The Ryen Russillo Podcast - CFB Ranking Bias, Herbert vs. Burrow, the State of The U, and Going Abroad With Kevin Clark

Episode Date: December 6, 2021

Russillo shares his thoughts on the Bengals’ loss to the Chargers, and the College Football Playoff selection (0:24). Then Ryen is joined by The Ringer’s Kevin Clark to discuss NFL Week 13, including Ravens-Steelers, Chiefs-Broncos, Jaguars-Rams, Giants-Dolphins, the upcoming Bills-Patriots matchup, and more (12:28), before discussing the Miami Hurricanes hiring head coach Mario Cristobal away from Oregon (45:44). Then they discuss the upcoming finale of a wild F1 season in another edition of Going Abroad (58:30). Finally Ryen answers some listener-submitted Life Advice questions (1:13:59). Host: Ryen Russillo Guest: Kevin Clark Producers: Kyle Crichton and Steve Ceruti Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

today's podcast we are bringing it back we're going abroad with kevin clark we're gonna talk football with him and also college football i've got my own little college football open out of the anatomy of a take and life advice so please please enjoy. Before I get to what I really want to focus on here, and that's college football and the playoff committee having the top four teams set, and I think which is basically the right order, but some slight disagreement that I would allow other than I wouldn't.

I'm just going to give you the anatomy of a take a little bit because as I was locked into the early slate for the NFL yesterday, the game I wanted to watch the most was Cincinnati against the LA Chargers, and the Chargers get a 24-0. Now going into this game, I'm like, you know what? Remember when Cincinnati was the one seed and then they got smoked by the Browns? That Browns loss was the only loss they had all season long where they weren't in the game. This is a competitive team with a really good quarterback, with a great outside receiver, and a better offensive line. And the Chargers have their issues on defense. They have their issues.

They lost Bosa in this game on top of everything else. The offensive line is not very good. I really like the receivers, although, you know, after Keenan, maybe not that consistent. But I'm just watching this game. It's at Cincinnati. And I'm going into this knowing because this is the job. I'm like, what can I come up with from this game? Because I'm going, you know what?

I think I want to be back on Cincinnati. I might start saying some dangerous shit about who Cincinnati is because I like going, you know what? I think I want to be back on Cincinnati. I might start saying some dangerous shit about who Cincinnati is, because I like the personnel. And again, you run through their entire season, their resume, almost like a college football team, and you go, they've been really, really good. Other than that fluky Browns loss,

it doesn't make any sense, because the Browns have been a mess. So then it's 24-0. And I was like, all right, maybe that's not the segment that I'm going to open with. But you know what? It's been kind of short fields, a little fluky, the Jamar Chase pick, which really was, you know, again, Burrow hits Chase and then he bobbles it.

It ends up being a pick on the quarterback. And then I'm kind of watching the way the game, like they were up 24-0 so fast. I'm like, all right, I think Cincinnati may still have a chance. Oh, they're starting to get to Herbert a little bit here. Um, granted Burroughs pinky looked like it was broken. Um, and then Burroughs starts putting together some of these drives where I'm

thinking, you know what, this is what I love about Burroughs. You know, it's, it's, uh, it's 24,

22, right? Uh, Burroughs, there's other quarterbacks that like when they would be down multiple scores, they would play it like it was a normal situation. And whereas Burrow, I felt like in two minutes, move the football down the field. I go, this is what I like about this guy, because there'd be other quarterbacks, Kirk Cousins, that would just, hey, I'm going to dink and dunk and attack. And hey, I made it a one score game. And even though Kirk has been better this year, Minnesota, I think is a very competitive team.

game and even though Kirk has been better this year Minnesota I think is a very competitive team there's a difference between hey we scored a touchdown and then also starting understanding game situation being like well no we need you to move the football here a little bit so I kept having these moments where I was talking myself back into the original segment that I wanted to do because I was like Cincinnati's going to come back and win this game almost tweeted it almost started saying again dangerous things about where they were in the AFC. And then they had a fumble return for a touchdown, 31-22, 38-22, games over. And again, Burrow had a drive in there where I thought, hey, they're going to do this, and they threw a pick in the end zone. Because I was like, is Burrow better than Herbert?

Do I like him better than that? Would I say that in the open? Would I say Cincinnati's the best team in the AFC? Would I say this team, with a win today against the Chargers, really was not competitive in only one game. We don't give them enough credit for all that. And then the final score looks like they got absolutely smoked. And I was like, maybe I won't do

that for the Open. So that's how this job works sometimes. At least I don't have a paper deadline. So I do want to do college football instead. The rankings are right. Bama, Michigan, Georgia, Cincinnati. If you had some pushback in saying Michigan should be one over Bama, I'm not going Cincinnati. If you had some pushback in saying Michigan should be one over Bama, I'm not going to tell you you're wrong. I don't really see it that way. And look,

I'll just start with the college football part of this. I guess I was wrong about Bama, but God, I didn't feel wrong. Whether it was getting gashed by Florida on the ground, not being able to block A&M, six rushing yards against LSU, an actual shootout when they couldn't stop Arkansas, and then having to go to multiple overtimes against Auburn and T.J. Finley, who basically had one leg towards the end of that game. And then, of course, they come in and block Georgia all day. Right? Because of course.

Of course they did. They've given us multiple games of evidence that they weren't going to be able to do that, that this offensive line was a problem. And then Bryce Young, who not only stepped up in that 97-yard legacy building drive against Auburn, where he probably won the Heisman with that and an SEC title. Although I don't love just, hey, who was the best team? Let's give their quarterback the Heisman.

Bryce Young had that kind of game. He had that kind of closing moment against Auburn and that kind of game against a statistical defense in Georgia that has been really special all year long so I don't have a problem Bryce ends up winning the entire Heisman it's frustrating because you watch I've watched every Bama game except for the bye before Auburn and I'm like man this just isn't the same and look at what George is doing here against all these different teams it was kind of the way I felt about Ohio State which just even though they're good I know it's Ohio State was just hard to give up on them you're like you know but they're just not as physical.

But it's still kind of hard to pull the trigger when you look at the history with Michigan. If everybody had picked Ohio State in that game and then they pull it out somehow, you're going, all right, well, I was an idiot. I mean, at some point it has to happen. And for Michigan, it finally happened in the Ohio State game. But certainly not the case for Georgia that still finds ways

to lose to Bama all the time despite having talent that I would say even match them except a quarterback. Then it turns into a weird game with Georgia where you start doing it like, well, how good were they? I mean, at some point we have to allow that maybe somebody's good, you know, because a lot of people were doing the same shit about Bama until they

went out and beat Georgia. How many teams do you actually think beat Georgia in that matchup? Because it's not more than five, and it's probably closer to three. And I think obviously we give Michigan that kind of chance. I'm sure Ohio State, even with their blocking issues, maybe over the course of the game and how good C.J. Stroud is, having the better quarterback over Stinson Bennett gives you that kind of chance. But what I don't love about the industry, specific to college football,

is that we start trying to say basically everybody sucks. And it's just not fair. I was not high on Iowa because I watched Iowa all season long. And I got that one right. I didn't think they were that good. Like, cool punting. Hey, this is the way they play. Alright, great. But with Bama, it was more about, I guess you had to allow them the one game chance here to pull this off, but it just never really felt like that. So, again, the example there, watching all season long was misleading with one team and right on point with what we saw from Iowa.

But then it kind of turned into, like, not only did Georgia have a weak schedule, but let's vacate their 12 fucking wins. You're like, all right, relax here. What Georgia did this year was really special statistically. No, the strength of schedule wasn't that great. And even though they lost at Bama, it wasn't like it was 41-3 either. Like there were moments in that game where you felt like Georgia was playing with them, but Bryce Young was that good.

The deep throw of Jamison Williams was just out of this world. And I think a lot of times quarterbacks get too much credit on deep balls because the receiver runs underneath it. You know, it'd be like giving the batter credit for a center fielder catching a fly ball on the run. You know, it's really the guy catching the ball that's making it look better. But there are the rare examples where somebody is full speed, especially off of a move where it's a stop and go, which timing wise is so hard to pull off. And then the ball's offline and the receiver makes up

for it. In this case, it felt like a full full stride thing full speed and and Bryce had the ball right there to him so you know to then turn it into well wait a minute Georgia it loses this game and their strength of schedule sucks and the defense is overrated and their quarterback isn't that good when I even told you all season long I kept having their doubts about their offense but then I would look at their yards per play among power five teams and they were second only to Ohio State you're like okay but there's another stat that's through the roof and again the point differential it wasn't like they were winning all these games by a field goal they were destroying everybody by 35 points on average so that actually is supposed to mean something so what does it mean everybody who hates notre dame wants them in the playoff because georgia lost this game like that doesn't seem to

make a ton of sense either i think the real rule for me is always this. We hold teams that we don't like to a standard that we don't hold the teams that we do like to. I'm glad Cincinnati got in. I've told you all season I don't really love the non-Power 5 teams being in this because I just don't think the challenge is the same for them, but they have an NFL quarterback. They've got a terrific running back. They've got a great secondary.

They beat everybody they were supposed to play. Houston's a good football team. I think they beat Notre Dame when Notre Dame was a lesser version of themselves. It doesn't fucking matter. It counts for this one, and I'm glad they're in there so people don't constantly think that there's zero chance and there's this whole vendetta against them. I don't even know if bias is the right word. I think that they're looked at as having an easier path, and so they're graded with a stricter set of conditions. Now now they're in it and we'll see what happens. And if Cincinnati's blasted in their matchup against Alabama, it doesn't mean that we should then pivot it away and be like, oh, that's why I don't want any of those non-group of five.

I wouldn't say that, even though I'm probably anti them in general. I don't think that that'd be a fair thing to say. Oklahoma's gotten smashed. Ohio State had an awful playoff game. Clemson had six points in one of their playoff games. Notre Dame's been miserable in their two for the most part, which again is sort of ironic that people would be arguing who to be in that fourth spot if you were so anti-Georgia.

I think what bothers me is not all the conversation around it. It's that when you do this for a living and you are pointing out this bias that you yourself are just as guilty of. Like my buddy, Kanell, and I, we go at it all the time. He had Wake Forest ahead of Bama at one point this year. I don't even know that he's serious about it, but it doesn't mean I'm not going to call him on it when we have him on. We're going to have him on again a couple more times.

And we are friends, but I'll look at that stuff and be like, you realize you're doing this shit almost to a more extreme level than you're accusing everybody else of. Joel Klatt had Oklahoma 2 in front of Alabama at one point when he was doing his rankings. There was nothing, nothing that told you, even with a disappointing Alabama, that Oklahoma deserved to be ahead of them. You want to be down on Bama? No problem. Like we said at the top, they gave us reasons to be down on them, and yet there they are, the number one seed and deserving of it. Again, like I said, if you have Michigan ahead of them, I'm not going to get into a huge argument with you about it.

I think Bama's the right call. Michigan is just as deserving of at least consideration. But at the end of the Big Ten championship game, it was almost it felt like Klatt and Gus Johnson had it planned out where they were going to talk about it, where Klatt was like, well, I think the committee will have Bama one, Michigan two, whatever. And then Gus jumps in. He goes, well, wait.

And he's like, hey, that's not how I would have it. Klatt was like, I'd have Michigan one. All right. Again, fine. But then Gus jumps in. He goes, well, that's bias. Why is it bias? Why is it bias to have Bama one ahead of Michigan? That's not bias. It doesn't make any sense. And honestly, Joel and Gus exposed themselves a bit. And I like Joel a lot. We expect to have him on the show at some point. He's been kind of tough to book. I don't think he's going to be mad about this because I've even brought it up before. But at the end of the 2017 Big Ten Championship game, this was the scenario. You had Ohio State who lost to Oklahoma at home 31-16.

They lost to an unranked Iowa team 55-24. So they had two losses and then beat Wisconsin in the Big Ten championship game. And at the end of that, guys are like, well, partner, you think there's any doubt? And Klatt's like, no doubt for me whatsoever. Ohio State should be in the playoff. And you're like, are you guys forgetting 11-1 Alabama? It feels like you're forgetting 11-1 Alabama.

You want to have Ohio State in because you think you've watched all the teams and you just think they're a better football team? That's fine. Okay. But to not even include Alabama in that breakdown towards an end of a game, again, that was four years ago, but I'll never forget it because I'm at home just like I was on Saturday listening to the idea that Michigan not being ahead of Alabama was some injustice that we needed a committee to debate over. Like, it was ridiculous. Bama was 11-1.

They weren't in the SEC title game, but they had lost to No. 6 Auburn. And guess who was out? Ohio State was out, and Bama won another national title. So there are just too many times where I feel like in the business, I can put together any strength of schedule. I can put together a thing where it's against current top 25s, non-current top 25s. I can manipulate the numbers almost any way I want to

to twist this into something that I'd like to root for. But all I'm really rooting for is an honest approach to all of it. Look, if somebody who watches does it for a living and consumes all of the content, okay? My Saturdays are pretty booked in the fall, so I care about this stuff. I just think there's a lot of examples of people that are accusing everyone of doing the same stuff that they're actually doing. people that are accusing everyone of doing the same stuff that they're actually doing. Kevin Clark, one of our favorites. Haven't had him on in a while. Host of the NFL

Ringer Show and Ringer Columnist. This is going to show some real versatility here, folks. We will talk a lot of NFL. We will talk some college ball as well. There could be even breaking news while we're taping this. It may happen after we're done and it's posted and a return of going abroad because F1, I don't even know how to explain this weekend's race. So we've been, I've been slacking. No one else is slacking. It's been

on me. So Kevin, good day to you, sir. How are you? I'm great. A big sports weekend. There you go. Something up. Perfect. We got it. We're getting it all in. All right. Here's where I want to start. As I mentioned earlier in this podcast, it was almost the anatomy of a take where I was watching Cincinnati and the Chargers. That was the game I was most locked into in the early window. I am

watching it going, you know what? Cincinnati is really good. And right when I thought they were really good, they get blown out by the Browns. And then it kind of like shook us again. And you know what? They're good. And now they're down 24-0. And right when I thought they were really good, they get blown out by the Browns. And then it kind of shook us again. And you know what? They're good. And now they're down 24-0. And then I'm like, well, this sucks. And then I'm like, they're going to have to come back and win this game.

And they did not do those things. I saw people arguing about Herbert versus Burrow. And in the moment when I was watching Burrow, I go, this is why I love Burrow. Because he was doing some things that clearly I mentioned. Give me your Cincinnati take in a game that went sideways for them. And also where you are with the Justin Herbert, Joe Burrow comp, because those are the two guys.

You know, look, there's another handful of guys that are going to be in that conversation. But those two dudes for about a decade, I think, will be sitting here being like, remember when we debated this and there'll be one clear winner or maybe they won't be great. I don't know. Tua completing 80% of his passes down two yards down the field, isn't doing it for you. He's not put, he's not in that conversation right now because of that. Um, no. So, okay. So there's a couple of things to unpack here. Number one is when I check around the league about this debate and I've been doing it for a couple of weeks now, um, because I find it really fascinating, is you find out pretty quickly how much front office

opinions are rooted in draft priors. And a lot of this, I think from the league standpoint for me, and this probably leaks into our brains for various reasons. I'll get to that in a second. Blake Burrow is just a different dude than Justin Herbert. Joe Burrow,

the Bengals basically want him being the offensive coordinator at some point down the road. He basically runs offensive meetings. When I talked to those guys down in Cincinnati, they say the goal was him for him to be in, quote,

Peyton Manning mode down the road. So they want him to be a different guy than what Herbert wants. Herbert played a game yesterday, which we all wanted him to see. He had the longest depth of target he's had, I think, ever. It was 10 yards down the field.

Joe Lombardi opened up the offense. He had, I think, ever. It was 10 yards down the field. Joe Lombardi opened up the offense. He was, I think, 5 of 7 on deep balls. 85% adjustment completion percentage according to Pro Football Focus. So we're seeing Justin Herbert at full throttle. And he looks better than Joe Burrow at full throttle. And I think that if this continues, I think it's Herbert. But I also think that Burrow has the capability to make up the value in other ways. And I think that from a leadership standpoint, I think Burrow's probably the guy.

Herbert's a little more quiet. And I also think just looking at the – I'm a huge – you are too – a huge fan of looking at the situation a quarterback is put in. The Chargers have a better GM, a better head coach. They do not have a better play caller. They don't have a better GM, a better head coach. They do not have a better play caller. They don't have a better offense. The offensive line situation is a disaster right now. What Herbert did in that game,

considering, and I know there were some short drives and turnovers that led to them having a million points immediately, which is why I thought Cincinnati still had a chance in the game. But I saw some debate about who had played a better game in that one. I think the depth, I saw some debate about who had played a better game in that one. I think the depth of target and the offensive line part of it and losing all momentum and

then coming back and winning the game the way they did, that one kind of feels like it has to go in Herbert's direction, not just because of the win. It is going in Herbert's direction. It is going in Herbert's direction. I think anybody who said it was going in Burrow's direction is overthinking themselves. PFF had it this morning that Burrow played better because he had more big-time throws and he had less drops. Burrow had four drops yesterday from his receivers. Herbert had zero. By the way, Burrow hurt his pinky earlier, so we don't even know what that would look like if he wasn't literally screaming on the sidelines. most fascinating debates in football.

And it goes to, like, if you redrafted, who would go first overall? We had Bruce Selman on the podcast a couple weeks ago. He said he would still take Burrow because he's been around Burrow and understands he's also, also obviously been around Herbert. But I think a lot of this is still priors.

And I think that if both of these guys get put in an optimal situations over the next five years, I think, I think I'm starting to come around to the idea that Herbert could be better just because, I mean, everybody I trust from a tape standpoint says that his throws are absolutely perfect. And I don't know. I'm going to go back and forth on this a hundred times.

I just think the throws and the actual tape, Herbert throws a better ball. Burrow has the capability to make that up in other areas of the game. That's my take. Yeah, and that result was huge because both teams are 7-5. Chargers are the sixth seed. Cincinnati's the last seed. It's the seventh seed. And Cincinnati has the tiebreaker

over them right now because of that head-to-head. But when I look at Cincinnati, when I think, okay, other than yesterday in the Browns game, they've been competitive in every single game. There are more statistical things

I like about them. Baltimore almost ended the day with a one seed again, and the last month has been brutal for them. Lamar, I thought, sucked again yesterday, and I think I'll just transition to that. And Tennessee, like the eight and four is irrelevant because it doesn't really matter here. So I still think I'd put Cincinnati ahead of like three teams

that are ahead of them right now, although it just feels stupid saying it after the Chargers part of it. And I'm glad you brought up the Burrow thing because, as I mentioned, you know, again, at the top, it was clearly a problem. You know, it wasn't just the dramatic yelling. I mean, when he's handing it off with the other hand and he was doing some of the ball handling stuff

with the offhand, you're like, okay, this is a problem here. I don't want to stay on that thing. Let's just go to Lamar because, you know, right when I started giving Lamar all this credit for some of the things that he was changing about intermediate throws and how he was realizing he was being defended, I don't know if this is an all blitz thing.

It felt that way against Miami. It felt like that with Cleveland with the four picks. Again, I'd have to know what the charts say. I don't feel like it was just full-out blitz all day from Pittsburgh the way it was in some of those other games. And I know he got the last touchdown to almost get him the win with a two-point conversion. But what's going on with Lamar the last month?

Okay, so part of it was the blitzes. Highsmith and Watt had career highs and pressures. And that's just going to happen sometimes because of the way Lamar plays. But he was blitzed in the first half 46% of 46 of his dropbacks okay so that is a huge number yeah yeah they were they were getting after him um the the mid-range stuff you mentioned it it was it was bad uh lamar was four of eight on medium range targets one of three on deep passes um it was bad and and it's interesting to me you mentioned the afc i saw one of the ravens writers say that they're uh this is the first time since 2002 that every team at this point in a conference in the afc uh has four losses so there's some parity here and there's a malaise i think is

really weird i don't know what that is because i've heard a bunch of theories i've heard that the extra week teams are adjusting to a little more i think that you can't overlook the lack of a buy and the extra playoff spot with the increased season as a way to maybe on a week to week basis have less urgency if teams aren't battling for that second buy spot. I mean, that's just a league-wide

thing. That's an AFC thing about why maybe there's a little more parity than normal, and I think there's five other theories that we can get to later. But Lamar Jackson is 1-2 against Pittsburgh. He has eight turnovers in those three games. He's been sacked 16 times. And he's just missing throws. I mean, that was the thing. I was reading the postgame quotes from Harbaugh, Mark Andrews. Mark Andrews was open. There was some pressure from TJ Watt that was significant, but he was wide open. And Lamar is missing throws. I don't know. I don't know what that is. I think he's being careless

with the ball. I think that when I was reading some of the Ravens writers and Ravens analysts this morning, I think that they, you know, I think Trent Dilfer says it best. Lamar Jackson is not playing kind of bogey golf when he gets in trouble. He's really, really trying to make things happen. And so we need some, some careless passes. And I think that right now he needs to learn how to play boring football. I know that's the prescription for like half of the league, especially any quarterback under 30. But I think that there are situations where the Ravens could win games if he just took the short ones a little bit more.

And listen, there's a handful of problems here. The fact that, by the way, they lost Marlon Humphrey, that's the reason they had to go for two because they were basically out of cornerbacks. That was a huge, huge, huge loss. But I would say I'm concerned about the Ravens, but I'm so concerned about every AFC team that I just put them in one pot and say,

we'll see what happens. Yeah, because, I mean, Lamar, when you think about the rest of the roster and the injury part of this stuff, he's done as good of a job. If you're just looking at which quarterback has carried his team to a record, that's really impressive and felt like

it on his own. That's why I wouldn't just write him off of the MVP thing. He can turn this around. The broadcast was big on him holding on the ball a little bit too much. They were saying that Hollywood and Andrews on the sideline were giving him... I don't think Lamar's the kind of guy that you're going to get

on the way of a Daniel Jones might get yelled at Lamar Lamar's got more status. I think his teammates always love him because he's got such a great personality, but he Lamar has like this, this part of him that I think is both frustrating the evaluation that he can have like a bad first down, bad second down. And then the most amazing third down you've ever seen, you're moving the chains. So it's almost like caught looking caught looking and then you know bottom of the seventh the three run homer you know what i'm saying so like again that's different but even on that last drive he started with what would have been a pick but there was a flag yeah and then there was a fumble that was called off um and then he hit two deep throws.

So you're like, okay, so what the hell is going on with him right now? So whatever. I think that's fair. But when the Ravens very well could have been the one seed after this week, if they get that two-point conversion, I'd had a really hard time being like, yeah, that's the team to beat. That's the team to beat in the AFC. Kansas City wins last night.

They're doing it with defense, Kevin, at this point. 56 points allowed in the last five games. They've won a bunch in a row. They're in first in their division. But Mahomes with another underwhelming offensive game. So where are you with Kansas City as the four seed? Okay, so my feeling on this is that if Mahomes is the problem, and he's literally, if you look at it right now, Mahomes is the problem.

The pocket was clean last night. Hill and Kelsey were not involved. Over the past six games, and this includes a five-touchdown performance against Las Vegas, Mahomes has seven touchdowns, four picks, 81 rating. And you take out that five-touchdown performance, that's just no good. I think he's quarterback 16 or something in fantasy over that time, just to give you kind of a snapshot of what that looks like. Yeah, drop him. That is like the best news you could possibly have. In the same way, I mean, like Lamar Jackson fixes his own problems, right? That's what we just talked about, where on third down, he can hit the home run ball. Right now, you know, Ryan Clark, I heard him talk about this morning, said that he

thinks the Mahomes lacks confidence. He's just missing throws right now. And I think that to me, again, if that's the problem that needs to be solved, it will be solved. The defense has been fixed. That to me was the biggest question going into this season. And I just think that the idea that Mahomes isn't right. And listen, this is a league wide thing as far as defenses have gotten really good at taking away the chunk play. That era of chunk play, of being able to throw over the defense's head, that has kind of ended because of the way defenses have shifted. I think every quarterback

has been able to adjust in some parts to the fact that the defenses are putting a cap on that. I just think that Andy Reid and Patrick Mahomes are figuring it out right now. Mahomes is missing throws. He lacks confidence. I don't believe the Super Bowl theory.

There's a theory now that he has the yips because of how bad the Super Bowl was and chasing ghosts or seeing ghosts. I talked to him about it, and he said that he thought he was fleeing from clean pockets and all that stuff. I don't think the confidence ended there because he started out in September with a bunch of 130 ratings. He was fine. Something happened to him over the course of the season, whether or not it just banged up, whether or not it's just him struggling to adjust. I don't know what it is, but I do know that if that's your problem,

you're in a pretty good situation. I loved kind of Collinsworth, although it felt a little bit like playing the results last night when he dropped down the sidearm again. He's like, all right, well, you know, we don't need this all the time. And again, I'm on your corner right now doing any collinsworth so i should just get out of the way uh but you know when they but hold on i stole i kind of stole that from you i this the collinsworth impression i kind of stole from you because it's the same we talked about it on the

show but the you know you got to come jason galler gave me the note you have to come in laughing to do collinsworth like you have to pre-laugh in order to do collinsworth yeah i don't i don't feel like there's stuff that i do think you've stolen from me this isn't really one of them i'm totally kidding uh that was just too easy uh no but it's just i think collins were like for all the shit he gets i think there's a lot of stuff throughout a game where i'm like oh that's pretty good i think we're all like to this point now when we hear guys for so long then we ultimately hate him it's like it's almost like being married where the longer you listen to somebody the more likely you're gonna be like all right i right, I'm not sure I'm... And I'm over that,

where I'm thrilled when I get a little bit of a nugget. I love when Troy Aikman is so over a quarterback by hour two. It's the best, because Troy's basically like, not seeing it, folks. When I was at the Wall Street Journal, I went to Collinsworth's house to watch film,

and it was the best football experience I've ever had in my entire life. He's so smart, and he did something that, I think about this constantly, okay? And this is like the Romo thing for me, right? Where we were watching the NFC title game before the Malcolm Butler Super Bowl, okay?

So it was the Seahawks, Seahawks playing. And he kept pointing to Michael Bennett, and he was like, Michael Bennett wants to go offsides on every single play. Every time there's a big play, Michael Bennett is desperate to go offsides. And he just pointed that out to me, whatever. And then,

if you remember, when New England got the ball back in the fourth quarter, there was a huge, huge, huge Michael Bennett's offsides. And Collinsworth had just seen that on tape like two weeks earlier. And he didn't even tell anybody. He just made a's offsides. And Collinsworth had just seen that on tape like two weeks earlier. And he didn't even tell anybody. He just made a note of it.

And he was like, man, Michael Bennett's going to go offsides in a huge spot. And he did. And I just, that to me is like next level. Like, that's not just like, oh, Justin Herbert's throwing great on film. That's like, I understand the game at just way higher playing than everybody else. The Rams played Jacksonville. They won. Congrats. The Mc played Jacksonville. They won. Congrats.

The McVay offensive numbers, I think I was, I forget who had it, but it was like of the 75 McVay games, the last three were in the bottom 10 as far as EPA. So basically your offensive output and it rivaled any stretch that, that Goff had never really had a stretch that was, that Goff had never had as bad of a three-game stretch. And look, there's just people with all sorts of shorting Stafford positions. So they were thrilled to see it.

I am not one of those people. I think Stafford is clearly better than Goff. I'm not even sure that it's an argument. Goff just got his first win ever this week. Shout out to the Lions. That was without McVay. No, I was happy for him. Great.

How about that defense from Minnesota? What was that? Let everybody get everything in front of you keep everything in front of you even if it's in the end zone even if it's in the end zone just don't get beat deep plant those heels if this guy goes to throw it on the back of the end zone will be positioned perfectly maybe get a pick seal this thing uh what how does that happen i i don't i look dancer clearly on the left the left corner he he made a mistake with the way he just was trying to protect the corner or the back corner.

I don't know, man. Well, no. So Kobe pointed out the other side of the field was doing it too. It was not a player error. It was just like it was a coaching thing. I'm on Ross St. Brown. Actually was asked about it after the game, and he said the defense they were playing was, quote,

actually crazy, which is good. Yeah, that's a good... Anytime you're a defensive guru like Mike Zimmer and a young wide receiver says your defense is actually crazy, things are going well. By the way, Detroit deserved that one. Minnesota did not. And Minnesota has fought all season long.

They are a team that is, I think, better than their record is. I think this snapped the streak of them being the only team in the league that has a seven-point lead or more through every single game this season because I think they only got up six in this one. But with the fumble late, you're like, I can't believe this is going to happen to the Lions again. So I think all of us are collectively happy for the Lions.

I think a lot of people have kind of fallen in love with Dan Campbell throughout all of this because we love coaches. We love making fun of coaches that we don't think they should have the job, but we're not threatened by them and they lose all the time that we love coaches. We love making fun of coaches that we don't think they should have the job, but we're not threatened by them and they lose all the time that we feel bad for them.

He's also just a remarkably genuine person. I hinted at this in my story I wrote about him, but when he started talking unprompted about the auto industry collapse in 2008, he actually teared up.

He choked up. He's from Texas, but he cares about Detroit in a way that choked up like he, he's not, he's from Texas, but he cares about Detroit in a way that I think that I think I could see it if it was phony and, and, and it's not, it's not phony with, with Dan. That's my take. Yeah. I, there's a handful of other coaches. If they broke down the auto industry, uh, deal in Detroit, I would be like, they would just keep it moving. They would just keep it moving. yeah. I'd be like, wait, what? Okay, so shout out Detroit and all that.

Anything... I don't know. I feel like it's a dumb question to even ask you. Be like, hey... Because the Rams, after the Tampa win, they're like, all right, this team is for real. And it's been a really bad month. Diana Rossini was really on this, though,

where I don't think it was the usual bumps and bruises where it felt like Stafford was dealing with stuff that's a little bit more excessive. But again, a lot of guys are, so you never know how much that plays into the performance. But the performance was bad, and they beat a really bad team. So I don't know. Yeah, Stephen Ruiz watched this game pretty closely yesterday,

and we actually talked about it. And he had said that they were doing a little more under center. They were pulling their guard a little bit more. They were doing some things that were more creative, but it wasn't all that different. So Tej Seth, who I think does analytics at the University of Michigan, said that this was the big stat that came out a week ago. It was that under McVay, all-time in Los Angeles, weeks one through eight, they're second in the NFL in offense, and weeks nine through 17, they to 19th in the NFL and offense.

So there's always a regression in the second half of the season. And that could just be the lack of adjustments. We've seen Sean McVay is so good at everything, but he's not good at in-game decision making. And he's not amazing at kind of reading a season and figuring out where it's going and making adjustments from there. And you almost feel like he needs like a guy on staff who can help out with, with both of those things that Sean McVay is not the Sean McVay of game management and he needs to go and find that guy.

So I would say that there's that, but I don't, I mean, the Jaguars is such a mess, dude. Like I don't, I mean, Trevor Lawrence has one touchdown since, since Halloween. I just, there's just nothing going on there. And I don't think, I was actually surprised when I asked Stephen this last night. Like, I thought that maybe playing the Jaguars, McVay could use it

as a bit of a laboratory and say, hey, let's try this. Like, we're going to win anyway. And it sounded like he didn't really do that. Can you say the McVay stat again? Because that's really impressive. Yeah, so it's from Tej Seth.

And it's EPA per per play expected points uh one through eight second in the nfl weeks one through eight second in the nfl weeks nine through 17 ninth excuse me 19th in the nfl yearly issue he says yearly issue that's crazy uh yeah that's why i wanted you to repeat it i I, anything quick on Trevor Lawrence. Cause I feel like if he were the jets, we'd be talking about him a lot more. Um, I can't tell cause the stats aren't good.

That's fine. Uh, I don't know if you're blaming his slutty quarterback outfit for Halloween and why he hasn't thrown many more touchdowns since it doesn't sound, I'm going to say that you're not going there. Um, they got the weird Miami win a bills win where the bills were were in their own rut we'll get to pick monday night football here um i physically we get

it but when you're the best prospect probably since andrew luck yeah it's unbelievable that we don't ever really talk about you nationally and i'm not even sure what's fair other than if he were with the jets and had this stat line there'd be way more segments on, is he the guy? Which is probably unfair anyway for any rookie quarterback. But it's kind of funny that he exists, the buildup to what it is now, he exists almost in this world of non-interest. We've done, should Zach Wilson be the starter next year,

like five times on various podcasts that I've heard or have done. I think we did it last week without Russell Wilson. But it's a disaster right now in Jacksonville. I'm going to separate Trevor Lawrence out from here. So DJ Chark and Jamal Agnew are out for the season. I think the leading receiver last night

was Laquan Treadwell. He's back. He's back and he's leading teams in receptions. And Urban Meyer is a bad NFL coach. And I don't know, like, the thing to me, Ryan, and I'm going to rant here because I've ranted on this a couple of times.

It just upsets me how many times we talk to older quarterbacks who never really made it. And the reason being is because they were failed by a bunch of people earlier in their career. They got off track. And once you get off track as a young quarterback, you can really, really get off track. And I feel like you really have two years for the franchise to figure their

stuff out. Right. And geography is destiny and all that stuff. And you look at all the advantages Mac Jones gets, and I'm not saying Urban Meyer had to be Bill Belichick, but he has to be a little better than this. The team is real bad. They need to fix this right now. I don't really know what that is. I would probably move on from Urban Meyer. I just thought this was going to be better. I thought it was going to be less sloppy from Urban Meyer.

I thought there'd be more offensive ideas from Urban Meyer. I just don't know what this is. I mean, we go back to the stuff where, you know, Nick Saban left the NFL because he didn't like not controlling his own destiny. He literally said that. And I think sometimes when you're a guy like, like urban Meyer, who, by the way, I mean, we, I've talked to people about this. If you have no idea what the NFL is, sometimes you just, it's not what you expected and you

don't want to be there. Urban Meyer has never coached a day in the NFL before he became Jaguars head coach. And I kind of feel like he went into this, not understanding certain elements of it. And I've been disappointed in the tenure. And I think it's probably best if he doesn't coach the team anymore. And he just goes back to, I heard he loved Fox.

I heard he was like the most prepared analyst of all time at Fox. Like, I don't know, do something like that, bud. Go to college, Tim. Yeah, but that'd be admitting that he's the problem. And guys don't do that with his resume.

Certainly not after one year. But the Lawrence numbers are bad. I mean, his QBRs the last few weeks, 29, 21, 31, 33, 38, 11. And that's all since, yeah, you're right, Halloween. That's Seattle loss at 31-7. And that's all since, yeah, you're right, Halloween. That's Seattle loss at 31-7. And that's one touchdown pass. I mean, the yardage numbers here in a league where guys throw for 340 and lose, and you don't even like them after the game.

You're like, I don't know about this guy. Like, there's games I'll watch, and I'll be like, I don't know about this guy. He's 21-28 for 340, two touchdowns and a pick. You know? Like, I have probably too many of those throughout the course of a season now, even though scoring has been down and some of the higher NQB stuff, those numbers have trickled down from where

they were last year, but this is actually bad and also sort of invisible as a topic. 100%. It's Jacksonville, and that's part of it, but also say, so yesterday he completed 57% of his passes. PFF did not have him for a single, quote, big-time throw. This means he just didn't throw a big pass all day uh when he was pressured his completion percentage was 16 percent

um this is this is a guy who needs infrastructure and needs it quickly and and i don't know what you do right now if you're jack smill i had him down as one big throw but that's that's my that's the way i chart we all do it differently okay i, I want a Bills-Pats pick, but I still have to do one other thing. It's sort of in the division, but it's also in the NFC as well. Tua and the Dolphins have won a bunch in a row. I should say the defense and the Dolphins

have won a bunch in a row. There's clearly more trust, though, through this stretch with Tua, I believe, than what was a complete lack of trust with Tua at two different segments, whether it was a rookie and then coming back after some injury stuff. He had 25 pass attempts in the first half of that game yesterday.

Yeah. And so there are moments now where you go, okay, do we have something? And if you're Miami, you want to believe that you have something. I still think the Deshaun deal for them in the offseason is still a real possibility. But this is kind of that thing where will you talk yourself into something that makes you feel better about a decision you made, even if it could be the wrong decision?

I think there's a little of the Jalen Hurts thing going on here with Philadelphia as well. To credit to everybody involved, they revamped that offense for a month. Some of the offensive numbers they were putting up were insane. You could argue some of the rushing attack stuff from Jalen was more impressive than what we see from Lamar, which even though from Lamar, it's always going to look better than everybody else. But the bigger thing is, are we close to having two franchises perhaps double down on something that isn't a solution?

Yes, for one big reason. So Josh Rosen was clearly not the solution, but then Kyler Murray was available in the draft. It was a good quarterback year. There are no franchise quarterbacks to speak of in the draft next year. Kenny Pickett is not one of them. By the way, I'm just telling you that will change. Six weeks out, two months from the draft.

We're going to start hearing about how much better the tape was on three or four different guys. I'm just telling you. Okay, yes. I understand that. What I also say is what drove me up a wall

a couple of weeks ago is there was a quote from an anonymous scout in Ian Rappaport's piece about draft quarterbacks saying exactly what we're saying now, which is they're going to rise. And one of the quotes was, well, these guys will start rising once coaches get involved.

Maybe we shouldn't involve the coaches then. Like maybe we shouldn't let the coaches just start saying, oh, this guy should actually be the third overall pick. Like maybe, I don't know, maybe there should be a little more separation of church and state if once the coaches get involved, they just start saying, oh, this guy should actually be the third overall pick. Like maybe, I don't know. Maybe there should be a little more separation of church and state. If once the coaches get involved,

they just start elevating players who don't deserve to be elevated. That's just maybe I'm the crazy one, but that's just my take on this. But okay, you want to talk yourself into two and you want to talk yourself into Jalen Hurts because you don't want to go into the quarterback lottery next year.

So I do want to commend, before I throw shade at you, I do want to commend what the Dolphins have done, which is they they've rearranged their entire offense to make this work.

This is RPO stuff since week 11 on short passes. He's 55 of 61 for 427 yards, but he's completing these passes. He's leading. He's going to he's

leading the NFL in completion percentage from not mistaken. He's setting all sorts of records for that. He's got I think 100 rating for that. He's got, I think, 100 rating for the most times in a row since Dan Marino

with the franchise going. That's all great. It's not sustainable, but it's also not to the point that you have to rearrange your franchise so that you have to get a new guy. You don't have to go out and trade Deshaun Watson and do whatever crazy stuff was happening around the trade deadline where they were trying to get that trade across the finish line.

I don't think you have to sell out for that anymore. I'm sure if he becomes available, it's a different conversation and everything legally gets sorted out. But I certainly wouldn't engage with trade discussions right now or anytime soon. And you don't want to take a first-round pick. There's more holes for them to fill. And so I think that they've saved everybody's jobs.

I think that Tua is going to be the starter next year, barring Russell Wilson, Aaron Rodgers, or Deshaun Watson becoming available. And I think it's fine. So I think these franchises will talk themselves into it because there's no other options. But I would also say that both of them could easily be replaced if Rodgers or Wilson say, I'm coming. Yep.

All right. That's fair. All right. Last thing here. New England goes into Buffalo with all the momentum in the world. We know the concerns with Buffalo. Josh Allen, if you look across the board, the stats, completion percentage down a bit, touchdown interception ratio down

significantly, yards per attempt is down. QBR is down almost 20 points. Last year was an all-timer year for somebody and he's still better this year than he was, I think, at the start of his career. So I think there's concern there. The lack of balance. The defense that feels like it's not always something you can rely on versus New England team

that feels like, hey, we love the defense. We love Mac Jones. I would argue New England during this win streak has hit up teams maybe at their worst point of any point of their season. Atlanta, believe it or not, I don't know how often people realize this, but Atlanta having five wins this year is one of those records where you look at standings and be like, wait, what? Atlanta's five and seven? How did that happen? But they were one and three in the four-game stretch

where they got killed by Dallas. They played New England. The Browns are a mess. The Titans aren't even the Titans. The Panthers, the same thing. The win at the Chargers was a really impressive win because I still think with the Chargers, somebody you have to show up and play.

So having said all those things, I think because this one's in Buffalo, I'm going to pick the Bills. But this might be my own resistance to as great as Mac is in the story for this season isn't about his ceiling. It doesn't none of that matters. But I still think from what I've seen this year, there's there's a bunch of guys that I'd rather have in a playoff game from a really deep young group in the AFC at the quarterback position and some way of Buffalo figuring out a way, at least at home, to salvage what momentum has shifted in the AFC East. I could be totally wrong.

That's what I'm going with. By the way, I just want to throw out a stat because you mentioned the Falcons. The Lions have a better point differential than the Falcons. So yeah, that's why that's why every week when you're like, wait, what? Just the five and thanks for the falcon um yeah don't i didn't expect that all right so uh i'm gonna go with the bills only because it's home and only because the patriots are due for a game that's not perfect i have loved what they've what the patriots have done over the past two months it's been unbelievable doug kide

had a really good piece the other day um about catchable Mac Jones' balls are. And basically, guys like Kendrick Bourne, all these guys have career-low drop rates because Mac Jones throws a really, really catchable ball. And that, to me, is interesting. You marry that with the offense that they've built where basically they're running more in situations where you might pass more than anybody except, I think, the Ravens and the 49ers

who basically their livelihood is through the run game in most cases. So this is a true run first offense. I saw the phrase a couple weeks ago and I keep thinking about it a lot. They're winning with Mac Jones because they're pretending that modern football never happened. And I think that's a really interesting way to put it. They're putting in a position to succeed. It's a master class in building around your quarterback.

I love it. I'm going with the Bills just because I kind of feel like both those teams are due for a statement and maybe the opposite direction just because of how hot they've been the past couple weeks in New England. That probably means New England's going to win this thing. I love this quote from Mike Sandoz, athletic

pick six piece that comes out every Monday morning where he talks to just all these different executives. He was trying to size up New England and the guy goes, quote, we're really talking about style points. We don't like a Kansas City team that wins ugly. We don't like New England because we aren't sure they can win a shootout. At some point, you have to ask yourself

if you just don't like winning. I kind of love that. That's more or less my Titans take. It's like this team knows how to win games. Yeah. All right, so wait a minute kansas city's boring and new england isn't what the ceiling but i'm sorry look i still think that there's some sort of weird afc shootout that you're gonna have to win with some of these really

good quarterbacks and something will open up and i don't know and it's not like saying mac jones is incapable of it but i think if you're watching mac there this is a great story. It's awesome. Belichick may have hit on a guy for another 10 years, one year removed from forcing Brady out after 20 of the greatest years we've ever seen. If you're able to do that, it's not quite Manning transitioning into Luck. Or maybe it's better because Mac won't bail. Or clearly, New England will take care of a young Mac Jones better than the Colts did a young Andrew Luck.

I thought it was interesting. Andrew Callahan was my podcast last week and I asked him how important 2020 was to 2021 for them. And he said that he thinks that they learned the extent of their ability to solve problems last year. They thought they could just roll with Cam Newton, design an offense, everything would be fine. And then they were like, oh, wait,

we actually can't really do this as well as we thought. And so I think that 2020 was actually a necessary buffer between 2019 and 2021. They learned a lot of lessons about themselves and just kind of an interesting path that they had last year where they kind of fell on their face, especially in the second half of the season. And now they've kind of recommitted themselves and understand what Mac Jones needs. So I do think that that path is a little interesting to me. All right, we did a quick break. We got to do some college football with Kevin who wrote a great piece on the coaching carousel

and describing college football in general to strangers and start your engines maybe three or four times because we got one more race to go going abroad. If you check out Ringer, ringercom uh and get kevin clark's profile up you can see a piece from last week about just basically college football and why i love it because if you had to explain it to somebody that didn't understand it they were like you have to be kidding me and uh i think we were at a point now with the coaching carousel a point that i said this is coming because they know money is coming in with the new TV deals.

People will likely spend money before they have it if they know it's coming. Like, ah, well, whatever. I got a new deal. I'm going to raise a Christmas bonus and that kind of stuff. And that's exactly – just to set this up because I did the numbers again. If Brian Kelly's – well, let me do it this way. Top five coaching salaries going into this season, Nick Saban, 9.7. Coach O was at 9 million. David Shaw

was 8.9. Dabo was 8.3. Lincoln Riley was at 7.6. Right now, Lane Kiffin would be 6th because of a nice little run at Ole Miss. Again, for Ole Miss, I think they signed him because they were afraid he might leave or whatever. I don't think

Florida and LSU had that much interest in Lane, but he still got a huge deal out of it. Cristobal's new deal, and this is official, he's going to the U. So we got to talk to Kane fan number one over here. He's out of Oregon. Cristobal was making 4.5 at Oregon. Oregon offered him 8.5 to stay. Cristobal, great recruiter.

And then you're like, wait, I'm not even sure Miami's a better job than Oregon. I would say that it isn't unless all of this Miami stuff is going to change overnight. No, we'll get to this. I'm just up here. Cristobal would be the fourth highest paid coach. Lincoln Riley's number seems to settle in at 11, so that's ahead of everybody else. Kelly's

is about 10 because there's very obtainable bonuses on the retention part of that by each year so like this is going to get so ridiculous in such a short amount of time um and i know that you love it so go in any direction off of that that you want this is the future and this is how it's going to be from now on because there's a lot of money and schools can big game hunt and there's no reason to settle anymore it was interesting to me and i don't want to get too too far down the rabbit hole in the NFL, but I talked to

some people in the NFL last week and I was like, is this going to change anything? And they're like, nah. If Matt Rule says he's trying to go to Oklahoma, freaking David Tapper will say, see ya, bud. And if Cliff Kingsbury tries to use leverage, they'll probably just laugh. Because

I think everyone views a good NFL job as better than a good college job, right? That's just the way it goes. Bill Belichick's not taking a call from Alabama. Andy Reid's not taking a call from Florida. So the one thing that was floated to me was maybe B-level coordinators who are only being offered like the Detroit job or something like that might say, hey, it might be a little better to go to South Carolina or something like that. Do you use the portal ticket? Take two good years and make a bunch of money, right?

Like maybe that could be five or six years off. And then Albert Beer reported something that quite frankly is even more interesting, which is the ownership level. the NFL thinks that maybe this will carry over in the sense that if you're in Chicago, why are you going to just go after Brian Dable when you could just go after Sean Payton and just see what happens? And that to me is the most interesting piece of it, was maybe just the mentality changes.

So back to college. I think that this is probably the new normal, just in the sense, I've done a lot of reporting over the last couple of weeks, Ryan, about what it means to be back, right? And like, there's all these hand wavy things, but oh, it's not 1988 anymore. So see you in Nebraska, Miami,

and every USC and every situation is just completely different. I would say the barrier for entry to compete at the top, top, top of college football is so much bigger than it was. Huge recruiting staffs, guys who watch tape, tree to compete at the top, top, top of college football is so much bigger than it was. Huge recruiting staffs, guys who watch tape, NFL guys who used to be in front offices now sitting around watching guys at the transfer portal. I think the biggest thing, Ryan, when you look at Brian Kelly

and Lincoln Riley leaving to go to better jobs is the massive gulf and the massive difference between making the playoff and winning the playoff. I think that's the biggest thing. I think the coaches think there's a huge difference between those two things. And so I think that it's a resources thing. And I think that it comes down to the biggest thing, which is coaches care about number one money and be access to great players. And if you could increase either of those things or both of those things, you will get a coach. And that's why Mario is going to Miami with the, obviously that's home for him or whatever. Um, but it's also the fact that they had the best recruiting base in the world. If you keep some of those guys home, we could talk about that

in a second about how good that job is. Um, then you can win, you're going to consistently. And, and you know, I don't want to get down to Miami rabbit hole too quickly right now, but I mean, everyone says Miami can never be back or whatever. Well, there's a lot of daylight between winning five more national championships and beating North Carolina and beating Duke and not losing recruiting dogfights to UCF. Playing in the ACC title game would be nice. Yeah. Every single year, every single year. Like if Mario keeps most of those guys home and I can do a rant on Miami kids, but if Mario keeps it, half of the good players, he should, they will be in the AC title game playing against Dabo every single year.

Yeah. I know what the version of Miami being a better job in Oregon is. It's just that we're on coach number six now that this would be like, Oh, well, Miami's a better job. I would, I would say if Cristobal isn't from Miami, right. If it's just another successful guy that was at Oregon, I would be like, that guy should stay at Oregon because it's at least set up with a really great AD

and one of the single most impressive, important boosters in all of college sports and Phil Knight with Nike. So I know just saying, well, Eugene, recruiting base versus Miami, like, what are you, nuts? Okay, but then I would just say. You're the West Coast. So all of the guys are bad?. So all of the guys were bad? All of the guys were bad? Golden was bad?

Shannon was supposed to be the guy that figured it out? Manny was supposed to be the guy that figured it out? How about Manny? That would have been fun to recruit if this didn't happen. Hey, you were going to be fired, but now we'll kick you. Well, the recruiting class wasn't in the top 50. It was worse than Northwestern, Duke, and Marshall, so I'm not sure how it could have been worse.

Here's my take on the Miami job. So first of all, Chris DeBall has coached a team down in Miami called FIU. He was busy developing guys like T.Y. Hilton. And he understands just even taking the fourth wave of kids can lead to NFL success, right? And I look at it. There's a book called Good to Great that it's a little hokey and businessy, but I think it's really interesting. And they just talk about how you get to be at the top. And one of the sort of prerequisites is figure out what you can be the best in the world at. And a lot of schools actually don't have anything that they can be the best in the world at. the ability to be the best in the world at recruiting, developing, and moving on to the NFL players from the best recruiting ground in America.

You think about just the success that Nick Saban, Dabo Swinney, even like Riley have had in Florida. I mean, Saban's come in in the last decade and gotten Calvin Ridley, Jerry Judy, Patrick Sutan, not even no competition from any of these guys. Okay. That's just from South Florida. Don't even count the other parts of Florida. It used to be ridiculous. We talked about

Ryan Chazier works for us, and I had him on a pod a couple weeks ago, and we were talking just off air. It was weird for him to go to Ohio State. That was a decade ago. It was weird for him. I think that Larry Blustein, who's a recruiting columnist, told me this story once, I think about it all the time, where he said

in 2002, he went to the St. Thomas Aquinas, the time where he said in 2002, um, he went to the St. Thomas Aquinas, which is where the bosses went, where Michael Irvin went, James White, all these guys,

Gio Bernard. He went to their spring game and there was, it was Miami and Florida state was there. And then he went there a couple of years later and there were 41 schools there. Okay. So Miami became over recruited. Everyone decided to go down there, but you can still have a niche down there where you win consistently.

Miami took seven kids from Miami Northwestern's class in 2008, I think. That was the Ja'Cory Harris class, the Tommy Streeter, all those guys, Sean Spence. The one kid they did not take was Levante David, okay? So it's not a, and he would have come. He would have come. He went to Middle Tennessee State,

then he had to go to JUCO and whatever. But there's so much just runoff talent that even if you're losing the top, top guys still to Dabo, Saban, Ryan Day, whomever, you're still getting ACC championship level talent. And so

if you win some of those dogfights, which Mario can do. Felman was on our podcast a couple weeks ago, and we were talking off air, and I said to him, I described my perfect candidate, and he said, you're talking about Mario. Mario's going to go in for recruiting a couple weeks ago and we were talking off air and I said to him, I described my perfect candidate and he said, you're talking about Mario. Mario's going to go in for recruiting dogfights

and if he keeps those kids home, that's incredible. I mean, the column a couple weeks ago by Pete Thamel about California, the problem with California is CJ Stroud and Bryce Young

were just leaving the state. If Lincoln Riley keeps those guys home, they win a national championship. And that's Mario's, what's in front of Mario now. Yeah, I don't have much more to add to that. I don't.

I mean, the Lincoln thing's easy because whether it's Stroud, Bryce Young, Tua, it's not like he's from Southern California, but a guy from Hawaii shouldn't be going to Alabama over USC. And then Uwe Ungelele on top of that. It's just, I don't know that,

that, that part easier. Why is it easier at USC than Miami? Um, this is about an administrative thing that we have not had, but it's essentially, that's all being overhauled. And then this new medical booster who's been all in,

I've been reading all the same shit you've been reading. So if this is truly day one for a new regime, then Miami is a much better job. But that's a huge assumption to just be like, hey, now they got Cristobal, new AD, and now this booster, and now there's going to be

a new stadium downtown, and done, and done, and done. So hey, start printing up the banners. Start printing up the blank ones so we can just stitch in the year a little bit later. I feel like USC, even with its disappointment,

has been a better program than what Miami has been. Maybe this changes overnight the way everybody's telling me it is. I don't agree with that. This is the team. USC, I think. I'm not saying Miami is some great college football administrative juggernaut here. What I am saying is I think USC was in

similar levels of contentment with mediocrity. Both of them had sanctions against them, by the way. Both of them gave too many years to guys they shouldn't have. Both of them kind of counter to what they did in the last cycle went to coaches that simply weren't to the caliber to bring them back.

I mean, college football changed. College football changed overnight and both programs, I think, didn't change with it. And so that, to me, is the biggest difference. I think both of these programs, USC and Miami, understand now that coaches are basically the president of marketing, right? They're basically the front-facing piece of the university. And both of them understand it.

And now they'll spend. And I don't listen. I'm not saying both these schools are going to become Alabama overnight. But what I am saying is that I think within five years, both of them are in a legitimate national championship conversation. I get your point on some of the stuff administratively that's just as frustrating, right? USC and Miami have some real similarities there. I also think post-SC dealing with all the sanctions that they decided that they weren't going to dip into the waters. Some of the Southern schools were, and maybe even Oregon to that extent. I mean, that's pretty much understood. And if you read that Feldman piece that goes really deep into California recruiting with the different high schools, it was like USC just got scared off on what levels you had to go to considering everything they'd gone through as a program.

The difference I think for SC is that Lincoln steps in, puts defense up around some of these quarterbacks, and then there you go. But where Miami has the advantage, where I'd say this is maybe the one that, even though I just feel like SC is a quicker fix, the body type part of this for Pac-12 players, Miami's not going to have any problem with that if they're keeping all those kids there, if they are.

Yes. Right. So that's where you probably win the argument i just feel like lincoln oh okay cool the rest of the stuff's taken care of coliseum will be on fire but the body type part of it when you watch a lot of pac-12 and you go where's the depth of all these bigger guys they just don't have them out here man the inferiority complex that has developed in both of those places over the past decade is incredible i was listening to something a couple weeks ago about recruiting, and they're talking about James Williams,

who's a 6'5", five-star safety who plays for Miami. And somebody's saying, wow, can you believe he stayed at Miami? He didn't go to Alabama, he didn't go to Florida. And it's like, that would be unthinkable a decade ago, that a kid from Miami would look to Alabama first. And luckily, he committed to Miami. But there's become this weird flip

where Miami feels inferior to Saban in their own backyard. If Mario changes that, he's worth every penny. He's the right guy to do that part of it. No question. I'm too excited. This previous football

stuff, none of it matters. Let's do it, man. It's been too long. Let's go abroad. I wish to be happy, but more healthy. Corazzo! Corazzo! Corazzo! Continued economic responsibility demands restraint in government expenditure. And last year we achieved the largest ever recorded reduction in the budget deficit, $1.5 million. Okay, the results are in. The Saudi

Arabian Grand Prix, going into this, Max had an eight-point lead ahead of Lewis Hamilton. If you look at the last few results, you go back to the United States Grand Prix, that was in October. It was Max with Hamilton. Perez, a great, great day

for Red Bull. Max takes Mexico, Hamilton, Perez again, and then things started to change. Brazil, Qatar. This is now, by the way, we've had 13 times in this season the top two finishes have been either Hamilton or Verstappen, one or two. And Hamilton pulls this one off with pull. Max was in third, and we had all sorts of commotion in this one. I mean, the timeline of this is nuts. At lap 10, Hamilton switches tires because we've got a caution, and then they red flag it at lap 13, which means everybody's going to start all over again.

We had multiple restarts in this. It felt like Max and Hamilton were going to crash into each other the entire time. We'll get to all that stuff. I just want to share that timeline. Hamilton pulls this one out. Verstappen ends up coming in second. Botas at the very end, getting a podium in third place. I've been talking like at the very last stretch of this race.

and getting a podium in third place. I've been talking like at the very last stretch of this race. So now we are all even with one race to go in Saudi Arabia, 369.5 points for both Hamilton and Verstappen as Max chases his first ever world championship and Lewis goes for number eight. Wow. So after Brazil, Toto Wolff said that the diplomacy has ended. Like there was kind of a cold war between Red Bull and Mercedes, and it became kind

of a hot war after that. And basically, it was that he thought Red Bull was working the refs. And there's a lot of kind of NBA finals type of situation here where there's a lot of, hey, watch this. You know, they're really going too hard in the paint kind of stuff. And it's amazing to me that you see now so clearly, you know, I was reading the BBC write up of this over the weekend. And listen, Verstappen knows he can afford a collision with Hamilton and Hamilton cannot. And they're racing like it. Verstappen

knows if the two of them crash, Verstappen wins. And the reason being is that Verstappen has more wins than Hamilton. And so if the season ended and both of them were level on points, Verstappen wins. And the reason being is that Verstappen has more wins than Hamilton. And so if the season ended and both of them were level on points, Verstappen would win. It's nine wins to eight wins. And so Verstappen has clearly, he's driving like a lunatic. And he does not give an inch out there. We've seen that.

He was given a five-second time penalty, a 10-second time penalty. He had to give back his place. penalty, a 10-second time penalty. He had to give back his place. Neither of these guys want to give up even an inch on the other, and they're racing like it. Verstappen has the upper hand because he knows he can afford a huge wreck, but it is one of the most fascinating and dramatic things I've ever seen in sports.

Yeah, and just so you can understand, Lewis has pole here because Max probably would have had pole, but he had a mishap during qualifying. And at lap 10, we have Schumacher crash into a barrier, and they're working their way around it. And basically, the race officials, after three laps of being in caution, are like, look, the safety car's out. This isn't going to work. We got a red flag this. So for people to understand, that means then, as Verstappen, during that stretch, during caution,

Hamilton and Botas both pitted. They go to the hard tires. They felt like if it's a 50-lap race, 40, Pirelli tells him you can make it 40 laps on the hearts and I feel like Max is as simple as I just want to stay out because now I'll be in the league all right I honestly think that's the way he's wired and he stays out and then he doesn't have any ground on Hamilton at all I mean he's he's only moved up one position but now he still has to pit at some point with his tire situation and Hamilton's thinking he can go to the exact end. And then like every single race car driver that we have access

to, which is mostly Max and Lewis the whole time, they bitch about literally everything. I mean, you want to talk about NBA players complaining. These guys have been in this for their full professional careers. And it's like, they don't even understand some of the shit that happens. So when the red flag happens, that means you can, you don't just pit. Everybody just stops again, goes back to their grid, and then you can work on the car for as long as you want to once they're ready to restart the race

and they have people taking the debris off and re-establishing the cushions at this turn because they felt like it wasn't going to be safe if there was another crash there. So off the restart, which I thought was hilarious at one point too when they were full-on pitted there was somebody from red bull who put an ice water bag on the back of max's neck for about four seconds

it's important it's important to start like four seconds of just cold condensation on the back of your neck is the difference when it comes to f1 um and so then then lewis is freaking out because he's going well this is bullshit red flag man this is bullshit man this is bullshit red flag and they're like dude how do you not understand the red flag part of this and then it's the announcers to their credit pointed out like this isn't new like this is what happens and when you red flag everybody can do it and then it happened again i mean and at one point max had taken lewis off the restart that It was incredible. It looked like Lewis had him at that first turn again. Max goes off the course and is like, no, I'm not giving this back to you. They tell him, oh, by the way, you have to give him back this position. And Max plays it perfectly going into a DRS zone where he knows, like, if I give this back up, I'm going to get it right back. And then show total wolf from mercedes being like this fucking guy and then the one that really i think even pissed off um i'm sorry who's the analyst with crofty on this one he's world champ i forget his name uh martin brundle yeah is it yeah well

right so and so at this point max is told hey you got to give the position back to hamilton and it depends on who you believe in this one max stops but doesn't give him the full width of the track he kind of stops in the middle hamilton's behind him crashes into him it's unbelievable that uh the the front wing for hamilton wasn't damaged enough he actually didn't put up a fastest laugh because hamilton's insane but then hamilton's like he quick break me or break tested me which means you just slammed on the brake to hope the other guy would crash him from behind you uh max obviously saying that's not the case we gave him room if he didn't fucking stop and we we can't we can't control what he's doing behind us um and then at that point he'd gotten a penalty so it wasn't really going to matter so we didn't have

actually the very great drama at the very end, but, um, it's just important to describe this. It wasn't anybody wasn't listening because I think max is capable of doing literally anything. And that's probably why he's become easily my favorite, favorite driver on the, on, on the circuit. He just is.

I feel like that's kind of a lame move for me. I've been flirting with maybe the McLaren thing, you know, Haas tough weekend for Haas again. Sorry. Um, but max tough weekend for Haas again. Sorry. But Max, that he will basically do whatever. And maybe that's shitty of me to like that because even Brundle on the broadcast was like, I mean, there was a great line in there where he's basically like, this is too much. Max, this was too much from somebody today where we love how competitive he is.

But this was just too much for a race. Yeah, I thought it was too much, frankly, but this was just too much for a race. Yeah. I thought, I thought it was, I thought it was too much. Frankly, I thought it was too much. It was interesting.

And I think it shows you the pressure. I think Brazil was an interesting inflection point because there was some kind of first takey opinions that that was the biggest pressure that Lewis Hamilton had ever been under where he basically had to run the table. And if he had lost Brazil, he wouldn't have controlled his own destiny anymore. Verstappen could have been 2-2-2 the rest of the way and still won the championship, right? And then Hamilton gets those penalties. He essentially goes to the back of the grid for the sprint. And there were people there who were like, oh my God, I can't believe the title chase is ending like this. I can't believe it's over like this. And then Hamilton had the drive of his life. Damon Hill said it was one of the best races he'd ever seen out of Hamilton or anybody. And the title race was back on. And I think that changed the pressure from Hamilton to Verstappen so much. And that it went from Hamilton has to be perfect the rest of the way to Verstappen has to stop the bleeding a little bit. And that it went from Hamilton has to be perfect the rest of the way to Verstappen has to stop the bleeding a little bit.

And once that happened, I don't know if Verstappen... I think Verstappen is feeling the heat quite a bit. This is the first time he's ever been in anything like this, ever. He's obviously never won a driver's championship before because Mercedes has not even allowed him in the same zip code. And I think that it is too much right now for Verstappen. There are a lot of smart people who think he's just going to stop the bleeding at Yas Marina and win on Sunday. I would not be surprised by that at all. But what I am saying is that we're seeing Verstappen lose his cool a little bit. I guess I just feel like it's... The Bill Walsh clutch thing.

I keep coming back to it. There's no such thing as clutch. There's only executing when everybody else is freaking out. That's Lewis whole Bill Walsh clutch thing. I keep coming back to it. There's no such thing as clutch. There's only executing when everybody else is freaking out. That's Lewis Hamilton right now. Yeah, what Lewis is doing these last few races, if you're new to this. Although I would argue if I had never watched any F1, if I didn't know anything about it,

and this was my first experience, I may have hated it. I'd be like, what the hell is this? They just keep stopping all the time and then like the least climactic part of the entire race was the part that you wanted to be at the end but once and that's true right once max got the five seconds but they didn't have it up on the graphics that he kind of knew it was over and at that point it was just holding on the second to stay even for the point race correct yes? Yes. Yes, exactly. Okay. And then

another just little note on the complaining part is that Lewis is sitting there freaking out. I think it's just a window into the tenseness, even though these guys seem so secure in these moments. Imagine racing like this for 10, 15 laps and almost crashing twice. And this is a very dangerous

course. There's so many blind corners. There's nowhere else to go in a lot of different spots it's like when you're in the the cockpit of the car angle of it and granted they have it all memorized the muscle memory of all the different turns and all that shit it's still like if anything happens in front of you it's pretty scary um oh and by the way when there's debris out there and they haven't red flagged the race and guys are running out that look like i don't know kevin james and the mall cop movie like hey can you grab that that piece of fiberglass over there and the guy runs out of this like little cage and almost falls down as he's running back around and i'm thinking like i'm sure they have it mapped out pretty well that he's not in danger but it

doesn't feel real safe but even Lewis on the heart go ahead go ahead Kevin I'm just rambling I was going to say it's crazy to see up close and you'll see it when you go to a race next year probably and I've actually only the only time I've ever been around proper Formula One cars was when they did a thing in Los Angeles where they

basically did an exhibition on Hollywood Boulevard right by the office of the ringer and it was amazing there's either a bunch of ex-drivers there, like Dave Coulter and those guys, and they were in the street and their comfort level with F1 cars going past them at like 70 miles per hour is astounding. They'll be like a foot away from like Botas just going like 70 or 80 miles per hour. They should be on their phone like, yeah, whatever. It's good.

They got this. Like the comfort with impending doom at all times is really something to behold. And that's everybody around a Formula One track. Yeah, maybe that's it. I just,

I was watching this guy run out and grab something. I'm like, Jesus, that doesn't, it was around a corner too. But again, I don't think they were like, hey, Dave, go.

I think you're good. Yeah, there's been some deaths over the course of f1 history involving people running out of the track like that so even lewis though when when he looks like he's going to win this thing and then he's like hey why why are we not on mediums and they're just like hey you're good for 40 laps lewis you're good and by the way when you're running so many caution laps um with the virtual car those are not the same laps that's not the same level of stress you're putting the tires under. So whatever your normal projections would be, 40 laps with hard, considering all the ones under caution, you're clear. You're clear by the end

of it. And I don't think it was ever an issue, especially how fast the pace that Lewis had towards the end of it. So look, if you're new to it, this was one of the absolute confusing ones, but it was so much fun if you have a little experience with it. And it all leads up to one final race here for everything. And honestly, I'm with you. If Lewis pulls this out after the control that seemed like Max had, and that Max is basically capable of anything, and that's kind of what I like about him, but I don't know if I'm a bad guy for liking it and enjoying it, which it sounds like I am. I'm a bad guy for liking it and enjoying it, which it sounds like I am. I would also say the pressure is also on Verstappen because, as we've talked about many times in going abroad, everything changes next year, like the regulations and all that stuff.

So it's not like, oh, we'll get him next year. There's no telling who's going to be – I mean, we have a good idea, but there's no telling whether or not these guys are going to have similar cars, whether they're going to have similar dominance. And so this is Red Bull's best chance to end the Mercedes stronghold. Um, it's right in front of them and they have to take it and they know that Mercedes knows that they know that they know that Mercedes knows that they know that like it is, it is psychological warfare, um,

to, to, to a incredible degree. Yeah. And the constructor series is basically done now. Yeah. Um, it would have to be disastrous. They're down almost 30 points. Botas is in his bag.

Yeah, he's going out big, man. He actually seemed happy. He's so happy. I mean, Botas always looks miserable all the time. I think he was so happy to get that podium yesterday. He was like in a good mood for the first time in a while. And Lewis didn't even look like he wanted to talk to

anybody. Verstappen was so mad. Clearly, Botas was kind of giving a side eye like, is everything going to be okay over there? I don't think Lewis wanted to make Max angry. I think Max is the kind of guy who might punch somebody. I don't know who he's going to punch. I think he might punch somebody.

Yeah, I see Max as somebody that's difficult in every single transaction in his daily life. Like nothing. He'd be a tough roommate. I regret bringing him into my summer house. Dude, I ran circles around you in that summer house draft. I got your doors blown off, brother. I was the Haas of Summerhouse F1 drafting. But so, when you look, 2022,

who knows, it could be Haas' year. So, get your shirts now because those quarter zips are going to sell out once they start poding. All right. Any CONCACAF shit we got to touch on? I think we're good, right? Surity?

No, nothing. Top number's nothing uh everton's disaster jose moreno things are going south but everything else is good all right goodbye 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 could possibly imagine and best of all kids I am liquid so now you know what's possible let me tell you what's required let's finish with life advice here life advice rr gmail dot com we get a lot of these and I'm just telling you, it's not going to happen. Um, the people want us to post the pod earlier.

It's just not going to, um, we're all in the West coast and, and we actually get up really, really early to even get it done and out at this time. So, um, I don't know what to tell you. Look,

I moved out here, um, to get things done. And then I, I don't see myself moving back to the East coast anytime soon. Uh, so there you go. Not sure what I can do for you.

I mean, we could do some other pods that are non-time sensitive that we've done, but it's just hard for us with three days a week to do stuff that isn't time sensitive. It's just not. Okay, we got another chicken thigh guy

checking in a little behind. So I heard the scorching hot take of chicken thighs being trash. Your points are valid. Thigh meat can be a bit, be a kind of chewy, slimy, gristly. Well, then what the fuck is the rest of the discussion? You just admitted that

your points are valid. You think they're valid? I didn't pretend. Go ahead, Tom. I was going to say I had some Japanese crispy chicken that was most certainly thigh meat and no complaints.

I think I'm mostly talking grilled. Like when you fry anything, if you fry chicken, you're going to taste a crunchy batter. It doesn't really matter. Like a grilled chicken breast versus a grilled chicken thigh gave me the breast every single time. That's what he said.

What's up? I know someone can take that out of context. Yeah. The key is to cook it at a hotter temperature than breast, whereas breasts go dry the second they touch 165. Thighs need to be cooked like 180 in order to render out some of that fat and soften the connective tissue.

Novice cooks in shitty restaurants won't really know this, but if done right, thighs can be extremely tender and juicy, perfect for marinades and the grill and rightfully so becoming more popular. I also think there's just a, I was at a restaurant and I asked the guy, what was going on with supply lines? I'm just always fascinated by this. No,

I want to know about hiring thing ever. Yeah. I'm like, what's up with supply lines? He goes, there's just beef, huge problem because they don't have enough people to process it. He goes,

you got, you got cattle out there just dying because they can't get processed fast enough. Well, they're going to die anyway. Right. So I'm not insensitive to cattle just you know he was like really sad about it was like well they were obviously they died one way waiting to die another way um if you want to look at it that way but uh i saw i saw some video that

came out from somebody who i knew as soon as it was out i was like you know you're not going to be down with this content but it was basically this speech by this person saying that there's no actual worker shortage, and it's just that young people have decided to know their worth. And this isn't even old or young guy. It's an accurate versus inaccurate thing. Yes, are there younger people now that demand more at work? Yeah, I think it's great.

Certain fields that will work out for you. Other fields are going to tell you to fuck off really quickly. But the idea that this is an imagined thing, that there isn't some worker shortage in all of these different industries. That's why when I meet somebody from a different industry, I just ask him like, what's going on with your thing? And I'm telling you, almost every industry I've asked somebody about like, how are you doing on staffing and all this shit? And they just go, it's never been worse. And it isn't some uprising by a generation. It isn't some imagined thing. So again, part of the chick, like when I hear we could be out of chicken fingers, if I'm at a restaurant and I know the chef or I know somebody, I just would ask to be like, what's going on?

And they just all freak out. And the shipping. Spinoff podcast. Spinoff podcast, supply lines and staffing. Ryan asks questions. Maybe we have that one tape at Wednesday podcast, supply lines, staffing. Ryan asked questions. Maybe we have that one tape at Wednesday night. So it is out early on a Thursday. You,

you and Derek Thompson, we do a Wednesday nights and put it up first things first. No, because I'm not a common man. I like asking questions about it. And I like maybe, you know, putting together some sort of educated opinion on these different things,

but I'm not educated enough to be doing anything where it's like, hey, Russo is doing something. His new economic podcast is out now. Yeah. It's like all the questions that get asked in your French group chat, but nobody actually knows the answer, but they feel like they know the answer to, because there's a lot of discussion about it. Those are the things we talk about in this podcast. No, like we have another actor that's going to come on and he's not like the most famous actor ever, but I'm going to do this. And I want to ask him some like really stupid questions about it that I don't think any of us ever know the answers to. It's like, okay, when you're on set, like, what is it really like? Like

how long do you sit around? How much does it suck? Do you memorize every single line or do you memorize up into the scene? Are there guys that never memorize everything? Are there guys, when you think about Broadway, those guys are memorizing every single page and everybody else's line to be the cue to their own line so i want to ask a lot of those really stupid questions that i don't think most of us have the answers to on the outside of it and i'm with you i i would i would gladly ask uh economic people the dumbest questions ever like i would love to have a presidential like somebody who was present i would have anybody on well i don't know maybe not because then i would get in trouble with people

like oh we knew it um no we can get yang on he's doing a lot of stuff yeah yang does a lot of stuff but he hasn't been president like i would love to just ask obama because you get maybe a more decent answer and just being like what happens when it's actually you have the job and you're like this is this is way harder than i thought it would be. Like there has to be that moment where even, even the most successful politician has some inner reflection where you're just like, this sucks. Yeah. Do you watch the news?

I'd love to hear W's answer on that. I think it'd be funny. You big W guy. I just, I'm a big fan of what his answer would be. I think, and how he'd say it. I would love to hear his answer to the wow

so when you realize this shit was really hard i'd love to hear that i just every time i read about any of these books like any even if you hate the politician you would end up and i don't like almost any of them i just don't understand getting really excited about any of them um it's a good call but even if i have no sympathy towards one i'll look at a situation they're in and be like you are so you're so fucked you're fucked on every angle here there's no out there's no out where you win and just like any of our favorite teams that don't win on sundays or the nba gm that we feel like is an idiot when it's like yeah he got really really unlucky the same thing happens with a lot of the people that are in charge of major major decisions decisions where no matter what decision you make, it's like, well, you could

have done it this way though. And it's like fucking a thousand experts doing major op, you know, like in any, any publication or all the different TV people on all of these different channels saying, as soon as you made the decision, here are the 10 other ways that you could have done it. Because that's how we are. That's how we are not saying the guys don't make you made the decision, here are the 10 other ways that you could have done it. Because that's how we are. That's how we are. Not saying the guys don't make mistakes all the time, but that's how we are.

We love telling people how they could have done things differently. All right. I don't even know. We got from chicken thighs to that. That's the open. That's the open right there. I'm putting it at the front.

All right. Let's just go back to our bread and honey on this one. The guy got in a little fight. All right. Good stuff. 5'10", but a Jack 205 bread and honey on this one. The guy got in a little fight. All right, good stuff. 510, but a Jack 205 plays a part in this story. I'm a member of a country club in Charleston, South Carolina.

I'm on the younger side of the membership, 33 years old. Yeah, you are. That's another question. Ask golf clubs how they're doing with the younger membership numbers, and that is on a steady, steady decline because a lot of younger people are like, wait, I'm getting fucked on college loans. I'm getting screwed on home ownership. And I was just to write you a check for $50,000 escrow account to become a member at a golf course.

So anyway, I think that that's something that's well, we won't do a podcast on that. I don't what the hell am I on today? I'm going in a million different directions. All right, focus, focus. I live on the course and everyone knows me in which house I'm at because i'm often outside working out in the driveway and have an attractive wife um it's known as the milf house or the house with the 30 year old kids tree or the 30 foot kids tree floor looking over the t-box well i was at a bar saturday night watching the championship games once the bama game was over most of the bar left except for a friend of mine and another member in his 50s. He starts arguing with us over football and claiming the SEC and Bama are overrated. Clearly a sour Clemson fan. He continued arguing and now is in standard right behind me and my friend yelling. I turned and asked him to please walk away. He continues several minutes later. I stand up and turn around and ask him please walk away. He then yelling bows his chest up calls me a fucking loser

and touches me i quickly body slammed him and followed with a hammer fist across the chin while he was on the ground oh all right chale sonner to 60 yeah jeez hammer fist on the ground let's try to get herb dean running in this one all right i then stopped and asked him to leave i want to know how I could have better defused the situation. Don't do anything you did. How could I have better handled this? Frustrated

in South Carolina. I thought he was going to say the guy started talking about, you know, how hot or not his wife was. He brought his wife into it because what is, what did the hot wife have to do with anything?

You just wanted to mention he had a hot wife. Was that just a part of his status? Let's just read the rest of it. The club owner had no issue with me because the guy's an ass and drinks and talks trash. And their response was,

anyone willing to talk shit to me is an idiot and deserves it. I need to know a better way to avoid these situations. Normally my size and military background normally is enough, but i do find that people seem to like to start shit with myself and my bigger friends we were out because we don't realize that they're going to say something to the wrong person unfortunately he found the wrong guy honestly dude it felt like you wanted to write us in and tell us your wife is hot and that you're tough

yeah the wife never comes back into the picture nope i thought that was a hundred percent where this was going and then the guy would say something about his hot wife and their sick tree fort and then it was on no turns out you just got a hot head yeah i think you like fighting people is what this is so you could i don't not go out, but that's not happening. I think you're just going to have to get to a point where it's out of you and it doesn't seem like it's going to be out of you anytime soon.

And I don't know if that's the military background or if you're sick at fighting. You're kind of like, man, I want to show what I can do here a little bit. I mean, you went body slam hammer fist in a country club. That doesn't happen a lot. In the clubhouse? Yeah.

Can that guy press charges too? I feel like that's right he could i don't know pretty quickly yeah all the witnesses say hey you're a shithead and if the other guy was drinking and he's notorious and then it's like hey everybody's gonna call you out for being drunk at the place all the time if you sue this guy then that's probably something he's not gonna want to deal with so um maybe you just should be happy that you've got to knock this dude out. I'm not even anti the guy emailing in, by the way, at all.

I mean, if the guy was talking shit and everything, but I don't know. I don't like when you say guys are looking to mess with you. I would argue that most people are not looking to mess with anybody. Really? I think you,

if you're getting into shit all the time, it's probably a vibe that you're putting out there a little bit more than just everybody's picking on you. I'm serious. But there are also guys, though, who, like this 50-year-old guy, who probably never think anybody's actually going to do anything,

so they feel more comfortable talking shit. And this guy was like, he just crossed the wrong guy on the wrong day. That was really it. Like a young Cerruti. Basically, yeah. I mean, I took it to a point where I never really got hit, but

my general premise was no one actually wants to fight. And I, including me, I didn't want to fight, but I had, you know, a couple of Bud Lights in me and I was feeling good. But it sounds like this guy didn't think he was going to actually punch him in the face and he got what was coming to him. Here's a positive out of this. No one's ever going to

mess with you at that country club again. People are going to him here's here's a positive out of this no one's ever going to mess with you that country club again because you there's people going to be telling the story for a long time because i'm going to guess this is a decent club and this doesn't happen very often there if ever and now everybody's gonna be like saying this that's the 205 jack guy who's pretty tough hammer fist dudes and his wife's hot and remember that tree ford off that t-box that's his too so i have memory dude yeah i would i don't i don't know i don't i don't know there's i'm not again i'm not anti the emailer for what he did but i think that's i think you could probably dissect your own reasons for you know even if the guy deserved it and all that shit but But I don't, I don't really think people do go out looking for trouble unless it's Boston.

They'd almost every other bar. Okay. Uh, let's see here. The only thing that I would say that if he, I mean, what he said was the, could I handle it differently?

It's like, Hey, maybe you could have started with a shove, but B, if you were going to do the suplex hammer fist, whatever he said he did, um, maybe you could have trey young did and be like whoa dude and then do it like make it look like you got made

contact with first and then somehow you got into the body slam just just for um legal reasons maybe uh if you're gonna be doing that in the future maybe look like you were not the aggressor for somehow if you could make that happen that'd be good probably for you in the future. Maybe it looked like you were not the aggressor for somehow. If you could make that happen, that'd be good probably for you and the legal standings. I love you said Trey Young did. Okay. Final one here. Not going to do the numbers thing. Just going to cut to the chase of something

I can't imagine is only a me situation. Over the last handful of years, my game has been on point. Oh, we got some winners today. Badasses and hot dudes left and right in the show i played way out of my league over that course of time various pieces of jewelry have been left jewelry have been left at my place not always being able to return them and not knowing what else to do with them i've tossed them in a box in a drawer. I just started a dating new woman. Lost and found. Yeah. You go to hot Kyle's lost and found.

Yeah. Or they said he's been playing over his league. So it's really smooth and closing. Mariano Rivera. Kyle. I just, I threw Kyle in there. That's not the guy's name.

We didn't, I didn't think we even have a name. I guess we do, but I'm not going to share it. Okay. All right. All right. So I just started dating somebody new.

Things are going well it occurred to me that six weeks of dating is probably just long enough to get a christmas gift am i a complete scumbag to just rebox a set of these earrings i think she'd like cleaning them of course okay at least we got that part if not what do i do with this stuff huh yes first of all six weeks yes because know what? Not getting a gift and then saying, oh, it's only been six weeks. Nobody wants to do that conversation. Even if I would say, hey, if you're really young and it's six weeks in, you can do something. You can do something because the no present, hey, it's only been six weeks. You might as well fucking dump yourself.

All right. And on top of that, you need to be prepared because she's probably going to do it unless she's's totally ruthless. I just don't think we run into that many people that are wired that way. Now, giving away other women's jewelry. If this jewelry is that nice, none of these women ask for it back? I can't imagine this stuff is that sick. If a girl left diamond earrings at your place that were actually really valuable, they would have followed up with you. So if you don't know anything about jewelry, you also could be jamming yourself up here. Look, I would lean towards not doing this

because if she ever found out and it got really serious, it's just going to be something she's going to use against you. That's what we do. We all kind of keep track of all these things we can use against each other. This would be one of those things. I would bring all the jewelry to a store, get it appraised, get a second opinion, and then probably sell it and see if you can find a watch for yourself. But I guess the total value

of this might not be as high as you think, unless I don't know, girls just never feel like they want to do you turn into the worst guy ever and they're like i don't care it's a two thousand dollar chain i'm just not gonna go back and see that guy again it's worth it to me to the game the game is the game god uh i kyle i imagine you already have this stuff it's at a smelting facility uh you know it definitely would have crossed my mind and somehow um but you know this is coming from crossed my mind somehow but you know

this is coming from a guy who sold a broken Xbox for a quarter round so it's like I get it if you want to repurpose your stuff as a guy who when I was 19 living in an apartment I had a lost and found and they just can never find the lost and found you have to get rid of it I mean I don't know why they would

find the lost and found but that's a great way to assure that it only takes six weeks. And then what, if you actually did want to give her the thing, you're going to get your own box maybe? Like, I don't know. Don't you think it should be a little more official looking like you bought it? I just think there's a couple of ways for it to poke holes in it. But honestly, if there's one thing that's probably really nice out of,

I'm sure not all of your things are home run winners in that box, but if there's something that's really nice and you can actually get it looked at i say fuck it six weeks i mean what's the worst that can happen i just would say you have to make sure that box stays hidden forever and then probably even get rid of it once you realize the rest of the shit is worthless well the box part of this is a huge problem you're right i mean you could go to a jeweler and ask for like something that's cheap and then put it but these are a lot of different steps why can't you just bring the stuff back sell it and then buy a decent present And then because it's only been six weeks, keep the rest for yourself anyway.

And then your evidence is out of the house. If she ever finds your last found box, you're in so much trouble, dude. It's just over. Like, would you, so Rudy, if you were dating somebody and she gave you a decent used watch, like a tag.

That's what I was just going to say. Like, hey, I got this for you. First of all, you would know it was used in a watch. Maybe in earrings, it's not going to show up as much. i don't know i think i'd be like where i mean i probably in the moment couldn't say hey where did you get this but then if i found out like a dude left it there and i'm wearing some other fucking guy's watch that left after a random hookup and maybe was so hammered he forgot he even left his watch there like hey you guys see my new tag i don't know i'm out yeah that'd be like scratches on it i mean unless you like got a polish you would know it was used for the most part especially if

it's leather it's going to be worn i mean i'd probably have the same reaction kendall did when he got that uh the watch at his birthday party i would just be like you got me a watch like i have a watch what is this um so kendall's reaction is terrible by the way and guys like kendall would have more than one fancy watch so that part of the succession storyline i didn't quite understand because he but it also maybe is the point that he's such a dick at times that part of the succession storyline i didn't quite understand because he but it also maybe is the point that he's such a dick at times that that was the part they were emphasizing more so than a realistic watch timeline yeah but i would be bummed out about that i think kyle's right you have to hide it she can never find out about it but i have a question of like

who bought a broken xbox from you like what what did they do with it they parted out around for this this is no steve huh it's one of the all-timers no guy guy lived up uh lived one or two floors up on the dorm i bought an xbox on ebay and um it just didn't work out i had the red rings and i couldn't get it back or whatever and uh and he still wanted my roommate my roommate really smart guy was fiddling around with it and he got it to work for a little bit um and like there was like pieces missing from it after he had done whatever but we got it to work for a little bit. Um, and like, there was like pieces missing from it after he had done whatever, but we got it to work and you could get to the main menu. But once you started scrolling,

it would get back to the red ring. So we basically just planned it out to have him come look at it while we had it working. And then I gave it to him, but I told him I didn't have the power cord, blah, blah, blah.

Months later, he came back from break and was like, Hey man, that didn't work. I was like, you must've bumped it on the way home or something. Yeah. Not my problem. Now, dude, well, it could be was like, you must have bumped it on the way home or something. Yeah, not my problem now, dude.

Well, it could be a businessman. You must have bumped it on the way home. I had that text in my old phone somewhere. I don't know. It was a couple phones ago. You keep in touch with that guy? I was proud of that. No, no, I was proud of that, though, when I was like, yeah, you must have bumped it on the way home.

You saw it work, right? Whatever. He knew you were lying, right? He had to. But, I mean, it's, you must have bumped it on the way home. You saw it work, right? Whatever. He knew you were lying, right? He had to. But I mean, it's like, you're selling weed. I'm selling Xboxes. What's the recourse here, if anything? So what are we going to do?

Your word was not important to you at that stage of your life, correct? Maybe. Maybe that's fair. Maybe that's fair. You know, the one thing about Kyle is his word. No, nobody ever said that. His word above everything else. No one ever said that.

Like, you have my word as a Crichton. He has a code. No one ever said that back then. All right, that'll do it

for life advice. Great to hear from so many successful guys this week. We'll check back in with you on Wednesday. We got Kirk Herbstreit talking some college ball. He's got a book out. We also got Vilma guys this week. We'll check back in with you on Wednesday. We got Kirk Herbstreit talking some college ball. He's got a book out.

We also got Vilma later this week. And I don't know, maybe we can even run the Philbrick. We ran Philbrick. We taped that a while ago, so I think we should run that soon. That's a long ago. Yeah, all right. Be good, everybody.

Oh, I'm going to be on Bill Simmons' pod. I think it'll be out tomorrow. We're going to just do a big NBA thing because we usually wait until after the NFL season, but we're constantly texting back and forth on all these different storylines that we want to get to. I think it'll be out tomorrow. We're going to just do a big NBA thing because we usually wait until after the NFL season, but we're constantly texting back and forth on all these different storylines that we want to get to. So I hope you enjoyed today and have a great 48 hours. Outro Music