff win makes sense. If Philly were to lose to Green Bay and Washington were to beat Tampa Bay, Washington wouldn't go to Detroit, Green Bay would as the lower-seeded team. Washington would head to L.A. or Minnesota, the winner of that game to play a divisional round game. And if that happened, I'd give him a shot

at Minnesota or L.A. I'd give him a shot against anybody. I just think Detroit is the toughest out. or Detroit and Philadelphia are the two toughest outs. I actually think the Packers are the third toughest out, but they wouldn't have to play Green Bay until the NFC Championship game. I think one win in the postseason is reasonable. The votes, and I did a Twitter poll, and if you want to vote on it, go to at Kevin Shee in DC on X on Twitter. and one was the winner or is the leading candidate right now,

is the leading vote getter at 50.2%, followed by zero playoff wins at 27.5%. All right, the news from out at the park today, encouraging. All right, Marshawn Latimore, Fulgo, Jaden Daniels, Fulgo, Frankie Louvue, Fulgo, Juan Martin, Fulgo, Limited Cornelius, Lucas, Jameson, Crowder, Brandon Coleman, Jeremy Chin, Tyler Beaudish. But Quinn really

has said that all of those players looking up. And then there were four players held out for rest. Zach Ertz, Cleland Farrell, Dante Fowler Jr., and Terry McLaren. So I think when we get to Sunday night, we're going to have

a full team, a full healthy squad. And Austin Echler is not on the injury report. So he's ready to go. He came out of that thing 100% as well. I think he's going to be a major, major factor in the game. All right, when we come back, Mikey Sanristill and Scott Van Pelt. We'll get to both of them after these words from a few of our sponsors. Hey guys, if you've lost your hair or you're losing your hair, it doesn't mean you can't find it again, try hymns hair loss solutions. You'll be joining hundreds of thousands who have found their hair again. Men value many different things about their appearance. If you're one of those who

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Mikey Sanry still is with us. It's good to have you with me. We'll talk about the season that you've had in the game coming up on Sunday night in Tampa. But before we get to that, do I need to remind you what happened exactly one year ago tonight? You know what? I'll let you go ahead and remind me. You don't know what happened one year ago tonight in Houston, Texas. I've been saying it all day.

I actually haven't seen it all day. National championship, man. National championship, we brought one back to Ann Arbor. We got the job done. You know, guys came back, say we wanted to win a national championship. We did exactly that. And I know you want me to say what I did.

I don't want to speak on myself. No, no, no, no. I just wanted to make sure you knew that it was the one-year anniversary of Michigan pounding. Washington in the national championship game, 3413, you did have, you led the team in tackles, you had an 81-yard interception return in the fourth quarter. You were phenomenal in the football game. But no, it was funny because the way you answered it, I was thinking, oh my God, he actually doesn't remember. What happened?

No, yeah. I remember. It was, listen, I'm going to remember this for the rest of my life. Are you on a group text thread or have you talked to Coach Harbaugh or anybody today? Is there any way of you guys remembering it together? No, actually, no one, that's funny you mentioned. I might actually, when we get off of work, I might just send a mass text out saying, happy anniversary, fellas. We did it a year ago.

What was bigger last year, beating Ohio State again or winning the national championship? Beating Ohio State is always, you know, the biggest thing for us. honestly I think like the regular season is almost like that's our full course meal and then bowl game Big Ten championship and that you know that's our dessert and that's a championship is a cherry on top to finish it off you know Mikey that's so crazy because I think people just the Ohio State Michigan rivalry is you could argue the number one rivalry in sports certainly in North American sports And we're watching it sort of play out now with Ohio State, right? They lose to Michigan for a fourth straight year, Thanksgiving weekend,

and they're on the verge potentially of winning a national championship, and yet a lot of Ohio State fans would probably tell you, no, I'd rather go back and trade where we are now for a win over Michigan. It's crazy. Yeah, you know, the robbery is taking that serious by both sides. I think, you know, kind of like I agree with their fans. The first and the last time I may ever agree with their fans, but they didn't beat us.

Whatever they do the rest of the year is, you know, that's what they do, but they didn't beat us. So we won in our book. Unfortunately for them, they didn't win. So, you know, if they go on and win a national championship or whatever, then, you know, hats off to them. But at the end of the day, they still lost the Michigan. One more on that.

Are you rooting against them? I'm not rooting for, I'm not rooting against. I'm kind of just, you know, my team's not in. I'm kind of just watching the playoffs as they go. I have friends almost on every team that is out there playing. So, you know, I'm rooting for my individual friends. I'm not rooting for no schools or anything like that. All right.

Let's talk about the team you're on now. When you got here or when you were drafted, Nick Sabin called you the best pound-for-pound football player in the draft, and you have had yourself quite the rookie season. Maybe not exactly the way you thought it would play out, playing much more as an outside corner, but you have been impressive. And now you get a chance to continue in the playoffs

beginning Sunday night in Tampa. Before we get to the matchup Sunday night, is there a moment for you this season? Maybe it was training camp. Maybe it was a preseason game. Maybe it was some point during the regular season where you realized that you belonged out there and that you could have success right away?

You know, I think it would just be probably during training camp because, like, you know, and it wasn't like a practice or anything specific. It was really just from a conversation that I had with, I had this conversation with probably like three, three to four guys on the same. Vets, just them telling me, like, you know, a lot of the game to come to you, if you weren't supposed to be here, you would have never got drafted. And just hearing that come from guys who have been doing this, guys will know what it looks like to be successful in this league.

I think that was very reassuring for me and just allowed me to go out there and just be myself. And I think when you have vets who care about you, who want to see you do well, it allows you to come in as a young guy and thrive at the highest level that is. Who was it who said it to you? Two of the guys, one was Bobby Wagner. And then the other was Tyler Biatis.

Just, you know, Tyler is my locker mate. Bobby is the vet of the defense. But just, you know, talking to those two guys, like I mentioned, you know, they both had tons of success in this league. Bobby is going to go off to be in the Hall of Fame and, you know, when his career is set and done. And, you know, Tyler has been, you know, I believe one of the better centers in the league for some time now.

So just being able to get their perspective on certain things and just peer them, hear their process, hear how. they had success here what they did to put themselves in the positions that they're in and just hearing who they seek, you know, help from and just what they've done pretty much just to be where they are. Definitely, you know, benefited me a whole bunch. And we just, we have a great group of vets here on this team. There's, you know, many other names I could give you as to why, you know, a lot of us

younger guys are, you know, having success simply because of who we're around and just being able to watch what they do on a daily day. That's really interesting. I actually was going to ask you about a specific game. Not that that was the moment, but you had had some really good plays and even some good games. But I thought that Philly game on Thursday night, when you got matched up against A.J. Brown a bunch. You got matched up against Devante Smith. They tried to double move you a couple of times. You were right there. You had some big time, you know, past breakups. I thought that was the night for maybe a lot of fans. that we sat back and said, man, they got it right with this dude. Did you feel that way about that particular game? I think it was just more so like, one, it's a Thursday night game. It's a primetime game. You know, when you kind of have those allies on me moments,

where it's either you play really well or you don't play well. And, you know, for me, I was going to make the decision to play well. I think that week of practice was, you know, we had a really great week of practice. Coach gave us all the keys. He gave us all the tools we needed to go out there and execute. And, you know, my job was just to, you know, play within the game plan and make the players that come to me. Don't give, you know, don't give up any deep shots.

Don't get beat over the top. Play discipline. I have great. I discipline. Tackle well. So just, it was just going out there and executing at a high level doing whatever I can to help the team win. Unfortunately, we didn't.

we didn't win that game, but I played, you know, I played a good game, and I think it was a game for me to learn a lot about who I am, what I'm capable of doing, and how could I build from that game moving forward, you know, going into the rest of the season? What's been the biggest adjustment from Michigan and the Big Ten to the NFL? To be honest with you, I think, I don't think there's been a very big adjustment period for me, because Coach Harbaugh did a phenomenal job with us and how he ran

the program at Michigan and it prepared us you know this is a going but for me he prepared me to be where I am at the moment and then coming here

being with Coach Quinn he's allowed me and you know all the other rookies and just this team in general like the culture he's built here the culture that the vets have built here the culture that we've built here as a team, it kind of was a very, it was a pretty easy transition

going from Michigan to here. So I don't think I really dealt with anything that I had to sit back and be like, oh, man, this is so much different. But I think I have a lot more time on my hands. I would say that I don't have classes, just football, and then go home, you know what I mean? Yeah. How was it to sort of adjust to kind of, I think,

for all intents and purposes, much of the year playing maybe unexpectedly as the team's number one outside corner? You know, the way I approach it is just, you know, wherever you're needed, wherever coach asks you to play, go play it and do, you know, do your best job. If, you know, coach wants me to play outside, I'll play outside. If coach wants me to play inside, I'll play inside. I don't think it's, there's not really, you know, a lot of long talk behind it. this, you know, Mikey, we need you to do this.

All right, Mikey, go do it. You know what I mean? Like, I'll play wherever coach needs me to, and I'm going to make sure I ask questions to help myself. I'm going to make sure I, you know, take the proper notes. If there's anything that confuses me, I'll, you know, do the film study. I'll ask coach a little, hey, coach, this has been on my mind about this specific package, this specific play, this specific look.

Can you help me? Can you give me, you know, your insight on how to do this or that? Like, just making sure I'm prepared to execute wherever I am on the field. You know, he said at one point, and I think Joe Witt Jr. said also that the preference, they love you, as you know, but the preference, you know, long term would be for you to play inside, but you're doing such a great job and it's at a necessity for what the team needs now. But do you agree with them that your best position would be as, you're doing as, you're doing, a slot corner?

I think if, you know, if I'm able to continue making plays outside, you know, stay outside. If they need me to go back inside and I'm making plays inside, keep me inside. As long as, you know, I'm in a position where I can help this team win, it doesn't matter to me where you put me. Because I'm going to focus on being a difference maker, playing within the defense, and just exercise. key to my, my 11th. All right, let's talk about Sunday night. What's the number one key defensively against the bucks? I would say just stop the run, you know, stop the run, limit the shots.

I just get the ball back to our offense. Challenge of potentially covering Mike Evans for part of the night. So, you know, I look forward to it. Mike Evans is going to be a high-lame receiver. You know, he's going into another, or he's currently in another season. reaching a thousand yards, you know, his name is what it is for a reason. You know, he's built back for himself. But, you know, I'm super excited to get out there and battle with my guys against him and his guy.

What kind of difference does it make having Marshawn out there with you guys? Having another elite competitor out there, a guy who's going to, you know, fight, scratch, claw, do whatever it takes to win. He has that dog mindset, and, you know, he's been one of the better corners in his league for some time now. just having him out there. Just knowing that there's another guy out there who's going to go out there and take care of his job. I think that's what he brings.

He brings that mindset. He brings that attitude. It's great to have him on his team and as a rookie. It's great to have him as one of my vets. Does he look healthy? Does he look ready to go? Yeah, for sure. You were a part of a winning culture in college We've heard a lot about the culture that Dan Quinn and his staff, Adam Peters' front office, have brought to this franchise.

For those of us, Mikey, who've never been in a college or NFL locker room, what does good culture mean? I think a good culture means if your coach was to take a week vacation and let the players run everything, that there would be no drop-off. and I think during my time at Michigan, specifically this past season, those games where Coach Harbaugh was suspended showed the ultimate sign of what Coachor was because you take away our head coach during the most crucial parts of our season, the last three games of our season, and the first four games of our season. And for us to go out there and dominate the way we did wasn't just because, you know, whatever people out there were saying. It was because as a unit,

all we needed was ourselves. All we needed was each other. The only voices that mattered was ours. And we were able to uplift each other during those times and go out there and be ourselves and play how we played because we had each other. And I think here with the commanders, we have that brotherhood.

We have each other. We have the bond. We've built that bond in the offseason. We've seen what all of us are capable. will live doing together. We know the work that we all put in, and when you see that from each other every single day, it's, you know, it's

no rocket signs why you're able to go out there and win football games. Really good answer. Last one, I promise. The NFL is as much about the quarterback as it is any other position, more so. How good is yours? You'll be

one of the best, one of the better quarterbacks, potentially the best quarterback in NFL very soon. Jayden's phenomenal. I love that. I'm on the same team as him. And, you know, we have a star in our quarterback position.

Really enjoyed this. Thank you so much. Best of luck Sunday night in Tampa. Thanks, Mikey. Take care. Thank you, Kevin. Appreciate you. Mikey Sanders still, everybody. Wow. He is a good interview. you. All right. Rate us and review us if you get an opportunity, especially on Apple and Spotify. It's really helpful for us if you can write a quick one to two sentence review. And if you don't mind,

give us five stars if you think we deserve it on Apple in particular. Following us, just hitting that plus button or that follow button really helps us as well. All right, let's bring on my good friend Scott Van Pelt. And we'll get your thoughts on the two college semi-final games in the upcoming wildcard weekend in the NFL. But before that, just tell everybody about what you hosted last night on ESPN, the golf thing. I've got a sense that some people watched while others may not know much about it. So what was it and how did the first night go?

Okay, so it's TGL tomorrow golf league. It's an indoor sort of, how do you put it? If human beings were in a golden tea, if there was this golf simulator, there was 60 feet tall in your basement, and you were really good at golf, and you could create this incredible, rotating, undulating green. It's the technology of 2025 as a backdrop for the game. There are six teams that are part of this new league.

Tiger and Rory were kind of the muscle behind it. There's a guy who Mike McCarley, who was a golf channel executive that was involved. It was supposed to start a year ago, Kevin, but there was a hurricane that went through South Florida. It was going to be like in a bubble, and the bubble collapsed when the hurricane went through, and they had to hit the pause button, which they have said, and I'm glad they said it publicly because I agree. I just didn't want to be the first to say it, that this was a blessing in disguise for their league because it gave them a year to build a permanent structure. And I haven't been on the property, but it's just incredible.

This So-Fi Center, it's insane. And you have to kind of see it to believe it. And last night was the first match. It involved a team that was Andrew Schoffley, Ricky Fowler, and Matt Fitzpatrick. They played against the team of Ludwig Oberg, Shane Lauer, and Wyndham Clark. So Tigers involved, he'll be playing next two. week, then Tiger and Rory's teams go head to head in a couple of weeks. Here's how I look at it.

If you like golf, you're going to probably enjoy it. I can't worry about the Internet, which just people live to be miserable and say everything sucks. I don't concern myself with the people to do that because that's just the people's resting posture to say these things. I think by and large, people enjoyed what they saw. There were some, I'm sure there are critiques. They're supposed to be.

It's never going to be as good. the first one, as it will be five from now or a year from now. But it's a team competition. There are a lot of rules. I don't want to bog people down with the details. All I tell you is next week at Tuesday, Tiger's plan, check it out. It's a couple of hours. It moves very quickly.

And I think it's a, if you like the game of golf, I think it's something that you're going to find reasons to enjoy and want to tune in. How long was the match last night? How long does it take real time? came on a little after nine, and we were done at 11. I mean, it's a two-hour window, and the practice rounds I was told they were moving. It was about a buck and a half, buck 45. So, I mean, it's, you know, it's a 15 holes is how long the matches. And you play three, the three team, the three men team play alternate shot on the first nine minutes,

like singles on the, on the holes 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, and 15. So that's the format. it's a bit like golf you play with your buddies you know you can break out a hammer which means you can you can magnify the whole

you can make it worth more as it was last night this Ludwig Oberger's this absolute monster who came out of Texas Tech a couple years ago top ten player in the world

he was the star of last night he was awesome and his team the Bay golf club they're called they rolled but I mean I think again it's it's the type of thing that there

are layers to what is involved, but mostly I think it's just visually an entertaining thing. It's the middle of winter. It's a prime time thing where you can watch some golf and you can watch some big time stars play. How long is this season? What was the last night? The seventh goes through the middle of March.

So there are there are, there's one or two off weeks in the middle, but it's like a 15-week season. So, you know, I think, you know, there's things that are going to figure out, you know, like the players are mic, and so there's that, but you know, expecting the players to be to carry the conversation, that's not their job, they're there to compete. So Matt Barry's my guy, my guy. Like, he's the host on-site.

Marty Smith is there as well. So I'm in studio mostly just as sort of a host, and I have like a conversation sort of at the halfway turn. It's like a halftime show on Monday night football, you know, same kind of thing. So that was that was what launched last night.

Thank you for being a great friend and not knowing what it was or that I was involved. And texting me to go, why are people telling me that you're doing this? That's because I'm the host. Well, thank you for being a good friend and telling me that you were going to be doing this. So there's that too. I just assume you, it'd be. I don't follow your career. I'm not sitting there following everything that you sign up for unless you tell me.

I understood. But here's the thing. I just went to your ex account because I was fearful that you had decided to engage with people that may have been critical of last night. I didn't see any of the reaction, but your initial response was that there was some constructive criticism at the very least. And it looks like you didn't engage with anybody, which good for you. That's not always the case with you. No, I don't do that a lot. Sometimes when I'm bored, I haven't done that really at all.

And there was one day it was around, I think it was an NIL conversation where I just decided I just can't be troubled by people's stupidity. And so I argue with people. But that's very few and far between. And if people don't like it, then that's fine. They don't have to watch it. But I think that people that, I think people that like golf largely seem to think it was good. And hopefully they'll give it a try. I sent you a text last night.

I'm reading it right now. why are people telling me this golf thing has something to do with you? Because I did. I got like five or six texts right away saying, what is this thing that your boy Scott's doing with golf? Now, I had heard of the thing, and you know that my boys, at least one of them, is so into golf. And Corbyn was, couldn't wait for it to come on.

So I knew that, you know, this thing was launching. I didn't know a lot about it. And you had not told me that you were hosting it. When I sent you this text, you sent me because I host it, question mark, with the emoji of kind of the hands up in the air? Oh, yeah, the shrugging emoji. Yeah, that's what I sent you. Yeah, and I said, where is it? And he said, it's on ESPN.

And I said, are you, so you're in Connecticut? And you said, no, I'm in D.C. The studio is in Florida? To which I said, is it good? And you said, just turn on your TV. which I did. And it was fine. You know, I'm a big golf fan. I think it's going to take a while to kind of understand what's going on. That's all. The rules, et cetera. A hundred, a hundred percent. But again, so that requires people to actually consume it and do their part to decide if they like it or not. Right. But again, people's resting posture of everything sucks and I hate everything. Well, then,

fine, be miserable. I really don't care. You can't try to win over that person on social media. What I am interested in are people who like it and enjoy it. You know, I mean, you see people that it's not supposed to save the fucking world. It's golf. Oh, my God. We're going to give it a shot. We're going to give it a shot.

No, but I mean, but I mean, I just like, well, it's not this. It's not that. It's Tuesday night on, in January. January. You can turn on your television and watch some of the really good players in golf do this kind of cool thing. That's it, man. That's it. That's it. But you know, what was probably more enjoyable last night was anybody that was on Florida laying three and a half to the number one undefeated team in America, Tennessee, and winning by 30. Has a number one team ever been beaten that badly?

There were some stats we had it's rare. It's happened a handful of times, but not often. I think it just speaks to what the SEC this year is just so outrageously loaded that, you know, I don't know if you were paying attention the

Florida Kentucky game from Saturday. 106 to 100. Yeah. And that was regulation. That was a regulation score with a bunch of dudes that can make shots and whatever else. So like, that was the Saturday result from the SEC, then that was Florida's first loss. So then they go home and play Tennessee, who's the last unbeaten and beaten by 30.

Kentucky, who beat Florida goes down to Georgia, and they get beat last night. The SEC is just an absolute gauntlet of a league. But yeah, if you saw the, if you saw the Gators laying three in a hook to an undefeated number one, you probably knew what to do. If you've listened to Kevin through the years, you understood the assignment. Yeah. For those that haven't been paying attention, the SEC has six of the top 10 teams in the country. Tennessee is one, they won't be anymore. Auburn's two, Alabama's five, Kentucky is six, Florida is eight, and Texas A&M is 10. By the way, also ranked from the SEC. Mississippi State at 14, Oklahoma, who's an SEC team at 17, Ole Miss at 20, Ole Miss at 20. and Arkansas just exited the rankings. The Southeastern Conference, and you can explain why,

is now as much of a basketball conference or as great as a basketball conference as the ACC Big East and Big Ten used to be. I agree. I think the main, there are several factors. I'd start with the coaches. And coaches like, coaches who've won a title like Caliper, you start with him, coaches who've been around for a while and have had close calls like a Rick Barnes.

And then a bunch of coaches who, a bunch of coaches who in the last 15 years have thrown their hat in the ring and had final four teams like a Bruce Pearl or Chris Beard. And I can keep going. I mean, the golden coach at Florida is really well regarded. he's been dealing with this investigation into inappropriate conduct, but I don't know where that stands, but that situation has been quiet for the moment. Buzz Williams has had a bunch of programs that have done really well. I mean, just look at the coaches.

I mean, in the heyday of the ACC, which obviously you and I grew up with Maryland, they just had better coaches than anybody, and as a result, they got better players. And the ACC was just dominating. Well, the ACC in the last however many years has lost. K, Jim Beheim, Roy Williams, and Tony Bennett. And the SEC also has incredibly deep pockets, and who knows, maybe they were paying guys before they were allowed to. Maybe crazy thought. But now with NIL, I mean, you've got people that are willing to spend dough.

And, you know, there are a bunch of teams that can really, as your stats about the rankings point out, I mean, it can really play. Yeah, I mean, I think one of the reasons that league is loaded with great coaches is because, because they're able to pay those coaches a lot of money. Yeah, Nate Oates is another, if I didn't say his name. Obviously, they got to the final four last year at Bama, and they're spectacular, and they got a lot of dough down there, and it doesn't all go to football. He's got quite a war chest, as I understand it. All right, let's talk some football.

Let's start with the two college semifinal games. Tomorrow night, Penn State and Notre Dame in the Orange Bowl, Notre Dame's a one-one-and-a-half-point favorite. Penn State has lost its last 10 games as an underdog. My first question to you is, is this the most important game James Franklin has ever coached? No question. No question.

No question. I'm sure, given where we are and given your audience, there are a lot of Penn State listeners to your podcast because there are many of them that are in the area. And those fans would be, the first to tell you that his record in games against top teams isn't good at all. If they're being honest with themselves, they understand that while it's really cool that they won two playoff games, the committee gifted them a pass of SMU at home and Boise State.

And no one would ask the Penn State fans to apologize for second for enjoying the fact that they won those games. That's awesome. And for being in the semifinal, that's fantastic too. But you guys know that you didn't play anyone that was close to as good as Oregon, who beat you in the Big Ten title game, had to play in Ohio State. I mean, that was an absurd thing to set up. Like, that path was nonsense. Well, we'll change that. They'll change that next year. They'll seed based on strength, I would think. You know, I keep saying that, and everybody just nods and says, yeah, and then there are people that say, I don't know. I mean, they better.

They need to be smarter about what their product is, because they've got a product everybody loves. They just have a – they did a horrible job with how they seated it. Horrible. So that should be able to get fixed. None of this has to do with the question you ask. Yes, it's the most important game because it's a game in your weight class with another fan base and team that's been close but hasn't gotten over the hump,

that you represent the same obstacle to them that they do to you. but, you know, James' record against the very best teams, I think it's one win, right, against top whatever teams. So, and this gets you to the championship game, if you win it. So all of the things added up and the opportunity that it affords you, which is a chance to play for the national championship in the very first year of this gigantic playoff. And it's every single thing that every Penn State fan has won it.

They have been so close. they've been playoff adjacent, as you know. They've been right on the fringe, but not one of the four. And had there been this 12 team, they'd have been involved, and now they are. And this is it, man. And I think Steve and I did our podcast today, and he said this is a Drew Aller game. You know, this is a good. You've got the best quarterback in the game.

You've got a guy that could be the difference in the game, and will he be? You know, will he step up and lead and make the plays against the game? an excellent Notre Dame defense to earn in that last 60 minutes of football. I think that's the most interesting question to be answered on Thursday night. Well, that was my next question to you, which is which quarterback do you feel better about, you know, Notre Dame's Riley Leonard or Penn State's Drew Aller? I like Aller. I mean, if you look at what Leonard did against Notre Dame, excuse me, against Georgia,

it wasn't through the air. It hasn't been through the air, though, for him. No, but when push came to shove and he needed to put his head down and get a first down, they did it. And so I think Aller is a guy that has demonstrated the ability to make big plays. I mean, you know, when you need to just throw it to 44, you know, they've got the best playmaker in the game. I warrant a tight end.

And I guess because of that, I think Allers is the guy I count on more. I think there's an interesting sort of possibility anyway that Aller could use this the way we used to see guys back in the day use a run in the NCAA tournament where, you know, you've got a four-game runway here, where if you are excellent and they win a chip in a year when there's not great quarterbacks, you know, could Aller win a title and then say, see you later? I mean, I don't know anybody in Happy Valley that would hold it against him if that's the way it played out. Yeah, well, I mean, if the quid pro quo is he leaves after winning a title, I think they'd be fine with it. So who wins and why? I don't, I haven't got a clue. I thought about this a lot. And it's such a bullshit not answered to say whoever has that one play.

Look at how Notre Dame beat Georgia. It's 6 to 3. They get a stripsack. They score and they return a kickoff for a touchdown and they play defense. Like, that's why they want. Why they beat Indiana? Because they got a turnover in their own red zone. A guy won 98 yards with a touchdown in Indiana.

just didn't have an answer. I lean Penn State. I lean Penn State to win this game because I think that I trust their ability to make the plays that will lead to enough points that Notre Dame can't answer. Like, does that make sense? That's just, that's what I bank on. Yeah, you can't, if you're Notre Dame, you can't rely on Riley. Leonard to throw you back into a game that you're down, you know, 17 in or 14 in.

But if they stay, you know, in a one-score game either way, I actually kind of like Notre Dame. I've liked Notre Dame, as you know, for a while now as a team that could make a big run. They dominated Indiana. I mean, the Georgia game was exactly the way you described, but Indiana did nothing against that team until the fourth quarter. They're very good defensively. I think they're the best deep. Notre Dame. Oh, yeah. I mean, and what's amazing about that, Kevin, is how many people they've lost.

They've lost. They've lost pros. They've lost pros at each level that are different makers, and they still, they just bring wave after wave after guys. So I just trust Alar's ability and Penn State's ability to get a lead and then force Notre Dame to have to answer. and I just, I don't know how they necessarily do. The health of love is question mark. Supposedly Freeman says he feels all right, but, you know, as great as their defense is, they're just, I don't think they're built to come back if they have to. Ohio State, Texas, before we get to the betting part of this, just tell me, do you think Ohio State, like most people believe, are they the best remaining team and it's not close?

100%. 100%. And the Michigan loss was that rare moment that actually served them incredibly well because it refocused everybody. It pissed everyone off. And that since then you've gotten the best version of who they are. Look at who they play. Tennessee and Oregon, that pass to this point, I don't know, it's hard to argue. that's not the most difficult two games to get to this point. And they beat the breaks off both of them. They led 21 and nothing over Tennessee, and they led 34 to nothing over Indiana. So, I mean, it's not close.

Not close. And Will Howard's been incredible, and their defense has been incredible. And their own lines been good enough to give Howard a chance to throw the ball to four. And Jeremiah Smith is, most NFL people say if there is, if you're a lot of draft anyone in college,

people have drafted him one right now. He's 19 years old. So, yeah, they're the best team, period. And losing in Michigan, inexplicably, in a game plan where you look back in like, what were you doing? Like, what was that? They couldn't get a first down for a quarter and a half on their home field. They just scored 34 and 25 minutes against Oregon. You couldn't get a first down on your home field. Like, Michigan's so in their head. It's just wild to watch it.

But it doesn't matter now because, you know, they're two wins away from a title. So, yeah, there's feelings higher than anyone else's, right? There's no question about that. But they play a team that gets to play at home state and gets to play an underdog card, and they haven't been one other than at Texas last year when they won by double-digit in Tuscaloosa. And I don't know a coach in the world with a kind of talent at Texas says it doesn't love to slip on that. Nobody believes we can win Cape and see what they can do. You know, I'm wondering, like, I was going to ask you, you know, kind of what happened since the Michigan game.

And there's no doubt that there was a choking element where the game stayed close, long enough, three times in a row they had lost. Is it going to be a fourth at home? I mean, is a 23-point favorite, et cetera. But, you know, and I don't know if you and Steve have talked about this. But Michigan defensively is awesome. if they had an offense it was halfway competent this year, a quarterback that was halfway competent. I think the results of their season would have been much different. I'm not talking about a great quarterback.

I'm just talking about a competent quarterback situation because defensively what they did to Ohio State, I actually think Texas has a chance to do that. I don't know. We'll see. Yeah, I mean, no, look, Michigan is Michigan's, defense, you're right. I mean, and they were down some guys against Alabama, and they locked them up. I mean, for a pretty

pedestrian Michigan team, to have, to end their season by beating Ohio State and Alabama is remarkable. Right. They almost beat Indiana. They had a chance. They just were so poor offensively in that game that they weren't able to, you know, they settled for some field goals where they needed touchdowns.

But Texas has got arguably the best front in America, and they have depth on that line. And the thing I don't understand about them, and I've asked people, and no one can explain it to me. Like, Steve Sarkesian is regarded

within the game as one of the best exes and those guys there are. His game script, you come out, is two plays. They're up 7-0, right? Yeah, Arizona State. He's great. And it's 14-0-0 before you blink.

But then they have these lulls, and U-Rs has these lulls where he's just not, they don't get first-downs. They don't, they can get good field positions. they don't cash it in. They just, and because the defense is so good that they keep the other team at bay, well, you can't afford that against Ohio State. So I think you need the very best version of viewers.

I think that you need the aggressive kind of, let's script, you know, first 15, let's script 45 points. Let's script more than just the first quarter. And I get that other teams make adjustments and all that stuff. I just think that Sark and the talent that Texas has is good enough for them to win this football game. obviously you and I look at the game where everybody screams, wait, they're giving less than a touchdown and just says, give me Texas for the limit.

That's just blind the way we view the world. So fine. But you're talking about who's going to actually win the football game. And that's what ultimately what matters, not if your bet covers you're not. It's who's going to win the game. And it would seem to me, Ohio State, is the team that's likely to advantage

because they're the better of the two teams. Well, we're both going to have Texas for size. plus the six. And it's going to be painful because Quinn yours honestly isn't very good. And I'm wondering if Arch Manning's going to get more run in this game. Because surprisingly, he didn't see the field against Arizona State because I think the pass rush pressure, they're going to have to have dual threat 11-on-11 running ability. No, but listen to what I'm asking you. Listen to what I'm asking. Yeah.

Just think about this reasonably, not like a message board poster. They're talking about Arch Manning. You think if Arch Manning gave Texas a better chance that he wouldn't be on the field? I'm suggesting to you that he might be on the field more in this game. Well, why wasn't he against Arizona State in a game? Because Arizona State wasn't very good defensively. And the way they started, I think they felt like they could get it going offensively. They ran for like 300 yards against that team.

And yours started off pretty well. Okay, then why not against Georgia? Okay, why not against Georgia in a rock fight game? He did play in that game, didn't he? Not much. Yeah. I just, look, I'm going to give Sark and the folks at Coach Texas enough grace here to assume that they know better than I. I'm not saying, I'm not doing it as a message poster.

I'm just guessing. I'm guessing. that he might end up playing on Friday night more than maybe we're thinking right now. To have him involved in the run game, which you really can't do with yours, might be an advantage for them. Maybe not. Well, he didn't play against Clemson. He didn't play against Arizona State.

And looking at the game against Georgia, he had one run for five yards. That's the extent of the involvement. I thought he played more than that. Didn't he play more than that against Clemson? He had the three, remember he had the three, the three runs that basically gained nothing. I beg a bit? Three rushes for zero yards.

But do you agree with me that Quinn yours just isn't what anybody thought he would be at the beginning of the year? One billion percent. This was a guy that was, I mean, and there's these rumors that there's some gigantic NIL number for him out there, And it's like, I don't get what that. Y'all get ESPN? You get the all 22?

I mean, what are we do? What are we doing? Well, because there aren't enough people that can even do it at any level. I mean, I... Hey, listen, our guy, God bless him, like the number that Billy Edwards apparently got to go to Wisconsin, they're just, you know, way to go. I mean, there's big numbers out there if you've shown that you can play the position at this level, I suppose. Speaking of playing a position at a high level, you mentioned him, and this is my last question about Ohio State, Texas.

Is Jeremiah Smith maybe the best line receiver Ohio State's ever had? Yes. That's not an insane comment? No. No, I've been saying this or asking this of people from the jump. You know, Chip, I know fairly well. Chip Kelly. Offensive coordinator, Ohio State.

Correct. Former, you guys know who Chip Kelly is. And he just, like, look, man, the guys just, just, people talk about him the way people from Washington talk about Jaden Daniels. Just like, he's just different, man. And when people who are in the sport talk about a guy that way, it always makes me pay attention. Because what that's code for is that they're not.

People, other people aren't like him. And it's not just skill set, and it's not just body type. It's work ethic on top of all of that. And it's just an appetite to show up and compete. And you want to start going through that wide receiver room at Ohio State's had in the last 15 years. How about just Marvin Harrison, Jr. last year? Yeah, well, people, yeah, but Jeremiah Smith is, I mean, different. I'll just quote the guy who's been coaching me just different.

And I've joked with Ryan Day in the last – I've talked to him after the Rose Bowl win and after the win at home against Tennessee, just throw the ball to four. And it seems like sometimes it seems that simple. But look, it's a long list of excellent wire receivers, most recently Harrison. Washington's got one with McCorn. You know, it's Olavay, Jackson Smith, and Jigba, and on and on and on. But when you read the people to talk about the NFL for a living and who's going to draft who, and they say if everyone in college football were on the sheet that you could

select from, that he would be the first pick in the draft. Yeah, that's a movie. He's 19 years old. He's 19, and he won't be eligible for next year's draft. For two more years. Yeah. That's the best news if you're high stage, you get two more years of this guy. Yeah.

And then somewhere along the way, someone, some genius will start the conversation, you shouldn't play. You should just sit. Well, you know what? he'll have a contract so he won't be able to sit pretty soon. A, he's going to have that, and B, he's going to have a college contract, people, just so you understand. Yeah. Right, of course.

We'll both have Texas plus the six, and we'll both not be shocked if we don't have a prayer in that game, because it does seem one-sided roster-wise. All right, let's take a quick break, and when we come back, we'll find out who Scott likes in the Washington, Tampa game, and we'll talk about the rest of Wild Card Weekend. We'll do that and more right after these words from a few of our sponsors. Hey guys, prize picks is the place to go to for Daily Fantasy Sports. I have the prize picks app. I'm one of the over 10 million members at PrizePix where billions of dollars are awarded in winnings. PrizePix has made Daily Fantasy Sports accessible to everybody. You just

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And let's talk NFL playoffs, Wild Card Weekend, and start with our team. Do you give us a chance Sunday night? in Tampa. I've been thinking a lot about this. I worry about them defensively. I worry about them falling behind and what happens. And Baker-Mayfield is it just a ferocious competitor who I really like watching because he's just fearless. Having said these things, I watched them play against the Saints and the classic, you have to win against a team that has nothing to play for. And they were bad for most of that game. It took a lot for them to manage to somehow just eke ahead of a team who had been horrible for the last three weeks.

Horrible. I watched them lose to Dallas. And so if you get that version of Tampa Bay can watch it win, yeah. You get the team that played Carolina who finished the year pretty strong at home and absolutely boat race them. then it's probably going to be a struggle. Stanford Steve pointed this out to me. I hadn't thought about it. You win a dozen games, a dozen wins, it doesn't win.

And he's like, you know many playoff teams they beat this year? One, Philadelphia with a backup quarterback. Yes. And I'm like, that's not a great stat. But then I went back at him. I said, you know many teams that Chargers beat the ones to the playoffs? One, Denver. So sometimes it's just like, look, you can't control who your schedule is.

They only played five games. Five games against playoff teams, and two of them were Phillies. So four teams that are in the playoffs. They just didn't have a very difficult schedule. Correct. But there's no apology for any of that. You beat who is on your schedule, and if you do, you earn the right to play a playoff game.

So I worry a little about the offense hasn't looked great. At times, I mean, they scored a ton against football. Philly defense that hadn't given up a lot. I think I'm just overthinking it. And I'm excited that I get to turn on the television and watch Jaden and this Washington football team play in a playoff game because even if it ends in this spot here, you still can't be anything but optimistic moving forward. And that loser talk to say that this year's the success, be real, everyone listening.

You guys all know, we've all been in this together for decades. It's been a long ride. And the future right now is brighter than it's. been in a long time. So you get 60 minutes on Sunday night. Let's, you know, hopefully you get 60 more. What do you think? I think they definitely have a chance to win. I think when you have five at quarterback, and they have been one of the top four, five offenses in the league this year. We know what they're capable of at their best offensively. Tampa's not very good defensively. We're not very good at all defensively. And I think that they could easily win a,

you know, a 30 to 27 game. Of course, it'll end up being 13 to 10, but, but that's, they're capable of that. I mean, they beat, they beat Philadelphia turning the ball over five times they scored 36 points and came from behind down 13 points. They beat Atlanta with 13 penalties down 10 at halftime. So, yeah, they're capable of beating Tampa, definitely. My next question to you was going to be, are they capable of any sort of run? And I guess I would define a run as can they win two games? That seems like a steep hill to climb. Yeah.

If Green Bay beat Philadelphia, just so you know, they would go to L.A. or two Minnesota in the next round if they beat Tampa. I did. You know. Listen, I understand this. this is, it's, it's what any, any good to great, and I put you in the great radio slash podcast host in Washington should be doing is mapping out. What would it look like beyond just this week? I just, I can't, I can't look beyond this week because looking too far down the road feels

a little bit optimistic to me. You know, win one and then, then you revisit and go, hell yeah, we can beat whoever. Whoever it is. I mean, it's just, but asking like, asking, a rookie quarterback to string together back-to-back road playoff wins. Not a long list of people that have done that. In fact, I think, and God damn it, I had this in front of me for a while now, and I can't find it. I couldn't find it the other day. But basically, it's like I think it's five or six quarterbacks as a rookie starter

for the majority or all of the season has actually quarterbacked even in a championship game. None, not one rookie quarterback starter has ever started in a Super Bowl. So it is very hard. And look, I totally am with you. I'm with you. But it's interesting because the NFC playoffs this year, Scott, I haven't done the math on this, but I'm going to go do it. I think it may be the best aggregate record percentage-wise,

because it's 17 games, I understand, versus 16. but in terms of percentage of the seven teams in the playoffs of any conference ever. They have a 15-win team, 2-14-win teams, a 12-win team, an 11-win team, 2-10-win teams. It's the first time since 2012 that the NFC playoffs have had all 10-win-plus teams. And it's very, very deep, and it's a bit heavyweight in nature. What I don't know, I kind of feel like the six and seven seed, Green Bay and Washington are the most capable six and seven seeds we've seen in a while of going on a run. But at the same time, Detroit and Philly, Philly in particular is so complete. But I don't know, it's pretty wild how deep, record-wise, anyway, the NFC playoff field is.

Right. And you had a 10-win team in Seattle didn't get there. Right. who's going to look back and has this reputation for the 12s, and I've been there for a game. It's excellent. They were awful at home this year. I think they lost five home games. But I mean, six.

They lost a bunch of homes. Yeah, right. Which is the reason why they ultimately don't make the playoffs. But it's deep. It does feel heavy at the top. Philly, I'm interested in this, though. And I'm not trying to create like the boogeyman around the corner. but I don't know,

hurt. Hit his head pretty good and it didn't play. I know. I've seen him on the field since then. And you never know how that goes. And I'm not doing that. Like the doctor speculate, I haven't the slightest idea.

And I hope he's well. It's just when you haven't seen a guy in a while because of that, I don't know. It's natural to wonder, is everything good there? I guess we'll find out. Against the team, by the way, in Green Bay, who when I left Lambo on that Monday night, I'm thinking this is a team that go in the Super Bowl.

Then they go out and lose to Chicago, and I'm thinking, if you can lose to them, I don't know how optimistic it. Well, Jordan Love was off the field for three quarters. Understood, but the bears aren't supposed to be beaten anybody, and they hadn't for a month. So I get that they were competitive in some games, but for them to come in a Lambo and win a game, Last week was weird, man.

A lot of teams look kind of uneven. And I couldn't figure out why Washington, and I understand Jaden got hurt, but it's like, aren't you all trying to win here? I mean, it seems to me you'd rather... Yeah, but it was that decision of they're not protecting. They were really struggling to protect.

They couldn't run the ball with running backs. And to win that game, he was banged up, he went into the tent, and you were going to have to probably run him in the same way you ran against Atlanta. And Mariotta ended up running for 56 yards. I mean, they've had their quarterback basically be their leading rusher in a lot of their games this year.

I was okay with that. I was going to ask you real quickly, though, as we think about the NFC playoffs, because we all realize the most important person on the field is the quarterback. This is a sport that you could almost just call quarterback. Rank the quarterbacks in the NFC playoffs right now. And you can factor in things like experience and lack of because I think that's an important way to rank them.

So how would you rank the quarterbacks in the NFC right now? You want me to give you all of them right now? No, I can go through this. I mean, I put golf number one because he's at home and he has the weapons that he has and he's been to a Super Bowl. Okay. I just said I'm concerned about Hertz. but he's been to a Super Bowl, too, and they're at home, and they have Sequin.

This is probably where you over, I'd probably where I overrate Stafford, you know what I mean? And the experience that he has. I don't think you're overrating him. He'd be my number one. Stafford ahead of anybody? Stafford ahead of golf, and then Jaden is my top three. Wow. You're giving Jaden way too much credit. Okay. Way too much credit.

Rookie quarterback. I understand that. This is where, this is where, as much as I have, I know, this, don't mistake this for doubt. There's a difference between doubting somebody and wanting to see it with a playoff, winner-go-home moment, because it's different. And you know how I know it's different? Look at Lamar Jackson, who, who's the MVP in your mind? I, we talked about this on radio.

If I had a vote, I would vote, I would vote for Lamar. So would I. So would I. And I go back and forth on this. What Josh did against Kansas City and Detroit, like put that tape on. And the Rams and the Rams and a loss. Yeah, I mean, I understand. They scored 90 points in two weeks.

They only won one of the games. Right. Put Lamar Jackson's number on the screen and go, ooh, wow. And look at how, look at the Fiat four picks. I think two of them are deflections and none of them were false. I'd delay the guy. I hijacked the conversation. I'm sorry.

No. to the quarterback. What I'm saying, to say, to say Jaden's third ahead of a guy on Hertz who's been in the Super Bowl, to me, is, I think that's given a guy, an incredible endorsement before he's earned it with playoff success. Yeah, no, I hear you. I just think actually, if we were talking about ranking these seven quarterbacks for a regular season Sunday, I'd take Jaden one. You love them. And you, hey, listen, I'm going to, I'm going to give you all the credit, because you, This is a guy that you were barking about this is who they have to take last spring. And you've been proven correct. Whatever. I just, I mean, right now, for a given Sunday in the regular season, I would take him over golf.

I would take him over Stafford. I would take him over Mayfield. I would take him over Hertz. You know, the guy that I actually really like a lot is Jordan Love. And he performed in the postseason last year. I mean, went to Dallas, played great. almost beat San Francisco. Could have. Probably should have.

Probably should have. I would go to the forwards and stage. Probably should have won that game. All right. So, I mean, I'm terrible at rankings and the list and all that shit. I mean, I've forever been bad. You give them a chance to win Sunday night, but you would say that that would be it. Okay. Real quickly, if I told you Kansas City doesn't go to the Super Bowl, who beats them? Buffalo. They already have.

All right. Are there any other than Texas? I mean, you're going to be on Texas Friday night. I'm not playing the game tomorrow night. I can just tell everybody right now, I will not have a smell test selection on Notre Dame Penn State. I don't like the game either way. I love Texas.

You do two, plus the points, right? Mm-hmm. Is there an... It's everyone understands that you and I see this through the same lens, and everyone would understand that the line at the window for Ohio State is long. we would want to be in the shorter line.

And it's in their home state and they're capable. You're not taking some bottom of the barrel Mac team here. You're taking a team that was in the playoff a year ago. So, yeah, I like Texas. Is there an NFL game? I don't know anybody in the NFL. The only team I like in the NFL. I like Denver plus the points for some reason.

Yeah, I like Houston a little bit. I think everybody's going to be in the Chargers, but kind of like Denver a little bit too. All right, thanks for doing this. I'll talk to you later. You didn't even talk about the Terps. I know, but there are people that are listening care. So I'll ask you, are they going to win a close game anytime soon?

They need to do that, is all I'll say. There are lost in the angst of what has happened is that there's good there. Having leads in Mackey, having a lead at Washington, having a lead in Oregon, you play well enough to have leads. You have to figure out how to win close games on the road. That has not happened this year, and it will need to. It will need to.

Everything just starts. The world will look different if you beat UCLA Friday night at home. They just got absolutely clubbed by Michigan, and the coach called his team soft. Yep, they did. But what does that mean? Oh, no, now they're mad.

I'll say what. If Maryland's not mad, if Maryland doesn't, play pissed off our night. If Maryland doesn't play to their ceiling, then you got to worry about

what are we doing? Yeah. What are we doing here? Actually? We got to worry about like the, like the collective want to of the group

if they don't play a spirited effort at home against a ranked team. I don't care that they lost and they're pissed. So what? You should be pissed.

You just went oh and two on the road in two games. You had leads and it could have won them both. So play like that. And the good news is your ceiling's really high. They've shown

that. Maryland's shown you their ceilings high. So play for 40, get a dub, feel good about yourself. Have a nice weekend. How about that? Well, here, I'll just say this. Friday night's actually a must win for them. I mean, you can't lose that game after losing, the Oregon game aside, they lost to a Washington team who almost beat Illinois on Sunday. All right, that's fine. But they have three of their next four at home, and this is the only ranked team that they play, they need this one. They do not have at this point what I would deem to be a quality win. No, the Nova win is getting better over time.

They're favored, by the way, at home and tonight against Yukon. Ooh, didn't see that. Thank you for sharing that with me. You wouldn't have told me about that if we weren't doing this. A good friend would have. It's not my... It's my job to help you know what the... You're a grown man.

I know, but you know I'm not paying attention as much right now because of the football deal. And... Let me get this straight. Let me, no, no, no. Stop talking. Let me get this straight. It's my job, because I know you're not paying attention to be like, hey, you should be on Nova tonight?

Oh, wait a minute. Are you telling me that if I were paying attention and I saw Villanova favored over a top 10 team tonight at home, that I wouldn't have texted you at this point to say, it would have been real simple, Nova. And then if you weren't paying attention, you know what? You would have looked it up and you would have said, thank you. Yeah. You know what.

You're right. Yeah. I know I'm right. It seems like I'm right for like the second time on this show because I'm not paying attention to your golf program, that little golf fun thing that you're doing on Monday nights. Not a little thing. It's not a big, whatever it is.

But anyway, Yeah, okay. Kind of a big thing. All right, I'll talk to you later. No, no, no, no. What? You're right. This is a game they need to win because they need to get it.

So here's, let's put positivity into the universe. Be optimistic. It costs the same. Let's get a dub Friday night. Then you play Minnesota at home. They're on the struggle bus. You get a couple in a row. You feel better about yourself.

Yeah. This is not a bad team. This is a good team. This is a good team that lost a couple of games. They could have won that would have made us all feel better about things. So let's remember that. They get, not a shitty team, it's a good team. So when they play well, they'll play well Friday, and everybody feels happy.

There you go. I've told everybody for, I don't know, maybe the eighth or ninth consecutive year, Maryland's going to be good this year. You know, and I've been saying it, you know, multiple times over the last few weeks, and the Washington game was really painful, and it was a bit of a, you know. That was gross. It was really foul-looking. And knowing that they're capable of that, too, we had not seen that.

We didn't see that in the loss to Marquette. We didn't see that in the loss to Purdue. And their two best players, Gillespie and Queen, were barely on the floor because of foul trouble, so that was part of it. But when they were on the floor, they weren't very good. And they're not going to be able to beat good teams without Gillespie and Queen being their two best players. No, but then they both They both played well against Oregon The top 10 team who got

Who got obliterated the game Excuse me the game before And so they You know But still that's a game you could have gotten And you didn't But Look, Maryland fans don't think you're dummy anyway

So it doesn't matter It's fine They think I'm a dummy For sure Really Well see you would know Because I don't I'm not on the message boards

with some sort of fake handle paying attention to it. So they, is that, is that really true? Oh yeah, they think you're a dummy. Why? What do they say? See, I don't care. What do they say? Nothing. I'm just kidding you. No, you're not, you're not kidding me.

You've told me before, God, some of the Maryland fans really can't stand you. Well, that's, it all goes back to the turgeon. Yeah, it's the turgeon thing. Yeah, and that's a that's what. I mean. And all I ever said was, be careful. Just be careful what you wish for because he is a pretty damn good coach. As by the way, and I've told the story many times, some of the coaches in the Big Ten would tell you, what's wrong with your fan base? He's a good coach. He's a really good coach. Well, and that's water under the bridge. It is. By the way, I think Kevin's a good coach. And I think. Be UCLA. Be too silly. I'm sure they're killing Kevin now.

I'm sure they want Kevin's hide now. Oh, you know how that works. You know how that works. I mean, just stop already. God. Exactly. I'm just glad we had a good football season. All right, I will.

I'll talk to you later. Thanks for doing this. This was fun. You know, you haven't been on in a while. And typically what you'll say is, didn't I just come on with you? for like an hour and a half and I'll be like, no, that was actually like six months ago. You know, people always say, why don't you have Scott on more? And I'm like, he doesn't want to do more.

He's busy. There was a time there. You came on with me every week on the radio show. And that was very nice. And we didn't pay you. And there were other people that were getting paid to come on. Although we did end up paying you at the very end, but not very much. But anyway.

I think somebody sent me a check for like $47. It wasn't 47. I think it was 82 bucks. But I ask you not frequently because you're busy. And some of the Maryland fans that listen just kind of think you're a dummy. I'm kidding, of course. All right. I'm done with you. That was fun. I enjoy coming on. I'm happy to do it anytime. Again, Tuesday nights, Kevin, that little golf thing is on. That cute little golf thing on Tuesday nights? Tiger. Yeah, Tiger will be on next week. Yeah, it's a little indoor golf thing down in Florida that the fellows are doing.

Is Tiger Woods the most important person in the history of your career? Oh, my God. There's no, there's none of this without him. None of this. Bullshit. None of this. The only reason I have a job at his Pia is because of him. I know, but you would have eventually gotten there. You would have eventually gotten there. No. Not like this.

because I had a relationship with him, and because I did golf, I had a relationship with the guy who's now in charge of all of production, who's been my guy the whole way through. He is the only reason that I have the... And not only that, you want to really go down a, like a wormhole, and I think about this on occasion.

It's like, holy crap. I don't mean my wife if I don't have the job I have, and I don't have the kids. My entire life is different. I'm probably any listen and insane if I didn't meet Tiger Woods. and thankfully it worked out different. Let me just for those that don't know Scott's story, okay. He didn't go to the Golf Channel because of Tiger Woods

and he wasn't put on the air for the first time because of Tiger Woods. Scott, within 30 days or less, I mean, of being a production assistant at the Startup Golf Channel in Orlando in 1995, they realized how, how gifted and how talented he was, and they put him on the air hosting their most important show. So I know how everybody,

look, I would have never done radio if Meredith Joseph, who was doing early morning updates when I was doing weekend updates just as a lark to see if there was any kind of future in it, if she hadn't gone on maternity leave, which is 100% true. I would have not gotten a gig doing morning updates. I wouldn't have been a part of Tony's show.

And I would have just gone back to another startup company or whatever and would not have been in this. But you, you were on the air and talented and gifted doing, you know, on your way. And then Tiger came along and you befriended him and he liked you. And you were covering that, you know, him early in his career. And it certainly was helpful. More than that. And more, it's, listen, thank goodness for Meredith Joseph and her maternity leave. I hope the family's good.

Thank goodness for Tiger Woods. And thank goodness we get to do what we get to do. Like, that's all. Right. We're lucky. I just think eventually, you know, you would have figured it out. That seems optimistic. Pretty good.

Pretty good despite what some of the Maryland message borders think of us. Yeah, you know, they don't love us. But that's okay. They're just frustrated. They do love you, though, right? Yeah, you know. Listen, some of them. When people take a shot at me for being a turge lover, what do you, do you ever, you know,

write back and defend me? No, I don't, I don't get, I don't know. I used to. I don't get involved anymore. I just don't, I don't, I have nothing to say to any of those people. Oh, God. I can't, I can't be bothered to try to set them straight. Just be miserable.

I can't help you. It took you a while. I mean, how long have I been lecturing you to stop engaging with some of these people in social media? I don't know, quite a while. But, I mean, listen, when I did radio with Lucilla, we used to do the fights, the radio fights we did. I mean, the Twitter fights, they would just read the tweets back. And I said, and go, God, that's dumb. What a wasted time?

Wait, what are you talking about? When I used to do radio with Rosillo, they would take my Twitter fights, and then they would read the tweet back. Right, I do remember that. Oh, it's just great content because it forces you to be like, wow, I really did that. And so, you know, I can't get trouble, but some person anonymously says about anything. And again, it's a wise person that I work with, said social media. is not the place to go for positive reinforcement. So, you know, you can't go there.

And by the way, overwhelmingly, people say nice things. But your eye tends to find the saying that someone says that you're a dummy and you're like, well, who the fuck are you? What do you know? You know what? I guess there's probably nothing. As we're sitting here talking, you know that I'm not, you know, I don't sit there and engage with people on social media in confrontational kind of settings.

However, every day before I sit down to do my radio show and then the podcast as well, that's when I look at all of my, you know, responses and notifications because it creates good content. No question. Sometimes it's the best, like, I don't have good ideas on what to do on the show and then I'll read something from somebody and I'm like, that's a good topic and that's a nice, provocative, interesting way to get into it. so they can be helpful too. For sure, and I think people can help you recognize your blind spots and call you out on stuff because we don't, I don't think either of us presume we're right all the time, and there are a lot of, like, you know,

the Maryland fans have called you a dummy or get mad at me that they're not that they're not also passionate, smart fans of people, they have observations too, and they're worthwhile. It's just a negative. creativity and the pointed sort of effuge from people from some, you know, whatever. Throw it's like the snowball from on top of the hill and then you run away. Like what we used to do with cars when we were children. Yeah, exactly.

Snowballs and I think crab apples is what we used to throw at cars. All right. Oh, you know what? One more thing. Rams in Minnesota Monday night, you'll be at SoFi or you're scheduled to be at Sofi. you know, for that other little gig that you do other than the Tuesday night golf thing that you have on the Monday night countdown show. But in all seriousness, this is, as we're recording this, this tragedy, this unfolding tragedy in L.A. with the fires, I think the NFL just said they're monitoring this situation. But I'm curious, you know, have you heard anything in terms of whether or not you guys are going to be out there for Rams Vikings?

I know that this is not the most important part of what's going on out there, but have you heard anything with respect to that? Just that. We're all sort of in standby mode waiting to see. I mean, obviously, I presume it goes without saying that a football game is not nearly as important as what happened in like palisades and places like that. But from your occupation standpoint, it's like, well, are we going to go do it? Is the game being played there?

And are we carrying on as if it is? I assume so, but, I mean, I know you and people you care about out there. I got a lot of friends as well, and I've reached out, and some people are all right. Others, frankly, either don't know or are in a bad spot. I mean, it's just horrendous. So, I don't know. We're waiting to see. I mean, it's Wednesday, so, you know, hopefully they've got a, at some point,

containment on what's happening, but it's just, the scope of it is just a sense. All right. Thanks. I'll talk to you later. Be well. Scott Van Pelt, everybody. All right. We're done for the day. Back tomorrow, Tommy will be with me, and Tommy will have his Bucks, Skins playoff pick.