The Ryen Russillo Podcast - Hurts vs. the World, and Cincy’s Big Win With Sheil Kapadia. Plus Trent Dilfer on His Move to UAB, CFP Selection, and USA Goes Home With Ceruti.

Episode Date: December 5, 2022

Russillo shares his five most important takeaways from NFL Week 13 (0:34). Then Ryen is joined by Trent Dilfer to discuss being hired as the head coach of the University of Alabama at Birmingham football team (13:09). Next Ryen talks with The Ringer's Sheil Kapadia about Eagles-Titans, reactions to Bengals-Chiefs, the 49ers with Jimmy G out, Jets-Vikings, and more (30:57). Next Ryen reacts to conference championship weekend and the CFP selection (1:01:45), before briefly Going Abroad with Ceruti to discuss the USMNT’s World Cup loss to the Netherlands (1:13:25), then he closes the show with some listener-submitted Life Advice questions (1:24:51). Host: Ryen Russillo Guests: Trent Dilfer, Sheil Kapadia, and Steve Ceruti Producer: Kyle Crichton Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Loaded, loaded Monday pod. I'm going to talk about week 13, five most important things. College football playoff rankings are set. We've got the four teams. How did we get there? Some theories on stuff. Trent Dofer is headed to UAB. He's going to talk with us about

that decision for about 20 minutes and everything that's gone into it. And Shil Kapadia on the NFL action. Life advice. Close it out. Enjoy. This episode is brought to you by Uber Eats. Winter is here, so be prepared and get almost anything delivered with Uber Eats. What do I mean by almost anything? Well, you can't get a ski slope, but dish soap, definitely doable. Sunshine? That's no. A bottle of wine? Yeah. And a snow day? Again, no can't get a ski slope, but dish soap, definitely doable. Sunshine, that's no. A bottle of wine, yeah. And a snow day, again, no. But blueberry muffins with the delicious crumb topping, total yes. Get almost, almost anything delivered with Uber Eats. Order now. Alcohol and select markets. Product availability may vary by region. See app for details.

Welcome in. Monday, recapping the five most important things from week 13. That was an incredible Sunday, even better late window with the now real playoff implications as we sort through all this stuff. Okay, let me start with this. The number one thing. Hurts is in the MVP conversation. And I don't mean it in the way where somebody gets mad and goes, you know, how come nobody's talking about this guy?

I'd be like, cool, I'll talk about him. He's not winning the MVP. I was so blown away by Jalen Hurts yesterday and the Eagles. Now, some of you, and I think you'd be right about this, be like, hey, cool, it's week 13. Welcome to the fucking party. Where have you been? If I ever get married, it'll never be a drunken weekend in Vegas.

It would be, well, we were dating for five years and she was packing. That's how I am with relationships. That's how I am with quarterbacks. It takes me some time. And with Hurts, you look at the raw stats here,

ninth in yards, seventh in touchdowns. He's fourth in QBR now. He's fifth in rushing touchdowns. And I 4th in QBR now. He's 5th in rushing touchdowns. And I loved the game that I saw from him yesterday. A dominant performance against the Titans. Eagles are the number one seed and they keep talking about how

it's wide open in the NFC. I have been guilty of that too. I thought some of it was that turnover ratio, which again, usually finds a way to balance itself out. But if it doesn't balance itself out for the season, then you can win a ton of football games. But whether it's the personnel, the coaching,

there's just things every week. And so, yes, whatever mental ceiling I had on the Eagles, I have shattered through it all. I am in. I watched Hurts a lot in college. I watched him the first year he kind of took over,

and I was like, I don't know what this is. Then last year, then he beat any good teams. It felt like the Eagles were still open to replacing him. Even going back to that Vikings game where they lit them up earlier this season, what was it, week two? There was this crazy stat where it was 4.2 yards of separation on Hurts' targets, which was like a career, I don't know, it was like the least contested throws of any game in Hurts' targets, which was like a career... I don't know. It was like the least contested throws

of any game in Hurts' career. So I was like, these guys are just running wide open. And it's the personnel. I don't... I just think some of the throws yesterday... You know what I love from Hurts? Whether it was the incompletion

on the officially... Well, originally ruled touchdown to A.J. Brown on the right corner, which he was out of bounds, I thought, anyway. And again, they ruled it incomplete, so I wasn't even sure if it was going to be a touchdown if they ruled it complete.

But that he made that throw. There was one spot for that throw. That wasn't some post where the safety drops down, and that throw's easy because you just throw it to the open side of the field, and then the receiver does all the work and runs underneath it. But then we'll be stupid and go like, oh, perfectly timed.

It's like, no, the receiver timed it out like an outfielder. The throw that he made that ended up being incomplete to Brown, there's one spot for that ball. And they had made a change on the route, apparently, when they broke because Hurts liked what he saw. Hurts at Bama didn't feel like he really read the field.

That guy's gone. He's gone. And I know he's been gone through much of the regular season. But yesterday, the ball to the left pylon where A.J. Brown's completely covered and Hurts gave him a chance, which is what I love. And between that, Devontae Smith, Quez Watkins, who's a really nice number three receiver,

the running game, the O-line, and N'Kobe Dean getting in there, tying the team league. League league would be a lot because he's only played four snaps prior to yesterday, but N'Kobe Dean comes in and had six tackles coming in late in that game. First play tackles Derrick Henry. So I'm just mooring on him than I've been at any other point in the season, which probably feels a little late. But that's fine.

Number two. Let's look at two teams here that maybe now, well, at least based on the results, we're like, wait, do we have to now completely pay attention to them again? Cincinnati's felt like an afterthought. Vegas odds, I think, had them as the ninth best odds for a Super Bowl appearance or championship.

I don't know. By the way, small correction from last week on that Rams first pick thing. Worst record for defending Super Bowl champs. That was worst record for Super Bowl appearance teams. That's why I included Oakland in there. I read that wrong. I screwed it up. All right, moving on. Cincinnati's gone from 2-3 to 8-4 with their win against Kansas City yesterday. They're now a 5 seed.

Mahomes, 16 completions, lowest of the season. He's had a couple 15 completion games. You go back and look at it. So it wasn't like a career low. When you hear 16 completions from Mahomes, you're like, is that the lowest ever? No, it is not. Although another weird thing ESPN.com does when you look at it. So it wasn't like a career low. When you hear 16 completions from Holmes, you're like, is that the lowest ever? No, it is not. Although another weird thing ESPN.com does when you look at game logs historically year by year, they include the Pro Bowl box score for you, which can

screw you up. Cincinnati's down 24-20. The Kelsey fumble. I feel like I'm on an island on this one, but I think Kelsey's always good for like one kind of monumental bad play every few weeks. Maybe I'm on an island on this one, but I think Kelsey's always good for one kind of monumental bad play every few weeks. Maybe I'm wrong.

Jamar Chase is back. Arguably the best receiver in the NFL. I know the stats would say there's other people that are around more often. That's fine. I think Chase has some juice to him that is almost unmatched. P. Ryan's in. 100 yards for him with Mixon out. I know their tight end is out.

But they end up scoring a touchdown and then going up 27-24 and holding Kansas City to a missed field goal. They get the ball back at 319, and this is where Burrow is Burrow. They convert a third and five on the chase play where he's going out of bounds and gets to the first down marker.

Incredible play by Chase. And then facing pressure on third and 11. Burrow looks like he's about to get crunched from the right side. Completes at third and 11. They go on, run out the clock. Burrow had four picks week one. This was another reminder, I think, for anybody that's not watching. Look, you watch your team.

That's kind of how it works. And you watch the night games. Maybe you're watching red zone. But the Burrow part of this for an O-line that's 30th and pass win rate held up all day and gave Burrow. You know, he's always going to have moments where he's scrambling maybe more than you'd want. There was one run where I was like, are you trying to get knocked out for the season here again? But how about this? Burrow's now 3-0 against

Mahomes. San Francisco, the other team that I would say is on the radar. This is still part of number two. A three seed in the NFC from 3-4 to 8-4. San Francisco, 3-4 to 8-4. They made Tua look human. They beat him up. The worst game in over a

month for Tua, but then they still hit him a couple big plays, and they went for it on fourth and two, I think, from their own 19. Got it, and then had a catch overturned. San Francisco hangs on. Whatever, two out of that game. Not that big of a deal. San Francisco felt like they're heading in the right direction, whereas when you look at Cincinnati's remaining strength of schedule,

some metrics have it at the second toughest. Others have it as the fifth toughest. They've got Cleveland, they've got Tampa, they've got New England, they've got Buffalo, they've got Baltimore. Not fun. San Francisco has a range of remaining strength of schedule that you tell you it's in the bottom third of the easiest or maybe the 10th toughest. The problem now is that Garoppolo is out for the season. For whatever moment you felt as a fan of Cincinnati, you're going, wait, this team is back. This team is back.

They're a five seed, but they're in the mix now. San Francisco felt like that version in the NFC, but now Garoppolo is out for the season. Although when you look at Brock Purdy's final line, you're like, why did Shanahan did this again? Shanahan has an incredible record with guys that are basically backups. I think he's like right around 500. Sando had it this morning.

Number three, Lamar's tough week. We know he had a tweet that he said something he shouldn't have said. He apologized. And then he got hurt. And the Ravens still won. So Lamar was out for almost this entire game.

Hundley came in. They hadn't done anything on offense against a terrific Denver defense. And then they kick a field goal and win this one 10-9. So here's some numbers for you. In the history of the league, teams that had turned it over twice without getting any back, so minus two, and scored 10 points or less were 0-206 since 1995. And then Denver lost that game.

Not great, Bob. Getting back to Lamar, anytime he's hurt, we're always worried about his contract. The reported numbers that came out in September that he turned down was a five-year extension for $250 million, but $133 million guarantee. track. The reported numbers that came out in September that he turned down was a five-year extension for $250 million, but $133 million guarantee.

And what you do in season when you're the team, which can be frustrating, certainly for Lamar and Lamar fans or other people that wonder why he can't get the contract, it's because he's turning down big, big numbers, but he's not getting the guaranteed numbers that other guys are getting. Russell Wilson got 161.

Kyler Murray, you having fun with him? That Patrick Peterson stuff I think is alarming, but also not a surprise. Murray got 189.5 million guaranteed. And then, of course, Deshaun Watson got all 230 million of his contract guaranteed. Now, other teams look at the Watson deal going, hey, this is unique. This is a one-off.

Here was a guy that had competing franchises going for him because there were other teams that wanted him. So Cleveland just went all in and said, screw it. That's why I've always said that NFL teams could do fully guaranteed contracts. They convinced us all when we were younger that they couldn't do it because of the injuries. You could do it. If all of these quarterbacks got to real free agency, you don't think all of them would be getting 200-plus million guaranteed, and that's what Lamar's going for here. And it's what he'll probably end up getting if he's cool with waiting it out.

It's just any time it looks like he's going to be hurt, we all get concerned. Number four, Jacksonville. This is the ultimate tease this year, sort of, or maybe they just aren't good. Jacksonville is that bet that you have that you were on the wrong side of from the moment the ball kicks off and you spend the next three and a half hours and probably four because it's extra torture

teasing you into thinking you still have a chance in this one. Like, say, if you had LSU plus the points this weekend against Georgia. You're like, wait. Okay, wait. Nussmeier's in there? This guy doesn't care. He's going to start slinging it all over the place.

Oh, hey, there's another touchdown. Get a stop here. And then you don't get the stop. The other team scores. You're like, all right, this is over. And then something else happens. You're like, wait, I might be back in. That's what Jacksonville's season is like.

Because in the beginning of the year, we're like, hey, I think they're good. No, they're not. And then they beat Baltimore last week. Remember that? That felt like a year ago. Going for two. I'm like, look at this. Lawrence, big plays.

The number one pick. He's starting to show. He's coming on. Then they get smoked by Detroit on Sunday. The Jags are the bet that keeps you thinking you're back in seven more times after you've convinced yourself there's no way you're going to win. I will look back at it. Convince yourself there's no way you're going to win.

I will look back at it. Jacksonville has won back-to-back games once in their last 45 games. And finally, number five, Cleveland. Yashawn Watson's first game in 700 days, and it looked like 7,000 days. That's to be expected. I mean, it was bad. Cleveland beats Houston, who isn't good because they get all sorts of other touchdowns that were not in the traditional sense of an offense. I'd be surprised if Watson's not great again at some point.

We could talk personnel, but look back at some of those Houston teams that he carried to just remotely competitive records. That's why he got all that money, as much as it bums everybody out. But this is a really easy thing to forget. I think I kind of forgot it. Cleveland fans are probably the only ones that would really know this.

Do you realize how good Brissette was this year and how this offense ranked? There's some numbers in the EPA stuff that tell you it was the fifth best offense in the NFL. Brissette ended up sixth in QBR. Shout out to my guy, Chris Long, who when he was on New England said, you know who's pretty good is Brissette. I was like, really? At that point, I think he was like the third string guy. But the defense special teams contribution to Brissette in those games was the worst

in the NFL. So he can be thought of as an appetite. He's more of a starter than I think you realize, but Watson clearly raises your ceiling. It just didn't look that way in his first game back. It's a little sad, but I'm actually too excited for my guy Trent Dilfer here because we were checking in every week. We were talking NFL,

and there are bigger things on the horizon for Trent, the newest head coach at UAB after another championship for Lipscomb Academy. So Trent, let's go backwards here a little bit. We got to know each other at ESPN because of a lot of different decisions. You were out in 2017. And at that point, what were your goals? What were you thinking about doing?

Because we had talked a little bit about it. I'm sure you've been offered stuff at the NFL level to be brought in. I don't know exactly what title. But when you left the media part of it, what did you most want to do? That's a great question, Ryan. I wanted to exhale probably is the easiest thing to say. And please, everybody take this the right way. I mean, professional athletes make a lot of money. I'd made really good money in my career. I'd made really good money on TV. I'd grinded.

I'd taken those red eyes to get out to Bristol and jump on a plane to Monday Night Football, then fly back. And, you know, it was exhausting. And we're like, let's retire. You know, we'll have to work. Let's get away from the media. Let's get away from football and let's retire. So we moved to Austin. Retired in Austin, lived on the lake, played golf 218 times in 2018. You know, was retired.

Like living the dream. What most people would call the dream, I was living it. And never really had a craving to go back to football. And I got a lot of calls from NFL coaches, college coaches, OC, quarterback, a couple head coaching opportunities. But as I said no to those, they go away, right? Basically, the narrative was that I was not going to coach. spring football league to be the commissioner. And it ended up never coming to fruition as the AAF was being built. Nobody wanted to go against the AAF, but it forced me to do the mental gymnastics of getting back into football.

And what I found was I found myself waking up at six o'clock in the morning again with the hair on my arms tingling, like thinking about football. I was writing a little bit for the athletic. So that got me thinking about it. And long story short, I woke up one morning, I realized that I wasn't done and that I learned a lot. I wanted to give a lot back. That football kept me alive. It kept me young. It kept me stimulated. It kept me doing the things that I had told people to do for so long,

which is chase hard things and be uncomfortable because that's how you're going to be good at that stuff. And I was the opposite. I was playing golf and doing easy stuff and was the lesser version of me. So that was kind of the transition for those three years of how did I get back into football. Now, how I got to high school is a totally different story, which I don't think anybody watching this show cares about,

but it was really a calling to get messy again and get into people's lives in a good way and build something not knowing where the finish line was okay so that first year let's give me your seven and six correct and i think now we can call you the high school saban because as soon as you got it going the way you wanted to go because this is a real good parallel with uab that's why why I'm bringing it up. What is that first year like of going, oh, okay, this is what I'm inheriting. The mindset isn't right. I know culture gets used all the time, but it really is the best way to describe what it is you're trying to do. What is that first year like of going,

this is not what I have. Like, I bought this house. I don't want to live here necessarily yet. I need to fix things up. Like that first year, that transitional year of getting it to where you got it to. I'll give you everybody a word picture of the first year like of any properly done program built. You know those World's Strongest Man's competitions?

Love them. Where they put the semi truck and they strap this like harness around the World's Strongest Man and he has to drive his feet and pull the semi? That's the right way to build a program. You constantly feel like you have a semi on your back and if you can get your

foot in the air, you don't even have to take, you don't have to go six inches, but if you can get your foot off the air and make some ground, a half an inch of ground each day, you're doing something. It is one of the hardest. Parenting was hard. Getting through a lot of things in my career was hard. Nothing was harder than building this. When things are broken, you don't just do a remodel. You do a tear down, right? So you tear it down and then you build it from scratch. And that's what we did here. And you know, you probably have 12 to 18 months where you may not see results. You may not see big giant splashy results. In fact, I would argue you can go back and have your guys do this, but look at Michigan State.

And I love Mel Tucker, but all they did was put lipstick on a pig for one year and won a bunch of games, but he never tore it down. So then it goes backwards again before it goes forward. And the guys that do it right and the guys that I learned from in my career, you tear it down to rebuild it. And that's the hardest thing ever. I mean, it's everything. People say culture because it's the one word that kind of covers everything. You literally have to everybody, everything changed and get them on the same page. So how did you get to UAB? Um, about eight weeks ago,

it's nine. Now my wife and I were sitting at dinner one night and, you know, people have been calling me like, don't have an agent but i have a lawyer and everybody has my cell phone number i probably have to be on this listening to my cell phone number so everybody's texting calling hey this one this one's going to come open i know this guy's going to get fired ad's are inquiring and all this stuff's happening right and so And so I had to talk to him like, hey, are we going to go down this road this year? And I told her, I said, you know, I think we're good.

Like we're doing great things here. Team set up to be successful for a long time. Our kids are doing great academically. They're doing good off the field. We got a nice thing going here. I do my little media stuff. It keeps me involved in the higher levels, you know, because I get stimulated by higher level football. So I get stimulated by the NFL game. I get stimulated by the college game. So doing the media with you and Colin and whoever else, my podcast,

you know, it kept me stimulated in the football world. It kept me studying football, made me watch football. I'm like, you know, I'm good. I think this is probably do this for another 10 years.

And she kind of nodded her head. I could tell someone was bothering her. She goes, you know, I'm in, Trent. Like, this has been great. It's been great for our family. It's been great for this community, seeing what you've done. But you were made for more than this.

I went, what? She goes, you wouldn't be cheating this community if you went and did this somewhere else. You were made for more than this. And that kind of got me thinking. And then a couple of weeks later, Mark Ingram, the AD at UAB through some weird channels gets hold of me. He just starts getting to know me. And it was really a relationship. We built a relationship, ended up having multiple meetings with the committee. The whole time I'm scared to death because I don't want to be taken away from my team here as we're on this epic run as a team.

So I was doing all this after hours. I promised myself day one I would never take one second away from these high school kids in this high school program. So now I'm up at four in the morning, work until seven in the morning on UAB. I'm going home at 7.30, working on it till 11, but not taking anything away from here. And over the course of time, just the relationship grew really close. It felt like the right thing. I felt like they needed what I bring. And I mean, it's a really, really good fit. You hear coaches say that all the time,

but it's a really good fit. It's in a great region. I love the Southeast after living here for a while. Football means more. We've talked about that. They do need some help just building a better culture and having kids more on mission to chasing their best. And that's kind of how we do this. You know, we get kids on mission.

We get them chasing their personal best. And the overflow of that we do this. We get kids on mission, we get them chasing their personal best and the overflow of that becomes great football. So knowing you, again, we're not like best friends here, but I was trying to figure it out. I was like, okay, UAB. I'm thinking, all right, there's players. Okay. There's players all over the state. I'd say that the community is one. And just like you said, I try to talk about it with people from other parts of the country. And I'm like, somebody was getting an argument about Stanford the other day. And I said, there's kids on campus that don't know the team's record. I go, when you drive through Palo Alto and it's a home game

weekend, you might not even notice. Where when you're in the South, you can tell on Tuesday and Wednesday, like there's a home game coming up. So it's just a different culture. I have to imagine that that part of it and a program that historically, like it almost feels like you have just a blank canvas here as well. I mean, I know they had some wins a couple years ago, but I have to think that there's a geographical reason and a challenge that's different than a Power Five school that really led you. Because I think that's why you went to high school.

I have a bigger calling. I've talked about it a little bit. I needed to go do something different. I feel like you're looking at this not just as a challenge as a head coach, but to do something for a program that's been an afterthought. Yes, it's a great lead. I will say this. If you don't know me, I'm a mountain climber that doesn't know what a carabiner is. What I mean by that is I like giant challenges. I like looking from the bottom up top and having people say, you can't get there, and then get my butt to work to get into the top.

people say you can't get there and then get my butt to work to get into the top and not just starting the climb but finishing the climb and then flexing on everybody when I get up top I like the fact that high school high school coaches going to FBS is is 0 for 4 you guys can look it up but it's been four giant failures. I love that people are saying that. I love that people think I'm going to be number five. I could not be more excited about that. I love the geography of it. I would not have done this in the Midwest. I would not have done this in the Northeast. I would not have done this on the West Coast.

No chance. In the Southeast, there are tons of good football players. It means more. there are tons of good football players. It means more. The donor bases have proven that they're invested in their programs, especially at UAB. I like the fact that it's a group of five with a college football playoff expanding to 12,

that it has the resources, it has the facilities to do everything that Cincinnati did, to do everything that Tulane would have done this year. It's in a conference, the American Conference, they're going to an American Conference that has good TV contracts that will be seen by a lot of people that will play good competition. I like that we play Georgia next year.

I love the fact that we'll play an SEC school each year so our kids get to feel what the best is. I would like to schedule other hard opponents, but those schedules are done way out in advance and I don't have any say in that. But I love all that about this. I believe we will build something great in a matter of 12 to 18 months.

We will be in the national conversation. We will have NFL draft picks because that's what we're going to recruit for. We're going to recruit kids that have NFL traits. We're going to train them with NFL coaches. We're going to have NFL standards in our program and the scouts. Maybe not next offseason, but the offseason after that, we will be the giant school that they circle in red to come make sure they see and spend a lot of time there.

Don't just do drive-bys, but come and spend a lot of time in Birmingham because Dilfer has recruited a bunch of kids that are going to have a chance to play in the league. So we know how to do this. The staff that you'll start seeing unfold will be one of the best staffs in the country. I have a 42-year football life.

I have a lot of connections. I have a lot of respect by people in the NFL game and the college game. A lot of people have wanted to work for me for a long time. So we're going to have the best coaches. You keep doing best over best over best over best over best, and you get best results. And I get it.

In this world now, people are going to be skeptical. They're going to slander you. They're going to find all kinds of reasons because it's so competitive. We're going to put our nose down. We're going to grind, and we're going to build an elite program in Birmingham at UAB. Could you have had a Power 5 job this year? No.

Not that I know of. I didn't get contacted by a Power 5 job this year? No, not that I know of. I didn't get contacted by any Power 5s, and nor should they. I mean, Power 5, you know, look at the map, 0 for 4. I want people to know that. You know, hiring the high school coach into the FBS world is 0 for 4. UAB's definitely taking a chance on this.

I'm well aware of that and I'm going to prove them right. You could have been on the path though to be an NFL GM in a very short amount of time though,

I'd imagine, correct? Yeah, early on I was approached to be an assistant GM while I was still playing actually. The personnel thing was definitely something

I had considered for a while. But the impact with kids, and I still love being out there on the field and showing a receiver how to get a great release and use his hands. I love showing a guard how to combo deuce block with the tackle where his eyes are going to be to the backside backer. I still love talking defense and, you know, all the different things. I'm still kind of that gym rat, you know, on field whistle around my neck,

tight bike shorts, crew socks, pulled up guy. You know what I mean? Like in my core, that's really what I am. And I think the personnel world is more of a business title these days and more of a desk job. And that's just not me. Yeah, no, that's, that's the best answer you've ever given because that's exactly it. Like, I just can't imagine you when you still have that in you and you want to be on the field, then there's nothing that's ever going to replace that sitting at the combine,

getting smoothies in the morning just wasn't going to be your deal. Right. And again, you know, you start getting this way too. And every middle aged man, middle aged man's going to be your deal, right? And again, you know, you start getting this way too and every middle-aged man's going to nod their head when I say this. You know, you get to 50 and especially as an ex-athlete, when I used to be a pretty darn good athlete and now I stink, you know, and I can't, it hurts to tie my shoes.

You know, you're looking for things that keep you young. You know, I want to die anytime soon. I got this grandkid. I hope they have 15 grandkids here and I'm looking for things to keep me young. And I will say this coaching keeps you young. Now it wears your butt out, but it keeps you young because you're on young people and you better have juice, man. They're going to see right through you. If you're sitting up in a tower with a whistle, you know, they want you slapping butts and high fiving. And when there's dance offs,

you better try to do the gritty, even though you suck at it, let them laugh at you. And, um, you know, it's like, you, you gotta be a kid. Um, I gotta be caught up in, in all the, uh, whatever, uh, trends are. And I gotta know all the music and, you know, I mean, it challenges you to stay young. And my daughters have said that. Since you started coaching, you're actually a little more cool. You think you're way cooler than you are, but, you know, you actually kind of get some of this stuff. And I enjoy that. I enjoy that these boys and the boys at UAB have kept me younger. You know, I'm rooting for you.

I'm so happy for you as well. And I can't wait. I cannot wait. So I'll, I'll make, I'll make my way down for a home game. I promise. I can't wait to be on the side.

Oh, I can't wait, man. You better talk about us on the show. Now I will say, I would like to continue some of this stuff. I just have to get through recruiting. This is an old day sucker, man. All the time. But when I get through recruiting this is an old day sucker man

all the time but when I get through recruiting I think I'll start watching the game again I'll jump in every once in a while we can talk about Tua dominating or Mahomes or any of that stuff so look it's up to you you can do whatever you want I mean obviously you know I'm a bit of a power 5 snob but we'll

get there maybe you can convert me I love it you're the best man power five snob, but we'll, uh, we'll, we'll get there. Maybe you can convert me. I love it. You're the best man. I appreciate all the people too, that watch, watch this, listen to it. It's been, it's been one of the cooler things I've ever done in the media. So hopefully we get to do a little more often. Done, done deal. Talk to you soon. See you brother. your brother excited it's been a while shilka potty yet the ringer let's talk some nfl uh he's gonna jump on with us this morning i opened up with just all sorts of praise for jalen hurts uh like i said any eagles fan or any a lot of national people could be like what took you so long and that's fine that's totally fine uh not to say that i haven't been impressed at times this year impressed with his growth

and going, hey, but now it feels like it shouldn't be just the Tennessee game shield. But now it feels like this could be the MVP conversation. I think there is a gap between them and everybody in the NFC. I know the record has always been this good. What have you made from his growth and then specifically kind of what they did against the Titans yesterday? Yeah, this game was so impressive because you're coming off a game against the Packers where you run for whatever it was, 363 yards.

And now it's this Titans team that everyone's saying they out physical you. They want to play smash mouth. They've got a great run defense. And so I was curious, do the Eagles go into that game and say, we can run the football on anybody? Like, we're not scared of this team. And they didn't. And some coaches would kind of bang their heads against the wall. And that would be the mentality all week. We can run it on anybody. We're not scared of this team. And they didn't. And some coaches would kind of bang their heads against the wall and that would be the mentality all week. We can run it on anyone.

And they came out and they just said, the ball's in Jalen Hurts' hands. We've got A.J. Brown and Devontae Smith. They're going to win their one-on-ones on the outside and you're going to win from the pocket. I mean, if you look at every start Hurts has made over the last two years, I would say this is the most he's done just operating from the pocket. I mean, he threw for what, 380 and he was just chucking the ball downfield. The one Devontae Smith touchdown, the concepts to the right, he gets off of it. I think AJ Brown's getting double teamed. He comes backside to the post to Devontae Smith and it wasn't even a great throw, but that processing to get to that throw was really impressive and kind of symbolic of the growth

he's had. I always like teams that could win in different ways and they can run it for 360. They can throw for 350 the next week. And so I thought they were going to lose that game. I picked the Titans to win that game because I thought it was a good matchup for the Titans. And Hurts was fantastic. And they looked every bit the Eagles of a Super Bowl team. You know, system can almost be a bad word right if you're still hanging on to like the to a part of it you're going all right and again i'm you know to a we'll get to that game a little bit later he just got beat up he had a bad game you know he hadn't had a bad game like six games not a big deal um unless you saw

more from that but again i want to table that i want to jump ahead to it then when i think about some of the times with her so i'm like like, ah, okay, they're winning games, and he's been really good, and you might have something here. But then I go like, what the hell are you supposed to do with an RPO where Hurts, what I like about him as a runner is that it's not his default. It's just an option, right? But sure, yardage, RPO, and then you've got either Devontae wide open

because the backers don't want to drop, and there's some route behind it where the safety's off. It's like this guy can still run in. I'm like, is this about him? What I like that's not a system is him throwing a 50-50 ball to A.J. Brown, who's covered perfectly in the left pylon. I don't think a lot of quarterbacks are comfortable with those throws, and you have to make those throws not only for your offense,

to keep the receivers happy. You have to give those guys the bend for the doubt sometimes and i think there's a lot of quarterbacks that have made a living never really being comfortable with that and to see hertz make that kind of throw yesterday i'm like man now this is this is like i've made this joke before but when you have zero interceptions that bums me out you know i used to think it was the best. Oh, this guy never makes any mistakes. And now it's like, no, I want to see a couple because it's like a third base coach. It's like, I never had anybody thrown out at home. I'm like, that's not good. Yeah. It's a skill. I 100% agree with you. I think Burrow, and I know we'll talk about the Bengals, is probably the best in the NFL at it, but giving your receivers a chance to make plays

when your receivers are really good. There are just quarterbacks who don't do that, won't do that, can't put the ball in the right place. That A.J. Brown touchdown, A.J. Brown's not even supposed to be a part of the route concept on that play. He's kind of running his guy off into the end zone. And this has happened multiple times this year where Jalen Hurts looks at it and says, okay, that's not how it's drawn up on the chalkboard, but you know what? A.J. Brown's really good. I'm going to give him a chance. And he throws it up there. And A.J. Brown couldn't have been any more covered in that spot. I mean, he's literally kind of pinning the ball against his shoulder and the defensive back's helmet. So yeah, Hurts has done that from day one since they got A.J. Brown. I mean, I was out there in training camp

and I'm going, A.J. Brown might lead the league in targets. He's just giving him so many opportunities just in practice. And then it translated over to the game. So I think that's a quarterback skill. I think he's got it. I think Burrow's got it. I think a few other guys have got it. And Eagles couldn't play that way on Sunday unless they had A.J. Brown and Devontae Smith. This wasn't some schemed up, hey, three-man route concept at all. Look how they schemed him open. Like, you're not going to see that on Twitter. You're going to see Devontae Smith

cooking the guy who's covering him, and you're going to see A.J. Brown cooking the guy who's covering him for the most part. And so you can only play that way if you've got that talent at wide receiver. Hurts recognizes it, and he exposes it

when they play some of these defenses. That also speaks, too, to one of my biggest pet peeves of teams. It's like, okay, you have the quarterback on the rookie contract. Get him somebody. Get him somebody. You know, Hurts is probably the best value now in the NFL when you think about who he is and who he's going to become.

You know, I don't think we're ever going to be revisiting this anytime soon now. Like, what are the options that are out there? Which the Eagles, like when I look at at a Mac Jones, although the Pats cap hits for the skill guys are absurd, they're just bad at spending the money. They've spent the money. They're bad at it. You look at the Bears and going, okay, they brought in Claypool. Okay, at least they tried to do something.

I think it is one of the most severe acts of violence in the NFL when you have a rookie quarterback contract and you're putting him out there and you're not trying to find a number one and spend that money? What's the point? Be like, hey, let's have you get your ass kicked and lose your confidence. Then maybe when you're more expensive,

we'll bring someone else in. You're getting a free quarterback. Spend the money on somebody who can win these 50-50 balls and to not do it for a guy in one of these contracts is it should be against the law for NFL front offices. somebody who can win these 50-50 balls and did not do it for a guy in one of these contracts, it should be against the law for NFL front offices. Look at the wide receivers this weekend. It's been all season.

Jamar Chase, did the Bengals win that game without him? Probably not. Did the Eagles win that game without A.J. Brown? I mean, they blew him out, but still, we can look at it season long. Even that Jets-Vikings game, and I know we'll talk about some of these, but the Jets are dominating that game, but who makes a play on third down in the red zone? Justin Jefferson smokes his guy on a great route to the outside and scores a touchdown. And even the Bills, you go back to the Thursday night game, Stefan Diggs, I talked to Brandon Bean, the Bills GM, about this. It was like, get the rookie quarterback and then give him, put the pieces around him, and let's see if you actually have something. And so I'm with you.

These wide receivers, just when the margin of error is so small in these games, the number one guy who can win one-on-one, who doesn't have to be open to make a play for the quarterback to trust him, makes a huge, huge difference. And you saw that again this weekend. Okay. Biggest reaction from Chiefs and Cincinnati? Biggest reaction is don't overreact to the Chiefs. Honestly, I like, I'm sure there'll be a hundred things said today about, Oh, the Bengals have the formula and don't get me wrong. I'm in on the Bengals. The Bengals can absolutely win their Superbowl impressive game. But if you're looking at it from the Chiefs perspective, I, there's nothing from that game that makes me think you

need to panic. I mean, really what the Bengals did, you always hear announcers say like, oh, shorten the game, run the ball. It's really hard to do, but the Bengals kind of did that. The Chiefs only had seven real possessions in that entire game. If you look at a normal NFL game, you have like 11 possessions. And so the Chiefs were actually really efficient when they had the football. I mean, if you look at just some of the like advanced metrics on it, they had the fourth best offense per drive of any team this week in week 13. And so if I'm the Chiefs, some stuff doesn't, you know, it's really the Kelsey fumble. It's that third down play where the Bengals only rushed three and you still get beat. I mean, you've got five guys blocking, they're dropping

eight into coverage. They rushed three and Joseph Assise just gets Patrick Mahomes' ankle and sacks him there. That's a big play. And then it goes back to the chase thing. I mean, the Bengals had that third and five with the ball where they throw a little screen to Jamar Chase. And if you slow it down, there are four Chiefs defenders there. They've got two blockers. He's got to be two guys to gain five yards. He makes one guy miss. He explodes to the sideline and he picks up a first down. And so it was like three, four, five plays maybe that made the difference in that game. I think there it was a pretty even game back and forth.

I think both those teams are on the short list of teams that could win the Super Bowl. But my biggest reaction would be like, don't if you're a Chiefs fan, don't overreact. Take a deep breath. Your team still has a great chance to win the Super Bowl. We know that Cincinnati has a brutal remaining strength of schedule. Depends on what, like some of the more projection type metrics have it even harder than just a straight record. And just to go over it again too, I mean, if we give you the names, Tampa at New England, Buffalo, the Ravens, and then Cleveland, actually Cleveland next week, and then those four after that.

So not great. Is there enough here? Like, how do you compare? Because last year it was like, hey, I kind of like Cincinnati. And then they had, I'm trying to remember, was it the Cleveland game last year? I'm trying to remember where there was,

I started to really like them. And then there was, and then they lost 41-16 in Week 9. I'm like, what the hell? Then they win a couple games. They lose back-to-back. San Francisco in overtime. Vegas didn't like them coming in. People felt it was a little fluky. Depends on what happens here with Lamar.

Baltimore's in front of them. Tennessee cannot figure out their offense, especially in the second half. I mean, some of these second-half offensive performances with the Titans. Like, do you see Cincinnati as the third-best team in the AFC? Absolutely. Yeah, I love the Bengals.

I thought before the season, I thought all the regression stuff that was being said, I understood it, but I was out on it because I said their issues are so fixable. They need a competent offensive line. They don't need a great offensive line. They need a competent one. They had one of the worst offensive lines in football last year, and I think it's competent right now, and they're playing better. Then they needed a philosophical shift. Last year, they were running the ball into stacked boxes on first and second down, and they didn't have a good run game. And I thought, all right, Burrow's coming off the knee injury. I understand why you're doing it. But now just put the ball in his hands. They've done that more. And by the way, their run game is a lot better. So I just believe in Burrow. I mean, he doesn't, you know, like you usually put Mahomes, Allen and Herbert just because of the physical tools that they have in one category.

Mahomes, Allen, and Herbert just because of the physical tools that they have in one category. But Burrow makes up for anything he lacks there. And I think it's probably overstated what he lacks there with everything else, with the accuracy, with the smarts, with the toughness, with the poise. I mean, he takes that sack in that game before the two-minute warning. Like, that's a bad play. That's a boneheaded play to take a sack there because you actually can throw the ball away because the clock's going to stop anyway, Tony Romo pointed out during the broadcast and he comes back on third and 11. And this told me something about Zach Taylor too, by the way, because I thought

Taylor was very conservative in the past. It's third and 11. Chiefs are out of timeouts. You can run the ball there, kick a field goal and say, hey, we just have to keep them out of the end zone. They don't have a lot of time. We're going to get conservative. He puts the ball in Burrow's hands. Burrow makes just a ridiculous throw, which by the way, they don't pick up the stunt on the right side. So he's under pressure. There's such a small window to make that throw and he makes the throw. And so I'm just pretty much going to believe in Burrow for the rest of his career. And as long as he's got Chase on one side, Higgins on the other side, Boyd's making plays in the middle of the field, P. Ryan's giving him something. And defensively, they have what you need, I believe, in 2022, which is we can change

what we do every week based on the opponent we're facing. I mean, look at what they did to the Titans last week. They completely shut down Derrick Henry, and then they come back against the Chiefs. And don't get me wrong, they didn't shut down the Chiefs, but they played pretty well. They get a turnover. So, yeah, the Bengals are way better, in my opinion, than they were last year, and they absolutely can win the Super Bowl. All right.

That's good TV stuff right there. San Francisco, they beat up Tua, some pressure. Tua's still in it just because of the playmaking on some of the deep threat stuff. So it's still a game, despite the fact that Garoppolo's out of there. So it's kind of two parts. I had made the connection of watching these games to be like, all right, if San Francisco wins this thing and then it's like Garoppolo gets hurt, so now what do I do? But the Niners are starting to build some of this momentum of, hey, look out. Now, after we just raved about Philly the whole time, I don't want to hear even with Garoppolo that now we're supposed to take the Niners as like a real threat to Philadelphia because I feel like there was a gap

there. So it's kind of a weird question where this would have been like, now what do we make of the Niners? But it's framed entirely different with Garoppolo out. So I guess I'm still asking the same question knowing it's not nearly the same answer as it would have been without the injury. Yeah, I thought it was a three-team race in the NFC for a month with the Eagles, Cowboys, and 49ers. Listen, I'll never say never. You never know. Nick Foles won the Super Bowl, came in for Carson Wentz, but man, it's going to be hard without Jimmy G and Brock Purdy coming in there. What you saw in that game, I thought he kind of looked like Jimmy G. I don't know what you thought. I was like, oh, he looks like exactly like Garoppolo on some of these throws

where he's just firing into the middle of the field. I thought when he held the ball a little longer and tried to create, I got a little nervous. Some of those plays are probably going to lead to turnovers and he's a rookie. So it's kind of a fun experiment. It's like Kyle Shanahan has a good offensive line. He's got great weapons.

I mean, Debo was just taking over that game at times yesterday. Christian McCaffrey, Ayuk Kittle. Like, how much can you do when you don't really know what you're getting from your quarter? It's kind of the experiment we've seen with Jimmy G, because I don't think anyone's thought, hey, Jimmy G's a top five quarterback, yet they've had very good offenses. And so, like, I think they're going to be the playoffs. I mean, if you told me they were going to be a real threat, that would surprise me.

I just think you're limited when you have a rookie quarterback in there who we really don't know what to expect from. So that's kind of how I see the 49ers. Defense is still legit. I mean, they're going to keep them in every game. You mentioned it. Their defensive front dominated, absolutely dominated that game. And I think that's going to continue a lot of weeks.

Very well coached. But I can't take him seriously as a Super Bowl contender with Purdy in there. So not a blueprint game, which we love throwing around for how to beat to more of a personnel situation. Yeah, unless you have Nick Bosa dominating and Armstead and Fred Warner in there. I mean, the 49ers have players and are really well coached. I think no defense in the NFL do the players know exactly what driving into Niners territory and they don't convert on a third and two and a fourth and two. Niners defense is going to do that, I think, to most teams, but I'm not giving up. That Dolphins offense,

I think, against most defenses is going to play pretty well. And they didn't have either of their starting tackles in that game either, which is the worst matchup to not have either of your starting tackles. Yeah, I thought it was kind of like they go for it at their own 19 right and then when they go for it again on fourth and two to gasecki it was pretty clear that ball was out and mcdaniel and then west walker are losing their minds and i of wondering, like, what the fuck are you guys watching? Because that, it wasn't, the catch was not completed.

He was in bounds, but it wasn't completed. And they were acting, you know, like this was the Des Bryant catch, you know? It's not quite as good, but it's like when a player after a play like that goes nuts and is yelling at his coach, and then the coach throws the flag, and it's obvious that the player was wrong. Those are some of my favorite moments. I don't think those happen as often anymore.

Coaches just don't listen to the players. But yeah, I'm with you. I mean, it was the right call, no doubt about it. It was fun to watch him like that, though. I'd be flipping out. It was just so different like again you're in the moment yeah i don't know that any of us truly you know can can understand it's why it's just like anything you know like if anybody ever played any sports the first thing you

think is that you're not wrong right so it's like fouls called in the nba but that one was funny i mean welker was losing his mind and, and then McDaniel had this kind of look where it was like, oh, we've been wrong. And it really just speaks to everybody's competitive nature, and a lot of these guys played anyway, and they're just freaking out because you don't want to admit, like, you know what,

you probably just lost the football game. Okay, you wanted to touch on the Vikings and Jets, which was, you know, a lot of Zach Wilson jokes throughout it. Maybe it's over. Maybe it isn't. You spend a pick on that kind of guy. Who knows?

It seems like White has, I don't know if it's a command of the offense. We love the gunslingers in short bursts. You don't like them for 17 games, but you like them, especially when you're disappointed in the other guy. It's like the Heineke thing. Like Heineke, he's going to Heineke thing. Heineke, he's going to throw it up there. He doesn't care.

When it works, you're like, why don't more guys do this? Then you're like, oh, that's because that guy's a backup now. I feel like, I don't know if you agree or disagree, I feel like Mike White has a little bit more of that in him, certainly than Zach Wilson, because I think Zach Wilson started playing like somebody who was afraid to make any kinds of mistakes and that's why it's looked better

despite the fact they can't beat a minnesota team which is not surprising i mean i my thing with the jets and their quarterback situation was just like all the pieces were in place for the quarterback to succeed from the wide receivers to the o-line to the coaching like it was a quarterback friendly uh you know a place to be in and and Zach Wilson couldn't do anything with it. And anyone with eyes, I felt like, could watch it and say, what's holding the Jets back? It's their quarterback play. He can't even be competent.

He's not even showing you the flashes that you want to see. And Mike White, I feel like, you're right, he'll push it downfield. I mean, he had times yesterday where he was pushing the ball downfield, but for the most part, I do think he kind of lets the offense work. I mean, they had 486 yards of offense to 287 for the Vikings. I mean, almost 200 more yards and you still lose the game. They're one for six in the red zone. I think that's where you probably see some of the shortcomings with White, but I don't know if I'm a Jets fan. I don't feel terribly about that. Like you feel terribly about the game because you could have won the game and you're in a battle for a wild

card spot here. But at the same time, just looking at it like Garrett Wilson was fantastic in that game. You move the football drive after drive after drive. The defense still looks legit. Mostly kept Jefferson in check. The defensive front is very good. So it's a battle right now that, you know, six of the spots really in the AFC are accounted for. And then it's going to be Jets, Patriots or Chargers for that seventh spot. Jets do have a tough schedule. I think they've got the bills here coming up. But if you're just asking me who's the best team out of those three, I know the Patriots beat them twice. But right now with White, I kind of like the Jets a little bit out of those three teams because I think their defense is really good.

Yeah, I like the Jets better than New England. I do, and I know that's sad, but, you know, if there's... I still can't believe we're going to go this entire year with the Patriots and anyone thought this was a good idea because nobody thinks it's a good idea. If any other coach were doing this with a young quarterback and going hey we're going to have a guy who was coaching defense like I just he'd be laughed at every single week and I realized like with Belichick you're just not going to do it you're going to kind of give him the benefit of the doubt but it was like do you want to make this a lot harder like hey we have a young guys

improving we don't really know if we have the guys so why don't we do it gets back to the whole hurts thing in the contract thing that we brought up earlier. I just don't understand it. So when I watch New England get smoked by Buffalo, I go, that's the right result. Granted, in the NFL, stupid stuff happens, and you end up being like, how did that happen? And that's maybe why we come back every Sunday. But I also like times where we're getting

the real result. Like Buffalo being the one city in the AFC now, Sheil, I'm like, yeah, that's right. The Miami loss was an all-time absurd statistical oddity. They fumble in the endFC now, I'm like, yeah, that's right. The Miami loss was an all-time absurd statistical oddity. They fumble in the end zone against the Vikings. And I think Allen was probably the most hurt that he's been

at any point this season. And the Jets lost against a really good Jets defense. So when I see that kind of result, I actually like it because then it gives me faith in what I see. I go, New England,

I don't know if they're making the playoffs. Maybe they get lucky, but they're not going to do anything. You're not scared of that team. And I feel like the Jets' defense is better. The Jets' defense upholds. The only reason they lost that game to New England last time

is the special teams return. Threw it all. And even with the Mike White part of this, I like Wilson better than any skill guy in New England. That gap is massive. Yes. Even though, look, I think Ramadze Stevenson deserves a ton of credit. He's a terrific running back, really good running back. But still, I'd rather have a guy like Wilson as we've just gone over the litany of receivers that make a massive difference in this version of the NFL. So I'm with you there. And how about the Vikings 4-0 against the AFC East, who has four, you know, if New England's the worst team in that division, that's still a really good division.

New England's the worst team in that division. That's still a really good division. Yeah, I want to be careful how I talk about the Vikings because I don't want Vikings fans to feel like everyone's saying your team's not as good as their record says, even though that's true. Because if you're a Vikings fan, you say, who cares? Like, we didn't expect anything from this season. We're 10-2.

It's been a fun season. We've had a lot of entertaining games, and we're going to win the NFC North. That's how you should feel if you're a Vikings fan. At the same time, there are numbers that suggest this is just like one of the luckiest teams in the last 20 years in the NFL. I mean, I looked it up earlier today through 13 weeks. Okay. There have been in the last 20 years, there have been 53 teams that have won, have been 10-2 or better. Among that group, 53 teams, the Vikings plus 10 point differential is last. 53rd out of 53. No other team was worse than plus 36. I mean,

they're 7-0 in one score games. And you can say, well, doesn't that mean they're coming up in high leverage moments and they're coached really well and all this stuff. I think Kevin O'Connell's done a great job. There's no doubt about it. But most of the time, it's just kind of like some luck in your favor in a weird year where the sample in football is going to be really small. So I look at that Vikings team. I don't like the defense at all. I mean, I think it's a bottom six, seven, eight defense in the NFL. Anybody can move the football against that defense. And then offensively, they're kind of hit or miss. I mean, Justin Jefferson is fantastic, but they go through spells. I mean, they had what, five straight punts, I think, in that game against the Jets in the second half to kind of let them back in the game.

So they're going to be there. They're going to be there and they're going to have a home playoff game. I'm not putting them in the same class as a team like the Eagles or Cowboys in the NFC. Granted, what you said, it's football. Weird stuff happens. Weird stuff could happen with them in the playoffs, but nothing in terms of the numbers or the eye test or the film or whatever suggests that it is going to happen with this Vikings team. to happen with this Vikings team. You know what I liked about watching that game, though? It was a nice little Harrison Smith reminder. We were like, this guy is unbelievable, man. He is still doing it. I know if you really want to nitpick, you'd be like, you should have had the pick.

But he had the tackle. He had the pass deflection. I think he had three pass deflections. I think he led them in tackles. He's an unbelievable career that I'm sure locally he's he's worshipped but i don't i don't feel like he's ever talked about i'm not calling the guy ed reed here but like what his final tally is going to be and the impact that he's had on games for this long like this is a really really special career and to still be doing it at that level yesterday he was fucking killing it yesterday man i loved it so yeah yeah that was a huge play he had in the end zone.

And they had guys who made plays in big spots. There's no doubt about it. The Jefferson catch I mentioned, that's third down in the red zone. That's like a game-changing play if he doesn't win on that route. So they've made plays like that all season just in terms of do I think this team

can get to the Super Bowl or win the Super Bowl? Probably not. Last thing here. Our favorite team, you and I, our favorite team over the years that we've known each other, the Los Angeles Chargers. We love this team. We love their talent. Talent might be the best 53-man

roster in the NFL. We know the injuries. It's Keenan Allen or Mike Williams out every other week. O-line issues at different times. The Raiders are a better team. I don't like you are what your record says you are. I think there are teams that have bad... Parcells has these quotes that people

have married themselves to and you're like, yeah, actually I think that's wrong. Remember the one where... The dumbest quote. Right. The dumbest Parcells one of all time. Of ever time is not a term that's used very often. Phrasing. If you take the wrong quarterback, you set the franchise back 10 years. Nah, not really.

Not even close. You just take another one. Anyway, enough of beating up on one of the greatest coaches of all time. The Raiders are better, and it's not just the one lost thing that every team is going to say after they have a disappointing season.

I don't know. I feel like if the Chargers are – I'm kind of – I'm just done with it. I'm just done with the Chargers. It means they're going to go on a run now, but I'm just done with it. And there was a number about Herbert, like the early passing down thing. We all love the early passing down. The problem is they have to live by it. And their production at running back is amazing in the passing game. It's like the best in the NFL with Eckler and the stuff that they do.

But I'm worried about Herbert because I think their approach is their default approach. It's like the only thing they actually can do. But I don't know that you can get down that big to this Raiders team, despite the fact that I like the Raiders probably more than most. I'm done with them too. I've been done with them for a month or so. I like teams that play with joy too. I know this is like a body language thing, but you look on the sideline after a big play and everybody's pumped up. I mean, they just look like they're on pins and needles waiting for something terrible to happen at every moment in the game. And guess what? A lot of times it comes through and something terrible does happen for them. I mean, I don't see like right now they would be out of the playoffs. If they do not make the playoffs in the first three years

with Justin Herbert, I mean, talk about a massive organizational failure. And you can point to stuff. I get their injuries absolutely legit. They played, I think, without three starting offensive linemen in that game, without Mike Williams in that game. Everything is so hard for them. I mean, you watch, we talk about the Eagles, you watch an Eagles game and they go 75 yards and in your head, you're going, why doesn't every team just like do that? That looked really easy. They threw a screen, they threw a slant, they ran the ball, they had a scramble. And next thing you know, they're in the red zone. The Chargers are the opposite. Everything just feels so hard for them from down to down offensively. And I think with their offense, a lot of it right now is talent related and coaching also. But when all you have really is Keenan Allen to throw the football to,

and you're down three offensive linemen, it was one of their worst offensive line performances of the season. It's going to be hard on the quarterback. And then defensively, they're one of the worst defenses in the NFL. I mean, they went out, you know, I know JC Jackson went down, but JC Jackson, Khalil Mack, Sebastian Joseph Day, Kyle Vannoy. I mean, they were the talk of the town in May about the upgrades they made defensively. And I just looked, they're 28th in expected points added per drive, which is just a metric you can use to measure defensive performance. And they give up over 400 to a Raiders team where two guys are just smoking them all game,

Devontae Adams and Josh Jacobs. So there's really nothing I like about this team other than Justin Herbert, who I'm still all in on and think will eventually have a great career, even though he's being held back a little bit here. But even their game management stuff, last year, they're the most aggressive team in the NFL. This year, you have no idea what you're getting

on a week-to-week basis, that lack of consistency. So I'm out on them. I gave up on them about a month ago when they just look completely miserable. I go, this team's going nowhere. But if you're a Chargers fan, go and give us some hope. If you look at kind of the betting markets, they have the third easiest remaining schedule just based on who they're playing.

So we know they're probably going to Charger. But, you know, if you want to be positive and look at the glass half full, I guess that's something to hang your hat on. You're on to something with the joyless part of this. I'm not. We'll leave that to Simmons, the big body language expert. He's been doing it a much longer time than I have. I

think you're right. I think there's just a bummer vibe around this team. Yes. And maybe it's their own injury report every day. The funny thing is, I'm sitting here. I'm almost ready to argue. I think Sebastian Joseph Day is good. Maybe I'm wrong. I think he's a difference maker when you say they don't have anything when williams is out because he like i like everett number seven and i'm going wait

you're doing it again you're pointing out even more chargers that you like and we all know what's going to happen if they don't figure this out against an easier opponent for the next couple weeks i mean it's not done done it just feels like it just doesn't feel like a team you want to publicly back but if they do find a way into the play okay but if they don't i don't know how staley comes back because the other problem for staley is that because he was different in the approach on top of everything, like you're, you're more likely to be criticized and thought of failure when you fail differently than failing like everybody else. Yeah. And he, and he didn't really stick with it, which is kind of the, like, like last year, you know, he's putting up the videos every Monday

morning, like the fun, uh, most unintentional, funny thing that, that was happening in the league last year. But this year it's just been different. I mean, there's been moments of being conservative. There's been moments of being aggressive. So I don't know. I mean, that would, if that job opens up, you know, I know Sean Payton's on that Fox set and people have made that link before, but I don't know. If you're Staley, you can certainly make the case. Look at the injuries. The injuries are valid. It didn't work out. Give me one more year. We're not a terrible team, but we certainly make the case. Look at the injuries. The injuries are valid. It didn't work out. Give me one more year. We're not a terrible team, but we'll see what happens. They have a chance.

That last playoff spot is wide open, so we'll see if they can sneak in or not. That is Shil Kapadia, Philly Special Podcast, and the Ringer NFL show. You can check them out in our feed on the Ringer page. She is terrific.

And thanks for the time. All right. Thanks for having me. The college football playoff is set. Georgia is one. Michigan is two. TCU is three. Ohio State is four.

And I'm cool with it. Let's start with the things I don't like. Even though I am cool that I hate it for the Pac-12, but I'm not outraged that USC dropped out of this. I caused a bit of a shitstorm. I think it was Friday night, maybe after Utah won the Pac-12, a team I love and respect the last couple years. Rising is so much fun.

Kincaid's a matchup nightmare. USC's defense just isn't that good. Then Caleb Williams is hurt. I still think he's the Heisman winner. But I said the Pac-12 is arguably the number two conference. If you want to tell me it's the Big 12, I'm not going to scream and yell.

You're probably right. When I think about conference depth, what I still think really matters when we're trying to compare all of these teams, I think it should matter maybe more than we admit. The Pac-12 ended up with six ranked teams.

I think their one through six is really good. I look at you as you have a couple contenders. Well, the Big Ten that favors the Big Ten this year with Ohio State and Michigan clearly both being in the playoff. Final rankings, SEC had six teams. Big 12 had three. Big Ten had three. ACC had three.

Pac-12 had six. I feel like the Pac-12, its one through six was really good, probably better than any other conference. Their bottom's terrible. Not going to argue with you there. When I look at West Virginia coming in ninth in the Big 12, that's advantage Big 12. But a really easy professor that maybe smokes pot still.

We had one professor in Vermont who used to give us cigarette breaks, which was really because he wanted a cigarette break, but it was unbelievable. Guys are like, yeah, what are you doing? I'm like, I don't know. I just stand outside. I don't even smoke. This fucking class is awesome.

So I would like to drop the lowest one or two teams for every conference before we start doing that. But if you have depth, it's a plus. If you don't, it's a minus. I also looked at the out-of-conference, the Power Five versus Power Five stuff for the five conferences, and I included Notre Dame in this. I did an earlier version where I included BYU and Cincinnati because I was just trying to be fair to anybody that scheduled at the time like Baylor who I'm always on their case about not scheduling Power 5 out of

conference. They did it and they scheduled BYU and then BYU from a preseason ranking standpoint fell apart. The SEC went 11-4 in these games. The Big Ten went 5-6. This is, again, out of conference for other Power Five and Notre Dame. The Big 12 went 7-3. Okay, wait a minute. We're cooking here. You dig into that. Wins against

Colorado, Missouri, Arizona State, Nebraska Duke, Virginia Tech. Maybe the Iowa win for Iowa State. The best out of conference. Pac-12 went 4-7, not great for my argument. Again, that bottom four is so bad. And the ACC went 7-14, and they have more games there because of the Notre Dame scheduling there. So, you know, is it important?

Maybe not the most important thing, and it actually hurts my whole Pac-12 point. But it gets back to the conference championship game debate because like i say every year there's a moving target whatever the rules whatever rules you think have been established historically those aren't always the things that carry over right uh the conference championship game this year almost cost the big 12 it cost the pac-12 uh the big 12 got so sick of the conference championship game costing it maybe a chance or a national championship it just got rid of it in 2011 then brought it back in 17 because everybody was doing it and it was because it was more money the Big 12 not having a conference championship game may it cost itself a chance of having a TCU in the playoff in 2014 because

remember going into the last week Ohio State was behind TCU. TCU gets jumped by Ohio State, who beats Wisconsin 59-0, and then goes on to win a national championship. I mean, who knows? So that year, it was great that the Big Ten had a team with an extra game. This year, the extra game almost cost the Big 12, and again, it did cost the Pac-12. game almost cost the Big 12. And again, it did cost the Pac-12. So I don't want to argue Bama, TCU. I don't know that this is the year to get outraged about Bama being out. There were other years where they got in. It was the right call. It was really simple. They were one of the four best teams. I'm not sure if they are. I don't know. I don't know if they're better than Ohio State. I know the resume is kind of weak, but let's examine that. A small part of me, an evil part of me, did want to see Bama get in just to see how pissed people would get. I'm sorry. I'm just

going to admit it. During the Michigan-Purdue Big Ten Championship game, which I think was a nice game for Michigan. A little flat, probably coming out. Purdue ready to battle hyped up Purdue's not a bad team and then Michigan completely takes over and stomps them I think that's exactly what you would want I mean other than a 50 to nothing blowout I think that's exactly what you want if you're a Michigan fan there but during the broadcast and I love all these little moments uh Gus Johnson Joel Klatt they're like hey Sam's coming at halftime he's gonna talk to the guys at the desk and Klatt's like yeah good for him the disdain in the voice I think we're supposed to get Klatt on Friday I can't wait hopefully we get him I don't blame coaches for doing this I don't blame Saban for doing it all knowing that everybody that didn't like it I totally get it like when Saban comes out starts talking about injuries to the team and some of the adversity, which all may

be totally accurate, factual, I believe him. It's dismissive of the other teams that were dealing with the same stuff. He also talked about, hey, it was kind of funny because he was sort of easing into it because he didn't want to be outrageous going, we'd be favored against everybody except for Georgia.

I don't know, Michigan? They'd be favored against TCU. I don't know if Michigan? They'd be favored against TCU. I don't know if they'd be favored against Ohio State. We could look it up. And it was kind of like, hey, we'd be favored. Like, come on. But like I said, hey, if you're Saban and you go, hey, do you want to go on halftime with the nationally broadcast team

and pump up Bama to maybe sway one of the committee members? What are you say no no I don't want to do that let's just let's just be fifth we're cool with it uh and they still ended up being fifth it didn't matter one of the anti-Bama points I saw that was brought up was that LSU was a four loss team like they lost to a four loss team uh this is the smallest liver of the LSU portion of this conversation LSU played three different teams this season that were ranked number one. Bama, Tennessee, and Georgia. Let's just use that.

That's a four-loss team that's built a little different. Them losing to Georgia, the offensive line, not being able to do anything with that D-line, not entirely surprising. That is not a bad loss. But the wins just aren't there. Yeah, those are awesome losses. Two-point conversion at LSU,

Death Valley on a Saturday night. Last second field goal, maybe the game of the year at Tennessee. Those aren't bad losses, but where are your wins? Now, Bama beat three teams that were ranked when they played them, but it's more important where were those teams at the end of it. For Bama, it's Mississippi State. That's not very good. And you got the extra loss. Ohio State, the better wins. Notre Dame was a decent team. They finished 21st. Then there's the Penn State conundrum. Penn State dropped to 11th because the committee was smart enough to realize,

like, we can't keep them in front of Utah. We can't keep them in front of Kansas State that won their conferences. The coaches had no problem with it. The fucking coaches poll had Penn State 7th. them in front of Utah. We can't keep them in front of Kansas State that won their conferences. The coaches had no problem with it. The fucking coaches poll had Penn State seventh. For any Penn State fan that gets upset about this, in what world? Again, Penn State's resume is this. They played two ranked teams. They lost a combined 85 to 48 to Ohio State, Michigan. They didn't play any other ranked teams the entire season. And they're seventh in the coaches' poll. And that 11th ranking, because we'll ignore the seventh for a second, that ends up looking like an Ohio State's resume is really good.

Like winning 10 games, okay, I get it, but it's one of those weird years where you can kind of dig into team by team and go, what did you really actually do? And like I said, for Penn State fans, there's no world where there'd be another program that you would say, hey, they didn't play. It didn't beat anybody that was ranked. They finished in the top 10. Let's give them a benefit of the doubt. You wouldn't. You wouldn't. So I don't know what that means for Ohio State, but again, I'm still cool with it. would have happened, right? All the usual suspects would have gone, okay, it's the conspiracies, it's the moving gears, it's all the things that are happening, the mechanisms, the TV

relationships, they're in the bag. Like all the shit that we've heard for years when Bama got in, when Bama deserved to get in. Okay? They didn't deserve to get in this year. But if it had happened, all of those things, all of those accusations would have come out again. Now, I know what people are going to say, well,

wait a minute, it's two losses. No two-loss team has ever been in the playoff. That is a fact. It's not a rule. There's a big difference. Yeah, it hasn't happened. If we had 20 years of this system, which we're not going to have, this is all going to be gone in a couple of years, we would have had a situation where a two-loss team

would have been in the playoff. It would have happened. We had a two-loss team in the BCS championship game in 2007 because they ran out of teams. That was LSU. So it would have happened. So it's a fact, not a rule. The reason I bring it up is I just think

whenever you're talking about conspiracies and everything being crooked and everything being fixed, which I think is part of life. I've done this rant before, but there's so many times we're all getting fucked over as we're just looking around trying to avoid it. So when it's college football,

it's just way easier to figure you're getting screwed over. College football is life. Not to go cowherd on you, but the NBA is about character. College football is about plot line. So whenever I hear all of these things, it's like, okay, so it didn't happen.

The thing you think happens every year didn't happen this year. I know the two-loss thing would get thrown at me, but I'd go, so what are they? Take a year off? It's like the NBA lottery when something happens and people are like, oh, this is fucking weird. Okay, maybe it is weird, but what do you think actually happened? You think it's all crooked? You think it's all fixed?

Why did Tim Duncan end up in San Antonio? Did they take that year off? Go, hey, let's not fix it this year? So that's what I would ask about all the people that have had the conspiracy theories for about all of the years.

When, by the way, Ohio State would have been the better television decision in the year they were left out for Bama, what, four or five years ago. As I've always said, as somebody that had

the committee chair on my radio show and podcast for multiple years, as somebody who sat in two mock versions of the selection committee exercise, which has been one of the most fun things I've ever done in my career. I was a joy in those things. It might just be that 13 people sit in a room and watch college football and tell us who they think the four best teams are. Maybe it's always been that. Maybe I'm naive. Sure, there's probably somebody who hates one of the teams or hates a coach because he played or covered them or had a relationship with them as an AD.

I'm not ignoring that, but that's why there's 13 people and not one person. Maybe it's just 13 people trying to go, hey, it's all over. We don't put a massive amount of public emphasis on any of the criteria because we can't be held to some sort of rulebook standard where we're looking like we're contradicting ourselves the next year with our selections. Maybe it's just, hey, we think these are the four best teams. Because if you look back at the history of college football, and for some of you that were so young, you might not even remember this because it wasn't that long ago, We'd play all the bowl games and then we would just wait to see who voted. And then sometimes there were like three teams that would go, we're the champs. No, we're

the champs. No, it's over here. And we're like, cool. Then we had the BCS and we hated that because computers were involved. Then they got rid of the computers and they expanded it out to four and we hate that too. Maybe, maybe it's us. Goal! Continued economic responsibility demands restraint in government expenditure. And last year we achieved the largest ever recorded reduction in the budget deficit, 1.5 million. government expenditure. And last year, we achieved the largest ever recorded reduction in the budget deficit,

$1.5 million. Let's go abroad. Disappointing end for the boys overseas. Team USA out. That would be the first round of the knockout round, correct, Suruti? Yeah, this is the round of 16. You know, it's what the goal was for the U.S. Obviously,

we'd have liked to go further. Listen, we're not better than the netherlands they have you know some world-class players we kind of don't and you know i thought the 3-1 result while it was a little bit harsh uh was probably fair in the way the game played out so you know this is all just building to 2026 though this was just this was like a training exercise for everybody we achieved our first goal which is to get out of the group and be kind of interesting and then when 2026 rolls around and the world cup is in the States, along with Canada and Mexico, and some of these players are more in their primes,

then we'll be ready to go and make some actual noise. Yeah, so this is, if people are wondering why I'm wearing the Chris Mullen USA jersey today, this is when the boys need support. Okay? A lot of you guys just hang out. Every four years, crew.

Yeah, yeah. And then you're over it we thus the we're building we're building every day and that's why i'm wearing it i'm not wearing this because they want i'm wearing it because they lost so that they know uh you however did have a bit of a zag on what seemed to be popular opinion you thought they actually just played really poorly correct no not that they played poorly but i saw a bunch of people on the timeline being like the u.s could hold their heads high like they they were in this game and they deserve more um i don't think that they were embarrassed like i think that was a fine showing i just think it was a clear tactical sort of mismatch where the dutch coach was like here the u.s you could have the ball we don't think you're

going to do anything with it so like when you look at the high possession numbers that the U.S. had, yes, we had a couple of chances. Obviously, if the Pulisic one goes in in the first 10 minutes, it's a completely different game. But I think the entire game plan from the Dutch was just to say, hey, we're going to give the U.S. the ball. We don't think they're going to do anything with it. And then when they have two slow center backs,

we're going to hit them on the counter. And that's what they did. They scored three goals basically that way. So I don't think they shouldn't hold their heads high. Obviously, like I said, the goal was to get out of the group stage and they were obviously underdogs against the Netherlands. But I also don't think they deserve to win that game by any means.

So all in all, it felt pretty good. I watched the game against Iran and that was fun. I mean, it was exactly what you expect. That was the most stressful game I've watched. And I mean, that was the last 20 minutes of that game. I was a wreck, an absolute wreck because I we didn't have enough of the ball.

The defending was kind of shambolic. They were just balls being thrown into the box. That penalty that should obviously wasn't a penalty, but went to VAR when there was like a slight tug on the the the

Iranian strikers shoulder. That was the I said this on Bill's, but I think like the amount of times that I've had fun watching like big U.S. men's national team games, I can count on one hand. They're not often very fun because usually they don't blow teams out, even in CONCACAF qualifying when they're playing El Salvador.

It's a tough game. Honduras. Honduras is a sneaky tough out. Costa Rica, none of those places are easy to play. That's why it was kind of nice in the Netherlands game because I didn't have any expectations. Obviously, it sucked to give up the goal early, and it certainly sucked to give up the one right before the like it was kind of nice in the Netherlands game because I didn't have any expectations. You know, obviously it sucked to give up the

goal early and it certainly sucked to give the one right before the half because you kind of knew that was the death nail likely. But it was nice to like not be on pins and

needles because there was just no expectation. It was a free swing basically in that game. And you said something tactically about the U.S. I'm legitimately

interested about this, but that you felt like the Netherlands were like here, you guys can't do anything with the ball. Is that a lack of talent? Is that a roster thing? Because I saw a lot of people not loving this roster after that loss, a lack of forwards.

Well, the issue is we don't have a striker. And that was pretty clear in most of qualifying. It's been clear in all of the games so far in the group stage. And it certainly was the case in the one knockout game that we had. And I think the argument from most American fans, which I think is fair, is that, you know, why not play a system

where you're going to get your best players on the field? So like Greg Berhalter, who was our manager, he likes to play with a striker. He wants a big sort of target man, number nine, traditional guy to like get on the end of crosses and and and score goals the problem is that's all well and fine like it's a good way to play obviously if you have that guy but we don't have that guy so when you've got Gio Reyna and Brennan Aronson and I argue Brennan Aronson was our most informed player our player playing the best going into the world cup even more than

Pulisic informed meaningform, meaning conditioning? Conditioning, but just his level of skill right now, or how well he's playing right now. I could argue that Brant Aronson was our best player coming into the tournament. He plays for Leeds United. He's been on fire in the Premier League. He's playing significantly more than Christian Pulisic. Now, Pulisic is still a better player. I think even Gio might be a better player.

But to have neither of those guys start any games for us because you don't want to maybe not play a striker and just kind of play what is a false nine, which is essentially just like a half midfielder, half striker type that isn't really a true number nine.

I just think like this is like the NBA thing where it's like, hey, why don't you just get your five guys, your five best guys in the court? And like, that's probably your best way to win instead of like trying to tinker

with matchups and lineups. And that's kind of like Berhalter, I think he has a system and he played a system. And unfortunately, the big part of that system is having a striker that we don't have. So it kind of felt like we were playing the entire tournament with one arm time behind our back and we still got three.

So that's great. So the guy who's going to sit me and say, hey, results, results are the only thing that matters when we got through the group. Okay, you're right. But I also think that it wouldn't have been any worse if we just played some of our best players more. Okay, I put you on the spot here a little bit so I can feel for you while you think about it. But if Team USA were an NBA team, which NBA team would it be? I knew you were going to

ask me this. I knew you were going to ask me this and I actually prepared for it. There isn't a clear answer. I was kind of going through. I think right now, not like historically, but I think- October, November, Utah Jazz? Well, I don't want to get into the Jazz stuff. We need like two hours on that. So we're going to leave that alone for now. We'll just get tabling. The amount of people tweeting me,

I've seen Laurie Markin. He's been great. I still haven't changed my mind about whether I should be on this list or not. The guy's like, what, 26, 27, whatever. I don't want to get there. The team that I think the U u.s most is like right now is the raptors and that is just like they're just kind of an annoying team to play against

um they've got some dudes but they're just never like the ceiling isn't really there so like do you want them in a matchup in a in a playoff series are you gonna be afraid no but like they're kind of a frisky team that's what the u.s is they're a frisky team they're hard to play against i would say that bad on offense? Bad on offense, yeah. Exactly. They've got some athletic dudes, more than they are skilled, I guess is what I would say. But the only different... Bad on set pieces, maybe, is the best way to say it. No, no, no.

The only problem with that comparison is Nick Nurse, comparing him to Greg Berhalter. I mean, Nick Nurse is an incredible coach, and I just don't think Greg Berhalter is a great national team coach. He may be a great club global coach. I don't know. Who knows? He was good in the MLS. But I think the Raptors is probably the it's like a middle of the road team. That's like a bottom tier, maybe even a play in team that is fun to watch.

But ultimately, you just don't have any faith is going to go that far. Yeah. And Toronto, to be fair, is 13th in offense. But I'd love to see what the last 10 games are. I was thinking Portland, too. Portland can be fun at times, but their ceiling, again, is not that high.

But again, we don't have a Dame-Lewin. Kapulacic isn't Dame. Yeah, I guess that Pelicans game is still in my head where I was like, what are you guys doing on offense? I think the big thing with them is their half-court.

Yeah, they've had a bad week plus on offense. Okay, I like that. I like that analogy. That was pretty good. Okay, last thing. If we started calling hoops hoopie, do you think that would catch on? Because I think what happened to soccer,

why it took so long, is that footy just bummed a lot of dudes out. Footy is not a great term, I would agree. Although I've seen a lot of the videos of people calling not a great term i would agree uh although i've seen a lot of the videos people like calling you know obviously english people don't like that we call it soccer and they make fun of us because of that but it's actually it's actually an english term it was it's an english slang term oh wow look at how the turns have taped yeah so take that uh no like do you do you like the term hooping or hooper like oh he's a real hooper i don't know

i'm fine with that my my absolute raging hatred for scoring the basketball is it will never be replaced by anything it's so fucking stupid and people just added it to make it sound like it's smarter because if there was an option to fucking do anything else like is there another way to score yeah fair very fair uh but to your point no footy not i've never if you call it footy i think uh we probably can't be friends sorry yeah but i don't know seems to be popular uh quick update how are you doing tired i'm pretty tired you know the the nights are last night was a was a decent night um she sleeps her best from about 9 a.m to noon so that's like the good time so you know like that's when it's good because there's usually games on then so she's just sleeping in my lap and hanging out nights are pretty hit or miss uh getting her down initially is pretty it's pretty shitty because

like you're just like dude i just want to go to bed and you're just sitting here like wide open eyes wide open just like you know potentially puking maybe needing a diaper change last night was the tough one because i had uh i changed her diaper and just immediately i put her down in the bassinet next to the bed and just shit city happens and i'm like great now i have to get up out of bed again change another diaper it was an absolute disaster so it's it's fun i i i do enjoy it uh but there are some the sleeping thing is pretty difficult. First time changing diapers? No. Well, yeah.

Yeah. I mean, not obviously on my own kid, but yes, I have, I don't really have any other, I'm not used to babies. I'm not a baby guy typically. So this is, I'm not like around other babies. So, but I am, I am pretty good at it now. I feel like, you know, you gotta, you gotta like take the edges and flare them out so that we don't get any spillage, even though it still kind of happens. But yeah, I would, I would give myself, I'm like a solid 7 out of 10 diaper changer.

Yeah, I had that shit down. No pun intended. I think I had three different kids with the diapers. Let's just close with this. Do you kind of like get it now? Kind of what it's all about? Like, okay, now I get it. Well, what is it?

Is it just like life? Like I'm just, oh, like this is the true meaning of life for me there are times i i'm not gonna lie there are times when i look down and i'm like holy shit like this is this is like we i we created this this is weird as hell man and like she's so dependent on it is very strange and it does kind of fuck with your perspective on things like i haven't watched a movie different been like oh i thought about this differently now because i have a kid maybe that will happen eventually. I mean, again, she we're just this is just like feed, sleep and change diapers mode.

Like she doesn't have a personality or anything yet. Maybe when that happens, it'll change. No, still still no strength in my right arm or more strength in my right arm from holding. Measure it. No, let's get a measurement. Let's use centimeters. Let's not go inches. So you're not like crying during an Edward Jones ad. No, no, no, no, no.

There's not. I don't see like one of those Christmas ads and immediately start bawling out. I definitely will look down at her and go, this is fucking cool, man. This is actually really awesome. Nice, man. That's great. Thank you, Cerruti, for going abroad. We'll check in again soon. Later, guys.

You want details? Fine. I drive a Ferrari. 355 Cabriolet. What's up? I drive a Ferrari. 355 Cabriolet. What's up? I have a ridiculous house in the South Fork. I have every toy you could possibly imagine. And best of all, kids, I am liquid.

So, now you know what's possible. Let me tell you what's required. Today's Life Advice is brought to you by Chevy Silverado. Life Advice. The email is lifeadvicerr at gmail.com. Okay. We're going to try to do this again. I know I touched on this before, teased it before.

Bill Callahan, long time, super, super successful television writer is going to join us for a writing edition of Life Advice. I do not want to answer. We have a lot of these that come in asking me. I got nothing to tell you. Callie, who's actually doing it and has done it well for two plus decades, is going to join us hopefully Wednesday. Again,

in the topic line for writers, for television and film writers, a book I don't think he can help you with, just put in the topic line, Callie and then you with. Just put in the topic line, Callie, and then your question. Okay? His story in itself is incredible.

So let's do that Wednesday. And I'm going to start bringing in a couple. I want to get back to like once every month bringing somebody in a field that is far more educated on that field than I am. Okay? Kyle, what's up? How's it? Brought my dad to Friar Group yesterday.

And he got hammered well time out time out what was that like it was i mean i haven't realized i haven't really seen him like drunk i've seen him like like happy and stuff like that my dad got a little punchy um like uh but like sort of like what are you talking about guy like it wasn't like uh it was it was strange i i dragged him out of there um wait he's giving you the what for what do you mean was he was he kind of like doing the shoulder thing the trap thing yeah some body shots in there yeah yeah exactly and i was like dad i don't know you don't never know who's gonna walk in this bar i don't think you could be that punchy with everybody every time i saw somebody was like hey guy this is dad, just in case he punches you.

How many guys did he punch? Probably three, including me. But everyone was good sports about it because my dad's like a likable guy. But I just, I don't know. Then I brought him home and got him in the Uber. And, you know, that was a good sign at the end. Made sure he got tucked in safe. And I brought home and his wife and my grandma were like what the fuck did you do i was like look

at me i'm fine i gotta work later i don't know what happened but okay but to be fair did he take any shots no shots he he was he said he didn't want a shot he he started out with a beer because he saw i was drinking beer he had a blue moon and then he was like you know what i'll have a white russian and bartender troy was like okay yeah And then he was like, you know what? I'll have a White Russian. And bartender Troy was like, okay, yeah. And then he was like, I'm going to have a different vodka drink.

And then he just loved the way that he made that vodka crayon so much. He just said, keep them coming. So, but it was a great time. It was a great time. And he made it home safe. My grandma was not super happy because she's never seen him like that. It was like, hey, me neither.

I don't know what happened. So that's the first time you ever saw him drunk? Yeah, it's the first time I ever saw him like, yeah, truly drunk. I've seen him like where he's like, oh, I better slow down, you know, but we just didn't slow down. It was pretty cool. But, you know, the student became the teacher there and I

got him home safe. It was great. There's a pretty good guess that you're a little bit more seasoned. Were you guys drinking during the day? Totally. Yeah. It was the late window, as you call it. Yeah.

That's an early window for old people drinking. Yeah, it is. Yeah. I brought up the shots thing because the shot, like past a certain age, you're not doing any person

over that age. Any favors. Any favors. That's right. It's just not. It's just something, all of a sudden, the body's like, no, this doesn't make a ton of sense so like when young dudes see old dudes you're like

oh i want to buy that guy shot you're actually he hates you so much yeah he hates you so much he's looking for a potted plant to dump that shit in man right not right because he's like all right you're gonna mix in a water you know figure out the the ratios of stuff here so yeah he got well that's i well, that's, I think that's actually like a really nice bonding moment, not for the other people in the family, but that's good for you, man. I'm happy.

Yeah, me too. It felt good. And, you know, I'm going to go assess the damage today after work. We'll see what everyone says. Oh, okay. Good point. Good point.

Okay, let's get a couple of our hit makers here, neighbor stuff. Am I a dick to my neighbor or is he lazy? 510, 190, solid Peloton stats. The wood privacy fence between my backyard and neighbor's house and mine is in bad shape. Last winter, a section blew out during a storm. It was fixed, but now the same section is failing. A few facts. It's my neighbor's fence.

Last year when the damage occurred, I offered to split the cost of repair even though it's his fence. It was $1,200 to replace the two posts and rehang the fence. He hired a guy to repair the fence last go round. Neighbors are close to our age. We don't have an age here, I don't think. Kiddos, same age as ours, so we're somewhat friends. Between that friend and acquaintance zone, which I think is a factor here.

All right. So, yeah, they're more than just neighbors, but they're not core guys. But the kids, you know, they can bring those cores together. Here's my situation. He's wanting to get another guy over to refix the fence and wants to split the cost. Again, bold type. I'm inclined to tell him to piss up a rope. type. I'm inclined to tell him to piss up a rope.

While I perhaps set the precedent of splitting it from last time, I figured I was being a good neighbor to expedite the repair during a time where a ton of trees and fences were blown over. It'd been a huge storm and lots of damage, so to get a contractor out ASAP there was a markup. Oh, yeah.

So guys were post-storm in it. Post-storm pricing. I wanted to fence fix as quickly as possible as both of us have dogs. Yeah, I was wondering. You had to have it fixed? You're an aesthetic guy? Entire feng shui was thrown off? No, we got dogs.

It's 100% his fence, and he hired the first guy, who obviously didn't do a good job. Shouldn't my neighbor either fix the fence or pay for another contractor to come over? It's not a money issue, as I'm sure it costs very little to fix. Basically, just need to reattach the pickets. Yeah, that's not really that big of a deal. He keeps sending texts like, oh, man, that fence is hardly hanging on. Jesus Christ.

This is like a guy is hitting on the fence repair transaction. He's not hitting on a person. He's like, on a person. He's like, hey, what are you up to? Dropping hints. Yeah. Or, quote, we should really get out there and take care of this. We.

As if it's a hint to help him fix it. Where does being a good neighbor end? My wife and I are contemplating replacing our fence next year, so it could be a moot point. But if, when I do that, I wouldn't expect him to participate in any of that cost. True. Like, hey, I'm putting up a full fence. What's your Venmo?

Am I being too rude, or is this a situation entirely in his court? And yes, we live in the Midwest. Yeah. Other parts of the country wouldn't even have made it this far i get what he's saying storms down hey we need to get this fixed the dogs the dogs the dogs you're getting jacked up on the prices here um i'd ask how long do you think you're both going to be living there because there could be an end to this relationship that's very

abrupt with one real estate listing if you're thinking about moving on at some point, but you did kind of set the precedent and we don't know where his head is at. It sounds as if he is the kind of guy, since you set the precedent, that he's leaning back into that because he's taken advantage of situation guys. In what world does he actually think you're supposed to keep paying for the repairs, the fence on his side of the property, unless he thinks like, hey, some ways fences and those boundary lines of property sort of work where it's like, hey, this is kind of happening even though it's on you. But ultimately, the letter of the law, this is his problem. And you did him a favor post-storm with higher prices to pitch in. So you've actually still done more for him. I would use up some of that equity by telling him to piss up a rope on this time around. Obviously, you can be a little bit more diplomatic about it. You could say, hey, look, we're actually adding a

fence later on and I need to save for that. So I can't really kick in and then let him either understand or then be somebody because he's got two paths here where he goes, yeah, okay, that's cool. I get it. Or if he fights you on it, think you'd be like, absolutely fuck this guy. Like I already helped you out the first time around and you're assuming that I'm going to do it again. And then when I don't, you're coming back at me like I'm in the wrong. So then you're thinking, hey, this is great. I just saved myself money because I would have paid an asshole if this is the way

he processed all of these little parts of the timeline. So based on what you've told us here, it doesn't mean it has to turn into World War III. You still have the Midwest part of this where it's still in your favor. But I think you could say, hey, I got to spend money on my own fence moving forward. And by the way, you can't really tell them, hey, I helped you, and you picked the wrong guy, obviously, if it's broken again, so I was just to pay for it because that fell under your repair thing. Yeah, I'm with you, and I'd be a little stern, see how he reacts,

because one, it's either going to be him understanding and seeing it, because sometimes people do that, too. It's like, oh, you kicked in last time. Let me at least try. People are so weird about money, man. They are so weird about money. And he may be just thinking, cool, I saved a few hundred bucks because he kicked in. And it's like this weird wind that he gets off on. These people exist. And if you shut him down, he may go, oh, cool. And then if he's actually a dick about it, you're going to feel even better that you didn't give him any money because he went down the wrong path.

So for the non-confrontational one, you can propose, hey, I actually built my own fence here shortly and whatever, whatever. And I got to kind of save for that. I mean, unless you get a Maserati in the driveway, you know, but I would not want to kick in at all. You've already done him the favor. That helped you, granted. But when it's on somebody else's property, that's not normal to keep having to pay for somebody else's repairs.

Kyle. Yeah, this is definitely wrong. This is like a dude doing something bad, throwing you in an alibi and being like, man, what are we going to do about this problem we have? Like, that's wrong. It's just wrong. And so you're right about this. I guess I'm a little confused. Like, are you going to do about this problem we have? Like, that's wrong. It's just wrong. And so you're right about this.

I guess I'm a little confused. Like, are you going to have a fence next to a fence? Is there going to be like a no man's land? Feels like it. In his future? Because you don't see that too often. I had one at my dad's house, but you don't see that too often.

Usually somebody picks the fence, right? Otherwise, I don't know. But yeah, I think you could totally say, listen, I got a fence coming up in the future. And as you know, the fence costs these days are just storm or no storm, just lumber. What can I say? So I think you're totally within your rights. So I think it's totally a good idea to say no in a somewhat stern way. I don't think you have to be like, oh, I'm so sorry. You just have to be like, no, man, this is kind of how it is. But, you know, it's neighbor. So you want to use tact with all this. I think I use that right. Tact.

Yeah. You want to think about what you want to say to these people because they are your neighbors and they could they could totally if things got so out of hand, they could make your life hell. So, yeah, I think you're I think, A, you're're not an asshole it's kind of a weird thing to be like you know is he going to be like what are we going to do about all these leaves in my backyard next like what what are we going to do about my problem is just think something you never want to you don't want that to be normal so i understand how it's a little different but it's the fence thing no they're going to be there's going to be some pushback from people being like well my experience with my fence it's like okay cool you helped out your neighbor you liked him enough to

go ahead and do something like that all right you helped kick in on the fence here but clearly this is a little different he kicked in the guy got the wrong repair guy he sounds like it cost the neighbor 600 bucks and then they want to fix it again and he's dropping the hints he's clearly dropping the hits because he wants so that in itself is really fucking annoying that that guy's thinking like oh well because it's kind of our fence because it's the divider. That's why I think the first move here is to say, well, we're actually putting up our own thing. Right. Our own deal.

And, you know, like, I'm going to stop paying for your fence repairs. I think that's a totally good reason because it's going to serve the same utility that his shitty broken fence is going to serve. So, yeah. Get your fence right okay we got two things here this one's a little more specific of the dating stuff and i kyle sent it and i thought all right you know what let's address this one okay should i ask out my 20 year old boss 64 215 6'4", 215, 24 years old, Australian. Okay, so immediately you're like, wait, what? He's 24 and his boss is 20? Hey, I've never been to Australia.

Apparently this is normal. I'm just kidding. Let's get into it. Let's explain it. Okay, so emailer starts. Started a new job recently in a female-dominated industry. Okay, there you go. I've been getting along well with all my coworkers, all female. And in this job, males

are always sought after. So they were happy to have me on board. But I'm struggling to be myself around my boss on the same level as she is the only one who's single and also happens to be closest to me in age. So his boss is 20. She's obviously hot. And she's the closest to his age.

I'm a textbook introvert and if there's two kinds of people that I historically struggle to feel comfortable being around myself, it is A, authority figures and B, single women I'm attracted to. Unfortunately, my boss ticks both of these boxes and is probably way out of my league.

And is probably way out of my league. I think this is an easy no, dude. It's leaning towards a hard no. But we're not here to discourage all the time. No, maybe there's more. We don't want to make people feel bad. We're not afraid to tell somebody

it might just be average. Right? Sometimes that's just the solution. Okay. All right. Let's just the solution like that all right let's keep going here um to make matters worse she's super nice so you have a hot super nice fun boss she's rich too man yeah and her dad and eric new zealand breakers right i think bill had an unbelievable line on,

was it the replacements, the football movie? He was like, so let me get this right. The owner's daughter is also the head cheerleader and owns a bar and she was single. That's right. It was a very good line. In the pitch, they were like, so wait, what's her story again?

All the good things. Would that person her story again all the good things would that person be single all the good things okay i'm just just learning to grow on my own right now okay uh so she's super nice being just 20 years old is more uh she's one of the most impressive and dedicated people i've ever been around and great to work with so i'm finding it hard to find any reason to not like her. So far, I've just been trying to get acquainted with the job and dedicating myself to being a great employee while maintaining a healthy distance from her. All right, dude. Outside of one occasion where we were on a close shift together, a close shift, I believe. It says close, close.

I think we're going to just assume this was a closing shift and ended up sitting around chatting about our personalized relationships for about 45 minutes after we had finished closing. I think she's starting. I think she is starting to realize I'm becoming more open and chatty with other members of staff on a regular basis because I'm constantly conscious of not wanting to come on to her, given the position she holds and how that could come across to everyone else who works there. And also my own issues I mentioned. He's going out of his way to talk up other people to balance the conversation pie chart. You are introvert, man.

You totally are. Tell you what, this guy would fucking mail back an 8x10 though if you asked him for an autograph. Yeah, he would. I fear this could have a negative impact on our relationship should this continue. She has said things like, quote, I want to see what you're like drunk. Hmm. I get a little sniff. You whiffing a comeback here, Kyle?

No? We'll see. And invited me to her housewarming next month, so I'm wondering if I just bide my time if something could happen organically. But in the meantime, any advice on how to go about day-to-day interaction would be greatly appreciated, as well as any advice on the long game, or if I should forget about it completely. Okay. Very well-written email.

When you said she's way out of your league, what does that mean? Has anyone that's ever looked like her had interest in you before? I think that's a fair question um we can't see his email avatar is him shooting a jumper form looks pretty fucking good and this guy's hot just shy uh i would i would let this play out i would let it play out. I would let it play out. Like, unless you're awful at picking up, like most of us,

right, that have been through the wars, you know pretty quick. You know pretty quick. And boy, is that a great feeling when you know and you're like, oh,

this is kind of odd, I think. Then there's times where you're like, this is so off. This isn't happening. And there's that mysterious middle group, right? You're like, wait so off this isn't happening and there's that mysterious middle group right you're like wait what that's what that meant because the other

person has reservations about how open they want to be about things you're both young and the boss dynamic like there's a really simple way of like hey she's your boss be respectful never cross that line that's bullshit it's not the way the world works? And it's not like you're her boss where you can get in trouble for it. That is the nice part about all this. If we're being totally honest about this, we're keeping it one hundo. I think what you need to do,

but I'm worried about you not being able to pick up the signs, is that she could just be the fun manager that's like, oh, I'd love to see what you're like when you're drunk because she's fun and she's outgoing. She's got this great personality. And she's dating somebody on the national rugby team.

Find out what her relationship status is. It sounds like she might be single if you haven't brought up any of this stuff. If she invited you to the housewarming party, do not get wasted, okay? Yeah, don't. Don't, but linger a bit. P bit pace yourself you'll probably know pretty quickly if she's interested her friend may even say but if you get none of those things right

if you get none of those things if she's there with another dude that's a pretty good sign i would say look forward to this housewarming party as a solving of the mystery, unraveling of what you're trying to think. Keep it cool at work. You'd be better at work when you're not thinking about her as a potential partner.

That's when you're going to be your most attractive. Not wrapping all these mind games around like, oh, I'm doing this. I'm doing a little bit of this. Just hang, man. You're an introvert, but it sounds like you're getting along with her really well. Look at her not as like a future dating partner.

Look at her as like, hey, this is just a person I'm getting to know. And then you're going to start getting answers at the housewarming party. You should be able to know pretty quickly what's going on. And again, if there's another dude there, that's a pretty good sign. And then you can just fucking relax because then you'll have your answer.

But if it feels like you're getting a sense of this, I don't think it's totally out of line. And she may say, hey, I could even be interested. Or she could be not interested, not attracted to you, and then still say, hey, I'm your boss and I can't do this. So a lot to work with there. But I would build towards this housewarming party. But if you put too much pressure on yourself, then, you know,

that's when the beers will flow sometimes. So, and you're Australian, no offense. Does that Australians have been known to get down? That's my point. Yes. I mean,

yeah, I mean, I was going to say that usually when it's a non boss employee or, or coworker situation, it's usually like, ah, I don't really know what's going on here. We always say like, well, see if you can get out to a different sort of place and see what if, you know, once the circumstances are changed, like whether it's work or school or wherever, wherever you met this person that you're wondering about, we're usually like, well, let's see if you can get somewhere else in a different type of room

and see what happens. That's already scheduled. That's already on your calendar. So that's great news. Yeah, right. And the good news about this as well is I've had bosses that I've been enamored with. I've had several that I just, you know, sometimes it's okay too. Just to have a beautiful guy too. And he's got a great voice to match.

But no, I really mean like I've had like I've had like bosses over. voice to match but no i really mean like i've had like i've had like bosses over not really a not really in my recent years but not too far away that i've just had a boss where i was super attracted to and i just that's that's kind of fun too just to know that that's never gonna happen they wouldn't even look at me like that way it's just like oh man there she goes again just and she's good at her job too and it's like sometimes that's okay too sometimes that's okay too. So if it doesn't work out and you're like, oh, I saw pretty quick that Derek's there and that's definitely, it's Derek's time now. It's not me.

You can still, there's really nothing wrong with going to work being like, God, my boss is just perfect, isn't she? Look at, she's so pretty. She kicks ass. She's just getting shit done. That's okay too. Like it's not gonna ruin your,

it's not gonna ruin your work life. It's a normal thing thing it was for me at least in certain places so i think it's fun so even if if it all comes crashing down in your head and it's like oh this is never going to happen that's totally okay yeah i would say just play it cool be a little chatty then be a little not chatty have a day like i'd love to love to catch up with super busy yeah you know like i mean that's the part that sucks about all this is you gotta pretend you're sort of not interested at times you know you just be like hey i dig you what's up yeah a lot is a lot is riding on this housewarming party play Play it cool, man. Play it cool. And I think you're going to get a lot of answers there.

Actually, hit us up after the... I normally wouldn't ask this. I want to follow up. I want to know how that party went down. Because I like this guy. I like his vibe. I like his whole deal. But I'm a little worried

when you said she's way out of your league. Because then there's times where guys like, this will happen at work a lot. I'm not saying this is the emailer uh i've certainly experienced it with like middle managers that get married super early and then all of a sudden they're around super hot women uh and then they maybe i'm talking about my industry and then they're fucking weirdos uh because it's like wait now i'm talking to like super hot women and i and it's never been a dynamic and now i'm like fucking the weirdest person ever seen it firsthand plenty times i would

say uh what you don't want to be is the guy that like you know hits that profile like you work with her she's so attractive and if you've never ever really talked to somebody like this or spending time with somebody like this in the past like you can't be turning into that co-worker that's like fucking losing his mind just because he's interacting with someone so hot that he's never interacted with before because again like i said i've seen it i've seen it too many a tale as old as time okay i'm a little worried that she's 20 i mean we i don't know what that means i'm just a little worried that she's 20 years old sounds like a real go-getter though based on this this. Yeah, I don't even know how to interact with somebody who's 20. So I don't know.

Yeah, but you're not 24. No, I'm not, but I'm still I was I just can't even think about it. I don't know if like in a real workplace with a 20. I just can't even imagine. So good luck with that too, pal. Dude, he's 24. He's young. This makes sense. You're not calling me out on that, are you?

No, no, no. I'm not calling you out. I'm just having a hard time even understanding what that would be. She's having a housewarming party. I mean, 20 years old, I wouldn't even be done with college for another two years. She's got like a boss of somebody. I don't know. Whatever. It's Australia. Maybe it's different. Yeah, who knows? Who knows what the rules are?

Okay, that's life advice. Today's life advice was brought to you by Chevy Silverado. Learn more about Chevy Silverado at Chevy.com. Thanks to Kyle Crichton, Sir Rudy dropping by, Sheil for hanging out, Trent, this is a Loaded Monday podcast. Again, life advice, questions for television

and film writers. Bill Callahan scheduled to join us Wednesday. I'm hoping that'll happen, but at least I'll get these emails again because I know we're going to have them because he's on a tight schedule, but he's my buddy, so we'll figure it out. All right. Ryan Russell Podcast. Ring your spot on. Thank you.