The Ryen Russillo Podcast - Chiefs, Bucs, and Drake Maye Are Big Winners. Plus, Danny Kanell on Penn State’s Overreaction, Indiana’s Biggest Win, and the SEC’s Problem.

Episode Date: October 13, 2025

Russillo starts with some thoughts on the NFL weekend, including whether the Chiefs or Bucs had the better win and the fact that Drake Maye is looking like the best QB in the 2024 class. Next, he chats with old friend Danny Kanell about Indiana’s massive win over Oregon, whether Penn State made a mistake by firing James Franklin, and the big problem the SEC has before Ryen unveils his latest top 12 rankings. Finally, the guys close it out with some listener-submitted Life Advice, including a question about a grandpa gone wild. (0:00) Welcome to the show! (1:52) Are the Chiefs scary again? (5:20) Baker and the Bucs are atop the NFC (7:37) Drake Maye is ridiculous (18:08) Danny Kanell stops by! / Florida State's three straight losses (23:40) Indiana’s biggest win (44:40) Penn State fires James Franklin (51:46) Texas beat Oklahoma (55:44) Ryen’s CFB Top 12 (1:12:40) Life Advice Host: Ryen Russillo Guest: Danny Kannel Producers: Kyle Crichton, Steve Ceruti, and Marcelino Ortiz _ _ _ Learn more and join waitlist at ScoutMotors.com The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit www.rg-help.com to learn more about the resources and helplines available. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A lot of football for you on a Monday, which you would expect. So today, make a little history. We're moving back Danny Cannell. We did not book Danny because Florida State lost again. We did book Danny when Florida State beat Alabama. But the bigger story, of course, is Indiana's incredible. win. So we'll go through that. A concerning thing for SEC fans about how that conference is stacked up, and I'll go through my top 12 as well. NFL, the stuff is back things, probably

getting a little old, but everybody probably feels the best they felt about the Chiefs all season long. We'll go through that. Baker's big win, Drake May's impressive day, Herbert's impressive throw. Couldn't really find a worse loss. Fun with some numbers. and then one banger of a life advice. Enjoy the episode. This is the Ryan Marcello podcast presented by Fandul, and if you're betting on the NFL, Fandul is the place to do it.

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in select states, 18 plus in D.C., Kentucky, and Wyoming. Gambling problem, call 1,800 gambler, or visit rG dashhelp.com. Call 888789-777-7 or visit CCPg.org.4 slash chat in Connecticut. Week six, we start with the best win, which was the last game of your Sunday slate. Awesome closing

one o'clock window. 4 o'clock window, a little mid. Double header, though, Monday night football. It's tough to keep track of this stuff. Be locked in my guy, Caleb, most likely. Is this for the belt against Shaden Daniels? Probably not. Still some data.

We'll need to sift through. So the best wins, Kansas City. If you beat Detroit, who's in the conversation, the best teams in the NFL, and you beat them handily, even though it's at home, 3017, that's the best win. and I can't think of anything that's even close to it. Look, all this would feel better if Kansas City were four and two and it held off Jacksonville and Monday Night Football

and not had that kind of disastrous defensive breakdown there at the end. But again, as we talked about with Sando just one week ago, it's like the ball is moving in those spots at a rate that is absurd. Teams are down and they're moving the football. Like we used to always joke about the prevent defense and prevents you from winning all these different kinds of things. But a lot of times it was like, you know, we want you to run clock. The kicking part of this and how absurd the kicking is getting,

how deep you can even attempt to line up on some of these stuff. We had a 67-yard attempt this past weekend. So look, if they weren't three and three and four and two, maybe it feel a little bit better, maybe none of it really even matters because Worthy's been really good. Hollywood Brown with that huge touchdown. The running looks kind of fierce with different options. Smith, that rookie I really kind of like too.

and then they get Rice back after his six-game suspension. So they're actually the Chiefs, the eight-seed today in the AFC, on the outs. But in 21, when they lost the AFC championship game at home Cincinnati, they did start that season three and four. So look, if there's any team you're like, may, they'll probably figure it out with the rest of the AFC feeling a lot different, less than halfway through the season of like how many, like, real nasty contenders are there in this conference? Casey's in a really good spot based on the way they looked last night, not necessarily based on the record, but, you know, again, are you going to bet against this team? So Mahomes' last three games have been better in the first three games statistically, and this defense held Detroit to 17 points, a Lions team that had scored 40 a game in their last four. The Detroit secondary thing, remember last year with the Lions, you're like, who's left on the depth chart? I think at one point it was like one of the 11 guys on the opening defense.

depth chart was still active by the end of the season, which speaks to them losing in the playoffs. So it's not that ridiculous. But the secondary, Reed's out, Arnold's out, Kirby and Branch were both hurt. Branch's feelings obviously impacted quite a bit after this loss, getting into a fight after the fact. But then there was another corner it was out. And then all of a sudden you get Rock Yon-Sin out there, which I thought was kind of fitting because third and one up 27, 17. Kareem Hunt lines up third and one and he just works Justine just runs them right over

10 yards and it's like man they ran with the ferocity there at the end they were able to close it out running the football and it's just another night it's just another night with Mahomes I'm like I can't believe anybody talks about the NFL and thinks anyone plays this position better than this guy other possibilities but it's just honorable mention

Tampa against San Francisco you can't compare beating Detroit to beating San Francisco, even with the history, though. So, you know, kind of getting that monkey off their back a little bit there for the books. It was the battle for the one seat in the NFC, believe it or not. And it was kind of a game. I mean, Mack Jones kind of lit it up, had the two picks, which I think was an issue, previous stops, but also some really good throws in there.

But the San Francisco team remind our Baltimore fans probably find this familiar. By the end of the game, five of their six highest paid players weren't playing. Trent Williams is the only one in the lineup. at left tackle. Fred Warner. A moment of silence for Fred. Ankle surgery. So he's still with us, but I hate seeing that. I hate seeing my guy. Best instincts of any interview I've ever done in my entire career. So look, it's not beating Detroit, but Baker Mayfield, Heisman moment, third and four, 14, up 20 to 19.

He runs it for 15 yards before hitting Tess Johnson for a 45-yard touchdown on that position to go up 2719. How about Tess Johnson? This is one of my favorite quotes from any player in a season. This is Tess Johnson on the MVP chance at home. I'm going to tell you out a funny story. This is crazy. When I score and I hit MVP chant, I'm thinking they're talking about me. So I asked Shep, I'm like, Shep, they was chanting MVP.

He was like, yeah, I was like, I ain't do nothing this year. And then he was like, they talk about Baker Tess. And I was like, I was like, well, that explains it. But he is the MVP. Perfect delivery. Because he's like, yeah, that was, I was like, man, they're feeling me. But then the self-awareness to be like, I haven't exactly lit it up. And the other reason he's even playing is because all the receivers for Tampa are now hurt too.

but just an incredible incredible kind of like is this really happening why is this happening hey chef is this happening no it isn't that's for baker mayfield who now with the heisman moment eligible for a postseason award drink may being the saints is not best win but my god i know you're thinking is we're still going to re-reweigh ranked the 24 QB draft class every week on the podcast. Not every week, but damn near every week. Jane Daniels just had an incredible rookie year he's hurt this year, and then we talk about the Chargers game.

It's like, all right, you know, a bit of a reminder. We'll see how it looks tonight against Caleb. I am wondering, how many of the guys from the 24 class have we said is the best? Caleb gets drafted first, but at no point has anyone said that he's like been the better guy than Jaden Daniels, right? Jaden is number one, unless it's Pennix on a Collinsworth game, or I'll admit, too, as much as I love the way Pennix delivers a football. I'm like, man, Collinsworth's losing his mind. Is Pennick's going to be the best? I don't think J.J. McCarthy's had enough of a runway, has played a lot to be able to ever be suggested as like

he might actually be the guy, but that fourth quarter comeback against the bears, you're like, look at that moxie, man. Look at how he stuck his lower job. If I had a son, I'd be like, look, I just want you when the camera's on you to stick your lower dial, and then everybody's going to think you're just built different. It may not be true. It could be soft mentally, but stick that lower chin out, big spots from the cameras on you. Look how fierce he is, right? Bo Nix. They made the playoffs, but the fact that Jaden made players, Steve's they did, beating Detroit and its huge title game, you know, like, so that kind of cancels out Bo Nix. The point, the reason why I'm taking so long to make this point, is that Drake May is the best bet to be the best

quarterback out of his class. He is ridiculous. It's not just the third and 17 throw to Diggs. The ball is not thrown from Drake May's hand. It ejects out of his hands. Okay. So the third and 17 offensive pass interference on Diggs, which was a terrible call.

Corners are allowed to fight. Receivers should be allowed to fight a little bit back. Then he has the third and 27 throw to Matt Hollins, which is a dime. And by the way, the flag on Diggs, not the worst flag, because the other flag on Diggs, the offensive P.I on the other touchdown that got called back where he wasn't even in the play. And he was just fighting with a corner. That call was probably worse than even the third and 17.

So it's not even the third in 17 or third and 27 throws. There's a play in the first quarter where it's first and 10. It's a four-man rushed by the Saints. the pockets collapsing around him. Obviously coverage is great downfield because there's nothing there. There's no one to rip it to. And then he pitches it to his left, basically a lateral, but not a lateral. It's just kind of like, let me get rid of the ball and throw it over here to Trevi

and Henderson for a nice game. It's not the mechanics. It's not the athleticism. It's not the gain. It's not avoiding a sack. It is that it shows all of us that even with such a young, start to his career, right? Like, it's not like he's been playing for years and years and years,

that he is not being sped up, that he is seeing things and then going, all right, like, his, that awareness, there are so many young quarterbacks that just would be freaking out, freaking out, and maybe they complete a pass for like, hey, look at him. He hung in there in the pocket, and that's great. This showed another level of awareness of that. He still kind of knew everything that was going on. Maybe he got lucky and just caught him out of, you know, but that's not what I saw.

I saw somebody who's like, okay, he actually is. is so calm back there that he can come up with something like that. And yeah, look, the Saints think the defensive numbers from New England not great in this game, but overall a little bit better on the season. You know, look, New England's schedule isn't the hardest. I don't know that they're that great of a team, but like, hey, do they have a quarterback for the next 10 years? They do.

There's no question now to me on this one. you also have Drake May, the first Pat's quarterback, to put together 100 plus rating, 200 plus yards. There's an EPA number in there since Brady going all the way back to 2011. So good stuff out of him. Segment idea. It's not going to happen now because this quarterback draft class for 26 is super disappointing at this point, Although it is going to be funny, a lot like every single NBA draft that I've recovered, where if it's a draft that everybody hates six weeks out, it's like, you know, there's

some nice pieces here. People shit on this draft a little bit too much because you've just been watching. Watching the same guys over and over again talking yourself into this, right? So there will be a likely, history tells us there will be a push that whatever, the second half of the college football season bowl, you know, a couple teams win big games. It's like, you know, this guy is a first rounder, unless we have like an EJ manual class, right? But the segment idea question would be this. The Tennessee thing is brutal.

It's not all on Cam Ward. But the evaluators told us that if you took the 24 class, you took some whatever, like Cam Ward would probably be like, if you took two classes and put him together, maybe he's the eighth best quarterback prospect out of all this stuff. Again, it's not on him. He's a rookie. It's going really bad. Teams, total, total mess. but it'd be crazy if there were like an awesome and I know no one wants to think this about Caleb Williams anymore

but think about Caleb Williams leading up to the 24 draft if there were that kind of prospect available to say Tennessee if they had the number one pick looks like the Jets are trying their best to have that pick would have franchise go we just took a guy number one we can't replace him with what is graded out as a better prospect segment idea maybe a Wednesday or Thursday local radio you know if your team's on a buy just trying to help and produce content for you

worst loss i don't really know that there is one dallas against that carolina machine on the ground dowdell revenge game didn't think we'd have that this year he backed it up that's the number three rushing attack in the NFL Carolina panthers is also making Bryce young look better and he's ripping throws how about his coach trusting him on a huge fourth down instead of a long field goal that's helping Bryce Young out and that's a rushing attack that doesn't have a running quarterback because Bryce doesn't run it like

the number one rushing attack in Washington and the number two rushing attack with Buffalo with their quarterbacks. The Arizona loss feels brutal because they're up 2417 going into the fourth quarter. They need a touchdown. They're down four.

They've got four plays starting inside the 12. They need the touchdown, three-yard pass, incompletion. It's a sack that's sort of right at the line of scrimmage than another incompletion. but it's their backup QB. But, man, Kyler's out again. It was like, where did that injury happen?

We know where it happened, sort of. Sad Jets. It was funny to see everyone collectively be so mad at them at the end of the first half. Justin Fields, net negative 10 passing yards, 55, well, 45 through the air, 55 lost on the ground. So that's how they go to the negative 10. A lot of negative $10 million jokes

with the way Fields contract is constructed. just a stupid, stupid deal by the Chets. I've not seen the Fields Army out and force. Their numbers are dwindling. We could do some Miami stuff because you know what? When I was watching Tua on that last drive, I'm like, where's the bad sack?

Where's the bad interception? Not the case. Wide open player, end zone. Touchdown. Miami's up. Herbert lines up. Doesn't have a lot of time. Less than a minute to go.

Needs to get the ball down the field for a game-winning field goal. first down, wrecked. So I'm sitting there going, is he just going to get his ass handed to him four straight plays because the charges can't protect this guy? Second play, he's about to get wrecked. Ladd-McConkie breaks free.

Harbaugh says, when they throw dirt over me, I'll remember that play. So there's not really a worse loss, although I felt bad for different teams at times. Tua. People sew down on Tua, he was like, yeah, we need better leadership.

People like, whatever, dude. You lost again. All right, some fun with numbers to close this out. I don't know if this one's real, but teams are averaging 1.8 flea flickers per week. I don't think that's real, but that's what it seems like. Drake May, 7 to 8, 3 touchdowns against pressure in the first half. He's seeing it, folks.

Vita Vaya, when Sheel and I did the top five players at each position, I'm glad Vita Vaya was at least mentioned, the same way I was glad that I was kind of fighting for Jeffrey Simmons still despite a down year in 24 based on Simmons standards but he was double team 70% of the time against San Francisco

highest of his entire career he still had five pressures I'd argue he had more I had him impacting more than well look it's not just what he's impacting here but with the pressure stuff it's like yeah but if he's double team and then it opens up somebody else

like the five pressures feels like it's doing him a disservice for the kind of game that he had yesterday Trevor Lawrence Jags aren't good I don't care I don't care that they just beat the chiefs I don't like that team

I don't like anything they stand for that seems a little dramatic he was pressured on 59% of his dropbacks for a total of 17 which is a staggering staggering number so maybe this one isn't necessarily on him

just like in Google hunting it's not your fault but it might be with him this episode is brought to you by Scout Motors whether on the gridiron or off of it America loves a game changer the all new Scout Terra and Scout Traveler are entering the game iconic in the 70s

reimagined for today and engineer before we'll drive available locking differentials optional 35 inch tires and a projected 1,000 pound feet of torque opposing defenses take note join the wait list at Scout Motors.com com concept vehicles not available for sale features and performance specifications are preliminary and subject to change joining the wait list does not guarantee purchase visit scout motors dot com for details all right look we did not have you we booked this before florida state pit so we had you on after the bama win to talk to you we did not book this today um to see how you feel about seminals i don't even know if we start there do we say we probably shouldn't but we definitely start wherever you want, man. We can do whatever

you want, but I will say there are some things you wish you could take back. You know, I was on the field. I was an emotional moment. We had just rushed the field there in Tallahassee and I put out a little video that said we're back. Baby the Noles are

back. And now I'm getting that video brought to my attention once again. It is I mean, there's been a bunch of these stories across college football and it is one of the hardest questions to answer is how does that team that was so good against Alabama, all the sudden lose three games in a row? It's one of the most perplexing things to answer. I don't even know how it happens,

you know, how that unfolds, but it's just, it's inexplicable. It's frustrating. I mean, some of the numbers you're hearing that Florida State hasn't won an ACC game in over a year. I mean, the other numbers, I mean, I can give you a list. They've, lost for Duke for the first time in program history. They lost to an FCS team first time in program history. Like the kind of records you don't want to be making, a lot of is that unfolded here in the Mike Norville era? It's been bad.

There's no way to sugarcoat it. Yeah, I actually think the Miami loss, because the score is so weird at the end, they got destroyed in that game. You know, they come down, everybody's excited. And, you know, Bear and I were even talking about, like, atmospheres and best stadium. And it's like, I don't know that anybody would talk about dope being like the best stadium.

But when it's right, and, you know, it's something about the humidity and the, you know, I don't know if we need to get the due point here. But it always always feels like in those big spots, there's like a little bit of drizzle. And they're coming out. And then it's like, actually Miami just ran all over them. And, you know, to Christa Ball's credit, he was probably thrilled they were screwing up so much at the end because then he'd have something to yell at them about the whole time because I was going through. It's like, look, UVA's better.

And that was just one of those nights, right? A Friday night, you lose that game. Pitt's not bad by any stretch of the imagination, even though, you know, it was funny because I was watching Eli, the quarterback, who they brought in in the transfer portal. And then he was so bad in the red zone and a couple of possessions against West Virginia. Then to see him get yanked, there was another backup who's been around,

and they play the freshman. And so you can argue like, hey, they're in the game. But you're right. Like I was looking at some of the stuff where it was like this many ACC losses versus when Bowden was there during this stretch. It's almost like matched it for what was like a decade run. Like they've had that many ACC losses in not even two full years that Bowden had. He had it absolutely rolling there. So it is like resume wise.

It's not going to matter. But it's just kind of funny. Like if they continue on this stretch and I do it. We all have to do it. but it kind of drives me crazy and like what it means of when you've beaten a team or when you've lost to a team like say Alabama loses another game no one's going to feel good about that Florida State loss even though that day like Florida State looked like a great football team and it was sort of the perfect storm right you had Florida State was running both offensive

and defensive new schemes that Alabama hadn't seen so they had to just on the fly you had I mean, Bama did have Jam Miller was out. Tim Keenan was out. So that worked in their favor. And Florida State was fresh. Like since then, that was a big storyline in the pick game. They didn't have Squirrel White. They didn't have their offensive tackle. They had everybody

on defense. Like that's the thing I think that's been the most disappointing, surprising thing is just how bad the defense is. Because I mean, Tommy Castellanos, he might be a little bit you know, it's not, it's a fun, kind of exciting style of play that he plays. The offense is actually

performed really well, for the most part. Even against Miami, he has the two interceptions which were really bad, and those costs in the game. But outside of that, the offense is kind of delivered on what you thought you were going to get. It was a Gus Malzon system with a quarterback that really fits it. The defense has been the thing that's been most disappointing. Like, there aren't, there's just not many guys over there. And that's, so I keep telling Florida State fans, so I'm like just preaching patience. And although I have no idea how Penn State came up with $50 million just within the span of a week, it was like, yep, there. it is. Florida States is more

expensive than that. I think it's around $60 million that they would own Mike Vorvel. So I'm trying to teach patience to the team. Florida State's win total coming into the season was seven and a half. And I actually had him going under the wind total in the preseason because I just thought it was going to be a year where they sort of try to get their feet

under them, get some stability. But then once you beat Alabama totally reset those expectations, it's like, man, could you imagine if they didn't beat Bama and they had this? Like, then you'd be making a really uncomfortable decision if you're Michael Alford. So trying to preach patient. But if they lose to Stanford this week, that's why they go out to Palo Alto is a 17 point favorite. They might have to do something drastic just like we've

seen these other schools. I don't know where the money's coming from, but it's just one where it gets so bad right in front of your eyes. You have to do it. We're going to touch on Franklin. We should have started in Eugene with Indiana, all right? Yeah. Because that game, I don't regret anything. I would never take back anything I said about Indiana last year. Okay. And it would have been a really, well, I don't know that it would have been a weird or uncomfortable conversation for me if you had either South Carolina Bama or Ole Miss, although I probably disliked Bama the most of any of those three SEC teams that we were, you know, hearing arguments about when the playoff was announced for the 12 teams because I was like, all right, even though this is a scheduling error with Indiana, you know, those three SEC teams. But even still, I was like uncomfortable with it. As uncomfortable as I will be for any team with these expanded conferences of like, have you seen what happened with their schedule? So, look, I'll never feel wrong about that.

This year, I wanted to see what it was going to look like. The Illinois thing is a beating, and they're a decent team. The Iowa bounced back. You know, you knew that was going to be kind of a tough spot coming off of the Illinois thing. But to go into Eugene, as I had said, you know, I have some college football stuff. I'm going to do so I'm going to try not to repeat it here. but to go into a place that nobody wins and clearly look like the better team for 60 minutes

and just through the course of watching an Indiana game, you're like, well, that guy's awesome, that guy's awesome. Like, I think it's the best win of any team in college football this year. You have them number one in the DK top 12. Yeah. Earned, not given. Yeah, that's right.

By the way, make your case for them being the best team in college football. That is strictly resume-based. I think they have the best resume in college football. Like Ohio State's win against Texas was good. I don't think it was as dominant was Indiana just did Oregon on the road. And that's just the one case scenario. They do have a common opponent in Illinois that Indiana put up 63 against.

We just saw Ohio State. And that was a comfortable win, but it wasn't as dominant as that. I know there's injuries and Illinois had some pieces missing in the secondary. They were able to exploit. So like outside of those, the Washington win was really good. It was a nice win for Ohio State. And if you had them, you know, facing each other, yeah, I'd probably say Ohio State. I put them ahead of them, you know, but from strictly a resume, I think it's pretty clear cut.

Indiana has the best resume. I had Miami fans that were upset saying, how come we drop behind Indiana? I'm like, you guys have to be joking. Like, your wins against Florida State and Florida are looking worse and worse. And that's the thing I try to do. Notre Dame, I think is a good win. But that was at home. It was only by a field goal, which again, I would say Indiana's win against the world, like your best win.

I think, like you said, I think Indiana has the best win in the country to this point. And it is remarkable. This is why, you know, I always felt like Nick Saban, one of his biggest accomplishments was the amount of SEC coaches he got fired. I think Kirk Signetti's doing the same thing in Indiana because all these programs are looking at. You've heard a lot of coaches say, we need more spending. We need to spend more so we can compete. Indiana has spent more than they've ever spent before. But they're not spending as much as Oregon.

You know, they're not spending as much as some of these other Michigan who they beat last year. and yet they're able to come do this in just two years. And coaching matters more now than it's ever mattered before. And not the type of coaching that's just a great recruit. Because that was kind of what separated the great coaches from the pre-NIL pre-portal movement was you could just be the great recruiter that could everybody come to your school. And then you would just be able to out-talanch the opponent almost nine times out of ten. You know, you'd have just be able to win games because you just show up and you had the

a roster. That's not the case anymore as these gaps are closing and closing. So I think coaching and not, you can still have a head coach who's a figurehead. Boy, he better make the right decisions on coordinator hires, assistant hires, game day hires, when to go for it on fourth down, which is more critical than ever before. And the importance of coaching, I think Kirk Signetti's like the perfect example of what a good coach can do anywhere, not just at the top tier schools, but any program in the country. Can you As our audience knows, an NFL quarterback, explain the talent level needed for Mendoza on a couple of those throws.

There was two throws in particular. There was like an RPO where I think he's leading, I forget, because I get confused between Cooper and Surrath over the course of the game, but there's an RPO where he throws it to his left, and there's a corner trailing the receiver. So he's got to lead him and he's got to rip it across the hash. and then he had another throw that wasn't an RPO. It was basically, it had to have been his first read, but it was like even more velocity on that kind of throw.

So, like, those are things that just jump out, and you're like, you know what, that wasn't looking at just half the field. And I mean, maybe it was half the field on the second throw, but just some of these throws that you can see are so, like, predetermined and they're safe. And it's like, hey, our guy can make this throw. What do those throws show you from Mendoza? that he's special, and that's the reason why he's being talked about is, you know, potentially the number one overall pick. Because like you said, everybody, when you go to the

combine, everybody can make the prototypical throws, the 20-yard comeback, they're going to try to test your strength, the straight line post, just down the when you take a seven-step, seven-step drop, and you just chuck it as far as you can. And shoot, even some of those guys, I mean, the Zach Wilson combine throw where he rolls out and rolls out to his left and throws it back against his body, which was an incredible thing. throw. Those are great, but those can be scripted and practiced all the time. When you see a guy like that making plays like the ones you're talking about in the game, that's the type of stuff that has scouts salivating to be able to see that. And that's what makes the great players in the

NFL elevate from being in just a top tier, top 10 quarterback to being in that top five. Like, you've got to be able to, you know, off balance, running the wrong way, anticipation, all of it is the that Mendoza's got that a lot of guys don't. You can't teach that either. You can't really train for it. It's just a natural, God-given talent to be able to make those type of throws that just aren't normal. Okay, you're going to

like this next discussion. All right. Yep. SEC's getting two teams in. That's it. Well, it's the best conference. I don't, I mean, do you dispute that? I do. And I saw Joel Clatt have a take

that. Oh, no. He's pretty He's pretty down the middle. No, but I don't, I think he went a little bit too far because he said there's a couple, you know, couple good teams and then it falls through there's a bunch of bad teams. I do look at, I think you're going to see the carnage unfold. Like, we just saw Tennessee who's in the top 15 almost lose to Arkansas. We just saw Ole Miss who's in the top five almost lose to Washington State.

That was an atrocious, like not a very good football team. It kind of goes back to the parody. Now, I think this is happening in every conference. I don't see that much difference in Oklahoma and South Carolina, and they're squaring off this year and next week. And all of a sudden, we were talking about Oklahoma as a playoff team. And I don't know why we don't do that in other conferences as well. Well, the rest of what I was going to say is I think they're the best conference,

the power for head-to-head stuff, you know, for everybody that laughs about an Arkansas Memphis result and somehow goes to bed. He doesn't watch Mississippi State beat Arizona State. So if you, you know, it's not always the Bulls, it's not always these things. But SEC fans have used these things for years, so it's annoying when they try to ignore a bowl season where the Big Ten owned them last year, you know? Right. But if really we're talking about these two conferences, I'm sorry. Like when I look at 10 through 14 in that meaty part, so it's like Minnesota, UCLA, Illinois, Maryland, Michigan State.

And then you look at the SEC and you're talking about, like, Florida, South Carolina, Mississippi State. You know, look, nobody's going to tell you Arkansas is any good except the quarterback, Taylor Green, is really good. Yeah. So my point is this, though, is that all of those teams, I don't know who the special one is. I'm totally with you on Ole Miss. I think Alabama's good. I don't think they're great. A&M's defense, which I'm going to talk about with more depth when I'm,

I do my top 12 a little later in the pod. So what ends up happening, I think, was a, like, hey, is it about the championships? This is about the depth. This is about the head to head. It's all these different things. And when you don't have an SEC team winning a national championship, which apparently they have to do every single year, which seems a little unfair to hang out of the belt. Like, it's like, they finally didn't win a couple.

And now it's like, yep, sorry, guys. It's the big 10 now. they're going to have it's not just the beating up on each other just based on what i've seen now through these six games i think a nm's really good i don't i don't feel like they're better than these these top teams like we had bear on again i'm referencing it where he talked to a sports book was like can i get oregon Miami Ohio state or the field and like how what are the odds on that And he was like, it was kind of close to even. And I do think it's a bit of a mistake that we fall into every year.

We're like, okay, well, these are the four teams or these are the two teams. And then there's this massive, massive gap. And it's like there probably isn't really that gap. Perception-wise right now, the gap is that it's those three teams of Indiana replacing Oregon. But the SEC, if it's about titles, they're in trouble. Right. Because I'm not, I'm not like really blown away by any of those teams. If you gave me one, I would take Alabama.

Ty Simpson, since the Florida State loss, has kind of elevated his game to a place where he's, I think he's the best quarterback in the SEC right now. I don't, so I think we have to be really careful with, because I made that statement last weekend. I was kind of mad at myself saying Oregon, Miami, and Ohio State were in a tear by themselves, right? They felt like they were better than everybody else.

And then Indiana goes and beats them in their backyard. Some of the stuff is scheduling in order to get there. As good as I think Ohio State and Miami are, I think we just have to be careful with the way we talk about them because, yes, they look the part, but there's just more of a chance for an upset that there's ever been in college football because those gaps are narrowed. I still think, and like when you get there,

that's why I think what's going to be really interesting is I do think there's going to be the debate between the nine and three, 10, and two teams who is better. and that's why the SEC has been getting out in front of this, you know, back at the spring meetings when they're putting out all the information, they realize the importance because those gaps are closed of getting more teams in to have that opportunity. Like, I do, I agree with it.

I think the SEC is the best conference. I think the Big Ten is right behind them. And I do think there is a pretty significant gap between them and the Big 12 and the ACC. Like, it's pretty there. Even though the ACC's worst team did beat the SEC's best. Same. I wish it wasn't the case because I wish we were better. But I think we are at the bottom of the standings there at 0 and 3 in Tallahassee.

But see, I don't, like that's an interesting one because I do think Oregon is a team I still think can win it. But then you start looking at their resume and you're like, well, they almost lost, you know, to a team that just lost back to back games to UCLA and Northwestern at home. Like, how are we sure Oregon's that good? I think they are. I still would buy into Oregon. Dante Moore, for the first time, he looked a little bit flustered. I think it's really as wide open as I can ever remember. We thought it was going to be this way coming to the season.

I think it's playing out in the field. And I think even still, we have to be careful. And Ohio State's sitting back just on cruise control with a quarterback who keeps getting better and better, a defense that somehow looks better than the one they had last year. Ohio State's probably the team. We all should just be saying, yep, they're going back to back. and yet none of us want to believe it because it's so hard to do that and because they had to replace both coordinators, a boatload of NFL talent on both sides of the ball, and yet here they are

again. Yeah, I'm with you on Ohio State. I would pick him against Indiana, but the fact that I even have to think about it is, you know, I know Hoosiers fans are going like, ooh, cool, you have to think about us. Thanks for the compliment. Well, again, did you hear me talk about your team last year? So, I mean, this is where I'm at after that Oregon win. And I'm totally with you with saying, like it's.

he's I think he's kind of nasty man like they don't need him to be but you can see incrementally like what they're doing with him so post-chip Kelly it's like okay that was a huge concern of legitimate concern losing Jim Knowles is not a good thing I mean if you want to do a little bit of a comp thing even though it's not the exact same guys obviously but you know Penn State against Oregon different setting but then Oregon playing in this year and like limiting Oregon to 17 points even though Indiana basically just did the exact same thing in their own place. So it looked like, okay, well, how can this be better? How can they actually be better on defense? And statistically to this point, they've been better

on defense. I'm going to point out the schedule a little bit later on. They're going to just start rolling here. I don't want to make the mistake of these teams. Okay, it's clearly them. Because, you know, the other thing that I think is just frustrating about this sport is that we act like when a team loses that we all like, that it's somehow shocking. It's like, do you guys, people act like 12 and 0 it's just way too easy when you're really good. It's like how if we've not learned our lesson

time and time again where I don't care who you are, there's probably going to be that week where shit just falls apart. I mean, all you have to do is Ascoe Howe State fans last year in that Michigan game. It's like all right, what's the recipe for losing to a far inferior opponent

based on what we've seen from their 11 game sample the previous, well, during that current season. But man every like I've made myself watch more Ohio State just because it's like you you can't just because I know I'm probably not going to be putting their games on TV with how ugly this is about to get so it's like you need to be more educated on saying and the other thing too is like when the other quarterback thinks they have time because it's like a four man rush against Ohio State and then they they don't even go to scramble they just try to find like a lane inside of the

pocket and then all of a sudden it's like oh shit like this guy's on top of me so i'm resume wise sure you could ding ohio state here a little bit but i don't know how anyone talks about this sport without some preconceived notion um not giving the benefit of the doubt giving the benefit of the doubt if you're going to give a team the benefit of the doubt even with new people and new coordinators um it's hard like i thought indiana should get first place votes in the polls they did they got a couple but you know clearly ohio state deserves they're 50 plus first place folks in the AP. Right.

Julian's saying, and it was funny because I had Ohio State fans, Ohio State fans were upset with me because I said after the Texas game, it doesn't look like Ryan Day trust Julian San. And I don't. Well, that's exactly what it was. The game plan, I mean, there's no argument to. They didn't have to expose him. And so they've kind of, they've had the training wheels on them for the first two or three

weeks of the season. And then slowly they've been giving him more of the system. and it's been building up his confidence more and more to the point where he are now where he's one of the best quarterbacks in the country. There's another team I wanted to ask you about because they have a huge game coming up this weekend and it does feel like they're going to do exactly

what they did last year. Notre Dame, who after they started the season O&2, I didn't love that they were ranked in the top 25 because I feel like you have to beat somebody. But they're slowly starting to dismantle opponents just like they did last year. CJ Carr, by the way, has been really, really good for them at quarterback. Marcus Freeman can just

flat out coach the defense is getting better and after a three point lost Miami and a one point lost sex ANM two teams we've already talked about as some of the best teams in the country it does feel like they're going to waltz their way right back in the playoff

they're already sneaking up the top 25 where I don't even know if it's going to be much of a debate I can't wait for SC this week it'll be at home so you know SC has looked like a completely different team but I thought Michigan was a little overrated I just don't trust their offense.

I don't know how you could have watched this year and been like, yeah, they're not awesome on offense. I mean, Justice Haynes is terrific at running back. Bryce Underwood's still a little green, too. I mean, he's got to develop. That's totally. I liked USC last week for that reason. It was at home. I think that was a monster win for Lincoln Riley.

He even said after the game, like, this was a big 10 win. He's taking so much heat about physicality. For them to have that was a huge statement. Now they got to see if they can do it. it on the road. What are they? I think they're eight and a half nine point underdog, which would be a huge job. Like this one will be because I thought USC had a chance

to be that third or fourth best team in the big 10. If they knock off Notre Dame it emphatically puts them in that conversation. And then if this is Notre Dame's really last big test for them before they, you know, kind of waltz through just like they've been doing through a lot of the ACC opponents they have.

Yeah, they've got a stretch here and they also have Oregon up there. USC does. Yeah, SC does. But yeah, I kind of look at SC is, I just thought that was a nice win for them. Yeah. McCulley's, who I should be referencing as the number one target there from Michigan. On the Oregon thing, though, why did you drop them down so far? Is this just because the DK top 12 was about resumes? Because again, last year was confusing when you had Indiana number two in the country when they were five and oh if it was about resumes. I've still never

quite understood that one, but, uh, it's a proprietary formula, DK, top 12, you do have to go to. I just thought, again, I mentioned Oregon's resume. I think their best win took a hit, you know, and it looked really good at the time, but how good is Penn State? Like, UCLA beat them more handily and so Northwestern just beat them. Like, how good of a win is that? Regardless of how you feel the time when it happened, from a, from a strictly resume standpoint, that is, that is a, that's not as impressive as a win as it was before. And they did get, they did not look very close against Indiana.

Like that game was pretty physically like lopsided, which is such a shock. I did not see that happening. I didn't, I didn't love either side of that game because it's really hard to pick against Indiana. But Indiana, like, looked very clearly like the better football team.

I think the drop for Oregon is, is too extreme. Would you pick Oregon or Alabama? I probably would. pick Alabama. You'd pick them against, you pick Oregon against Ole Miss. Yes. Yes.

Okay. How about A&M? I think that'd be a really good game. I think it'd be like a pick-um. I would probably, I don't know, I might lean towards A&M because I'm not worried. Dante Moore took a step back and I want to see how he responds to that adversity. Like that's one thing that really impressed me about Ty Simpson. He was getting called for his job.

He sucks. people should fire Kalin DeBoer. What has he done since then? He stepped right back in. That's my favorite way to evaluate quarterbacks is after you've faced a game that you played really bad. And we haven't seen Dante Moore bounce back yet. Look, I get made fun of all the time for pointing out

how much I like a quarterback on the losing side, which I don't understand why that's a weird thing. Like Will Howard, his game against Oregon last year, I was like, all right, you know what? They lost, but this guy that Kansas State was totally fine that he left. Now, I had a lot to do with Avery Johnson coming in, but, you know, I don't know. I mean, you're going to be kind of limited here, like, how creative is this going to get? And then after I saw that Oregon game, even in the loss, I'm like, you know what, this is

totally different now. Like, I feel different about Ohio State because this guy's got some more baller in him. And Ty Simpson getting his ass handed to him all day in Tallahassee running for his life, looking like he wanted to retire on the bench. I took a positive out of that. I was like, at least he's still out there fighting. Right. And so that probably, you know, those are the little things that I'll look for where the rest of this has made sense, because I think he's terrific. And that receiver room for Alabama seems like it gets better every single week.

Okay, we've touched on it, but we didn't really dug in. James Franklin out. I know no one likes him. Like, people really don't like him. Except his players. Like, his players love him. That's the thing that we often overlook. but let me just like like the resume against the top teams you know i think he was one and 24

against those teams he was favored i think four times or something like that like i went through it did it a couple weeks ago that they have a really nice run last year okay the oregon loss is disappointing then back-to-back losses is a 20-point favorite it's nuts and then everybody's chant and fire this guy and the whole deal he can recruit like crazy they must really not like him because i still think this is an overreaction i don't get why they had to do it now why'd you have to do it on october 13th or october 12th like there's a lot of season left to play now it's probably not going to get better because drew hours lost for the season which has kind of been overlooked in this. You feel awful for him. But I just worry about these programs that think it's going to be

automatically better. And everybody wants to go from Georgia with Mark Rick to Georgia with Kirby Smart, where you were close, nine and ten wins, you felt like you were knocking on the door. And then Kirby Smart takes over and just takes them exactly where you want to go. There are way more programs where you fired a coach, you thought it could get better. And it didn't. And then all of a sudden, you're like, man, it was kind of nice to be winning 10 games a year. I saw a stat earlier about the amount of coaches in the last three and a half years that have won more games. Like, everybody's so focused on the games versus the top 10 opponents.

And it's only like Ryan Day, Kirby Smart, Kayland Abor, and Dan Lanning in the last three and half years. The only coaches across college football who have more wins than James Franklin. And it's a lot of money to come up with, man. It's a lot of money when I thought everybody was in financial distress and there were so many issues going around. Where does that set up the program to be able to go by the next coaching staff, buy the next round of players? Because they also invested a lot in this player's class. To me, it's a head scratcher without knowing who you're going to get next. Everybody thinks

Matt Rule is just going to up and leave Nebraska, which maybe it does happen. They think Kirk Sunetti's going to leave Indiana, which maybe it does happen. But in this cycle, which is going to be the most wild coaching carousel that we've seen, I think, in the last 15, 20 years, there are going to be some schools looking on the outside in. And there's going to be some in this game of musical chairs where you're like, oh, this is who we got. You just want to make sure you're not that person or that school. Almost every school ends up going, this is who we got. Right. I mean, even A&M when they got Elko, it was like. Right. Huh? You know, and he's on the runway. I was, I mean, I remember.

I remember Florida fans when it was Napier. And I forget the names. I think that was, was that Scott Frost Cycle. They thought it was him. There was a bunch of coaches that came Cruden. I don't know if his name was around there, but there have been so many. Yeah, Jordan's name. I don't even know if it was, but it was.

Right. And then it's like your fifth or sixth hire when I would ask Florida fans. I've told them this a lot. Dan Mullen, it was a mistake to fire Dan Mullen. And he would have crushed it in this era. I think he wasn't as enthusiastic about recruiting going on the road. but now when you can just buy the players and you have rev share, he would have crushed it if they just would have stayed,

but they were tired of getting the SEC championship game and losing Alabama. And then all of a sudden look at them now. There's just, and there's examples both ways. I just think it was premature in the season. Like, can't you even let the season play out? I'd have to be around it every day to give the best answer for that because I'm only seeing the videos and it's like, man, this is getting

really, really ugly. And then I know when people talk about like, okay, well, the $50 million, like, what kind of stress is that put on the program? And it's like, well, that's booster money and all this stuff. But I think we like it's not necessarily the same as the coaching salaries, but it kind of is. Like I feel like there's a lot of understanding going, hey, if the AD wants to do this, the money behind the program has to be on the same page of bringing somebody in, getting them the contract. And then also those people saying these are the kind of resources you're going to have. We're going to step up. We're going to do all these different things.

So when you have to come up with a $50 million buyout and I know it's just under and then there was language this morning where they were talking about, well, they're going to meet with Franklin to defer the payments and figure out all this kind of stuff. All right, but I think this is, it may sound simple. And maybe I might even be wrong, but I think common sense would tell you if you're asking the money behind a program to cut that kind of check, doesn't that cut into some other form of. the resources for the program. You would think so. Right? It has to, doesn't it? Because whenever I brought it up, it's like, no, no, no, it's just the boosters.

It doesn't matter. It doesn't impact any of the day-to-day stuff. You're like, how is that possible? How is that possible if you go to a guy that is able? Because I've heard these stories, like, hey, they pass the hat with the guys and be like, let's get this guy the fuck out of here, right? Right. And so how do you then go to those same people like at the next function and be like,

hey, we have you for a million towards the NIL? And it's like, well, I just. Are you forgetting what I did last October? I cannot figure out the college football economy right now at all. Because, I mean, really, you have heard, I mean, the Big Ten has been looking into private equity money. And you're like, wait, how does that make sense? The amount of money that's come in from the TV deals. And maybe this is one of the ways they fund that.

It's just it, but somehow they always work around it. Somehow it always finds its way working, which is. It's unbelievable to me. I do think Pat Kraft, the athletic director. I mean, I think he, Matt Rule is the guy. I think that's who they're going to go try to get. I just don't know. And I, maybe if you're Matt.

Would you take it? Would you take it if you were Signetti? See, that's the crazy thing. We're even having this conversation speaks volumes. Come on. The job that Sigdetti has done at Indiana. Depends on what he's looking for. You know, like if he wants.

Probably. Right. Yeah. I mean, how do you say it? You have to take the Penn State job if you're offered it. And I think you do. But the fact that it's even like a split second debate does show you the job that Signetti's done. But yes, I think you would have more resources and the ability to get the top

tier players to come to Penn State than you would at Indiana. But sometimes your coaching style works better at a certain school. And that's why Signetti's once, you know, done so well at some of these schools that chip on the shoulder mindset works. He's a great coach. I mean, I think he'd be a home run higher. I just wonder if Penn State's going to get the home run higher they think they are. What he's done in Indiana is just, It was stupid. Before we let you go, because I only have a couple minutes here. Give me your thoughts on that Texas win because that was a messy, ugly game all over the place. And I don't even care about the stats. I think it was a big Arch Manning kind of grow up experience in that spot.

So I hope Texas fans felt good about that, even though offensively like, hey, they got the punt return touchdown. It wasn't really that great. Meteer didn't have a great time in the second half of that game. But that was like an ugly rivalry. It was just such a mess of a football game. But I think people should feel good about Arch maybe for the first time all season. I thought you started to see signs of Arch against Florida. And I know he had a couple bad interceptions, but he did have the beautiful post throw for a touchdown. I think it's all been mental with Arch.

That's to your point. Well, I think that could be such a monumental moment for his career. When you look at and you're like, all right, you bottomed out against San Jose State or Sam Houston. like that was the bottom and then now you're starting to play your way up which is kind of what I thought it would be a roller coaster ride for him but what I was watching some of him miss very routine throws against those lesser opponents it was all about confidence and I think I think it's a U-TEP game is really the one right you probably there was there was there was there was I mean that three game stretch where it just was like you're supposed to be throwing five touchdowns

and you know having 300 yards it just was not there um for him to have that I think was huge And if you looked at Sark's face when they were coming off, there's a shot of him in the tunnel with the hat. He's holding it and the players are coming in there. I think you saw what it meant for him. I still have my concerns about Texas making the college football playoff. I still think you might see some highs and lows. But I think this will finally answer any critics who thought that Arch Manning wasn't going to be okay,

like as a quarterback in college football. I mean, some of the takes were completely asinine that were going on about him. And I think this was just a huge step forward. in his career, part of the process of him becoming one of the better quarterbacks in college football. Yeah, the stats aren't great. Maybe the one sack is the best thing because it felt like, the takeaway that I had was like, it looks like now he's playing with an awareness of like our own line is not going to be here

all day long. Like I thought he was throwing with understanding duress better in this game. But yeah, we'll see. He made a couple big throws there too. I mean, like we were talking about Mendoza, there were a couple throws in that game that Arch made. And you're like, oh, okay, I get it. It's not just the name. It's not just, you know, it's not just folklore.

You could actually see him start. Now he just has to get more consistent, which I think he will. BYU 12, huh? Undefeated, big 12. Watch out. Resumes, the resumes, man. It's the DK. Top 12. What's the resume?

The spicy Arizona team? Yes. They did, hey, their best, their best win is zero losses. All right, man. Well, thanks for being a part of history today. I appreciate it. I'm thrilled to be on, man. Congrats to you.

Fired up for you. Dusty and Danny. And again, the cover three podcast with a very pro Big Ten crew. So maybe you can bring that SEC sick. Because I'm telling you right now, I don't know who their squad is. I don't know who their squad is. is it's the deepest conference it's not even it's kind of silly i think for anyone to even argue it but they don't have that headliner i'm not in love with any of their headliners i i think it's

going to be fun i still think they have a couple teams that could win it all let's just see if they get to the national championship game though let's see look at you having a little faith at tennessee team it's an olive branch tennessee team look cold brother they looked cold last year Thanks, Danny. You got it. With Amex Platinum, access to exclusive Amex pre-sale tickets

can score you a spot trackside. So being a fan for life turns into the trip of a lifetime. That's the powerful backing of Amex. Presale tickets for future events subject to availability and varied by race. Turns and conditions apply. Learn more at amex.com.

We reference D.K's top 12. I'm doing my 12 now for the college football playoff. Like I say, every week. This early in the year, I don't know that I love it because it's just a hybrid of resume and belief and watching all of these teams. So let's start with Ohio State, number one in the AP, number one in the coaches bowl, 50 first place votes. Other first place votes in the AP, Miami, number two, they have 13, Indiana. Three, three place votes. I said last week of Indiana beat Oregon, I would put them number three.

So let's run through it. So Ohio State, yeah, it's a bit of the benefit of the doubt thing, but the defense is just stupid. And the more I watch San, the more I like them. 78% completion rate. His last interception was a month ago. The Texas win, you know, who knows, will that then become, if Texas turned things around, like, hey, that's a really, really, look, it's a good win, okay? You know, it may not be the number one next to the Longhorns when they came into Columbus that Saturday, but whatever. They stopped Illinois, sort of this week, not necessarily based on their standards.

They had allowed 25 total points in their previous five games, so giving up 16. to Illinois is like a disappointment for these guys. I don't know if you're looking at their next schedule or next stretch of schedule. Their next five are Wisconsin, Penn State, Purdue, UCLA Rutgers. They're going to be 11 and 0, and if they lose to Michigan this year. Anyway, the point is, of those Wisconsin, Penn State, Purdue, UCLA Rutgers, is UCLA the toughest opponent? I don't think we thought that that would happen or at least that conversation.

I'm not even sure that's necessarily accurate. But it's probably going to be ugly against those teams. Number two, Miami was off. Florida State win. Look, they destroyed them. So that was a good win. Florida State had 19 in the fourth quarter. I'm putting Indiana number two.

There you go. You're home for Hoosiers right here. The pick six makes it 2020 against Oregon. And even in that moment, I'm like, is Oregon going to pull this thing out? Because they've not been the better football team. but that's what happens to sports sometimes. So I was like, man, that kind of sucks for Indiana.

A better team all day, but then Mendoza responds immediately 75-yard touchdown drive. It doesn't even look like emotionally. He'd look completely unchanged. Just a great drive. The way they attack an offensive line for Oregon that looked like it was scrambling, Moore's worst game of the season. Oregon doesn't lose at home. 18 straight in Eugene, last loss, Washington, and 22.

And that win for Indiana is the best win of the college. football season. And yes, we could sit there and do this fucking game where we're like, yeah, but I mean, Oregon's best Penn State and then all this stuff. Like, look, if we want to do it, we can sit here for an hour and come to the conclusion that no one is actually good in this sport. But ultimately, like, I just get sick of doing that. So I think it's a better win than Ohio State's went against Texas. Miami was at home against Notre Dame. Bama at Georgia. I'm not really in love with Georgia this year. Georgia at Tennessee. Old Miss was at home against LSU. That's not even in the conversation. A&M at Notre Dame, maybe. So you've got Mendoza,

you've got Surrott, you've got Cooper, you've got just two ballers at wide receiver, look like you'd be number ones for tons of programs in college football. The D lines all over the place, linebacker Frazier, who's been incredible, Hemby, the running back who every single time he has a carry and you think it's for a loss or stopped the line of scrimmage, it ends up being good for two or three yards. So look, last year I thought Indiana was a scheduling era. Now I think they're a national title contender. So I have Miami three. It's okay, Miami. Don't worry about it. The gap thing that we talked about in the past, the gap being Ohio State, Miami, Oregon, or the field, we're never going to learn. We're never going to learn.

And even right now, if you start going to, well, look, it's a gap between Ohio State, Miami, Indiana, and then all these other teams. I don't know. I don't know that it necessarily is. Now number four, this is where it gets interesting. I'm putting the ducks at four. they dropped to eight in the AP. I mean, this is ridiculous. The coach's poll dropped him seven spots. So I think all of us should feel great about Indiana and who they are right now. Eight and a half, seven point dog, you know, I think it closed at seven and a half.

I think I saw it eight and a half some places earlier in the week. To go in there and then win, it means that we also think Oregon is that impressive. And so this starts to turn in some of the standing stuff that I can't stand or the, recency bias of recent losses, but, you know, the coach's poll has Oregon 9 and LSU 10. I don't think those teams are close right now. So I have them four. I might be wrong, but I think having them ninth is wrong too. Number five, can I put Texas Tech there? I wrote it down, then I crossed it off. I'm going to go with A&M at five. They're four in both polls. 14-14 in the first quarter.

The never-quit Gators on the road. College Station, are they going to pull this thing off? No. They held Florida to 1 a 10 on third down. Here's some third-down numbers for you with his A&M defense. A&M is number one in the country and opposing third down. It had to be because these SEC numbers are nuts. So they're allowing a third-down conversion on 20.5% of attempts.

I didn't even want to round up to 21. I just wanted that 20.5 number and so I gave them the non-rounding bonus against SEC teams on third down because A&M's now played three SEC games all at home, which is obviously a little strange, start the season all three games at home. As far as SEC schedules go, there's is not the most daunting. They're going to have LSU. Potentially, I'll be there for that one. they're going to be at Missouri and then they're going to be at Texas the rest of the way but you know you look at that and then look at South Carolina

look at Oklahoma like good look so back to this third down number they gave up one third down conversion of Florida one to Mississippi State Auburn was zero of 13 on third downs so again against the SEC on third down right now two of 33

I've talked about Marcel Reed probably too much a younger guy who's super dynamic I'm going to Pope McShay starts to use this. He won't because I'm going to suggest it, but I want him to. I want, like, the dumbest thing anyone has ever invented in sports conversation or a phrase, sports terminology, the worst thing that's ever happened in this industry is when somebody describes a basketball player saying that he scores the basketball.

I don't think there's any cliche I despise more than that one. It's so stupid because what you're trying to do is you're trying to make something really simple, sound like, not even complicated, but like impressive. We love doing that stuff. NFL film people love doing that stuff, breaking it down. It's like, well, what is this? Well, let me pause a second and make this sound far more complicated. It's like banking, right? So I don't know that I'm necessarily doing this, but I'd like the draft people to incorporate this phrase, his throw delta.

Because I think the delta between the good throws and the bad throws from Marcel Reed could be an issue for them. Up one score, 2417, just the start of the fourth quarter. He thinks he has man coverage, throws into the end zone. He doesn't have man coverage. It's intercepted in the end zone. At least it was third and seven. It wasn't first down. But in that spot, you just want the field goal.

So look, does Reed have a concerning throw delta? If McShea says it at some point seriously, it's going to make my season. Number six, Texas Tech, they might end up being number three. They could be a three-seat this year. Take a look at this. I mean, they beat Kansas. Morton, the quarterback, out a third time in a game this year. Day-to-day, now with the leg, according to this morning.

But they've got Will Hammond, who we touched on, obviously, in that Utah game. They're number three defensively and opposing yards per play. The schedule here, Arizona State will see what happens with Levitt. They played Jeff Green. I mean, Jeff Sims. And their game on Saturday did not work out for them as Utah smashed them. They've got, so Arizona State, who knows what happens with Levitt, then Oklahoma State, Kansas State, BYU, who's 15th in the country today, because I think you just start running out of teams to rank. They did beat Arizona in double overtime.

Fafita, my guy, he's back to freshman year Fafita a little bit there. Colorado, are they okay? Like the rest of the schedule, like I'm reaching if I'm bringing up Colorado as a potential, like, tough in-conference opponent. Maybe it's, I mean, look, rank-wise at the BYU game, they're undefeated. Bachmeier, he's still out there running around. UCF, West Virginia. So, look, they have, they play four of the bottom. 16 teams in the 12 team, Big 12, that are combined to have one conference win as of right

now. So I don't see how Texas Tech isn't going to the playoffs. Although, look, I thought Penn State was still going to get in after their Oregon loss. Number seven, Bama, allowed 6.9 yards per carry against Georgia, held the number one running back in college football hardy with Missou to only 52 yards. This was a tough game. Mizzou's good. Ty Simpson is even, even better. The two fourth down throws late. The four receivers now start to feel like Bama has after Williams and Jeremy. They've got two other guys now. I think the offensive line has shored things up here quite a bit after that disaster start, and they have three ranked wins in a row. Number eight, Ole Miss. People have them higher than me. Go ahead. There's something

weird about this team. They're 6-0. That was a game against Washington State who had lost, look, North Tech, the mean green are a really good football team. Washington State lost to them 59 to 10. And I know Washington State's in a couple different things, a quarterback this year. But, you know, they go up a score and then Washington State scores again. It's like, how is Old Miss still in this game?

And, you know, like sometimes it's a yardish thing. You go, hey, they went for it on fourth down opening series. thinking like, hey, let's just put this game to bed. But if it were just that, it'd be fine. But it's not just that. It's the Arkansas game. It's the Kentucky game. Yeah, I mean, they blasted the other two teams, you know,

Tulane team that's okay. And they have the LSU win, but, you know, I don't even know how impressive an LSU win. Like, it's good, but it's not like, oh, my God. So look, I'm telling you right now, I don't know, Ole Miss, they've got at Georgia, at Oklahoma, next two. So we'll find out. Speaking of Georgia, my God, Auburn, everybody actually feels bad for you, Auburn. That doesn't happen very often. George's down 10 zip. Auburn's

going in for a touchdown that's going to make it 17 zip. Jackson Arnold fumbles at the goal line. Look, by the technical term of breaking the plane, you can talk yourself into him absolutely breaking the plane when he goes into dive. I thought the punch coming in from the Georgia defender, you could also make the argument that the ball is starting to move perhaps before that, but since it was ruled a fumble on the field, it was going to be tough to overturn. I thought they, I thought McDonough was a little more hysterical about it. But McDonough, and he's the most versatile sports broadcaster in the business, I grew up on him, all right, so I love him. But man, when he finds that one thing that he doesn't like in a game, whether it's a play call that doesn't

work out. Fourth and one was interesting. That was, that's one they'll regret, Greg. When there's a call that doesn't go right or something that a coach does, he is going to fucking hammer that point for like the next two hours. And it's chaos on the planes in a way that feels so specific. As much as we see chaos throughout the college football landscape on a Saturday, when it's chaotic in Auburn, it's just a little different. So you have this play. It's a disaster for Auburn. They're going to be up 17-0. The next two games of, I think, game time take like 30 minutes of real time, reviews all over the place. You had the clapping, not clapping, timeout thing from Kirby later on, which, look, he clearly called a timeout.

But when he said that I was clapping, he was referencing the defenders clapping. And that kind of got lost in the broadcast, which again, those guys are going to hear that because we get to see the audio or listen to the audio with it as he's pointed to the defenders. But he clearly went to go call a timeout on top of everything else. The point is that Auburn, after that thing goes against them, and people are actually starting to maybe feel bad for Hugh Fries, which we probably didn't think. Auburn on its next five real possessions, not counting the end of the first half, five positions, 50 total yards. That play wrecked them. And here's the thing, like, Auburn's, it's tough to say they're good, but they're not bad. Defense is really good.

Georgia couldn't run it against them. like they were trying to run between the tackles it's like this isn't going to work and Stockton who I think that fourth down throw against Tennessee is a bit of an aberration and not necessarily really who he is when they needed it they had the drives 20 straight points but

like I think Georgia and this is the thing that I was talking about with Danny like yeah I like all these teams I think these are tough teams to beat but I'm not blown away by I think any of the teams from the SEC so far staying in the SEC I'll give it to Tennessee a scare from Tailing Green

from Arkansas whatever by the way I have another Auburn number defensive yards per play allowed

22nd yards per completion 127th that's going to just wreck Q-freeze Iowa's

129 so they're still ahead of them all right what do I do at 11 here um LSU is

10th in both rankings ahead of Tennessee Georgia Tech's 12th in both rankings resume-wise if you want to do LSU Clemson common opponent LSU's win is at least at Clemson Georgia Tech's at home

I mentioned that wake thing and it's like wait you like Georgia Tech now after they beat Virginia Tech yeah leave me alone I know they're one and two in the conference of two and five overall. But if I'm going head-to-head on this, even if I want to say like, hey, Georgia Tech 6-0, LSU has lost. Resumay-wise, I don't know.

I mean, it's probably still LSU. I have some LSU numbers. By the way, SEC Network, great job, Rogers, Cole, Tom Hart. They were sharing some Nussmeier arm strength numbers that were alarming. So the first one on passes of 25 or more air yards in 2024, which is last year for Nussmeyer, he was 13 to 47 on those throws, six touchdowns, one pick. This year he's 1 of 12 on those throws, no touchdowns, one pick. The 1 of 12 is 12th out of 134 D1 quarterbacks.

Teamworks, data, they've got chips in the balls, velocity torque, spin, the whole deal. So I guess there's a couple different things. I guess there's chips in the balls during practice. And they were saying that over the course of practice, the data from Nussmeier's throws in practice, like you can see that the arm strength drops off by midweek. Like, well, that doesn't sound very good. Every week this happens. So teamwork, they put this stat up, and they said out of 177 qualifying quarterbacks in college football.

measuring their arm strength, all right? This is actually apparently in-games now. Velocity, some of these other things, how long it takes the ball to travel from this distance to that distance. That Nussmeyer's arm ranks 172 out of 177. They're a incredibly frustrating team, but I think resume-wise,

I'll still give them 11th, Georgia Tech, 12th. This episode is brought to you by Peloton. A new era of fitness is here. Introducing the new Peloton Cross Training Tread Plus, powered by Peloton IQ. Built for breakthroughs with personalized workout plans, real-time insights, and endless ways to move. Lift with confidence, while Peloton IQ counts reps, corrects form, and tracks your progress. Let yourself run, lift, flow, and go. Explore the new Peloton Cross Training Tread Plus at OnePeloton.ca.

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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. So, now you know what's possible. let me tell you what's required Life Advice

the email address Life Advice RR at gmail.com You know me I get pretty emotional about this stuff so I'll try to keep it together It's the last show I can't technically say where I'm going I guess I'm going to have an announcement

today but everybody already knows but whatever I'm just trying to follow the rules here I think it's now safe to say something that we've known here for a while Sir Rudy, Kyle are both coming with me on this new endeavor. So everything you've heard on the show, it's going to basically be the same show.

I don't see anything that would be different except for maybe a banner in the background, which I don't know that I always wanted because I like the waves as well. But I do want to thank the audience. And I know it goes without saying, but like none of this stuff happens without you. and, you know, leaving ESPN and feeling like you're kind of starting over and wondering, you know, hey, am I ever going to be one of those guys? Am I ever going to be like one of those guys? Am I going to be somebody who's got enough juice to, like, figure out a way to carve out.

Like, I would look at the people I was friends with. I would look at the people that were, you know, older than me. Now, I feel like I'm older than people. But that was definitely a time where I was like, I was just ready for a chance. change. And it feels kind of cool now because I feel the exact same way. So thank you to the audience. Because again, none of this happens without you responding to, you know, whether it was stuff at ESPN and then crank it up to another level. Here was Spotify and Ringer. All right. So again, we'll have, we'll have, I'll post a video on Twitter and then Instagram where it's

mostly some instructions. Yeah. Yeah. I may pivot on Instagram or just photography. But It's really the pictures. Dude, that's what the guy, Tom, from Icepace did. He just got his money and he spends all of it taking pictures around the world. Yeah, I still have to work. Tom from MySpace. Yeah, I know. All right, here's one.

Hi, I'm a new listener. Enjoy your life advice segment. I gather from the pod that Ryan's quote thing is lifting and working out. I am genuinely perplexed by this because in every photo of Ryan I see, he appears to be a fat fuck. I don't get it. So again, thank you so much to the audience for being there. You guys really got me through some stuff. As much as you tell me, I helped on the commute or, you know, you did the same for me.

So again, people helping people. Yeah, my appreciation. All right, I lied to my wife about something dumb. 37, 6-1-250 player comp would be late career Ben Wallace. Most days, this is nice. I like this. All right. Most days, I try to pack some healthy snacks for my day at work.

I'll often eat an apple on my drive home. I'll be eating an apple on my drive home. Once I get to the core, I toss it out the window into the woods as I drive. To actually get it far enough off the road and actually into the woods, there has to be some velocity. You just love throwing that thing out the window. Let's not lie. Dudes love throwing stuff. Sky hook it out the driver's side?

Yeah. Nice. That Kyle. That might be the move. Yeah. Last month, I accidentally rolled down the wrong window of the car, the backseat window, instead of the front passenger window. So when I flung the apple core, it smashed against the closed window, leaving a sticky splat of apple residue. Honestly, I kind of forgot about it once I got home. The window had been rolled up and down, leaving a trail of sticky apple residue. Of course, my wife

noticed and I played dumb, blamed it on our kids and offered to go clean it up. Well, This exact same thing happened this week, and now she's been interrogating our kids trying to figure out who keeps getting gross shit on the car window. I kind of backed her up like, yeah, kids, if this was used, please let us know and just don't do it again. Poor kids, they're sitting there. They're fighting bunk beds. Like, you did it. No, you did it. I didn't do it.

But try to get her to take it a little easy, knowing that it was my dumb ass and went to clean it up again. I can't say anything, right? I just need to chalk it up to being a relatively insignificant thing and make sure we'll roll down the right window. Thanks in advance. Yeah, I think the good news is that even when kids did do the thing, like 90% of the time, it's, I don't know. So, like, you could, this all tracks. And, you know, you've, you've certainly taken one for the team before. I think you can get this one. Stop doing that, though, man. I understand that sometimes the window, it's, you know, you think your hand is one place, but it's actually, you know, another way and you got the wrong windows.

but I mean if you're throwing an apple out the window you really got to make sure you don't feel the wind coming out of the that's what I'm saying am I the only one that's confused here like two separate times you didn't realize like the wrong he did it once and then I think he did it again right no no nothing I've opened the wrong window before but I've realized that I've opened the wrong window and yeah before you launch something yeah I feel kind of insane but hey we'll look past it how right. He did do it twice. He did. Yeah. Yeah. Do we, do we know

how all the kids are? Are they like actually able? 28. 24. Because I'm at the age now where like my daughter will just straight tattletail and it's kind of getting, you know, if you want to, you know, if you want to play some games or whatever, you're like, no, you did it. Oh, you did it. You know, do you did it. But she, like, now she's kind of more believable than ever and she'll just

straight up tell on me. So I'm getting a little bit in trouble if I like say a bad word or something or we do something we're not supposed to do. And she's like daddy did this and it's like whoa whoa like i i don't have like i don't have like oh she's lying automatic trigger that i can fall back on now so if they're you know if they're older than like three here you're kind of screwed because your kids am i telling you well it just needs to stop and this will just eventually go away that's true it just needs to stop man have some better awareness first time it was a freak accident it's like you know you fuck up big time at work and then

if it happens again you're like okay like you can't you can't do that this needs to stop i'd say go adopt a skyhook. I like the skyhook. He did say Ben Wallace and not Steve Nash. So he wasn't lying on that. I think there's a sunroof. Can you use the sunroof instead? That one you probably weren't going to mistake for the wrong

window. Yeah, the technique has to change. It's not a one-off. You know what you need to do is like it seems a little ridiculous, but I'll go through phases, especially when I lived in Connecticut and I lived in the condo. I kept having this this moment of forgetting that if I locked the door or not.

Now, some people will tell you that that just speaks to one's creativity because these mundane details just can't get left. But then I would pull out of the driveway and then I would drive and I'd be like, did you lock the door? And I kept, I was like, why are you doing this over and over and over again? And so then I had to break it. I had to break the habit. Same way if I have some sort of phrase or word, although monologues, who knows?

But I'll just write the word out and then cross it off. And the visual part has helped me for having to talk on the air for this long. But with locking the door, I had to get to the point where, like, I audibly would say, doors locked. I know it sounds insane. But at least I had a reference to then go back and be like, you went through the exercise of doing this. So you may need to roll down the window and be like, window is open. I mean, it may sound like Tron, but you're already by yourself anyway.

And it's better than whatever you're dealing with. But the other thing that I would add to this is the dilemma of do I tell? it has everything to do with what your wife is like okay because if your wife is cool in that fun personality way that you can have like you know your friends that probably have the healthiest marriages where the two can fuck with each other and they don't make a big deal out of the small stuff although people make a big deal out of the small stuff maybe when some other things are broken and then it just all gets baked into this stew of regret but um sorry that was heavy Yeah, but if your wife is somebody can be like, hey, I have to tell you something, I'm lying to you about the Apple thing. It's not the kids. It's me twice. And I was super embarrassed. Like, I did it twice. And if she can laugh at what a moron you are for covering this up and then having the kids be interrogated, even if she's like, you idiot or whatever, like that's the best. You made the right call. It is a funny story, too. Just listening to him, tell it. It's not like I was eating, I know I shouldn't be eating cereal in the car or whatever. Like,

this was an actual funny thing that you can you know you can sort of visualize how it happened that takes that down a little bit the other thing too is a little bit confusing is like you're one of your kids sitting in the front seat like how explainable is this like if it was the back left or back right seat you're like oh yeah okay even the passenger seat but if it's it's the driver's side scene your kids are you're going to be like yeah it's the second time and they just like sitting there. Like, what? Why are they? Little Timing has got a hell of an arm. Throw a cross body from the back of the sienna.

The problem is that we have a lot of guys listening to this being like, my wife wouldn't think this was funny at all. And that might be our guy, why he's emailing like this. He's nervous. So it's two completely different paths of advice based solely on you knowing your wife better than we do. Your scouting report. You've never even met her. So you have, have to know the answer to that because if it is something you know it's like six months from now you can't find parking and she's going in that apple thing from last summer uh so good luck all right bend the knee or walk away is this about game of thrones you just missed youster 30 years old living in new york city slightly above average height

I'm going to try and keep things vague out of paranoia. You wouldn't even give us your height. Player comp. Austin Reeves with a little less flash. Having Austin Reeves over my house the other day, name drop. He is like boring in the best way possible. And then is such a fucking killer. Like just the way he'll kind of like observe something or answer something.

something. We were taping a podcast with Fleet, so it wasn't like, Austin Reeves hit me up. It was like, hey, Ryan, do you want to hang out with me today? A lot of drops. Yeah, a lot of drops. Jeez. Jake La Ravio is over here. There was a lot of dudes on that. La Ravio was massive, which led to a text from JJ Reddick, which I'm not going to share with the audience. Again, no, it's just names.

The last show, you're like, hey, listen, look at all the people I know. Just dump them out. I was really that fat motherfucker. You think all these cool people be at my house? What's up? All right. What is it? The wife or the girlfriend of the email from last pot?

It's not going to like that comment. No, I mean, she would have hated. You want to talk about like the stuff I started talking about on Friday show. He's like, no, just give it another chance. She's never listening again after that Friday. All right. I really didn't even know what that last. comment was other than me just trying to find a way to go back

at the first email a little bit here on the way out. All right, so bend the knee, player cop, Austin Reeves. I'm friends with them, cool. We already covered that. The real cop might be Baino. Udrich. Heavy on the mid-range pull-up. Banu could, he had a nice little run there. Pull-up to greater... Was he nice?

What? Was he nice? Bano? Yeah, he was kind of nice. Yeah, I liked him. The Spurs liked him. Back then, it was like the spurs like him. He must be legit. Let's get to business. Sorry, Surity. Trampen it. Tighten that up.

Been seeing a girl for four years. It's time to make a decision. She's waiting around for a ring, but I haven't able to do it. Not sure if it's a mental block or what, but I am an indecisive dude. Haven't had a lot of serious relationships before, so I spent a lot of time single and has always been a party. We even took some time off at one point, but ended up back together. The question is simple. How do you know when it's nut up or shut up, a.K. Pop the question or walk away.

If it matters, we're probably, not probably, probably similar on the attractiveness scale, all in all, she's more impressive than me. I think one thing is very clear here. When it's a potential marriage thing and you take a break and you get back together the stakes are higher.

All right? Like all of the and it's been four years, man, but most people aren't that chill about this. But, you know, it's almost like being fired from a job

and then getting a second chance from the same employer like you're just you have to be that much better the second time around if you're given that chance you know like don't ask for fucking vacation

if you get a second chance at a job I don't know if it happens at all do people get a second chance at the workplace more often than relationships probably not it's probably relationships a little bit more but as somebody that's dabbled in this area of a pretty serious relationship

breaking up, getting back together. Like, I knew the entire time. I was like, I'm going to have to put a ring on it, Beyonce. And, like, what, I just want to know, like, what? And then I broke up again. Right. I mean, we... I was going to say, we know the end of the story.

Yeah, there wasn't a shamlin twist coming. I wonder what, like, he means, what are her words or, like, when she's saying, when he's saying, is it just like you using your intuition saying that? Or is she, like, dropping hints, comments, like, is her family talking to you about stuff? Like, I'd like to know what level of, like, urgency, is it all in your head or is it very plainly laid out for you every day of your life? She'd like, did she give you a time? Like, hey, I want to be a gager by this time. Like, every time you plan a trip out in three weeks.

And she's like, well, I don't know. You tell me, should I have my nails done for this one? Is there going to be picked? Like, you know, I wonder, like, how much she's actually saying this and how. much you're thinking it. Don't book a trip to Venice and don't propose is another tip I would throw in there. Let's go through it, guys. You guys are the husbands on this pod. Surrety, were you given an ultimatum? Not an ultimatum, but it was like, you know, hey, this is kind of what I want. And I had to either get in line or get out, essentially. And I knew that I wanted to marry her,

but it was like, you know, it's just like a little bit of a scary notion. But she definitely put the pressure on me not in like a bad way i needed i needed the pressure on me otherwise i'd just be cool like doing what we were doing but uh yeah she put a little pressure on me we got engaged and i mean it was it was the right call sometimes you need a little shove in that direction my my concern for this guy is like do you want to get married like is it i don't know you feel like you feel like you're obligate like i don't i don't know i guess the first thing you you'd have to ask yourself is like do you want to marry this person like okay yes or no he may not know what that means though i think that's the problem

So it's no. That's a no. You might be looking at it like college, you know, like now, now a lot of people are like, dude, you don't have to go to college or all these. But like, you know, I think people for people like my age and younger than us or older than me, it was just sort of like, which college you're going to. So it's sort of like maybe which person are you going to marry me? I don't know if he's like, if he just thinks he has to, you know, should he look outside the SUNY system or do you think he, you know, does he think he can do better? Is he just like, you know, we have to pick one of these schools eventually.

Is she a safety school? Who knows? Right. Like does he, do you just think? you have to get married so i don't i don't know i mean lbj took some time off started teaching mexican kids how to speak english and he went back i'm reading a london bank johnson i'm reading the the lvj books right now i the books plural one doesn't do it for you arkansas slash who's your who's your mike from the gym a guy from the gym listens to the show hopefully he hears this he came up to me a gym he's a huge history guy and was like hey have you ever read the

Robert Caro, Lyndon Bain Johnson books, and I was like, no, I haven't. And he was like almost taken, and he brought me one of the books. So then he brought me part two. And I was like, well, I have to go back and read part one. I can't read part two. He's like, no, you can. And I was like, no, I want to start from the beginning. I knew I didn't like LBJ for a bunch of reasons. it is unbelievable reading this amazing book that is so well written in every chapter

you hate him more and more and it's like I signed up for 800 pages of this just for part one and I can't put it down it's such an odd thing like everything about him from a child

give us an example like what like what what makes you hate child LBJ he was one and done right he was the post Nixon and then it was like but he didn't he make that choice he didn't he make that choice

I don't want to be president? Or Kennedy, yeah, something happened. There was a little thing there. Yeah. Well, they brought him in because of Texas, so for the ticket. But I'm sure there's far more expansive reasons for all this stuff. Because one of my all-time fuck-ups on the pot is when I talked about student debt relief. And I just read that book about student debt and how it started was LBJ working it out with the banks and everything.

And because the banks were like, we're going to have this be put in place. Like we have to make sure it like works out for us. And it also had to work out for LBJ too. Banks and fuck them kids, basically. Yeah. But when I was pitching about this one media member, I was thinking about what she said and how dumb it was. And it actually was a mistake on my part.

But there was a reason for the mistake because I was like deep in the origin of the student loan program because LBJ would talk about like, hey, I was. this guy, he went to this teacher's college, which wasn't even accredited college. All right, so a couple quick examples. His father was a politician, his father went broke because his father was a big dreamer. And they worked this hill country, I believe, west of Austin, which the first settlers were totally tricked by the landscape and thinking that it was a sustainable place that could, you know, they could raise cattle. They could have a farm, this whole thing or whatever. And basically the land was actually like a mirage, right? It was like described as a trap because once

the terrain was ruined, it wasn't going to regrow fast enough and the soil wasn't deep enough and all these different things. So like all of these people that were settling there actually like went broke because it was like a horrible long term farming decision based on land. So that's part of the family that he comes from. So his father's this dreamer politician, it's pretty good at it, he's not making any money in politics, decides to like invest. So they go from like a family that's important in Johnson City to, and he actually was not related to the founding, I guess, people named after the city, but he would let people think that was true. He had his whole world kind of turned upside down because his father's now broke and he's like destitute and

he's sort of a local pariah because he owns, he owes all this money, he owes all these creditors and whatever. So LBJ is like annoying. He's the oldest. he worshipped his father then he sort of hated his father because of this he used to steal a car all the time and then wreck it and then he would run away from home and his father would be like where are you and he'd be like you have to promise and get mom on promise that you're not going to yell at me for stealing the car again okay and they'd be like all right no problem and then they bring him back in and then his father would be like you know you wrecked my fucking car like and he's like you promised you our deal was that you can't yell at me because of all this stuff and then he'd walk around town and he would like kiss a ton of ass with like older women that was sort of weird um he went to a dance where he tried to like steal this guy's girlfriend he got his ass absolutely handed to him so then he dicked around he went to california worked as a lawyer's apprentice who apparently was like this lawyer that was doing pretty well in sanberdue um who then was dating some young starlet and just went on like a two month drinking bender while his wife went back to texas and lbj and this other guy had to like

try to figure out a way to keep this practice going so then he goes back to texas he works a road crew gravel rocks the whole deal they were like he was the worst physical labor guy ever weak despite his height um he was always broke was always borrowing money for everybody so then he finally gets to college he gets completely hooked up because his cousin is dating like the football star so he gets to live with the football star for free tries to join their secret society everybody in the entire things like, no, this guy sucks. He was known as Bull Johnson on campus because he was so full of shit that he literally lied about everything the entire time.

No matter what he did, he would just lie and lie. He used to tell people he was great at fighting. He'd never want to fight in his life. Some guy tried to fight him in a poker game, and he jumped onto a bed and started kicking in the air, being like, I'll kick you if you hit me. The younger brother move. Yeah, right, right.

He lived in the apartment for free. then he kissed like the dean's ass so much that the dean just gave him sort of like a position and he borrowed money from everybody not pay it back like it's unbelievable reading these origin stores you're like this guy was destined to be president so I can't wait

I'm only a lot of hundreds I've got a lot of volumes to get through so it's just you normally you'd be like why would you want to keep reading about this guy that you hate more and more as you keep learning more and more about him. It's so entertaining. He would, he became the editor of the school newspaper in college because the other editors were gone during the summer. So then he just said, hey, I'm editor. Live said he had experience, right? And then he'd spent like writing these fawning approvals of all the faculty, just being like, oh, this professor's awesome. And this, this woman who was like,

everybody hated, he'd be like, she, she brings energy into the room. She glows. She reminds me my ma and it's just all the jocks except for this one football star was dating his cousin but like this guy sucks no girls liked him he court daughters and the fathers would be like absolutely not and they'd be like definitely not because the dad's a loser and the son's going to be a loser too except he became president wow a lot of stuff all right so uh yeah good luck on your engagement that was a ton of stuff that was a metric ton of stuff about I'll be dead. All right.

We teased this one a while back. I wasn't sure if it was real or not, but let's go out with a big one. My grandpa, or excuse me. My grandma died, and now my grandpa won't stop getting hookers. I'm 33.

My 77-year-old grandpa completely unraveled after my grandmother died, naming his dog after her. Getting catfished by a fake girlfriend, Greece, DMing his grandson's ex, asking to be your sugar daddy, stalking a woman's address after one day, and now apparently paying for escorts on the regular. My mom and her sisters want to ban him from family gatherings. Do we cut him off or try to save him from himself? 510, 175. Oh, this guy wrote an intro, it's a prologue to the email. Well, that's fitting.

I played Thursday night pickup at a church gym with a mix of younger guys in their 50s full court mandatory mandatory 23 zone. Everything's a one. My player comp is Matthew Delovedova. All hustle, no grace. I was a D3 all conference cross country track guy in college so I can run forever, but shoot worse than Lakers era Russ. If I could say anything to the pickup guys out there, how much better would we all be if we didn't get? get tired. I just wish I didn't get tired. But I do. I do. I hate it. Anyway, let's talk about my grandpa detonating our family using real names here because my grandpa doesn't know what

a podcast is. Well, I don't know. He's learning new stuff every day, it sounds like I wouldn't be so sure. Yeah. He knows. He's like, why is call her daddy coming up constantly? The old ones. my grandma passed away in February one week later grandpa Bob 77 bought a dog and named it I'm not going to use your grandmother's name here just in case yeah right anyway he doesn't need that he named the dog after his dead wife seven days after she died that's not normal Bob is a certified loose cannon for the record further further context two years ago we caught him trying to wire money to Josh Allen because Josh DM'd him asking for help getting to a Bill's game so that's the baseline of internet literacy here okay that's a bummer man probably

made the game he doesn't so probably a lot of bills fans oh your grandfather a debt of gratitude Bob claims it was his wife's final wish that he finds someone younger she was 10 years older than him and he insists she didn't want him to be lonely suspicious claim but whatever I don't know I don't know that that's that suspicious

who knows dude can you imagine the weird shit your 80 year old grandparents talk about when none of us are around I know I mean even the shit they talk about when you are around as they get closer and closer to just the stuff they want you to do the shit they want to give you blah, blah, blah, like, you know, it's, it just gets, like, there's no decorum about it anymore. It's like, all right, now's the part of the visit where we're talking about this stuff.

And if you think about, like, how often the human mind thinks about sex and then the shackles of, like, caring to your point, Kyle, are just gone. That's the recipe for disaster. Yeah. I remember my last surviving grandparent, you know, she died last year. I would go to visitor every six months. It was just something I felt like doing because I had another grandmother in the nursing home and I was a selfish early 20s prick

who was just too caught up in his own shit. Kept putting off the visit. She died. I hadn't seen her in like two years. And it could have been more convenient for me to go visit her. I didn't. So it always bothered me.

So I would go out of my way with the last grandparent that I had. And I would say there was a couple visits there towards the end where I was like, I don't want to hear about who was fucking who. Okay. At the nursing home? Yeah.

I just don't. I don't want to hear about any of this stuff. All right. So anyway. But it's like college at the end of your life again. It's very strange. Is it? The nursing home.

Yeah. They're just like there's just, I've talked about this. It's the SCD thing. Like I got a couple of great aunts. I don't have any grandparents left, unfortunately. But I've got a couple of great aunts. Yeah, they're not afraid to let it fly.

Like, there's just a lot of things that they don't they don't really care and they're going to share sex pills things like that i'm just like okay we're just talking about this at thanksgiving all right sure and i just think that you loot you just kind of like you get to that age you don't have you know you just you're back in this like dorm with a bunch of other people and it's just it's on again apparently right you can just knock on someone's door that's crazy yep thank god of the nurses out there i don't know how you do it Yeah, it would be a great TV show if it wasn't so gross, you know?

The premise of it wasn't. It's like, it's kind of funny, but it's just like, if the premise of it wasn't. So, all right. So Rudy, here you go. Um, yeah, I don't. Jesus, man, say something. I can't, I can't fucking sit here in the sound. That's the last thing we just said.

we're just not saying anything. I hate this. I just started thinking about the pilot for the show. Don't, no. Let's not. Let's not, dude. What's the cliffhanger in that one? Well, then somebody dies.

It's like, well, no shit. Like, all right, but like, why am I? What's season three? Like, well, you get to replace the entire cast. True. Yeah. Yeah. It's like a limited series inside a long-running series.

Imagine being cast for that. Yeah. I think the move would be you want to be one of the staff. That's the good job. Right. Probably get a nice through line. Like somebody would say to Denise Richards, would be like, hey, if you're like, oh, it was like a nurse.

Like, eh. And then she would just, actually, I don't even like saying that to Denise, uh, Denise Richards. I don't like saying that about her at all. The undercover brother DVD cover will, should be put in time capsules. Right. So be nice to Denise.

We got it. All right. So let's get, let's get to his game plan here. The real fireworks started this summer when Bob was caught DMing one of his grandson's ex-girlfriends, age 34, asking if he could be your sugar daddy. This also exposed that he invited another grandson to the local gentleman's club where he's apparently become a regular. When confronted about the sugar daddy message and strip up visits, he told my aunt he had had a new girlfriend who lives in Greece, but is from Delaware. My uncle checked Bob's phone and discovered more horrors.

I'll spare the details, but there were unspeakable levels of sexting. My uncle had to explain to Bob that he's being catfished. My aunts, so Bob's three daughters, try to redirect him toward community centers

or other healthy outlets. One granddaughter even helped him set up a real dating profile, but Bob being Bob took a hard left. Yeah, he's not going to sign up. Yeah, that's not going to do it. I'm not going to do it. Do it helping your community out?

not what your grandpa is looking for the easy way dude he's not he's not putting in the legwork you know what i was pretty horny but this watercolor class is been killer after the catfish fiasco and canceling his credit card he signed up for a sketchy reverse phone lookup service so he could confirm if the women were real naturally this backfired after one coffee date with a woman in her early 60s he pulled up her address from her number and showed up at her house with flowers. She was horrified and so were we. Bob thought he'd done nothing wrong. There might be a touch of a little something here. Just, you know, now that he's fully off the leash, there's mounting evidence of paid company being a regular thing. He claims their home

of the, excuse me, home nursing aids. This week was the breaking point for my mom and her two sisters. my mom's friend saw him at the airport holding a sign for Stefania at arrivals to come on. This is where I thought it might have been fake. But as three daughters are now done, they want to excommunicate Bob, ban them from all family events. They're pressuring us grandkids to do the same. That would cut them off from three daughters, ten grandchildren, all adults, seven great grandchildren. So Ryan, here's our multi-generational mess. Do we actually blacklist grandpa Bob or is a way to pull him out from this hooker-fueled death spiral?

without nuking the whole family. Additionally, Bob's middle-class man does not have the funds to sustain this lifestyle? Is it our responsibility? It'd be right for a long time. Yeah. It's at this rate. God. It's our responsibility to intervene before he loses everything, a very real possibility at this rate, or is he an adult who has to decide his own fate? What's your life advice for our family? You guys want to go first? This could be like a little bit of grief, right? How long has it been? I mean, his wife didn't pass away that long ago, right? Earlier this year, I mean, this could be just like a real extended, extended driveway rough patch that this could, maybe this is just how he's dealing with this and maybe he's living longer than he counted on

living, I don't know, maybe he thought this was like a blaze of glory and it's like, oh, shit, there's still a little bit of road left. I'm not sure. I think what's clear is that you won't have an inheritance. It sounds like the sisters are the people that are most done with this. So maybe, you know, like look around the of the team here who, who's like the best grandkids. to like, you know, try to talk a little sense to him or maybe try to appeal to his emotional side or something like, man, I miss you, grandpa. This sucks. They're like, like, who's the best

one for the job? Probably not like his daughters who we probably find, feel like I've been nagging him about this since February and have been saying. Not the one who's actually tried to steal either. Yeah, exactly. Well, that's what I'm saying. You got to look around doing an honest assessment of the staff here and get somebody to make it, make an appeal. But I think this could this could really be just a really bad way of dealing with grief that's extended way longer than anyone will have understood. But, I mean, he's got to at least be able to look at the finances and be like, your cash runway is out of here, man. Like, this is, they don't actually like you, you know, so, so I don't know. I mean, not to use the college analogy again, but I've seen,

like, I've seen this happen with a couple of older dads where the wife will go first. And they've, they still got years to live and they just like don't know how to exist in the world like without their wife and I think that's definitely a it seems like a boomer thing you know like that they probably got married young I'm not I'm stereotyping here but allow them to get married they're like 18 19 or whatever they've been together forever and they don't know any other way of life right and then when that's gone you kind of don't know what to do it's kind of like the kid in high school who like didn't really drink and wasn't allowed to party he goes to college and like he's just out of control because he doesn't know how to handle himself. That sounds like your grandfather. And I think

you just have to have, like, I don't think you excommunicate him right away, but I think, you know, maybe it's a group. It's probably not the sisters. Maybe it's one of them if they will figure it out, but you've just got to have an intervention here and be like, listen, we are here for you. We know this has been a tough time, but like this is unsustainable. You are, you are like going to get kicked out of the family and rightfully so. And if that does, if he doesn't respond to that, then I mean, obviously, then there's really nothing you can kind of do. But I wouldn't just, I wouldn't dump to the curb right now. Like somebody just has to sit him down, probably a group of you and just tell him what the deal is

and how destructive his life is becoming. Also the financial implications of what that is. And then if, you know, hopefully he kind of sees the light and can potentially change. But if not, then yeah, then maybe that's the, that's the way that you got to be like, hey, hard decisions have to be made. But I think you got to at least have that big conversation with him first and likely in a group with a group of people. All well said.

I'll add this. I'm already scared about what I'm going to be like at 80. What way? No kids? Like if I don't have kids? You'll always have sports though, dude. I was going to say, you're going to be on the couch watching games and taking notes, you know? Yeah, that would be fun.

Just doing it, fire up the pod the next day. All right, Sixers Pistons. Third quarter pin down screen. I like how he anticipated the pin down and he got outside to just impact the entry path. You know, that's just something. Not everybody has that. Not everybody has that. Chris Paul used to do things like this.

They just don't make them like they used to, you know? There'll be these former NBA pods being like. it's been 30 years like these guys are getting worse and worse the downfall really like early 2000s when the league started going we've been on a 50 year stretch of the league getting worse and worse

like oh and I'll be like I don't see it that way can you imagine a scenario in 30 years Sir Rudy where Marlow is telling you what you can or can't do no I don't.

Forty years? I think I've I think I'm pretty under control. I do. But like, oh, so hot, what are you,

35? 30, I'll be 37 in a month. All right, come on it. So 37 in a month. So let's tack on, let's say,

because 72's fine, but you start getting the late 70s, early 80s. It really depends on kind of like what you're going through because I've seen it where the person can be around this age

and they feel like, fuck it. You know, it's a little like, what is anyone going to do? Yeah. What is anyone going to do? Say something to me. I fucking dare you. Because you can't fight anymore.

Right? Right. Society just protects you from that. Yeah, and you're just going to get, you're 80. You're going to get fucking work. But, you know, the next thing would be this. Like, all these inhibitions, all the stuff. So, like, yeah, you could sit him down.

I mean, you could really let. him have it really lay into him but there's two things one he may not give a fuck what any of you have to say because that's what happens to some people around this age especially somebody around this age that's gone through something traumatic and again i think Kyle nailed it like hopefully this is just this kind of window of being eight months you know since this happened you know with somebody that long and how much that would really impact you but now it's on you know now it's spring break forever for him you just hope it's not forever, but I, you know, I'm not in the position where I've had to tell a parent,

like, hey, you shouldn't drive anymore or anything like that. But I know, I know how it would go with one of them. Right. I know how it doesn't matter. It does not matter. But that's not this. That's not that. Yeah, but it, it kind of is, though. Like, I'm just telling you, this dude is like fucking his family. Telling, like having to tell your parent that they can't drive anymore is not like, hey, don't come to the holidays. You know, like. No, but I'm just saying like the premise of the older person actually accepting this because he's unhinged. I mean, the texting the grandson's ex-girlfriend, that's a wild move.

Yeah, is he also getting hammered? Like, I can't even imagine how like what he, what if he was like, I was wasted. Back off. I want to know, like, were there any indicators too? Like, was he always like really buttoned up and now he's just. completely off the rails or was he always like a little bit of a wild card, you know, like maybe saying a couple of inappropriate things to a, to a grandson's girlfriend. I don't know. Or is this just completely new behavior? Yeah, but if it's new behavior, it also means that these are not new thoughts. Like, I don't think that this was, it was either something who was repressing, you know, whatever. I don't, I don't think you just become this person overnight. I think the death can, trigger it can be the catalyst of you deciding you know what screw the world like it's me time

i've got nothing else i'm i'm getting mine you know and i don't want to be i don't because when you're 77 right you're not even thinking how old you are you're like man 87 is when it's going to suck right so i better get this out of my system now uh we can sit here and assume constantly we do this like oh when I'm this age when I'm this age I'm this age and it's almost always wrong but when you're in it it's you waking up every day you're like all right I got something to offer still six two whatever reasonable shape may not look great when my clothes off but you know uh he's he's thinking like I got to I got to make this happen before it happens a little bit later it'd be great it'd be great if you could tough love him into this have everybody just unload unload and just from

every single angle, battleship, just, you know, calling out every single number and letting them have it. But I have seen the other side of this where just, yeah, okay, fire away, man. Like, nothing, nothing is going to change my mind. The problem is if you excommunicate him from the family, it sounds like he's going to burn through all this money here. I mean, the Josh Allen DMing thing means this guy just falls for everything. Yeah. So the problem is, is once he's broke, who's he going to? going back to one of the one of the daughters so yeah trying to put this together before it falls apart man because it'll actually worse if you let it fall apart hook or allowance perhaps right yes right

maybe you could set up some sort of direct deposit from chase wherever he's getting his annuity from or whatever and just shoot him like 40 bucks every every couple weeks he has to save up on food and groceries right now save up save up his allowance how bad do you want it Man. Yeah. Yeah, this is a tough one. Keep us posted. The email address, Friday Feedback stuff, the email, I get to keep those. So it'll still be Life AdviceR at Gmail.com Friday Feedback at RR.com.

So that will do it for us today. I want to thank Jonathan Frius. I also want to thank Marcellino Ortiz and Sir Rudy, Kyle. Ryder's little podcast, bring her Spotify. 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 in present in D.C., Kentucky or Wyoming.

Gambling problem. gambler or visit rg dash help.com. Call 1887-8-8-889-77-7-7 or visit ccpg.org forward slash chat in Connecticut or visit MDGamblinghelp.org in Maryland. Hope is there. Visit gambling help line ma.org or call 800 32750-50 for 24-7 support in Massachusetts or call 1-8778 Hope NY or text Hope NY in New York.