The Pat McAfee Show - PMS 2.0 1270 - College Football Playoff Recap, Sugar Bowl Preview, NFL Week 18 Preview/Picks, Nick Saban, Laura Rutledge LIVE From The Sugar Bowl, Chuck Pagano, & AJ Hawk

Episode Date: January 2, 2025

On today’s show, Pat, Coach Pagano, AJ Hawk, and the boys recap all of the different College Football Playoff games including the Rose Bowl in which they were on the field for the MegaCast, preview tonight’s Sugar Bowl game between Notre Dame and Georgia, plus they go through all the NFL week 18 games and make their picks against the spread. Joining the progrum to recap the College Football Playoff, as well as look ahead to some of the upcoming games is 7x National Champion, College GameDay panelist, the GOAT, Nick Saban. Next, ESPN College Football/NFL sideline reporter, and host of NFL Live, Laura Rutledge joins the show live from the Mercedes Benz SuperDome ahead of the Sugar Bowl to chat about how the postponement of the game is being received between both teams, what the vibe and atmosphere around New Orleans right now, who the day postponement will benefit, and who she likes in the Sugar Bowl and Sunday Night Football. Make sure to subscribe to youtube.com/thepatmcafeeshow 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’re off tomorrow, we’ll see you for Overreaction Monday. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hello beautiful people and welcome to our humble abode the Thunderdome on the Sugar Bowl Thursday January 2nd 2024 this program starts now Football it's wonderful We've been celebrating it obviously for the last two weeks in a big way fresh off the field over there in Pasadena Rose Bowl right here to Indianapolis, Indiana as the Sugar Bowl will kick off down in New Orleans at 4 p.m. Eastern. Obviously that was scheduled for last night after the heinous act, terrorist act,

that took place yesterday morning, that was moved to today. We will be chatting with Laura Rutledge in the second hour, who has been boots on the ground throughout the entirety of this. She will actually be on the sideline down there in New Orleans at the Sugar Bowl to break down everything that we need to know that has happened over the last 24 hours. And who does this favor?

Yeah. Does it favor the Georgia Bulldogs who have already had a break? Or does it favor the Notre Dame team who gets an extra day after having a tough one against Indiana in 10 degree weather up there in South Bend. Now they are trying to punch the final ticket into the semifinals of the college football playoff.

Ohio State just beat the hell out of Oregon. Arizona State gave Texas everything they could handle and I can't wait to see Kam Scataboo in the NFL. He was a leading passer, receiver, rusher. I think he had a couple tackles too somehow. And he puked more than anybody. He put on an absolute show in a double overtime thriller that saw Texas inevitably get a big time win. And then obviously Penn State beat Boise State to kick off the entire round of quarterfinals. Now we just wait on Notre Dame and Georgia. Cannot wait to see how this fares.

Now, you look at the first semifinals that's already been made. Down there in Texas, it's the SEC taking on the Big Ten. And you look down there at the Orange Bowl, it's currently the Big Ten waiting, who? Is it going to be an SEC team, or is it going to be an independent team? All the teams that have had buys

got their asses kicked early. Arizona State was even down a bunch going all the way into the fourth quarter. They come back scrapping claw and show that Big 12 grit to make that a game to take it into overtime. Oregon just got gobsmacked early. 31-0 coming off of Bi-Week.

You won the championship. Congrats. You get a Bi-Week from the first round. What do you get? Oh, Ohio State playing their best ball, fresh off an ass beating in Tennessee, ready to roll. You've got to gather your thoughts. This game's already over.

And then you think about what happened with Penn State. Boise State had two fumbles in the first quarter. I think there was another turnover. Penn State came out flying after their massive win at home a week before that in the freezing cold. It's like the first round buys, I think, are gonna be reallocated, rechatted about whenever we move forward in this 12-team playoff.

But nonetheless, college football, playoff football is better than no football, and we're lucky to be a part of it all. Then obviously as we forecast ahead into the weekend, massive NFL games. Big time implications. There's playoff implications on the line. There's number one overall seed implications on the line on the NFC side. So football is buzzing and we're lucky to talk about it all. We'll have coach Saban join us in about seven to eight minutes to kind of gather his thoughts on how it's all going.

The talk to the table is here at boss Connor Natashmi. One half of the hammer, done. Cowboys AP Tone is here. A man who has coached football for 36 years of his life. 18 in college, 18 in the NFL. A man that I called head coach one time. Absolute honor of mine, not his. Ladies and gentlemen, Chuck Pagano. Yeah, Chuck.

Chuck, the bye week has kind of become something here. It's kind of become a talking point, as it should be. They say is it rest, is it rust? Some of these teams wait like three weeks before playing ball. That's a long time while another team is kind of gearing up. You can get healthy. Isaiah Bond comes back obviously for Texas and I know they had to play in the first round, but you can get healthy and get guys back for this entire thing. But you can also get a little bit too comfortable. You can also kind of fail on your fundamentals and techniques. You can also have to get like woken up in the first quarter, which all these teams have

had to do thus far. Is Georgia going to be able to handle it better than others you think because they've been in this situation before? I think so. There's such a fine line and Kirby's done this for so long and been in these games, you know, so, so many times. He knows the right balance. It's always trying to figure out like with the buys and you got two and

a half, three weeks, how much do we practice? How much do we rest? How much is walk through? How much we're going to tackle? How much ball secure? All those things that you listen to every head coach that we talked to, you guys talked on the side of what's the biggest concern with having a couple weeks off.

It's our ability, are we going to be able to tackle? Are we going to be able to take care of the ball? you saw you mentioned Ascension and I was there for that game You know with the in Tempe there for that game in Phoenix the Fiesta Bowl He hadn't fit he fumbled what twice all season right and he's got two fumbles You know in the first quarter first half of that game So you're always worried about knocking off rust you always worried always worried about, you know, your guys and the, excuse me, the distractions, you know, in the period of time and listening to this, listen to that to maintain focus. Kirby and his boys will be focused. He's had delays before and obviously bowl games have had delays. There's been like month and a

half delays for like some teams that end up playing in the semi finals or in a national championship before alone this season. But it has become a little bit of a despair. You're talking about Russ holding onto the ball, hitting people. It's also like game speed. You know, we saw Oregon watching Jeremiah come across and then like eye candy and you haven't been like in a

season, it's like back to back weeks. Okay. So you're kind of in it. Whenever you're out of that, you can try to replicate it in practice You try your best to replicate it But whenever it's all happening and then like check that you're a guy my guy what zone am I in? What am I doing having to get that all back in in the first quarter of a college football playoff game? And the other team knows that you got that shit to deal with too

So they're coming out trying to kill and Chip Kelly in the Ohio State Buckeyes I think their plan their strategy and taking Kelly in the Ohio State Buckeyes, I think their plan, their strategy and taking advantage of the break was evident. I think that was very, very evident. And also, if you got that guy on your team, I mean, triple coverage, double coverage behind the line of scrimmage down the field on a sideline in the middle of the field. I mean, where's number four? Let's go and give him the rock. And then Abouka obviously is able to eat as well. He's the number one wide receiver on a able to eat as well He's a number one wide receiver on a lot of teams Tate a number one wide receiver on a lot of teams But I think what I've seen from this Ohio State team with these eyes these last two games That was filthy I was right there doing with him on the side

I couldn't help we get excited the entire thing watching him jump almost hit his head off the crossbar Yeah, you know my say his head off the crossbar there while he was jumping and turning and doing his thing He's a freak show all All season though, there is a chance. Now this is Chip Kelly's first season as offense coordinator over there, but Chip Kelly obviously knows the game. There's a chance that like the way you run your offense, you have to take care of a lot of people, you know, with the new transfer portal, with the NIL, with how people feel like you can get a lot of players plucked, especially if you're in there. So maybe Chip Kelly was trying to make everybody happy for a long time

Maybe I'm not saying this what he was doing, but I'm these last two weeks there has been an obvious effort We are gonna Jeremiah Smith's gonna get the ball. Yeah, and I think everybody okay with that Guys we're gonna throw it number four Jeremiah everybody go with that. Yes coach. Yeah, we're good with that. Okay, good That's where it was very obvious i mean in the tennessee game it was like as soon as will howard saw jeremiah one-on-one it was like i don't care what this play is i'm going his way and that happened last night a bunch of times it was like i don't know what the play was supposed to be but i do know jeremiah smith is on the field so let's go and try to get him the rock there was a couple plays where he

wasn't in you know and then as soon as he gets back on the field, it's like, we know what is gonna happen here. He's unguardable. And it don't matter. It does not matter. And also, I like the fact that this Ohio State team is just trying to do whatever they can to dominate people. It's not like, hey, we're not gonna try to prove we're tough. We are.

You know how we know we're tough? We're up 31-nothing on you. We're not gonna try to prove that everybody else on the team is just as good, which they are. They got weapons everywhere. We got something that's different than everybody else, and he's a 19 year old freak show. And he's seemingly work ethic insane. Coming out of high school, I guess he wanted to be coached. I think you talked to Heartline. Heartline like breaks it down. He's like, hey, all these guys that come through here, the wide receiver corridor, Heartline's guys. They're all told like, hey, we're going to work. We're going to do, this is how we're going to do it.

The buy-in from that wide receiver room over there in Ohio State has created just greats through it all. Marvin Harrison Jr., we're like, this guy, how are you going to get another one? How are you going to get it? Jackson Smith and Jigme, he gives for $3.47 in the Rose Bowl. How are you going to get another one of these guys? Chris Olavich, how are you going to get

another one of these guys? And it's like, oh, well, here it is, the youngest one that has ever come through here. And he might be the best one ever. It's like what Heartline's doing over there in that wide receiver room, co-offense coordinator. It's like, what a dog, what a recruiter, what a coach, and what a team, understanding what they have value. This Ohio State team is by far the hottest team in football.

No doubt. Right now, in all of football. You know, I guess you could drop in like Cincinnati Bengals what they're doing, but their defense hasn't been as high. Ohio State's defense is saying You're not really playing either. Did you see that last night? What's that? Like every time a guy caught the ball, bam, like D-Bud said it stapled to the ground I mean they knocked the living shit out of this team Well, they were so physical

and nobody, there was no run after, there was nothing. Nobody had any room to breathe. And Chuck, you know this, if you can get to the passer with four, you got seven dudes sitting back watching. And with the way Oregon operates, which is a lot of misdirection, a lot of quick yak, we're going to go do this. They just swarmed. They had four dudes on everything seemingly on both sides and then ransom and Caleb down Oh, they were there. Hey Ed Reed Troy Paul Molle type plays out of ransom last night down in the box blowing people up Then you're talking about Caleb down just having a vision for everything. They got high football IQ

They got all the speed in the world. They got NFL guys at every single position Obviously, they've spent the money to get this team to bring in Chip Kelly's offense coordinator But everybody they're playing against has done the exact same thing. They're all buying in in that Michigan loss Is the greatest thing that happened to the team? Because we talked about this last night with AJ and D butts on the sideline Whenever you look around and go what's the worst thing that could happen to us? What is the absolute worst thing that could happen to us? Well, I guess we could lose the Michigan this year Okay, so when that happens, that's the worst thing that you hit rock bottom. Okay, what's the word our entire state in our entire state?

I apologize for lumping all Ohio State fans in there But it certainly felt like that for a majority the entire state is bummed out about the team This is a waste of talent waste of money We another year of not being able to All the things are being said about them. They felt that too. They felt that in there. And then all of a sudden, what? We still got an opportunity? Yeah. So let's just go ahead. We've hit rock bottom. Let's be free and let's go hunt. And that is exactly what that team does on the offense, defense, and special teams. They're kickers hitting that ball over the net.

Every single kick is going over the net pure We're talking right down the middle you talk about Texas missing a couple kicks this Jaden fielding kids who's kicking for a lot of state He in four degree weather in Columbus. He's hitting that ball pure. I like where they're at on all three phases I'll be all three phases. They are so talented But you talked about with heartline and then recruiting so Smith, five-star number one wide receiver coming up. Emeka Ibuka, five-star number one wide receiver coming out. Cardinal Tate, five-star number three wide receiver coming out. And then Brandon Ennis, or Enis, depending on how you want to pronounce it, he was also a five-star number five wide receiver coming up.

So if you're a wide receiver, right, what they've got going on anywhere in a country, the first place you're looking to go. Oh That guy that place I'm going to have that guy coach me and develop me because it's gonna get me up He's a crazy because it's cold Yeah, like normally you think like SEC climb now joining us now ladies and gentlemen is the greatest college football coach of all time Superstar on TV legend. I assume he's about to win some hardware for TV as well. You know, I assume you should. They're going to be lined up. I think so as they should be. Ladies and gentlemen, West Virginia man. College football good. Guy who loves a good meal. You love good.

He will love good meal. Nick Saban. How you doing? How are we doing today, man? Okay, so we saw Ohio State beat the hell out of the SEC's Tennessee in freezing cold at home. And I didn't know if that was Tennessee not showing up or Ohio State playing just unbelievable football. So I picked Oregon to beat Ohio State. What a what a what a interesting decision that was because I actually watched the Tennessee Ohio State game

and I saw how dominant they were. And then last night, what they did to Oregon was just all three phases smothering. What did you see from them? And by far the hottest team in football right now in your eyes, clearly? Yeah, I think you hit the nail on the head though. I think that having teams that had high expectations externally, like we sometimes did at Alabama,

creates an anxiety on your team that players play tight, they play not to lose. I actually think you hit the nail on the head when you said when they lost the Michigan game what's the worst thing that could ever happen. Now these guys are just playing free and easy and going out there to play to win. Everybody's making plays, quarterback's playing better, everybody's relaxed, playing with confidence and I actually picked Ohio State because you know when I saw the way they played against Tennessee, which was a dominating performance in all three phases, I said these guys are

gonna be hard to stop if they continue to play that way and I thought they would gain that momentum in the playoffs. So I'm in a hundred percent agreement with you in terms of how this team's playing right now and why. What about that guy right there coach Jeremiah Smith they threw it to him in triple coverage they threw it to him when he had six eyes on him they threw it whenever there was one guy they Chip Kelly clearly said over the last couple weeks. Hey number four is on our team Let's make sure we're utilizing him. Will Howard's best tag team partner is Jeremiah Smith now granted They have a run game

So you can't have too much outside the box or Judkins and Henderson will kill you but this guy's a freak Coach and we talked about all the wide receivers that have come out of this Ohio State wide receiver room this guy might be the best of them all can you ride a wide receiver to a national title? I don't think there's any question about it you know when you have a mismatched player like that you know Chuck knows this when you're a coach and you know you got a go-to guy and they can't guard the guy from a quarterback standpoint. I mean, who makes who better, the receiver make the quarterback better, the quarterback make the receiver better.

And you know when you got a mismatch guy like this that he's gonna make plays in critical situations. I mean, we had Julio Jones back in 2009 or whatever, and he was that kind of player. And we lots of first-round draft pick wide receivers But he was the one guy that you knew if you threw him the ball in a critical situation He was going to win and he was going to make the play and I think that's what they got in this guy number four Okay, he advances obviously to the semi-finals cannot wait to see what Ryan day in that Ohio State Buckeye team Continue to do Texas also gets a massive win over Arizona State now the first round buys

Have proven to be a bit of a detriment for the first half of these teams that didn't play in the first round Same thing happened with Arizona State Texas comes out and beats their ass early. They're down big it was like a Baseball score there for a bit with a safety and a field goal for Arizona State. And then in the second half, Arizona State and Kam Scataboo came alive. I mean this Arizona State team showed fight, represented the Big 12 in a beautiful fashion. Scataboo even threw a 40-yard touchdown in the entirety of it all. It's just like, what happened with Texas? Are you worried about this?

Or is this more of a celebration of Cam Scataboo and what this Arizona State team is? Well, I think Arizona State, you know, I think psychological disposition is really important in terms of playing in big games. And, you know, these guys talked a lot of smack going into the game. So they had high expectations

and they thought they were gonna go out there and just dominate this game in the beginning. It didn't happen. They got frustrated. But once they regained their poise in the game and just became who they were, they were a physical team all year. They ran, scataboos, physical guy, quarterback took advantage of their ability to run the ball and then make plays down the field, even though they don't have great receivers. But as soon as they became who they are, they competed and really almost kind of physically kicked Texas ass a little bit in this game. And that's why I think it's so important for whoever's playing in these games to be able to stay who you are.

Control what you can control. You control what you do. The game's always gonna be about what we do. Forget about what the other team does. That's technical in terms of how we match the patterns or how we block their fronts. But the rest of it is you gotta focus on what you gotta do and quit worrying about all this other outside bullshit.

Okay, so let's talk about what you can do. Kicker for Texas is going through it. Tone has a question for you. Yeah, coach. I feel like before Will Reichard, you kind of went through this with some kickers. And Texas' kicker, Bird Auburn, he was first team all-conference last season. So it's not like he is a bad kicker. But this year he has kind of hit a cold streak.

And then there was a video of Sark, you know, kind of talking to him before that, that final miss kind of, you know, giving him a pump up speech in that situation when you've dealt like kickers in the past, I know coaches either have, well, I'm going to talk to him or I talked to coach Begano this morning. He was like, I just tried to stay as far away as possible. What was your mindset dealing with kickers when they were either going through a situation like this or not? You can verify this was three save us, but when I saw that happening I

Said I never talked to these guys Yeah, I didn't I didn't want to think it was a different kick than every other kick they had to make you know and and be so concerned about the outcome of making the kick that they didn't just, you know, kick with confidence and go through their normal rhythm of how they do what they do. Um, you know, I mean, I always go back to golf, man, as soon as you think you've got to make a shot, you're going to make a bad shot. So you gotta be in the right mind all the time.

As a kicker, I didn't like, you know, I didn't mind him going to talk to him for how long it was and how focused it was. Okay, here's something. But if a coach wants to come up to a kicker and say like, hey we believe in you brother, and then just as you're going out there, like I don't think that's bad. But that was clearly not what his normal pre-kick routine is, right? Like Vinatieri, if there was a timeout, he's going back to the net, he's hitting a ball into the net, and then he's jogging onto the field

about the same amount of time that would be a normal kick. So like you ice him, did you really know? He's also not staring at the upright. Like this guy's staring at the side that he's going to kick at the entire time. So I think like the pre-kick routine, whether it's start talking to him or not, I think was kind of bobbled there.

I think that was kind of a mismanaged situation. And normally you'll see guys just try to, okay, you're taking the time out or whatever. Let's go ahead and get back and then bang, same kick. Let's go out there and do it. So if he makes that kick, I think people would obviously celebrate the shit out of Sark. But what you said to Reece Davis was the same thing that Darius Butler said as we were watching it on the side. No shot. He's talking to him way too long. Obviously making the moment bigger, which it is.

You hit this kick, we move on to college football playoff. But I thought that was interesting. Burt's a good kicker. He's missed a few now though. There's two yesterday and they missed running against Michigan. I think he's a good kicker. Gonna need to make them going down.

Especially with how these games are gonna get, I think, Coach. So if you were a kicker on our team, and I was the coach, I'd be scared to death to talk to you before you kicked. I'd be afraid you'd tell me to go kiss off. So I- Yeah, well, it depends on how I feel, you know?

It depends on how I feel. It depends on how, if I just missed one, he just missed one before that, I think, right? He had just missed one. So then you come up, if a coach was to give me like a, hey, all good, ass slap, keep it moving, I think that's A-okay. But doing the full on, that's an interesting moment.

Yeah, that's an interesting moment. That's a very interesting moment. Now, speaking of interesting moments, we have one down in New Orleans taking place right now. Chuck, has a question for you, coach. Yeah, coach, based on the horrific and tragic events that happened down there as a coach, you know this thing your team's geared up, you're geared up, everybody's geared up to go play and all sudden you're postponed, you know for for a day, 24 hours, whatever

it's going to be. How would you handle that situation? Well you know it reminds me of way back when when we got a call on March 13th and we were in our first day of spring practice and they said schools closed, COVID's in, season might be off, you know, we don't know when we're going to play. So in the team meeting, first thing I said to the players was whoever handles this disruption the best is going to have the best chance to be successful. So I don't think anybody has any experience handling a situation like this that involves so much public safety and you know how we're going to make the play safe so that we can play and

postpone in the game. But I do think that that same concept works here. You know whichever coaching staff can handle this disruption the best with their players and keep them focused on what they need to do and not be concerned about when we play, what time we plan. It's in the day, it's in the night, it's in the parking lot. I mean, I used to tell the players, you know, the field is 53 yards wide and 100 yards deep. So no matter where we play, that's the way it's going to be. And no matter where we play, that's the way it's gonna be. And no matter when we play, that's the way it's gonna be. So let's stay focused on what we're gonna do when we get inside the rectangle and see what happens. Hey, whenever you told your team, whoever handles these distractions is gonna win.

Did you guys win or no? Yeah, we won a national championship. Hey, we gave them all a scale. We gave them all an Apple watch. We knew when they were working out. I mean, we got turned in by the NCAA by 52 different teams, but. Shane Gillis was out there saying, you see what this guy. The way you motivate and talk and coach and simplify everything, it makes sense whenever

you like, we hear Bill Belichick talk to it to it's like you and he are speaking from the same exact point of view but you and he also win on a regular basis feels like you know you got a lot of guys from your camp that are out there trying to do the exact same thing today's no different and this first round has been a problem our first round by has been a problem for a lot of teams good comment yeah coach after you know the first three games of the second round, basically every team on the bye has come out slow. And aside from Arizona State, most of them have been gone absolutely slaughtered during the game. Is there any real way to kind of keep your team hot when you do have this massive, you know, time off?

Because it wasn't just, you know, a one week by obviously most of the teams hadn't played since championship weekend. And do you think Kirby did anything different because of the fact that he has dealt with a little bit of a break before on his national championship runs? Well, I think there's two things that you worry about. First of all is ball security because the ball handlers haven't been hit. And then how are you gonna tackle on defense? Because when you practice, you don't to tackle and take people to the ground so you got to do a good job of trying to thud up and all that type of thing but

my thing was the first years that I was a head coach at Michigan State we lost five straight bowl games and I tried to practice the team to the game if you know what I mean carry the momentum of the season all the way to the game and we got our ass kicked in every one of them. And then when I got to LSU and other places, you know, I said we're going to treat this like a one game season and we're going to back out from when we play to have 11 practices, three or four of them camp practices, the rest of them, you of them preparation for the game and go play the game.

And we had a lot more success that way because emotionally, the players didn't have to worry about the game for three weeks. But this is different because it used to be in college, everybody had a long time off before they played. So we had a 14 playoff, you played December 6th in the SEC Championship game. Then you played January 1st in the first round of the playoffs. The other team was off too. So there didn't look to have a difference in how people played.

But now you've got people that are being able to play continuously with maybe 10 days in between games. And then you've got somebody that's been off for three weeks. And I do think how you manage that is really, really important. But I'm telling you, you need to go from wherever the game is and take it back like it's a one game season and you're getting ready for one game and just have the players work out, condition, do seven on seven on their own. Coaches not in their face telling them what to do I mean not worrying about the game not

worried about the game plan because you can practice too much for a game and you can lose a lot of fundamentals if you don't practice the right way and that's why we always had three camp practices just like we're in fall camp do you think Kirby understands that that like I feel like Arizona State Dillingham He's 31 years old this first time his team showed up for him, too And his speech last year, I think at the end of the year how close they were He said with everything we're doing behind the scenes. It's almost like what coach Dan Hurley did with Yukon But obviously Yukon goes on to win multiple national championships, but coach Dillingham over there. He said we're close

I see everything we're doing behind the scenes. I think we're close. They come out, they do. They put up a fight against Texas, almost win that game, should have won that game. I mean, helmet to helmet. Helmet to helmet, that's game over. That's first down, that game's over. Nonetheless, it's not called. Then you think about what happened with Boise State.

They've never been in that situation. This particular Boise State team never been in that situation before. Oregon, you would think like, okay, Lanning's been around, he's been in it, but they haven't had to deal with it. Kirby has had to deal with this type of thing before. He's been in it for a long time. He's been in it for a long time. He's been in it for a long time.

He's been in it for a long time. He's been in it for a long time. He's been in it for a long time. He's been in it for a long time. He's been in it for a long time. He's been in it for a long time. He's been in it situation before. Oregon you would think like okay Lanning's been around he's been in but they haven't had to deal with it. Kirby has had to deal with this type of thing before. You would think the Georgia team would be ready. How do you feel about this four o'clock game and how do you think Notre Dame takes advantage of maybe Georgia not playing for a while? Are they gonna try to do what Chip tried to do to Oregon? I think Chip Kelly knew hey if we come out and bomb them early, they're going to

be in a whirlwind because they haven't played in a while. Do you think, you think Marcus is thinking the same thing for Notre Dame or how do you think this thing goes early? I think Georgia, because of the experience they have playing in these games and they've had to play games, playoff games, lots of playoff games where they had a significant amount of time off I think Kirby's got a lot of experience managing You know that situation probably do it fairly similar to the way we did it. So um, I It's you never know if time off is a good thing just like bye weeks people talk about bye weeks They're in the season as being a good thing. Sometimes they're good good thing, sometimes they're a bad thing. You know, when your team has good momentum, you just want to keep playing and roll on. If your team's beat up and hurt

and tired, you want to have time off to get them the rest and recover. But I think every one of those things is circumstantial. And I think in Georgia case, they had a lot of guys injured, you know, toward the end of the season. So they, they probably, um, we'll benefit from having some time off actually. I'm excited to see what Notre Dame tries to do early because they have that 98 yard touchdown run, what the first quarter against Indiana, which set the tone for it. Basically now Indiana was able to tighten it up. They were able to tighten it up. 27 17 is that that game but like they're very focused on the run on the

run on the run you would think that physical could maybe beat down Georgia if they're trying to find their bearings yet again but to your point Georgia knows that they're gonna run the ball so that yeah Kirby's had a few weeks here now knowing that the runs coming and I think that I'm excited for this game at four o'clock I think we got'm excited for this game at 4 o'clock I think we got another really good one on our hands and obviously it being delayed another day helps up. Go ahead. I Think two things for Georgia Number one, they got to do a good job up front building a fence on these runners and stop the run

Which means they got a tackle well and they can't put all the pressure on the secondary making tackles in space because that's that's going to be a problem and the second thing is is can they keep Gunner Stockton out of long yardage situations where this guy has to make plays if they can keep him sort of on schedule where the down the distance is in his favor you don't know if it's a run a pass bootleg whatever that's how he'll operate the best but if they have a lot of self-inflicted wounds and get behind the sticks then he's probably Going to have a tough time and that's when Notre Dame is going to dial it up on them and give them some looks that he's Probably not ready for and what happened in the Texas game when he threw that bad interception may happen again

Okay So if you look at all these teams that have made it already Quinn yours and they talked about his check on 4th and 13 with the Blitz coming and telling that he can spin it if he has to Drew Aller Penn State he can spin it if he has to will Howard can spin it if he has to I'm not saying Riley Can't spin it, but he hasn't been able to prove it to be able to be a passing quarterback to win Now he can run better than all those guys and what he has on the ground is certainly impeccable Gunner also the big conversation is like hey he can run in this entire thing to win it all are you gonna have to be able to spin it in the NFL for instance There's always you know the conversation about the drop back passers dead the pocket passer is dead

You're gonna have to be able to extend players gonna have to be able to run But at some point during your playoff run quarterback is gonna have to hit a Third and 12 ball that is gonna have to be right here to extend to drive in the fourth quarter. You're gonna, it's gonna show up at some point. You're gonna have to be able to spin it. Riley or Gunner at this point, do you think is the right guy that's gonna be able to do that? Because we don't know shit about Gunner. Does he have that in him? And then Riley, do you think he has that in them as well? Well, I don't think Riley's a

great sort of down-the-field passer. I think Riley's a great sort of down the field passer. I think he's a smart guy that will throw the ball or the right guy and take the check down, take what the defense gives. I don't think he's that guy that's going to drop the ball in there in a critical situation. He does have more experience, so he's probably got a better chance to make the plays than Gunner. But nobody knows what Gunnar's gonna do. Nobody knows how he's gonna respond to this situation, if he's gonna be able to go out there and play with confidence or not.

But I think if Georgia wins the game, it's gonna be because they're the more physical team. That's gonna be the key for them. They're gonna have to run the ball, they're gonna have to stop the run, they're gonna have to win on the line of scrimmage. And I agree with you 100%. It's hard to win in the NFL if you don't have a quarterback I lived through that several times

all right in Cleveland in Miami I get that I understand that part of it and I think that's true in college football to a larger degree too so hard to win if the quarterback doesn't play well and the people around them have to play well so he can play well. And I think that's probably more important for Georgia than ever. Okay, playing tough, you know, like nice ram truck football. Hell yeah. Hey, there was a couple of ram trucks yesterday. Ohio State had like three of them on one drive.

Ransom. Hey, wait, when he cleared up, I mean, they're thumping people right now, that Ohio State's playing free. Yeah. Everybody's playing. Caleb Dons, him and Ransom, they're thumping people right now that Ohio State's playing free. Yeah, everybody's playing Caleb Don's him and Ransom They're a problem They are now I don't know if they're making their own checks to to come down and kind of playing their own ball Or if knows is telling him or he's giving them the freedom to do that. They're everywhere. They are everywhere Ransom and Caleb it's old-school safety play coming out of that elastic

They're fun. They are obviously very very well coached because they were on everything to your point. There was no rack, no yak, no nothing. When guys caught the ball, guys you know took a handoff they had multiple bodies around them and there was no rack or yak like I said and they were stapled to the ground. I could tell you there was a couple times where Caleb was not happy with how quickly the defensive call was getting in because he was then looking to yes make his own checks and calls. Yeah Caleb obviously going hold on let's see please can we wait to see what they want to do Caleb's a genius right super genius football guy? Yeah but he's not a very patient guy and if you don't get the call in quick I've got a couple bad things from him last year based on that and I wasn't calling the defense

myself but he knew I was the guy getting on the defensive callers ass so. Hey can we hurry this thing up around here? He wants to know what's the call, what am I supposed to do, what can I look at so I can anticipate what's going to happen in this formation with this motion and all that type of stuff because he's that kind of player. A lot of guys aren't that kind of player, but he is. But the one thing they're doing a lot of, which is helping these safeties,

is they're buzzing these safeties down inside the box a lot more than he did early in the season. And I think that both those safeties are making a lot more plays because of that. Open field tackling out of those two. Fun to watch. You know, cause there's a lot of plays that could have been made last night

that ended up being like three yard gains, but you break one tackle you're talking about rack and yank, that's an eight nine yard gain. Now all of a sudden you're on schedule you can continue to move. Instead Caleb sets his feet outside five board, saws it out, gain of two, he's the one putting the four up as opposed to James going and then ransom. I didn't know he had it like that. I had no idea yet. We're talking about Jeremiah Smith, freshman, water, Caleb's a sophomore. Caleb's true sophomore in this entire thing.

They're young over there still playing great. Now tonight's winner, four o'clock game winner will take on a Penn State team that is very good. Ty has a question for you coach. Yeah coach, so a lot of people talking about Penn State, you know, kind of for the last couple of years here, it's been, hey, James Franklin's record against, you know, top 10 teams or top five teams. And then a lot of people were bitching about their their path to the semifinals.

Now, you know, whatever you want to say about SMU and Boise State, but they've looked, you know, pretty solid. Do you think there's something to them maybe like exercise in those demons? And now that they've won two games in a row, that it doesn't necessarily matter who the next opponent is they have the you know they actually feel and believe like they can win this whole thing. Yeah I actually think that because and I know Penn State hadn't played the same level competition in two games although those teams are very good. Their offensive line though and those two running backs they have,

these guys have been able to run the ball effectively in the last few games, very impressively, and then to have a quarterback that can play behind a running game like that, with play-action passes and staying out of long-guarded situations, I think they're for real, and their defense is playing really well too. So if you just go on how well teams are playing right now, Penn State and Ohio State are probably playing the best. That doesn't mean they necessarily gonna win or that Penn State's gonna win,

but I do think they're playing extremely well. The quarterback's playing well, they can run the ball well. Look, I was worried about Oregon because you guys saw that film I showed yesterday. They gave up 15 explosive plays to Penn State in the Big Ten Championship game. Now Oregon won so people never paid a lot of attention to that and I was really, really concerned if their defense was going to be able to hold up against Ohio State and obviously they weren't able to and it really really showed but I think Penn State is playing well on both sides of the ball and I think you know they're a very good team I'm a believer I was not a believer in Penn State early on I'm a

believer right now. Yeah and I think the more I learn about what Penn State is doing behind the scenes it's like everybody's talking about you know Texas has a bunch of money Oregon has a bunch you know, Texas has a bunch of money. Oregon has a bunch of money. Ohio State has a bunch of money. Obviously these Michigan has a bunch of money, especially now Larry, a Michigan guy because of his, he's like, it's like Penn State is,

they're all in right now on trying to win football. They're deep too. Nobody talks about it because Penn State has never, it's always Ohio State or Michigan in the Big Ten. So Penn State's kind of like the cast aside, like, yeah, they're going to be good, but they're never going to be able to really make it. It's like their athletic director, Pat Kraft,

he's a former linebacker, football guy. And he's doing business up there at Penn State, shaking hands, getting everybody to rally. They're spending, they are trying to win it all up there. And Aller, if he was up for the draft, getting everybody to rally, they're spending. They are trying to win it all up there. And Aller, if he was up for the draft, I think this year, with how tall he is, the moxie he has, and his arm talent that he has,

and he can move. I mean, this draft process would do him very well, I think, if he was to sit down and have these meetings. You're talking about maybe number one overall pick in this guy, he's coming back, he's got another year. It's like Penn State's setting themselves up here for the long haul, and allegedly Singleton and Allen, who are both juniors, they're gonna's coming back. He's got another year. It's like Penn State's setting themselves up here for the long haul and allegedly Singleton and Allen, who are both juniors, they're gonna be coming back too,

allegedly for the better running back. It's like Penn State's setting up here. You could talk about the teams they played, but both those teams that they played were ranked very high in rushing defense and they've been like their man, his man mated over the other two teams. And, but they need to get Abdul Carter.

He needs to make sure that he is healthy for this one because he is absurd. That was a first quarter situation right you ended up on the bike in there. Being on the field for that game like TV doesn't give you an appreciation on just how big and physical and athletic a team is. Penn State has got a like I've walked in some some stadiums like when we went to go play Pittsburgh one year and coach we were going through warm-ups You know sometimes you look at the other team just going through warm-ups. We're in frickin trouble today They'd look so much bigger and better than us and more physical and more athletic like

And give Boise credit. They had a hell of a season hell, but that Penn State team I mean that tight end Tyler Warren he saw he's like six nine three hundred fifty seven pounds. This guy is an athlete man they are a good-looking team. So what you just said though coach like I think that's whenever you have the alumni and boosters all that's how you get those guys you know like Tomlin told Chase Young he said hey I ain't ever gonna lose enough games to get guys that look like you in college to get guys that look like you. In college, to get guys that look like that, you're gonna have to be active.

In Penn State, certainly he is. They talk about behind Warren, there's a freshman who is what's there. The whole team looked like that. Good for them. He got the same hair, he got great hair too. Yeah, that was kind of my argument, Pat, about, you know, the committee going to watch some games

because what Chuck just said is really true. When you stand on the sidelines and you look at a team, you see how physical they are. That goes a long way in football. You know, Parcells used to say, the heavyweights don't fight the lightweights in boxing for a reason. It has nothing to do with skill. If they have equal skill, the 139 pound guy is not going to beat the 215 pound guy. All right, so

That's why we always had big physical teams. That's what we recruited. That's what we look for battle checks the same way Now they got to be players don't get me wrong, but no other guys have a hard time. I'm beating big guys Yeah, and that's how football is always going to be. And that's why it's a beautiful game, beautiful sport. Cannot wait to catch today's 4 o'clock Sugar Bowl. Coach, you've had a hell of a season. Can't wait to see you next week down in Miami. Yeah, well, I'm looking forward to it, no doubt.

But if I was an Oregon fan, I have to say this because this kind of bothers me. And you're the 13 and no number one seed and you got to play Ohio State in the first round. Yeah. I'm not an internet guy, but if I was an Oregon fan, I'd be on the internet screaming about that. Would you be in your basement, your underwear too doing it?

Is that what you're doing? I know you love those internet. My mother's basement. Mr. Aries basements, beautiful thing as well. Hey, we appreciate you so much coach. All right, man. You guys have a good one.

Ladies and gentlemen. Happy New Year. Happy New Year. Ladies and gentlemen, Coach Nick Steve. Yeah, Coach. Yeah, he, I don't know if it was on our show or on game day. He did a full speech about how this committee is always in like a conference room. Every time we see him, they're in a conference room. In a conference room.

Just go on a sideline. Go watch a game. Go see who you're actually picking to go against whoever. And obviously Arizona State shows up in a big way before the college football playoffs as a whole. But how it has been thus far is like hey the teams that have been favored are favored for a reason and the teams that have been the teams that have been favored are favored for a reason and the teams that have been seated higher have been seated higher for a reason and they have won and that might just be how college football is every single year and i'm not saying it's the same teams are going to be dominant but there might be a line in the sand of like hey these teams are great this year and these teams not so good there's also a situation that happened yesterday i don't think oregon played

their best football and that happens in football sometimes you just don't show up on a certain night. Daylining said it. He was like, that Ohio State team, I don't think they played their best against Michigan. We obviously did not play our best tonight and we got taken advantage of. That's football in a nutshell. I don't know if they'll ever be able to get it right, but he was pissed that we're gonna lose out on Ohio State or Oregon in the Final Four because if it was just four teams it was just 14 playoff Ohio State and Oregon would have both got in now only one of them's there and he's like that's that's is this how we want this to be it's like I don't know how you get it right in the future

but if you're an Oregon fan I can see how you'd be upset about the setup it feels like it's not gonna be that way next year there they're already reporting that they're looking at that the conference winners not an automatic buy but an automatic bid so that'll're looking at that the conference winners, not an automatic buy, but an automatic bid. So that'll take away from that, hopefully. But to your point about like, you know, some teams, some programs, sorry, excuse me.

There was a 10 year period there where we knew every single year it was gonna be Georgia, Bayam and Clemson or Ohio State winning. And some, yeah, I mean, they get the best recruits. They have some of the best coaches, like that's just how it's gonna work. More schools get a shot to shine though. Yeah, they do.

Bingo. You know what I mean? More schools get a shot to shine. No doubt. Quarterfinals. Certainly. I like that idea about if they could actually go see these teams.

Well, they should. I mean, that's a whole other. I mean, go spend some, I mean, just, cause you know, coaches right. I mean, you're just like I mean, just, cause you know, coach is right. I mean, you just like, okay, this is. But then Arizona State would have never been considered having a shot against Texas, you know, because if you look at the size of those two,

like it's going to be a vastly different thing. Our West Virginians, I always think back to our West Virginia team too, about how I think we could have played with anybody and we did, we beat like damn near everybody except for Pitt on one particular night, but we beat Georgia down in Georgia. We beat Mississippi, we beat a bunch of these big name teams.

Oklahoma, out at the festival, we beat the big names. But I think if you were just to look at our roster, and the amount of stars that everybody had, and the size in every single position, I don't think you would put us up to have a chance against those teams. So some teams are just built different. Like that Arizona State team, I think had a bunch of dogs.

They do have dogs. They had a bunch of dogs that can outplay what the visual optics are. But a majority of the case in football, bigger, stronger, faster team is gonna have quite an advantage, and that's just kinda how it is. And some of these teams have those dudes. So it certainly should be brought to the conversation,

but with the way the college football season happened this year was like Vandy beats Bama, Oklahoma beats Bama, this team beats this team, this team's supposed to win. They have such a better team on paper than this team, but they didn't show up that day. It's like, I don't know how you ever get it right. I don't know how they're ever going to, I don't think they ever are. You could open that thing up to 64 teams.

I think people would still be pissed. I think- No doubt. Because football, you never know who's going to show up. Like matchups are a problem. All you need is one good matchup. If you get a defensive end that has a tackles number, he can wreck the entire game.

It doesn't matter who's on what side of the thing. It's like that's why football is great, but it's also why it's hard to project who the best teams are without seeing them actually play each other. Yeah, and I think that's why it was like a massive feather in their cap that the Arizona State Texas game ended up the way it did because if it would have you know, like when we went down to the field I mean like we were all gobsmacked when we heard like oh they just tied it like this is about to go into overtime

Like this would have been another blowout then I think it would have been a lot louder but also one of the things like we're talking about with the sec if you do the you know, just going down to the sideline and Like that would skew very heavy SEC because I got the games we've done you go down there and it's like SEC Penn State Yeah, Penn State Ohio State. There'd be it would be all the teams that have Once again, they're getting all the five-star recruits You have massive backing the reason why those dudes are five-star recruits is because they're bigger stronger faster than everybody You know cam scataboo has been doing this since he was a toddler

But because of how tall he is he was you're going to San Jose State or whatever it was, like the big-time recruits are the dudes who are gigantic, and they're the ones that are fighting for this big-time NIL money whenever it comes to signing day and everything like that. So if you were to look at just size, all the teams with the most money are going to be the ones that are going to have it. That's just how it is. But there's a reason in football why that works, you know, that is a benefit in football But if you don't show up every week, how can you trust it? How can you trust it? Yeah, and even Boise though, like you think about that Boise State game and obviously they ended up getting killed But like it was much closer

I felt like then the actual score kind of showed like that first drive they drive down the field they shank a field goal Okay, obviously shakes an understatement Shake is is not just back in stadium pressure was very high if we're talking about NCAA 2k 28 Yeah, I mean it was moving and then they threw what three picks they had the fumbles that Basically never happened during the season for jinty like a lot of things basically everything went wrong for Boise State So like they still were able to hold their own but it's like those high-pressure Moments that those guys, those five stars, those bigger schools it feels like are used to versus like a Boise State type school.

Yeah so that game is gonna be 24-21 you know in the third quarter and they get that penalty. They throw a touchdown. It's a number 17, Strachan and they got a hands to the face and and they bring it back, and they end up getting no points on that, otherwise it's a three point game. And it's a little bit like Texas and Arizona State. Texas let them hang around. They let them hang around, hang around at 17-3, then at 17-5, they get a safety.

They don't run the ball for whatever reason. I was gonna ask Coach if he was surprised that Sarkin at Texas with the running backs that they have didn't commit to running the ball. Especially with the size you have. They let them hang around just long enough and dealing with them, they don't care. The way they talk and they do have dogs and they got swag and they got scataboo. And that next thing you know it's 24-8 and then that's fourth and two and he throws a halfback pass for a touchdown and then you're in a dogfight.

Now and also Clearly helmet the helmet. Yeah big time. I mean that was clearly that's game over Yeah, I think and that's another part about it Like do you think the conversation is how are they gonna call that if the if the games on the line? Yeah, well and once again, you got that's first down you're driving into kick a field goal at least Arizona State's kickers You can be able to knock one day already dead there, but like that's first down you're driving in to kick a field goal at least Arizona State's kickers You can be able to knock one day already did there but like that's clearly hell We saw this we saw this down on the field because we had already left and I'm like, oh what happened here first down They go down like no no call. I'm like, what do you mean? No, no flag. No nothing. I'm like what?

How does that even happen? So that may be to your point like in college football like because it's not targeting and it's not an ejection There's they don't have the 15 yards like in the NFL. That's 15. Well, Gene's territory nobody out gene's territory tweeted this morning Yep, every single part of the rule. Yeah was broken here. This should have been a penalty but to this Yeah, here's gene's territory pies on legend NFL ref college basketball ref now CBS is NFL ref, college basketball ref, now CBS's authoritar on the rules. My phone has been burning up all morning. Yes, it should have been a flag for

targeting in Texas AAC. It meets all the criteria of targeting. If you want to check me it's rule 9-1-4. You can get through it all. But they didn't call one earlier too on Texas. Isaiah Bond during a pick. He takes a massive shot down the middle of the field and they didn't call this either. So I appreciate that the refs had kind of state like this, bang,

that gets called all the time. That gets called basically every single time in modern football. I mean that is just kind of a call. So they didn't call this one, they didn't call the other one. I think the refs will say we were consistent with it, but whenever you take that highlight, minutes some left, Arizona State driving in Texas goes in and goes helmet to helmet and they say no I don't know what you're talking about that is gonna because then people say well what if Texas is on the other side of this if Texas was on the offense and Arizona State did this against them everybody just automatically assumes they would have called that they would have called that for Texas they don't call for Arizona State because they don't want the big 12 team to win. I think the refs would say hey

there was one earlier we didn't call either. It's kind of we're letting them play out here, which I can respect as well. I can respect the refs calling their game just like Oregon, Ohio State. Those refs were hands-off. Yeah, it was awesome. Hey, we're out of this thing. Five penalties. I love that. I think the first one came like third or fourth. Yeah, it was awesome. Hey, we're out of this thing five penalties. I love that. I think the first one came like third quarter Yeah, yeah, it was a bunch of rags on the field exactly if they're gonna call it consistent though Like if you're just gonna be consistent and it's just like offense and defensive pass interference, right? Like at the end of the game you got to believe that the moment, you know late in that game There's what a minute left and they're gonna win that thing in regulation that you don't think that comes in the back of those Those officials minds. Oh, definitely like do I want to win? Yeah. Yeah, cuz it's cuz it's game over

I think they're going down kick a field where they'll burn all the clock Arizona State wait now do they hit the field goal? That's all the question. Well, they had a kicker that struggled as well 26. I think here's the thing about kickers Yeah, they kickers big mental thing. Okay kickers a massive mental thing That's why you talked about before Will Reichard at Alabama having a kicking issue. It's like When every game is a big game Okay, every single game is for national championship like on kickers That is literally the thing is mental and can you execute in the biggest moment? So a lot of these big-time schools people are like, well, how come they don't get the

best kicker? It's like, well, this dude probably talent wise is the best kicker, but he has to deal with the pressure every single kick that this point matters, this point matters, this point matters, this point matters. So the guys that can withstand that through a college career mentally ready to go to the NFL. That's why whenever you get a kicker from one of these smaller schools, and I'm not saying there's been a lot of

I mean Adam Venturi is my guy. He comes from South Dakota State. You never know what they're gonna be like whenever it matters. Like what is it gonna be like whenever every single point matters, especially in the NFL when there's money on the line. So like Auburn, I think he's gonna bounce back. I think he's had a lot of massive moments for them. Yes, but that those are big kicks and mentally if you just get a little doubt, I mean, it's gonna be hard to find that sweet spot. That's about that. He was all caught first team all conference last year. Good kicker. And like he was, I just looked it up, he was 85% his entire career and now he's 65% this year. Like that's that's mental. That's all mental. All it takes is one little, one little smidgen of self-doubt. At all. Just a just a and you oh it's over and then you're trying to find it like and then like sarc like no that ain't gonna work well

they loved that he was doing that at the time then he missed the kick but he missed that first one right go back to the first one he misses to the right there watch his stroke he stands up tall it doesn't lean at all obvious push trying to force that one in you know he's trying to like force that one in doesn't want to pull it then this one watch him he falls off of it go to the second one please then the second one he falls off of it go to the second one, please Then the second one he falls off of it miss to the left two very clearly different swings Yeah, like it's just those are two different that's and that's whenever and mentally it's like he's hoping this game gets over

Yeah all over get me out of here Get me to a practice get me to a practice field so I can get back to this Because once you start battling that and once again again this is gonna be good for Auburn going forward I think mentally having to deal with it even though it seems like it's a nightmare you still win the game so people are gonna forget about it hopefully soon what have you done for me lately you can hit a big kick but he couldn't wait to get to the practice I assume he's kicking today thank God they won exactly you can you No, especially with all the money. Oh, no Texas oh my god. Yeah, I don't know how many your phone away. Yeah, and also he's better

He's a senior doesn't disappear to this one of those ones where you try to get out of the way Yeah, you can't go you can't go down getting barbecued down or blacks and all Okay, no with the next game being in Texas could have been in that too cotton ball Oh, which is interesting here. I stayed has to travel down to Texas to take on Texas very much so fascinating Now with the Buckeyes travel yes that massive favorites I Think Buckeye faithful will travel down there. Oh, yeah, because they know that this is potentially Texas at home Against Ohio State in the semifinal game So I think the Buckeye the Ohio folks will want to show face and make it happen

But that's an interesting setup for this particular game. Well, you said every everyone, you know It kind of feels like everyone's back on Ohio State after everything with Michigan And I think if there was anyone left who is kind of just like we still got a seat like after they beat the shit Out of Oregon now everyone's like, okay, a seat like after they beat the shit out of Oregon now. Everyone's like, okay This is a national championship team. So like if if we can go down to this game like let's go Fill it up. Yeah, we'll be doing our field pass again for both these games. I mean, we don't know why We don't know why we get the opportunity to do this. We are very fun. They're so fun. So we enjoyed it We really do. And

I realized in a moment there, and I've said this before, a lot of the things we do are for the people that watch the show. Like we're trying to give you guys a good time. We're trying to give people an escape. We're trying to give people comedic, informative sports stuff every single day. We're trying to have fun, trying to have some laughs, trying to formula what's going on. That's what our show's mission is. Do we always hit the mark? No. Do we miss? Sometimes, of course. Do we hit more than we miss? Definitely. It's why we're fucking who we are, but Those games is feel past ones. Those are for us. We have a blast I have so much fun out there. I think there's you know, people that watch it and enjoy it boy

There's some people that really hate us what that sideline. What? Do they know it's, there's another cast, there's 12 other casts if they want. Well we have it on the screen at the same time, but I don't think people see it. I don't think they know the Herbstreefowler out there, or those Skycasts out there. There was a blimp cast out there. I'll tell you what, that blimp, I appreciate what it is in the history of Sports Americana, the Goodyear blimp and everything. The more I think about it, why is anybody getting on that thing? Like, Jen Lada got on there,

and I was watching it, and I'm like, don't, what are we doing? Why would you get in a horse and buggy right now? That was like, that was a way to travel through the sky, what, 100 years ago? We don't need to do it anymore. Not see the movie. Hot air balloons.

Did you not see the movie? Which one? Hindenburg. Oh, okay. See, that's what I'm talking about now hopefully silent film air the good exactly the Goodyear blimp is obviously better than that we would assume yeah it has a success rate and it's very safe Jen got in that thing that thing was pointed like this she's taking that thing off going straight up to the sky it's like she's got a lot more courage than I do they would show me anything you know hey how about you get on the iconic Goodyear Blimp?

Congratulations, I go, hey, how about you go fuck yourself? I'm not getting on that thing. She talked to us about it, we were talking to her while you guys were doing game day. She wasn't thrilled about the idea at first either, but then she said once she got on, it was kind of nice. Yeah, it was kind of cool, the windows open. Yeah, but Jen's a dog.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Jen Allada is a dog. She tells phenomenal stories, man. She'll have me crying every single week, basically. Yeah. and then she got on the blimp and I'm like don't Jen we need you. We're good playoff push going on. We're gonna be getting into some Hard to see down there. What's yeah from the field? Hard to see the game. Yeah. Yeah, we got idea. Is that a game of four or seven? I mean very important or no idea or maybe 13 a gain of four or seven? I mean, very important.

Or 20. Or maybe 13. You get a great perspective on how good looking a team is. Oh, yeah. We're trying to follow a game. Impossible. It's tough. It is impossible.

Blocking schemes and figuring out. See, we actually do have some good angles on that stuff. Like, D-Butch and AJ were able to see some checks that were happening at the line, because it was happening right in front of us, which is good. But once again, you have no idea if that's a sack, a loss, or a gain of four. Yeah. Whenever a place happens, because you're looking at the end. So that's either massive win for the defense, kind of a stalemate, or a big win for the offense, and you have no idea what just happened.

So you got to look up at the Jumbotron, and you look at Jumbotron, and they're showing like a big play And you know who it's on so we gotta wait for it And then you go to the we have a little monitor the people that were working for us this time were awesome Yeah, they were great camera man great monitor holder great audio people great that was the bet Ben Ward dish great That was the best we've had that was the best we've had I think don't you think yeah? Yeah, I'm not sure your guys are our camera guy Murph was the man Okay, so you guys exactly this this time I think was the best crew of people that we were working with I think everybody can hear so what's going on? Yeah, everyone's while they drop a new person in super genius They need to figure it out. Like just please Come on

Come on This time was the best. I think it's gonna be same crew going forward, which is good. And I think I mean, it is going to be. Yeah, we have fun. From ESPN podcast and Omaha productions, coach is a new groundbreaking educational football podcast hosted by NFL legends Bill Belichick, Matt, and Michael Lombardi. In each episode, the coaches break down game-changing situations and front office management tactics, sharing insights from decades of coaching experience, and opening up the Bill Belichick Encyclopedia of football knowledge.

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One half of the hammer, dad. Cowboys AP, Tony's here, 36 years as a football coach, 18 in college, 18 in the NFL. Chuck Pagano's here at Bay Area. Good job, hey, coach. Hey, your Thursday night picks against the spread this season I got there's not one tonight my baby can't get taken amen to that okay now granted let's go ahead and put that

sugar bowl right up in there yeah sugar bowl there today right into it. We have a chance to get back. We'll count this one as two, cause it's kind of out of, you know, your, bingo. We can get back to 500 on the year. We go big today. Joining us now, ladies and gentlemen, live from Anadik in Ohio,

is a man who we're all incredibly lucky to be around over the last 12 hours or so. His son ended up in a hospital yesterday in Southern California, because he puked, in his words, all over an entire section of the Reds Bowl. This man had his name chanted out by half of the stadium in Pasadena.

He's a national champion for the Ohio State. Will these boys at Ohio State become national champions? He believes yes. The all-time leading tackler for the Green State. Will these boys at Ohio State become national champions? He believes yes. The all time leading tackler for the Green Bay Packers. A man who has a tree on the Ohio State University campus. Never seen it, never watered it, but it's strong. Ladies and gentlemen, a terrible flyer, but a man who loves being in the sky, AJ Hawke.

Yeah, AJ. Good to see you, AJ. Good to see you, I'm with you. The blimp would be kind of scary. I saw that takeoff when you're going straight up and you're leading back. I want no part of it. Yeah. And then you're looking up.

It's like, is this a jet engine? What is it? Nah, it's just, you know, those balloons you get at like the, for the holidays, they see they have helium in it or whatever. It's just a bunch of those, you know what I mean? It's no big deal. It's like, okay, what happens if,

do we have any other options? No, you're dead if that happens. Oh, okay. All right, well it's a good view at least going down. We have a seeing all windows out there, but I appreciate everybody that goes up there. Much more courage than me speaking of going up there. Chip Kelly, Ryan Day, that entire team,

when they're going up in front of the squad and chit chat. What are they saying age? They're saying we're the best team in football right now. They have to be I mean, no, I mean, I think they're definitely not satisfied They're I guess they're happy that they you know the plan that they they felt like they were going to you know going into this playoffs They're starting to execute and I think they probably even think that they can play much better So I think they know they have two more games left. Have you talked to anybody in that building since the game? Yeah, I talked to some guys cuz I you know, pregame I like to go and see my guys. I see James Lerner and I just linebacker coach different guys, Mark Pantoni, the guy that's crafting a lot of things behind the scenes when it comes to recruits.

I get to chat with them before the game. Then after the game, let them know, here we go two more. And they seem to all kind of be on the same track. Yeah, excited, happy with how they're playing, but they know they they can get much better. Yeah, I think we heard something out of the Ohio State team. They have like a senior something and all they kept saying was four more games. We got a four game season, four game season, four game season, four game season. Now they're at two game season, two game season. Everybody seemed to be focused and on the task at hand. Everybody in Ohio understands too, we can win this thing right now, right?

Everybody in Ohio understands this as a national championship team. Oh yeah, a lot of optimism, no question. But we know like, look at Oregon, they're undefeated and everything, everything is going great. And then boom, the season just ends so quickly. It's just like the NFL playoffs,

where you have all this buildup, all these expectations. And you know, in these win or go home games, like it ends so quickly. I think Ohio State's very aware of that. And they know that they don't want that to happen and shot to work in hell of a year It really was and I had some Oregon people that weren't happy in the mentions of DM saying we're being disrespectful It's like well, I'll say is being disrespectful to you. Okay, we had a call. Well, we had to call what's happening out there I love Dan Lanning. I love the Oregon Ducks I picked them to

win this game because I thought they were gonna be able you know to maybe slow down this Buckeyes team but I think what my eyes are telling me now is like we ain't picking against Ohio State ever again no that is not this team is more motivated this team seems to be locked in chip Kelly's doing his shit and then Justin Frye that offensive line coach I mean, I don't I don't necessarily pretty jacked up on the sidelines We got a great glimpse of him instantly as he is doing this Towards you telling you keep talking all this stuff fist-pumping like he was trying to find you every single time They even had not even a score an explosive game. He's looking for you to, to, you know, let you know what's going on.

I think some of those Ohio State Buckeye coaches were like, I thought we were okay. We are very nice to you. We're very nice to you. We watch your show. You know, AJ's on the show feels like we are part of it. And then you just go out there and say, yeah, Oregon ducks. I felt it. I felt Chip Kelly pregame. I mean, that

was immediate saw saw what you did. Oh no. Just a fry on the line coach. Oh, okay. Okay. Lauren, I just even, huh? You all right? Okay. Heartline ducks. Okay. All right. And everybody and then soon as that thing started rolling, just accidentally glimpsing over to the Ohio State Buckeye thing, and they're all basically to me. As they should. To me. I mean, I'm like, okay, all right, let's get to a break here. All right. This isn't about this entire thing, but I love, they're finding everything obviously to stay motivated. And I do appreciate the fact that they felt like I betrayed them like I Betrayed them with my pick of the ducks I just thought you know that day and landing in their team was cut from the same gym

Like I thought this was gonna be a fist fight in this entire thing. I think that first round bye, man I think that needs to be chatted about not I'm not saying that Ohio State wasn't clearly the better team I mean clearly the better day. I mean, clearly the better team. It wasn't even no questions asked. But did they face the best Oregon that we've seen all year? I don't think so. But we definitely have seen the best Ohio State. And that's all that can matter is

who shows up on that particular day. Ohio State definitely did. Yeah, I still love Dan Lanning. He is the man. Throughout the entire game, I think we all thought, hey, Dan Lanning is going to figure this out and get these boys back in it. But that even, all the, throughout the entire game, I think we all thought like, Hey, Dan, Lenny is going to figure this out and get these boys back in it. But that even, you know, all the coaches doing that to you, that just adds to the fact that like,

they're the most skilled team. And now they have the most chips on their shoulders. Like they are continuing to stack them. Like it's impossible to think of a different team coming in and beating them somehow. God, I would have been chopping them to we So we owe you too. You get part of that victory for doing that. We're literally standing there and Trevion Henderson has what a 66-yard touchdown. So we're just kind of watching him just cruise over there and then the first thing we see is that old line coach just being like, on your mouth, you! And I'm like, he ain't talking to me. You! Yeah, and it's like AJ, you, you keep talking.

Docs, huh, okay. And then basically just like a full on bang, boom, boom, boom. And the thought of Chip Kelly right now, it's a master class what Chip is doing. This is why Chip Kelly was Chip Kelly at Oregon. This is why Chip Kelly got like the Philly Jump. This is why Chip Kelly was the future.

He has all these pieces that are more talented than you have and he's using, he's dialing up all the shit. This G Scott Jr. guys, this is the first play. This is the first play he was lined up and running back. Everybody talks about Henderson, obviously. Judkins, who's going to be starting running back? Oh, we got our tight end out here. Let's put him out in a wheel.

Oregon hasn't played a real snap in forever. Eye candy this way Nobody even thinks about G Scott junior wheel bang. That's a gain of 25 to start the thing I mean it was from the jump chip Kelly just had them on their heels and The boys executed the boys executed everything they possibly could and maybe has his best weapon ever like I know we've talked about it at ad nauseam, but like weapon ever like I know we've talked about it ad ad nauseam but like Seeing Smith in warm-ups and looking back him and they're like listen organs defense has been

Very good all year, but like seeing their cornerbacks. It's like no one's gonna be able to stop this guy So I mean it's just ridiculous. Who was the tight end? Maas rock? What was his name? What's his name? Casmeric? Casmeric there it is. I'm good. No a No Ohio State. I don't even know who this guy I should have obviously and I'm sure he's made a lot of plays. Casmeric is his name Yeah, I believe that's how you pronounce it. They had him flanked out to the right. He's 6'6", 6'7". He's tight end for this team They had him flanked out to the right. They got corner 5'9". Yeah on this guy and then you got Jeremiah on the other side, six four, whatever he is, six five. 220.

And they got a five 10 guy on him. Then they got G Scott Jr. That guy has a freight train right there. He's lined up out here. Then you've got, I think they had, I think Ibuka and Tate like stacked on his, and it's like, how? Good luck.

How do you, I don't know how you spell it. You're gonna win some of those matchups you feel like. If you're from Ohio State, you're like, hey, we're gonna win a couple of these matchups if we just put a good ball in the air We're gonna be okay, and they even had will Howard go under center a couple of times, you know Everything's like kind of shotgun. They did a couple pop passes to classic Chip Kelly. Yep classic old-school Let's just get the ball in the guys hands as fast as we possibly can but then at the end of that game They even went under center 23 different offensive line combinations. They're going under center We're running power to get this thing out easy. Just hand off to Henderson bang

They're hitting it for four or five like if they needed to do that all game. They could have done that They could have just done that okay They got four different game plans that worked yesterday all at the same time. They're humming man, and they feel good All right, let's pivot away from college ball. Obviously we've got a big one at four o'clock. We'll be joined by Laura Rutledge in about five, 10 minutes down there. Let's talk about the NFL, huge weekend.

Obviously it is, you know, the topic of conversation is the number one overall seed for the NFC coming out of the NFC North. Lions, Vikings, in Detroit. How do we think that one's gonna go? Age, obviously the NFC North is stacked. We all know that. Chicago Bears trying to figure it out. Of course, Chicago Bears trying to figure that out But we have two 14 and two teams out of the NFC North right now and they're battling on Sunday night

And we're gonna be waiting all day. Aren't we? Yeah, I will be waiting all day for Sunday night this But this week To be honest, I'm gonna be waiting the rest of the week for Sunday night. Okay, me too. I think this is a huge one. How do you see this one kind of fairing, AJ, as we look out at this and try to project a little bit? I mean, my early thoughts on this game,

I feel pretty good about the Lions at home. I love what the Vikings are doing. Obviously Sam Dorn, I think they're awesome. But for this one, I feel like Dan Campbell and the Lions, this feels like a game at home. It's like a defining game in the Dan Campbell era, I think we could see happening on Sunday. The first playoff game of the year, we'll call this,

obviously it's a big deal. Loser goes down to five. Five seed in the NFC. And that's a different road than having home field advantage throughout the entirety. Both of them dome teams. So obviously it's good for the entire NFC that you get a chance to go in no matter what

and experience 70 and sunny, no matter how it ends up shaping up. What do you think both these coaches are saying? Obviously Kevin O'Connell is a young wizard and watching that locker room with Sam Darnold last week was so cool and Kevin O'Connell taking it all in. We know he can drop a play for anybody. Ben Johnson can do the same up there.

MC DC has been singing the same exact tune since the very beginning. We're tougher, we're all bought in. If you're a coach, which team would you rather be coaching right now? And what do you think the messages are? I would rather be the home team. I'd rather be Detroit. I love KOC. I think he's by far head and shoulders above everybody else. Coach of the year this year. I know AP's got a vote on that, but I would pick KOC as coach of the year. What they've done with this offense, Sam Darnold, you know, this defense beef flow, they're cooking, but there's just something about this Detroit Lions team. Like I didn't think there's no way in hell they'd even go to San Fran, and San Fran's

got nothing to play for that they'd end up winning that game but they'll find a way to score one five six seven eight nine ten more points than you the defense is totally depleted they've got a massive chip on their shoulder they play that way because everybody's saying you got no defense you got no players you've lost everybody on that side there's no way that you can win and all they do is they keep winning so and you know Sam Darnold's had a great year but he's also throwing I think 12 interceptions on the season and this Kirby Joseph for frickin I mean he's got nine interceptions on the year he'll find a way to come up with one branch may come up with one they'll make a play make a play here or there trick play Ben Ben will get in his bag I'd you know I

wouldn't bet against the Lions for nothing and Zaloni's back for the Lions or what's the story there? Yeah, he practiced yesterday. It looks like he'll be a game time decision, but yeah, they're expecting, hopefully he can be back for this one. And then Aiden Hutchinson is back for the Super Bowl. Oh yeah. Especially Carlton Davis in the playoffs, sometimes potentially Montgomery at some point in the playoffs. So yeah, things are starting to align a little bit here. But there's obviously some other games that have playoff implications in the AFC involving

Denver, Cincinnati, and Miami for the number seven overall seed in the wild card. Denver wins and they're in. Miami wins and Denver loses, they're in. Cincinnati wins and Denver and Miami both lose, Cincinnati is in. Which is obviously a phenomenal thing for this Bangles team. That was what, one and five? Yeah. yeah yeah one and five to start the season Joe Burrow having a potential MVP like year especially if they find a way to make it into the playoffs of this whole thing Broncos will be taking on Carl Wentz yep in the

Kansas City Chiefs is Patrick Mahomes gets healthy for a playoff run is the number one overall seed the Dolphins without to a will take on the New York Jets who just had their worst Performance of the season last week somehow and then the Bengals take on a Pittsburgh Steelers team who are very much still trying to figure Out what team they are fresh off of a few losses Yeah, and that game is also huge because if the Steelers lose and the Chargers can jump you right Steelers need to win Yeah, cuz they want the five seed they want to go down to Houston I would assume because if they lose they go to Baltimore So and one of the Chargers the Chargers play the Raiders, they're either five or six, right? Yeah

Yeah So if if the Steelers lose and Chargers wins they they jump up to five and I when we went to the Chargers facility a Beautiful facility made sure I told everyone in there a you're going to Baltimore. Steelers aren't losing oh you said hardball bowl back again yeah in the playoffs congrats to you guys and if only wants that and so Chargers they do facility I love that Chargers team even more now awesome happy mission AJ we're a happy mission everybody in that building was happy everybody yeah I mean look at them just look at the facility first off looks beautiful I wasn't able to to go there with you guys but it looks awesome i mean what horrible has been able to do in one year's your name was honored your name was honored i see my

name appreciated your name was cleared kathcart okay yeah that's kyle yeah because i was there yeah and also jose full names yeah full names up shy ted yeah you were invited you were part of the just i saw some people they were coming after me a little bit yeah okay they couldn't come they get the invite yeah it's just like when rap sheet wasn't able to come on show I talked to you for this entire thing just would like to let everybody know AJ was clearly invited AJ's name was cleared by the Los Angeles Chargers but that would have been 12 people instead of 11 mm And Harbaugh would not have like. He would have to roll around with only 11.

He said 11, that's a perfect number. That's why it should be. You gotta start offense, start defense, start special teams walking around with you. That's how it should be. That was his first reaction. He was like, wow, you guys are rolling deep, like nice little entourage.

I was like, yeah, you guys had to clear 11 of us to get in here, that was awesome. He's 11, perfect number. Perfect number. Team. That was his first, that was literally his first react everything he did was just I don't say beautiful but it was it was as advertised he did was awesome that entire facility he tried to get a

handshake to that particular high five trophy did break the hand off we had to put it back on he said I want to shake the hand I was shake day like it's a high-fiver you know it's not a handshaker. He goes, I'm trying to takes it off. I think he's gonna I think that's gonna live in his office. I hope so. He seemed to be pretty pumped up about it. They were very kind to us. Yeah, the ice cream in that place. They got cinnamon toast crunch soft serve yogurt. Oh shit. Oh, coffee soft flavors every single day. God, I'd be 260.

Yeah, they also had pizza oven. Which was just a smidge below. So good. It wasn't pizza, but it was. It was phenomenal. Very good pizza, very good pizza. Then they had, I think it was some tacos and shit. Tacos.

I had everything. It was like a mall. They had all the different bars. Sun chips. Oh, they did have sun chips. Park Garden Salsa and Harvest Cheddar. You're right, they did have garden salsa and harvest cheddar. You're right. They did have all that. This building, this golf simulator. Did you see Ortiz? Did Joey Ortiz? Oh yeah, he came in.

And obviously I thanked him for everything. Matlock is huge. Matlock's head is gigantic. I mean, that thing is real. Anybody get a workout in? You go in that weight room? We were in the weight room. Under bars. Not the VIP club. Silver Bells Club. Excuse me. Yeah, we're not in the Silver Bells Club, which is they got these old school dumbbells that are just metal. You know, they're not.

They're old school. They're huge. And I think the way the story went is one of their offensive linemen during the holiday season or at the beginning of December was over there lifting in their silver. So he was saying, silver bells. And then he was doing a silver bells, doing the entire thing.

So then Coach Herbert, who is Pittsburgh guy, who was at Wisconsin, and I think he was a Baylor. Then he went to Michigan and that's where he met Harbaugh. Now he's over there, great, he's strength coach. Great energy, Pittsburgh guy. Soon as you heard the silver both things. He was like wait a minute I think we can do something with it. They made a VIP club. They put red Velvet rope velvet ropes around two of the two of the benches or whatever and then it's all the silver belts And then if you get in the club, obviously they open you up to come on in and then put you in there Khalil Mac

200 pound single arm what yeah yeah dumbbell 200 silver bells 200 pounds he's the biggest one it's the biggest one in there Justin Herbert I think he's has a 150 the 150 pounder it's for a one arm bench over there it's like they all commit in love what's going on that weight room they all commit and love what's going on in that weight room. They all commit and love what Jim Harbaugh's preaching and everybody in the building's happy. Everybody's like excited to be there. It is infectious over there, what they got going on.

And how many owners are spending 300 million on a new facility just for practice facility? Especially in LA, the placement in that, the location itself had to be so expensive. But then for them to do it upright for the the last couple it's like look out for the Chargers dude look out for the Chargers talk about getting a hiring right and we've checked about this a little bit for a while it was we need the new offensive guru okay Sean McVeigh comes in we need new offensive guru we need to

offense guru then you see guys like hardball MC DC having the success that they're having and it's like are we getting back to a time where it's like hey we need somebody that's able to build a culture. We need somebody that's able to lead people. We need somebody that's able to bring people together. I think so and that's good for football I think Chuck don't you agree as a man that was that type of guy. 100% can you imagine you're just talking about the because a great culture you guys walked in that building, you could see it, you could feel it, you could taste it, right?

And then you could walk into another building, some we know, like, this stinks. This is nasty, this thing got no feeling like that. Like, it matters, and so bringing a guy like Jim Harbaugh, think about these, like Dan Quinn, what he's done in Washington, right, second time around. Jim Harbaugh, like, second time in national national and he won big in San Francisco right he's having great success so these guys Raheem he's still eight and eight he's better second time around.

MCDC second time around. MCDC you know at Miami I think he was the interim whatever yeah so if if I was to go back like what I know, compared to what I thought I knew back in 2000, because there's no manual for this job. But the one thing we all do know is like culture matters. And so what you're talking about, that building and that infectious, like the energy that he brings, like why wouldn't you want that?

You know, and everybody in that building, and then a guy that they actually come in, you can feel him and like, okay, this is a guy I want to follow. I'm in you get everybody to buy in like that. I'm talking front office, ownership, locker room, ownership, ownership. Yeah. Because you just sit around and watch after those games and you watch everybody standing

their way can the call up in the locker room and in spanos, for he's a jolly good fan. Everybody. For he's a jolly good fan, for he's a jolly good fan. Now, Brandon, winning helps. Yes. But do you win because of the culture? But think about MCDC, right? How he started out, oh and whatever, and then the next season, oh and whatever, and then

finally it clicks in, and you start to get a taste of winning and how to win, and that team learned how to win, and they drafted like crazy, and they got really good players, but they stayed with it it and there was continuity wasn't one of these owners like like Tepper down in Carolina like okay out Out you just can't buy that You can you got to be able to figure that out. You got to be able to get a guy in front of you like like, okay This guy's the real frickin deal and whatever that is. However, you're gonna go about that selection process like they hadn't figured it out down there. But you got to hear it because nobody, I think coach Belichick talked about patience. Like there isn't patience anymore. Yeah. But what if your

patient with the wrong guy, like that, that's like the biggest issue, which is what ownership kind of fears is you see red flags potentially. And's like is this guy ever going to be a leader or is he not and then waiting and waiting and waiting what if you wait three four eight years to find out if the culture that you were hoping was going to settle and never settles in then you just completely wasted an era which is i'm just saying that's counter argument i'm not saying it's right i'm just saying that is what the counter argument is to all these things about patience patience patience what if you're patient with the wrong guy then you're in a bad spot Then you're in a then you've set an entire fan base a generation of a fan base back

Oh, and that's why I like we love Ben Johnson and like we all have faith in Ben Johnson being a head coach I assume but like this far out and you know, what is it? It's January 2nd the head coaching cycle hasn't started yet But it feels like Pete Carroll and Mike Vrabel are both like locks to be guys like this who can turn it around. And this wouldn't be Pete Carroll's second time. He's been, you know, Seattle was his second time

because New England, he was the head coach, but like Vrabel, Vrabel was in Tennessee. That was his first head coaching job. I assume what he's learned over the past, over this past year, being in a place like Cleveland and what he can bring to a team now would be exponential compared to you know some of these places. That's what I was gonna say like do you think now and it's not the case

everywhere but if you want a guy who needs to completely change the culture of a place like look at all the guys we just mentioned MC DC Harbaugh you know Vrabel like do you think it needs to be a guy who played in the league for a while because it seems like all these new guys that are getting like they are the gurus They're the exit those guys like they don't necessarily and it you know, I assume like I look at a guy like Matt Lafleur who like now However many years into this like he's starting to get his culture in place But the first couple years that was always the knock is like this guy's a play caller like he can't He was up against it too with like an old generation of a team

I think like I feel like the floor probably feels like he has his guys at good for sure It feels like he has his guy for sure and I agree he was just a play caller I think as opposed to being a leader But you don't continue to win like that without having some good definitely not definitely not and closed doors for him It's like the culture people are starting to come back. I think into fashion I got I think it's starting to become a good thing, and that's good for ball. I think that's good for ball, AJ. Do you agree with that?

It's great for ball. I don't think you have to be a former player to have that command of the room or have control, but it sure as hell doesn't hurt. Especially early on, I think, if you can have success early on, it just kind of springboards you and you. It gives you a jump start where you might not have to have those one or two kind of terrible seasons while you turn over the roster and try to figure out who's the right person to be here. Zach Kiefer who we all have immense respect for used to write for the

Indy star now he's at the Athletic which is obviously owned by the New York Times. He wrote an article today that was like yeah cultures have no culture pretty much and we're eight years into Chris Ballard's tenure as the general manager, and I think he's a great man. I think he's been great for the city of Indianapolis and everything like that, but some of the things that are being said in that article by Zach Kiefer, who did his sourcing and getting inside of it, more than I know even, he's like,

there's no vision in this, but it's like, wow, what do you mean there's no vision? And then you start watching it, it's like, that makes sense that there's no vision, and then there's no accountability, and there's no this, there's like wow what do you mean there's no what's that mean and they start watching it's like that makes sense that there's no vision and there's no accountability and there's no this there's no that but Shane can drop a hell of a play and was he cut off at the knees whenever he got here already it's like there's so many questions about just what's happening at the Colts and they're not the only one there's a lot of NFL teams they're

trying to figure out what the hell went wrong this coaching cycle should get electrifying and you said if I went back, is Chuck thinking about going back? Are you thinking about going back into coaching? I got that Chuck. No, unless you're firing me. If that means you're gonna go back and coach. You're fired. You're fired. I got a pretty good gig.

All right, let's pivot away from the NFL a bit and do some journalism. Joining us now is the sideline reporter for this afternoon's Sugar Bowl. She's also the host of NFL live She's one of the prominent faces around ESPN both for college ball and the NFL front of the program ladies and gentlemen, Laura Rutley Hi guys, it's good to be with you hey, it's an honor to be with you as well I think there's a bit of a delay on the video, so we will certainly figure that out on our end. It's definitely not you,

but let's talk about the last 24 hours down there, Laura. Obviously, you've been down there. You've been the one that has been breaking the news to the entire world about what's taking place in the Sugar Bowl. When this is about to get delayed, what was the conversation like? Were they worried about potential bombs at the at the Mercedes-Benz Stadium down Superdome down there. What was the kind of the the how do we get here is the the right question Laura? Yeah, I mean Pat it's been really wild and there's just a heavy feeling for everybody here certainly is we all think about these victims Their families that's been a sentiment echoed by the teams as well in Georgia and Notre Dame.

And yet here we are, you know, preparing to play a football game, which certainly pales in comparison to everything that's happened here with these terrorist attacks here in New Orleans. But when it came to the actual decision making process, there was a meeting that happened yesterday, midday between the FBI, between the college football playoff officials, yesterday midday between the FBI, between the college football playoff officials, sugar bowl officials, the teams, many other people, government officials here in New Orleans.

And they said it was a really difficult decision to make to postpone the game. Initially, they said it would be 24 hours. And, you know, as we were finding this information out, Pat, I was over at the hotel, like I was getting ready to come over, do the game. We had just done our game production meeting. And then all of a sudden I'm starting to kind of hear some rumors like, Hey, this game might be postponed. We start reporting, we start calling sources, we start figuring things out and

realize that that was in fact true. And I think it's important, you know, as you do look at the football side of this for both these teams, the coaches and people involved, we're pushing for an earlier start, the 24 hours, just gaining even a few extra hours when it comes to what will be a really quick turnaround for the winner of this game for that Orange Bowl against Penn State. Okay so obviously RT's, P's, positive thoughts for everybody in New Orleans. What a phenomenal gift to the world the city of New Orleans is and obviously we've all had time down there we've all spent time down there it was hard yesterday not to

Be like man. I could have that's something I could have very easily been so a terrible act Obviously football is a good thing to get back sports are good thing to let them know hey You might take it to shopping you didn't beat us. I'm happy this game is happening. You talked about hotels and have a meeting What do we think is happening with the fans here? Because obviously a lot of travel, ticket, everything. What do we think the stadium looks like today for this game, Laura? Yeah, it's interesting. In fact, we were told by the mayor here

that they're reopening Bourbon Street around 2.30 local, so 3.30 Eastern. And we've seen a lot of fans milling about. I mean, there were even fans yesterday that had planned to fly in day of the game because the game was supposed to be later. It that still got on those flights, still came in. And there has been major security advancements here at the stadium. Now they already have security planned, right? But they're doubling that essentially. And we were told that basically it's the same amount of security

that you would see for the Super Bowl, which of course is going to be here in February. So all of those precautions that they would take, they're doing that. You've got to go through a secondary level of security to get into this stadium. They did have the police dogs come in here yesterday. They were looking for explosives. They didn't find any.

I have seen some of those police dogs here today. So that security presence, you see the law enforcement here and I would just shout them out because they have had to go through so much here many of them that were responding to what happened on bourbon street but then in the aftermath of that as well they've all come they they probably haven't slept they've been putting so much into making sure that people are safe here and in somebody a law enforcement official told me that the superdome is actually probably the safest place in new orleans right now hell yeah hey

shot to law enforcement heroes walking amongst us obviously in the middle of a lot of, lot of devastating chaos that took place yesterday in New Orleans. Got a football game at four o'clock. Go ahead, AJ. Laura, how do you feel this is going to affect the gameplay at all? And we know these are young kids and they can kind of handle whatever is thrown at them, different schedule changes, things like this. But do you think the game is going to feel normal like the rest of these college football playoff games at kickoff like do people feel? Safe like what's the vibe I guess around that stadium?

Yeah, it's a great question I'm honestly not sure it does feel a lot different being in here today than it did yesterday yesterday was certainly Eerie and extremely sad and obviously we still feel that sadness today, but there has been more out here. We've seen the bands out on the field. The teams are heading over here shortly. Georgia is supposed to get here around 12.45 local. And I do think that you'll see a sadness around it, but then hopefully some hope about college football.

I mean, as Pat said so well, certainly football can be something we can point to as something joyful and point to as something joyful and something to give us a little bit of hope. They are going to do a moment of silence before the game. I just saw them kind of rehearsing through some of that in and around the national anthem. And of course, we'll cover that on ESPN. You can see it as it's happening.

So you sort of feel what the vibes are going to be. And when it comes to the players, you guys, Marcus Freeman said yesterday that they actually mourned the victims as a team. They spent some time on that and really did also then turn their attention to planning for the game, but they wanted to talk through a lot of it. And Georgia did actually come over here yesterday around 6 PM and practiced on this field, just a light run through. But I think it is about trying to keep it as normal as possible for these players while also being aware of the tragedy that happened here. On that

note, Coach Pagano has a question for you. Last one here Laura, we appreciate your time. So same thing Laura, you just mentioned that Kirby and Georgia went over and did a little walkthrough. Were these guys sequestered into their hotels and weren't able to get out because of security issues and what have you heard how they spent these extra time, you know, at the hotels and did Notre Dame get out and do a walk through themselves? Yeah, so Georgia told me around 11 local that they had a shelter in place that basically happened as soon as they figured out something had happened.

The places that the teams are staying are less than a mile from Bourbon Street, very close to where these attacks occurred. So they were sheltering in place. Notre Dame was sheltering in place for much of the day, probably around 4 p.m. yesterday. They started to loosen some of those restrictions where people could come into those team hotels who were staying there, some fans and family members, but they didn't let the players leave. Notre Dame never left. They stayed in their hotel, did some practices and meetings in ballrooms there. And Georgia did of course come over here and do that light practice, but it was a very brief time that they left their hotel.

Otherwise the players were just there. I talked to some who said they were just kind of going over film and doing everything they could to use that additional time to prepare for the opportunity that now they have today. How do you feel preparing for the opportunity? Obviously chaos comes in in the last 24 hours. You've had to be a, hey, shout out to you.

We're talking real journalism out here, Leroy. Real world stuff. We do sports stuff. We're lucky to do it. But there's some really real world stuff that's been taking place. How do you feel going into the game? And what do your commentating team feel about the energy from both these squads? Yeah, it's about trying to strike the right tone, right?

We want this to be about the players who have earned this opportunity to be here. And we want to celebrate them. And yet, you're thinking about families that are never going to be able to forget what's happened to them and what they saw. And the pain of losing somebody that you love never goes away. It's not like something that all of a sudden you wake up the next day and you feel better about. So

just our hearts are with them. My heart is with all of them. I can't shake what it must feel like for them to be dealing with all of this and yet it's our job to celebrate football and to bring the product that we always bring to the table on ESPN, which will be great today. We have so many great stories in this game. Gunnar Stockton getting his first start ever in this environment on this stage. He's waited so long for that. Notre Dame has so much to prove on this stage.

We'll celebrate that while also doing our best to just be sensitive to what's happened here. We can't wait to watch we appreciate you joining us and we know college ball is something that you cook on for the entire year but the NFL as well. Minnesota or Detroit Sunday night Laura? Minnesota or Detroit? You know what I'm'm going to go with Minnesota. Okay! And you and Detroit, I think they're going to be. Don't tell Orlovsky I did that.

Orlovsky's going to kill me over that. But I just think the Vikings have something super special going. There may be a slight bit healthier. And that game is going to be one that I can't wait to watch. We'll also be on that Ravens-Browns game. That's where I'm going next. And I got Danny in the booth for that one.

So prayers up for me getting through it. Yeah. Yeah, a lot of prayer. Yeah, that sucks. Yeah, that is certainly something you'll have to deal with. Great work on Christmas. Great work down here. We can't wait to watch you finish the season incredibly strong.

Thank you for joining us and great work. Thanks guys. Appreciate you all. Ladies and gentlemen, Laura Bradley. and gentlemen Laura. So what happened at the beginning there? We just, your mouth, what was the, what was happening? Two different feeds. Okay, cross feed. Cross feed. It's like Ghostbusters. Good information. She was, we were uh, we were lucky to be in a trailer yesterday that had just like a feed TV into it. Just what was being filmed. Laura was like on the beat.

Oh yeah. She was all of a sudden we're doing NBC nightly news. Laura's like in these meetings with the FBI and then she's coming out basically saying, this is what I'm hearing. And then obviously there's a terrorist attack that just happened. So it's like for being a sports person

to be able to have to jump into that and then get back, it's like, that was... Big story in America. World. Yeah. Especially with the college football playoff thing taking place. And then everything else that happened yesterday too. There was some other...

Other stuff. Day one of 2025. Cyber truck, exposed, front of Trump Tower. And then there was fireworks on it in that? That was part of what he used to blow up the And then there is New York right when there's something happen in New York nightclub Yeah, don't beat us okay, no thank them beat us So sad all those things whenever they happen

It's hard not just be like completely devastated and we should be you know And you should have those moments of thinking like that. But inevitably, I believe the same thing that I believed for a long time, there's a lot more good, way more good than there is bad. And I think we're at a time where the way more good people are starting to be like, nah, we're done with it. We're done with it, we're done with it,

we're done with it. And I think that's a good thing. I think football will be something that's celebrated, especially down there in New Orleans, Louisiana loves ball. Louisiana loves having a good time. New Orleans likes hosting people too. So it's like, you might be able to sneak by, you know, and do something terrible, but in the end we got you. And I firmly believe that forever. Shout out to United States of America. Let's fucking go.

Shout out to football. Yeah. Georgia Notre Dame is going to be a good game too. Two and a half hours until kickoff there. I believe after we get done here on ESPN, Sports Center with Matt Barry will be a kickoff show. Nice. Kind of lead into that. I don't know if Matt Barry knew he was doing that as of yesterday. Really?

Yeah, but I think he's prepared. He's always ready. Matt Barry's always ready. He's always ready. He is always ready. Golf, football, anything you need. He is a teamer. He puts his left hand up.

Yeah. You say you need somebody? Sure, I'm a little boozed up right now. I is a teamer. He puts his left hand up. Yeah. You say you need somebody? Sure, I'm a little boozed up right now. I was at a stage. Who is it? Yeah, sure, I'm having a good time. Yeah, I'm nowhere near the set where you need me to be. I'll find a flight, I guess.

Yeah, I'll get in there. So shout out to Matt Berry. You need more Matt Berries in this entire one. He doesn't give a shite. He, about anything but giving his jaw. Bingo. Which we appreciate. Lot of shites on that program. So many shites.

Well, it got, the game got away from the game and then shite happened. Shite happened all over the place. Yeah. Speaking of shite happening, out of the mouth, how's Axel, are we okay? What's going on with the kid? Yeah, he's doing better.

He's not as pale as he was and he has stopped puking So he's in route back to Ohio for those that don't know what happened. Here's literally from last night's Watch-along feel best I see at the 47 Unfortunately, my youngest son puked all over himself went to the hospital so my whole family's not here anymore to hear that I'm getting some updates every once in a while. He seems to be doing not much better He puked over the whole section she is in urgent care in sin hospital. No what type of shite was he?

Here is someone making salmon down here I'm not gonna lie Shite was eating. Is someone making salmon down here? We can't do that. It's not like fish. Look at this. I'm knocking a lot. Who's this guy? Oh, the duck. I'm so sorry to hear that about your kid. I'm not kidding. I'm so sorry to hear that.

That's a real story. Very anxiety riddled that time. Yeah, hopefully. I think we're doing better. I would immediately ask the duck what happened, but that was the first we had heard about any of that. Yeah. What he said right there.

And you just, the way you delivered it, I couldn't hold it. Yeah, it'd be cool if my family was here to hear this. It'd be good for the boys to be able to hear this, but it turns out they're actually in a hospital down the street, because my youngest lad just puked all over everybody. He's, and then he said, I'm getting updates.

Turns out he's not much better. And just kept going. Said that so nonchalantly. Kids in the hospital, I'd be out of there. Dude, and that's why I wanted to apologize because obviously I think you did it to make us laugh But then as I was laughing I was just thinking about like if my wife had Mackenzie and we're in Southern California at a game and she has to go to a hospital while I'm on a site It would be the amount of anxiety

that would be felt inside of like, what's wrong? How do we get there? How do we get out of here? Rose Bowl is impossible to get in and out of. Couldn't even imagine the amount of stress that was happening in your phone. So that's why I want to apologize before we dealt with the salmon situation.

I never smelled the salmon. As soon as we got down towards that end, it smelled like fish. I'm not joking. I didn't know the duck was behind me. I had no idea. It wasn't about the duck. It smelled like fish from the jump. I just had to mention that. You almost started puking just like fish. I'm not joking. I didn't know the duck was behind me. I had no idea. It wasn't about the duck. It smelled like fish from the jump.

I just had to mention that. You almost started puking just like Axel. How about you? And he continued to follow up, sprayed an entire section. Yeah, I need you to apologize. Section 3C, I believe. Shout out Foss for helping out with the tickets.

But I believe he got a lot of people in that area. But some people ran and got towels, my wife said, and helped out. Couple Oregon fans in the section, she believed, were not very excited about Ax axle puking all over the place, but everything is good right now. We're we're on the mend Didn't this kid? On one of your road trips to see these guys somewhere in the winter pain or something when he's sick and that one do AJ Sprinter van renders printer van the window got blasted out. But yes on the ride down he puked all over that

Axles a problem Axles a dog dude. I'm very excited to watch what Axel becomes You know cuz he's puked all over the Rose Bowl. He's puked all over the Peach Bowl Yeah, he is puked all over everything and guess what comes out the other side strong date That's that's the type of adversity that Ohioans and Hawks love right page Oh, yeah, that's going back to what we're talking about. You cannot defeat us the The doctors they hooked him up to make sure he had nothing wrong early on and they said where you from he said America so

Nice. That's my wife wanted to make sure that I knew she was proud of him He's seven years old right now seven Seven years old, just got done puking everywhere. White as a ghost, just like body, just kind of like straining. Doctor comes in, hey listen, we're gonna take care of you. All right. Where are you from? Just so I know that you have your bearings.

Fucking America. He's gonna be just fine. Doctor said over there, did he give him IV? Seven year old, you don't get an IV, right? Seven? I don't think he got IVs. No, they're trying to figure it out. Yeah, but he's he's all right. He's doing okay.

She my wife carried him up like a mile up the hill to a rickshaw rickshaw to an Uber with the other four or five kids. My daughter's friend was with them. Yeah, they figured it out. And like I said, it's all part of the store. It's all part of the process. The Hawks love adversity. That's AJ's first response always.

Yeah, Sprinter Van got the windows busted out last night. Don't know how we're gonna drive home. Man, that sucks, you know. No, Hawks love adversity. That's what we love. Hey, kid puked all over an entire section. Had to get carried up a hill to a bike rickshaw to a hospital. Oh my god, I'm so sorry. You need to go anywhere. Hawks love adversity. That's just what we do. And that Ohio State team feels like their adversity has led them to where you need to go in there. Hawks love adversity, that's just what we do. And that Ohio State team, feels like their adversity has led them to where they need to be. Excited to watch college football playoffs wrap up.

And then for us, since we're going to be off tomorrow, we need to make our picks. AJ, let's look at the slate for the NFL, and let's go ahead and do this thing. And Chuck will obviously join us during the picks, but let's remember this guy can't pick shite in the NFL. So we will take that into account. Saturday, double header shout out to the NFL,

both on ESPN, Browns at Ravens, Laura Rutledge, Dan O'Lovsky on the call in Baltimore. I don't believe anything is on the line here for the Ravens or the Browns. Browns, go ahead. Ravens have to win to win the division. Okay, so Ravens could win the division. They're favored by 18.

What? At home. 18? Yeah, and his Browns team actually just reworked Deshaun Watson's contract, so he'll be there for at least another two years. Shout out to Mulligetta having a locked in deal that just like we thought it was

while people were trying to tell us, no, it is navigatable. It is not because Mulligetta negotiated it. With that being said, 18 point favorites at home. Who do you like Chuck? I? Love the Ravens, but 18 points. That's a lot my god Yeah, it'll be 35 10. Give me the Ravens. Okay, that's a 25-point win obviously go ahead AJ Yeah, 18 feels like a bunch, but give me the Ravens. I would take the Ravens as well. Bengals, Steelers, now this is a massive one.

Bengals obviously need to win, Steelers need to win, because they could still potentially win the division. Yes, well they'll know if they can win the division based on the Ravens game before them, but they want to win so they go to Texas and probably not Baltimore, I would assume. Okay, so Bengals favored by two in Pittsburgh. Whoa.

That's wild. Steelers can win the division that the Cincinnati Bangles are in. Steelers can decide whether or not there are five or six seed. The bangles are still hoping and praying to get in. Steelers are at home in Pittsburgh. Oh mama, I'm in fear for my life

from the long arm of the law Boom boom Bangles favored by two. Tone, how do you feel about that? I assume it has some to do with the books assuming that the Ravens are going to win and then there is some Speculation which I doubt Tomlin would do this that they rest some guys because they know they can't win the division that they rest some guys because they know they can't win the division because they were they were two-point dogs I believe going into Cincinnati when they won that game so I think that's something to do with the Ravens maybe potentially win the division the game before that but I don't know okay AJ who

do you like I like the Bengals here man I just love what Joey B and this offense is doing I think the defense is getting better as well the Steelers have been absolute shite. They've been shite. But they've taken on some very good teams. Well, here's another one. Here's another one. Can Salma put the fire out, you think, Chuck?

I don't know if you can figure it out. 10 days they've had to figure it out. And Cincinnati, like Joey B, 42 tuds, only eight interceptions. And Jamar Chase is going to, you know, they're trying to get him to triple crown. He's got 117 catches 1617 yards and 16 Tuddy's He has more yards and receiving time that I believe than the entire New England Patriots

Okay, probably other teams as well if I had to guess bangles and T Higgins and Jamar chase Joe mix. Yep All right. I'll take the Pittsburgh Steelers. Oh Plus two at home respect that. Thank you lose four straight We think Tom is gonna lose my straight games But here but here's a thing like the first thing Mike Tomlin is gonna lose four straight game Just just as a thought I know the Bengals have a lot to play for they need to they need to do that entire thing Mike Tomlin is gonna lose four straight Was there in the they're in the playoffs so Baltimore plays first right so Baltimore is gonna win so they know they got no shot So they're gonna rest guys

They're gonna even try Mike Tomlin is just gonna rest guys even if you if it's between playing Houston and Baltimore. Yeah, I Don't think now us as fans don't want to go to Baltimore. I don't think they care about going to Baltimore I think you'd rather play the Texans and I don't think you want to go into the playoffs I agree they'd rather play the Texans, but they just won eight out of ten against the Bravens I'm saying as a team like when you were in the NFL did you care about who you were going to play the next week? Me I was trying to put him inside tenor single-time. Bingo Chuck though small rectangle. Yeah, that's how we're trying to play Come on. We're trying to play full-court defense half-court offense. That's what we're trying to do for me That is what I'm trying. Thank you for that. That's how I'm being jumped. Thank you

You thank you for that Chuck. Did you think about that? Did you care who you're going to play next week? No Don't work A little bit I'll take the Steelers. Okay, I'm there for straight losses I don't know man, that would be crazy if that happened. It would get loud in Pittsburgh. Yeah. Four straight losses then and then losing the first round of the wild card. They would get very, very, very loud. Not saying, not for a reason. I'm just saying that would get very loud in Pittsburgh. Did you see the latest TikTok that Sierra and one of Russ's sons put out? No, it wasn't. Reenact it. Are you on tape?

Something in the hotel room. Just make sure you, you might want to hold off on your pick for you. What? Oh wow. No, it's pretty good. I mean they know what they're doing. Can you show us a little bit, Chuck? What is it?

I can't. You were starting, they looked like they were just starting. Are they doing this? Was he doing that? Yeah, it's Russ. Yeah, it's Russ. Hold on. That's winning, isn't it?

That's been winning as of late, if that's Yeah, he's rushing. He's rushing, cause, hold on. That's winning, isn't it? I think that's been winning as of late, if that's what you're talking about. All right, Steelers plus two. All right, let's roll to Sunday now. Panthers, Falcons. Falcons can still, right?

Yeah, Falcons have to win, cause if Tampa loses and Falcons win, they are in. Okay, so Falcons favored by seven and a half at home against a Carolina Panthers team that we think is gonna be much better next year than they were at the beginning of this year. Chuck Pagano, who do you like? Lana. AJ. Carolina Panthers.

Plus seven and a half B as well. Buffalo Bills playing Mitchell Trebesky is the conversation other than Josh getting a start, right? Yep, yep. Bingo. Josh is getting a start, but everybody's assuming Treubisky's gonna get a lot of playing time. He's favored by two and a half, taking on Coach Mayo and the New England Patriots. Con man, how do you feel about this matchup? I mean, it's a must win for New England. I don't see why you wouldn't take the two and a half

and the team is still bought in on Draw Mayo. Chuck, who do you like? Why do you say that? Just, you know a couple videos Stuff that the players are saying they're definitely there's not there's none of that Maybe we need some of that But no the team the boys still seem to be believing in the direction that they're going okay into the fans No, how upset will you be if they win?

Have the number one overall pick right now the new England Patriots I'll be I'll be pretty upset be if they win? Have the number one overall pick right now in the New England Patriots. I'll be pretty upset if they win, but again, we need to, you know, it wouldn't be terrible to show the world and possible free agents like, hey, Drake May is still a guy. Okay, so you got the bills? Well, do we know how many players are resting? The bills? I believe a majority.

The whole conversation with Josh Allen starting is because of like start streak Yeah start streak in percentage. Give me new England home in the points in Edge give me the bills minus two and a half Thank you Mitch can play bro Mitch can play what yeah at a 69 yard touchdown I Mean look I'm getting a true Biscay Jersey if they would I'm just gonna say I'll take the bills. Give me the bills minus two and a half Tough week to pick games. I mean redeemed one redeeming quality Drake may and you think to yourself while you're watching a watch It's pretty good and then you look the score. They're down 30. Yeah

and then you look at the score, they're down 30. And it's like, what happened? What happened? They are last. He does look good though. He does look good. They did lose 40 to seven, right? Yeah. Receivers are last in separation

and the O-line is last in protecting the quarterback. All right, give me the Buffalo Beals. Give me the Buffalo Beals. Yeah, give me the Buffalo Beals. Thank you, Mike. Buffalo Beals. What's that? Jacksonville Jaguars taking on the Indianapolis Colts.

The Colts, I mean, what is, you know, the Colts are a lot of things right now. Everybody's saying it sucks, including the people that are there. So that's not great news. Who knows what the future looks like, but know this, the cults are going to be back in a relevancy conversation. You know, there's playoff chatter with a few teams

in the AFC, the cults could have been that, you know, but instead they tricked off a loss to the Giants, which then led to everybody exposing everything going on in that building. That's good news for the future. Sometimes you got to have those uncomfortable conversations to get to for the future. Sometimes you gotta have those uncomfortable conversations to get to a better place. Now what do those uncomfortable conversations lead to

for this particular week? I think a loss at home to the Jacksonville Jaguars. Give me the Jags plus five. AJ? AR's back injury does worry me a bit, so give me Jacksonville plus five. Chuck? He's not starting.

Well, he's had back spasm since eighth grade okay good it's what he said I don't know if they're better he's not crawling around not Jones is hot Jacksonville has the Colts number so here's what I researched Joe Flacco is gonna start Jacksonville's 32nd and pass defense we got a quarterback that can sling it enjoy flacco and we got a quarterback that can sling it in Joey Flacco And we got some receivers that can catch it Pittman and Pierce and JT can run Yeah, I'll take that Colts. I'll take the Colts minus five. Oh, come on. You're gonna take the tractor another round I think you have a chance Fuck those last game possibly and a lot of people on that Colts team. Hopefully last game as Indianapolis Colts

That's kind of my hope. I wish we could transfer Porter the whole fucking team. Just take Ohio State. We had like 70 guys to hit the portal. Can't do it though. Any NFL I guess. I've been trying to research it. You know. Thank you for your services. Just in case I wanted to go pitch myself as president of the Indianapolis Colts, not that I ever would, but I put a plan together and how to get rid of this entire fucking roster except for Pittman I want Pittman here. I want Pierce here. Let's keep Quentin Nelson. Let's keep DeForest Buckner. Let's keep Kenny Moore I like Kenny Moore other than that

See ya every one of them. Goodbye. Take a hike Thanks for coming Jonathan Taylor trade his fucking ass out of town. How do we go about doing it? You got a second round pick sweet? First would be better. We'll do this for the good of the program. Ain't the Richie was good project Get him out of town fourth round or whatever the hell you got. See ya That's what I would do if I was going into this place need a full Reset of this the more that comes out the more I feel like podcast you Guys great tackle. What are we saying?

Guys great tackler. I think you made a Pro Bowl. You did. You guys won them third second round. That's what I would. I mean I would do that was what I would do. That's why I would never be a president of the team. You think the Giants played that? Obviously. I want to play a terrible team in a big market. Okay. Thanks for being a champion. Okay. That's what you know. That's what playoffs are. You you know just terrible teams at big markets. You have 45 burger coming out. I'm so sick. I'm just I'll get them the fuck out of the city. I can't I can't do it legit But that's also why I went I'm a president GM. I think there's a couple moves you make you can get your culture back

I think it's gonna involve trading some big names though and saying hey That ain't how we doing it anymore. Now, will they do that? I have no idea. We'll continue to make these picks on YouTube, ESPN+, Disney+, and TikTok Live. Okay. We're off tomorrow, we're back on Overreaction Monday, should be electrifying next week.

We'll be down in Miami, we'll also be in Dallas for the Orange Bowl and the Cotton Bowl, and then obviously the playoffs ramp up in the NFL. Black Monday's right around the corner. Who's gonna have a job, who's not? There's a lot to be thankful for. We can't thank you enough for allowing us to do this. Be a friend, tell a friend something nice.

It might change their life. We'll see you on Monday, goodbye. I think we got it. I think we get it. 30 seconds earlier, because Mike Foss sold a 30 second ad clip at the end of the show. Atta baby, Mike!

Thanks, Mike! Hey, 24 bucks! Okay! Those 30 second ad clip at the end of the show. Outta baby Mike! Thanks, Foss. Hey, 24 bucks! Okay! Those 30 second ads are really the ones that are doing damage in 2024, 2025. Yeah! I might even get into it. Buy you seven gallons of gas. What do they cost?

I assume people are paying upwards 36 bucks for those. At least 37 dollars. Who's negotiating these deals? Mike Foss, I think it's actually Mike Foss. Mickey Mouse. I think it's Mike Foss. Mike Foss and Mickey Mouse saying, hey, remember these 30 second ad reads?

They work. Yeah. Right? Always have. Last 60 years, these ones are the ones. Yeah. People don't just immediately get on their phones or a different channel or something else

whenever these come on. They still matter, yeah. They don't. Most of them stink. Shite. There's some shite up there. You put a little pizza though on the screen and it's got a little smoke on it.

Yeah. It's like, whoa. Wait a minute. Is that pizza? Wait, wait, wait. I forgot, I do like pizza. 30 Second Ad Re-Work it. Yeah. It's like, oh, is that pizza? Wait, wait, wait. I forgot, I do like pizza. 30 second ad reworks. Yeah, exactly.

You put a couple of these, you put a couple of these. I don't love, no, I'm not getting into it. No, it's still delicious. It's been a whole season of these boneless wings. Can we get an actual wing deal with pizza? We've been trying our best, have we not? We have. What do we have to do here? Well, well the balanced ones are able to bundle and they can do this

entire place great deal this is not a 2024 this is a 2003 deal this to rate yeah it's not an inflation 2025 2024 deal so I like that the pizza people are like we got a peek off this thing a little bit well that being said the bone-in wings are phenomenal so So good the pizza so damn good They tried at that Chargers bolt facility. They tried real hard Valiantly and the pies on outside of a pizza oven thing with the stick Well, then they say that was and I'm not the not being sarcastic here because it'll come off like that Didn't they say it was Emeril's pizza oven that it shipped from Italy. I think you guys said that Wolfgang Puck I believe yeah, yeah, I was not being that was but Tali shipped from Italy. I think you guys said that. Wolfgang Puck, I believe. Yeah, Wolfgang Puck.

Oh yeah, I was not being. That was Batali. No, no, for sure. That's it, right there. Oh, we missed it. That's right there. Oh, that's sweet. Yeah, super Italian.

He's super Italian. Yeah, they were super Italians cooking it. I would say the pepperoni was crisp. Oh, it's delicious. It was some solid pizza, but once again, no one. And we mean no one out pizzas thought I don't care if it's coming out of a helmet oven. I don't care. It's coming out of Los Angeles I don't care how paisano seguito is it's cooking the pizza

No one has been a couple places. I've been to but it's hard to get you know they're not sure You walk into some of those old places And get that thing. It's just properly. We're talking national Oh, yeah, for sure blind taste test though. You put both those behind Holy shit, what this is fucking divine slice of heaven and then you know that was pizza And that's why no one and we mean no one now pizza's the hut I think there are some people that are close in the boneless wings department to Pizza Hut You know cuz chicken nuggets with flavor certainly done by a lot of people the difference with pizza is they have actual friers in there

So they're making their chicken nuggets with flavor. Yeah, the bone-in wings are I mean unbeatable so good. Yeah, just do it top flight Why don't you get you some bone-in wings and some pizza for the sugar bowl kicking off in two hours Idea whole magic smart move what a time you want to have a great year for the sugar bowl kicking off in two hours. Good on it. Good idea. Can you imagine? Smart move. What a time. You want to have a great year. It's been a healthy year. Let's call Parker. He's going to have good service when we talked to him the other night, didn't he?

He might still be on TV. Did you guys start your resolutions? Yeah, I worked out this morning. I did 14 push-ups. Thank you. I'm on it. Parker, we're live. We're live. We're live. We're live right now on the Pat McAfee show. Yes. Yes. We're live. You're eating chips. Let's put the chips away for a second, please. Please. No more chips just for now. Just for you. Can you tell everybody what 2024 was like? Was it a hell of a year or no? 2024 was a hell of a year, man. Very blessed, a lot of good things.

Got to go on the Pat McAfee show. No, no, no, no. No, no, no. You're doing it wrong. You're doing it wrong. We need to hear it. We need to hear it. We need to hear it.

2024 was great for me, man. And I'm the only person that can make 2025 great for myself and even better than 2024. So I like that. I like that. I like that. But that I like that but 2025 whenever it's all said and done because you're taking accountability for yourself and only you can control your happiness I like that mindset that is a good one for the world to hear but on new year's eve going in 2026 we're gonna say 2025 man that was uh better no no

you know what we want what type of year was it parker what type of fucking year was it it was that kind of year we need to hear it you described the year perfectly

piece of shite i have to do that in the grocery store all the time, man. It's been a helluva year, I'll save this for you. YAY! Sing it! Hold on, let us say it, because we've been working on this. It's been a helluva year! Okay, now, is that good?

I remember from last time you guys could sing, y'all got a little something going on there. Yeah, it's special over there Listen, we'll turn the auto-tune on if you want us to only will 2025 already been hell of a year. I don't speak too soon, but it's been good Chips, geez. Yeah, what's up? It looks like it's Pringle right now. I think it looks like you're eating a Pringle Regular Pringles Wow. Oh gee, is that your favorite or is that the only one available at this moment? We got a lot of chips here. We had a great 2024. We got some good chips.

What you have? What you had? You had a... We got all the good stuff. And these are regular Pringles though. These are the OGs. And... That's it.

That's it. You had a hell of a year, man. We're proud of you. And it was a hell of a year. It was a hell of a year. I'm not a can until that point of the champ. Hey, I don't like those people saying you used Audit to them, by the way. We were happy about that because we saw your ass stand right here. No, he...

Horrible. He cut his teeth in Nashville. He wouldn't do that. He did cut his teeth in Nashville. His son's moved back to the ranch though. He's on a horse this motherfucker. You know, we see the whole entire thing. You had a hell of a year, year Parker we're proud of you, buddy Thank you. Love you guys. Appreciate y'all calling me and seeing what I was doing. It's been a hell of a year Boom. Thank you, Parker. Thank you, Parker. Thank you, Parker

That's kind of shite. It was a bit shitey. It's kind of shitey To be fair, that was probably cool. Probably had to do the hell of a year gimmick for He couldn't put down a hundred times the last 24 hours I mean, these are the worst three days for him. Hey, hey make a great like New Year's song You know, they said what they didn't say was Everybody now is gonna ask you. Yeah. Yeah. You're just like schedule open the first fucking three days of the year Okay, just saying that a lot shabuzy. Hey, yeah Song I got five other heaters.

Don't care. Shut up. We were like. And sing the Tipsy song. Nobody cares, Tipsy. Yeah. Parker, what type of years have been? It's been a good year for my family.

Like, don't care. Don't be a fool. We do not. But I had a baby. I just caught him on New Year's, while we were pretty boozed up at dinner. And him just getting off a stage, sweating. Parker's been, hell yeah!

He was like, all right, okay. All right, got a bunch of drunk guys at a restaurant right now singing to me. Parker, can we hear a little bit? Then he lost service, couldn't see him. They were like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, we don't know if you just sang or not. I did not, okay.

Do it now. I'm sorry. Why aren't you singing right now? I've been on TV since 7 p.m. Oh yeah, we missed it. No TVs here, as you can see, no TVs. Hey Parker's been here. Hey over here.

Assholes, all of us. All right, let's get back to picking a game, shall we? So who's on the Colts? You and Chuck. Yep. Age, you're on the Jags? Yeah, I like what Mac Jones is doing. Give me the Jags. We excited to see what Mac Jones is doing. Give me the Jags.

I'm excited to see what the turnout is for that game. It feels like a lot of Colts fans have gotten to the point where we're done with this. You know, kind of done with this. Colts need to get out to a hot start, I think, in that one. Yeah, it'll be good momentum. Take Tractor another round, boys. I don't know if the transfer portal is variable for all of you,

but you should give it a shot. They should give it a shot this off season. They got a shot. After getting embarrassed like that? They they don't care that's the thing that's the problem is this group does this is this will be very like we know a lot right now but this will be very very telling then they didn't show up with the playoffs were on the line coach you think they're showing up for this what he's saying they don't give a shit. This team does not care. They get a check to be in the NFL. They get to say they're NFL players. And if you have a couple of those guys on your team,

you can hope they're like, hey, it's not just about being on team. It's about like being a part of the team and like being a good team and like being a good pro. It feels like 87% of their team is just like the guys that you don't want on your team. And that's not good. Talent everywhere. They've talent, damn talent everywhere. They've talent. Damn.

They've paid guys everywhere. And now it's just, we're lucky that they're wearing the uniform in the city. You're wrong. And I can't wait for you all to be gone. And I don't know if that's even possible, but I'm hoping for it legitimately. I'm in the more I read Zach Kiefer, the more I read the more I hate because there's a lot of good people in that building, Chuck. You know them. Absolutely. A lot of great people in that building. They've been in there since... They've sacrificed a lot.

A long time. Long hours building stuff, doing all the shit you don't want to do. Like just to, you know, put a left hand up selfless for the Colts. Since they got here from Baltimore in 1980 something. So like seeing all the different iterations of the Colts since they got here from Baltimore in 1980 something. So like seeing all the different iterations of the Colts, they kind of have a good feel on what's gonna work, what's not gonna work. And then you talk to them and it's like, they're wondering what the,

and then you hear this stuff come in, it's like what the, what are we doing here? Is this even a fucking professional outfit or what are we just, we're lining up 11 guys to go play football for a movie every single week. That's what it feels like. I don't like it, age.

I don't like the one bit age. You know Mr. Ursay and you know how much he loves and cares and what he'll do for his players, right? And for that, to give back to like, that's a slap. Yeah, not to mention Mr. Ursay. Like there's no better owner to me. I like the way he loves and cares about these dudes Come on. Yeah, we'll see if he loves and cares about the city cuz clocks ticking why there? What do you mean? We need two Super Bowls by

2030 so he better get this thing go he better trade for Josh Allen or something Are you saying two Super Bowls in a decade? That's what he said and if guess what if it doesn't happen I want a piece of the fucking team then because he Guaranteed that to be happening your taxes are going towards that aren't you my taxes are going down the shiter Because nobody is playing ball in this city What was it Connor two Super Bowls in the last decade? But you know every other team the division has at least two division

Championships and the Colts don't have one. Yeah, so fuck that. It feels like a lot of you are piling on right now. Sometimes Jesus Christ, they're coming off the top turnbuckle. It's all there. It's always there. Yeah I mean if it looks like shite and it smells like shite guess what it might be shite I thought about like running into an event to one of these guys on the Colts But they don't do community stuff. So they wouldn't be at any event. And if we see blue? Yeah. And if we see him we're gonna fuck his shite up. No we like blue. We like blue. Did you see what was in that Kiefer article?

What do you mean you're done with blue? What's that? Done with it all. They're calling him shite stank instead of Shane Stankin. No they're not. I know that's not true. I know that's that? Done with it all. They're calling him shite stank instead of Shane Stankin. No, they're not. I know that's not true. I know that's not true. Stop it. There's a lot of smoke coming out of that team though

about like who's doing what, what's gonna be. Nobody knows except for one man, his name's Jim Ursay. That's a nice piece of information to have. I didn't know he was still making like end decision cause I don't think he's in there every single day. I think the daughters are in there every single day. So I thought maybe they're the ones that were gonna have to make the decision. But from what we've we've been told right still Jim making all the decisions for the program

Hopefully he takes a nice hit of that vape and thinks to himself This place is shite, bro Sounds big change. That's what I'm hoping I legitimately cuz it's like, you know in a lot of these cities The football team is like what you do doing the fall. Like that is what to do. But everyone cares bro. People talk about like you're in LA or Miami, there's a lot of distractions, a lot of other shit to do. It's like in the fall in a lot of places, football towns, it's like the football team

is it. So whenever you watch shite and just can clearly see it and then they're not a likable bunch. It's like so we're just gonna have another miserable fall with this group of people I don't know I don't know and whose fault is I don't know seemingly everybody top down I mean no disrespect to Indiana or Notre Dame or whoever else but like you can't have the NFL team in your city be like the third most talked about or third most important team or third most exciting team like that just can't, especially when you're not an also ran franchise

and you had Peyton Manning and you know what I mean? A lot of history. A lot of football here. Yeah, exactly. A lot of football people here in Indiana. A lot of football people here. They also a lot of like old school people here, you know, a lot of old school.

And that's why Signehti comes in here and it's like, we're going to work hard. I don't think they loved him talking shit to Notre Dame because a lot of Indiana people are also Notre Dame fans. I think that was a miscalculation potentially by Signehdy, but the way he operates, old school, work hard, like chip on shoulder, like that's, Indiana people is a very military place too.

So like they, so whenever you got these, if you're winning, it it's fine but like if you don't represent the state the city in the fashion in which they would like it to be it's like and then you also suck and continue to suck it's like where why do you get off thinking you can be the inside i think what you'll get a little bit of a pass like everybody knows you're gonna have a bad a bad day here and there if they and if they know you are dying and Killing yourself to do everything possible to make sure that you show up for these people week in and week out Then then it's like okay. We'll get it next week But they got a they got to know that

That you're you're freaking gonna die on that treadmill before you let somebody else beat you. Yeah, and that's the thing. I don't know if these guys even know how to turn a treadmill on. You know, and that's seemingly the problem. Just from my outside look at it. Just from my outside look at it. Thank God I'm not on that team. But also if I was on that team, it's like the locker room can police themselves. It has to. Also, if I was on that team, it's like the locker room can police themselves. It feels like there's none of that there. And Blue winning the Salute to Service Award. I don't even know.

Congrats. Congrats, Blue. That's what's saving his ass right now. Blue's a good mascot. Yes. Is Blue the one that ate Foxy? That's Air Blue. Yeah, Air Blue.

I don't think Air Blue won the Salute to Service Award. There's multiple mascots though for the Colts? There's junior blue air blue then there's actual blue Marvel superheroes. Yep That was potentially that's when you should have known that was kind of the Turner What was it remember when we had New York Times Square spider-man fighting off against captain? Americana, yeah in the middle of the thing and the Americana, in the middle of the thing. And the Spider-Man couldn't fit in the fucking, and they were running across the field.

I just saw that guy actually. We took my kids to Madame Tussauds the day before the game out in LA. We saw the slightly overweight Spider-Man jammed into a Spider-Man costume, trying to get pictures with my kids. Well, he was a halftime show for the Colts last year. Yeah.

I should've told him, hey, good work last year. Need your back, brother. Yeah, great, he brought the, great. He brought the hostile. He brought the hostile. Hand himself. When he passed out, almost had a heart attack at the 50-yard line because he ran 20 yards trying to catch him. He was doing this one.

It wasn't working either because I think you got to have a little bit of energy. You get out and put him. He's doing it. He's going, ah, fuck it. I'll run and catch him. And then he, yeah, yeah. Didn't know he hadn't run in a while. We could tell by looking at him, but he didn't know yeah Captain America had to give him CPR on 50. Oh, no. What's the name of spider-man in real life?

Pete Parker so embarrassed by the Pete Parker that they chose put out there and have time show Don't figure it out. It's Colts. They'll get off. Yeah transfer portal need it Just fall to the island of irrelevancy Either either well in there for a while. Yeah, we're still talking about I mean like hey Transfer portal need it. You just fall to the island of irrelevancy. Either way. Been there for a while. Yeah, we're still talking about, I mean like, hey. Only reason we're talking about those because this show happens to be from Indianapolis.

Which isn't forever. Although I love this place. I do love this place. I enjoy this city. I do love this city. I don't like the rich class here in the city. I do love the city. I don't like the rich class here in the city. Sure. I don't go along with any of the suits of the city, but the people, I like the actual people, you know,

I like Tyrese. Mm hmm. He's the best. I like Tyrese Halliburton a lot. I like the Pacers a lot. I think the Fever are going to be able to continue to do their thing if the WNBA remains a league even though they're trying their fucking best. You know, how do we get everybody to fucking hate us so we don't have a league?

You know, they're trying their best. Every day it seems like. Let me open my phone. Oh, okay, they're still trying to ruin their league. That's good. That'll get figured out. I think they'll figure that out and the Fever are going to go on and win that. That's good news.

The people here, local business owners owners the people that call this place home phenomenal people But the Colts are the biggest representation of this city in this state And they got a lot of bum tendencies all over the place they'll figure it out though good luck boys Tough Jags team tough Jags tough Jags tough Jags team Tough Jags team. Tough Jags team. Tough Jags team. You still on the Colts?

After everything what you said? Colts are going to beat the shite out of the Jags. Well said. I'll take the Colts as well. Last game. This is something they would do. Let's fuck up the draft pick at least. Let's do one last. How can we say fuck you to the city?

That's what this Colts's team's gonna do. And we're thankful for it. Bears, Packers. Packers favored by 10. Ty, anything to think about for this game? Not a whole lot to play for. I think it's kinda out of their hands. Obviously they need to win.

They could still be the fifth seed, but, or, excuse me, the sixth seed, but that's as high as they could go. Right now they're currently slotted as the fifth seed, but or excuse me the sixth seed, but that's as high as they could go right now They're currently slotted as the seventh seed. Okay, awesome Love that Jordan loves a dog. Yeah, he didn't play great last week, but I don't know if that's necessarily all on him So we'll see he he's still been good. They need to start fast bears stink They do but that Bears played the Packers Very tough last I mean Packers blocked the last second field goal to beat him so Packers can go up to six if the commanders lose to the Cowboys and

Z you wore that Chicago Bears hat into the Chargers facility I noticed that after we left and you've been riding alongside of them You have no idea who the coach is gonna be or the GM or what the future is. How do you feel about this particular game against Packers to wrap up this horrendous 2024 NFL season for the Bears? I think we would in Lambeau. Okay, I'll take the Green Bay Packers favored by 10. Jair's out, right?

Yeah, for the rest of the season. What's that mean, Ty? Nothing, cuz he hasn't really played like at all the last two years so you know. Love Jai here though, love everything. Give me the points. You like the Bears best then? AJ? Fucking Homer. Give me the Packers minus 10. Zito did not uh Zito's enthusiasm did not uh sway me over to the Bears. I'll take the Packers favored by 10. Big win going into the playoffs to get that mojo back. I feel like Jordan Love is a swagger guy. It feels like a good one. Speaking of what you just mentioned commander is taking on the Dallas Cowboys Commanders favored by five going into Cooper cush is down

Cooper cush is sitting at 52 and a half percent of the snaps played this particular season if they get to 55% He it's a five hundred thousand dollar incentive congrats a Cooper Cup Or Cooper rush potentially getting to that. We assume he will with that being said, I like the commanders by at least a touchdown. AJ, your thoughts? Yes, with all that being said, I like the commanders as well. I've been a big fan of what Dan Quinn has been doing and I think they are, I think they might make a little run in the playoffs. Chuck? They're riding high, give me the commander. Saints getting 13 and a half against Tampa who needs the win Tampa needs a win for the NFC south. I like the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to get the job done here and cover don't Love what has happened with this new orland saints team. Oh, should we think about what just happened in new orleans?

I feel like that kind of thing can really galvanize a team like especially when their season has kind of largely been shite Like this could be like a nice little send off. Okay, so I'll take Saints plus 13 and a half I'm gonna take the Saints plus 13 and a half just because that is bigger than the game there and a lot to pull from Especially if you're a citizen and a member of that community, how about you AJ? Who's playing quarterback for the Saints Spencer? All right. Okay, you know I 13 and a half. Yeah, I think the Bucks probably win, but give me the Saints plus 13 now Chuck Yeah, I love Darren Rizzi what he came on and talked about this this, you know tragedy that happened down there They got so many injuries. Oh, they will Gavin eyes and they'll fight for a minute I just don't think they have enough and Tampa Bay is riding high and this for the NFC South title and

You know get a home playoff game all that stuff. Give me Tampa. I'll take the bucks as well, Houston favored no Houston going into Tennessee is a dog Believe they're arresting everybody because they're locked in okay. Yeah, they can't notice He's got the number two ranked defense in the league to nobody talks about it We got the number two ranked defense in the league too. Nobody talks about it. Everybody thinks Tennessee stinks. They do.

They do. They need a quarterback this off season. They're gonna continue to build in that Callahan system, you would assume. Tennessee fans I think are, you know, kinda distracted by the country music scene, what's going on. But if that Titans scene gets good,

they rally behind that team. I mean, that's a good football city, if they be worth a damn. New stadium on the way too. Yeah so hopefully next year they will be worth a damn in this entirety. CJ Stroud not playing is that what you said? Believe he is not. I think it's like a defense as well kind of rest and hey we're so they rest in some offensive linemen too? You only rest your quarter, like, you know, if you're starting quarterbacks playing, you're starting an offensive line is playing,

are they gonna pull a couple of linemen out? What's that? That's dumb. What? As bad as they've been playing, they need to play to get some mojo back. I think so too. Give me Tennessee, but that's dumb.

You don't like that we're resting, not risking any injuries? That's like the Steelers. They've been resting for the last five weeks. That's like the Steelers too. Like the Steelers cannot have a four game Schneid going into the playoffs. Like they need to win a game no matter what's on the line, whether they're looking at the next week or not.

It's like the Texans saying, I think you need to figure out how to play good ball again. I think you would want to go do that. What are you saying, Tone? I haven't seen anything yet that he's officially out, but I think we're just judging based off the line. I'll take the Texans. I'll take the Texans who need one down here in Tennessee.

Beautiful city of Nashville. Who do you like, AJ? I like the Texans as well. Giants, Eagles, everybody's resting in Philadelphia, including Saquon, who is 101 yards away, or what is the number? 101. 101 yards away from the all-time leading rushing record.

Here's what Saquon had to say about the decision. Coach asked me you know what I like to do. We had a conversation. He called me back and let me know that we were probably gonna be wrestling. And my reaction was kind of like I told my family obviously my family you know probably wanted a little bit more than me but at the end of the day the most important thing is winning football games and winning the playoffs so I got a bigger goal in mind anyway. What was your message to Nick when he didn't?

I mean he asked me if I wanted to play if I want to go for it. I said on Sunday, you know, I probably didn't care too much for it. When I slept on it, it was like, it was an opportunity to implant my name in football history may never get another opportunity like that again. So I'm down but at the end of the day, I don't care for putting the team at risk. He's the head coach for a reason. He makes the decisions and whatever decision he wanted to make I let him know if you want me to play I'm gonna go out there make sure I get it and if we don't I'm okay with that too. Isn't it crazy that if that's 50 yards they're going for right because he can get that in the

first quarter 101 yards that's like that's a full game going for 101 yards. So Sirianni literally has to sit there and just be like, if I play him and he gets hurt, let's say it's 30 yards into this thing, somehow rolls an ankle. I'm not saying that Saquon isn't built ram truck tough. Okay, I'm not saying that that isn't the case. But I'm saying if you play him and he gets it and nothing happens to him, huge success, way to go. We did it, we're in it

we're in the history books forever this is going to be one that's going to be tough to ever get especially with the way football has kind of changed but if he plays and when he gets hurt it's fucking fired see what he's fired gone gone no questions asked gone see you get this goofball the hell out of the city we said this john was going to make a decision it was going to ruin our season oh oh for a running back record. Okay we did it in 17 games anyways. Wasn't 16 games. That's how people would react. Now Granny doesn't play him, doesn't give him an opportunity. This guy I don't like his players. This guy, he's easy. I know we've talked about Sirioni a lot this year because everybody else

has talked about him. They're on a winning team and the reason why they're not playing is because they've already figured out what their playoffs look like and everything. They're in there, they're a very good team. But this is not a decision I'm happy that I would ever have to make. I am very thankful. No, you don't want any part of it. It's a no-win deal. But you remember earlier in the year when Sirianni went down to Saquon, they're sitting on the bench and he had that monster game, I forget. The Giants. Yeah, I met that in my life. Okay, so he's at a hundred and seventy, hundred and eighty yards, right, against the Giants and he said, no, let them other guys eat. Saquon Okay, so he's at 170, 180 yards, right, against Giants.

And he said, no, let them other guys eat. Saquon did. So he's very selfless in this. And it's a huge, you know, it's a really, really tough decision for the head coach, but he's doing the best thing. I like that his family, Saquon's family, was like, yeah, you were real nice, what you were saying.

It doesn't matter. You know how long Dickerson's had this fucking record? There's a reason this one is a long one Who knows if you're ever gonna get back into this situation to go get this thing And I am speaking as a person that was a very small part of a member of a team that was undefeated and chose to lose The final two games basically by resting all the players going in the playoffs and we lose in the Super Bowl To the New Orleans Saints and Reggie Bush. It was great on the Feel pass yesterday. Yeah, he was. Congrats to him.

High fashion. Had to figure it out because they gave him a jacket too big. But the older players, I think as they look back, obviously regret losing to the Saints. But obviously didn't like that they weren't given the opportunity to maybe have a perfect season. But if they play in those last two games and somebody gets hurt, we lose because we're a very not deep team.

We're a very high end team. You lose Dallas Clark. You lose Reggie Wayne. You lose one of the offensive linemen. Fuck, God forbid fucking. Hey, it's her. Any of those situations, it's like you were in massive jeopardy. And Bill Pullian made that decision.

I think for everybody, Jim Caldwell didn't make that. I think it was Bill Pullman was like, nope, we are looking forward to the playoffs. That's not a fun position to be. Say when we assume you'll get it next year. Oh yeah, Saquon. Do you think if he wins a Superbook, gets a ring this year, if he didn't, like if he got the rushing record, Hall of Fame,

one way or another, fix his resume? Saquon? Like so if he doesn't win a, got the record but didn't win a ring, or vice versa. Record automatic end of the Hall of Fame. Record automatic end of the Hall of Fame Record automatic end of the whole thing. I think Saquon's at the point now where he's going to end up. He's only the ninth guy, right? Only the ninth guy to get 2000 plus. We just put up the list over here about...

It's a huge deal. Yes, huge deal. Obviously. Adrian, Jamal, you're talking about the who's who with this entire thing. Mile High salutes somebody. You think he's in already, regardless of... I think he was also what? What pick was he? Two? Yeah. I think if you're that highly tatted, and then what he's going to do in Philadelphia, I think in Philly he's going to have to go here. I think he's going to have to have multiple years like this because of how bad the Giants

were. But I think he is on a path to all fame. I think everybody kind of can see it. The reverse jump over backwards guy is just like, this thing is different. But you get the rushing record, you're automatically automatically in if you're running back I think what would you do I'd do it and Shari on they wouldn't play him cuz they're and you're going against the Giants too and last thing they they're gonna allow him they'll put ten guys in that box and let's let you throw touchdown passes

before they're gonna let this guy who says that that's what the Giants would do? Or that that would work? Guarantee you. Mr. Mara? It doesn't matter what Mr. Mara said. We've already seen him say a lot of things and just completely backfires. Yeah, I wouldn't throw him out there.

101's a lot of yards. I wish he was playing. No, I thought it was gonna be much, I thought it was gonna be 150, 160, and then I still thought maybe they'll give him a shot. When I saw 101, I'm thinking, Seekon might do that in a quarter and a half and then get him out of there. Yeah. I'm okay either way. I was like, let everybody know, I'm okay either way. If he goes for it and gets it, legendary. If he goes for it and gets hurt. But then you gotta play all those great offensive linemen you have as well too, right? If he's going for're going. Yeah they all have. They want the record too as D-Butt said that's not just a

running back they got to that's if he breaks it I mean the 2000 is already the testament to the o-line the o-line coach everything offensive coordinator but that is kind of an offensive team award when the guy like that breaks that record. Can't live in your fears either right? Nope. What if your fear becomes your reality and then all of a sudden it's oh no this guy's a big dumb dip shit he's yelling at the fans again. Why why'd you put him out? Oh, that's cute That's real cute. Put him out there somebody gotta be an adult in a room Siri honey, it's a way you run for me How would you like to go up to that podium? Oh after if you get hurt? Oh

I've always go for my gosh. I fucked up. Okay Just like what you want me to say. Why'd you do it? Okay, what do I would do we now? Are we not trying to break records? Trying with Super Bowls, right? We're trying to win Super Bowl super breaking records is nice, isn't it? Well, is it? I don't know. Is it nice whenever you lose again? well, yeah, and I guess now the Sequon's out for a rest of season is maybe not so nice, but We'll be okay. We'll be just fine. I don't think he has to be okay We looked at the percentage of the offense that runs through one guy first everybody else and now you got to go to your

Most important game and you're without your your ace because he played well at this point doesn't matter cuz I'm gonna get fucking fire after Season anyway, okay coach sweet. Yeah, that's the reality of the situation that sir Iani has to figure out All right, let's go to the next game here Do we like the Philadelphia Eagles? Favored by two and a half Now drew lock, yeah, I'll take drew got that thing on I'm gonna take drew lock in the New York What a fucking horrible thing to come out of your mouth. I like the New York Giants against the Philadelphia... That's so bad.

Bruce, how do you feel? It doesn't sound good coming out, but what you guys did to the Colts makes me believe you guys maybe got a shot. I mean, we win and we fall to ninth, looking for our franchise quarterback of the future. So I'm hoping Leak Neighbors goes out there. I think he needs like probably three, four, or five catches. I forget the number to break Pukin' Nakua's record and then, you know, yank him and hopefully lose this game on purpose. Okay so they're trying to lose, Eagles aren't trying to win, who do you like? Who do you like Chuck? I'll take Philly. Okay just cuz the amount of talent, AJ? Yeah I'm gonna take Philly here. I will

as well just because it's impossible for me to even, I tried to say it, I tried to say Giants plus two. Almost had it. I just couldn't do it. Chiefs, Broncos. Broncos favored by 10 and a half with the Kansas City Chiefs resting everybody. Similar situation to when Patrick Mahomes actually got his first time playing in the NFL. Kansas City Chiefs with Alex Smith has already secured whatever their playoff spot

was gonna be last week of the year. They're playing the Denver Broncos in Denver. Patrick Mahomes comes out and wins for the Kansas City Chiefs didn't need to win did win They would then trade Alex Smith to Washington Patrick Mahomes would become the new quarterback new franchise quarterback for Kansas City And then that's all she wrote then it became a whole new era of NFL dynasty football Well Carson Wentz be able to do the same thing and keep it within ten and a half How many people are not playing? Patch Mahomes not playing. That means Travis probably not playing.

Chris Jones is not playing on defense side. How many more people do we know? You would think Hollywood because he's been banged up all year. Pacheco. Pacheco definitely not playing. Is Tooney playing out there? I don't know. Can't can't afford to let him get hurt. Where's Joe Tooney from?

I believe he's from Centerville, Ohio. Did you know that? Joe Tunley's from Centerville, Ohio Pat. Did you know that? Joe Tundley's from Centerville? He's an elk. Did not know that. No, he didn't go to Centerville. He went to the Catholic school He went to altar where Nick Mangold went. But yes, he's from Centerville. Okay, so he's got Centerville water pumping through his body He doesn't have elk pride though. Legend. He could have been an elk for sure. I don't know put that out coming on You're gonna have to earn that Would have been able to crack the starting lineup over there, which is probably why I want to hang out with the Catholics out there I'm not know he was in Ohio fuck makes sense though. If he just says put me a tackle Anything

Down everybody. He's not playing I assume right doubt it patch my homes isn't playing You only got 45 guys on the roster now guys remember. He's not playing, I assume, right? Doubt it. Patch Mahomes isn't playing, I assume. You only got 45 guys on the roster now, guys. Remember that. That's not true. It's not like you can. You got 53 and then you gotta sit. No, now with the, they got 18 on the practice squad, right? COVID.

Yeah, but you can't just sign all those and cut everybody and bring those guys up, Tony. You gotta play people. So who do you like? 10 and a half? Yeah. Good Carl Wentz and the Chiefs. Give? Ten and a half. Yeah Carl Wentz and the chiefs give me ten and a half Wow Andy Reed still coaching That's what Chuck just said He's smag still coaching his tobe

Still coaching are the coaches taking the game off or they still get to rest bad No, no, they wouldn't want it any other way. That's like fourth quarter. There's preseason games They get shot on those head coaches and they're still like dialed in. It's like. And imagine this, the young players that are getting an opportunity, you know how big this is for them?

Huge. They freaking go off. What do you think, AJ? You like the Broncos who are in a must win situation? Or do you like to see the Chiefs who are kind of saying, you know, let's mail it in. I, obviously I love what the Broncos defense does I like Bo Nicks but I'm taking the Chiefs here this is Carson Wentz like another coming out party

he gets to reintroduce himself to the nation as a great quarterback. Allow me to reintroduce myself my name's Carl. I'll take the Chiefs plus ten and a half. Wow. Seahawks Rams Seahawks favored by six and a half going into Los Angeles James Garoppolo at quarterback for the Rams I'll take the Seahawks Same I'll take the Rams They're resting Not Jimmy G. They're not playing anybody. I don't remember Jimmy G enough. You know, it was just a few years ago. He wasn't Went to a cereal bowl.

He was shite in Vegas. Good looking somebody. Gino Smith needs 185 passing yards for a $2 million incentive. Okay, give me the Seattle Seahawks. That means they're gonna hand it off to his walker back. You think the Seahawks are gonna just F him? You think so?

No. They're gonna run the ball 45 times. They're gonna have a jet sweep to DK Metcalf. They're gonna have a jet sweep to Todd. A lot of these, a lot of these, a lot of these. Let's go boys, two million. That's a big, that is a massive payday. What's another incentive that's huge? Mike Evans needs 85 yards and a touchdown for three million dollars. Is that what I saw? touchdown for three million dollars is that what I saw? Yes, 85 yards, five receptions, 85 yards, no touchdowns needed. Three million dollars.

That is a gigantic, a gigantic incentive. Normally it's like 250,000, which you're seeing down here. 500,000 is a big one. Three million dollars for a five reception, 85 yard game for Mike Evans. Congrats to him on picking up a quick three mil. That's fantastic. Gino Smith two million dollar incentives. These are huge. This is when you sign a deal there and you give a team a friendly discount and then everything's like incentive laden. Three million dollar incentive laden is being nice to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers but now that you're on the precipice of it I believe

bikers probably gonna be looking for Mike Evans a lot. Go ahead. That three million is also, I believe, for him to get 1,000 yards, which I think is his 12th straight season, getting 1,000 yards. First ballot, obviously, another three million in books. Destin, DeAndre Hopkins, not Dustin Hopkins,

kicker for the Browns, DeHop, a touchdown, six receptions, 140 yards, which could happen with Carl Wentz, 750,000. Kyle Murray, a rushing touchdown, plus receptions, 140 yards, which could happen with Carl Wentz, 750,000. Kyler Murray, a rushing touchdown, plus 50 rush yards, 750 grand. Derrick Henry, Cortland Sutton. Tony Pollard, Joe Mixon, Valtez Scantling, and Dobbins all playing for a little bit of cashola.

Good luck to all you guys, we hope you secure it. Carl Wentz, we like him. Seattle Seahawks, minus six and a half, I like him. AJ, who'd you take? I'm taking Jimmy G. and the Rams here. Okay Niners cards We just talked about Kyler Murray has the ability to win some stuff Favored by four at home against his Niners team that fought valiantly against it. I am That was a hell of a Monday night football game breaking

We were just catching it in clips because the Wi-Fi on a plane obviously not as great as you could imagine quarterback for who? Sam Frayn. Who is it? Rocks out. The Pastronaut. I would take the Arizona Cardinals, favored by four at home. Me too.

Chuck Will as well. AJ? Give me the Cardinals. Dolphins, jets. Dolphins are lurking. Huntley played his best game that he's ever played as a Miami Dolphin last week.

To his injury, he pops up out of nowhere and now he's missing again. So that sounds very, that feels serious. This one feels very serious. Don't know what it is. It's the same hip they said, but they haven't really, right? They haven't fully put out what it is.

Jets fresh off their worst game of all time. Now, what does Aaron's future look like? Nobody knows. He said open to everything attached to nothing. That includes playing again, that includes playing for the Jets if they want to keep them there, the new regime, which we all assume not gonna be the case, but there's gonna be a lot of teams that potentially need a quarterback. Will Aaron Rodgers test the waters to go elsewhere? Will he be a jet or will he just not play football and sail off into the sunset So we're looking at potentially

Last hurrah here for Aaron Rodgers. Who's a Mount Rushmore football player of all time. AJ. Who do you like? How do you like it here in MetLife or they can put fireman Ed up on the Jumbotron? I don't know if that will happen or not But man dolphins traveling to New York not sure what the weather will be like to a being out. Give me the jet suit I think so. I think Aaron understands and this is not from information He's told me but Aaron understands what's going on around him. There's chances his last time here There was a it was like an article or something came out That's like he is very aware that this is this could possibly be his last Devante is gonna have 48 targets

How about Gary Wilson? You gonna get him the wall or not? I don't think so. Geez, maybe. There's a chance. I like the Jets as well. You like the Jets? How about that?

That's just as hard as saying the Giants. That's just as hard as saying the Jets. I'll take the Jets plus one, take it on the Miami Dolphins coming into the cold. First must win team you guys didn't take, I don't think. Yeah, well, listen, we watched what the Colts did last week. Now Broncos, they all took the Chiefs. Oh yeah, it's 10 and a half though.

Yeah, true. 10 and a half. Yeah, it's like a money line spread. Chargers, Raiders. Raiders getting five at home. I'll tell you what, we all know which way we're going here. I know. I wasn't even with you and I know which way.

Exactly, and I kind of got a glimpse into what hardball Is telling a team this week? I think he's gonna have the boys ready to go. Yeah I I like the Chargers favored by five here in week 18. Go ahead age Yeah, Justin Herbert Jim Harbaugh. Give me the Chargers here. There is some playoff implication seating here Yep, it's particular They will know like they'll know if the Steelers lose then they can have something to play for but if the Steelers win on Saturday they will have nothing to play for. And then it all comes down at us Vikings Lions for the number one seed in the NFC, two NFC North teams battling at 14 and 2

for home field advantage for the rest of the way. What a phenomenal season by both of these teams Congrats to the Vikings rebuilding becoming who they are. Congrats to the Lions getting out of the depths of hell from professional sports Franchises to get to this point that they're in so many injuries all season long They've been able to continue to stack dubs because the pillars of that team are all in on being tough a high football IQ team having fun while doing it in winning games AJ who do you like? How do you like it? So I told you earlier in the program I was leaning towards the Lions here on this one and I stand strong with that. I love the Vikings what they do but give me the Detroit Lions at home. I think they find a way to get it make it happen

I guess. Chuck Pagano? Shoot out. Shit ton of points. At the over I'll take the Lions too. I would take the Lions as well. Congrats to the Vikings having to go on the road. You know, take the long way home at least for one round. Other playoffs, I think they'll do that. Let's enjoy the hell out of this weekend of football. Let's know that college football playoffs will continue next week and also in an hour and 25 minutes. Let's know that Pizza Hut is always there for you.

Okay, and no one, and we mean no one, our pizza's the HUD. Hop in your Ram truck utilize DoorDash okay shout to Seakey get his tickets everything we need and let's enjoy the hell out of Pizza Hut. Let's have a great weekend we can't thank you enough for being such a dedicated crew of people that follow us you know I know there's a lot of people watching that thing on ESPN 2 last night even though it was a completely crop game because people for some reason really enjoy spending time with us. Well we want to let you know we enjoy spending

time with you. Thank you for allowing us to do this for a living. We hope you have a great weekend. From AJ Hawk, all the boys, Chuck Pagano, great work this week. Be a friend, tell a friend something nice might change your life. We're in this thing together. Team on me, happy 2025. Team on me, team on three. One, two, three, team, good night!