The Ryen Russillo Podcast - Quitting the Bears, Jameis Is Back, and the Anthony Richardson Experience, Plus Oregon’s Dominance and the Best CFB Win With Todd McShay

Episode Date: October 28, 2024

Russillo opens the show by giving out his Week 8 NFL awards (0:48) before revealing his updated college football rankings (17:59). Then, he’s joined by Todd McShay to preview OSU-PSU, discuss the best win and worst loss of playoff contenders, and predict the Jets' record (27:49). Finally, Ceruti and Kyle join for Life Advice (67:56)! The boys got together at Ryen’s house and detailed the experience. Check us out on YouTube for exclusive clips, livestreams, and more at https://www.youtube.com/@RyenRussilloPodcast The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit www.rg-help.com to learn more about the resources and helplines available. Host: Ryen Russillo Guest: Todd McShay Producers: Steve Ceruti, Kyle Crichton, and Mike Wargon Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You know the drill on Mondays. We'll recap the week, the best win and a statement from a former Bears fan. My college football top 12. We'll dig into that deeper. Best win. Some of the resume stuff with McShea Heisman also a revisit of the draft prospects of one Jamis Winston and he was in attendance for Jets Pats so he has some stuff on that. Everyone from the show came over to visit me at my house and I taped this intro after we taped that segment. Apparently I thought it went better than it did. Life advice. So we've got a long one for you on a Monday. Enjoy. This episode is brought to you by Movember.

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Cleveland here but I think Philly deserves some love because it feels like it's been a little while since we actually talked about them being a good football team. So they beat Cincinnati 37-17. Week four, after the loss of the Bucs, they were two and two, felt like the head coach was out. People posting videos of Sirianni getting into it with fans. Now they're five and two, playing the Browns and the Giants before Cincinnati certainly helps.

But they were dominant in the second half yesterday, 27-7. They only had three first half possessions because of a monster possession from Cincinnati. They scored on six straight possessions. Hertz has nine total touchdowns in his last three weeks. Hasn't thrown a pick since week three. Saquon's been great the last two weeks. It's the number one rushing offense in the NFL.

Baltimore's number one. Nobody's catching Baltimore. They're like 30 yards better at number one than even Philadelphia is. More on her center from Hertz, something that they weren't having great success with earlier in the year, but it's something clearly they want to prioritize even though they downplayed it. But it seems like it definitely showed up

in the rushing attack yesterday. So 21 snaps from Hertz under center, which is high for him. And this defense that felt like they couldn't win a pass rush but there was all this talent from the draft like what is up with these guys can they get some takeaways well they're getting to they're getting the takeaways and they're holding opponents at five yards per play which is six best in the NFL

Denver Denver's defense is number one in that category and it would make sense when you watch Denver's defense because it's really good. Their seventh in scoring defense. So look, here's the point is that things are coming together for the Eagles, for a team that when they were two and two with this roster, you're like, how are they drafting all of these dudes? How do they have these two guys on the outside? And they bring in Saquon and it's supposedly one of the best offensive lines. They got rid of the coordinators, this is all in Sirianni and I just don't think when you have a talented roster, I don't know, I think the guys go out there between the lines and play football and maybe the NFL in college are more dictated by who's in charge of the whole thing, but just felt like the team was too good to be that disappointing,

which is why we talked about how disappointing they were. But now they've put together three really good weeks. Yes, lesser opponents previous to Cincinnati. I still think Cincinnati is a tough opponent, but this is a five and two football team that is back in the playoff picture. Baltimore could clearly be argued as the team. If you beat them, then that's the best win because Baltimore is maybe on the short list with the chiefs and the lions's the three best teams in the NFL. I'm not sure if everyone would agree with me, but that's kind of the way I'm feeling

about it right now. Lions dominant again, Chiefs will get to. Houston feels like they're overlooked a little bit. We'll get to them when we talk Colts. But if you're Cleveland beating Baltimore, it's just that Philly's win feels like there is something building here and it's momentum. Whereas Cleveland's win is like, hey, Cleveland had a fun Sunday afternoon after not having very many all season long.

They scored 20 points as a team for the first time this season. That's what Jamis Winston as a starter. Touchdown drives of 70, 72 and 69 yards from the Browns in the second half. Getting Teller back in the offensive line certainly helps. Chubb has been back, but it wasn't like, it felt pretty one dimensional from this Browns team yesterday.

They're just gonna drop back and chuck it. Jamis went, what, 27 of 41 for 334 yards. There's also that element of this Baltimore pass defense where statistically it tells you it's really disappointing that I was arguing against what the stats said because the resumes of opposing quarterbacks, what Baltimore had gone up against. Look at that group. Don't worry about that number. Don't let somebody on TV tell you that they're fatally flawed because of their pass defense.

Well, this feels a little bit different. Now to be fair too, they were without corner Marlon Humphrey who's been terrific. Also Nate Wiggins was out in this one. Um, but Cleveland moved the ball against them. So now I am perhaps more alarmed than I was about their past defense than I was before, cause I just thought, well, look at who they have played. I think at one point they played for the top five guys, the QBR in the NFL. Um, look once Baltimore goes up 24-23 in this one,

there were two drop backs from Lamar where it was incomplete, and they're probably two of my favorite Lamars that plays all season long. They just will be. But the way he is able to, in the pocket, seem like it's over, and you know it's never over, and then just finds a way to sort of eject himself back,

like he's in a James Bond car, and he's just kind of magic. It's not even a hop. I guess it is. I mean, it has to be something that he's physically doing, but it'll just look like he is too inside the chaos to escape it. And then he just magically just pops directly backwards like three or four yards, gets out of the way of everything and is able to make a throw. Although on these two that I'm talking about, Tim just getting away from everything,

they were both incompletions and I wrote them down just because I enjoyed them that much. Anyway, once Baltimore goes up 24-23, you're like, okay, this is a wrapped fun little afternoon for Cleveland, but it's not going to matter. And then Cleveland has the football. And we'll share this with you because there's nothing to not share. I sent big cat of texts because I know those guys love Jamis. And I was like, this interception from Jamis on this drive is going to be awful. And he threw it.

He threw the interception. The problem is Kyle Hamilton dropped it. And very shortly after that, touchdown game winner Browns on the board. Kansas City is 7-0 and it doesn't feel like it. It's a bit like, I don't know if Indiana football is a fair comparison because Indiana football has not necessarily had the same level of success

recently, recent history is that they're not what the Chiefs are in the NFL, right? But maybe this analogy, boy, it sounds worse as I do it out loud, but stay with me here a little bit. The point is, is that Kansas City 7-0, and maybe it's because we take them for granted or maybe because you're watching them every single week, and you're like, is this team actually this good?

And they are with Mahomes because he just figures out the problems better than anyone playing that position. And he's certainly not having the best year of anyone playing that position. We've been over this. The offense is down, the defense is up, And there's just these games each week with Kansas City. It was like, this is a game again. Um, they, they were up 17, 13, my homes is thrown from his own end zone. The ball is tipped ninth pick on the season for my homes, which leads the NFL,

both Baker and Jordan love have nine. A piece love leaving the game yesterday. Um, alarming cause he was hurt throughout so much of that game. So it wasn't really that final hit when love leaving the game yesterday. Alarming, because he was hurt throughout so much of that game. So it wasn't really that final hit when he left the game. It just looked like he was struggling physically. And they're worried, and I'm alarmed as well as somebody picked the Packers to come in at the end of the seat.

So the Raiders have the football, the Kansas City three yard line, four plays later, a negative five yard drive. So they're like, all right. So they didn't pay for that interception from their own end zone with three yards to go. Raiders fumble. Kansas City had on one of the ensuing scoring drives, they had a completion where Mahomes threw it

to the intended receiver. It went over his head and the receiver behind him caught it. There's just all of these plays, it feels like more and more with Kansas City this season, where you're like, that happened. I mean, if you hate them, you must absolutely hate watching them this year. Again, staying undefeated yet doesn't feel dominant because of the standard that we have for their offense.

Houston wins at home against the Colts. They're six and two. And today they're the two seed in the AFC. And I never liked throwing this out there because it gets thrown out too much, because I'm not sure who's in track or who's in charge of keeping track of all this stuff. But it does feel like Houston's an afterthought, maybe because it's not surprising. But even with last year's spike, a rookie QB doing something that we're not used to seeing, and to me, Orion's feeling like he's finding a way with a defense that isn't loaded with

names. Although I do really like their linebackers. You get the point. Last year, the story is this is this big surprise and it's CJ Stroud. And yet this year, CJ is arguably better in more numbers. He's going to have more picks this season than he did last year. He stayed really clean with a 23-5 touchdown interception ratio. He's got four this year, so we'll pass that yards per temp down a little bit. But when Nico's healthy, clearly he's better this year than he was last year. So there are two seed in the AFC, but I don't, I don't know what the right way to talk about them is.

Meaning like if they were doing, if they were bad last year, we were talking about them more because it was a surprise. And now that because it's not a surprise, cause they were good last year, but. I dunno, they're just, they feel like a completely off the radar, really good football team. So this is another thing to throw in there too. It's, it's not the schedule. Their strength of schedule is tied for the toughest strength of schedule with

Baltimore of any of the seven playoff projected teams today in the AFC. So it's, it's not really one of those deals. You're like, ah, they don't really beat anybody. Although I think I've seen that argument made. All right. On the other side of this game is the Anthony Richardson experience. He's the worst starting quarterback of anyone who's actually a guy in the NFL. And it's bad. I mean, as bad as the numbers are, you have to kind of watch it for a couple hours to see,

like, you know, when an NFL quarterback makes just an awful throw and it just looks so weird, because even the worst quarterbacks are usually pretty dialed into what you think they're supposed to be doing, even if it doesn't work out. Or somebody just doesn't miss. Like when a real starter misses a receiver by 10 yards and the ball's hitting the dirt, you'll notice it because it reminds you of how infrequently it will actually happen in the game. With Richardson, it happens all game long. And he hits the huge bomb, just like he did in the beginning of the year, and people talk about his physical gifts.

But those are cool videos, but the rest of it just isn't good. Now, if you wanna tell me that somebody else is worse than him because of a spot starter, you wanna tell me Rattler's worse, fine. You wanna tell me Rattler's backup, Hayner's worse from Fresno, sure, you got me. But as far as dudes that were projected to be the guy,

and it is their job, I don't know how you can make an argument that anybody's oracing him. He was two for 15 in the first half yesterday, 23 seconds left, third down from his own end zone. He throws the ball out. We can bitch about play calling, but if you're an NFL quarterback, but you have to know risk reward in that spot where you're like, okay, well, this probably won't make a ton of sense if we don't make the play. Throws the pick, seven yards later, one play, all of a

sudden Houston has a 17, 10 lead at halftime for a game that was still 10, 10. I mean, the culture for, and that seems like a miracle. And so now you're left with this Richardson thing. I don't know how many people would disagree with me, um, based on what they've seen this year, because it's really bad. I mean, he has, I think at this point, I wrote it down. He has 55 completions. He has 41 carries and there's just all of these little things. And I know he's getting crushed today because it looked like when he was

tackled his left leg, he got hurt and he asked out of the game and you're like, Oh, this guy, he's hurt again. And then he just said, no, straight up. I was tired. Like that run took something out of me and I knew I wasn't going to have it on the next play. That's just not going to go over well when you're not playing I knew I wasn't going to have it on the next play. That's just not going to go over well when you're not playing well. I'm not going to beat up on him a ton for it because I think the other part of this is that

four and four, who are you? Well, sure. You'd be better with Joe Flacco, but better at what? Maybe, maybe sneaking into the playoffs to then do what? Likely get destroyed by a good team. So is it worth pulling the plug on Richardson as bad as he's been to do that knowing that it would be better? And I know like week to week when you go ahead, they have a better chance to win.

That's you just going to go out there. You owe it to the rest of the guys. Yep. But you also owe it to yourself when you spent the number four overall pick 18 months ago on Richardson, you owe it to yourself to confirm that you were wrong about the pick. So I have no issue with them running them back out there if he's healthy. Um, how about a tweet that was doing a lot? I saw one this weekend.

Um, it was my guy greening over get up. Very disappointed with the jets quote in a season filled with embarrassing performances. That was the worst. The jets lost with the Jets. Quote, in a season filled with embarrassing performances, that was the worst. The Jets lost to the Pats. In a history filled with horrible seasons, this may be the worst. The Jets of 2024 are one of the truly colossal failures in recent sports memory and it only gets worse from here. They're not good. Not telling you that they're good. I guess I just didn't feel like I was a part of history yesterday. Grant's kids pulling up by the fire. Double R, what was it like when the Jets lost the pads? Yeah, I don't know. People hate the Jets though. Hate the Jets. And Greeny loves the Jets.

So he's just very disappointed with all of that. All right. I have a final statement here. I told everybody I was a Bears fan this year because of my belief in Caleb Williams, a belief that I rarely have with first round quarterbacks because it just, as we know, we've covered it. I don't know, maybe. But I thought Caleb was one of the most dynamic players I'd seen in college football. Rocky star, even rockier in comparison to the guy that went behind him and Jaden Daniels who has been one of the best quarterbacks in football this season.

So this was a top two pick showdown that I was invested in emotionally. Uh, it's not like I didn't think Jaden was going to be good. It's just, you know, and even with the rib injury, Jaden was better. Um, but I would say after seven games, I'm out. Now I don't want to do this anymore. So officially I'm not a Bears fan. Caleb coming into this game was the only number one pick at quarterback to have a winning record

through six games since 1970. So as bad as the first couple of weeks could be, things got a lot better for our guy, we know that. But he had 36 passing yards through three quarters. I'm not an excuse guy because I'm not a bears fan anymore. So I'm not making excuses. Um, but he was pressured on 52% of his drop backs. O-line health was an issue in this one as well, but I found a positive

for Caleb Williams in this game. Yeah, believe it or not, I did. He looked shot sitting on the bench as they were getting ready to end the first half. Like just, this isn't fun. And that front from Washington, how about my guy Johnny Newton, Illinois? They're really good.

I don't know if Washington's defense is really this good because prior to like some of the offensive numbers you could dig in all this stuff, but man, at least there's guys you can name all those years. Although Washington feels like their front four always had some names on it, but it looked so bad for Keb, you're like, how is he going to respond? Well, respond. He did.

He fought back three drives late, two touchdowns wrapped around a goal line fumble where they decided to hand it off to an O'man and then still took the lead after that. So me, we, whatever, Caleb, we all learned about resiliency from the number one pick. I think that's the positive. Then something else happened. Washington hit a Hail Mary with two seconds left from 52 yards out on a tipped ball ball where the tip ball was tipped by a player that had his back to the scramble because he was talking shit to the fans. I do think a technology suggestion for broadcast on Hail Mary's, let's have a little picture in picture, just stick it in the lower right, maybe lower left actually from the, well, I have it behind the quarterback dropping back.

So it doesn't interfere with the scanning of the football going into the end zone. But we can see the scrum live picture in picture while the quarterback is back there dancing the whole time. And we can see number 29 decide I'm going to talk shit to the fans while the play is live behind me. So tip ball, touchdown, Hail Mary, and I'm out. I'm not even from there. So it was pretty easy to just stop being a Bears fan this weekend. The NBA is back and FanDuel America's number one sportsbook wants you to catch all the action because right now FanDuel is giving everyone three months of NBA league pass.

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Apply limit one pass per customer. See terms at sportsbook.fandual.com. Gambling problem call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit rg-health.com. Okay, let's do it. Our college football top 12 through nine weeks. Not much change between me and the AP through the first six. And then there's some obviously discrepancies there.

There's probably carries more weight. Oregon at number one, they're in. I mean, think about this. I mean, we know the offensive numbers are terrific. Another ranked win this week against Illinois who still remains ranked. So, you know, normally when we were sitting there with four teams, we're looking at all this stuff and whether it was telling the truth or sometimes it was lying or it's like,

oh, at the time they were ranked or ranked now. I mean, whoever was, was putting those arguments together, usually was trying to find a way to make the team that they were arguing for look a little bit better. Um, and I'm sure I'm guilty of it sometimes too, but look, with this one, Oregon's got Michigan, Maryland, Wisconsin, and Washington, and then a big 10 title game. So I think you can already say Oregon's in because they could lose the big 10 title. I mean, I guess they could lose to one of those teams, but not likely. Georgia at number two in second place in the SEC,

still at Ole Miss, and then Tennessee back-to-back weeks coming up here shortly. I've got Penn State at three. I thought that went against Wisconsin, because Wisconsin's just a little bit better than they've been. I would think their last few weeks, they're better, even though their quarterback's always good

for interception, which was a huge turning point in this game. But Bo Pribula comes in right at the half. Aller, who was limping around, and you could see when he was leaving the sidelines, like he was going in for treatment, who's been the seventh best quarterback in passerating in college football. But Pribula, oddly enough,

like sometimes you'll watch him out there, out there, like is he a better fit for this offense than Aller is? But we've come around on Aller after the USC game. So look, the problem for this one is 10-7 Wisconsin in third, pick six. Like I said, their quarterbacks usually go as good for a pick and that kind of turned the game, but Pribula was able to kind of just run it out. And now I'm left with this. Am I going to find a way to talk myself into Penn State against Ohio State this upcoming week?

Um, because I think I did it last year. I don't know if I picked them, but I. The funny thing is, and here's the irony. I have Ohio State at four with their close win against Nebraska. That just looks bad considering Nebraska lost 56 to 7 in Indiana just a week ago, right? Penn State fans know this routine and I try to tell you, I had nothing to do with you, has nothing to do with the campus. There's no history. I don't care. But I cared when we talked about teams having a chance to play for a national championship.

Have you beaten just one really good team? Like, is there one team that you've beaten that's really good? And I felt like looked at the expansion projections, there would be these years that Penn State, as Fox broadcast shared with us a couple of weeks ago during a Penn State game, where it was like they would have in the four team system made the playoffs six times as opposed to making it zero times with the expanded 12 based on where their ranking was from the committee.

You're like, cool, but like that's not really the point, is it? But that's gonna be the point this year. And this is what I've tried to tell everybody this entire time. The irony of the whole explanation of what I'm trying to do here is that what if Ohio State loses to Penn State?

And then Ohio State beats Purdue Northwestern. They've got that game with Indiana. So they beat Indiana. Indiana might be saving the Ohio State resume here a little bit, but Ohio State would still be in. They would still be in in the play playoff So I guess the Indiana win would be enough because of how well they've played this year number five Miami Same as the AP number one in offensive yards per play beat up on Florida State who's on another quarterback There's three undefeated teams in the ACC Clemson's five and oh Miami's four no SMU is four no Wait a minute for undefeated teams Pitt's only played three conference games. So that's four undefeated teams in the ACC, at least in conference play,

and Miami's not gonna play any of them. So once again, expansion, awesome. No, because the conferences are so big now, like Miami's not gonna play any of those teams. They'll have to play in an ACC championship, but, you know, like what's not going to play any of those teams. They'll have to play in an ACG championship, but yeah, like what are we doing? All right. Texas at six, a close one with Vandy. They were up 27 17.

Vandy drops out of the polls. Now they're, you know, they're an okay football team. So yours has not been the same guy. I think that's the alarming thing. If you're a Texas fan, he just hasn't been the same guy since the injury, but they still have A&M on their schedule. I have A&M seventh. The AP has them tenth. Just a great Saturday night down there at that stadium. Just unbelievable second half. Marcel Reed comes in for Wigman, completely changes the game. LSU can't do anything with him.

His keep, his, his read option stuff. The one keeper at the mesh point where he kept there forever. Incredible. And Nussmeyer who, you know, guys, I did the Saturday pod with McShea and Steve Mensch and, you know, they were talking about like Nussmeyer being being number one as far as quarterback rankings for the draft next year with how crispy was in the first half and how Willie's played and the anticipation throws and all this different stuff. And then he's always good.

Like Nussmeier on third and 15th threw it to the lines and converted. And I knew I was like, this is what you get with him. He's like, he's going to see it and be like, I think I can get this. And then he had a cam war type throw and then the wheels fell off for all of that. But I still think LSU is a pretty good football team. And now A&M is five and oh in first place in the SEC. I think 10 is just way too low for this team. They get South Carolina, New Mexico State, Auburn, and they will finish as we just said

with Texas. Clemson, I have eighth. There's two teams tied in the AP at 11. So I have them eighth. Their offense is really good. How about this number? 10th in yards per play this season. I couldn't believe when I looked it up.

Clemson was 103rd in offense on yards per play in college football in 2023. So it's a lot better. At number nine, I've got BYU. They beat UCF, another team on their third quarterback. The defense is, I guess, good enough in the forties on some of the stats. It's not terrible. 12 and O is not out of the question right now. BYU is favored by 17 at Utah, which no one would have predicted this summer.

At number 10, I've got Iowa state. The only ranked team that they're going to be playing will be Kansas State who's 17. So when I look at Iowa State and where they're at and how crazy the big 12 is, it's just hard to find a way that many teams are going to get eliminated from this. And then who's going to replace them? So I think a lot of these teams are already in, even though they're going to finish up with Kansas State. And is Kansas State even out of this thing? I mean, there's seven and one, they're not out of it either. So number 11 for me is Notre Dame, the AP has them at eight.

They're gonna be 11 and one with three ranked wins. I think they'll be 11 and one. They'll have probably the worst loss of any of these teams. They'll have ranked wins against A&M, which again, that win will look better. Navy, which is borderline, and then Army's number 21 right now. So it'll be funny when people are arguing

Notre Dame's resume based on the seating. You're like, look at their three ranked wins. It's not like there's teams out there going, yeah, we've got six of them. It's just hard to find them, especially with the new expanded schedules. At number 12, finally, I have Indiana. Let's give it to the Hoosiers. The win against Washington was actually a game. They closed it out.

No Rourke. Taven Jackson, the backup who actually lost his gig last season, uh, was, was pretty good for him and in justice Ellison, the running back's been a beast the last couple of weeks and he was terrific against the Huskison, the running back, has been a beast the last couple of weeks and he was terrific against the Huskies. But there is work looking at this quickly here. Ohio State at 10 and two with the Indiana win now. And that's the whole point of Indiana here is they could actually save Ohio State in the argument. Because if they're fourth in the AP and they lose a close game to Penn State, Ohio State's still

going to be in if they be Indiana. I don't even know that there's going to be much debate about it, but will they be really that good? I mean, it seems crazy to think Ohio State wouldn't be one of the 12 best teams in the country. I'm not even saying that, but there's some real benefit for the doubt stuff happening there. As far as the SEC overloading this, I don't

know. I don't know if that's going to happen. You've got Georgia, you've got Texas. I did not rank Tennessee. Tennessee is ranked in the AP. The AP still loves Tennessee. Hell, you wanna talk about Alabama love? ESPN's football power index has Alabama three still.

So don't tell Kanell. There's just a lot of like, it's not chaos. It actually seems like very little chaos where you're going to get done with some of these teams going, I don't know if they beat anybody. Like, all right, let's go play for a national championship. And by the way, Colorado could go nine and three, 10 and two, the start of the year, totally wrong. Thought they just carry over last year, couldn't block, totally undisciplined, not a very good football team, constantly talking about them. Certainly became annoying.

And now that I don't know, it's funny. Like people just started and I was in the group too, being like, all right, I don't want to talk about the ball flows anymore. Look at their schedule. They might win nine, they maybe could win 10 games this year. Uh, and we'll see Mondays. That means Todd McShay who also has his new podcast out from the ringer on Spotify available everywhere.

The McShay show out Saturday nights. I did a recap with he and Steve Mensch, which a blast after A&M's nice win against LSU. It'll be out on Tuesdays and Thursdays. So a lot going on for our guy Todd. What's up, dude? I think that Saturday night show is going to quickly become the favorite thing I do in work all week, every week.

I mean, to get you on, kind of texting a little like, when are we starting this thing? To get you on like from your living room or wherever you were in that palace on Manhattan Beach without sleeves, kind of, you know, a little like, it's kind of like talking to a scout who's been on the road for two months, a little bit ornery. But I don't know. It just, it felt like the old days of like sitting at a bar, you know, just talking ball and it didn't feel like we were on air and that's kind of the whole goal. So anyway, I had a lot of fun.

Mission accomplished, because I thought once we got warmed up, when we got done, I was like, that was a lot of fun. I was, so thanks for having me on. Okay, so off of that, because we did a lot on LSU A&M, you can go into that, and talk some quarterbacks, which I really enjoyed doing, hanging with two guys and do this for a living.

But I wanted to look at, as I did my top 12 this morning, and I was looking at it last night and I just started thinking like some of these teams are gonna have these really weird resumes. And this is the expansion of 412, something I was arguing about the entire time. Like, all right, cool, like the games will be good, extra money, the whole deal, but like there's gonna be some weird resumes in there. So let's go through a few things,

a few exercises here of the projected, you know, or in the neighborhood. So you don't have to be 12th in the AP and eliminate everybody else. But I think most of the answers are going to be amongst that group of teams. Who has the best win? I would say Oregon. For a couple of reasons, Oregon over Ohio State, sorry, for a couple of reasons. I think we all watched, let's start back preseason, right? You included. A lot of people were like, hey, watch out for Oregon. They may win the whole thing or they may, very likely could be in that top four, not that it matters as much, but they

could be one of the top seeds in this. And then they came out the first three games, I think it was, and you and I were texting and talking and the offensive line didn't play great. They weren't dominating inferior opponents. And I started to wonder, all right, great, like, you know, Phil Knight opened up the pocketbook, go out and grab any player you want, but is this a team? Are they physical enough? Are they the type of team that can compete against an Ohio State or one of the top dogs

in the nation? And to that point, like at that point in the season going into Ohio State, I was not convinced. And I know you were kind of a little bit worried about your preseason pick of Oregon winning it all. And then they came out and they played as a team. They played with physicality. They were the better team in the trenches on both sides of the ball in that game, in my opinion. And they were able to hold out, hold off Ohio State at the end there and got a huge win. So just based on like, I guess, from my opinion, it all changed with that game. And since then, my goodness, like Illinois this past week, that's a good Illinois team, not a great team,

but that's a good team. Where if they had won by seven, 10, I would have been like, that's a nice win. They kicked Illinois' ass. I mean, top to bottom, beginning to end, it was just dominant. So I think, you know, from a perception standpoint, it was a critical game for Oregon,

but also for a confidence standpoint, I feel like that game galvanized the Oregon Ducks. Agree on everything you said, it was the first two weeks, Gabriel got sacked seven times, then he went four weeks without being sacked. They weren't really running the football, and now they can run the football and they have weapons everywhere.

I think physically there was no question, there was no gap in that Ohio State game. I agree with everything you said except for that being the best win. I think it's Georgia going into Texas because there was no doubt. Ohio State, it isn't a moral victory because it's Ohio State and the standards. There's a few things there and look, Oregon was unlucky in the start of that game. So, you know, however you want to play it out. I didn't feel like, oh, there's no way Ohio State would have won this game.

I felt like there was no way Texas was winning that game as we were watching it play out. I agree. So, and it's on the road. Yeah. And it really comes down to two, like who do you think's better right now, Texas or Ohio State?

Whew, right this second. I wonder what Vegas would have. Like who do you think is better right now, Texas or Ohio State? Hmm. Whew. Right this second. I wonder what Vegas would have. My guess is neutral site, Texas would be favored by three. Yeah, probably. I would slightly lean Texas. Great question though. I love it. I just don't trust Ohio State yet.

I don't think Texas is playing up to its standard. I don't think Quineur's with the oblique injury is 100%. I think we've seen that. That's been proven. But I think as a team, you know, this would have been an easy spot last week. They struggled. It was lackadaisical, but they were sluggish, thought. But but I think Texas is a slightly better team top to bottom more explosive offensively when things are

clicking. But that's a good one. More explosive than Ohio State because I think that's the only reason they're surviving. I think I trust their offense more. Yeah, I do. Yeah, I mean, I'm probably just talking about like the big play. All right, maybe not consistent enough. I just said that they're not gonna get it. Good. I look, I don't think there's any debate on the best win thing. We can disagree. But it's funny as I like, I don't even disagree. I

just think like the perception for the Oregon but yeah, I'm cool with Texas, Georgia. Yeah, but as we're going through it, my instinct was I trust Texas more. I don't care what the AP poll says, I trust Texas more. But then I'm like, yeah, but what do you trust? Like a different U-ers after the injury? Because he has- I trust a different U-ers a little bit. I trust if U-ers rounds into shape and gets healthy, I trust it. Let's put it this way. I think it's more likely that Ewers rounds into shape than it is for Ohio State to fix their issue on the left side of the offensive line,

where they were basically down to their third left tackle. And the second one, even before he got nicked up, was not performing this past week. And that's a problem. When Josh Simmons went down at left tackle, I'm not saying he's, you know, Jonathan Ogden or like, you know, Willie Rhoaf or someone like that. But he, but he was playing at a high level and NFL scouts. I was talking to her like, he might be the next dude, you know? And so when he went down, you could see like they couldn't, they weren't able to establish the run and it was a problem protecting on the left side.

So like, I trust that that yours is going to get better faster than then Ohio State's going to fix the left side of their offensive line. Yeah. Okay. I think we're on the same page with that answer. Here's another thing off of Ohio State though. Last year, kind of buying into the Aller stuff. Mm hmm. And it was before the Ohio State Michigan games, right? I remember I don't think I picked Penn State Maybe I did I may have just said like I'm going for it, you know, like let's let's see what happens

it's not this year than when you know that type of deal they were six and oh and They're at number three Ohio State and Aller was 18 to 42. None of the receivers get any separation whatsoever. I don't know the McCord. The McCord had some games against. I mean, there's a reason McCord's on Columbus anymore on top of everything else. But are you allowing yourself? And we still don't.

I don't know as of this taping the extent of the Aller injury, but for Bula was terrific. I mean, he has a completely different element to this. That's asking me. I kind of like Bo. All right, is he a better fit for this new offensive coordinator? I don't, that might not even be debatable, right?

And Aller's been so good, like, Aller's been, after the US elevated his game, more people have asked me questions about where's Aller getting drafted. More scouts I've talked to about, like coming into this past week, it was kind of like, and it was a little bit more early in the season, but Nussmeier and Aller were the two like, hey, they're games. Like this is interesting, you know, that I think Nussmeier is a better prospect than Aller is, but Aller was playing at a different

level than he had, you know, in previous years and certainly last year. But man, I liked Bo. I didn't know what to expect. You see Aller crying and goes and hugs him and devastated that he couldn't finish out that game last week against Wisconsin. And I'm like, uh-oh. And all along, the only thing in my mind that mattered was can they obviously get through this? But we got a big one next week, Ohio state. What's, how's this going to play out?

And then the more I watched, what was he 11 or 13 protected the ball, you know, like he looked, I just, there's something about, like sometimes guys come in and you can tell within the first three, four snaps, like moments too big. He's not ready. Every snap he took, I gained confidence in him. It's not like he gained confidence. I started to get like, oh, okay, we're all right. We're all right here. And yeah, maybe he is a better fit. Pete All right. Good answer on that. But I think what I'm trying to figure out here is the momentum of Penn State, even as we wait on the hour news, but Tyler Warren finally on the Heisman odds list, probably not going

to be in New York, right? I love Tyler Warren. There's seven or eight names you can go to with Penn State. It's not like Ohio State. You can't name a million guys, but are you mentally like thinking Penn State can do it this year? I don't trust them. No. Okay. All right. I'm sorry. All right. So, so sorry. Who in their right mind can trust a James Franklin Penn State team in this spot? And James can hear this and he can yell

and he can motivate his team and get all, but like we're here to deal in facts and facts are generated by history and trends. And what are you, what's your counter to that Penn State? It's not that they don't show up. It's not like they always like lay an egg, like, oh, that wasn't their best performance. It's they just, they're not there. We've been saying this for years. They're just, they're not there. Franklin has said it in press conferences. Like if

we want to be, if we want to take it to another level, we've got, these are the games we've got to win. We're not there. So like they're better this year. There's no question about it. I want to believe, but until I actually see it with my own two eyes, how can anyone sit there and be like, I trust them? And the other thing too, like it's one of those Ohio State didn't look great, struggled this past week. You know, you watch the Nebraska game, they should have had a big lead at the half, they didn't. They let Nebraska into it, they couldn't run the football consistently, all those things that we've talked about the offensive line, but Ohio State's going to bring a different brand of football to the field this Saturday. I'm pumped up with Joel

Klatt. I'm only here to promote my show. Joel Klatt is joining us tomorrow. I'm just playing with you, man. But Joel Klatt is's gonna join tomorrow. He's covering that game. I can't wait to talk to him and see who he's talked to. Tate Peas watched, all that stuff. But this game's huge, and there's no way Ohio State doesn't put a different brand of football on the field this Saturday. That's the thing, is it sets up for a perfect spot

after the Nebraska game. Exactly. You're watching it every week. You kind of talking yourself into it a little bit. And even though Pribula was terrific, like I just would rather have Aller in this game because of what he went through and how incredibly disappointed he was at the end of last year, basically because of the two games, the Ohio state and the Michigan game, which was I think even worse. But, um, what I, what I can't help but realize here is like, are you going to,

are you going to trick yourself into this because of what, because you're right. Ohio state's going to be like, they'll probably just be different in the history will be the same. Ohio state's won 11 of the last 12, six straight. Okay. Worst loss of any of the potential playoff teams. Notre Dame, NIU, Northern Illinois, 28 point favorite, right? They got outgained. It's not like it was a flu. They got outgained by 102 yards in that game. And you got to remember at the time

like that A&M win,'t A&M kind of was sputtering what's going on a quarterback. You know, this is the same old A&M and all that. So since then, that A&M win looks great and it was an ugly game early in the season, all that. But that for a resume builder, that's huge. A&M is a 10 this week in the, in the poll coming off the LSU win. So like the perception of Notre Dame, my thought after that game was, Oh man, like I love Marcus Freeman. This is going

to be another rough year. They're just not there. And I'm not saying that they're there like contending for a national championship, but this is a damn good football team. Notre Dame has got a damn good football team. I love Jeremiah, love the running back. I think he's the real deal. They're running the ball. They're balancing things out. I think the passing game is always going to be a challenge, but I think it's improving. The defense is really good. This is a really good team. But at that moment, I thought that that was like, take a Sharpie with the rankings and just like, like Notre Dame's gone and it hasn't been the case. They've overcome it.

The ANM look, uh, win is going to look better and better in they weren't great, but Riley Leonard has been better. And the funny thing is they're going to have three ranked wins here. If they take care of business and then end up beating army, we're two of the ranked teams are going to be Navy and Army here. But there's just, I don't really know who else you would even include in the conversation. How deep you would have to go because it's still worse. I mean, Northern Illinois is four and four.

They just lost to Ball State. Bama losing to Vandy. If you want to go beyond who's top 12 in the AP like how far you have to go to find the other loss that's there as a Kentucky at home for Ole Miss, no. Like there's just. Although the way Kentucky's playing since. Yeah, but that's what I'm doing here. Like I'm trying to find someone else in the top 25

that has something like that. Well you asked the question, not me. Yeah, but I'm just telling you, I can't, I can't really find it because the, the Vandy loss is not a bad lie. I mean, they were ranked. Yeah. Right. Okay. Yeah. All right. So when I was looking through the sec stuff, you've got Georgia, you've got Texas, you've got Tennessee. I would not, I didn't even rank Tennessee in my top 12.

You didn't? No, I have A&M ahead of them. There's no way I would pick. I did too, I just sort of, because you said you wanted to talk about the SEC in the top 12. Georgia too, I'm cool with. Texas six, I might have them at five.

I would, Tennessee would be in for me. That's fine, That's fine. That's fine. I, I, I put Indiana in at 12 and I just, I put the other teams, I put Tennessee behind them. Not that I think there's a gap. Does Iowa State belong? I think they do.

I've had them ranked now for a couple of weeks in my, I got to watch more. I'll be honest. I got to watch more of them. I got to watch a little more BYU. Those are got to watch more of them. I got to watch a little bit more BYU. Those are the two teams. Let's do this exercise because it might not be the SEC fest that people thought it would be at the beginning, but in comparison to what, right? How many teams in the SEC would you pick to win the big 12?

Let's do it that way. Okay. I know that's a better question. All right. So I'll go by Georgia's one, Texas is two, right? Let's do it that way. Okay. That's a better question. All right. So I'll go by the- Georgia's one, Texas is two. Right.

A&M's three, Tennessee's four, Alabama's five, LSU six, Ole Miss is seven. You'd pick Ole Miss to win the big 12. Yes, sir. Yes. And I'll stand on it. I'm not like, eh, maybe. I'll stand on it. I'm not like, yeah, maybe I will stand on that. I will. Okay. No, like you get down to Missouri. I'm not there. Why? Like, I'm not sure. Bandy doesn't win the big 12.

You are way more down on them than, than I thought. I thought I was like, at least fair between BYU, Iowa State and K-State still seven and one. Yeah, I like K-State. I think K-State's potentially, potentially better. And I just admit it. I have watched BYU, I have watched Iowa State. I have not spent as much time watching those two teams

as I have Georgia, Texas, Ohio State, Miami, all these other programs. So I'm not sitting here and just trashing the big 12 because it's a good, it's honestly, it's a better conference than I thought. BYU is better than I thought. Iowa State's better than I thought. Kansas State's a good team from what I've seen.

They're a good team. And by the way, don't count out Colorado, the way Colorado's playing. They could be a nine or 10 with Dean, man. Yeah. The first couple of weeks in, I was like, I'm over it. I'm done. I don't want to talk about it anymore.

And now they've just put together a really nice run where you can say the schedule isn't that tough, but like, look at what that conference is about. Look what that conference is about to do to itself in the last month. Right. So, yeah. All right, so seven.

Ole Miss I think is pushing it, but I can't get mad. How about them with their Callaway smoke helmets? I think LSU wins the big 12. I'm not sure if I can go there with Ole Miss, but I like Jackson Dart way more in the quarterback conversation. When you come back. They have 10 sacks this past week.

They're better defensively at times, not always. Well, Oklahoma is a joke. Oklahoma is a joke. They cannot block. I think they have 19 sacks they've allowed in the last two weeks, I think. It was nine against Ole Miss, and at one point when the game was still in the balance, Jackson Orner will sack five times times over seven plays five times over seven, like when you needed to have it and you know, you can get on him for

saying, well, if you know, I get news for you to beat and bar their, their offensive line coach, like respected in the NFL is the best offensive line coach in, in college football, but truly. So yeah, we've talked about, yeah. So we talked about Oklahoma always every year you're like,, oh, there's two guys are gonna get drafted. But I do think Jackson Dart doesn't get talked about at all in the draft stuff. He had two plays in that Oklahoma game.

There was one where he gets flushed out. The first thing isn't there. He's running to his right and he leads the receiver back at the numbers inside of the defender. And there's just some awareness stuff with Jackson that I think is further along with with him than it is, you know, a lot of the other guys are watching on Saturday. All right. So maybe we just yeah, no, he has he also like his all first team. Does he care if he gets cut in half

today? No, no, he doesn't. He doesn't care. He would have to lose that in the NFL. All right. So let's do the I'm don't, I'm not going to draft Jackson down on my Heisman thing here, our Heisman stuff as of right now. I don't know if there'll be any changes. I believe you picked first this week. Um, here's what we have. Todd has cam ward, Gentie club, Nick, I have Hunter, yours and Gabriel. You were in control. Who do you have again?

I've got Travis Hunter, I've got Quinn Ewers, and I've got Dylan Gabriel. So I'm actually in a better spot than I thought. I just should have never allowed you to have the Ashton Gentry pick. Should have boxed you out of that. Yeah, I mean, Hunter, I mean, Hunter's coming off a massive game, you know?

He's number two right now. Kim Ward's now number three on FanDuel. Kim Ward had been like number one for Heisman odds and it's Gabriel Hunter Ward. So actually I'm doing better here than I thought. I was just so pissed about the Gentry week. Yeah. I don't find like Gabriel's number one.

I just don't see Gabriel winning the whole thing. Winning the Heisman Well, I'm not gonna tell you how to do your board. So I'm like, yeah, but then again like who they gonna lose to Yeah, I don't like these odds they suck I'm looking at him now so I'm pausing I know it doesn't make for a good show But anyway, yeah stuff we've done. No, it's not it's not but I'm so you could also not do anything But you might be worried about me picking up some I don't who am I gonna pick up? Anyway, yeah. That's the best stuff we've done. No, it's not. It's not, but I'm so. You could also not do anything, but you might be worried about me picking up somebody. Who am I gonna pick up?

Nussmeyer? Milro? You may have picked him up after the first half. In my opinion, we have the six guys, well, five of them. We have five of the guys that should be there and are the most likely to win. What if Iamal Yava has that game though? What if he like finally has that game? Yeah. Gentie, Hunter, Gabriel, Ward, Clubnik. Yeah.

I mean, we've got the five and the six. So who are you going to swap? You're not going to drop yours, right? I'm going to drop yours. And I'm just going to pick up Carson Beck for the weird, George wins the SEC thing. I mean, I don't think he's even been that good at all. So look, I'm picking the sixth guy here who's not even going to be in New York. If Travis Hunter wasn't on Colorado, I would tell you to snag Shador because what he's doing is phenomenal. But Yeah, should or is not getting enough love with any of this stuff, right? Yeah

Maybe I'll do that instead. You know what? Thank you. I'm not gonna take back So Rudy put me down for sure should or learn how to pronounce his name when I pick him next time Last thing on college before we get a couple NFL thoughts because because McShea was actually at the Patriots game yesterday. I love doing this with you and just those moments of like, who the hell is that guy? Jordan James has been a dude. Tyler Warren has been a dude before on this. I'm gonna offer up, because you know, Benjamin Morrison for Notre Dame is out, right?

Hip surgery. And he's projected to be a first round pick, correct? Yes, he is, yes. All right, so Leonard Moore, number 15, corner for Notre Dame. He had a couple moments against Navy where I had to like do a little deep dive on this dude. So I'm just-

I love when you text me 15 FR freshman, Notre Dame, who is this dude? Like those are my favorite texts. Yeah. I haven't even, I'm sending this text to you before I even Google the roster for Notre Dame. That's what I love. Yeah.

So he's just 15, freshman. What'd you find out? Well, he's been tasked with a big responsibility with Morrison out. Morrison's been talking to him week by week. Just a couple plays where that Notre Dame secondary is the strength of the team. And Morrison going out is a huge blow. Fuck.

To see this guy who's had a place in major snaps, it was just a moment, a fleeting moment of knowing who the guys are for the most part on Saturdays and then going, who's that guy? Like Bowling Green's tight end. Bowling Green's tight end. I love it. All right. I'll give you a guy. Penn State watching that game. A mean van over. He's a senior. 6'4", 258. Played in just, I had to look him up, you know, because he's pressure after pressure. It turns out he had five pressures in that game, five hurries in that game. The top win rate, I guess I looked up and saw something like 20, I think it was PFF,

had 15.4% pass rush win rate of 27 pass rush snaps. But I'm watching the game and I'm like, I know Abdul Carter, I know some of these dudes. And then the fact that he's a senior, a mean van over, and I don't know anything about him. So I looked him up, he played in eight games as a backup last year, he only has a half a sack. But the fact that when you got a guy like Carter on the opposite side and you got a senior who's emerging,

they've always got dudes in the front seven. Penn State always has dudes. And I'm not saying Vanover is gonna be a star, I'm not gonna say he's gonna be even a draft pick. I'm just saying, I watched that and I didn't know, I had never heard the name Vanover before. And to see that he was the most consistently disruptive defensive lineman for Penn State.

And the reason why it was exciting and interesting to me is now we got Ohio State this week and we've got an Ohio State team that's down to its second, maybe third left tackle. Can this guy Vanover, who's kind of breaking out right now, keep that up and have some big spots against Ohio State? So that's one guy. There's another one too. And I know USC is like not on the radar right now and massively disappointing season,

but I've kind of wondered like who's gonna step up and be another weapon for this team. And the first five games, Mackay Lemon, who's a sophomore, just 5'11, 180 pounds, he had seven catches. The last three games, he has 18 catches for 296 yards. I didn't do a deep dive, but he missed one of those first five games.

So I'm guessing nicked up wasn't a hundred percent. But and again, I haven't studied USC as much because they're not winning and playing at that level. But but lemon to me really really jumped out the last last few weeks, but this past week, specifically. All right. Well done. We went deep on that one. Yeah. Cause Vanover, I don't, he was never on my radar. And you're right. Penn State always feels like he's had these guys. And as you were saying, I was like, who? And then it's like, he's been there five years.

Okay. Couple of things on the NFL. I like to do these re-visits of the draft. Jameis Winston gets the win yesterday, chucks it 41 times, doesn't have that horrible Jameis turnover, where I said this in the open, so you don't know this. When they took the ball over down 24, 23, I texted somebody who was like, this Winston pick is about to be all time, like horrible.

This is gonna be awful. And Kyle Ham, yeah, and Kyle Hamilton drops it. this Winston pick is about to be all time, like horrible. This is going to be awful. And he threw him. Yeah. And Kyle Hamilton drops it. He threw it for you. Yeah. I mean, and then it was funny because I got the text back. Of all dudes, Kyle Hamilton drops it.

Right. Probably my favorite safety in the NFL. So I remember that draft, the Winston Mariota draft, and we were actually both together, Manhattan beach. And I was like, will you just pull up your program and take me through what it is that you see that I can't see that I'm not educated enough. I don't understand what it is. And you started throwing me Winston's throws in the anticipation on his throws.

And then you started showing me Marietta's throws going, look at like, they're just not the same throws. It's not the same thing. And it was like a 30 minute tutorial. And I was like, I'm going, look at, like they're just not the same throws. It's not the same thing. And it was like a 30 minute tutorial that McShea gave me. I remember that. And I went, okay. And I was like, okay, from this

point on, I am convinced I will not, and I don't know where I was with it prior to that session, this Todd talk, if you want to call it that. And you're like, the Mario is not Winston. And it's, and it's played out that way. But I think it's interesting to always kind of do this every few weeks with you on where is Winston's career based on your expectations for him before the draft.

I recognize the flaws. I recognize the, just like his speeches and what everyone's come to love about Jamus is the emotional tie, right? Like we're all emotionally tied to Jamus. And for a long time, I was like, Oh gosh, all right. Hand up. I'm kind of like, I don't really care.

But, but now it's become a thing like the Jam James speeches and his pregame, all that stuff. People really like it. Yes. You don't have to love it, but I'm just saying it's a thing. We can agree on it's a thing. But my point in all of this is that same emotion you could see in his game, like when you're making decisions sometimes. He's a smart dude.

I think he's gotten smarter and more like watching his tape. Like, I think he, he reads things, he processes things. His anticipation has always been really good, but there were always a few plays a game where it's like the emotions got the best of him. He pushed it too far. Right. And so that was always a thing coming out. But as I gave you at the shade hotel and the great film set up, just a little

backdrop on it. My favorite week of the year, professionally every year, NFLPA game came into existence, all-star game. Everyone knows the senior bowl. Everyone knows the East West shrine game. But ESPN got rights to the NFLPA game. And we probably had like 8,000 people watching the game. And what ESPN didn't realize is that me and my guy, Kevin Weidl, who's now with the Baltimore Ravens as a scout doing an amazing job, and he was with me for like 12 years, we would go out to the NFL PA game before we'd go down. It was the week before going down to Mobile for the Senior Bowl. And we would post up at the Shade Hotel.

And we had a blast. We would go out at night, we would have dinners, we'd have a couple cocktails, all that, but we grinded tape. We must have been the only two assholes in the history of the shade that would spend about 10 hours a day in the room with the Pacific Ocean as the backdrop, with like a cute little fireplace thing in there,

with that, with the sauna in the middle of the bedroom. The porn tub. The porn tub. And it's two dudes, hats on backwards, like ripping diet pepsis and all that stuff, watching tape with the coach's clicker. Yeah. So it was a weird scene, but those- It's like an Austin Powers hotel room for those that don't understand. Yeah, that's a good way to explain It's just it's until you walk into one. You can't really understand it. So

So yeah So that would be my we would spend like eight days there every year to do this like small little NFL PA game and we're so I would come by and watch tape every once in a while and some other people who live in Manhattan Beach But but Jamis to me had the tools to be a really good NFL starter. His career was not what I hoped it to be, but I always questioned, is he going to be able to knock out some of the bad habits and some of the things that get, get him in trouble? And and you know, Mariota, well, you know, I loved the system he was in. I loved how he operated it. I loved his, you know, just like competitiveness and all those things.

I never thought he was going to be a good starting NFL quarterback. Never. I truly it. I loved his, you know, just like competitiveness and all those, those things. I never thought he was going to be good starting NFL quarterback. Never. I truly did. And so that, that to me is the difference. And it's good to see Jameson get another shot. I mean, just see that Cleveland offense operate the way it operated yesterday, yesterday against that defense with that guy coming in for and replacing the guy with that contract that he had, it's pretty cool to watch. Yeah, look, it's the only time they scored over 20

all season long. That's wild, man. Yeah. And he was the third string quarterback. You understand that, right? Yeah, I saw something about that where, I mean, look, DTR came in, so I guess I shouldn't debate it at all I guess it wasn't

it wasn't like Jamis was clear-cut back up like he was ready to come in if something happened like that wasn't that was not the case right uh you because you went to the pats game is there anything that you can tell us about Drake May before he was in concussion protocol we look good okay all right let's do it he brought looked good, like he brought energy to the Patriots offense and they were struggling. I mean, I never get to go sit in the stands. I brought my 10 year old son, Tate. We had a blast.

I mean, thank you to the Patriots. Thank you to the Jets. On the field before, my son's an idiot and an animal. He just walked like, you know, they rope off the sidelines. He walks up and I'm talking to Jerry Matalon, our DSP. I see GMAT there. So I'm hogging Jerry and catching up a little bit.

And I look over and my son is now in the freaking end zone. And I'm like, oh no, you know, like Joe Douglas and Stacey James, you got me take us from the Patriots. I'm like, oh man, like, so I'm like, all right, Jerry, I gotta go, my son. And I look over and he's like, hey, what's up? With his hand, Tate, with his hand up. And it's at Braylon Allen.

They come out of the tunnel, he's like high legging, getting warmed up. And Braylon comes up and he got this 10 year old with his hand up and Braylon's like, looks around like, is someone punking me? Uh, why is this guy, why is this 10 year old on the field? And he's like, Hey little dude, slap some five. So that's how my day started. So anyway, we get in the stands, we're watching the game.

Two takeaways I had. Drake may is bringing energy. They don't trust him as a passer yet. It's all about running the ball. You know, they're trying to win with defense, special teams. They got a big return. But I was more, I don't know. I was pleased with what I saw and I was kind of like,

he's got a chance, man. If they get some weapons eventually, if they can protect and all those things, but I just, he's starting to gain confidence, his running ability, his ability to extend plays, he's got a chance if they can put things around him. So that was encouraging. It feels like a vibe evaluation.

He threw six passes before he was out of the game. So, uh. Yes, but then Burset comes in the game and the offense just dies. The life comes out of the offense. The life comes out of the stadium. It's just conceding after conceding after conceding run the ball short passes. It's like third and third and six. He throws a two yard pass.

Like it's just, it's. It's like third and third and six. He throws a two yard pass. Like it's just it's it's frustrating. So there was a difference and that's kind of what I wanted to see. What's the difference? You know, when Brissette came in and it was, it was a world of difference. Other side of the ball, Aaron Rodgers is not Aaron Rodgers. We all know that. He's got the ankle, the knee coming off the Achilles, the hamstring. Every play is its own entity is the best way I can put it. There is no energy in that offense. His inability to, he's a phenomenal passer, he's Aaron Rogers, we all know that. But his inability to extend plays and to do anything with suddenness is so apparent when you're

there live. You know, we had D's to seats. So I'm not far away from the field. Like it's so apparent and you watch all these NFL games and like it just, they are, they're stuck because of it. And the run game doesn't tie to the pass game the way it should. I just, it was frustrating to watch because you've got dudes everywhere. Um, it was, I don't know that there's a worse loss in the NFL this year than that considering all like this was supposed to be the turnaround. I'm watching the pregame show with Greenie and everyone going through like they can win

eight of their last 10 or whatever it was. And like I, you know, I love Joe Douglas. I think he's put an unbelievable product in terms of individual talent on the field. The defense is not tackling well. They just seem to lack an edge on that side of the ball while they have a lot of talented players and all that. But like, I don't know. It's missing and it's frustrating to watch because I know how much has gone into that

and I know how much talent is there. But I just, I think offensively, they're so limited right now and the lack of tempo and like just one way to the next is the best way I can put it. It's its own entity rather than everything being tied together. If that makes any sense. It does make sense. And it's a really unique way of describing it. And I would agree on the roster. You're going to get accused of being a Joe Douglas apologist because you're friends with them, that's fine. But if you go through it. Yeah, but I'm also like Joe would be pissed at me if I gave him credit where credit wasn't due,

I promise you that. Like there's no denying that the talent is there. There's also no denying the hand that ownership has had and why things have gotten to certain ways and because of it. Let's just leave it at that. An outsider looking in can tell some of the things, but in terms of drafting and bringing in talent and securing a roster that's good enough to compete at a very high level, that's been done. Here's what's crazy about this. Um, you look at the jets at two and six, nine games to go, go through the next

nine, there's not a, Hey, that's a win in there based on who they are Texans at Cardinals Cardinals, good luck figuring that talked about that. Remember in week two, right? This Cardinal seems good. It's this is a good squad. I don't know if good is the right word. I'm not sure. I don't think there was an expectation.

I think the Cardinals are better than people think. And I think we're starting to see them. Marvin's getting more involved. I see a natural progression happening. And it's promising. The Marvin stuff, there's certain games I'll admit to like defensively, like, are there just a bunch of guys that like, are they fast? And like, is there a bunch of just dudes?

And then it's like, yeah, stats don't say they're really good. So what, what am I watching? Am I falling for the uniforms? So if you just run through it, I don't want to like, yeah, go ahead, do this because, oh, that's a win. That's a loss. The old Francesca bit win, win. Um,

Bernie had no problem doing it on a count. Oh, they did it. Oh, I didn't, I didn't, I didn't see the, in racks and Bruce ski up at the board. Like it was, it was local radio. Okay. So let's do it this way. They had like eight and two, including yesterday's one.

This is a pregame show. I think it was eight and two where there are nine games left. They're two and six. There's nine games left. They had them yesterday. So that was yesterday, like 1130 in the morning or 1030 in the morning. Before I took off for the stadium, it was, uh, eight and eight and two down the stretch. Ruskie came in and ripped away a few of those W's.

Well, where's the W where is they will now they will, because it's the NFL. They're going to win a couple of these games, but the last nine games, Texans at Cardinals, we just gave Arizona some love. Colts, Seahawks. Colts is a win. At Dolphins. Are you sure? What if Flack goes plain? No, I'm not sure about anything, but. I want a sure win.

Are we doing it? Okay. Sure win. That's what we're doing. Okay. So Colts, Seahawks at Dolphins at Jacksonville. Rams at Bill's. Dolphins.

Okay. So you got them. So. They win one or two of the Dolphins. So they win one or two of the dolphins. So they're going three and 14 this year. No, they've no, I just gave them two more. So four and 13. I don't, that's not, you're saying sure wins. I would give them three. I, yeah, whatever. I hate this game. Okay. I think they could win. I think they could win six of the last nine though.

Put that down. Clip that. Jets win six of nine. Still don't get in the playoff. So why even make this take Todd? No, this is good. We'll cut this out. Let's change the filter on it. Sarudy trash this segment please. Great spot to finish. I know you're busy with the new show. Again, check out the McShay show. Please subscribe to it. And especially if you're a college football fan, that Saturday night recap is going to be a lot of fun. So thanks for the time today, man. Thanks, brother. You want details? Fine.

I drive a Ferrari, 355 Cabriolet. What's up? I have a ridiculous house in the South Fork. I have every toy you can possibly imagine. And best of all kids, I am liquid. So now you know what's possible. Let me tell you what's required. Live advice. Live advice. RR at gmail.com. We've got Kyle. we've got Steve, Oregon is here. So everybody back on the. Oh, you said it? I know.

Nice. Yeah, everybody just thinks it's Oregon. With that, I was thinking Oregon forever and now I kind of like it. But I think the headline is that all four of us hung out last week and we didn't. Three of us made a real effort to do it. Yeah.

Oh, wow. Yeah. Oh wow whoa, I Will stand up for him here because I packed my car full of two two guys and two golf clubs and two knives and I mean, I don't know if you know this you gave me like 12 koozies Ryan. Shout out to Watertown whiskey So it was a big night for me. And so I'm not gonna stand for this, Rudy. So there was some conversation that I wasn't a great host. Is that what I'm hearing? No, no, no, no, it wasn't that you were great. It just, we, you know, we drove, what did it take us?

Almost an hour, 45 minutes, Kyle, to get there. It took a little longer than an hour, yeah. It was a bit of a drive, and then, you know, drive back wasn't too bad, but you know, we were dedicated. We were dedicated to getting out to Manhattan Beach. We did it, and the place. We were dedicated to getting out to Manhattan Beach. We did it and the place was great. Good to see ya.

Happy we did, but you know, it was a good amount of effort put for three of us. It was a ton of effort, which I was appreciative of, but now I'm sensing a tone here. I'm sensing that maybe I should have had it catered or something. No, no, we got jacked on the box on the way back, buddy. We did, we also had a Coors Light at your place,

so that's cool. Jesus also had a Coors Light at your place, so that's cool. Jesus Christ. A Coors Light? I was gifted a knife that I couldn't bring back on the plane, so I think I gave it to Kyle. The street continues for your boy. Right. We were going to give Wargon one of the Benchmade knives, but then he couldn't take it because he had a checked bag or not a checked bag to carry on as well. So we couldn't have a knife charge on you guys.

Okay. All right. So it sounds like no one had a good time. I was blown away. I didn't say it had a good time. I thought your house was incredible. Yeah, I was blown away. The one thing on your wall, a Patriots Chris Long jersey. Thought that was cool.

They assigned a number one Pats fan Ryan. The one thing I saw on the walls there. What's that? I remember there was the piece of art too. He was talking. Remember that was leaning though. I don't, I think that was leaning then. That's fair.

Yeah. It was a piece of art from this new Orleans artist that I've always really liked. I really have to really have. I think you said you were well, I your haggling, I think you said. You were pretty proud of it. Well, I was happy. Yeah, I went into the gallery and the guy was haggling with me and I tried to leave and then I felt great about the price that I paid and then he hit me up a couple of months later and was like, I can do the bigger one for the same price.

Yeah, and I was like, I guess I didn't do that well. But it was my first time buying a nice piece of art and I had admired it for years on my trips to New Orleans. And, you know, I pulled the trigger, but it's not really a central piece of art and I had admired it for years of my trips to New Orleans. And, you know, I pulled the trigger, but it's not really a central piece. It doesn't tie the room together. But yeah, the guys came over. No one was allowed more than one core's light, apparently,

because it was a school night and I had to work. I had games on, but Kyle left with some golf clubs. I don't know. Leave it to the floor here. Take it anywhere you want to go. Maybe there's nothing to talk about because it was so forgettable. Well, it wasn't forgettable. I just thought we were kind of in your way a little bit. I know. I felt like we were in your way a little bit because there were games on. NBA's back. So I didn't know, am I talking too much? Like what should,

what should we, it's like, I see he's, he's reaching for the notepad every once in a while. Like, is there like, is he going to say when it's time for us or we just be proactive and say like, all right, well, this was been great. Uh, where's the golf clubs? So I did, I really didn't know which, which way to go, but I, I, I don't know. I think, I think it went well. I'm a little surprised this is the direction we're taking. I didn't say I didn't enjoy my stay.

I'm happy I went there. I'm just saying that, you know, it was a bit of a hike for us to get to see Ryan. You know, I flew across the country. I was there for what? Three, four days. And, you know, we put in a good amount of effort. So, you know, it was good to see you, buddy.

That's all I'm saying. I could have done more. I could have done more. Now that I think about it. You did enough for me, buddy. Thank you. I hooked Kyle up. I even-

Yeah, Kyle got two sets of golf clubs. He's living life. I mean, Kyle, would you have gone if it wasn't for the golf thing? Yes. Let me just say that. Sure. Let me just say off the top, yes. Yes.

There's some other stuff we can add some detail too, because when I threw the clubs in, I didn't realize there was this utility iron that I had custom ordered from Titleist. Still thinking about that interaction. I couldn't find it. And then when I was handing him the bags, I was like, oh, there's that utility iron

that I've never used that I couldn't find and it's brand new. But then I was like, it's in the bag, it's in the bag. So this isn't about guilt, you should be excited. And by the way, I can hit a normal four iron so I don't need utility. I think I may have put it in that bag because I was like, why did I order a four iron? But I was in a real gear. I'm just trying to put it all together.

Like a mad scientist over here and be like, which do I need a 58 to be steadier? So anyway, it's just part of being in the golf. I think one of the other observations is that when I got the text from Strudy, we were at a park and then you just forget the full Kyle package that you were about to be witnessed to, Kyle rolls up in a convertible Mustang. Which I don't even know. Big old dent on the side.

Yep, missing a door handle. But the pipes, are those street legal? Oh yeah. Okay, because that thing makes some noise. I mean, and the top was down and it was, wasn't that hot out. No, no. It was, it dropped about 10 degrees. The temperature as we got closer to Manhattan beach and it was like, oh yeah, I forgot about this. We went top of that big ocean. Yeah. Yeah. The big ocean every now and then we'll drop the temperature based on inland numbers and then we park everything's cool. And then Kyle desperately needed a cigarette.

I waited like an hour before I set a peep. No, but I think that you felt like you couldn't have asked, like you definitely wanted to smoke a cigarette immediately and I wouldn't have cared. That's what the smoking pattern was for. And when Kyle was like, where can I smoke? And he's like, I guess I'll just go out front. And the funny part was he came back in and his arms were covered in shit and not real. Like some sort of black chalk.

And he's on the couch and I looked at him and was like, did you just fall down? No, dude. What happened out there? You know what I was doing? I was leaning on your awesome railing. You said you had people come and clean the inside of the house once every week or two.

I gotta clean that. Maybe hit the railing outside.. Yeah, no, you're right I'm it's on the to-do list. I felt pretty good. I was like I'm leaning on this incredible house By the way, the houses really blew me away. Congratulations to you But I'm lead I'm like, you know cool guy leaning on the railing outside Just smoking my first cigarette in like eight hours didn't smoke in the car with Sarudy and wargon even though the top was off I think the ash becomes a wild card and I didn't get any praise for that, but I just thought that was the right thing to do.

I'm giving you praise. Think about it at the top. It's your car. It's a real termination for me to something. Yeah. Thank you. Uh, but then I came back in and you were like, what's on your arms. And I was ready to tell you a scar story.

I was like, oh yeah, I'm going to tell Ryan like, yeah, I've been through some shit here, look at this one. And then I look and there's black shit all over my arms. You're like, no dude, is it on my couch? And I'm like, I don't know, is it on your couch? Anyway. I think Saruti could tell that because it was OKC in Denver, that I was probably freaking a little bit.

Really locked in. Yeah. No, you're not gonna be good. I was doing the pod the next morning on that game. I was like I bet Saruti can read right now that't, like I don't want to overstay our welcome, I don't think we did, but I, cause I'm with you, like, you know, there was, we were just hanging out for a couple hours, had to be here to go home, like there's really not much else to do,

it's not like we were going out that night or doing anything. So I knew like, hey, like the clock's kind of ticking, we left at a good, I had a, I had a six a.m. flight, so I had to get out of there anyway. Side note about Manhattan Beach, not really a nice place, I've been there a few times, they don't want about Manhattan beach, not really a nice place. I've been there a few times.

They don't want anyone visiting there. Do they? There's no parking anywhere. Like I kind of, it's the most exclusive place that I've ever been to in my life. There's nowhere to park. Even the sides of the roads. It's just like, Oh, nope. There's an ADA dip right there.

We could just put the ADA dips everywhere. There'll be no parking spots on the streets. Nice job. There's no outside. It's the most handicap accessible, but no, no parking unless you own a house. Yeah, no one can park here. And I think it's by design. Yeah, I think you're right. I would imagine so. Because the beach is always, even on July 4th weekend, where you'll think a beach is just packed. It's like, you can't. You have to parachute in. You should have seen it when there was outdoor

seating during COVID, because then all these restaurants were taking out all of the extra parking in town and you talk to the restaurant owners and they'd be like, well, this is ridiculous. You know, you're getting rid of it. You're like, yeah, no, I know it's better for you, but man, like how, hey, do you want to go get an ice cream cone and be like, well, let's,

let's see what the flights are. Classic Rosillo, anti-small business. Yeah. There you go. Yeah, I know I can't win. I can't win even if I win. go get an ice cream cone and be like, well, let's, let's see what the flights are. Classic Brasillo anti-small business. Yeah. There you go. Yeah, I know. I can't win.

I can't even if I say like, well, no, I totally understand your point, but there's no way or like, there was never anywhere to park before any of this stuff happened, by the way, I didn't, um, I didn't make shirts or go out petition to take out the five, you know, just for the record. Uh, I will say too, I did text you a couple of times that day and it did didn't make sure to go out petition to take out the five, you know, just for the record. I will say too, I did text you a couple of times that day and it did cross my mind, like, do you want us to come? Cause I could tell, you know, sometimes like Ryan, I could tell you did, you definitely did.

Yeah, come on. Okay. All right. That hurts. No, I just don't, you know, I don't know. The vibe sometimes it's like, I texted you a couple of times and you're like ETA. I'm like, I don't really know this is gonna be a problem because Kyle's got a couple tapings

We got to do bill like I don't have a hard time But I'm I wasn't I wasn't a hundred percent sure I didn't want to be didn't want to wear it I woke up but I'm glad I'm glad I went glad we went you got to see war gone Was that the first time you met work on? No, actually, there's a lot. That's right. So we're gone got yeah, but to come along Oregon I saw you at ESPN at some point, didn't I? I never worked for ESPN. There you go. You've never worked at ESPN?

No. Let's go. Don't take that out either, man. No, no, no, no, no. I never once, I was happy to leave it in. Yeah, I remember. So wait, the first time we met in person was the live show in Philly?

Yeah, that was the first time. I feel like I know you so well. It's crazy. Wargon, any impressions? Anything you feel like you needed to add? No, I had a great time. I wasn't picking up on the weird feelings that these guys were having.

Weird feelings. There were a lot of weird feelings. Yeah, I would, yeah. Well, I gotta work on my hosting skills. That's what it sounds like. That's all right. Nice place though. Hot tub and cold tub, I'll, yeah. I gotta work on my hosting skills. That's what it sounds like. It's all right. Hot tub and cold tub, I'll just leave it there. Come on, never seen that before.

Use them both a lot. I can tell. I hope so. Yeah, I mean, especially this week. Back has been fucked up for seven straight days. Really excited about it. Okay, let's read emails because this seemed to go a little bit longer than I thought,

but I felt like we had to take on some reference or give some reference to that night. Okay, let's see. Blacked out mistake, uh-oh. Real quick, 29, six, two, 200 pounds, nice. NBA comp, Gordon Hayward, playmaking slasher, streaky shooter, gym stats don't exist because I only lift to stay in shape and keep the joints flexible. Pretty

pragmatic guy. To the reason I'm emailing, I recently got blackout drunk at a party and ended up kissing my friend's girlfriend. I don't even remember doing it. I had to be told the next day what happened. For context, I'm not attracted to her like that. I've never had any thoughts of doing something like that But my blackout personality is very lovely with everyone and I've been known to step across the line when I've been that drunk I know it's a dick move and I've most likely lost a friend from this which I will eventually come to terms with but I Would like to reach out and apologize to him and just want to get y'all's Opinions on the best route to go about that. Thanks fellas. Love the pod

Would have been so much better if you just cursed her out. I'm sorry, man, this sucks. If you just said something you've always been holding in, that would have been so much better than what actually happened. Yeah. So you're saying the apology tour is a little easier on just an aggressive verbal outburst.

Then like, how long have you been plotting this? You know what I mean? Cause you know, it's the classic drunk word, sober thoughts thing. And it's like, wow, you took it a little step further and actions. So I don't know. You got to, it really depends on who the other guy is. Like what's his temperament?

What's his deal? You know, 29 probably still, you know, like sometimes when you're really young and this happens to you, you just think you have to like hate everybody and be super mad. And then it's kind of like, all right, you know, who else was at the party? How come you didn't say anything? I'm going to dump her and then I'm never going to talk to you. And then seven dudes that were there like, it's like, cool,

you'd be sitting by yourself. Awesome. Great job. You know, it's hard to live that way. Very hard to live that way. So Armageddon moves aren't always the move. At 29, you're not going to be around each other as much. You know, and It sounds like you're obviously bummed out. It's probably not been a great few days from that, but it really depends on what his temperament is. He's most likely unapproachable at this point. Everything that you're trying to do now because you care and you want to tell him what... You're in the hot zone right now. So I don't really think. Yeah. The less you're heard from for the immediate future, the better.

Probably there's not like you're going to have to, the timeline really is going to depend more on who he is and how he's wired and how he feels about you. Um, you also should probably like run it back in your head and be like, how important of a friend am I to him? Because especially when you're younger, you know, like the guy that has the ski house, that guy seems to make out with a lot of people's girlfriends and then dudes are still friends with them because he's got a fucking place in Breckenridge. Yeah.

All right. You bring it to the table. Yeah. Right. So where are you in this dynamic of if you still want to be friends with him, do you have anything of value that would make him would want to continue to be like, man, the guy gets great bulls tickets. Right. So I, I think you need to reach out to a neutral party.

We'll start with her. Right. Did he mention that he even apologize? Like she's the one that got like, I don't know if assaulted is the word here, but if you had a good lawyer, you could make the case, right? Whoa, wait a minute. That's not what he said. I'm not really saying that, but I'm just mean like, have you like, you're all worried about him, like, are you even on the case, right? Well, wait a minute. That's not what he said. I'm not really saying that, but I just mean,

you're all worried about him. Are you even on the record yet as saying, hey, my bad for kissing you in front of everyone? You probably weren't expecting that. Right, but by saying it that way, it makes it seem like we're oblivious to that part of the deal. The way I read the email is they made out,

mutually made out. So I'm not even thinking any of that stuff. But as far as like the friend part of it, I think you reach out to the neutral party buddy that sells your side of the story a little bit, but I would give it a couple of weeks at least. All right. But you don't want it to go so long that then it's later on.

It's like, and you never even said anything. Right, right. So eventually you are gonna have to apologize straight up to him if you care about the friendship. And at 29, who knows, you know, maybe a year from now it works out because of the steps that you took now, but none of those steps are probably going to pay off immediately at all. And yeah, if I still really, really liked my girlfriend and was like somebody that was serious about and I know that you were, I probably would have a hard time being

friends with you again. Walking out of a room when all three of us are together. It's just weird. Just weird thoughts now. I don't know. I think it's like, I think it's good to- What did you just try there? Like, oh, I'll go get us some beers when you're walking. It's like, oh think it's good. What did you just try there? Like, uh, like, Oh, I'll go get us. I'll go get us some beers when you're, you know, you're walking. It's like, Oh, they're in the room together. I better hurry up and get to the fridge and back. Uh, not laying it, not, not laying it out.

Yeah. Maybe it's well, like if we all go back to being friends and now like, you know, now you're walking out of the room to go do something and you're like, all right. Sorry. Kind of killed it. I had to explain it three times anyway. Yeah. No, you explained it fine. I thought there was like another layer that you were adding and that's that's.

That's my fault. All right. There was a follow up to the bench seating. People are sending me links to the new scout. I actually already saw it's not available until 2027 and I probably wouldn't buy that one anyway. I did when I first moved to Manhattan Beach was like maybe I'll get one of those

refurbished old tacos. Yeah. And then I was like, maybe you do something different than nobody else is doing. Get an old international scout. And, uh, that went away quick. Kind of, I'm going to park that Nowhere to park it with the lift. Cause then I looked at one, I was like, I can't, I can't fit it in my garage. And the guy was like, well, I can lower it. I was like, cause the whole point of having it is to not have it lowered. Don't you dare dude. There was also a little golf cart window where I think I called and got an

estimate on the golf cart. That sounds awesome. Yeah, but I don't think it would be. Is Manhattan beach a golf cart town? A little bit, but then you gotta park those too. And it's not like there's a million golf cart spots. I just feel like it'd be a little different. I know some people love them.

I think if you have kids and you don't live within walking distance of the beach and you wanna load up the golf cart with some stuff and then just go down to the beach, it's probably the move. But for me, I don't know, I don't. All I can imagine is that guys would be like, well I would never drive home but in a golf cart.

Yeah, well. Yeah, like I think you'd start taking some license with you. Still counts dude. Yeah, right. Does it? I mean that's the thing, it's like. No, you're right. It does, it definitely does.

You're right, you're right. No, it definitely does. I remember we were in Charleston, South Carolina for a bachelor party and all my buddies wanted to rent one out and they made it a point to be like, this is not just like a, hey, I could skate by because I'm technically not driving a car. It's like, dude, they will pull,

if anything, they're more likely to pull you over. Yeah, you stand out like a sore thumb. Yeah. Exactly, exactly. So anyway, so off of that, somebody wanted to, I'm going to share this with you guys because I think it's kind of funny because this guy nailed this, like as if he was reading my mind, uh, six foot six, two 30 also handsome six, six, two 30.

God damn. We get some good looking tall guys that listen to the show just, uh, fit from a lifetime of working around in the woods of Northern Vermont, running a sugar bush. Pickup comp is a poor man's machine to beat. Never played growing up, but I looked the part until I get on the court. Not writing with a question, just a bit of feedback.

I was riding home from Newport in my own pickup. I was actually in Derby as life advice came in. This guy's nailing places that I spent a lot of time in, just south of Derby line apparently. As I listened to Ryan talk about Milton style back in his Burlington days when he got to the part where he'd pick up his girl shirtless arm around her and go get some awkwardly long paws. So officer, I burst out laughing and rewound three or four times to listen to him code switching in real time. There's so many terms now with code switching or whatever. I'm like, what are they talking about? But now I think I actually understand what that means. He nailed it because I was going to say what SoftServe is called in Vermont and they're called Creamies. But I knew if I said that.

Oh, okay. Yeah, right. Exactly. Don't love that. Yep, don't love it. Nobody does. So he caught me in real time. He said, Creamies, they're called Creamies.

I can see why a major podcast host wouldn't wanna say that he and his hot dog are the same. I'm like, what the called creamies. I can see why a major podcast host would want to say that he and his hot girl got creamies together. It'd be a lot cooler if you did. You know what? You're right. Because I almost said, yeah, we'd stop it. Because then I was going to have to explain it. And then I'd have to be in there. And the weird thing is I'm not from Vermont, but they claim me. And obviously there's a lot of family history on one side of the family there. Um, but I don't want to be using the term creamy regularly. And I think everybody can understand that.

That's fair. Totally understood. Get where you're from. All right. Let's, let's get to a guy who's bummed out. All right. Uh, 39 gym stats, five,'8", 230 after losing 15 pounds, trying to get my healthy weight at 215.

Yes, I was a linebacker in high school and college. Nice, dude, some London Fletcher vibes here. Player comp, Gary Payton, senior. Great at defense, can score buckets when you need me to, so I've been in the restaurant business for 20 years. Very good at what I do. About three years ago, I landed the dream job of running a restaurant group in town

that included a distillery, liquor, beer, and wine as a passion of mine, not just the drinking part. Boss made huge salary promises as long as I put in the time and effort, helped get everything in line, and helped launch a new restaurant with everything that comes with that. Insane hours, no extra pay, almost getting divorced, mental health, physical issues. Seeing the gold at the end of the rainbow. After all that, about six months ago, I had the rug pulled out on me.

It was let go for someone cheaper. Once I put all the systems in place, hired and trained everyone to make them successful and worked my fingers to the bone, they didn't wanna pay me what they promised. Dejected and needing to pay bills, I took a job as an assistant manager of a restaurant. I'm looking back now, I realize that success in this business is nearly impossible.

There's always someone younger and cheaper. Once you fix the issues, they will bring that person in it to maintain. I've taken my expertise and started a small consulting side hustle. Three clients last year for great money, but it's going to take some time to get this off the ground. I'm looking for a fresh start, no degree in considering any field that will let me have some sort of work life balance and will get me to my financial goals, but starting fresh at basically 40 also open to going back to school for

the right career. Any advice to be welcome. Love the show. Okay. Um, yeah, I mean that sucks. I don't know the business, uh, that well, um, at all, really. I mean, all the stuff that I did back in the day, I was so young, it doesn't really matter. But I will tell you, it feels like the empty promise thing is pretty universal. And when you go into things like, hey, all this stuff is gonna work out

and you're just like getting, I do think some places are just like, cool, this idiot is just going to give us everything he has. And we have no intention of ever rewarding all that stuff. You know, just this carrot, this carrot that management will dangle in front of you all the time. And I'm not saying like, Hey, accept it so that you're less disappointed, but it's something that you have to have happen to you enough to then have your defenses up. And then it's funny because then people will be like, oh, you know, this guy's like a little, little like, like on edge about what could potentially happen. And it's like, okay, yeah, but you're just, all of us are, um, again, the results of our experiences.

So you're still young enough and it sounds like the goal should be for you to try to get into some kind of ownership thing. So this doesn't happen to you, but I don't know your financial situation. You know, most people it's a huge ass to be able to do something like that. And the fact that so many of these places don't work out doesn't feel like a great option to suggest to you, but it sounds like you need to try to find a way to be more in control of what's going on. And this consulting thing, like, yeah, guess what? Overnight, it's not a raging success that gives you all this financial freedom that you have, but is there a, like a map here? Is there a roadmap of like, hey, if it's by 45 and five years, if I can do all of these

different things that this thing can take off, and then you're going to have that freedom and you're not going to have somebody that's going to want to replace you because it's your thing. So it's not ownership of a restaurant or a bar. In this case, it's ownership of the thing that you're still passionate about, or you're not susceptible to somebody else pulling the rug from underneath you. I also think that it's worth doing this because I've had to do the self-scattering report a few times where, now I've had a lot of times in my career where I know I've been fucked with and I'll tell the person, you're fucking with me. That doesn't go over well. And I'll look back at certain encounters and I'll think, okay, we had this here and then like this happened here and then this happened here.

And then this happened here. And like, look, my run, I'm really proud of like every place I've ever worked has always wanted me to stay. I've not worked at one place that didn't want me to stay other than the sporting news debacle when they re-signed me to a contract and then didn't sign it. Even the Trenton Thunder? Trenton Thunder wanted me to stay. That's right. They were, they actually probably taking advantage of you more than anybody. Yeah. They love you.

Squeak a couple more years on this guy. Fucking idiot. 200 bucks a week, 80, a hundred hours a week during the season. No, I quit on the day. As soon as they said, you're not going to be on the air. We're going to bring you back slowly, retrain you. And I was like, I'll never be on the air again. I said, all right, cool. I'm out of here right now on the spot. Quit.

It was like done. So anyway, the point is, is that like, whenever I play back like, oh, the Trenton thunder thing, or, you know, all the stories that the OG listeners already know, these are the Trenton Thunder thing, or, you know, all the stories that the OG listeners already know, because they've heard it so many times. They're like, could it be me? Could it, could it potentially, let me see here, could it be me? And you're like, well, Trenton lied about what my salary would be and almost bankrupt me.

And they're the ones that put me on the air when I told them I'd never done it before. So whose fault is that? Because I wasn't a play by play prodigy. You know, when I was with the sporting news affiliate and they lied about a contract. You were pretty good at tarping up the field though, right? When it was raining quick. Yeah, I was one of the stronger guys on the tarp. Yeah.

But I'll tell you right now, that wind gets a hold of the tarp and you don't have batting gloves on, it can rip a fingernail right off. Cause guys like grab that. I'm like batting gloves to pull tarp. They're like, dude, wind gust. And I think they also,

because they were trying to like still kick me in the dick a little, they were like, when you're on the call and it's a rain delay, cause you're second guy, you have to run. I was like, so when I'm on play by play, I have to say into the game like, Hey, it looks like it's raining. I'll be right back. No, seriously. Like I had to do that. Although we weren't allowed to say that it was raining because we didn't want to advertise that rain was a possibility to potential customers.

So we were rain delays. We had to say, we had to like come up with reasons that it wasn't rain. Oh, it actually works. Do you think that actually works? I could do an hour. I yeah, I could do. I remember in the radio days, like, don't say break. And it's like, OK, like, well, what else? If I'm interested in the show, then I will come back. It's there. I'll stick around.

Like, it's it's I don't know. So the break is not why you're a bad show. You're assuring us that we'll be right. No, you don't say you're right back because you never go anywhere. That was the cultish approach to it. So like one guy, I think it was. Bruce Gilbert, he was leaving right when I was at ESPN, but he, I don't know if he was the brains behind it all, but it's actually pretty convincing in a room. If you think about it,

it's like ESPN radio is always there so we never leave, so we're never coming back, right? Like that was the concept. So in a little bit we'll be doing this, is that what you, like what do you, how do you dance around? Up next, everything was up next, up next. And it was like, teases were the most important thing. Teases were more important in radio than the radio.

The actual radio. Yeah, I'm telling you right now. Like it was one of the most unbelievable, like did you hear anything I said the previous eight minutes? But like, I, your T's kind of suck. Okay. Let's work on that. Yeah.

What about the eight minutes that the person's listening? Yeah. Well, I don't, I wasn't really paying attention, but the T's was T's a little weak. Anyway, the point is, is you go back and run through your own self-scattering report of all your interactions. Like you need to, you know, When I do it, I'm like, no, it is everybody else's fault. You need to do some real, it's tough. It's really tough to do it.

And I have no idea. You just wrote us an email, it was a few sentences. I don't know anything about you. But it may be something that you're not aware of, that you're doing, that you have, and that makes the next stop end up with a better ending. Yeah. I don't think I've met a consultant, and I don't know that many, but I haven't met a consultant that it's worked out. You could say it's worked out for that, doesn't have a sick gig. a consultant that it's like worked out. You could say it's worked out for that, like doesn't kind of have a sick gig. It sounds pretty awesome in theory

if you can make all the right choices in that space. It sounds like those guys are having a lot of fun. So you're saying the people that you've met in the consulting industry all seem like they're having a good time. Yeah, I do. Okay. Yeah. Consultant is also one of those things like when you tell people that, they're like, oh time. Yeah, I do. Okay. Yeah. Consultant's also one of those things like when you tell people that they're like, oh, that's kind of mysterious. Well, yeah, it's like,

are you a hit man? I don't even actually know what that means. Like, what do you consult for? It could be anything. You know, you could, you could, technically you could call yourself a consultant for anything. If you got one client. Joe Hatham might be a consultant, I think. If anyone's sure. I don't know if anyone knows what he, I think he, I think he might be considered. I think he might be a consultant, I think. If anyone's sure, I don't know if anyone knows, I think he might be considered a consultant of sorts. I think he is actually, yeah. I know. I mean, I guess I respect his. Right, but didn't I ask him like once,

because I had no idea. Yeah, you were like, hey, hold on, what do you do, man? Yeah. What do you do? It was pretty rude. I was there, I knew you weren't trying to be rude, but it was a little rude.

The tone said, I've always wanted to know this, but the tone also says like, what could you possibly do? Put together more. Yeah, but I love house. I know, of course. So it wouldn't ever have been, you actually do something. But that was actually kind of how it sounded though,

which was funny. Anyway. Yeah, I guess I'd never really, I mean, I never asked him, so I could have just done that, but. Just been on pods with him for years, just never, never even realized he didn't know anything. Yeah. Like in the real world. See, there's one of those self-scouting. A lot of people have that done that. But just been on pods with it for years. Just never, never even realized you didn't know what he did. Like in the real world. See, there's, there's one of those. A lot of people have that question though. A lot of people. But I needed you guys to get me there, right? So who knows?

I actually was the only non-sports job that I've had in my adult life. I mean, other than a couple of bartending gigs was an insurance consultant, which is special, but it doesn't sound like it actually wasn't right. Well, it was pretty messed up because state of Vermont was like, consultant, which is special, but it sounds like it actually wasn't right. Yeah. Well, it was pretty messed up because state of Vermont was like, you can't be a consultant. You've never worked in health insurance. It'd be nice for you to be a consultant in

something that you've worked in. And I was like, I gotta tell you, I think I agree with you guys. Like, I don't know why they gave me the job. I think I got myself into a lot of trouble here. I think. Yeah. It wasn't like I was doing, well actually,

it wasn't my fault, because the guys that started the consulting firm gave me the job, because I was gonna be cheap, and I was gonna work. Yeah, don't blame me, blame them. Yeah, six months in, like the state of Vermont's health board was like, who the fuck is this guy signing off on clients?

And they were like, oh, he's our new guy. Like, where did he work? MVP health, blue cross, blue shield. Like, no, what else you. And that was it. That was good. That was the end. That was the end of that.

Then they had to like buy me out for something. I remember I got really pissed. I was like, I've been called, I've been going out boots on the ground, meeting with all these people and they gave me two grand for something. I remember I got really pissed. I was like, I've been going out, boots on the ground, meeting with all these people and they gave me two grand or something. And they were like, well, you didn't really bring in that much revenue. So we're just paying. I was like, how did you guys not know that I couldn't do this? They're like, we didn't know. I think they sold that company for like millions too. Who knows? Employee number one, golfing three days a week in the consulting business. All right.

That was the longest thing ever because we actually had to fill a ton of time because of something else. So I hope you enjoyed it. I don't know. Oregon, do you want to come over next time? Hell yeah. Let's do it. Okay.

Right. We're gonna have to grab that from him. Great passion. We'll do it on a non-Thunder Nuggets night, the night before a pod next time. And then Kyle, you and I can just tank a bunch of beers and see if we can start some shit in some parking lots or something. Sound better? What parking lots?

Am I right? Anyway. Exactly. Yeah. Here we go. What parking lots? Mulaney. Good job. All right Here we go. What parking lots. Malaney.

Good job. All right. That is the podcast for today. Check us out on YouTube as well. Ryan Roussela podcast. Must be 21 and older, present in select states for Kansas in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino or 18 plus and present in DC gambling problem, call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit rg-help.com. Call 888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org forward slash chat in Connecticut or visit mdgamblinghelp.org in Maryland.

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