The Pat McAfee Show - PMS 2.0 1166 - Michael Lombardi, Nebraska Head Coach Matt Rhule, Kirk Herbstreit, Darius Butler, & AJ Hawk

Episode Date: July 24, 2024

On today’s show, Pat, Darius Butler, AJ Hawk, and the boys chat about the breaking news that Pat is officially back for another year at the College GameDay desk, B1G Media Days in Indianapolis, more news around the NFL as teams are in training camps, CeeDee Lamb officially holding out while looking for a new contract, and everything else happening around the sports world. Joining the progrum is 3x Super Bowl Champion, former GM of the Cleveland Browns, host of the GM Shuffle and Lombardi Line, and NY Times best-seller, Michael Lombardi to chat about the differences between the Jordan Love and Tua extensions, Aiyuk in San Francisco, CeeDee Lamb’s situation in Dallas, and the expectations for Aaron Rodgers and the Jets this year. Next, Head Coach of the Nebraska Cornhuskers, Matt Rhule joins the show to chat about the state of college football, his philosophy towards recruiting, why he believes in building something at Nebraska, his current roster and why he’s excited, expectations being what they are at Nebraska, how NIL has changed things, and much more. Later, the voice of college football and color commentator for the NFL on Prime, Kirk Herbstreit joins the show to give an outlook on this upcoming college football season, which dark horse teams he could see sneaking into the playoff, the reaction from the return of College Football 25, when he’ll start diving into his NFL preparation, why he’s so excited Pat is coming back to GameDay, and more. Make sure you subscribe to YouTube.com/thepatmcafeeshow to watch the show. Or watch on ESPN (12-2 EDT), ESPN’s Youtube (12-3 EDT), or ESPN+. We appreciate the hell out of all of you. We’ll see you tomorrow. Cheers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Oh, we can sense it, can't we? Football season is right around the corner. We now introduce you to the first-time head coach of the NBA! J-M-E-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N-O-N- I've had one of the luckiest runs in the history of mankind. I was allowed to be a part of the multi-time Emmy award-winning institution that is College Game Day. Let a naysayer know that is not what I thought. Professionals right in the middle of the screen. That's all right. I thought you almost lost me.

Well, my contract came up after living a dream alongside that crew that is just as talented off camera as they are on camera. I thought hell is that? That's a stealth bomber. That's a stealth bomber. Right there. Woo-hoo! I thought long and hard, am I the right person to be doing this incredible gig? There are millions of people that would love to be sitting in my seat.

Am I the right guy for it? Is this what I want to do? And I killed Alex! No! God! Simon! Simon! Simon! Simon! Killed a kid Alex! No! God! Somebody! Killed a kid! I know! No!

God! Good effort! Hit a kid! The worst kick we have ever seen! The only thing that I kept coming back to is, hell fucking yeah. Give me Alabama to break home! coming back to is hell fucking yeah. I'm lucky. I'm honored.

I'm humbled. I'm grateful. And I'm back. Give me a hell yeah. Hey. What? Let's go. This show stinks. And the fact that you listen, we are very, very thankful for it.

McAfee on the line with a gorgeous assist! The all-time leading tackler for the Green Bay Packers. You pig! Stutter! Stutter! Damn it! Your friends tell their friends something nice could change their life. We won't pass! We won't pass! Sport! Sport! Sport! Sport! Sport! Sport!

Hello, beautiful people, and welcome to our humble abode, the Thunderdome. On this College Ball Wednesday, July 24th, 2024, this program starts now. It is a wonderful time to be alive. Happy birthday to my beautiful wife. I hope it is going swimmingly and it is an honor to be your husband and also baby daddy. You know, as we move forward, we will celebrate the shit out of her, obviously, through the weekend. But today, obviously, to start the show, we made an announcement that it is officially official. As Adam Pearce, that bald stooge, would say, I am returning to College Game Day. And although I don't want to make a big

deal out of it, I know it is a big fucking deal that it's happening. There was some drama, obviously, that started lingering. We had chatted about it, me, Burke, and Jimmy, obviously, whenever the licensing of the show conversation was taking place. Then some lawyer at ESPN tried to be a super genius. I closed Sicilian to him. I ended up being a free agent. And it was a real moment of looking in the mirror and saying, am I the right person for this job? Obviously the athletic poll came out last year. I think it was like 50% of the people were like, get this guy the hell off of college game day. I'm a college game day fan. I enjoyed waking up on Saturday mornings and

watching the show that propels us into college football Saturday and inevitably into NFL Sunday. So for those people to have a terrible morning because of my existence was certainly something that weighed very heavy on Nish Hager, dumbass, sports dude's heart. That's for real, brother, because we have the show Monday through Friday. Obviously, it's three hours every single day. We're lucky to do it. We create it.

We produce it. There are zero people from journalism school here. We are kind of doing our own thing, but it's a lot of work. I'm my own agent. I'm my own agent. I'm my own representative. I'm my own strategizer. I'm my own schemer alongside the great boys that I have working here. So it's a lot of effort Monday through Friday.

Saturday mornings used to be the only time I was really able to sleep in and get a rest. Then when you get offered the opportunity to join the college game, you can't say no to that. You're talking about one of the greatest shows in the history of television. You're talking about one of the greatest shows in the history of sports media. Kirk Herbstreit, good friend of ours, now at this point will join us in the second hour, was one of the driving forces behind getting me on that program. And then whenever I got there, I fell in love with it. How could you not? The entire pageantry of college football is on display for three hours before the games even start. Millions and millions of people are watching every single day or every single Saturday hoping that

they can learn about the you know the entire story of college football that year so I took it as a great honor I was very lucky I was very thankful to be there I enjoyed every single stop that we made every college town that we stopped through every restaurant we went to every small little dive bar and have some beers at the conversations alongside everybody at the desk and the people that work behind the camera are just as cool and talented as the people that are on camera so it was like i was a part of their family but did i want to continue to ruin these people saturdays and did i want to maybe sleep in on a saturday morning during football season with my baby girl obviously as she's continuing to grow and evolve pooped on the floor yesterday nice oh yeah good work decided to go no diaper a little run a little free grow and evolve pooped on the floor yesterday yep nice oh yeah good work

decided to go no diaper let her run a little free she sat down pooped right on the floor i was like that's hey i like it we got some grit we're able to do that entire thing but she's going to grow so do i want to be away it was an actual decision that was all based on not on my love of college football because obviously i fell in love with it over the last few years i've been incredibly lucky not because of my love for the people at College Game Day. I enjoy the shit out of all those people that are a part of that entire family, but mostly because like, do I want to sign up to hear, you know, in my mentions how terrible of a person I am by people that will never understand the type of human I am. Is that what I want to sign up for? We're doing okay

everywhere else. And every time I thought about it, I was like, what? I get the opportunity to do this. I'm still getting the opportunity to do this. I need to do this. So all the way back, I think I'm happy we can put that conversation to bed. I'm excited to be there. To that lawyer, you're a genius, buddy. You did great. Caused a lot of shit.

But, you know, ultimately in the end, the stooge in a USA tank top, and if I would have had jorts on, could work you every time in that negotiating table. Just remember that and never, ever forget it. And to all you journalists that are talking about it, it's like, I'd love to sit in a room with you when I want to and see how it ends up. But to the college football fans, thank you for embracing me and my stupidity. And I can't wait to get back on the road with the entire crew on Saturdays throughout fall. 12-game or 12-team playoff, too. Hell, yeah. Huge. Going to be the biggest year yet.

And already started all the research and scouting from NCAA 2K College Football 25. Of course. It's a beautiful time to be alive. We'll have Coach Matt Rule in the second hour. We got a chance to catch up with him yesterday. That's a 37-minute convo about college football and the Nebraska Cornhuskers and everything they got going. Herb Street will join us.

In about eight minutes, Michael Lombardi will join us, obviously a friend of the program. Paisan, who's been a GM in the NFL and everything. He was a part of this entire process, decision making. He's one of the people I call whenever I, hey, Lombo, I'm about to go sit down with blah, blah, blah. This is how I feel. Is this the right way to feel? And he's like the best. Ooh, also think about this, right? Right. And I'm like, thank you, Lombo. Then he called Nick Kahn, obviously, president of WWE. I'm like, Nick, I want to punch these people in the mouth. And he's like, well, what, instead of that, why don't we say this? And it's like, thank you, thank you, thank you. So I have a lot of people that have helped me get to this point. I have a

lot of people that have wanted me to rejoin College Game Day. And the fact that we're able to do it, I'm excited about it. And thank you to everybody for the interest. Thank you to the puppets who are going to write terrible things about this. Thank you to the college football fans who don't think that I've earned my place at that desk. I agree, but I hopefully will by the end of this season. And I think I'm going to win you over with what we're going to do on Saturday mornings. It's going to be a blast. Coach Nick Saban's there now. Yeah, come on now.

We have a pretty good relationship, O. Saban and I, so it should be a fun time. The Talks at Table tables here at boston connor at ty schmidt uh what we've been able to do with college football world over the last couple years has been some of the coolest of all time could you imagine not doing that this year i actually thought about that like a lot whenever this whole thing was happening it's like how would how could we ever decide to miss out on those moments college football has been very good to us oh yeah unbelievable and i i didn't go to like a big college football school i actually there wasn't college football in my school.

So, really, when I was kind of ingratiated into that entire community, it was when you got into game day and really kind of watching all of it and just look at what, you know, ESPN specifically has now with the SEC, with Texas joining and Oklahoma joining, and some of the matchups that we're getting from legitimately week one, not even including Irelandireland i like take ireland out which is going to be incredible georgia tech florida state yeah people are calling it a gimmick game but this is huge for florida state and georgia tech at the end of the year also

they're trying to cement themselves as like hey our program's going a different direction but we're going to be celebrating like ireland exactly gonna be good football but that's gonna be a celebration of like ireland and international how big the sport is but you this game obviously florida state's involved, so people are going to want to watch. I don't think it's their fourth-string quarterback, which is good. No. Right.

We'll be their starters. That is a big deal, and Florida State has talent, and obviously we were a big fan of what they're building down there. Playoffs were right last year. So we all had that understanding going into Dublin. But you're right. Every week there's bangers after bangers after bangers after bangers. Shout out to Seamus.

Shout out to Ireland. And when you look at what the end of the season is going to be, you mentioned the 12-team playoff. I don't think, at least myself, I don't think I can fully kind of comprehend what those home playoff environments are going to be like. Because obviously we did Alabama-Texas last year, and that was a massive game in Tuscaloosa,

obvious Sark coming back against Saban, all those storylines. But when you add the fact that it's a win-or-go-home game, like that is going to be incredible. So this might be, you know, the greatest if – yeah, this will be the greatest college football season that there probably has ever been. Yeah, and they're going to tell stories of um you know past traditional games and rivalry games that have taken place and we've missed some of those in the transition into this new one hopefully they'll all be able to get back into the schedule but this does have a chance to live up to the billing of

hey let's make this the biggest college football year of all time yeah and uh pumped to be just a tiny little part of that entire thing yeah and people keep complaining about that stuff but then you also have to think like we're going're going to get Ohio State and USC. Like, this will be the first time we're getting that for every year, you know, most years. So, like, the new rivalries that we're going to get, I mean, like Connor was saying with, like, the big matchups, and it's not one of those things, but people used to always whine about,

like, hey, these big-time programs, they play all these cupcakes in the early season, and, you know, we don't get any games that we actually want to see until the conference play starts. I mean, we're talking about week zero, week two, Michigan and Texas play each other. It really is. It's just week after week. People want to complain, but I think after this year's over, the traditionalists maybe will still think that, but I think most college football fans are going to be like, wow, this is incredible. This is what it's going to be like every single year starting this year. And we're just a tiny little part of it. Yeah, exactly.

How about our watch-alongs, man? I think those are back. I think those are back. And I think they're all just going to be playoff games. Yeah, which, I mean, those are so fun. Think about how lucky we are. In that video, I said how lucky I was like four times. Fox had to edit out a few of them because I understand how lucky we are to be even asked to be a part of that show

But now that we are like let's go enjoy the shit on this. Oh, yes nine-year NFL vet sweet hoodie See but college ball is on fire right now Yes, with the game leading into a season leading in 12 game playoff leading the mass Massive marquee matchup. So we haven't seen in a long time. It's going to be a beautiful thing. Football is beautiful, man. We've gotten to do a lot of cool shit. Those games, those field passes, nothing like it. Cotton Bowl, Red River Rivalry, obviously been at Bama. But they've been at Rose Bowl.

You know, hard balls last, you know, last college game. Maybe he goes back. Saban's last collegiate game before he retires. Obviously, huge game. Then going to the national championships as well. like those experiences the the pretty much red zone uh watch along we had here in the Thunderdome uh it's been dope man we're glad glad to see you're back I know a lot of people definitely were worried you would not be back and there's a lot of people excited I don't I don't oh yeah we don't do we don't do this yeah we don't let those into

into our real algorithm. But I'm glad you're back, man. That's big news. Congratulations. Hey, I appreciate you. Thank you so much. And thank you to everybody at ESPN, obviously, that was very patient with this. Because I don't know if anybody, especially for sure, like Game Day, with how massive and fresh off an Emmy and everything.

And I'm telling you, the people that work there are so talented, like so, so talented. And it's like I don't think there's anybody that's ever been just like man. I don't think I'm the right guy Like I don't think I'm the right guy. I don't think I'm the right guy for your show and they're like Yeah, look look just remember and herb She was sent me like a text like of a video of me walking up on the stage and like some college Saying hello to me before we even go live. He's like let's make sure we remember, huh? Let's make sure we're remembering this type of stuff because it was real. You know, with the way life is and with where we are now,

very lucky to be where we are. Once again, very grateful for it all. This will not be happening forever. So I understand that we're in the middle of it and it's very awesome. But with the amount of people that just bury me and murder me on a regular basis, like I am on the internet.

Like it's not just as easy as just turning off your mentions. Like I have to know what's going on literally everywhere. so I am on my phone on a very regular basis so whenever there's just an onslaught of me being the biggest douche or worst human on earth at one particular time of my week every single week it's like maybe for the good of my life and for maybe my happiness and for everything maybe I just remove that as I try to survive this thing while also kind of living what I preach which is like you have to enjoy every moment enjoy every day it's a part of our show's vibes like enjoy enjoy joy but whenever you're just taking nukes literally all it gets difficult to remind yourself of that especially whenever life starts happening

so that was literally the only thing that I was thinking about on whether or not we're going to go back always considered an incredible honor but but it's like, do I just want to get murdered by like 12 colleges, alumni, students, football? I mean, just every single week, because we've got to pick games at the end of the day. Get to pick. These are all get to things, but I also

get to get killed after every single week if we say anything that is any bit entertaining, but potentially a little shit talking in the middle of it as well. Well, and I think a lot of people don't understand because we say anything that is any bit entertaining but potentially a little shit-talking in the middle of it as well. Well, and I think a lot of people don't understand. Because we say stuff like there's one thing with if you're shitting on someone's NFL team and you're getting the heat from that and the mention, it's like, all right, whatever. That's part of it.

Charge to the game. Exactly, charge to the game. But it's not cool what happens, but it's also one of the reasons that college football is awesome is when you come at someone's school, people take it as a personal affront to their family, their legacy, their livelihoods. And yeah, they say some pretty reprehensible shit. And start sending stuff to my house. Exactly. And I've asked Herbie numerous times, and I haven't got a chance to ask Lee about it,

because every conversation I have with Lee is super positive. Him gassing me up all the time, so I don't really get into it. But Herbie and I, we have haven't got a chance to ask Lee about it because every conversation I have with Lee is just like super positive. Him gassing me up all the time. So I don't really get into it. But like Herbie and I, we have some like real conversations about it all. I'm like, how have you been able to do this? You've got to be one of the most mentally tough humans of all time. And he goes, oh, I just block it out. You know, just block it.

You've got to block it out. You've got to block it out. It's like, well, I can't, you know. I have to be on my phone. Like I have to be on the internet with our daily show because like things are just happening all the time and it's like herbie's like come on come on you'll get through it you'll get through it and he saw all these people that hate you too though they'll they'll start to like you and in most situations in my life i've learned that that is the case this one is not it's not it's been a tough group to

crack it has been a tough group to crack but it it is an honor, and it will remain an honor. And I cannot wait to get to Dublin, Ireland, and live from Hammer, Don, Ton. One of the most prolific sports gamblers on earth, ladies and gentlemen, Tone Diggs is over there. Tone, I know the thought of getting out of college ball was something you didn't necessarily love. We're all the way back, and that means another year of you typing up a college football preview pretty much every single week. I appreciate that. Yeah, it's one of my favorite things to do, and I was very, very happy to hear that you were going back to game day another year of you typing up a college football preview pretty much every single week i appreciate that yeah it's one of my favorite things to do and i was very very happy to hear that you were going back to game day because honestly so we do the friday shows there and the friday shows are awesome but there's nothing like when we go to the set on saturday morning and you guys are walking

out onto the set and the crowd is erupting and it's there's this little football chill in the air and you could smell it like i'm getting goosebumps talking about it so those saturday mornings are some of my favorite times of all time and you doing game day has led us to be able to go to those things and be in those atmospheres like that those those saturday mornings like college game day is a staple and then when you're on it for us it's selfishly it's so much more awesome it really is like just being there to be enjoy it and watch you guys move around the set and do your thing it's so much more awesome it really is like just being there to be enjoy it and watch you guys move around the set and do your thing it's awesome i'm very very excited for it okay and i'm very appreciative of you obviously and everything you've done we got a uh gambler's guide

everything you need to know that it will be released uh i believe on our our store at our website in a matter of like a week or so yeah Yeah, we're five weeks away. We're a month away basically from week zero. We're five weeks away from week one. So, yeah, sometime in the next week, it's close to 100 pages. Do a preview of every single team in the playoff and everything like that. I'm excited for it. It'll be like $4.99 or something, and we'll be donating all the money. Hell, yeah.

But there has to be a payment process. Sure, of course. It's like a whole thing. But Tone has done a lot of research on it all. Names are in new places. Schools are in new conferences. A lot of them. Rivalries are in different places.

It's like this year should be exciting. It should be invigorating. And it should feel fresh. Yeah, for sure. And I think that is very cool. We're on a precipice of something special. We'll hear about some teams that you like in the next hour, whenever Herbie's on.

We appreciate you, Tone. Joining us now, ladies and gentlemen, is a man who's a former general manager in the NFL, a coaching consultant, I believe, an advisor. He's a TED speaker. He's an author. He's a podcast host. He's a live show host. He's a daily newsletter writer.

He's also a man who has three Super Bowl rings. A guy who has forgotten more about football than you've ever known, Paisano Michael Lombardi. Yeah! Lombard! Football's back. Football's back. What a good time of the year.

It is. It's the best, right? It is. And what do you think? Do you think because training camp's happening, we're watching highlights, and we're seeing some lowlights from some players who are getting paid $40 million a year,

is that why you think football's all the way back? Or what is your reason? We're watching highlights and we're seeing some lowlights from some players who are getting paid $40 million a year. Is that why you think football is all the way back? Or what is your reason? Just because we can sense that it's about to take place? Yeah. We can watch Patrick Mahomes throw the ball around. You can see guys out there on the field. I mean, look, you know, it means we're building into a season, which is so exciting.

And then I think, as you know, being a former player, the routine of the week is, is just makes the week go by quicker, you know, and then we get into preseason games and then we start the regular season. And the next thing you know, you know, we're in the full swing of it and we're going to get football every single week. That's the best part of it. It's like Christmas. It's like, you're going to have a, and now this year we're going to have, we're going to have football games almost every single day. So it's awesome. i think it's just great i mean it's just going to be fun to it makes the week go by so so much better yeah i agree whenever you have that uh football to look forward to it's obviously a lovely time i have enjoyed you know getting a chance uh for us to kind of step away and learn about other sports like soccer that's been been fun. Oh yeah. Absolutely. I love soccer. MLS All-Star Skills Challenge last night

was electrifying. I will say I was kind of shitting on that and I asked Gumpy. I was like seriously okay let's drop the gimmick here. Is this worth watching? He was like I mean I don't know but yeah probably. Saw the clips. It was cool. That was cool. I enjoyed it. I'd say it's not quite the MLB

All-Star game but it's better than the Pro Bowl and it's better than the NBA All-Star game. So, yeah, you know, soccer, hell yeah. Okay. Yeah, Ty hates soccer, but we certainly talked about it for a while. It gave us a lot of coverage. Shout out to the Euros and Copa America and everything that took place there and the MLS All-Star Skills Challenge in the game tonight should be a little bit of a closer.

The NBA happened, Connor. You guys won. You guys won. Yeah, I'm going to be holding onto this for quite some time should be a little bit of a closer. The NBA happened, Connor. You guys won. You guys won. Yeah, I'm going to be holding onto this for quite some time because football is back. We're starting to look at some schedules, and there is some worry in New England as a Patriots fan. So I'm just going to, you know, keep this thing up here.

Keep this thing up here all year. Alonbo, we talked about all these other sports. We're very appreciative. Obviously, hockey. We had Kachuk on as he wins his first Stanley Cup, and he's been taking that thing on a full global tour. But it's like whenever football stuff's happening every day, we're all much happier.

For instance, there's press conferences happening now. Guys are having to speak to the media for the first time. This Hard Knocks Giants thing is continuing to roll out what happened maybe during the draft. I don't know if you saw this last night. The New England Patriots were never going to trade out of three. They were going to take a quarterback. They might have been kind of letting people think that they were going to potentially do it three. They were going to take a quarterback. They might have been, you know, kind of letting people think

that they were going to potentially do it, but when push came to shove, unless they got a haul like RG3 was for Washington with St. Louis, they were never going to give it up and no team was going to do that. Did you learn anything from that? And what are your thoughts on how the Giants are kind of managing what seemingly was the draft and then now the regular season training camp as we start?

Well, I think we could put to bed this whole stupid notion that came out after the draft. They were trying to trade up to get Joe Alt. I mean, that name never even came up. I mean, that was another fabrication coming out of the Meadowlands that they were moving up to get the tackle. For all the conversation about protecting the quarterback, we never heard anything about the offensive lineman.

This was going to be some way to draft a skilled player to help Daniel Jones along, and I think ultimately that's been the key. I think what we learned from Saquon Barkley simply was that Joe Shane, the general manager, really never wanted to sign him in spite of his owner, John Maurer, wanting to keep him. When the cap goes up as much as it went up, and all of a sudden you say, well, we don't have enough room to sign you after you had him on the team last year, I think that's a fairly telling sign. And look, let's face it,

Barkley gained over 400 yards after contact last year. He gained 400 yards before contact last year. And if you're playing behind the giant offensive line, which has been very poor over the last few years, Daniel Jones was under pressure 30% of the snaps last year. If you're in that situation, you're going to have to break some tackles. And Singletary didn't break as many as, clearly, Saquon did. So it's going to be fun to watch.

Yeah, and obviously they're the same age, different prices, and that's kind of been a telling tale throughout the entire Hard Knocks, New York Giants, Singletary, and Saquon Barkley. You talk about the offensive line. Daniel Jones' first clip coming out of training camp here is a little bit of an overthrow and a swing route, and obviously we pull that because – Yeah, exactly.

Tough throw. Yeah, it's a tough throw. That is not an easy throw. Everybody thinks it's easy, obviously, because most NFL quarterbacks can complete it. But whenever you're trying to get the timing out, that whole thing, a lot of people said immediately, Saquon would have grabbed that. Saquon would have made a play.

There was other clips of Daniel Jones completing a pass to Darius Slayton on the sideline, absolute dime. But then there was a conversation immediately about him potentially getting sacked by Thibodeau, though. So there is first day of training camp. There's going to be chaos. It is going to be shit. For most teams, it's not going to look anything like what it's going to look

like whenever football happens. But these clips, we've got to judge immediately. But these clips, we've got to judge immediately. These press conferences, we've got to judge immediately. What did you learn from Shanahan and John Lynch talking about the Iuke situation for the first time as training camp unfolds? And how do we see that working out? It seemingly is continuing to be just Niners are like, yeah, he's playing. And if, yeah, that's just how this goes.

He's just playing football for us and he can be as mad and put as many vlogs out as he wants. Is that how, is that the sense you're getting from them in this situation? Yeah, they're complete. They have complete alignment with that. I mean, look, let's be clear here. They, the CBA has given the 49ers all the, all the arsenal they need in terms of the leverage. He's got a contract and he's come in. He just needs one more good year. Look, Justin Jefferson did it last year and it proved to be beneficial for him. So it's right there in front of him. Look, I think Brendan Ayuk did a tremendous job last year. 17 yards per catch. He can win on the outside. He's dynamic at what he does and they need him. They know that if they

were to trade him, they're not going to get compensation back that's going to be able to impact their team moving forward. So I think Lynch and Bo Shanahan are on the same page when it comes to that regard. Now, I don't know what's going to happen with C.D. Lamb. He decided not to come to camp. The Cowboys are an interesting team because, let's be clear, they have done very little this offseason. They may start two rookies in their offensive line. They didn't replace Tony Pollard, who wasn't an elite back that he was two years ago before his injury. Where are they going to be offensively? I mean, this was one of the most high scoring teams in the league last year at over 500 points. They had 172 point

differential in the first half, which is the key stat in all of football, right? First half point differential. That determines if you can play from in front. Cowboys dominated in that area. But can they do it again this year with an offensive line that's a little leaky? And I think we saw it when they went on the road last year. Well, and they've got to pay Micah. They've got to pay Dak.

You've got a CD issue. McCarthy's on his last year of his contract as the head coach. It's like, what is Dallas? I guess we're going to find out. CD holding out old school was wild to see. There's some other special hold-ins happening, and some of the boys have some questions. Let's go down to South Florida with D-Bud.

Yeah, obviously we got Jordan Love waiting for his deal, not doing anything. But Tua is in camp and doing seven-on-seven drills, it's been reported reported but not doing the full team stuff obviously a deal not being done the reports coming out they're pretty far apart and what tour wants and what the dolphins are willing to pay uh where do they stand what have you been hearing about the tour situation how do you see it actually playing out i wish daniel would be a gm and every team he just give away money left and right he can't wait to pay everybody i saw i listened to him yesterday i, he must have a printing press in that kitchen,

just prints money out. Okay, you want money? Come on, baby, get my money. The reality of this is, look, you can't say yes to everybody. I think they really like Tua. I don't think they feel like Tua is going to carry the team. Now, Tua made a very clear point. He said the market is the market, which is true. And when this Jordan Love deal comes out, both represented by the same guy that represents Tua, firm, let's put that in that way, it's going to make this even a harder deal to come through. I think the Tua deal is a lot about guaranteed money. I think that's really the biggest sticking point. And I think it's going to take some time to get through that. And the Love deal comes in and makes him the highest paid quarterback in the league after really, you know, that really upsets the cart here. Because if you're

a general manager, say you're Jerry Jones or say you're Chris Greer down in Miami, you got a guy who's played basically really well the second half of the season, and he gets to become the highest-paid player in the league. Meanwhile, you've got guys that have had better numbers. How do you argue that with the agent? It becomes very difficult. So I think this two-a-thing's going to linger. I don't know. Look, the fact that he's in camp is good, whether he takes team or not. The quarterback's got a red jersey on. He's not going to get hurt in practice. He's not going to play in a preseason. So I think that's going to be the key. Look, they've got to win their schedule, especially in bad weather.

They've got to win the second half. Mike McDaniel's 4-10 the last 14 games the second half of the season in two years. That's the sticking point here. Yeah, and, you know, the wonder is why haven't they just, you know, kind of finished this? Is it too – the wonder is why haven't they just you know kind of finished this is it to the market is the market uh like trevor lawrence i assume didn't expect to become the highest in his age it's like nah we're gonna make you we're gonna get you 55 million in this whole thing that's where it always gets sticky you know because comps and everything and here's obviously the current market as average per year salaries kind of cook by trevor lawrence up there at the

top now he won that uh playoff game he threw four picks in the first half, comes back and wins that game. Has certainly shown, and you talk about Jordan Love only playing 10 games great or whatever. I think he had training wheels on early from the floor. Didn't really let him do much. And then when he kind of let him go, he showcased everything that he is. Trevor Lawrence had like 10 games right this past year where he looked good. And then he got hurt. Knee got hurt. Shoulder got hurt. I think there was a concussion. So I assume that a lot of... Yeah, lose him to the Titans.

They were the ones who got hurt. Eight weeks in the season. They're projecting he's going to continue to play the way he did, and we all hope that's the case. But whenever you're Tua or this man in Green Bay, Lambeau, who Ty has a question about. Yeah, Lambeau, in terms of Jordan Love, all we hear is that neither one of them,

neither side is worried at all. He's at practice. He seems jovial with the floor, and everything's really close. But if that's the case, why hasn't this gotten done yet when they talked about they wanted it done before training camp? And in your opinion, what do you think is actually holding this up from getting done right now? I think a lot of it's about the guaranteed money, the language in the guarantee,

whether it's going to have the offset clauses within the guarantees, how the payments are structured. I think all those things play into it. The language within that becomes an issue. I think how they want to spread the money around, how it looks like. For example, Justin Jefferson's deal averages 35 in new money, but it's 32 in old money if you count the year that he had. So a lot of that comes out to how are we counting this? What are we doing? I think they feel pretty comfortable it's going to get done,

so that's why he's in camp. Look, I think the difference here is the Packers are all in on love. I'm not saying that Miami's not all in on Tua. They like Tua, but I think the Packers feel like they've been rewarded, much like the Giants felt like they were rewarded when Daniel Jones played well. And when that happens, usually a contract becomes easier to do. I thought the love contract would be much harder to do because of the lack of data to do the deal. But the Packers are in love with the player, and that makes it a lot easier for the agent to get a deal done. So I think this is more about language than anything. And look, let's face it, if this Packer team gets

together and Jeff Halfley improves their run defense, which has been atrocious over the last couple seasons, you know, this is the third best pass protection team in the National Football League last year. They've got great skill players. Josh Jacobs, if he can regain form, this should be a team that puts a lot of points on the board. Lambeau, they haven't even really exploited Jordan Love's mobility yet either. I mean, like, obviously you see it as he extends plays,

and there's a couple runs in his highlight, but he has the ability to move oh yeah and slide and avoid hits it's like he's just beginning i assume lafleur sees that i seen gutha kun seems uh sees that the fact the deal's not done i mean the fact you're not worried at all and you've been in there it's like oh it's just language it's just language it's cool in my eyes i'm like yeah let's get it let's do training let's get this settled beforehand there's always shit though you know there's always some sort of shit especially whenever you're talking about this amount of money. How long is this going to be, this deal, you think? Oh, I think it's going to be a long-term deal. I think that's the issue.

I think it could be like Pat Mahomes' deal when he did his long-term. What was it, eight years, 10 years? I think what they want to do is plan this out so that they can have their cap in place. You understand where you are cap-wise for the next five, six, seven years. I think it's going to be a long-term deal. I thought initially it would be a short-term deal because, again, there wasn't enough data, there wasn't enough productivity over the course of his career. Not his fault. He didn't play. But I think the Packers feel like they've seen enough to invest in the future. This is their guy down the road. They're moving forward and they're going to pay for it. I love it. The new Packers, a love affair is literally painted on this fence right across the street from Lambeau. I was in

Green Bay the other day. It says the new pack, a love affair or whatever. And it's like two blocks long. So it's like very long. And you saw people walking by and like patting it it's like you got the guy and just a few years ago a lot of us were saying good coons was an idiot yep and instead you're about to be able to set up a contract if it is long term like patrick where you can do salary cap gymnastics with it too you can kick can down the road move some into guaranteed signing so that you can kind of offset some money going forward it's like you got the guy for the next however if you get that deal done. And Jordan's also committing to Green Bay through his next prime or next contract offer if he signs long term.

That's a beautiful thing. Congrats to you guys. Congrats. How about Super Bowl champs Los Angeles Rams? Go ahead, Con Man. Yeah, Lambo. Last year or the year before you reported in broke news on this show about how the Rams were actively trying to move Matt Stafford. Now no one really reported on that just because, you know, not journalists,

but now it's being reported now that Stafford got his contract adjusted. The exact money hasn't really been reported yet. But is this possibly the last season that we're going to see Matt Stafford in the Rams uniform just because of the fact that this money with him continues to be a problem and also the fact that this money with him continues to be a problem and also the fact that he's 36 he's kind of on his way out do you think this is it for Stafford in LA or what's going on for the Rams well I think the reason they were attempting to trade him was to get away from the 90 million they were going to have to guarantee by triggers in the

contract when no one took that deal look the Rams aren't stupid. They were concerned about Stafford's elbow, as everybody was last year. And I think nobody bid on the deal because of that. And he came back last year and was able to avoid injury and played well. And so he had a lot of money in future years that wasn't guaranteed. And he's watched this quarterback market go through, and he's basically saying, look, where's my money? You know, what am I doing? And I think what you have to see is they're a much better team when he's playing as well as he did

and he's as effective as he is. You know, I think when you watch his career from where he was when they won the Super Bowl two years ago to where he is now, it's not quite the same player, but it's close. And I think the Rams have changed who they want to become offensively. They're going to be more of an inside zone, power team, gap team. They got two big guards. They're going to try to run the football effectively. And I think when you watch them play, you know, when they scored 21 points or less in the seven games last year, they were only two and five. So they know they need to be able to get it going offensively

because their defense, which without the great Aaron Donald, will be a little bit difficult to see because of the fact that he's not getting double-teamed on every single play. Obviously, congrats to Matthew Stafford and the Stafford family. Whatever the new money is, new guarantee

is. And congrats to everybody who gets their deal done in this entire thing. You brought up the 21 points for the Rams. It's going to have to change. Did you or Lovsky say yesterday that, oh, Aaron really has to do with his Jets team? And today he started, I guess, 4-4-4 and 7-on-7, walked right down the field, scored a touchdown. Very similar to every other quarterback, I assume, coming fresh off of Achilles.

They tried to rush back. And a trip to Egypt and everything else that's going on around that. Orlovsky said, if you really look at it, all Aaron has to do is score like 17 points a game. A guy like Aaron Rodgers with the weapons that he has is going to be able to score 17 points. I know you're a very analytical person whenever it comes to like you have to

be able to score this amount of points, have to be able to score this amount of points. In this game, we've got to reach here. What are the realistic expectations in your eyes for Aaron Rodgers, this Jets team and they kind of um i don't want to say exist but thrive through the year without letting you know it seems like they have a great past with just like taking a gun out and then finding their foot and just just shooting themselves in the foot just rocket launcher just yeah you're right maybe even even a bang. Yeah, RPG. Is this possible, we think?

How do we feel? I think the whole thing about football isn't about how many average points you score. It's about how you play the game, okay? And so, for example, everybody thinks the West Coast offense is about plays, smash, seven, curl, 20, bingo, cross. It's not. It's a philosophy, okay? And the philosophy is simply this. We are going to throw the ball early in the game to get the lead. We are going to run the ball. The objective of all teams that are great are to play from in front. The Dallas Cowboys scored 296 points last year in the first half. They had a first half point differential of 172 points.

What does that mean? That means your defense plays from in front. That means your defense can rush the passer. That means Parsons can have 33 quarterback hits. That means you can pressure and create turnovers with your defense. But when you only score or your goal is to score 17 points and you're not trying to do it in the first half, you're in a lot of tight games. And if you miss a field goal here or a field goal

there, all of a sudden, you know, you're out of a game. The Patriots lost seven games last year by six points or less. They were no good, but they got in a lot of tight games they couldn't finish. The real objective of being a great offensive team, and if you're coaching Aaron Rodgers, and he knows this better than anybody, is we have to dominate the first half. We got to come out and build the lead so that these Jets pass rushers that we've accumulated, assuming they'll find Hassan Riddick somewhere, wherever the hell he is. Yeah, I mean, well, once then now we can rush the passer and create turnovers. But when you don't play from in front, when you don't do that,

when you don't lead the league. Look, I'll tell you this today. Here, July 24th, the teams that get to the Super Bowl next year will be in the top four of first half point differential. That is the key number. Not, oh, we've got to score 17 points because we've got Aaron Rodgers. No, it's a style of play, right? It's a style of play that you have to play.

That's critical. The Houston Texans are really an example of that. They couldn't run the ball at all last year, one of the worst rush teams in the league. But they were able to make explosive plays off play action pass, even though they couldn't run the ball. And when they could play from in front, they were very good. If they didn't play from in front, they weren't the same team. Same thing with the Cowboys. Okay. So basically Orlovsky's point is noted, but also when he scored 17 points, how's the 17 points coming? Whenever you need one at the end,

are you able to get it? That's just like whenever people bring up like, yeah, we don't want to punt, you know, like they used to say to whenever people bring up like uh yeah we don't want to punt you know like they used to say to me all the time like we don't want to punt we don't see you do your job at all it's like it's not you don't see me do my job at all it's just like in critical moments you don't want to see the punter come on the field fourth quarter four minute offense you do not want to see a punt you do not want to have a punt at all obviously anytime behind do not want to have to give the ball back to the other team everything is always situational which i think leads us to the man who is the greatest coach of all time and the greatest general manager of all time. Kyle Shanahan won on a show called the TK Show.

And this is what he had to say after being asked about Bill. Speaking of coaching, I know how much respect you have for Belichick and how important he's been to you. Did you talk to him at all about an informal or even a formal role with this team this year i did i threw it out to him just to he loves football so much that you never know what he would i mean i can't believe that he's not a head coach of a team right now i know what i would do if i was an owner so that shocks me and the last thing you want to do is insult someone like bill bilicek um but i know he just loves ball in the simplest form so i threw it all out to him like whatever he'd want to do. DC?

Yeah, I was like, would you be interested? And he was very nice and appreciative, but he politely turned me down. But I think he's helping out his son a little bit. I know he's involved in Washington up there and trying to start that program, I mean, help out with jet fishing, what he's doing out there. And, you know, it could be good, too, because I'm sure he's going to be back in the league next year and I could be going against him. He could be in the NFC West. So it would have sucked if he came here and then he was going against us every week too. So that's stuff you

got to be careful about. But I mean, he's the best. And I mean, just, I just like talking to him. Mr. Kawakami, obviously doing the interview with Kyle Shanahan. He writes for The Athletic San Francisco out there. And I think he feels the same way as a lot of people that are in football. It's like, how is this guy not? And he said, whatever job you want, dude. You can't be an offense coordinator. That's kind of my thing.

But, like, if you want any other job that you want around the building, go ahead and have a defense coordinator. Could you fathom him with that Niners defense if he was just a D.C.? First of all, that's like a can't help but think about. But how many teams do you think did that? And do you think Bill was appreciative of that notion from Kyle Shanahan? Oh, I'm sure he really was. I don't want to speak for him, but I'm sure he was.

You know, it's kind of interesting about that. Today I had a conversation with the general manager in the league, and we were talking about hard knocks and what we were watching from there. And I could only imagine what was on the cutting room floor of that giant. And I said to this general manager, I said, you know, you're fortunate that, you know, you know, that your team is going to be successful and has been and all that. And some of the competition isn't as good. good. I said, really, the main question that people should ask is they should ask Andy Reid or Kyle Shanahan, who don't you want coaching against you? And that should lead you to who you should hire, right? And Kyle just ended up telling us exactly that. Like, if you were to

call up, you know, Kyle Shanahan and say, who don't you want coaching in Arizona? He would say Bill Belichick. Well, shouldn't we hire Bill Belichick? And I'm not trying to get Jonathan Gannon fired at all. I'm not suggesting that. But to me, that is the true litmus test. Who wouldn't you want coaching the Giants? Who wouldn't you want coaching the Jets?

To me, that's the question. And I think that's what Kyle is saying. I don't really want to have to go against him because his teams will be really good. His teams will be well coached. Last year, for as bad as they were, they were the least penalized team in the league. And their field goal kicker missed a zillion kicks and they turned the ball over and they weren't very good at all. i mean obviously the field goal kicker provided connor some moments where he knew they were going to get a high draft pick number three overall which if you're watching hard knocks the giants were willing to almost do whatever to get up to three in striker ridge get there just wasn't able to do it and then we'll drop back if marv or neighbors aren't here we'll trade back we'll

trade up never an alt convo which to your point in that whole thing, but you end up with the number three overall pick, which gives you Drake May, which D-Butt's about to ask about. But the question for me is, let's just hypothesize or fantasize for a second here. Could you imagine Belichick with that Niners defense? Legit. It would be unbelievable. All he would be focused on is

defense he doesn't have to do any head coaching doesn't have to do any press once a week he has to meet with the media i think for like five minutes is the defense coordinator's like yeah obligation doesn't have to deal with ownership doesn't have to deal with negotiations doesn't have to do anything all he has is fred warner boasts in the boys every single week prepared could you fathom i wonder if he even thought about, like if Bill even contemplated that to do that, because as a football fan, that would have been pretty fun. I think that would have been a fun thing to kind of watch kind of unfold. No question. And the fact that he would have game planned for it. I mean, you know, the fact, how do we take away an opponent's

best, what they want to do? How do we make an opponent play left-handed he's often said to me before the best job in football is to be a coordinator you take away all the stuff that you don't have to deal with the media five me to only get five minutes so it's just pure football but the strategy that he would invoke as a coordinator which is something that I think Connor appreciates knowing that you know he's watched him all those years and that's going to be missing in New England now it could be different it could be better it might be worse but that strategy of how to play the game it goes back to that question about how do we you know if we score 17 points there's a strategy involved in how to play every game right it's just not about and lead you to the point so I to me, and that's where Bill's

brilliance shines the greatest, is the strategy of how are we going to play a game this week to win the game? I wonder if he contemplated it at all. You know? I do wonder. Because he's got big Mondays with us. Of course. He's got the Manning cast, obviously. Then he's got Inside the NFL

on Tuesdays. It's going to be hard to turn those things down. It's going to be hard to turn those things down. It's going to be hard to tell us. He's not going to want to talk to us on Mondays anymore. I've got to actually go beat defense. But you know what, Pat, though? The thing about Bill is he's a football guy. He's a junkie. He's still working on football as we speak. I mean, he's working on the college draft.

How do you know? I know because I talk to him regularly about it, you know, and he's working on it. I mean, he's up early in the morning working on it. My wife calls and it's SEAL Team 8. You know, we're in there on the phone talking about things. And, you know, it's good for me. It's great for the people that are involved in the conversations

because he wants to learn about the teams. He wants to study the college. Look, I've said this to a GM in the league. We were both at Oregon one day. We were watching Mariota work out, and I was telling him about how Bill prepares in the offseason, and he just shook his head and said, I've never even thought about that. No head coach has ever done that. This is a unique person in terms of his work ethic. Patrick Mahomes is unique in terms of his ability to grind and want to be great. That's all he does. And he'll know as much about the college game as he does the pro game. I love the thought of him watching that Washington team for like one week from somewhere that isn't the game. We're all going to be out there. We should do it.

We're going to be out there together. I think we're all going to be out there August 9th until the 13th. We're going to be out there. How about Coach Fish hiring the entire Belichick Enterprise pretty much? Oh, my God. What if Bill still does, like he is still acting every week as if he is the Sam Fran DC and on Sundays Colin plays as if he's the – We're undefeated right now.

Yeah, yeah. But the thought of, you know, because I forget the exact date we did it, but it got mentioned to me. Hey, on this date you were talking to Lombardi, and we started chit-chatting about Michigan, and we talked about Wink Martindale going back and going against college offensive coordinators. And I said, that feels like a big deal. And Lombo goes, oh, it is a big deal.

That's because he's been with Bill. They've been for Steve. How simple. He's been watching. He's like, oh, it is a big deal. There's some – these guys get into a routine pretty much. Yeah, for Washington. In the NFL, you can't do that.

Obviously, yeah, we need to watch out for the Huskies. We need to do that. They've got Belichick and Fish running the entire operation. Steve's going to do his thing, obviously. Of course. But if you've got a dad in between jobs who happens to be the GOAT and addicted to football, I assume he's going to drop some information. I think he's got a long – hey, Longbow, I need you to look at something for me.

What are your thoughts on – oh, my God. Yeah. Hey, long bow. I need you to look at something for me. What are your thoughts on? Oh, my God. The amount of people. Yeah. Only takes half the time because it's college, like we're saying. Oh, man. Watch out for the Huskies. All of a sudden, that over.

I don't know what it is. We need to start staring that thing down, even though they got a new head coach. I love to hear that. Let's go to the team, obviously, that everybody knows Bill Belichick from. And then whenever he was kind of, you know, like. Yeah. On ceremoniously. know, like... Yeah. Unceremoniously. Well, three and 14, but yep. Get the fuck out of the place.

D-Bot's got a question for you. Yeah, they have completely, obviously, moved on to the Gerard Mayo era, and he announced that Kobe Brissett will be the starter to start the season. Obviously, draft Drake May 3rd overall, so everyone expects him to be the future of the organization. but in their front office what because i know as players we'll look at it in that situation like okay if we don't start off great the first quarter the second

quarter of the season that's probably when we'll see a change but uh in the front offices what are those conversations like going into a season with the situation like the patrons dealing with at quarterback well i think it's really probably the right move here because the offensive line is a mess right now, and I think they've got to get that straightened out. They've got to figure out who's going to be the starting tackles. I think that's going to be really the key to getting the line fixed. And last year, that was the biggest issue.

They couldn't get the ball to any of their playmakers. Just think about this last year, guys. They scored 14 passing touchdowns last year. 13 of them came from the running backs or the tight ends. One reception came from, one touchdown came from a wide receiver. So that's an issue, and a lot of that goes back to the protection, and they've got to figure out where they can protect. And when you have a young quarterback who's trying to play faster, who's trying to speed up his game. See, that's the biggest thing for all quarterbacks is, you know, you go in college, you know, it's five Mississippi.

Everything's kind of okay. But when you get to the NFL, it becomes two and a half Mississippi. And you've got to throw quicker and make quicker decisions. It's one of the problems Daniel Jones has is when the game speeds up, he has a hard time speeding up. So when you're a young quarterback, you got to learn how to speed up your game and then be accurate and make those decisions. I just don't think the Patriots are in any position to do that. I mean, the longest play

last year from scrimmage was a running play, 68 yards. You know, the tight end had the longest pass play at 58 yards. So they've got a long way to go. And I think patience is going to be the virtue here. I like the fact that everybody was kind of under the same mindset. Drake's going to need time. Remember, he was the only one who was going to need time. Not any other rookie quarterback. Drake was going to need time, though. And everybody understands he's going to need time. It's like every rookie quarterback needs time. But I like the fact that the Patriots fans were just expecting it. You know, like, yeah, he's going's gonna need time and then Bill Belichick on draft night breaks down like hey this is why he needs time it's almost like an easier pill to swallow that you're gonna have to relax and enjoy the show for a bit as we kind of rebuild this entire thing in a new era but it's

still gonna suck on Sundays if you're losing games but at least you understand like you're doing it right and you're right next to the toxic table here, you've got Jordan Love is like a perfect. Not that they're going to do it for three years, which is going to be a percent, but, like, let's give a little time. Let's let them develop and let's see how it goes. Yeah, for sure. And I think it is just, like, the excitement of it. But another guy that kind of had a tough rookie year that was thrown right to the fire,

kind of the opposite of what we're talking about now, is Bryce Young-Lombo. And I remember last year after watching his film, you became a believer. They kind of revamped their offensive line, paid a bunch of guys in free agency, but there was a clip of him walking to practice yesterday and it looked like he was heading to Algebra 1. What are your

expectations for the Panthers? He did have a little Brock Purdy. A little Brock Purdy, yeah. A little bit of everybody hates Chris. He legitimately looks 13 in this photo. A little Brock Purdy, yeah. A little bit of like everybody hates Chris. He legitimately looks 13 in this photo. Maybe it's because his backpack is massive. His shoes look as though they are eight sizes too big. I don't wear them.

Again, I'm not really sure what Panthers' expectations are. Lambeau, from your point of view, what should they be? Obviously, another new first-year head coach. They're kind of redoing the whole entire thing. What should Panthers fans be expecting out of year two of Bryce Young? I mean, it has to get better. It can't get any worse. I mean, last year in 13 games, they scored less than 20 points. In 11 of those games, they scored less than 16 points. Now, in fairness, he was the smallest quarterback that was drafted. He's the one who stayed the healthiest all season.

But at 5.5 yards per attempt down the field, that's not going to work. But he had no time to really throw the ball, and they couldn't really run the football. Now with Sanders, Hubbard, they drafted Brooks in the second round, who they put on PUP. They're going to have a surplus of running backs there. They've got to run the football. They've got some players there. Trimble's a good tight end. They should be better. There's going to be improvement there.

To what level of improvement, I don't know. You know, I think one of the things that's going to be, they've got to find a way to play as good defensively. You know, last year, it's kind of interesting. You measure team speed on defense by how many fumbles your defense creates. Last year, it's kind of interesting. You measure team speed on defense by how many fumbles your defense creates. Last year, they only created 10 fumbles. They only recovered three of them. So they've got to improve in that area tremendously. But I think with Canales, they'll be better coached. They'll be in harmony. And that'll help Bryce Young become

better. They're going to be better. It can't get any worse than it was last year. It was as bad as, and it was bad from the start too. And I said it on my podcast and people in Carolina, I went on the radio and they just said, oh, you just have a grudge against the Panthers. No, I'm just watching what I'm watching. Just like the Giants.

You have a grudge against the Giants too. I heard that. And the Bears. And the Bears. And the Eagles. The Patriots. The Bears. They don't have fields on the team anymore. And Bronny. I'm not betting Bronny on rookie of the year.

I promise you that. I'll probably get blamed for that, too. He's got a lot of time to grow. You need to watch your mouth. Okay, we're staying in football right now. Okay, don't you go. Omar's going to be pissed. Sixers are going to be good, though.

I'm sure Lombo's pumped. Remember, we're in football right now. Yeah, you're right. Let's go to be pissed. Sixers are going to be good, though. I'm sure Lombo's pumped. Remember, we're in football right now. Let's go USA, obviously. The Rugby Sevens team tied France today. That's a big deal. France is supposed to beat the shit out of us. And then our soccer team's playing France as well, and we're going to win that.

So we're taking on the home country. Yeah, the Olympics have started for the United States. Are we going to win that? Are we, as a soccer country, going to beat France? Are we? We might. Yeah, it's a different team. I could see France just pooping the bed.

It's basically opening the Olympics. I could see France, the youngsters over there, pooping the bed. The seven-on-sevens is basically opening the thing, and we've got to tie a draw to that. So shout out to our rugby team. I think we won in the previous one, remember? Weren't they? Did we medal?

I think our rugby team was doing well. I think we have a bunch of dogs. Obviously, it's more football. The soccer team's going to win, though. Let's be puns about right because the soccer team is not going to win. Did you see the last time they won a medal? The best finish they've ever had? When was it? 1904. Before the

Industrial Revolution. Before World War I. You want to know how many teams there were? You want to know how many teams there were in that tournament? Three. What? Guess how many teams the U.S. sent? Two. Well, that's good. What? And we won. And we won silver. So, yeah.

And bronze. And bronze. We're two of the three ponies. Hold on, hold on. Hey, before we let Lombel go because he has to work a job and we don't the team USA is going to change that today. Whenever it says last time won, it's going to be 2024, and it's going to be gold, and it starts today.

Okay. USA. USA. USA. Tone has a question for you on the way out here from Hammer. Time. Time. Yeah, Lombo, I started this week sad because, you know,

I was looking at the Chiefs' numbers from last year, and their offense was just not a Chiefs offense I think we both expect them to do much much better this year and the defense probably to stay the same and I was like oh a three point three piece actually possible let's take the Chiefs out of it if the who do you think can actually take the Chiefs down so that they don't make a three-peat this year from the AFC well I mean look the Bengals Joe Burrow they played them as well as anybody. And the Bengals defensively were one of the worst teams in the secondary last year.

And I expect that to be improved with Geno Stone coming in at safety, bringing Bombell back. I think they'll be an improved defensive team. They need to be. They moved the football effectively last year offensively, even when Browning went in there. But defensively, they struggled. That's got to fix. They've beaten the Chiefs. They've gone into Arrowhead and won there before, which is huge,

which is something we can't really understand about Buffalo. Buffalo played the Chiefs as well as any team, counting the Super Bowls in the Super Bowl with the 49ers. Buffalo ran the football effectively on them. They threw the ball. They just got into the red zone. They didn't make the plays. They missed the 47-yard, 44-yard field goal, which would have sent the game to overtime. So I think Cincy and Buffalo certainly can be challenged to them. Baltimore, with the commitment to Derrick Henry, and I think they'll be way more in terms of they'll be in pistol more than they will be in just offset back because let's face it, Derrick Henry cannot be the offset back in shotgun. He needs to be deep in the eye coming downhill at you. But I think the AFC is wide open and I agree. Look, the Chiefs have question marks.

They're moving McDuffie from inside corner to outside. That's a problem. Who's replaced the Snead? And then on the offensive line, I mean, Morris, the kid they drafted two years ago, From inside corner to outside, that's a problem. Who's replaced as Steve? And then on the offensive line, I mean, Morris, the kid they drafted two years ago, or the kid they drafted this year, who's the left tackle? There's concerns there. It's cute, Lambeau. It's cute. It's cute, all the concerns you have.

That's cute. They always figure it out. Chase is still the Chiefs, Lambeau. They're going to be there, but at some point they can be beaten. And I think that's Buffalo could beat them. I think Cincy could beat them. It's hard to go three feet. That's why nobody's done it. It's hard. Amen. Hey, you have gone on like

100 feet because every time you come in here, you swing a hot bat. Yeah. We appreciate the hell out of you, Paisan. Alright, guys. Have a great one today. Ladies and gentlemen, thanks for all the, you know, guidance and shit. Anything you need, just let me know. Michael Lombardi.

Yeah. Boom, boom, boom, boom. Light up Black Friday with Freedom Mobile and get 50 gigs to use in Canada, the U.S., and Mexico for just $35 a month for 18 months. Plus, get a one-time gift of 5 gigs of Roam Beyond data. Conditions apply. Details at freedommobile.ca. Visa and OpenTable are dishing up something new.

Get access to primetime dining reservations by adding your Visa Infinite Privilege Card to your OpenTable account. From there, you'll unlock first-come, first-served spots at select top restaurants when booking through OpenTable. Learn more at OpenTable.ca forward slash Visa Dining. Obviously, it's a phenomenal Wednesday as we get a chance to talk about ball as NFL training camps are in abundance around the league. And college storylines are starting to brew with the biggest and best college football season of all time right around the corner. Cannot wait to be back on college game day.

Cannot wait to be back traveling the country showcasing the greatest environments in all of the United States of America sport. We also have an incredible time to display a convo that we had yesterday with a friend of the program ladies and gentlemen joining us now is the head coach of the football team at Nebraska ladies and gentlemen the face of the Cornhuskers Matt rule how are you coach thank you so much for joining us thanks for having me bro okay Big Ten Media Days are happening this week. We knew that. We obviously knew that.

We planned this in advance, months and months ahead of time. Thank you for making this happen, Stop by the Thunderdome. We are massive fans of yours. As you know, we appreciate the hell out of this. I appreciate you doing this. When I was sitting at my dinner table, having dinner, and I got the Pat McAfee FaceTime, I said, Everyone stop.

I am a cold FaceTimer. That is kind of my MO because the way my brain works, it's like, we're on this thing right now. And then there's a chance we're going to be on something completely different 10 minutes later. So we got to get answers right now. So as soon as I learned that the Big Ten Media Day was happening, I was like, who do we know that's going to be here? Literally FaceTimed you. I was like, hey, will you stop by? You said yes, which is why. Hey, we appreciate you, coach. Yeah, coach. Let's talk about the Big Ten Media Days.

So what is this? So you come into town. You'll be at Lucas Oil Stadium. You're talking to every media company. And then what is it? Just same questions? How do you feel? What does the team look like?

All that type of stuff. Is that what this week is all about here in Indy? Yeah, it's like twofold. It's like I'll have some time where I'm up on the mic talking to everybody. I'll have some time, ESPN, Fox, CBS, NBC. But then there's also that they take in the back and they do the stuff, the promos, like what's your favorite Halloween candy, you know?

Oh, so you're spending the football in slow motion. You're doing that entire thing. You're doing a little bit of that stuff. But yeah, you get a chance. I got three of my guys here. So, you know, we'll go to dinner at St. Elmo's. We'll go out there tomorrow with five other teams, kind of give them a quick look over, like how you doing,

and then get back to the media. Okay, so who are the three guys? You've got the quarterback? No, no, I always bring seniors. I think the guys who have been through the program and battled. So I've got Ty Robinson, our D tackle. We've got Isaac Gifford, our free safety. And I've got Ben Scott, who's our center. So three great guys for us. I like the fact you've got to Robinson, our D-tackle. We've got Isaac Gifford, our free safety. And I've got Ben Scott, who's our center.

So three great guys for us. I like the fact you've got to earn it, okay? If you're going to represent our program, you've got to be at least mature. And obviously the quarterback position is going to be something somebody's going to ask about, and I can't wait to hear your answer. But I would like to talk about the team as a whole right now. We're not ranked, right? Not ranked.

We love that or hate that? We love that. Okay, we do love that. We enjoy that. Because your history in college football, obviously Carolina Panthers are what they are, but as soon as you got back into college football, we got very excited because your track record says,

okay, once Matt Rule gets with the program, he's going to build it and build it the right way and going to play great football. Did it at Baylor, did it at Temple, Nebraska with all the, I want to say everything available. Nebraska is a first-class operation, obviously a lot of championships. You got to feel good with where the development of the team is? How do you feel about the process of you building a college football team

like you have in the past? No, well, first of all, I love building college football teams and being a part of it. And I feel great about where we are, honestly. I think we have a chance to be a pretty good team. And, I mean, we were a great defense last year. We were top 15 in every category, and we really struggled

offensively. I think we're better. I think the guys grew from it. I love where we're at. As you said, I kind of like being able to sneak up on people and be the team that no one's really sure about. You don't have that very long. Once you've established yourself, everybody's gunning for you, but for right now, we'll

hide in the radar. Year two of Matt Rule programs, take a step. Year three is where I think the magic really starts coming if we look back on your track record through this entire thing. Had a schedule as compared to other places, or where would you judge yourself? Yeah, way ahead of schedule. You know, the buy-in from the players when I first got to Nebraska was really cool. And I just said to them, I said, look, my first year at Temple was 2-10. My first year at Baylor was 1-11.

Like, let's just jump to year two. Let's skip all the – and I'm a little older now, right? Like, you know, I was hard charging. Like, I'm a little older now, a little more mature. I was like, hey, listen, I'll tell you why we're doing things, but if you'll just buy into it. And so, you know, we finished 5-7. We had five losses by three points or less.

And so it was brutal. But to those guys' credit, they just kept coming back. Maybe we'll be a year or two team. Maybe we'll make a couple steps, but I'd love to make a jump. I'd love to be a real good team. 12-team playoff, obviously, we've chit-chatted about since the announcement. Kirk Herbstreit looks so

good with this. He's got his eyes are popping. He's got this tailored suit. He's real thin now. He's almost jocked. He's jocked almost. He's got his eyes are popping. He's got this tailored suit. He's real thin now. He's like almost jocked. He's like jocked almost. He's talking about the 12 team playoff. Obviously that changes everything for everybody. I mean, there's been a couple projections. I think Liberty's sneaking in there because

it's the highest rated non-Power 5 champion and everything like that. Big Ten is obviously going to be a conference where you can slip up a little bit and still make it with the way the future of football looks. How happy are you to be in the Big Ten? How happy are you to be at Nebraska? And what are your thoughts on the 12-team playoff?

And do you talk about it with your team? Yeah, I talk about it this time of year. I think when you're sitting out there and you're running in 110-degree weather, you better be reminded of why we're doing this. We want to go play for the ultimate game. And it would be irresponsible of me to walk every day past five national championship trophies and not talk about winning championships. Like, it's been proven you can do it there.

So, you know, that doesn't mean – once the season starts, man, we'll get very focused on each day. But I think right now we need to talk about, hey, guys, this is what we need to do. We need to win each day, win each game, and put ourselves in position to go play for it so i'm i'm grateful to be in the big 10 because um you're going to have more access you're playing the best teams i mean if a year ago you would have said to me like hey matt uh we're going to sign you're going to have you play usc and oregon as your two non-conference games i'd have fought somebody well now we're in the league now right and so and we play you And we play nine conference games.

Not every conference does that. So you have five road conference games every year. It's a difficult league. And so I think if you can be in the mix in the Big Ten, you have a chance to get into the playoff. And then once you get into the playoff, it's about who's healthy, who's got the most depth. Weather's going to play a factor.

There's going to be home playoff games in the first round. I'd love for someone to come to Lincoln and play in December. That'd be a lot of fun. That's a dream, I think, for every school, including University of Iowa. Ty has a question for you. Yeah, not quite the same. We went to Lincoln in November last year and won, but that's neither here nor there. What's that all about?

They won. What, they get three first downs that game? I mean, how does that even? It was a cagey affair. It was a 13-10 final. Torrey Taylor win that thing? He was a big part. Yeah, big part.

Quarterback, obviously, that was part of it, too. And I've said time and time again, I hate that you're the head coach at Nebraska now because I know that, hey, you can't just rest. Listen, I was going to win the heroes game the day after Thanksgiving. That might not be the case anymore. But you kind of mentioned it going under the radar and being unranked. Do you think, I mean, is a large part of that all the hullabaloo that's coming with USC and Oregon and Washington and these other teams coming to the Big Ten?

And is part of you thinking, like, this Nebraska team is totally different as well because you're starting to finally get your guys in there. It's not the Scott Frost era. It's not any of these teams before. Like, is that a big part of it too? It's like, yeah, we have these new teams from the Pac-12 coming into the Big Ten, but this Nebraska team is also going to be kind of a new iteration of Nebraska that a lot of these Big Ten teams haven't seen.

Yeah, I think, you know, whether it's rankings, whether it's guys on the all-conference team, all-American team, I've always believed, man, you eat what you kill. If you want recognition, then you've got to go do it. The talking season is for the guys who won last year.

Oregon comes into the league, and they're a top team in the country because they've earned it on the field. Washington played the national championship game. USC won 11 games two years ago, so people should talk about them. We haven't been to a bowl game in eight years. And so, as much as I want to be in the national picture, we also have to play a 13th game.

And so, I have no problem. I believe in humble confidence. I learned that from Tom Coughlin. I would love to just keep our guys right there, but that doesn't mean that we don't have confidence. That doesn't mean that we don't expect to be a really good team. And I think people that are recruiting against us and preparing for us, I think they think we're going to be a good team too.

Oh, you think they know. Well, I think that's because of you. I think people just respect what you have been able to build in college and the way you've gone about doing things in college ball. But you just talked about there about the Giants. Like, you're an NFL guy though, right? You started as an NFL coach. Is that accurate?

No, well, I mean, I was in college for a long time. I went to the NFL with the New York Giants under Coach Coughlin. Then I had a chance. I would have stayed there. I loved working for the Giants. I loved working for Coach Coughlin, but I had a chance to be a head coach. And actually, like, leaving the Giants wasn't a no-brainer to go be the head coach at Temple. But I had to bet on me.

Do you think you run a more pro-style operation in college? Or how do you think you – a more pro style uh operation in college or how do you think you and is that is there a big difference do people make a hullabaloo uh about what a word yeah what a word by it's iowa by the way uh he was accepted to harvard though brain was good enough to get into harvard said i want to stay in iowa wanted to be an angler that's right at the university of iowa but do you think there's too much made about college in nfl and the styles in which you go about doing things or is it two different animals no you think there's too much made about college and NFL and the styles in which you go about doing things? Or is it two different animals? No, I think too much is

made. I mean, I think, you know, if you watch the Kansas City Chiefs play, you're watching a lot of cool things that you see on college football in terms of the style. You know, the differences are, you know, we have 105 guys on the roster. We have 85 scholarships. So, you know, you can play tempo. You know, you don't have to, you know, 53-man

roster, you know, you try to play tempo, and the guys are worn down after four or five games. It's just a whole different game in that regard. But I think the plays, the RPOs, the things you see. Coaching, though. Coaching humans. I love coaching NFL players. If you can make it to the NFL,

as you know, you're the best of the best. I think the differences are in the off-the-field stuff. The day was over, you went home, your coach went home. Here I'm like, hey, make sure you go to study hall tonight and please make good decisions this weekend. And I'm also recruiting 24-7. The player procurement process is different.

In the NFL, you're a head coach. You're hoping you sign one free agent. You're hoping you draft the right guy. We're all seeing the hard knock show with the Giants right now. Like, you think you're getting a guy, and all of a sudden you don't get us? We go recruit. We can try to outwork people. Now with NIL, it's a little bit different.

Some teams can outbid people. So you can get, in college football, you can have multiple number one overall picks. Like, Georgia has a bunch of number one picks on their team. So you can have a better roster. So there's less parity. But I think people are people. And just the NFL guys are the highest form of great athletes. You talk about recruiting and signing free agent.

Number one quarterback comes to Nebraska in Ryola. Ryola, Dylan Ryola. And I saw a spring game in some clips. Guy can spin it. Seemingly has moxie. He's going to be your guy is what it sounds like. And are we excited about having a freshman quarterback? That's a lot of pressure, is it not? Well, you know, what I'll

say is, Dylan's done everything right since he's been there. And this isn't just coach speaking. I think again, if you truly believe that you eat what you kill, like Dylan, he's competing with a guy last year that went 5-3 as a starting quarterback. That runs 4-5, that

got thrust into action last year. Now he had another year so my job is to get as many good guys as possible you know we signed Danny Callen who's another elite 11 quarterback so I want those guys to compete I mean I want to find out honestly at every position it sounds like I want to find out who when they don't feel good in the middle of camp still shows up I want to find out who when they get sent down to get the three reps that day, who pouts and who goes out and competes. And so I know our three guys are going to do that. But what I'll say about Dylan is since he's been there,

he's done everything right. Because, you know, you get a highly recruited kid. He comes from a great family. His dad played 14 years in the league, right? And was an O-lineman. So the concept of being selfless, of understanding the game, like Dylan has, it's coursing through his veins. So he's not

just a quarterback. He's a football player who plays quarterback. And I think the guys respect him. So I think we're going to have great competition and shoot, you know, if you want to play 16 games, if you want to go play for those trophies, probably going to play two at some point. Think of how many times NFL teams have had a backup come in and keep them alive

for three or four games. Last year there was actually i think 90 backup quarterbacks or something like that that played around the nfl or something and you saw the hard knocks you see them talking about the money they want to pay a backup like you know they're arguing about whether they should play saquon barkley 10 or 11 million but backup quarterbacks who might not play are making seven eight nine ten so the position is so important uh let's get as many of them as we can yeah and it's a long season as our coaches up here on the stage will tell you, because they've already played a season with the 12 playoff games. Coach Dutch Danger actually has a question for you.

Yeah, actually, I've played a few, and let me just say, you know, not to the chagrin of you, but, yeah, boy, I beat the breaks off Nebraska in the college football playoff. He's a Utah Utes, obviously. Yeah, Coach Dutch Danger's been at Utah for quite some time now. We're going into year five now. That's it right there, Coach. Everybody's trying to do it.

There we are. That's what we're all doing. It gets you one of those, Coach. But one of the biggest things in this game is recruiting. And, like, I don't think that any of us really knew going into it how much, obviously the video game, of course, what that is. But just in into it how much obviously the video game of course what that is but it just in general how much you have to do one of the things is like you know you're looking at social medias then you're contacting the family sometimes you got to send the house

and that takes 50 hours sometimes you get locked out sometimes you get locked out yeah you don't make it into those top three schools that the kids kind of get down to uh for you though when it does come to recruiting how much are you going into social media, going in, calling families, and not just the kids, but reaching out to the mom, reaching out to the dad, seeing what they have to say about their son, and how hard is it to

pick through the bullshit? Because obviously when you're reaching out to families, they're going to put over their son more than anything, but how often does the other things like the social medias not reflect what you're hearing from their coaches or things of that nature? How hard is that? And then how much are you kind of divvying up between portal and also high

school? Because that's something I'm trying to kind of figure out. Coach Danger's trying to figure out if he needs to spend a couple more hours in the portal versus these high school boys. Oh my God, I need to start playing the game more. These guys won back-to-back national championships. I'm in year 2027, so I'm a little ahead of the eight ball when it comes to your recruiting. It's an honor.

I had no idea what I was getting into. You didn't know who you were in a present. My son's been downstairs literally for like three days, and I haven't heard from him. He's a truck. He's a truck. He loves building programs just like his puppy. I'm glad.

The thing about it, and I haven't played the game, but the thing of it is you can sit in someone's house for 50 hours and do all this work and then not get them. Yeah. At the very last minute. So it's high stakes, high stakes. All the things you're talking about is what we do, though. And, like, even the era of, like, tech, like, there was a while where it was texting.

But, like, texting is not real anymore. Kids are getting 5,000 texts if they're a good recruit. So it's being on the phone. It's FaceTimes. It's calls. I mean, even in season, over an hour of my day is spent on the phone with families and with kids. And, you know, because that's the lifeblood of the program. So it's all real. It's all. I think all of us whether you're in the nfl getting free agents

or drafting people you saw that in the hard knock show it's us you're trying to figure out who the person is going to be in the program like you know do they love football they're gonna be able to handle adversity are they going to be a part of the team so you're trying to balance like elite talent with elite character and elite football character. Just think about, I don't know what it's like for you hiring people and the people you guys work with. I don't hire people. I hate it.

Been around a long time. We just came and we never left. We have hired and it is certainly a thing. I hate it. I'm very worried that what we have i would like to bottle what we have and just hang on to it for as long as we possibly can as opposed to mass expansion and let it just all get fucked up so like that is something you have to bring on more

players i don't know how you sort through like how do we keep what we have or how do we build what we have without the worry of like somebody coming in ruining it all which can happen in in human instinct is it's possible so so often for like for like people who follow recruiting it's about who you don't get like oh my gosh we didn't get i'm always so like i'm concerned about who we do get like when i find someone whether it's someone i hire or whether it's a player that comes from like the right family like that's got the right hunger that's got the right edge and toughness like i i need guys who like i don't need everyone on my team doesn't have to be a superstar that's been i mean i need guys who are like grimy and gritty and tough and are willing to fight for talking about team usa right now with the olympics the basketball team they're trying to

figure out who are the people that are like the glue you need the glue you need to find how do you recruit the glue you just ask you know ever see ever see the ever see the kobe bryant deal when they talk about with the other team USA and he ran through Paul Gasol. He said, hey, I'm going to run through his face. Yeah. Like, I need guys on my team, to quote Marshawn Lynch, without the cuss words, who are going to run through somebody's face. Yes.

Like, I need those guys. And that doesn't always show up in recruiting. So, to me, recruiting is about finding the guys who are going to be right for you and who are going to fit for you. And you know what? Some teams are first or second in the recruiting rankings every year. Like, to me, it's just about, hey, who are going to be right for you and who are going to fit for you. And you know what? Some teams are first or second in the recruiting rankings every year. To me, it's just about, hey, who is going to come there? Who's going to thrive in your culture?

Exactly, my problem. Who's going to do what you want? Coach Dutch Dangerous. And that's what's hard about the portal, right? Because the portal, there's no six-month recruiting period, man. It's like they hit the portal. You've got about a week to decide are they right for you or not. And so it took me a long time to ask Julie to marry me,

and she's the best thing that ever happened to me. So asking a guy to come play for me after a week of knowing him is really hard. Are you a big transfer portal guy? I don't think you are, right? Not much, no. You will if you need a piece, I assume. Yeah, I just feel like if you come to play for me, and you had a bunch of options,

and you decided to come play for University of Nebraska, and you're in the program, then you shouldn't have to all of a sudden be like your junior year. Some guy comes in come play for University of Nebraska, and you're in the program, then you shouldn't have to all of a sudden be like your junior year. Some guy comes in, he plays ahead of you just because he got more NIL money. To me, if there's a hole there, yeah, well, we go get somebody. So we'll always look to improve our team. But I just don't feel the need to, sometimes as coaches, like, they'll look at their team and say, well, I know what's wrong with him. They're always trying to improve it. Well, how about you just coach your own guys? And how about you just develop your own guys? And how about you just develop your own guys?

I think when you look at the teams that are winning at the highest levels, they have some portal guys, but they recruited a really high level. How do you feel about you being a perfect fit for Nebraska? I know you haven't been there long, but I feel like, and I've never Have I been to Nebraska? I don't know. I don't know if I've ever stepped

foot in the state of Nebraska. They're crazy. College World Series? Yeah, I've never been. I don't know if I've ever stepped foot in the state of Nebraska. College World Series? Yeah, I've never been. I've heard. Have you guys been to College World Series? No, we're going next year. Rocco's, the whole thing. I get it. You guys are buying jelly shots. I've heard it's awesome. People have sang Nebraska's praises for sports fans

in the women's volleyball thing. Amazing. It sounds awesome. But the way you talk and the way you describe what type of team you have, I assume the people in Nebraska respect it because they're high football IQ fan base out there in Nebraska? Yeah, no doubt. They're football people. I was in Texas at a coach's clinic, and I saw a guy who's a Nebraska alum.

He said, hey, can I put you on the phone with someone? He put me on the phone with his 84-year-old mother in Lexington, Nebraska. And I'm talking to her on the house phone, and she's like, I watch every press conference, Coach. Keep doing what you're doing. That's real. That doesn't happen everywhere. It's just we don't have a pro team. This is the pro team.

They're out there from the beginning of warm-ups to the end of the game. And at the end of the day, you said something very nice earlier, like, well, people are thinking Nebraska's going to be good because of me. I don't know that it's that. I think they see what it has been. And if you can get it on track, we have the facilities, we have the fan base. In this new Big Ten, we're in the middle of the country,

so we're not going to have to travel east coast to west coast. We'll have manageable travel. We're good at a lot of sports. We won five Big Ten championships this year. We've got seven or nine kids in the Olympics. We have athletic excellence. If football gets itself together, we should be a powerhouse because we've been a powerhouse. And so I looked at it like, man, I went to Temple.

I loved it. I love Temple. But I was trying to do something there that had never been done. I went to Baylor, and Coach Briles had had a lot of success and all that. But I was still trying to get it to a place that hadn't been. I walk by five natties every day. Yeah, they're telling you. That's right. Hey, still trying to get it to a place that hadn't been. I walk by five natties every day. They're telling you. Hey, you need to get to it.

Back on to the state. You've done good. We're proud of you. Very proud of you. D-Butt's got a question. The legacy's there. The tradition is there. Black shirts. I obviously know about that. What went into hiring your new secondary coach, Butler? He's been around the game obviously for a long time. Coming from the

pro game as well. Did great things in Buffalo with the Bills. Who's this? John Butler, new secondary coach. I mean, I can just already know he's a great defensive mind with the last name. What went into Coach Butler and hiring him? Yeah, you know, I've known John a long time. Kind of got in the business at the same time. And, you know, lost our secondary coach this time of year.

Those things usually don't happen. But I had a chance to coach against him even in the nfl like i went up played against the buffalo bills micah hyde jordan poyer like it you talk about recruiting when you come to nebraska and you're like well i want to go to the league and well all the coaches either coached or played in the league our db coach just coached the the the top five passing defense in the league five years in a row like okay they're to help me get to where I want to get because just as much as guys want NIL, I want them to want the NFL too. And so putting guys there like John that are great teachers that have been at that level,

has been the defensive coordinator at Penn State. I know this. I'm a much better head coach when I have great players and great coaches. And so John was kind of sitting out. We've known each other a long time. I had an opening. Man, I'm blessed that he took it. Yeah, bring him to Nebraska. Anytime you get more experience in there, it's good for recruiting too. This guy's been there. You can sell the

entire NFL thing. A guy who wrote a full college football preview has a question for you from Hammer. Don! Don! Don Diggs. Yeah, I did, Coach. And one of the big things was studying your schedule when i was doing that preview and i one thing i noticed i got you now you don't have to comment on this i have you favored in your first seven games of the season now but those first four games those first four

games are at home you talked about how good the defense was last year and how the offense you know needs to make some improvements how big is it whether it's raiola or another quarterback how big is those first four games being at home to kind of get their feet wet and that offense to kind of get clicking before you get into that back half of the schedule? And shout out to the AD. Yeah. That's a big play.

Well, it's the first time, I think, since Keith's back there since 2019. We haven't been 1-0 at Nebraska since 2019. Man. And I think we started with a road or a conference opponent, you know, the most years. So it's a little different schedule this year with being at home and all that. I'll be honest

with you. I love it. The pro game, being on the road and being at home is not quite as much. I didn't do a great job last year. We went to Minnesota. It was the first game of the year. It's a gold out. They're all wearing gold. It's a sellout. The crowd noise. It was unreal. And you're rowing that boat right in your face.

That's exactly right. PJ's got that thing. You had no idea. You're coming out of the NFL. You're down there in Bailey. You had no clue that there was actual boats coming right into your face. And they were all rowing. That's right.

Early, especially. And come crunch time, they beat us, you know. And then we went out to Colorado this next week. And, you know, Coach Sanders coming off, obviously, beatingcu and i mean it it's a it's a sellout so you we started last season on the road you know our first two games is together like trying to figure out how to travel here's what i expect from you and we're on the road versus sellout crowds and when you're at nebraska you have to expect this but um to start at home then i have to worry about the crowd noise be able to get down inside the five and

have everybody calm down. I mean, again, we lost by three points. We threw an interception right before the half in their end zone. Maybe if we're at home, it's a little quieter. We have a little bit better connection. All these little things matter. So I'm fired up about being at home to start. You got Colorado week two, I think.

They're coming off of North Dakota State. And literally the last time you were on the show, you said the first thing you said to the AD is, I don't want any names with Dakota in it for our auto conference schedule or anything. Colorado, though, obviously, wagon. Everybody's talking about

this is the year. Shador, obviously, top five pick in everybody's eyes. Heisman, Travis Hunter, obviously, phenomenal player. They got Warren Sapp coaching over there now. They got that. How much are you looking ahead to scout all the teams on your schedule? First, how do you handle and manage all that? And what do you expect out of that Colorado game?

Yeah, we spend, literally from the offseason, we spend a week on each team. So that, you know, like we play Purdue, again from last year. We play Illinois. We go back. We go through everything we year. We play Illinois. We go back. We go through everything we did. Look at them. We study them. Obviously, teams like Iowa that we know we're going to play every year, that we study them,

especially, you know, it's year two for us in the league. And then you go back to the beginning of the year. Some staffs are new, like UTEP's a whole new staff, right? So we're watching their defense from Austin Peay. We're watching the offensive coordinator come from La Tech. You know, Colorado has two new coordinators. So that's a little bit of a challenge. So, you know, they're playing against North Dakota State,

the first game. We'll have some time to see that game. But, yeah, we prepare for all of them. You know, I think the thing with Colorado is, again, Shador is such a great player. Travis Hunter, there's no real game planning that. You know what I'm saying? Like, how do you game plan against a shut-down corner?

I don't know. You know, try to win and do the best you can and go play and compete. Again, it goes back to what I said, man. Eat what you kill. If you want to win, go win. I'm so excited for that game, just for the game of football. I'm a Northeast guy. I grew up in Pennsylvania, New York City.

I want college football to be in all 50 states. I don't want it just to be only in the SEC and only here in the Midwest. I love that we got a little old school Big 8, Big 12, Colorado playing Nebraska. I love the fact that Washington went to the National Team. I think it's just good for football. And so this game, National TV, NBC, I mean, I know everyone's going to tune in to see Shador and Travis and Coach Sanders. And we'll show up, too too and see what we can do.

I think college football would be loved in every town if they understood and got to experience what Nebraska sounds like every single game, what a lot of the teams down the south that we get to go to. Iowa is obviously absurd. Ohio State in the north represent. There's Michigan. You get it. But then there's some

schools that it's just not the experience that people have in other places. College football is beautiful. College football is awesome. It's been an honor to learn about it the last couple of years and get dropped, baptized literally in the middle of it with game day and everything. The future, though, everybody's worried as shit. Everybody's scared to death about the future, especially old school college football people. They're like, well, we can't ruin this.

I want my Saturdays to look like Saturday. And then Sundays can look like Sunday. And that is it. You're at this stage, old school college football guy now. Been around a lot of these older college football coaches, kind of, you know, I don't want to say negative about the future, but seemingly anonymous sources are coming out from one tenured college mind that doesn't love the direction in which college football is headed. What is your view on it all? Do you get asked by people what you think should happen going forward and the guardrails of shit that should happen? How do you manage it all, and what are your thoughts on the future?

12-game playoff is awesome. It's great. The more we think about it, the more excited I get about 12-game playoff. I don't have to play it, coach it, recruit it, none of that. But just as a fan, I'm pumped about it. But the future of college football, how do you feel about it, and do you get think about it, the more excited I get about 12-game playoff. I don't have to play it, coach it, recruit it, none of that. But just as a fan, I'm pumped about it. But the future of college football, how do you feel about it, and do you get asked about it? Well, I think college football is always going to be strong.

I think it's, if we're being honest, I think it's probably the second most popular game besides the NFL. So I think it'll always be strong. I think the thing I worry about is the group of five and the FCA. I coached in the MAC. It was awesome. I'm telling you what, going to Ohio U around Halloween and trying to play at Ohio University is an amazing experience.

And so I don't want to lose those things. And sometimes we can be a little cynical about that, but I think there's a lot of guys playing football at Williams College or at Harvard or wherever that love it. So I just want to protect the overall game. But I think we're making some really good moves right now to save what's happening. I think the're making some really good moves right now to save kind of, I mean, what's happening.

I think the revenue sharing, you know, at the end of the day, like if you have $20 million for your players. Coach, that's danger, obviously. Of course. And you get $5 million for your players, he's probably going to win most of the time. No matter what. So, I mean, like, so I think, you know, having some revenue sharing now,

kind of bringing, I think, you know, Tony Petitti's areitti's are, and I don't say things I don't mean. I've been around Commissioner Petitti now for a year and I'm just blown away by how forward thinking he is. And I think that's what we need. The NFL is the NFL because there is power in the commissioner's office. If you try to cheat,

the commissioner's office is going to step in and you're going to get hammered. And in college football, for 100 years, it's been marked byed. And in college football, you know, for a hundred years, it's been marked by cheating, but make no mistake. The problems we have now are the same problems that were in college football 60 years ago. They just look different. It's still the, it's still one of the greatest games. I think it's the greatest game. And you know,

I have lots of opinions that no one really asked me that it's going to actually implement. You know what I think? What's the one thing? I think just pure transparency, man. It's like, Hey, if I'm, if I'm giving you, if I'm giving you $10,000 or $100,000, just like in the NFL salary cap, I want to make sure we all know what it is because at the end of the day, you have a right to know. What I don't like, the only thing I don't like is I love guys being able to transfer. I love guys being able to monetize their value.

I hate seeing kids go to three or four schools because people are just paying them to leave for a worse. They're paying them to come be a backup. And what you're seeing now is what you saw this year. The underbelly is guys were brought in out of the transfer portal for the spring. And at the end of the spring, the coach is like, ah, he's not good enough. And they're, they're getting rid of him. See, everybody thinks the portal is the kids unhappy. A lot of times it's the coaches saying, Hey, why don't you come here? Or, Hey, I'll pay for you to come here. And, um, at the end of the day, when they're all said and done, I want guys to make some money, but I also want them to have a degree.

And I want them to have played. Like, it's okay to go play at a smaller school. It's okay to play at FCS or Division II or Group of Five and play and have a good experience. So I just think there's some things in terms of transparency, knowing how much guys are getting paid. Should be reported. Should be reported. Just like in the NFL.

And it sucks as an NFL player that everybody on earth can Google exactly how much money you have. It's not good for players, their families, friends, everything like that. But for other teams, at least you know what the barometer is, what an expectation is. And also, if it's made public, have to pay that

person too. Because there's a lot of players that are signing up for shit and they're not getting it, right? Not getting it. Yeah. That is a massive problem. Not in Nebraska. Never in Nebraska.

Not in Nebraska. Never as a Cornhusker. How do you feel about the state of football as a whole? Feels like we got more talent than ever. Do you agree? Yeah. You talking about college football or pro football? Just football as a whole.

I was watching these flag championships. Yeah. Unreal. And I saw a 15-year-old girl roll right, cross-body throwback, and then her wide receiver, one-hand snag, foot in. And it's like, what? And then you're seeing these younger guys get in the NFL, make impacts immediately. It feels like football is in a very, very strong part right now.

Yeah, I'd say years ago, the influx of 7-on-7. Texas has high school 7-on-7. Kids are throwing and catching the ball all year long, and that's why the passing game looks the way it looks right now. Football's becoming an international game. We have international players now. People are playing it all over the world. I think from that standpoint, football's in a really good –

we're doing this Saturday, we're doing our first ever girls flag 7-on-7 camp because we know that it's going to be an Olympic sport, and we think it's going to be actually – I actually think it's going to be a college sport at some point. And so we want to get ahead of that. I got two daughters at home. My daughter literally thinks that she's going to replace Jordan Love someday. I mean, she's a Packers fan.

She's nine years old, and she throws the ball every day. And so it's just – it's all good for the – I think football is in a great spot. I got a daughter 14 months. I didn't even think about her potentially being a quarterback for the Indianapolis Colts, but it's like at least the flag football development and scholarship opportunities. Playing in the Olympics someday. Just think about that.

Like what if your daughter someday represents the United States playing football? That's, that's amazing. You see so many meathead dads cry. That opening ceremony. Oh my God. Countless. Just old offensive linemen, two busted-ass knees, hips in there, and their daughters just out there representing the United States.

Just tears just running right down the face in this entire thing. It's a beautiful thing. I love that. Sports are awesome. Sports are the greatest thing on earth. We need more of them. We need more guys like you, too, Coach. You're awesome.

Every time you come on and you're talking about transparency, you're just wide open with everything. I feel like we can throw anything at you too coach you're awesome every time you come on you're talking about transparency you're just like wide open with everything i feel like we can throw anything at you and you'll give us like an honest answer as opposed to like a car salesman bullshit but you have to be a car salesman bullshit guy in the recruiting world like coach touch danger sometimes yeah he lies to these kids all the time i mean look at to coach's point we kind of have a similar philosophy you know you want to come here of course i'm going to recruit you but you got to compete you got to earn your time yeah so let's talk about you talk about the transfer portal and you want guys to play and everything like that i want guys to still have to face adversity there's

no doubt like that i think is a big thing that's potentially going to go missing in the college football world because the ability to just transfer and if you're pretty good you're going to get money to go somewhere else but you're also never going to have to experience like hard times brother yeah you know like there's going to be hard times but you're also never going to have to experience like hard times, brother. Yeah. You know, like there's going to be hard times where you're not the best. You're going to have to work.

You're going to have to wake up earlier. You're going to have to have a coach that's going to tell you you suck like right now. Like that's going to have to, and it's better for their lives. We're not going to lose that, right? That's going to still happen. Well, I mean, I think it's going to, that's why I think in my job and in your job, we have to find guys who are built like that. I mean, to go talk about Iowa, I guess the –

I remember listening to George Kittle talking about the time it took for him to get on the field at Iowa. Yeah. And just being like, those are the stories that matter to me. Like, we're talking about, you know, Hassan Reddick, obviously making a lot of news in the NFL multiple years. He was a walk-on for me. Like, you know what I mean?

He was a walk-on corner to safety to back. He didn't get on scholarship until his senior year. I remember he sat in his office with his mother. He's like, Coach, I can't pay for another year. And we got compliance to be able to put him on mid-year. Like, that's why I'm glad every cent he makes now, because he paid to go to college. He's holding right now.

He's holding out right now. Well, go get every cent. I don't feel so bad about him walking on and playing for free for us. But, you know, so I just think at the end of the day, like, you know, the gritty people in life are the ones who get things done. Barry Sanders sat behind Thurman Thomas. There's great stuff. Think about Tom Brady.

He's the greatest quarterback in the history of the game, in my opinion. I do this with quarterbacks when I recruit them. Most quarterbacks, you think about it, they kind of have a journey. Aaron Rodgers, junior college to Cal. Drew Brees played at Purdue when Purdue wasn't great. You have all these guys joe burrow having to transfer and sit out you know jaylen hurts having to transfer like like there there is some adversity and the ability

to overcome adversity keeps showing up to me is is what makes great men great players get knocked down seven times you stand up eight that's right boom oh yeah hell yeah hey we appreciate you man have a great big Ten Media Week day. You're here for how many days? We'll start tomorrow. We'll be here all day and leave tomorrow night. All right. Well, enjoy yourself.

Safe travels back. We appreciate you stopping by. And I can't wait to see the decision you make as quarterback, and I can't wait to see the development of your team. You know, you have seemingly been able to develop teams and players, and you've been incredibly cool to everybody along the way, legitimately. Not an asshole. After that Carolina Panthers situation, you could have been scorched earth to everybody.

Literally towards everybody. Media. I'm sure there's a lot of people that said things into microphones during those times where you could hold grudges. I'm going to have my Lane Kiffin, Paul Feinbaum moment. There is one thing you said. I went, no, I'm just kidding.

I was excited. How about when they cut away and just started showing buildings? Smart. All right. Let's keep this on away and just started showing buildings? Smart. All right. Let's keep this on camera right now. It's getting uncomfortable. You know what?

You know what? You go through all these things in life, and you come out, and you just decide how you want to live your life, bro. Just the energy when you walk in here, man. It's an energy of kindness and of taking care of people. I think right now in our world, we probably need people who are less bitter and a little bit more happy. Hell, yeah. We appreciate you, Coach. How about the shit he took, though, and how long we had to wait for him?

But I respect. You guys told me he was going to talk a lot more Iowa trash towards me and just nothing but respect for the man. So, thank you. Likewise. In the Thunderdome, we do try. We try our best to be respectful. Some people, we just can't do it.

I mean, he's also a fellow college head coach as well. I understand the grunge. We've been talking a lot about Dutch Danger. And I tell you what, I beat the hell out of everybody, but that day after Thanksgiving, it's always, I'm fighting tooth and nail against Nebraska every year. Who's your punter?

Do you have a starter? Yeah, Brian Buscini. Yeah, he wears his For the Brand shirt all the time. I got to yell at him to put on a Cornhusker gear. Oh, that's good. What the hell? He's representing for the team. You know what I love about him? If you want to be the punter in

Nebraska, you have to punt into sometimes 30 and 40 mile an hour wins. He understands that it's not about his average. It's about how he affects the game. The ball's in the 42-yard line. He doesn't walk out there like, Brian walks out there and he's like, I'm going to put the ball inside the game. Like, you know, he's not, the ball's in the 42-yard line, I asked him to pooch punt. He doesn't walk out there like, man, I'm not going to be the next.

Brian walks out there, and he's like, I'm going to put the ball inside the five. He's a football guy. I love the guy. That's awesome. How old is he?

He's got to be 24, and he's working on his second master's degree. He's 23, 24, married. He's squared away. America or Australia? Oh, he's American. Hell yeah.

I believe he's from Montana. I believe he's from the great state of Montana. Wow. I didn't know we had Montana punters there. When you come to Nebraska at some point, we'll introduce you. Ah, Nebraska.

We're going out there. Yeah. Game day atmosphere there is incredible. We had game day at Temple. Yep. We had game day at Baylor. I went into that fucking river. That's right.

I remember. You were talking before about getting baptized. I was like, I saw you get baptized. You were talking before about getting baptized I was like, I saw you get baptized We actually had game day At Carolina because Georgia was playing Like Clemson or something So I went on the game day set at Carolina

Just because I was the head coach there So I look forward to having game day at Nebraska We're excited to get there Because I've seen and heard nothing but great things And you're the man Have an incredible stay here in Indianapolis We're lucky to have you Ladies and gentlemen, Coach Matt Rule.

Atta baby! Coach Matt Rule was awesome. Obviously, stopping by yesterday as the show ended. He was getting into town for Big Ten Media Day, and you heard him talk about it there at the end about his mindset about things. He told me off air, and I told him I need to learn this a little bit more.

He said, I choose not to be bitter. What a, hey, that's a beautiful mindset. That is a beautiful mindset. And obviously, we assume it's going to work out for him. We appreciate it. The Talks at the Table, I'm Boston Conner. I'm Ty Schmidt here. Nine-year NFL vet Darius J. Butler is here.

And joining us live in an attic in Ohio, ladies and gentlemen, college football national champion, Super Bowl champion, Ryder Cup winner, and the man who won hands on the Wienermobile yesterday, jerked that thing back out of the street and put it into a garage a real hero aj hawk yeah you two-handed that thing i heard yep yeah double-fisted that thing got that thing right side up didn't i happy to hear that the wienermobile has been uh jugged it was jugged we don't know we don't know it did get itself tugged yep it did off the road.

And that is good news anytime that takes place. AJ, did you get a chance to hear any of that Matt Rule conversation? And we apologize. Obviously, we recorded that later that you were not on with us for that entire thing. But he just seemingly has success everywhere he goes, which is why I think we all thought when he got to Carolina, it was just going to be good. And I think he realized the situation, maybe not perfect for him or good for him.

They realized the same thing. He comes back to college, and he feels like he is re-energized in this entire thing. And Nebraska is a beautiful place to do it at. Well, when I hear him talk, don't you think of like, we hear people talk about culture all the time. What's the culture you create? He seems like a culture dude. Like, this is what I do.

I bring in the right type of people. I try develop them and i want to make them nebraska players and he gets it too though with the nil and guys going to the league i got he seems to have a good mixture of like old school toughness tough guy but he's adopting he understands hey i have to evolve as well as the game does and i think the nfl um whether it was back when he was with the giants or when he was with the Giants or when he was with Carolina, especially with all the business that happened, almost like built him for the NIL moment now, like kind of an understanding a little bit.

Now, it's obviously a different animal. There's free agency and all that. But whenever you're talking about money with people and you're, you know, like Madden ratings are a number that are assigned to players, okay? So that is when players learn what their number is comparative to somebody that they think is better. Okay. That they think they're better than, okay, here's this, but contracts are the same exact thing. And that didn't happen in college ball for a long time.

We didn't have to hear publicly that you were worth $500,000 less than another motherfucker that you thought you were better than. So like that isn't something that's a whole mindset thing. Whenever you're talking to athletes and players, feel like matt rule with his nfl background might have a little bit better acknowledgement of the situation when you're talking to people whenever they're getting offered fifty thousand dollars less than somebody else that they think they're better than and then still navigating motivating and getting the best out of that person it's like that's a lot to deal with that is in the whole new world that's in, that some of these old school college guys might not have wanted to be a part of. Matt Rule almost suited for it.

You know, like almost built for it. And every time he talks to us, he just seems like a guy who's always like this. Now, I know it's football stuff, but he's always like this as well. Well, and too, like when you're on a team and your coach gets fired, the guy who recruited you and you have this new dude coming in, like you can have that expectation of like, oh, man, like this is going to suck. But he has the resume where it's hey this thing turns pretty quickly and obviously talking to him you can see why it turns I had a schedule tie yeah no and that is like I mean I

said it to him yesterday it's like Nebraska is going to be good like I don't know if it's going to be this year where they make that massive jump I think he said like typically year three is when he does it but the thing that strikes me the most with him is like the absence of ego because we look at a lot of these college coaches who are they have these hundred million dollar deals and it's kind of like the program is about them like granted they get the players and everything but we're all we're talking like we're always seeing the coaches faces and a lot of these guys sometimes come off like assholes like this guy was at one time very recently one of the highest paid coaches in the NFL. And I don't know if he even needed it.

Maybe it did humble him when he got let go. Maybe it didn't. But like he has no ego. He's not an asshole. And I feel like this is like this is a profession where it's very easy. Like some of these guys are just pricks. And maybe you have to be like that. But like he's just he's a good dude.

You can tell he cares about his players. And I think that is one of the reasons why when you look at everything nebraska has to offer just from like a traditional standpoint like he is going to get that thing turned around very quickly yeah i enjoy him and aj you and i got a chance to see him uh and talk with him whenever we called the baylor texas tech game uh the texas classic the dallas classic the big d throwing bees i forget the name of Texas Classic. The Dallas Classic. The Big D throwing bees. I forget the name of the game. But we got a chance to commentate

and we had meat. What was it called? You were pretty close. Big D throwing something. I don't know. You know what I remember it as? Impossible to find the right parking lot. Walk around that whole goddamn

fucking stadium 15 times in cowboy boots, and then get up to the booth, which is beautiful. The booth was absolutely beautiful. But whoever was driving us around had no idea. I mean, they had no idea where they were supposed to go. We parked further than all the fans. We walked through fans. Then we get into the stadium.

Well, you're actually on the other side. We walk through here. Well, the credential the stadium. Well, you're actually on the other side. We walk through here. Well, the credential to get you through there is actually in the booth because you see that's where we got to get to. And they go do the little thing. It's like, all right, sweet. That's how I remember it. And then I remember having a blast in the booth.

You're a legend, obviously. And that was a great game. That was a fantastic game. Cliff Kingsbury's last game with Texas Tech being the head coach. And I don't think it was Matt Rule's last game with Texas Tech being the head coach. And I don't know if it was, I don't think it was Matt Rule's last game at Baylor, but it was whenever they were taking over the entire thing. But we talked to the players and the coaches, you know, the night before, and we go into the hotel and all of his players were just like, yeah, we're just ball, man. We

just do ball. We do ball. We asked Coach Rule, we're like, what is your culture like? You're like, we're just ball. Like that is, he said, I'm not like the most entertaining guy. Like, we just – we do ball. I'm not the most fun coach to play for. Like, he even said that too. Yeah, he's like, we just – we do ball. And that's what we're trying to do. And that's why you're able to find a culture, build a culture,

create a culture, and hopefully, you know, reap the benefit of it by beating Iowa's ass. Yeah. That is – They'll still be waiting to do that. You know, I'll believe it when I see it. But, hey, I wish him all the best. I really do really do so that's a real that used to be a real right that like is a i think it's just like geographically because it's so close but i think a lot of people

like nebraska is a big 12 school you know like they're in the big 10 now but like they were in they dominated the big 12 for a really long time so it used to be like nebraska and iowa state had a little bit of a rivalry so i think it just spills over now and then it's the day after thanksgiving so it's like one of those few games that's great that's played on that friday and it's the same it's the it's it's that day every single year so i think they have kind of like built it into a little bit of a rivalry but it's still i mean it's it's definitely getting there you know like i know nebraska fans and iowa fans talk a whole bunch of shit to each other so like it's it's definitely getting there i like that that's the first step those facilities i mean obviously you know that's huge for recruits especially going somewhere like nebraska where it

is you know geographically but when you get it out in those facilities you know that's where you're going to be working that's where you're going to be doing meetings rehabs practice all that big big selling point for recruits so i think Matt Rule would be just fine in Nebraska. Somebody said, and I forget who it was, I think it was him, best facilities in America, has to be. He said, I don't know what else anybody has, to be honest. I have no idea what you could possibly have. And then they've released a video on social media that we found. You got a chance to watch it.

It's like, it is so nice. I think every place is really nice now with the amount of money that's pouring into college ball. But their facility is absurd. I mean, it is so nice. I think every place is really nice now with the amount of money that's pouring into college ball. But, like, their facility is absurd. I mean, it is so nice. Well, think of their game day experience, too. You bring recruits all the time to home games. They come to a Nebraska home game.

They might not even be playing, like, a huge opponent, and that place is still packed with gills, and those people would go crazy for football. And warm-ups. I think that's a huge selling point. Yeah, like you said, beginning of warm-ups until the end of the game. And it's true. Like, they don't have a pro team. That's their team. Like, that's a huge selling point. Yeah, like you said, beginning of warm-ups until the end of the game. And it's true. If they don't have a pro team, that's their team.

That's what everybody roots for. So I think that is a gigantic selling point. Like, hey, come to a game. Just come experience what this is. Nick just reminded me that Yes Man, Jim Carrey, ended up at a Cornhusker game, if you remember. Wow. Yeah, he was all dressed up.

Good pull. And it was a big super, super-duper positive. Yes Man, good movie. Great movie. Really good movie. It is a big super, super duper positive. Yes, man, good movie. Great movie. Really good movie. It is a good movie. Powerful movie. That neighbor couldn't wait.

Yep. No. She couldn't wait. But like the great, joining us now is a man who knows more about college ball than any of us will ever be able to. He's also the voice of Thursday Night Football. So he kicks off the football week every single week on Amazon. Ladies and gentlemen, he's got those blue eyes.

He's got a new body. Yeah. Awesome. He's got a whole new body. Stropped. Super stropped. Fresh, tailored suits, too, as we saw in the college football playoff social media video talking about the 12-team playoff.

Ladies and gentlemen, Ohio president, Kirk Herbstreit. Yeah, Herbie! What's up? What's up, boys? How we doing? Hey, sorry I made you wait a little bit there. We were recapping a conversation with Matt Rule, obviously back in college ball. I know you're a big fan of his as well for all the things that he's done.

And game day's gone to numerous schools in which he was the head coach. What a legend, though, man. I really do appreciate the way he talks about the future of ball, too. He's, like, excited about it all, you know? Yeah, I mean, there are guys that you talk to them, and I think I saw it because I watched you guys, your visit, and you just get done with him and you just kind of feel good. You know, you feel better about what's going on in the world.

He's that kind of guy. You imagine him recruiting because he's not a BS guy. He just says it like it is. I think he knew when he went to Lincoln and got out of the NFL. I think really he missed college. I think he and his family missed that environment. And I think he was very selective. He had a lot of opportunities. But I think he also knew what he was facing. I mean, they have not won to the level that their fan base expects them to win in a long time. And he's doing it the right way. And a lot of times when you do things the right way in coaching,

it's not an overnight thing. Even with NIL and the portal, you still got to do it the right way. And I think he's building it back up. And, you know, you look at what he has on paper. If the young quarterback steps up for him, it'd be a fun year for Nebraska. Hopefully they get off to a great start. I kind of put him in a spot there when I said that Dylan was going to be a starter. I was like, I didn't even think about that because the only clips

I saw out of spring was Dylan. Just like the only clips I see out of Texas is Arch, even though it's Quinn's team and he might win the Heisman. That's on me. I need to be a little bit more thoughtful in how this actually works as opposed to how social media tells me it works. But you're right. If that Dylan kid can be... we learn more about him from the family

of offensive linemen too. It's like, wait a minute. Wait a minute now. Might be an absolute dog in this entire thing. And he's a monster. His dad, as you know, played in the NFL forever, played at Nebraska. He was a beast when he was at Nebraska. And, you know, I couldn't believe this kid was verbal to Georgia and could have gone to any school in the country.

Probably name his number as far as NIL. I don't know if he was number one high school recruit, but if he wasn't, he was right there. And ends up, because of his dad's legacy and his family's history in Lincoln, he wants to be a part of getting this thing back up and going. And I think all you can do is salute a kid that could have done anything he wanted, gone to any school in the country, and he wanted to go to Nebraska where they've had one winning season in like 10 years. So I think it says a lot about the family and how much his dad means to him. So I wish him all the best, man. Like I said, if he wins that job, that would be a heck of a story to see him get started early in his career.

College has so many of those stories. Now, they seem to be dwindling in the modern world that we're in, but there's a lot of these stories out there, and we cannot wait for the college football season to get going. AJ? I guess you got some news, huh? Yeah. I appreciate that.

It's been a little bit of a long off-season for me. I bet, Kirk. Yeah, we're long with, huh? You rolled over on that beach and you thought to yourself, you know, I'm going to get some sun on the cheeks here. But also, I'm going to think about the Saturdays in the fall. No, you've been obviously an incredible ally, the reason why I'm on there, which is why it was so conflicting in this entire thing.

But, Kirk, I've talked to you about this a lot. And obviously Florida State's the most recent one with you. It's like these college football fans, the reason why college football is so amazing is because of the commitment, the loyalty, the passion, the pageantry, everything like that. On game day, we're literally put in a position where it's like, hey, every college football fan, I'm picking against your team. And people will think about just when Lee Corso does the

historic headgear and the place goes crazy. There's a bunch of other games too where we're picking against teams. And I am from Pittsburgh. And the way I speak is the way I speak. This team can't stop this team. We move to the next one. No, that's me just... These are my thoughts. I'm giving it. Boy,

you need to go perfect every week to really shove it in people's faces in that particular world but you're eating it from alumni's in schools throughout the entirety of that thing let alone during the day if there's any scandals that pop up that's not your fault you didn't start to tell but you you what are your opinion on scandal it's a tough community they are great shit talkers prolifically gifted on the internet in comments and they they find addresses i mean they're like all the way it's like is am i the right guy to handle am i they're they're right i think is how i started you have helped me immensely get through that and i don't know how

you've been able to handle it for so long but i want to let you know it is an honor to get back up there with you and that's a massive piece of why you know that's a big pro as opposed to a con in the entire well you know how i've said it a lot of times you you shut me off usually when i talk about yeah yeah and with that being said we have a hard out right now on espn we will continue on youtube espn plus and tiktok live you're the greatest people on earth have a good one that's kirk herb street that's aj hawk i am a doofus is returning to game day thank you all right yeah now you're good now you're good anyways all right so am i allowed to keep going here no no no that was a pivot away from it but you have been incredible through this

now we're okay i'm excited to get back out there though coach saban's gonna be there too this is gonna be the biggest and best year of all time now now aj you and the boys have been there and as much as he talks about you know a portion of the audience getting upset with him, you just got to know that that's the vocal minority. When Pat walks up those stairs, and he can't deny this, when he walks up those stairs, nobody on our set gets a louder ovation. Yeah, but I'm working it, though. Bro, bro.

Yeah, but I... They can sense it. They know that. Also, a little bit larger person. You're small now, kind of small. You're small. You're lean now. Hey, Kirk, let's watch

what we're saying. Let's watch our tone in this entire thing. But no, those people... You're not doing big-time wrestling moves. You just walk out there and they go crazy. That's why I'm telling you, who cares? These people on social media, you know better than anybody.

They're so mean. They're so dedicated and committed. The IWC, though, of college football, it's the exact same thing. But I think college football is the closest thing to what we have in European soccer. The Premier League probably has fans like that like the nfl fans don't they really don't get to this level you know i think college football i love that's what i love about it though is the passion that's awesome it's fun and even like passion even like florida state you know like honestly for every imbecile who who tries to create a conspiracy theory

there's hundreds that are just like love hey disagree with you but get it you know they just all you do is hear from the the clowns you know you just don't don't put any weight into that that's my theory but also need the clowns that's why the whole you know so it's like it's a dog chasing a tail. You know, need the passion. Need that whole thing. But at the end of the day, dude, you coming back for the show is massive. You know, bringing the guys hopefully around again on Friday. I'm pushing for a segment for you and your guys on Saturday the way we did, you know, at the National Championship.

I think that would be a fun, like, whether it's weekly, whatever you guys can do. But i think that'd be a fun like like week whether it's weekly whatever you guys can do but i think that would be fun um you know i think having coach david coach david in the mix now is i just did i i don't know i i've been this excited in july for the season to start usually i'm kind of counting the the days of how much time i have left until it gets going now Now I'm fired up. I told you that in the text the other day. I haven't been this fired up in a long time. And for people who are haters or negative, the two highest rated college game day seasons, not shows, but entire seasons, have been the last two years.

Sports are all the way back. Sports are all the way back. That is an awesome thing. Sports are all the way back. I hear what you're saying. Yeah, I am. But this is my 29th year this year on the show, and the last two have been the highest rated.

And I think, yeah, sports are back, but you're being on the show. So it's a win for ESPN. I think it's a win for you guys. And having Nick Saban on board with Dez and Reese and Coach Corso and Jess and everybody is going to be great. Jen Latta stepping into that role to tell the story. I've told her each week,

I don't know how you do it. Those stories are amazing. We're crying on the set. Actually crying on the set. I'm like, let me take my shirt off next segment. It is the wild time.

I'm lucky to be there. I'm thankful to be here. And I knew where you were headed with that, but it literally is the sport is on fire. And I think, you know, there is a lot of negative potential chatting about the sport in the future, but it's got to be bigger and better than ever. Let's talk a little bit about some of the teams.

Go ahead, AJ. Kirk, I know Ryan Day's been at the Big Ten Media Days drawing a huge crowd wherever he goes. And speaking of like, I'm sure he's speaking of the expectations of this team. We know they're sky high. What do you expect from them? What's like, what issues are you going to look for early on that they need to make sure they have, you know, cleared up?

Well, you played it and you dealt with it. When Ohio State has these kind of expectations, and I'm guessing, I mean, every year you were there, you guys were really good. I'm guessing after 02, your freshman year, and you came back in three, and a lot of that same nucleus came back, you guys probably, you know how dangerous it is in Columbus, let alone the nation, when you're getting a lot of pats on the back. Columbus, let alone the nation, when you're getting a lot of pats on the back. And I think that'll be probably Ryan Day's biggest challenge is, you know, they might win a game, you know, 23 to 17. And instead of being happy, it's going to be like, man, what's wrong with the quarterback? What's wrong with this? What's wrong with that? This team's supposed to be the best ever.

So just dealing sometimes with unrealistic expectations is very dangerous. So just dealing sometimes with unrealistic expectations is very dangerous. I've heard a lot of these players talk, you know, at the media week that they've had. Their day was yesterday. And I heard a lot of the same stuff about, hey, we came back. Denzel Burks talked about coming back because they wanted to beat Michigan. They wanted to win a national championship. And so you like to hear those team goals that are kind of at the forefront of their minds and kind of the focus of what they're trying to accomplish. But I think the biggest thing they're going to have to figure out as far as the scheme is the quarterback. You know, Will Howard is expected to be the guy coming over

from Kansas State. He was going to be in a battle himself, you know, if he would have stayed in Manhattan. So you got Devin Brown there. You got a young freshman in Jalen Sand. I mean, they're talented. But until you see it, you know, until the pieces come together, you know, you wait to be able to really evaluate with Chip Kelly calling plays now until you see it get going. But truthfully, they have two games on their schedule, maybe three, that are really, you know, it makes you scratch your head and wonder, you know, can they go on the road to Eugene and win?

You know, can they go to Penn State probably in a night game? Maybe not anymore in Fox. Maybe it's a noon game. Can they win that one? Can they beat Michigan after losing three straight? So I think it's dealing with all of that outside noise, all the pats on the back. Can they keep a chip on their shoulder?

And then dealing with the new quarterback, you know, with Chip Kelly. And which quarterback do they set on? I think ultimately will be, you know, some of the questions surrounding them. I mean, the pressure on Ryan Day has obviously been one of the storylines for the last few years. And then when Urban and Trestle come out and they're like, his roster? I wish.

Oh, my gosh. This coaching staff? Jesus Christ. And they both have national championships, you know? So, like, I don't even know if they know when they say that, what they're saying, but it's adding even more for all those people and beautiful OH! Ohio.

Yes! That's huge. Also, dunked on Kirk there. He knew that was a moment where he could steal on one of the presidents of Ohio. AJ, when you say where you went to school, what do you say? I say Ohio State, but when I did it, it's on the nightstand. A.J., when you say where you went to school, what do you say? O-H.

I say Ohio State, but when I did the Sunday night thing. No. That's all. When I said the Sunday night thing, I said the. I did say the for the Sunday night thing because on the sign when you pull into campus, it says the Ohio State University. That's the only reason I did it. Yeah, that's what you guys call yourselves.

Buckeyes, bitch. Yeah. We're the Ohio State University Buckeyes. But you say Michigan, though, Kirk. You know, that team up north, that was always a thing. But Urban brought that in to make the rivalry bigger, the team up north situation. None of those, that era doesn't say Michigan. Michigan.

Michigan. Michigan, yeah. Not even that. Yeah, I just hear team up north. Even Quinn still says Quinn Ewers. Hey, that Michigan team can't go into Columbus and win this upcoming year, right? Can't. No way.

No way. Especially with what Trestle and Irvin Myers said. Best team ever. Oh, my gosh. That can't happen. I can't wait to get to that game. I cannot wait to get to that game. Honestly.

I mean, that's a big deal. Especially if you go to Eugene. As long as they go to Eugene. What if Michigan wins? Like, I think a lot of us who start like really... By the way, Michigan's going to be a lot better than you guys probably think. You guys, you're talking to the wrong guy. Okay?

You're talking to the wrong guy. I've been on it for... Be careful there. Yes, very much so. Wink Martindale is now the D.C. That is something that is not being talked about at all by him. He's one of the most, like, storied defensive coordinators in the NFL.

What he did with Baltimore, other people were trying to emulate. Like, he is one of the, I don't want to say, a trailblazer. Plus, when was the last time a team won a national championship? And the next year, it's like, it's like the season didn't even happen. You know, it's, no one's talking about Tron Moore and Michigan

other than their own fans. Well, that's because in the Big Ten this year, it's Ohio State's time. That's right. Isn't it? Yeah. Or Oregon. That Columbus. Look out for old Oregon.

Look out for the old Oregon. We can look out for everybody in the Big Ten. Let's go. The faster money and data move, the further your business can go to a seamless digital future for Canadians. Let's go faster forward together. In life, interact.

Bumble knows it's hard to start conversations. Hey. No, too basic. Hi there. Still no. What about hello, handsome? Who knew you could give yourself the ick? That's why Bumble is changing how you start conversations.

You can now make the first move or not. With opening moves, you simply choose a question to be in here tomorrow. Coach Lanning is going to be in studio tomorrow. I cannot wait to chat with him. I may have Oregon winning it all. Oh! Ohio State. Breaking! That's a big deal.

That is. We knew it wouldn't be Florida State. If you quote my ass on that, I said I may have Oregon winning it all. Okay. Too late. Yeah, Gumpy's already sent it. It's gone. Yeah, it's already out there.

Gumpy. Gumpy in the soccer. Enough. The injury, the fake injuries. We just can't in this country. We can't handle it. The tournaments are just so awesome, Herbie. I just get caught up for like a month.

There's so few tournaments to watch. Yeah, there's not enough. Listen, it's not goals. I tell Pat, it's not goals, it's shots on goal. There are no goals in soccer. There's shots on goal. Herbie came up to me and he goes, you watch that soccer game last night? I go, yeah.

He goes, 0-0, but there was a couple of close. It was like one of the most perfectly delivered lines. He was like walking. He was like, close, though. Hey, hey. Hey, couple corner kicks.

I don't know. I don't know. You see Gumpy's new kit? He just got this kit in yesterday. That's what they call their uniform. That's inter-Miami. Whose jersey is that? Whose jersey is that, Gump?

Messi, obviously. Larry? He's not playing the rest of the year. He that, Gump? Messi, obviously. Larry? He's not playing the rest of the year. He'll be back for the playoffs, brother. That's the one last thing he's got. It's time for the Dolphins. We're in preseason. Yeah, this is the Dolphins alternate inter-Miami tarp, Herbie.

I got Miami week one. My first game's Buffalo-Miami on Thursday night, September 12th. Come on, let's go. All right, we'll get it. You brought it up just so everybody knows. My first game is Buffalo-Miami on Thursday night, September 12th. Come on, let's go. All right, we'll get it. You brought it up just so everybody knows. We will get into Thursday night and the NFL and everything. But let's talk about something that's kind of captivated a majority of this office.

D-Bud's got a question for you. Oh, yeah, you talked about your excitement for the college football season coming up. The season has started, and we're probably on to season five as Dutch Danger won a couple of natties already. I think Coach Ty is still chasing your furs. No, won two i've won two i apologize i apologize well i'm chasing my first with oregon as you mentioned uh my second job already but uh what's been the reaction that you've gotten from the game obviously you waited a long time for this game to come out college football 25 is finally out what's been the reaction that you've heard i think it's very rare for something to be this hyped for this long and in our era of everybody complaining about everything i i'm sure that some

people have complained but it's rare to see something live up to that kind of hype but i do think that the game has lived up to it i didn't't have anything to do with it. And I'm, by the way, awful. I mean, I used to be so good as a gamer when we had three buttons and our thumbs mattered. Now we got the index finger on both hands. I got no shot. You're telling me it's a lot. That game is a lot all the time. All the time.

Too much. Even selecting how to get to a game. I'm with you, dude. That's a lot, yeah. Train wreck. Me and you can play during the weekends on your bus, and it'll be like Iowa playing. It'll be like a three-nothing kind of game.

Whoever gets in the field. A couple goals? No. Herbie. Hey, first downs? First downs? Couple. Couple of them.

Couple first downs. It'll be like a soccer match. Couple first downs. There's two field goal attempts. You see, I got close enough to attempt a field goal. Missed them, but there was at least a couple of them. Couple first down. It'll be like a soccer match. Couple first down. There's two field goal attempts. You see, I got close enough to attempt a field goal. Missed them, but there was at least a couple of them. I can't remember. Oh, yeah, I went to a Big Ten championship last year.

So we can do this fucking hee-haw bullshit, but guess what? You know what? I guess going to the Big Ten championship doesn't matter anymore, does it, Herbie? Does it? Not when you're coming out of the Big Ten West, it doesn't. Well, hey, guess what? We don't fucking choose who we play.

You beat who's in front of you. The good news is the divisions are gone. I know. You won't have that to fall back on. I know. But actually, hey, I did want to say, I mean, Iowa, it's kind of shaping up that the boys might actually make the CFP this year. No one's talking about it, but Tim Lester is a genius.

I mean, just X's and o's is but honestly in terms of the college football playoff who are one to two like dark horse teams from the power five that you think no one's talking about right now that might make the playoff um let's see i i i think uh in the, Penn State's going to if their quarterback can step up. Drew Aller and Penn State are always a threat. You know, I think they've been close. And I know people that don't like Penn State will say they always lose to Ohio State and Michigan. But I think they're better on the perimeter wide receiver. So I think that could be a possibility uh within the big 10 uh i think

it's weird that you think about the big 10 obviously what is there now 18 teams i mean you put down your list it a lot of it comes down to schedule you're mentioning iowa and i'm kidding you but if kate mcnamara is healthy with the defense that they always have with phil parker they're going to be always be able to run the. If Cade stays healthy and can give them something, someone's going to come out of that conference that you really didn't expect, whether that's in Iowa, whether it's, who knows, at Raiola in Nebraska. Whoever's got the schedule, the most manageable schedule. Rutgers has a schedule that is by Big Ten standards

in this new Big Ten world that we're in. They can make a little bit of a run. I'll say Oklahoma, if you're talking like as a stretch, I think people are sleeping a little bit on Oklahoma because I think there's so much talk about them going, you'll see what it's like in the SEC, Oklahoma. Good luck. They got a really young quarterback that they're high on, played last year in their bowl game. And I like Coach V. I think he creates toughness on a football team.

I think Notre Dame has a shot. I don't know if they're a long shot, but I would throw them in there as a possibility. I like Texas probably to make in the top four. I think they could be a team to look out for, not just last year, but with Quinn Ewers coming back, I think they're going to be good. Long shot. How about Missouri? Would you call that a long shot?

For sure. Yeah, well, did old buddy graduate to running back last year? I believe so. Yeah, he's a good draft. They got a ton back. Oh, Drinkvich. Eli. Drinkvich. Drinkvich.

Yep, yep. Most improved team could be Texas A&M with your coach. I introduced him to Mike Elko, who's the Duke head coach a year ago. And the opening line to a head coach, who, by the way, game day's there. Duke's having a once-in-a-lifetime season. He goes, holy shit, look at that head of this guy. Right to him. And he's like, yeah, I guess I do have a big head.

It was a compliment. It was a compliment, though. Thank you. I know. It was a compliment. Still big. I'm happy he thought the same thing. Yeah, it's still very large.

I don't know if you saw him from media days. They popped that thing up there. Thought it was going to pop. I think him going to A&M, they could be really improved. And I'll give you one last one. I think Clemson, people kind of shitting all over Dabo, and he doesn't do the portal, and he's – games passed him by. That's everything he wants.

He just sits there and loves that. So I think Clemson, again, potential long shot. They could get hot and make a run. Veteran quarterback now and club next. So we'll see. Hey, speaking of quarterback and coach and coordinators and everything like that, Tone Diggs live from Hammer. Don, Tom, has something for you, Herbie.

Yeah, Herbie, I appreciate and I love all the long shots that you were talking about there. But when I was doing my research, there's I think 11 teams that returned, 14-plus starters, their head coach, both coordinators, and then their quarterback. And when I was looking at this, when I did my long shots, I was looking at Virginia Tech and Oklahoma State as potential long shots to make the playoff for that reason. How much do you put into these teams where they have a bunch of returning talent, the quarterback's coming back, the coach.

In today's land where that doesn't happen that often, how much do you put into that? And am I putting too much into it to think like Virginia Tech or Oklahoma State can make the playoff if they go on a run with all this returning talent? SMU with Lashley. SMU, yeah, and the ACC. Now and then, obviously, when Georgia and Texas and all this, that SEC,

that top SEC is going to be awesome. First of all, buddy, I really appreciate how much research you put into college football, how much you love it. I think that's awesome. A lot of time. That's really cool.

I know. And I know how much you help Pat get ready for the show. It does not go unnoticed. And I love that you're already going to work here and already looking at teams. I think what you're saying, if it's a Virginia Tech, then I think a team like that, it applies. I think having an Iowa, I think those are programs that to me are developmental programs where you build up young players. And by the time they're there for their third or fourth year, maybe second or third year starting, now you've got a grown man that's ready to go out and win. A team like Texas or Alabama or Georgia or these teams that can go out and get just generational talent.

I don't know if it applies as much to them. It never hurts, obviously. But I've just seen too many teams be good too fast with a freshman quarterback or a true freshman receiver or, you know, a couple of running backs that haven't played a lot. So I think it's hard to just throw a blanket over it and say, hey, you know, yeah, that definitely applies. It's important because the continuity is always important in football, right?

But I think it really does apply. If you could throw that graphic up there again, Virginia Tech was a team that jumped out to me. SMU jumps out to me. Cal could be sneaky. I'm not saying they're going to win the ACC, but really underrated good coach in Justin Wilcox. That could be a team to look out for. So Oklahoma State, you know, it's like every two or three years, Mike Gundy has a veteran team. They become a pain in your butt.

He needs to stop getting behind the wheel, though. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Thousand times. Three, four beers? And then the last one is Utah. How can we ever overlook Utah, right? Amen.

They got their quarterback back, who we all love, and if he has experience, he's always dangerous going into a new conference. So I could have thrown them in as a wild card to make a run at getting into the playoff with rising back. Look at this one on this particular graphic. You know, this graphic is like continuity, talent returning, and another year of development, and another year of experience for all parties,

and the coordinators, and everybody, you know. And then you just got that. You got blood. Big. Bloody. Bad. Georgia. Why are they going to be on there?

Bloody Tuesday. Bloody Tuesdays? They there? Bloody Tuesdays. They still have Bloody Tuesdays and everything. How pissed off are they going to be this year for not even making the playoff? They're coming out taking names. They're coming out swinging. Bro, Florida State was so mad, which I understand and I appreciate. Now, it was like your third string quarterback.

Let's have some sense of reality in this entire thing, especially when there was only four spots. But I appreciate your passion, and I would be pissed too if I was a player, fan, family member of the entire thing. You gotta be what you gotta be. Georgia was also a team that could have been very pissed that they were not put into the playoff.

I mean, the reigning champions, we get no benefit of doubt. We get no benefit of the doubt at all. We are the actual champions and when you lose the last game of the season, and then all of a sudden we're not good enough. So our strength of wins is better. We're in the SEC.

We haven't lost in forever. And then we have one day where we slip up against an Alabama team that you guys think is good enough to be, and they weren't even allowed to complain almost because it was like Florida State's ones you know florida state's ones that are pissed georgia's not yeah i think georgia was pissed but they've won so much they got over a little bit quicker but but florida state had every right to be pissed off georgia would have that's what's great about this year right i mean we we get the 12 teams that kirby and was that kirby sorry about that

fucking tell the boys yeah hey i put my phone i I put the do not disturb on, and a call just got through. How does that work? So I think it has to be somebody calls you three times straight, or it's in your favorites. Ah, fitting. Got me. He's in your favorites? Jeez.

Lee, that a baby. WWE. Hey, Lee Fittie. Hey, but real quick. Kirk Howard he called you, I think, right? Kirk Howard is what he called you? Lee Kirkwood? Lee Kirkwood.

Yeah, whatever you guys want to do. I don't know. I think they're allowed to do it. We won it again this year, so they're allowed to do it. They're going to send you one this year. So you can be Pat this year. See, we were thinking about that. Congrats to you guys for winning that.

I don't think we should send one. Congrats to you. Congrats to you. Yeah, let's not. We were thinking about that. Congrats to you guys for winning that. Congrats to you. I did not deserve it. I am the reason why we probably almost didn't get one. Let me get one last thing. Florida State is another team that you could have maybe put up there. They're kind of like Michigan, right? They lose a lot. I mean, a lot of experience, a lot of talent,

and yet he reloaded. I mean, DJ Uyungle, how much fun is it going to be? This guy was at Clemson. It didn't go as well as we all thought. He went all the way out to Corvallis, kind of got things back in order. Now he comes back to the same conference and against their enemy, Florida State.

That's who he's going to be a part of this year. And now he's a veteran. And you know, he's got a chip on his shoulder to go along with Florida State being mad at the world. So cannot wait to see how that kind of gels and to see the talent that they have around him. Because there's never, with Mike Norvell, there's never going to be a shortage of talent running back and receiver. So that's another team. There he is again. I've got it. That's going to be another team.

Are you going to be in SummerSlam? Are you going to be in the ring over there in Cleveland? Sweet. You've got a showman. We'll do one of these, bud, like I do. Kirk will be on the game. Kirk, you're going to be in 2K? The people aren't going to be happy.

Yeah, they're not going to love it. Why aren't they happy the game? Kirk, you're going to be in 2K? The people aren't going to be happy. Yeah, they're not going to love it. People aren't going to be happy. Why aren't they happy with that? Bob, you know, it's a weird thing. I don't know. Genuinely, they are mad, though. And yesterday did not help, obviously. I thought it would.

What? I thought it would. I mean, Ty delivered some real spirited, you know, about some of the people that he's read from these people about who should be in the game instead of the toxic table. And Ty took some shots at a lot of people yesterday in defending our program

and what we have potentially tried to do. And I'll tell you, I even took some shrapnel from what you said because I laughed at the delivery in which you said what you said because obviously it was all scripted so I knew what you were going to say. It didn't catch me off guard at all. Right. Ty came out swinging.

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Well, Ty's answering. You know, there's been a lot of heavy hands being swung at old toxic tables, Ty Schmidt and Boston Connor, and they haven't even seen. They haven't even seen the T2 yet. They haven't seen the finishing move, the T2. They haven't even seen it.

They have no idea what's coming. No. And then, obviously, you know, our move move sets get leaked and everyone's jacked up. Hey, no one's happy about that. Who put the moves in there? Oh, I don't know. I think that was hours and hours of R&D from us to get these moves into the game. But, again, you know, fucking Dave Dragon from NXT isn't in the game,

so people hate our guts. Sorry. AJ looks phenomenal as well. AJ, you looked fantastic. I mean, these. Lazy eye. We all do. I do not.

That's impressive. AJ, it's so close to being perfect, except for that left eye, you know, just kind of doing. Not a carb in his body. Look at him. Very. You should see his entrance. Yeah. No, wait.

His entrance, we will debut it next week. There's other superstars replicating it now. AJ is the picture of intensity, not just with the way his eyeball can't even remain focused because he's so intense, that left one, but the way he gets to the ring is certainly a part of it. It is, Herbie, it's awesome. All of it's awesome. Oh, yeah. I can't wait to see this.

I'll be playing this. That guy looks like he's going to hurt some people right there. Wait till you see his finisher, brother. Yeah. Oh, yeah. All right. It's going to be sweet. It is going to be sweet.

All right. The 31st, next Wednesday. I can't wait. What some people are describing as the worst DLC pack in the history of video games. Yep. Debuts. And it involves us. Yep.

Honored to be here. Can't wait to get in the ring. But we need to be draped in gold. And we will be. And we need to create these superstars. Some of these Twitter accounts need to be created on there. And they need to experience the T2. They need to learn a little bit of respect from the boys.

Don't you think? I agree. And it's going to happen. Absolutely. A lot of pain. You're goddamn right. Herbie, we haven't got a chance to talk NFL and you started going there, but there's a good transition question that Conman has as a guy who is starting his own

stream. This dude's starting his own show here in a matter of days, so he wants a little bit of tips I think. Yeah, Herbie, how is the prep going for the nfl is this something you feel like you're kind of ahead of schedule with obviously because of all the college research you do year in and year out or is right now kind of more so the hey let's dive back into the college let's do that first and then as we creep forward after training camp is when the nfl stuff starts um i kind of do both i i i was with sam hubbard and burrow a couple days ago just before they they broke into camp and it's just fun to kind of get that that energy going when you start thinking about who's going to be the team to beat

you know is burrow going to be healthy the dude is locked in i know you i'm sure you guys saw the hair oh yeah but he is he is um really wound up about the people they have around him in the backfield and out at receiver so it just got me but of course like you guys i mean you start thinking about it and thinking about these different divisions and how things might go but no i'm always kind of looking at it and thinking about who's getting – how many injuries – think about the injuries we had as a league last year. Just to have a lot of those guys back. A lot of those guys is not just Aaron and Joe, but there's so many quarterbacks, so many high-profile names. Just to have those guys back I think is going to be great for the league.

We just had our Amazon seminar I think like a week ago maybe out in California to see that whole crew with al and the studio show yeah i mean it definitely gets you in that mood to uh to turn the page and summer's pretty much once i get to fourth of july summer's kind of over and it's time to get going good for you man we can't wait to watch it we can't wait to watch you kick off nfl weeks every single thursday night alongside obviously al michaels and that incredible amazon team how was that seminar was it good you guys really grinding away you know probably oh i assume a lot of boots the pavement oh yeah laying concrete we split in the atom we get out what

is going on at that seminar how many days no? No, it was actually really good. Andy Jassy addressed us. He talked with us, who heads up Amazon. He is a diehard sports fan and really, really supportive of the commitment they've made to the NFL. That was really cool. Al, of course. Al, he loves to get up in front of the crowd, and he's like a comedian. You'd be shocked if you saw him at this stage of his career everybody who says oh he hates it you need to come to a seminar i don't know if he's

ever been any happier with the way like sherm and big wit and carissa and everybody treats him like a don um so he is he is uh in the middle of having a blast and he's never been in better health. So he's actually headed over to Paris and then on a trip to Europe for a week, I think, with his family. So, yeah, everyone's ready to go, man. You know, it's weird to have a seminar middle of July, but they had to do that because of the Olympics. And a lot of people had to work that over in Paris. So we had ours a little bit early but yeah man fired up ready to go and I how about our schedule this

year what we have you guys put that up yet I'm sure you guys talked about it I think we talked about whenever it dropped yeah I don't think we've talked about it in a bit but it is loaded Thursday nights have like good matchups legit now injuries can change everything yeah no idea what team's gonna go but there seems to be meaningful football happening to kick off each nfl week on your guys's uh platform i mean just just think of the first three i think it's buffalo at miami to open things up meaningful game matters a lot yeah and then i you know you'd wonder about how this game could go just because with aaron returning it'll be his first game back in New York

with the Pats and the Jets week two. That's the thing you're going to see is so many divisional rivalries. I think there's 11 or 12 throughout the entire season. It used to be like that, Herbie. That's what Thursday nights used to be. It used to be divisional because every divisional

if every team in the division has to go through it, you have to go through it. You might as well do it against each other. How about Cowboys-Giants in New York week three? That'll be a banger. Daniel Jones at that point will be being decided upon whether or not he's a $40 million quarterback that can carry a team or not.

What's your take on hard knocks watching that? You guys have obviously been watching that this year, this offseason? Yeah, definitely. I mean, it is. This is the best thing NFL Films has done in a long time. The best thing. The reason why I'm saying that is because the amount of access we're getting to something brand new that we never expected to be able

to get access to. The amount of shit they are talking about. We've talked about it numerous times on this show. What got cut? What are they like, nah, can't let that out. Because it seems like Saquon, Daniel Jones, your draft pick, trade talk on draft,

all the most important shit your franchise has is all being talked about publicly. I, as a person who would look to hopefully one day be able to own a team and have never seen like that action happen mara walking in no base in unreal unreal yeah all of his drop-ins all of his drop-ins are very interesting because he has no basis voice i think that's just how he talks

maybe i don't know if it's always been that way but you can't understand what he's saying can't hear what he's saying but you can see his mannerisms and his pockets yeah like always kind of like he seems like the most worryful person that i've ever uh it's literally his that is his body language every single not going to be able to sleep but knowing where they were well knowing where they were when the first maybe episode with you know obviously know how it's going to end but with saquon and looking how it ended, where they had to let him go, but you pick up a pretty good back, right, in Singletary.

They're putting all the eggs in on Daniel Jones, but they obviously get two starting offensive linemen. You pick up Brian Burns. I mean, they got some, and the draft you pick up, obviously a difference maker in neighbors. It's like from where they were and what they were facing and what kind of team they were a year ago to where they ended up you know it could have been much much that guy on the coach that stayed up till five in the morning too his

board didn't count they got him hard to hard to believe he got to earn stripes and maybe do shit that's not gonna be worth a damn in uh every business that's certainly something that they kept in the show that's another thing could have. They kept it in the show. That's another thing. Good a cut. They keep it in the show. It's like everything that you want to learn about and hear about, they are actually showing. How about all three receivers in one room together? Sick. With the wide receiver coach, that was awesome.

A lot of people going after Dayball. A lot of people going after Dayball for being so casual with his feet up on the desk and the entire thing. And then the neighbors' conversations whenever you hear them. And then you see the chatter about like, hey, this could be a... But you see Day desk and the entire thing. And then the neighbors' conversations, whenever you hear them, and then you see the chatter about like, hey, this could be a – but you see Dabo and Shane like love him. It's like, all right, well, they love him, so they've got a plan. But if Daniel Jones can't –

It's all on him, man. And he knows that too. And he's like, this place is really wondering if I am the guy. Okay, I guess let's go ahead and do this. How about all the research they did on Jaden Daniels? You know, they're looking at the quarterbacks. I mean. We're trying to trade up.

Yeah, Drake Mason. I know. I know they were. The biggest takeaway. They called New England. They called New England to maybe move up to three. If you're Daniel Jones watching that, you've got to be like, okay. I guess this is part of it.

He knows the deal. Yeah, I mean, they asked him all offseason, hey, how do you feel about the Giants taking a quarterback this year, huh, pal? Well, how about when he goes on Football Scoops and says that Joe never even made an offer or whatever it is. And it's like, yeah, it's very evident that this was – they were moving on. Yeah, they didn't want to tell Mara that. It's almost like you don't want to break up with your girlfriend in high school, but you just kind of treat her in a way that maybe she'll break up with you.

That's what it felt like the Giants were doing. Like, we don't want to be the one to say it, but maybe he'll get fed up with us and just go out on his own and leave. That basically is what happened. It did feel like that. Well, no, not at all. This week came out and said when he made that call to me, I was done.

That was on Football Scoops. Yeah, the whole... Yeah, it's interesting. Once again, it's like the Tom Brady roast. The Tom Brady roast was so mean. Hilarious. But so, so mean. I don't think it'll happen again.

This Hard Knocks offseason is like so, so wide open. I don't know any team that's going to be like, yeah, bring that one in here. Go ahead. Do they have the option to turn it down? Yeah, doesn't the league just assign that to you? Yeah, but the league is ultimately the owners. And the owners can see this. And Mara can see this.

And they can go that one per club meeting and be like yeah we're not doing it you think you think it's been bad for him the Giants yeah uh-huh Shane no I guess not I mean Mara well we got to see how it plays out we got to see obviously if Daniel Jones if they go to the playoffs I mean I don't know obviously anytime you lose everything's terrible like your entire all your cards are laid on the table so like now everybody knows exactly how Joe operates like this is exactly how this is going to I don't know. Obviously, anytime you lose, everything's terrible. Yeah, but, like, your entire, all your cards are laid on the table. So, like, now everybody knows exactly how Joe operates. Like, this is exactly how this is going to go.

Table. You gave away a lot of strategy. You gave away a lot of, like, how you operate. You gave away a lot of, like, they're giving away a lot of shit that other teams don't have to give away at all. And it's, like, for us, it's awesome. I fucking love the show. I am, like, glued to it for the first time in a long time. Yeah, it's fantastic. I fucking love the show. I am like glued to it for the first time in a long time. Yeah, it's fantastic. I love it too.

It's almost like a real-life draft day. I mean, and what a life that Joe and all the guys in that position, the scouting departments all over the country. You know, Dan Morgan, I remember when he got done playing, he started out as a scout and worked his way up. It's just a fascinating industry. All we do is, you know, the fans get caught up in the players and the coaches and what happens on a Sunday. But, man, think about the stress and trying to, like, move those chess pieces around based on cap and how this is going to.

It's not just this is the best players. I mean, you're moving that board around and you're trying to figure out, do we have a shot at this guy? What about that guy? I mean, so much goes into building these rosters that I think that's the coolest thing about for fans to see how much work these guys put into this. I agree with that narrative. And I agree with that notion. And their family members and their friends seeing that this isn't just like, oh, we talk ball, just like you do fantasy football. It's a little different levels. But, man, having everybody on earth know exactly how you think about every situation with your team is a fascinating place to be, if you're shaking.

Yeah. It's going to create so many more internet GMs on X. I mean, it's already millions of fantasy teams building a team. But now you're having access. You're seeing the actual conversations and the actual roundtables with the different collegiate scouts or pro scouts. Oh yeah, I can do this. Why don't you do that? And you see it actually play out. It'll be very, very interesting. And that whole Saquon deal with

Joe Shane, with John Mara, Mara saying, hey, I'm not going to be able to sleep and Joe Shane basically being like, yeah, okay. That's why I'm convinced the only time Mara has been in that office is during this Hard Knocks. Strictly because he comes in there and you mentioned

no bass in his voice. He's not really talking confidently. I am very much under the belief that John Mara was involved in this Hard Knocks because the cameras were in that room and that normally he would not be in there. That's unfair. I didn't feel that at all.

That was my takeaway. That's unfair. Me neither. I felt like, I was like, damn, Marr's pretty involved. I feel like he's the... Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. Bingo.

I don't know. So if that is every year, then whose fucking fault is this? Why the Giants have collapsed? Well, he's actually been right every time. Just every time they say they're going to do something, he goes, I don't know. Jesus. He can't be able to sell any fucking jerseys. He is the most popular.

Exactly. His biggest worry. By far. But if we let Saquon go, our jersey sales are going to go fucking through town to toilets. Bottom line. Joe Shane's like, yeah, okay, John, shut the fuck up. I'm signing Singletary for $20 to $30 million less. Every time I see him walking out of an office, it's head down.

I'm like, geez, this guy's a billionaire, has a team in New York City. He knows. He knows. We're going to fucking suck again. I'm going to have to do the same song all day. Go to these cocktail bars. I love that they brought Shane Bowen in, and they were like, Shane, can you work with Brian Burns?

You think that'll work for you? It's like, I think that'll work. Yeah, I think we can make some plays with him and Big Dex up front. Thibodeau? Thibodeau on the other side. Yeah, it think we can make some plays with him and Big Dex up front. Thibodeau? Thibodeau on the other side. Yeah, it's a pretty good group. All right. They might be better than you think.

Okay. Yeah, maybe. There's a chance. And if they are, we've got to see how the sausage was made, too, which is a beautiful thing for the NFL. And, you know, just like Patrick Mahomes on quarterback went on to win the Super Bowl, maybe that's what people will think about NFL films, hard knocks, offseason, where we're going to show you

everything. Period. That's just the... That's the show. It's awesome. Speaking of being awesome... Yeah. So... You seen one of these before, Herbie? Never have.

Real deal? Yeah, this is the one. This is the one. This is the one. Wow. Look closer. Yeah. Yeah, what's up? I can't see it. Yeah, it's right there.

It's right there. Oh! What do you mean? You actually couldn't see it? Jesus Christ. No. Hey, dude, I've won two of those, but I didn't get a beautiful belt like that. Well, it's a title.

Thank you. But like the... I got some boo shit trophy that was about this big. Oh, that would have been cool, too. Did it have your name on it? Lee Kirkwood? Yeah. It said Lee Kirkwood on it.

Sweet name. Yeah, great fake name. I'm coming for that this year. I don't think so. No more tone giving you all your answers. I did none of that last year. Thank you. And I beat your fucking ass, Herbie.

So remember. Then AJ did. Someone's giving you a shit. AJ doesn't know shit. You sound like all those old whites that hate me on Game Day. Dude. Dude. All you did was pick West Virginia every week.

Boom. Okay. It was Colorado, right? Didn't Colorado get you into an early lead? It's over if the week won. Yeah. How much were they? 20?

Yeah, 20, 21. And then they won by, yeah, and then you get the bonus points for the. And then they finished three and nine, right? So you got on them at the right time. Yeah, I rode with them for a while. I saw them cooking. I'm a believer. I think they'll figure it out.

A lot of stuff, though. I don't like, like, a lot of teams that just have stuff, you know, it's hard. Because it's hard to win. It is hard to win in football when everybody is focused and everybody's locked in. But there's some teams that are able to navigate stuff, you know. Like the Chiefs, stuff, there's stuff, there's stuff. Whenever the Patriots, there's stuff, there's stuff, there's stuff. In college, the Saban, I assume there's stuff, stuff, stuff.

Georgia. Georgia, stuff. There's like stuff. Like the stuff around the program can be a distractor. And like with prime, there's going to be like that's how it's going to be. Like can you still win? And I think with the talent they have they can yeah i think bringing in warren sap's a big deal yeah i think that is a sweet mohawk energy everything he's gonna be teaching game but that's they got a tough schedule north dakota state start this thing yeah that is be careful there too oh

yes yeah that is a real deal and i think people think that might be my first one i mean i may get off to a fast start with the belt there in that pick. It's a title, not a belt. Belts hold up your pants. These are to celebrate beating somebody's ass. In this case, all of you. So this is a title, not a belt. Thank you so much.

I'm coming for the title. We're going to learn a lot quick about that Colorado team. Yeah. I mean, literally. Send Nebraska to office. Lucky for them, too. The Big 12 is kind of a podunk conference now. So, you know, it's going to be fairly easy. Literally. Send Nebraska off his lung. Lucky for them, too. The Big 12 is kind of a podunk conference now.

So, you know, it's going to be fairly easy. The Utah Utes are in the Big 12 now. True. That's the first team we think of? The Utah Utes? I mean, yeah, they're kind of the cream of the crop. They're the highest ranked team. Creme de la creme.

No. Them and Iowa State, you know, pains me to say it, but them and Iowa State, kind of the top dogs. You know why you're getting a chance to be a part of greatness with this thing and your presence right now? Why is that? Because West Virginia Mountaineers, buddy. And that Big 12 conference is theirs. Texas and Oklahoma ran to the SEC because of the

Super Dogs that roam around in Morgantown, West Virginia. That's what kind of sucks. They won't be the Super Dogs. They're going to be the Super Favorites this year. Nah, people see Gigi and they go, this kid can't do it. He does. And then they see Neil Brown and his look and they're like,

that guy can't do it. He does. What do you mean his look? The bowl cut. The bowl cut, the visor on top of it. No, that's not what we're talking about. What do you mean? I'm talking about the visor and the whole thing.

That's what I was talking about. Well, what are you going to do when West Virginia plays great and Neil Brown's the new coach of the Dallas Cowboys next year? I mean, there is a chance that Neil Brown – Trade him for Mike McCarthy. There's a chance he climbs the mountain too fast this year. Falls off. Yeah.

No. Free falls, his ropes give out. I don't know. What's an SEC job that's potentially available after this year? I'm worried about it. Bama. Vanderbilt. How about Bama?

How do you feel about that? How do I feel? Yeah. Some people, I don't know if they're not familiar with Kalen DeBoer. The guy coaches. I mean, he's different. The guy knows how to coach. He's really good.

He's really good. Yeah, they'll be fine. They'll be totally different. Completely different as far as, you know, inside that building, obviously, and how the operations run. But it doesn't mean they can't win a lot of games. He's a hell of a coach. I think they'll be fine.

The big thing is long-term, can he recruit, obviously, against LSU and Auburn and Georgia, you know, and get the people that he needs. And I help. No, no, we're saying Brian Kelly. Brian Bowles. Brian Bowles. I think Kalen DeBoer is a freak.

I think he's a very, very good coach. I agree completely. He's very kind to us and was able to get Washington to turn around very quickly. He wins. That's what he does. I assume he'll do the same in Alabama. Going to have to do it without downs, which is now at Ohio State, which leads us back to the original conversation.

Ohio State is packed to the gills with talent. You guys do this every week? Yeah. Got to do it without Downs, who's now at Ohio State, which leads us back to the original conversation. Ohio State is packed to the gills with talent. You guys do this every week? Yeah. Gotta win it all? Wait till they only win by 20. Yeah, oh my God. AJ, you gotta take care of him. I'm just, I'm telling the truth. You're saying what? Urban

and Trest said it's the best team in the history. Urban's got a goddamn restaurant there. Yeah. He's he can walk around and they do a parade. He's saying the same team in the history. Urban's got a goddamn restaurant there. He can walk around and they do a parade. He's saying the same thing I'm saying. Kirk, you don't even like Ohio State. Yeah, that's what I heard. That's what I heard. I heard you hate Ohio State. That's what I heard.

Yeah, you picked against them. It seems like every week. When he calls their games, he fucking always gets on. So biased. So biased. Why does he hitting every team? I don't know. That's college football, which is what we're signing back up for, and I am lucky to do so.

I appreciate the hell out of you. I will see you in a bit. Good luck at that next seminar you're headed to, and we can't wait to see you over in Dublin. I'll see you at the seminar in August 6th. I'll see you up there. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. AJ hosting you up in Bristol. We'll kill him. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. AJ Hosting, you up in Bristol. We'll kill them. Yeah, there's a

Zoom link for that. Do it in Bristol? Yeah, we're going to go into Bristol. Capital of the country, my friend. Yes, they are. That was actually the haggling point in the negotiation is can't be doing the... Yeah, we'll see you up there. Nutmeg State. We'll see you up there, kid. Can't wait. Soccer talk. Love that. Ladies and gentlemen,

Kirk Herbstreit. As we're talking to our friend Kirk Herbstreit. Yeah. Herbie. As we're talking to our friend Kirk Herbstreit, some things happened in the NFL. And obviously, at this standpoint of time, we are excited about arrivals to training camp. Our eyes on these players for the first time as they're checking in to go ahead and try to climb the mountain. And at the end, at its peak, at its climax, is being a world champion and being etched in history forever. How about today?

We see Lamar Jackson back from an illness. Back from an illness. Obviously, Lamar Jackson and the Baltimore Ravens have high expectations, as they should. I cannot wait to watch that man who Harbaugh, his head coach, said he's going to go on to become the greatest of all time. That's a Lamar Jackson story. He's always going to have haters. For what reason, we don't know.

This is the guy. How about Josh Allen arriving at training camp? How about it, baby? One sleeve hoodie. Look how sweet he looks. He's got a lot of swag. I saw him he had MVS's chain on. I believe he had his sunglasses on as well. He was dancing in the club with the boys, building camaraderie.

We appreciate the hell out of Josh Allen. How about Anthony Richardson for the Colts? Only got to play four or five games last year. Fresh off a shoulder rehab. He says he's feeling better than ever. He is walking in with a cane. This is more accurately described as? A cane.

Kappa. He's a kappa. So, crossover, new frat. So, that's sweet. Crossover and new frat. Crossover and new frat. What does that mean? He entered a fraternity. When? Recently? I believe this offseason. I'm not sure what month.

This is the black fraternity that does the right? The Q's, Robert Mathis and many others throughout the history of the NFL and every athlete. They do the jump. There is Spice Adams hopping. And it is, we've seen it in team meetings, rookie shows. Atomic Dog comes on, literally.

Steve Harvey, I believe, is in it. Like the whole, the cues. Yes, Shaq is a, So this is the Kappas. And they, hey, they're smooth, AJ. They got butter shoulders, is what I was told. They got butter shoulders, and that means that his shoulder's feeling healthier than ever. His shoulder's feeling better than ever from what I've been told. There's AR showing up at camp.

We absolutely love that. How about the new quarterback down in Atlanta? $180 million, $130 million guaranteed. Garth Cosner shows up yeah hey atlanta hawks jersey obviously the guns are on display as a man who is uh you know thought going to a place that was going to be 100 his team and his final team and retire there and they say not so fast kirk cousins we're actually going to draft somebody that you're going to have to teach while also learning. That's his first time checking into training camp at the Atlanta Falcons, and

that is just how it has gone. And then here's quarterback for the Pittsburgh Steelers, Russell Wilson, showing up. Thanks mucho to Brian Batko of Post Gazette Sports, the newspaper in Pittsburgh. Russell Wilson has arrived at training camp for the Pittsburgh Steelers. Hell yeah.

Use me, Jesus! Wait, where is he? He's too quick. You guys couldn't see him. That's how much speed he's gained in the offseason. And you guys are going to say, did you do all of those? That's how much speed right there. That's the Russ effect.

That's Russell Wilson, baby. Is that really the video they put out? Yeah, and people are going to say, you assholes did that just so you could show that Russell Wilson video at the end. And no. That is not how we operate. Let's make it clear. The Steelers didn't put that out, AJ.

That's Post Gazette Sports journalist Brian Botko. It feels like you guys did do this. No, if we did that, we would have the sweet picture with Caboli still with his leg sleeve off. Good point. Speaking of, we should get to that. But, Bartko, thanks for the angle.

Thanks for the shot. It is big news. Yeah. And once we finally saw Russell Wilson in a different place. That was the final video. I saw the – okay, that was the final one because I see the other ones where I actually get to see Russ in his sweet Steelers shirt and Caboli. But that was like – that was the tweet.

That was – yeah, that was the one I saw this morning. Yeah. I was putting but that was the tweet. That was the one I saw this morning. Putting birthday together for the wife. This is the one I saw. How could if he had known that Russ had to go behind the car and make sure it wasn't leaking a little before he came out? You can keep recording. No, Russ turns him off.

Well, then how do you... Possibly. He actually did turn that corner of that G-wagon there had a pittsburgh steelers shirt that you could find at any store pretty much probably dynastrip hopefully he bought it and then he asked uh what's uh what's pr guy burt lott i was trying to figure out his last name he says burt who's been a pittsburgh city's pr guy for a long time great dude good dude been good to us good pittsburgh High school Pittsburgh boy there. He goes, Bert, we talking to him now? And you go,

later. He'll do it later. Oh, later. Okay. And he just walks right past him. Catch my keys, bitch. Yeah, Bert. No. No, you don't do that to Bert. No, that's when he hit him with a use me Jesus on his... Use me Jesus. Oh, okay. He is gonna be used by Jesus. Always. Every day. If that means getting a Super Bowl,

then I'll let Jesus use me all day long, too. Proud of you, Tony. Russell Wilson is the face of Pittsburgh. We feel good. We feel pumped about it. I've never felt better. I wish I was lying. Better than when 7 was there? Wow. No, no, no. I mean, that's not possible. But in post-7,

A7, AS, yeah, about as good as you can feel. Hey, great work today. That 14 team continuity thing was beautiful. Felt good. Good question. Good grinding. That means there's going to be a good hammer done today. Good job from you guys, too.

Oh, hey, do we have any corrections? That's a good call. There are some. Not many from you guys, though. Oh, sweet. Love that. We love this. From the guests. The guests kind of fucked up today. I think Rule and Herbie talked about the amount of backup quarterbacks in the NFL in the last couple of seasons. 66 was the number of starting quarterbacks last year. I said 90, I think. Flipped that first six.

You guys were talking about Rule in year two versus year three. Year three is when Temple and Baylor got to double-digit wins, but in year two, Temple had four more wins than year one, and Baylor had six more wins than year one. So there will be some improvement this year. Rule pretended like he didn't know who the fuck

Dutch Danger was. But he did show respect. He did show respect, but the guy is back-to-back national champion. Thank you. Rule knows that Dutch is dangerous. So I thought that was weird. Checked with sources.

Lombo, there's not a printing press of money in Dan's kitchen, as Lombo said. I forgot he brought that up. Good point. And then, oh, you guys did have one mistake, one huge mistake. I saw a video. Actually, I saw two videos today. Michael Rubin, I think he owns Fanatics.

How come him throwing a baseball hasn't been on this program yet? What are you talking about? He did it again? I hate... We showed this last week, Tone! Is that Paul Skeetons? This one's 36 or something? You guys showed this? Paul Peens.

39, there it is once again. Yes, that is Mr. Rubin throwing a baseball. That's from a long time ago. Oh. Toned. That's another mistake by me then. Okay. We're correcting the correct.

Yep. That's part of the problem, but that's also part of the beauty. Yes. Because as long as we can continue to learn, we can continue to get better. Did you see that control? That command of the plate? Well, the third one, the one we didn't get to see, was going to be. He burns it right down the middle.

103. Yeah. It is interesting. How does he grip the ball? I wonder how he grips the ball to let it come out that. He's a knuckle pitcher. No, palming it. He's holding it by the palm of his hand.

Too much fire. You don't think it's all fingies? No. He's not. I thought the movement on it, that's why it got. If you know how to throw a fucking baseball, but if you pick it up in the palm of your hand and just fucking go like that. He even took some off of the second one, still couldn't find the catcher's mitt there.

No, he wasn't. The second one. The first one was gas. The second one was the off speed. He did, yeah. All right, all right. Tone, I hope you're happy. This is from weeks ago.

Wee! Hope you're happy, Tone, I hope you're happy. This is from weeks ago. I hope you're happy, Tone. I'm not happy. That's from weeks ago. That guy's doing a lot of things for sports, though. Shoulder okay. He might need Tommy John surgery after that. Yeah, and also maybe his hips, too. There was a lot.

Throwing an Air Force One's not easy, either, because he's got a big base. He couldn't really flip his hips. You know what I mean? And this entire thing. Throwing an Air Force Ones isn't easy? That's right because he's got a big base. This guy should spend 23 hours every single day for however long. Learn how to throw a fucking baseball.

No, he doesn't have to. He does throw. He's 48 miles an hour. He is baseball. I think we're past that. I think he's probably moved's already at this. He does throw. He's 48 miles an hour. He is baseball. I think we're past that. I think he's probably moved on from that part. He shouldn't. They should show this every single day.

Well, Tone's trying to. And it sounds like you back. I don't think so. You're kind of born with that, though. It makes me sick to my stomach. Being able to throw and catch. It legit makes me sick to my stomach. My tummy hurts.

I feel like I need to go shit and puke right now. That's a standard operating procedure for you. I had Jersey Mike's today. They would never. That's so good. But how come people don't... I guess it's just... We assume everybody can shoot a basketball, can throw, and can catch.

And that is so narrow-minded of us, which we are going to continue. The guy owns the biggest sports merchandise company in the world. Learn how to throw a fucking baseball. I think we're all in this together. Or just don't do it publicly. That's the plan we have. Anyways, we already

passed this. We did this two weeks. Thank you, Tone. Thank you. My bad. What are we doing, man? I assume that's why no baseball players were invited to the White Party. Was he the quarterback? It's a millionth season. They baseball players were invited to the White Party. Was he the quarterback? All-time quarterback? It's a millionth season.

They can't make it to the party. He's got the most points in the history of California. Did he play in college somewhere? Baseball, yeah. Texas. App State. I thought both. Football, baseball, both. We move along.

Here's a slot receiver for Colt McCoy. His last name used to be Shipley. We're unburdened by. I remember him. I have a correction. I don't believe he played baseball or football at Texas. Okay, we're unburdened by what has

been okay on this particular program and the mistakes that we have made as we power along here. It is very narrow-minded of us to not understand people that don't watch sports or don't understand sports or have never tried sports. But each one reach one.

Each one teach one. We need to continue to grow the sports community because the world needs more sports than it's ever needed before. And we're right on the precipice of this Olympic Games. It's already started. The USA rugby team tied France, who was supposed to absolutely maul them earlier today.

Then our soccer team's playing France, I believe right now, to kick off the Olympic Games for our soccer team. So it's like right now we're in a time to celebrate sports. Let's do that. And I hope some of these people in these other parts of the world that are currently just seemingly collapsing and going after each other, why don't you just fucking put your sword down for 10 minutes, watch the Olympic Games, fake root for a team, even if you don't really root, and just disappear for a little bit in competition.

Which is what we all need. We all need something to pull for, root for, go for. And that's why the fact that football is just... 43 days away. And college football is only... 31 days away. Let's enjoy all of this. We're so incredibly lucky and thankful that we get to do this every day.

Game day is going to be awesome. I'm so honored that I get the opportunity to be a part of that show. Let's enjoy it all. Be a friend. Tell a friend something nice. It might change their life. Happy birthday to my wife. Happy birthday, Stan.

We're going to sing together. Team on me. Team on three. One, two, three. Good night.