The Pat McAfee Show - PMS 2.0 1454 - BA Day with Bruce Arians, MNF Recap, Ole Miss Head Coach Lane Kiffin, 4 Star OL Kevin Brown Makes His College Commitment, WVU Head Coach Rich Rodriguez, Darius Butler, & AJ Hawk

Episode Date: November 18, 2025

On today's show, Pat, Darius Butler, and the boys are joined by 3x Super Bowl Champion, and former Head Coach of the Arizona Cardinals and Tampa Bay Bucs, Bruce Arians to recap last night’s Monday Night Football game, ask whether or not the Cowboys can become contenders, what the Raiders need to do going forward, plus he gives out his game balls from this week, and wraps up week 11 as a whole. Joining the progrum to clear up all the rumors and misinformation circulating around his football team is Ole Miss Head Football Coach, Lane Kiffin. Next, 4 star Offensive Lineman Kevin Brown makes his college commitment live on the show. Later, WVU Head Coach Rich Rodriguez joins the show to chat about the team as a whole, and how it’s an exciting time to be a WVU fan. 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’ll see you tomorrow. Cheers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hello, beautiful people, and welcome to our Humble the Bo, the Thunderdome. On this B.A. Day, November 18th, 2025. This program begins right now. Football! That's right. That's 47-year football coach. Bruce Ariens joining us today live. He looks so cool. I like the heart. Okay. We got cadences. We got hand signals. Okay, I like what we were doing. We got our wife's phone. That's why. Instead of our phone. Somehow we're at the stage of life where we're able to leave our house with somebody else's phone and not even know it until we're already on an airplane to a different city.

So now everybody has to communicate through your wife's phone to you and through your phone to her. Ladies and gentlemen, that's football knower, football lover, coach B.A. football. I only got a half-ass left. Yeah, I can imagine it's been pretty loud. It's been a fantastic thing. Nine-year NFL vet. Darius J. Butler is here. Thank you very much.

Good to see you, D. Buccher. Talk to the tables here at Boston Connor and at Ty Schmidt. and live from Hammer. Dot, Dodd, is AP Tone, who will certainly join here in a matter of moments because college football is about to have another huge evening tonight as another CFP ranking. We'll be given out with a brand new chair of the CFP committee

and a new member back in to the CFP. So you're talking about a big day for college football. We'll chat with Tone about that and other things. And also, week 11 of the NFL season is wrapped up already. Man. Hey, right now, look around, feel it. Okay? Sense it. Weather's kind of ass here.

And Indianapolis is a little bit too cold, but it's not hot enough. It's kind of making your heater and air conditioner set on auto really not know what to do. Messed up. And if the sun accidentally comes out and it's going to get through your windows, it's going to cook your house. And then your heater is going to be on because outside is cold. And then your house is potentially going to be 78, 79 degrees. So all of a sudden, it's cold as hell outside right now, freezing, but inside, too hot, you see. So then what do you got to do?

Well, you got to turn on your cool now. Okay, so now it's 78. 76, 77. I got to turn on a cool because I can't do this. I can't fall asleep. What is going on here? Then all of a sudden you wake up,

guess what? 61 degrees. Yeah, because outside right now it's 15 degrees. So you get cooked through the sun through the window, you see, and then the actual coldness of outside cooks you.

So you wake up into freezing and then at some point it's way too hot. It's football season, baby. That's right. We are in the middle of it. We are in the prime time of everything the football fans

look forward to during the off season. Whenever we're watching, Basketball, shout out to the NBA. When we're watching baseball, shout out MLB. When we're watching hockey, shout out the NHL. And when there isn't... F1, F1, watching F1. You watch that, we don't...

I'm trying to do a thing for we here. But I'm part of we. Yeah, but that would include me saying that that. I don't watch a G1. That's not an us thing. Yeah, I would be like, okay, so when we're watching hockey, the Frozen 4, when you're watching... F1.

Okay. Yep, there you go. See, that's how that we're going about. Okay, I like that. So I apologize for not acknowledging that. I should acknowledge that a little bit. Coach, B.A., when you're watching the senior PGA tour, okay, we're all yearning for football to be happening. Yeah.

We're all yearning for meaningful football to happen. And ladies and gentlemen, week 11 of the NFL season has finished, that means all eyes are on the postseason. That means all eyes are on who's really in this thing and whose season is now just going to become a season that's set up for hopefully next season. Ladies and gentlemen, last night was an emotion. win for the Dallas Cowboys. We appreciate the hell out of that particular Monday night football game, especially with how special it all was, as everybody was kind of paying their tributes to Marshawn Neeland, the Dallas Cowboys player who took his own life, I believe is what is being reported last week after having one of the greatest moments he could have

accomplished in football with a touchdown on Monday Night Football and then just days later ends up taking his own life. So now there's tributes kind of raining in all over the place as there should be, not only about Marshawn Neeland, but the entire conversation as a whole about checking in on your friends, checking in on your people. And his people, by the way, were the Dallas Cowboys. And they had an emotional spirit

about them last night that was pretty dominating of the Las Vegas Raiders all night. Debutt, what happened in that game last night? For those of us that maybe missed it because John Cena was maybe last time Mads Square Gordon. Or maybe the game got so out of hand

they didn't finish the entire thing. What happened last night in Monday Night Football through your eyes? Yeah, as we know, Monday Night Football in Vegas. Cowboys were favored by three and a half points. And the game kind of started off like it might be a KG affair. You have Max Crosby, the candor coming off the edge, getting a strip sack. And the Raiders, they were fighting.

They were battling at home, ending the first quarter leading actually to Dallas Cowboys six to three. But then, Dak and the Cowboys got rolling, started finding his guy, C.D. Lamb, who was missing for the first drive. Maybe got caught that Vegas flu, maybe. Yeah, what happened? Him and George Pricis? Yeah, but you know what? They got going. So when they did get the lineup, Dax started to find them early and often.

88 got going. Jake Ferguson, he got in the end zone as well. And then George Pickens. They traded for George Pickens, and he's been an absolute stud, making big plays all up and down the field. He was a match all night long. He had a big night all night. And then Giovante Williams, he had his Cowboys' Season High, career high with this team,

with the carries, and he dominated the game on the ground as well. And then that defense, we saw Jerry in his box grinning like the butcher. dog after Quentin Williams made a big time sack. He had one and a half sack already trumped what he had in the, as the Jets, as the Jets player this season. He was big time on the front end. And then on the back end had a interception as well. Boom.

Gino, he's been kind of, he's been unlucky. There's a lot of unlucky, Gino Smith. He's been unlucky. We talk about turnovers. We talk about tips and overthrow. Sometimes it's off defenders. Sometimes it's off his own guy. Brock Bowers is kind of like only bright spot for that offense.

But Gino, I mean, behind that offensive line, I know he's catching a lot of heat. He can't throw the ball. Gentee, he barely got any runs. You see him, boom, got stuff for his safety here. And this game just got out of hand. It became an absolute blowout. It was too late to switch over to Monday Night Raw. This one got ugly started out.

It was going to be good, but it ended up being a blowout. Yeah, but at the end, did you see? What? At the end of this game? Was there an on-site punt? Is there we're talking? After that safety, yeah. Yeah, there's an on-side punt.

So after the safety. This was. Okay. Now, I was not awake. at this stage of the game, and I do apologize. I'm an old person. I caught up. I see this attempted. I love everything we're doing here. I love everything we're doing. Okay, so listen, you can't kick a kickoff after a safety.

The ball can't be ground or whatever. It used to be the rules. I don't know what they are now with the new kickoff and everything like that. I think I saw people kicking off. Every once in a while, normally the punter would be the one that would actually go out after a safety and kind of launch it and then you would have the kickoff coverage for the entirety. You'd be happening from the 20. There was always a conversation about having to have an on-side punt. just in case this situation was to take place.

And it's not a bad idea. And they actually got the outcome they were looking for with the ball hitting the ground. Now, Dallas Cowboys wave for a fair catch, which is the right answer. And if one person waived for a fair catch, they all wave for a fair catch. So one person on the receiving team

wave for a fair catch, which is actually a smart move. They let it hit the ground, though. As soon as that thing hits the ground... Fair catch is off, right? Hey, we're a live ball right there. So it almost works out to, like, what you're actually looking to do. For me, it was always going to be a knuckler.

I was going to try to hit a knuckle because you don't have a 11 guys on the field that are used to catching punts. So you get a couple people that are out there that are comfortable catching punts. So what you're trying to do is hit one that's tough to catch. He had a banana ball, which would come down sideways on this thing. So right decision by the Cowboys' Returner to waive for a fair catch. Smart. Them letting it hit the ground, not smart.

And then them ending up picking up, George Pickens, getting it, and then ending the game, good finish. And you never had an opportunity to actually do this in the game. No, you very rarely get the opportunity after safety to hit one. But yeah, it is something that I've seen. before in the past. And that was the Raiders. I know the coach that used to be there. I think he probably had that thing worked on a little bit if I had a guess. Tom McMahon, hey, he's the best coach I ever had for the job that I did. He made me much better at my job. I think Vinny would say the same thing. I think our boys would say the same thing.

We created something called Fort Down Army with our crew. It was full buying. We were trying to really change games. And Tom McMahon, this little ass dude from Montana with a steel plate and said because it fell off a horse as a child. You see, fell off a horse as a child because he used to lead horse hunting, I believe, through the trails of Montana. He grew up on a horse farm. And actually, as a child, as he was coming back, he fell off, hit his head off a creek, I guess, had to get a surgery, has a steel plate on his head. So if you're around any service, his ass is going to affect him, you know, but he is just an absolute dog of a coach who has been a football guy through and through and will be forever. He was their special teams

coordinator. He got fired. Now, their special teams has not been performed well, and that is a part of the job. I think he probably saw that one coming as well with how it all goes, but he definitely had that in there to work it. So I saw that happen last night, late last night when I woke up this morning, I was like, was this when Tom's here? Was this last night? I'm like, good for Tom, because that is certainly something you work on, but never really get the opportunity for it to actually pay off. Now, on that note, let's talk about the actual game. Coach Bea, 47 years known as quarterback whisperer. You've been around every quarterback got out there, it's ever been good at the game, basically. You know, that also says your oldest shit,

but also, hey, still killing it back. Look at the fit right. now. Let's talk about Dak Prescott in this offense. It feels like we expect Dak and this offense to be great, but we never expect the Dallas Cowboys to be great. Why is that? And what do you think the conversation is about Dak Prescott as quarterback of the Dallas Cowboys?

Yeah, it had to be inconsistency with the group, you know, the offensive line because Dak can light it up. And he's one of the best leaders there is, but he can still spin it. And with Pickens and C.D. and William, they got weapons, Ferguson. It's got to be up front. You know, there's games

where they can't protect him. And the defense is getting better. They haven't been able to hold on to any leads either. Four or five and one now are the Dallas Cowboys. And obviously we'll have something later chitchhating about all the NFCs. The NFC East, obviously, with the Philadelphia is going to be tough. But the entire NFC as a whole, who knows what the future holds for all teams who have to play against a lot of good teams.

So there's going to be a lot of L stacked by teams that are good right now, are the Dallas Cowboys. They got a lot of people, but there's a chance that they, there's a chance of Dallas Cowboys. Cowboys do this thing and make a run. And now will they actually be able to win in the playoffs? It's the massive question. Quinn and Williams, not only getting a sack last night and saying hello to the Dallas Cabo. Also fixing his shoe.

Lost his shoe. Just so calmly puts his foot back into his cleat, gets back up and does this thing. What a perfect fit for the Dallas Cowboys. And you talk about getting a safety. Jerry Jones says, now that's getting safeties. Do you think we're ever doing that? We're getting safeties on runs because we can stop the damn run. Jerry Jones's entire plan, whenever he traded away.

Micah, Makul, at the time is what he was saying, was the stop the damn run, basically. That was his entire goal, everything he talked about. You're bringing Quinn in, you get this defensive front, maybe playing a little bit better. All of a sudden, are the Dallas Cowboys for real? Do they have the makings of being a team that can make it? They've got one of the best kickers ever exist.

Yep. Punter, been around long time, good punter. Returners, always going to be good. We think in Dallas, because they draft speed. That feels like something that's always going to be good. Offense, we think Dax should be good against everybody, right? Don't we all think that? Shot is a good coach.

You know, it's his first opportunity. been a head coach, so it would definitely be some learning. But you have the talent. You got a franchise quarterback, highest paid quarterback in the National Football League. Getting Quentin like that up front, that's a big deal. Getting overshone back. If he's healthy and he can keep running, doing this stretch, he can be good. Malik Hooker also missed five games.

He was back. And at some point, you're expecting to get Tron Diggs back. I think DeRond, he had a really good game as well. So if everyone's healthy, they can definitely make a run. We know where the Eagles are in that division, but they can kind of battle for that wild cars. at home next for the Dallas Cowboys. So obviously that's a big deal. The Dallas Cowboys are saying we're a different team now than we were back at the beginning.

And the Eagles, obviously, in the middle of another Super Bowl push, we think. There's a huge one for the Cowboys. We'll learn a lot, I guess, coming up, Dallas Cowboys hosting the Eagles. Yeah, Logan Wilson also look great on that defense too. But for Dak in the Cowboys versus the Eagles, I'm pretty sure, and maybe I'm remembering it wrong, but doesn't Dak have astronomical numbers against the Eagles in comparison to other teams that he's played consistently. He usually plays his best ball against Philly, which is a great sign for them at home after, you know, Marshawn Neeland and everything. And after this, like that'll be their first game back at Jerry World. It could be huge. Gino Smith with the Raiders, we just talked about it. He had a post-game pressure that went like this.

I keep saying this, man. If something don't look right out there, blame it on me, right? If it don't look right, blame it on me. That's all you can do. Blame it on me. If your kids mess up at school, blame it on me. car breakdown going to work blame it on me sounds like Gino's saying I haven't taken a lot of blame for stuff and that's rightfully so I am paid to be the quarterback here what are your thoughts on the Raiders

and what are your thoughts on Gino Smith's season has a lot of picks like his sports books bets and odds to throw a pick are like almost becoming just a lock is how sports books view it but I've watched a lot of them strictly because Gino Smith

West Virginia guy happy for him with the run that he has had the way his career has ended and I got a chance to see whenever they played against the Colts, it's like, people are making plays on Gino that are like highlight real plays against him, a couple of these picks.

Then there's a lot of deflections that are happening, and maybe that's on him for the deflections taking place. But also it feels like he is under duress on a very regular basis. What do you kind of view of Gino Smith with a move to the Raiders for him? And what do the Raiders need to do, you know, to become a team?

Because you know what I would like them to do? Let Max Crosby spread his wings and fly. Fly. They need to playoff somewhere. Yeah, fly away, exactly. Yeah. Let the condo go and spread those big-ass wings

and go be on a game that gets 49, 50 million eyeballs on it, okay, in those playoff games. Could you imagine Max Crosby in the Super Bowl? Come on. Need it. Imagine somebody that's never seen. I can't. I'm sorry, I can't. But just close your eyes.

Suspend reality for just a moment. He gets traded to a good team, okay, a good team. The Rams. Oh, somebody, anybody that needs them. Colts, maybe. Yeah, even Patriots. Yeah, anybody, not to cheese, obviously, you know, not to pay. Colts would be cool.

Okay, and he gets in a fucking Super Bowl, okay? And there's somebody in the world that has never seen ball before, first time. They're happening upon their life. They say, oh, okay, it's Super Bowl. Who knows what country they're in, okay? They got Starlink, first time having fucking Internet. Okay, they're doing this entire thing. What is this?

This is a Super Bowl? Holy hell. They have her eyes on football for the first time. Say Lamar Jackson's playing. quarterback running a day. They see a little more. What is that? We watch soccer here.

What is going on here? And then on the other side, fully tatted, Caucasoid mountain resident. Sickest, cleanest cleats on earth all the time. Just nonstop, have a chaos all over the place.

Every single snap. They're going to fall in love with a sport like that immediately. For the good of ball, we need Max Crosby to be on a team that has a chance go with and that's my final kind of PSA two football we need this guy on a contender we need this guy on at least a team that has a chance now Raiders fans are going to say don't bray's in

building we're going to flip it around um p. Carroll's here we're going to flip it around chip Kelly's fresh off a national championship we're going to flip it around does I don't know if it's flip around the ball I just don't know you know it might just be a football gods thing I don't know what it is because all the moves seem to be smart. Every decision seems to be the right decision. Bring in Pete Carroll, known winner. We need somebody that has a little bit of a ha, how you doing? Everybody will

buy in and believe, let's do that. Tom Brady, the greatest of all the time is going to be in our building. And listen to this. Well, there's other job. He's going to be able to go into other building. Yeah. Yeah. So they're going to stop him from doing that. He's going to be able to call around. We're going to get investors at a very high level. We're going to go into Vegas. Everybody's going to want us to succeed there. We're going to have brand new stadium. Niceest stadium, maybe

in the league people will talk about it. Everything seems smart whenever you're doing it. And just for one reason or another every year just doesn't really work and it's like i'm tired of max crosbie just kind of being held back because him in january we just talked about it yeah somebody's mind getting blown in some country that's never seen ball before because this human exists just in general i mean we need it being are they fixable and what do you think about this offense that chip kelly's run a lot of people talking about gentie only getting a ball like seven

times or whatever this night like why are they doing that what is that decision-making process is that because they can't run? Like, what are your thoughts on the Raiders? Yeah, they need a lot of help up front. But for me, when your best three receivers are three tight ends, you're in trouble. You're in trouble. Yeah. If you can't run it with three tight ends, and you've got the best young back in the league,

maybe, it's got to be up front, got to get some better, stronger, faster guys up front. And defensively, they show at times. They're good at times. And Max, he's the best. Highest motor in the league. But for me, they've got to get some

top-notch-wide receivers. That's going to help Gino a ton because he is forcing the ball to guys in tight little windows all the time. Yeah, but I mean, top-notch wide receivers, like, yeah, those grow on trees. They don't. They need to use with what they have. No matter what, I get it, you might be down by

30 in the second half and a running back might only have 10 carries, but Ginty had two carries in the first half. You always mentioned, you know, hey, by November by Thanksgiving, rookies need to be up to part. They need to be able to play. And Ginty has played a lot of good for ball. I think I saw a stat yesterday that he actually only has one 20 plus yard carry the entire

season. He had 25 last year. That's what I'm saying. It all seems right. Yeah. And that's why like it's not Gino's fault. Anybody who just goes on there and says, oh yeah, it's all Gino. Like, what's Gino doing? Gino sucks. Like, okay, that's not what the field is really reflecting. You can look at the box score and say that, sure, but you're not actually watching the game. And just real quick, I really wish I didn't think of this. Max Crosby, is Joe Tom. Thomas a defense. No. That's what he is.

That's a good point. Yeah, Miles Garrett also. Oh, yeah. He's just the bronze. Yeah, that's a good point. I mean, Max, yeah? Yeah, I guess you could slap. You can have a bucket.

I guess there can be more than just one. And I assume we can find maybe other Joe Thomas's. Joe Thomas is the one who was what, all pro like 16 straight years. He had like 12,000 straight snaps. Like didn't have a hold or something. And then he came on the show and said every year I thought we were going to every year we thought it didn't even play in the playoff game no he was so good think about the

mental toughness on that guy to be the best in the world at something while also not really getting to reap the benefits of it really but still still just locking in and going what an animal yeah max crosbie yeah also one animal my whole scared absolute stud go back to jason yeah on the detroit line wanted to go barry sanders at least he got to of playoffs. Yeah. Calvin. Calvin Johnson.

Man, don't do it, Max. It's commendable that he wants to stay there, but I mean, what are we doing? It's time, okay? Especially when you look at that division, like, that's the thing, is they are miles and miles and miles and miles behind the third place. The chiefs are the third place team in the division right now.

Look what the Broncos are doing? Like, are the chargers all of a sudden next year? Give Tom some time, okay? But does that matter? Maybe he plays. Maybe we Jackie Moon this thing. Exactly. Maybe that's the only way it gets going. Maybe the other owners of the Raiders need to come together and say, Tom, as an ownership group, we've decided that you need to play quarterback. Did you see him last night?

Oh, yeah. He looks good, dude. He does. He's aging backwards. Benjamin Button almost this guy. He's phenomenal. But that is that, like, I think we all just assume that Brady's a consummate winner. Like, he'll turn that around. And we forgot, like, he's not playing.

And he can't play every position. Their line sucks. It's awful. And it's been like that for multiple years now. I mean, yeah, he looks sweet. Throw up a picture of Mark Davis real quick. Because that's also, I love the guy. I do.

But it's just not a fucking serious guy. He's just not. Look what he's wearing. Look what Jerry's wearing. Jerry is bombastic. He's outlandish. He's crazy. But he's an owner of an NFL team and he knows, hey, I should maybe just throw a suit on.

What are you talking about? You don't like Mark Davis with the jacket? I love it. I love it. But are you ever going to look at that guy and be like, wait, why is this guy who is sitting at the Blasio Sportsbook for the last nine hours? Why is he on the field at the, oh, wait a minute, that's Mark Davis. He owns the Raiders.

He's relatable. Very relatable to an eight-year-old who wants to sit in on the couch at his parents' house and play Game Boy and eat chips all day. It's a good life. We've been taught. And maybe part of this is on us, too, because when they hired Pete Carroll, I was like, don't look now, Brady, Carol, just John Spitech guy who went to college with Brady.

The Raiders might win 10 games this year. That was maybe the dumbest thing collectively we've ever thought up. That was a we think. It was. It was. Gentile, too. We were all. He was on the show. We loved Jetty.

He was Gentile. Hard not to. But it's just like you watch them. And every week it feels like they are farther and farther away from being a team that is figuring it out. Hey, they'll figure it out. All right. At some point in time in the future.

future they will. And congrats to them for that. They've been there before. They've been in the pinnacle before. Before our time. Rich Gannon. Sign Rich Gannon to come in and play quarterback. I bet you he could still give a good.

Oh, yeah. I might fall off, but. I mean, he's, no, not Rich Gannon at all. Pop out. That's his actual, that's his new pump fake is actually dislodging his shoulder. Yep. And then bring it out there. He used to skip rocks.

Oh, yeah. I mean, he was B.A. Rich Gannon. So good. He was a beast. He had arm talenting, like, out of the... First kid I ever offered at Temple as a head coach. Wow.

And he turned around and beat her ass at Delaware. He went to Delaware of a Temple? Yeah. Oh, shit, coach. He wanted to get out of the city. Rich Gannon won't focus on ball. Love Richie. Love Richie.

Oh, yeah. St. Joe Prep. Makes sense. True and true. Speaking of that part of the state, we have Kevin Brown from Harrisburg joining us in the second hour. He's one of the top-ranked offense alignment in the history of ranking things. He's going to be announcing his commitment on our program today.

And on that note, we'd love to congratulate Virginia Tech on hiring James Franklin. I know you were a part of the consulting group, the advisor group. That's amazing news. Congratulations to you guys. Yeah, really, really pumped up. There's great years ahead of us at Virginia Tech, I think. I know you don't want to feel like you're speaking for the group that did the hiring, but you were a part of the group that did the hiring.

James Franklin, you guys, it felt like there was rumors. for a long time. You guys, as soon as you saw he was available or in the market, that is who you wanted, I would assume. James Franklin, very accomplished guy, perfect for Virginia Tech right now. Yeah, he was a number one pick all the way. You know, his record speak for itself. Been in the Mid-Atlantic for a long time in his career. Great recruiter, especially in Virginia. And, yeah, hopefully bright, bright things are on the future for us. Congratulations to you guys. That's a big deal. Huge.

Yeah, James Franklin, I think everybody, you know, Penn State people right now are like, A lot of pity parties for James Franklin happened on TV right now. Okay, you know, whenever he came on college game day just a few days after he was fired from Penn State, boy, Penn State alum, we're not happy about that. Oh, okay. Yeah, this guy just lost the game Northwestern at home,

and you guys are going to have them on here and make us feel bad for doing what we had to do. Basically is what Penn State people are saying. But on that note, Penn State people, as they get further and further away from the situation, just like I kind of said to Coach Franklin on the set, 10 years from now, 15 years from now, 20 years from now, the way they'll look back on the James Franklin area is a guy that I think stood in the fire with them for them and kind of flip them into what they are now.

Now, they will say that James Franklin wasn't able to get them over whatever hump that he was able to get them to this particular altitude. He is saying, I want to pick up and just take the national championship to our next place from everything that I've learned somewhere else. He seems hungry and very eager to get back to coaching. And I think you guys got a great one. I'm a big fan of his after meeting him multiple times. And getting it done now. Like there's already kids that were committed to Penn State. And, of course, some of them, you know, were lost.

But I've seen multiple guys tweeting out about how they've received an offer from Virginia Tech, obviously probably going to follow James Franklin there. Who knows who is at Penn State right now? Who's a freshman that might say like, oh, shit, I can go to the ACC and play for Virginia Tech. And, you know, I just talk about paths to the college football playoff, especially with what's, you know, coming out tonight. The ACC is a little different than the Big Ten. They might have a much cleaner path

than what they would have had and what they have had at Penn State in the past. All right, well, before we get to Tones Brackett, we got a chance to catch up with a coach whose name is obviously a topic of discussion everywhere down there at Ole Miss. Joining us now, the head coach at Ole Miss, a man who's obviously the topic of discussion

in a lot of different cities, and it should be because his team's in the middle of a college football playoff push right now. Ladies and gentlemen, football icon and legend, Lane Kiffin. Yeah, Laino. What's going on, Laino? Hey, guys.

We're just having an awesome day here, man. Start a meetings, get ready for a practice, and now we're on the Pat McAfee's show. How about that? Yeah, what an honor. And obviously, we had been talking to Lian right before. We just introed him, and it's been a spectacular morning down there in Mississippi.

We're very thankful for everybody. How was the yoga this morning? I know 6 a.m. yoga's non-negotiable. How did you start today? Was it a great start? It was. was. Anne McLean taught a great class. It was extremely hard, man. We had some coaches in there. Keith Carter, AD, was in there. And it was a grind this morning. Okay, so you and the AD, obviously, doing 6 a.m. yoga. We'll certainly dive into that relationship here in a matter of moments. Let's talk about ball, though. Huge win, obviously, over Florida. Right now, we're on our way to another massively successful banger of a season for your Ole Miss Rebels down there. How do you feel at this point? Got a buy week, and then you got the egg bowl on the other side, which is obviously massive rivalry.

in the United States of America, not just in the SEC. Well, it was great to get that Saturday night win. Our crowd, the fans were electric, the atmosphere was. It was awesome. I don't know if you got to watch any, but it really was cool. And I would think, and I hear a lot, I hear this a lot, there's no team in America that has more fun than Ole Miss and our players and the whole thing and the whole program.

So it's just awesome to see. It's awesome to them to have so much fun. The interaction afterwards, they were going in the locker room. brought him back out so he could go to the student section that was still out there. And Kiwan Lacey had these big runs, as you see. And he brought the belt out afterwards, and it was awesome. Yeah, you got a special thing brewing down there. And I know you and the Ole Miss fans, obviously, over the last six years, have developed quite a powerhouse down there.

And obviously, there's discussions at a lot of different schools, especially whenever you're winning, fans kind of get bored with it. They maybe leave. It was nice to see your place packed at the end. And I appreciate you bringing your team back out. to say thank you. I also appreciate the fact you're throwing oops to the boys. You talk about having fun. That's a main message that you're sending to the crew, and how

important do you think that is to the success of your team as well? Well, I've been fortunate to be part of some really great runs in college football. You know, being at USC with Coach Carroll and we won 34 straight, and then Coach Saban our last 26 straight there, I think we won.

So, and I remind these guys as they're in these runs and these great things, and now here are what three straight 10 win seasons enjoy it have fun you know so often everybody's so serious everybody's in it and then they get out of it and they're like man remember those old days remember how great they were so I remind them hey those good old days you're in them right now someday 10 20 years from now you're going to be saying man remember that run we had at old miss and we had that division two quarterback that would make all those plays and and the running back was leading the country in touchdowns and there was a dog running around

on the field and the players were dunkin I said you're in the good old days right now So just have fun, enjoy it. And I think if you watch our team, you see them doing that. Okay, so let's talk about having fun, enjoying it, staying in the moment. There's a lot of distractions that come with having success. You've talked about the past three years being an absolute juggernaut down there in the SEC for Ole Miss. All this success you've had in the past, your name is a topic of discussion everywhere, seemingly and will be for the rest of your life. It's a good thing.

I don't think it's a bad thing because it means that you're having success, which is why other people are certainly going to mention your name whenever jobs open up. But there's a rumor now circulating on the internet, and we appreciate you joining us here to maybe kind of clarify this. Was there like an ultimatum given to you in the middle of a season from Ole Miss? It feels like the way I'm reading it on the internet

is that Ole Miss has told you, and you were doing yoga, I guess, this morning with the AD. Ole Misses told you like, we need an answer. Is that true? And how are you handling it all with the team with what's currently taking place? Yeah, that's absolutely not true. There's been no ultimate, anything like that at all.

and so I don't know where that came from like a lot of stuff that comes out there like I said man we're having a blast I love it here I mean a running back sitting right over here come on over and it just couldn't be better like I say you pray for things our fans prayed for this type of thing and now we're in the middle of it so enjoy it you're 10 and 1 you're getting ready you got a bye week you watch half the country lose and there's no way we can lose Saturday and then you play the egg bowl and go dominate that and keep that egg bowl and keep that egg bowl and go dominate that and keep that egg bowl. trophy home where it's been for a long time. Okay, so Kewan Lason, by the way, 19 touchdowns. Hey, 19 tuds. 19 tuds. Hey, last week on Tuesday, we had the president on. This week, we got the best running back in the country.

Is that smart to say, Lane? Yeah, we did know that. And that's why we were so excited when this came up. And I had to have him here. Man, you had the president of the United States seven days ago today, and now you have the best running back into country. How about that? What a moment.

Hey, Ki-Wong, we appreciate you. Keep going, brother. Hey, I'm going to ask you, with him here. Obviously, you guys have kind of grown. How old are you, Ki-Wan? 19. It would be so cool to be that athletic at the age of 19 with the world in front of you that it is with the current world that's happening. You guys feel like since high school, maybe throughout,

even maybe junior high for guys as talented as you, this modern age, where you've got to deal with a lot of distractions in business and chatter and social media and messaging. How do you kind of stay focused, especially with everything that's going on with your team? and what the future could be? Really just having a mindset of just getting better every day. You know, it's easy, you know, when you have coaches like this, you know, Coach Smith, just to keep you in the right direction, you know,

and just, you know, staying focused, just, you know, going one and out each week, too. Have you ever returned any kicks? In high school, I did. What would you have done? You see me on the other side, buddy. What are you doing? He's like carrying the ball like 33 times. We don't need more like this. We're good, hey, you don't, you're supposed to be helping us right here.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, you're right. I'm sorry, I'm sorry. Hey, keep crushing it, Key Wong. We appreciate the hell out of you, man. You're the best. Yes, sir. Appreciate you. Ladies and gentlemen, Carol.

Thanks for bringing him on, by the way. That's really cool. I think you're the first person that we talk to that on a very regular basis brings in players and other people. We met Winidad, obviously, had a change to tell him, I'm sorry for picking against you with that. And then obviously, you bring in Lacey, best running back. We appreciate how much you seemingly enjoy the hell out of your.

players and your players enjoy you. I think I saw you post, you were driving them to a game. Is this the tightest you've been with the team? Is that an accurate depiction of how you feel with this particular squad, especially with everything going on? Or is this kind of how every Lane Kiff and coach team is? I think this is kind of how it is. I mean, we were extremely close with Jackson Dard and all the most draft picks last year in the history of the school left us last year and went on to the NFL. So that's just how we create our culture. And they should be on. one's making the plays, not me. So, you know, all this success, all this credit, all these things. It is because of the players and the assistant coaches putting it all together that

allow all this to happen. Yeah, I think you've got a special team. You're fun to watch. Speaking of that, big one next weekend after you watch half the country lose. Coach B.A. has a question for you, Lane. Hey, brother, you know, I've been part of seven those egg bowls, and you're the hottest thing in the country right now. You lose that when they're going to try to fire your ass. You know that. I know that. I know that, which I'm When they're like, hey, all this stuff, and they're like, are you focused on other places? I said, no, I'm focused on winning because now what I've learned in college football, we have our little group chat with like Sark and Kirby and a couple guys, and we came out with this.

You lose one, you're out of the top 10. You lose two, you're out of the top 25. You lose three, you get fired. So, you know, we're focused on our job of trying to get to one in every week because that's the profession we're in now. Yeah, it certainly is. And it sounds like your players understand that more now than maybe ever before. So it's a special thing you got brewing. And you talk about losing one game, you're out of the top 10, two, you're out of rank,

three, you're out of a job. It's like, Ole Miss, seven years ago, I don't know if that was necessarily the expectations. So not that I am the deepest of SEC history guy, but I don't think the expectations come unless you create something special, which you certainly have. And you've lived in that world, I guess, where it's like, hey, we want to be in a college football playoff. Whenever you know that that's the expectation every year, what is the mindset for you, like looking head. Are you trying to grow players right now? Are you trying to figure out this particular

team, future culture? Like, how do you kind of balance it all when that is the expectation at the highest level? That's not the expectation in every school. You know that. But like at most schools that you are going to be talked about, that is the expectation. How do you handle that? Just one day at a time, standard cliche shit? Yeah, I do. I have an extremely high expectation how we should perform as a program. And I've had that since we've got here. So my expectation is way up there. So when outside expectations happen, or for instance, now our fan base that is now getting used to this, you know, 10 win seasons every year, I'm good with it. I understand they're now coming to the expectation that I've had all along here. So some people will be like, man, they're going to expect you to do this all the time and everything.

Great. Well, we're now aligned in our expectations of what we want our program to be. So I love that the fans now have what some people would say as unrealistic expectations for. old miss because now they're just matching how i feel yeah i love that i think you had that in f a u too i think that that's what you're planning on doing down there on this tour uh coaching tour around the country that lane kiffin is on old miss has certainly reaped the benefits over the last six years talk about offensive explosion and being fun to watch go ahead debuts yeah coach you're kind of known from the outside end for your passing game you're wide over past the game

maybe up tempo but you're rushing the ball for over 200 yards a game now so how does that work as far as I guess your scheme and then your personnel using what's best for you week to week to win a ball game. Yeah, I think that's a misconception. You know, the passing thing, as you referred to, that, you know, we've just always, I've been this passing coach. We had Devon Singletary at FAU lead the country in touchdowns. And Quinn John Jenkins, when he was here, was leading the country in carries and now Keywan Lacey leading the country. So, well, we've been running the ball for a while, believe in running the ball. I think that that was an issue last year why, you know, we didn't end up.

going into the playoffs and going deep in the playoffs because we didn't have that running game had we with the defensive players and jackson dart and stuff i think we would have been there deep into the playoffs so i'm really glad that we've got that back we had a one year off of having a great running game and now we're back yeah it's fun to watch and lacy seems like an absolute dog oh yeah i mean uh immediate salute upon getting on there i respect that he's right what did you say earlier he's got 19 touchdowns and he's 19 years old that's crazy that's crazy he's crazy he Yeah, it's got a lot of time left to really take over football and only get better and certainly has already done some incredible stuff. Ty has a question for you. Yeah, Coach, last year I think a lot of people believed you guys were one of the 12 best teams in the country. And, you know, what happened happened? You got left out and it kind of, it is what it is. But I remember you saying like, you know, you were in a position where you kind of had to root for chaos given, you know, the situation you were in maybe being on the bubble last year with this year. and there being, you know, potentially eight or nine teams that are still in play

to make the college football playoff from the SEC, is that mantra kind of still the same? Are you still kind of in like, hey, like you mentioned, half the country is going to lose this week and you guys don't play? Or is it different because after the Egg Bowl, the hay is in the barn and what you guys will have needed to do is already done. And, you know, then you can change your mind or your mindset, I guess, to the playoffs on the horizon. Yeah, I looked at it going into the Florida game as we have two one-game seasons. We had Florida, let's make sure we win that.

Then we got a buy, and then we got a one-game egg bowl. Let's make sure you win that. And then we've taken care of our business. There's too many variables, you know, because everybody's like, well, you've got to get to the top 12 teams. Well, now we're finding out that depending on how other things go, you really got to get to the top 10 teams to make sure you make the playoffs because there might be two of the teams might not even be in the top 12. They can be number 20 and 25 or something with the current flawed system. So like you said, everybody's like, well, man, you better be in the top 12.

No, you better make sure you're in the top 10 or you might get left out. One loss out of the top 10. Two losses out of the top 20. Three losses out of a job. I love that you guys just kind of understand that now. Yeah, that is life, such as life. You're living. Go ahead.

Yeah, that's, I mean, we just, we just saw. thought out with Brian Kelly. That's exactly the scenario that just happened. So I ain't worried about other stuff. We're about making sure we win. Yeah, because if we win, I still have a job. And now, if we win, there's... And if we win, you'll have me on.

Because we know the story before how over the years I tried to get on and you didn't let me on until he won enough. Is your SID there? Is your SID there? No, he would still be asleep. He would not be here. This is too early for him. Yeah, so let's believe his side of the story, not ours.

Yeah, there is. Connor has a question for you about life these days. I actually, I'm joking with you. I really do believe your side. No, no, no, no, yeah, I'm joking, too. I'm joking. He has told me all along differently, but I know, now that we become buddies, I know the truth. Well, on that

note, SID, I like he's a little bit of a dog too. And I like that he sleeps in, get a little cat nap in here as well. I enjoy all of that. Go ahead, Con. Yeah, Lane, most SID suck at their job, just FYI. Most, yes. We have learned that most, almost all of them. Go ahead. Almost all, if not all. No, no, no, no, no, because I'm

to run into one, and I'm going to say, you're not the one we're talking about. It's not... My opinion. My opinion. It does not reflect. Yeah, almost all. But, Lane, one thing we all love to see from you is when you post on IG and X, kind of those day-to-day segments from the book that you read. And how much does that mean to you and how important it is to you to get in that book every day

and kind of help you stay in the moment, kind of keep that moment-to-moment awareness. And is that something you fall back on a lot of the times, especially amid all the chaos? Ty just mentioned? Yeah, it sure is. I've really changed in that of, you know, I used to just coach thinking, okay, well, it was about getting the players good and getting them in the NFL. And now I've realized, like I have this really, God's putting me on this wonderful platform that, for whatever reason, people listen to me and follow me. So to be able to help people now, especially because of all the things I went through and learned from, is my favorite thing. When people come to me and say,

hey, I watch your E-60, man, and I've made changes in my life because of that. Or my son did. And I'm like, man, that, that gives me a feeling that is so much better than any win or any trophy or anything. So I've kind of become addicted to that, like wanting to just help people not make some of the same mistakes. Or if they're in some tough spots, helping them through that because of things I've gone through. What's the name of that book? The pivot year? Is that what it's called? Yes, the pivot year, Brianna West.

And what, it's like daily words? Like, I don't think I fully understand. What is it? yeah it's just stuff that she wrote that every day has something in there like you know today like if you're 90 years old man what would you tell yourself when you're making decisions you know i thought was kind of an amazing read this morning see my issue as soon as i would read that is lady i'm not living in 90 what's tomorrow i knew you're gonna say i i mean so then i got the next day but he's 365 days i assume of messages yeah i love the idea i love a concept maybe i maybe we do one of those in here you know we just projected up onto that wall when everybody walks in here. Not bad idea. We got the thing. Yeah, we'll put it up on the thing.

Perfect. Thank you, ladies. Maybe you, maybe you every morning make one up. You know, as you're like kind of going through your morning thing and you kind of have your tradition of what helps get you clear in the morning. And then you write one for everyone. You're our early right. Yeah, you're like moment as you're sitting there.

The Pat McAfee moment. Another job. Motivating McAfee. Motivation by McAfee. Motivation by McAfee. All right, I'll do it in that. I'll do it in that sauna that I'm in the morning. There we go.

Now, some messages. Don't start with, yeah, just don't start with things like, well, you probably won't live to be 90, so this doesn't matter, but do you. Let me write my book. Can I write my messages, please? Okay, Brianna can write hers. I'll write mine. We don't know if we're going to make it to tomorrow.

You know, that is not a bad way to look at today. Now, on that note, I will try to do this, maybe for a betterment of my own being, too. This will help me a lot. lot. So I'm going to do this for incredibly selfish reasons. I don't know how long it's going to last. Let's assume I start one tomorrow. Okay. I'll add Elaine Kiffin. Yeah. I don't know if this makes

it to Friday, but if it does, we're on to something. Hey, Pat, stop worrying about Friday. Just one day, man. Do it for one day, and then the next day maybe do it. Just one day. Maybe you should do this. One day. You're the man. Ladies and gentlemen, his

name is being talked about in every city. But right now, is the good times for old miss and he's enjoying every single second of it keep doing you lane we appreciate the hell out of you man all right guys thanks for having me haughty toddy go rabs hashtag come to sip come to the sip anytime man hey you got to do the walk with us sometime man we had your buddy theo vaughan did the walk he says it was one of the best experience of his life i saw the video pop up on the internet and i see you two stand next to each other and i'm like this is awesome and of course and then I see some videos of Theo experiencing it

and obviously if you're not a part of the sports world especially you know big time sports world you very rarely get to experience something like that it's a special feeling when everybody's kind of coming together saying hey go kick their ass that's a special thing I think that sports has than everybody else has coach yeah he started the walk

and I don't think he realized like the walk's like a half mile it's a long walk through like 50,000 people so like right off the bat he's screaming this is the greatest thing ever let's go kick it off kick it off and I'm like hey bro we still have a half mile to go All right. I'll catch them for the final.

You've got to start the marathon and the sprint. Yeah, that's awesome. All right, well, thank you for doing that for Theo, letting them experience it. Yeah, it was cool. Thank you for being good for college ball, and thank you for your time this morning. You're the best.

All right, guys. Have a good one. All the best. And we don't know if we're going to make it to 90. So let's make sure we enjoy it today because we're in the good old day. So you're the man, ladies of general, Coach Link. Yeah, it was awesome.

He was awesome. Obviously, we didn't ask him where he was going to be coaching next year. And I think if he was to give an answer, he would say, I love being at Old Miss. I think he does, too. You know, there's a lot of old sayings about, like, don't leave happy. And it seems like Lane Kiffin is the happiest he's ever been. Now, obviously, there's a lot of different situations that are open. And what he has been able to accomplish at Old Miss over the last six years,

I think people around the SEC, old school SEC people are like, hey, he has made this place an expected powerhouse, which is something special and good for ball as a whole. And they also see the style that he plays with. The way he plays is an explosive style. It's fun to watch. And if you're able to get a loaded defense alongside of what he can do on the offense, it's easy to see like, hey, this could be a national champion in the making.

And I think Ole Miss is thinking the same thing. So it's a very interesting time for Lane Kiffin. It's an interesting time for these coaching searches. You know, James Franklin was obviously the biggest name that was available for this particular coaching cycle, and he just signed with Virginia Tech. All the other coaches that were maybe going to become the head coaches whenever these schools opened up. They've all re-signed massive deals at their place.

So Lane Kiffin's decision, which I guess he's saying, there's no ultimate, there's no decision being made. I'm in the middle of like a five year. I don't know how many years he has. I don't know what his contract is. He's just doing his thing right now at Ole Miss and certainly sitting in a great leverage position. Yeah.

Yeah. Let's assume that he understands that because he's been in the business literally his entire life. Like I understand a coaching business. But he seemingly loves. Ole Miss. And every time he's there, every time he comes on, he brings a player on, which I think is sweet too. Lacey's just like, hey, we're trying to go one day at a time. We're trying to get better every single day. They're all locked in. It's like, that's good leadership out of the

guy who's very entertaining as well. I love that. With all the distractions outside the building, that's always, I feel like one of the biggest challenge for our coaches, even in the professional level, but definitely on the collegiate level. It's kind of excluded the noise on the outside. He seems to have a great relationship with his guys. We see it during the games. You talk about throwing alley hoops and doing the shit. We see it post game. It's always something either his players or the opponent's players. And we feel like coaches, whenever we see them, they're always in recruiting mode.

But the world that we live in, when you're that good at your job, like you do have a decision to make almost year and a year out unless you're at one of these schools that you just feel like, okay, maybe Ohio State or like Alabama. What are they called Blue Bloods? Yeah, but like, you know, once you get kind of to that top, it's like, okay, what other jump can you make? Ole Miss, while they are a national title contender, you can still look at the LSU job or even the Florida job

and say, hey, maybe that's a bump up or a stuff, even a Penn State job to some people. So we'll see where he goes and will be a decision made, not only for coaches, but players in this environment. Even when Lacey pops in his screen, it's like, just can't help but think, like, okay, if he leaves, he'll probably be coming with him or where would he be going next?

Because we've seen, we've seen coordinators and quarterback. Yeah, exactly. We saw him with Junkins. He mentioned Juggins. We saw him in Ohio State. We've seen it basically 70% of the schools that get very good bring a coach and player or players or Cignetti came here to Indiana brought a roster

basically alongside of them and have massive success. It is a different time now with ever coaches change it. Gohan. Yeah, I was just going to say like there aren't too many times in your career I don't think either. We all know how good of a head coach Lane Kiffin is but like he's the bell of the ball right now. I don't know how many times

you get that opportunity. We're literally every college that has an opening, they want you and they want you really badly. So obviously he's not going to, he's not thinking about other stuff right now because if you're an LSU or you're a Florida, like guess what? It really isn't that big of a deal. You can wait until January when the season's over if Ole Miss is to win the national championship and then he can make a decision. But if you're an Ole Miss fan, I understand, you know, all this kind of stuff probably

pisses you off because you'd like him to just sign an extension and declare his allegiance. and stay there, but, like, you also have to understand, like, he may never get this opportunity ever again in his career. Yeah, and it's also, like, if you were in his seat right now, what would you do? You know, like, he loves Ole Miss. He loves his in middle of his country. All that shit is not happening with him either. I think he has an agent and everything else is kind of happening outside.

He's just trying to win right now, and there's still time to do everything is what he's saying, but he's certainly got to understand the situation as well. I would assume Coach B.A., who's a coach in college and in the NFL. He understands the situation. that's currently happening around him. He's not promoting it. I don't think he is. He literally only wanted to come on there to say,

hey, Ole Miss and I do not have any, there's no heat between me and Ole Miss. I think is what he wanted to clear up. I think that is why came on today like, hey, there's no ultimatum, there's no, you need this. There's none of that happening right now. We are focused on ball right now. He knows all that's happening though, right?

Oh, totally. And he knows he's been in his business, dad, the whole time. That elevator rises real fast to the top to the bottom. And it's only a couple losses, like he said, and you're looking for a job. Right now, Everybody wants you, do what's best for your family. Okay, so, B.A.

Exactly. Who likes to go on the record, do what's best for your family, okay? This is old coach B.A. I would like to go on the record and say, I love the fact that they are seemingly locked in on this egg ball. Like, I appreciate that it feels like, and it might be the modern day with how the world works. But like that kid, Lacey,

they've been talking to him since he's, like, ninth grade, probably. There's been business deals trying to be happened since he's 10th, 11th, 12th grade. So, like, he might be on. only 19, but in this modern world they were in of distractions, like the things we used to call big time distractions, money, they get money on the table somehow as somebody's doing this, having negative things said about you, maybe in the media, like, these dudes are literally entrenched in this throughout their teenage years. They see everything that everybody says about them all the time, in their phone. And they have throughout their entirety. So it feels like

they're a much more mature maybe group of individuals than maybe in the past because they've had to be because they wouldn't be able to survive if they weren't. So it's like the way they handle a coach maybe getting talked about or more money being talked about it's like they've been hearing that shit since they're 14 years old. Like, hey, you go win this tournament. There's a chance that you get an Adidas deal locked down to something in the future. A Nike deal, you do it something like, like there's always been like stipulations to basically everything and everybody for these generation, I think.

So it's made them much more welcoming to the situation, maybe easier for them to buy into everything happening. So I don't think there's any distractions in that way where it used to maybe be like some sensitive or some personal feelings. Now it's like these dudes are like, hey, this is business. I think it still is. But I think the best ones are going to be able to separate it. They can compartmentalize, hey, I can handle the business or have someone or some people

handle that business. And then when it's time to, because it is still just as tough in between those lines. We heard Kirby Smart talk about, hey, some players just want that check. They don't want the physicality. So being able to handle both, I think. that'll be an even bigger separator of the two different type of athletes that we have going forward. Hey, it feels like Ole Miss got a bunch of D2 guy comes in winning dad. It's like, yeah, yeah, I understand.

Hey, you might go, they're saying the bigger, you're going to get a bigger check somewhere? You should see what I was getting in Paris State. Yeah. So what you guys offer me, you changed my life here. So if you get a potential, like, I feel like they're just entrenched in it. They're like having, it's almost like more commonality between the coach and the player, almost like a much more understanding, which can rally a group. I think that can.

So Ole Miss, there's a chance they benefit from all this conversation happening actually for the motivation of the team, even though they're fans don't want to hear that at all. Yeah, it's not as if this is Lane's first rodeo. Like he did this, that was the biggest thing when watching his E-60 when he was at Tennessee and he

left to go to USC, like that felt like a decision that people are trying to work them into. It's damn near like the internet and everybody in Ole Miss and how a lot it is about him not signing the extension, yada, yada, and all the options he has. Like he went through that process, at Tennessee. And what did he do? He ended up leaving Tennessee. And then there was a ride in the

street. So like there's, there's so many different aspects that go into it. And the fabric of college football is different because of the payment of players. So you can't really compare college football then to college football now. But you can't compare him being poached by other schools and him having the temptation to leave and what he's doing right now. He went through the process already. Feels as though when he looks back on it, he might have approached that entire thing wrong at Tennessee, at USC with how everything ended up. Whereas now he's more so like as enlightened as you can be. Like, hey, no, we're worried about right now. We're worried about today. We're worried about the game that's on our schedule. So not worried about all the

shit that could come because who the hell knows what changes. Yeah, they lose every game out here. You know, things are going to change quickly to your point. And be, your words of advice once again, Sam, would be, do what's best for your family. All right. And on that note, let's go to Hammer. Time! Top! AP, Tone. Anything on Lane Kiffin that we missed? And also, what do you think the CFP Committee is going to roll out this evening is their projected 12-team playoff for their third edition of the CFP projections. Yeah, for Lane, I agree with Coach B.A.,

do what's best for your family, and that's probably going to LSU or Florida. Jeez! Ole Miss are having a good time. Leon's walking out there. They're unbelievable. They're throwing oops. Listen, I love Ole Miss. I really, really do, but, I mean,

they are playing that Transfer Portal game there, and it's not so much of that at Florida and LSU, so I think it's more of a less of a dice roll season by season at those places. Plus, I mean, LSU at night. That's just... Ole Miss, they say.

Yeah, yeah, it's great. Let's talk about Ole Miss. Let's talk about tonight. Let's talk about the college football playoff. I do think Ole Miss moves up to number six, and that is because Alabama lost. So one's going to be the same. Two is going to be the same.

Three is going to be the same. That's Ohio State, Indiana, and A&M. I don't see anything changing there with what happened. weekend. A&M, the comeback was impressive. So I don't think they're going to dock them for that. I don't think they're going to put them over for IU for that. So I think one, two, three, stay the same. Four, Georgia got a big win over Texas. They bump up because Alabama was at four and they take a loss. Five, Texas Tech is going to move up to where Georgia was because they were

at six last week ahead of Ole Miss. So there's no reason that I think Ole Miss is going to jump Texas Tech. So I think five and six will be Texas Tech in Ole Miss. And that, this is where the questions start coming in. So I have Oregon at seven, but I also had Oregon higher last time in the very first one and they didn't love Oregon. They disrespected Oregon and they

had Oregon lower than other teams. But Oregon's only got one loss. Oklahoma's got two losses. Bama's got two losses. So I do think they're going to have Oregon at seven, but there's a chance that Oklahoma and Bama may be ahead of Oregon in that situation. We will see Oklahoma at eight because they just beat

Bama head to head at nine, Notre game at 10. They had Miami at 11 last week. Miami won. I don't see any reason why they would move Miami out of that. Georgia Tech had a close, close win against Boston College. And then the toss up is 12. I have North Texas. They're the only one loss American team. That could be Tulane. That could be Navy. But I just have North Texas up there at 12 right now. All right. Well, I appreciate that. And we are trying to predict what the CFP committee is going to do, right? Correct. Yes. Would that be the same as how you view it? it right now, though.

Similar, very, very similar. All right, let's talk about the A&M ranking because it's going to become the topic of conversation because there's people that think, you know, they should be ranked higher because of how great they have been, obviously, and they have won. They were down 30 to 3 at halftime. What did that tell you about the Texas A&M team?

Do you dock them or raise their score for them? I raise it. I mean, to come back, South Carolina is a good football team. Yes, they were up 30 to 3 at 1. They lost some close, close games and all the teams on that list right there. And to come back and score 30-some points, and win the game, that talks about what's in their heart in the locker room. And Mike Elgo is a health coach.

Yes, he is. You're saying after that game, you would raise them in the rankings as opposed to maybe lower them in the rankings. Because there's people out there that see those close wins, like Indiana over Penn State, like Penn State not supposed to be that good. South Carolina not supposed to be that good. There's people that are like, they're really close. It was too close. Not as good of a team.

We players have said, yeah, right. I think that type of wins more important than anything else. How do you view it? Yeah, I think it's way more important, and it's hard to flip in Indiana's playing so good. And that win at Oregon, but look at that strength of schedule that A&M is playing. They're number two to me. Oh, geez. He's saying, yeah, I'm on that side, actually.

If you're number one in the SEC, then to me, you're number two. Hey, ha. Ladies and gentlemen, that cadence that you just heard, had a little hiccup in the middle of that. We're going to get them on the first one or the second one. And we're going to get that thing from deep down in the soul, down in the belly, because we need these people that leaning on their fingertips, you see, they get that one little sound, and maybe they give a little flinch, and we get a free play.

And what's a free play lead to? Well, that leads to a free deep doll. And a deep ball, no risk it, no biscuit, no biscuit means maybe a touchdown. It means maybe we win this game. Maybe we win it all. And that's what a good cadence can bring. And that cadence was brought to you by a man who coach football for 47 years, quarterback legend, Super Bowl champion, Bruce Arons.

Yay! That's what a good cadence can do. Can change lives. Can change a city. Can change a team. Yeah, this can't. It's a good point. I didn't know we're going to utilize this as an opportunity.

Hey, need to get this out of the game. We're not doing fake claps. We're not doing real claps. We're going, hey, we need at least a little bit of leadership out there is what you're saying. Getting something down your gut. Let's go. Yeah, because they're going to need that at some point in their life. Indeed.

Yeah, not even just in football, just in life in general. Going to need to be able to have a little bit of, you have a little bit of, command at some point, especially if you're playing quarterback. I can't tell you how many quarterbacks I've interviewed over the years. Oh, I've never called a play. What's your snap count? You've never called a play and you never use a snap count. You're a quarterback.

I can throw. There's a little bit more to it than that. It's not on them though. I mean, obviously we're kind of giving them an excuse, but legitimately their entire football careers have been hey, you're just the most athletic guy we got, okay? Don't you worry about

anything you look over at us. We'll tell you to play. And then you're just easy as this, okay? If we hold up two, you're doing, you're, okay, that's what you're doing. And they don't really expect anything from them. I think Tom Brady actually did an entire take on this about how when you don't really expect much from people, you're not really going to reach their expectations of themselves ever or whatever. You put more responsibility on people. They're actually going to show up for you in a bigger way.

And he thought football was getting too simplified. Sounds like you as quarterback also feel the same way. Now, are we getting back, though? Is it feel like it's coming back? It's very cyclic, though. I don't see that many teams holding up the cars. Going a thousand miles an hour. We got the headphones now.

In the helmets. Oh, yeah. You thought I was talking to you. He's in the headphones now. They're like the NFL. College is like the NFL now. So I brought over Mike Norville. He was at Arizona State to Arizona Cardinals.

I was, I teach our guys all this shit you're doing, man. I said, but if you could talk to him, would you do this? He said, hell no. Norville? Exactly. Yeah. So now that they have the ears, they're able to do it, it has changed it a bit. And I think also the style of football, it feels like it's kind of changing right in front

of our eyes. Now, last night, the Dallas Cowboys get a huge win. The talks of tables here at Boston Connor and at Ty Schmidt, nine-year NFL vet Darius J. Butler. Yes, sir. Huge takeaway from the Dallas Cowboys last night from you is? I like their defense going forward. I feel much better about it. Now, it was against the Las Vegas Raiders, so I'm not too

high on them. I would like to see him, you know, kind of the same way. Hey, Dan Campbell, oh, man, he's back calling plays against the commanders. Got to see it for a few more games against some good defenses. So I feel the same way. But I feel much better because I know Dallas, weekend and week out, they can be great on the offense. not sure about the defense, but I feel better with the bodies that are on the field.

Joining us now, ladies and gentlemen, is a college football national champion, a Super Bowl champion, a Rotter Cup winner, the all-time leading tackler for the Green Bay Packers, A.J. Hawker, DeBoch, big takeaway is, hey, the defense for the Cowboys might not be ass. You know, they made some plays at the trade deadline. Obviously, Jerry Jones said, I'm going to be in the market at all times. I have a trade in my back pocket, maybe in my front pocket, too. Shit, I might have one inside my boot.

You don't know what I'm going to do in this entire thing. Made some plays. They're getting some guys back. Deep up pointing out in the first hour, Malik Hooker, who obviously we know here in Indianapolis, you know at Ohio State, incredible player, especially whenever he's on the field. He just returned back after an injury. So it's like, are the Dallas Cowboys defense maybe primed to go on a little bit of a run to maybe get them back into contention down there?

I mean, they absolutely should be. I think the Quentin Williams, Kenny Clark duo up front is awesome. Those guys are going to give O-Lines nightmares, I think, moving forward. But Logan Wilson also came over from the Bengals. You know, he was running around the middle of the field. decent amount. Look at this run-stopping. I just like when they kept cutting

to Jair in his box and he was kind of slouched down in his seat. He was like, he was cackling a few times after Quinn and Williams and make a play. Like he was, I think he was feeling pretty good last.

The amount of jolly G. I assume that there was and I know, didn't I tell him, did he have one of those things where he walks out and they have microphones in his face?

Do you remember those things? Oh yeah. Did he have one of those last night and did it look like a... Come closer. Got to be able to stop to run. I said it, and we were able to do it on prime time here. This is what I've been saying. Now,

you know, Mr. Clark, he was part of that Michael trade that nobody were talking to him. I felt like I was a super genius now. Nobody even talked about Mr. Clark. You know what he does in the middle of the D-line? You think they're running on us? I don't think so. And then wait until you see what I. Oh, Quinny Williams. You ever heard of him? You have. Yeah. He's coming over as well.

And guess what we're going to do? We're going to stop to run. Michael? What's he doing? Well, he's closing our games for the Green Bay Packers. We don't need that. Don't ask about Michael. I think Michael's a sack of shit. So Don't ask me about Michael again. Jerry's got to be so pumped. He's got to be so pumped right now.

He's potentially drilling for $100 billion in natural gas, and his defense is doing what he was hoping that it would do in the end. And they might get back into contention. Now, on the flip side, Las Vegas Raiders, we made a massive pitch in the first hour. I don't know if you heard for Max Crosby to just not be on their team anymore. And I understand that that takes a lot of different decisions. There's a lot of emotions involved in this.

I understand, you know, there's been a lot of turnover and there's been a pillar and there's only been a certain amount of pillars of the Raiders franchise and Max Crosby wants to epitomize everything that there is to be a Raider and I appreciate that. But a part of just being a raider

and nobody else is we're not going to see in big game ever, you know? And I'm bummed out about it. That's what it feels like at least. I feel like they're just a cursed franchise. Every decision that is like, yeah, yeah, yeah, just goes, No, no. No, yeah.

What do they do? I mean, what do they do with Pete Carroll first year head coach? Like, what do you do? Obviously, trade deadline's gone, so Max is there for the rest of this year, but what happens after this, like, this offseason, what does it look like for the Raiders? I have no idea. I honestly have no idea what they do. All these people are so new, and it was supposed to be good. Now, granted, hey, let them get their culture in there. Okay, let this. No doubt. Let them get their culture in there. No. Let them. No. Pete Carroll's not. He's not a spring chicken. All right, took a shot, and the shot was, hey, to let's compete now.

We don't need to go win a Super Bowl now, but we need to be competitive. So if you finish this season, how it started, you move on. You restart. Brady, Spy Tech, you restart. I love Pete. Might be a little longer than a tooth. What? I love Pete.

And it was some shots on him on the sideline where he didn't look like the same old Pete. I know. I saw the gum was beating him again. I don't like that. I know the gum was beating him. I saw. I don't like that. At the bottom of the crunches, the gum wrapping a little bit longer,

so it's a slower uplift. The gum starting to win a little bit more than what it used to be. Okay, I understand what you're saying when you talk about those types of things. I like Pete. But Pete is only one, legitimately, from what I remember. Now, I think there was a time maybe in New England he was coach or maybe some other places where he didn't go well. But from my entire memory life, USC he wins, Seattle he wins.

He's awesome. Everybody loves everything he says. He gets kicked out of Seattle. I mean. Yeah. And how's Seattle now? And Seattle's really reaping the benefits of that right now, moving on. They got a nice young coach and McDonnellan, boy, I'll tell you, he fucking brings it on the defenses.

It happens fast. And they're going to get, they got a quarterback who's kind of on a revenge tour just for the entire world. Now he had a bad outing against the Rams. They were wearing a midnight mode. It's tough to play against them. Everybody was making the ghost jokes. Let's relax. Okay, there's no reason for that just because it was night, midnight, and ghosts.

Yeah, poker. Yeah, he dropped a subtle little ghost out there. But I think that's because he's, like, paying tribute to T.Y. Hilton, because he's always open. Sure. But Seattle Seahawks turn the page quickly. Painted over the walls. Mm-hmm. Legion of who?

Yep. I don't love that. Pete Carroll? Yep. Yeah. Let's get him out of here. Triple coat that one. Russell Wilson?

Yeah. Yeah. Let's do that. Super Bowls? Okay. All right. We'll find new ones for those. And thank God.

New team. Jesus, we hated it. Thank God we got a new team. And now they are a whole different team, brand new characters, brand new dominance. And Pete Carroll had to sit out for a year, and then he gets his opportunity here with Las Vegas.

And I just know Pete Carroll, especially for how competitive he is. Every day wants to compete. Everything's a competition. That's why he's still in shape. that's why I can still spin it at 70, whatever he is. It's like he wanted to be good, very good. Oh, yeah.

With the Raiders. I mean, he wanted this to be great. And that is why they brought in Gino. Yeah. And that's why they did make some plays. That's why they, hey, what were the expectations, though? Honestly, what was the expectation coming in? They think they were a playoff team?

No, no. It's what Debut said, just competitive. And it hasn't been, like, Chip Kelly's the highest paid offensive coordinator of the NFL. The 31st offense. Like, we forget about that, too. And it does take a lot of nuts to cut base. after one year, but from a team that just did it. Like sometimes it is

the right decision. Sometimes you do have to do that and keeping the GM spy tech would also make a lot of sense. They're just in no man's land because I understand we've talked about this with the Jets right now with what they're doing but they have so many positions indeed and I understand Max Crosby could be a top five

raider of all time. They need to trade him they need to trade Brock Bowers. They need to stockpile as many picks as they can because they have about 15 positions in need that they have. And they need to go just try to get lucky and find those guys. We've heard about Brady and SpyTech. They think Spy Tech's really good.

It just, like, it's too bad, but you do. You have to blow it up. And we don't want to keep doing this. We feel bad for Raiders fans. We would like your team to be good because the Raiders being good would be sick. We just fear that it's probably, I mean, Tom Brady's in their making decisions for you guys. It's not going well. In my simple football brain, I go, Tom Brady can figure out.

who else would you call uh tom brady well he's there already it's not working i don't know i you're not gonna call me i'm not giving you an answer tom brady's giving you the wrong ones i don't even know what it is but that's why i believe that maybe they do have a chance to be good but it's also one of those things where if you're like you know like they we talked about ben jonson and brady and like if you're one of these like kind of up-and-coming coaches who a lot of people are looking at and they like are do you want to go take the raiders job and potentially get fired in like a year and a half

as opposed to just getting and also ran who's been around there like I don't know I mean it's tough decision I would not get rid of Pete for sure Pete's got so much energy

and he lives for it I worked with John Spitech he's outstanding great evaluator they'll kill the draft each year I think I like you said I'm not getting rid of Brock

he's too young he's too good he's unbelievable Max is up there let's get as much as we can for him okay maybe we get three offensive linemen for him. Okay. That'd be a good idea. All right. Two in the draft and a trade. And now, we got picked up front. Gino can still spin it. He's shown it. He was lighting

it up there on those play action passes last night. And then all of a sudden, one gets tipped. Now of a sudden, there he is throwing it 20 times a game with the best young running back in the league. I don't know about that one. But, you know, it all goes up front again. Yeah, but I'm not blowing it up. Okay. All right, Coach Bea speaks. And we shall listen. Tom Brady is there. We assume he'll have success. Pete Carroll, to his credit, has had success. Tom, you know, Tom Brady letting Gino be the

quarterback for the team that he has respect for Gino. I think we all think Gino get a bit unlucky a lot of times this season, but he's taken to blame for everything happening in the city, which we respect and appreciate. Let's pivot away from that and let's go to a moment that we

were honored to be a part of. So this has started to happen on a few different occasions now, not on regular basis but a few different occasions where our show is allowed to be a part of like one of the biggest moments of an athlete's life where somebody commits to a university to play football or basketball or whatever their sport is of choice and continue their athletic career now we assume especially with getting to know the guys that have done that on our show that these guys are going to go on to be pros and potentially hall of famers and it's an honor that we are a tiny part of their

guaranteed documentary later about their football lives. And today is no different. We got a dude from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. He's six foot five, 285 pounds. Jeez. 18 year old dog. His face and hair make him look like Captain America. When his picture hit the internet, I didn't think anybody could really look like that. He's almost chiseled like he's a Greek god, a statue of a man. An 18-year-old high schooler who's one of the top ranked offensive linemen in the world ladies and gentlemen joining us now harrisburg high stud Kevin brown yeah yeah kevin how you doing hey i don't want to gas you up too much but i think people needed to understand who we're talking to here you know i hope you didn't get too embarrassed for that entire yeah okay good who do you have with you here

Kevin i have my dad my mom and my grandma uh i see uh family how are you doing it's an honor to be a part of this day with your family. Dad, hell yeah. Thank you for your service to the West Virginia Mountaineers and as an NFL stud. I appreciate the hell out of you. Now, Kevin, obviously, we talked about you being 6'5-285 and now the world knows your dad, NFL lineman as well

and NFL stud. How long has the recruiting process been for you and how has it gone to get to this particular point? I know, obviously, with everything that happens in the college coaching road, it kind of change it a little bit, but how has your recruiting time been in your life here, Kevin? I mean, it started when I was a freshman Troutine from Penn State recruited me,

and then West Virginia was my second offer, and they just kept piling on from there. And then in July of my sophomore year, I committed to Penn State, and that was awesome. I was set in stone. I was ready to go to Penn State, and then James Franklin gets fired, and then I got to open it back up, and it was stressful, man. for the past two months, texting 10 coaches a day. And, yeah, I mean, stressful, but very blessed to be in the situation I'm in.

Yeah, anytime you have that much attention, there's good reason. There's a lot of hard work that has gone into you getting to this moment in your life. And obviously, when there's a change of a coach, a change of an entire organization, you're allowed to reevaluate things as the school did for themselves. After doing that, I think now would be a great time to let the world know where you're headed next, Kevin. Yeah, I mean, I've been praying about it, thinking about talking my parents, talking with coaches, and it's clear to me where I have to go. And I'm committing for the next three to four years in the university of West Virginia, baby. Yeah!

Come on. Kevin! Let's go. Country roads. Take me home to the place. I belong West Virginia Yo

Yeah, buddy Congratulations I appreciate it I have a special surprise for you man You won't believe it But Listen here

His dad I'm bringing couch burning back To Morgan Town Baby Let's do it Yo Some difficulties But we're gonna do it

Yeah My little father man Oh, there it goes. Okay. Kevin, I like that. Kevin, I respect it. We're bringing it back, baby. Okay.

Okay, the people, the Morgantown police aren't going to love that. No, we're fine with it, man. You got one. Oh, yeah. Okay, we like the good old days out here, baby. Big commitment W, baby. Let's do it. Okay, I like that.

We're celebrating for sure in Morgantown with you coming. Yes. Yes. Yes, yes. Let's do it. Hey, Dad. Oh, that's hot, baby. Yeah, it's going to be hot.

Yeah, you've got to watch yourself. Listen, I'm not saying that, oh, man, look at that far. I think he's going. Let's go. Let's go. Oh, that's amazing. Hey, dad, dad. Hold it still.

Oh, yeah. Hey, dad. Yes. Hell yeah, man. Getting your boy to go to West Virginia. I know you played for Coach Rod, in the day. What do you think of this whole thing? I'm obviously incredibly proud of our alma mater. Yes, I'm super. It's been a tough process because the situation at West Virginia,

hold on one second. Hey, guys. Okay. Yeah, you got to do what you got to do. Yeah, coach. Hey, hey, the situation at West Virginia, well, hasn't been good for the last couple years, and it's been tough with the last couple coaches. Once Rod came in, my stomach dropped because he's already committed to West Virginia. I mean, committed to Penn State. And it's been a it's been a heartbreaking for me since he's been a sophomore because he's been committed so early and then franklin got fired and all the situation of penn state fell apart so it's it's been such a blessing actually yeah hell yeah it has gone sure it really has been and kevin let's talk about you yes okay so you grew up obviously a west virginia fan i would assume i know you're in the

pen state area so obviously you have friends and family from there but with your dad going to west virginia and obviously having a lot of pride in West Virginia. You grew up around the culture. You grew up around Coach Rod and everybody? Yeah, grew up. I mean, no, not Coach Rod, Holgerson. Okay, got it. Yeah, it was not the West Virginia culture we know today.

Like, we went to our practice one day and they kicked us out. Like, not a good feeling. Yeah, yeah, got it, got it, got it. And then my sophomore year, I went to West Virginia on a visit, and the O-Line coach didn't even watch my film. Okay. Like. All right, let's not talk about those things.

Let's not talk about those things. This is not about the future. I didn't talk to me either. This summer, and like, holy cow, like totally changed. I went to Georgia, Alabama, Auburn, and West Virginia's facilities, coaches, and everything was just elite. Hell yeah. We appreciate the hell out of you, man.

I can't wait to watch you change the program. I can't wait to watch you kind of experience life. I will keep in touch. Please tell your dad and family we said thank you. And Kevin, good luck out there. brother you're the man i appreciate it hell yeah ladies and gentlemen yeah yeah that's west virginia university mountaineer kevin bro yeah yeah guys a mad man wow i have a surprise for you at the end is what he told me i had no idea what it was i had no idea what it was i i

thought to him this morning i'm getting a chance i've gotten a chance to catch up with him here i mean you're talking about a guy that's committed to bald bro i mean you're just like all these other guys that we talked to a j and obviously ohio state was on the board there and we did keep AJ off the screen. Wait a minute, is that AJ Hall? Yeah, we did. Yeah, there was no way you were going to slide in there. Okay, there was no way you were going to slide in there.

Obviously, Penn State was a part of the original commitment. And then whenever they changed their mind, he did the same thing. And I wasn't letting B.A. talk in there either. You know, because Shane's Frank. Yeah, exactly, exactly. So we were keeping everybody off camera for that particular time. That's huge for West Virginia, AJ. Obviously, you guys experienced this at Ohio.

Iowa State a lot, but with what Coach Rod is trying to build, we got a freshman quarterback in Scotty Fox, who's a dog, okay? He's an absolute dog, a beast, this guy. Not scared anything. And then we get like a tone-setter offense alignment. I think it kind of sets a stage for what type of team we want to be and what a hard-edge team is. I think it's like a big precedent setter for the entire culture of this type of shit,

AJ. Oh, absolutely. And just, I mean, after these, I love watching the highlights of him, but that first still shot, that photo you guys had of him kind of like out of camp or whatever it was. That's a high school kid, like he hasn't even grown into his body yet. That's what's freakish about all that and talk about like a legacy. His dad

play there, his dad understands what it's about and he seems to already understand the culture, man. Like, that's a big day for West Virginia, honestly. Yeah, a huge day for us. It seems like a huge day for the dad too. Oh, God. This clip is awesome. This is his huddle. This is the first minute of his huddle highlight.

There is more, obviously. And he's only going to continue. They're in the, I think, the quarterfinals this upcoming Friday. I think he, you know, he talked about all the text messages and everything that was happening throughout the last couple months

since the Penn State changed with that. I think he was excited to get this, oh, like, it felt like he was excited to kind of get it out there. What a moment. And then, hey, we are taking it back, he said, get the couches ready.

And I like how prime they had. Do you see the gasoline? Oh, yeah. Unbelievable. Yeah, they had gas ready for that thing. They've lit a fire or two before. I'll say. I mean, they have certainly been around it.

for sure there's no doubt what a moment though there coach like honestly yeah that's one of the biggest days to your life when you get it all off of you you're committed and you're excited

and you get to sign that scholarship it's amazing and now we just kind of focus on just going forward with ball now granted there's a chance you know I mean we

West Virginia fucks around wins the national championship next year I don't see why not okay yeah thank God Rich Rod's back so that tape I mean Oline coach is even watching

Just watch three plays That's in the past We don't know That's what I'm saying Thank God Rich Ryan We don't You know I wasn't really

I mean I mean I wanted a whole fame this year You know It wasn't because of previous years I don't believe You know There isn't necessarily that

But on that note I think each team was trying their best for West Virginia You know like each organization Kind of ran themselves A little bit differently I think when Dana got to

West Virginia They went to the Big 12 It was like a big difference They painted the walls, basically. It was like, hey, we're a brand new team. I think they tried to get better in schooling, like the academics. Like, they tried to re-franchise almost every part of it. And they had success, you know, because Gino and Tavon were unbelievably electrifying,

and they won a BCS game, so it was a big deal, you know. So they had a brand new era almost. So our era that had just basically finished, which was the most successful maybe ever. Now, the boys back in the day could have been in a national championship, so I don't want to disrespect them. but Pat White won five bowl games, including a senior bowl, two of them being BCS. And if it wasn't for a kicker, missing a couple kicks in the first quarter, we probably, in a national championship, he probably wins it as well.

So we were an unbelievable team, but they were trying to move on from our era. They were trying to move on from the rich rod. They were trying to move on from everything we were. So I understand what they were trying to do. It didn't work out. And then Neil Bryan comes in, and that didn't work. And that was vastly different than what I had experienced. You know, it was just, it was hard for our thing.

think our group to relate to these groups as well just because vastly different styles of everything. Just everything was completely different. So then Richrod comes back and it almost felt like I think the group that played from at the beginning felt like, oh, we're allowed or we're welcome back home again because we're allowed to talk about everything that kind happened in the past. And I think that's what shined through right there in that conversation the most where some of the things he wanted to say is like it felt like Kevin was like I wanted to be a West Virginia guy. Yeah, yeah.

Like, I wanted, my dad was in there, but, like, they were so focused on, like, not thinking about the past. Like, this guy played for the last, we're not even thinking about that. We're trying to do it differently. You know, if that would have worked, it would have been great,

but obviously Rich Rod's back, and now it feels like there's a little bit of a hard edge. Joining us now is a man who's just looking for this far. It's always looking for. Head coach to the West Virginia Mountaineers, a man who cannot say a recruits name in public or on media

until they sign a commitment scholarship. Head coach for the West Virginia Mountain Air football team, Rich Rodriguez. Hey, coach. Hi, you're on, coach. What's going on, guys? Hey. Hey, I hope we're having a good day, I guess.

Yeah, yeah. I think you're having a pretty good day. There's a celebration happening around West Virginia. Obviously, you can't say any names of any recruits, but what does the future look like for the West Virginia Mountaineers on this particular day? I can't say any names, any recruits, but we're having a great day. I hear there's couches that are burning.

You know, there's, there's, and this mount has now gotten down to that. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. From what I understand, so it's all good. It's a process, but B.A. can tell you, it's sure a hell of a lot easier to get that much when you got big people that move other big people against their will. Okay, so let's talk about people that can do that. learned of these 18-year-olds, okay, that are like, I don't know, 6-4 to 6-6-6 range, like 275 to like 2-95.

It feels like at a younger age, they're getting more strong, more mature, but also off the field, it feels like they understand business more. We just talked to a guy who committed to a place. He said he had been recruited basically since his freshman year. This is also during the NIL era. Whenever you're talking to future players of your team, does it feel like they're a more mature bunch? does it feel like they're able to understand what you're looking for easier?

Because it feels like you have to be able to buy into the culture if you really want to transform a place. Yeah, there is. But you know what, Pat, you're still, as a coach, you want to find a guy that has all those athletic ability, the size, the speed, the strength, the athleticism, but also a guy that just loves football, not likes it, but loves it and needs it. And if you find that guy that has all that ability and size and strength and all that,

and he really loves football, he loves the work, He loves the hard edge mentality. Then you got everything you want in a guy. And that's what we're doing, we're trying to get right now. We want those guys, and they're out there. Yes, they are. And they're going to come, and some of them are going to come to West Virginia. Yes, they are.

And yes what they're going to do. Hey, they're going to win some games. And I think we're going to put a product on a field that resembles the old school days. I don't know if you've kept in touch or kept up with West Virginia football since you leave and obviously have your own coaching journey and what West Virginia kind of went through in the cycles of it all. But it does have a lot of people saying,

hey, it feels like the old days. Now, obviously you were coaching in the old days, but from the people that I talked to that went back for the Sugar Bowl reunion and even from other sports, basketball players even were like, hey, this feels like the times when West Virginia sports was something that was unique,

different than everybody else, playing a different style and a different type of edge, hard edge and everybody else, but also successful. Does it feel like that right now? is this what you were envisioning when you chose to come back? Yeah, I did, Pat.

You know, we knew we were going to have some road bumps. We didn't expect to be playing four quarterbacks and five tailbacks in there, all that kind of stuff, injury-wise. But we also knew that we had to make sure we set the culture the first year. Now, we make sure, you know, no matter what happens, our culture, our hard edge, our work ethic, our toughness, all those kind of stuff has to be set this year. And that's painful sometimes in a process of doing that. but we think we're getting there, we're not all the way there,

and it's a hell of a lot easier to do that when you get the right guys on your roster, which we have some, but we're going to have a whole lot more, too. And this time next year, we expect to be talking about the playoffs and winning the championships and all that stuff. Hell yeah, hell yeah, me too. Connor has a question for you. Yeah, coach, how big is it when you land recruits or guys in the transfer portal that are very familiar with the Rich Rod Hard Edge way?

Do you feel as though that kind of gives you a leg up? and what do you think that says about the hard edge way when people are aware of what it means and they still want to come play for you? Yeah, that's a good point. You know, we think we could train. If you want to the culture is established, the only ones you've got to teach other,

new ones coming in, right? But still, is it difficult, a little bit more different nowadays? I say compared to like 20 years ago, you tell a guy, hey, just run through the wall, he'll do it, not ask any questions. Now they'll still do it, but they want to know why. And if you don't get them the right answer, they're Googling and say, well, I ain't what it says on Google.

so the damn guys are smarter now. But that doesn't mean they can't be, they're not willing to do it. And I think as a coach, you cannot sacrifice that part of it. That doesn't mean we're like, you know, grinding full pads every day and knocking a crap out of each other every minute. But it does mean you have to be mentally and physically tough. And that, to me, I don't think that just serves you well in football, but it serves you well, you know, the next 40, 50 years of life.

If a young guy thinks I'm not going to face adversity in the next 50 years of my life, you're crazy, or you're smoking a lot more weed than I think, you know what I'm saying? Well, I don't know if I was smoking more than he thought. You know, so the guy's got to understand there's going to be adversity. And we want our guys to learn to handle adversity better than anybody in the country. And not just on the field, but off the field. Yeah, I think I feel like I am a product of your Rich Rodriguez football camp, I would say, as life.

And also, Mike Barrow us. I mean, you and Mike Barrow us together, I'm not saying, no, because we like Mike Joseph. Mike Joseph is grace, Frank Coach. We're not going to talk about it. But you and Mike Barrow us together were something that set me up for the rest of my life for sure. And I think there's a lot of people, go ahead. Yeah, but you had the hardest edge of any specialist I've ever had. Thank you.

And so, but I'm a truth. And then every guy after that, every specialist after that, I said, well, you know, if you want to know what kind of hard edge you're supposed to be as a kicker or a punter or specialist, watch Pat McAfee. You know what I mean? And that, that to me is how we built our program, you know, 20 years. ago, and that's how we can build it today. Yeah, they need to make more kicks than me, but God damn, you can throw the body around

a little bit if you need to. Let's talk about, though, his dad, sorry, not his dad. Actually, let's get out of here. Let's talk about, we'll talk about our former players about it. You know, the thing I feel best about, and this sounds kind of polyanish. You know, the ultimate goal is to win championships and all that, but if every player that ever played for me or in our program, and you ask them 20 years from now, would you do it all over again at the same place with the same people?

and they said yes, then we did our job. So I feel really, really proud when I have former players of mine that are now, I'm so old, they're either got their kids or somebody they coach or something like that that to recommend to play for us, that to me feels an awful lot of pride in our program. Yeah, and everybody feels welcome back and wants to go back and wants to talk shit about being a part of what you built there. You need to know that. Like that reunion I watched from afar I wasn't able to be at,

obviously because college game day kind of infringes on all these Saturday things. I'm lucky to be a part of it. saying it's not saying it's not, but there's been a lot of great things that have happened at West Virginia this year that I haven't been able to make it to. That would have been sweet because of college game day. But on that note, I was falling along with everybody that weekend, they're like, everybody's pumped. Like, everybody's pumped.

And Scottie Fox. And even though, you know, you lose this past week, just get this much. Yeah, yeah, yeah, right there. We'll fix that. Yeah, I heard, I heard you got, yep, I heard you're going to find, I heard you're going to find maybe some people to help fix that. On that, last question here from Ty Schmidt. Yeah, coach, when it comes.

to a press conference like that. How hard is it to keep your composure and not just jump some guy's ass when, you know, it's very clear, hey, there's one point I want to get across here. I know you guys are asking me a bunch of other questions. There's one point

I'm trying to get across right here. And did you feel after the fact, like, you know what? I'm really proud of myself. That is a big, you know, moment of personal growth for me because in years past, I might have just jumped that guy's ass and that guy's ass and that guy's ass Yeah, I've matured over the years

Not completely 100%, I still got He didn't see me 15 minutes before that Presser in the locker room I was not, I wasn't a pleasant person But I've learned to cool down Take my 10 minutes before I talk to the fine media That are asking the fine questions And then go out there

And I didn't have a speed bag on the road to hit Before I had my press conference So I had to take 10 minutes and take it out in the lockers you after an answer taking a drink breathing okay and then they ask you about they ask you about scotty fox and you want to continue to just talk about how i am so disgusted that our team cannot get like everything that is against the hard edge in rich rodriguez's football is being able to get this when the other team knows that you need it all you want to talk about was that and then they go tell us about scotty fox and you watch your brain go i like scotty

he's a competitor this guy's good player he's good player it's it's it's a starts with big people moving other people against their will. And when we get that part fixed, we will no longer have this in the press conference. Yeah, that's right. I can't wait to watch it. It seems like today it might have been a good day to get rid of that right there. That's what I hear. Yeah. Yeah, don't talk about it. Don't talk about it. Ladies and you talk about it. Yeah, coach. Not allowed to say, we were dancing there close. I was getting real too close. Me to saying his name. And I think it would have kind of carried over there. let's not ruin the day but i mean that is a uh yeah that's a pillar mover you know yeah for us

legit mass and uh thank you guys imagine the effect that has sorry about i'm sorry but imagine the like the way that watching him finish that the highlight the highlights you keep running watching him finish every single play sometimes three four five six guys like on the ground that just having one guy like that on your o line has such a trickle down effect and everybody like it's it makes everybody play better if your whole o line is doing that like good luck anybody stopping. And listen to his dad talk. I've been heartbroken since sophomore year.

He was going to be a mountaineer because what was going on West Virginia was just not what I was looking for. Like he, O. Lyman, too, in the past. And I got a chance to chat with Kevin over the last 24 hours, you know, and kind of learn a little bit about him. His dad, obviously, very active in the, hey, this is how we're doing his alignment. And he is, since a boy, like, hey, this guy is going to be a people mover.

That is what he is. So his mentality is old school offense alignment as well. And I think his lifestyle is old school offense alignment mentality. Him coming on the show to do that, I don't think was like necessarily his thing. I think they were like, hey, would you? And he was like, yeah, I'll do it. I don't want to do the hats and all that. Yesterday he was even asking like, what am I supposed to, should I do like a hat thing?

I don't. I was like, I think you should do some sort of declaration that you're headed there. Do I need a camera? I don't even, like he did not. Like old school offense. Still had the whole thing. Yeah, AirPods? What do I? How do I even do it? So it's like, this guy might be, even though he looks like Captain America and Mr. Incredible and all those different things that are cartoonish characters that you don't think can actually be in real life because they seemingly are too perfect of humans. His jawline is literally a home plate. I mean, it really is in his hair flows. But in mentality, I think he's like an old school, old school offense alignment. And geez, if you're Rich Rodriguez, that is the exact thing that you need on this team. Yeah, he's more Paul Bunyan than Captain America, which is kind of exactly what you want in alignment. But how big.

is it to just having a guy in your recruiting class that can tell the other recruits like, hey, this is what it's going to be. Like, that kid knows probably more than anybody who's going to be a freshman or even transfer in there that hasn't been part of a rich rod program. Like, my dad has taught me and has prepared me for what this is. I've heard about it my whole life. Like that also just radiates throughout the rest of the freshman class. And like, to your point about he didn't really know what to do, it feels like the only thing you want to do is burn that phone. Yeah, yeah. Last night, he was like, oh, I got a surprise street to very and like he was like teasing this last night

then I talked to him this morning is like just wait to the very day. Can't tell you. Yeah, I can't tell you. You're not going to see it. And then this is local media. Nilled it. Local media. I think they put it out yet? You think they put it out? Now fire? Yeah, that thing's burning to the ground, brother. You let that one go out. You know, you celebrate that thing kind of living its full fire life.

You know, you let the final bristles burn out there. I've seen a couple of those you know, the final flames of a few different couches. I'll tell you, the Morgantown Police Department's not going to be bumped about that. I mean, they've tried to put an end of that pretty quickly. They were offering citations. They were giving citations

of people through social media posts. Yeah, they were like finding people in pictures of fires on couches this year, earlier this year. And I was getting messages like, hey, you need to do something. It's like, I don't know. You want me to do? I don't know, I don't know, I don't know.

What are you doing? I'm trying to be the mayor. What do you want me to be the mayor? I will run next year, I guess. I don't know. How long is the terms? I don't know what I can do. But yeah, I guess they thought,

I just say a Morningtown aside that that was not necessarily the best thing to have it. And I would like to speak, I guess from the perspective of the morning town police department and morton town people have voted for that there were some nights there we were winning a lot we were winning a lot of things i mean we were winning a lot of things too much we had a lot to celebrate that's a yukon grad over there who was in the big east west virginia was winning all over place i mean big games big moments prime time multiple sports night games

every all year yeah we're doing us all year and boy that it wasn't i don't think the hardest school we get into normally good time crowd went to west virginia from new jersey you know a lot of New Jersey, a lot of East Coast in there. West Virginia people are good time people. So a lot of good time people, a lot of opportunity, a lot of very big successful moments. I mean, we had good times out there. There was a lot of partying. And the couches became the thing. What doesn't get talked about with the couches is obviously the couch is right in the middle of the street stacked up like six wide, okay, six down head to toe, bam, bum, bum, bum, right down the middle of the street. There's cars next to, you know, some of these things.

Start one, obviously. You start trying to start them all, but they will event. essentially carry into itself. What the ripple effect is it that nobody really thinks about that I saw the first time I was really part of one. People throwing shit into fire. Sure. So now you're getting bottles tossed into couch fire. So now, you know, uh, boom, boom, boom from houses, boom, you know, so you guys. Fireworks thrown into the fires too. Sometimes there's some fireworks in there. Not water bottles either. No, yeah, no, no, no, not water bottles. We're talking glass bottles out there obviously they're going and then what's the broken glass while that song plays and then people come running out and then there's more so i've seen an entire streak is kind of

taken out you know just like bottles underneath cars cars partially burnt you know like the rearview mirror so i mean it does get a bit dangerous i guess but if there's one couch in a neighborhood it wants to kind of be celebrated a little bit i think that's going to probably continue to happen they win 10 games next year i have a feeling that they're going to be turning some blind eyes They're going to build a couch park. Yeah, go to the couch park. Come out and burn all your couches in the park.

Throw your bottles in here. Okay. No cars. We're good. Owen Schmidt, actually, I think pitched that idea to me the last time that we were back there. We were like, I don't know, maybe a lot of beers, a lot of beers, a lot of whiskeys. I mean, a lot of them deep. And I was like, what's going to happen with the whole couch fire thing?

Because at that time, we were starting to get talked about about how they're going to maybe arrest people for this entire thing. And I'm like, well, it's kind of a part of the culture. I don't know how you just kind of get rid of that. we need to make a place that just is kind of built for it and say, hey, either we'll supply to couch and you just go have like run a corner like it's a golf sim, you know, basically, like kind of get your own little area where you're doing. He's like this is what needs to happen. Feels like you're thinking the same thing.

Oh, yeah. It would have to be just, what, a massive parking lot, right? Yeah. Yeah. Nothing around it that could catch fire. That's the main thing. Don't let it get to anything else. Whatever the case, Kevin Brown, it's going to be just throwing people on the field as soon as that

game's over. I mean. Yep. Yeah. Couch, maybe. There you go. Two couches, two of them, both shoulders. Shout to West Virginia. We're having a good week. Yeah, let's go. We up. Basketball recruit.

Oh, don't remember his name. He's Canadian, though. Miles. Miles. Miles. Miles Adler. Miles Adler. I don't know. Sadler, I think.

Sadler. Miles Sadler. Miles Sadler. Boom. Boom. Thank you. W.V. Barstall. Five star.

Miles Saturdays the other day. Now, Kevin Brown, 65, 285. Offense alignment. What will tomorrow bring? I'm joking. I said that yesterday because I knew this was happening. I don't have anything. Let's move along.

Let's get back to some NFL football conversation, shall we, AJ? You know, every week we have a coach who coach football for 47 years. And there's different narratives that are maybe starting to build. around the NFL. So we want to ask him if it's BS or no BS with BA. What we'll do is we'll read some statements of fact that maybe some fans feel. And BA will tell us if it's BS, which stands for bullshit, or is it no BS, which is no bullshit. Let's get started, Conman. Yeah, BA analytics are in football. And so the statement is some of these nerds' stats are ruin in football, particularly the commanders in lines this past weekend. No bullshit.

Whoa, whoa, whoa. I mean, come on. This go for it on fourth and one with a minute, 20 left, you kick the field, go and go ahead and win to get, trust your defense. You know, tie ball game? Now, I see it in the first quarter, you know, but not at the end of the game. And then, you know, the Lions, they were, what, 0 for 6? Yeah.

And this one, I know there was a lot of win. It didn't affect Jake Elliott. And it didn't affect baked at the end. He kicked the bomb down there, no problem. And big games, three points are huge. And we're not saying that all these stats are... No, no. Just in big games, this going forward on forward down has got down to hand. Kick the damn field goals and put points on the board.

There's no context to these stats. This is a big game, KG Affair. Points are at a premium right now. Let's go ahead and take that. The book can't tell you how the whole rest of the game has been going that your eyes and your body has felt, right? Is what you're saying? Yeah, and I was just on that committee. We interviewed 20 head coaches in college, and one guy actually had the book.

And it's like, you have the book? And, yeah, I don't use it. But if I need it, I don't know what it says. But this game is about heart and feel. And that is what this game is about. Hold on, hold on, hold on. So you're interviewing these guys, 20 guys. And you know, there's some book that says you should make game time decision.

First thing I ask him. And this guy goes, I actually have the book. And in your mind, you said, not hiring this guy. And then you had to have a fake conversation with him? No, I had a good. And I will hire this guy because he, you know, he said, you know, He doesn't follow it. He just knows what it says.

He said, that book doesn't know if my right guard can block that damn three technique. Okay, so he understands football. Yeah, yeah. Not the mathematicians don't understand football.

Yeah. They just know numbers. Yeah. 80% of the time this happens. Well, what about that 20%? And what if that's tonight in a game that very much matters for our livelihoods?

Yeah, I mean, for me, it's gotten completely out of hand and it's a total fucking excuse. Oh, the book told me to go for it. Mm, no accountability. Exactly. book, gone.

Yeah, blame the book. It's an analytics, like, Bible? Yeah, who had it? Will you tell us who? Who wrote that? Yeah, who wrote the book? We know who wrote the book. Billy Walter.

Yeah, Bernie Adams. Oh, yeah. It's in the book. Oh, yeah, you're right. I don't think it's Billy Walter's spurs. Seth. It's not? Seth.

The guy we just, who's on the internet were like, who follows. I forgot his last. Walder. Seth Walder. Boom, he wrote it. Oh. Or War Sharp.

He might have wrote it. He has. He does have a big. book. He might have like the New Testament of this one. Yeah. The book. I don't know if it's the Old Testament of this one. Who else writes? Yeah, who else writes? Did Diggs write one of them?

Did you write the book on Ball? No. Who wrote the book? That's a million dollar question. Everybody has it? Nobody's got it. Nobody knew who the fuck wrote it. It wasn't Shula. It wasn't a market.

Sure. Did you have an analytics, I guess, department that can get your ear during the game? No. Towards any, never? I refuse to. Okay. A lot of coaches. A lot of people do, and it's the hottest thing going.

And I would probably, if I was back in coaching, I would say, yes, shut the fuck up. Thank you for your input. Shut the fuck up. Like that. Okay. This is a new profession for people. Like, each team has one of these people that are basically in the year, 64% of the time on this particular down against this particular front,

you're able to pick it up on the run versus pass. 68% of the time, you should say you should go for this instead of a punt or kick your field goal because that will work out. Somebody's doing that. You know, and not necessarily always that voice. That's unfair me to do that voice. But that information is getting delivered to somebody. That's a whole new job. There's a whole new department.

There's stats departments now, let alone stats coordinators who are messaging in information throughout days. and I love that you're like, yeah, don't need to hear it. We're not hiring any of them, okay? Can our team run the ball to the right? That's what I thought. We need a play. We're running it to the right. I'm going to run behind Joe Thomas.

Yeah, exactly. Yeah, I'll make it behind Joe Thomas. But if you look at two or three of the most dysfunctional organizations in the league right now, analytics. Okay. He just sat back, too. Did you hear that? Yeah, yeah.

Excuse me. There's a moment of silence here immediately for your brain to show. shatter as I just said everything that you guys have been pitching is wrong. Old school football still back on top. More analytics, not necessarily great. Better analytics, good though. Yeah. Like having analytics is good. I think that's... Part of the puzzle. It's all part of it. Yeah. I think it's all part of it. Like, Coach B.A. says, like, yeah, you've got to trust your instincts and your field, and you've got to know matchups, too. Like, where do we have an advantage when it comes to matchups? I don't know analytics and all the book well enough to know if it can take any of that

into account. You didn't write it? I didn't, and we don't know. What is it? Bitcoin. We don't know who started it. We don't know who wrote this book. I don't know now. Get some answers. There's allegedly some answers out there. And I don't know if I'm on the right side of history or not still at this moment with all the information coming out on that stuff.

You know, because I, uh, oh, I'm in the right side? Yeah, you're on the right time for sure. Okay, what they're saying? I don't know. Okay. See, I'm old, you never know. Let's move along. We don't need to talk about that, but the book is certainly a weapon if it's utilized that way as opposed to being like a way of life the book is because to your point i never liked whenever it was just kind of blamed on numbers you know so whenever they put it up on the screen it always says go go go go go go go go it feels like it's always an excuse for the team to go for it which i think is better for tv and everything like that but man if you look in the eyes of your offensive line and those boys feel defeated i think the stats are going to be a little bit different that particular evening on that particular fourth quarter than maybe in years past.

Are you strictly by the book on the blackjack table? You play more like Bill. I'm a field guy, but I'm a book guy as well. I am a book culture guy. So 16, if you hit it from the beginning, you do that the rest of the day? I'm hitting on 16, yes, because my hand doesn't even qualify.

So I need to qualify to at least play. It's different than football analytics when it comes to the book in blackjack. Yeah, I will hit on 16. Now, granted, I'm splitting, I'm splitting and putting more money on the table if they have a bus card. Some people around me do not get happy about that,

but if I have the opportunity to split and or double down, get more money on the table when they have three, maybe. Three is kind of a dancer with me. But if they got four, five, or six out on showing, I'm trying to get as much shit on the table as possible. Not everybody loves that, and I don't think that's necessarily by the book, okay? Like maybe a six, you should do that.

Not a four. For me, I see four out there and I have an opportunity to split, and then I get a chance to double down. Oh, let's do this thing. And then that pisses some people off. I do believe in the blackjack book from my understanding. Also kind of separates the great coaches from the good ones, too, the ones that use analytics when it is needed.

And when they ignore it and decide, like, no, now is my time where I can, you know, the dagger play with the Eagles and the Super Bowl, you could argue. Where there, it's like, hey, you're midfields. Do you want, you're already up big. Do you just run out the clock, kind of continue to chew this thing out? Or do you take that dagger shot and go up by four touchdowns instead of, you know, three in a field goal? And that's football.

That's football, understanding football. So you're saying that there. some of these nerd stats are ruining football. That's no BS. Let's go to the next BS or no BS with B-A tie. Yeah, Coach, there's a thought that outside of the NFC East, the NFC stands for no fudging clue on who's going to win. Is that BS or no BS, B.A? That's no BS, man. I mean, do you look at those three divisions? December football is going to be great this year. That's one of the part of NFL scheduling I really like. Now, I don't like playing a team two times in three. weeks, like the bucks

and the Panthers are going to have to do. But all those teams play each other in December. December football is going to be outstanding. That's when it's supposed to be decided, and the entire end of the other than the Eagles probably. And it's going to be really fun to see who makes that wild card, that last wild card, because there's some really good

teams not going to make it this year. Yeah, here's the road to the playoffs for each one of the teams that currently lead their divisions. Obviously, the Eagles in the East is who B.A. is talking about not really having a fudging question about whether or not they're going to win the division. Every other division in the NFC is potentially up for grabs. Everybody has a lot of wins. Everybody is kind of in the same exact plane. And a couple wins one week, a couple losses the other

week. You can completely have a full shift from four to one in the NFC side. So that means that wild card is going to be. What do you think? What number you think is the wild card right now with where everybody's sitting? Can you put the records back up for the teams in the NFC? Yeah, here we go. So NFC, look at that, 766, 6, 6, 4 in the north, 6, 6, 3, and 2. You could kind of rule out the Saints out of this entire thing, probably the Falcons as well. 8-7, 7 over there in the West, and then 8, 4, 3, 2, I guess the East is over. How many wins do you think make the Wild Card? You're going to have to have 10.

You're going to have to have 10. I mean, there's been 11 and 6 teams not making, this could be a year for that, too. And a tiebreaker. You know, the tiebreaker is going to be huge. All those fantasies, that's going to be fun going down in December watching it this year. Here's the current NFC playoff situation with the Lions and Panthers lurking. Congrats to the Panthers. Yeah.

Grats of the Panthers being in that conversation. Yes, indeed. I'm a shout out to Harold Goodwin, man. They're run game coordinator. Good. He's got it going, man. Yeah. Yeah, goodies obviously got him rolling.

And Bryce Young just broke a franchise record. Eagles, Rams, Bears, Bears, Bucks, Seahawks, Packers, and Niners. Round out the top seven in the NFC right now. That could all change, except for probably up at one and two, if we had to guess. because obviously the other divisions can be up for grabs. Let's go to the third BS or no BS with B.A. Let's do it. The most disappointing teams in the NFL this season

are the Falcons, Bengals, Cardinals, commanders, dolphins, and Raiders. That BS or no BS, B.A. That's total BS. What? The most disappointing team in the league is the Kansas City Chiefs. Whoa! We went from winning 12 and 0 in 1 score games

to 0 and 6 and 1 score games. How does that happen in one year with the same players? same coaching staff I kept saying Chiefs are going to pull it out and they keep losing these closed games and they got their guys back now

so they're fully healthy something's missing and I don't know what it is because I love Andy Reed I love Spags I think they all great coaches but you know that throw by Patrick Mahomes

that didn't happen last year that never happened and something's missing with this team and I don't know what it is but they're disappointing to me I think we all are not expecting this chief's team to be the way that they currently are. Sportsbooks are still scared to death that they're going to go on to run. I think everybody is because they, just like you just stated, they're always going to turn it on.

They're going to turn it on. Patrick Mahomes has been taking a lot of hits this year, a lot of hits. He's been running the ball a lot. He's been getting shot. I think some of his passes may be different than what they have been in the past. Is Patrick Mahomes a little bit different than maybe he was? Is the offense a little bit different? Maybe they find their groove.

Maybe this is just a down year for the chiefs in the middle of their dynasty, and they're going to have to ask some hard questions at the end of the season. Oh, no. Well, we'll also see because we said, like, I don't know if you would say it's a must-win, but it kind of is. Like, this Sunday against the Colts is kind of a must-win game for them. And then they have a short week turnaround. They play the Cowboys on Thanksgiving, and that'll be kind of the big,

like, if they go out there and beat the hell out of the Cowboys on Thanksgiving with 50 million, you know, 70 million people watching it, I think that following Monday people will be like, oh, wow. Wait a minute. Chiefs are all the way back. James is no, cheat. Yeah. Because we're just looking.

for something. Like, as a Chiefs fan, all I'm doing is looking for something in there that resembles the Chiefs. And then you watch them kind of play against Broncos and it's like, I'm a little worried about this. Good kick by Bucker. Yeah, yeah. But aside from that.

Well, I already can't point to one thing that, like, you can't point to like one glaring weakness that's going on. It just looks weird. It looks discombobulated. Good luck. And I'm at disappointed as well. And then we added a last one just to kind of test your integrity here. B.S. or no BSBA?

James Franklin will have the Hokies of Virginia Tech in the ACC championship game in three years. That's no BS for sure, brother. He's going to have them going. And he should have hired him last week and we could maybe talk him to a different couch burner over there. No, no, no. He had those country roads, taking them home.

He had pop and that's a great one for him. I love when son's father or father. But on that note, James Franklin had him to Penn State. And then whenever Penn State leaves, James, like, all right, James Franklin got him out of his West Virginia family. And that's how good of coach he is. I think that's how much people respect him. And I think it's perfect hire for Virginia Tech.

Honestly. Awesome. Yeah, he's a great job. He'll do a hell of a job recruiting. And, you know, his records fee for himself. All right, on the way out here on ESPN, we have two BA game balls. Let's start with the NFC. Bryce Yon.

31 to 45, 448, three touchdowns, and 3027 O.T. Win over Atlanta. A lot of questions, obviously, around Atlanta. A quarterback gets hurt. wide receiver gets hurt. Carolina Panthers are now lurking. Congrats to them and DeBrice Young. And the AFCBA Game Bowl is Jaquah McMillan. Wow. Yeah. Six tackles, two sacks, one interception. I love that you're giving it to a defensive guy. It was hard not to give it to Josh Allen because what he did, but that was an

unbelievable performance in the biggest game of the week, I thought. Three touchdowns on the ground, three through the sky. Who's Josh Allen? Get him out of here. First Bronco would ever put that stat line up. Yep. Warrington, congrats to him. First game of his career. Shout out to UBA. We continue. He's been around. We continue digitally.

We'll see you tomorrow. Goodbye. Really nailed that one. Even had that on the end. And we lost Hocker, I guess. Yeah, it's all that happened. Hocker dropped off. All right, let's go to a break.

And then on the other side, we're going to go through all the storylines that we haven't covered. And then we're going to launch on the greatest Tuesday evening of all time. Hell yeah. Because tonight, we get to watch. southeastern missouri versus iwa college basketball is a big game

michigan state versus kentucky college basketball right before the playoff bracket thing comes out at duke kansas after that got a hell of a new tv on apple tv i need you check out let's forget about all this shit we got lebron coming back tonight the bobcats playing against utah bobcats play on max in the night too oh let's go football team there it is that's what we're watching lights camera

That's what we're probably going to watch like. Braun Braun's Mike? Braun, Luca, AR-15. What's been going on? It's been sciatica? Yeah, but he's bad. He says, as long as maybe weren't all the way back to where they need to be. And JJ and the boys said, take your time.

Take your time. We're going to build this entire thing up. Are they going to have to change your style of play with LeBron coming back? Absolutely. Aren't they playing really good? They're playing all right. Not championship basketball yet. Tackle.

What is your expectation of LeBron if he was to come back this evening? Because he's questionable. He's still questionable. It's not like it. It's upgraded to questionable is how Shams worded it, though, which is an interesting phrase. If LeBron's on the court, I expect him to be LeBron we've been seeing for the last couple decades. How many minutes are we thinking? Oh, I would say between 20, 25. Okay, so he's back back.

And is he defense aside as well? Are we kind of giving it up maybe on these so we can have a little bit more on the offense? He's an old guy. So, you know. We're not smack in the backboard. There's a little help on defense. Yeah, hey, we're going to put me out of here in the way. Common, common.

Help, help, help, help. That's what they got eight and four. Oh, yeah, he's great. Trade him, man. He's had a couple great moments. I've seen interviews postgame of him. They don't do those unless play good, right? Yeah.

Typically. You know, when Luca Donchitz has the ball for 40 minutes of the game, everyone's going to eat. So what's going to happen? Well, wrong. Is there enough basketballs on a quarter? The time will tell. They're actually going to play with two tonight.

Two basketballs? That's what we lead with. Yeah, you're right. I don't know what I was thinking. All the way. All right. So that's tonight. Okay.

Two balls. One NBA game. Tonight. Yes. Thank you, sports. That's amazing. Ryan Smith. Just innovating.

That is. Constantly. All right, listen, I know you guys got LeBron and Luke. You're trying to figure it out. We still would like him to play. So if we can somehow figure out, well, maybe if you get another fucking basketball, Deal. We'll agree to it. Do you guys agree to it?

Two balls. How about this? Four hoops. That's a great idea. Stacked on top of each other like MTV back in the day. Yep. Do you remember that? Oh, yeah. What was that basketball game?

Oh. This is our age. AJ, you're back. You got dropped off. Your service was lost. Do you remember what that NBA, the basketball MTV? Like a pop a shot where there's two hoops? No, they had like a hoop at like 20 feet. Rock and jock. Yes.

Oh, yeah. That's what it was. do you remember that that was that was sweet that was good they had a run that and one i think just kind of took over see you great run i'm gonna go watch hot sizzle no holding wait it's too it's nbc tonight right i never know what fucking nights i'm so are we getting mj gonna sit down tureka a new one can't wait what that's been the the fucking biggest miss of all time so far. There are a lot of weeks left, but boy, you want to talk about overpromising and under delivery? No, I think we just misunderstood. Remember, we've already talked about this. We certainly

did. Because we, we question how we as adult humans with brains, okay, in the world that we're in, ever thought that Michael fucking Jordan was going to be sitting at one of these desks for a pregame halftime in post game. That was on us for those expectations. Without a doubt. Did they ever say that? I think we just kind of jumped. to the conclusion. They said, like, special contributor. I think that's, they didn't really get in detail. I think we thought, because Wayno did it, we were like, MJ will do it, because Wayno does it, like every hockey game.

Yeah, and we should have connected the dots. Like, when Wayne Gretzky was playing in the NHO, they were playing for 10 tunis a game instead of actually getting paid money. So he needs to be there, unfortunately. I will say, really cool part about the game. I don't think Wayno needs to be anywhere just as we go forward. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Think about the amount of skates and tape.

Yeah. He sticks. None of them with his name on it. That's probably why he's still doing it. Well, he's smart. He licenses it out. Yeah, true. And also, you know, he's father-in-law's Dustin Johnson.

He can hang out with him at any time. Austin Rivers actually has a sweet little, like, sit-down segment type thing. I believe he did it with Janus, and granted his papa is the head coach of the Bucks, but he did one with Janus. And it was like hearing Janus talk about, like, hey, you don't see guys doing what I'm going out there like candidly about that that seems to be kind of the hidden gem of this austin's a talent we've known austin's a talent austin talks a little shit yeah great story from kg and uh maybe tony alin about austin rivers

as a high schooler talking shit mixing it up with like those so yeah like what a great story i can't ever tell the story like kg so if we ever find the clip we will direct you to that Absolutely. Go find it, please. Hell yeah. KG. Weapon, too. He's awesome. He's amazing. His doc, the first hour, I mean, I think it's two total hours, but the first hour, a lot of it is about him, more so being the kid from high school trying to prove it to, you know,

the NBA dudes, and it is unbelievable. Yeah, he's, yeah, there's some special personalities that have come through sports who are also goats. Yeah. We thought we were going to learn about Michael Jordans. I'll watch tonight. I'll give it another shot. I'll give it another opportunity. Did you say, what did you say this morning when you woke up to?

Say good morning. First, first right away. Right when I woke up, boom, good morning. Say who, just yourself? Say everybody. I hope you have a great morning and I put the little sun smiling too. Just kind of, you know, try bright in the day. There's no sign outside here. There's not, but it was very dark when I woke up, so I thought, hey, maybe the sun will come out. That's very kind of you to say good morning to people. Are you a good morning guy?

The sun is always shining. Yes, he is. Even in the rain. So yes. Especially if you got the right cocktail in your hand. Yes. Amen. Football!

That's A.J. Hawk. Tadens was from 47-year football coach, Super Bowl champion, Bruce Ariens. The Toxic Table is here at Boston Connor and at Ty Schmidt. And nine-year NFL vet, Darius J. Butler is here. Live from Hammer. Don, Don, Don! His AP tone, and, uh, ladies a gentleman, we have a tweet. So, Cam Scataboo, he's addressing his appearance on Monday Night Raw last night,

where he, Andrew Shultz, and other members of New York Giants, got into it a little bit with the sleaze bags of the judgment day. Yeah. Now, listen, it was during an interview with Jackie Redman where, you know, real temper started to flare as dirty Dom. Okay, Ray Mysterio's boy who has grown into quite a, dirt bag of an individual. This guy, you know, he'll lodge and steal his way through anything, and he'll start stuff with anybody. And behind him, Finn Ballard, this guy has never touched

a carb. He's got 2% body fat and he's an ass kicker out of Ireland. And Andrew Schultz, obviously, gets disrespecting and push. And Cam Scataboo says, excuse me, Donnie, and J.D. McDonough, who we thought maybe had the biggest head with Cam Scataboo's head kind of on opposite sides here. This is something of colossal proportions that has never really thought could come to fruition. Scataboo's dome on one side. McDonough's on the other side. Holy hell. You're talking about granite and marble.

Staring each other down to Scatibu on the mend. Okay, on the mend. Shuffes his ass down and says, don't you be disrespecting New York like that? Gets push back, obviously maintains his balance. As Abdul Carter and the rest of New York Giants get involved in this stupid judgment day, gets their asses kicked out of the arena. Now, John Sino will go on and take on this slimy judgment day

in his last appearance in Madison Square Garden. but there's a lot of people going after Camp Scataboo for doing that that are New York Giants fans saying, hey, not for the fucking... Not for the physical. Yeah, WWE. We don't need that right now. All right, we don't need to see you doing that right now. We can't see you on football field doing that.

We don't need to be seeing you. Go Monday, Iraq. Great show. If it's in your town, you should go check it out. But we don't need you. We don't need that happening. He's saying, hey, honestly, if you don't like that I'm having a good time,

we're dealing with a tough time, then just go ahead and unfollow me and casually move on. I'm not able to play football and have the fun. I've been having my whole life, so I'm doing things outside the box, trying to find stuff to keep me happy. Enjoy the rest of y'all is a week, and just don't talk about me

if you ain't got nothing nice to say. Hell yes, Caddoo. All right. Do your thing. Now, I was taken back when I saw him get pushed. I was like, yeah, certainly. I mean, coming from someone who was just there,

probably those same seats to watch you do your thing in Vegas, Todd, comment, we were all there, just there. He didn't know. this is going to happen. No. He was there enjoying the show in New York, and then sometimes just run into a little physicality. Yeah, and sometimes you got to stick up for the city.

Always. Especially for a city that has done so much for him already. I mean, he was becoming a hero in this town, hopes to go on to continue to become a hero in this town. And if you're going to run your mouth and disrespect us, how about this? Eat fist, because that's what Scataboo is going to do until the end. That's why you love him.

Yeah. Can't be the reason why he get mad at him. That's what he's saying. And that's the thing, too, for Scataboo, like in his business, you get hurt. you're supposed to just kind of go back, kind of relax. In this business, you really kind of have to stand up for yourself here. I mean, someone's talking shit to one of your guys.

So kind of kind of the combination of businesses, like Cam Scadaboo's. And you've got to stand on all of them. Exactly. You've got to stand on your business. So Scatz's probably thinking, like, in my business, I kind of have to defend my guy because that's my business. But in this business, if I don't defend myself, then all of a sudden I got a guy, JD McDonough who thinks that he's got a bigger

head in his business than I have in my business and say hey, in these businesses both these heads have to come to a halt at some point. Yeah, and once again at the end of the day both sides say they stood on. Business. Yeah, and that's kind of the whole thing. That's all it needs to be

said, let's get a giant super fan, Bruce Brown, Bruce Brown, Scadaboo saying hey, hey, listen, tough time for me right now. Not able to play ball. I'm trying to get better. I'm rehabbing. And then I'm trying to figure out how not to just be miserable why don't we get off my back a little bit uh giants fans were attacking is that what you were hearing and seeing yeah giants fans the kind of talking heads on the local sports talk radio

we're saying hey look he's gonna re-injure his ankle in his physicality it's like hey all right you fucking marks calm down he's gonna be okay it's in a boot um but yeah honestly last night i was like hey can we just maybe focus on winning a fucking ball game abdol carter reports he slept through a walkthrough he's there right next to scataboo um he's not injured you know i i think you know, maybe he could he could focus up a little bit, but he didn't say he wasn't sleeping, he was just in recovery. But yeah,

last night, my thoughts were, hey, maybe we're jumping the shark a little bit here. We've been losing for almost a complete decade now. But this sweet one won me back over. He is injured. He's going through a tough time. And I do appreciate that he's just out enjoying his life at

the UFC event. He led out an awesome Rick Flair, who! mid-match that I really enjoyed. So, yeah, I'm glad he's kind of going through the Twitch car wash and joining his life. Of New York. Yeah, I guess you could say this is kind of the New York car wash, kind of the Jalen Brunson slot at MSG. Aaron Rogers, whenever he became a jet.

Look for a scataboo to potentially go check out Wicked. Is that available on Broadway right now? Go see the Rockettes here soon. Yeah, potentially throw out. Jersey boys. And maybe he's putting that boot. Maybe he's moving that boot. Now we're talking.

Get him on stage. That's a bad idea. Maybe that's the first time we see. You know, like Tatum and Tyrese during their recovery here. Now, Tyrese has been trying to keep his mind occupied. Basically, anything that was happening in Indianapolis, he was trying to go to and just kind of stay, because he's just confined to his house if he's not doing that. So he was trying to go to events while doing rehab.

And obviously, whenever you're very public, the people are going to need to see progression in your recovery. So every milestone marker that he puts up there is a big deal. So whenever he showcased himself, Dunking, just. a couple weeks after Tatum was dunking. Obviously, that's letting the fans know that you're getting healthier. It feels like the Giants fans didn't view this fight with Dom and the last night.

It's like, hey, this is good in recovery. I'm at the point where I can just go ahead and shove somebody here. It feels like it was viewed the opposite way. It's like, hey, you are nowhere near the point of your recovery where you need to be mixing it up with Judgment Day. And Scataboo, as long as you're back playing football,

man, none of this matters. And however you've got to get through it, you get through it, brother. We'll pull them for you. Because you make football better whenever you're running your fucking ass through the entire other team. But like the way Tyrese is doing it

versus the way Tatum's doing it vastly different. And it's like however you can get through this, because recovery's not fun, AJ. Nobody really talks about that. Rehab is terrible. It's hard to enjoy anything when you're, especially during, when the season is going on and you're hurt.

Like I think it's tough to let yourself enjoy anything. It's good for Scadaville, honestly. You feel isolated at times. So I liked that his teammates were with him last night. He's still hanging out with the boys, you know, because that can be a pretty isolated type situation that you feel like. So I think that's actually good for the culture,

not bad for the culture. but then also like in rehab it's not it's painful the whole time so like you're going into a building and it's painful you're trying to relearn how to do the most basic things with your body that you've done for your entire life and oh yeah there's scar tissue that's on there so they're going to have to strip that away actually so it's not painful for the rest of your life and to do that they're just going to have a metal rod that they're just going to rub up and down your scars and it's like that is signing up for torture like you're actually getting tortured while doing that and it's like yeah that's just a part of the whole process. Oh yeah, also got to do these wall sits when your leg can't do it and then it's

potentially going to go out and then they've got these bands you're going to do and then you're going to have to crunch your toes up just to move like a piece of cloth six inches and it's going to be the hardest thing you've ever done. It's like the most tedious miserable, miserable, isolating process of any athlete's life. Oh yeah. And it's just always projected as, hey, he'll be back in three months. Nobody thinks about the three months. He always like, hey, we'll see you in three months or whatever. It's like those three months for said person, miserable. That's all sports, all recovery. Absolutely. However you can get through it. And we talked about it yesterday.

It's not like he's not showing up to work. He's still showing up to work and doing what he's doing on game day as well. So I like it. I don't have a problem with it. Bill Carter did put out a story too saying he was getting. I know Bruce kind of alluded to it. He was getting treatment during the walkthrough. Now, that's tough to do.

And I talked to Coach Bea about it to. He said trainers have been fired over shit like that. So I know it's kind of rare, but I guess he wanted to clear up the sleeping on the job accusations. Yeah, that's fascinating. because normally everybody knows what the schedule is. Like, that's why whenever we heard the story, we were kind of confused. Because where would he have been where somebody didn't see him and say, hey, there's always that. Like, there's people in the bathroom, maybe late, choose to go to the bathroom late.

And people are like, got to go. Yeah, like, there is a lot of that conversation. Treatment room, same thing. Equipment room. I don't even know if anybody's in there because they're said enough practice. So, like, it felt like whenever I heard the story, like he missed it, but he was in the building. It's like, how? I don't even know how you do that.

And then he said he was getting treatment? Getting treatment, especially if you're like a, I mean, any point in the team. But if you're a rookie and you look around and you don't see like somebody else in your meeting room, like if I don't see another DB around, like I'm just surrounded by offensive guys. It's like, hold on. Spidey senses go off. It's quiet. Yeah, where's birds?

Where's Kva? Like, what's going on here? So very weird story right now. Yeah, I just said it's a little too quiet around here. Maybe they have a recovery room where you like put on the leg things. Yeah, the Norma Tech boots and like in the dark. Yeah, maybe it was in. What's that?

Salt things. Yeah, like one of the, like, maybe there's like a float tank. Yeah. Yeah, flow tank. If they have the flow take in the recovery room alongside the normatex, that would be pretty impressive. But if they have like, there's, there's digital, like everywhere has digital screens in every single room of facilities with pretty much the daily schedule.

So like a trainer sitting there working on them, you would imagine like, hey, why is there nobody else in here right now? Why, why do I not feel any traffic walking? Like, usually there's a lot of activity. And then if there's nobody there, it's because there's walk through a practice. I think he fell asleep. with the Norma Tech on. That's what I think happened.

Oh, yeah, I used to do that. Recovery room. I think there's a recovery room. Maybe a little darker lights. Maybe not his highlights. Okay, recovery room. Norma Tech here. Got a foot thing, a couple feet things over here.

Let's see, maybe a recliner massage thing along this wall over here. Norma Tech options on the reclining, like the... AQ, AQ red light thing, probably maybe wearing on his head or something or his face. Yeah, maybe the Norma Tech's back in the corner, though. He goes in a norma tech. he reclines that bad boy and all of a sudden hold the phone

I was watching so much wrestling last night I go a little tired so I'd catch up for Monday and he just closes his eyes accidentally doesn't even mean to close his eyes accidentally closes his eyes because he's thinking about I wonder if the tribal chief is going to return at Monday Night Raw last one for John seeing him as the Square Garden and then all of a sudden

guess what we're in La La Land and we wake up who wakes us up oh there was them coming back from walkthrough holy fuck you imagine how bad he'd freak out that's the case because there's probably people go to the locker room somebody go find him

he's hiding in the corner of the recovery room on the normal tech they couldn't even find him OTC OTC there's a chance we're not 100% sure

until we learn more on the story but I do appreciate him they're willing to fight for scaboo yeah and I appreciate Scadaboo already wanting to fight for Schultz

exactly that's good for the city that's good for everybody that's good work brother That is good work. And the Giants fans, it feels like they got worked a little bit. Now, speaking of working, Mike Tomlin has been a head coach for the Pittsburgh Steelers. For how long, Tone?

I believe this is 18 years? His career as the head coach for the Pittsburgh Steelers has just become an adult. Can buy lottery tickets, can buy nicotine things, can serve in the United States military, 18 years, a long time in a place. somehow he still one-ups himself whenever he gets on to a microphone to speak about different situations

he was asked about spitgate the sullying of a sport by spitting happening in between the lines in between the whistles Jamar Chase and Jalen Ramsey obviously a situation we're referring to he was asked about what his message was

to the team you know I have no message if someone spits in your face do what comes natural do what comes natural i think jalen ramsie did what came natural to him hold the phone started throwing punches it feels like everybody in sports coach b a view spitting the exact same way it feels like every person that we have talked to that's been a part of sports says hey this is this is the most disrespectful thing you can do you can't do it it's a guaranteed fight like if you want to start

a fight here is how you do it why do you think it still happens though do you think there's always going to be like outliers in situations that happen because this is what third incident We've had this season in football, and it doesn't feel like there's been that many in the past. No, that's kind of a new thing. It's kind of crazy because you're begging to get a fight. Maybe I won't get thrown out of the game, but to me, it's the stupidest thing ever. And to quote James Harrison, I'm going to find you. All right?

Okay. I'm going to find you, brother. In the offseason, we're going to settle this. I like the thought of you saying, hey, he spits in your face now. I get it. Okay, you can't get ejected. But in the off-season, we got a fucking FBI. We'll track this guy.

We will find out where he is at. You can figure it out then. But it does feel like everybody thinks it's a reasonable response to punch somebody in the face if they get spit in the face. Yeah. Totally. There's no cliche answer that Tomlin's given there. I have no message for getting spit in the face.

You do what comes natural to you. Is Tomlin saying, hey, if you want to get punched in a face, spitting somebody's face. It feels like the sports community has really rallied around this. I think we all would like it to not happen, I think. Absolutely. Usually the message is, hey, don't be selfish, you know, take the high roll, walk away so you're available for your team.

But there are also things that, hey, just crossed the line in Debo. I saw the clip from the Debo and Joe show, I believe, with him and Joe Hayden and him talk about it. Yeah, I'm going to find where he's at in the offseason. It's just going to be a report. Maskman just beats whoever's ass. And you don't have no other details come out. It was me and Zee, we went back because we wanted to see like some other incidents. And I believe it was like 2006 with T.O.

He's spinning like DeAngelo Hall's face. And then you saw like Shannon Sharp, Dan Marino, and I believe like Boomer and Sides and all just talk about it. Maybe J.B. And just saying all the same things that we're saying now. So, yeah, everybody knows that's just a line you don't cross. Taboo, taboo. AJ, will there always be somebody, though? Mike Tomlin just said that there's a playoff game.

Okay? Let's send our special teamer. Yeah. number 49 let's get him in there don't absolutely beast this guy's willing to do whatever need you to be an active talker in the face of this guy don't make it too obvious don't make it too obvious though right I mean really I guess you can bait a fight immediately

if you want to spit in somebody's face and that's the sad part of it all is like are they gonna have to review this or they have to review it and say okay they're gonna say they threw jalen out and then they go back they review and say no he did get spit on we'll just give them maybe we'll throw out the guy spit and we'll give a 15-yarder to jail when he stays in the game. Yeah, I think it can be, what is it called when both of them? Offsetting.

Offsetting. Offsetting. And then obviously, injection for the spitting party. You know, that would have to have the NFL and the NFLPA come together quickly. There's no way. There's no way. To readjust some rules. We're trying to do that with degrading the report cards.

How do we feel about that? Have we thought about the conversation we're going to have tomorrow with JJ? Have you heard about this, Bruce? Yeah, I have. And that whole report card thing always blows my mind. Okay, so I'm intrigued to hear your thoughts. Why does it blow your mind? Do you think it's inaccurate?

Do you think it is something that's a little bit not maybe a perfect reference of what's actually happening? Is that what you're saying? Well, to my knowledge, not every player gets his voice heard. It's just a select few. So they're bitching about the food, they're bitching about the locker room, a bitch about this. It's a bit session for a few guys, all right? Not the entire team.

If they're going to do it, get everybody. everybody's opinion, write it down and sign it. Put your name on it. Let's have a little transparency. I think that is what the NFL is saying as well. What you just said there is like I think there's an agreement to maybe do some sort of report card or judgment amongst the NFL and the NFLPA. But I think they're saying that they're supposed to be a part of it.

Like, hey, and also who's getting asked? How many people are getting asked? And there has been stories you're saying who's getting asked a select few. Maybe like five guys on one team are being asked. Who are those five guys, ten guys on another team? Who are the ten guys that are getting asked? are they getting asked? Is it when they're on their way out?

Are they actually, like, there's so many, is what the NFL is saying. Yeah. Boom, bum, bum, bum, bum. And the players are saying, well, the ass facilities are getting called out for the first time and forever. So there has to be some sort of balance of getting a proper voice to be heard, but also getting some change in the actual things that are needed in professional football.

I do agree with all the players being polled, not necessarily, you know, signing your name next to, hey, F, F, F, F, F, F, F, F, Darius Butler, because now they, at the top, they look at it. Oh, you know, like it here, all right, get that fuck out. So I agree with that part, getting everybody to do it, but we all know how tough it is to get 60, 70 players to sit down for 10 extra minutes and go over this whole survey. Like, we, you know, top 100, we barely can get all the guys to vote on that.

So that'll be tough, but I do agree. You don't want it to just be five or six guys on the team to go and do it. But, you know, we'll get deeper into the conversation tomorrow. I can't wait for it, but yeah, I agree with you on that standpoint. The reason why we enjoy the report card so much, because it's great fodder when they come out, AJ. They're always dropping it at the perfect time when there's nothing to talk about, and then we

just start murdering these facilities. Oh, my God. We're probably a big part of the problem here. Definitely. And by problem, we view it as a solution. Yes. So that is kind of where... If I'm the trainers and strength coaches, that too, as well, because they

grade the trainers and the strength coaches, that's the one where if I, if I was on the NFL side, I'd like, hey, you got to make sure you talk to a good chunk of people from like, I don't know, you need 30, 40 guys because if you just talk to five slapies, they might not like the trainers and feel like they didn't get respect enough and they didn't get enough time with the coach or whatever. So yeah, you need a good chunk of that team, I think, to actually do that. Yeah, and I think they would cite like different situations where maybe the training room or equipment room got a bad score. And then literally a month or two later,

star of player, our star of team comes out and says, hey, I owe it all to this particular group right here. It's like, well, the report card basically, or the portrayal of what the report card said was the complete opposite. It's also being reported that the NFL was saying, hey, this is violating a non-disparagement agreement that we have amongst each other as well. You guys are basically just broadcasting all the things that are ass in our side of this entire thing. You're not allowed to do that. Okay, we're not a lot of disparage each other. You do, we ever do that to you? And then people start pointing out, yeah, there's been numerous times where people have said things about players and stuff like that. Yeah, but they're supposed to keep it to a minimum. We shouldn't be given

a report card. So I think there is an answer in this entire thing, but it is a fascinating little development on the development of each franchise. Yeah, and it does make sense because you could see how like this is meant to ultimately do more good and kind of improve some things. And like AJ Menson, you know, with the strength coach and all that kind of stuff. But it really does just turn and looking at different franchises and be like, gee, how much money are they making? This cheap fucking owner.

This guy won't spend the day. That's kind of what it just morphs in. We start showing pictures from the buildings. Exactly. We started looking online. One of the pictures in the building. Look at this. So there's the team meeting,

special teams meeting, and the cafeteria. This place is a shithole. What a shit bag of an operation. Is that the exit sign? It only says EX and P or lit up. The eye isn't even lit up. It's like a fucking motel.

That is what it turns out for us. Yes. So you can see why I don't love that. We also find out new information. Maybe I was the only one, but who knew there was a three-story townhouse that the KC owner sits in at the stadium? I had no idea, which again, all the power to him. It's his stadium. He's the owner of the damn team.

But you can see where if there are five or six guys getting interviewed, they can be like, well, I mean, shit, I can't even get two tickets to a game for less than $5,000 because they are, you know, ticket. prices right where the fuck but you can see how if they don't bring it up like how is anything going to change for the player yeah I need some sort of public something I think JJ's got the answers yeah got some good ones JJ's got the answers tomorrow he's very passionate about it

okay anything we missed today anything we missed today Pirates are going to spend oh yeah and oh yeah they thought about spending money no we hold on hold on hold on can I set the table yes go ahead I am I'm so thankful you brought this up you're so right

I get a text from jet passing at 10.10 p.m. last night. Late night for him. I think he's an all-nighter. Oh, raw. What am I talking about? Yeah, you're 100% right. There's no game. And also, I think he's a late-nighter.

This is like one of the busiest times of the year for him, too. Yesterday, 10.10 p.m. Patrick, period. The pirates are doing exciting things. I responded. Selling the team. He goes, exciting baseball things. I don't know what all I'm allowed to say. So why don't you go ahead and tell me

what has been reported about the Pittsburgh Pirate? No, he's let it fly. They have the number one prospect in baseball. Correct. He's 19. Yep. An actual dude is what Jet Passon says. And I think he's going to be,

I'm not going to say this. No, you can. They're going to give him the opportunity to be the opening day shortstop next year if that's what Passon said. Yes, he said, he thinks he's going to be there shortstop opening day. Last time my

teenager debuted was Juan Soto. Juan Soto got paid $750 million. Yeah, he's pretty good. By the New York. They're going to spend money to they're talking to Schwerber. Yes, correct. So hold the fucking phone. Yeah. So we kind of ripped on them when Bruce

brought up the thing about how, you know, it said like, hey, they are going to spend money in this offseason. We said, you know, their last big free agent acquisition was they, you know, gave John JSO a two-year, $6 million contract. a couple years ago. Josh Naylor, the Wobble Body first baseman for the Seattle Mariners who got traded from the Diamondbacks at the deadline this year, who hits bombs. They made an offer for him like $70 plus million. He ended up resigning with the Mariners. But yeah, so there they go.

They were going to spend upwards of 78. Almost out. But so they miss out on him. But yeah, now the big thing is like they are, they are interested in Schwarber. But hold on. Yeah, you can see the writing on this wall. Kyle Swarver is going to get $200 million. You can see the writing on this wall. They're going to have to spend a lot of money. The big issue now is that these guys don't want to fucking go play in Pittsburgh. That's kind of the...

No, this is... You got triple. You got triple what they would get somewhere else. Exactly. Triple PNC. Park. Paul Skeen. Cy Young Award winner, the Hondo Boys on the mind. For sure.

Jason Kendall's walked that land. No, I know. I know. Chorber, though, yeah, I don't know exactly what he's going to. of command on the market, but yes, it will probably will be around like 200 million somewhere in that range. Pirates might have to give him 250, 275.

And you're saying we almost spent 78 million on one guy. But in years past, they wouldn't have even, like, that wouldn't have even... They wouldn't even send a text saying that they did? Correct. They tried to get him, and he obviously was like, no, we just played in the ALCS.

I don't want to go fucking playing Pittsburgh. I'm to reside in Seattle, but they're trying. Yeah, stepping stones. Like, If you think about it like this, two years from now, they might actually offer a guy $80 million. They won't just think about it. They just got beat to the punch there. There was nothing they could do because the Mariners had, you know,

right of first refusal to get it. Oh, so? We didn't get it in front of this guy. No, I don't think so. They're planning, though. He heard wins. Upward to 78. They've been planning for 40 years.

Yeah, exactly. B.A. knows. He was with Steelers. He's been in that city before. He understands completely how everybody feels. I do appreciate a good post saying, hey, we almost thought about thinking about doing it for short. I'd be encouraged by this. If you're a Pirates fan, I'd be very encouraged by this.

Now they have to do it, though. Now they have to spend some money, though, because they got your hopes of. No, we try. You don't want to spend it on insert name of somebody that isn't Schwerbo? Yeah, right. Well, that's what, like, if it's Schwerber, like, Schwerber's not going to sign with the pirates. Come on. That's not going to happen.

But that tells me that. Money talks, brother, money talk. We don't got it. It doesn't. But that tells me that there's a chance that if they don't get him, they might panic and go give Pete Alonzo, like a massive like they just yeah they just they need bats they need and you know you don't necessarily need to spend 250 million dollars on one guy but they need to solidify a couple different positions i think they're going to try to because i think they realize like hey if we have another

season like we did last year like skeins is gone like we're gonna like he's he we cannot waste i know it's hard to just fathom this as a sports fan of another team especially as a yankees fan and i'm not even consider a pirates fan you guys say like they're a skis scared Paul Skeins will be gone. They don't care that Paul Skeens will be gone. Yeah, no. That's my mentality. No, they don't. But they could luck into, they could luck into, like,

making the playoffs last year. Like, that's how good their pitching staff could be. They just can't, you can't score one or zero runs in 112 of your 162 games. You've got to score a couple runs. But the owners just see, oh, Paul Skeens, that's a bump in bobbleheads, that's a bump in

tickets, that's a bump in nachos. So for about two more years here, we got a bump in this guy. That's all they see. They don't like you were thinking about it as if you were an owner of a team and you cared about it's success. That is how you were talking to you. That is true. So whenever we read something and I'll go to Hammer

with a little bit more information on how he read this as a Pirates fan, when I read that they were primed to spend upwards of $78 million I go that's bullshit. That sounds like that's not real. That's them saying we thought about it. We're primed to do it. Why am I so negative?

tone, is there any chance that maybe this Pirates team is different this offseason than they've been for our entire lives? This is the greatest news of Pirates fans got in the last 10 years that they were primed to spend. They've never been primed to spend anything. So I'm thinking they're going to get Tucker and Bregman and Schwerber

and Alonzo. I think they're going to get everybody. World Series is coming home. And they could say, yeah, we're thinking about it. And that would be this tweet, right? Yeah. Bob nutting. Hey, if they're thinking about it, that's a lot more than they normally do. Well, they're thinking about it to send the press release that they're thinking about it i don't think it's an actual i have no faith

i trust jet if jet says it's true it's true and if we had a 19 year old start come see the young buck the guy who's just yeah two and a half years young bucko actually young bucko there you go that's not how it works a j what's that i feel like two and a half i feel like they do the pirates do they want to be like a farm team for the rest of the major league that's what they have been no that's the red's job oh You guys, Swarbo, bring him home. He's not too far from Cincinnati, Middletown. You guys ain't ever going to pay him enough money to go there.

Yeah, I don't think he ordered since he's, you know, writing big checks. Yeah, didn't he say like, oh, what? You want me so fucking team? I will if you keep talking shit to me. Yeah. Opening day. Red pants. Yeah.

Yeah. What are you not coming to the games? Okay, I'll move the team to Florida. Suck my dick. That's basically what he said on opening day. With red pants. Yeah. Yeah.

That was kind of the messaging. He had to walk that back, I think, a couple different times. I wouldn't serious. I mean, I wouldn't move the team. Love the passion of the city and everything like that. Pirates fans, Paul Skeen's, man. This is going to be a very active. We're going to see a lot of movement.

So just to add a little more context of the conversation. The guy, Nailer, did sign a five-year $92 million contract. So a bit of a discrepancy in what the pirates were offering. Extra year, though. Okay, that's fair. 14 oh is that exciting no

taking a victory lap on that one Ty just buried him oh all right time we appreciate you buddy why don't you come on out here once come on out here let's get the hell out of here what a day good for us

and tonight we got two balls yeah four hoops pumped and MJ well let's not hang our hats on that happening maybe we embarrassed I hope you there

so Go ahead. No, he'll be there. I just thought he should maybe change, like, have Torrico and Jordan just change the shirt, change your pants maybe, so it looks like you're in different, we're in different days. These are different conversations.

That's a good idea. Same setup, same seats, same angles, different days. Look at the shirts. Good to see you. Welcome to Insights. And they should do a full... Yeah, every time.

Yeah. Great to see you again. Been a while. And then right back into it. They should do that. As I said last week, Mike, and he goes, you have Michael,

reference thing. Yeah, you know, three weeks ago when we were sitting here, Mike, and they break each other. You'll be able to see the wink subtly with the jib cam that they had. It would be for ball numbers only. Yeah, inside. Everybody that's there knows, but we don't. I think tonight he's at the desk.

He's running the show. He's running the show. Be your friend, tell him something nice. If I change your life, we're in this thing together. Hey, shout out to you, B.A. You look so cool, man. We appreciate you. Thank you, brother. Great show. Better one next week. Hell yeah. Team on me, team on three. One, two, three, team. Goodbye.