The Ryen Russillo Podcast - CFB's Latest Terrible Idea, Colts Pick Jones Over Richardson, and the Best Defense in the NFL With Booger McFarland

Episode Date: August 19, 2025

Russillo starts the show with thoughts on the Big Ten’s proposed College Football Playoff expansion. Then, Booger McFarland comes on to add his thoughts to the playoff expansion debate, reveal which new college QBs have the best chance to break out, and discuss the Colts' decision to name Daniel Jones as their starting QB. Plus, Life Advice with Ceruti and Wargon! (0:00) Welcome to The Ryen Russillo Podcast! (2:13) This new playoff expansion proposal is worth complaining about (5:12) What would this new system have looked like last season? (9:17) College football shouldn’t feel like March Madness (10:48) College football is attempting to devalue its product (12:49) Booger McFarland joins the show (15:35) Do commissioners have the sport's best interest in mind or just their conference's? (19:29) Would the Big Ten have proposed this had they not won the last two titles? (26:53) New college QBs who could have the most success (36:35) On giving advice to a QB (39:34) What do you think of the Colts naming Daniel Jones as their starting QB? (43:38) Which QB would you rather have for the next three seasons? (47:19) On Russell Wilson’s limitations (50:19) Why Aaron Rodgers might just work in Pittsburgh (53:06) Who has the best defense in the NFL? (55:48) Which college football team do you think could struggle? (1:01:41) Should stars be skipping the preseason? (1:06:35) Life Advice! (1:10:00) Hotel checkout update (1:12:38) Face wash update (1:16:01) When can I stop going to church? (1:25:01) How do I deal with my HOA? Check us out on YouTube for exclusive clips, livestreams, and more at https://www.youtube.com/@RyenRussilloPodcast. The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit www.rg-help.com to learn more about the resources and helplines available. Host: Ryen Russillo Guest: Booger McFarland Producers: Steve Ceruti, Kyle Crichton, Mike Wargon, and Jonathan Frias Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today's podcast episode, college football expansion for the playoff. Do you hear about this? I did. And I'm not happy about it. I'll ask him with Farling about that. Again, who he likes, who he trusts at the top of college football world, looking at the rankings. And then we get into some NFL stuff, including his former team, the Colts, some

story time stuff with Peyton Manning and life advice enjoy i have some thoughts on the new college football playoff proposal uh it was not going to be able to let this one go you've listened to the pod before so the newest proposal from the big 10 uh i guess it was between 24 and 28 teams the media is working a lot with the 2018 model so let's just run through what that would be what that disaster would look like the big 10 would get seven auto bids the cc would get seven auto bids the big 12 and ACC, both five auto bids each, two auto bids for non-power four conferences and then two at-large bids. The committee would still be involved for what reason I have no idea. Because they'd be spending all that time on seating and then coming up with the two at-large

bids, I'm not sure that's worth a weekly meeting. I don't think it's worth a weekly TV show. Reese Davis sitting there and be like, all right, the second at-large bid is number 24. Minnesota. Yeah, that just doesn't seem as compelling. So let's run over what we have here because there's a deadline of December 1st for a new agreement for the playoff. And if they can't figure out something, and I don't, I mean, it feels like really two people are in charge here with the SEC and the Big 10, but it would stay at 12 teams. So apparently Big 10 Commissioner Tony Petitie worked on this idea with other Big 10 ADs with Big 10 ADs last week. Then they told the SEC about the proposal. And then apparently all the other ADs and conference commissioners

around college football found out about this proposal when we did. I don't know if that's entirely true. CBS had reported that clearly there were a lot of people that didn't know and that were frustrated. I guess we could also step back collectively and say, okay, whatever. The Big Ten threw out a proposal is leaked. Now we're all bitching about it. What's the big deal? It probably won't even happen. But I think it's worth bitching about because this is something that I've been doing now for years because it's like, all right, well, you want to change this. And now you're going to. want to change this. If this proposal, if we have a new version of this playoff system, it'll be the fourth iteration of college football championships since 1997.

You know, I'm not telling you just the polls the next day and co-national champs and all that stuff was great. I'm not telling you, the BCS was great. I was totally fine with four. I'd rather leave a team out than feel like everybody's involved. 12 I don't like. 28, I despise. And maybe that's why they leaked it. Sometimes with leaks, I get a little skeptical, like, oh, we're really upset this was leaked. And sometimes it's like, hey, make sure this gets leaked so we can hear what everybody thinks about this. I hope they are hearing the collective outrage because this is college football that has a history of just terrible ideas. This is one of the dumbest fucking ideas that I've ever heard.

So when we went to expansion of 12, you know, my position when it was happening was before it even happened. I'm like, the way the conferences are structured now, you're going to be able to skate through an entire different conference experience based solely on. the luck of the schedule and how much you want to schedule or not schedule out of conference. I don't think, and again, Indiana, this is not about you. It is about the principle about a team getting through a regular season where you're like, I don't know that they really did anything, at least against any ranked opponents. And now they're going to play for a national championship. Can you imagine what we'd be talking about with teams, the arguments that we would have between teams and the others receiving votes category? Let's look back at last year, the AP poll

before the final season rankings. This is before you're going into the playoffs and everything. 26, 27, 28th teams. A&M, Louisville, Duke. I'm good. I'm good. I'm going to be okay if they're not in the playoff. One of the other things that I heard is based on the success of the home field playoff games, the momentum off of that, they'd like to expand that and have 20 of

these games be on campus. You're like, oh, no shit. Home playoff games, we're going to be more exciting than going to Orlando. Let's talk about the seventh place teams if we went to seven auto bids. Last year, the Big Ten, it'd be Michigan or Minnesota, both at eight and five. They'd be in the playoff. The SEC, look, I know the Big Ten's won the last two national championships. I think it's kind of funny that the SEC is held of the standard that when they don't win a national championship every single year.

It's down for them. I don't know how long it'll be down. Do I think the Big Ten's actually top to bottom, a better conference? Absolutely not. If you look through, I don't know how many years you have to go through this before you'd find the Big Ten being superior in this group. But if you go teams five, six, and seven SEC against the Big Ten, I don't even think it's close between those groupings. You may disagree, and it's probably because you're a Big Ten fan. So if you look at the ACC fifth place team last year of Louisville, Big 12, it's Baylor at eight and five.

TCU was actually nine and four, but I think Baylor won the standings tiebreaker based on conference record. So a few more thoughts here. Why is the Big Ten getting seven? I could say who put them in charge, but nobody's in charge. That's the problem with the sport. And if I are running the Big Ten, I'd only be worrying about Big Ten teams, even though it sucks for the sport overall. So, look, I understand when Sankey says something. I understand when the ACC Commissioner says, you know, I get the self-interest, the driving

motivation of self-interest in survival or just going, how do we just dominate all of this stuff, but if you're the Big Ten, you're like, is there a way we get seven of our programs in there every single year? Yeah, let's throw this one out there. And look, we'll let the SEC have seven as well, because they're pretty good. Maybe some ACC people are like, hey, five's good for us. The other thing that's really difficult about this is because, you know, I was going back and looking at like the fifth place Big Ten teams against the fifth place big 12 teams. I think for a bunch of years. The fifth best team in the Big 12 was better than the fifth best team in the Big 10. That's generally irrelevant now after the Big 10 added four Pack 12 teams. So when you add

it in Oregon and then you start moving all these teams down and the fact that the Big 12 loses their two biggest brands in Texas and Oklahoma to the SEC, I don't know how relevant it is, even though I did the exercise this morning and going, you know, the Big 12 has had a lot of seasons where it felt like they were really deep. Maybe not the National Championship contender, the Big Ten, and the SEC have had, but really deep seasons were, would you want to agree to something where it's just automatically a less than? Or are you looking at it going, we are such a second class citizen in both the ACC and the Big 12 now, that five's good for us? I don't know. But I do feel like college football ignores any long-term vision. It also feels like they ignore the cyclical

nature of sports. So there'd be some years in the Big Ten, and maybe even in the Mighty SEC, you're like, who's the seventh team? Is there a quality seventh team that should even be in this? Would it be that one of the other smaller conferences? And again, I hate even saying smaller conference in Big 12 and ACC, where they'd actually have like a six team that was really, really good. And they're just automatically not in this. Or I guess you'd say, hey, they'd get the at large and it doesn't matter. But it just gets back to the general point of like, why is the seventh team that's done nothing all season long still on a graphic on my television after the 12 regular season games. So all the years of yelling about this has led to, it's not an I told

you so, but it's a lot like a collective bargaining agreement fight where when you agree to something that you don't like, which is a part of every negotiation for the most part, unless you're just so special, you get everything you want, but that's very rare. But for the players going up against the owners, right, whether it's hockey, football, baseball, basketball, when you're the players, you're generally losing. We've talked about this before. It's just a matter how much you lose. But a lot of times there's something that's asked for that you're like, all right, well, maybe I can give this up now. But the real fear, the danger is that in six, seven years, when you're at the table again, it's like, well, you gave in on this a little bit. And now we're just going to take back

a little bit more from that. Like, we've broken the seal on the idea of being able to give that up. And now, like, look, I'll just use a simple example. Long-term contracts in the NBA used to be seven years. If you were that team's player and you were resigning, you get a seven-year max. And it's like, man, those are really long. Can we start to shave off a year here or there? And they did it.

And now those deals are shorter. And whenever you start letting expansion just run wild like this, you know, four to 28 would have seemed crazy, but four to 12 to 16 to 28 now. And then you start to hear people be like, well, in the NCAA tournament, they have this many teams make. It's like, man, why do you want to do that?

I'll also hear a lot of people say, well, you like the NFL playoff model. Actually, I don't. I've said that for years. I always think that it should mean something to be able to be invited. to the tournament to win a championship in your sport. The commissioners in those other sports, at least, whether it's NHL, MLB, NBA, NFL,

even though they work for the owners, a big part of their role is preventing the owners from fucking themselves over and then fucking up the product long term. There just feels like there's much more long-term vision. Now, college football doesn't have a commissioner. I don't really know who he would work for if anyone would listen to him. You probably hope if you're a commissioner long enough, you think of David Stern, where it's like, yeah, you're the commissioner, and these owners are still cutting your paycheck, but you have enough power, you have enough juice over the years that you can push back on even the people that own these teams. That doesn't even exist. There's nothing in college football that even exists that way.

I mean, the commissioners of the conferences, they're not partners. NBA owners, NFL owners, they have to figure out a way to become good partners for the good of the product. and we're in a place right now with college football where there is no partnership. You know, I don't know that I've ever seen a league go out of their way, the leadership of the league and the WNBA to devalue one player the way they have with Caitlin Clark the last two years. It's pretty clear. You can read through all sorts of stuff. It seems like they go out of their way to try to devalue the impact of one player in a way that's helping a league financially in a way that we've never seen in the history of it's not apples to apples here

but college football is attempting to devalue its product but i guess i i can't hit you with the actual value loss in dollars because you're just going to say like oh well you know if they expand this it just means more money thank you adam smith i understand that but at least the professional leagues understand that all the teams at the end of the day have to find a way to be good partners. In college football, it feels like the only partnership they really care about is the television part. So if you're hitting me with, well, it just means more money. You're being stupid. You're being naive. You're just too old school about all this. I think all of us that are reasonable understand that there's a limit to this, right? A hundred playoff games would be more money,

but that would be ridiculous, right? Most of us would say, well, I, that's too many. There's an understood line. I don't know what that perfect number is. I know it's South of 28. I still think personally it's South of 12. But there exists this number that it's like, this is still special and it's still rewarding the right things. And if it's leaving out a few programs that are going to be upset, that means that it is special that you didn't get invited. This devalues anything feeling special about it if you had this many teams. And whatever that line is, college football, they don't break it. They put their head down, smashed through it, only looking one step ahead. He is Burger McFarland. He joins us throughout the year. I love having them on a big part of

ESPN's coverage of college football and, of course, played a bunch of years in the NFL. So a lot of different stuff that we want to do. I started this show today with just a rant about the latest proposal on college football playoff expansion. This coming from the Big 10, 24, 28 team, seven auto bids, Big Ten SEC. I don't even know if anybody would even take this thing seriously. I certainly don't take it seriously. But I think just the overall vibe, the constant change and the expanding for more games and yet inviting lesser and lesser teams in a chance to win a national championship.

I'm worried about this sport. And it's just finding new ways to piss me off every year. Yeah, I understand it. I've definitely heard you speak before on it. Here's what I say. I think we've opened a can of worms. and I think a lot of people are trying to go down this rabbit hole. And it goes all the way back to the BCS.

Like, remember when we were doing the whole computer thing and everybody's like, yeah, this is stupid, let's figure out a way to get this committee. Then we get the committee, and then we go from four, and now we're 12. Or is it going to be 14 this year? I just think that we're a society that's very greedy right now. And here's what I mean, because we got the playoff games last year.

We got Penn State at home. We got Ohio State at home. We got, who else was at home? We got Notre Dame at home. Like, we got these on-campus games in the playoffs, and everybody saw the amount of money that was created. Everybody saw how much energy was on their campus and the fan bases. And in an era where inclusion is like the number one thing we're trying to do,

not only in sports, but in corporate America. I just think we're infatuated with, like, how deep can we go? Basketball does, what, 68 now? They're trying to get to 96, whatever the number is, who cares? Football is saying, okay, let's do some version of that. I don't like it. I was cool with four. I think it should be hard.

I'm okay with 12. But if we start going past 12, maybe 14, I'm not even in favor of 16. I think we've kind of missed the mark. Like at some point there has to be a cutoff. You can't include seven teams in the big 10 and seven in the SEC. Like, it just doesn't make sense. So I agree with you.

Here's the one reason I'm not worried, Ron. The one reason I'm not worried. I'll give you two words, Greg Sanky, because I think he's the smartest guy in college football. And as long as he's the commission of the most powerful conference, the SEC, I'm not concerned. Because I think Greg is always going to do what's right by college football. I trust him unequivocally when it comes to putting our sport in a position that it not only morphs with the time and changes, but it doesn't become gimmicky, if you follow me.

Yeah, maybe. I don't know. I mean, I just feel like whether it's Petiti or Sanki that, you know, the analogy I use is the least in professional sports. Every owner, despite competing with each other, understand that there's a partnership and it's for the betterment of the brand. And I don't know that I've seen any decisions that are made by conference commissioners that are actually for the betterment of college football. It's about there are programs in their own backyard or someone else's backyard. This arms race between the Big Ten and the SEC is leading. to a lot of this stuff because if I'm an SEC coach I'm going okay so it was hard enough to get to an SEC championship game and now we're going to add Texas and Oklahoma like you know now I'm supposed to I'm supposed to talk to boosters every year about like coming in fourth um and I still might be a really good football team and certainly there could be years of the big 10 where you know I don't think you could compare five six and seven big 10 against the SEC but now with adding in all the pack 12 teams, Oregon strength. We'll see where Washington is. You know, SC should, you would think at some

point we get back to prominence here. So it changes some of my Big Ten SEC comp stuff historically because I, you know, I have an open mind about all this. So maybe, maybe that's the case of thinking you could be more informed on that than I am, but it feels like answering to your geographical representation first and then to the sports second. And, you know, It's concerning because it keeps happening and each change, you know, gets us further and further away. I think, you know, maybe I'm wrong. Maybe everybody's just still going to love it. Maybe everybody just cares about watching their team on a Saturday like, hey, I'm just a Wisconsin fan.

Like, you guys figure it out, I'm going to be really happy to be in Madison on a Saturday afternoon because it's awesome and I'll go to the game and I hope we win. And that's all that really matters. But the overall, the national version of this product, I just can't believe that we keep heading in this direction. Well, I agree with you that the conference commissioners have a responsibility to their affiliation as far as their conferences. I think you can look bigger and beyond that and say, okay, how does our conference or how does what we do stack up to the rest of the country? And it goes back to the Big Ten in the SEC with this nine games and eight games as far as conference games. I think Greg has a holistic look from 20,000 feet, while also understanding. understanding, let's just fall a spade or spade.

Traditionally, the SEC is the best conference in college football. Now, the Big Ten is one of the last two national championships, and they've gotten better, especially when you add Oregon to the Big Ten. They've gotten a lot better. But I think when you look at it historically, those are the one-two conferences in this country. Even if you're a Big Ten homer and you say, okay, we're right there, you still have to agree that the SEC's right there on par. And the reason I say they're going to do what's right is because they could take their ball and lead.

If the Big Ten and the SEC said, hey, we're going to go do this thing, We're going to have two super leagues, and we're going to split apart and do our own thing. The rest of you got Big 12, ACC, y'all figured out. They honestly could do that because the TV money would follow them, okay? The reason I think they're not doing it is because they understand the bigger picture. They understand that the Big 12 matters. The ACC does matter. I'm not sure what's going on with the PAC, whatever you want to call it right now, whatever

they're doing out there, but those Big Four do matter. And so I honestly think while there is an allegiance to your geographic region, Tony Petitian and Greg Sanky, I do think that they're about the bigger picture of college football, even though that picture has changed in the last decade. Like, it's changed dramatically in the last decade. And guess what? A lot of things in our lives have changed. So we have to morph with kind of what's going on.

We just can't take it too far. And I think they have the best interest of the game in mind. And then you've got a factory in Notre Dame, which has always kind of been the eyeball sitting on the outside that everybody tries to include. Do you think, and again, this is a proposal. proposal, it already seems like nobody likes it. I think the Big Ten likes it because it guarantees the Big Ten, seven auto bids. I don't know if they didn't want it leaked. I don't know if they did maybe want it leaked to see what the reaction would be to this. Do you think if the Big Ten had not won the last two national championships they would be proposing this kind of stuff?

No, I think the Big Ten is, it's kind of like when you're negotiating with somebody. You always start, even if you want 20 million, you ask for 40 and hoping at some point you settle down. Does the big team honestly think they're going to get seven auto bids? Like, seriously, you can't name me seven teams in the big team right now this year that are good. Like, if we could have this conversation and debate it, I don't know of seven teams in that league that are, that I would say that are deserving to, or that have the roster to play for a national championship. And I don't know if there's seven in the FCC this year until we see them play,

to be honest with you. So seven auto bids in any league, I think, is way too many. I do think, just like you and I would, if we go in the gym and we hit, I don't know, 4.05 for three, we'd be feeling ourselves a little bit, right? Like, if you're the big team, I'd be feeling something. Hey, if you won the last two national championships, hey, I mean, you're going to patch your chest a little bit. So I get it. But let's kind of be realistic also. Yeah, I think that's the right answer.

I mean, I don't, I don't blame them for being like, you know, hey, there's a bit of a juice transfer here. By the way, when's the last time that we hit 405 for three, by the way, since we both since I just fired up? zero times i've never had hit it one ever hit it one time never good good i was just checking 405 yes 4005 pounds yeah i'm aware you didn't get what i said no i i know what i didn't think you're asking about an area code no i'm not talking about oklahoma by the way that's right 405 good job yeah exactly that is good because there was a joke about bob stoop when he had lost a bunch of bowl games in a row that his area code was 0 for 5

because Bob just got it done as soon as he showed up and then it was like, wait, what the hell's going on with that program here? They love Bob Stoops right now. So let's talk ball. Do you have a national championship game already? Have you worked on it? Have you made any public?

All right, all right, all right. We're just finishing the second scrimmage portion of where team, we haven't even game plan for a game this week unless you're Iowa State and Kansas State. Here's what I'll say. I think there's a handful of teams that legitimately can win a national championship. Like if you want to say, I'll phrase it this way, what teams have the fewest question marks?

The fewest question marks. I think Clemson comes to mind because they have a veteran quarterback. They got a lot of guys on, they got a lot of answers on offense. They got a lot of answers on defense. Penn State, a lot of answers on offense, a lot of answers on defense. you got a returning quarterback. Those are the two teams that have the fewest questions. Outside of that, Ryan, when you start to look at the other talented teams, Ohio State new quarterback, LSU,

can they play some resemblance of defense, Notre Dame, like quarterback situation there, Alabama new quarterback, Georgia new quarterback, even though he played last year. Like, if you just go down the list of the teams of the most talented, Texas, Arch Manning, we think we know, but you really don't know. Like there's an abundance of teams that have question marks. The team with the fewest question marks, the two teams that have the fewest question marks are Penn State and Clumson. Now, does that mean they're going to play for a national championship?

No. But when you start to kind of 10,000 feet this thing and you start trying to put teams in tears and categories, if you do it that way, it kind of gives you, kind of lets you break down the country and see who's going to be good and who has. an opportunity to be good and who's kind of going to surprise people as far as those teams that could come out of nowhere, like an Oklahoma with John Mateer. If he hits, Oklahoma could be really good.

Like, there are some teams like that that could come out of nowhere and be really good. I'll tell you a dark horse. I'm going to give you one dark horse. I know you didn't ask for it. Here's my dark horse of the college football season, South Carolina. South Carolina has an opportunity to, I think if they go 10 and 2 again, 9 and 3, or should I If they back up last year's season with 10 and 2 this year, I think it would get in the playoffs. They might get in the playoffs with 9 and 3.

South Carolina with that quarterback, it would almost be like, you know, making an all-pro team. Like the first time you, they probably should have gotten into the playoff last year, but they didn't get the benefit of the doubt this year. If they repeat that season this year, I think back during last year with another season, I think they'll get in. So South Carolina is my dog horse. That schedule is brutal. You know, not to say that Virginia Tech's coming off the strongest.

season, a lot of injuries. So they open with them. And then their SEC schedule over six weeks are these five games at LSU, Oklahoma, Alabama, at Ole Miss, at A&M. And then I brought up the Coastal Carolina thing, because I know Connell has that tweet ready to go for November 22nd, but then they play Clemson, luckily at home. If they were to go, see, this is where you've got to ask, okay, well, does a three-loss team that has three losses off of that schedule, do they get in? Well, it's again, who am I comparing them to? So we don't know that. See, that's why I say if you think about what they did last year

and they were right on the friends last year, if they do that again this year, I think they get the benefit of the doubt because the people in the room are only going to be human. Like, they're humans in the room. They're going to think about what they did last year, the momentum, to your point, the schedule, how tough that schedule is. You go nine and three with that schedule.

I don't care which nine you pull out. Like, they're going to get a lot of consideration. Yeah, and it does suck, too, because I think their loss against LSU is one of the worst officiated games I've ever watched in my entire life. Yeah, it was pretty bad. Booker says with a big smile and it says, I think I rarely go that far, but even the guys on the call,

I think it was Fowler and Herb Street where they were, or was it McDonough? I forget, I don't know. If it was McDone and officials survive. It was a McDonald's because it was a day game. Yeah, it was like a noon ABC game, I think. Yeah, so why would that be Herb Street and Fowler? So, McDonough is not afraid to let the officials have it

over the course of a broadcast. probably more so than anybody, but that was, that was just, I mean, it cost them a shot of the play. It cost them a shot at the point. Granted, it was earlier in the season, so they don't know that. They ended up closing really strong, winning a bunch of games the rest of the way. But I would love for the committee, and I don't think they can do it. I think human nature is just, it's really hard for a group of people to look at one team that's 10 and 2 and another team, it's 9 and 3, and think the 9 and 3 team is better than them.

They don't look at schedules. They don't look at the imbalance within its own conference of the scheduling. I think it's a real, really hard thing for people to sit in a room and go, okay, but this team is actually better. Look at what they had to go through. So I don't know if South Carolina, maybe off of the momentum, because this is also a human nature thing, the momentum of last year, and then being talked about and everybody knowing that Lenores has a chance to be, you know, I don't know if it would be the top quarterback taken overall. I still think there's some work to do, but he's just so much fun.

Everybody seems to love the guy, and he really came out on the scene last year. So staying with that, though, let's stay with the quarterback stuff at the top, because I don't even know, you know, what your answers would be on this because of the unknowns, the Texas, Ohio State, making their announcement that the younger recruits are going to be playing, saying, Georgia, Notre Dame, Oregon, Bama. So that's six of the eight. We've done this before. Is there one you love? I'll just say, I'd be a little shocked of just arched man. all of a sudden was average. That would be surprising to me.

So I don't know where you are with him or if there's another young guy from that group, an unproven guy from that group that you actually feel really good about. So I think if you are a young quarterback, do you have a play caller that can put you in position that are going to make some plays? And do you have receivers that can catch their football? I think to your point about Arch Manning, Sark may be the, like, Sark is a play caller who has been able to morph regardless of who the quarterback is being. Think about what he was calling plays at Alabama.

Think about what he's done. Now, if you're arch, you waited on this, okay? And a lot of people would say to Sark, well, if Arch is so good, I could be didn't play last year because last year's team was probably more talented than this year's and Sark would probably say, well, he wasn't ready. So with that being said, you got Wingo, who was a five-star recruited, Texas, and now you got Arch, now you got the playmaker, excuse me, the play caller. I think that combination is going to be really good.

I like saying at Ohio State, and here's why I say that, Ron, is because everything coming out of Ohio State says this ball comes out quick. It's accurate and it's quick. And the one thing I can tell you, even though Will Howard was big, he was a gamer, he came up from Kansas State. Will Howard, I don't think, is the pinpoint passer that Julian is it. Julian saying is. And if that's the case to go along with Jeremiah Smith of Cornell Tate,

like those guys, they're going to be really, really tough to deal with down the field. last year they ran the football a lot with Trayvion Henderson and Quinshion Junkins. It was physical. It was quarterback power sometimes. It was RPO. I think this year, Ohio State's going to say, you know what? We got the best player in America and number four.

Okay, as Van Pelt would say, just throw up the four. All right? Put him out there. You got to take and say, hey, be accurate. Let's use what we have. That's the job of a coach, man. It's to take what you have and morph your game playing into that. I think their offense could be more explosive. And so I think those two,

scenarios are going to be two that could really, really, to your point, I have a hard time seeing them fail, but I think they could really hit a ceiling that we haven't thought before because of the explosiveness of the offense, because I think those two quarterbacks are going to be really, really good from my throwing in a passing standpoint. Sellers, I think sellers is a year away. I think sellers this time next year could be viewed the way we look at, maybe Arch this year, or Clubnick or some of those guys who could be potential. you. I know Jeremiah and McShay are infatuated with his physical traits and what he could be. I just think he's a year away from a development standpoint. And I think in the end, he will wind up being that.

I just think he's not there yet. You know, what I like about saying for Ohio State here, and I go back to two years ago when it was McCord and Devin Brown, number 33 there. I remember, by the way, 33. Well, it was, wasn't it because of Sammy Baugh? I think he had said that's why he wanted it. So I immediately loved it. But they played that so hard all offseason. Okay. Like I do think that there's a point of spending too much energy on something that's attempting to be devious,

which is like, what's the fucking problem with just saying like, hey, this guy is going to play? Like, I mean, break. But look, coaches just, just obsessed with this idea that, oh, they're going to be wasting so many reps. Like, I think I get in an NFL week, you know, if they're too completely, different quarterbacks. And I think probably us in the media overstate the importance of that. I guess I'm just so sick of everybody saying like, well, they can't name it. Like, think all the reps they're wasting preparing for two different guys. And it's like, yeah, I don't even know whether

that really even happens. But the argument for saying here is that, you know, he beats out a junior who nobody even knows. And they made the announcement. You know, they didn't toy around with it because it was very clear like once Ohio State broke the 23 season, it was McCourt. So like they did it to mess with everybody because maybe they still thought it was close and Devin was just a different kind of player altogether but once the announcement

was because I was watching this going, are they going to do the exact same thing they did two years ago and then it doesn't really matter maybe there's something to be said. And again, this is a positive spin on Ohio State's decision that were mid-August and we know and we're good

to go because I just remember the obsession with that. Whereas if I look at like Ty Simpson with Alabama he's been there a while it looked like two years ago they wanted to make the change to somebody that wasn't Milrow

and he was never able to take it from him and look people are all over the place on who Milro is or isn't the draft guys had him QB1 after the Georgia game and I lost my shit on Monday show okay so it's like all right this is where

you stood this is why the guy at home is like These guys don't know what they're talking about. And I know those guys know what they're talking about. They're friends of mine. But I was telling my friends, you are out of your mind on this one. So the reason I bring up any of that kind of stuff, and maybe this is the Sabin lesson in all the times that I had access to Sabin would sit down and talk with him and why I love him so much is I asked about the Blake Sims decision when they had cocker. Right. And it was it was something he had talked about.

He was like, it's up to the coaches, but it's also up to the locker room. right it's up to the locker room and you will see how a locker room and the guys that matter how they respond to one guy over the other and that might have been the sims decision and then it worked out you know cocker having a weight a year and maybe that was it maybe the locker room because milro is just such a freak back there that it was that it's not so much a knock like i'm kind of talking out both scenarios here was simpson not good enough to overtake milro or did millro just own that locker room so much that it didn't matter. And that's what Saban was going to go with, at least in 23. Right. So I think initially that, and I know you've heard this, like life is about

relationships. And I think initially the relationship that Murrow had and the connection he had with some of his teammates probably was the reason why that everybody wanted, or the locker room, quote unquote, wanted Jalen Milro. But I think when you're Caleb DeBore and you come in there and you got to win, you get a feel for what's going on. Now Jalen Miro starts. Now you look at what's best for our team. Ryan Williams, in my opinion, is just as good as Jeremiah Smith, but he doesn't get the opportunities

or he hadn't had the opportunity to play with a quarterback that can remotely get him to football on time. Let's just jump in there. I think it's close to, but you think he's just as good as Smith. No question. I think he's just as good. They have different things that make them great.

Smith's size is unreal, his size, his physique, his athletic ability to go up. Like, he reminds you of Calvin Johnson, whereas, like, you look at a guy like Ryan Williams, who's smooth, man, his route running to be that size. Like, he was down in Tampa. Like, he came down to do, like, a little prospect camp, and I saw him run. Like, he's bigger than you think. Like, he's six foot two. He can run.

He's got hands. He's like a faster version of Reggie Wayne. And if you know how good Reggie Wayne was in Miami and how good he was. was with the coach, people who don't know, right? No, Reggie Wayne is a Portland Hall of Fame. Like, he should be in the Hall of Fame. Like, that's what he reminds me of. Ryan Williams is that good.

And he hadn't had a quarterback that can get into football on time consistently yet. And so I think when you're Taylor DeBore and you're making this decision right now with Todd Simpson, you're saying, okay, even though I recruited this five-star guy at Dunkinville High School and Keel and Russell, and he's the future because he's a dual-threat quarterback, who gives me the best chance to win right now? And I think if you're Ryan Williams and you're the receivers, you want the total opposite of what you had in Merrill. You want a guy that it's not going to run. It's going to throw you to football so you can make a vigilion plays.

And I think that's what Alabama is going on with. Even though DeBoer, his guy is the five star from Texas. And eventually, he wants to play him. But to your point about the locker room and the playmakers, they don't want the QB running around no more. They want that guy that's throwing the football where these receivers can eat and make plays. And so, yeah, they got to, if you're the coach and you got to listen to what the locker room is saying, and you kind of get a good feel about where the team wants to go. And if you have the type of relationship with your best players, you just pull them in the office and talk to them.

Like, hey, man, like, how do you see it? What's your thought process? Does the ball come out when you want to? Because the worst thing for a receiver and a playmaker, excuse me, a receiver and a play caller, is a quarterback who won't throw the football on time. That is the worst thing because they both. get frustrated. Play caller designs these great plays. Receiver runs

a great route, and then he just doesn't throw the football. So I think that's what they're dealing with in Alabama. I think Ty Simpson is going to play. The biggest issue I saw with Simpson when he finally played is the moment was a little big for him, Ryan. Like it was a little big. Like he got a happy feedback there. He looked like he was a little overwhelmed.

And if he gets an inkling of that, you're going to see the freshman really quickly because he's been there since January. Did they ever ask you what you thought about quarterback while you're in college? Zero chance. Matter of fact, they didn't even ask me my opinion until on anything football to like my senior year. I mean, I was, dude, I was a noseguard.

They didn't care about I thought, man. Hey, go tackle the guy. Yeah, that's pretty much what I imagined. What about the pros? Like, you had some status? A little bit. Fun story. I get traded to Indy, right?

And we're having this conversation just about the team and Ursaid pulls all of us in the office. And, you know, we're talking about things that make us better and leadership and all that. And I've only been there like a month or so or whatever. And I get put on this committee. And so I'm starting to feel a little bit empowered. Fast forward, we're in the playoffs and we're playing Baltimore. And if you remember that game, we're on the road. And within the first quarter of the game, Peyton is almost thrown like three picks.

like Ed Reed dropped one, Ray Lewis dropped another. And so nobody said anything to Peyton, right? Like you, Peyton is the Hall of Famer. So I go to the sideline because I've kind of felt empowered. I've only been there for like four months. I said, hey, hey, 18. Hey, just so you know, hey, let's not throw it to them today

because they can't, they can't score on us. He looked at me like I has four heads. I'm like, hey, just don't throw it to them. And if you remember that game, we beat them 15 to 9 we kicked five field goals they couldn't score on us and years later

like I think he finally realized that was right but at the moment he looked at me like dude you've only been here four months we've been trying to do this for 10 years here in Indy and you're telling me

I know not to throw it to Ray Lewis and Ed Reed I didn't try to just came out that way so that's my only quarterback advice I've ever given and I gave it directly to the quarterback

I think he was Right, to look at you that way. So throwing to them. Like, come on, man. Like, they can't score. Why are we trying to force the football? Did anyone say anything to you? Did anybody on the defensive side catch you saying that?

The couple people looked at me like, hey, like, what are you doing? I'm like, dude, first of all, I didn't care. They traded for me because they needed some help. So I'm already feeling empowered. But my personality really wasn't the guy to come in and just kind of do that. But once Mr. Ursaid brought me in the office and kind of put me on the committee, I feel like I could say something then. And even at that point, I didn't until the playoff game,

because this was the, this was the divisional round. We beat Kansas City the first round. Now we're in Baltimore, and it's McNair and Jamal Lewis and Jonathan Ogden. And they'd read, like, it's the Ravens Raven. And literally, he almost threw three picks like the first quarter. And I'm like, nobody's going to say nothing to it? Okay, I will. Hey, let's not throw it to them today, okay?

What do you think about the Colts today? I think the Andrew Luck decision surprised everybody. I think Chris Ballard has tried his best to figure the quarterback position out. When you draft a quarterback like Anthony Richardson, he hasn't played a lot of football. He needs to play. St. Sykin is a coach that I think he was hired. primarily on the basis of what he did with Jelham Hertz, quarterback who need to develop as a passer

who had great athletic ability. Now, you fast forward, we're in this position now where Shane Siking has to win because the coach roster, Ryan, is pretty good. Like, it's not a bad roster. It's not top five roster, but it's somewhere probably between 8 and 12 as far as the amount of talent they have in that team.

They got a lot of talent. Maybe you say they're 12. Some people might say they're 8, but they're in the upper echelon as far as talent in the league. Okay? So now you have a coach who's got to win. So you put yourself in this position, Ryan. Your Manhattan Beach home depends on who you choose a quarterback.

Are you choosing to develop a guy for the future and when you may not be here? Are you choosing the guy that you think may give you the best chance to keep that Manhattan Beach? I think that's what Shane Stuyken did today when he chose Daniel Jones. He said, which guy gives me the best chance to keep this in view today? All right? I got to send a kid to private school. mom likes driving the G-wagon. Like, which guy gives me the best chance to do that?

I don't think he trusts Anthony Richardson to do that. And whether you agree with him or not, you got to trust the guy because he's putting his livelihood on the line. Because if whoever he chose, and it happens to be Daniel Jones, if they fail, he's fired. And so I respected the decision to sue you because he chose himself and he didn't choose

the future of future that he may not be a part of. So whether you like it or not, it's like, I mean, tomato tomato. It's six and one hand, one half dozen another. I don't think either one are great, but he chose the one he thinks gives him the best chance to keep his job.

Yeah, but I think you could also expand on that he didn't just choose you to your term or looking at his own, you know, just the survival mode of any coach in this spot, but he's also giving everybody else a chance, this talent that you're talking about, a better chance. Because Anthony Richardson to this point has given us nothing. Like, there's nothing. I mean, you want to tell me it looks really cool when he runs it in from first and goal from the five? Like, yeah, that's just awesome. But what I see as a team

that never trusts him to throw down there. And it's like cool fantasy stuff that everybody told me about last summer um but there's you know i don't even know that it's that complicated of a decision i'm not a daniel jones guy either i think he he looks the part like it looks like a quarterback throws in there where it looks really good like if he had to play a quarterback in a tv show you're like man this tv show's so realistic but there's clearly limitations on all the other stuff but if if you're comparing it to the body of work from anthony richardson on top of his inability to stay healthy, you know, I guess I'm just always annoyed by some of the Richardson coverage. Like, remember that throw where he doesn't have any base and he whips at 60 yards

down the sideline? Was that Eric Pierce or whoever? Was that Pierce or Pittman down there, just a filthy, filthy play? And then it's like, yeah, he completed like eight passes the rest of the game. And, you know, we all understand the physical part of it, but I don't know what you would necessarily be giving up by deciding to go. at Jones. So it may be way less complicated than even about the survival instinct of a coach.

Here's a question for you, and this is obviously a hypothetical, but this is just based on how you see football and what you see going forward. I give you a three-year window and you're the coach and you can have one of these three

quarterbacks for the next three years. Daniel Jones, Anthony Richardson, Shradura Sanders. Which one would you take? I would take Shador, and I have no idea. I mean, I'm not losing my mind over the preseason thing, but the preseason thing turns into something special, much bigger because of him, and then also because of how he fell on draft weekend, not even draft day.

So I'm Richardson's fourth on that list for me out of the three that you gave me. I've seen enough with Jones, but you're right. Like if I'm a coach and I'm going, am I going to be here in three, years. Daniel Jones, this isn't like late career Joe Flacko, all right? Yeah. Where, all right, I know what I'm doing. I know my limitation. I know he's probably going to throw it to the other guys a bunch of times too, but maybe there's a way I can wiggle some kind of, I don't know, nine and eight season? Can I get a 10 and 7 season out of this if the rest of talent is good enough? So of those three, Jones isn't good enough for me to go, well, let's see what we have in sure here, because

people have been wrong in this position forever. And so maybe there's, because we know he's competitive as hell. We know that, you know, I think he's up for it. I think he's up for the job, maybe more than other guys are just because of his upbringing. And it doesn't seem like he shies away from any of the attention. But I'm saying it at the second time, I don't look at that preseason game where he had a really nice preseason game and go, okay, this answers all the questions. We actually did this with Daniel Jones, by the way, where Giants fans wanted apologies

after the draft reaction? Yeah, I would tend to agree with you. I think human nature says I'm going to bet on what I don't know because I haven't seen it, and that's Shadur. Like, I've seen Daniel Jones. I've seen Anthony Richardson. I've seen Kenny Pickett. I don't need to see that anymore.

If you go to New York, I've seen Russell, I've seen James, which is why people are starting to mention the Jackson Dart thing. I think human nature says... If you're the optimist and you have time, then you're going to bet on what you don't know to see what you have. Because the definition of insanity is do the same thing over and over. Like, why would I do Russell?

Why would I do Kenny Picky? Why would I do Daniel Jones? Why would I do these guys who by now I think I know what they are and expect something different if you follow me? Yeah, I'm being shocked if Jackson Dart doesn't have multiple starts this season. You could pretend that, hey, Russell Wilson, it's steadier. His floor is higher than Jackson Darts floor. I think last year, some of the blame on him for the Steelers falling off was totally misguided just because the defense fell off a cliff. But it's pretty clear. Like, I always look at the coordinators. I love watching the play callers after plays that don't work out. And maybe some of these guys are rehearsed enough. Like Romo was the most rehearsed quarterback ever during a game when he threw a pick. It was like somebody was in his ear, be like, all right, camera two. and then he would look at the receiver

and he would make, and so you would always think it was always everybody else's fault after a Romo interception. He was the best I've ever seen at it. He just sat at the guy. He was like the safety who was supposed to be there

for over the top help, who lets the corner get beat on one-on-one on a go route, and then he looks back at the corner. Like, what are you talking about? Like, no, I'm down here, man. So, but I think there was a lot of times with, you know, not to like absolve Russell Wilson of any of the blame, but there were times where you would then see like what was going on on the sidelines. And it was like, all right, you know, this is, this is really the only thing I'm now defaulting to on any quarterback evaluation.

What plays do they feel comfortable with you running in the red zone in third and long? It's the first Mitch. No, it's the Mitch Rubisky thing when Nagy was there. It's like third and seven. It's like, how are he supposed to throw it to the flat and hope the running back makes the guy miss?

Like, Jesus, they're scared to death of this guy. He's their guy and they're scared to death of even having this guy throw it anywhere down the field. So you could see that stuff with Wilson in the red zone and some of that frustration,

but I don't know that, well, no, I'm saying defiantly, all of the blame for the Steelers falling off is not all on Russell Wilson whatsoever. But, you know,

if he were a steadier option, he wouldn't be on his third team in three years here. I guess you could say fourth team in four years if you want them to. Well, I could push back on that and say this. He was never Sean Payton's type of quarterback. I think that's number one. Kind of person either. Even better.

That's supporting my argument even more. And I think his limitations in Pittsburgh, like he never throws across the middle of the field. Like he wants to throw outside and deep. And I get it. if you go back to when he was in Seattle. Like, he's 5'10. If you really want to be honest, he's never really thrown across the middle in his life.

Because he can see, but he's not the tallest guy. So like his limitations are what they are and they have been that way for a long time. I just think as he's gotten older, they become more visible. We see them more. There's an exclamation point of them more. And I think when he gets to Denver,

Sean Payton goes, oh, so you just like, we can't work the middle of the field. Like we can't work the seam in the tight end. Like, okay, and you have an entourage? You want to go east to west productions? No, like you want your own office spot. Like, we don't need that around here. Then he gets to Pittsburgh or Mike T. is a total opposite.

Mike T. is not going to have any of that. But the team isn't good enough. And he and, like him trying to move the offense that wasn't as talented was never going to work. And now he's in New York. And you knew the moment the contracts were given out between he and James, who the starter was. Like, when one guy gets whatever, the number 20, and the other guy gets four, they'll tell you who the starter is.

And then you draft Jackson Dart. I think to your point, I don't blame a lot of what's in Pittsburgh or what happened in Pittsburgh on him. I blame Pittsburgh because when you go shopping for groceries, it's kind of like when you're in the fruit section and you take a piece of bad fruit and you put it in your basket

and you pay for it and you get home. You're like, oh, man, why did I get this? Well, you chose it. They chose him. So you can't blame him for what you chose. So I agree. I blame a lot of what happened in Pittsburgh. on them for trying to take a square peg and put it in a round hole.

What do you think of Rogers in Pittsburgh, man? I'm optimistic. I got an opportunity to think it's going to work. And here's why I know what it feels like when you get older and you go to a different team and you're motivated. Now, Aaron Rogers is a different cat. Don't know him. I only met him one time.

He thinks differently. But the one thing that I've been told by people there is he's motivated. And if you want to be honest, it's been kind of quiet. Like, it's been a little quiet coming out of there

other than when he's, since he's gotten there, it's been quiet. And I like talented teams that are quiet. Now, I know he's going to probably come on the Macon the show once the season started

and maybe it'll get some noise. I don't know whether that's going to happen or not. But I just love, picture this. Picture this team healthy. Okay, picture this. They drafted the kid out of Pittsburgh Harmon to go.

with Hayward and Highsmith and Watt. They got guys that can come out to the quarterback, Keanu Benton. They got seven guys up front that can go. Secondary-wise, you got Slay, you got Porter Jr., you got Ramsey. So now you got guys that you can say,

in some form or fashion, I can lock down three dudes. So if the Bengals come in there, I can match up on anything the Bengals can put out. I can match up on whatever the Ravens put out there, and we can drop our extra guy down to deal with Derek Henry. I can match up on anybody.

From a linebacker standpoint, I love what Queen does with his ability to run. Defensively, people might say I'm crazy. If they stay healthy, I think they're a top five defense in football this year. Now, if that's the case on that side of the football, then the one question mark I have is the offensive line. Can the offensive line protect Rogers and can they run the football?

Because if they can do that for so long, man, this team, because Mike Tomlin knows how to coach football. If they can do that, 12 and 5? And then everybody will be like, oh, man, this is the greatest thing. I think they can get the 12 and 5. And if they get the 12 and 5, man, that means the defense is humming. That means Roger is healthy. That means the offensive line is playing well.

And they will be a tough out come January. Who do you think has the best defense in the NFL then? That's right. Statistically terrific last season. Yeah. they give up 31 of the bills in the playoff game. I think there were some conversations around, you know, is it a bit scheduling to be that good? You know, we're talking like Eagles number one opposing yards by pretty good margin, number one in opponent's yards per play.

Denver's number two. I'm certainly in the opposing yards per play category. So that would make you think that it's probably also opposing yards. Denver's defense last year felt like, hey, is anybody paying attention? Like is anybody paying attention or how good these guys are? And then when you have kind of the one marquee event and it's the playoff game

and then you just know match, your offense is going to be able to keep up with Allen or anything like that. But for you to say right now you think they're the best defense. That just, I'm not telling you they're, you know, I guess I don't really have a position other than it surprises me

that that was your first choice and not Philadelphia. Well, his reason I said about Philadelphia because Philadelphia is they lost a little bit when it comes to their rush. Milton Williams is gone, sweat's gone. So, like, that rush is not going to be the same. I know Jordan Davis has lost some weight.

He looks phenomenal. Can Jalen Carter take the next step? Nolan Smith, like those guys, those young guys got to continue to go. I love what they did. I mean, you know, you're counting on from a secondary standpoint. You're counting on those guys to continue to progress because Slay's no longer there. They're still young. I think there's going to say there's going to be regression.

I just think it's going to be different for them this year. If Denver's not the best. I'll take Denver. I'll take the Rams. I love the Rams Young Front 7. I like, in this day and age, I want speed people that can cover and people that can rush.

I think Denver, I think the Rams. I love what they're doing there. Detroit depends on what happens with Hutch. I like Branch and Anzolone and those guys in Detroit. They're just so physical and so tough, man. I think Buffalo takes a step back this year. defensively. I think Pittsburgh's defense is going to be really good.

Baltimore has the ability to come at you in waves, man, because Ojoabo, remember, we forgot about him. He looks apart. Ojoabo, Matabee, Matabee, Roquan, Marlon, back inside at the slot. They can cover on the back end.

Cowell, Hamilton. Like, that defense in Baltimore is going to be top five. So, like, those handful of defenses, I think, are the ones that are really going to be, where you can say, we can go hold a team to 13 points in a couple of weeks and give our offense a chance to win. Other than that, a good week for defensive is going to be 24 points.

But there are some teams that I think that can lock down. And by like, you're never going to be what we were or what does 2000, whatever Ravens were within, like you're never going to hold a team to nine points a game. That's not going to happen. But there are some teams that I think on a couple of weeks. in and weekouts, they can put up 13 to 14 points and hold a team, and they have the ability to do that. And I think those are a couple of our name. Last question, let's just wrap it back up with college football. Is there a group among the projected title contenders that you don't like?

They're like, I don't see it. I mean, is it the Oregon turnover? You know, because I brought this up before, if you look at some of that continuity stuff, like they are challenged. It's just a, it's a massive task for landing to be like, okay, you know, compete for the big 10 again and be back in the playoff with so much turnover on that roster and another team that, look, they got a first place vote in the AP poll, which I actually kind of was shocked by. Yeah, it's always interesting when you have turnover at the most important position, and that's quarterback. Oregon, if Oregon's going to win this year, they're going to have to be more physical.

They get the young kid from Texas, DeCorea Moore. he was the number one wide receiver in the country. Like, you know, what's he going to be? I want to see it. You got a new quarterback out there. I want to see it. Oregon could be a team that I'm not going to say I don't believe in them because I love Dan Lannning.

I think he's one of the best coaches, but I got to see it. I think if you come over in the ACC, people are starting to kind of tap Miami a little bit with Carson Beck. I don't know if I see it. Like, I'm not, I don't. I don't see it yet. Like to me, there's something about Carson Beck that if he, even with the injury,

if he was that type of a leader, I still think he would be at Georgia because you just get the elbow fixed and you run it back. But they almost wanted him gone. And so I just don't know if Miami, a year after losing Camp Ward, who kind of galvanized that entire team, is going to rally around Carson Beck. I'm interested in seeing what Georgia does. That's all I'm going to say. I'm very interested to see.

offensively Kirby has always been on the fence defensively he's been tremendous what's he going to be offensively this year because you can't go in saying we're going to hold teams in college football at 17 points like you got to score

and for whatever reason that offense hasn't been as explosive as it should be or as explosive as the Georgia fans wanted it to be and so is this a year where Georgia is not 11 one, 10, and two. I need to see it. So I think those are some teams. I'm not going to say I'm

not a believer in. And then I think here's the one, Ryan, and it's going to sound very kind contradictory because if you go back to the beginning, you said two teams that have who do I believe in? And I gave you two teams that have the fewest questions. And that is Clemson and Penn State. Penn State's biggest question is not on the field. It's on the sideline. You can't tell me that there's not a correlation between the amount of big games that James Franklin has lost and his ability to get his team over the hump. Like, I don't believe

in coincidence. And if you go back and look at the, like, I forget the record. I don't want to quote it, like his record in big games, whether it's against Ohio State or top, whatever teams, it's not good. And you're like, okay, fool me one, shame on you. Fool me twice. Shame on me. Like, at some point,

he's got to get this talented team over the hump. And it's not going to be week one. It's not going to be weak whatever. He's got about three or games this season where he's going to be able to prove whether or not he's ready to push the right buttons and get this team over the top. I think that's the biggest question mark in college football is James Franklin because he's got one of the two most talented team. I think Clemson and Penn State are the two most talented teams that have returning quarterbacks in the country,

top the bottom. And so can the coach get the talent over the hump? Yeah, there's all sorts bad numbers for Franklin, one and nine against Ohio State against top 10 teams. He's three and 16 and, you know, it's to a point. I think it sets up really well for them this year. I feel better about them going into this year, even with everything that happened last year. Like, I just think, all right, these guys are coming back. I've already talked to Danny about this. I think he was right on it. And it's like, all right, maybe you have the uncertainty at Ohio State coming off a national championship. You know, Illinois is good. What's going to happen with Indiana. Can they even repeat what they did last year, even though everybody really likes Mendoza

the transfer of Cal? Look, I just, it's, it can't be defended. It can't be defended how many times like the Penn State story is the same thing, even though I do think last year was an improvement from all the other years where my argument against Penn State was like, all right, cool. So when you play any of the other teams that are actually as talented, you lose to them all the time. And then you get your 10 wins against the other teams that are just, you know, mid to bad big 10 teams. I'm with you a little bit on the assumption that Gunner Stockton is just going to come in and get this thing rolling.

He might be that. I mean, it looks like he's the kind of guy that everybody responds to maybe that was different than Carson Beck. I mean, look, I read an interview the other day where Carson Beck was describing his tattoos and I was like, shit. I was like, this might be the answer. This might be the way to solve the mystery on where this is. guy's at right now. But Stockton, and I could be totally wrong. Like, there's so many of these

guys. Like, I can't talk about Carr from Notre Dame. I don't know enough about him. I mean, I know of Moore. I saw one of his high school things years ago when it was like, where is he going again, you know? And I'm aware of who some of the dudes are, but like I don't have enough experience watching Gunner Stockton play to have a definitive thing other than than the limited time that I've even seen him play like everybody else that watched that game. It's like it might be actually limited a bit on offense there as well. And that's why, you know, even all the uncertainty, I'd rather have the Arch Manning Sark combo of uncertainty

that you started this entire discussion with. I think you're right on with that one. I got a question for you, because I'm always, I'm always interested in your take, because you're a big NBA guy. I never hear the NBA people, analysts, pund, and saying, hey, Luca, Yannis, KD, Steph shouldn't play in the preseason.

But the NFL constantly wants their stars to not play in the preseason. Where do you come down on stars in their specific sports, whether it's pitchers in spring training, whether it's whoever? Because the NFL seems to be the only sport. And I would argue, relative to your sport in spring training, you can have Tommy John injuries in the NBA guys can do ACLs and Achilles. Everybody says the physicality of the NFL, well, relative to the sport, I think each sport has their own set of injuries, but other sports want their guys to play.

NBA, everybody plays in the preseason. You don't play long, you don't play long, but you play in the preseason. Baseball, everybody gets their pitches in and gets their hits in. Why do you think the NFL constantly doesn't want anybody to play and say, let's show up and show up, we've won, everybody be ready. Why is that? Because you're going to look really stupid if you're number one receiver, your best edge guy, forget even about quarterback and the obvious one.

if they get hurt in a preseason. Everybody's going to crush you. You're going to deal with it. And basically now everybody's just copied each other out of fear. But I will never forget when John Harbaugh said this about the lack of hitting. And he said, you know, it actually could lead to more injuries. And he got treated like Neanderthal for even suggesting that. And everybody that criticized him for that was so wrong because you have to hit to learn how to get hit.

Yeah. And, you know, I'm talking to somebody who did this for a living. but I do think the body needs some kind of contact to be ready for what kind of contact you're dealing with week one. So whatever injuries you're avoiding, I don't know if there's any study. I don't know if somebody would be manipulating the numbers to try to prove their whole medical theory that we saw with all the load management bullshit that happened with the NBA for years.

But is there any, like I think you have to be a little bit more tuned up as opposed to live action week one without anything and maybe you're hitting enough in practice and certainly different teams run it differently but i don't i don't know if the value i don't know if the upside value is there by not even giving guys series as opposed to just it's never really been live and and now you're in it and i i think even think like look it's such a coordinated sport where everybody has to be doing their job to get those live reps even if it's not a real football game just the feeling of it i'd imagine there's some benefit there and it just seems like the sport is so worried of having a coach lose an important player in the preseason

and the way he'd be treated for that decision that everybody's just kind of coaching with fear now. Yeah, I think I would agree. And what I've always told people is this. Football is played with one thought. You have to have the ability at any moment you can get your head, knock the hell off. Yeah. If you don't have that thought, it's not really football. And the only time you get that thought is when you step between the white lines during the game.

You never have it in practice, you never have it in a team scrimmage, you never have it in a joint practice. You only get that feeling when you step between the lines on game day and you have to have that feeling to play football because you don't know how you're going to react when the guy can hit you and hit you in the side or the guy can sheep like you have to know that. That's why I think everybody's got to play, man. But I like I found it funny that here's LeBron 40 years old. he's in a preseason game. He may not play long, but he's in a preseason game. Like, I just find it, and he could tear an Achilles or an ACL, like, God forbid he, but he could do it.

And we never hear, why is LeBron playing in the preseason? Why is Steph playing? Because, like, guys have to play. But football, we've become accustomed to say, let's bubble wrap Joe Burrow. Let's bubble wrap these guys. I think the best teams play their guys, Andy Reid, play their guys. We always played a couple of quarters in the preseason. I think the Baltimore plays their guys, even though I don't.

I don't think Lamar's played, but most of their guys play. You have to play football to get ready to play football. So I just wonder where you came down on that. Yeah, and I think everybody's just copying everybody else. Let's check in again soon in the college football season, all right, man? All right, looking forward to it. I'm going to come out there. I want to sit right there in one of those two chairs and look out over the water and just kind of just like meditate.

I want to sit right in one of those two chairs. Dude, I'll leave you the keys. There you go, whenever you need it. I'm coming. I love it. All right. My guy, I'm Hogan McFarland. Lead coverage of college football season throughout for ESPN, and, you know, we have them on all the time. So good seeing you, man. Always later, bud. 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 tour you can possibly imagine. And best of all, kids, I am liquid. it. So, now you know what's possible. Let me tell you what's required. Life Advice. Life Advice

R at gmail.com. We've got Sir Rudy, who looks great. And we've got Wargon who looks good for him. Whoa. Not sure I love that intro. I don't either. It was so mean. I think it looks good. He's got a good t-shirt on. He's got a great t-shirt on today. I don't know what it means, but it's provocative, you know. A little Jason Dominguez shirt. Okay. Yeah, my guy. I don't know who that is. How long is the list of your guys?

I love them all. Love them all. All right. Thursday, George Costanza, sleeping under the desk, bobblehead night. I'll be there. You'll go for the bobblehead or? No, it's a Yankees' Red Sox game.

Yeah, okay. So. How do you feel about the Yanks? I feel okay. I think they have the easiest remaining schedule. good way to look ahead not like college football I'm not a big baseball guy

but like I just love that like every Brian Cashman had a job for like 25 years and I swear to God like they want him fire every single year Yeah he can't lose it It's unbelievable Reminds me of international soccer No those guys get fired Dude Jose Marino

won the champion or no he won the Premier League I think with Chelsea and then got fired like six months later into the season Lester the improbable win they fired Claudia Orneri, like the next year. Yeah. I should have said that differently. I guess I only know soccer is back for the U.S.

when I just see everybody saying that the coach should be fired. So. The difference is they actually do it. Yeah, they do do it. But, I mean, what's Aaron Boone's popularity right now? It's not high. He got Delta shitty. Like, Devin Williams suddenly can't pitch.

What's he supposed to? do. I don't know. All I see is everybody just hates him all the time. Yeah. There's just not many buttons he can push. I love him. As a former Red Sock guy? No, he was always really cool to me. That's true. I forgot about that.

Yeah. He used to have him on. He told the tearing his ACL story. We started doing that story series on the radio show. I always laugh about that because an executive sent it to another executive is like, hey, are you hearing these things or Sillow's doing? And it was right towards like the end of whether or not I was going to stay. And then I went to him. I was like, that means that executive thinks I suck. And he was like, yeah.

I was like, well, I appreciate you, you know, put in the effort. But as soon as I saw that email, I realized, I was like, oh, that means you're trying to be like, no, no, no, he's doing something good. Like, listen to these things. Am I cooked? Yeah. These are good things. So instead of being like, oh, that's cool, he's sharing it with a higher up. I was like, oh, fuck.

Actually, he's not that bad. Yeah, build the case. Let's see. Maybe a couple info things. Hotel check in, checkout info from a GM. Is this from catchman? Oh, a hotel GM. That makes more sense.

Late email due to covering the overnight audit shift, not a late night drunk email. By the way, we have one guy that is just wasted emailing us all the time now. Just email less, buddy. We're not going to read any of them. Sorry, man. Create a Twitter account, yell there. Yeah. Although we do appreciate the engagement.

Can't eat off of it. Not this kind of engagement, but anyway, whatever. All right. Um, dear solo travelogue goat, uh, speaking of, we have the St. Bart's one that's going to drop Friday on its own. I think Surrudi, I'm sure of it. Surrudy likes it much better than I do, but I went somewhere and I taped. You're going to listen to it. So there you go. I just think people, I don't, I wouldn't say that. I just think people want to hear it's good. Well, you know, like not every sequel is, is better than the original, you know, like some of them are, you know,

It's there is a good story at the beginning that I think we need to play it because the story in the first episode is awesome. Does it tail off? Maybe. I don't know. Let the people decide. It tells off. That's why I told the story. I don't know the rest is going to go. If you want to know the history, the topographical challenges of same parts, then that pod's for you. But there's not a ton of interaction. There's not a bunch. I even tried. I even tried one night for you. I didn't even want to do it. I was doing it for the audience. And I was like, this isn't happening. All right, so well-balanced, father or two, owner of a swimming pool with great porch, with great porch railings and the newlywed and new core guy. As a general manager of multiple hotels over the years, checkout procedures vary due to three reasons. All right, this is helpful for everybody. One, the member rewards guarantees, example, Marriott Bonvoy, Hilton honors, and various small regional companies, hire member tiers, always force staff to prioritize them. That's also true if you have, I believe, the MXP. platinum. Hotel size. I'm sure there's other high-end credit cards that can get you an extended checkout. Hotel size, under 75 rooms can be difficult to accommodate all early check-ins,

late checkouts due to not enough options with room types. The way the front desk agent manager feels, unfortunately, poorly trained or motivated decision makers may decide to not do anything more than what they have to do. Also, if their shift ends before a guaranteed time, it may sound like the next person's job or problem. Yeah. All right. So get those rewards up. You want to stay late. Another one here is pretty straightforward. Just a guy who wanted to let you know that he also does not wash his face, Sir Rudy. And he's doing great. I'll tell you what. I've got more reaction to that than a lot of things over the years. People are just dumb out of it that I don't wash. I mean, I like shower. It's not like I'm not showering. I just don't scrub my face with a bar

soap. And I know if I'm not trying to like brag here, but I feel like I'm doing all right, you know, it'll be all right. This one is not on your side. Six-two, two, two-ten. Ovie. Obie Tompin is his comp without any, Ovi-topping without any athleticism. Long-time listener without too many life issues. Well, congrats to you for fucking killing it. So I haven't had much to contribute, but I had to say something after hearing Surrety's atrocious skin care routine or lack of. All he had to do. All he. needs is a good face-specific wash you can use in the shower and a face moisturizer for post shower with SPF if he's going to be in the sun probably not that

combined with drinking a good amount of water every day and it'll be golden PS hope to hear more about the soccer we yeah we did some soccer already before you even read this one I think I'm with Sir Rudy on this one I think there's certain people that can just get away with it it's not like you're gross disgusting looking at you know we're just you when you left the hallways we go how come that guy can't fucking get a washcloth or something. I don't know that people are using washcloth much anymore in general. That seems to have gone the way of the cowboy, but I do through an hour. Now we're going to get the

big washcloth is going to be after us after that one. But I don't, I think I understand what you're saying. You don't need all the product and you're good to go. I, you know, have people looked at his face? He's got a good face. Thanks, man. Handsome boy modeling school over here. I do you throw like the occasional moisturizer on there I don't have like a facial moisturizer

my wife always laughs me because I'll just use like you know the the body moisturizer on my face if my face feels a little dry I don't have a routine and you know

I'm one of those guys hashtag blessed I haven't really had acne problems in my life so I just never I just never done it and you know I'm 30 almost 37 years old

and I just maybe one day my face will start looking like trash but it doesn't right now um okay people will love that. So that's great. Yeah. Hey, his face. Do you scrub your face? I guess it's different because you're, I mean, this isn't like a ball thing. But it's probably easier because you'd probably

just wash your whole head and face, right? And then one motion. You took a shot at Wargon. So I feel like I could at least take a shot at you. It wasn't even a shot, really. Yeah. What I said about wargon, I don't like doing that, but it was just in my head and it was too perfect. And I thought the audience, like there'd get a couple people that would chuckle just because of the delivery of the whole thing. And it was sort of unexpected. So I did that. more for the laugh, although I don't, I'll call Oregon privately after this, just to make sure we're good. I've got a little product, but I'm also around the sun a lot, all the time.

Both guys, exfoliate a little bit, you know, probably dry her skin, do drink a lot of water. I know that about it. But I don't, yeah, yeah, love, love to start the day with a big water. Are we going to read any emails today? Let's see. Okay, when can I stop the charade? This is from a couple of weeks ago. It goes out saying, love the pod.

Ryan, thanks for all the great content. Deep ties, interviews, and there's guests. Life advice segment. I often find myself participating in my own head, reacting with what advice I would give or what I do in the email or situation, not quite 511, 200 pounds, currently benching 205, trying to get back to my peak at 245, coming off a bit of a hiatus and building back up at age 45 is not like returning from a break at 35 and not even worth comparing to 25, so maybe I'll settle getting back to 225.

No NBA comp to speak of is the only time I pick up a basketball nowadays is to play pig with my daughters. In my prime, I'd like to say I was a little Lindsay Hunter type. Tuff man, Lindsay Hunter would pick you up full court. He was one of the best I've ever seen doing it. Decent facilitator, driving kick, okay, job, we got it. I have three daughters, 10, 8, and 5. They attend a private Christian school. We attend church regularly.

I like aspects of the private school, small class sizes, good community, strong relationship, and the teachers, staff are great people, sending them to, the school's decision I was supportive of. I don't really have any regrets about it other than the lack of diversity indoctrination of some world perspectives and dogmatic teachings, all of which I know comes to the territory. I've also agreed to go to church regularly despite my wife's understanding that I don't believe in any of the fundamental teachings of Christianity, faith, personal God, divine intervention, virgin birth, resurrection, heaven and hell, judgment day, etc. Again, I like the community aspects for my kids and I do like the teachings, Christianity, his in common

with most other religions, love, compassion, patience, peace, understanding acceptance, forgiveness, etc. But I can't get down with the notion that humans are, quote, by nature, sinful. And because of this, God sent his only son. Well, it is actually him somehow to earth at a specific time, although it seems rather arbitrary, as a sacrifice so that all other believe in this action and only those that do believe in this action can enjoy an internal bliss, while those that don't, even those that have never heard of the fairy tale are condemned.

Uh-oh, we're going to get some people on this one. we're not going to read any follow-ups on this just for the record are condemned to an eternity of horrible punishment in hell so my question is this when can i stop participating in this charade i know i should keep up the act going to church supporting the teachings encourage participation for my kids at their current ages it wouldn't be great to throw this level confusion at them although if you disagree please tell me but ultimately can i get my sunday mornings back. I can continue to grip my teeth, stay quiet while listening the same bullshit every week and bite my tongue when I hear ridiculous stories, flawed rationale, and biases that are at times

quite offensive. But I would like to hear from you, fellas. When do you think I can start to rescind from the church going and have an open conversation with my kids? My current plans to wait until they start to get naturally exposed to other philosophies, religions, and diverse perspectives, maybe late high school. They'll be going to a public high school or probably most likely college and some real world experience as young adults. But I'm interested to hear if you gentlemen have a different perspective. I should mention my wife knows my perspective and knows how I view religion in general, in particular the Christian religion. She's done trying to convince me. We don't really talk about it anymore because the conversations aren't

all that productive. I haven't brought up my desire to stop going to church because I don't think I'm at a point to really follow through with that. Again, because of the ages of my children and a level involvement with the church, hope to hear from y'all take care. Look, that's a pretty complicated one. I'm not going to tell you what you should or shouldn't do with your kids when I don't have any. I think it's pretty simple. The first thing I thought of was like, and you brought it up with your wife. Like, what does she say? I mean, she's going to be really against you bailing on church. I think your head's in the right place of like wanting your children to understand there's different ways to interpret a lot of this stuff out there. Five's probably young, you know,

maybe 10 you can start hinting at some of this stuff. And I, again, I can totally understand where you're coming from on you know i don't want them to be feeling as if there's only one you know one path or one understanding of a lot of this stuff that is pretty complicated but ultimately you getting back to your sundays is it worth it like it sounds like your wife is super into this and i have plenty of friends that put their kids in catholic schools despite not being super religious because they didn't want their kids in public schools and it's usually friends of mine that live, you know, just out of the outside of some of the bigger cities, you know, so there was a lot of stuff with the public schools.

They just didn't want their kids to be exposed to. So, yeah, non-religious guys that are sending their kids to Catholic schools. And I think they just kind of roll with it all. I don't know that they're going to church every single Sunday. But this feels like, although I don't say this often on the pod, this feels like because it's your daughters, because of the involvement in community, that your wife prefers you to go to this and continue with the shiris. And if it's just that Sunday, despite your philosophical leanings, it's probably worth avoiding

a much dicier situation at home to suck it up for a couple hours every Sunday. It sounds like that decision was made way long, like a long time ago and you just kind of have to stick with it, right? Because if you start bail on now, then your daughters are going to start asking questions. It's going to create problems with the wife. You know, you might lose some friends at the church scene. Is all that worth it to you? probably not. And to answer your question about like when should you stop, like it's kind of

feels like pretty self-examatory. Like when they're like 18 and out of high school and they go away, you know, to college potentially and like they're not really like in your day to day life anymore. Maybe that's it. And you can say, hey, like I've done this for 18 or whatever many years that we've done this with the three kids. Um, I'd like to not do it anymore. And then then that's obviously between you and your wife and less about the kids. But I kind of feel like you don't want to, you kind of want to do it for the kids, right? You want to keep going just to keep things like sort of normal for them. And then, you know, once they're in their teens, at least all of them, I feel like maybe that decision could be had. Yeah. And it sounds like the kids are going to a public

high school. So it's not even until they're 18. It's until they're what, 14, 13. I think this is something that you say, you know, this is family time. We spend Sunday mornings together. You don't have to have like a spiritual experience every time you go. You're going to be with your family and to support them. I did find it interesting that Ryan was a yes on this, but a hard no for the Call Her Daddy Live show. Yeah, because Well, there were my kids. Yeah, my kids are going to call her daddy in private school.

If you had kids and they were big collar daddy fans, you'd be like, well, I guess I got to go. Yeah. God is tea. Yeah. Were you trying to get back at me for the opening comment? Was that just a natural? I think it would have happened

no matter what, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I don't think that that's a long-term investment. This is a long-term investment with this kid's community, the school, the whole thing. So it's not like a one and done. I mean, to me, the caller daddy show was,

and again, it's like a date, right? It was like Valentine's Day, I think, right? Yeah, right. It was like their third date, I think. Yeah. I could also not go to that that night. You could do something else. Yeah, I do think sometimes in the relationship,

it's like, hey, to prove how much you care, I really want to have you go to the, have you go to this thing that sucks that you're not going to want to go it sucks for that person not for the audience like great job everybody but yeah like this this test i don't think this is a test this is about your kids education you actually war got did bring a good point though um i don't know what so i grew up roman catholic i went to church every sunday or sometimes saturday nights you know five o'clock mash out to the five o'clock mass crew um did you have to go sunday Did you have to do a double header?

No, no, no, you just pick one. You pick one. And we would do Saturdays a lot, actually, which was nice because I like, I do like my mornings. But I used to always like, you know, you kind of get into your teens, especially your late teens. And then once I was in college, like I started thinking of like, how many people here don't care or just here because they're supposed to be. They think they're supposed to be here. And I think it's a lot. I think they just, it's a habit.

It's habitual for a lot of people. And like some people, I'm like my dad used to always say this. Like, he just goes there to just like have an hour to kind of just not think about. shit. He just kind of like clears his mind a little bit. I don't know that he's super religious. He just clears his mind for an hour. So maybe look at it that way. That'll help you out. And I think that's fine too. I don't think you're like a bad. Yeah. Catholic if you're if you're doing that. Like that's kind of the point sometimes. Yeah. This guy's mind isn't being clear it clearly though. He's he's sitting there. He's, you know, he's battling the stories. I don't know.

How awkward is it going to be if you're like, hey, my wife and three kids are going I'm going to sit this one out guys like I'm going to pass like that just I don't know I feel like I'm not religious at all now and I feel like that's a little awkward like yeah it sounds like his wife still wants him to go

so do you do any creative writing maybe you can start outlining a show in your head or a book you know Sunday morning you start figuring out cooking up some parleyes in your head you know We get an HOA one. Religion writing at HOA.

510, 210, 29. Player comp, Kyle Anderson. Kyle Anderson gets a lot because dudes aren't fast. Play it on pace. A little awkward, but effective in the paint. Decent three-point shot. High IQ, court vision passing is the strength. Recently moved in the first house with my wife,

classic single family neighborhood and a good old servia when moving in friends and family would always grown. we told them we'd have an HOA. It's a new construction neighborhood, so an HOA made sense. We're now looking to install a backyard fence. So we're getting a puppy at the end of September. The HOA states that homes can only have a white fence, I guess, for continuity. But we want a black fence.

Black matches the home better, is just nicer than those white board or picket fence. Hashtag just my thoughts. Out of about 120 homes, there are two that currently have a black fence similar to the one we are interested in. They say you can submit a deviation request to HOA. So maybe that's what these people did. My question is, do you just go forward with the black fence? Other homes already have one. So why would I risk the HOA explicitly telling us no, when right now it's only on paper?

Better ask for permission than forgiveness. They can't tell us to take it down once it's up, right? Well, they could. I was going to say, no, they definitely can. Yeah. Do I knock on strangers' doors and ask how they pulled off getting the black fence? That feels like a narc move, like an undercover HOA agent asking questions about your non-compliant fence. side note fences are expensive stuff is expensive but if i'm spending that kind of money shouldn't we

be able to get the black fence that we want yeah i don't know i don't know i don't know what the other black fencers did i don't think it's weird at all to just like ask them they're your neighbors right so just like hey i'm i'm just moved in my name is steve i like your fence how'd you figure it out how'd you get that approved like it's not that maybe bring a six-pack over like i don't i don't feel like this is that weird hey you want to watch the usc fight this Saturday have some beers and talk about your black fence. You definitely don't just, like, build this thing, though. Like, HOAs are, like, relatively serious.

I mean, Ryan, you're the HOA guy here. Like, we'll clear out for you. But, like, they can kind of, like, ruin things for you, right? They can just annoy the hell out of you. Oh, yeah. They're annoying. Yeah. They profit on annoyance.

So it's kind of, I don't know, who started the whole thing. But, uh, yeah. I would probably just build it. They're going to make you take it down, though. Well, they're going to tell you to take it down. I don't know. You just moved into this neighborhood and you're going to immediately just begin with hostility. I think when you move into an HOA, don't worry about their feelings because they're not worried about yours.

That's definitely true. So, like, what are you, you're worried what? It's going to be dicey between you and the HOA. it's going to be dicey there's no there's no way to avoid it if you're a man of free will at some point you're going to go fuck this so that i would look at that relationship is there's and i'm not here to repair it or preserve it um what do they just find you every the i've never been an a so i don't know so like like what are the what's like the worst case scenario they can't kick you out of your house right they would just find you every week and i didn't

No, I was being fined. I just moved in. And then like the billing cycle, the way it worked, all of a sudden was like, what the hell are these? Like, oh, you're being fine because when you did this or did it. And it was like totally wrong. It was totally wrong. And then I just was like, well, that's, you know, I explained it to them, a million phone calls, a couple of emails. And then they just wiped out the fines.

But they were, they were totally wrong about it. How expensive were the fines? I don't know. maybe like $125 a month or something like that. See, that's, you know, if you're paying that to have like a black fence, is that really worth it? Probably not. No, because then they're going to hit you with like interest on the unpaid fines and

every other thing. I think you should just ask the people with the black fences. Instead of just like doing this on your own, just ask them, how did you get this approved? They're going to be fine. They're your neighbors. It's not that weird. Talk to people. And then try to go that route.

And if the HOA gives you shit for it, then maybe you just say, screw it, I'm going to build my own fence and I'll just, I'll just take the heat for it. But I think why not at least explore the people who have done this somewhat legally? I wonder if there's any old Facebook, like, community stuff that you can look at there. Because I guess our, I was not involved, but our HOA or our, I guess our little community had some sort of Facebook group that would just message about everybody nonstop. and Sarah was on it. She was like, oh, my God, you should see what they're saying this week. And I was like, I don't want to see what they're saying. Sarah put in a brick patio that they came by and they're like,

you have to take all of this out or something. Like, this is totally illegal. You can't do this. Like, I can't believe you did this and all this different stuff. And then they, like, lied about what was there preexisting. And she somehow had taken, I think she had taken pictures because she was trying to send it to the people to install the patio of like, hey, this is what the space looks like. So whatever they said that it was that she had destroyed, we're like, oh, you took out trees, you did this. Like, this is ridiculous.

You have to take out the entire patio and then fill it back in the way that it was. And the way that they were arguing it was, it never was. And then she had the pictures and sent it to them. It was like, you're totally wrong and out of your mind on this one. And then they were like, oh, our bad. And that was it. So these are the people you're dealing with here. Quick aside, I will say there aren't many redeeming parts of Facebook these days,

but those town groups, man, it is like crack cocaine. I cannot stop reading. The stuff people get mad about in the town chat is just outrageous. My sister's on a Martha's Vineyard one because she still lives there, and she is so addicted to it. She's like this, I think the Vineyard One is like a whole other level. I'm sure. Because you have this, this hybrid, you know, community where one's temporary and the one that's

permanent doesn't make nearly as much money as the one that's temporary. It was nice to be back on the vineyard in the summer. I haven't been there in the summer in a long time, although the traffic I've never seen it that busy. It's outrageous that I made it up to the West Tisbury Farmer's Market after that big controversy. I just wanted to see how everything was after a noteworthy appearance. All right, I think that'll do it for today's life advice.

No, Kyle, who's back home, and we're happy for him. So thanks to Sir Rudy. Thanks to Wargon. Sorry about the start of this one. Just had to land the line who was in my head. And Jonathan Frius, we are back on Thursday. Freddie Gibbs at my house. We'll do some more football.

And then Friday, yes, there was still a travelogue, same parts. They were going to name me Michael Jordan. And my dad was like, I don't think he can live up to it. So they named me Michael Jared. Must be 21 on older and present in select states for Kansas in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino or 18 plus and present in D.C., Kentucky or Wyoming. Gambling problem. gambler or visit rg dash help.com. Call 1887-8-8-8-889-77-7-7 or visit ccpg.org forward slash chat in Connecticut

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