The Ryen Russillo Podcast - Are the Dolphins Terrifying the Rest of the NFL? Plus Top 5 NFL QB Prospects and More With Todd McShay.

Episode Date: September 25, 2023

Russillo opens by recapping Week 3 of the NFL season and giving his biggest winners and losers (0:36). Then, he breaks down Week 4 of the college football season, his top 12, and the Ohio State–Notre Dame matchup (14:00). He is then joined by Todd McShay to talk about the QB prospects for the 2024 NFL draft, Marvin Harrison Jr., and Oregon-Colorado (29:33). Finally, the guys close it out with some listener-submitted Life Advice questions (69:37). The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please check out theringer.com/RG to find out more or listen to the end of the episode for additional details. Get your tickets to the live Russillo show in Oxford, Mississippi, on Friday, Sept. 29, before LSU–Ole Miss! https://wl.seetickets.us/event/The-Ryen-Russillo-Podcast/565925?afflky=LyricOxford Host: Ryen Russillo Guest: Todd McShay Producers: Steve Ceruti, Kyle Crichton, and Stefan Anderson Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

it's monday that means we're recapping the headlines best win worst loss numbers you need to know from week three of the nfl college football slate was incredible to break it all down todd mcshay and he's going to rank the top quarterbacks. Some other draft stuff as well. I give you my top 12. We'll talk Ohio State's win. We'll talk Colorado's loss and life advice. The headline is Miami. A week ago, I wondered if they were a top four team in the NFL,

and now I'm wondering if that's too low. This is absurd what they are doing. Putting up 70 points yesterday against Denver, the most points in an NFL game since 1966, 726 yards, the most in an NFL game since 1951. And it is real and it is horrifying. Mike McDaniel, when he took over the job, said to a quote,

do you not understand the player you are? McDaniel certainly understood, and it keeps getting better. I honestly think the rest of the NFL has to look at this and go, look, you can knock Denver for the lack of momentum they have, 0-3, the awful Washington loss on top of this. This was actually a decent defense last year, too. If you look at some of the yardage stuff, they were top 10. I don't know what you're supposed to do with this right now. This feels a little bit like the early Oregon days with Chip Kelly. And remember that Oregon-Michigan game where Oregon showed up to Ann Arbor and just put it on them. And they were like, okay, we need to move on quickly. I think Chip was actually the coordinator.

He wasn't even the head coach when that game happened. That was like a wake-up call to the Big Ten. It was a wake-up call to Michigan. It was a wake-up call to the rest of the NFL. I don't know if that's necessarily this because we know in the NFL, things have a weird thing of balancing themselves out. But whether it's Tua's numbers, who he certainly does not look like a backup now, or Sillo, he's going to be 83 QBR through three weeks.

That'd be the highest for a QBR season, which I know that he's going to stay at that number. That'd be the highest in five years. We talked about motion a little bit. I promise I'm not going to do this every single week. But they had a man in motion at the snap 49 times yesterday. They didn't even have Waddle, if you may have forgotten that, by losing track of the inactives if you're not playing fantasy. And Devon A. Shane, who I loved at A&M,

he didn't play week one because of the shoulder. He had one carry and one reception on his stat line for 2023. And he had 18 carries, 203 yards, two touchdowns, four catches, another two touchdowns. It's like not fair that the Dolphins have him on the team on top of Mostert and everything else that they're doing. They didn't even have to play defense. And I mean, this thing was ugly early. It was ugly late. They still scored 21 points in the fourth quarter, and they could have if they wanted to gone for the NFL record in points.

Oddly enough, the NFL and Vegas and on the road, there's always little reminders that people are like, is this as horrifying as you're making it out to be? Because Vegas has the Bills as a two-and-a-half-point favorite in Buffalo next week for Week 4. The best win, well, it's kind of Miami, but if I can't pick Miami, I'm going to go Chargers. They avoid going 0-3 had they lost at Minnesota, and then Brandon Staley avoiding the all-time,

is he going to get fired this week kind of week by going 4-on-4-1 at their own 24-yard line with 151 left. So I'll admit, if you just go, hey, here's the score. It's a yard. Granted, you're on your own 24. Get the yard. That's what the analytics say. 24, get the yard. That's what the analytics say.

Okay, but I don't feel like my biggest issue with some of the numbers, even though I like them, is is it accounting for who you are as a team and who you are that day? They didn't have Eckler. They could not run the football yesterday. Okay? On 13 handoffs, so the design runs runs the chargers had 19 yards granted herbert did his job so and we talked a little bit about this balance and being too pass happy bringing kellen more that he was going to balance these things out we've seen it at times this season but granted no

eckler and then just deciding hey this isn't going to make any sense especially when you look at what minnesota was doing blitz wise so we can get to the Minnesota blitz numbers here. I will bring those up a little bit later. So if you're fourth and one at the 24, are you afraid of punting it to Kirk Cousins and having him go 75, 80 yards for the touchdown? I get the point. You get the yard, the game's over. But you couldn't run the football.

So when you're dialing up what the probabilities are, are you accounting at all for who you are on that day? And I don't think that they were. So I didn't hate the idea of it. I hated it for them because of their struggles. And it's daily not gotten that. Look out. Now, not to be outdone by miscues late, the Minnesota Vikings, they get the stop.

Right? They had a bunch of plays from that point on. They get into the red zone after converting a fourth and five. 23 seconds go off the clock after that fourth down conversion to when they actually run a play. Now, I've heard the explanations. I've listened to it. But from that point on, you're watching it at home going, okay, they're going to clock it. And I don't even love spiking the football in certain

chances. Like sometimes I look at that just as a wasted play because you go, well, what if you had just snapped it and then actually throw it into the end zone, give somebody in a one-on-one matchup a chance to jump up for it. Is that actually more valuable than the extra couple seconds? Because by the time you get up there and spike, if you just ran the play, it depends on how soon you can get set. They couldn't even figure out what the play was going to be. It was that loud in a home stadium, which is probably really frustrating for the Vikings and all that. And this isn't like a Cousins specific thing. I just feel like there's a handful of quarterbacks that would just take over that situation going, we need to clock it. We need to clock it. There's different reports on if you're watching a game, like how many, how bad you want to make it sound. You want to make it sound like they lost

29 seconds. I mean, it felt like forever. You're like, what are they doing? What are they doing? Cousins has got his hands over his ears. He's looking back at the sideline. The head coach, O'Connell took all the blame for it. Cousins is like, I'm not supposed to spike it on my own. Then he was asked, can you spike it on your own? I just can't imagine Aaron Rodgers not at some point going, we're going to do a better job than this. It really felt like 23 seconds, whatever it was, it was disaster. They throw a pick. The pick wasn't on Cousins. The ball was tipped up in the air and they lose. The Vikings 11-0 in one score games last season, 0-3 this year. I could have gone Green Bay best win. It's the second time ever in the Packers history, down 17, entering the fourth quarter. They've come back and won a game.

It was a great comeback, but with Derek Carr going out, I felt like it wasn't quite the same as what the Chargers did. We're sitting here looking at the Chargers going 0-3. What is wrong with this football team? I still think I have questions about them at 1-2, so it's not like a huge parade is going to be scheduled any time here. Orris loss, it's Denver. But if we can't pick Denver, I'm going to go Dallas.

Maybe Arizona is actually okay. The O-line, despite the makeshift nature of how they put that group together, they're good. Does Caleb Williams watch games on Sunday going, you know, I didn't want to go to Arizona. I was hinting at that idea, staying at SC, if Arizona ends up with the number one pick. I don't know if Arizona's going to end up

with the number one pick. Is the O-line good enough that Caleb Williams is like, you know what, sign me up. I'm good. I'll go to Arizona. They ran it for 222 yards on the ground against a front with Dallas, which is considered a strength, which is still a strength. I shouldn't even say it that way because then I'm guilty of things I don't like. Like, hey, those are defenses supposed to be good. Dallas defense is probably still going to be pretty good, but for a day, and I don't know if it's teams taking them lightly, whether it's Giants part of this, because when I watch them against the commanders,

I didn't think Arizona was any good. Other than a fumble recovery quick score there, that team didn't do much offensively. Dobbs came in, what, 17 days before the season started? And I was like, okay, what are they doing here? You're not going to keep Colt McCoy on the roster just to keep him on the roster? That's kind of weird. Yet, what they're doing on the ground and Dobbs making enough plays and they're missing a couple of their best defensive players. I don't know if it's Dallas completely overlooking them in the DAC interception

stuff. Last year was fluky. I stand by that, but he's starting to have a tendency for his picks are just monumental mess ups. Like it's, it's getting into some of the Jimmy Garoppolo stuff with his pick in the end zone there. I don't know if that's who he's going to become, but it's one thing to throw a pick every now and then. It's another thing where it's like, that interception now means the game is over. Numbers you should know, Minnesota blitzed 82% of Chargers dropbacks. That's the second highest since ESPN started

tracking this in 2006. I don't know if that's a carryover of the next gen stuff because what Martindale and the Giants defense did against Brock Purdy on the game that we talked about last week, that was considered the highest tracking of blitz percentages that we'd seen since next gen did it. So I don't know if next gen and ESPN stats and info have a different start date on that. It was a lot of blitzes. However, Herbert was 32 of 38, 301 yards, three touchdowns is the most completion, most attempts against, and the most yards. So most completions attempts and yards against the blitz in an NFL game since 2006. Translation, it didn't work. Another number you should know. How many backup quarterbacks are we on here early? Well,

with the Jets, we already know that. Indy with Richardson out with a concussion. New Orleans, Derek Carr gets knocked out of that game. Jameis comes in. Bryce Young was out with an ankle injury for Carolina, so we saw Andy Dalton throw it 700 times. Cincinnati, Burrow did take first team snaps. We don't know if we're going to have a backup situation in Cincinnati, but it's very early on here and we're already seeing some of the backups. Another win probability update. Fourth quarter at Baltimore, Colts and Ravens in a battle. They decided to put up the win probability next-gen stat on the broadcast when Baltimore had the ball at third and 20. They were trying to set up a Justin Tucker game-winning field goal attempt

in regulation. Tucker went on to miss a 61-yarder, but for whatever reason, they thought a next-gen win probability stat giving the Ravens a 51% chance of winning that game was info we all needed at the time. The Colts obviously won in overtime. And finally, the award for the most likely Belichick draft pick is Arizona State's Cameron Skadaboo. I don't know if you saw the highlight of his catch and saving himself from being tackled two different times. And he started throwing the ball everywhere. And he gave an incredible sideline speech. I don't know if Belichick loves those things.

He was incredible with a couple of his plays. Looks like he can do a lot. A little overlooked. Might have wrestled or played lacrosse at some point. But don't be shocked. With the 213th selection the New England Patriots take. Snapping to action this NFL season with FanDuel, America's number one sportsbook. Right now, new customers get $2,000 in bonus bets guaranteed when you place a $5 bet.

That's $200 in bonus bets, win or lose. Let's look at Monday Night Football. All right, both the lines on FanDuel as of right now. Cincinnati's favored by three at home. Latest reports, Burrow took first team snaps reps on Sunday. So minus three tells you they think he's playing. and Philly's minus four and a half on the road at Tampa. I like Philly in a get right game here. Kind of like my Tennessee pick against UTSA. Like if you're going to be anything, granted the NFL is a little different with that, but this one would make a little bit more sense here where it just hasn't felt crisp. Hertz hasn't been the same, um, kind of a get right primetime game for them. So I would

lean that way if I had to. If I had to play any number on Rams Cincinnati, I'd probably go under 44 and a half. But what about Puka Nakua? Yeah, you're asking for him. Some of these numbers here are really funny. If you go receiving yards for him, plus 40 receiving yards is minus five 50. So what I wanted to do was find anything that felt like, okay, two weeks, Puka enough of this. Uh, you could play him even money, almost even money under 70 and a half receiving yards. So something else for you. If you feel like since that like Cincinnati's going to go. Let's not have this guy light us up like he's lighting up everybody else.

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First online real money wager only. $10 first deposit required. Bonus issued is non-withdrawable bonus bets that expire seven days after receipt. Restrictions apply. See terms at Sportsbook.FanDuel.com. Before we get to my top 12, I want to focus on two games. I want to start in South Bend. Ohio State goes in, beats Notre Dame 17-14 on a last-second game-winning touchdown run.

They were up 3-0 at the half. Toughness was a big part of this game. Toughness was a big part of the storyline as well. Lou Holtz, who's 86, called out Ohio State, criticized Ohio State, pointed to the reason them losing in these big games because they weren't physical enough, that they weren't the tougher football team. I think sometimes it's pretty simple. They just weren't the better football team and they lost the better teams. But nobody liked that if you're a Buckeyes fan. And Ryan Day certainly didn't like it. But for a

night, Ohio State was a very tough team. I don't think it was a huge problem to question the O-line and question how they were going to stack up against some of the other teams physically against Indiana, even some of the third and short stuff they were struggling with that they even talked about. Um, you know, other than Western Kentucky, there was still some moments where like, okay, how good are they going to be? Kyle McCord went 80, or excuse me, 65 yards in 85 seconds. And he showed me something. I don't know how great he's getting. He certainly wasn't flawless last night, but on that game-winning drive, he converted a third and 10,

a fourth and 7. Marvin Harrison, speaking of toughness, gets his ankle rolled up, stays in the game, has a 19-yard catch that was huge. On second and 10, McCord got absolutely crunched, called for the intentional grounding. I like this play. Why, Ryan? Intentional grounding is a terrible penalty. The fact that McCord even got that ball out, considering what was happening to him at that time, that's when I'll sit up on my couch a little

bit and go, oh, okay. What do we have here? Right? I liked it. Now, granted, I liked it a lot more because they ended up winning the game, so the story gets to play out this way, but I thought that play wasn't a negative. I thought that was a guy showing you that he understood how much this throw, how much that possession, how much the drive, all that mattered. Now, granted, you get called for the grounding, which I still think was, they called it because the receiver, I think it was Harrison, to the right side, started turning his right, or he's turning his route inside, and that's why I got flagged for it, but that was a moment where I went, all right, that's something for a kid that's on this stage for really the

first time ever. They convert a third and 19 of the one yard line on the pass to Igbuka. Two plays later, game winning touchdown by a running back that transferred in that was supposed to be a linebacker. Notre Dame did have 10 guys on the field. Marcus Freeman, the head coach for the Irish, his explanation was an attempt at an explanation. It didn't make a ton of sense. You can go through it all if you want to. Notre Dame themselves had two fourths and ones where they never gave it to their big bruising back Estime, which I didn't quite understand.

But the real reaction wasn't just the game and what this means for both programs. I think both teams are good, but it was Ryan Day who went off after. As soon as the win happens, and granted, for the win to happen that way, how emotional you would be how emotional that must have been for the irish fans and attendance going up lost another one of

these day goes quote i'd like to know where lou holtz is right now this is a tough team it's always been ohio state against the world uh he is right for a night that was a really tough football team and maybe it'll be a tough team and maybe that'll be a moment from a court and everybody else being like we battled through that and figured it out um but Lou Holtz is 86 I haven't thought about him in years Lou Holtz hasn't said anything about me I don't think ever so that could be another reason but this always will get back to a point I will try to not be too repetitive on, but use when necessary. We only pay attention to the criticisms of us. We only pay attention to the criticisms and biases that impact us, that we relate to. And in this world, for Ryan Day, where I imagine in Columbus it's not great.

I imagine that's a pretty prickly group when things aren't going the way that fan base would expect and their standard is to only compete for national championships. I think you could see some of that oozing out. Holt said, they're not physical enough against these better teams. Ryan Day went off. He said it's Ohio State against the world. He said that's how it's always been. I don't He said that's how it's always been. I don't know if there's another program other than Bama that's been given the benefit of the doubt more that we just expect to be good than Ohio State.

I feel like we gave Ohio State the benefit of the doubt more so than we did Clemson, and Clemson's had a better run recently than Ohio State has had. I get they've lost to Michigan twice, so it probably hasn't been fun in Columbus. I know the standard is to be in the playoff and compete for national championships, and the questions for them at O-line and quarterback

are not what they're used to up there. Even if they're not winning the Big Ten, you still feel like they have the right guy quarterback. So I get it. But that is part of day's motivation. He's looking at his guys saying, this old timer is ripping you and we're going to show him. And the chance he got to respond after was right after the game. And obviously he used that platform to go ahead and

do it. And that wasn't the only guy. Jake Dicker is the head coach of Washington State, heck of a football team. Feel bad for Wazoo considering everything that's happening here in the Pac-12. Well, he was mad at Lee Corso, who was 88 years old. Corso on game day when they were previewing Washington State, Oregon State, he says, no one watches bowl. It wasn't cool. He shouldn't have said it. He's also 88 and on TV. Look, Dickert, that's criticism about his program. That's criticism about his conference that's falling apart.

They're the team that is left without a chair when the music stops. Corso probably shouldn't have said it. I doubt there were neutral people going, wow, that was super offensive. I don't, I look, I don't love that he said it, but I also understood why he said, I mean, Dicker went, went in a, I mean, it actually makes me scared for Hubie Brown a little bit. Like what if Hubie Brown says I have the Hornets last in the East. And then Kai Jones tweets Hubie Brown, a bitch, you know, like I'm worried for Hubie Brown, but there's a nice segue because all of that stuff, all the stuff said about your team,

a nice segue because all of that stuff, all the stuff said about your team, all the ways that you're being talked about, the way your opponent is being talked about is part of the story that you will tell to your guys in practice, in the weight room and in the locker room leading up to whatever your mission is on that Saturday. And that's what happened in Eugene, Oregon. It finally happened. Colorado got smashed. And if you've watched Colorado, and it seems like a lot of you have, I think a lot of you knew this was coming. Vegas certainly did. Maybe not even to the magnitude that we actually saw on Saturday.

And I've been saying for a little while after the Colorado State game, I was like, man, I don't know what number Oregon and USC are going to choose to have on offense against Colorado. So Vegas had him as 21 and a half point dogs. Oregon is really good. I feel like there's more names than I'm noticing throughout a game with them on both sides of the football that I'm impressed with throughout three hours of watching them. Bo Nix is completing 79% of his passes. That's second only to Michigan's J.J. McCarthy. He's only got one pick on the season. And I have to hand it to him because it seems real. And I never really thought I was going to get to this point with Bo Nix. Bucky Irving at running back is incredible. Troy Franklin's healthy again. Front seven had a field day against an O-line where it was part O-line. It was part coverage. It was part route length where it felt like some

of these plays took a really long time to develop. And granted, they were one dink and dunk down that many. But at the same time, Shador's just back there hoping it's going to all work out, and it was ugly across the board for all of them. Oregon had 378 yards to Colorado's 21 yards total at the half. Now, the biggest play from this game, the biggest storyline, I shouldn't say play because the biggest storyline is not anything that happened on the field. It was Dan Lanning. Cameras up, cameras rolling, listening to Lanning give a speech to his team saying, quote, they're fighting for clicks. We're fighting for wins. After being up 35-0 at halftime, his halftime interview, he said, we're not done yet. We're not satisfied. He wanted to kick their ass, just like every coach wants to kick the opponent's ass every time they line up. But this was extra. This was a little extra because of the attention paid on Colorado. But what I think was lost in all the conversation around this is that

if Dan Lanning thinks, okay, everybody's talking up Colorado. They're the darlings of college football. 60 Minutes is out there. The Rock Game Day's been out there, Fox has been out there twice, and I know my football team is better. I'm telling my guys all week long that, they're the Hollywood, they're this, they're that, we're the real deal. And if that motivates his guys, then he's going to do it. College pro football coach, football, basketball, fucking pickleball, people have been doing this in coaching for decades, as long as I can remember. Finding the thing that you think can get your team focused on that goal. Made up or not. I'll never forget Rodney Harrison being at the Super Bowl in Jacksonville after they win against the Eagles,

walking around, tears in his eyes, saying no one believed in us. Like, no one believed. This is your third one. Like, what are you talking about? Everybody picked you. That's what coaches do. That's what they look for. So you want to say Lanning went a little over the top?

Fine. You want to say he did it for the cameras? He did. He knew what was on. You want to say he did it knowing he had a really good chance to win the game and that wasn't going to come back to haunt him? You want to say he did it because it was Dion? He absolutely wanted to do it because it was Dion and because of all the attention. But I don't think there's really anything wrong with that. Saturday did get weird because it was a victory lap for some it was defensive of others

when Lanning decided to go for it on fourth down to make it 42-0 there were some people that didn't like it but I promise you the person that doesn't like that that feels like it's being targeted specifically only at Deion if Deion had done that to somebody else you defend him and say that he's

doing that to send a statement to the college football world that he's doing that to send a statement to the college football world that he's not effing around. I promise that you would not be consistent with what you found, not offensive, but a little bit too much, you know, for lack of better phrasing of the entire thing. Where does that leave us with Colorado? maybe people were already sick of Dion we're real quick with that stuff man as soon as we build you up we love to tear you down how many people you think are really like rooting for Travis Kelsey and Taylor Swift right now

how many people what number of people in our society will go really happy for them? I hope they find love. I admit, I think her cheering for his touchdown felt like six months of dating and not however many weeks we're into this. I think it's a bigger number that if they were, if this doesn't work out, if they were to break up, there'll be some weird fucked up joy that people would have. I knew it. Knew it wouldn't work out. Those two.

I just think it's what we do. And it's not specific to Dion. Look, do you root for Jake Paul? Are you over 15 years old? Are you over 15 years old? So whether it's Lanning deciding that he's sick of Colorado, whether it's people deciding that they're sick of Dion and sick of Colorado, I don't know. Dan Lanning was trying to win a football game.

And I'll admit too, when I was watching the USC Arizona State game later that night and there was a promo for SC in Colorado, it was called the game of the year. I was like, dude, they just got their doors blown in three hours ago. Like, what are you guys doing? But then again, I was like, wait, it's a promo. What's Fox supposed to do? Not quite as big of a game as we thought, but tune in for big noon, you know, hype it up. That's what they're going to do. But none of this really matters because the real story is that Colorado is better and that Deion said it really well. You better get me now.

You better get me now because they're going to be much better, much better equipped to deal with the organs of the world in a couple of years than they were this Saturday. Okay, top 12 time. Here we go i'm gonna this one's brutal this one is brutal all right i've watched every one of these teams most of them multiple times and for me to feel really solid and saying i know for a fact this team is better than this so instead i'm just going to do counter arguments to every one of the ones I do. All right, number one, Georgia.

Haven't done anything. Yep, I'd agree. Number two, Texas. Bama isn't Bama. Yep, I'd agree. Washington. Seventh in the AP, by the way. I have them third.

They're seventh in the coaches poll as well. They got first place votes in both polls. That was good to see. Only power five wins are against Michigan State and Cal. Yep, I agree. Michigan, C, Georgia. Florida State. Should have good to see. Only power five wins are against Michigan State and Cal. Yep, I agree. Michigan, C, Georgia. Florida State. Should have lost to Clemson.

Struggled with Boston College. Yep, cool. I put Penn State number six. This will be a little minor breakdown here. Iowa, not great on offense. Their possessions went this way. Punt, fumble. Three and out. Three and out, three and out,

three and out, three and out, three and out. They did not have a three and out on their next possession because it was one play and a fumble. Three and out and five plays but a fumble. A&F, America needs

farmers. America needs a fucking first down. I have Ohio State 7. Wait, they beat Notre Dame. Penn State hasn't beaten anybody that good. Yeah, you're right. Oregon 8. Colorado's overrated.

You're right. Number 9 SC was a win against Arizona State. A good win? Probably not. You're right. Number nine SC was a win against Arizona State. A good win. Probably not. You're right. Number 10, Utah. They were down to Baylor. You're right.

Number 11, Notre Dame. They lost against the only good team they played. You're right. And number 12, I have LSU. Hey, have you watched your secondary? I have. You're right. Can't wait to do it again next week joining us today uh good friend todd mcshay hanging out will be joining us uh occasionally throughout the football season what's up man it's good to do this with you. I'm fired up, bud.

I've been on restrictions recently, so whether it's a good thing or bad thing, I'm pent up. I'm ready to go. I'm sitting around watching games on Saturdays, watching games on Sundays, studying the tape, and I have nowhere to get this information out except with you, my friend of 20 years. So thankfully, we get to do this as many as many, uh, Mondays as possible as a, as a guest on your show. And I'm excited about it. Really am. All right, let's get to it then. Um, this is this past Saturday was loaded and I think the game, you know, there's, look, there's a bunch of games, but I was like, just make sure you still got something in the tank for Washington. Uh, and Michael Penix Jr. Who, you know, we both

watched going back to Miami. The numbers are absurd. He's already over 1,600 yards passing. The splits on touchdowns, picks. You know what the other number I looked at that was crazy? He's only been sacked one time this season. I know. So I know we're going to kind of do an overall look at the quarterback draft class.

And every time we do this, it isn't only going to be draft stuff, but I thought that'd be kind of a good jumping off point. Looking to the position in college right now, and let's start with Pennix Jr. Yeah, he's a guy, I'll be honest, I kind of wrote off initially, you know, he had the multiple injuries, up and down career at Indiana, transferred to Washington, said, all right, you know, let's, let's see what he can do. career at Indiana, transferred to Washington, said, all right, you know, let's see what he can do. Ryan Grubb comes in from Fresno State, not a household name. You know, we'll get to Oregon later, hopefully, but, you know, we've got two coordinators in the Pac-12 that were not household names, were not big-time acquisitions, if you will, but have really put up two of the more

prolific offenses in the country this year. So Grubb comes in from Fresno State. Michael Penix, he's always had the talent. He's always had a big arm. He's got enough mobility. But it was a lot of inconsistency. And even if you talk to him, you talk to coaches, he had to – and I remember reading a scouting report from like the National Scouting Service, just kind of some immaturity early on, just kind of hadn't put it all together.

But he gets to Washington, and it's been progression after progression after progression. He certainly has weapons. There's no question about it. But the thing I'm most impressed with is this isn't like a check down offense. It's not a lot of screens and short throws. He's averaging 11.9 yards per attempt and still completing 75 percent of his throws with a lot of these guys we get these college numbers yeah he's completed 79 percent and he had you know 24 touchdowns and only four

interceptions well you got to look at the system and what they're doing with Penix you just watch you get you don't even have to study the tape to understand they're driving it vertically. And his deep ball accuracy and the trajectory of his throws, the timing that he has with his receivers, it's been impeccable. And, you know, I get it. Like Boise State, Tulsa, Michigan State in a down year in Cal, not phenomenal competition. They've got Arizona coming up, but then it's Oregon and then USC,

obviously not a great defense, but they're going to have to outscore Caleb Williams, Oregon State, Utah before that, Oregon State and Washington State and Oregon State, Washington State just had a great game with Washington State winning that one. So we're going to find out a lot in the second half of the season, especially Oregon, USC, Utah, Oregon State, Washington State. That's a brutal schedule down the stretch of all teams that are ranked right now. Oregon's nine, USC's eight, Utah's 10, Oregon State's down to 19, and Washington State's up to 16. So we'll find out, but the early returns are phenomenal. And like I said, it helps to have a coordinator that is maximizing what he's doing,

and it also helps to have three receivers like he's got with Rome Odunze, who's got 27 catches averaging over 20 yards per catch with four touchdowns. Jalynn Polk, 21 catches over 20 yards per catch, four touchdowns. And Jalen McMillan. And I think Odunze and McMillan have a chance to be first rounders and maybe McMillan early second rounder. So they've got weapons there and McMillan's averaging 15, 6.6 yards on 20 catches with three touchdowns. So he's got three guys. It's almost like what what you've seen at Ohio State in previous years. And this year, they obviously the Buckeyes still have really good receivers. Marvin Harrison, Jr., best receiver prospect coming out in over a decade.

And and a bouquet is going, is, is going to be a late first, second round draft pick. So, but you look at Washington with the weapons they have with Pennix dealing, the ability to throw down the field, a system he's comfortable in that Grubb has done a great job integrating with this Huskies team. You know, I think Oregon might be the team to beat at this point. I think they might be the most complete team in the Pac-12. USC obviously has the best player in Caleb Williams, and they're tough to beat just because they're going to outscore most opponents. But Washington's right up there.

I mean, this Pac-12 conference is really impressive as we dissolve it, you know, a year from now and everyone's going to go their separate ways. But this year, this conference is loaded. Yeah, with Pennix, I mean, McMillan even played in that game against Cal. Right. one's going to go their separate ways but this year this this conference is loaded yeah with penix i mean mcmillan even play uh in that game against cal right and you know i don't know what what kind of stock you put into cal's defensive numbers you know auburn who you know if you watch them again this week i cannot believe that hugh freeze you know that it's this bad i think their best offensive players samuel the defensive end number

nine so i uh i look at you know like early on in the stats are like okay did washington light up a really good defense here but i you know i don't even know that it matters because other than you know harrison jr who you can do anything with i think keon coleman's in this um in this category as well but like i look at teams and go, how many teams out there have 50-50 guys who are just going to win every 50-50 ball? It's like the old DeAndre Hopkins thing. There is no 50-50 ball with him.

It's his ball. And when I watch Adunze and McMillan and Polk, they take these deep shots and he just knows. And the problem is you can't double all of these guys. So even if Washington, I don't know if they have as many dudes on defense as Oregon does. I mean, that's just my blink test reaction of watching them play. I think Oregon has a handful of guys on defense

that maybe is a little bit deeper as far as playmakers. I just don't know that it will matter for Washington because I'm not sure anyone can match like, okay, whatever. Like we gave up seven. It doesn't matter because we're going to find a mismatch with one of these big receivers. Yeah, I mean, I tend to agree. And you see the confidence in Penix.

And that's, again, we'll talk about the quarterbacks and where he ranks among the group, but the durability issues in the past will certainly play a factor into where he gets drafted. But you're talking about a college player who's going to play in the NFL. He's going to be, my guess right now would be somewhere in that third round range as a draft pick, maybe could go a second round. But to see his confidence building week after week and to see his level of comfort in that offense and to have the rapport that he has with these receivers and when they have McMillan healthy you've got three receivers that are like legit big time playmakers

and I don't think you know Oregon's really good on the defensive side but I don't they don't have three corners that can match up against this guy so now you're talking about zone and backing off and bracket coverage and trying to do different things to make sure you're not giving up these big plays. And that's going to open up the run game and a lot of underneath stuff as well. So Washington has been one of the revelations for me so far in this college football season. And Oregon's up there. And as I said, I think they're a more complete team. So it's going to be fascinating to see how this Pac-12 plays out, but, but there's not many guys in the country

that I would take over Pennix in terms of the way he's playing right now. Yeah, right. No, I think that makes sense. And it doesn't necessarily mean where you have the draft rankings, which we'll get to it a little bit here. This is a good segue then, because in the moments where I watched Pennix Jr. where, you know, I've covered this before and I would agree with you in the beginning. The assessment was like, okay, what is he really? Like when it's really good, it's really good. And when it's bad, it wasn't, it could be ugly at times. And now it's just perfect all the time.

So he's figured that out. And also got me thinking a little bit about my NFL eats. They're young when it comes to quarterbacks a little bit. Like you draft a guy, you never give him any reps. You cut him in two or three years and then you just trapped another guy. So you're not even giving anyone any time to develop. And I don't know if there's a lesson in there for what's happened with

Pennix jr. Maybe it's a system thing, but Bo Nix, I was even more over. Like even, even at times last year when I know the numbers are better. And now I watch him going, I, I, I guess it's real. I guess it's real now because his lows for me were far more discouraging than anything i'd saw down in you know indiana with with pennants i mean i can't remember writing off a quarterback as much as i have written off bonix in the past and then yeah last year i was like oh oh, I'm seeing progression.

I wasn't even watching his tape. Like, I studied him at Auburn. I thought he might come out early before he decided to transfer. And I thought to myself, I don't even see draftable here. I just don't. The mistakes he made, everything was on the run. Everything was a scramble and a mess. The game was too fast for him.

The system didn't fit what he was trying to do and his strengths. And he seemingly never got coached up in the areas that he needed to be coached up. I don't think he understood reading defenses and going through progressions and trusted what he was seeing. And this is the greatest compliment you can give to a coaching staff and and to a player who sticks sticks with it through the bad times finds a new opportunity and also the thing i preach all the time there's no substitute for game experience as a college quarterback and you look at the history of the nfl draft like a lot of these guys who come in with 13 starts 17 starts fewer than like 23 24 starts they don't have success in the league. You know, the Mitchell Trubisky, go back to Mark Sanchez, like 13 starts is a tough number

to overcome. And so I think with Bo Nix, he went through all those lumps and everyone wrote him off. Every scout I talked to is like, ah, you know, I just can't trust him. He's not a pro quarterback. He gets it done. You know, he grinds it out and wins some games as a runner. And then he gets this system. And don't forget, he's had now two different coordinators. They hired a new offensive coordinator this year in Will Stein, who came in and is just, you know, Bo Nix has even progressed more this year. And they're doing it.

Stein, it's an interesting story the offensive corner he started um what is it Westlake High School in Texas like the big time pro I think Drew Brees played there um Nick Foles I think was a product of there as well then went on and it was you know assistant coach at Louisville in Texas and then at UTSA he he was never a full-blown OC on his own. And then he gets the OC job at Oregon. But he was a co-offensive coordinator in 2022 at UTSA. And they had the ninth-ranked offense in the country.

And so he's kind of known for developing quarterbacks and, like, offensive innovation. And you've seen Bo just kind of thrive in this system this year. And they have weapons as well. I mean, they've got seven skill players, Brian, with 10 catches through four games with at least 10 catches. So it's not just one guy like Troy Franklin is clearly the best wide receiver of the group, big, big target athletic 25 catches, averaging 17 yards per catch five touchdowns. But they've got a bunch of guys. And when I see a quarterback that's spreading it out, you talk about four games, 10 receptions for seven different receivers, at least 10 receptions, that shows me a quarterback that isn't trying to force things like he was at

Auburn, that is seeing the whole field, is understanding the offense, knows where the ball goes based on what the defense is showing him. And that's not anything we saw from Bo Nix's game. And I mean, legitimately, I had a free agent grade on him at the end of his last year at Auburn and wrote up a report because I thought there might be a chance he got drafted late before he transferred. So I had the report ready, but it was not pretty, I'll be honest. And to see what he's done in a year and four games is remarkable. And I mean, we have a great quarterback class. So we'll get to him. It starts at the top of Caleb Williams, Drake May. And then there's like seven, eight other guys that are in contention to be kind of that day to range. Late first, second, third round. And Bo Nix is squarely in that mix right now, which says so much about a the coaching, but be the player, the adjustment he's

made and how hard he's worked to get where he is. Yeah. I would have never, ever guessed that. I would have, if you'd said that to me two years ago, I would have been like, I would have said, you know, maybe they have better weapons, a better system, but he's still going to be a runner first and kind of, you know, that tough runner and make some, his best plays were always when the play broke down, it was Sandlot football. Everything was a mess. And that's when he would make his greatest plays. And that's also when he would make his biggest bonehead mistakes. I mean, no quarterback.

It was almost like a punchline. Let's just be honest. It was like, oh, Bo Nix. He's Bo Nixing it again. You know, here he goes. He was good for two or three of those a game where you're like, what are you doing, man? And now he's just sitting back in the pocket and throwing dot after dot after dot and it's it's it's remarkable to see

the transition i mean even the pick against colorado i could see what he thought he was seeing where i agree you know other picks i'll be like okay you didn't you weren't accounting for this guy you didn't see it pre-snap you locked in and only saw like one side of it. Like even on that pick, I was like, oh wow, he threw the pick. And then when I saw the other angle of it, I go, oh, okay. You know what? I actually thought like, that's, that's one of those mistakes you're coming back to the side. Yeah. The coaching staff isn't going, what the hell were you looking at? They're going, we can already figure out what it was. Um, correct it immediately. Right. On the other side with Shador Sanders, you want to talk about freelancing. It has been so impressive.

I think there's those intangibles with him, the confidence, the stones, 98-yard drive against Colorado State. There's a lot of stuff that we really like, whether it's the O-line where he's been hit. Now he's been sacked. I don't know if the total hit number is still number one in college football. He's been sacked more than any other quarterback in FBS. The O-line was a problem.

The left tackle was definitely a problem on Saturday. We could also point to the fact that it was coverage, but also there was, I think, a bit of a wake-up of like, Shador, you can't just do this all on your own freelancing here. And the fact that it felt like they were still sending out these routes where they were taking forever to develop.

So even if the O-line had a chance on that snap, they weren't going to contain for that long. I saw, I saw mocks where everybody was so excited about Sanders that, you know, they had a, maybe as the third quarterback behind Caleb Williams and Drake may, I would never look,

it's just too soon for me. But what do you think of him now as the prospect, which I imagine is far different than any evaluation you had prior to this year? Yeah, I mean, what he did in the first three games was was nothing short of remarkable. You know, I mean, and you have to factor like with Washington and Pennix and Bo Nix in Oregon and Caleb Williams at USC and even, I would say, Drake May to a lesser extent, they're all getting protected better. They have better receivers around them. I mean, Xavier Weaver has been good, averaging like 14 yards per catch,

somewhere in that range. Jimmy Horn's solid. Travis Hunter is probably their most – he's definitely their most athletic receiver. He's obviously playing cornerback as well, but he's out this past game. And you can see the difference without Hunter and having to deal with the pass rush. Let's face it. And you and I were texting, I think it was a week ago, and you were asking me about Colorado.

Are they legit based off of what you've studied? And I just – I didn't see it because I, listen, Sanders is unbelievable. He's talented. He can make every throw. The throws he's made down the field are some of the hardest difficulty throws that we've seen from all of these quarterbacks this year. You know, Caleb's capable of making those throws. Drake's capable of making those throws. Pennix at times is capable of making similar type throws, but maybe not on the run and with so much duress like Sanders has. And I think that's why Sanders is skyrocketing up because what if he was protected? What if he did have receivers like we talked about at Washington

with three guys who were averaging around 20 yards per catch? If he was playing at Ohio State and was protected and had receivers like Marvin Harrison Jr. and Amike Abouke. He doesn't have that around him. And they were still putting up huge numbers. Look at what he did against TCU. I know TCU's down from a year ago, but they're still a talented group, and they have some defensive players that are going to play in the NFL. And so I've been highly impressed. What they walked into was an absolute buzzsaw. We all knew what was coming. Oregon's just a much more complete football team, much deeper football team.

The offensive line, as I said to you when we were texting, they're going to get exposed really soon. And that's exactly what happened. And the defense, especially up front, they just don't have the depth of talent and the size and athleticism that you see in some of these premier programs and that you see at Oregon. And quite frankly, I mean, they don't have, you know, Ohio State, Alabama, Michigan type of defensive front guys. But Oregon, you know, is kind of in that second tier in terms of what they have talent wise defensively. So I love what he's done. I think he's going to be a first round pick when he comes out. Is it going to be after this year or is it going to be after another year? Is he going to

stick around with the NIL deals he's making? I mean, let's face it. He's going to make more money is my guess at Colorado and an NIL deal in 2024 than he probably would be as a rookie quarterback who gets drafted in the, let's say mid to late first round. I saw my boy Kuyper. He had him at number five overall. I think it's a little rich at this point. Let's see how the season plays out. But I could see him being a top 10, top 15 pick. And I still, which is crazy, I still don't know what's going to make him more money.

And if his dad's trying to build this program, if he says, hey, son, one more year. So we'll see how that plays out. Yeah, it seems like Deion is leaning towards him sticking around for one more year, but you're right. I think financially they'll be rewarded just fine. Yeah, there's a way to look at the contract stuff. You'd say, okay, any first-round quarterback, he's still probably going to make four years of guaranteed money.

But if you're just going year to year, yeah, that's if they pick up. If you're a first-round pick pick you get the fifth year fifth year option right right i just think there's there's some math on that where you go okay well wait a minute but the year to year for 24 versus 24 of what the first year of a rookie scale contract would be yeah i i mean some of this nil stuff the more i learned about it like the numbers aren't even close it's like podcast ratings where i'll be like, what? Um, I know you never talk about that. Yeah. So, okay. Let's, since we're, we're talking this class, like my favorite, one of my favorite things to do is just watch Caleb Williams throws. Okay. And as much as we're raving about everybody else, there is no one in

college football that can fix your problem quicker. Like he is, I hate to be cliche here, but he's not fair. He is the cheat code. You know, when I'm watching the Arizona State game, Arizona State's in this game. You know, it's kind of a weird game for SC. Some concerns. The problem for SC is they're going to be in a lot of games because they can't play defense. But go on.

to be in a lot of games because they can't play defense but go on no and i think there's also a lesson in there is stomping stanford and shutting them down should not be looked at as a week of like hey they're figuring out some things on defense but arizona state makes it 24 21 sc starts the possession at their own 17 in seriously like 60 seconds they're're at the Arizona State 4. In two plays. In two plays. Now, granted, there was a penalty. SC ends up settling for a field goal a few plays later. But as you watch that, you go, look, there are offenses that are capable of doing that kind of stuff.

But I don't think there's any player. And I'm not even talking about this year. Caleb Williams is so special that in a matter of two throws, you are right back in it. Their skill guys are really good too. I mean, SC, you kind of need to update the roster all the time going like, oh, who's that guy? Oh, that's the freshman. Oh, that's that. So Caleb is, I know you're not going to like sit here and disagree, but what he does, whether it's in the play or when the play breaks down,

there's nothing else like this in college football. No, and quite frankly, there hasn't been in a long time. I mean, you go back to Pat Mahomes when he was at Texas Tech. He had flashes of it, but it wasn't consistent like this. He didn't have the weapons that USC had. He didn't have the coaching necessarily that USC has. But, I mean, that's the – if I had to draw a comparison, it's to what Mahomes does in the NFL is what we're seeing

from Caleb Williams in college. You know, that's the closest thing. And, yeah, you can talk about size and Mahomes is a little bit bigger and all that. But this guy's so – I mean, think about how great Bryce Young was, right, at the college level, what he did with that very average supporting cast a year ago, what he did two years earlier winning the Heisman Trophy. And I know that the size durability was always a concern,

and now in week three of the season he had to sit out with an ankle injury, but not anything significant long term. But my point is Bryce Young was a phenom. This guy's better. Caleb would have been the first overall pick coming out after his second year at USC, right? No question about it. He would have been the first overall pick last year ahead of Bryce Young,

ahead of that group. So I look at him and the throws he makes, the ability to throw off platform, change his arm angle angles, you know, also feeling inside the pocket, knowing when to get outside the pocket. He just has an innate sense that very few guys do. And I think so long as that frame holds up in the NFL and he learns to protect himself, you know, at the next level, he is destined for a Hall of Fame career. That's how special he is. Truly. I just, I don't, you don't see anything like it coming out. I was so sick. I was working out this morning and I started thinking to myself, all right, how do I, how do I try to put into context how good Caleb Williams is? And for some reason I started, started like this trade. Like, is there anyone

in all of college football, any position I would trade for? One, you know, man to man, one up on a trade, player for player. And there's not a single person, obviously. What would be the trade for two players that I might consider? And the only one I could think of is Drake May, the quarterback at UNC, who's going to be the second quarterback taken behind Caleb. And give me Marvin Harrison Jr. at wide receiver, who's a generational talent wide receiver coming out as a prospect. I mean, he's going to have the same type of grade as we saw. It's like A.J. Green, Julio Jones, Calvin Johnson. He's that special and maybe a higher grade. That's how unique he is.

So I would trade Caleb Williams for Drake May and Marvin Harrison Jr. But anything short of that, there is no player that means more, can create more, and like you said, is more of a cheat code for their team than Caleb Williams is. Now what's going to be interesting is when you look at them, I don't think defensively they can match up. We talked about that. But we're going to find out how good Caleb Williams truly is. I think we know, but is he capable? At Colorado, it won't be a problem. It'll be high scoring. Colorado will score some points, but they'll outscore him.

Notre Dame, I don't think Notre Dame can keep up with that pace, but Notre Dame will be one of the most physical matchups they have. Utah will be a physical matchup. Washington is the game I'm interested in, and even more so the following week at Oregon. In Autzen, the buzzsaw that Colorado came into with Bo Nix playing at the level. We just talked about Bo Nix, his weapons, how he's spreading the ball out. Oregon's the game that I kind of circle because the talent level, offensively for offensively, I think it's even, I would give USC a slight edge, but defense versus defense, I give a big edge to Oregon. So I think that's going to be the toughest game that they have. But again, it's been easy. San Jose State, Nevada, Stanford,

Arizona State, we got Colorado next week, Arizona. But then all of a sudden, October 14th, this thing gets interesting because you're going to Notre Dame. You play a tough Utah team at home. Cal should be a breeze after that. But then Washington at Oregon, UCLA rivalry game against Chip Kelly. That's going to be a tough stretch. So we're going to find out how much Caleb can elevate that team and if they can get any better on the defensive side between now and then, because they're going to need to if they're

going to make this run. So if you're looking at it now, I mean, I still have Washington ahead of Oregon, even though I agree with you on the completeness of Oregon. We're on the same page there just because I don't know if Knicks could keep up with with what pennix in this receiving group is doing right now so i'd go washington and i might have oregon ahead of sc um but they're more complete yeah but then the caleb that's what i'm saying we're gonna like can caleb carry this team against against the team in oregon that is is clearly more complete yeah that's that's tough. It's just really tough, and it's also that exciting because we're sitting here going through the whole thing like once Rising's back for Utah,

even though Nate Johnson's been better after the quarterback battle they were going through at the beginning of the year. I just love this conference right now. I'm fired up about it. Let's look at the rest of the quarterback class then. You mentioned May from UNC. Do you think it's impossible for another quarterback to go ahead of him behind Caleb? And it's kind of the guys I've talked to that are kind of making an argument for Drake May as a possibility to go ahead.

They're kind of more traditionalists, like the size, the durability. Drake May can hold up longer with more confidence in that. But I haven't talked to anyone who's like, oh, I love Drake May. I like him more than Caleb. It's I love Drake May. Maybe there's not as big a gap as some other people think. And I've talked to other guys in the league who are like, listen, I love Drake May, but Caleb's at a whole different level. Caleb's a generational talent.

So I don't think when it's all set, like I will be shocked if there's anyone drafted ahead of Caleb Williams in the 2024 draft. It'll blow my mind. I think it'll be a huge mistake, but I could easily see Drake May go number two, depending on the team that's drafting it to and, and what their quarterback need is. And I certainly believe he'll be the number two quarterback off the board. But what I love about this class is the depth. I mean, Shador Sanders, we've talked about and what, you know, what he's become and what

he is showing potential-wise. Is he in the 2024 class? If he is, maybe he is the third quarterback taken. It wouldn't surprise me. And I think he could very well be a first-round pick. Quinn Ewers, he's had some ups and downs last year. He's dropped the weight. He looks a lot more agile and mobile in the pocket. He's taken off running when he needs to. Seems more relaxed in terms of inside the pocket with his reads. That game against Alabama like we saw in the set Alabama can't protect they've got a huge quarterback problem they've had some some issues some

breakdowns on the defensive side but we saw in the second half of that game when they need to shut it down against Ole Miss that's a damn good defense like Dallas Turner up front the linebacker play like they're not the elite elite that we've seen in terms of Alabama in years past, but it's still, and that's a tough group. And what Quinn Ewers did to Alabama was, I mean, that was a big money game for him. By the way, I'm glad you brought up Bama's front because I've been waiting for it.

You know, I've been waiting for it. Like Texas was the team that was getting after it in that matchup. That's why I think Texas might legitimately be a top five team this year. Yeah. Because you don't push around Alabama, and they did. They did. The D tackles, their linebackers. Look, there's talent all over the defense.

That's not new for Texas. But to leave a three-hour game with Alabama being like, they got pushed around on both sides of the ball. And this huge Alabama offensive line that we've been talking about I'm just glad at least for the Bama part of this where the first half against Ole Miss I'm like where are these guys like I know who 15 is like where are the plays boy when they came out in the second half against Jackson Dart like it was on it was finally like 30 minutes of football where you're like, okay, this is this. Yeah, you finally saw like, oh, there's a bunch of dogs on this defense.

Right, there's Blackshire. Like, okay, finally, you guys. And, you know, whether you want to see the South Florida game, it's a mess. But I expected more out of that group in that Texas game. And it felt like, you know, you're watching them. You're going, you're just like, you're not really impacting this game. So if I'm a Bama fan, I'm at least like, hey, at least you got that in the second half. So yeah, like looking back on it, because it was getting weird for Texas when you start

thinking about the rankings, because you start going through this exercise of asking yourself these questions and being like, wait, am I actually the point where I would say winning at Bama on a Saturday night isn't that big of a deal? In the first half last week, I started thinking about that. This is not Alabama. And in the second half, they came out. Their offense has got to now be run the football, pound it. You've got to go back to pre-Kiffin and what Alabama used to be.

And I think that's their recipe for success. But instead of kind of dinking and dunking, throwing the ball, it's got to be run, run, run, wear teams down, take deep shots. The only thing that Milrose does well is throw the deep ball. He runs, obviously he runs well. He can run it. But as a passer, I mean, the only thing I trust him doing is throwing the deep ball. And you see, if they're going to run the football effectively and stick with it, then they're going to have some shots vertically, whether it's making a play down the field or pass interference. But that's got to be the design.

And if you notice, last week they came out and it was ground and pound, take some deep shots. And Burton was there and made a couple huge plays, and all of a sudden they were off and running. But, yeah, going back to yours, now you look at this Alabama defense and you see there is talent. It's just Texas is really good on the offensive line. They had two freshmen tackle starters a year ago who were going

to be potentially first round picks and, you know, 2025 if they come out early and they're getting better. And the thing on defensively for Texas, they adapt. they're not just great in terms of their front four like they now can rotate in it's like a line shift in hockey like they can legitimately play eight defensive linemen and so to me going back to yours i know i'm going off on a tangent with alabama and texas but yours that game made him so much money and And obviously there are some big games down the stretch. I mean, Oklahoma, that rivalry game. But after that, like, you know, BYU should be a win. Kansas State, good team, but should be a win. At TCU should be a win.

Iowa State, Texas Tech, like, they're in good position to run the table, man. And yours should continue to get better and better. And I just love mentally where Quinn is, just in terms of what he did in the offseason, transforming himself mentally, spiritually, even if that matters or doesn't matter. Like he clearly, like he found himself and he took off the weight

and he's just, he's dedicated to what he's doing. And I just see a different guy. I mean, he lost the mullet too, which I don't need my quarterback with a mullet. It just doesn't, it doesn't work. You're going to be putting, too, which I don't need my quarterback with a mullet. It just doesn't work. You're going to be putting up big numbers. You're going to be, like, unimpeachable.

You're going to win the conference. Like, that's the thing. Find me one mullet star quarterback in the NFL. Jeff George? Star. How about all-time bust? Huge arm, though. Who was the guy?

Was it South Carolina? Had the long hair?? Huge arm, though. Who was the guy? Was it South Carolina? Had the long hair? Oh, yeah, yeah. He was like 6'8". Okay, now we're thinking about somebody different. Yeah. Anyway. Anyway, so yeah, Quinn Ewers, I've got his number four quarterback right now. Riley Leonard from Duke.

I've been so impressed with the Clemson game. What's your five before we get to Riley Leonard at Duke. So does that mean Riley's five? So, so just give me an order of your five. Now I would go Caleb Williams, one Drake, May two Shador Sanders, three Quinn Ewers for I've got a five, a five B five C. I mean, I feel like Kuiper again, but, uh, you know, just just not but i think riley leonard michael pennix bo nicks are all right there competing for that that five spot if you will and maybe even with the four spot like that's why i said when i started this thing like i love caleb williams and it's great for the team picking one overall a team that's next up that

needs a quarterback i love drake may but the fact that we have so many other quarterbacks like Sanders, Quinn Ewers, Michael Penix, Riley Leonard, Bo Nix, all competing to be that fourth quarterback off the board and maybe even the third quarterback off the board, depending on how Sanders continues to play and if he's even in the 2024 class, that shows a lot of depth. We normally see, on average, two and a half quarterbacks go in the first round. Less than one. I think it was like two in the last five years prior to this year go in the second round. Because if you want a quarterback and you have an early second round grade on him, you take him in the first to get that fifth year option.

So we rarely see second round quarterbacks go and then we see about two quarterbacks taken in the in the third round so you're talking about four to four and a half quarterbacks going in the first three rounds of the draft on average we got caleb williams drake may shador sanders quinn ewers michael pennix riley leonard Bo Nix. That's seven guys right there that belong right now in terms of their evaluation in the first three rounds. So that as an evaluator is really exciting. Okay. So let's spend a little time on Riley Leonard here. Duke's been blowing everybody out. He's a big kid. He's a junior. He's from Alabama. Give us the full breakdown of a guy that probably isn't as much of a household name

as the other guys we're talking about here. He's a great athlete. He comes from an athletic family. Both of his parents were, I think, college athletes. I heard his mom's actually the best athlete. Yeah. He claims his mom's the best athlete in the family, which is hard to imagine. His brother won, hit that game-winning, for North Carolina in the national championship game. He's got three of them went to UNC. I forget what the other, the other brother was like a kind of a backup on the basketball team, I believe.

And then his, the fourth brother play is a baseball player at Florida. Right. So, I mean, they're just, it's an athletic family and you see it in the way he plays. Like he's got the mobility. I can see it. You can see, always see, like, is he the youngest of four? I think he's the youngest of four. So it's the third brother

who's a baseball player. You can always tell like, who's the youngest brother of four athletes, of four boys in a, you know, whether it's three or four boys in a family, like you just, you grow up being the little guy picked on. You're always getting your ass kicked in the backyard. You have to learn instincts. Where's my big brother, my middle brother, my oldest brother? Where are they coming at me from? You're playing basketball. You're playing football.

You're playing baseball. You're playing golf. You're competing in everything. You kind of see that in his game. He instinctively feels it. He knows when to take off and run. He's tough as nails. He's a mobile quarterback knows when to take off and run. He's tough as nails. He's a mobile quarterback who can just tuck it and run.

He'll lower his shoulder when he needs to and pick up additional yards. But he also knows when to protect himself. I just think he's a really instinctive player who's been kind of this multi-sport athlete for so long. And as he plays the quarterback position more and more, he just keeps getting better and better. He's got a good arm. He can drive it down the field. I like his game.

And I love what Duke is doing in terms of offensively, the system they're in. They're an underrated team to me when you look at Duke and the way they just manhandled Clemson. I know it was the first game of the year. New starting quarterback. They were working through some lumps there. Clemson looked a lot better this past weekend, albeit in a loss against Florida State that they should have won had they not had to rely on a kicker that they brought in on Monday. But I think Riley Leonard has proven

early on what he can do. And I think he's got a chance to be, like I said, a day two draft pick. What is the gap between Marvin Harrison Jr. and the next best wide receiver? Enormous. Enormous. And it's not a slight on these other guys. Keon Coleman is an absolute dog at the position. I mean, seeing him transferring from Michigan State, that might be the best transfer outside of, if you're talking Shador Sanders, like the best transfer that we saw in a year with just hundreds of guys that are making huge impacts in the transfer portal. I mean, you know, Johnny Wilson's still a star and I think he's still leading the team in receptions, but Keon Coleman's just a different animal. Like what he can do when the ball's in the

air, 50-50 balls or 80-20, the strength he has, what is he, 6'4", like 220, 222? And he can run, and he gets down the field. Like, he has been a massive addition to Florida State. And Wilson was supposed to be the star, and again, he's productive, but he's got a lot of drops. Keon doesn't have the drops that Wilson does. And when they need a play, have you noticed it's shifted? No longer is Johnny the guy.

When they need a play, third and long, goal line, red zone situations, games on the line, Keon is the guy. So many people might not agree because there's a lot of depth in this receiver class, but I've moved him up to the number two receiver, and I think he's going to be a great pro because of his size, athleticism,

basketball background, all of that. He played at Michigan State early in his career basketball as well and then decided to go full time football. But then you've got the two receivers we talked about from Washington State, Rome Adunzi and Jalen McMillan. Both of those guys, I think, could be the late first, maybe early second, but I think they they're going the first Xavier Worthy from Texas is another guy kind of late first round Amike Abouke I talked about him possession slot receiver can create a little bit after the catch he's a punt returner as well but he's not very he's not dynamic in that regard but he's he's just so reliable great ball skills they coach him up there, obviously. Ohio State wide receivers, it's just year after year. And Ibuke has become that reliable slot short to intermediate guy.

So right there is one, two, three, four, six guys that could be first rounders. The very least, I would say top 40 picks in the upcoming draft. But again, Marvin Harrison Jr., there's so few guys. Jamar Chase, I think, would have had a similar grade coming out, but Harrison will have a better grade. I go back to Julio Jones and then Calvin Johnson. Those are three of the best grades

I've given to wide receivers in the last 20 years. And remember, Calvin came and had a great career at Georgia Tech. They didn't throw the ball a ton, but when they threw it, he put up huge numbers. And then he rolls into the combine, wasn't even supposed to work out. He's 6'4", 225. I believe he ran a 4'3", 7". He was like, yeah, I'm done.

I'm good. He was just an absolute freak. And so I think Harrison is in that same level. And just the work ethic that he brings, talking to the coaching staff, Ryan Day and their group, the level of professionalism that he brings to the game. And they talked about just his leadership. And it's not like rah-rah stuff. It's like, you're going to do it this way or it's not going to work. And I think like you're gonna do it this way or it's not gonna work and i just i think he's ready i mean he could have come out last year and would

have been the number one receiver taken would have been a top five pick all right right now best defensive player i would say jared verse defensive end from from florida state he's he's been doubled a lot more he doesn't have the sack production he had a year ago. I'm telling you, the best edge performance, defensive end, outside linebacker, edge rusher performance that I've seen in the last probably three years in a single game. If you want to watch a tape on an individual player and get a feel for what he can be,

Jared Vers versus LSU was one of the best defensive end performances in a single game I've ever seen a year ago, not this year, a year ago. It was, it was just remarkable what he was able to do, just blowing up that entire offensive line in the backfield constantly and chasing and making plays over and over. He's a big time player. And the fact that he comes from Albany and was so, I think he was like a two-star recruit, went to Albany, no one was recruiting him. And after a few years of dominating that level, Florida State, you know, caught wind of him and brought him in and he had the impact he had a year ago. I thought he was going to come out and be a, you know, mid-late first round pick a year

ago. Now I think he could be a top 10 pick, maybe the first defensive player off the board. But there's a couple other edges. Like we talked about Dallas Turner, still growing into his frame, but he's a dynamic edge rusher. Chop Robinson, another transfer who went to Penn State this past year, and it has really come on. He had a huge game this past week against Iowa. So I think there's a lot of talent at edge. And defensive tackle, I know your audience isn't sitting here right now.

The kid from Illinois? Yeah, Zerhan Newton's up there. I think I have him number one defensive tackle. Leonard Taylor from Miami. LSU's got two guys, Mason Smith and Makai Wingo. Wingo's had the best season probably so far of all the defensive tackles. He's been an absolute animal if you've watched him in the big games that they've had so far this year. Chris Jenkins from Michigan. Michael Hall from number 51 from Ohio State. A three technique disruptive

gets up the field. He had a big game this past weekend against Notre Dame. What about Latu, dude? Latu's an edge. I've got him as the fourth edge. UCLA guy.

He's had some, you know, he's been dinged up, the neck injury and all of that. But he is talented, man. And he's had a great start to this season. He really has. That UCLA defense, for the most part, has played really well. Okay, last thought then on our first visit. When I went through and did the top 12 for this episode,

I already knew kind did the top 12 for this episode, I already, I already knew kind of the holes and you know, you're always hoping that there's a little separation. There's also a lot of bullshit baked into there. I mean, we brought up Oklahoma just passingly, like looking at Texas schedule ahead. If Oklahoma wins their usual 10, 11 games,

then they're like seven or eight right now. It looks like Venables. Right. That's what I mean. If, if Oklahoma their usual season the season yeah it shouldn't be a preconceived notion it really shouldn't be but it always is i mean we're always into ourselves yeah right we can't help ourselves but considering that oklahoma's biggest issue was was defense and what they did against cincinnati and i'm not the biggest uh emory jones guy but the point is that oklahoma because they have no previous season carryover benefit of the doubt,

that would be another team. So going through this as a voter is really hard, and it's kind of pointless to even worry that much about it because, one, the depth of the top feels deeper than before and the unknown of where this is going because we can, we can have some, some guesses, but the guesses are still based on a lot of carryover from last season. I love it because I know we're only four weeks into the season. We're going into week five,

but it feels like there's just a lot more parody at the top and there's a lot more possibilities for teams getting in it. I feel like every year we get through four or five weeks of the season, it's like, yeah, it's Georgia, Alabama, Clemson, Ohio State, Michigan, you know, and that's kind of it. Maybe there's one other team that's kind of in the mix. You know, it's kind of all, it's always been since the college football playoff started kind of those five, six teams that have been in the mix and then some others that are long shots, right? You know, TCU comes out of nowhere. Like Cincinnati came out of nowhere.

Like there was always like that one team that kind of could sneak in. But this year you look at it like Georgia's number one, they deserve to be number one, national championship runaway a year ago. But do we really know what Georgia is? And are we going to find out is my biggest question. Like Carson Beck has played well, 77, you know,

completing 77% of his throws, but do they have elite weapons on the outside? Are they as dominant up front on both sides as they've been in past years? Beck's only averaging, you know, we talked about Pennix who's averaging 12 yards per attempt. Beck's only averaging 7.7 yards per attempt. I just don't feel like, and maybe they haven't needed to,

but I'm not sure. It's not that I'm doubting as much as I'm just not sure because I haven't seen a lot of, like, can they open it up and become that big play offense when they need to? And you look at their schedule, like, you got, you know, at Auburn, this should be a win. You've got Kentucky's playing, Kentucky's 4-0. They're playing really good, but you're playing them at home.

At Vanderbilt, Florida neutral site. And then you go down the rest of the schedule. Like they don't have a brutal game. Like Florida is going to be their toughest game, I would say, at a neutral site. So they may be undefeated going to the SEC championship game, and we may not truly know how great they are. Michigan at number two, I still think Michigan's the most complete team

in the Big Ten. No problem with them being at number two. I think defensively, you know, with their defensive tackles, I mentioned Chris Jenkins, Junior Colson at linebacker, San Estrella, we had the pick six this past week. It cornered back kind of the switchblade kind of player who's a wide receiver who plays nickel, free safety corner. They've got dudes on the defensive side.

Their offensive line is always at or near the top in the country. And I think J.J. McCarthy's getting better with more game experience. We'll see if they can run it out. Ohio State looks vulnerable, though. Penn State, I know that everyone's worked up about Penn State, and I get it. They're better. They finally have a quarterback who looks functional,

but he's still, you know, Drew Aller, 67%, looked pretty human, albeit a very good Iowa defense in the rain. But they're not throwing the ball down the field. They've got, you know. None of their receivers with 10 or more catches are averaging more than 13.6 yards per catch. They're not a team that's going to spread you out and throw it down the field. So if Ohio State gets it going offensively or gets a really complete Michigan team, do they have what it takes? I think defensively, they're awesome. I think they're among the elite teams in the country, but I'm not sure about Penn State,

even though they are better than they have been. Florida State looked vulnerable at Clemson. Obviously a tough spot, but it was a noon game at Death Valley. And they should have lost, as I mentioned, if it wasn't for a kicker that was brought in on Monday who never played in four years there and was getting ready to take a job in New York City, came back and kicked 17 kicks in practice on Tuesday

and was given the job and looked good for the first four kicks, including three PATs, but he missed a chip shot, you know, potential game winner in that one. So Florida State, I think, has the talent and belongs there at number five, Penn State, as I mentioned, but you still have Washington, USC, Oregon, and then you get down to like 10, Utah. I don't know that they're in that elite, but they're still a tough team. Notre Dame with the one loss, Alabama with the one loss, LSU with the one loss, Oklahoma, as we talked about.

They're 4-0 and they're drubbing teams. Offense didn't get going as you would expect against Cincinnati, but they've looked really complete. And then even Washington State is 4-0. They played great. Duke's 4-0. They played great. Miami show, you know, they beat up on Texas A&M. They're 4-0. That played great. Duke's 4-0. They played great. Miami beat up on Texas A&M.

They're 4-0. That's North Carolina as well, 4-0, although they haven't looked like a top 10 team, in my opinion. But that's 18 teams I just listed off that are going to make things interesting. I'm not saying all of them potentially could be in the playoff, but when we get down to conference play late in the season with rivalry games, and it seems like a lot of these conferences have back-ended schedules, like the Pac-12 we talked about, the ACC, the Big Ten always, it's like Penn State, Ohio State, Penn State, Michigan, Michigan, Ohio State. It's going to be fascinating to see how it plays out

because there's a lot more parity this year than we've seen in previous years. Yeah, I mean, we were just getting so used to it being Clemson, Bama, and then whoever else. And then Georgia, obviously, on this tear. And then usually the one Big Ten team. But it's really hard to find the separation when you're watching these games on Saturday. That is Todd McShay.

You can follow him on Twitter, at McShay13. And he'll be checking in throughout the season, man. Thank you. All right, brother. Good to see you. They say money can't buy happiness. Look at the fucking smile on my face. Ear to ear, baby.

You want details? Fine. I drive a Ferrari 355 Cabriolet. What's up? I have a ridiculous house in the South Fork fork i have every toy you can possibly imagine and best of all kids i am liquid so now you know what's possible let me tell you what's required life advice life advice rr at gmail.com is the email if you want to hit us up, uh, put check in on Kyle, just sensing some Mac Jones vibes. Uh, like I'm embodying Mac Jones. I'm a little embarrassed about Mac Jones. It's just another, just another guy who says Mac tried to hit him in the ball.

So don't love that. Kyle, you don't like that. Don't like that. That's not how you play. Um, the eight, four 845 sweatshirt. Starting the day. So let's start with a Poughkeepsie email. Really?

Oh, shucks. Oh, shucks. Okay, here we go. Nearly had a fight in a plane. 41 years old. 5'9", 150. Player comp, Old Iverson. Can get to the hole.

I just try to be nicer about these lately, but I just... Old Iverson. Can get to the hole. I just, I try to be nicer about these lately, but I just, Old Iverson. He said no jokes. All right, so I'll move on. He's from Poughkeepsie. Originally, Kyle surely knows that it's a city of people who don't tend to take a lot of shit in general. We're a friendly bunch, but we're not pushovers.'m in saruti's physical tax bracket not kyle's this comes into play two weeks ago and i'm on a flight from columbia the country to florida i explore a lot nbd hey we get it this podcast uh flight's going to be about three and a half hours sitting in the aisle seat, dude across the aisle, start smoking an e-cigarette before we even take off.

He's doing, he's doing with total impunity as if he's in his living room, like he owns the plane. So wait, he's in the aisle and dude, I guess is in the other aisle seat. All right. Our guy looks reasonable, decently dressed, around my age, a couple inches, maybe 30 pounds bigger than me, but that's not something on my mind yet. Oddly, no one seems to notice this guy smoking except me. The vape smoke and awful sweet candy smell dissipate in a few seconds with each puff.

I'm not a particularly uptight guy, but we're on a plane crammed in like sardines um he's also on a spirit flight i think you're allowed to vape on spirit anything goes yeah i think it's a stupid question but it's like i don't know it's vaping it has to be illegal on flights right uh yes that's part of the announcement okay you don't hear that you travel enough i don't listen not you know i don't know i did have a guy once light up a cigarette next to me on a trip to tampa uh it was his first flight ever didn't go over well not a traveler

what was what was that like it was one of the most incredible stories of my life, actually. I was next to this guy and his wife who, like, could not be more pumped to fly. They had never flown before. They were telling everyone it was their first flight. And, yeah, like, right after we sat down before we took off, he just, like, lit up a cigarette. And, like, I didn't say anything. I just was, like, headphones in. Code red.

I'm just not going to deal with this. And the flight attendant came over. I was like, sir, you obviously can't do this. So they just, like, brought some sort of like trash thing he threw it out he was like sorry he's very apologetic um but then also during the middle of flight like i have my headphones in i'm clearly like doing stuff i'm watching a movie or whatever and he taps me on the shoulder and i'm like so i take my earbud out and he points to his screen and goes, dude, you ever watch drone racing before? And I was like, nah, man. I have not watched drone racing before. He's like, it's awesome.

It's awesome. Channel 95, dude. Check it out. He's like, all right. Thanks, dude. Thanks. So really nice guy. That guy just clearly just.

He loved it. He was having an awesome day. Wanted a dart. Okay. So, yeah. So, right. There we go. So the the emailer asks is he going to do this the whole flight i weigh my options and decide to appeal the guy nicely rather than tattle on him hey man i'm sorry but i have severe asthma could you please help me out what was that kyle nobody

wants to hear that i don't have asthma but i figured it might be a smooth way to give him an exit ramp to doing someone a favor without taking orders from another dude no such luck worth noting i'm wearing a mask because i'm going to visit my mother and help her with the surgery she's having on her lung of all things can't jeopardize her getting sick when i arrive right like but the problem is is you were you're still a mass guy talking about your asthma right to this guy right i mean that's just what's happening now and you have a complete legitimate excuse i'm i'm not even interested in knocking mass guy in in late 2023 but i'm just telling you a lot of the world is processing you that way. You're not getting the Brad Pitt, the big short head nod of approval on the escalator today.

Smokey McVapington immediately pounces on that. What do you got there a double mask you must be pretty sensitive huh so yeah right obviously this jab is to indicate i'm weak sensitive overly liberal etc i don't consider myself any of those things but that's his impression of me from the jump he's incorrect i say i wish i wasn't but yes he says is it bothering you now uh he says it as if it's ridiculous that it would be i maintain I maintain eye contact strongly and say yes. The short but tense interaction ends with him dismissively and disgustingly saying, don't bother me the rest of the flight.

Or else. I consider some quips of my own, but don't say them. We both face forward. A few moments later, he's smoking it again, but with his head turned away so I can't see it. And he's got his middle finger bracing his turned head. He's literally saying, fuck you while continuing the behavior, not verbally, but still. Dude, he went back dome middle finger. The anger and anxiety builds inside of me big time, but I keep my cool. After all, he's now hiding the behavior.

It's very much in his mind, so I sort of consider it a win. Free rent, as the kids say. I think they say free. Yeah, I think that was the joke. This guy's crafting quite a tome. So I think he meant to say it that way. So anyway, long story last, we ignore each other. The rest of the flight, he mutters some inaudible things right after a talk,

but the tension is palpable the whole flight, as you might imagine. We're only a foot away from each other with nothing between us. I mostly kept my eyes closed and listened to podcasts, occasionally smelling his inconsiderate candy stench, which I assume he kept hiding while he did it. Of course, my options would have ranged from saying something to again or tattling to the flight attendants but either of those options would have potentially resulted in further conflict and i'm guessing based on all of his

actions so far this could turn into a trashy scenario rather quickly i just kept telling myself you don't want to be in one of those videos on a plane no you know you really don't god people are quick with the cameras on those i'm always like how are we getting the intro into this like how did they already know right right like you'd expect them to jump in kind of mid-confrontation and a lot of them just at the ready there's probably just other stuff going on that alerted people get the camera get the camera so um so i took one for the team and the plane did nothing and it stung a lot we landed no further incident

or contact of course i was tempted to continue the dialogue after we got off the plane but again kept my cool did nothing what would you guys have done i'm having trouble with the moral of the story should i've tattled on him from the start and left it up to the professionals who do this every day should i've tattled once he continued smoking? Should I have been more aggressive, less aggressive? Reminds me of the Ryan Stalker incident. I wonder if all the Chuck Norrises of the world make an exception for planes or whether they're badasses 100% of the time.

I feel like I did the right thing, but part of me is still annoyed. Can't decide whether I'm disappointed in myself for talking shit or proud of myself for letting it go or both. I kind of like the way you handled it, to be honest with you. I mean, this guy wasn't going to. I kind of like the way you handled it, to be honest with you. I mean, this guy wasn't going to take any kind of loss. That airline, I mean, as we've seen the videos,

it's, you know, I don't know that we're ruining potential sponsorship here, but it's a free for all. I think you're just a, I think you kind of know what you're signing up for. So, I mean, what else did you want to do? You were right he was wrong i think that's the thing that you should focus on the most any you know look i know you're from pick kipsy so i don't know kyle if you want to go first is this i i mean the only thing i

would have been concerned with for me personally is like is are you gonna ground this plane because you're fucking sneaking smokes but it turns out you can just smoke on Frontier. I don't know. I mean, most planes, they have like bathrooms that like alarms go off if you try to hit a little puff of anything. But this guy's just in the aisle doing it. I mean, nobody saw him continue to do it or smell it. So I probably would have just let it go. Your opener kind of probably made the guy hate you a little bit more than he

should have. He shouldn't, he actually shouldn't have been like, yeah. All right. Sorry. Yeah. I don't know what I was thinking,

but instead, you know, your opener with like, excuse me, but I've got severe asthma or something like, it's like, oh great. This guy,

let me make sure he gets everything he wants from me today, which listen, I think you shouldn't be doing that on planes anyway, especially if you have been alive for the last 20 years and you've been paying a little bit of attention. You know you can't do that shit. So it's a confined space. I think planes are – I think everyone should try to follow the rules on planes just because we're trapped in this fucking thing. And so whenever things get kind of off the beaten path, I get a little, like, queasy nervous.

So I'm like, I just want everything to be good, and then we'll get off and we can fucking fight in the airport but i don't like doing that shit i'm like i just don't i don't like the idea so i like the idea of trying to keep it calm even if you feel like you're being a little bit of a bitch which i don't think you were but even if you felt that way i think it's worth it just to get everybody from a to b here and yeah you don't want to be on world star you know passenger shaming or any of those, you know, incredible Instagram websites as, you know, as somebody who got caught up in some shit. So I think for just for the important for the record, not Frontier. Frontier is a very helpful airline for those of us. Oh, this was Spirit. Sorry.

Yeah. But having a hard time keeping those apart for some reason. You should not have a hard time. I feel like lives in the same lane. I thought, no, don't go on either one if you can help it. No, look, Frontier, I think is pretty convenient, depending on if you're into the mountain areas. So go ahead, Saruti. For whatever reason, just airports and planes in general just bring out the absolute

worst and people so i agree with kyle like i just usually keep my head down i'm not trying to get hit by anybody i'm not trying to exactly be you know be the next uh you got a guy who the fuck is that guy yeah no i mean yeah because because what are you gonna do like then like you know because i'm sure everyone else around this guy probably felt the same thing but nobody really wants to be the tattletale right nobody wants to be the snitch in that situation and you know if it was a if it was a different airline maybe the the flight attendants would be a little more on top of it they weren't you chose this particular path you kind of kind of live with it i think your ego is also pretty hurt because of he kind of typecasted you and

obviously that's not really what you were doing and that probably hurts too so not only did you like have to deal with this thing but also this guy thinks you're a huge tool um but again what's what's the win here like you survived the flight you made it i know you had some stuff going on but like you made it and is it really is it really worth like this guy actually getting your face or like you know something happening in the airport afterwards no it's just not like none of this stuff usually escalates to the point where like it's actually worth getting somebody's face so i'm with you i think you kind of handled it right even though it sucks i'm never more agreeable than when i'm on a plane and i think that's fine i think that's how you should act yeah i'll get a little elbow room situation like if a guy puts

his i'll like i'll be a little i'll be a dick about it yeah but if it ever came to like hey what the fuck are you doing i would just be like i moved my arm right back yeah you're right my bad my bad little jack sigma just boxing out a little bit yeah i can get a little weird with the elbow but I would just be like, I moved my arm. I got my arm right back. Yep. You're right. My bad. My bad. Little Jack Sigma just boxing out a little bit. Yeah. I can get a little weird with the elbow stuff because there is a way if you go like front and back elbow on the same arm rest. But then again,

if the guy's middle seat, like I'll defer, you know, middle guy's middle seat. And that's the point is that, so I usually fly middle because my wife, you know, she likes to sit on the aisle.

So I get the middle good times. Wait, and I do feel like it is. Yeah. Yeah i know i'm not happy about it you just take the one of the better out outer seats and then she could just lean on you and then maybe you can lean on the window or something come on i'm a window guy too it sucks like i love the window and she's an aisle person so we could just go hey random person in the middle of us which i actually wouldn't even mind but no i usually get the middle but the reason that I say this is because I feel like you do owe the middle person something. The middle person should get both armrests, period. Yes.

Right. I bet you there are going to be people who would be like, well, pay more for your seat or book earlier or check in. And then, you know, I think I think it's nice, especially if the middle seat is somebody who's not petite. Just say it. No, but there'll be two dudes. Not that I'm the biggest guy ever, but on the bigger side of things where two big guys be looking at each other. But if I'm in the window and a guy who's bigger than me is looking at me, being i hope i'm not next to him or i'm doing the exact same thing you know what i mean and then you're kind of like oh man i'm gonna be middle next to you and then i think it's up to you to work it out but to the to the vaping deal here i do think it's a little different too when it's aisle to aisle like if you were middle to window and window guy or middle guy is vaping

you know i mean look all of us have your own fantasy thing because this is right right guy yeah yeah i think i think the aisle to aisle thing is where this guy's feels even more empowered but you know we all have these these fantasies of like commando where schwarzenegger gets on the plane and just breaks the guy's neck and covers him with a blanket. And then because the attendant's like my friend, he's dead tired, you know? And so you don't like, you're not going to, none of us are going to do that. And as far as like feeling a little soft after the fact, I mean, I've covered a couple of these. I had that one pickup basketball game where the guy wanted to fight me and I didn't want to fight

him. I just wanted to keep playing basketball. And then I was like mad at myself for four or five days. And I was like driving to work going, Hey, you gotta, you gotta chill out. Like what? You're going to let this ruin your week. I mean, think about this guy. Think about who this guy is. All right. You already won. You're going to have way more regret if like, yeah, if you get into a fight on an airplane than if you don't do anything, you know? Right. This was not, this was not worth the videos.

All right. Let's jump to another one. 23 year old male, 150 pounds player, comp Austin Reeves. If he never played basketball, that's a good one. Former middle, middle school cross-country champ. Oh, cross-country county champ? Even better. I was impressed before.

Now, it isn't a good time. No, you're right. I just needed something to do. I ran it once. I was like, this sucks. I couldn't imagine why anybody would want to do that. Are those the guys that are just running down a street, that's those guys, right?

It's like a group of like... They ran like five miles or something for a meet. Yeah, it was middle school. But I just mean like practice. We'd be like leaving school like, oh, let's go smoke a blunt. And they're like, look at those guys. They're like three miles away from the school

and they're all just running. It's like, wow, that's what you do. We ran past you guys. We're like, look at those guys smoking anyway graduated college a year ago moved to the bay area to work at a big company won't say which one okay no problem got invited to a housewarming party in my apartment this weekend spent a good amount of time chatting up with a friend uh of one of new neighbors. During our conversation, she mentioned hearing about how our company gives employees free lunches, which is true. I started texting

the next day and she again brought up getting food at my office. I tried to joke it off, but she then asked me to let her know what day I'd be free and that she's not picky about what they'd be serving that day. People bring guests to my office all the time. It wouldn't be an issue, but I feel weird bringing a woman I've only met once into my place of business. I don't get female attention that often, so I don't want to pass up on this opportunity. Probably would rate myself a six and a half out of 10, adding the extra half point because I recently started growing out my beard. Well, Jesus, it sounds like you might be a seven with a full beard. Things are looking up. Do I push through the weirdness and go for a first date at the office or try to

pivot to a different location okay this actually is a little unique at first when kyle had sent it i was like oh it's a co-worker thing no it's not a co-worker thing it's not that she lives in the building because like my first thought was okay if it's this a coworker thing. It's not that she lives in the building. Cause like my first thought was, okay, if it's this massive company, people, like people are going to date. Um, and if you're not meeting a ton of women, you know, it's always simple for the person at work to be like, oh, you shouldn't do that. And it's like, well, I don't know. Nobody likes me.

And this person does, but this is way more specific in that she was saying your workplace gives out free lunches i want to come have lunch with you and then you have to bring a person you just met once to your place of business to then score the free lunch which i guess is okay the protocol part of that like it is okay to go ahead and do that. But this is... That's a weird one. Hmm. I mean, I might roll with it. You said you don't get that much attention.

Right? We get a lot of lonely people chiming in, sending in emails. So she's pushing for it. Now, my only thought is is are the lunches that legendary could you be getting used for a i got some sort of situation over there yeah yeah are we doing the ceviche today so i don't i don't know i i think i'd go for it because if you're not meeting that many people and you're in a big city and you just move there and you're on the younger side of

things and you're in that post-college rebirth phase where everything's like hard all of a sudden because it's actually real now like you pretended you were an adult for a bunch of years but you weren't and now you are i would say go for it but i'm i'm with you when you're you're i don't know if it's awkwardness or cautiousness of this one, but I, I think I'm leaning towards going for it because you know, you never know. You never know. Like it's, you'll find out trying far more than you'll, you know, find out never trying. So if you have some interest in her and this is normal, even if it feels a little weird, maybe that's the conversation. And then, you know, look, it's like Costanza writing down ideas,

different things. Here's seven topics I'm bringing to the date. So this is normal. Like this, like bring a friend to work lunch. People bring guests to my office all the time, all the time. Okay.

Then it's not a problem. This isn't a problem. I mean, you could have just hit her with a, like, actually, you know, that place is, it's all right so great but this place is great i'd love to take you to this place but i don't you know then then it's like clearly a a date and not a can i have lunch at your office thing but um yeah if you're saying people do it all the time i wouldn't think twice

about this i would i would 100 be in my head about this i know that but i would want somebody to tell me that it's not that big of a deal. Right. And so that's what I'm going to tell you right now. Just do it. Because you sound like you want to do it. You're just like a little bit in your own head about it. And, you know, you're not rolling in the opportunities.

Then I think you got to grasp this one. And it's not that bad. It's going to be a little awkward, but it might be awesome. So I would do it. You know what you could do? Forget us telling you it's okay. Check with one person at work. Yeah.

But not a gossipy person who's then immediately going to tell everybody like, Oh, Dave met this girl once at a housewarming party. Now he's bringing her in for free subs. You know, what's always kind of nice about these stories. Maybe she was that interested in you. Maybe she feels like this is her soft approach to asking you out because you're too shy or you weren't picking up on any signals.

Like I think too often we can all lean into expecting the worst maybe this is a really cool start to your story and she was simply being like what's what's like a low risk ask um and then by the way like it kind of takes the pressure off you because then you can go back to work yeah you got somewhere to be right you have an awesome all your cool for an hour right you could be you can just be on for 45 minutes lock in for those 45 minutes knowing you don't have to do any of the awkward stuff like how am i gonna walk her to the door you have to walk her anywhere man you don't have to worry about should i kiss her or not because that's a no at this point that would be amazing if he walks into the elevator and he's

like well i guess i kiss you now it's like what it's 130 i thought it went really well all right yeah yeah so i i like the more i talk it out the more i like this so actually you follow up do it too right you're not like reading page 37 of the company handbook is like well it says right down there that technically like i'm not breaking any rules like you've actually seen it if this isn't like uh some fucking myth that you can probably like but in in the general like common, it's probably not saying, I hope everybody's bringing first dates to this. Right, obviously.

You know what? I retract something I said. Don't ask anyone at work about double-checking. You already know it's cool. She apparently, this company's big enough. People know the deal. Hey, you can get lunches or whatever. Don't ask anybody to say, hey, it's a friend and bring in. Cause you don't, you actually don't want anybody being like Dave brought a first,

the guy just started working here and he's, you know, he's on Tinder. Yeah. All right. There you go. That's life advice. Thanks to Kyle. Thanks to Saruti. Thanks for Stefan for his work today on the podcast. Ryan Russillo Podcast, right here on Spotify. Must be 21 and older in present select states. FanDuel is offering online sports wagering in Kansas under agreement with Kansas Star Casino LLC. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit fanduel.com forward slash RG in Colorado, Iowa, Michigan, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Tennessee, and Virginia.

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