The Ryen Russillo Podcast - Ranking NFL Teams Like the 12-Team CFB Playoff. Plus, Booger McFarland on Big Ten > SEC and the Bengals Going for Two.

Episode Date: November 8, 2024

Russillo opens the show by ranking NFL teams like the rankings for the College Football Playoff (0:48). Then, he’s joined by Booger McFarland to discuss the first College Football Playoff rankings, preview Alabama-LSU, and share their thoughts on Baltimore’s win over Cincinnati (13:24). Finally, another edition of the Alliance (38:44) and Life Advice with Ceruti and Kyle (45:09). Why is my girlfriend not OK with me doing solo travel? Check us out on YouTube for exclusive clips, livestreams, and more at https://www.youtube.com/@RyenRussilloPodcast. The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit www.rg-help.com to learn more about the resources and helplines available. Host: Ryen Russillo Guest: Booger McFarland Producers: Steve Ceruti, Kyle Crichton, and Mike Wargon Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What's up? It's Friday. We've got booger McFarland with us. We'll talk a lot of college ball, including some of the rankings discrepancies that he sees and why he thinks the committee really likes the big 10. Uh, and also a little on the two point conversion decision from Cincinnati, but that will pivot into what I've done earlier. And that is I look at college football system with 12 teams now and try to figure out a way to seed a 12 team NFL playoff bracket. We've got the Alliance. I know. And we've got life advice. We've got one that's unsolvable.

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So we're kind of like the halfway point of the NFL season. Let's look at finding the best 12 teams. If we were going to apply the same kinds of standards to college football teams for NFL teams and put them in the playoffs. So slightly different. So there's a few things that you have to like remove from the comparison. They're gonna have some teams with some losses here.

It's not just gonna be about record the way it still is for a lot of the college football rankings. By record, if you look at every team right now, there are 18 teams that are four and four or worse. All right. So the top 12 teams actually would be covered by three or less losses. And then you have Arizona and Denver at five and four. And then you have my favorite team, the Cincinnati Bengals that lose again

last night who are four and six. I did not get Cincinnati in the playoff despite their losses. Other than the New England thing, which feels like outer space. because you're like, what the hell is going on there? Kansas City, Washington, Baltimore overtime, Philadelphia, Baltimore again, some nice losses in there, some really nice losses. I think they're a really good football team. Borough's just been on a tear here again. I don't know if TV shows are still doing what's wrong with Borough after a loss the way that

we do with quarterbacks or why is a quarterback really good after a win when the quarterback wasn't really that good. But Lamar looks like the MVP. Cincinnati gets down the field, gets the touchdown, tries to go for two. I feel like I'm a big opponent or big proponent of not going for two in big spots. But in this case, when you're the lesser team and you really kind of need it and it's the division, I don't have a huge issue with it. And look, the last play was just didn't work out. Like Baltimore was ready for it. They covered the routes really well. I know people think the doors interference on the inside guy, but I don't know,

whatever, it's not where the ball was thrown and just wasn't going to matter all that much. So the Baltimore gets another win. And I've seen, I don't know if it was ZSPN or even if we're doing it here on the ringer, cause I know we do quarterback rankings like every single week, which look, we can sit there and say, what's the point of any of it? I could say that about my entire career. All right. So the reason we do the quarterback stuff, whether it's us or someone else, it's just kind of fun. But I do think they like should be some standard with Mahomes as great as Lamar has been this year.

And Lamar has been the better quarterback. I just think it should be Mahomes one. And then you figure out what you want to do with the rest of the guys. Cause I did see some kind of discussion of like, should you still put Mahomes at top five? I think it should be Mahomes one. And then you can start talking about it. And in that case it'd be Lamar too, even though again, if you want to

change what the conversation is, Lamar has played better quarterback. This year than Mah homes has and Baltimore, even with their three losses, as we segue into this, even with their three losses, like I'm going to have them hire my playoff rankings because of the opponents, because of the resume and all that kind of stuff. So let's dig through it. All right. So these rules are basically mine.

I'm going through the best wins, the worst losses and all that kind of stuff. We'll go through the best records that I have here and then I'll put them in my 12 team playoff system. All right, Kansas City is eight and O, but they're eighth in point differential. Um, some of the strength of schedule stuff is all over the place, but theirs has not been great. Their best win is week one against Baltimore. That's probably because I like Baltimore so much.

I think you should too. I think at 49ers is still a nice win. Um, they've got the win at Cincinnati and again, they haven't lost. They have six one score wins. If you want it to be a little, a little difficult about it. Detroit is seven and one. They're number one in point differential. The best wins at Minnesota when Minnesota was undefeated, 3129.

At Green Bay is a good win. At Arizona, I think is a good win. Destroying Dallas. When you beat a team in the NFL, 47 to nine with Dallas talent. So that's some nice stuff there on the resume. The worst loss. It's their only loss to Tampa Bay. Remember there were one for seven in the red zone on that one.

So, um, Detroit in the conversation for the number one overall seed Buffalo is at seven and two, their best win is Arizona maybe at Seattle. You could say their losses are actually pretty good, but they did get housed by Baltimore. And they lost in the fourth quarter at Houston after being down early. They tied it up 20 a piece there. They're number two in point differential. Promise I won't do point differential

for every single team here. Washington seven and two best wins at Cincinnati. Kind of the Jane Daniels coming out party. The week one loss Tampa isn't terrible. And then losing a Baltimore Y1 scores a good loss. Pittsburgh at six and two best win week two at Denver 13 to six at home against the Chargers 20 to 10. I think it's probably the Chargers worst loss at the Colts by a field goal.

Dallas by a field goal. Um, but it's only two losses. So be kind of curious where Pittsburgh is in comparison to maybe some teams that have worse records. Minnesota at six and two. Good off to the amazing start. Everybody loved it. The Darnold reclamation project on top of that floors and defense, just finding

ways every single week to disrupt everything. They've got a Houston wind that was dominant 34 seven, the Niners win. I'm going to bring up Niners results because I just respect them. I just, I don't know what I respect the shield. Um, at green Bay with Jordan Love, the losses, Lions, Rams, and it just feels like, it feels like with Minnesota, it's slipping a bit because of a one score game against the Colts.

All right, Philadelphia, six and two, week one win against Green Bay. That was a nice win. It was a good game. Felt like it was two really good football teams that night. At Cincy two weeks ago, 37-17, turning out in the second half. There's a reason why I talked up that win. I thought it was the best win of the week, just by Cincinnati's record here.

Worst losses, these aren't bad losses necessarily to lose by a point to Atlanta. The 33-16 loss earlier in the year against Tampa was the one where people were ready to say, hey, this Philly thing. From when I did the buck segment of, like you don't really know when a teen dies until years later, as opposed to a person,

you're like, that guy died on August 14th. It felt like maybe we were to start leaning into that with Philadelphia a little bit and no, that's not really the case. So I think we're okay with that. I feel a lot better about Philadelphia than I did a month or so ago. Baltimore record wise behind all of these teams. What are we going to do? Are they going to be this low in the ranking?

No, uh, wins against the bills, Cincinnati twice Denver, because of the record. Is that a good win? Well, 41-10 is pretty impressive. Losses, really good losses, Kansas City, oh no, wait, that's the only good loss, because as great as I think Baltimore is, these are bad losses in comparison to potential first round by NFL team seeding.

Raiders and the Browns. Both bad losses. If you were in the committee, what would you say? You'd say, okay, well, the Raiders game was really weird. Million penalties kind of falling apart there at the end. Browns was just facing the James Winston vibe fest for a week. And they caught them that week. Then somebody would be like, do you work for Baltimore in the room? Atlanta, sneaky six and three Atlanta first in the NFC South.

Do they get extra points for leading the division? Best win, Philadelphia. We just covered it. They've got two wins in the division against Tampa. Those are good wins. Even though Tampa is only four or five, the losses. Not bad, really. is not bad really. Week one against Pittsburgh, they lost at home against Kansas City.

And yeah, they got dumped truck by Seattle, but Seattle's not a bad football team. So this isn't like some of these other ones that we have to compare it to. Houston hasn't been mentioned yet. There's six and three. I really like Houston. Best win, Buffalo win, right? We've covered that one. The loss is pretty rough look against Minnesota there. A last second field goal against Green Bay,

but then they've got the Jets loss. What does a Jets loss mean right now? Because if the Jets go on some kind of run, like that early non-conference team that you lose to, where you're like, I can't believe you lost those guys. And all of a sudden you're like, no, we're really good because that non-conference loss isn't that bad. Cause that team ended up at eight and four. Green Bay hasn't been mentioned yet. Six and three, best win Houston, Arizona, the Rams. Their losses are all pretty good here.

Philly, Minnesota, Detroit. You could say, well, they lost a quarterback. They were disrupted a little bit, but with Malik Willis, if they'd had losses with Willis starting, maybe their playoff ranking is higher. But in this case, they won both their games against Tennessee and the Colts when he was the main guy. Last record team worth mentioning here before we get to some of the outsiders, the Chargers, five and three, the best win is at Denver by a score.

Three good losses, Pittsburgh, Kansas City, Arizona, maybe. And then you've got five and four Arizona. You've got five and four Denver. Yes, I probably tried to find a way to get four and four San Francisco in here to disrupt it a little bit, but I wasn't able to do it. All right. So here are the seedings, the four first round buys. Detroit is my number one overall seed.

Kansas City is at number two, even with the perfect record. Some of you may have a problem with that. Some of you may admire the fact that I'm such a pioneer. Number three, Buffalo, Philly, Minnesota, Washington. I'm doing it. I'm doing it for Baltimore. Cause I think Baltimore is the best team in the NFL. I would lose the argument to the Detroit argument, but I do.

I probably still even as much as we touched on golf and who he is now and that you expect really good things from him, we're past all of the unknown with golf. I would still take Lamar over golf. All right. So I'm going Baltimore, the three seed. I'll go Buffalo four seed. And the only reason I didn't have Buffalo's three seed here is because I just think

head to head that should have mattered even though Baltimore has the extra loss. Five seed. Philly or Minnesota? Philly or Minnesota? Well, Minnesota's wins. Niners, Houston, Green Bay, three straight weeks. That was a fun three weeks huh Minnesota obviously slipping a bit the last three momentum

wise I can make the argument for Philadelphia over Minnesota but we still have to I'm gonna go with Minnesota five Philadelphia six Washington is my seventh seed. Houston is my eighth seed. Yes, the Jets loss is about as bad as you're going to find on any of these teams that I'm looking at here. But would you allow me in the room if we were all part of the committee if I said, yeah, but the good Rogers week? Although they wrecked Stroud in that game. I mean, that was rough for our man CJ. All right, Green Bay's my nine seed.

Better wins than Pittsburgh. Again, we touched on the QB thing, but you couldn't use that in the room when Malik was undefeated as the starter. But I just like Green Bay's wins better than Pittsburgh. That puts Pittsburgh at 10. Atlanta two wins against Tampa at six and three. Better than Arizona's wins?

Let's give it to Atlanta. Arizona's my 12 seed, Chargers Denver. Niner Cincinnati all out. What's better than touchdowns? Touchdowns with a boost. And with Fandl you can make your next touchdown bet even bigger with a 30% Gronk profit spike. That means you can get an even bigger payout on your next anytime touchdown bet. So when they get in the end zone, you'll win big. Just visit FanDuel.com slash Ryan RYE to download America's number one sportsbook. Fandual, official partner of the NFL, must be 21 and older and present in select states and 18 plus and present in DC, opt-in required. Max wager amount applies,

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Save the holidays with winners and HomeSense. It is our good friend, very excited to talk to Booger McFarland of ESPN, big part of the college football coverage on ABC and ESPN as well. What's up, man? It looks like you have a workout you're just about to start or a tee time you're getting ready for? I never know with you. No, workout is done. Just got off the Peloton, big Peloton day today.

Got a good sweat and decided to do the pot outside today and enjoy this great Florida weather, buddy. Yeah, no, it looks good, man. All right, so I watched the Playoff Ranking Reaction Show with you guys. I thought it was great. I mean, it's a different format now, so I watched the playoff ranking reaction show with you guys. I thought it was great. I mean, it's a different format now, so there's different discussions.

I don't really think I saw anything. I felt like this is egregious. I know there's different discussions, debates, whatever. Where are you with the first rankings? Well, it's a couple of things, although they weren't egregious, a couple of things that stood out. The Indiana Penn State thing to me is just mind boggling.

Here you have two teams. They're in the same conference. Indiana is undefeated. I get it. The strength of schedule is 103. However, Indiana and Penn State are in the same conference. Indiana has zero losses. Penn State has one. Penn State is ranked the head of Indiana. That doesn't make sense to me. Especially when you look at the one common opponent that they have, which is UCLA. UCLA came to Happy Valley, Penn State, it was a struggle, they pulled away late. Indiana went to Los Angeles and beat the brakes off UCLA. So like when you factor all that in, how Penn State could be ranked ahead of Indiana is mind boggling. And then the second thing is, you know, when you look at this committee, they have Ohio

State ahead of Georgia. So they're clearly valuing the one point loss that Ohio State had at Oregon over the way that Georgia lost to Alabama. I look at it the opposite way. I think Georgia's victory over Texas may be the most dominating performance of the season, how they won that game in the dominant fashion. So although they weren't egregious, I thought those two things stood out. And if you're going gonna be upset about Indiana,

you kinda gotta be upset about BYU also being undefeated in the Big 12 rank where they're ranked. Yeah, I totally agree. Like I had Big Cat on Tuesday night for Wednesday's episode. And if you're arguing about Indiana, like what you really are doing is arguing about BYU being in front of them, because all of the same standards, I mean, unless you think the Big 10 is so superior

to the Big 12, which, you know, at this point, I think the gap is closer than I thought it would be, but it's just kind of hard to even figure out, like, one team's experience in a conference can be completely different than another team in the same conference, and that's certainly the case for what we've seen from some of the Big 10 stuff and the ACC, I would say, this year.

So let's stay with the Georgia part of it, because I completely agree that when it texts this, no one else has anything else like that on their resume. Um, it might just be that Georgia looks so terrible for 30 minutes and credit for them to getting back into it where Ohio state's best performance is their loss. Like that's the game I felt the best about them. It's the game I felt the, it's like the best I've ever felt about Will Howard was after the loss of Eugene,

despite the mix-ups on that last possession. And clearly the committee had said, looking at those things, that it was an Ohio State loss to Oregon. Like it was pretty clear. I was kind of surprised that Ward was so clear about it, being like that That loss is the difference and why they have it there which you know, I I'm not even saying that they're necessarily wrong I think I would just give them more credit meaning Georgia for that win against Texas because what they did that night was special

Yeah, I completely agree with you. See I don't like when the committee looks at Quote-unquote quality of loss like this is supposed to be about who you beat especially in this day and age when these conferences are so big and everybody's not going to play everybody because the schedules are not balanced. And so therefore you really can't go about by the loss. You got to go by who you beat. And I think again, when you look at Georgia schedule, they beat Texas, they got Ole Miss this weekend, they got Tennessee coming up. I get it. It'll play itself out in the end, but these rankings are a week to week snapshot

based on how you feel. And a couple of things stood out about the Indiana and the Penn State, and clearly they value Ohio State and Penn State. It's almost as if they're saying the Big Ten this year, if you just look at it from a macro point, like the 10,000 foot view, they like the Big Ten this year more than the SEC

based on what I see, I don't know about you. Yeah, I was wondering, and it's a really good question because I was wondering if we were gonna see a different version of the rankings than we see from the AP because usually what'll happen is the committee will do something different, then the AP catches up to the committee like a week later. And this time, other than flipping Ohio State and Georgia,

it was basically the same rankings. And I was wondering about that block of SEC teams, if the committee, because the committee in the past has liked the SEC more, but I would argue, who are they supposed to like more than the SEC? There's no other option. I wondered if the block of all those teams, like a couple of them would sneak up ahead of some

of the teams, you know, 11, 12 or whatever. I mean, look, there's probably a better argument about SMU being left out than some of the two lost SEC teams. But yeah, there wasn't some SEC moment with the rankings where I went, uh-oh, like everybody's going to be so mad because the committee still really likes this conference that I still think is better than everybody else. I want to jump back to Indiana and Penn State though, because I think it's a really good point. We didn't really touch on it this week.

This is difficult, because no one's gonna want me to defend a Big 10 team that's two and five in Big 10 play and four and five overall, and they've just gone through another quarterback situation in USC. But do you think Indiana has a win that's as impressive as what Penn State did at USC? Because for three hours on a Saturday,

I thought that was an incredible win, but I'm not allowed to now because of USC's record and the fact that again, they're two and five in this conference. Do you think Indiana has a win that's as good as that? No, not when you look at it from a singular standpoint, although I will say what Penn State did, and see this is why if

the committee is really watching these games, they got to look at what Penn State did at Wisconsin. And I get it. Wisconsin is Wisconsin. But when you lose your quarterback, your backup quarterback comes in and you still figure out a way on the road in a hostile environment to get it done, it can't rattle. I'm going to give you credit. Now I get it. Indiana season is coming up on November 23rd when they go to the horseshoe. I get that. But if you take the emblem, Ryan, off the side of the helmet, and you just say, okay, if I just told you, if you just parachuted in and I said, hey, there's a big 10 team that's undefeated that's not ranked in the top four, you'd be like, are you kidding me? Because the

respect that that conference has. And it will be the same for the SEC. Take the emblem off the helmet. And I said there's a Big Ten or an SEC team that's undefeated in Week 10 and they're not ranked in the top four. You'd be like, no, that's impossible. And so that's kind of the way I look at it. I don't think the committee is giving Indiana the love, not necessarily because of 103 strength of schedule, but because of the brand. They're not used to seeing Indiana being good, and they're going to use the strength of schedule as an excuse. Yeah, I have a hard time believing there would be an SEC team nine games through that would be at 103 in strength of schedule.

I think it's damn near impossible. I'm not saying it's never happened. And to credit to Indiana, I do think they're good. I've probably watched three full games and then pieces of others, because you knew as the season progressed, you're like, I gotta get them on the radar, I gotta make sure there's a screen up on them.

And for some of these teams, it would be critique, and you're like, oh, they pulled it out again and they're still undefeated. I mean, hell, I remember Florida State the year after they won the title. All of us kinda knew, something's wrong with this team, but they kept winning. And you know, you could talk about opponents

and all that stuff, but at least Indiana is destroying these teams. But we'll see. Do you think they get in at 11 and one? What if they're trounced by Ohio State? You think they're in the 12? I think the committee has clearly stated that if Penn State and Indiana end up with the

same record, they're going to take Penn State. And if they get trounced, really, to me, it doesn't matter if they lose by one or lose by 25. The committee has clearly said that they like Ohio State, they like Oregon, they like Penn State. I think those would be the three teams in this scenario that would get in. I think it would probably be three, maybe four from the SEC.

I don't think there's gonna be a three loss team that gets into the college football playoff, do you? Well, I think we'll have it some years. I mean, we got to, I don't know that it's gonna happen. I could see maybe, you know, there'd have to be like a really big win from an SEC team and then the big 12 teams cancel each other out. You know, let's not rule out just the weird upset that's

going to happen to a couple of these teams anyway. It gets an opponent, but they're more than a double digit favor. I mean, it's going to happen. We should learn our lesson through this. I do, I'd push back on this a little bit. I think if Indiana plays them really close and you're running out of options for like 10, 11 and 12, then they'll probably be in. But it also, you know, in comparison, it's like the Heisman vote every year. It's like, okay, well, this guy, well, who am I voting against? I mean, it can't just be, this is your resume in 2024. What is the resume

of everybody else that Indiana is compared with? And I do think there's a lot of value for them in a very close loss to Ohio State because I think it'll get more people to buy in and they'll have more momentum. So let's play this out. Okay, it's 12 teams. One's the group of five. And if Notre Dame wins out, one's Notre Dame. So that's two spots. You got the four conference champs. Okay, that's six. So there's only six spots left. So let's just say that it's Georgia, Texas, again, in the SEC championship game. I think both of those teams are in. Okay. So that's the SEC champion. And then there's the loser of that game, I think is in. All right. I think if Alabama beats LSU and wins out, even though Alabama is not going to play for the SEC title in that scenario, I think Alabama still gets in. Okay. All right. So now, now you go to the big 10, Ohio State, Oregon, Penn State. Do we have any spots left?

Like it's, it's not many spots left. Like 12 goes by super fast. When you add the group of five, you add Notre Dame in. Okay. If Notre Dame wins out, cause Notre Dame is going to be in, even though they can't be ranked any higher than five. So like these 12 spots go by really, really quick in that scenario. Yeah.

That's a great point when you start doing the math and looking at all of it. But I know that we have to factor in. We have to factor in two, maybe even three losses where you're like, how did that happen when the pressure cranks up? Like, it just reminds me of the end of some of these BCS years. Maybe I can even go back further than, than just the 14 playoff where you think you have it lined up and then we've had these chaotic weekends where everything fell apart and now you're arguing for a team in the two spot in the BCS system where two weeks ago

like you weren't even thinking about them. So it's just a nice reminder. All right. I'm in Baton Rouge. I'm ready to go, made this trip, whether it's in Tuscaloosa or Baton Rouge, every year now since 08, except for, I think there was one Connecticut travel issue and then a COVID year in there. So I wanted to keep the streak going and never miss it for the rest of my life.

But you know how I feel about this game. It's a weird one going in. Usually there's like a lot of doubt and then there'll be like every five years, there'll be this massive spike of confidence. Like certainly 19 when I was on the sideline for Tuscaloosa Like I've never seen the LSU group like that They're just coming out and they're like we got this and it still was you know, they were control of the game It was still like a really good game. This is a huge one because both these teams in this system are still alive

What are your liens on this game? Well, obviously, you know where my heart is, but I look at it from an analytical standpoint and try to analyze this game. The thing that LSU wants to do with distro the football, can they protect against this Alabama front? Nussmeyer, if he gets shaken in the pocket and he gets indecisive like he did against A&M, he's shown a propensity to throw the football

to the other team. LSU either can't run the ball or doesn't want to run the ball. I haven't figured it out. For a team that has two tackles that are going to go in the top 50 picks, a pretty good offensive line, they either can't or don't want to run it. You're not going to beat Alabama by throwing the football exclusively. If you look at the two losses, if you look at how they've lost, okay, teams have ran the football against them. If you look at what Vanderbilt did, they ran it with a mobile quarterback with Diego Pabu,

like they ran the football, you got to keep this team off balance. I don't know if they can do that. And then when you flip it over, Ryan, the biggest question mark, I think in college football weekend and week out is the LSU defense, because of where they were last year, they've made a massive improvement this year. But just when you think they got it figured out They've made a massive improvement this year, but just when you think they got it figured out, you have a second half like you did against A and M. So can they tackle Miro? Can they get Jalen Miro on the ground? To me, that's

going to be the key to the game. And when you look at it from the Alabama side, which Jalen Miro you're going to get, because Jalen Miro, the first part of the season, male kite number one pick Jalen Miro. I'm like, okay, pump the brakes a little bit, Mel. And now he's kind of reverted back. I mean, seriously, I mean, Mel was saying his number one pick. Don't even get me started. Do not even get me started on when the week after the Georgia game, they were saying Milrow. Like I wish, I mean, we're all talking betting now.

I was like, can I get a market for that to not happen? And how much can I risk? But anyway, I mean, look, people think I like hate Milrow and it's not that I just, when that part of it happens, when he has the really nice weeks where he puts it together, it's like, man, you are eliminating a lot of the other stuff. And I just thought like, it's been such a weird quarterback class, right?

It's been such a weird class for the 25 draft that I, look, I'll admit, I think I've watched the clip three times. So sorry, I'll just, I gotta move on from it because then it's gonna sound like I'm just jumping on a kid in college, and I don't know, it might be too late. Well, if the J. Lamir road that shows up the first half against Georgia,

then Alabama's tough to beat, but you just don't know which J. Lamir road you're gonna get. And I'm just hoping that this game, either way, that we get a game late in the fourth quarter where that stadium can come alive. I think the college football fans deserve it. They saw it against Ole Miss.

I think they deserve to see that. It's going to be a national stage. I'm hoping for college football that we get that atmosphere late Saturday night. Who do you think is better, Penn State or Miami? Miami. Miami is way more explosive. Like Penn State, I think you and Saruti could start a wide receiver for Penn State. Like that was the biggest issue against Ohio State, Ryan. They got no explosive plays and we can talk about the tight end Tyler Warren and he's great and all this good stuff. But the reason

James Franklin can't beat Michigan, excuse me, Ohio State, they don't have enough explosive players. You can change the offensive coordinator. I love it. Andy Koltanik, he's come in, he's changed everything, but they don't have enough explosive play. Like Tyler Warren in the Wildcat running the football. Come on, man. Like if you're Penn State, we're the dudes on the outside that can go win one-on-one battles because all the house they do is play man to man coverage. Like when the game was in the line, they play man to man and they dare Drew Aller to make a play and they couldn't. So I think Miami is better because Kim Ward has shown you the one thing Miami can do, they're gonna score 50. And if you can't get to at least 40 to make them nervous,

you got no shot. Yeah, it's a really good point, because Miami's had a few moments this season, whether it's the Cal game, it's the Virginia Tech game, and I'll admit, last week against Duke, there's a couple moments early in the game being like, okay, is this finally going to happen, despite how ridiculous I think the schedule is going to be for

Miami, the explosiveness from them and it's cam ward. So it's not, there's, there should be no doubt about like who he is or what he's capable of. I mean, that Cal game, we can laugh about it being Cal, but it was a tough night there. Like they were hyped up that day went forever game days there, like I thought Cal was in it. There was moments with cows, like, Hey, this is a good football team.

And I know that sounds ridiculous, but there's just not a lot of guys in the, there's just not a lot of guys in the country. I think that stay in the game and on the road that far away the whole deal. And, and there's just cam has these moments where you're like, all right, yeah, you may be right. Maybe it doesn't matter if they give up 35 because they're going to put 45 on you. And you know, when you compare it to the explosiveness of Penn State, just think about it. It's so much better this year, even than it was last year. And yet some of the problems are still there. Yeah, right. I mean, Harrison Wallace is second in receptions and Tyler Warren has more than

double the receptions than the next highest catch total of any receiver for Penn State. I mean, Wallace has 24 catches this year. Clifford has 14. And Warren's a beast. Like he should be a first round pick and all that. But I was curious on that one. Okay, do you think that there's a real U-ers

post torso abdomen injury here? Like a different, like the statistics tell us we see a different Uers. Do you see it being a long-term different Uers from the guy in the first month? Well, I think there is a, I don't know if there's a physical long-term effect. I do think there's a little bit of a mental effect

because Sarge pulled him in the game. And I think in the back of his mind, he knows that he's gotta be, he doesn't have to be perfect, but he's gotta play well because there's always that thought in the back of his mind, he knows that he's gotta be, he doesn't have to be perfect, but he's gotta play well because there's always that thought in the back of his mind that his coach is gonna pull him for this other guy. And I think that plays an effect on the quarterback,

especially think about this, juxtapose that to what you see from Kirby. Kirby, when Carson Beck comes off to the sideline, you look at Kirby, they start hugging him. Like, what is going on? Like Kirby's hugging him and talking in his ear and rubbing his head. I'm like, he's chewing everybody else's ass out, but he's coddling Carson Beck. You juxtapose that to Quinn Ures, start just kind of say, all right, buddy, go,

go grab a seat for a couple of series. I'm going to put this other guy in and we'll figure it out. Think about that. And so I think that plays in Quinn Ures' mind. Yeah. I don't, I can't imagine Kirby not gonna start yelling at Beck at some point here. I mean, this is bad football for a month from him.

And yet, I'm still sitting there. Like think of how many times you'd be arguing the team in Georgia as it sounds like we both probably would both have Georgia head of Ohio State because we appreciate that Texas win more than Ohio State's best win. But yet I'm arguing for Georgia going, you realize this Beck thing is a real problem

now. It's not just, hey, he had a couple picks, tip ball or whatever. There's just second defenders where I'm like, is he not seeing these guys now for a month? The Beck thing is a real issue. But the one thing that's in the back of my mind and in your mind, Jaylen Walker, Michael Williams, that defense is nasty. And you know, there's not a better big game coach than Kirby Smart. Regardless of the situation. Dude, think about the game against Alabama. They were down 28-0 and Kirby just kept coaching and kept coaching and kept coaching and kept coaching.

And after the game, I thought he said the single thing that I've heard since Nick Sabre retired, the thing that I've heard from a coach that was the single most poignant thing. He said, yeah, we didn't play well and we lost. But I'll tell you what, I learned a lot about my team tonight. I told those guys, they were so resilient

and he just kept fighting and kept fighting. And I learned a lot about this team. When you're down 28-0, I've been there. Okay. You start taking the tape off and like, hey man, let's not get hurt tonight and let's keep it moving. They kept battling back and took the lead. That's like, that team is so mentally tough and that defense is the reason why Kirby feels that way. Okay. A couple more things here. Is there a team from the group of say, BYU, Notre Dame, Boise, SMU that you like better than the other three? Man, SMU's got a lot of team speed. I don't know how good they are on defense. Notre Dame, Raleigh Leonard, he can run it. he's athletic, but his propensity to throw

the football down the field, it's not where it needs to be. Boise, I love Jente. I would probably lean toward Notre Dame. I like their defense. They got a really good secondary. I think if Notre Dame plays Miami, that would be a really good matchup, maybe not on paper, but I do think what Miami wants to do with just throw the football, I think Notre Dame has really good corners, really good secondary, they can rush the passer.

So it would just depend on the matchups. And that's what I think this playoff, the 12-team playoff is going to be. I could care less about rankings. If you get in, it's going to be about matchups and matchups only. Regardless, like we're gonna look at a team that's seated four and a team that's seated nine and say, well, the nine team is an underdog. It may not be, it's gonna be about matchup. But back to your original question,

I'd like Notre Dame, man, because I think Riley Leonard and Mike Denbrock, the offensive coordinator at Notre Dame are starting to figure it out. I would choose Notre Dame because at the end of the day, man, it's about dudes. And I think Notre Dame would have enough dudes offensively to be able to score some points. I like Jayden Whitehouse. I like the receiver. Yeah, I would go with Notre Dame out of that group. Yeah, and look, Riley's been really clean. I mean, he had one against Georgia Tech that I don't think really ended up mattering all that much. And I'm with you. I really liked their

secondary, even though they lost one of the first round defensive backs, um, with this, with the injury that led to surgery. So look, um, I guess there's, there's part of me that looks at the BYU wins. And goes, those are really going to kind of gets back to our, like our Indiana argument and argument for Indiana is, is kind of like, well, if you're, if you're complaining about where they're at, when you look at the wins for BYU, you kind of have to jump them ahead of Indiana, if that's your premise of the entire thing, unless you just rule it out and think that there is this massive gap between the Big Ten and the Big Twelve. And certainly at the top for teams contending for a national championship, the Big

Ten list has like real viable guys where it looks like, I mean, would anybody say, hey, this Big Twelve team has a chance to win this whole thing? Like, I think that's a fill in the blank that stays blank. Before we finish, before we finish here, Cincinnati going for two last night. I'm in the supper club with Brandon Landry last night, LSU people all over the place. People care about Burrow more than, I mean, it's hilarious.

It's all Cincinnati fans down here because it's Joe Burrow and their love for him five years later. And then they hit the late touchdown. He puts up a huge number. Did you think they should have gone for two against Baltimore? Yes, because when you have a quarterback that's at that level, which is top three,

three quarterback in football, and you can win the game and you can put the game in your quarterback's hands, yeah, I think top three quarter, three quarterback in football. And you can win the game and you can put the game in your quarterback's hands. Yeah, I think you do. Because, because their defense hadn't shown they could stop Lamar. Now you could go back and say the officials missed

two calls on the play and that's, that's part of life. So is, but yes, to answer your question, yes. You go for two, you try to win the game. And that's what Zach Taylor said. They asked him after the game and said, we came here to win. Like we didn't come here to like just have the game handed to us. We wanted to win the game. And that's what Zach Taylor said. They asked him after the game and said, we came here to win. Like we didn't come here to like just have the game handed to us. We wanted to take the game.

They tried to and it failed. I still think Cincinnati is good. Like they are. Yeah, I know. I mean, the record, they're a college football team. It's almost like USC position. You're just not allowed to. But I give all the teams that beat Cincinnati credit.

I mean, eventually the defense has to figure out a way to match what they're doing with their offense. allowed to but I give all the teams that beat Cincinnati credit. I mean eventually the defense has to figure out a way to match what they're doing with their offense but I don't know. I don't know that you can change it that quickly in the NFL. Like there's college teams where you know LSU is probably a good example of this. You watch secondary at the beginning of the year you're like uh-oh you know going into that Ole Miss game I thought it was a bad matchup for them. I'm like they're gonna take deep shots, this guy's gonna mess up and it looked like that was gonna be the case

in the first half, and then it looked like they'd settled things down, and then Marcel Reed happens. In the NFL, can you become an entirely different defense? Can you find a way with the same personnel to be competitive enough to match what, you know, is an offense in Cincinnati that's really up there with anybody.

Yeah, I think you can. And I would use our 06 Indianapolis coach team. If you remember, they traded for me to help stop the run. And probably a month after I got there, we gave up like 370 against the Jaguars. And everybody's like, man, this team can't win with the defense. We can't win, we can't win.

And Tony Dungey came in at our team meeting right before the playoffs and simply said this, hey man, we're not changing the defense, we're not changing the scheme. We're growing many here. Everybody's got to do their job a little bit better. Take responsibility to do your job. And the rest is history. We won the Superbowl because everybody took on us to do their job better. That's what has to happen in Cincinnati. They got good players. Like, it's going to turn over. Like, Anytime you have a quarterback that's making 275 million, you're gonna have younger guys playing in different spots.

So Cincinnati's got good players. They just gotta do their job better. Yeah, everyone who always points to that team as the example of a question I'm asking, and it's funny because historically you were one of the worst, and again, I can't put it all on you, but it was the worst rush defense in like a 20 year span and what happened in the regular season. I mean, the numbers were horrible.

And I realized that like, whenever I brought it up, people point to Bob Sanders coming back and being healthy. And it's like, okay, but as great as Bob was, and there's a, there's a few year window in there where that guy was like my favorite player in the NFL. Okay. I don't think just Bob fixed everything and I love the guy. So we'll see. And look, I probably shouldn't say Cincinnati's offense is up there with anybody when Baltimore exists and they just played them last night. But yeah, I mean, Borough has it cooking and here they are sitting at their record because of the defense and some of the other stuff. Hey, man, enjoy the rest of your floor today and enjoy Saturday. And I'll give you some updates from Baton Rouge if you need them. All man, enjoy the rest of your floor today and enjoy Saturday and

I'll give you some updates from Baton Rouge if you need them. Alright, booger? We'll do. Have fun, man. Enjoy Baton Rouge, buddy. What does possible sound like for your business? It's the ability to reach further with access to over 1,400 lounges worldwide. Redefine possible with Business Platinum. That's the powerful backing of American Express. Terms and conditions apply. Visit mx. possible with Business Platinum. That's the powerful backing of American Express. Terms and conditions apply. Visit amex.ca slash business platinum. There are two sides to McDonald's new Cajun Ranch McRisbee. On the one hand, it's a masterpiece centered around that crispy, juicy, tender seasoned chicken.

On the other hand, McRisbee fans are going to love the bold, tangy taste of the new Cajun Ranch flavors. In other words, the Cajun Ranch McRisbee is a work of art for all your senses. Yep, like a flavorful fusion. Precisely. When is the gallery opening? It already has. Experience the Cajun Ranch McRisbee today for a limited time only at Participating McDonald's in Canada. It is the Alliance. It sure is. I don't know, man. Guys, you wanna talk about clarity?

Sometimes when I would look at the numbers and be like, I like that, I like that a lot. That looks really good. We got a little audio in the background. What's going on right now? It's fine, doesn't matter. Keep it going, maybe it'll help. All I can see right now are colors,

distortions of colors, a helmet here or there, a number that looks like it doesn't, I have no, nothing makes sense. Nothing works. I don't like any of them. That's how I've never had a worse run than this. Am I in last now? Am I in last?

By, by a bit. Yeah. Uh, we're gone is we're gone. It's been, he's been hot. He's seven and three, uh, Kyle and I are five and five and you are three and seven. Yeah. All right. Well, so we're five overall five game losing. Yeah. 500 overall. You're on a five and you are three and seven. Yeah, all right. So we're 500 overall.

Five game losing. Yeah, 500 overall. You're on a five game losing streak. Yeah, but I'm not supposed to lose. I'm clearly, I pay it, right, I pay a different tax. It was funny when you guys were losing. Now it's not. And I'm not even talking about myself.

I'm talking about like, here we go. All right, so. I'm straight up not having a good time. Yeah, not having a good time. So let's, I almost thought about giving you an NBA pick. Just to, like a wins a win, right? What's the real rule in here? Yeah, I've got a wonder award I could throw out if you want.

Yeah, you go bucks plus seven and a half against the Knicks. Like, you're not gonna be mad if it's a winner at me, right? You can't. So I thought about just doing that. Then I thought about doing that for couch money research. So whatever. Here's my pick, hurricanes. The line is minus 10 and a half.

I refuse juice before we did this. Not deserving of juice. Juice free. Saruti's like, we're not letting you do that. So it sounds like we're moving that to minus six and a half. We need the juice. I don't think I moving that to minus six and a half. Yeah. We need to juice. Right, I don't think I deserve it.

Just win by a touchdown, that's it. That's all I gotta do. Yep, minus six and a half. At Georgia Tech. All right. Yeah. I gotta talk, I'll go next. I gotta talk this out. I've been kind of back and forth.

I'm going, I'm gonna take Maryland and I'm gonna, they're at Oregon,'m gonna they're at Oregon coming off a buy Oregon coming off a big win at Ann Arbor, maybe a little bit of a letdown spot. I'm gonna just don't lose by four touchdowns Can they not lose by four touchdowns? I'm gonna take plus 20 and a half Maryland I know it's on the road. But again coming off a buy I think they could score a little bit I even like like there was the over 13 and a half, you know, just individual points for Maryland I'll take the spread. I feel like this has backdoor cover all over it too.

So even if they're getting blown, they're gonna get blown out, but don't lose by four touchdowns. There you go, those are your instructions, Terps. You heard it here first. By the way, a big, big Van Pelt contingency heading out to Eugene, I think for the first time ever. Van Pelt can't make it.

Wow. Yeah, because I was walking around New Orleans this week and I ran into some dudes and a guy pulled me aside and he was just like, hey, what's up? I was like, cool, SVP and Rosillo, awesome, love, thank you so much for saying hello, no big deal. And he's like, man, he goes, Van Pelt doesn't miss this one.

Is that why you're in town for LSU, Bama? It's like, he's been once. You guys like what? Yeah. Branding branding Oregon. It matters. There we go. I'll jump in next.

So I got Colorado all team total over 30 and a half. They've gotten this for their last five weeks. Texas techs defense stinks. They're they're terrible. They gave up 59 points to Baylor. Like Chaudhuri, Travis Hunter, like 30 and a half going over. That was the most confidence anyone has had on the Alliance all season long. He's given us team totals. He's given us research. He's given us breakdowns. This kid is red hot. Yeah. He's like, I don't even wanna pick just a game.

That'd be easy. He's got his Life is Good shirt on. He's feeling good today. Heck yeah. Got that dog in me. Oh my. Wait. I don't know how I missed that one

when I was looking on the site. That's a great one. A little dumb looking dog. You bought a shirt of a dog that says got that dog in me, but you bought it from Life is Good with the discount codes. Oh yeah. Jesus Christ, you're bought it from Life is Good with the discount codes. Oh yeah. Jesus Christ, you're the best.

Life is great. Yeah. Can I pass or is that only for life advice? I'm just kidding. I'm gonna take BYU. Breaking for me lines? I'm gonna take BYU, I said minus three, I'm dropping the snarks,

so Rudy, just tell me what I can do. It's fucking. So you guys fighting again? Are you guys fighting again? No, I'm dropping the bit, it did he just tell me what I can do? It's fucking- So you guys fighting again? Are you guys fighting again? No, I'm dropping the bit. It's so sad now. So I said minus three, what'd you tell me? Money line at minus one 52.

All right, BYU money line at Utah. They're favored by three. We just want safe money. Those four, so BYU money line over 30 and a half, Colorado all total. Maryland not losing by four touchdowns, and Miami to win by a touchdown is plus 500. There we are. So back on our plus 500 vibes. Okay, real quick. Couch Money Researcher. Let me see if I can find the latest lines because I need the help. Let me double check the old sportsbook.fandual.com.

All right, gimme bears minus six and a half. That's couch at home against New England. The money that we were going to fade, I'm going with Tennessee plus seven and a half at the chargers. That is right in the window of percentage of money that is highest on the public play. And the research pick for you, a couple of different options here, because you just look like when I was going through it, trying to figure out a couch one, like bills at Colts

minus three and a half that has sucker bet written all over it. It doesn't make any sense. So you can't take the bills in that one. Do you take at Colts minus three and a half. That has sucker bet written all over it. It doesn't make any sense. So you can't take the bills in that one. Do you take the Colts? But then again, it's like, Hey, when I give you a bad pick, at least it's a cool pick where the sharp research people like Raheem Palmer will think my pick is cool. So I'll do that one.

Like awesome. Another loss, but I'm just staying away from that one. Cause that line is just a little too sketchy. So let's go Niners as a favorite, minus six and a half at Tampa as the research pick. And that record is also terrible so far in 24. But man, our 25 picks, I can't wait for them. I can't wait for the bounce back, except for Wargon

who may have his own FanDuel pod by December. All right, there you go. You can check out all the lines on sportsbook.fandl.com. You want details? Buy. I drive a Ferrari, 355 Cabriolet. What's up? I have a ridiculous house in the South Fork.

I have every toy you could possibly imagine. And best of all, kids, I am liquid. So, now you know what's possible. Let me tell you what's required. Life advice, the email address, lifeadvicerr at gmail.com. For those that missed Friday feedback, you can also send those questions in. I'm on Friday feedback, rr at gmail.com. That's two emails for you to keep track of. That's a lot to ask on Friday, so we don't expect you to do that, but that is posted. I'll post it on my ex account here shortly.

Then we'll see what kind of feedback we get on the Friday feedback where we sort of ask a bunch of random questions. The funny thing is, is I was going through life advice questions. I was still on the Friday feedback tab and I was like, these questions are so weird today. I was like, what, how can I not find it? And it was like, no, that's because you're getting feedback on feedback. Uh, but this is a little feedback that I thought Kyle would appreciate that

the frolic room is now famous in Sweden. Hi guys. I'm really not a long time listener for years. Well, thank you though. That's pretty good. It's an entire term and my stats are not that impressive with American standards, but sure I've learned, uh, listening to the segment, uh, lightweight, uh, still takes you quite a bit in Europe in regard to females, women, um, short and lightweight still takes you quite a bit in Europe in regard to females women. Short and lightweight still takes you quite a bit in Europe.

All right, is that good or bad? I don't like that's a ideal archetype. What is that? I'm confused by the American standards thing. Are Swedes not strong? Like Swedes are strong. Yeah, they're like the Vikings, bro. Yeah. Might be a language barrier. Yeah, but I don't, I don't know. I think that could be a really, you know, generalization by Americans. Like when I went to the gym in Iceland, in one of the towns, I went in there just thinking it was going to be on. I was like, I can't wait to see these beasts. Guess what? This is like some fucking normal guy stretching

You know, I was like where where are the freaks? You mean like oh like the seven guys named Thor that compete in the world's strongest man Yeah, the rest of us aren't like that So, I don't know. I'm still not even sure what the hell the sense means and I've gone too deep on this one I think he's saying again, but short and lightweight I've learned listen to segment still takes you quite a bit near up in regard to females, women. All right. Anyway, uh, it doesn't even have a question.

He just wants to let us know. Uh, and this is for Kyle. I wanted to enlighten you guys. And the fact that the frolic room got a big shout out of one of the most popular podcasts in Sweden, the Philip and Frederick podcast. Checks out. Okay. Yup. I almost jumped out of my seat hearing this.

Imagine the meme with DiCaprio pointing at the screen. As it turns out, the frolic room is famous for being Charles Bukowski's favorite watering hole. I don't know a lot about this author poet, but my mind wants to think that this is a fact that potentially could lure Ryan to take a seat next to Kyle in the near future. Is this a possibility for us listeners to look forward to?

And Kyle, did you know this about your beloved bar? I know this isn't a life advice question, but humor your Swedish fan base, and we love our Swedish fan base. That's why we're doing this. Thanks for all the episodes. You guys are great. Listen to everyone since 2020. Oh, why we're doing this. Thanks for all the episodes. You guys are great. Listen to everyone since 2020

Oh, you jumped in on 2020. Hmm. All right, uh Kyle I mean, I know there's like a handful of heavy hitters that this that that was their spot but that's really all I know like there's really not like I'm not I'm not counting 311 in that bucket, but But I just I know I, I know I probably should. I'm just not, I'm just- Once the last time 311 was at the Frolic Room, does anyone have that stat? I don't know, there's a photo on the wall of them

and that's kind of what I know, but I just know like old timey Hollywood and even getting a little closer. It was just the spot of some people that matter, but yeah, I can't, I don't keep like a list in my head. I can ask around, but I'm sure he's probably not even the most famous one in that bucket. What if you had a Bukowski night?

What would that look like? Guys just reading poetry. There's a bunch of hoarding younger guys being like, I think I read the pamphlet wrong. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yikes. Yeah. I think I read the pamphlet wrong.

Yikes. Speaking of horny, I'm all horny for golf and my buddy canceled today. I'm like, I don't know what the hell I'm going to do. I was so ready to do like early golf today and he canceled, I guess the kids have a half day school and which just, just ruined it. Thinking I'm looking up the ranges. I'm not loving what I've got to scramble tomorrow. Kyle, if that makes you feel any better, probably doesn't, but how about this? You know what, Kyle?

Um, I know this is, this is obviously like one of those open ended invites in LA that especially they're even more worthless in Los Angeles. What if you come down, we play the par three at night after the NBA games that don't matter, we do it, we do it on a non-school night, so I'm not taping in the morning and then you and I play the nighttime par three, maybe even throw a couple of high noons or course lights in the mix, sort of like two in the bag. Whoa. This is so great. I feel like I mix. Sort of like two in the bag. Whoa. This is so great. I feel like I'm going to be like, and then you sleep over afterwards or

something like, that sounds so great. I'm just going to get whacked right after. Yes. Yeah. Yes. I'm in. Hard. Yes.

Is the problem is we have the big Denver thing. We've got Thanksgiving. So like, this feels like a like this feels like a March thing. But just put in the old calendar. Would your wife let you sleep over? Dude, would you let him sleep over? She is well aware of what's going on here. Yes, she's well aware.

Am I the only person she would let you stay out and be like, I didn't come home last night, be like, where were you? Ryan's, great. No more questions. Yeah, I can't think of it. Unless I was like, Bill said I had to, and then she'd be like, all right, but other than that.

It's a pretty good alibi. Yeah. Things never go south. All right. Let's get to a couple of questions here. All right, let's help out with the relationships. How to get girlfriend to like solo travel. All right, 24, 59, 16 one 65 basketball compass, Jake Larravia.

Uh, it's not that I'm very good at basketball, but I enjoy shooting an unwise amount of threes. Larravia has a little bit more shit to his game. Um, but again, I think you knew that he was probably a little bit better at basketball than you are. So I recently graduated college in Maine before entering the job market. I decided to take three months for myself and solo travel in Europe. During that time, I worked a contract job in the Netherlands. Dude, I love you guys today. We're just getting out there, reaching out globally.

Needless to say, it was the three most rewarding months of my life. I consistently found myself stepping out of my comfort zone and because of it, I made amazing memories and friends, living experience I don't think I'll ever forget. You made friends in the Netherlands? Who are you? Here's the issue. My girlfriend who I've been dating for two and a half years did not deal with my solo travel very well. She's always been supportive of my adventures, but while I was gone, she

constantly expressed that she was struggling with me abroad. Obviously we both missed each other. So I made it a priority to call her and talk almost every day. So since I've returned, um, I've returned, she's continued to make it a point to tell me how my leaving hurt her and that she's still healing from the three months that I was gone. Things seemed good before I left and she didn't

really object to the idea when I planned it. I guess I never really understood how much she was hurt by my absence, but it seems as if she was pretty emotionally affected by the distance. The problem is unfortunately that I want to go abroad again. Don't we all. I work a full-time job now, but I hope in two or three years to take a month away from work to travel to the South East, uh, to Southeast Asia or South America.

I love my girlfriend really can see a future where they're including marriage, but traveling is important to me as well as I found the solo aspect of it to be particularly rewarding to which I think Ryan can relate to. Based on our conversations, I do not think my girlfriend would like the idea of me traveling for an extended period. Again, how do I go about telling my girlfriend that I want to solo travel again? Is there a way to frame it that might get her on board? You guys sound like you're ready. So I think you have to say, I think we should see other people. Yeah.

Like, who do you think you are, dude? Houdini? This isn't going to, I know you made some friends in the Netherlands, but this is such a hard no for so many people in relationships. I don't know that there's a real fix to this one. Like what's the compromise? I'll only go to Asia for six weeks by myself. I promise I'll be good.

Yeah, like the whole point I feel like when you date someone is that you travel together too. Like do you, you just can't have, this is like a guy being like, hey, you know, let's move in together, but I'm going to be playing Xbox every night. And, uh, so yeah, like I'm not really going to be around. You know, like that's not how it works. You're moving with the girl. See what you're doing.

Uh, this is, I mean, it is, did, did he get the idea from you? I don't think so. Right. He said he just did it. Like, no, I don't think the solo travel thing is cool when you're solo, but you are by definition not solo. You everything costs more. All right. You're, you're in a relationship. Dinners cost more. Uh, movies cost more. Paintball costs more. Just kidding. Um, I think this is, this is what it is. You can't have both of those lives. You just can't, correct.

Yeah, I think there's a reason why, one of the things that you'll have so many college, I couldn't afford it. I mean, when guys are like, hey, do you wanna maybe look into backpacking through Europe? I'm like, well, I still haven't graduated, so I don't know that I need, like deserve the reward. That would have been classic maybe. Like you backpack through Europe before you graduated.

Like, yep. And then I went back to school. But when guys were doing that, and I think a lot of people listening, no matter what age you are, it's an incredible experience, especially at that age, you're a little bit more, you know, I just think you're ready to compromise a little bit. It kind of gets back to like Sarudy and I was like, when's the last time I slept on a buddy's couch? And then when was the last time I slept on a buddy's couch where I go, this will be the last time you sleep on a buddy's couch? And then when was the last time I slept on a buddy's couch where I go, this will be the last time you sleep on a buddy's couch. Like I don't really want to do this.

Um, there was a time where I just folded up like old laundry that my friend said was clean and it probably wasn't. And at that point I was like, Oh, I crashed at so-and-so's house. Like not a big deal. I think it was like 23 or something. And that's where I slept for the night and it sort of sucked, but I wasn't waking up in dirty laundry after a night out visiting my friend going, I need to make adjustments. If I did that at 30, certainly 35, I'd go, we need to make some adjustments.

We need to go in at halftime and drop some stuff on the whiteboard and never be sleeping in your friend's, maybe not clean laundry again, because you're desperate for a bed. So look, the reason I bring up the post-college time, which is what you did here with the Netherlands thing, and you got into a program is like that window is sort of like a socially acceptable window. You don't hear about a lot of guys getting to do it multiple times. Yep. Right? Now I do it and I'll even admit there's been a few trips where I was like, this Santorini Solo,

I don't know why people are built for it. You're looking around being like, oh, that'd probably be a nice little place to get some bread and maybe a little basket. And then you walk down here to the beach and maybe a couple, you know, Spanish wines over here, the whole deal. Maybe it'd be nice to go into a fancy restaurant and not have them to tell you, no, but it could be the mesh shorts and not your head count. So, um, I don't, I don't have advice for this.

I don't have advice. You would, if this is a priority in your life, you would have to find somebody that's totally okay with you doing this. And I don't even know that it's a male female thing at all here. I think there's a lot of dudes that if their wives were like, I'm going to go to Spain and then hook it around the med this summer, I'll see in September. Those guys would be like, you're out of your fucking mind. You're not doing that.

And it's not even about like a lack of trust or all that stuff. It's just, you have to find a very, very specific partner. And that is a low number of opportunities out there for a partner that's going to let you do this multiple times in your life, even if you find it therapeutic. It's also, I mean, just to put yourself in her shoes, it's kind of embarrassing, right? Like, Oh yeah, here's my boyfriend. Where's Brian traveling alone. Haven't seen Brian for a while.

What's going on? Bring you along. Like what that's like that. This is insanity. Like this is actually insane. And there's no offense to the email or, but like you just have to, at some point, like you can't have it all. You got to give some stuff up in life. Like this is almost, it would be, this is worse I think for her, for your girl than you like going on a two week vendor trip with your boys. Like this is more embarrassing. At least that's like, hey, that's like a bad guy thing. This is just weird and like you can't explain it

to other people. Like I think you're totally off here. And I understand like it may be like, I love alone time. I love going to movies alone. I love being alone at the house, doing my thing. Like I like to play video games, but you can't do it all the time. There's like a little bit.

I wake up early to be alone for an hour. I like it. There you go. But yeah, exactly. Yeah, you gotta find your spots. You can't do it all the time. There's like a little bit- I wake up early to be alone for an hour. I like it. There you go. But yeah, exactly, yeah, you gotta find your spots. You can't just say, hey, I'm gone for six months. Like that's just, I don't even know that you could find a person that would be okay with that. Yeah.

Have you thought about going with her? I mean, have you taken a trip outside of like a weekend in the mountains? Like, is it, are you just not know what you don't know? Or are you like, this is not a trip person? I mean, did you just have so much time being free and, and anything could happen in the Netherlands today sort of deal that you're like, I want, you're chasing that? Yeah, either way. It's, have you thought about asking her? I would just say like, would it really sour the trip if your girlfriend that you see a future with I would just say like, would it really sour the trip if your girlfriend that you see a future with went with you?

I don't know. Separate honeymoons? He just goes on a honeymoon solo? I felt like Spain is more your speed, but I watched Shogun and I just got to see Japan. You see Shogun get renewed, gotta see Japan. Like I just. Like, see Shogun get renewed, there's more research to be done. I gotta tell you dude, this is,

rarely do we get the email where it's like, this isn't going to happen and it's fucking impossible. There's like, her words were, I still need to heal from the last time you left. Yeah, she's not the needle in a haystack who was like, yeah, you know, I see both sides. She's like, I'm still healing. So.

Looking at Disney World, buddy. That's all I got for you. All right, let's name some babies. Wife and I disagree on baby's middle name. Hey guys, 5'10", 190, no gym stats, beer league hockey once a week. My wife and I are having our first child, a boy in February. Congratulations.

Nice. We have the first name picked out, but we are disagreeing on the middle name. I want it to be after my grandfather, who I was very close with and his sister passed. She wants it to be after her dad who passed when she was 20 and before we had started dating. Well, I'm going to tell you where this advice is going to go. I'm aware enough to understand her wanting to use her to see his father's

name is a better reason than me wanting to use a grandfather's name and I'm perfectly okay with using her father's name. Yeah. And I think, I think that is the right move here. Well, again, like, I don't know that the tie should, I mean, should the tie always go to the pregnant person? Pretty much. Well, I know what I'm supposed to say, but when it comes to naming, yeah, I think the tie always go to the pregnant person? Pretty much. Well, I know what I'm supposed to say,

but when it comes to naming, yeah, I think the tie can go. Unless this is like just all time terrible name. Right. Well, I don't know. Did he name them two names? Here's the deal. Great instincts, Kyle.

Just on it today. God, you're on it for a Friday. Here's the twist. My wife has offered and now wants to use two middle names. Making sure neither gets left out. And while I think that's nice of her, I would really not, I would really rather not give our child two middle names. Malcolm Jamal Warner.

Was that two middle names or is that just as middle names that I have? Sole moon fries. See, I'm only coming up with three I'm just trying to you know, it's just like there was a it was like a weird kid thing back in the day Where I guess it was three names, but I don't know if some of them had four All right, I Know they don't use their middle name a lot But when they will it's just gonna be an extra pain for them for added context. My first name is spelled different as it's, um, Jeremy with an a and not Jeremy.

Like the common way. Yeah. No, no, Jeremy Grant's got an I at the end of it, I think. So I can relate to how time consuming it can be to having a quote unquote unique name. I'm sure Ryan also gets it. Brother. Do I.

I mean, look, I don't, I don't, uh, dislike my name. It's my name. I actually catch shit from it from people that don't like me, which I think is really weird because it's like, I didn't have a lot of say that one. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I know I changed it because I wanted to be unique

when I was 24 and was starting a television career. That's why I did it. Stayed there. But yeah, I mean, literally every day of my life, if you want to name your kid something, but you want to change the spelling and make it really unique and you think it's going to be fucking cool

when you post your baby pictures on Instagram and stuff, just understand that kid the rest of his life every single day. And that's like, I'll check in to a hotel. Oh, that's an interesting way to spell it. You know, it's not like I'm checking in a hotel every single day, but you call something on the phone and be like, oh, the credit card didn't go through or this didn't

go through or that didn't go through. Oh, did you get the email? No. I mean, it's every single day the E gets in the way of efficiency and I'm not mad about it. I don't like resent my parents for doing it. It's just something you should think about when it's like, Hey, we found this cool spelling of

a name. Okay. Cool spelling. But. Now you figured out how to cool spelling of a name. Okay. Cool spelling, but. Now you figured out how to play you and Jeffrey. Nice. Awesome. It's Russian. And I know like Russians aren't super popular right now, but it's just looks so

cool, you know, the rest of the stuff like, you know, first day of school, Jehovery, no, it's just Jeffrey. It's like, you know, first day of school, Jehovery. Nope. It's just Jeffrey. It's just, you're right. All right. So, um, double, double middle names. Anybody, any of you guys got double middle names? I felt like I've got like Dominican friends that, that have like maybe more than that.

I don't know if they're, I don't know if they backload the last names or the middle names, never really asked, but I just know that, you know, there's sometimes, you know, five or six Words in there. So I mean maybe I think culturally it's not as crazy as you think Can can you just concede like you said you're happy. Is it is it fine to just be like let's go with yours Is it too late? Yeah, did you put up such a stink that she's like no no now it's now it's a hyphen Or or can you just back off be like, you know what? I really think I thought about it and he really is more of a Walter I don't know yeah I remember my tumbo rest in peace he had like six names remember Stuart

Scott he's the same all the time during the highlight yeah I think that's I think it's like probably a cultural thing. Probably, I would guess. Yeah, I don't think I know anybody with two middle names. You kind of have to be, you have to be cool. And you have to know your kid's gonna be cool or somehow famous, or you have to be cool to pull off some of those things. How do you know if your kid's gonna be famous?

That's why it's really hard. If you name your kid a try-hard thing, whether it's a special, like Ryan, you are famous. know, so it works. Like it's like, Oh, that's Ryan with an E he's a podcast host. There you go. A lot of actors, actors, I feel like have kind of like weirdish names or multiple names. But like, if you're just a regular dude or girl and you have this like kind of name, like people are just kind of be like, what and middle names, like a little bit less. I always think I feel like in sports like do all of the athletes with because I watch a lot of soccer. It feels like all the British guys all of them have

double hyphenated last names and it's like when did we when did this happen? Like why does this happen? You know, Dominic Calvert Lewin or you know, powerful British Hall. Don't let it go away. I know but like's it's it's kind of that seems like it would be a burden on your life. Michael kid Gilchrist. It Gilchrist tough one. Yeah, it's just although that actually kind of flows off the tongue. I don't hate that. It does. The other thing I was gonna say, go ahead or go ahead. I was just gonna say I've got, you know, got a decent sized pool of friends. I think I maybe

know two of their last names or their middle names, sorry, two of their middle names. It's like, it just doesn't come up. Like I could, I'm racking my brain. I'm like, I know that one for some reason. And outside of that, I really, I really don't know. Well, if you were born between, I feel like 1985 and 1995, or it's like, in your dude, there's a good chance

your middle name is just John or Joseph, right? Like I feel like all my friends names are either John or Joseph. That sounds good, but you're talking about middle or first? Middle. Yeah, I don't I just don't know. It's a blind spot for me. I remember like the first time of being around money and it was some of the summer guys I would run into in Martha's Vineyard and then when I got to Vermont, um, and everybody thought like I had money because I was from Martha's Vineyard, which was not the case, but then there was a dude that had a middle name that didn't, wasn't, it was a name, but it

wasn't a name and I was like, what's up with that? And he was like, Oh, it's a family name. And like through every group, there has to be one that has this. Like as their middle name, it was like this, like there's, you have to be anointed. Like what are we talking about here? Like Caesar type shit. I'm on this wrong kick right now. Yeah.

Yeah. So it's like, it has to, they're always, and I was like thinking to myself, what does your net worth have to be to have like a name that isn't even a name in someone's name and it's accepted. Like that's going to be a high number. Not like an object. Like, no, it's not like lamp like Dave Jones. Yeah, it's just, no, it was like a last name. It was the last name that kind of made no sense

within the full name. Right. So it wasn't the double hyphenated, like sometimes it's as simple as the athlete in particular wants to honor both sides of a family. Right. Sometimes it's like really cool. And there's, there's a reason for it. I think with the actor part of it, it's usually like just, Hey, you have a weird

name and this makes more sense. Again, the audience kind of getting what they want. If Tom Cruise's name, Tom Vitapelli, is he still Tom Cruise? Yeah, like if Daniel Day Lewis wasn't an actor, his name is just Dan Lewis, right? That's a great, that's a great poll. Really well done, really well done with that.

We've gone a bit on a tangent here, but that's all right, it's Friday. I think I know what you're saying. You're just not into it. I think most guys would go, I don't think I want my son to have four names. Um, why are we throwing in all this extra stuff? I am a little like, as an aside, kind of fascinated with. So Rudy's is your kid cool projection.

And could you open up cool camps for kids with, you know, like, all right, go up to that little kid and call them a nerd. You know how like, like you did great today. Some parents are just like kind of artsy and you know, they're going to have kind of a unique, cool kid and they can give their kid a cool name and there are other kids whose mom's, you know, dad's an accountant and his mom works, you know, the town hall or whatever. And like, they're probably not going to be able to pull off the cool kid name thing, cause they're just, it's just not, you know, dad's an accountant and his mom works, you know, town hall or whatever, and like, they're probably not gonna be able to pull off

the cool kid name thing, because they're just, it's just not, you know, that's what I'm talking about. Are you saying town hall children are more likely to be nerds? Yeah, probably. To be honest with you. Wow. I don't know if, you may have to come back with some data to support that point.

I like the camp idea, just like, you go for two weeks, like, you're gonna live up to Michael Jason Robinson Banks. That's, like you're going to live up to Michael Jason Robinson. Yeah. That's what that's you're going to leave here a true Michael Jason Robinson Banks. This is Thor sword Nyquist. They're like, okay, we have our work cut out for, we have a seven day retreat for Thor and he's like looking back as he's being dropped off with his. Okay. We have our work cut out for, we have a seven day retreat for Thor.

And he's like looking back as he's being dropped off with his fucking Lego backpack. Like I don't, I didn't sign up for this. Here are your dice, here's your coin. Let's go. I bet you there's probably a market for this though. Like we put your kid, it's not reading, it's not vocabulary, it's not cognitive things. Like we have a way. You're gonna teach him how to do a back flip off a wall. You're gonna be that guy. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You're gonna steal shit but in a funny way and then you'll phase out of it.

All right. I don't think we have anything else. Good luck, man. Boys names are soft though, I will say. Had have anything else good luck man I will say What would you name your son? Well, this is actually interesting my so my grandfather who was awesome his he has a wild name his name was Cataldo Ignatius Marisola and Was he awesome? I hope so. He was fucking awesome and I

Cool camp. I if I ever had I don't like any he probably did And was he awesome? I hope so. He was fucking awesome. And I Camp I if I ever had I don't like any he probably did We should have taught at cool camp founder He that's an intent. We used to call him Kai now Kai is a very popular name these days, but not Cataldo and I We don't have a son TBD future on that but I Would I think there's like literally no boys names that I like. I think they're all kind of, I don't really like my name that much.

I think most dude names just kind of suck. And I kind of was like trying to pitch my wife on like, could we name our son Cataldo? Like, would that be cool? I love how Suri dances between like the people that don't like you will have such a problem with that. Oh, soft Gen Z or, you know, doesn't like boys names. I think that's an aggressive assumption. I like Jack. What's a cool. Everybody has to.

That's the only one everybody likes. What else? Name another one. What? What the fuck? I like my ace in the hole. I think Kyle's pretty cool. I actually, Kyler, I mean, I hope he. What about Henry? I was like, who's my ace in the hole? I think Kyle's pretty cool. I actually, Kyler. You can't use our own names. I mean, I hope he. What about Henry? Robert?

Rob's good. You got variations of Rob. I like that. What about Bobby? I don't like any rendition of Robert. Bob. Jesus, that's like a classic one. Bob's kind of a Rob place funny.

What about each of us? Yeah, I don't know. Just how I feel. So, I'm not alone though. I've talked to other dads who were like, yeah man, my buddy's having a son, a second son. Named his first one Leo. Second one is like, we have no names.

Tank? They're all bad. Tank's pretty cool. Tank, Tank, Leo and Tank. They're all taken. I don't know. I'd start to be about the Romans. Now I want to have a couple of boys. Cornelius? Start naming them after different soldiers. I don't know. I'd start to be about the Romans. I now I want to have a couple of boys, start naming them after different soldiers.

I don't know. Like Sulla Rossello, does that work? He was pretty aggressive there, but you could say he stabilized things for a few years. All right. That's another piece of history lesson. Um, that'll do it for the pot. Thanks to Wargon. Thanks to Cerruti.

Thanks to Kyle. Make sure you check out our YouTube page again, Friday feedback, we get some video up there, you know, mail it in, mail it in Thursdays. I'll be back on Monday. Please subscribe to the Ron Russo 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

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