The Ryen Russillo Podcast - Russell Wilson, Wembanyama-Mania, and Draymond’s Punch. Plus: MLB Playoff Predictions With Jeff Passan and Yogi Roth on '5-STAR QB'.

Episode Date: October 7, 2022

Russillo shares his thoughts on the Broncos’ Thursday night rock fight with the Colts, the outpouring of praise for top NBA prospect Victor Wembanyama, and Draymond Green punching Jordan Poole in a Warriors practice (0:43). Then Ryen talks with ESPN’s Jeff Passan about the MLB postseason wild-card round, Aaron Judge's home run record, World Series picks, and more (14:44). Then Ryen talks with Yogi Roth of the Pac-12 Network and Elite 11 about his new book, '5-STAR QB: It's Not About the Stars, It's About the Journey' (46:29). Then Ryen, Ceruti, and Kyle make their favorite bets for NFL Week 5 before answering some listener-submitted Life Advice questions (1:13:37). Host: Ryen Russillo Guests: Jeff Passan and Yogi Roth Producers: Kyle Crichton and Steve Ceruti Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

today's podcast we tackle a couple things in the open including another awful thursday night football game what is going on with the future of the nba number one pick in 2023 victor wim banyama and tramon green punching jordan pool Poole. We cover all that. Yogi Roth has a new book out, 5-Star QB. He's been with Elite 11 for a decade. He's worked with a ton of best coaches and he's going to try to figure out how to get through what it means to be a 5-Star QB.

We'll talk with Jeff Passan, previewing baseball's playoffs and life advice, including our Friday picks. I'm just going to talk today at the open. I think we should bring back some of the solo pods, but again, I'd like to see how the numbers do on those. We do have guests, so we're excited about those

guests, but I could talk about all sorts of topics. I'm going to start with Thursday Night Football. I'm sitting there and I'm watching it. Another primetime game. People sitting there for three plus hours talking about how much it sucks while they keep watching it. I thought, what if there was an NBA game. People sitting there for three plus hours talking about how much it sucks while

they keep watching it. I thought, what if there was an NBA game on a Thursday, like a TNT NBA game, ABC Saturday night game and the team says it was like 12 to 9 at halftime. They just started throwing the ball like at people in the crowd

and then people were like, man, this game sucks. Let's see how the second half goes. So I'm watching everybody lose their shit again. And then people are pre-losing their shit for next Thursday's game with the Bears and Commanders. And of course it goes to overtime.

Good pass rush though last night. Thought that was good. Couple guys to keep an eye on. And I went, you know, I don't really want to watch this. You know what I did? I turned it off. I just turned it off. It's fucking crazy. I just went, yeah, I'm good. fucking crazy. I just went, yeah, I'm good. Like what could possibly happen in overtime? That's going to make me change how I feel about this game. I mean, yeah, sure. There's a sliver. There's a percentage. There's a win probability on the other side where you're like, all right, something crazy happens. Guess what? I have the internet at my house. And I was like, I could probably find out if something crazy happens and then I can watch that crazy thing and then I can talk about it. I get caught up. Not everybody's watching every single minute of every single game. I know I'm a watch games guy, but I was like, is anything going to happen? Like my parents aren't going to get mad at me. I'm too old for that. There's nothing illegal about this. Nobody can like, I don't think anything's going to happen

and it was crazy I just turned the game off and it was gone and I didn't have to watch it anymore pretty liberating we'll see how next Thursday goes or Sunday anyway

one other thing on that game so now all of you don't like Russell Wilson you're just learning this now Anyway, one other thing on that game. So now all of you don't like Russell Wilson? You're just learning this now? Where you been? As far as the Russell Wilson personality thing, I'm like the prospector, the gold prospector that found a crick by himself in his wagon, obviously solo.

Western Rusillo would be solo as well. And I just started building up towns because I'm good at carpentry and all of a sudden it's like he owns the general store saloon and the tanning. Is that what you call it? Yeah, yeah. The tanning operation in town and lumber. Who is

this guy? That would be Russell Wilson town and I would be the sheriff and mayor. This is unbelievable because I've always defended the rustic quarterback. I've always defended rustic quarterback because he's really, really good.

For whatever reason, he's not good now. I can't believe that it's going to continue to be this bad. He's too young to be this bad. We can talk about a bunch of things, but I'm not going to get to all of them.

But it's just weird how now that he stinks for a month, people are like, you know, I don't know about this guy and his personality. You're like, actually, he's been the same dude, but now he's just a completely different player. Let's talk about positive stuff. Victor Wimbanyama. I don't know if you got a chance to see this dude.

I would imagine a lot of you did. 7'3", barefoot. Remember, all NBA heights at the Combine are with sneakers. It's just what they do. I thought there was a year they were supposed to change it, but then it was going to be weird because then you were going to have a bunch of the NBA players still in the old standard height. So when you go on to a player's profile,

although, again, some players grow anyway, we're talking about somebody at the combine who's going to measure in shoes at 7'4", maybe 7'5". The first thing that jumps out, and it's not like I've been watching him his entire career. The first time I saw him, videos, watched the under-19 stuff over a year ago, watched the game against Chet.

There was a quarterfinal game in there that was incredible. It's just that he's this big and he moves this way and the shot repertoire that he has. He can dribble, jab, step you and take step back threes. And it looks good. And it went in in both games, by the way. I mean, the first game on Tuesday was just stupid, the shots he was making.

He can catch and shoot off a screen, handoffs, trail threes at the break in transition. He was giving you a little dream shake on the baseline a couple times last night. And then when he gets it on the perimeter, he's actually trying to take you off the dribble and take you to the hoop. And if he gets one step on you, the steps are so long and the arms are so long. And it's just this absurd, absurd combination of size and skill that we we think well again we can't say we think we've seen before because we've never ever seen anything

like this uh there's also a push to be that he's the greatest prospect ever i've heard that from nba teams i had teams texting me this week being like i had one guy say am i allowed to say this is the greatest player i've ever seen as far as a prospect not saying he's better than jordan it'd be a little early for the jordan when banyama uh Jordan. It'd be a little early for the Jordan Wemba Nyama takes. I think that's a little early for that. But as far as a prospect goes, I'll allow it. But I still think when you talk about body types, LeBron, you never watched LeBron in high school.

Like, I wonder how that body is going to hold up. So Tuesday night was insane. And he's doing this with some players who have become two of my least favorite players in international basketball. Man, the guards, other than Hugo Besson, who they completely phased out. His whole team iced him out in the first game and the second half.

Bullshit. But it wasn't really about him. I also loved what we saw from Scoot Henderson, who if you watched Ignite last year, with all the draft picks on that team, there'd be a lot of times you'd watch the other three guys jaylen uh beauchamp and then obviously dyson daniels went lottery you'd be watching those games being like hey who the hell you know like who's this scoot henderson cat right uh again people on the basketball circuit have been all over this and i loved

what we saw from scoot in the first game he got kind of a knee-to-knee with uh went by nyama in the second game so he left the game but scoo went right at victor went right at him was kind of like all right oh you guys want to talk about this dude and this this once-in-a-lifetime dude which he is but scoo i love the personality of the player out there all those things are great so you know if we will look back in the numbers um 52 games in international play that i was able to find. 43% from the floor, 31% from three overall. Two and a half of his six and a half shots per game were threes, five boards. But he wasn't playing major minutes.

It was like less than 17 minutes a game in a bunch of these different games. And that's on average of the 52 games in the international play with the two different teams that he was with. So the numbers just aren't, you know, it's, it's that you're seeing something that you've never, ever seen before. And I'll always ask this about some of these body types,

which I'm not even sure it's more of a theory and it's a working theory. It's not conclusive whatsoever, but you know how like in a video game, you could have a guy who was like six, eight and had all these amazing perimeter skills. And then you just decide I'm going to turn them into like seven, six. When the video game, you could have a guy who was like 6'8", had all these amazing perimeter skills, and then you decide I'm going to turn him into like 7'6"? Well, in the video game, they stay healthy. In real life, I almost feel like the body is not supposed to be able to be this big and then move this way, which is part of why we're all enamored with this dude in the first place.

And when I think about Prazingis being one of these first types where you're like, wait, what can this guy do? And granted, everybody can shit on Prazingis now and all, you know, everything that's happened. And that's fine. I'm not telling you that you're wrong. But in the beginning, when you looked at him as a player and you're like, wait, this is this guy can do this and then he can do this. And like he's doing this at like seven, one, maybe seven, two. Are you fucking kidding me? This is crazy.

And then he had major problems staying healthy. Chet might simply because his body isn't developed enough. Or maybe it was that, that's just sort of weird. A guy is that big, it can move that well and has this kind of small forward perimeter game to go with a shot-blocking center game, which is also what Wemba Nyama can also do. So, you know, the thing that I think about with this dude,

he's going one. I mean, he could blow out both ACLs and Achilles and start tweeting out fantasy lineups with OJ Simpson, and Victor's going number one in the draft. There's literally nothing he could do to not go number one, because you're wondering if you are picking something that we've never, ever seen before. Is there a chance that you're going to draft a player unlike anything we've ever seen in the history of this game, which is pretty lofty. And that's why I still wouldn't put him ahead of LeBron James as a prospect because despite what could be pioneer type shit, which again, it would be discounting what LeBron has done here as a pioneer,

how unique his game was. We never watched LeBron and went, I wonder if he's going to break down. And I'm not even sure this is entirely fair as we continue to have these taller and taller players that have these absurd perimeter skills. Because really what this dude is, is he's Kevin Durant on offense. But something that Durant, you could even argue Durant didn't have the greatest time being healthy. But what Durant does is Durant wasn't just a seven-foot dude who could dribble a little bit and then shoot. foot dude who could dribble a little bit and then shoot. He's a seven footer that can shoot it, but also developed a handle that was actually something he could do and attack at that size. There's a lot of big guys that can dribble a little bit, but you're like, are you actually going to be taking people off the dribble? Are you actually going to be driving into and through

contact and hanging onto the basketball at that size? Because when you're that tall and there's that much more range on the dribble to going down to the ground, I mean, this is just simple here. There's a better chance of somebody to go ahead and swat it away. It's like as if everyone this tall were Jalen Brown, but Durant's always been able to hang onto that handle. And even with Wemba Nyama, I'm like, you know what? I know what kind of happens at some times, but is he really going to be doing this? Is he really going to be doing this? He's going to be driving through people, and I'm not sure that that's going to happen, and I don't know if that can happen at 7'5".

So I was excited. I was as blown away as everybody else. I think all those things are fair. To say that he's a better prospect than LeBron is a mistake. I want to close on the Draymond Green punch. That was vicious. We saw the video of it today. Again, classic fucking us, man. Draymond

punches Jordan Poole viciously and then we see the video and instead of focusing on Draymond doing something you just can't do even though we idolize Jordan for doing it to Steve Kerr, which sort of like time passes and then we kind of think all this shit is cool.

I don't know how many years it has to be like year nine or like, okay, now we actually like it. Again, I don't know the answer to that thing. I don't know that many years it has to be like year nine or like, okay, now we actually like it again. I don't know the answer to that thing. I don't know that any of us do. But then it was like, I can't believe somebody would leak this video. I have no idea who leaked it. I wonder if there's a motivation from the golden state side to actually have

it be leaked so that people can see what Draymond did. And in the moment, nobody ever likes this stuff, but then it was like turning to blaming the warriors like how about we blame the guy that fucking punched his teammate can we start there and then take take the rest of it so chris haynes had a tweet that said green was apologetic in the aftermath of the altercation with jordan pool but there was a build-up stemming from teammates noticing a change in pool's behavior throughout camp with the guard on the verge of securing a

lucrative extension league sources tell yahoo Sports that is a very, very crafty way of putting together a reason because it's just fucking hilarious. Search through any of this stuff. It's like Draymond Green. Here's a headline from, is it Bleacher Report? All right. I don't have all fucking weekend to find out what that story is. We'll go through another one here. Draymond Green apologizes

comma blames pool for altercation. I mean, you know, look, we'll see what happens. But I've always wondered with Green, I was always kind of scared of the Warriors' personality without somebody like Green. I think if you're a really good team, even if you're a bad team,

I think you need one absolute wild card, somebody that wants to fight constantly with the opponent. But he's a lot to handle and has been for a long time. But I think he's incredibly important to their personality. But I don't know how his game is going to age. And he's worth more to the Warriors than he would be to another team that would bring him in and be like, are we going to run more offense through Draymond?

You know, Draymond's an amazing situation, and they've needed Draymond. But maybe Jordan Poole's super annoying, you know, we have annoying co-workers and I'm not going to do the hey, we can't hit people at work, yeah because our jobs are a lot different than pro athletes but it's just a bad look it was a bad look for Draymond, it'll be really interesting

to see what happens here, there was some early spin there before we saw the video so maybe that's why it leaked, because the spin was that it was somehow justified because Poole was annoying and then you see the punch, you're like man that was pretty fucking vicious We saw the video. So maybe that's why it leaked because the spin was that it was somehow justified because pool was annoying. And then you see the punch like, man, that was pretty fucking vicious. Not to say that I'm totally against anytime somebody in pro sports goes at each other.

I don't get super judgmental about that, but that was a tough look there. And I wonder if that's the motivation behind the video getting out. And guess what? Draymond has a podcast that he could break it all down for us and we'll find out. But never forget my rule. Sometimes you are the worst source of your own story. Football season is underway

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official sportsbook partner of the NFL. Must be 21 and older, in select states, first online real money wager only, refund issued with a non-betrayable, free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Jeff Passan, we're talking baseball. We're

talking playoffs. Before we do that, how close are you on your quest to look like George Will? What stage are we at right now? You like the glasses? You're not feeling the glasses? One of my favorite things, whenever you're trying to figure out

what is a hard thing to find the answer to, and I would be like, who is the hottest baseball historian? That's just a dilemma America's never going to figure out. So, no, you know that I'm a huge fan, and I joke with you because I think that I can. Let's talk playoffs. Let's go through all the division rounds here. We've got four teams waiting around, the Yankees, Houston, Atlanta,

and the Dodgers, of course. Let's start Rays at Guardians here. Glass now coming back for the Rays, despite some of the other arms that they've lost. It feels like that could be it. We know on some of the Stuff Plus metrics that the Rays are kind of that crew against this Cleveland offense that's a little old school.

How do you see this one playing out? I love the Cleveland offense, by the way they may not have a lot of slug but they don't strike out and any offense that has jose ramirez who is a true slug guy with a low strikeout rate and steven kwan and you can go up and down that line of any offense where i know i'm going to see the ball in play. I just tend to gravitate toward because I don't know. It reminds me of my childhood. It reminds me of baseball before it turned into a parade of strikeouts.

But ultimately, honestly, I do think that this series is best for the Rays. And granted, we are recording this while Game 1 is going on. And this may run after the Guardians run roughshod over Tampa Bay in Game 1. But the Rays pitching is nasty. And the fact that they can go McClanahan in 1, that they can go Glasnow in 2, that they have Rasmussen and Kluber and Jeffrey Springs in this bullpen full of specialists. That is what the Rays figured out before anyone.

You know, they get a lot of credit for being the team that introduced us to the opener, but it was more than just trying to get the platoon advantage in the early innings. It's recognizing that some guys just have unicorn pitches, and we're going to tell them to throw that pitch as much as they possibly can. And it's not necessarily because of the spin of a fastball or because of the sweep of a slider. It may be something as simple as the arm angle being unique

and what it produces that you just don't see it anywhere else. I was talking with Paul Seewald with the Mariners probably about 10 days ago, and this was a guy who when he was with the Mets, he kind of stunk, but he always noticed when he threw fastballs at the top of the zone, no one could hit him. And it was weird because he was always taught with having like this sort of in between three quarters and sidearm arm angle that he needs to keep the ball low in the zone and get ground balls. But when he went to the Mariners, they figured out, okay, because of the way that your ball moves and because of the combination of that and your unique arm angle, nobody else can throw a ball at the top of the zone like you do.

And so, you know, it was during the alternate site in 2021, all he did was just throw fastballs that were creeping up higher and higher and higher in the zone and figured out a spot. And he's been one of the best relievers in baseball since then. The Rays were the team that started this, and they have a roster full of those guys, and despite their limited offense, that's what makes them so dangerous,

potentially, in October. How do you feel about my AL Central should be relegated theory? I go through it, and I look at it every year when I'm trying to figure out who I like in the playoffs. Cleveland was 47-29 in the Central. They were 500 against the East and West combined. If you look at the 10 other possibilities against the East and West, only three teams, there's only

three, excuse me, it's not three teams. Out of the 10 scenarios where you could have an over 500 record against either the East or West, there were only three times that you had it. They haven't been in the ALCS since 2016. It's why I kind of hate the schedule setup and the way they've had it, even though I know that that had it. They haven't been in the ALCS since 2016. It's why I kind of hate the schedule setup and the way they've had it, even though I know that that's changing. You're playing a completely

different brand of baseball when you're playing that many teams in the AL Central versus what the AL East has to do. Well, as someone who grew up in Cleveland

and lives in Kansas City, fuck you. But I generally understand your sentiment. Let me say this. I think the Guardians are going to be really good for a while because not only are they a postseason team right now, they've got a phenomenal farm system

and they're a really well-run organization with Chris Antonetti and Mike Chernoff at the top with Terry Francona managing. And I hope Terry Francona is around for a while. It's a man who has been through a lot physically and is in a lot of pain on a daily basis. And I just hope his body holds up as well as his mind has, because I'm not going to sit here and suggest that the Guardians are going to win the franchise's first championship since 1948 because it's Cleveland and any rational, logical, knowledgeable sports fan would never suggest Cleveland's going to win much of anything. But I don't think that they

are necessarily going to be the mediocre division winner in years ahead. The team that simply feasts on the central like a vulture on an animal carcass while there are other greater birds of prey out there east and west. I think they're going to be a representative team for a while.

So I am off the contract the central bandwagon, Ryan Russillo. Okay, that's fine. Moving to the National League. Cards of Phillies. A lot of history here. The 2011 stuff, you look at the Phillies-plus win team against the Cards team and then win the NLDS in five games. So none of those people are around anymore. It doesn't really matter. got this guy back and now he's got the ball game one uh in early july he was unhittable against st louis i don't know if that matters i think we're talking about wheeler since august 20th he's pitched 15 innings and yet that's that's baseball today hey we just got this big arm back now it's yours yeah it's it's very similar to glass now except wheeler is a guy who

frankly should have won the nL Cy Young last year and has gone out there and shown the ability to pitch 200 plus innings in a season. I don't like this series very much.

Let me just come out and say that. I think the Phillies are a flawed team. I think the Phillies are a flawed team. I think the Cardinals are a team that has overachieved in a lot of senses. You're getting career-type years from Arenado, from Goldschmidt. And by the way, you talk about early July when Wheeler last faced the Cardinals. In early July, Albert Pujols was hitting 189. last faced the Cardinals. In early July,

Albert Pujols was hitting 189. Since then, he's gotten OPS of above 1080 and hit 20 home runs and 190 at-bats and is batting second in Game 1. It's just an absurd thing to think

about what he is doing. For all of the emotional reasons, a run by St. Louis here would be a cool thing as a baseball fan to see Pujols retiring, Yadier Molina retiring, Adam Wainwright. We don't know where he's going to be. And yet this is a Cardinals team that's starting Jose Quintana, who respect has been awesome, but starting Jose Quintana in game one. I like St. Louis in this series because I think the Phillies are

two stars and scrubs and that there's not enough depth there in any portion of that team to make a sustained run, but let me just say, Ryan, in a three-game series, the best team is not always going to win, and that is baseball's postseason

in a nutshell. Yeah. And I'll never forget Billy Bean just saying, yeah, I don't know, you play 162 and then it's sort of guesswork. And then everybody's like, oh, that's why he didn't win in the playoffs. It's like, no, he's actually just telling us the truth. It's like, you know, I used to have... Let's just do an aside here. Because growing up, I would go, okay, I need... How scary

does your rotation go? You know? Some of those old yankees rotations where you're like are you kidding me like they're bringing this guy out in game four you know and then i'd be sitting there as a red sox fan be like we got pat rap going game three like fuck and that used to be how i would look at a handicapping playoff team you know look the braves it's sort of forgotten, but also underwhelming when you're like, wait, how could you have had all those guys and not one more? So it used to be how many

guys scare me as starters. That's not the case anymore. Then I think there was a stretch where I kind of loved really aggressive, chaotic top of the lineups. And that might have been too short of a span, but it was the Angels team that I loved at the top of the order. And then the Marlins had it a little bit.

And I was like, I like that chaotic stuff. Home runs were almost overrated. Now I used to kind of go with like, I want as many strikeout arms in the back of the bullpen. Fuck the starters. What do you think is the priority now? Because it used to be easy and we might have been wrong, but at least we thought we were right in identifying what was the most important thing for playoff baseball. That's funny you say this. I have a story running before the division series on this very subject.

What's the secret sauce? I think you nailed it when it comes to strikeout pitching out of the bullpen. That is a huge thing this time of year. And it's why if Cleveland were to make a little run here, listen, I'm picking Tampa in that series. But if Cleveland were to make a run, it will be on the back of the fact that they put the ball in play and that late inning velo is not going to scare them. And that these breaking balls that are created, literally, literally created in pitching labs, that is where breaking balls that are created literally literally created in pitching

labs that is where breaking balls come from these days guys sit there with edutronic cameras that takes super duper slow-mo video of them and they have rapsodos and trackmans to tell them what the ball

is spinning like and the efficiency of it and the angle of it. And they find, okay, what is the best way to throw this pitch? And once I figure that out with the numbers, I can go and replicate it. So that's why you see so much dominance at the back end of the bullpen these days. So I want strikeout arms and I want home runs. And I think the most representative statistic that we can possibly have there is the 2021 World Series. The Atlanta Braves hit 11 home

runs and the Houston Astros hit two. That is why the Braves won the 2021 World Series. Simple as that, their relief pitching especially was able to limit the Astros, a powerful lineup of Astros bats, by the way. They were able to limit the Astros bats and keep the ball in the ballpark. And now, listen, you've got other elements. Yes, I want contact. We saw that with like the 2015 Royals who were able to overcome their lack of home run power. But they also had that dominant bullpen. overcome their lack of home run power, but they also had that dominant bullpen.

I want a team that can catch the ball because when we're at that point where we start counting out, every mistake really does compound itself. And so you want guys who are going to field cleanly. But the truth of the matter, and this is a very dissatisfactory thing to come to terms with, the truth in baseball is that talent really doesn't matter as much as it should this time of year in small sample games, and that a lot of what it comes down to is luck. And how do I define luck? Maybe it is bounces. Maybe it is a call behind the plate. Or maybe it's just you get lucky and your guys start playing a little better than the others. Because this is not like the NBA, where generally speaking, the more talented team is the one that goes out and wins. This is not like the NFL, where if you have a really good

quarterback, then that could take you to a championship, even if the pieces surrounding him aren't quite the same. No, baseball is a different game where the worst team in the playoffs, like I can sit here and talk about how the Phillies don't look like a playoff. The Phillies could easily win the World Series this year. They've got Wheeler and Nola at the top of that rotation. Ranger Suarez is good. They've got enough in the back end of their bullpen now

to make a run at it. And they've got power hitters in Schwarber and Harper and Real Muto. So the idea that, you know, a championship is beyond their reach. No, anyone, anyone in baseball, any of these 12 teams can win the World Series. Keeping it moving here.

Blue Jays at Mariners. The Blue Jays have the lineup that I want. You know, I want the team that just feel like, man, we're the... Except it's so right-handed. It is very right-handed. But speaking to your whole point of how different...

Think about the Astros last year. They were three different teams in two weeks last postseason. It looks like the Sox are going to run them out of the AL. The Red Sox scored 21 runs in game two and three and then scored three in games

four, five, and six. So now you're like, oh, wait, guys that looked like they were pissing down their leg on the mound in the first couple games of this series, now no one can even get the bat on the ball now. So they're like, okay, well, now we got to go with Houston. And then you're right. Atlanta hits all these home runs.

So, I mean, it's a lot more boring to go, hey, I don't know who's going to win because it just surprises us all the time. But the Blue Jays at least have a lineup that misses outs. You know, you're just kind of like, all right, I don't know who's going to win because it just surprises us all the time. But the Blue Jays at least have a lineup that misses outs. You're just kind of like, all right, I don't think there's an easy, there's no break in this lineup. And then Manoa, who he's just been, basically, he's been that

guy since the second he got called up. And unfortunately with baseball, we both understand nationally, it's just not the same thing. And then the who are the top five arms and all this different stuff. But Manoa has been about as steady as you can be as a front-end rotation player for a team that i think is as talented probably as anybody else and yet i think people look at seattle's depth of the rotation and what muñoz is doing out of the bullpen and going i'm taking it feels like more people are on seattle Yeah, I'm on Toronto this series because I fully buy Alec Manoa.

I think he is a dude. I think he's got the stuff. But even more than that, the mentality. I did a story on him earlier this year, and it was about starting pitching and how the starting pitcher in Major League Baseball in 2022 is just kind of an afterthought and about the constraints that they were putting on Manoa because he's a younger guy and he wants to go out there. He wants the ball. He wants to go deep into games.

The Blue Jays bullpen has long been the great concern there. But Jordan Romano is really good in the trade for Anthony Bass and Zach Popp at the deadline, they gave up Jordan Groshans, who's one of their top prospects to Miami to get those guys. But they've done a good job of stabilizing that bullpen. And Adam Simber and Jimmy Garcia,

Tim Meza from the left side, there's enough there to get through. I worry more about the Jays in later series. In short series where they can throw Gosman and Manoa, that helps. And you wonder, Ryan, if they win this game one, whether they go about the plan that the Mets are entertaining

where you don't throw your number two starter in game two. You save him for game three, because if you happen to win game two, all of a sudden in the division series, this is with DeGrom and potentially with Gosman as well, you could start him in one and for a potential game five. Now, that does put you in a pretty rough position in the LCS, but then again, we're looking two series ahead at this point, and it's just

a survive and advance thing. I think the Blue Jays may be the team among the lower seeds that has the best chance of winning the World Series. There's just so much thunder in that lineup. Springer, we know, shows up every October. It just happens without fail. He's awesome in the postseason. Vlad Jr., runner-up for MVP last year, still a dangerous bat. Boba Shett, at one point in September, was hotter than any hitter on the planet. Teoscar Hernandez is as steady as it gets and is hitting really well lately.

Alejandro Kirk and other guys who's emerged this year, they may all be right-handed, but they're all also really good. And Toronto's a team that nobody wants to face. Last one here for the Division Series. Mets Padres. You have a Mets hangover here,

which may mean nothing or sets an awful tone. Like some of the other teams that we've mentioned, whether it's Philly. I don't know if Cleveland, I wouldn't put Cleveland in this category with them, but the front-end guys at the top.

It's a Padres offense that, answer these two things. Is it actually the worst offense in the National League of the playoff teams? And who is San Diego Soto? Yes. Yeah, it is the worst offense Who is San Diego Soto? Yes. Yeah, it is the worst offensive of any of the NL playoff teams,

which is wild to say and which would be a lot different if Fernando Tatis Jr. were out there. And if Juan Soto didn't look like, I'm not going to say a shell of himself in San Diego, but certainly not the guy who Darren Bragg is. It's not quite Darren Bragg. Jesus Christ. of himself in San Diego, but certainly not the guy who were expecting. It's not quite Darren Bragg. Jesus, right? I actually kind of like Darren Bragg. You dropped a Darren

Bragg cup on Juan Soto. Wow. Okay. No, he's not Darren Bragg. All right. I agree. I agree. But he's not Juan Soto either. He's not that guy who was expected to come in. It's likely going to work out at some point for Juan Soto.

I just think if you're a Padres fan, you're kind of like, wait, what's going on here? I'm not worried about it. It just isn't what you thought it would be. And I think there is a very good argument to make that Manny Machado has been the national league MVP this season. And I still really like Jake Cronenworth.

Like there are guys who can step up for the Padres, but it's not the ideal situation. The thing is what's carried them here is their pitching. What's carried them here is their pitching. And you Darvish in game one is one of the more fascinating things that we're going to see, because I think you Darvish is like the new Clayton Kershaw. He doesn't have quite the pedigree of Kershaw in terms of Cy Young's hasn't had quite the ceiling of Kershaw, who's one of the greatest pitchers, frankly, of all time. But Darvish in the playoffs has been terrible. And I think that he, you know, I was talking with someone in Texas a couple of days ago and they were like, I don't trust Darvish in the postseason. That's easy for someone in Texas to say because he didn't perform there.

He didn't perform with the Dodgers. He's too good to be this bad in the playoffs. And so if the Darvish that we've seen over the last month, who was Pitcher of the Month in the National League, shows up, if Blake Snell, who in his last 18 starts has an ERA in the low twos and is looking like his Cy Young self and Bob Melvin's not going to Kevin cash him and take him out of the game.

He's going to, he's going to let him play. I do think the Mets win this series, but the path for the Padres to advance Ryan, uh, it's not difficult to see they have arms. And by the way, they're coming with Joe Musgrove in game three.

And this is a guy who signed a hundred100 million extension a month or so ago. So it's not like it's some Scrabini coming in for game three where you're hoping. No, Joe Musgrove can go out there and throw seven shutout very easily. Starling Marte, I don't know if he's the key to this series, but he is the straw that stirs the drink for the Mets offense. And what I like about the Mets offense is that there's just a bunch of professional hitters. You know, for a huge slug guy, Pete Alonso does not strike out very much.

Jeff McNeil having a Jeff McNeil type season and after a down year in 2021 and Brandon Nimmo is a guy who gets on base. But Marte, if he's the table setter there and he's taking his really good professional at-bats, completely changes that lineup. And when you're a Padres pitcher facing guys in the Mets lineup, it's just guy after guy who's not an easy out.

And that's where the Mets will go far. It's if their difficult outs all show up and really put pressure and get that starting pitcher out of the game quickly because San Diego's bullpen comparatively just doesn't rate. Yeah, that's what scares me. I kind of wanted

to just say fuck it and pick the Padres. And I'm not going to, I mean, I don't think I'm going to worry about DeGrom's September. I know it's a blister. Everybody says it's going to be fine. I think I'm with you on that one. The Mets hangover, I'm not going to worry about however they feel about themselves because of what they should be doing.

And that's watching instead of being in this. Let's run through it quick then. It sounds like you're going Cleveland. No, I'm going Tampa actually. Okay. All right. So both Rays, both Cleveland. No, I'm going Tampa, actually. Okay. All right. So both Rays, both St. Louis, both Toronto, both Mets.

That doesn't make me feel good. No. I thought it was going to be different. What was your World Series pick? I got Braves over Astros. Okay. I will go Toronto over the Dodgers. Oh, okay.

You got faith enough in that rotation and in that bullpen and in those gloves too. Like that's the thing about Toronto as well. I don't feel like Toronto in the field

is quite as clean as some of these other teams. Ah, fielding's for losers. Don't worry about that. Of course. Not on this podcast. Nerds! Last thought here, because you said something this week that got me thinking. Post-judge

home run 62, there's a lot of chatter, a lot of chatter out there about what it meant and all this stuff. I always feel like baseball, more than any other sport, it's as if we demand instructions on how to think about things. Now you're one of my favorite things used to be about, like we should just have a separate wing in the hall of fame. Like case I bring my kid, little Dave who loves baseball,

seven second baseman. And he's just so confused being like, why is this guy's bus next to this guy's or plaque? And we should say, and I'm, and instead I could just like, I don't know go to the hall of fame in cooperstown been a few times great spot and just go like hey i know how

to process this i know how i feel about bonds home runs versus hank harrens babe ruth i know how i feel about judges home runs uh against barry bonds and i think it it doesn't have to be definitive i felt like you try to make it definitive this week uh and we're part of the group that was like, hey, Bonds is the record and everybody shut the fuck up about it. So my question for you is this. If you're pro Bonds, does that mean you're pro Jake Runyon and Chase Kaminsky?

I'm missing the reference. Those guys were busted for cheating in a fishing tournament. They've been alleged to be cheaters right so does it mean if i have to sit here and go well jeff pass and said i can't really question it just it bonds is the record does that mean i have to look back at every fishing tournament jake runyon and chase kaminsky have won by putting lead pellets and other fish fillets in the bodies of fish that they were weighing to win tournaments. So I have to respect them.

Because look, I mean, we could say everybody was doing it. We could say Bonds just did what other people were doing, which is fine. I'm not necessarily even like... The steroid era doesn't bother me historically, but I think I want to appreciate judges 62 more than McGuire's, more than Sosa's, and more than Bonds. I know what the record is, but my appreciation is more for a guy like Judge, even though I can't know for certain that he's never done anything to help himself. So I just don't think it's as black and white as people try to make it out to be this week.

The floor is yours. Okay. So a few things. Number one, I think that the tweet in question was a rejoinder to others out there trying, whether it was Roger Maris Jr. or people who wrote about this, trying to say, this is the record because it is clean. And as if we know what is definitively clean, by the way, as if we have the ability to understand just how much performance enhancers enhance performance and what the difference is between steroids that have been deemed illegal by the federal government as opposed to supplements that are okayed and the difference between those legal quote unquote supplements and the illegal drugs that we look at and stigmatize. Let me just come out first and say, I think what Barry Bonds, Mark McGuire, and Sammy Sosa did was wrong. I do not advocate for cheating. And let's talk about the fishermen for a second.

advocate for cheating. And let's talk about the fishermen for a second. The fishermen after this was a post facto thing after they caught the fish, they added weights to it. I think that Barry Bonds hitting a ball over a fence. Barry Bonds actually did the deed here. He didn't hit the ball and then attach a drone to it and have it carry it over the fence no he actually hit the ball over the fucking fence so that that's where i sit here and and say yes it was a home run it was a it was a proper home run do i wish that barry bonds had did it while not using the cream and the clear. Yes, of course. But my greater point here was that what Aaron Judge is doing right now is a wonderful thing in in this era where guys aren't hitting as many home run. Well, in this year where guys aren't hitting as many home runs. What he has done is truly magnificent.

But we can't ignore what has happened already because we don't like how it happened, right? We can't look at Barry Bonds and invalidate what he did when we simply don't know the effect of everything that he did on it. I love the idea that Aaron Judge can be looked at as somebody whose home runs you appreciate. I'm perfectly fine with you doing that, Ryan, as long as you acknowledge that the record is 73 and that 73 balls did fly over fences and that you're not trying to bifurcate history to the point where it would erase it. Because if that's the case, my greatest fear here is the Pandora's box that that opens. And I made this point in my column.

If we're going to start separating records, if we're going to take Barry Bonds and put him in the dirty division, where does that end? What is the logical end point of this? No, it's why it's also to jump in. It's why Manfred

didn't take a World Series away from the Houston Astros. Yes. Because he's like, look, I know what everybody wants me to do right now, especially in the moment when everybody's emotional. We're not going to start doing that, working this thing backwards, and then saying what qualifies in a sport. We knew everybody was kind of in that gray area, and then Houston decided to smash through it with a different color.

Yes. We were like, oh, okay. But you're right. So we're agreeing here more than maybe I set this up because I know you caught a ton of shit for it. I think we totally agree. I think the agreement, this is where I see everything falling. You can look at Barry Bonds however you want to look at him. If you want to say he cheated and McGuire cheated and

Sosa cheated, ergo, I don't look at that in a fond way like maybe Jeff does looking back at the summer of 98 and remembering how enjoyable it was to this kid who just graduated high school and freshman year of college is off. I mean, like it was a magical time. And I look at that and I look, you know, I was, I was on the chase with Barry Bonds towards seven 62. And there was cognitive dissonance about it. There's gotta be,

because of course you want fair play. That's the ideal. That that's the, the, you know, ought to be because of course you want fair play. That's the ideal. That's what we'd like to believe from our athletes, that they want to do this thing in a moral way. But we just have to recognize that truly has never been the case. The heroes that we want to prop up were hopped up on amphetamines. the heroes that we want to prop up were hopped up on amphetamines. They just like they were.

And I'm not trying to engage in whataboutism here. I'm trying to say that this clean era that we want to look back on fondly, it wasn't clean. There is no era that's clean. Athletes in all sports, especially in baseball, try to leverage whatever advantage they can and sometimes go over that line. And I think you can look at it two ways. Either you accept this ugly fact of history or you try to deny it. And I think denying history is a very dangerous thing because you get to the point of erasing it.

And once you erase history, what's the foundation of this game? The foundation of this game is history. And you just can't look at Barry Bonds and invalidate his 73 home runs without doing the same thing to the New York Yankees in 2009 when they had four PED users on the team. And in 2000 when they had 10. And in 2009 when they had four PED users on the team and in 2000 when they had 10 and in 99 when they had six and in 98 when they had three

and in 96 when they had two. Baseball is a messy game and I'm sorry, but not accepting the messiness for what it is, you run the risk of doing greater damage, I think, than the damage that the steroid users themselves did.

Well said. Enjoy the divisional stuff. We will place a bet, a World Series bet. Loser buys the winner a square scorebook. I love that. Done. All right. Well, nerd out. F9. Nerd! Thanks, Jeff.

See you, Ryan. out. F9. Nerd! Thanks, Jeff. See you, Ryan. There's a new book out called Five Star QB. Yogi Roth is going to join us here. He did this with Joey Roberts, who's one of our guys from back at ESPN, Dilfer's guy, Bob Bancroft. And Yogi's

been around the scene for a long time. I first met him when he did a book with Pete Carroll, which I was telling the story the other day. Pete Carroll came to ESPN to do the car wash to promote the book with Yogi. And I think it was the day A-Rod got suspended or something ridiculous and everybody canceled. But we still had Yogi and Pete on because my show was six hours at the time.

So Yogi Roth, the author of this book and somebody that's been involved in football for a very long time joins us. What's up, man? My man, thanks for having me. I want to let you know that Joey Roberts and Trent Dilfer are building a new weight room for you. So whenever you want to join the staff at Lipsicum, you're all dialed in over in Nashville. Let's talk about this book because before we talk about the book, we have to talk about what this is.

And at first, I didn't get it. This is a monumental undertaking, but this is also not just a book that football fans will love. This is a resource for anybody that wants to understand how this works between, I mean, how many hundreds of interviews did you do? How many different quarterbacks are in here? Because you have quotes from every quarterback that mattered as a recruit in the last 20 years and all the coaches. So give me some stats on what went into putting this thing together. Because at times it almost feels like the only textbook that you would take for a three credit course. Yeah, I love that, man. Well, thanks for taking the time to read it and for having me on. I've been a huge fan of who you are and everything you stand for for a while, man. You've always been graceful to me when I've seen you, whether it's freezing outside of a

stadium and you're doing a show or at the Elite 11 at nine o'clock at night, we're watching kids throw a rail shot. But here we are with this book. And really a couple of years ago, Joey and I, after an Elite 11 sat down and said, we've got to give these recruits, walk on to five-star something, like something tangible that can serve as a tribe of mentors. So we said, okay, well, we have a lot of stuff to share, but why don't we talk to the people who actually did it? And then we got some advice from other people that have done it and let's see if we can put it together. So we started with research, 134 quarterbacks in history from the time, from beginning of rankings to the time this book was published

which was earlier this summer there's 134 that were given the five-star title some had it for a week some had it for a lifetime it seemed some were given that title in 10th grade tate martin tell max brown some had it like cameraizing for two weeks and then all of a sudden it was eliminated right and pending the recruiting source we kind of just dove into it so then we hit up every one of those people. You should see our spreadsheets. They're off the charts. And some hit us back immediately, like the 54 that are in this book. Some said, you know what, I want to do it, but I'm not ready to open up those wounds. A lot of quarterbacks said that. And some were like, nah, dude, I can't do that. And some we couldn't get to, like Jeff Smoker, Matt Lavecchio, like guys that were in my recruiting class from back in the day.

Matt Lavecchio said no? Well, no, he didn't say no. I couldn't find him. Like, I'm on LinkedIn. I'm trying to hit up old coaches. I'm hitting up Jeff Smoker's OC from Michigan State. Like, we're trying to find guys every which way. And some we just couldn't get to.

So if anybody was, you anybody was missed in this book, I apologize if I couldn't connect with you, but what we tried. Anyway, we netted out and had to kind of just hit stop at some point. And we went to really work on the book. And we asked all 54 of the same 22 questions. And we got their answers back and started to curate them. And the only thing we changed was grammar, right? We weren't going to mess with anybody's answer. And it was amazing as some of these guys like Ryan Paraloo, I sat on a zoom with for three hours and recorded his answers and then type them off, right? Like did the same thing with like Herm Edwards. He's an ambassador for the game. I know somebody that you love. So we kind of got them in a bunch of different ways. Um, and then a lot of the fun for me was after they'd send them

in, I call them up on the phone, whether it was Gunnar Kiel or Jake Rodriguez. You can go down the list. Obviously, the Mark Sanchez's and the Matt Barclays, those are no problem to get. Jacob Eason was fascinating. He's in the Seahawks facility at the time, telling me his answers and, you know, we're on Zoom for two hours. And these guys just start baring their souls. And you've done this job for a while. When you ask the right question, people want to share it. And in recruiting, I know we think there's a lot of love, but there's a lot of scars when it comes to recruiting, when you talk to players the older they get. Man, it was fascinating to talk to all these guys. Okay. And then we hear from Chip Kelly. We hear from David Shaw.

We hear from Dan Lane. I mean, we just countless coaches. Let's start with a story. You mentioned Gunnar Kiel because it's really good because you asked the five-star guys like, all right, what happened? What was your first offer? What was the first time you went to the camp? A couple of quarterbacks went to 20-plus college camps. So everybody's story is a little different, yet at times it helps you completely understand this process that at times can be overlooked. All right, so Gunnar Kiel's a great one. Give me his timeline from when he shows up to his first camp

and how old he is and what happens, to then he committed to Indiana. He also was with Notre Dame and LSU, and we know that the LSU thing where Les Miles said he didn't have the chest, then he ends up in Cincinnati. Give me the Gunnar Kiel timeline because that is one of the many examples of like oh my god what did that guy do and he opened up about all of it yeah gunner and ryan burns are probably my two favorite

stories and maybe parallel in terms of reconnecting with guys and going through their path um and there's even a couple other guys that wouldn't write their story but would talk to me about it off the record that just blew my mind in terms of when you get drafted and when you don't get drafted and the hole they went into. But to specifically to Gunnar, just to paint a picture, Gunnar comes from a football family, for those that don't know, like his dad, his uncles, his brothers, they all played college football, whether it was Notre Dame or Indiana or a bunch of different places. So he was groomed to be a dude. And in eighth grade, he decides to follow his brother to a junior day, eighth grade. And at that camp, he balls out.

He's the best quarterback at that camp in eighth grade. And in that moment, all of a sudden his star was really born. And in my opinion, it's dramatically too early. He shouldn't even have been allowed to go. He got through the cracks, whatever they are. We all went to camps and registration lines, et cetera. And he thrives. Well, at the time, Elite 11, we would have what we coined ball boys. So we would bring in guys that weren't heading into their senior year. So they could be in eighth grade, ninth grade, 10th grade. So I'm talking about Zach Klein back in the day. He was a ball boy forever. I think Cody Hawkins was a ball boy back in the day.

And Gunnar Kiel was a ball boy. I started Elite 11 in 2009. It was my first year out of coaching. And I started doing that. And I meet Gunnar. And here's this amazingly joyful young man, blonde hair flopping in the wind. I could see it like it was yesterday on Orange County. Bob Johnson was the head coach at the time. And he's just kind of dealing. You're looking at like,

okay, so this is the next guy. We'll see what happens. Well, he goes and thrives throughout his high school career. And he decides to commit to the school where his brother's at. He's going to go to Indiana. Well, his recruiting goes on. He says, I don't really know if I'm going to do that. There's some coaching changes. So he makes a change. And he commits, to your point earlier, dad, there's some coaching changes. So he makes a change and he commits to your point earlier, uh, to LSU. The Indiana thing's nuts though, because he was saying like, as a, as a teenager, he's getting texts from guys on the team saying, don't come here. Yeah. Yeah. He, I mean, he was so connected to it because of his older brother. Yeah. And I think when you were in recruiting for so long, you know, you lose the luster of recruiting faster than anybody thinks. And I think when you were in recruiting for so long, you know, you lose the luster of

recruiting faster than anybody thinks. And he was in it and it was cool. And he was the man that all of a sudden people are screwing with his, with his decision. And I think for a lot of guys at age, when people are manipulating your decision for you, like it's much easier than when it's our age, but I can call you right now and be like, Hey man, don't leave a Manhattan beach places is whack. And you can be like, okay, cool, man. I'm gonna look at the ocean. I think it's pretty cool. Right? Like I can't mess with your opinion, but when you're 14, 15, 16, you are so influenced and you're already put on this dramatic pedestal. And I remember when Gunner came into elite 11, it's the same year as Jameis Winston. Uh, it's the same year as, um, uh, a bunch of talented

players, but Jameis was the MVP of that year. Regardless, uh, Gunner doesn't thrive at the elite 11 and all of a sudden his quarterback world gets rocked. He was just on this ascension. And as it gets rocked, to your point, pivots from Indiana, goes to LSU, and he's ready to go to LSU. But he just doesn't feel it at the time. And what I saw happen in real time with Les Miles, who I've only met once, and he was gracious to me. But what he did that night to me was the first, in my opinion, the first time a young high school prospect got destroyed on social media. And oh, by the way, it was from Les Miles, who was larger than God back at that time in college football. The internet was just getting going. Twitter, I think, just began. And he goes in front of an entire basketball arena and says,

this guy doesn't have the chest to be here. To me, for Les Miles, he's done a lot of things I'm sure he would regret. I hope that's number one. Because he put a label on Gunnar Keel that Gunnar still hasn't been able to shake from a public perception standpoint. When he walks down the hall and a football fan knows him, that's the first thing they bring up to him. And as I talked to Gunnar, you felt that there was a lot underneath that. Okay. So he pivots and he goes to Notre Dame because that's the legacy move. And he goes there,

but we gets there and I have never spent any time with Brian Kelly, but as you read in this book, there's a lot of quarterbacks that have, and Brian Kelly coaches quarterback really hard. And Gunnar gets in there early on in training camp and he just struggles. And Brian Kelly coaches quarterback really hard. And Gunner gets in there early on in training camp and he just struggles. And he writes about it in the book. He gets to the line of scrimmage and he's ready to call play and kind of just freezes. Ends up calling a timeout in practice. I've never seen that happen in practice unless like the clock is going, right? But he's just trying to manage because he's just struggling, right? And performance anxiety is a real thing, right? Trying to live up to expectations is a real thing.

And to me, where I think coaches have dramatically shifted is not only having empathy, but front-loading mental skills. Front-loading mental skills. When you walk into the facility, whether it's Marcus Freeman at Notre Dame, Ryan Day at Ohio State, Chip Kelly at UCLA, Lincoln Riley at SC,

all these coaches now are front-loading these skills. So you walk in and there's something there to help you in that regard. Because it's a big build. And for Gunnar, it started in eighth grade. Josh Rosen has started in ninth grade. For a lot of these guys, it started young. Young. Some of the best quarterbacks in the league were three-star players. Look at Sam Darnold, Josh Rosen's career. Sam was like, I kind of had nothing to recruit. He blew up at elite 11. Josh was the number one kid in America in 10th grade, along with Ricky town. Anyway, I say that all to kind of end the story on Gunner is that after a couple of weeks, he recognized like, dude, this isn't the place for me at Notre Dame. I'm buried on the depth

chart. I'm getting no time. So I'm going to leave again because I have this external reality, which is everybody saying I'm so sweet. And this internal reality, which is like, I'm struggling and nobody's giving me a tool. So he leaves and finds his way to Cincinnati, which wasn't the healthiest of environments either with coach Tuberville.

It's not like he was front-loading mental skills. So he just had this turbulent career, tumultuous career. And what I love about him now is that, man, and he's the guy that I talk to probably most regularly after the players in this book. And he's just at peace, bro. Like he's at peace and he's gone through a lot in his personal life. And I'm just so proud of him and to share in this book. And so, you know, we talk every other week and we still do around like just his life and his journey. And he's got a magical story and I'm really just thankful that thankful that he shared and i think he's thankful that he shared it to get it out on paper

yeah that's the one that really jumps out and we're talking like 100 quarterbacks that you're talking to here and i kept coming back to that one because let's i'll admit too you know younger which is weird but when i was younger uh i wasn't like a crazy anti-transfer guy but you you know the tape mark tells the world you'd be be like, oh, this guy again, and Gunner fell into that category. You'd be like, oh, this guy again. And yet when I look for these common themes from all these successful people in anything I read, but specifically when I try to always figure this quarterback thing out like everybody else that cares about football, the competitiveness, everybody's preaching, be competitive, be competitive, be competitive.

But then when you're a kid who transfers, you're like, oh, this guy's not competitive. But sometimes it just doesn't make any sense. I know Hunter Johnson, it didn't work out at Clemson and then Clemson again in Northwestern. But what was he supposed to do? Stay after Trevor Lawrence? And what's Clemson supposed to do? Not offer Trevor Lawrence? So when I think about the way the transfer world is handled now, I think at times it was incredibly like, it was reverse ageism in a way where it was just older people upset at younger people. And I'm not saying that every single kid that transfers all the time, like, Hey, this is great. But do you feel like there's been a shift as annoying as it is with the lessening of the

transfer restrictions? Do you feel like there's been more of a shift where the college football world is more accepting of it than maybe we are as fans i hope they are after they read this book but i don't i think within the walls of coaches right i'm at arizona i got their game this weekend and jay and gloria's their starting quarterback jacob cowling one of the top receivers in the country right now like they're full of a bunch of transfers hunter eckles from sc the best player defense yeah i think 100% everybody knows that's the world. And especially we'll see now with coaching changes. I know you and Danny Cannell were

talking about that in your most recent pod. All these changes. Well, you're going to see players go with coaches. Just reality. It's just going to be kind of craziness in that regard. But I don't think fans have any empathy right now. And a big part of this book, a third of this book is,

you know, it was for the players and their parents. It was for people in the industry like yourself. And it was for fans to just see what goes through. I'm not asking anybody to feel bad for these guys when they transfer

because they're offered scholars and NIL and their life's awesome. But it's to have an understanding of the other side that 51% of five-star quarterbacks transferred at least once. At least once, bro. You look at another 18% transferred twice. Like JT Daniels. 51% of five-star quarterbacks transferred at least once, at least once, bro.

You look at another 18% transfer twice, like JT Daniels, Hunter Johnson, your point, Blake Barnett, Conor Brewer, Ricky town, Tate, Jacob sermon. I didn't go down the list of guys that are in this book to transfer multiple times. And you're right, especially when they're fighting this external expectation. And the thing that hit me the most, bro, like I called Ryan a parallel and he's literally when they're fighting this external expectation. And the thing that hit me the most, bro, like I called Ryan Paraloo and he's literally on a Zoom, on his phone, under a tree in Louisiana outside.

Hey, how you doing? I said, hey, tell me about the moment you realized you were a five star. He goes, well, I was sitting on my farm in Louisiana and all of a sudden I got a call and somebody said, you're the best quarterback in the world. My life changed forever. I never asked for that. I just wanted to play.

Josh Rosen never asked for that. Like you read what Josh wrote in this book and people light Josh up and people have to be responsible for their action, but he got destroyed for joining a fraternity. If you remember that as a freshman, destroy it. You read the book and he goes, well, I was a mid-year enrollee. We had a really veteran team of a bunch of fourth and fifth year seniors. I just wanted some friends. So I joined a fraternity just to meet some people

on college campus. And he gets lit up. Just destroyed. Now, hot tub, not the right social media move. Didn't he have a hot tub in the room? Yeah, he ended up having a hot tub in his room and he put it on social. Again, not the right move, but like... No, I'm not anti his hot tub. I just wanted to get the full scope.

Fair. Well, I think it was two things. It was like joined a fraternity and then like a couple weeks later, it was a hot tub. And he just continued to get lit up. And I just think the book gives a lot of context of like, none of these guys are trying to like go viral with every move they make. They just get labeled. And all of a sudden, everything, every move they make becomes a possible viral moment.

And they don't have a lot of tools to deal with it. At least they didn't at the time. That's what like David Shaw to me is in the 1% of human beings. Like Ryan Burns, starting quarterback there gets beat out by Keller Chris. And he says, it was one of the best days of my career when they said I got beat out because I finally got to exhale for the first time in about six years. And the next day, David Shaw and Tavita Pritchard went into the quarterback room and said, come with me. They took him down the hall to the mental skills department and said, you need to go talk to somebody. dramatic on it, but suicide's a real thing in the world of sport and college sport. And they helped him develop the traits and tools to just manage not living up to everybody else's expectation. You talked about the quarterback room a lot. And the thing that people kept coming back to was

there's not enough oxygen in there, right? Not enough oxygen, not enough air. What did you learn about getting it from every angle? I understand that you get it too with the Elite 11 stuff, but what does that mean for those of us that maybe don't understand that dynamic of, oh, hey, the new five-star guy's here and you're going to sit next to the last two five-stars? Granted, not every school is loading up on guys like that,

but the realization of once you're actually in the room and you've committed that now none of this shit matters. Yeah. Well, I'll say this for those listening. Whatever it is that you do in your profession, imagine three to five other people who do exactly that and are considered the best at that, but are just a year older or younger than you and to the room. What's it going to feel like

when I just say, okay, just have a great day. Go do your job. It's hard. And through my study of this thing and now 20 years, 22 years, I made major college football. I think there's only enough room for every player to feel like they have a chance to play. There's only enough room for three. So you have the starter and then maybe the guy a year or two underneath him and a year or two underneath him. So they feel like they have a chance and they buy into the development of the position. Because we've seen rooms, whether it's Washington or Oregon on the West Coast, loaded huge recruits loaded. And I understand every coach has an ideology of like, I got to recruit a quarterback a year. I understand that to a degree,

but I feel like when you talk to the individuals in the room, if it's fully stacked, like you just referenced, you feel like you can't breathe. And that's the term there's, there's not enough oxygen in the room because it is as alpha as you can get while everybody plays this position and it's supposed to be the selfless position and a servant leadership type of position. All the phrases we love. It isn't until you reach a level of maturity and it's really hard to buy into that

versus sometimes cheering for a guy to not make the right throw or not giving the right advice to your quarterback because you're afraid of your job. And that's why I said the healthiest rooms, I believe, have three in it. So everybody feels like they have an absolute, have a chance. Now we're living in a different world where you can go insert a new guy into the portal. But I look at Lincoln Riley at SC,

I think it's a healthy room right now. You've got the dude in Caleb Williams, you've got Miller Moss as a backup. And maybe you bring in Malachi Nelson next year. That's going to be a healthy dynamic because how guys are separated. And then you can just at least learn about your own skin. So I think the thing I learned at Elite 11 every year, like I do the media training for these guys, man, they walk in and I listened to their press conferences. And when all the recruiting guys are asking questions and they sound like political figures. They just say whatever like Tom Brady said

or Russell Wilson said or whatever Peyton Manning said. They have no real authentic answer. So that's what we go to work on. And I realized like these guys aren't in their authentic selves. And when that is clashing, you can't be you on a bunch of fronts

that you can never maximize your potential as a performer. So you need time to breathe. And David Shaw says, you need to be able to drop your shoulders. And that's the moment he looks for in his quarterbacks when they can do that. And I think that can be cultivated in the room. Yeah, I actually wish, I really wish if there was a PR company that could be started where it was like, be yourself and make the mistakes and stop trying to sound like don't when you when

you're 16 don't say i'm all about super bowls you know what i mean like it just sounds ridiculous um you know we're going to find out if you're all about winning and you can try to convince us to say all these right things and i just i feel like we're getting less and less authentic we're getting like more and more unauthentic generations of athletes here because they're so afraid to say something real and i blame the PR people and the coaches and the protective people about it way more than I blame the athletes. Okay, final thought here. Through all of this, I mean, it's more than just research. It's putting together these personal experiences and I'm consistently fascinated by the lack of success of quarterbacks. I have a bunch of different theories and sometimes

they change and there's ones that I actually like, but it doesn't mean I have the answer and the people that do this don't have the answer. I also refuse to believe that everybody that does it is just a bunch of idiots and there's actually all these smart people that would do it better. I don't know if that's true. It's, again, trying to predict whose personality is going to be what and how much football is going to matter to them when they're 23 and 28. We have a hard time doing that relationships, nevermind quarterbacks. Do you, have you been able to come up with anything Yogi throughout all of this, where you go, these traits, this system, this coach, this, is there anything you've been able

to put together where you go, there's a better chance for success if the next recruit does these things? Yeah, it's a great question. It's a great question because you look at, let's put some context around it. Out of the 134 five-star players, only 10 were drafted in the top 10. I'm going to rip their names. Vince Young, Stafford, Sanchez, Newton, Blaine Gabbard, Jameis, Kyler, Rosen, rosen tua trevor they all have a really unique trade like a really unique trade every one of them at the time you're like whoa there's something really dynamic about these individuals so like i think we have to look at reality first of like there can be

however many five stars every year or four stars or bigger recruits or 60 plus college power five starters, they're all not going to make it to the next level. Fundamentally, I think the definition is flawed of what it means to be an elite recruit, which is to be a player who can change the face of a franchise. Only one ever won a Super Bowl as a starter.

Stafford, year 13, team two. That's the definition of 15, 16, 17 years old. I'm like, you can change a franchise, like whether it's on three, 24, seven ESPN, like fundamentally you put all the verbiage. That's the general definition. Most of these guys aren't going to change the franchise.

They're just not. It's just, it's just hard to do it, right? Whether it's coaching, luck, health, college, like all the things that go through it. I think that it really boils down to, let's just take the number one trait off the table. Number one trait is, can you be accurate? Right? Like if you can't throw, you can't even be in the conversation.

So let's just move that to the side. I think the next trait is like, you have to be an incredible competitor. Okay. That's an easy one. People beat that one up all the time. Like you just have to be willing to do the boring things longer, right? Watch film, show up, be a teammate, learn about others, all those things. Okay.

Move that to the side. I think the next two things are dramatically important. One, you have to be a seeker. You have to be a seeker. The best performers I've been around, the best coaches I've been around, whether it's Chip Kelly, Pete Carroll wrote the four, John Schneider, you name it. They're seekers. They're seeking knowledge.

They never had all the answers. Just with Jane Delora. Man, he can't wait to learn the next thing from Jed Fish calling their game this weekend. Bo Nix, same deal. Dan Lanning and his staff. The best ones can't wait to go again. They have to be seekers in all aspects of life. Whether it's, hey, what's your name as the custodian in the facility, person making lunch. Like they, that doesn't turn off. That's, that's the one two. And we talk about

in the book, I call it the wonder switch. And to me, when you walk into a facility or when you walked into your first radio booth back in the day, coming out of college, you walked in, you're like, Whoa, you had this sense of wonderment. Wow. The wonderment, when you look at the psychology behind it, is tied to your imagination. And your imagination went, wow, one day, maybe I'll have my own show. A quarterback walks into a stadium, picked a stadium, whether it's in Auburn or it's Alabama, you name the school. They walk in and they say, whoa, I imagined myself winning, throwing touchdowns, cheering and doing the fight song at USC. That wonderment imagination are tied together. Science would say that your imagination has never

turned off. So if you're worrying, it's the biggest misuse of your imagination because you're worrying, do I throw another pick? Am I going to transfer again? Does my coach hate me? The fan base is booing me. All those things are tied together. What I say is for all these quarterbacks, their wonderment, their wonder switch as we go into the book, it's turned off all the time by who? By people like you or me or social media or fan bases or a coach or a disgruntled fan, whatever it is, and they don't recognize it. So the awareness, the mindset to say, oh, let me just check in real quick. Like, why am I against the world right now? Oh, it's because my DMs are full. Okay, let me shut that shit off. Why do I feel like I got to prove everybody wrong? Well, that's about everybody else. Where am I

wasting all my energy? Like having the capability to say, you know what? No, no, no. I got to flip that back on. And I, and I say that because I've given this speech about a hundred times now in different locker rooms over the last couple of years. And when I say, Hey, how many of you have had your wonder switch off in the room of 105 players? 95% of them raise their hand. Yeah, man, all the time. I even realized it was off. Hey, yo, man, I just flipped it back on. I had the best practice in my life. And I just feel there's something around the joy of playing that when I talk to these quarterbacks now, especially in the transfer portal, I look at the Pac-12, seven new quarterbacks that I'm covering. They all say to me, man, I'm having the most fun ever because joy is being cultivated. Win, lose, or draw, but I'm enjoying it. And that's why I go back to the

front loading on those mental skills. So I net out of those two things. Are you truly a seeker when you look in the mirror? Is your wonder switch on or off? And do you have the capability to flip it back on? So your imagination is going down a positive road. I think those two things are carrying quarterbacks right now towards success or hampering them and sending them down a positive road. I think those two things are carrying quarterbacks right now towards success or hampering them and sending them down a road where they need someone to help pull them out of it. Five-star QB, Yogi Roth. I'm telling you, this is a very, very unique book.

It's educational. It's entertaining. It's kind of a five-star of books. That wasn't my plan, but it just came to me. It's sort of cheesy, but it was really cool reading this, man. So congrats on getting this thing done because the amount of work that must have gone into this was not easy. So thanks again. Yeah, it was a bear, but I hope it's one of those books. It won't be Bill Walsh's book, but I hope for the next five, 10 years, anybody who's getting recruited or as a walk-on or as a parent of a player. And they're like, I don't know what to do. Like pick it up, go to the recruiting chapter, go to the transfer chapter,

go to the NIL chapter, go to the chapter on manhood with Brenda Tracy, go to the mental health with the Holinsky family, Dr. Michael Gervais on mental skills. Like there's something in there and we wrote it so you could work the book, work the workbook. And I hope it has an impact. It has already and I hope it keeps growing. So thank you, man. I appreciate the time. Absolutely.

Have fun this weekend. You got it, bro. Before we get to life advice, the crew that solved gambling has not solved gambling, it appears. How did you guys do last week? I lost. I've been doing this thing where I don't remember what I lost though. I push it out on purpose. I could remember if you

really asked me, but I've just been, for my own sake, I've just been like, I don't know. It just didn't hit. Closer's mentality. I don't want to brag, but I should be 4-0. Should be? Yeah, if I was Bill's meltdown in week three, I should be 4-0. Who brought the new guy?

I should be. Well, the Bills should have won that game. If the Bills win that game, I hit my bet. I'm 4-0. I'm 3-1. I hit last week again. Again, I've stopped gambling again, so we'll see how it goes this week.

Okay. The public play, off to a good start. Other picks, too, that didn't count towards this one, but now I think I'm 2-2 in this. But we'll stay the course through it all. All right, Saruti. Mr. Should have been 4-0. Mr. Undefeated, as they call me,

in honor of Russell Wilson. Yeah, Mr. Sorta Limited. Yeah. All right, I kind of like a few things this week. I'm going to... I like teasing the 49ers down to, like two and a half and then taking the all under. And that game is because I just don't think anybody's scoring like the Panthers are terrible. But I think I'm going to go with this one.

Give me the Dolphins money line. And you parlay that with the all under under fifty five and a half points. That's about even odds. Again, I say it every week. How does it miss? How does it miss? OK, Kyle, I've got a couple of guys does it miss? How does it miss? Okay, Kyle. I've got a couple guys in this league.

Maybe you've heard of them. Jimmy G, Jacoby Brissett, Tom Brady, Mac Jones, Bailey Zappi now. And I'm tired of watching them lose, so I'm picking one of them. Last week, they almost all lost. I'm picking Tom Brady this week. I want the Falcons plus 10 because I don't think they're all the way back on track, but I do want the Bucks money line.

That's plus 225. What is this? The bedroom poster parlay? Yes. Yes. This one I won't be able to forget if it loses. We should do that. Like Josh Gordon, like whoever you potentially had a bedroom poster of.

Kyle's bedroom poster parlay of the week. Yeah. Fathead parlay. Okay. Let's see here. The least publicly supported team, as far as I can tell, based on the data

and the research that I have here, again, percentage of bets, not money. If this doesn't work, maybe I'll go percentage of money. I'll go commanders only getting 25% of the bets plus two and a half at home against the Titans. So commanders plus two and a half. That's the play.

Good luck. Doesn't like it. Hey, look. No, not that I don't like it. Just get like, man, back in the commanders. Let's go. Oh, yeah. No doubt. No question. 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 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 is lifeadvicerr at gmail.com. Annoyed with smoking neighbors, Kyle. Good pick here. 6'4", 180. Don't have any impressive gym stats. God, this is long for smoking neighbors, but we'll give it a shot here. Stay in shape by going on 40 to 50 mile bike rides

two days a week. Play pickup basketball during my lunch break three days a week. That's more impressive than gym stats. Currently, my wife and I live on the third story. Basically, these are healthy people. Live on the third story of an apartment building, which is the top floor. Uh-oh. You know what heat does, right?

Rise. Right. Was it Don LaFontaine, that voice guy? They call it mercury because it rises to the top. That was mercury rising. That guy used to just get out of a limo bang out liners eight figures a year wow what a gig i know i need to do that i would think about that often actually but let's get back to likewise steve zsu they called it a life aquatic. Currently, my wife and I live in the third story.

Okay, we're lucky enough to have a patio as part of this apartment. It allows us to have dinner outside from time to time, enjoy a nice drink with a fresh air. We really like this apartment. The rent's relatively cheap. While we save to purchase a home after I finish up grad school. Here's the problem.

About two months ago, we got a couple new neighbors in this apartment directly below ours. Unfortunately, they turned out to be cigarette smokers. Our apartment management has a strict no smoking of any kind policy outside of a couple designated smoking areas on the property's perimeter. During the day, our new neighbors mostly smoke in this area, but after the sun sets, they just puff heaters on their patio. Dude, of course

they do. Seemingly all night, the stench is completely untenable to where my wife and I have decided or definitely cannot hang out on this porch at all once they've taken up residence on theirs for the evening. On top of that, the AC in our apartment works off and on, so we normally keep a couple windows open when we come home in the evenings. Well, we can't do that anymore with the smell of American spirits

infiltrating our oxygen supply. It doesn't help that my wife has a Wolverine sense of smell. Good writer. Here's where the wrinkle comes in the whole no smoking of any kind policy presents a bit of a problem because my wife and i like to have a colorado salad as a nightcap a few days a week there we go hot kettle that's what i thought that's what you thought you knew as soon as this guy's yeah that's what i thought like yeah it's like when dudes would dip in college and some girl would have a parliament being like that's gross like tell me more you know spitting into

your face it's a race to the biggest health problem so we'll find out later i guess but right right yeah we're all we're all seeds in this big bracket of life. Let's see here. All right, so Colorado salad, a couple nights a week. Right after we watch our weekly show, prior to these neighbors living here, we would do it on the patio because our previous neighbors like to partake a lot themselves. However, we now open a window in our bedroom to partake because we can't handle being out there while they're smoking cigs. And we feel like it would be hypocritical given how annoyed we are with their habit.

We worry that if we were to confront them at all about their smoking habit, they would flip it back on around us. They 100% are going to do that to you, first of all. It's just even if they're wrong, that's what people do. They find a reason instead of addressing what they're doing wrong, they find something you're doing wrong. It's all a big negotiation, right? I know there are two completely different things with two completely different sets of consequences. It's worth noting we do live in a state where we can

partake in this legally. Alright, my wife and I have talked and we're pretty much certain that we will be moving out when our lease is up in May. So, we're talking four months there. Shit, you got like six and a half, seven months to go.

But in the meantime, what do we do? Do I confront them about their smoking on the patio, hoping they don't know we smoke a different plant ourselves? Did I bring it up with the apartment complex and risk seeming a little bit like a tattletale? Do I talk with other neighbors in our building to see if they are similarly annoyed?

Do I leave them a very passive, aggressive, and anonymous note about the issue? Do my wife and I just second up, stop using our patio to keep the windows closed while we mildly suffer from being hot due to a shitty air conditioner do we try to find a way to fuck with them somehow my wife mentioned filling up a spray bottle with some of the most noxious essential oils we could find spraying it out of our porch every time they start to blast ciggies like that i like jesus thoughts on that idea i think it's cool that your relationship's in a good place if i've learned anything from this email it seems like you two are made for each other

um to make matters worse these neighbors have never come across particularly friendly when they first moved in well because they're smokers still and they're smoking outside and nobody likes those people so they've already gone nobody's gonna like us anyway we're just gonna keep fucking smoking cigarettes um but american spirits makes me think you know this isn't a couple wwi vets out there just ripping marble reds either so i'm surprised you guys can't vibe on a little bit on that american spirit hand rolled deal they take twice as long to smoke though so that's the problem so you know a five minute cigarette is now 12 minutes kyle i got one more sentence and i'm letting you go so don't worry about it um my wife and i tried to wave and say hi to them when we pass them in the stairwell or on the property.

Of course you did. You were high, friendly as fuck. But they rarely would acknowledge us in return. We don't really wave or say hi anymore. We don't want to come across as those neighbors. Any advice will be welcomed. Well-written email. Kyle?

I think it should be about making them uncomfortable with what they're doing like it's not like you don't want to be like hey you're bothering me because then they're going to be like well fuck you because fuck you but you know if you're like if every time they let up a cigarette you're outside maybe you maybe you close the window loudly or i used to have a neighbor like that lived next door in my old place. They would be speaking Spanish, but I would hear him talking to his wife. He's like,

ah, cigarrillos or something. I'm like, oh, that's me. All right, maybe I'll shut this down. So that worked at my old place. But from a holier-than-thou position is what I'm seeing is like, well, we smoke the right plants, the right amount, and you smoke the wrong plants. And because I live on the top floor is why it's

okay for me. But because you're below, like, I don't know, shit just happens. Like this should be the motivation to try to find a house one day, because then you don't have to worry about this. But this is a part of living among others. You know, somebody has a dog they shouldn't have, they don't take care of, and it's barking all the time there's two babies in a one-bedroom apartment like like this is kind of part of it i understand that that you could probably get somebody you can't get somebody kicked out of apartment because of a baby you could be like hey they're violating this policy but you're also violating a policy what i think is is i actually did like her spraying other shit that makes them like other like essential oils and just oils yeah maybe

hang it yeah i was thinking like lavender yeah yeah maybe even worse like uh maybe there's like an essence like a time yeah it's a little rosemary uh something a little spicy burn it like that's you know that's cool i think just like a way of kind of shaming them without being like bringing a higher power involved here is probably the way to go. You could talk about it to be like, God fucking stinks down there, huh? Like, that's cool. I don't know. I even thought in my head this little thing I was it's probably a little dangerous, but maybe you could get some sort of fan on a string and just lower it down so you can blow the smoke in a different direction or something.

Be like, I don't know. I'm just trying stuff here. I think I think the non-official route is the way to go uh but you know if my smoking's bothering somebody i'm usually like okay with being told about it but uh i would i would say most probably don't give a fuck and might be even a little happy to find out that you're you're you're bothered by what's up and they're doing or at least they'll so you're saying get the community together to turn on these people i think yeah i mean if if the external pressures of not somebody like hey you can't do that but just be like god it fucking stinks over here huh wonder what that is there's like something on fire like just like saying things to someone else but not to them it's it's more i don't know i don't know if i like that as

somebody who had the entire community one guy tried to rally against me when i had the kentucky derby party we rented a pony and then basically we just closed off the party like we weren't going to let a million people come over because it was an adult party not like a swingers deal we wouldn't have that during that season but um yeah like one guy saw me with a pony and then when the kids saw the pony their kids you know the pony was there an hour it barely moved it didn't i didn't think it shit anywhere and then it left and then one guy decided to try to rally the rest of the townhomes against me to be like you know that's actually kind of against the rules and everybody else was like what are you talking about and it was only because i didn't invite him and his kids over but if we invited his kids over then guess what

happens then there's a million kids. And then, you know, again, pro kid, not that day. But that's not what I'm suggesting. I'm not saying do it to your neighbor. I'm saying you and your wife hang out on the porch, which means you're out there at the moment. You smell that American spirit garbage drifting up there. And I did say garbage because I think American spirits

are one of the worst kinds of cigarettes. I know that most people think they're the best. I just think that- Not doing a segment with them. Yeah, definitely not. Cowboy killers. So when you're out there at the moment when you know they're out there, and if you can smell them,

they can hear you. I mean, just like having that conversation with your wife who's out there. This isn't a soft jab. I kind of have no idea what the fuck you're talking about. I mean, they're on the third floor, right? The smoke's coming from the second floor. They're already out there. They can smell it the moment that that fucking cigarette starts coming up.

So you know when they're out there. And this is why it's important, because then you could start making comments or spraying that shit or whatever. Like, if it bothers you, like, you know, the moment it starts and you know, they're going to be out there for at least 12 minutes because those fucking cigarettes are jam packed. and you know they're going to be out there for at least 12 minutes because those fucking cigarettes are jam-packed. So you've got time to use that time to put the external forces of society on them with comments and spraying that shit or whatever other kind of shit you want to cook up is what I mean. I would spend your time doing that.

You're basically saying just speak loudly outside and act like they don't hear you, but you know that they do hear you. Yes, exactly. That's what you're saying. Jesus Christ. Thank you, Saruti, for translating that uh i that's a lot i don't know um i think there's there's there's a one major problem and the pot smokers listening are going to be like it's not the same and you're right it isn't the same but they're not going to take your fucking side when they're doing something wrong they're not going to take your fucking side when they're doing something wrong. They're not going to go, Hey, you know what? You're right. We're breaking the rules. It sucks for everybody else. And even though you're smoking pot, we get that it's completely different. That's

not how people work. I'm going to use a small example. Uh, it's not the exact same thing, but it could be in this kind of negotiation where you could be right, but there's still something wrong about what you do, even though it's also legal, as you pointed out, because you're probably not supposed to smoke at all, which is kind of weird about the weed smoking deal of it. It's like people who could be like, well, even though we're not supposed to smoke, like we should be able to do this, but you're not supposed to be allowed. They're not going to take your side. I remember there was a sales call that we were going to do for the radio show, SVP show, not SVP and Rosillo. Obviously, as I've mentioned numerous times, it was super fucking annoying. And I actually thought it was a bad look for me and the show long-term when we

dealt with sponsors. We dealt with people because they were basically telling the audience or any potential advertisers, we think so little of this other guy that does all of this work that we're not even going to acknowledge him. All right. Long story, whatever. I'm not even sure what the fuck happened. So there's a sales call where Scott and I were going to be in studio with a radio manager. And then we were going to talk with somebody else about doing these different ads for them at an affiliate. I am never late. I would be at the time that I could have gotten there. I'd say on average, Rudy would probably agree. I probably got there two hours before I needed to every single fucking day I worked there.

For whatever reason, I was late by like five minutes that day and I'm never fucking late. And I walk in, everyone's on the call. The call goes on for 35 minutes. I never talk. I never talk on the air with this other affiliate and like ad sales placement thing. And all Van Pelt does is talk the whole time. And then we had a manager talk for a few minutes. I go to our producer at the time, not Cerruti, not Stanford seed.

And I go, Hey, look, this is becoming a thing. But every time we do these kinds of show deals, Scott talks the whole time. And it further emphasizes as if I'm not important to this show, which we all know is not the case. Like I come in early and I do a lot of the shit work to get us ready to do this. So it's streamlined and it's easier for Scott because you just get out of here at 1 a.m. from SportsCenter again. you were late.

And I wanted to fucking lose it. But I couldn't because I was late. I was late. There's a lesson in there that the other person was going to, I was right about what was a bigger term problem, but the producer wasn't going to agree with me. He was just going to say, yeah, you were late.

So these, these sick, the smokers are not ever taking your side. They're not ever going to be like, hey, we'll stop while you continue to smoke weed. It's just not going to work. Honestly, from where I go from this email is you're kind of fucked. Maybe get a better air conditioner and then take it with you to the new home. You know what I mean?

Two things. One, can you befriend them? Can you be like, hey, you can smoke some weed with us, whatever. Maybe not whatever maybe not okay that's not a thing he also mentioned that he's moving out in in may it's currently october chances are the windows aren't going to be open for much longer or we don't know that you're going to be there depends on we don't know where he's living yeah but he's trying to get out in may he said right he's trying to get out yeah may here is super mild though you know yeah what if he's in arizona what he's what if he's in the Yeah, what if he's in Arizona? What if he's in the Flatlands? What if he's in West Texas?

That's a good point, I guess. Then I guess you're shut out of luck. But I would say the windows are likely to be closed in most parts of the country for the next couple of months. If you get out of there in May, then you just kind of... I would just suck it up and not say anything as what you just said, Ryan. If you call somebody out, they're going to look for any skeleton in your closet to also make you guilty of something else. You're going to wish that never happened. You're completely screwed.

Yeah. No, it sucks, man. It sucks. I mean, to tell you to not use your outdoor patio blows. But that's why you're moving into a house in May because you don't want to have to deal with this stuff. Every one of us that's lived in situations and continue to live in situations where we're right next to everybody all the time. It's kind of part of the deal. You know, I think it sucks because it

would bother the people under but you could like start shaking out rugs or something when you know they're out there like yeah you're you're going full attack mode which i respect but it's sort of the same thing it's not overt it's like uh it's pretty overt if you start banging out yeah like oh hey they're busting out their rugs at nine o'clock at night. As we're smoking. Just leave like your compost pile out there and see what's going on. I just would wonder if they would be so not self-wording. Be like, hey, do you mind? And like, obviously rugs is a little bit overboard.

Like there's rules about that usually. But like, yeah, like I liked her idea of the spray. Or maybe there's something else where if they just see if they'd be like would you mind and it's like I don't know do you and then just that's the end of that interaction I kind of like that especially if you're leaving anyway like you could hang wing chimes that just drop down three stories

well it's only have to be one right there directly under them I thought they said there was another one none of it matters I mean they're kind of fucked for a little while because I just don't, you know. Can you switch to edibles? That way you're not smoking, and then boom, they don't have an excuse against you.

I don't think anybody wants to switch to anything they don't want to do, just like the smokers don't want to not have a couple cigarettes after a couple reabs post-dinner. The old vino will flow. Come on. And guess what happens? You get a couple pops in you and you're like,

I don't want to walk to fucking Smoking Tree over there. Visit Three-Eyed Raven. Definitely not. Just going to hang out here by the wall. Definitely. All right. Hope that helps. Probably not.

Okay, big fan of the show. 25 years old, 6'1", 185. Not a great lifter. Pickup hoops game solid, though. Always get a rush from pickup teammates. Jokingly call me Kevin Lovett or Larry Bird. Believe it or not, I'm white. Sounds a little racist.

Sounds a little racist, but that's okay. I'm going to change names in this email. Also, I'll share the two cities relative to this story with you for the reader's context. Share them with the audience if you please, but they may be revealing. Alright, well, you said we could do it. I moved to a new city, Boston, in August of last year. I managed to find cheap and comfortable housing with a few random

roommates. Shout out, Dorchester. Yeah, because you don't live in Boston. Whoa. Yeah. Sounds awesome. I was able to find this really affordable housing in Boston called Dorchester. I also lived in really affordable housing in Boston called Dorchester. Like I also lived in a cheap section of Boston called Lowell. All right.

I have a bunch of family members and friends in Boston, but I thought that branching out and meeting new people would be a great way to gratiate myself. And it was a new city. It turned out to be true. My three roommates, uh, female 28,

male 32. Oh, they're real fake names. Thank you for doing that. Sarah 28, David 32, Steven 32. Oh, they're real fake names. Thank you for doing that. Sarah 28, David 32, Stephen 28. All are my closest friends now. They already had a big friend group full of great people that I've managed to work.

But man, the rest of us are reading this email and be like, this dude moved to a new town, met three strangers, and they're all fucking hanging out like each other. Sounds like a bunch of non-smokers to me. On to the apartment woes. Well, okay, maybe this does take a turn. We have a setup where there are three dudes

living with one girl. How we've made this work is that Sarah has her own bathroom in the apartment's master bedroom. That is the right call. That is my opinion. David, Steven, and I share one bathroom. The fantastic thing about the setup is that David actually lives full-time

in a nearby city. He rented out this space out to have what fundamentally functions as a bachelor pad. He would only come up. Did he play professional sports before or recently sell a house in Malibu? That's right. The number of texts I got from people saying they know who the athlete is, and I would always be like, did the person sell a house in Malibu recently?

And they'd be like, oh, no, except for that part. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Again, bachelor pad. So that means he and the other guy share the bathroom. He'll only come on weekends or when there was a big friend group activity event party. This made the bathroom situation for myself

and Steve incredibly easy, and Sarah didn't have to worry about sharing a bathroom with multiple 20-something dudes, which is, again, the right call. The only slight point of contention I have is that when I moved in, every person on the lease paid equal rent. Despite Sarah having a much larger room, a walk-in closet, and her own bathroom, I figured the rent was cheap. I liked the people, and I didn't want to cause a fuss, so I let it pass the first year of the lease. We've all grown incredibly close over the past year despite having different interests and beliefs. I often find myself somewhere in between

Sarah and Steven in terms of preference, taste, and opinion. This factors in later. Unsurprisingly, when David found a serious girlfriend around his age, he nearly completely stopped coming up to our apartment for weekends. He also stopped reliably communicating with us about rent utilities. And eventually, he started paying those late. The lease cycle in my city starts in September. So it's best to have your ducks in order by July and August. Sarah, Stephen, and I had a conversation where we assessed what we would do if David did not want to resign. Sarah said that she was unwilling to move out of the master bedroom or pay more money for it, even though it was by far the nicest room. Stephen said that that

was not okay with sharing the bathroom with an additional potentially random roommate as he works from home, but would stay if the rent for rooms are done more equally. Steven suggested that we all pay a slightly higher rent and turn the extra room into a gym or office, something that was something we could all take advantage of. Sarah rejected that proposal as well as citing money issues. And Steven said that, well, he could move out if David did not want to resign. And we added an additional person.

I found myself somewhere in the middle of the two, not wanting to risk my friendship with either. I saw merit in Sarah's perspective that she needed the bathroom more than any dudes, but I also understood an additional more present roommate would disproportionately affect me and Steven also. Wow, this is like fucking season one of ABC's new comedic thriller.

What's that new show called? So Help Me, Todd? Yeah. Can't tell if it's just a great... Do you like it, Kyle? Have you got that one on the DVR yet? I think it zoomed past me at a football somebody show called? So help me, Todd. Yeah. That's just a great. Do you like it, Kyle? If you got that one in the DVR yet? I think it zoomed past me at a football. Somebody was like, oh, Jesus.

Yeah. Good title. Wow. Okay. So also, Sarah pretty much outright rejected a couple of workable proposals on moving rooms or making her room more expensive. I convinced Sarah to pay a fractionally higher rent, and I reached out to David in a direct way that got his attention about signing the lease.

Prior to this and after getting a girlfriend, David might as well have been on the side of a milk cart because he was nowhere to be seen. David re-signed in August, but only three weeks later at the start of September, he let me know he wanted to sublet the room. Jesus Christ, you guys. How old are you?

25? Bounce. Yeah, it's time to start fucking understanding that this is not the way it works. So for about three weeks, everything was good, but now this debate about who should stay, what we should pay, and how to find a normal roommate during an off month for renting is starting up. I would love

y'all's advice on how to navigate the situation. Right now, I was beginning to feel like I need to pick which roommate I want to live with more, and I'm worried that either of them will take it personally, given that I'm good to adjust in either direction, more money and fewer roommates, or less money and more roommates. I feel like the linchpin for this decision. I really don't have an interest in doing the roommate search.

I worry about ending up with a shithead replacement roommate that makes my life harder. I also have to find an additional sublet if Steven decides to move out. What do you all do? Sorry for the whopper email. That was a little long. Guys are getting pretty long with the emails, just in general. like that was warranted though we didn't need i know i know but they're getting longer and longer and it's just if they're if when we open them up and they're super super long yeah you should know that's a deterrent for the listeners you should

know that's a deterrent that's all he says p.s more context i think this is actually important i'm a pretty frugal guy but i could make the money work i'm probably closer with sarah and her living there has done wonders for my social dating life in particular okay all right yeah that's kind of what i was getting at like who's trying to sleep with sarah apparently none of you are and you crack the code is that you know if the girl from work doesn't like you just be super awesome guy around her all the time or if the roommate who's female doesn't like you just be incredibly awesome and then she will she will get you past all the levels you start like level eight when you have a girl that is vouching for you to her girlfriends that is the secret to all of this shit become friends with the girls who then tell

their friends that you're fucking awesome so it sounds like that's working out for you there. I think Sarah was right. And then I think she was wrong. I think she was right about, hey, this is the deal and this is the way it works and I'm not changing it. And then I think eventually moving on later, it's like, so this just means that all of us have to pay more than you do

based on what we're receiving with a new set of circumstances. The circumstances before were what they were. Now they have changed and now you don't want to adapt to any of it. So it's like, okay, well, guess what? If you don't adapt, then guess what gets to happen? Then you'll just have to find another person to live with. So I think Sarah is actually kind of taking advantage of this. It sounds like you would rather live with Sarah than the guy that's living there. Guess what? You're in your 20s. You're not

going to fucking live with each other for the rest of your lives. It sounds like you're a little bit on the cheaper side. So you're really penny pinching on like who's doing what and all those different ratios. Again, not saying you're wrong. If that is important to you, you have to prioritize. Is it so important to you that you put that over who you're actually living with? It sounds like Sarah is a little uptight about this whole arrangement here too. little uptight about this whole arrangement here too it also sounds like you would rather live with sarah than any of the other scenarios so just get an apartment with her and do what you do as you get older stop living with a million fucking people again not knocking anybody for living with a lot of people but eventually as you get a little bit older you stop having as many roommates and you are on the cusp of that it sounds like right now so just lock it in with sarah tell the other guy if he is your friend and it's a normal situation, you can say to him, hey, look, this whole thing kind of got blown up. It was a nice run.

And I'm just going to live with her because it's a little bit easier. Some guys actually like living with female roommates that they're not interested in at all because they feel like women have their shit together in a situation where they're living more often than men. And I would agree with the percentages of that. So I don't know if you guys have something else on all of this, but you know, you don't,

you don't get to stay like living situations. And it's, it's much like a relationship. It's not fucking summer camp forever, dude. Yeah. I think, I think a,

you should always be trying to pare down to more money, less roommates. And if you do have a roommate, you're still saving money. That's the whole point. Nobody would do this shit otherwise, I think. So I actually probably would have picked a guy. What's his name? Steve or something. Steven. Only be Steven. Yeah, sorry.

Only because, like, I'm not going to go into this again. You guys remember the sliced cheese arguments. And she just seems like a sliced cheese argument type of person. And I just would probably go I'd probably go towards the other way the other guy actually seemed a little bit more reasonable like well why don't we just split this shit a little bit more evenly it's not also kind of crazy there's three of us using the same bathroom and you and you know you're not paying a dollar more for that like i like i thought it was being pretty reasonable

and i know he said yeah i kind of would like to live but you know you don't know what the dynamic is going to be when it's just you and her as well especially if you decide to fuck it all up and start falling in love with her like I like I just think it would be everyone would understand if you're just like we're still friends I'm just not gonna live with you we're just gonna move out to a new situation he's already lived with her though so clearly all the sliced cheese possibilities and that stuff like it's been enough for him to say he still wants to live with her moving forward or he prioritizes the social aspect that she you know opens that world up to him with so um i think those are all really good points and it sounds like she's less chill than the other guy but clearly he's already

lived with her long enough to know if those are deterrents he didn't bring up any of them i thought he likes her better and he's afraid of what happens if he did move out is what i kind of got that from the email i was like well i think he's worried about the other guy's feelings and i'm like you guys are all 25 i thought he was more worried about like who like i'd rather not i'd rather not have her mad at me but not like i want to live with her more i mean he did say he enjoyed living with i just don't i don't know i think it's no matter what she holds all the cards i kind of feel like she holds all the cards though like okay like the what's holds all the cards, though. Like, okay, what's the worst case scenario? She has to find a new place.

Everyone does, yeah. Yeah, I don't think, like, if I'm her, like, I hate to say it, I wouldn't budge either. Like, I remember I was living with a buddy. What? What? Well, guess what, Sarah? You can go find a single somewhere.

Then maybe she will. I mean, like, it's... Well, does it sound like she wants to? Sounds like this guy wants to live with her, too, and wouldn't be have a problem with doing that though so maybe she knows that like maybe you know who knows like i just feel like that's not a like a major there's okay wait wait but but think how insane this is like that she's going emailers so desperate for my friend hookup that i can slow play this never give in anything, and that my negotiation is just like one offer and then done, and it's over because I know he'll crack and then move in with me.

So I don't like, do people do that shit in a roommate situation? I realize they do it with contracts, but I don't know. That's a lot. That's pretty devious. That would make me not want to live with her. I would have gone with Steven. I just, well, I also feel like, is it David, the guy who has like the sublet guy, right, too? Like that sucks, too. Like I don't know why you'd want to live with her. I would have gone with Stephen. I just, well, I also feel like, is it David, the guy who has, like, the sublet

guy, right, too? Like, that sucks, too. Like, I don't know why you'd want to live, it just sounds like it's going to be a shitty situation. Is there going to be another random guy in this situation? Yeah, Stephen's the guy. Yeah, this apartment needs to stop. Yeah, I just, I don't know. It's over. Yeah, sounds like you guys need to break up. I mean, you can still be friends if you don't live with each other, either. It's not the end of the world. Yeah.

Once you move past that, everything's fine. I would just go with Stephen and be like, let's still be friends and hang out. Yep. It's not the end of the world. Yeah. Once you move past that, everything's fine. I would just go with Steven and be like, let's still be friends and hang out. Yep. It's over. Good run. Sorry to find out from the podcast.

Thanks to Saruti. Thanks to Kyle. The Ron Russillo Show here on Ring and Spotify. We'll talk to you Monday. Outro Music you