The Ryen Russillo Podcast - Joel Klatt on the Alabama-Georgia Rematch, Plus Baker Mayfield and Fan Base Angst, and NBA Point Guard Devaluation

Episode Date: January 7, 2022

Russillo shares his thoughts on Baker Mayfield vs. the media and fan base angst in tortured sports cities (0:36), before talking about the point guard position in modern basketball (11:38). Then Ryen talks with Joel Klatt of Fox Sports about the CFB bowl games, the upcoming national title game between Georgia and Alabama, the argument for CFP expansion, and more (23:44). Finally Ryen answers some listener-submitted Life Advice questions (1:02:21). Host: Ryen Russillo Guest: Joel Klatt Producers: Kyle Crichton and Steve Ceruti Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A couple different open monologues here. One is Baker's tweet and how that leads to Cleveland angst and angst that you kind of have to sign up for in certain cities. And I also want to talk about the point guard position and how it's changing and maybe not in a great way in the NBA. Joel Klatt, we're doing it all. College ball, the playoffs, our picks for the title game, of course, the SEC topic, and a life advice that leans aggressive towards the end. I want to start today's podcast with a couple different topics that have nothing to do with the other one.

One's going to be NBA point guard stuff that I'm going to get to a little bit later. It's just kind of something I've been working on and thinking about. Certainly not the most detailed thing that I've ever worked on, but we had a little news over the week and that's Baker Mayfield. This has been a really frustrating season again for the Cleveland Browns. We'll get to that. That's nothing new. And Baker now four years in, a guy you took number one overall, which again, it wasn't like they were on an island when Cleveland took Baker number one overall. There were other teams in the top 10 mix that I'd heard prior to that definitely like Baker, but it was, it was kind of that last 24 to 48 hours. I remember when all that news was

happening, like, wait, Cleveland's taking bigger one because of all the guys that were in that draft. Like, man, that's the guy that you want to go with. Um, and at this point it hasn't worked out, uh, statistically the season, you know, the picks to touchdown ratios, the worst he's ever had. I mean, honestly, their season last year, he was pretty good if you look at some of the raw stats. He's hurt, right? We can say that. I think we can all agree that he's hurt, and it's been terrible this year. But is it just because he's hurt? Has he been the guy that you'd hoped he would be if you're a Cleveland Browns fan? Like, definitely not. There was also, I think, at the end of one of the years, a couple years ago, where you went, wow, this guy turned a corner.

He started figuring some things out. And really, it probably had to do more with the opponents than it was necessarily him becoming this franchise quarterback. But when you enter the season, and if you looked at the pro football focus stuff, they do kind of roster talent ranking one through 32. And you can look at other places too. If you look at the Browns roster in totality, it was kind of like a top five, like around number five, maybe number six overall roster ranking. And you can debate that all you want, but I think we'd all agree that the Browns coming into the year,

we thought this was going to be a really good football team. Another six and eight with another week to go. Again, I've watched him enough this year that I do think that he's hurt. The fifth-year option was already picked up. Maybe he's going to demand a trade. Some of that stuff was out there because it's the fifth year trying to figure out not only where you fit in with a franchise

but also what kind of money you're going to get. Let's not kid ourselves. Then you still have the coaching change where I don't know what the disconnect with he and Stefanski is. I don't know what's real. I don't know what isn't. So Mary Kay Cabot, as we cover in the Browns forever, had a piece where she titled it basically Baker Mayfield must resolve his differences with Stefanski soon in case they need to coexist

next season. In case. So, you know, that's kind of leaving open the idea that he might even be around. Also, some names that will be on the radar if they don't. So Baker, quote, tweeted it and said, Clickbait, you and many other Cleveland local media continue to be drama-stirring reporters with no sources or facts. Don't put words in my mouth

so you can put food on your table. I'm not your puppet. Boom! Alright. So, I can understand his point. When you are this level of the focus of not only a city's attention but nationally as a quarterback in the nfl it's probably not a lot of fun to read all the shit about you all the time

but baker also kind of can't help himself and anybody we cannot understand like the fundamental rules of an argument if you've done something wrong or you're blamed for something but somebody coming at you makes a mistake or maybe gets like one of the five things wrong that they're accusing you of you focus on the thing that they're saying that's not true and then you dismiss every one of the five things wrong that they're accusing you of. You focus on the thing that they're saying that's not true, and then you dismiss every one of their other things that may be true. I mean, this is defense 101, right? We've all done it. We've probably done it to other people in arguments. And this is the part where the public figure,

even if they might be right and they want to defend themselves, it just never really seems to go over that well, especially when you don't win, right? When you don't win, nobody has your back. It's the same thing with the ads. I remember when RG3 lights it up his rookie year, he's doing a bunch of ads. Really, his downfall was he couldn't keep himself healthy.

I think he butted heads with Washington's play calling and the offense coming in the second year. But what did it turn into? RG3, he's just doing too many ads. A little less Subway, a little more completions. And Baker, who's great in all these ads, is in a bunch of ads. They lose games. It's like, okay, where's this guy's head at? None of that necessarily is fair, but he needs to be better. He needs to be better both as a quarterback. He needs to be healthier. And he probably could do a better job of just sitting some of these things

out when you're not winning games. Because again, when you're not winning winning no one's really going to be on your side let's do a hard turn on this all right this isn't necessarily this open about baker specifically or even mary k cabot's position mary kay sends out her tweet about a story about a lot of questions to ask fair baker fights back saying some of this stuff isn't true and i get his point baker's tweet has over 66 000 likes he has that many likes because you have a bunch of Browns fans who are like, this again? We're doing a quarterback thing again? Been doing this for decades. So this speaks to the angst not only of Cleveland,

but any fan in a fan base in a city that cares this much. This is about them hoping this isn't true because a lot of you have signed up for some seriously bad deals with your favorite franchises. You know, I have a ton of, um, I don't think sympathy is really the right word here. I just like Cleveland.

I do. I like those fans. Um, and I sympathize with their plight and why, when they came back from three, one against golden state to beat them in the city to get a championship that had been waiting on forever. When it got emotional for these people, that's a big deal.

This is one of the historic sports cities in this country with decades of failure in all of their sports prior to that. When you look back at the Browns, the last championship was 1964. All right? 1964. um the last championship was 1964 all right 1964 cleveland indians last world series title was 1948 um and it kind of speaks to some of these other franchises too you're sitting around forever like imagine being a vikings fan franchise starts up in 1961 you've never won a title can you imagine that being 60 growing up with it you're like yep never won. I mean, you can even start to ask yourself questions like, is this even worth it? I was watching the Knicks game with the Celtics last night, and they're like man this is awesome knicks won a title two and what like the last three or four seasons hey man it's gonna be like 50 years and who knows now i mean it could be another 10 right i mean it's not crazy to say the knicks are probably i don't know

how many years they are away from the next championship could be longer than that maybe something crazy happens in free agency in a trade here they're five years they're they're having some kind of parade but would you if you knew that? So this is speaking to Browns fans, Knicks fans, Vikings, pick whatever. We can go Seattle, San Diego, and baseball, but I'm not going to sit here and go through an entire list of championship droughts for franchises. But that's kind of the question here and why the Baker thing always is a little bit more tuned up, I think, than just another top quarterback

flaming out. And I'm not even sure he's necessarily at the flame out phase because, again, I think it's pretty clear as much as everybody beat him up on social media, I don't think he looks right. So is it making an excuse for him? I just think we're kind of telling the truth about the full scope of the Baker Mayfield conversation. But the reason for the angst is a lot about the cities and their histories. And I always think I come from a really good perspective on this because I grew up as an insane fan about things. You know, my mood was directly related to whether or not my football team won on the weekend,

much like all of you listening to this today. You know, the Red Sox up and downs for me weren't healthy in a way. I miss that. I care that much. Um, in a way I love that I don't, and I'm not sure what's better. Sometimes I miss caring about the outcomes of things the way that I miss that I care that much. In a way, I love that I don't, and I'm not sure what's better. Sometimes I miss caring about the outcomes of things the way that I did when I was younger, but I got desensitized to it. I was in it nonstop. And when your passion becomes your profession, it's an incredible career, but it also is just going to kind of change the way you filter stuff. And I also think just being older, having some stuff, kids, dependence, real life worries,

as opposed to being in your 20s and going, yeah, I don't know. Like, what do you think I'm doing? Seven to 10, I'm watching the Red Sox. Like, what, you want me to go do something? You want me to go to dinner? You want me to meet up? No, like, I'm not doing that. You know, Hippolyta Pachardo's starting.

I want to see if they can get a strong six out of them. So I remember what that's, I remember, you know, that Yankees run in the mid nineties being just hell for anybody who was a Red Sox fan in 96. You're like, well, they shouldn't have won that one. And then they come back after the Marlins went in 97. You're just like, this is the worst. They they're so awesome.

They win every game. They're like the lock of the century. I remember I actually bet them for the series in 2002 against the angels money line. And I was like, whatever, I'm just going to take this free money. The Yankees win every series. That was a loss. That was a tough fall for your boy. But I remember working with this other guy who was older than me.

And he was a big Yankees fan. Great guy, great guy. Way back when I was in Vermont. And I'm like, yeah, man, Yanks. They just won the World Series again. I was like, they're on a roll. I was like, it must be awesome. I was like, what's that feel like? I was like, I, man, Yanks, you know, they just won the world series again. I was like, they're on a roll. I was like, it must be awesome. You know, I was like, what's that feel like? I was like,

I hate it. Like, I feel I I'm in a bad mood now for a couple of years because of this, but what's it like? He's like, well, you know, my mother died last week, man. So, you know, my enjoyment out of it is not quite the same, you know, going through stuff like that. He's like, you know, I'm happy they won, but you know, my mother died last week and I was like, yeah, yeah, that's right. Yeah. I was i was like but god that team's fucking stacked huh and he's just like all right yep got it dude um and again that was that was because i was in my own little world and i'm like oh yeah that's right i'm sorry about your mom but god you bullpen you've got so many options so i would ask anybody like if you knew if you're mean, even if you looked at the Celtics and said, okay, the last title was 2008. What if the next title is not for 20 years?

Would you sign up for that? If you were a Vikings fan in the 70s, you know, they're making the championship game. You're like, yeah, it's going to be 2020, whatever. And they're still not going to win one. You want to do that deal and it's it's why it when it happens it's so fulfilling and it's why when it happens in a city that's not used to having it happen whether it's the milwaukee bucks or the calves um you know chicago the cubs getting their first one in forever you know we've had a few over the last few years where these cities

have finally been rewarded. And when you're rewarded that first time, it's got to be an incredible feeling. But I don't know that anybody would ever sign up for some of these deals if you said, hey, this title, the Cleveland Indians won a World Series in 1948. They made the playoffs once from 1949 to 1994. Would you ever be like, and again, you know, we're talking the late forties here, but would you say, and the format

was a little different for baseball, but I don't know when you say it out loud, if any fan would say, oh, so they're never going to win for like, I don't know, like if they won when I was 10, I'll be 60 with grandkids and it still hasn't happened again. Yeah, sign me up for that. I'm in. When you say it out loud, I don't think many of you would. I want to talk about point guards in the NBA. Position's never been deeper. Insane talent. Going back, I would say less than 20 years, things have changed the last 10. Combo guard was a dirty word coming out of the draft.

All right? If you were a guard in college who played point, but you were a score-first point guard, I was like, I don't know. He's not like a traditional point guard. We don't have traditional point guards anymore.

We just don't. We have Chris Paul, you know, a couple of other guys that do get people set up and everything. But now, it's almost weird if you don't have a score first point guard. And I'm going to go through some of those teams a little bit later on. I was watching the Celtics game last night.

They're now 2-11 in games decided by five points or less. It's comical how bad they are at the end of these games. And it's not just luck. There was two plays last night. They blew a 25-point lead to the Knicks. They were doubling Tatum. Their defensive philosophy was incredibly simple. Tatum

gets the ball to stay with Tatum, leave Marcus Smart or Dennis Schroeder wide open to take threes. Okay, well, that didn't work. It was so bad that there was an inbounds to Tatum where he was bringing it across half court, and they went to trap him behind half court, and no one in the Celtics was there as a valve to help him. It was so bad that there was an inbounds to Tatum where he was bringing it across half court and they went to trap him behind half court and no one in the Celtics was there as a valve to like help him. It's like, hey, they've been doubling them every fucking time and you guys can't figure this out to at least have somebody else be close to him. And it almost led to a turnover. And then

they didn't challenge a ball that went out of bounds off of Mitchell Robinson that was painfully obvious. And for whatever reason, they didn't challenge that one either. Celtics are a mess moving on. There's a bigger point here though. The point guard position, the one that I grew up with, it wasn't about could you make shots. I always felt like it was kind of this identifiable thing when you watch it. It wasn't just assist totals. It was, all right, we've had two or three terrible possessions in a row. Let's figure some stuff out here. Let me get us settled. Let me get somebody set up.

I'm going to call this. I've seen this. I'm doing this. So when you ISO all game or you have point guards that don't really think the game that way, where Jason Kidd would come down and go, all right,

this is what we need right now. Gary Payton would be like, enough of this shit. I need to get somebody else going here. We need to take advantage of something. I think the league is actually missing that part of it. And it was such a stark contrast from watching the Celtics sit there not being able to figure out the same defense for like eight minutes to close the game versus Phoenix beating the Clippers against the Clippers. But Chris Paul

in a moment going, all right, take over time. I'm going to make sure everything we do at least gives us a really nice look. All right. It doesn't mean every possession is perfect, but it means I'm going to give us a better chance. I'm going to set us up in a way that gives us a better chance to take advantage of something. I'm going to balance that out as well. And I'm going to shoot when I need to shoot, but I'm not going to shoot every time just

because we're down by seven. And it's a transition to the league where it's amazing how talented the point guard position is, but it's evolved to a point now where I feel like you can see late game situations where it's like, all right, high screen and roll three or kick to the corner. Like that's not playing the point guard position. That's not understanding.

I mean, honestly, LeBron is brilliant at this. Once again, a lot of the stuff that he does that's great is understanding, okay, in this moment, what do we need to do a little bit differently after three or four bad possessions? And I think some of these guys that are just six scores, like they're unbelievable talents. I don't know that they think the game this way. And we used to be loaded with guards that way that actually didn't look to score as much. So when I look through all the champions, and I don't know how far back we want to go, there'll probably be a little dispute here and there kind of how I paraphrase this but this is just a wing

league and if you run through all the title winners Milwaukee with Giannis he's definitely a different big but he's still more of a wing than he is a traditional center and again they play with a five out center anyway in Brook Lopez or they can play with Giannis the Lakers that's

wings again Anthony Davis when he would want to play center. Toronto Raptors, who's the main guy? It's a wing in Kawhi. Golden State, I can make it about Durant to make this argument stronger, but it isn't just about Durant. But Steph is such a different point guard in that it's not just the shooting, it's the assist, is he plays like a wing off the ball. And there's just other point guards that don't do that.

We don't need to list them all again. I think I've done enough of that content. Cleveland, two wings, whatever you want to call Kyrie, but he's still probably better as an off-the-ball guy as he is on the ball. Just as dynamic as he is, he's not going to see the game the way some of the guys that I'm talking about that I grew up with.

Golden State, 2015, Steph played point in that. Him figuring out Cleveland's double team was what turned that series. San Antonio, 2014 in the comeback against Miami, or not the comeback, but the revenge series against Miami. That was Kawhi at that point as a wing. Miami, two wings, and Dwayne and LeBron. Dallas,

not a big, not a point guard, but a stretch four in Dirk. The Lakers with Kobe back-to-back wing. Celtics, it was wings. It was more KG, though, that really changed that thing around. Not that he's a traditional center. Perk was playing center, but it was about those guys more than it was a point guard and Rondo

or Perk a center. 2007, I know Tony Parker was the guy that closed it out in the finals, but let's face it, if Duncan, who's basically playing center, even though Spurs fans always try to argue that he's not a center or whatever, if Parker's in that series without Duncan, Parker's not playing in the finals.

If Duncan's on Memphis, I don't think San Antonio's winning all these NBA championships. Miami was a point guard led kind of thing, almost with Dwayne Wade just having the ball all the time, because prime Dwayne Wade was impossible to stay in front of, and then he took a million free throws. Spurs, Duncan, Pistons. Is Chauncey the most important player on the team?

Maybe it's Ben Wallace. Could be a bit of an aberration. We'll get back to that. Spurs, Duncan again. Lakers, Shaq and Kobe. Maybe Shaq, the most traditional big of the guys, the most recent to win it, which is still like 20 years ago. So, you know, we keep going.

We go Jordan. We go Elijah Juan. The Detroit Pistons, 89-90, might be the best example of a point guard-led team that won a title. So even with the depth of this position, which again, it cannot be argued

how many terrific point guards we have, there's still moments where you go, wait, do I need that score-first point guard to win a title? I mean, look, if you have a player who's available, who's great, wait, do I need that score first point guard to win a title? I mean, look, if you have a player who's available, who's great, you add that player to your team. All right. I'm not like if Dame Lillard is available at some point, you go, well, you never saw the segment about point guards not leading your team, but it's a real thing. It's a real thing. And I just wonder if the combo guard evolution has led to that position

being a little less important despite the numbers that we see from that position. Because whether it's Dame, them making the Western Conference Finals a couple years ago, nice run, but I wouldn't ever look at them as a title contender. They were still bad defensively and whatever. That thing's gone off the rails, and those guys aren't even in the lineup right now.

Trey, who I thought turned a corner last year, I don't know if he's kind of backed it into a different corner that he used to be in this season. And those guys aren't even in the lineup right now. Trey, who I thought turned a corner last year. I don't know if he's kind of backed it into a different corner that he used to be in. This season, really nice story last year for Atlanta. But then is there a next step that exists? I really like Darius Garland a lot, but him trying to score on his own to close out Cavs games probably isn't the best version of this team offensively. And obviously Rubio not being there hurts them and doesn't allow Darius to do some stuff off the ball that he does when he's there.

Utah kind of went with Donovan Mitchell. Obviously, they've had Conley the last couple years. Russell Westbrook, I think my position is clear on that. D'Angelo Russell, maybe just as clear. DeJounte Murray with San Antonio, who I really like a lot. But, you know, again, that roster, I'm not sure what to do with it. De'Aaron Fox, where it was kind of like, look what this guy is capable of, pivoting to, wait,

is this guy really a guy? I know he's making that kind of money. Shea Gildress Alexander, whatever it is that Houston's doing, and then maybe even Zion a little bit. So it's just a simple question in that if you're looking at all these point guard numbers and all the talented position, it's fun to watch but what does it really mean because history tells us that that position doesn't really dictate who's winning a championship so rudy do you have anything on that i would just say that you know like look at a guy like cole anthony right was bringing my magic into it. It's having a good year, 26 and six, but you know, he's a middle of the,

he's probably a mid to lower and starting point guard. I would say in the NBA, and he's still super talented and he's putting up great numbers. There's just an abundance of talent at the position that where unless you have one of the top elite guys, the jaws, I'd probably throw Trey in there, Steph. It's kind of an easy position to fill, right?

So, you know, I don't know, like if you have a top pick, right? Are you, and it's between a point guard and a wing. I'm always going wing. This goes back to our argument about like, you know, the Mobley thing. Like I'm always going to lean towards a wing because of what you just said

about how that is who wins championships in the NBA. Like I think Mobley would probably be more valuable than, you know, a really good point guard in the league. And I think the point guard position, like there's just so many of these guys, you could probably find one in free agency or be a trade. You know, look at, you know, the guy that everybody's talking about, De'Aaron Fox. He's probably, what, somewhere in the range of like 15 to 20th best point guard in the league. And he's available and he's really good.

So I just think, you know, unless you have one of the top three, four, five guys, there's a lot of guys that are kind of the same yeah and i would put kyle lowry in that group of of some of the more old school approaches at times because you know however i feel about lowry who i think is one of the three most annoying people to watch play a basketball game he's so smart and he'll he'll know like oh okay you know this hasn't worked this is something i can take advantage of or when lowry's like all right look they're one away from the penalty and we need some easy ones. I'll go in and have a big guy fall into me and now I'm at the free throw line. That shit wins games. And Lowry sees it. Paul has always seen it. But we used to have, that's what the position used to be.

What do we need? Okay. I'm going to provide what we need. And now I think it's simply, Oh, we're losing. Well, I'll just shoot. I'll just shoot. And anybody that's ever played basketball, it's awesome. And you have a great player, but it's fucking lame sitting around while four guys watch somebody do something the entire time. No, it's just, it's just not fun to play with. And it changes your defensive effort. It changes how much you want to box out. It changes how much you want to screen. There's a real harmony in basketball that is unlike any other sport where you still have to worry about like a great idea like hey we have an amazing player in james harden you know james harden's passing and his getting people involved like i don't think every assist is created equally but i think harden's passing is actually really incredible but peak houston years it's like wait we're just gonna watch you dribble the whole fucking time um the you should stuff that we've seen with like the top guys like why would i want the ball in

anyone else's hands and there's extremes like why do you want Steph shooting corner threes and never having the ball like the early Golden State stuff where he kind of did this hybrid thing with Jarrett Jack but then in the other extreme it's like does that mean that the best guy has to have the ball every single time because his points per shot is the best number because does that diminish who you could be potentially on the whole and I think it's it's a healthy conversation. It's something that's worth debating. But it was such a stark contrast last night, seeing Chris Paul take over in the minutes that mattered and everything working out.

He was just brilliant again. And then watching the Celtics do the same thing, every possession, without anybody kind of going like, hey, why don't we try something a little different? And that's where the point guard is far more important than some play a coach is going to call. And that's what I was going to say. Ask Marcus Smart to your original point. What's he think about the ball movement in Boston?

He's basically come out and been like, this is BS. And Tatum still was making the right plays. But if you're going to go, hey, double, and then we throw it to this guy, you just become really, really easy to defend. And again, back to my point, the best point guards go, let's do something different. So they have to think about how they're defending us. And I feel like that part of the game is diminishing. I don't really think there's much of an argument about it, to be honest with you. So there you go. One of the biggest voices in college football,

a guy I'm a fan of, Joel Clout of Fox, joins us on the podcast. Also want to remind everybody, Breaking the Huddle airs Wednesday. New show on FS1. That's 9.30 Pacific time. And also hosting the National Championship live tailgate on the night of the National Championship as we are less than a week away. So what's up, man?

Good to have you on. It's good to be here. I know we've been trying to do this all year. I'm glad we finally got it done here before the biggest game of the year. I know. You've got Grammy winners that are easier booking than you, Joel. I know you're a busy guy. That's why I've enjoyed this. So let's take a look at recapping a bit of what we saw as we kind of look ahead to what the title game may be you know look i thought michigan had a chance i'd like what kate had been i knew what they did

best was not exactly uh a recipe for beating georgia because what they did best is exactly what georgia does and then it was horrifying so what do you think happened in that game well i i mean i think you hit the nail on the head the problem was the matchup this was a terrible matchup for Michigan I think Georgia Michigan would have matched up much better against Alabama not that they would have won obviously they would have been matched up better against Cincinnati

but Michigan had a what I would call like a prerequisite to success offensively which was they had to be able to run the football at least a little bit and establish that run in order to get to some of the play action and the wrinkles that they were so good at, which made them explosive. And Georgia totally took that away. I mean, absolutely dominated them at the line of scrimmage. That defensive front seven is the best in college football.

And I don't know if it's quite all that close, to be honest with you. They were just too strong. They were too active. The linebacker, N'Kobe Dean, was too fast. Michigan didn't have a chance. And it was pretty clear, I thought, within the first three minutes of the game. I was like, okay, this is not going to go well for Michigan. And I don't think that they've got many places to go in terms of adjustments to make this a game and they didn't yeah that that was I think the part that was you know we knew Michigan was running the football we knew that with the way you know I thought one of those Ohio State stats it was unbelievable about that matchup was that Ohio State didn't have a tackle for loss in that Michigan game for the first time in like 16 years and you go whoa all right so you know we know what they are on the edge for Michigan we know how the offensive line holds up there a

little bit but I felt like you know whether it's my buddy Cannell or just kind of the way it works geographically people just started dumping on Georgia especially feeling like hey see after they lost to Bama they didn't play anybody this team's completely overrated yeah maybe they should have been a tear on their sitting by themselves but my point was always kind of like you don't house teams the way you're doing it if you're Georgia and you're not bad. Okay. You're not like an average team when you're holding teams like seven points per game. So is there enough there? You think this time around, like when you're looking at Georgia and going, Hey, this team can learn some things. They had enough things go wrong in Bama that you feel good about their chances? Well, this is such a cliche.

Don't roll your eyes. But man, it's hard to beat a team twice, especially a good team, right? And so because they have the ability of hindsight and they can make adjustments, and they will. They're going to make adjustments. And I don't love this excuse, but Georgia

only had... I don't want to say they didn't have motivation in that game they wanted to win the SEC championship they want to beat Alabama but they knew that the entirety of their future was ahead of them regardless of the outcome of that game and I don't want to overplay that because I think that players go out there and they want to be competitive and they want to play their best but there's no way that Georgia was at their best that day against Alabama. Meanwhile, Alabama was up against the wall. They had to win that game. They knew they had to win that game or else they weren't going to continue and go to the postseason in terms of the playoff.

So that alone, I think, makes this a far different matchup. And then I think that the adjustments that Georgia can make in the front seven, and namely their ability to produce at least some pressure on Bryce Young. This is where the game is ultimately going to be won or lost. It's because if Bryce Young could just sit there in the pocket and win down the field, I think that Alabama could have a similar outcome as what they had in the SEC championship game. But if Georgia can get to him and force him off of his spot and force him to play under even similar duress to what Cade McNamara played under,

then Georgia is probably going to win that game. And again, trying to beat a defense like that twice with a guy like Kirby Smart as a defensive coordinator, defensive coach, if you will, and Dan Lanning twice is going to be very difficult to do. I fully expect him to make a fair deal of adjustments, in particular with that front seven, and trying to create some pressure on Bryce Young's face. Cause that's what did not happen in the SEC championship game.

Yeah. And that's why it was just so surprising. And you know, I've always felt like you can kind of tweak an offensive line to fix your problems, but we had had, you know, anybody listening to this podcast, I'm repeating it for you. Cause we haven't talked about it, but people listening to this are gonna be like, oh, here we go again. But whether it was not being able to block A&M, not being able to run the football against LSU, likely losing that Auburn game against T.J. Finley on one leg. I mean, he couldn't even stop Arkansas defensively.

We had more examples of Bama not looking like Bama than ever before, and then you put it up against this front seven against Georgia, and you're like, all right, so wait, they're just going to block these guys overnight? And that's exactly what they did. They got the ball out. I mean, the weird thing about it, because I don't think Cincinnati had much of a chance. No. But it felt like Cincinnati confused Bryce more

in a semi-final game they lost than the SEC title game effort by Georgia. I still felt like Bryce was a little choppy in some moments against Cincinnati. And I didn't see that against Georgia. So go ahead. Well, I would just say, I would say this. It's been so long.

I'm so old. It's been so long since I actually played. But I will tell you, when you play against a structure of defense and practice, because that's what your defense plays, in spring football, in fall camp, that's what you see the majority of. It's more rare to be preparing on a Tuesday and Wednesday against a defense like Cincinnati. See, Bryce Young took very few snaps

against the 3-3-5 stack defense. And it's a unique style of defense. And it's one of the reasons that we see Baylor have success in the Big 12 is because they use this unique style and they confuse teams. Texas Tech, similar to that. Even Oklahoma State, something similar to that. And it's hard from a quarterback perspective because there's not the defining factors that you see in other defenses.

So think of it this way. Every time a quarterback walks up to the line of scrimmage at any level, he's trying to determine whether the middle of the field is open or closed that defense the entire structure that defense comes out of is that middle of the field open or closed is there two safeties open or is there one safety closed that tells you everything that you need to know about run ratios about structure where the support is coming from in the defense whether it's from the first level or the second level or even the third level in the5, that doesn't really happen because they can play structures of coverage that look

closed but play with the nature of open. It's very difficult. One of the reasons why Bryce Young is just so comfortable against Georgia is because that defense that Georgia runs is cut from the same cloth as what he sees in practice every single day, in particular when you're talking about spring practice and fall camp, because Kirby and Nick have such a long history together. Okay, so he sees those adjustments. He sees the nature of that defense, and it's easy for him to react to. You get him against Cincinnati, and while Cincinnati might not be as talented as what

Georgia is defensively, and they might not be as good of a defense, it can be more confusing for a guy like Bryce Young. And I think that's the reason why you saw at times, it was like, man, is Bryce off? Is the passing game off? Well, part of it is that you see this new style of defense for the first time that's hard to adjust. Yeah, that's a great point, by the way. I think that's actually one of the best answers that I've heard on trying to look at, hey, something I'm comfortable with, something I'm not. Because also we saw in that first drive against Cincy,

I mean, it's just very clear. Other than Beaver, Zero, who's kind of a defensive tackle for Cincy, just body type-wise, when you see it on the field, when you actually, like, we can know what the roster says. I'll never forget oregon ohio state the second time oregon was in the national championship game and i was on the field and i picked oregon on the show of impel and i was walking around i go i want to change my pick now i'm gonna change it right now okay i go i'm changing so you and i are on the record on

tuesday i've changed my pick because it wasn't just the side. I was watching the guys move around and I was like, this is, and so, you know, I think once you saw Cincinnati line up against Alabama, you're like, okay, right? Same page here. I mean, it was the first for me. I mean, I hate to be this guy and I am not going to, listen, Cincinnati deserved to be there. Absolutely.

I'm glad that they were there. The first run play of the game from Alabama, I was like, oh, oh, this is not going to go well for Cincinnati. And I think that the frustrating part, as good of a coach as Luke Pickle is, and as well

as they have done in his tenure there, that was a I don't want to sound too harsh, but it is what it is. That was a massive coaching fail from them in that semifinal game. Massive.

Just think about this. You've got, as a tandem, as a tandem, the two best corners in college football. Right, Kobe and Gardner.

Kobe and Gardner, Sauce Gardner. I mean, these guys are going to be, Kobe's probably going to be a second, late second, third round pick. Good player.

Good ball skill. Strong. Sauce Gardner is a legitimate, possibly top corner in the draft. Certainly number two corner in the draft. First round guy. Like, legit dude. They are the best option that you have defensively. And they never committed all the resources to stopping the run.

It was like, hey, we're just going to go in there and our game plan is to allow Alabama to just hand the football off and win the game and just completely dominate up front. That is a massive coaching fail. And again, I like Luke a lot. That can't be your game plan. Your game plan cannot be, we're definitely going to lose and just get bludgeoned in the head by the run game. Not with those guys on the outside. They should have zeroed up, meaning zero safeties, go back to the technical term, played man coverage and said,

listen, our best player is Sauce Gardner, Ahmad Gardner, and he's going to cover Jamison Williams wherever he goes on the field. And we're going to take our chances. And if Bryce Young and Jamison Williams beat us and beat Sauce Gardner, Ahmad Gardner, then their best is beating our best. But what we're not going to allow them to do is just sit there and run the ball down our throats to the tune of over 200 yards from Brian Robinson and not adjust because the defensive line was never going to stop that run game. It was never going to happen. And you saw that the very first carry of the game after the very first drive of the game when Alabama, I believe they only threw one pass. I mean, they went right down the field, right down the field. The entire game plan should have been scrapped right there. And I would have gone zero coverage, every resource

to stopping the run. And if you still get beat fine, but I didn't, I never saw that adjustment. And I know I get frustrated at things like that, but I get frustrated because I'm like, I just didn't feel like the coaching staff gave their players the best chance to compete in that game because they didn't allow those corners to just get after it the weird thing is is you know i don't know how history will remember it because since i had six points you know but it's surprising that bam only had 27 knowing that it was one of those things where it was like watching somebody in a fight and somebody was like i may not be landing a million punches but i'm just holding you here and you're just helpless there's not going to be anything you can do so it sounds like as we kind

of sift through all this i feel like you're leaning georgia in the rematch i am um georgia was the better team for the majority of the season. I think you would agree with that. Oh, yeah? Because of what you just said earlier. You talked about the times in which we saw some vulnerabilities from Alabama. And those were real. You can't, like... Better teams, probably. But you know what, though?

I mean, LSU, who barely had anybody left at the end of it, so I don't even know what to do with that game. But that'll be one of the weirdest stats ever. Bama ran for six yards against a depleted LSU team. How does that happen? It's a wild stat. Their lack of execution in the red zone, in particular inside the 10-yard line,

cost them against Texas A&M. They should have lost the game against Auburn if Auburn just executes as far as clock management goes. Those are factual things. This is not a knock against Alabama. Georgia played this year, for the majority of the time, a dominant number one team. Dominant. We saw that in the semifinal.

They did not play that way against Bama in the SEC Championship game, for whatever reason. I think Georgia is the better football team. Bama has the best player in Bryce Young. Will Anderson is going to have a factor in this. I'm going to pick Georgia. I don't generally, in these types of championship games, pick against the best quarterback in the game.

But I'm going to in this one because I just feel like it's going to be really difficult to beat that defense from Georgia twice. I really do. In particular, without Mechie. You're going to be able to roll coverage if you're Kirby. You're going to be able to sit there and just focus on Jamison Williams and really let that defensive front seven go. So I'm going to go with Bulldogs. Yeah, the Mechie part too is huge and another reason why you could probably get on Cincinnati

at least with its coverage design where it's like you have one guy you have to worry about. I mean, the tight ends for Bama, they're okay, but they're not scary. It was pretty clear that Cincinnati was fine letting them snap the ball 10 and 11 times to score and saying, well, at least we didn't get taken out by a haymaker. They were out there to not get knocked out in the first round. I felt like that game plan was to say,

we lasted all 12 rounds in this championship fight, and we went to a decision versus like, man, they clobbered us early and it was over. All right, let's take a look at our favorite favorite topic which you and i don't talk about a lot uh personally because you haven't talked in a while but we have we have done this before um the conference hierarchy stuff which uh we always seem to be at odds on where are you now with a bad what is now you know look it's it's a five and seven record for the sec it will be six and eight um i think think the hardcore propaganda people,

depending on which side you are on, are super happy about this. The same way the SEC had a good bowl record last year, so that meant everything in the world. Sometimes the bowl things can be weird. I think this year is a good example of it. So I'm not being dismissive of a bad SEC standard bowl record. It was a bad record.

They lost some games to some really good teams. But where are you with this, what becomes a cyclical angst for about four or five months of every college football year? It's interesting. I feel like the conference hierarchy conversation, in order to be fair about it, has

to be broken up into three tiers. What are you at the top? What are you in the middle? And what are you at the bottom? And if you're not doing that, if you're going to lump everything in, I think that that's when you're just going to argue for argument's sake. Because you cannot argue that any conference is superior to the SEC at the top end. You can't. They are the best conference at the top end. Their best teams are better than anybody else's top teams. In the middle of the conference, I think you can make a strong argument that it is even or even tilted towards the Big Ten in the middle of the conference.

And then in the bottom end, I mean, who really cares who's the best of the worst? But that's another conversation for another day. Who is your worst team? Who are they beating? Do they give a challenge to a top tier team in your conference? But I really believe that's the case. And that's why I get in trouble in the middle. The middle of that conference had a terrible year this year. They were very average during the entirety of the regular season. And that proved out to be the case during the bowl season. And people will say like, you can't say the SEC is bad. I'm not. I'm saying that the middle of the conference

was average this season. The top end of the conference is the best every year in college football. And it bears out whether it's the NFL draft or in championship season when we're crowning national championships. But that nuance tends to be lost and it bears out whether it's the NFL draft or in championship season when we're crowning national championships. But that nuance tends to be lost

when you just want to be in a conversation that you're either chanting SEC or you're not. And you can't live in that space because I'm sorry, but there's no other conference that so many teams ride the coattails of the two or three great teams like the SEC. It just doesn't happen. I'm so tired of those coattails of the two or three great teams like the SEC. It just doesn't happen.

I'm so tired of those coattail riding programs that are just chanting away and talking about how difficult and how great and all this when their records don't bear that out. That's not the case. It is false to say that the SEC top to bottom is better than every single conference. It is at the top end, but I don't know about top to bottom in particular in the middle of that conference. Yeah, I don't know. I think there's some things there that I agree with and then some things where I'm like, okay, I'm not sure. Because if you're counting Iowa at the top of the conference, Iowa, I don't know what place they would come into the SEC West, but they wouldn't win the

division, all right? And they wouldn't come in second. So that's not a Bama thing. I see the Bama stuff where it's like Bama and then everybody else, and I go, okay, so we got Georgia back in the national championship game, and I'm like, how can you be that dismissive of the last non-Bama team to win it having it be LSU, which is two years ago. It wasn't 20. Because then I saw the other stuff where it's like, hey, look at the BCS.

I'm like, we're counting Tennessee as an sec team now that like is part of the national championship so i push back on that so sometimes i wonder like are we picking the arguments that we because if you're hearing hey i expect this conference to go 12 and oh you're gonna be like well that's ridiculous that's not what's happening but then when they go 500 or just below with two teams in the national championship game yeah it's like oh i thought this conference was good and i'm like well wait what what are we asking then for like i do like tennessee has to pull that game against against purdue like wait kansas state playing a wide receiver quarterback for like that's a that's a sick win like what

happens here and i don't know how to keep track of it all. I don't disagree with you. And I think what can also be difficult is defining the tiers that I talked about. I talked about it has to be a conversation within the tier. When I say the top end of the conference, I say, this is just me. I always just think of, at maximum, the top three teams, but generally the top two teams in the conference. That's your top tier. And that's Georgia and Alabama. And they are better than Ohio State and Michigan. What tends to happen is that when you get into these debates, right? So if we start debating the overall conference, you'll bring up Iowa, I'll bring up Florida or LSU and say, what happened against UCLA? Well, they weren't really bad.

What you really start arguing is that team shouldn't be considered one of the top tier teams, even though Iowa, because of the stupid division format, actually played for a conference championship. They weren't even, at least in my estimation, a top three team in the Big Ten because

of the imbalance in divisions. Easily. I mean, Ohio State, Michigan, Michigan State. I don't think there's really much argument at this point with Iowa. So go ahead. That's correct. But you get what I'm saying, right? So this is where those arguments are. And then you bring in these anecdotal things

and you start to cross over what tier a team is in and what games that they played versus what opponents. We do have to say like Auburn lost to Penn State and Penn State wasn't even really ranked all season long and wasn't getting a lot of respect because of the loss to an Illinois team. So we're kind of talking in circles here. I would just define it as this.

You did a good job with that. The SEC is the best conference at the top end, period. And has been for a decade or more. The middle of the best conference at the top end, period, and has been for a decade or more. The middle of the conference, it's a really great conversation with the Big Ten. Because the Big Ten in the middle has done a pretty good job. And the middle of the SEC, at least this season, wasn't as good as we expected them to be. Yeah, I think that's fair. Because I've had moments over the last few seasons where I

go going into this. I think the Big Ten has a chance to kind of be the first time I'll feel comfortable saying another conference is better than the SEC. I just think anybody that argues against the SEC and maybe we're changing whatever the argument is, I go, you know, whether it's five teams playing for a title now in this stretch and A&M who came in fifth last year, which should have been left out of the playoff, but still sniffing on it. If you had a season where if you had, let me put it this way. If you had a decade where it was Ohio state, Penn state,

Michigan state, Michigan, pick Iowa or Wisconsin all playing for a national championship. None of us, none of us that think that it's this bias that exists that I hear about it. Do you think I would actually be dumb enough and want to ruin my credibility to come on a show on a Monday being like, yeah, I think it's still the South. I still think it's the SEC after we'd had five. I would never, ever do that. And that's where I know. Like, I thought at the end of the Michigan Big Ten championship game, I couldn't tell. And maybe you'll get pissed at me here, but I couldn't tell if Gus and you had it planned a little bit on how you want to talk about Michigan and Georgia, because it was

like, Hey, I think Georgia will be too. And then Gus was like fired up. He's like, wait a minute, that's bias. And I was like, wait a minute, here we go. I go, this, this feels a little like it was planned out a little bit. So I brought that up. If I could plan could plan no i i will tell you this if i could plan things with gus um that that would be a win but it's you know he we don't talk about that stuff that's something like that is is not planned he gets remember he grew up in detroit right and so gus gets all been out of shape and i try to walk him off this ledge quite often. But he gets all been out of shape about he seems never playing the cold weather, man.

He hates the fact that they don't come up and play in a game like we saw with Ohio State and Michigan. The snow falling, the cold weather, and things of that nature. It's part of what has made college football great. This fabric of college football is this argument.

It has become regional and yet regional in a sense of pride, which makes it national because the regions are arguing against each other. But no, to answer your question, we had not talked about it. In fact, i don't remember exactly what was said at the end of the game i know we were talking about seating and what he thought was going to happen and you said hey it's going to be bad it's going to be bama that'll be georgia that'll be michigan and then he was like why is it going to be michigan third by george he's like that's why he was joel that's by. I was like, here we go. He was mad.

He did not want Michigan to play Georgia. Because let's be really honest. This thing played out in the best possible scenario for the SEC. The best possible scenario. Alabama beating Georgia in the SEC championship game played out perfectly for them because they got two teams in. If Georgia wins, they don't get two teams. I don't think Bama

is in. I don't know exactly who was going to go, whether it would be Notre Dame sneaking in there or how they were going to manufacture it. Oklahoma State would have gone if they would have gotten the pile on in the Big 12 championship game, but they didn't. So it worked out beautifully. And then you also get this matchup,

which is going to favor you where both of your teams get in and both of them miss each other. So they're going to beat these other two teams, Cincinnati and Michigan. I firmly believe that this worked out as well as it possibly could. And that's where people outside of the SEC footprint

start getting really frustrated. They're like, oh, of course, this is going to happen again. It seems to always happen for them. And yeah, they get the benefit of the doubt, but they've also earned the benefit of the doubt. It's in particular at the top end of the conference. But I don't plan those conversations with Gus. I wish we could. I think Gus was ready.

He was like, if Michigan rolls in this game, I'm going to make sure I get this in. I get this across. And by the way, maybe I should correct myself being so dismissive of a two-loss Bama because if it had been a close loss to Georgia, who knows? Maybe the committee goes, ah, they're still better than Notre Dame. They're still better than Oklahoma State

if Oklahoma State was able to pull that game out. What else did I have for you here? Because this is the part of the geography of it that isn't even the SEC. Ohio state's the only team in the last 16 years that I wouldn't describe as a Southern football team to win a title. Because if you throw Clemson in there where Clemson's run is somehow, well,

we know why like Clemson's run doesn't get enough credit because of what Bama's done. Clemson's run is one of the great runs in the history of the sport. It just happens to coincide with the best of all time. So, you know, you throw Auburn in the mix, you throw Florida State in there, Clemson. I mean, this, do you see this as a problem? Do you see it maybe, you know, not a year to year interest, but planting the seed for a 20 to 15 year loss of interest out on the West Coast or maybe some of the mountain regions? I'm certainly not Texas, but this is a pretty dominant geographical run. I mean, to say the least, there's no doubt. And I would love to be smart enough to have better answers for this. But I think that there's a lot of factors. I think that this is a multi-factor analysis.

I think that you can talk about just the overall migration of our society to the South. I've heard people argue, and I think it's actually a really smart point. As air conditioning has gotten cheaper, it's become easier and easier to live in the South and you can avoid the winter. And that's why populations in the South have exploded.

And so all of a sudden, you just have a denser population and recruiting footprint in the South. I mean, I've heard that argument, and I can't dismiss that. That seems to be fair. There's very fertile recruiting grounds in the Southern United States. And I think that one of the factors that you can talk about just within the sport is that the lack of financial success on the West Coast has opened up the recruiting nationally, in particular from teams from the South,

to go out and get into Texas and then into California. And that's something that you didn't see a lot of, in particular, like when I was playing, you didn't see the SEC teams going into Texas and getting the best recruits in Texas. You never saw anybody go in and get the best recruits from Southern California and the California area and get them out of the footprint there. When I was playing, Oklahoma and Texas owned the state of Texas. Nobody came in there. The Big 12 was the Big 12.

Alabama wasn't getting in there. Nick Saban hadn't come yet. In fact, Les Miles had just left from Oklahoma State and gone down to LSU. And so it didn't feel as national as it does now in terms of recruiting. But then all of a sudden, you had the Big 12 kind of disband. And then now Nebraska, which is normally a power, is not recruiting Texas very well. And then you let the SEC into Texas. Now their footprint expands into one of the most fertile recruiting bases. Then USC falls off the map and everybody goes in and starts coaching Southern California kids. And so now all of a sudden, you take the South, which is already a very good recruiting base. You say, hey, the ACC is not doing quite as well revenue

wise. So those teams are going to go down just a little bit. So now you've got all of Florida, you've got Texas, and you can go poach California. Plus, you still have that Atlanta, Georgia area, which produces a lot of great talent. And you can see why the SEC has become so big, so powerful, and so dominant over this era. Their recruiting is just second to none at this point, and I think it's because they have access to every fertile recruiting ground in the country. Let's end on this, because I know you've talked about it. I don't know if you've pivoted at all,

because I know that I have a bit. I think that's kind of trying to keep up with college football, having an open mind about some of the things that we want. I don't know how much I love the idea of expansion. I know that it's going to happen, and I'm okay with it when it does. I just don't about some of the things that we want I don't know how much I love the idea of expansion I know that it's going to happen and I'm okay with it when it does I just don't love some of the arguments that we're opening ourselves up to for teams where it's like wait you had a chance and now you got like a three loss team and you think you have a chance at like an eight seed in this whole thing like that's that's just something I'm not looking forward to um but

I'll get through it the playoff part of this is weird because it was like hey here's the plan it's like oh by the way it's not the plan and none of us we're just not on the same page because now we have this this alliance here that's anti-scc and acc um yeah it's weird because the more you dig in and kind of ask people about college football it's like yeah maybe people didn't really have it as locked in as we thought with these imminent changes changes will happen the timeline seems to be delayed where are you now with all the different stuff that you've heard in your travels? I'm sure access to great information

on what they'd like to have happen, but it's always hard to get everybody on the same page. It is. I have also evolved on the playoff. I don't know if we ever had that discussion, but I used to be, I don't want to say vehemently, but I was against expansion. From four to eight or four to 12?

Just beyond four. Okay. All right. I mean, even going to four, I was like, guys, I don't know. argument was that the most unique and special thing about college football that was different than every other sport on the planet was the uniqueness and importance of the regular season. And I was hanging my hat on that. And I thought, man, the expansion into a playoff format, it's going to ding the regular season a little bit. I don't know if I'm in favor of that. I have come off of that position. And it's because we have shoved all the oxygen in the sport into four spots. And that's not good for the sport.

Okay, so we created a problem with the new playoff that we need to go and we need to fix. So that doesn't mean that expansion overall is the best thing that could ever happen for college football. But it does mean that based on what it is now, there needs to be some fixes. And when I say shove all the oxygen, I mean all the importance, all the meaning, the definition of success only is determined by those four spots. See, in past years, like I've talked with Barry Alvarez about this. And I've talked about, you know, Barry, I don't know if what you did at Wisconsin is available to anybody now. Which means he went to a program

that was not very good at Wisconsin and he built them into a power using incremental definitions of success. Getting to 500 meant something. Getting to a bowl game meant something. Getting to a New Year's Day bowl game meant something. Getting to a bowl game meant something. Getting to a New Year's Day bowl game meant something. Getting to a Rose Bowl meant something. And it meant something that could define you as successful

in the pantheon of the sport. Not just for you and your own fan base, but it was like, this meant something to everybody in the sport. And now that's not necessarily afforded for everybody because if you're not in the playoff, it's not deemed a success. Ask Ohio State fans right now. Theyoff, it's not deemed a success. Ask Ohio State fans right now. They would not deem their season a success. And so because of that, we have

this separation of the classes where only the top six, five, six teams in the country are getting all the best recruits and they're going to continue to separate themselves out. And then everybody else is going to be suffering. And I think that allowing some opportunity for a definition of success for more teams, whether they're going to win a national championship or not, you need to have that definition of success at least afforded to them through an expanded playoff. They also need revenue badly. After COVID, revenue is going to be a big part of this thing. And I know no one wants to talk about revenue, but they need to expand revenue.

And in particular, in places like the ACC and in the Pac-12 to try to remain competitive with the conferences that are right now driving a lot of revenue like the Big Ten and the SEC. Now, when you get into just like the formation of what could potentially take place, this is where there's a lot of argument happening. I firmly believe that Greg Sankey wants what's best for the sport. Having said that, he's incentivized to act in his own best interest, just as Kevin Warren is and George Kolovkov and Jim Phillips and Bob Bowlesby. It's one of the problems with the sport is that everybody within the sport at the power level is operating in their own best interest. And there's very few people operating with the interest of the entirety in mind.

Having said that, we're going to argue or these guys are going to argue about very small differences. For instance, right now, there is an argument between, hey, do we want to include automatic bids for conference champions? Or do we just want to say the six best champions? Now, you and I might think to ourselves like, well, there's no difference between the two. But they are legitimately arguing like there's an impasse over that language of are we taking automatic bursts? Are we talking the six best? And because of that, people just folded their arms and are like, well, we can't move forward. So it might be a longer process than we think, but it ultimately will happen. We will expand.

And I think that it'll be good for college football, at least in relation to what I was just chatting about, which was just the overall importance of the meaning of success in our sport. Yeah, because I always push back about like, okay, so this team's going to be in there. They're going to get a chance to play for a championship when I'm like, okay, we're going to have one year at least where there's of the five automatic bids, the power fives, say, and then the sixes to the group of five. There's going to be somebody like, wait, that team's in there for a championship like that conference is completely down or whatever but then again i'll

look at some of the numbers which i think are a bit cyclical here but the four one matches some of these matches we had in the playoffs have been absolutely blowouts in a very short amount of history so it's like okay so you have this system and we have blowouts so you're just worried about blowouts in a different system um i do kind of like the idea, though, of people feeling like things are not against them all the time. And I still can't believe that all the power brokers would agree on something where it's like, hey, you know, at least two or three of us, or excuse me, one or two of us are getting

screwed out of the playoff money, right? Is that what we want to agree on? Okay, cool. Because that's what we just agreed on. Last thing before I let you go, because I forgot about it, and I know you got to run here. Harbaugh, what if he bounces? Oh, gosh. before I let you go because I forgot about it and I know you got to run here Harbaugh what if he bounces oh gosh it's been so new I just read about this yesterday I had not thought about it Jim seems pretty happy you know I was around them I think I did five or six of their games he seems pretty happy he brought in a lot of these guys on his staff that he's comfortable

with that that I think that there was something different about that whole program this year. I would be pretty surprised if he left. Having said that, he's had success every single place that he's been. You cannot argue with that, by the way. There are a lot of detractors from Jim Harbaugh. You cannot make an argument that he doesn't succeed wherever he goes. And from an NFL owner standpoint, that's going to be very appealing, is that he can come in and probably have success with your roster. Now, whether he's going to have long-term success or not, I think remains to be seen. But he certainly is going to turn any organization or program around that he's involved with.

Having said that, I don't think he's driven by money. This is not a leverage play for a new contract or else he wouldn't be donating all of his bonus money back to the program like he is with all the bonus money that he renegotiated with. If you don't know, he renegotiated. He took half the salary. Everything was incentive-based.

So he made basically like, I think it's between $2 and $3 million in incentives this year because of their great run to the playoff. He's donating all of that back to the program. I've never felt like this guy is motivated by money, which means that I just don't see it, but I could be wrong. I mean, that's pure speculation on my part.

I think that he'll be the coach at Michigan next year. That's Joel Klatt breaking the huddle Wednesday night, FS1, 9.30 Pacific time, and then he'll be again a part of the National Championship live tailgate on the night of the title game. It'll be on Fox Sports and CFD on Fox Digital Platforms. I've enjoyed you all season for multiple seasons. I'm glad we finally got a chance to do this.

Thanks, Joel. No doubt. And listen, I will be more accessible in the future. I was even telling somebody here, they were like, New Year's resolution? I was like, I'm going to become a better texter. accessible in the future. I was even telling somebody here, they were like, New Year's resolution? I was like, I'm going to become a better texter. I'm the worst. I'm terrible at returning texts.

So there you go. Well, don't beat up on yourself. It's a new year. Thank you, Joel. See you, bud. You want details? Bye. I drive a Ferrari 355 Cabriolet.

What's up? I have a ridiculous house in the South Fork. I have every 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. Life advice. Before I do that, new show, documentary, four parts, I think. I probably shouldn't do this until I've watched the entire thing

because I don't know how it's going to end. But the line about this Navy SEAL team, it's on Apple TV. It's unbelievable. I don't know how many of you watched Restrepo or read War by the author Sebastian Younger who did Perfect Storm. War was one of the best war books I've ever read. So immediately wanted to watch Restrepo. That was like as real a documentary, at least on those guys in the mountain ranges of Afghanistan. I mean, you don't need to be told, hey, that would suck to be part of that deployment.

Like, yeah, the gear is cool and I want to be a tough guy. I think a lot of men, you know, you grow up, you kind of think like, oh, I wonder what that would be like. You know, maybe some don't. You know, I'm sure plenty are like, fuck that. I would want nothing to do with that. I don't know. I think there's always been a part of me that would be like wonder what that would be like how would you how would you like yeah i guess i'll just admit it i'll ask myself like how would you handle that in the moment like

would you be losing your shit or would you be steady would you figure out a way to get through it i have no idea i think there are times you would almost want to know and then you watch those and be like no i'm good like i'm i don't want to know the answer because it's awful. And watching this thing about the SEAL team in Afghanistan and the SEAL team leader and this whole thing, I'm two parts into it. So full endorsement of that show on Apple TV

if you have Apple TV. We do have a 20-year debate going on, my friend group, of what would you rather do, be in jail or be at war? i mean i would much rather uh be at war there's a few guys that pick jail though and i'm like you guys are out of your minds but i i mean i think the answer is definitely jail what you get meals like you get your own bed and cot it's nice and cozy you know i mean you're probably bored out of your mind yeah it's somewhat dangerous but it's not dangerous

you think you get a little bored in jail you think i mean i mean but like i'd rather be bored than like dodging bullets in afghanistan for me it's not even i there's no way there's no fucking you need to be stimulated yeah i'd be like no i'm just like i don't care here's the thing. Are you trained? Like, are you, like, do you know what you're doing at war? Or are you, or is it you at war that like, hey, here's a, here's a, you know, AR, figure it out. Uh, you know, this debate has gone on for so long because the guys that pick war can't believe the guys that pick jail. And the guys that pick jail can't believe the guys that pick jail and the guys that pick jail can't believe the guys that pick war so um i i think it's there's a moderate understanding that you would be trained okay yeah kyle you're a war guy right over jail i wanted to be an mp

guarding some sort of stuff in spain where nothing was ever going to pop off that was my in high school that's what I wanted to do. But, um, what was the inspiration for that rewarding? Uh, it just seemed like nothing was ever going to pop off. It seemed like,

well, you know, there's only so many ways to get a pension. I want to, you know, be enjoying my life by the time I'm, you know, uh,

cresting into my fifties. So it'd be nice to just be taken care of. If I could just put in, you know, 20 years fresh out of high school. That would have been, that would have been kind of a dream. Um, but I ended up not doing that. Okay. We got a couple of things going on here. One is you, that's not, that's so not you though. Like you're not a narc. Well, not a cop. Like an MP is like, I, I understood it was like a guy who

like guards something. Like you're not necessarily looking for drugs or something. You're just kind of maybe guarding some shipping containers in a Spanish dock or somewhere in Hawaii. I don't know. That's what I thought. I was like, I don't know. My recruiter was very zealous, overzealous, and told me he was going to show me the world like Aladdin or something.

But I ended up not doing it, so it's fine. So you went through the recruiting process to potentially be an mp at docs in hawaii or spain in my head that's what i was gonna do yeah well i took the test and they were like yeah man you could do anything i was like okay i feel like you probably tell a lot of people that but the the asvap or whatever it was like it said it worked out really well it was like yeah you could pretty much you're qualified for anything like you have unlimited potential like I got a 75 in math. There's no way I'm qualified for everything, but thanks. Guys, do you want to be a tech, a sniper, or a doc guy?

You're like, doc guy? We're the boats, dude. So what's going on with this filter? You have a mask that's a fake mask on your Zoom filter. Well, you know, I like to test them out. I like to test a different thing, but guess who's got COVID? Probably me. Still haven't gotten my thing back, but about three days ago, I took a test, but I've been

feeling like shit. My girlfriend tested positive, so, I mean, one would surmise I have COVID. Okay. Can we stop testing it? Because it's driving me crazy, this filter. What do you mean? I kind of love it. Actually, no. I think it's going to have to stay now. Okay. All right. I got overruled. That's fair. The think it's going to have to stay now. Okay.

All right. I got overruled. That's fair. The next life advice, you'll get a different one. I hate looking at it. And so we're going to have to, Saruti, can you take a picture of this at some point and just say this is what Kyle brought to the table on a Friday?

I don't like it, but I have some dictator tendencies on the podcast this will not be a time i'm gonna start adjusting it i'm gonna start fake adjusting it the thing is is we have one life advice that's so good and i can't wait to have kyle chime in on it that i i almost want to see the full kyle but that's that's fine that fine. This is your call. It's your filter, your rules. Thanks. All right. First one is, I don't know.

Maybe you guys can help me out with this one. Okay. 6'2", 195, can play a mean ukulele. That's probably a fun instrument to be able to just, it's getting late. Like, hey, break out your ukulele. All right. A girlfriend and I started out your ukulele. All right. A girlfriend and I started serious conversations

about moving in together this year. I need some advice on how much would be fair to charge her for rent. Uh-oh. Background. It's just like, what's the debate? It's 50-50. Sometimes a little more complicated than that,

as our man explains. I own a three-bedroom house in a large city city can currently cover the $2,600 a month mortgage comfortably with my budget. She currently lives in a one bedroom apartment about 15 minutes away. And her rent is in the 1500, $2,000 a month range. We both make about the same salary. So no personal finance discrepancies, uh, are not, they're not really an issue. Obviously utilities and such would be split 50-50. Okay. So utilities 50-50, but that would only come out to her shipping in a couple hundred bucks. A complete 50-50 split on the mortgage feels like too much since her portion is ultimately getting invested back into my house's equity. But I also don't want to get

totally taken advantage of by asking for peanuts. I keep coming back to an easy all-in flat rate of $1,000 a month because we're both, because we both see decent monthly housing expense relief at that amount. Okay. But that still feels steep at $1,000. Maybe those feelings are just from being a product of Midwestern parents. Oh, look at this.

What would you do? I'm sure plenty of folks are going through the same scenario. So general cohabitation, financial advice is greatly appreciated. Would love to hear Saruti and Kyle's take as well. Y'all are the best. I love the Midwestern values here thing because I think what we're talking about here is a guy who's a bit old-fashioned and feels like if he's going to be the man in the relationship, he has the home. He's providing shelter and that it's not a stretch for him to cover the $2,600 that he's already done on his own that he would like to provide for a person that he cares about a lot.

I am probably still a little old-fashioned in those ways, despite never having to have this conversation with anybody. I've thought it out in my head and certainly how you are doing financially as the provider. And again, this could be flipped if the female provider has the house and she's doing better than the guy she cares about and sees a future and a family together. And you just start to adapt and make some concessions that should be not influenced on like, am I getting fucked on the rent? It's just 60-40 splits actually bullshit. If you want to marry somebody and have kids with them, you're really going to let 60-40 ruin your day.

Now, some people listening to this will say, absolutely, that's bullshit. Maybe some others are listening to this, our older listeners. We do have older listeners that are going, no, man, if that's going to be your wife, she's going to be having kids, which is, I think, where you're hinting at this going, then you should provide for her. I like where your head's at. I don't think you need any advice from us whatsoever. You don't want to charge her that much, but you want to charge her something. A lot of it comes down to how will you presenting this impact the relationship? Because I would say others, you know, there'll be some women that you'd be dating that would be like, this is great. No problem. I want to feel like I'm kicking in towards the house's equity that's going to become our house. And there'd be some women that are like, you're lucky you're getting 50-50 on the utilities. It's your house. I'm moving in. We'll see how it goes while they're pocketing all their savings. 50 on the utilities. It's your house. I'm moving in. We'll see how it goes while they're pocketing all their savings. It really depends on the other person and how they see this. I think your head is

in the right place. I would bring it up. And if you feel like there's no pushback to a thousand bucks, you could just say, hey, look, you want to do a thousand bucks until we figure out taking the next step. And if she's totally cool with it, you don't feel like there's any tension and she's not lying to you, then go ahead and do it. If you want to charge her less because it makes you feel better because you know that she's going to be really important to you, then go ahead and do that. But really, it's going to come down to where you think that comfort zone is for her feeling like you're actually in agreement and you're not just saying out loud what sounds like an agreement, which will lead to like, if she says yes to a deal

she doesn't like, she's telling her friends. And then six months later, all this animosity is building up where it's turning into like, yeah, the fucking guy's charging me a thousand bucks on top of everything else. You know, it's not like we're not going to get married. Now there's a different situation where it's just somebody you're living with and you're not sure if you're going to get married. I think the rules are different there, but I think your heart and your head are in the right place. And it sounds like you're probably even going to go under a thousand bucks because of whatever guilt that you have as a Midwestern salt of the earth type of guy. And that's really up to you. But I don't

really think you need our advice. I think you mapped it out pretty well. Kyle, I feel like you're going to go in another direction on this one. I'm not. I think you're right. A thousand is a good square number. Now that I understand the situation, you're not splitting a rent for something you won't own. And when it's all done, you know, people paid X amount of dollars and you move on like this. I get this. This makes sense. But a thousand dollars is a good square number. She's getting a break on what she had before. And honestly, if she has a problem with that, honestly, she's a bit unreasonable. And it's good that you're doing this test drive before you move to the next step. So I think I think that's great. I think she's saving money. She's going to be living in a house that you know, maybe she'll have some input

on stuff like not necessarily that she's going to start painting walls and changing cabinets and shit. But I'm just saying like, maybe she'll feel like she has a little bit of, you know, she feel like she can try to improve it with you. And maybe, you know, that it's just the thousand dollars would be well spent for her if she thinks this is going to work out. And also it's saving her money. And especially if you're making kind of the same amount of money, it'd be weird if you were taking a large portion of your income and she was taking none of it to put towards living situation. I think, I think a thousand is a great number and I wouldn't do anything else. If that works, then just stop there.

No, no need to think about it. It's a great job. Yeah. I think if she doesn't want to contribute, that's a bit of a red flag for you.

So, and I think, like you said, a thousand dollars is a good number and, you know, she should probably know too. And I don't know how you necessarily

broach this with her, but like, you know, she's going to eventually get that money back. You guys get engaged and married. It's not like she's throwing that money to rent. She's giving that money to you, which is then building you guys' equity. So I don't know how exactly you have that conversation with her because that is the logical person to me saying, you're not actually losing money here.

In the long term, you're actually probably just giving the money to me, which is then your money in our same bank account. So I don't know the eloquent way to have that conversation, but that would be the logic. Yeah, I mean, he does say, hey, it's a girlfriend. We're having a serious moving conversation. We'll see where this goes. So maybe everything that I'm talking about, marriage and kids and the future down the road,

maybe that's not even there yet. I would think it is, if you're taking this step, that it's a possible option and an option that you probably both hope that happens. But I would not be a hard liner on this one ever. You know, even if I weren't doing that well, I just, I don't know. I just think there are certain times. And again, this is, I feel like I'm a little bit more old fashioned where it's like, if I'm going to be making more money and bringing money back, and I already have a place that I live

in and I care about you and I want you to be in my life, then I'm not going to get fucking worked up about a split. I actually think that's where people lose their minds about stuff. I'm sure there are people listening to us right now going, no way. Nope, nope. It's an understanding. It's agreement. Doesn't mean anything's going to work out. So why are you going to get taken? I'm not saying get taken here. I'm saying just come up with something where you feel like you're actually out loud, being honest with each other about the arrangement and a couple hundred dollars swing here and there, I mean, who gives a shit? We're talking about a potential life partner here. And making sure that that part of the relationship is more secure than you wondering if you're losing a couple hundred bucks every month.

I mean, I don't know. I remember I had a roommate situation where a guy let me sublet in. I was pretty desperate for a living situation at that point. This is kind of part whatever of all the shit that I talked about in the past. But his girlfriend basically lived in the house with us. And then one of my friends was like, hey, are you doing the rent three ways? Are you doing the utility? And I was just like, no.

I was just like, whatever, dude. She's cool. We all get along. They help me move in. And again, maybe I'm a pushover for some of that stuff. But I've also lived with other people that are insane about utilities and splits and to the dollar and the phone bill and did you do this one and all this different stuff. And you look back and you go, it's a lot of stress that didn't mean anything. It just didn't mean anything.

And a couple bucks here or there over the course of your life. My goal is to not in every one of those negotiations in my entire life to be up big. Like, you know what? I didn't win the deal. Yeah. I didn't throw in for this bottle service. And there was a time where I won two credit card roulettes here. And there's also another time where I got a better hotel room, but we all paid even.

So I was up there. Like, honestly, guys like that in your friend group, and they exist. I've got a couple. Just like, who the fuck's keeping? When is this game over? Like like when do you win it imagine your friend group like you know you're talking about it and you're like yeah you know she wanted to pay 800 but i was i was really hard about a thousand she's paying me a thousand bucks a month like what's the response like cool dude like congrats that's awesome man 200 bucks a month okay i think we've handled that one what

did you do with maddie Cerruti? How long did you guys live together Before you were engaged? Well so we lived in an apartment For a couple years before we got engaged And then we bought a house Before we got engaged but I mean we kind of knew Where it was going and then I proposed

When we closed on the house So we were actually never in the house, not engaged, but we went into the process not being engaged. And it was really never a conversation. We were just like, we're just going to split it 50-50. And that's what we did. Was there any pushback on like, we can't live together until we're engaged? You weren't doing that kind of stuff, right? No. My dad has a heart like you should live with someone before you're willing to come to them for the rest of your life, which is the advice you can give to anybody i don't i don't honestly i mean i know there are different things that people and values and whatnot but i it's it's just the most no-brainer

thing to me like how would you it's the most no-brainer it's seriously one of the most no-brainer things ever i can't believe that people do it i dated what value would that be that prevented you from doing that like what value would you have to be an Amish like believing I I grew up like you know going to going to Catholic mass right and there was yeah I don't know that was back in like the 90s right there was like some frowning upon that but I feel like that quickly changed in the last like yeah you weren't supposed to google boobs according to them either but I mean who didn't do that cosmic accurate on the family computer and then freaking out because i never taught myself how to close clear the google search bar so if you typed in b it was a problem

i figured it out eventually good for you if you live with a lot of women kyle uh well live with a single mom are we talking like romantically or what actually now i just want to know about you living with a single mom because you're gonna be fucking kidding me no my mom was single i mean oh that one makes way more sense i mean i can understand i can understand how how many life advices we've gone down weird roads so i can understand why you thought that but no the the person the woman i live with now is the only one I've ever actually moved in with. Nice. So it's so far going well.

There's women in my life, Ryan. What do you want me to say? That's like... What is it? Is it Grandpa's Boy? Or what the hell is... Grandma's Boy? Grandma's Boy. Grandma's Boy.

Grandma's Boy. Yeah. When it's Swartzen, right? And he goes, he's like, oh, you guys should come back. My roommates. They're like, your grandmother? Correct. They're not your, like, oh, sorry.

That's such a great line in his delivery. Let me check with my roommates first. Yeah, let me just check with my roommates first, dude. He's, Nick Swartzen delivering a line in almost anything's a win. You know, whenever he's like, okay. Actually, we were DMing at one point. I think we were trying to get him on obviously that didn't work out big timberwolves fan for now i remember i'm a little upset with

kilbourne he's been at like three timberwolves games here at the what used to be known as the staples center and i don't know but yeah i think he's sitting courtside see those are not invites you don't get those invites the courtside invites but courtside invites. But we'll plant the seed in his head next time Timberwolves are in town. If that's even going to happen. Alright, I have one here. I'm not going to read any other ones because let's end Friday in a note here where I...

This one's just ridiculous. Buckle up, folks. 57190. Not fat, but not yoked either. My parents are both from Greece, so I like to think I'm built like a bulky Mike Tolbert-esque Greek statue. It's just like thick European deuce. Mike Tolbert.

Yeah. Like, you know who that guy's torso looks like? Mike Tolbert. To give you some background, I'm a senior in college where I once played a sport but hung up the cleats. I make good grades. In fact, parentheses, not to sound like a douche, I have a job in college where I once played a sport but hung up the cleats. I make good grades. In fact, parentheses not to sound like a douche, I have a job in investment banking lined up after graduation.

Hey, time out real quick. If you have an awesome job lined up in investment banking and you want to do it and you're apologizing that there's a chance you're going to make insane money in 10 years if it works out, Don't apologize for that. The way we look at success now and criticize it is very weird. And so I would say to everybody listening, if you have a good setup, and again, it's not a guarantee that it's going to work out here, but if you want to be an investment banker because it could be fucking awesome for you financially and you want that life, go for it. Good for you.

Don't apologize about it. Okay. He also likes to just do normal college stuff, hang out, watch sports, drink beers. Anyway, I began dating this girl in school about a year and a half ago. I remember the second I laid eyes on her as a freshman, I knew she was the one. I hope this guy doesn't get busted for this or at least that way we'll know it's real. After a couple of years of putting in work, this guy put in some effort. I finally began dating her. For the most part, things have been great. She's everything I want in a girl.

Cool, funny, athletic, and beautiful. Sometimes she can be a bit bossy, and my boys like to give me shit by saying she wears the pants or calling me a simp or whatever, but I don't really mind because I really care about her. I got to say, first read through on this one, the Greek part saved me from even reading it. All right, here we go, because it was so specific. However, we recently have gotten into a disagreement stemming from things in the bedroom.

Started after the night of a party. We went back to my house. It was late. My four housemates were all home. That means we're living in a domicile. Five dudes, four roommates. You and your lady come back home after a big night out. Me and my girlfriend came home and had sex in my room.

The next morning she left and things were fine until my housemates started giving me a hard time saying they could hear her repeated spanking noises from my room. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. Kyle liked that one. Apparently that wasn't the first time they heard it either. To make matters worse, one of my housemates' girlfriends was also over that night and she heard it too. A few days go by, next thing I know, all these girls in my friend circle get word of the spanking noises from my room and it gets back to my girlfriend. is super embarrassed and upset, but she is most upset with me and not my housemate's girlfriend who told everyone. The problem is the spanking noises did come from us, but it was not her on the receiving end.

Look, I know this sounds super suspect. It does because it's so well written, but maybe you're going to be a great investment banker because you get your point across. I know it sounds super suspect. I've been with other girls and nobody's ever done this besides her he did say she was bossy um and it's not like she does this every time it's just when we're drinking at first i thought it was a little weird but harmless and not very aggressive so i didn't say anything over time i suppose it has escalated a bit not to a crazy painful level or anything but since it only happens when i'm drunk i guess i just don't really care besides she's my

girlfriend and i really like her so i want to make her happy all caps however now she is saying I have until the end of the month to tell my housemates it was not her who got spanked. Or what? Or what? I'd call you on that. This is where I'm like, I don't know. It's. I almost didn't read it because of the content, because I'm just like how well it's crafted. But, you know, a lot of things checked out. out I did a little research so I think it's real

this isn't any movie that I've heard of so I think we're good on that thing season 9 of Always Sunny in Philadelphia right I know this is something my friends will never let go yep they're not gonna plus I'm worried about everyone else will hear about it too I try to explain to her this is way more embarrassing for me than it would be for her. But she says,

that's just my toxic masculinity speaking. Oh, come on. I see what you mean now. Now I see what you mean. And I really liked her. And if I really, okay, so she said, that's just my toxic masculinity speaking. And if I really liked her, I would defend her by telling the truth. She's been super cold to me recently. She's barely talked to me the last few days we rarely fight and i've never seen her this mad what should i do is there any way i can make things right with her without having to embarrass myself or am i going to have to swallow my pride and come clean okay okay um i was with you trying to find a resolution until she said, if this is true, all right,

if she thinks that you telling your buddies, Hey, I am actually the guy getting spanked in there that you all heard. And every time you hear it, it's me getting spanked and you don't feel like dealing with it as a college kid. That's one of the most understandable things ever. And that's not toxic masculinity.

So the fact that she would, again, if this actually happened, if she countered your argument, like, Hey, it sucks way more for me than it would for you so we just let this thing go and she says no it's your toxic masculinity i would break up on the fucking spot right there i don't care how long you obviously this is something that's very tupac above the rim for you um that's cool and all. Appreciate your effort for two years,

which probably could, no offense, call you a simp for that alone. You said she was bossy. Your friends are like, she kind of wears the pants. And so I would, at this stage of my life, you get a little bit older,

you give less of a shit around you. It's not like you, I think it's just a certain age. You probably don't have four dude roommates. Then you might just say, yeah, man, what's up? That's my deal. What's up now? You know, but at this stage, if you don't feel comfortable, like, you know, if we really want to get like the deep end of this, the fact that it's, it's your toxic masculinity, but if she cares about you, she couldn't actually see it your way and understand that this is how you're reacting and your feelings are thus. And therefore she can't like understand and accept those things.

And it's just about you being a man that doesn't want to admit he's been spanked by his girlfriend at their house with four other dude college guys. If she can't understand that I would, yeah, I wouldn't date her. Um, that's probably not what you're going to do because you've been in love with this girl for so long. But I would say this, who would ever want to be in a relationship, except for psychopaths, where you would never

want the other person to ever push back on anything? I wouldn't want to date somebody. I know I'm going to do things my way. I think that's pretty evident at this point in my life. But I wouldn't like if I cared about somebody and they were, you know, we're in it for the long haul. You also need that person to kind of call you on your stuff a little bit. There needs to be some pushback. There needs to be some fight back. And if she's constantly running this and there's never you're never allowed to have any pushback whatsoever that's not very healthy for you and it kind of makes her look weird so look i'm on your side i would tell her straight up hey this is going to end the relationship if you're telling me that it's my toxic masculinity that is the reason why i don't as a college kid like i don't feel like dealing with this now you could just sit back and say i got one more semester but yeah you're going to be i don't know i mean it's not the worst thing to ever have said about a dude. So I wouldn't worry about that all that much. But I don't, I don't know.

I don't, I don't think I, I don't know. I don't even know how this could be one of those things where generationally, as I'm saying this stuff out loud, people are like, oh no, in 2022 or so, you have to absolutely own this. And I would just be like, okay, well then I'm psyched. I'm not in college right now. Cause there's no way there's no way college me at 21 would be like step it up to the plate yeah like yeah like hey i know you like doing that to me that's fine because it's behind

you know it's our little deal it's not that big of a deal okay whatever although now that i think about it. There's a bunch of guys I know that would have been like, yeah, I don't care. Fuck it. Yeah, I get spanked up. She likes to spank me. What's up?

I don't know. Go ahead, Kyle. Take it. I mean, I started out initially thinking that of like, but you just shouldn't have to. You shouldn't have to be like, hey, I just wanted to clear something up. I'm the one who's on the receiving end of the Spanx.

So as long as we're good, if you can just go tell everybody you know so we can get this cleared up, that's great. Spread the word. Yeah. My advice is operating from you're going to do nothing. So my advice isn't like, what should you do? I'm saying, how should you navigate doing nothing about this is all I'm saying. you do? I'm saying, well, how should you navigate doing nothing about this is all I'm saying is because, uh, a, I don't think anybody really, most people don't end up with anybody from school, whether that be college or high school, I guess college has probably a higher success rate, but like you're about to be an investment banker, dude, see where that life takes you.

You already know what this, what, you know, what ticket do you have for this ride? It's, it's obviously not going to be great. I mean other thing is, if she can't understand that, when you step into a five-person college house, you should be happy if that's the only thing that happens to you. Honestly, anything goes. Your stuff gets broken. Stuff happens. So the fact that this is out of your control and she wants you,

you just kind of have to charge it to the game at this point. If she doesn't understand that, it sounds like she's a senior. She should have been around a few college houses to know that like, you're not safe there. It's definitely not one of the safer places. So I don't know. I just think, I just think you should do,

you said you like to drink beer and talk sports and hang out. And I think you should continue to do that, run out her clock and see what the fuck happens. Because at the end of the day, you're going to be an investment banker. You're almost done with school. And it sounds like you're stressed out about this and you're never going to get these years back. And I don't think you'd have to cap it off

by telling everyone you get spanked so somebody else feels better. That's weird. Charge it to the game, is what Kyle said. Yeah. Just keep doing you. Keep doing you. It's not about admitting, you know, it's not about the kink shaming or admitting that you're the one being spanked.

To me, it's about what else is she going to ask you to take the fall for later in life? You know, like this, this is like the first step of something that could be like problematic in the rest of your relationship. Like, is she going to ask you to like take take the blame for car accidents in the future or random shit at work? Who knows? And you don't want to be dealing with that stuff, especially, as Kyle said, if you're this young, budding investment banker who has his whole future ahead of him. But we don't know that. It could also

not work out, too. It could. You're right. You're right. At least he's got a leg up on some other people coming out of college. So there you go. He's got something going for him. And yeah, because I don't... We, we used to have a grunter. I remember in in our in our room and our in our it wasn't five. It was four guys. And, you know, you get some shit for it. But like, I didn't like really care that much about it.

Like, we made fun of the guy just because it was fun to make fun of him. But other than that, like, it didn't actually matter long term. So admitting that you're the guy getting spanked isn't that big of a deal. I'm just more worried about what she's going to ask you to do in the future if you continue with this relationship. Yeah, what if she embarrassingly pukes at a party in her 30s and she's like, go tell everyone you just puked outside

and go clean. Yeah, exactly. Do it now. Like at some point. I feel like my mind has changed a little bit on this. And I think Cerruti made the best point about like, does it mean I have to take a bullet for everything forever? Like, if we're actually going to have it. And granted, it's a college relationship.

The chances of this carrying over into your real-world life is probably pretty slim anyway. Although certain schools are different. Some schools, like, people actually do meet their spouses there. Our school, we were told when we checked in, like, the marriage rate out of Vermont was, like, the lowest of any national. It was unbelievable how low it was. It was pretty funny. And so,

um, as I've thought more about it, like if it happened in my house, it's not that big of a deal. Like we would have been, I mean, look, there's weirder stuff that happened where you'd be like,

what happened? Like, that's weird. And then it just, the next weird thing happens. It cancels out the previously weird things. So it doesn't, it doesn't really really matter i think it's more about there's some root causes here of the relationship that are alarming that's beyond just hey you have to admit that you got

spanked it's that there's this disconnect on like hey can you is it okay like i don't want to deal with this this is how i feel about it can we just let this thing go no i'm demanding that you admit that it's you for all these other reasons like that's this is really about an argument it's not even about the spanking part of it because honestly the more i think about it usually i'm pretty good at having like a sensibility of going back in time 20 plus years the more i think about it like if this let's just say it happened to me like i'd probably be like all right whatever yeah like, all right, whatever. Yeah, like whatever, dude. Like, you know, it's not that big of a deal.

Maybe I wouldn't love it. It would suck for like a week and then like, I don't know, people get over it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And honestly, like I said, depending on what your friend group is like with us, that would have been Thursday. And then there'd be next Thursday. And yeah, nobody even care. And by the way, if the

investment banking thing goes really well, you're going to be in your thirties paying for somebody to spank you, signing up, signing up for that lifestyle. So, you know, maybe she's doing you a favor. A lot of ways to look at that one. I agree. Let me just say one thing. I think this is a good opportunity to test what happens if she doesn't get her way. That's what I'm saying. All I'm saying is if you're thinking about going into the next phase of your life, it's a good idea to just, the stakes are still relatively low. It's a good idea to just, what are you going to do if I don't? That's why. And you don't have to say it that way. Just see what happens if you're being, you know, yourself completely pleasant, perfectly pleasant, and just not doing this thing that she's commanding you to do. Just see what

happens. Yeah, there's no lose here because either, like, some girls like guys that they can control and I don't think you want to be that guy, so then you figure that out. Or you're going to be like, hey, I'm not doing this and she's going to be, like, kind of turned on by that and that might actually help your relationship. So either way, I think you're alright.

Yeah, I have no idea how any of this is going to go. I wonder if it's Renfro. I wonder, like, what her approval rating is amongst the people in the... Because I feel like it would be... Yeah, I feel like idea how any of this is going to go. I wonder if it's Brent Flinger. I wonder what her approval rating is amongst the people. Because I feel like it would be... Yeah, I feel like it's not great. Gotta be. There's no way it's high. There's no way.

There's no way. Boston, your buddy around? Spanking him all the time? Please follow up, dude. I would love to know how anyone would describe this episode to somebody. Like, hey, what podcast did you... What are you into lately? Like, oh, it's for Sillow Guy.

Like, oh, the ESPN dude is okay. Wasn't great. Like, yeah, no, no. He had this episode the other day. He did the thing about, like, championship droughts, point guards, did his college football picks, and they spent 20 minutes talking about a college kid getting spanked by his girlfriend.

Like, oh. Well, hit that subscribe button. All thanks to kyle and steve uh ringer spotify please subscribe have a great weekend and we'll talk to you monday Thank you.