The Ryen Russillo Podcast - Bills Statement Win, “Unwritten” NFL Stories, Plus Todd McShay on CJ Stroud, Mac Jones, and Surprising Rookies

Episode Date: October 2, 2023

Russillo opens by recapping Week 4 of the NFL season and giving his biggest winners and losers (0:43). Then, he breaks down his top 12, and the guys recap their trip to Oxford, Mississippi (19:00). He is then joined by Todd McShay to talk about the Bills, CJ Stroud, and why Shadeur Sanders is special (49:22). Finally, the guys close it out with some listener-submitted Life Advice questions (102:04). 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. Ryen on ‘The Bill Simmons Podcast’: https://open.spotify.com/episode/69Ozy8InYbVnuzKNWrpQrI?si=3871a08352ff4bab 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 and we're talking football pills big win against miami the best win worst loss also some of the quarterbacks who are currently unwritten todd mcshay we'll go over some of the nfl stuff with him rookie class and, and is Georgia really not number one? I'll do my college football top 12. We'll recap the road trip to the Grove. Big win by Ole Miss. Drew Holiday thoughts are in an hour-long podcast part with Bill Simmons from Sunday night.

We will link to that pod. It's week four. Let's get to the headlines. Bills beat Miami. I think we all needed this. I mean, other than Dolphins fans, not exactly what you want to hear, but I think we needed a bit of a reminder

that the Bills just aren't going anywhere. Now, granted, I picked them over San Francisco for the Super Bowl when we did our preseason picks. And I know it played out in the broadcast a little bit. So I don't know if this is just something that's happening. I know Mike Sando touched on it on The in the broadcast a little bit. So I don't know if this is just something that's happening. I know Mike Sando touched on it on The Athletic this morning as well. But if people were turning the page on the Bills,

and I guess maybe it felt like more people were. And it also could be a carryover of the primetime effect. They lose to the Jets. Allen turns the ball over. Carryover of his turnover issues last season. And then it's like no one really paid attention to him again. They beat two bad teams, although the commanders seemed to fight quite a bit. Raiders, commanders, wins.

But, I mean, they were really lopsided, which doesn't happen that often in the NFL. So they slowed down on Miami team coming off of 70 points. Allen has his first ever perfect QB rating in a game. The Bills, as a reminder, are now 40-13 since 2020. What I like about this outcome isn't just Buffalo beating Miami. It's that Buffalo makes some kind of statement, however many statements you can make that early is early into an NFL season, of, okay, it's Kansas City, it's Miami,

and Buffalo's still in that conversation, a conversation for the division too, as well. Whenever you watch the two, a blueprint from last year, it was disrupt his timing, disrupt his time, jam the receivers.

Everything is very technical with this team. Well, whatever you thought you figured out with two last year, it didn't seem to be the case early on this season because they just have so much speed. You realize there were the 10 fastest plays in the NFL this season going into week four. Five of them were from Dolphins players of the 10 fastest plays in the NFL. So even if you thought you were disrupting them, and there really wasn't much disruption.

We'll get to some of the two sack numbers here in a second. It was not just jamming receivers. It was getting after an offensive line that lost their left tackle in the second quarter for Miami. But even in the beginning of the game, like if you thought, okay, this is the game plan, it wasn't in the beginning. Miami had nine first downs, the first two possessions. Everybody completed every single pass, I believe, in the first four possessions for both teams. Miami had only 10 first downs the rest of the game. Tua's first three games, he was sacked at an unobtainable level here, 0.98% of his dropbacks. That's versus a career number of 5.36% of his dropbacks,

which is actually still a pretty good number when you look at some of the sack totals of the guys that really get beat up in this league. So if you look at yesterday's matchup with him, that really get beat up in this league. So if you look at yesterday's matchup with them, a D-line that I've always waited for to just be like a real threat because Buffalo's D-line, despite the research, they've never really been in that group, whether it's the Niners, probably the Eagles.

Pittsburgh always seems to figure out a way, and now I'm focusing on some of the top guys, maybe even Dallas, but you get the point. There's a lot of dudes that they've spent picks on for Buffalo, and that's what won them the game yesterday, disrupting them and then lighting up a Dolphins defense on top of everything else. So if you look at the hurries and the hits, this was a completely different game than Tua has played in.

But I don't think it's as simple as just jam the receivers and throw off their timing. But Tua wasn't really the biggest issue. You give a 48 points in a game, that's on a defense too, where I don't know if it's fluky for Miami's defense. It may have really been a simple, now Miami scores 70 points against Denver. Buffalo feels like they need to remind everybody again. They're far more geared up for that. Miami feeling themselves a bit after scoring 70 and probably could have put up an even bigger number if they wanted to.

I think the human nature part of this may have played in because I would not be surprised if we move forward and then Miami wins the matchup in Miami later on in the season. I'm just not going to be. I don't think this proves that it's all bills, but I just like that it was just, hey, whatever Nance and Roma were talking about, whoever was ever thinking that, I still don't think it's that big of a group of people.

I just don't think this team should have the page turned on them because of the playoff disappointments of the last couple of seasons. I just, I think it's a tough league to win and advance in. Even Tyree Kill said, we kind of needed this. And that's part of a longer quote, but I'm not really taking out of the context it's essentially the same message bradley chubb was same stuff afterwards where it's just yeah you know what a bit of reminder there seemed to be a common theme from some of the quotes that i was reading of just guys going and might have been feeling ourselves a little bit maybe they are making excuses you could say hey that was a real ass kicking and maybe it has to

make us revisit all these things i don't know i I don't think there's long-term reclassifications of who Miami is. I just think it was a really great game for Buffalo and for Allen and go, yeah, you know what? We lost that one against the Jets. We beat two teams that nobody was paying attention to, but now you have to pay more attention to us, especially when you look at the ASC race

where it kind of felt like it was Kansas City and Miami with Cincinnati at one and three and going through their issues, and then Baltimore at 3-1, but they lost to the Colts. They've had a favorable schedule on some of the matchup stuff. They got Cleveland without Deshaun Watson. But just adding the depth to the top of that or maybe replacing Cincinnati in the conversation a month in

on that Tier 1 of AFC. And maybe replacing Cincinnati on the Tier one line of AFC teams. There is a song called Unwritten. A month into the season, I do like looking at the unknowns. The quarterbacks who we do not know how their story will end. Although there have been quarterbacks in the past, I swear to God, we were on like year 10 with Jay Cutler. We're like, you know, if you just kind of had like one more weapon and could do this and it just, I mean, it just goes on. I mean, eventually I think we do what Kirk

Cousins still too. I don't, I personally don't, but they're like, I think if a guy plays for a decade and we're still wondering who that person is, I think we actually know, and some of us just don't want to admit it. And if we look at the unknowns for the younger quarterbacks, some of it's just not worth bringing up. Like I'm not going to talk about Bryce Young. I'm not going to talk about Anthony Richardson. Although if you watch Anthony Richardson on red zone, you're going to like it much more than if you watch the entire game, but he's already missed time in his rookie season. We knew he was going to be a project. So none of this even matters. CJ Stroud, however, like the numbers are terrific. Completion percentage, the 1200 plus yards, historic stuff. He's doing zero picks. Kenny Pickett after a massive preseason.

That wasn't great yesterday. Had a couple not great. Kenny Pickett, what happened to the preseason? Kenny Pickett stuff. I don't know if we remind everybody of the Danny Connell story. I've been thinking about it, but it's only, what, is it 15 starts for him? So we're going to chill out on that. I'm not going to worry about it. Sam Howell, I don't even know if he's in here because everybody just expects him to be replaced,

although he's kind of the comeback kid here, almost getting his third come from behind victory yesterday in a tough one against the Eagles, but they made a play. Crazy thing about that game is if he had completed the pass prior to the touchdown, that would have been short of the goal line and the game would have been over in regulation. Desmond Ritter, maybe we know the end there and we're just delaying it because he's still young, but it's been bad. It's been really bad for him, but it's still kind of early.

Zach Wilson, I think we saw something last night, but it's been bad. It's been really bad for him, but it's still kind of early. Zach Wilson, I think we saw something last night, but it's also part of the broadcast too. I've seen a Fields game with this. We'll get to Mac Jones here in a second, where I feel bad for the broadcast team in a way because they spend time with these guys. They're in the production meetings. I've talked about the production meeting scenarios so many different times for different games that we're really locked into, but it's almost like the national broadcasts are incredibly nice to the quarterback that sucks for three hours. It's like, ah, a little bit of this, a little bit of that, a little bit. I think it's kind of unavoidable. I just think that it is. I don't know that it's ever going to be better. And I just don't know that you're ever going to get a broadcast where they're just going to dump on

a quarterback the entire time. I just don't think they are. I mean, remember the Peyton Manning stuff at the end when he could barely throw the football and guys are still like, man, there's a little spice in that mustard, you know? And you're just like, dude, he threw a pop-up for 15 yards. Like, what are we talking about? So that critical three plus hours of the quarterback that's clearly struggling broadcast, I just don't think will ever exist because I think broadcasts actually have gotten nicer and nicer over time. So maybe we don't need that. But Zach Wilson had that moment early where we were like, this is going to be really, really ugly. And he probably played his best game. We saw a lot of Taylor Swift cutaways. One thing I was thinking about through all the

Taylor Swift coverage, Jackson Mahomes has to be dying right now all this content he's not a part of all the missed opportunities I mean can you imagine I know he's going through some stuff but can you imagine Jackson Mahomes FOMO right now alright just something that popped in my head Jordan Love five starts whatever Daniel Jones is he still actually on this list

it's kind of a Jay Cutler but he has like five more years to go Jordan Love, five starts, whatever. Daniel Jones, is he still actually on this list? It's kind of a Jay Cutler, but he has like five more years to go. Kyler is ineligible, we'll say. But it felt like there was two quarterbacks maybe that were no longer unwritten. Justin Fields. That was a weird game. We'll get to that one in a second against Denver. But it seems like everybody's ready to turn the page on him.

And they might not be wrong. Maybe we're just delaying this. But I really want to focus on Mac Jones. Because I watched yesterday, and I just started writing down the plays that were awful. He had two throws to the other side of the field. He did it before the pick six where you're like, what's he doing? And I don't know if that was the play or some kind of misdirection

to try to get the defense overloaded on one side or if he just said, I'll just throw it over there. Because the weird thing with Mack is when I see him get frustrated, I think he reverts back to like, well, everybody at Bama was so good, I just throw it up and they'll make a play. You can't do that with this group. And I've heard all the Mack excuses. A lot of them I agree with. I have no idea why they did that to him last year. We've covered all this stuff before. They actually spent a ton of money at receiver and tight end last year, more than any other team in the NFL in 22. Where were they?

I forgot Juju Smith-Schuster was even on the team this year. And they spent a ton on tight ends on top of everything else. And I think because he's gotten hit so many times, I think the number, I think he's actually been hurried more than any other quarterback in the NFL. I also wonder if sometimes he's hurrying himself because he's been hurried so many times, and now it's just the cycle of

him feeling like he has to get out of the pocket and doesn't stick in. I thought the two fourth down plays against Philadelphia were inexcusable from him. So all of it collectively, despite the excuses that I buy about Mac Jones, I don't buy him enough to absolve him of this. He's just not going to be the guy. You know, it's weird because he was kind of like just above mediocre or beyond mild expectations his first year because Brady was this game manager for the first Super Bowl. It's like every game manager is like, well, look at Brady. Like, dude, it was over 20 years ago. And he turned into the greatest

resume quarterback we've ever seen in our entire life. So yeah, cool. Good plan. But let's go through some of these. So the two throws back to the left side, one that was a pick six. He missed Gusecki and a tight end in the end zone. Just missed him. He fell down on a fourth and one. He had another crosser underneath that he was completely late on after the receiver had gotten separation. On third and seven, I don't even know what the play call was before the end of the half where he almost threw another pick. He threw a pick on fourth and two, but it wasn't a fourth down throw that made a lot of sense because it was still giving up good field position. It wasn't like that kind of turnover where the pick's actually a pun um it was third and seven at the 30 i think

when they were trying to figure out what they want to do at the end of the first half it's not like this offense lights it up there's like barely any time left in the first half he had a fumble that turned into a touchdown in the third quarter on a third and six he decided to run it he was short of the sticks fourth and two that's when he threw the other pick uh he had a third quarter on a third and six, he decided to run it. He was short of the sticks. Fourth and two, that's when he threw the other pick. He had a third quarter play at 619 where it was third and six, and he felt pressure enough to kind of move out and then completely missed Devontae Parker on another crosser route underneath. So I'm not telling you he's playing for McVay. I'm not telling you he's throwing at Jerry Judy and Waddle anymore. But I don't know why anybody expects this to work out at some point.

So I am officially moving on from it. I want to finish on the historic loss for New England. That's Bill Belichick's worst loss in 497 games. Bill is now 3-8 in his last 11. The three wins for New England over that 11-game stretch are against Zach Wilson, who was technically the backup, Skyler Thompson with Miami, who was a backup, Colt McCoy, Arizona, backup.

Let's get the best win, worst loss, numbers you should know. The best win is Buffalo, but if I can't pick that, I'm going to go with Tampa Bay and Detroit. These wins this week because they're divisional wins, I think put at least the rest of the division on notice because you didn't really know what to make of the Baker thing

and it may be a little early, but at least it's better than the worst version of what this could be. And if you want to be a real dig into a guy, which may feel a little unfair to Brady, but Baker's numbers this year so far have been better than Brady's final season with Tampa. I also think Tampa was like incredibly one-dimensional. that Brady was getting the ball out so quick last year to keep himself healthy that it didn't allow plays to develop enough. I thought they were just so one-dimensional. We saw that once they played an actual good team in the playoffs in Dallas that it was just an awful matchup for them. But there's something going on here with Baker in winning against the Saints.

I know Carr's coming off the injury, but winning that divisional game where it's like, wait, Tampa may be in this thing in a division that, you know, you look at the opposing schedule there, it kind of sets up nice for a lot of those teams to get some wins. And then Detroit, where they were the darlings of the offseason, we're going to get to this with McShay a little bit more, but I guess all of that was justified because they actually looked like a pretty good football team. I don't know how many teams you could put ahead of them in the NFC. So I think both of those wins, being Division I's and feeling pretty one-sided, are probably the best ones if I can't pick Buffalo.

Worst loss. I was going to make a joke here about Denver's win to Chicago actually being the worst loss. They were down 21-7 to Chicago. How does that even happen? How does that happen? How could you not be mad at the world to go in and maybe beat the worst team in the NFL in Chicago,

and yet they found themselves down? Now they came back, credit them for coming back and winning this whole thing. I have a Sean Payton theory that I want to suggest. I think it'd make a good tease, but I don't know that I really believe the theory. So I'm not ready to share that one right now. But I can't really pick that. They've won the game. They came back. It was a lot better for them to win that one than what would have, what would have happened for Denver the rest of the way I'll go Pittsburgh. I mean, they just got housed by a rookie quarterback and it's the worst feeling if you're a Steelers fan,

because you're watching this happen going, I thought we had our young guy and now we don't. And the dude who just got picked number two overall a month into his career looks way better than our guy does with not exactly great weapons. Numbers you should know. We mentioned the C.J. Stroud stuff. He is on fire historically here right now. This puts him at 1,212 yards.

That surpasses Patrick Mahomes and Justin Herber and Andrew Luck for the second most yards through four games to begin a career, trailing only Cam Newton, who was just under 1,400 yards to start his. Remember when Cam got started? He lit it up the beginning of his rookie year with Carolina. I love talking pass rush win rates. ESPN had this number on Micah Parsons coming in. It's incredible.

All right, so Micah is doubled. This is going into the game against New England. All right, so Micah is doubled. This is going into the game against New England. He's double teamed on 33% of snaps, which is the highest number for anybody on this list. Excuse me, Nick Bosa is 37%, so Parsons is second. However, Parsons is winning on 40% of his pass rushes. So he's being double teamed the second most,

and yet Bosa, who's double team more, is winning on 22%. Now granted, Bosa's not lining up in as many places as Parsons is, but every time when you watch Parsons and you see, even if he's not getting there, he's not even getting something that counts as a stat, whether it's a sack, tackle for loss, or even a hurry or a hit. Seeing him disrupt things and being double teamed that much and having a win rate beyond everybody else is incredible. And finally, the most blitzed quarterback in the NFL is four games in Justin Herber, Jalen Hurts, number two, Deshaun Watson, number three, the least of anyone who's played four games, Patrick Mahomes, only 16 times. That means those guys are being blitzed almost four times as many times per game than the best quarterback

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Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Week six, college football top 12 rankings. There's a change at the top. Texas, number one. They have the best win. I can't do it with Georgia anymore. I will explain more on Georgia a little bit later. Number two, Michigan. I don't love it because of the resume part of it as far as the opponents, but they are now suffocating teams defensively. They've allowed 30 total points in five games. Number three, Florida State. The LSU win doesn't feel as good after watching LSU give up 706 yards to Ole Miss, but it is still, I think, a good win, and I still think going into Clemson and winning that game, despite how it played out, is good enough for them to have those kind of wins in September. I have them number three. Number four, Washington. The Arizona game, Wildcats had a late touchdown, make it 31-24, looked a little weirder

last game on the docket. So resume-wise, it's not like Michigan State even though a power five win feels like it's that big of a resume builder. I'm just going with Pennix and that offense going like, you're going to have to figure out a way to beat them by scoring 40 points. We at least need 40 points.

Number five, Georgia. Feels kind of low. That's fine. I could be totally wrong, but this is three straight weeks now where I didn't want to make another excuse. The South Carolina game was weird because if you looked at the first half possessions, then once they needed to get it rolling in the second half, they did exactly that. So I kept them number one. UAB, they were favored by 42 and a half.

They won 49-21. You could say they were bored, early game, blah, blah. Okay, fine. But won 49-21. You could say they were bored, early game, blah, blah. Okay, fine. But then against Auburn. And granted, the two touchdowns for Auburn were on short field turnovers. But even with that, and I know that at some point, Auburn and Hugh Freeze is going to have some breakout offensive game, even with Peyton Thorne and Ashford at quarterback,

which is just not working out for them. But watching A&M dismantle Auburn, we can talk home road. Going into that one, I'm like, I'd expect Georgia, even if they have a sleepwalk half. And granted, they had like the long TD drive that they actually needed. Bowers went crazy. But this is three straight weeks. If the standard is that you're supposed to be the number one team voting

based on what you've done, three straight weeks where I'm kind of like underwhelmed. So that's why I put them five. It may seem ridiculous to you. The AP dropped from 55 first place votes to 35 first place votes. But I don't know. I don't know how you still have a number one in a wide open ranking or at least a wide open group of teams that we have here, because, you know, even looking at Oregon and Ohio State, which I'll get to, like you could probably have any of these teams in five different places, and you can make a good argument for it. So Georgia, five.

Oregon, number six. The coaches somehow have USC, seven. Oregon, nine. The coaches consistently are so bad at this. The coaches' pull is so bad. I don't know how you could watch Oregon play Colorado. Yes, I know it's home and away and see what they did to the Buffaloes and then watch USC against Colorado and be like, yep, let's keep them two spots ahead. I sometimes wonder if I should have Oregon ahead of Washington because I think they're more complete. But like I said,

this whole thing is a coin toss as you go through it. It hasn't been like this in a long time. Number seven, Ohio State. I think they could be anywhere from No. 3 to No. 7. AP, their fourth. Coaches have them third. The coaches do benefit from the doubt more so than the media ever does. And the win against Notre Dame is better than some of the wins in front of them. But, look, I just put them 7.

That's probably wrong. I dip Penn State down a bit here at 8. They've allowed 15 points or less against everyone. I just want to see the offense be a little bit better. SC at 9. We've already covered it. The defense puts them squarely behind Washington and Oregon in the Pac-12. Bama, look out at number 10.

That was, they always kill Mississippi State. They beat Ole Miss. Terrific second half defensively I'm still never going to love the quarterback situation but as far as the championship window being closed it feels like there's four teams still alive maybe it's three after LSU's loss against Ole Miss Ole Miss obviously with the loss against Bama but with Bama going at A&M and A&M you know probably good enough from a talent standpoint, and I like Max Johnson maybe even better than Wigman,

a quarterback, now that he's in for him, but Bama is not dead yet. They're not as good as they used to be. The South Florida game, that one doesn't make a ton of sense to me either, but after whether it was the loss against Texas, a carryover from Bryce Young carrying them last year and the window closing talk, it's not going to happen for me. And they've now positioned themselves to start looking at the SEC West here going like,

are they going to win that division again? Notre Dame, Duke was averaging 37 points per game before they shut them down. Very impressive defense from them. They could be 10. They could even be 9. It doesn't really matter. And then 12, I had Miami over Oklahoma because I still think that A&M win is really, really impressive. The way they dismantled a really talented team that continues to win after that loss. So Miami number 12.

All right. I want to recap Ole Miss a little bit here with the guys. I'm going to bring Saruti and Kyle in. I'm going to run through a quick timeline with the boys that got to experience the Grove as well. We didn't get the Grove on Saturday. I mean, it was really unfortunate how everything sort of fell apart. I guess Van Lathan's dog ate a tennis ball and then he had to go back because his fiance was going to see Beyonce. So he had to watch the dogs. So I mean, major, major points for Van because he was talking up a big game about Friday night. And then I got us the hookup for Saturday. So let's just start with this. It was amazing. It's an amazing experience. You know, the SEC and some of the Southern schools,

you know, even when you go to Texas, you go to Oklahoma, whatever, to see. And I try to remind people at least, you know, where I'm from the Northeast, like you just don't really understand it until you get to Oklahoma, whatever, to see. And I try to remind people at least, you know, where I'm from, the Northeast, like you just don't really understand it until you get to see it. And look, I include Ohio State in this too, and Michigan, any of the major football programs.

And there's a ton that I'm leaving out. But there's just something about a community that rallies around these seven games or however many home games you have on the schedule where everything shuts down and everybody's just excited for for the team that represents their community and i didn't grow up with it i didn't understand it until i stopped you know i started traveling and checking this whole thing out for whatever reason old miss never it never lined up for us when we were doing game day radio it just never happened like we'd be close and people were like

wait you've been to all these sec schools and you've still never been to old miss so it kind of i was telling my buddies if uvm had an sec sister school or something that's kind of what old miss reminded me of which you know going back to my era a lot of skinny white dudes with hats on you know there was a uniform uh male female oh yeah oh yeah oh yeah i was your wicking yeah it was the you know the girls are wearing the white you know cowboy boots right and uh all the dudes are wearing like the old miss polos with like kind of almost the white khaki short deal uh it's but i was joking with my wife i was like you know they probably come up here and they're like look all these losers wearing patagonia everyone's wearing the same thing you know like

it's it just is what it is it's all it's all uh you know local yeah i mean vermont we became clones like everybody went patagonia vest game hat yeah pull down low and then you're these book bags mountainsmith book bags that we used to wear they were like hip packs and like one dude gets it and like 70 dudes get it and then it got so bad that a bunch of i think an entire sorority dressed like us for halloween and like throwing in dips and pulling their hats down and just like going whatever dude dude and they just said dude a thousand times and it was actually really it was a very well orchestrated uh heckle so you're right like wherever you go there can be this very clone vibe to the whole thing but that's what it felt like except it's different because

then you're i went to funky's uh shout out to lee and the crew on friday night but i went in there somebody from old miss was like hey it's going to be a mess getting into anywhere so we brought saruti brought kyle elizabeth or who has brought Van in and just kind of took it all in. I think they had a widespread set going on. Yeah. Like I was like, is this a seventh widespread panic song in a row? And then- They had a poster too. They had a bunch of posters I saw. Yeah, right. And so you'd be sitting there and you're talking to some, I ended up talking to a couple of guys. Like one guy came up to me to be like, hello, Mr. Rosillo. I was like, Jesus Christ. Uh, yeah, it was tough. But then another dude's like, yeah, I went here. I graduated two years ago. My mom's over there.

My aunt and uncle, they graduated in the seventies that are over there. And it's just, everybody's rallied around this thing that they're all part of. It may be the only sec campus where you can shop for a Rolex and then go to a football game, which I did notice that was a little bit different. The enrollment situation is pretty crazy. It was 12,000 students in 2003. 20 years later, it's up to 20,000. And it's just as much as I love some of the other schools, this one was cool because it was smaller in a way. Went to the stadium, got in,

67,000, all-time record. There were people from Ole Miss that were reaching out maybe every single hour, making sure I was okay and had everything I needed. It was overwhelming. I mean, I had been boots on the ground for hours and then it was like, okay, here's your reservation for dinner. Here's where you're going to go after. Let us know if you need a ride to this. I mean, it was incredible. And then the school through the athletic department was like, if you don't have a ticket, we have a pregame field pass. We have this other suite that you're going to be in with a bunch of alums. And then I think somebody reached out to the athletic department was like, you know, he kind of roots for you for, for LSU. So then they reached out again. They were like, Oh, we didn't wait. You're an LSU fan. I was like, well, look, I'm, I like them, but I'm not like a weirdo about it. You know, like, I'm not

going to be freaking out about third downs and stuff. And then he was like, is there any way you can not wear any LSU gear to the game? And I was like, dude, I'm going to have like a gray shirt on. I would, I would not sit there in LSU gear on the sideline. Don't worry about it. And then he was like, well, do you want some old misc gear to wear also while you're there yeah i was like well i'm also not going to do that but i'm i yeah i think you guys know me well enough you can believe me or not believe me but i'm i'm not going to sit there and be obnoxious about the whole thing then it worked out where i ended up on the lsu sideline anyway so as far as the game i mean that was that was so much fun it was it was just a free-for-all like you're just sitting here like whoever has

the ball last this whole thing so i'm not going to recap the entire game if you went ahead and watched it at one point someone on the sideline asked for a picture with his buddies they were older guys or maybe they're my age and i just look better but they i think one of the guys did the bunny ears on me while they took the picture, which I think is a pretty huge sign of disrespect. But I wasn't 100% sure if he did it. Like, he did a hand up thing. And I kind of like peripheral vision went like, what? Definitely old guys then.

Yeah. But here's the thing. Like, if you think they did it, you have to be 100% right to call them out on it. So it was like 90% sure they did it. And I want to be like you come and ask me for a fucking picture and then you go bunny ears on me like what what years yeah right like people is it so uncool it's actually cool we're bringing it back yeah yeah are they zagging like we're doing this now we're gonna start bunny ears dudes but i wasn't 100 sure there was

definitely movement back there and i went all right right, let's focus on the game here. I'm not going to tell these guys. Because I was like, what? What are they doing? So, look, the rushing the field thing. First of all, everybody needs to just chill out. Everybody in that moment that's in that stadium, you're not there. You're watching it on TV or you're commenting about it on Twitter. It's over. It's over. Storming the court, rushing the field. It's been over now for a long time. It doesn't just need to be something in particular. Everybody wants to have a good time. Now, are there downsides to it? Yeah. A bunch of drunk kids running around against the visiting team telling them to go fuck themselves is probably not the greatest deal. I don't know how to solve it. It'd be great if you could get all the players off. That's not the way it's going to happen, especially with some of the

plays that go down to the final play of the entire game and everybody's running down there. I've been, I remember Oregon for USC, Oregon fans rushed the field at Autzen and it was like one of the most controlled, chaotic things I've ever seen. It was totally safe. Everything was kind of fine. I'm not saying it's always safe every time it happens, but like seeing that as opposed to other places like when i was in lubbock when they rushed the field when tech beat number one texas that was like scary stanford steve was just plowing through people lead block the entire way but i know people have seen the videos of like the one guy in the yellow vest just trying to forearm shiver people then the only one he actually hits is a woman which was fucked up but i was i was watching it as i was walking out from the lsu side and it was just a

it was like the worst odds ever right like a guy a security dude and this guy was like a little bit more than a security guy i think he was outfitted with some accessories he was just waiting to see like who can i line up and destroy and everybody else is running past free you make it to the field you're totally fine get there celebrate leave in an orderly fashion but if you were just like the lottery ticket of losers where it was you jump over the wall kyle and then a guy who's like okay fuck this kid like everybody else is going to get away with it but like this kid right here and you as the rusher of the field you had to look for that dude to be like don't get too

close you know don't go matador on him take a wide angle and it's not even he's not even in the play but i'm watching this one guy like he went to go line up this kid and he missed so he was even more mad and this wasn't a video the next guy got clobbered by him and then they just tackle that guy and they arrested him meanwhile all your friends are celebrating they're gonna go to late night they're gonna have the night of their lives because i didn't really realize that old miss looked at lsu was like this is the team want to beat more than anybody and i was like oh wow that's interesting so the place goes wild because it was an incredible game on top of everything else.

But I was just looking at those guys. To finish here, and then we'll give you some follow-ups. As I'm leaving, and I had probably three different badges, but I was over by the Ole Miss tunnel with Patrick Willis, Ole Miss legend. One of my favorite college linebackers of all time. And I said hi to him and you know he was he couldn't be nicer and i go up and the guy's like what are you the security guy is like what are you doing and i go i'm just trying to leave i'm like he's like well are you trying to go to the

old miss locker room i was like absolutely not and he's like well it's only for locker room access i go then i won't go down this one and then he went to patrick willis and was like wait is he with you being like well if he's with patrick willis you can go with patrick willis and patrick willis is like i just want to get out of here too man so i guess he is right so right so the security guard goes to him he's like you're in charge of him he's like if he if he goes in he goes you take care of him and willis is like looks at me and smiles it's like no problem and then we were like laughing going down the tunnel because it's the light show and like the locker room's right there they're going wild and we're both looking

at each other i was like you do know i i'm just trying to get out of the stadium he's like yeah he's like it's on got out of the stadium walked all the way back to the grove to get a car and then just looked around at the chaos and was like, Hey, I got a show to do. And I have to drive back to Memphis in the morning. So, um, and I didn't have, I didn't have my road dog with me. I didn't have Kyle with me. So it could have been our night. Could have been our night, but, uh, called it, went back and watched Arizona.

Yeah. I mean, I think it was getting pretty tense even before i mean van and i had these um uh lsu like little wristbands on like directly after the show like when you were like going back to your hotel to i don't know just like put your shit down before we had a dinner and like a bunch of a bunch of dudes in uniform that were like you know 20 years old in the in the in the dry fit and khaki shorts thing were just like they were just heckling so i don't know it was i that night would have been could have been even crazier just off of these uh off of those little wristbands that that whoever that guy was handed to us so van also like peer pressured me into uh drinking that green drink

the slushy thing. You were into it. I did. I liked it, but I wasn't going to get it. The band was like, I got this. I was like, you know what? Make it too. It was like this sweet, I forget what it was called, but it was like this green slushy thing. There was a bunch of different colors. They had a bunch of different names on them. Kyle went with a grape one, right? I threw it out. Grape Gatorade.

I threw it out immediately. I saw you got two beers at once. I was like, yeah, that's what I'm going to do. do yeah the two beers at once at a college bar move yeah that's the move yeah um yeah there was a big slushy thing and van ordered one when I bought a round for the crew and I went like I was like do you miss home or what you're really missing really missing Louisiana like you're going to pre-made slushy drink as an adult and he was like absolutely he was into it uh so Rudy was not no no I enjoyed it it was i wouldn't have gotten another one but it was yeah okay i guess that's fair i got i got kyle at jameson when i ordered the work because i didn't

think he wanted to slushy stuff but then he tried to hydrate with some purple gatorade on top of that uh yeah there was a guy there was a guy that was was hanging out um and he had said to me right before i was about to do the open of the live show which you know those first few minutes before the show are a little stressful i want to get that opening monologue down i want it to be funny but i don't want it to be like hey i'm so funny and that whole thing and he actually he said to me as i was sitting there and we're talking minutes before I was supposed to go out on the stage solo to open it up. He's like, do you think the jokes up in Utah worked? Whoa.

I was like, what? He's like, that Gobert joke, like that opening monologue, that whole like you built it up, built it up, made all these examples. And like Gobert was the joke at the end. Like, do you think that was funny? Do you think it worked? Did you like that? That's crazy. And I said, you know uh the crowd seemed to like it I was like it certainly was tailored to that crowd because it was all NBA fans so now you're explaining the bit yeah I thought they were gonna get it I wouldn't do it like at an open mic on a

Tuesday in Los Angeles where I'd take three minutes to land on a Rudy Gobert punchline. Probably wouldn't do that. He's like, yeah. Okay. Yeah. That's fair. Was this guy backstage? There was a few dudes floating backstage. Or was it like...

We'll just leave it at that. Okay. It must have been. We'll just leave it at that. But yeah, the rowdiness. Because you guys, I guess you and Van got called out for being LSU fans during the day, which is always a little aggressive. But when I went to the Grove and everybody's like, OK, what is the Grove? What is the Grove?

Like the women are dressed to the minds. They're absolutely decked out. And every generation is covered. I mean, we're talking about like heading to a gala, but also a football game, which is above and beyond. Like people get dressed up and there's kind of the sundress cowboy boot thing as an older guy with every SEC deal. You're like, what's going on there? But there's also a stretch of the Grove where I just walked around. Like I left the tent, just started wandering, trying to take it all in.

There's this fraternity row stretch where the guys sit there and scream at anyone. And then you're supposed to say hottie, toddy back. And a guy looked at me and again, I'm like wearing no colors, walking around one red cup, had a Coors Light going and the guy goes like hottie, toddy. And I just sort of looked at him and then he fist bumped me to knock the beer out of my

hand and like got it all over the side of my shirt and i'll tell you in that moment i looked at all of these these like rail thin fraternity guys and was like you can't hate them because you were one of them you were one of them at one point. But, boy, I don't know. I kind of remember the house in particular. I was like, these guys suck. Like, I want, like, it would just be amazing to just punch seven in a row. Just right down the line.

Just by the sidewalk. How many drunk frat boys can you fight? It's like, how many children? Yeah yeah because then i started thinking about it like could 20 165 frat guys beat up one navy seal it was like you should you should think that yes 20 guys i mean 20 human beings against one navy seal but i don't know i don. And again, I can't even really hate it because I didn't have the football version of that. I mean, we were awful at lacrosse games. It was like, hey, that's kind of your origin story. So you can't really hate it.

And when the guy, right, when the guy punched me in the beer, which is a weird thing to say out loud. Right? I didn't mean to say it that way i i looked at him like and then i was like what are you mad like this is what it is and it wasn't you know i didn't say hottie totty back that's on me you know and then i was watching all the guys and i was watching them go at like other ls like one guy in an lsu shirt who was like 50 holding his wife's hand and just 20 guys putting their middle fingers in his face as close as they possibly could without touching him and then dousing other lsu fans walking by like with dousing and i'm like how is there not a fight because they're leaning over the rope heckling anyone they possibly can

it's like you could punch seven of them in a row like mailboxes without anyone even really noticing what's going on um but you know strength in numbers so who knows and again i didn't think yeah it's like organized chaos like you talk about rushing the field like a million things could go wrong and somehow like it just kind of doesn't happen yeah that's the thing is it kind of doesn't go as like there were so many i was just watching it you know and then i went up and then i came back down and i went oh and i'm like whatever you know it's not like i'm wearing all lsu gear um but it was it was just kind of funny because it's like you can't actually be that mad at it despite despite if you were removed.

You'd be like, what's up with those guys? Like, what's up with those guys is what's up with those guys on every campus. This is what it is. Right. It's just this is this is what it's like. You know, I do think, though, like I always wonder if the security guys at those games, like if their bosses, they go back and check like game tape and they're just like, hey, you know you you only got one guy yesterday like you got to do better than that like what what's the job like are they getting approved is there a good job or the i'm i'm assuming they just tell them to not mess around just let people go because otherwise if you try to fight people it's going to

probably incite more of a problem so i just don't know i just want to know if they check tape the next day and go hey man you got to do better, I think somebody should see the tape of the guy that elbows the woman in the neck. Yeah, that's not the way to do it. You know what? Make better choices. Can we not de-cleat the eight? I think, do we have any other follow-ups or are we good? No, I think I ran into those same guys, though.

It was crazy because you saw Van was wearing like a brooklyn dodgers jersey and i was not wearing anything lsu colors except for this tiny little unassuming band and like those guys were way shorter than us probably like five eight sorry rudy and like they were don't worry about it okay and they were just like standing in front of the door to that awesome bar, the library. And they're just like, they weren't letting us in. And I was like, wait, are you trying to not let us inside right now? It was, it was insane. Yeah. The library cover I'd heard got up to $120 per person on Friday night. It was a sliding scale. Cause it was 60 when I let somebody in through the back door. And I was like, damn, that's a $60 thing. Am I going to get in big

trouble here? But no, I mean, cause it it's it's massive and everybody had talked about oh the library the library you're gonna check it out um i think we're funky's guys though and so i went to the guy and was like i think someone because then somebody sent me a text was like ask this guy at the library but then i'm like i don't know and it was right after we had had dinner and so i i thought like you know let me just do it and then I'll pay the cover for everybody. And I like you guys, but I was like, I'm not paying $360 for us to have two beers. And then you, well, you guys are driving back to Memphis. Right.

You were driving back to Memphis within an hour or two. So it didn't really make any sense. And then when I said it was 60 bucks, somebody was like, no, I got to 120 later that night. But here's where I want to end on. Thank you to everybody from Ole Miss that reached out. The Southern hospitality thing is real. You took it to another level. And, you know, people were like, is it better than LSU?

And I was like, it isn't. It's way more convenient. It's way more convenient. Because there's some nights in LSU where like, okay, we're over here. How are we going to get over there? And you're like, I don't know, dude. You're just not going to. You're stuck.

Not in the cards. Yep. Ole Miss, you're just like, all right, where do we need to go? And you're like, you're just going to walk a little bit, but it's going to be fine. And to be fair to Ole Miss too, it's not like Ole Miss people or the times I've walked with some Bama people through Baton Rouge, it's just not a good time for anybody on the opposing sides of things.

But there was just this one stretch of the Grove where I was like, okay, that that's probably like, it's probably known to not walk in that area because dudes are aggressive. Should we quickly just explain why there was no pod posted on Friday? Oh yeah. I mean, I hope it didn't come off as i was because it wasn't really anybody's fault it wasn't anyone on the show's fault uh if we had to do a blame pie it's a zero percent thing to anybody involved in the show but before the live show starts uh

elizabeth who does all our remote stuff was you know she'll ask me for a mix because i like to like listen to certain music while i'm backstage getting ready for a good mix by the way i think this was the best one. Yeah. Again, to go out on stage to do the least cool thing that you could do of anything that's done on the stage. So just so everybody's aware, because I don't walk out there being like,

I'm fucking awesome. I'm like, all the things you'd enter a stage for. Live sports podcast. So anyway, there's a De La Soul mix that I love sharing and putting out there because it just runs through, I think every one of the albums or maybe one that's left out. And the guy was playing it, the mix played for like, you know, the first hour that the show was, you know, people come in and get drinks, sit down the whole thing a little tougher because

the show was during the day. And then and then uh they never cut the house feed into our recording device so they turned it down but didn't cut it so when we got the pod audio and they went back to edit it they were like it's the entire show with a 50 50 balance of a de la soul mix with a soundtrack yeah yeah and it was so funny because i was telling we've done a few of these uh you know across the country and every time there's a sound guy he's always the biggest like the worst guy of the group sound guys can be tough tough like i'm like hey i just i come up with my recorder i'm like hey i just need to like plug this in he's like what do you want what are you saying like you know what i'm saying i just need you to plug it in and this guy was so nice it was all good sound guys have less friends than me yeah and i yes and i'm saying i just need you to plug it in and this guy was so nice it was all good

sound guys have less friends than me yeah and i yes and i even told i like i even said to the guy i was like wow this is like the the best prepared i've ever seen a sound guy he was like well thank you so much for saying that and they're always sound guys are always like get the fuck out of my booth and uh this was the one guy that fucked it up so uh that's funny i was i think i even told saruti i was like this is the best I've ever felt about an audio situation before a podcast. No, we did a bunch of checks and it was great. There is audio.

It's not great. I think it'll end up, I think it'll end up on YouTube. So check the Ringer YouTube channel this week. Yeah, we'll see. To end it on this though, this is pretty funny because after you guys left, I sat and the owner of funkies bought me uh well bought me just i came over and introduced myself we actually have some mutual friends and it's such a cool story his parents i think are in their 70s and they're setting up all

the dj equipment and they dj until last call and i said hi to them i got a picture with them which i never normally would do but i was like this is such an amazing story and so then you know they were telling me a little bit about the family and I went over and said hello. And then he handed me a shot of fireball. It was like nine o'clock and I went, I'm not, I'm not doing like, I did it. And then I go, I'm not, I'm not fucking doing this tonight. Like I want tomorrow to be epic. And so I got out of there and I was waiting in the square for an Uber and two guys that were at the live show saw me just on my phone standing outside of like a yoga place by myself the guy's like oh my god we were just you know I was like hey good to see you like this is so you just by yourself

I was like well you know everybody left and you know I wanted to stay for the game yeah but I can't believe like you're actually here and it's you're doing you're not with anyone you're just standing here I was like yeah dude point made got it it's you're doing you're not with anyone you're standing here i was like yeah dude point made got it it's ryan's natural habitat you know yeah i was like i i have stuff to do and they all left and van was supposed to stay and he didn't so i would have stayed i would have stayed i had a music festival yesterday actually though uh sound on sound and bridgeport shouts out john mayer lenis moriss Morissette, Mount Joy, Hozier. It was fantastic. Fiona Apple? Fiona Apple was not there.

Dispatch, for those that like Dispatch, I'm not one of those guys. Our Lady Peace? No, no, but that would have been cool, though. But I would have stayed with you, but I did have a music festival yesterday, so apologies. I had the same thing happen to me right before the show. I was getting up. They weren't setting up the bars fast enough, and I needed my nervous drink. So I went across the library, like, I don't know, an hour before the show, and getting that they weren't setting up the bars fast enough and i needed my nervous drink so i went across the library like i don't know an hour before the show and the same thing happened he's like this is so cool you're just like fucking here drinking that's great i was

like oh maybe i shouldn't be doing this type of stuff if it's like if it's on my fucking scorecard like i don't know i didn't love it i'm just the way you probably didn't love it i i didn't love it. The way you probably didn't love it, I didn't love it either. I think you handled it differently than I did. But it's definitely a place you'd go back and who knows? Maybe go down for a baseball game. All right. We have more to do on the show. McShay's back with us on Monday, so let's jump into a couple different things. Let's with the NFL no no no no no no no no no first of all you wake me up early early this morning

right you've got travel plans so everyone's got to adjust so Rudy's got to get up early I got to get up early we're taping this early I wore my Ole Miss shirt that I got a couple years ago at Pro Day in honor of you. First of all, let's start with this. How was the weekend? It was great. Finally made it to the Grove. Had never been here. Is that your first time?

Yeah. Oh, man. Yeah, it just never lined up. So I've got 11 of the SEC schools checked off the list, three to go. I've got 11 of the SEC schools checked off the list, three to go. But it's, you know, as great as the Southern experience is for college football, to have it be small in the best way was something that I didn't expect. The other ones can be incredible, but it's also kind of overwhelming. But Oxford, it almost reminds me of downtown Nantucket

had an SEC town or something, and then also football. So it was great. It was not wild, as I'd imagine you would think it would be. Well, let me ask you this, because if my calendar's right, this is Monday morning, right? Yeah. Ole Miss played on Saturday. What the hell are you still doing down

there? Something fun must have happened. No. I traveled with you for like three, four years, a game day radio, and we got in trouble. We were young kids at the time. And I can remember getting home on a Monday and have someone explaining to do it why I'm traveling home on Monday because things got a little weird late Saturday night. We couldn't get out on Sunday because we missed a flight and we were driving from Austin to like Houston or Dallas, wherever it was, because we woke up at noon and we had a 9 a.m. flight. So I can remember some times with you,

but we've grown up a little bit. I'm just wondering, like, why are you still at Ole Miss when we normally do this podcast, you in LA, me in Boston, on Monday morning? It is a fair scouting report that our first year together when we were both like 30, that I was like 25. Were you really? Am I that much older than you?

So 27, something like that. Yeah. Yeah. So I think there was a time we were so late to the airport. You may have left a note on a rental car and just parked it. And the note said, please return to Hertz. Do you know it was national? Do you know still to this day and anyone, if you work for national and you're listening to this, like I haven't filled out the paperwork to get reinstated, but because of that trip and about seven other trips in about a five year span where I pulled

that same stunt park parking, listen, I parked probably seven times in the local park, not even like long term parking, but like the local parking of like short term park. Right. Left a note called the National Desk. Listen, you know, I parked it in spot 123 in the first, you know, first row keys under the driver's side. And then one time I did it in Dallas the week of the Super Bowl and the car got stolen. Window smashed, radio stolen out of it. They found it in Louisville, Kentucky, five days later. And I have not been able to rent from National since. I don't blame National.

Yeah. No, no, no. National was right. Todd McShay was wrong. There's no question about that. But speaking of wrong, but I mean, let's not digress's not digress here. The last thing, and then you can get started on this podcast. I remember when we were out, you know, in our early days, you would always come back to me. If you went to a game that I didn't go to, you would always come back to me with a scouting

report. The first one was that I was crazy having a third round grade on Colt McCoy. I said, he'd be a great backup who could start and win some games in the league. And you, you know, you became friends with Colt. And so you were yelling at me because Colt's going to be a starter and a star in the league. I'm too low on him. Second scouting report, maybe in reverse order was you hung out with Tim Tebow and his family or his brother or something like that. And you said that I was wrong. He wasn't six one. He was like six four. You couldn't believe that I was so off on his height. So I'm wondering now, have you matured as a scout coming back to me with information that I need to have getting ready for the 2024 class? What is your scouting report from the LSU Ole Miss game? Tell me there's a player I'm wrong

on or that I've got to keep an eye on. There's got to be something. See, I hate to do this to you so early, but the Colt McCoy thing was you had to come out with your next year mock one year ahead of time, which was your least favorite thing you did at ESPN. Because you're just trying to figure out 32 players. And you had Colt McCoy as a first rounder. And I bet you $1,000 that night at a bar in Hartford. Because you stayed with me in Hartford after you did it because you were stuck. And I was like, there's no way he's going to go in the first round. And so, you know, we'll just, we'll just look at one slide.

And then the Tebow one, you're absolutely right. But it was late. It was South beach. We were overwhelmed. I was wearing a white Patino suit and you were like, yeah, you were like, you're not my height, weight guy anymore. Um, after, after hanging out with Tebow, I think it was actually may have been that. I don't think he's that big.

Well, at least your wardrobe decisions haven't changed. I mean, last week I was reading some of the comments. I actually went easy on you. It was the first time we had done some work together in about a year. But the jacket you were wearing last week was disruptive, to say the least. It was hard to have a conversation with you. It was so bright and all of it. was disruptive to say the least.

Like it was hard to have a conversation with you. It was so bright and all of it. Now you're in camouflage and just circling back to Rick Pitino outfit on South beach. Like at least you haven't changed in that regard. You're still outrageous with your wardrobe. Yeah. I don't know. I think it's pretty standard.

Just getting ready for the workout, but here's here. I'll give you a real scouting report. I'll give you two guys. All right. So I'm a big hips guy. You know, when it comes to the hips,

I'm always looking at hips. I'll never forget leaving a place Okay, thanks. All right, so I'm a big hips guy. You know, when it comes to the hips, I'm always looking at hips. I'll never forget leaving a place in Santa Monica and walking behind Jimmy Clausen. And then Jimmy touched down, and I was walking behind him, and I just stepped looking at his hips, and I went, I don't see it. I don't see it. Jackson Dart in person. Yep. I sent out the tweet, thicker than you'd think. He is thick.

I had two of his games last year He is a tough I used to think he was trying to get his career Ended at USC I was like, you're going to be kidding me with the way this guy plays football But he's Really tough, and I'd say on the other side Mason Smith, the defensive lineman

For LSU Highly, highly touted Recruit, got hurt in the Florida State game at the very beginning of the year. It was terrible. I don't want to be unfair because I'm not watching him every single snap. But the first series, I just was like, I'm just going to watch zero. I'm just going to watch him the whole time. I'm getting better at that stuff.

Like, I'm not going to watch the ball. I'm going to watch matchups. Right. I got to isolate. I'll never forget sitting next to you at Texas Tech, Texas, where you started just like, you had this horrified look on your face. And I was like, what are you watching? And you were like, this tackle for tech is one of the worst tackles I've ever seen bad but you know you don't really notice to do it until kind of hanging out with you all those years but no one from lsu's defense was going to win any awards uh in that game on saturday night and i can't tell if he's easing his way back in but it's

it's just something i'm i'm noting all right keep an eye on keep it it's just something i'm noting that you know at the initial point of attack, if he doesn't win immediately, maybe a little bit more drive. Maybe a little bit more drive. But look, the entire defense was a mess. I'll write it down. Okay. All right.

Before we get to some of the college stuff, because I want to talk Georgia and where I have them in my rankings and all that kind of stuff, I want to start with Bill's Dolphins. So as I said in the open, the success story, my rankings and all that kind of stuff. I want to start with Bill's Dolphins. So, you know, as I'd said in the open, the success story, at least last year going against Tua was disrupt the timing, disrupt the rhythm. They have everything very, like everything is really quick. You know where you're going with the ball. And then it felt like they could kind of do whatever they want. The bills were physical with them. What did you see in it um i saw listen you know i think the bills were just more physical

and that that came out and i'll be like you got to remember you're coming off a 70 point win it's the talk of the nfl a week ago and and certainly i i think sometimes teams get a little bit too high and think that hey hey like we're a next level team and all of that. So I think confidence was high maybe to a fault coming into that game. But to me, there were two stories in the game. First of all, Josh Allen, and I'm one of those guys who's cautious to say, well, Josh Allen's got to cut down on turnovers. He can't be as aggressive and all those things. I do think Josh Allen has to get smarter with protecting his body at times. Like in week two,

we can't be running over guys, you know, to pick up a random first down on a second and seven. But, but I do understand that there's going to be plays in the game that in order to make some of these exceptional plays and unbelievable throws, he's going to have to take some risks. So I get it. But I saw Josh Allen. We always talk about the tug of war between being great and being that exceptional player and cutting down on risks. I saw what was as close to the perfect version of Josh Allen as I've seen in terms of his pro career. And his pro career is a lot more consistent and accurate and better than I even saw at Wyoming, where we saw all the talent, but there are a lot of ups and downs. So to me, Josh checking down, knowing when to take the chances, knowing when to be aggressive,

and also knowing when to kind of protect himself and also protect the football. If he could bottle up the way he played against a good Miami defense the rest of the way or be closer to that version than we saw in a lot of instances in the first few weeks the Bills might be the best team in the league like like they're that good when Josh plays like that they didn't turn the football over at all he had no interceptions but then the other factor was you know when the Bills physically just were more dominant and on defense, I think this is the type of team that's going to give Miami trouble. They lost, obviously, in the playoffs to them last year. When you're able to play that cover two shell and the defensive

backs are doing a great job of keeping everything in front of them, they took away the big play. You know, Devontae Smith, Tyree Kill didn't have a lot of big plays, especially the second half. Like they shut down the big play, but it's always hard when you're backing off in the secondary and keeping everything in front of you to still get pressure. And the Bills did that. You know, there were some blitzes mixed in and then some stunts and twists and all that stuff. But a lot of times with four man pressures, they were able to get to Tua. They hit him nine times, and they sacked him four times. And the thing with Tua is, like, if you give him a clean pocket, he's going to get the ball out quickly.

He does that very well. But if you can kind of take away that first read and force him into the pocket maybe a half a second longer than you'd like, which, again, is hard to do if you're keeping everything in front of you. But if you can do that and get consistent pressure on him, and the sacks are great and they throw off drives, but just get hitting him, pressuring him, making him uncomfortable, taking him out of a rhythm.

This is the blueprint. Now, how many teams in the league have the personnel that the Bills have and are physical in the front seven as the Bills are that can execute this blueprint? But defensively, this is the blueprint that a lot of teams are going to try to emulate moving forward. It was as complete a game as you can have against as hot a team as you could face in the Miami Dolphins coming into week four.

It was as impressive a win. The 70-20 was cute against Denver, and everyone went crazy about it and record-setting performances and all these touchdowns for A-Chan and Mostert and everything else. But to beat a team in your division with playoff implications, you certainly think there could be a rematch in the playoffs, and to do it with that kind of physical dominance, that was as impressive a win as I've seen in four weeks in the NFL this year.

I'm glad you brought up the D-line because when you look at the bills and the amount of investment they've put in that front, and I'm not even talking about the linebackers, and I can do this at times where if I'm familiar with like eight dudes in their defensive line rotation, then I'll be like, oh, well, they must have a really good D-line because I remember all these guys. But they've been spending picks on this,

and they even brought in Leonard Floyd. They're going to get Vaughn Miller back. I think Ed Oliver has been somebody, because he was young and we all knew him at Houston, but he was terrific yesterday. He's been terrific for a year and changed now. He wasn't great early in his career, so everyone kind of started to write him off a little bit. I agree, but the bulb has come on.

He has taken it to another level last season and then early this year. And Rousseau as well, another guy. So when you're watching them up front, I guess everybody's trying to win with four down, and you would have thought that's what they were doing. And I just don't know. If you're a Bills fan, it's like,

can we see this consistently from the D-line? Because there's just a lot of good players, I still think, on that front. I'm always looking at it from a scouting perspective and certainly the draft, right? But take a look at what San Francisco's done. The investment they've made over the years in their defensive front, right? The Eagles.

It's like every year, you know, the last couple of years, obviously, you know, Jordan Davis, Jalen Carter bringing in Hargrave, right? You know, or they lost Hargrave, sorry, to San Francisco. Yeah, but I mean, to your point, though. Brandon Graham bringing him back. Like, you know, they're every year, even when we're like, oh, there's different positions that they could go target. But they're consistently using guys on their offensive and defensive lines. And that's that's how they've gotten good.

And they've stayed good. There's no more outside of quarterback. The most important thing to have is pass rushers in this league because you've got to be able to get to them. And you're seeing that some of the top teams consistently just sticking with that theory of going with the defensive front. No, but to your point, the fact that the Niners were like, hey, let's spend the money on Hargrave. And you're like, wait a minute.

You already have some guys there. And they're like, no, no, no, we'll add another one. And Jordan Davis is somebody at Philly where everybody can make the, well, they're just drafting all the Georgia guys. But I think any of us that watched him consistently in college, I was like, I don't know if he's, I think people are a little enamored with the size and the idea of him, but I don't know if he's consistent enough. And it's not like I'm keyed in on Jordan Davis on every single snap, but I feel like he's way more consistent now, or it feels like he's making more of an impact, or maybe it's the talent around him to your point of just having that depth. Well, that's the other, like when you got six, seven guys that you can rotate because you're spending draft picks and bringing in a free agent here and there and re-signing veterans and keeping them there, you're allowed to use Jalen Carter and Jordan Davis, more importantly, the way that they're supposed to be used. Like you're not asking them to be out there the entire game. You're rotating him in and out.

Jordan Davis is a, you know, he's going to give you great snaps, 35, 40 plays a game. But beyond that, you're asking something that he just can't provide. So let's get the best out of him for 35 snaps rather than asking him to be on the field. And in order to do that, you've got to have depth. And we're seeing the Bills consistently have been targeting that defensive front in the draft and free agency. And as I mentioned, 49ers, Eagles, like these are some of the best teams in the league.

You know, even the Chiefs, right? You know, brought in Frank Clark. I know he had some durability stuff. But, you know, you look at Chris Jones and bringing him back. Carl Loftus, they used a first-round pick on him. He was outstanding again last night. They're investing in that defensive front. They've had all sorts of issues kind of up and down in the back seven,

specifically the secondary. But when your defensive front's getting it done, it makes everybody better on the defense. Yeah, we lose sight of the Chiefs part of it. I know Bolton didn't play last night, but I... He's been a star when healthy. Yeah, star. And, you know, I like that they try to kind of overhaul it

with younger guys in the middle. And obviously Mahomes allows you that luxury, but they moved on from some corners that I didn't really like. I think they've done a good job of drafting there. But they moved on from some corners that I didn't really like. I think they've done a good job of drafting there. And Chris Jones is probably as disruptive as anybody in the interior other than Aaron Donald, who it's funny because we almost lost sight of him because we're so obsessed with the edge guys as we should be with Parsons,

with TJ, Garrett, and Bosa. But I watched Aaron Donald, the Niners game or something. I was just watching him again. I'm like, this guy hasn't, I mean, okay, maybe he's not what he was at his peak, but what he was at his peak was unobtainable. And we almost don't really talk about it anymore, but I'm glad Chris Jones is part of that. Let's stay on the draft thing a little bit only because I think detroit is they feel like they're for real and when you take jamir gibbs that early as a running back you're like okay wait a minute like

what are you doing here and you know bijan looks incredible but it's still a rule that i would i would buy into being like i still just don't know what the durability alone like is it worth it so I think that the Lions were criticized while also forgetting about the rest of the picks and right now it looks like between Laporta Branch who I loved at Bama like he was just always doing the right thing he was always around the football I know you look a lot at the rookies because of how much time you spend going into them, but what have you looked at or seen at least with that Lions draft class? Well, I mean, Sam Laporta has the most receptions by a tight end with 22 through their first four career games in the NFL since 1950. That's going back to Mike Ditka.

Only tight end with more receiving yards through the first four games over that span was was ditka with 315 so like it's it's pretty amazing what you get from sam laporta as a second round pick and then and then also you're talking about brian branch like he fell in the second round my whole thing with branch and i said it probably 20 times leading up to the draft, find me 32 better players, football players, than Branch. I get it. He's a hybrid.

He's not a true corner. He's not a true free safety. But guess what? This league is all about big nickels now. Guys who can support the run, can be near the box, who are instinctive, who can cover tight ends, can cover bigger receivers, can cover slot receivers. This guy does it all. You know, he has a big pick six in one game. He's breaking up passes.

He gives that defense flexibility. And in a league where you're seeing some tempo, but teams like utilizing either a tight end flexed out, a big receiver in the slot, you know, you're put at a disadvantage often in the league now. And it was college kind of moving up the ranks, spreading things out, utilizing personnel that's flexible on the offense. You got to have flexible guys in the defense. That versatility is critical. And Branch has been huge for that Lions defense that's so much improved from a year ago. You know,

now you got Hutchinson, who you drafted a year ago, is continuing to get better. It's like every single time the ball snapped, he's either making a play or he's affecting a play by what he's doing, taking on double teams, working inside, working outside. So what they've done the last two years with their drafts and the guys they've hit on, and then Campbell, a linebacker, I didn't love the pick where they got him, but he's been an impact player. You can't't deny that so you've got four impact players in the first two rounds this year you've got probably the best player on your team in Hutchinson that you got in the first round a year ago who just it was fortunate that he got to the second pick because Trayvon Walker was the the first overall pick by the Jags so you know know, what the Lions have done and then the culture, obviously,

like the belief that they have in their team. I don't know about you, but like, and I'm always watching Red Zone on Sunday and trying to see as much as I can and kind of jumping around. I've got, you know, the ticket with all the different games. If there's something going on, I'd specifically go to that. But I have a hard time peeling myself away from Lions games. I just love the way they play. And how about Jared Goff? Like, written off. You know, they go to a Super Bowl, but he's not good enough for what the Rams want to do with Sean McVay.

They move on, bring in Stafford, they win a Super Bowl. You can't – there's no argument here. But Goff has just grinded away and become, like, the culture of that offense and the toughness that he shows every week and the way he's distributing the ball. I mean, this team is legit. They're the best team in the NFC North.

They're one of the, I would say, three, four best teams in the NFC. I'm not saying they're going to the Super Bowl or anything, but this is a team two years ago we were talking about, like bottom of the barrel, one of the worst teams in the league. Last year, you saw the improvement in the second half of the season. Sometimes that happens, and then you fail to take the next step. The Lions have taken the next step. I love what I see out of this team, and it's built to last.

This is a pretty young football team that should get better, not only as the season progresses, but in the next two years as well. Total agreement. The Lions are kind of the hot off-season team coming off of last year feeling like often figured some things out and now it just feels like a much better roster and it's like a real you know sometimes the there's this momentum in the off season i'm like wait this this seems to be a lot but at least a month in it feels totally warranted with them. And I was looking at golf stuff here because I, I already mentioned this with, with some of the, the guys that are first rounders moving on to a new team. Uh, it's something I did last season where when you're a top pick at quarterback, and then the team moves on from you that drafted you for you to then be

successful with the second team is really, really rare. It is rare, yeah. It's only happened a few times. And I look at Goff, he's the highest QBR he's ever had so far this season. His completion percentage is the highest it's ever been in his career. His interception ratio is up a tick, but it was lower in Detroit those first couple years than pretty much any year he'd had in L.A. except for one. How does this – because, like, I wasn't a big golf guy early on. It looks like McVay

rescues him. But then, you know, my argument about golf was, well, wait, if McVay was like cool moving on from him, then clearly there was something off. And when we used to have Dilfer on, Dilfer said something I thought that was really interesting. He goes, McVay has a partner in Stafford, and he didn't have a partner in Goff. And we can go back to the Super Bowl where it was like, you know, Goff really had his hand held throughout all of this. What Goff is doing and who he's become is almost unheard of for this league.

I agree. Is that something that you've seen i you know because i don't want to go okay the exception now changes the way anyone wants to look at like now i don't think teams are gonna go hey who was drafted into the top 10 let's go get that guy that wasn't good enough somewhere else and it wasn't like he was terrible with the rams but the fact that they wanted to move on from him yet he's become this i just can't emphasize this enough this doesn't really happen historically. So does it change anything with the way you look at evaluating some of the younger guys that I want to get to?

I don't know that it changes anything. And certainly like the history of it proves that this is very rare. So you look at rare situations and say, why is this an exception? Right. And to me, so much of it is circumstance like we one of the things with goth he's a california guy he comes from cal it was like yeah he played in some big games but he was never like at usc or texas or alabama and so and he had the smaller hands and can he play in bad weather and all sorts of things and and obviously in la that wasn't a huge problem and now he's in he's in a dome and that you know plays a lot of games inside that helps him to a certain degree but he's still you know still playing games in chicago and still playing games in green bay and all that so i think the big two of the biggest things he went from

kind of that rams you know high high-flying California-style offense and all those things to a place in Detroit where it's just blue collar. And I'm not saying he wasn't tough at Cal because he was. I'm not saying he wasn't tough in L.A. But I've seen a guy who's gone from like, yeah, he's fine. He handles it. He'll hang in there. To like one of the best things I see in his game is he's a son of a bitch

in the pocket like he'll get he'll get just worked over and pop right up and let next play and i didn't i it's not that i didn't see it or i thought that he wasn't going to be that guy it's that i just didn't know and he has proven that toughness the other thing is when an organization like every organization is going to say we're behind him this you know this guy's a And he has proven that toughness. The other thing is when an organization, every organization is going to say we're behind him. This guy's a backup quarterback. He's coming in and we saw great things in training camp. We believe in him. He's our guy.

But it's one thing to say it. It's another to prove it with your actions. And Brad Holmes and this organization have backed him from the start. And when guys like me and Kuyper were talking about, well, you know, the Lions, you know, a couple of years ago, the Lions, this is a bridge the gap quarterback. The Lions are getting early round draft picks. They're acquiring all these extra picks. Is this going to be the year that they move up and go get one of these top quarterback prospects? No.

They stuck with them. And I even saw an interview recently with Holmes, the general manager, saying we were kind of laughing at that. You know, they were laughing when people say, well, they've got to move up and go get a top quarterback. He's our guy. And people didn't understand that. And so when you not only hear that from your general manager, your head coach and everyone

in the organization, but you see it in action that they're, hey, we've got we've got a bunch of picks. We can move up and we can go get Bryce Young, but you're our guy. And it's obviously he's coming off a great year, but still like, I don't know that everyone was completely sold on golf even a year ago after he finished so well, but this, this year, what you're seeing now and taking it to another level, they were right. You know, they were right.

He's one of the 10 best quarterbacks in the league. You can win with this guy. And I didn't know that I would ever say that, even after he went to a Super Bowl with Los Angeles. So I just love stories like this. And I love it when the organization is as much a part of it as the player, because it shows what you can do by instilling confidence in your guy and bringing him along as part of the process rather than, all right, let's bring in the next guy or let's draft a guy early and have them compete. When you go all in on a quarterback, it's amazing what that does for the psyche of a young quarterback. Is Mac Jones the guy in New England?

No. No, he's not. Listen, he can have a certain level of success but he would have to be surrounded by exceptional weapons and and i knew we were going to get to this so i kind of like how do you compete in your division when you've got tua with you know the speed that he has with most certain and a chan who's been unbelievable as a rookie so far. And then Tyree killed Jalen Waddle at wide receiver. How do you compete? And the Jets obviously don't have Aaron Rodgers this year. It's a different deal. But if Aaron Rodgers was there, you know, when you've you've got a great running back in Brees Hall when he's back to 100 percent, you've got

you know, you've got your star wide receiver in Garrett Wilson. And then you look at other teams in the league. You've got A.J. Brown and Devontae Smith. You've got San Francisco. We're talking about the top teams. Miami, Buffalo with the weapons that they have, obviously. We saw Josh Allen spreading the ball out to all of his different weapons. San Francisco, McCaffrey, Debo, Brandon Ayoub, George Kittle. And Brock Purdy's been great.

He's undefeated as a starter. What, 9-0, I think, now as a starter? Because of the weapons around him, because of the system, and because he has the intelligence to operate that system. Mac Jones has the intelligence to operate a system like a Brock Purdy. But there's no McCaffrey. There's no Debo. There's no Brandon Aiyuk as your complementary receiver. There's no McCaffrey. There's no Debo. There's no Brandon Ayuk as your complementary receiver.

There's no George Kittle. So if you're saying like, can Mac Jones play at a high level? I think he has a chance to. But like New England in his prime is not going to be able to to get that kind of offensive weaponry around him. And I look at New England like Ramondre Stevenson has been good at times, and I thought he was going to be a really good pro, and last year he had a great season. He's averaging 2.7 yards per carry, and part of that, obviously, is the offensive line and the commitment to the run game and all that.

But when your leading receiver is Hunter Henry and your second-best receiver is Kendrick Bourne and your third-best receiver is Demario Douglas, that's not going to allow Mac Jones, who's at best a kind of middle of the pack to below middle of the pack quarterback, you're not winning with that. There's no receiver that has 10 or more catches on the Patriots that's averaging more than 13.7 yards per catch. And only one of them is averaging 13.7.

Everyone else is in like the 10, 9-yard per catch range. There's no vertical threat to that offense. So in a conference with Mahomes, Josh Allen, Tua, Burrow, Aaron Rodgers next year, Justin Herbert, Lamar Jackson, Trevor Lawrence, Deshaun Watson, now even with Stroud, the way he's playing in Houston, and Richardson, you know, Anthony Richardson, if he develops, we've seen kind of flashes from him. He's a long way away.

But I'm saying like young guys, like how are you competing in that conference? It's just not going to work. So to me, New England needs an overhaul offensively. And, yeah, maybe you start with trying to bring in weapons at the wide receiver position and see if Mac Jones could take another step. But I would be, if I'm, and obviously Bill Belichick's making final decisions, but if I'm in that scouting staff, priority number one is we've got to get more dynamic on offense. And priority number two is we got to have another plan for quarterback in the future, whether that's

moving up to go get a quarterback, bringing in veteran whatever it is but i just i don't think you can win it starts with the truly starts with the weapons but then how far can mac jones legitimately take you and i don't think you're competing with mahomes allen to a burrow rogers herbert lamar lawrence and all these other guys in this conference you just you just can't Lamar Lawrence and all these other guys in this conference. You just can't. You mentioned CJ Stroud there quick. He's been lighting it up historically, if you look at that perspective. Any rookie that looks this good and isn't making a ton of mistakes, even some of the best players we've ever seen in this position, the first year can be a mess. What have you seen from him? Yeah, I'll say this. Fortunately, I don't want to say it's rare, but more often than not,

when a quarterback comes out and plays this well early on, it's a sign that he's going to have long-term success in the league, and I love that for C.J. Stroud. I love that everyone doubted him. I loved all the rumors and the talk about whatever test it was, that he couldn't process things fast enough, and he wasn't as smart as Bryce Young and all that stuff that came out and where they were kind of, like other agencies were utilizing that against him.

He was the best pure passer, and I said it 3,000 times leading up to the last April's draft. He was the best pure passer in that class and maybe the best pure passer in a couple of years coming out in the draft. In terms of trajectory, timing, touch, ball placement, I go back to that Utah game, the Rose Bowl. Meanwhile, his first-round receivers were out in that Rose Bowl game. They opted out to get ready for the draft.

Yeah, he still had Marvin Harrison and some of the other guys, but they weren't the receivers he was thrown to all year long. And he set Rose Bowl records, touchdown passes, whatever it was. He comes into the league. He's getting decent protection, but he's still been sacked seventh most in the league with 11 sacks. And again, he's a rookie, so some of that's on him. But he's been under pressure.

And he's got 1,212 passing yards, second most by a quarterback through four starts in NFL history. He's completing 65% of his throws, six touchdowns, no interceptions. He's lost two fumbles, but you know, again, a rookie quarterback through four games, only turning the ball over twice is pretty damn good, man. And again, doing it under pressure just shows how quickly he's processing, which everyone wanted to knock him for but i just didn't understand this got this test that only has a couple years of of longevity in terms of how we've been utilizing it and yeah there have been some

guys you know brock purdy had the best test test score and that whatever the cognitive test um and he had a great rookie year so everyone wanted to say it's the end all be all. But watch the tape with CJ and everyone also said, well, Ohio State quarterbacks don't pan out in the league. You and I had this conversation. CJ was different. He processed. He went through his progressions.

He understood coverage. He played at a different level and a different mindset than those other quarterbacks who were more mobile. And he wasn't. He was getting knocked for not being mobile enough until that Georgia game where they almost pulled off the upset in the semifinals. So, you know, he's the offensive rookie of the month of September. And, you know, another great start, 30-6 win over Pittsburgh,

passed for 306 yards and two touchdowns against that Steeler defense. Like, I love what I'm seeing out of Stroud. Bryce Young's in a different situation. He's not getting protected as well. They don't have the offensive weapons. And he's still kind of learning, and I think he's going to be a great pro. But there's no question who the best rookie quarterback's been, and that's Stroud so far.

I know you wanted to go over some of the other rookies then, so I know it's not all quarterbacks, so hit us with it. Yeah, I mean, I love when guys are drafted late, even though it looks bad on me when I have a fifth-round grade on Puka Nakua coming out of BYU, and he comes out, and he's the best wide receiver through four games, not only this year, but in league history. 39 catches through first game is the most ever.

30 was the—he surpassed Anquan Bolden, who had 30 in 2003. That was the most receptions ever by a receiver through the first, first games in the NFL, first four games in the NFL. He's got 39. He was a fifth round draft pick. And I had, I went back, I had a fifth round grade on him, a 55, which equates to mid fifth round. I'm going to read you a scouting report.

You ready? He was injured in 2019 at Washington. Then 2020 came with the COVID short year. Transferred to BYU, then led the Cougars in receptions and receiving yards the last two years. He was a team captain. Great work ethic was from all the scouts I talked to. Three older brothers that also played at BYU. He was kind of the young kid in the family who was always competing, the tough guy.

Great hands. He had elite ball skills. kind of the young kid in the family. He was always competing, the tough guy. Great hands. He had elite ball skills, plucks the ball out of the air, impressive 50-50 situations. But the knock on him was didn't run well, didn't run at the combine, didn't run well at his pro day. He's, you know, size-wise, 6'1 1⁄2", 200 pounds. He's built well, but he's not this big, tall, long receiver. Not a great route runner either. That built well, but he's not this big, tall, long receiver, not a great route

runner either. That's the interesting part about him. A lot of those routes were kind of, you know, drag routes and crossing routes and different things. And he struggled to get off the press. So didn't run well. Route running skills were still kind of a work in progress and struggled to get off the press. Well, you get with McVay, especially in this Cooper Cup role where McVay's moving you around and scheming up ways to get releases off the line of scrimmage. And with his ball skills and his understanding of soft spots and zones and his toughness and his run after catch ability, that's the big thing that gets overlooked with him. back. He carried the ball 38 times his last year, 357 yards and five touchdowns, actually his past two seasons, his last two seasons at BYU. So this guy was always great with the ball in his hands. So in that offense, the run after catch, when you're getting guys off the press and scheming that up and allowing him to do some of those like unique routes that aren't your traditional, like,

you know, 10 yard out cuts and bang eight eights and all those like he is he's running that system. He's a perfect fit for it. So I miss just like everybody else in the league. He was a fifth round pick. I had a fifth round grade on him. But to see a guy like Puka Nakua come out and have a record setting start is pretty fun to watch. Some other guys that we expected to be good. We touched on Sam Laporta, you know know 22 receptions so far how great he's been Brian Brantz we are also touched on him second round pick there weren't 32 better players in that draft and I was shocked that he got to the second round but the Lions got a perfect fit for them Jalen Carter we kind of touched on as well I mean he leads all defensive tackles in the league you ready for this in pressures rate, and pass rush get-off.

It's next-gen stats, right? So this guy has come in six pressures against the commanders in the win the other day. He's come in and made a huge instant impact for the Philadelphia Eagles. And listen, there's some stuff like the Eagles had to be talked into taking Jalen Carter. They moved back in that trade, right? They got him at pick number 10 and they didn't, they were concerned like everyone else in the league about the character stuff. And rightfully so they were guaranteed by his agent, guaranteed by him that he was going to fall in line and having all those other Georgia players there, they thought was, it was a bonus so far that the dividends have been great. One last guy. Two other guys.

Devon A. Chan, who's not A-chain anymore, the Miami running back. We called him A-chain for years at Texas A&M. He's a burner. He's a perfect fit in Miami. He had the, was it four touchdowns in that 70-point game against Denver? And last week, obviously, they got derailed on the offensive side, but he still had 101 yards and two touchdowns on the ground and also had 19 receiving yards through the air. So he's got the look of a player who's

going to be a great, great fit for them. And then finally, Michael Wilson, another guy who was drafted late coming out of Stanford, didn't have a quarterback, didn't have an offensive line to protect their quarterback at Stanford. 94th overall pick, and he's been a huge help for the Cardinals. The Cardinals have really played better than we thought that they would. Arguably one of the worst rosters in the league. But Wilson's come in and has been a playmaker for Josh Dobbs. Who would have thought Dobbs to Michael Wilson would be a story for Arizona through four weeks? But even last week, he had a huge game against Dallas, helping them seal that victory. And then he had two touchdown catches this past week

in a tough loss against the 49ers. So Michael Wilson's a player that I had a third-round grade on. He went in the third round, but he was the 13th receiver taken. So you've got the 20th receiver in Pukunikua and the 13th receiver taken in this past draft in Michael Wilson. And they're arguably two of the best wide receiver rookies that we have in this year's group. I want to do a couple college things before we say goodbye to you this week.

If I were a real voter for Georgia, I would have moved them down. When I go through my top 12, you can see the AP. They've lost 20 first-place votes. They still might be the best team, but I expected a little bit more against Auburn. We keep making excuses for Georgia every single time, and Beck's actually been pretty good. I guess, I don't know, maybe it's the standard of what Georgia's at, but I have no issue with people moving them off of number one. Yeah, I agree. I don't see the same play in terms of what you're getting at the quarterback position to start with.

I mean, listen, I think there's a lot of talent there with Carson Beck. He had you know, he looked great against UT Martin, Ball State, UAB completed like, you know, 70 percent of his throws. Didn't have an interception in those games i had one interception against ball state but the thing with like in south carolina and you in uh auburn those get like i'm seeing open receivers and missed throws that you're not used to seeing at the quarterback position for georgia over the last with stetson bennett and and a lot of them are you know not just completions but like big plays that break open games. I think it was the tight end down the middle who got over the top of the linebacker this past week. Easy throw, just drop it in over the linebacker.

That's a touchdown, and it kind of breaks the game open, and they're not getting that play. Now, Carson Beck's only in his fifth start. So I'm expecting to see improvement. The good news, if you're a bulldogs fan we talked about this last week kentucky looks really good and they've got him next week but they've got him at home right and then you've got vanderbilt you got florida at a neutral site missouri's playing well but you're playing him at home mississippi playing him at home

you're at tennessee tennessee's beatable and then then Georgia Tech. So, you know, you're not playing any tough, really, SEC West opponents. There's no Bama on the schedule. I just think the schedule lines up well for them in a year where they lost a lot. I mean, they've been losing a lot to the draft the last few years. But I also see this team, and defensively they're really, really good and have a chance to be great by the end of the season. But I don't think that they're as dynamic and explosive on the defensive side as they were. And you got to kind of just compare.

And I know South Carolina is a little bit better this year than they were last year, at least in my opinion, studying their tape. Auburn's not nearly as good, in my opinion, as they were last year. And they weren't very good last year. So they're just not a very good football team. But last year, they beat Auburn and South Carolina in those games, a combined total of 90 to 30. This year, 51 to 34. So the defense is still playing at that level in terms of just the numbers. And those are the only two games you can study and get anything from, because I'm not taking anything from UT Martin, Ball State, or UAB. But South

Carolina and Auburn are the two games that you have to take something from. The defense is still playing close to standard. I wouldn't say they're as dangerous and scary as they were a year ago, but the offense, only 51 points against those two teams. I'm getting nervous if I'm a Bulldogs fan. I don't see the same explosiveness. Obviously, Brock Bowers is the best tight end in the country. Ladd McConkie's been injured, and so they missed that. But do they have that dynamic threat? Are they as deep a tight end as they were a year ago? The answer is no.

I just don't know that they're quite as balanced and explosive, and they certainly don't have the same quarterback play that they had a year ago. But the schedule will allow them to get better as the season goes on, still maybe be undefeated going into the SEC championship game and could have a lot of momentum going into the college football playoff. Okay, Caleb Williams going up against Shador in Colorado. It was crazy because it was playing out kind of like I thought.

I thought SC would score a ton of points. But if you watch SC's defense this year, you'd expect at some point Colorado would put some points on the board. It took a while, and then it gets weird. From an evaluation standpoint, though, another week of film on both guys. I mean, we already know the Caleb story, but let's start with Sanders. Yeah, I give Sanders a lot of credit because you've got to understand he's the most sack quarterback in

the country. His offensive line is not very good. They're under consistent pressure. You lose Hunter, who's obviously a two-way player. And not only is the defense putting you in bad positions and bad situations, but Hunter was arguably their best receiver, even though he was playing just part-time on the offensive side and playing, you know, mostly on the defensive side. So he doesn't have his most talented, most athletic receiver. He's got an offensive line that's not protecting him. And, you know, you went up against a buzzsaw in Oregon last week. Everything fell apart and things are falling apart against USC.

everything fell apart and things are falling apart against USC and to have the confidence and the leadership and the toughness in just what your fifth FBS game, when you're coming from that level, like it shows who he is as a person and a competitor. And I love to see that when guys are up against it, everything's falling apart around them. You find out about them. And Shador showed me something in the second half of that game.

You got to remember, again, under the most pressure probably of any quarterback in the country, he's completing 75% of his throws, 1,800 passing yards, 15 touchdowns, two rushing touchdowns, only two interceptions so far. 163 passer rate for this year. I mean, and to do that, they have limited weapons. Yeah, they've got a couple good receivers, but it's not like he's surrounded by elite talent. He's creating.

He's extending. He's making throws down the field that a lot of guys can't make. So, listen, Caleb Williams is Caleb Williams. There's a reason why the Bears fans are leaving the stadium. I sent you that tweet already chanting Caleb Williams. You know, like There's a reason why the Bears fans are leaving the stadium. I sent you that tweet already chanting Caleb Williams. You know, like there's a reason. That guy's a generational talent

and I just can't wait to see him at the next level what he can do. But I don't know that any player has helped their draft stock more than Sanders has through the first five weeks of the season. Because we always knew he had talent and he didn't belong at that level of play,

you know, but he was there with his dad and he could play at this level, but I didn't know he could play at this level at the, you know, the, the way efficiently, like he is making the throws that he's making with everything stacked against him,

with the team falling apart to carry the team. You know, I learned a lot about him. I'll say this, like we know Caleb Williams is going to carry the team, I learned a lot about him. I'll say this. We know Caleb Williams is going to be the first pick. We know that Drake May is going to be the second quarterback off the board. Could be the second overall pick, depending on need. I think right now, Shador Sanders is kind of stamping himself as the number three quarterback

in this class as a first round pick if he decides to come out. Maybe he'll go back one more year with his dad. But if he decides to come out, I could'll go back one more year with his dad. But if he decides to come out, I could very easily see him being the third quarterback taken. And a lot of it, in my opinion, has to do with how he's hung in there and dealt with pressure, both on the field and pass rush. And also, it's a media circus.

We've got A-list celebrities everywhere. Your team is falling apart. There's nothing good to see for six quarters against Oregon and USC. circus. We've got like A-list celebrities everywhere. Your team is falling apart. There's nothing good to see for six quarters against Oregon and USC. And then you pull yourself together and pull everyone with you and like, hey, let's go. We're not laying down for anybody. And it was Shador who did that. And that speaks volumes to me. Okay. Last thing. That speaks volumes to me. Okay, last thing. Ewers, Texas heading in against an Oklahoma team that's starting to get a little bit more notice.

I think 12th in the AP where a defense has been overhauled. I mean, that was the craziest thing with Venables last season. You're like, wait, if Oklahoma's not going to be good, you wouldn't think it's because they couldn't stop anybody. But they've been better, a lot better. You could talk about the schedule there a little bit, but what do you see as far as that matchup? I'm excited to see it.

It's just that it's the next big challenge. And we saw Ewers against Alabama, and I told you, like, that game made him millions of dollars to go up. And the Alabama defense, we had questions early on, but we've seen that team is still very talented on that side of the ball. And to do it efficiently, playing smart, distributing the ball. And like, I look, even this past week watching him, he's because he lost the 20 pounds. And because like, you see the foot agility, he's taking off and running and creating with his feet.

He's extending plays like he couldn't do a year ago and everything it felt like because he had enough mobility but he just wasn't agile and quick twitch enough to to extend plays the way he is this year things felt like a scramble drill and like you know like a like a five alarm fire all the time now he's doing it with more poise he understands where to go with the football, but he's also agile enough. He can make a couple of quick movements and then calm everything down. It's still see down the field. It has helped his game tremendously being more agile in the pocket.

And I'm curious to see Jatavia Sanders, the tight end who I think is the second best tight end for the Texas team behind Brock Bowers from Georgia, who we talked about. That guy's a dynamic weapon. He left the game with an injury. He's going to be back against Oklahoma. That's a big question mark. But I'm excited to see youers against this Oklahoma defense. Have you ever done the Oklahoma-Texas game?

Yeah, I have. You've been on the field, right? Yeah. It's a different animal you know it's it's ohio state michigan it's it's alabama auburn in terms of and i don't mean the rivalry necessarily and don't get all worked up alabama auburn with iron bowl don't get all worked up michigan fans in ohio i'm not saying it's the same rivalry. You guys can work that out. I'm saying I've been on the field for all of those games. And I've seen Michigan play Illinois. I've seen Michigan play Rutgers. I've seen Michigan play Maryland. And the pads are cracking and they're always physical. They're always aggressive. They always play hard. But you

step on the field in the big house or at Ohio state at the horseshoe. And you listen like the, like just the pads cracking and the intensity level it's different. And Texas can suck. They've sucked in the past and they've been 17 point underdogs. And all of a sudden they'll come out. And I saw one of the upsets that they had recently. They come out and they're the noise levels different on the field.

The intensity level is different. And you can just see it. So Oklahoma is getting better. They're not to the level of Texas. They don't have the talent. They don't have the depth. But they're getting better. They're a much better team from a year ago, and it still wouldn't matter.

The intensity level is so great in this rivalry that it's one of those elite games where I will always remember the noises you hear, just the smashing of the pads. It's like Alabama-Auburn. It's like Michigan-Ohio State. And these are the three games that I always remember. It's just a different level. So how does Ewers kind of block out all the noise, handle that intensity when things get tough because you know they're going to get tough? How does he pull it together? And I just want to see it. I'm excited to see with you, because he's another guy like Sanders who has gone from he's talented, we know he can be good, to he's proving it consistently week in and week out.

And he could be the fourth quarterback off the board when it's all said and done in this loaded quarterback class who has probably got eight guys that could go in the first three rounds. For the record, I'm in Memphis because I had to do the job. What do you mean? I couldn't get out of Mississippi in time. So it's either miss football and lie to America on a Monday or sit in a hotel room and watch games in a Hampton Inn.

I don't even know what town I'm in. Yeah, it doesn't – I mean, I'm not trying to ruin any sponsorships or anything, but anytime you get that like makeshift kitchen in the background, that's when you know, like you're not staying at the Graduate in Ole Miss. You know, you're not staying at one of the nice college hotels. That's all we care about on this. All right. I take everything back that I said about you. You were right about Colt McCoy and you're a grinder. I just thought you ran into some trouble in the Grove. Let's put it that way.

No, you would have been really ashamed of me because I walked to the Grove after the game and went, nope. We need to go out maybe this season. We need to catch a game maybe in November. You and I, we can't get in trouble like we need to catch a game maybe in november you and i we can't get into trouble like we used to but we need to go we need one game late in the season where we go out and you know try to act young for a couple trouble trouble isn't the right word i would just say exposing ourselves to possible it was really just travel predicaments especially i'm like wait a minute it's tough to get out of here late nights the night before yeah Yeah. Yeah, but I never, you know, you never go out before the show.

No. No. Never. All right, Todd. Thank you, my man. We'll talk to you soon. All right, brother. Good talking to you.

They say money can't buy happiness. Look at the fucking smile on my face. Ear to ear, baby. You want details bye i drive a ferrari 355 cabriolet what's up i have a ridiculous house in the south 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 isice is brought to you by Modelo, the mark of a fighter. Modelo is a crisp golden lager brewed for football fans

who treat supporting their team as a way of life, who support with unshakable passion, even when the odds are against them. And there's nothing that screams fighting spirit louder than college football fans. Modelo celebrates that passion inside every fighter. Modelo, the official beer sponsor of the college football playoff. All right, we got Kyle, we got Saruti here on the show. Life advice, the email is lifeadvicerr at gmail.com. Don't be afraid to mix them up.

And I'll tell you, with some of the ones that Kyle's been sending, if it's really, really long, it better be fucking Cormac McCarthy type stuff. Because when I open them up and I'm like, you know, I'm thinking about the audience, not that we don't want to help, but just efficiency is key here. And I know I'm long-winded, but I don't know my podcast, I guess. So, uh, it's just, just something to help because some people keep sending in these, these ones that are so long and you're like, it's just imagine if you're in the car listening to somebody else's email being read. I just want to help everybody. So there you go. A little, little off the top there. All right, let's try a couple. I like when we can do some that are a little different here. Um, the Spain travel log follow up. I hope this isn't the Friday feedback. Cause I, the positive reviews from that always blow my mind. But then I had the one guy like really light me up. He was just pissed.

He's like, why did you have to work out? I'm like, well, it's my fucking vacation. What? You know? Let me live. Yeah. I went to the museum that you wouldn't have gone to. Okay.

Has anyone ever done that? It was. I wouldn't have sent an email about it. That's for sure. No, the guy was really, really upset. Like he just was like pod sucked your trip sucked okay cool you you thought my trip sucked that you didn't go on thanks for listening to all yeah right right no he told me he couldn't take it i was like great cool noted all right here we go. 29, 6'2", 200 pounds. Former D3 baseball player.

A middle-class Nick Collison. Go Sonics. I love the Russillo travel recaps, but his latest one to Spain hit close to home. Next year, I have a very good friend's wedding in Greece and plan to hit Spain for a week after myself, much like Russillo. One-man wolf pack. And I do most of my travels solo. One thing that made me a little apprehensive about visiting Spain is that my usual destinations are

the ability to get into awesome restaurants to eat as a solo diner. I don't consider myself a foodie who really does. I don't know foodies, but when traveling, I love to indulge and learn about the local cuisines and also splurge once in a while on awesome meals. Or Sillo's recap on not only the judgment, but the lines, or at times the inability to get sat at places alone in Spain has me rethinking my trip. I wouldn't go that. My lack of patience for that is probably lower than most. Because I was just like, whatever, I'll just go somewhere else. If you really care about the food destination.

most because i was like whatever i'll just go somewhere else like if you really care about the food destination again the place i ate in mallorca that's still one of the best restaurants i've ever eaten at it was uh you know i went in was like hey you know if there's a bar area you're gonna get seated it may take a little while and if you can like who gives a fuck about the eye rolling like i get it every single time i just i just I just don't care. So a couple of questions. One, can I still enjoy the amazing upper tier food and restaurant Spain has to offer as a solo traveler? I don't care about being judged in the country halfway around the world. I'll deal with it. Secondly, as someone who's traveled a lot and mostly solo, uh, are there any destinations in Europe you'd actually recommend as a solo traveler? Love the pod. I'd say one of the best solo traveling things that I've done is, is any of the Caribbean stuff, because that's a very

different, now granted you're going to be in Greece, so you're not going to go back to the Caribbean and the whole thing. Um, you know, the Amalfi thing was very similar to Spain, South of France. If you can hit smaller villages and not the bigger cities, I don't know if you can find that. Iceland was not like I got. Iceland was perfect for me on the solo trip because I was going on an adventure trying to drive around the entire entire island. But that wasn't it wasn't friendly. Like I would say it's not that Icelanders were. Unfriendly, it's just that Icelanders were, uh, unfriendly. It's just, they, they weren't interested in what you had to say. They just, they didn't care other than that girl that I met

that moved there from Sacramento for health insurance. She was pretty friendly. So, uh, I wouldn't, don't listen to my pod and let it get in your head. All right. It's just an observation. The entire pod is just random observations as the guys just traveling through the whole thing. If I was determined to eat at the best restaurant solo, it was probably going to happen, but I didn't want to wait. I wasn't going to do reservations ahead of time because I never really knew which day I would be leaving a place and which day I'd be getting there. leaving a place and which day I'd be getting there. So if you're, I mean, almost everybody should be a little bit better of a planner than I am because I'm terrible. I still don't even know how to pack. Uh, I think I packed like one t-shirt and four workout shirts for this trip. So my point is, is this don't, don't let what I said, psych you out and be a little forceful about it. You know, it's like, Hey, I want to eat here. And they're going to give you the look. They're going to say, it's just you. They're going to be weird. You know, I had a couple of places in the beach area. The beach area was just so busy that they didn't want to give up the table to me. And

I didn't really blame them for that. So if you think you're going to get a solo table, that could be just a restaurant call. And sometimes it's just going to say no, but most of the nicer places still had some kind of bar seating area. And it may take a little bit longer and wait for a couple to move off from that. I went to another place in Mallorca where they were like, oh, but the bar was totally empty. And they were kind of like, you would just want to sit here and eat. And I was like, if it's okay and you don't have a hassle doing any food service and I'm not going to be pain in the ass, I'm not going to be sending food back, not going to be asking for exercise and all this different stuff. If you're okay with that as a bartender, which again, everybody's going to be okay. Yeah. So don't let that psych you out. But I wouldn't tell you there was this one magical destination

that I went to on a popular place in Europe. I'm also going at the busiest times of the year, which is the only time I can go. That late July, August stretch is the worst time to go to these places, but it's the only time I can really go. And if you're going to be going in the non-peak season where the rest of Europe is there as well, you might be way better off. I never have an issue with any of the restaurants not wanting to seat me. I only have an issue when they act like I'm a leper, but I don't say anything to them. Like I do have friends, people actually, you know, here's, here's a picture of me. Do you know Scott Van Pelt? So I don't, don't, don't let what I said psych you out, but Caribbean, even Hawaii, it's something about the islands, something about the

tropical thing. It's something about the locals just generally being in a better mood than everybody beyond a certain, uh, I guess, I don't know if I'd say longitude or latitude yeah yeah i guess in a weird way yeah as a sailor well i shouldn't say that powerboat i shouldn't say that about so you still have trouble packing huh after all those after all these trips college because i i backed like two shirts and 10 pairs of underwear but i don't know i just get like you're still not a good ratio because i'm a i'm a carry-on guy now i won't know i just get like you're still not a good ratio because i'm a i'm a carry-on guy now i won't check it if i if i can absolutely avoid it so i'm always a check guy because usually i'm gone for so long and i have to bring some stuff with

me you know whether but this this trip in particular i was like i'm just doing carry-on i'm not going to be there that long and then i just completely screwed up all my ratios so i'm also getting really bad at packing because I just don't want to. I used to pack like the night before checklist. So I'm just, I shouldn't say, I don't know how to, I'm,

I'm in a really bad rut right now. I'm like one for my last 21 at the plate. Never run out of underwear though. I, I pack like I'm going to blow through two a day somehow. Oh, I'm a big two a day guy just in case. Yeah. Anything. I mean, eat before you get on a plane. Oh, I'm a big two a day guy, just in case. Yeah.

Anything, I mean. It's like when you eat before you get on a plane. It's like, but what if I do shit myself? What if we're stuck in the air for eight hours and I didn't eat? So that's my underwear feeling. I just meant it like. Make sure you have some. Mixing it up and you have a sweaty day.

You're not screwing up your your rations yes because i think if i had to i think one time in vegas i had to put on the the underwear from my first day to go home and i was like this is terrible this is fucking terrible everyone knows nobody do my packing sucks because i'm a big uh and people are probably gonna think this is weird i'm a big white t under t-shirts guy. Under t-shirts? Double t-shirts? Yeah, like I'm wearing a white tee under this right now. Just because I don't know. I sweat. I don't want to ruin

t-shirts. And I just kind of like the way they feel. So I always kind of have to pack more. So the white t-shirt thing, if I'm gone for like a week, I'm like bringing double the shirts, which kind of blows. What are you, Earl Kelly? You're going t-shirt under a t-shirt? Yeah.

Yeah. I got like the, you know, like the Hanes, like, you know. Yeah, I get it. I get it. I'm just a t-shirt. Yeah. I think they make my tees last longer. They don't get as gross.

I just, I just like, and I like the feel of it. Have you considered like antiperspirants? Oh, yeah, I have that. I'm not even a big sweater. I didn't know if you were like a natural. Oh, okay not i'm not because that's for like fat guys dude fat guys are supposed to do that i know i've just i've just always done it i keep a towel on you over your shoulder too i'm you know i think it's i think it's because i'm you know we talked about this live show if we'll ever hear the light of day like i'm kind of a skinnier guy too i'm not

i'm not saying i'm in shape and i'm kind of a skinnier guy so it gives me a little it makes me look a little bit more like you you know, I don't know. Hey, I used to do it too, but in a different way. Like the first summer I got, I thought I was going to get a bar back job. And they're like, we'll just put you on the door. And a couple of my buddies are like, are you kidding? Like, what are you going to do? This is like going into my junior year of college.

And my other buddy stopped by and he he was like he was kind of laughing like you know it wasn't like anybody respected me in a brawl and i was wearing like a sweater and then a long sleeve tee and a t-shirt underneath that and the first thing he did he walked in because yeah because he bartended there and he walked in he was a couple years older than me and he like grabbed at my my shirt and was like how many shirts do you have on it's embarrassing as if it weren't already humiliating enough you know like knowing like if something happens here between two adults i have no chance none zero so uh it worked out worked out it was safe yeah it wasn't like i was oak bluffs wasn't yeah hey yeah so two shirt two shirt steve yeah two shirt steve i would say to the email or two uh i don't watch forgetting sarah marshall i guess because that was that

like kind of started off weird but then it got good at the end he met me lacuna so i don't know could be a some inspiration was also in Hawaii yeah it's also fake I mean nobody's had a better time while selling us that he's bummed out than Jason Segel in that storyline and I love that movie but he gets dumped

and all he does is hook up non-stop and then he meets like an absolute dream scenario in Mila and has like an unbelievable time in hawaii by himself i mean other than his love his life having loud sex next door to him the entire time but yeah i mean there's guys that have had worse breakups is my point i don't think that's obtainable i don't think his breakup deal is obtainable. Okay.

All right. This one's actually pretty specific and a problem. Black eye while meeting coworkers. Hey, fellas. 25-year-old male, 6'5", 235 pounds, ex-college football player, player comp, Mike Kisecki, but slower and whiter. That's white. Mike Kisecki's pretty white.

Is he Nordic? Who knows? Who knows? kiseki but slower and whiter that's white kiseki's pretty white yeah that's that's right ah who knows who knows from northern greenland not really a wordsmith so i'll try to make this quick up my dream job a couple weeks ago i can really see myself with this company for the rest of my professional career this job is fully remote so i've only met a few co-workers in person to play pickup basketball i have a lunch scheduled this week to meet the rest of the team in person. The problem is I completely fucked up my face this weekend. I was out drinking with the boys and I tend to go a little overboard as a lot of them met a lot of men in their twenties do. We were walking home from the bar and walked past my old apartment complex

that was notorious for towing my friend's cars. There's one of those signs out front that say permit parking only with all the towing info. So in my drunken state, I thought it would be a good idea to run full speed into the sign face first. I know some of you are listening to this right now going like, what is wrong with you guys?

25, ex-football player. 25, you still miss it so much. This is actually not that weird. Does anyone agree, disagree? A sign, though? I mean, you pretty much, it's not going to come out of the ground, right? Like, we're pretty sure about that. I don't want to give the ending away.

Let me catch the sturdiness of this. Come on. Kyle, you've never fought a sign? I'm not going to say no, but I don't think so i wouldn't be shocked i wouldn't be shocked but i don't i don't think so sir do you ever tell one of your friends that sign's got nothing on you i have not uh but you know like i you know when you're walking home from it's it's it's not that ridiculous like i wouldn't headbutt a sign but like you know you jump up or you try to tap it or something and something goes wrong. Like, I can see that happening.

Yeah, the old tap. The old doorway top tap. I wouldn't go face first into it. Yeah. Sign tap and this are totally different categories. We had a bartender show up at our house once who decided to tackle our soda machine. Destroyed it. Destroyed it.

Went right through that. It was one of the weirdest things. Guys are waking up other guys being like but he was like sort of he was tenured as a guy in town we had like certain guys who were just allowed to do whatever they wanted in town this guy was one of them and we just kind of sat and watched him do it destroy it because it was kind of entertaining but we couldn't believe he kept doing it uh it was great for us because he was so humiliated afterwards he had like this massive hangover like regret thing.

And I think that one lasted for a much longer time. And so he just hooked us up the rest of the semester. He was like, sorry about the machine. I was like, okay, cool. These are on me. We had a thing at Quinnipiac where there was a creek on campus. And people would get drunk and try to jump over it to show how athletic they were. That's understandable.

A lot of people ended up in the creek. That's completely understandable. Yeah. I think jumping long distances is hard when you're drunk. It is super hard. Yeah, I don't know what happens. I don't know what happens. 40 degree raining weather and dude's like, I can do it. I can do it. Yeah. Alright, man. Knock yourself out. Yeah, it might be like

all your gauging is off all right so um runs into it face first turns out the sign was in the ground pretty good and i ended up getting the worst of the exchange woke up this morning the left side of my face is numb and my eye is almost swollen shut as well as my arm being incredibly bruised he sent pictures he got jacked up and his whole side of his face has marks on it. Forehead is in the clear. Eye is dinged up. And then there's like another gash from the right nostril or left nostril down to where the beard starts.

So the beard, I mean, he got hit in in his arm is car accident believable here that's what i was gonna say you got to make up like is it that bad you're like yeah we got here or yeah bar on the side or i was like saving somebody and i took a stray like something like you got to make something up so here's this dilemma um i have a feeling that meeting your co-workers for the first time looking like i went three rounds with coked out john jones isn't a great look especially with all of them they're in their 30s with children i was definitely a personality hire for the team but this might be too much too soon after the vibes guy it's fine well what excuse should i give for my face i can't cancel because it's been

planned weeks in advance and i feel like it's worse if i don't show up at all the other problem is is when you cancel and then you have leftover face bruises because this isn't going to go away anytime soon then they're going to be like oh that's when he canceled and then oh because like unless you don't have to see these people for six months yeah you're going to have this guy's going to have this mark on his eye yeah this is going to be lingering there for a little while um what excuse should i give for my face? I can't cancel. We've covered it. My current plan is to say I was with my friends and he got T-boned in a car. I know that seems kind of intense, but I feel like the excuse needs to be serious enough where no one will have

the balls to question it. I highly doubt someone would try to call my bluff on that. Give me your best excuses. So the car accident one, it has to be somebody else's car yeah because eventually at some point you're going to drive like hey this thing looks pretty good they did a good job which you know which mechanic do you use i actually have a couple dents like you know and then it's just gonna you're gonna have to keep investing in this lie

uh if it's somebody else's car that kind of works does work i like you don't want to be a fighter or something right because they'd be like oh what do you practice uh where do you where's your dojo what's a bigger lie to say that you're well here's like i like what you said sir sparring because everybody likes and and the women listening to this may think it's the dumbest thing ever but guys respect the shit out of the other tough guy and you're already pretty big and you played football in college like i played golf with somebody the other day where i was like oh this guy's pretty sturdy and then he handed me a tea and i looked at his hand and it was just like this massive paw of meat and he was already big

and i could already tell like yeah he, he, you know, it's like Jason Bourne in the first one where he scans the entire diner and she's like, what do you see? He's like, I can see that guy can handle himself. He's like a truck driver sitting at the counter. And I asked the guy I was golfing with, I was like, I, that guy, you know, I was like, I'm going to mess with that guy. The guy was like, no, no, not at all. And it was like, all of a sudden it was like just the level of respect for this dude went through the roof because every other guy was in it. So you have a chance to do that.

I think Cerruti's point about the sparring is the right one. But you then may have to actually start taking classes, which could be a win. Because you remember when Idris Elba joins the office and Jim's like, yeah, big soccer guy. And he's like, oh, which club? And then they're like, obviously, he's not going to be like, hey, I'm organizing a sparring after work or something like they did with that soccer game but

um if this is the first time you're meeting these guys there's a there's a small chance that somebody else is super passionate about it and now you're you know and he might can smell it on you right away when he's like oh what where do you where do you fight and you're like uh what what kind what kind of uh martial arts do you practice and you're like uh just the regular boxing maybe he's just like uh i think you're a lion so i don't know you you do run the risk of depending on what kind of place of work you're at having a real tough guy be like g check you a little bit did he say he was moving for this job or is this same city because then you could just be like yeah i did it the old place and i just i'm just it was a you know it was a

sign i gotta stop i'm not gonna do anymore but this is the last one you know you mean admit it admit that you ran into a sign no no like it's a sign that you should this get like you're making up the sparring excuse but you did it at your old location and then you got here and you're like yeah i can't do that anymore i'm getting too old like i don't want to have i don't want to be like look beat up anymore so i'm not doing it anymore so then you don't have to actually join a gym but if you're in the same city it still is uh kind of kind of problematic so like i is it bad enough that it's like is it a foot to the face like is it actually like a sparring punch would have done that you just say your head hit the floor at a weird angle and you just just well

most guys would have headgear on that's what i'm saying that's but you could say we we went no head gear we're bare we're bare knuckle in it. Yeah. Underground. You're right, though. I mean, there's a problem. Somebody's like, which dojo are you out of? Right. Yeah.

Yeah. You could just say you have a private coach. I think the win is that you say it's sparring, and then you have to take up some sort of. Change your life, bro. Yeah. It's a win-win. Like, the biggest lie I ever told changed my life. In the best way possible and then nobody's gonna like it's gonna see the lie may continue though because they'll be like hey i don't want to hear about he played football and he's a ninja first time i saw this guy that's

a happy hour thing first time i saw this guy he came in and was all fucked up because he was fighting. And now you're a fighter guy. Because no one's going to believe you if you say you just fell down a staircase sober. Not going to believe you there. I think you have to have this, whatever the excuse is, because it has to be a lie. You can't tell them the truth. If we're all on the same page that it has to be a lie, it has to be a cool lie. It can't be a lie where they're questioning you.

I just, I don't think it's going to turn into Edward Norton here, fight club where they're like, did we hire, you know, they already know. They said that you're kind of a personality hire. They already know that you played football.

You're a big dude and you're 25. So it's okay. But I would, I would come up with something that makes you look cooler than something that is going to question you and other than i mean are you going to say cowboy in the weekends you know i had a friend who bullfighting who did like fall into a doorknob and hit his eye on a doorknob and it's an it's obviously an insane story and people just like did not believe him but that's why he had a black eye right yeah yeah that's why and so like even if you say that people still aren't going to believe you that was the truth sorry i think you're right i think it's

sparring and then you say he it was weird because the glove got i don't know he got jacked up in this thing i would wear long sleeves though like just have the focus of the injury be on your eye because if they see your eye and your face and your arm then they're going to be like what i mean you got mopped this sign kicked your ass accident i don't know sides are tough man you don't mess the sides i would also say i would also say when you start working and you're going to your happy hour things just make sure you keep it in check you say you know it gets out of hand for you uh but if you do some other sloppy shit they might be like yeah i don't know this guy i'm starting to wonder about that whole side of his face that he says was this and maybe it was

that so uh as a new hire i think just make sure you keep it in check because i can't say skiing can't say skiing i don't think it would happen happen water skiing uh i mean you say rock climbing something fell into your face but then it's like oh you like i'd rather make up that i was taking martial arts than i would make up that i rock climbing and then a guy invites you somebody's definitely going to want to do that with you like oh dude there's a great there's a great mountain 10 minutes from here it's not even a crawl wall best what kind of ropes kind of ropes you got you know you're on amazon buying a harness and ropes and like yeah stupid question but people

love pickleball we talked about a couple of episodes ago is a pickleball ball heavy enough to to do some damage definitely not no but a paddle is you're taking a paddle in the face all right right then you tell the guy like it actually starts you into the group like you're not going to believe this my paddle my pickleball guy hit me right in the head and i gotta find a new partner do you want to play this week and now you're making friends. I got to be honest. I don't love almost any of these. I think the car accident one makes the most sense.

I mean, I guess it's not great for content, but God damn it. You're going to have to learn a niche about whatever this thing is that you're reporting. You're right. You know what? You're right. You're right, Kyle. I kept talking about this so long. You're right.

Because that one, there is no follow-up line. No one at work is going to be like, hey, how's your friend? I don't know. They got T-boned. They could look that information up. Too big of a risk. No one's going to look it up, but you're right. Now you're putting a lie out there that could be checked.

It's not a dog. A lot of you guys are going to offer up options here. You're just not seeing the picture. He got, he got mopped by the sign. Okay. That's it. Life advice has been brought to you by Modelo. This season,

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Imports, Chicago, Illinois. Okay, thanks to everybody on the show today. Kyle, Steve, and Stefan. We'll be back on Wednesday at Ryan Rosillo Podcast. We'll be right back. so you We'll be right back. Colorado, Iowa, Kentucky, Michigan, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Tennessee, and Virginia. Call 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 in Arizona. 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org forward slash chat in Connecticut. 1-800-9 with it in Indiana. 1-800-522-4700 or visit ksgamblinghelp.com in Kansas.

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