The Ryen Russillo Podcast - The 49ers' Dominance and Purdy’s Development, Plus Texas Loses but Isn’t Done With Todd McShay

Episode Date: October 9, 2023

Russillo opens by recapping Week 5 of the NFL season and giving his biggest winners and losers (1:39). Then, he recaps the Texas-Oklahoma matchup, discusses Miami’s loss, and breaks down his top 12 (25:24). He is then joined by Todd McShay to talk about the 49ers' dominance, Fred Warner, and how to build around a rookie quarterback (42:19). Finally, the guys close it out with some listener-submitted Life Advice questions (90:43). The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please check out theringer.com/RG to find out more or listen to the end of the episode for additional details. Host: Ryen Russillo Guest: Todd McShay Producers: Steve Ceruti, Kyle Crichton, and Stefan Anderson Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

the Niners house Dallas let's talk about that some love for Philly and Cincinnati with their wins best and worst loss and we've got Todd McShay on Brock Purdy's development the grade that he had on him why this is so much better now. We're going to run through Georgia, Oklahoma's big win, a little North Carolina, some Pac-12 stuff as well. So a ton of football for you and life advice. Also, we wanted to let

everyone know we have a new announcement to make. We have our Manhattan Beach live show that's Friday, October 20th at the 900 Club right here in town. First come, first serve with entries. So the doors open at 4. The show will start at 4.30. So we're not doing tickets for it.

It's first come, first serve. But big news out of Vegas. We've got another live show. It's our last Rosillo live show pod of 2023. And it's going to be in Vegas leading up to the big F1 race. That's on Wednesday, November 15th. We'll be at Jimmy Kimmel's comedy club with Kyle Cerruti for some F1 talk, life advice,

and then Q and a, we'll do some pictures after the doors open at eight. The show starts at nine. So that's a late one. That's better for us. Head to Jimmy Kimmel's comedy club.com to grab your tickets. Now again, Wednesday,

November 15th in Vegas, Jimmy Kimmel's comedyub.com for tickets. If you live there or are in town for the race, start your engines. Let's recap another week in the NFL. We'll start with headlines. We'll get to best and worst loss, numbers you should know,

and also a new award this week. We start we start with San Francisco where it felt a bit like, well, look, this is a breaking news that the Niners are really good. Uh, but they handed Dallas their worst loss in the history of Dallas and San Francisco. If you go back to the last couple of years in the playoffs, San Francisco got them in 21. It was a close game. Got them last year by seven points. If you're Dallas, you're thinking, hey, our defense is really good. I know they're susceptible against the run. They've got Dak. They've got the receivers. Granted, they're down a corner. By the way, when you start looking at all the inactives, if you really dig into it every week, you're like, okay, they're down a corner. They're down a linebacker. This is where we start to get

into the league where it's like, all right, who's going to actually stay healthy throughout all of this. So a lot of stuff we think we know about these teams. It doesn't mean that the teams go better or worse. It means some stayed healthy and some didn't. And it's just so important to remember that when teams start doing stuff we didn't expect off the first five or six games, but with San Francisco, they're healthy and they're nasty. And it was pure domination. It was domination against humiliation. Physical play, whether it was up front, but I think a lot of the physical play from that front that the Niners have invested in heavily.

And when they tell the story about Lynch going to ownership, saying, we got to get Hargrave, we needed another difference maker. He said he'd had this speech, they'd practiced 10 times. I thought that was really cool storytelling on the broadcast with Collinsworth and Tirico last night. But it also speaks to like when a team has somebody who's already terrific in Bosa, they're like, let's put somebody else next to him that we think is a difference maker too with Hargrave and Philadelphia has invested so much that they probably weren't going to spend it on him. But you just get the point. I think some of these teams that are really good, we're

like, nah, we're good. Let's not make a strength even stronger. And they did that. They played a lot of man coverage in the secondary, forced Dak into a lot of mistakes. And I know that Dallas was coming in feeling like this is a bit of a statement about whose defense was better. Not much that we have to worry about that anytime soon. Let's look at San Francisco's defense is now allowing 13.5 points per game. That's number one in the NFL. By comparison, Denver is last. They're allowing 36 points San Francisco's defense is now allowing 13.5 points per game. That's number one in the NFL by comparison. Denver is last. They're allowing 36 points per game.

The Fred Warner triple crown last night, the pick, the forced fumble, and the sack on Dak. I want to talk about that sack because I lost it at home watching it and then replaying it. Warner starts at the 15-yard line and decides after like realizing that anything else that was a priority is okay, that he's like, no, actually I'm going to go after Dak now. And he decides to run straight at him and goes from the 15, like the three or four yard line and sacks him that close to the end zone. Dak actually pump fakes him. And you know how

many times you watch on Sundays where you're like, that quarterback's about to get killed. And then these guys are such sick athletes that it's just a little shoulder turn. It's a little slip of the hips, just a one step outside. And this 250 pound defensive player just isn't agile enough to stay with the quarterback. Fred was like, no, I got you. We're good. Look, it's not going to happen because sacks and interceptions are sexier stats, and we are in an all-time run for the NFL between T.J. Watt doing what he's doing every week, Garrett.

I know Micah didn't have the impact that you would have thought last night, but once the score happens, Micah didn't have the normal Micah Parsons game and Trent Williams, if you look at the eight matchups against them, four were double teamed. So I don't know what those mean, but Trent won the battle. If you look at the amount of effectiveness that either had against each other tackling an edge guy, but linebackers are a bit like running backs. And I'm talking like the guys that line up on the inside where Fred can do anything. Fred Warner can literally do anything at that position. And the inside linebackers are somebody that we're just like, oh, you know, those guys are any good.

I don't blame the NFL for necessarily doing that. But when you look at the defensive player of the year odds last night, I think Fred Warner was like plus 5,000. We should check it again today. I know that he's not going to because there's just so many nasty edge guys and one of these dudes is going to end up putting tons of numbers. But Fred is like almost being discounted because he plays a position that normally isn't as impactful despite being the most impactful guy that does it. So I've long loved Fred and there you go. The offense didn't even really need McCaffrey against a run

defense that we knew was a little weak in Dallas. Jordan Mason, who had seven touches all season, goes 10 for 69. And then you're looking at Brock Purdy right now, who leads the NFL in QBR. He's got zero picks. He was the only question mark on a team that I absolutely loved. In the beginning of the year when I picked him to win the NFC I was like I guess I'm gonna do this and I wouldn't ever do it with Brock Purdy at quarterback for any other team in the NFL other than a Shanahan team and this is after he had the elbow surgery to reconstruct the thing and this this team spends their 27th in cap spending on a quarterback which means they've done that good of a job spending it everywhere else you have your free quarterback window,

and the Niners are making other teams paying for it, despite their free quarterback now having zero picks, the highest QBR, and 10-0 to start his career, five off of Roethlisberger's 15-0 record. The other headline from yesterday, Cincinnati's 2-3, and we finally had the great Burrow-Chase game, or just a special one because chase went crazy. 15 catches, 192 for three touchdowns. This is much more like we'd expect.

This Burrow calf thing is a good enough excuse for me because he's been awful. It was weird because I was watching a lot of Bryce Young yesterday and Carolina's lost to Detroit. Detroit looked great again, by the way. And Carolina didn't. They're 0-5. And everything with Bryce, he's hurried. He's making mistakes I wouldn't expect him to make. But when I was watching him play, because I really wanted to spend more time on Bryce Young this week, I was like, man, everything's short. Everything is so short with him. So I don't know what's necessarily going on there. And so I was like, let me look up some of the area yard stats. Let me look at some of the basic stuff, the yards per attempt. And I'm looking at it. I'm like, Oh, you know exactly what I expect out of 34 qualifying quarterbacks. Bryce Young is 33rd on yards per attempt.

You want to know who was 34th? You want to know who was last going into this week? Joe Burrow. But it makes sense if you've watched them, it's, it's been a mess. We've talked about a bunch of different times. It was the weather, it was the cap, they've adjusted. T. Higgins is out in this one. Arizona is actually more competitive than certainly I thought, although it got a little ugly there later in the game with Dobbs making some big mistakes. But Burrow at four and a half yards per attempt going into this past weekend, that's half of where he was off of two years ago. Still a massive drop off from wherever. So maybe it's the defense. Maybe it's the O-line. I just couldn't fathom that Cincinnati was going to actually just be a bad football team this year, despite the cycling in and cycling out of playoff teams that we have in this league all the time. It was 24-20 in the fourth against Arizona too. So it's not like they just showed up and blew them out. There's a study. Maybe I shouldn't say study. I don't know that there was a federal grant with this. There are numbers that tell you how hard it is for the 0-2 teams to make the playoffs. Since 1999 through last season, only 11% of teams have started 0-2

and made the playoffs. I do wonder sometimes if that's a flooded stat, if there's actually just too many 0-2 teams that are going to go 0-2 because they stink and everybody's healthy. So there's no talent gap makeup because you're healthier than maybe the team that's always better than you. So whenever I look at that, it always reminds me of like baseball stats, early 2000s kids, look it up. There was just all sorts of stuff that just told you there's no such thing as clutch. And I was like, well, is there no such thing as clutch? Or are we looking at so many numbers that are baked into this, that there's nothing that's really that much of an outlier. So I'd wonder the real question would be, okay, well, how many of those 0-2 teams had Joe Brodge march-haste?

That's kind of my point. I think that stat gets weighted down by so many teams that would just suck, that the 11% scares the hell out of you when you're a fan base. It's like, yeah, but do they have a generational quarterback and a generational receiver? And they've had a couple good seasons as opposed to one fluky one. And we're going to find out about Cincinnati because it gets Seattle against that. What I think is an incredible secondary, the Niners, and then the bills who will get to their

health issues in a bit. Uh, the last headline is just Philadelphia at five and Oh, plugging along. They're probably dealing with a little bit of the Niner shadow now, especially after last night, a prime time or Sunday night against Dallas. Some of the numbers here will tell you, well, where is Philly? Are we holding them to the standard of everyone else in the NFC? Then you should feel really good. Are we holding the standard of Philadelphia of last year that lost only three games in the regular season

when kind of punted on a couple of them anyway? Well, they're 10th in yards allowed this season, 13 in opposing points per game. They were number two in yards allowed this season, 13 in opposing points per game. They were number two in yards allowed per season, but eighth in points per game. But seriously, the points per game are basically the same. So dropping from eighth to 13th would sound like a good tease or a cool headline to get you to click on something. Actually, I don't think I click on that. But the point is there's almost no difference whatsoever.

And the yardage thing, yeah, it's a little off. Now, if you had a college football resume deal where you were debating Philadelphia against the Niners, you go, okay, is the Rams win the best win so far for Philadelphia? It probably is because I actually think the Rams are pretty good. They got Cooper cut back. He had a decent day. And that was a game. That was like a real game where the Niners have the Rams win as well, also at LA, but then the Cowboys win. None of this matters. I don't even know why I did it, but I did it because I'm probably going to do it later on in the season when we have more evidence. I started looking at Hurts. Okay. A little more interception happy at the beginning of this year than maybe last year. Is he throwing the ball a little bit more? Are

they showing that they're trying to develop him? I asked myself that question. 168 pass attempts through five games this season, 160 attempts through the first five games last year. So no, not really. The point is this, I don't really care that it hasn't been like perfect every single week because Philadelphia can do something that very few teams in the league can do. If the Hurts-Devante thing or the Hurts-AJ Brown or watching them have Swift and then go like, wait, they got him too on top of everything else and he has moments where it looks like he's breaking away. They can decide to kind of just take your soul from you physically with their run game. They did it against Minnesota where it was like, I guess we'll just do this. They can pivot like very few teams can. where it was like, I guess we'll just do this.

They can pivot like very few teams can. If they feel like one part of their attack is not working, they can go to the other one, combining that with Hurts being unstoppable on all this short yardage stuff, although they did get stuffed once yesterday late. That was a big deal. But they had a 15-play drive that went 8.5 minutes against the Rams. They had another 17-play drive that went 8-plus minutes. Shout-out to Red Zone, by the way, which I think is way crispier this year.

The crispiest it's ever been with Scott Hanson. They have absolutely stepped up their game. They're not giving us a 40 to 10 third down from the team that has 10 points late in the game just because they're in the fucking Red Zone. We are getting the important downs, not necessarily in the Red Zone. We can call it that, but I want the brand to be give me the plays that matter. And I think the Red Zone channel has done that better this year than ever before. So yeah, they're hitting a new peak, little aside, but Philadelphia, there's just, when I watched them play out their game plan, I just love the thing to go, you know what, actually we're going to go

to this and we're still going to be in control of this thing. Um, so that's, that's still kind of scary despite not the headline, the impressive headline, or just the visual of watching what San Francisco did against Dallas last night. Numbers you should know. You don't have to know them. You get through the week, but here you go. Uh, some next gen stuff here to start Purdy through four touchdown passes outside of the tackle box last night. That's the most in the NFL game this season.

He actually leads the NFL with a completion percentage of 72.1% on balls traveling 10-plus air yards. So whenever I look at the air yard stuff, it can be a little confusing, but there's a lot of quarterbacks where you can find a stat for a guy you like that makes him look good, and you can find a stat that makes him look bad if you don't like him. There's just a lot of stats out there. But one of the things that doesn't really lie is, are you getting some air under your throws?

This is not just turning and pivoting to McCaffrey. They move the pocket around. The stuff they did with Kittle last night was terrific. But there's some purdy stuff that keeps happening here where I'm like, man, like that's not some weird, like he's doing that, despite him admitting even last night during the production meeting, as they shared on the broadcast, he's like, I know I don't have the biggest arm strength. We are, I don't know if there's a t-shirt to be made or something, but maybe there needs

to be some kind of movement about still keeping an open mind about college quarterbacks without great arm strength. Another number that's really important. How about that Pittsburgh win yesterday against Baltimore? Baltimore feels like it's ugly. It's a classic Pittsburgh-Baltimore game. It's ugly the whole time. I don't know why I pronounced it differently, but whatever. Maybe just that accent coming out. You've got a situation where maybe I'll save that for worse loss. Let me save it for worse loss. I'll just stay in the stat here.

Alex Highsmith, linebacker, Pittsburgh. 14.5 sacks last year. So this isn't new, but he's kind of in the TJ Watt shadow deal. He had 11 pressures, 11 pressures just in the game against Baltimore. That's number one for any player in an NFL game this season. Also leads the NFL, unless it changed late last night, with 30 pressures on the season. The Pats, a number you should know, consecutive 30 point losses for the first time since 1970.

That's old. It's a long time. We have a new award season here. This one is called the Bill Simmons Immediate Career Assessment Award. This is new, so I'll let you know the origin of this one and then I will hand it out. So I was doing a pod with him years ago, Saquon Barkley in the league. I think it was Saquon's second season or we were getting ready for a second season. And he was like, Saquon Barkley is the best running back in the history of the NFL. I was like, wow, that's a really high ranking. that's a really high ranking. I personally would need a little bit more, a little bit more, but two people in my life have never assessed careers quicker, Bill and of course my father.

My father can watch a guy give up one hit out of the bullpen, been in the minors for 10 years, he'll call me and go, this guy doesn't have the stuff. I'll be like, okay, that's amazing. He faced one batter and you already know. So the reason I bring this up is I'm having a little fun with it because I have my own standards. I have my own rules. But Devin A. Chan now, is he the second best running back in the NFL? It feels a little quick. It feels a little quick to go that way. Clearly, McCaffrey's one. Bijan, I know I'm already going to get pushed back. Wait a minute. It's too soon for Bijan, but it's not for A-chan. Yeah, that seems ridiculous. Miami has the five fastest single plays in the NFL this season, and it's three different guys, Mostert, Hill, and A-chan. He's filthy.

If he's not two, he's three. I feel comfortable with three. I don't even like doing this. I never do this. I'm never this guy. It's unfair that Miami has him. Like, they didn't even need him. He's so good.

And he's, like, complete, too. Now, have I really dialed into his blitz pickup? No, i have so i'll keep an eye on that as well um little early for me to go ahead and proclaim that this early into october and into his career and the slow star and he had missed a game with a shoulder injury but he's filthy okay best win niners yep that'd be an easy one. Let's pretend we're going to give it to somebody else, maybe. Houston? Well, they lost, so that doesn't make it to them. But for a little while, it felt like it was going to be a nice one. CJ, rookie quarterback, coming down, getting you the game-winning touchdown drive. But no, Desmond Ritter, who's going through his own stuff as a young QB. The best game of his career. So now instead of Houston being 3-2, Atlanta's 3-2 after scoring just 13 points combined the last two weeks. That's still not my answer. Jacksonville beating Buffalo in London.

If there is, as I presented for years, the prime time theory of analysis that when you're a bad quarterback, like when you have the bad quarterback game on a Monday night game or now a Thursday night game or the Sunday night game, that's like having four bad games because everybody just watched that one. The opposite of that is the 9 a.m. London window. If you're going to lose and have a shitty game as a quarterback, do it over

there and do it at that time where even the guys listening right now you're telling your wives, be like, no, no, it's not just from 1 p.m. to like 11 o'clock at night. I've got to be ready to go at 9. West Coast guys are like, no, I've got to be ready to go at 6. Tougher sell.

Tougher sell. Because if you're going to get anything, if you're going to go to a state fair, you're probably going to have to do it before those 1 o'clock kickoffs on the East Coast. So they held the Bills at just 7 points through 3 quarters. The Bills, by the way, lost Milano for the season. Daquan Jones got a peck tear. So that doesn't look good. Uri lost to Davias White.

So that scares me a lot for Buffalo there. I could toss it up to just, hey, they went to London. Jacksonville needed it more. They're feeling themselves after the Miami win. All those things, it's fine. But the injury thing matters way more. But now Jacksonville's sitting there at 3-2. Lawrence is basically on pace to be the same guy statistically as last year.

The defense for Jacksonville, they gave up 358 yards per game this season, 357 last year. The points are a little bit less. So they're kind of the same. And if you think about it, the Houston loss made us go, wait, what's up with this team? They caught Kansas City in week two, although they were great defensively against them week two after Kansas City had lost the opener. So, you know, they were going to be a little bit more dialed in, but I think Jacksonville should just feel really good because the three and two win against the

team that we know should still be good. It just, that has to be the best win. Worst loss, Baltimore. They'd given up three points through three quarters. Then it's a safety and then a field goal possession after the safety. It's still 10-8. And then Pittsburgh fumbles a punt return. So Baltimore has the short field and Lamar tries to go the one-on-one route throw with Odell, where I don't know if that's on Odell. I don't know if that's too much trust by Lamar. I don't know if that's on Odell. I don't know if that's too much trust by Lamar. I don't know if it's like, hey, you can't throw a pick here. You can't throw a pick, at least make it a touchdown for them, not a two-score game because it would have been 13-8. Instead, they throw the pick and then Pickens gets a 41 yards touchdown

catch. It looked like Pickett was just like, I'm going to start throwing it to Pickens here. I'm just throwing it to him. And it was actually working. Pittsburgh pulling this one out is incredible. So you could say that's a bad loss there for Baltimore, but at least it was competitive because again, the worst loss in the NFL is New England Patriots. Matt gets benched again. Their last offensive touchdown was scored in the second quarter of week three. their last offensive touchdown was scored in the second quarter of week three the stadium started emptying out towards the end we've covered the awful drafts by belichick the terrible free agency spending the coach stuff that sando brought up where sando was talking to people around the league was like the reason bill did what he did last year with the coaching staff was essentially he doesn't

want to have to retrain coaches to understand his way. Well, it made me think about that a little bit more as they sort of figured it out, but he still went back to the well with guys that... Meanwhile, the rest of the NFL is trying to find the next hot shot play caller who understands quarterbacks and understands offenses. And by the way, for the most part, it's been an overwhelming success. The rest of the league is doing that. Bill's like, no, I'm not going to do that. I'm going to do the opposite.

success. The rest of the league is doing that. Bill's like, no, I'm not going to do that. I'm going to do the opposite. And I started thinking about Saban because Saban and Belichick compare to each other so much. And granted they work together. Um, there's a long history there, a long amount of respect, but like Saban loses a coordinator every single year. Imagine if Saban's like, well, I just got to bring back John Parker Wilson. Cause he gets me Imagine if Saban's like, I just got to bring back John Parker Wilson because he gets me. Shout out to JPW. I still owe him 100 bucks.

But this is getting – it got so bad that I actually went to Pats.com to watch the video. The Pats.com highlights for the recap of that game, not abundant. There was like, hey, look at Davis' 24-yard gain. That was the first highlight video to click on for an NFL game. So I dialed, I don't do this very often, but I dialed it up. I started watching the postgame presser. Belichick walks right in. Um, and he got annoyed at the angle of the mics, started turning them all down. The NFL network Mike falls out of the middle. So he just puts it, he just like put it on the ground, which is why the audio was terrible on top of him not being in the best mood.

And it was interesting because he said, you need to start over. And then one reporter was like, well, have you ever started over before? Like, what does that entail? He's like, yeah, yeah. Cause it was a great followup. Cause it was actually Belichick giving us something. It was him, him giving us something when he refuses to ever give any of us anything. And then there becomes this kind of like debate of like, what does he owe you? Like, hey, you were terrible. Back to back weeks. Repent. Answer our questions. He wouldn't even look at anybody after he took the mic down, which, you know, I'm just watching. All right, figures. which, you know, I'm just watching. All right, figures. But him saying, I'm just going to start over, I was like, you know, the irony of that,

if this keeps going the way it's going, he may not be in charge of the starting over. Snap into the action this NFL season with FanDuel, America's number one sportsbook right now. New customers get $200 in bonus bets guaranteed when you place a $5 bet. That's $200 in bonus bets guaranteed when you place a $5 bet. That's $200 in bonus bets, win or lose. All right, let's take a gander. What do we got?

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First online real money wager. Only $10 first deposit required. Bonus issued is non-withdrawable bonus bets that expire seven days after receipt. Restrictions apply. See terms at Sportsbook.FanDuel.com. Let's talk a little college ball before we get to the top 12, which I absolutely dread doing now. This parody thing sucks. And again, it doesn't mean anything, but let's start it off with one of the best games of the season. Maybe the best game of the season.

So excited to sit down early Saturday morning, 9 a.m. And you're like, let's go Texas, Oklahoma. This is a weird game to start. Like We had a little bit of everything in it. Game-winning drive, though, by Oklahoma at the end. Watching Oklahoma, I wanted to know about the defense this year because it was dreadful. It didn't make any sense. Brent Venables, you'd be like, maybe he'll stink on offense or maybe he won't be as good at this, but at the very least, you know he's going to have a really good defense out there. Well, they brought in some transfers and they improved it. Last year, they were 99 in opponent's points per game. That seems impossible with Oklahoma. Now they're 11 after this win and undefeated run and raising up in the rankings. So Venables last year goes six and seven. He went three and six in the Big 12. The last three-win

Big 12 season for Oklahoma was in 1998. This was the first time in the preseason rankings that Oklahoma was 20 or worse since 99 after the 98 season that we just referenced. So they were 12th coming in against Texas and clearly they've moved up since then because there was always still a little bit of hesitancy there, which we'd even addressed a couple of times. We're like, man, if Oklahoma were just nine and three last year or whatever, you add in another result there with a bowl game, you're like, they're going to be top 10. This team would be top 10 because they were six and seven, 9-3 last year or whatever. He added another result there with a bowl game. You're like, they're going to be top 10. This team would be top 10 because they were 6-7, which is just what happens. I don't understand why people get mad about benefit of doubt. It's impossible to remove it. In this case, Oklahoma

didn't have it for the first time in two and a half decades. They lost last season 49-zip. No Dylan Gabriel in that game in the Red River rivalry. So they were out gain five 85 to one 95. There's a story on the athletic, um, that I really enjoyed in kind of encapsulating the focus. Cause when you're Oklahoma and you lose this game, 49, nothing, you're going to be reminded of it every single practice. And that's apparently what they did. On Tuesdays, they do this sit-up drill with a medicine ball. You have to do 25. And the players did 49 medicine ball sit-ups every Tuesday for eight months

because they were trying to remind themselves of the humiliation of 49 to 0. Again, that was from The Athletic. I think it was Chris Vanini. I hope it was him. I just want to make sure I give credit. The most impressive part of this game was containing Texas' D-line. I want to ask McShay about that later on, but that Texas front is real. It's real talented. We saw what it did against Alabama. They were the more physical team in Tuscaloosa that night. Oklahoma was ready for it. They were ready for it, and their defense was just flying around, looking to take guys out and tell them about it. Now, granted, this game could have been a coin toss. Texas could have stopped and held on to what they thought in the building was the game winning field goal. And I think that's really the biggest lesson for this. It's not so much of writing Texas off and the stupid thing that we do when eight no team start losing games being like, oh, let down city again. We're not paying attention to anyone else where it's happening and all these other all these other campuses. But for Oklahoma, this is real. Now we look at them differently. I don't look at Texas differently, and we may get this rematch, and this could also lead to some interesting playoff stuff that will be –

let me sort through as I get through a couple more games. Bama goes into A&M. Look, I got it wrong. I thought A&M had a real chance in this one. They were up 17-10 at the half. And despite the halftime deficit and nine false starts by Bama's offense, Milrow has the best game of his career. It looks like Bama is like,

we got Jermaine Burton at receiver. He's clearly the one on this team. And the first glimpse of something post all these first rounders that they've had in Tuscaloosa where Burton is like, okay, this is a real guy. And it looks like they're really comfortable, especially with some of the one-on-one matchups they had on those go routes where they just have Millrow throw it up to him.

It's not an arm strength thing with Millrow. The underneath throws are still, I think, a mess. It's the best game of Millrow's career. They had no rushing attack. A&M is talented despite my frustrations with them. But there's still some underneath stuff with Milrow where I'm like, I don't know. Anyway, A&M on the other side losing this. I'm trying to think.

I may do this segment where it's just the NFL college football comps. These teams remind me of each other. Jacksonville probably feel a little unfair because Jacksonville is a better position in the NFL than A&M is right now in the college football landscape. Jacksonville could probably beat anybody, but you look at a weird loss here or there. Despite everybody having weird losses in the NFL, that's kind of how I feel about A&M. I need to come up with a better NFL comparison for that, but they are probably capable of beating anybody. Maybe, you know,

I don't know. I mean, obviously George would be favored, but then they just have these games. Like I go back to the Miami game. I don't know what, I don't know what happens in game with, with Petrino and,

and Jimbo. Miami sent defensive backs on blitz like five or six times. I don't know what the final count was. And it didn't look like they ever adjusted the protection off of it. It was like, all right, whatever. I'm just going to send guys off the corner. We want you to keep sending guys off the corner because they're going to make you pay a little bit later on.

And A&M got off to a great start, I think. And then I watched Max Johnson, who I'll admit I probably liked more before Saturday than I do today. I always liked him. He looked uncomfortable the whole day. And you could say, hey, look at Bama and what this front has started to do defensively in Dallas Turner. 15, you know, we saw it in the second half of Ole Miss. This is carried through like we're starting to get it going. And all of that is true.

But if you know that, if I'm seeing that, I'd never felt like, and I don't have the all 22 access. It just didn't feel like there were many safety valves for Max Johnson. Like calm your guy down with some easier throws. Instead, it was like, well, if you get a clean pocket, great. And if you don't, you know, chuck it up there. And that was a problem for them as they really struggled. And there was a couple in-game decisions too. So look, the very, as I've covered this one other time when I went through all the recruiting stuff with A&M, I expect more from A&M. Granted, this was, in theory, a competitive game. It was.

Bama's figuring some stuff out. And that's the other little weird part of this deal with Bama. The Texas loss, the South Florida thing I thought was far more damning than the loss to Texas is that, look at the rest of Bama's schedule. I mean, sure, LSU, you never know, but right now their defense is such a mess. I can't imagine Bama's not going to beat them at home next month, but it'll be really weird if all the writing off of Bama and they're sitting there at 11-1 playing 12-0 Georgia. And could this possibly happen? What if 11-1 Bama beats Georgia?

We still have two teams from the SEC in the playoff, as many of you throw up in your mouths. And a lot of that is very dependent on not necessarily what people think of the SEC, but what else is happening around college football. Georgia looked good. Carson Beck looked awesome. 21-26, 370 yards. Excuse me, 307.

307. Three touchdowns. But it was more than the numbers. I want to get into that with McShay. I thought it's the most comfortable he's looked. Just aggressive, dialed in on some of the throws. Maybe you think Kentucky shouldn't be ranked. But finally, on paper,, at least it was somebody ranked

and it was domination, especially with that defense against a really good running back with Kentucky as well. So, you know, whatever. You can get into all the, I don't know why people get mad about number 18 to number 25.

I stayed up late for SC. Caleb had a throw that was incomplete. And I think the second overtime where he starts left has to come back to his right. The pocket's just a disaster. It looks like he's avoiding something, but he's trying to follow this trailing receiver who's going left to right on the back line of the end zone. And he finds a way to kind of stop himself.

I think his legs are actually parallel to the end zone as opposed to perpendicular. I think his legs are actually parallel to the end zone as opposed to perpendicular and fires this sidearm missile with all of the stuff around him. And it perfectly tracks the receiver and it's an incompletion. And it was my favorite throw of the entire day. And then he ran it in for the game winner. Now, I want to give a little love here to Jet Fish too at Arizona. McMillan, number four, the receiver, is nasty. The sophomore is like 6'5". But this is a competitive game against Washington.

It's a competitive game against SC for an Arizona program that he's had to figure this out and kind of put it together here because it was a mess. So a little love for him. I know he doesn't want the moral wins, right? But those are moral wins okay let's get to the the real headliner of this whole thing the Miami Hurricanes between the Lillard trade and this

tough week for Mr. 305 so as I was gearing up to watch SC, I'll take you through my night. I almost missed the end of Miami Georgia Tech because it seemed like a very obvious time to change the channel. Okay, Miami has the ball. Tyler Van Dyke, who I do really like, he was bad in this game.

Bad. The first pick in the end zone, I don't know what the hell he was doing. He didn't for the safety it's another one that was pretty bad another one that was dropped he ended up with three i think on the night none of that no one will ever remember any of that because the rest of it we're never going to forget so i have my program where i can stop the game i leave and then come back to it if i need to so i I want to see SC get going. And I met to DM Tim Hasselbeck, who's a friend of the show, who was on the call of the Miami Georgia Tech game. And I was like, you know what? I'm going to let him know how good of a job he's doing tonight

because he's pointing out some things that I think are just a little bit different. He's a little different, but I like a little different every now and then. So I send the DM. I'm like, but I like a little different every now and then. So I send the DM. I'm like, Hey, great job on the call tonight. I get an immediate DM back. He's like, Hey, it's Matt. Tim's on the call. I was like, cool. I knew that it was Tim, but I sent the DM to Matt because it has a bit came up and he was like, here's his number. I was like, yeah, I have it. Probably shouldn't have DM him. He's like, Oh, don't worry about it. I was like, I can't believe I made that mistake he's like it happens all the time not a big deal so we're going back and forth I feel fucking stupid because of it but three guys from Massachusetts will all get over it and then Matt's like this game is insane and I'm thinking like

yeah it was pretty wild because I haven't seen what's happened yet because I'm watching SC. So I go, I'm like, boy, is it that crazy? Or is he just biased because his brother's on the call? So I go back to where I left off, and I'm waiting to see the crazy thing happening, still expecting there's no way what happened could even be on the menu of things to happen. And here we go. Recap. Miami's up 2017. They line up to snap the ball about 34 seconds. All right. It is third in 10. So after this snap and taking

a knee, they'll be under the play clock. They'll be under the game clock. It's over. It's over. Okay. That's it. They hand it off and they fumble. So to remind you, Georgia Tech had no timeouts. They lined up at 34 with the play clock winding down. They would take a knee, and the game would be over. Sometimes when these mistakes happen, I will even push back and say, well, wait a minute, there was kind of this. Because against Stanford, Cristobal did something similar, but still not nearly as egregious as this. He ran it late. They fumbled. And the way the clock was

set up, like you kind of understood it. There was going to be a few seconds left on their last fourth down possession. They didn't want to punt it. They could have run around. This one doesn't have any of that stuff. This is the simplest one to decide. Anybody that's ever watched a game like can figure out week. Why would you do this? This is a miracle that this even happened, that there's one thing that's so incredibly wrong that everybody knows why it's wrong. And there is no alternative. There is no explanation.

He tried to explain it later on saying, oh, we started at 157, but then there was going to get recalibrated. He just couldn't say, hey, I fucked this up huge. Okay. And it was weird. And this is why I liked him Hasselbeck on the call. He's like, look, why are they snapping the football with six seconds left on the play clock? They were doing that on a previous possession. He goes, why are you getting your offensive lineman into a stance at 20 seconds left on the play clock, knowing you want to run it down to one or two? He's like, that sucks for those guys. Break the huddle late. These are really good things that he was pointing out. Earlier in the game, when Miami went up, it was funny because they tied it. Excuse me. Miami had tied it. And instead of like looking at how the game was playing out, they came out really aggressive. Tim pointed that out. He's like, look, they're sending guys. They're not just hanging back, hoping to get a punt here or go to overtime. They're aggressive. So it's like, you know, I kind of like this. And then on the pick that they got from Haynes King, formerly of A&M. They only sent three and dropped eight. And it was because

I was like, oh, I hate this three-man down line and I hate three-man rush. It's fucking stupid. And yet they dropped eight. King was totally confused and then throws the pick. Miami has the field goal. They get a stop again. So I kind of respected some of the aggressiveness, but not this. This is unheard of aggressiveness. This isn't even aggressiveness. There was a debate going on. The running back was going to get to over 100 yards, but those numbers weren't necessarily like... I went to the postgame presser and watched the video of it. I was waiting for something, and it was just a guy

who I think was pretty humiliated because everyone agreed. There's not... I don't think it's... This might be the most incapable zag of any recent topic in sports because it's not just a football mistake. It's a coaching mistake of epic proportions of any sport that you could ever imagine. It is that bad. There isn't no, like, oh, in three weeks. Nope.

And on top of that, Georgia Tech goes the length of the field on four plays, two completions, the second one being on the last play where a receiver gets behind three Canes defenders. Like, how did that, I mean, that's awful, except for the Mona Lisa of awfuls just previous that. And it sucks for Cristobal, right? It sucks. I actually feel bad for him here.

sucks for Cristobal, right? It sucks. I actually feel bad for him here. Because this isn't like, you know, you think of misdemeanors and felonies, like, oh, what did that kid do? Like, oh, he broke into a car on Halloween once or something stupid. Took a backpack and found it.

It's like, no, what did that guy do? He brought a gun to Applebee's. Yeah. No, it's bad. Okay, it's time for your top 12. I hate doing it, especially this week. I started over every week. So if you were seven one week and then 10th the next, then you didn't lose. My top 12.

I don't know what to tell you. All right, number one. I don't like doing this, but I'm going to put Michigan number one. At this point in the season, I'd like to see you play somebody that's a big boy. And eventually Michigan is going to get jumped, even if they to see you play somebody that's a big boy. Eventually, Michigan's going to get jumped, even if they're undefeated, but they're killing teams. I'm going to put Georgia 2. Sorry to Georgia. Maybe sorry to people that are mad they're back at number 2. That's fine. I got Oklahoma 3. I think that much of Texas. What I don't do is when I think you're really good and you lose to another really good team, I don't punish you as

much as the AP and the coaches poll do. Let's see, Texas dropped seven spots. They went from four to 11 in the coaches poll. Coaches poll, again, just every week you're like, what are you guys doing? And then, of course, they'll look at the AP when they get something wrong and they're like, oh, maybe we should put Oregon ahead of USC. And you should have done it after the Colorado game. All right, so again, looking at this, I've got Florida State four, I have Texas

five. I just like Oregon and Washington better than Ohio State. I just do. So that's what I'm doing. I have Ohio State lower than the AP or the coaches both have them at three. That's brand. I just so far of watching this season, even though, you know, Maryland looked like Ohio State just said, let's screw it, just have McCord chuck it. But they have a couple things with them that maybe I'm holding to the Ohio State standard, but if I'm just going by everything that I've watched so far this year, it's Oregon 6, it's Washington 7, and then it's Ohio State 8.

I have Bama at 9. I have them a little bit higher than the polls do. I've got Penn State 10. I've got North Carolina 11. And then it came down to Ole Miss SC for the 12th spot. And I'm going with Ole Miss. They have better wins. It's Monday.

Got a visit from Todd McShay. What's up, man? Not much, man. Fun weekend of football and excited to be here. We got a lot of college stuff, a lot of NFL stuff, so I'm fired up. Did you stay home this weekend? I had some buddies roll through, but whenever you hang with me on the football weekend, you're like, wait, this is it? Like, yeah, this is it. This is it. So no, no late nights in Manhattan beach.

No, the late, the late night I had on Saturday was watching Caleb Williams. I want to get to his incompletion because it's my favorite throw from the weekend. Uh, so we'll get to that. But look, I was just fired up that Saturday morning, Texas, Oklahoma. It's been one of the best games of the season, as I said, you know, in my college football open there. And, you know, at the end of it, you can kind of go, look, the game could have gone either way. I'm not shocked that Oklahoma found a way to get down on the field. I was really surprised that that front, those Texas defensive tackles, their defensive line that was so disruptive against Alabama seemed to be handled pretty well by Oklahoma. But it's clear whether it's a rivalry game or not, like Oklahoma had

been thinking about that blowout for a really long time, was motivated. And I'm just, you know, it's funny because you and I talked about them a little bit. It's like if they weren't terrible last year, they'd be ranked fifth right now based on what they had done. But they did something like this. They jump up in the polls. They jump up in my rankings. What did you see? Yeah, OU's been tough to figure out this year, right? I mean, again, going back to what we talked about with a year ago, we didn't know what to expect. The defense, I think they brought in six guys that have made significant contributions on the defensive side from the transfer portal,

and that's obvious. They're much improved on that side of the ball. Offensively, are they good? Did they play really good? Are they great? Or could this be kind of up and down? First of all, I can't wait to see the rematch because I got to believe it. It's going to be Oklahoma, Texas in the Big 12 championship. And at that point, to me, Texas, I don't want to take anything away from Oklahoma, but Texas made a lot of mistakes that we're not used to seeing Texas make, especially this year. Quinn Ewers made a lot of mistakes that he has not been making.

The two interceptions, the fumble loss, you know, it's three turnovers from the quarterback position compared to Dylan Gabriel, who didn't turn the ball over. And so with the special teams errors, the turnovers on offense, I think Texas is capable of playing at a much higher level. So listen, give all the credit to Oklahoma. They came out, they made big plays when they need to make big plays. Texas came roaring back, but Oklahoma still found a way to get a late drive. And Dylan Gabriel looked great when he needed to, to have those magical moments. But how much of the, like,

is this sustainable offensively for Oklahoma is the question that I kind of had leaving the game. Like if Dylan Gabriel has an average day, what, what does Oklahoma look like? Because listen, he was, he was really good as a passer.

He wasn't great. There were some inconsistencies there, but he made some big throws when he needed to. And let's face it, the entire offense for Oklahoma was Dylan Gabriel. When they finished that game and he had 14 carries for 113 yards and a touchdown, he was the leading rusher. And it was his mobility, I thought, to extend plays. And then the running option that he presented to Texas, it kind of gave them a numbers advantage. But if Texas now in a rematch down the road, if that occurs, is able to bottle him up a little bit more, can he win consistently enough from inside the pocket? So I don't want to say I didn't get answers, but I think there's a lot more to be seen from both of these programs moving forward.

And if they play again, I'm not so sure it plays out that way. both of these programs moving forward. And if they play again, I'm not so sure it plays out that way. Yours was confusing to me because I mean, at one point he's got 19 straight completions and you're thinking like, Oh, but I thought there were some throws in there. I was like,

Whoa, what is that? And then the decision to run when there was no chance he was going to get the first down, he got blasted. He had another throw. I think it was a third down throw where it looked like he didn't even see anything it just it's funny with yours when they're winning and it's going well it's

like man he's so calm and then when it isn't working out even though it looked like they're going to pull this game off um with with the field goal it's it's it's just some of that stuff that i feel like he can get a little sloppy and it's it's this constant riddle for me and yours where I'm going, do I like that? He's the calmest guy ever against Alabama. Or do I then see the same actual mental approach and everything in another game where he's losing and he's doing the exact same thing, but then I don't like it because they lost the game.

Like, do I, do I think he's too subdued at times? I just think there's a few throws in there with him where you're Sark. You're like, what, what happened? Like, how are you so good for this long? But then on this throw, you don't even, you're, you're not even seeing something or you, you don't feel like there's any urgency with some of this stuff. So I find yours to be a really confusing quarterback to watch. Yeah. And we talked about it before last, before the game, we talked about it last Monday. Yeah. This game, like I've, I've been on the field

for this game multiple times and it doesn't matter if you're a 20 point underdog or like the, the hitting is always so intense that the level of, of intensity is so different. I compared it last week to the iron bowl to, you know, Michigan, Ohio state, like it's just a different game and it doesn't matter how't matter if one team's ranked one and the other team's not ranked. You get a different opponent than maybe you've seen on tape all season long. And Oklahoma's been great all season long, really good. But I think he saw things against Oklahoma in a physicality level

and maybe some mixed coverages and different things that Venables threw at him that threw him off of his game. And Alabama, obviously, just as physical, I think physically has more talent on its defensive side, obviously so well coached. But Ewers, to me, looked a little bit confused at times, as you're referring to. And I think he's gotten so used to being comfortable in what he's seeing.

This is the first time this season kind of the new Ewers, 20 pounds lost, you know, spiritually different, mentally different, haircut different, you know, the bullets, like all this stuff. It was the first time I saw kind of some of the immaturity in his game that I had seen a year ago that I was worried. Is he ever going to be that, you know, that five-star recruit that Ohio State was so happy to get, but then he winds up transferring to Texas. And like, he's supposed to be this, you know, top 10 overall pick. And we saw that for the first, what, five games of the season.

He looked like that guy. And I told you how much money I thought he made off of that Alabama game. And he played really well. He played a good game. But he didn't play to the level that you would expect from a quarterback that we saw against Alabama and a quarterback that has all the talent to be a potential first half of the first round draft pick. Yeah, I'm glad you said that about being at this game in person. Because you're right.

You can look at the spread. You can look at the rankings, the momentum coming in. And you're like you can look at the spread you can look at the rankings the momentum coming in and you're like wait a minute the game's playing out entirely and i felt like there were a few guys a handful of guys on oklahoma's defense that were not screwing around and they were bringing it for three straight hours and i was incredibly impressed with how physical they were and the funny thing is you're right like bama has more talent on defense but that bama defense that night was not what no it's become it's what has become like physically Texas dominated Alabama I thought they were far more physical right and I thought that D tackle pairing the DN the linebackers like okay these guys are going to make some kind of plays

and Oklahoma was prepped for it they were really prepped for it and allowed Gabriel to play and by the way just here's the thing though go Go ahead. I'm agreeing with everything you're saying. I guess the reason I left that game thinking to myself, all right, I still think Texas in a college football playoff is capable of winning the thing if they're hot and they're playing well. If Ewers plays like he played against Alabama in two games and doesn't have the three turnovers like he had in this game and a couple questionable mental decisions, if the special teams is more consistent, I think with the depth that they have defensively, especially the defensive front, I think Texas is up there with the elite teams.

I really do. I'm not sure Oklahoma is, but Oklahoma gets the win in this game and played better and deserved to win. I mean, at the end of the game, I was like, you know what? Oklahoma deserved to win this game. Had Texas pulled it out at the end, which they had a chance to do, obviously, I would have thought, you know what? Texas is the better team, but I'm not sure that they were the better team today. But I think big picture, Texas is one of potentially the four best teams in the country and could make a run in the college football playoff. I'm not sure Oklahoma is that team. So that's where I'm kind of struggling sitting here on Monday. It's like, damn, that was a great performance by Oklahoma. If they can, you know,

build on this and continue to get better. Yeah. Maybe they make a run, but I still think Texas is a better football team. I don't know what you think. I just really liked that answer. Cause it's the kind of answer you're just not really supposed to give. You know, you're supposed to say like, Hey, Oklahoma's back and it's all these different things. I mean, like that answer because it's the kind of answer you're just not really supposed to give. You know, you're supposed to say, like, hey, Oklahoma's back and it's all these different things. I mean, look, you could also, if you're a Sooners fan, you're going like, wait, we gave them seven on the punt. So, you know, like, let's not forget. I mean, this game was out of control, chaotic in the very beginning. And both teams made big mistakes.

I just love seeing some of those Oklahoma defenders, like, still just bringing it. And, you know know there's a couple guys there I thought might even get flagged like just standing over dudes and like I just kind of get away with a little bit more in this game and I love that over me too yeah I just you know I had told the story and you didn't hear it because I'd already taped this part of it but there's a story in the athletic, how the players from Oklahoma every Tuesday for eight months, they have this medicine ball sit up drill where you're supposed to do 25 reps with it. And the strength coach at 25 kept counting, kept counting until 49 reps because

49, nothing. So it, a lot of that, a lot of that stuff for me, I for me i'll be like oh you know it's cool anecdote after the fact especially when you win the whole time but i felt like when i watched that game that oklahoma was playing with this this edge of last year was a total mistake and i was really impressed by it and by the way let's finish on this i'm just a favor to all the national broadcasts we know that ewers cut his fucking hair we we got it it's october we're aware he used to have long hair we're all caught up we're all caught up we we're good we're good on it now i've sat in so many of those meetings man and and the people i'm not getting on fallon no no no no no no no and i'm sure i'm sure that they were having the same like debate with the people who are making you know like production

and and you go through this thing on you know and even until saturday morning in this case obviously friday night because it's an 11 a.m local kick i've been in the meetings with fowler and herb street i've been in the meetings with you know with mcdonough and and and you know and todd and and all like i've been in all these meetings right and i actually had the last year going around the different games trying to find the best prospects like i was with every all the different groups right and everyone's the same we're like all right at what point is it time to just stop talking about that shit like they got it it. Or like, do we just mention it? Like it's almost like weaning off a drug, right?

Like you said, like first game of the season, it's he cut his hair, he found God or he's deeper into his Christianity. He's lost 20 pounds. Like we get to sell this whole, he's a new human being and a new commitment to football. And then it's like week two, he's still selling it hard week three. And then it's like week two, he's still selling it hard.

Week three, and then you get to a big game. And then what do you hear from the people in production and the people back in Bristol? Or, you know, if it's New York, CBS, it's New York or wherever it is. You hear, well, you're getting a bigger audience.

A lot of this audience isn't the same audience that you're going to have. And you have like, you know, with an hour, I totally get it. Yeah. And so I understand why they still have to do it but i'm the same way i'm like got it guys got it he cut his hair got it he's 20 pounds like as as it's not even specific to that broadcast i'm just asking no i know it's everyone listen if chris and kirk were sitting here right now they'd

be like of course like we get it but like it's this tug of war where it's like it's a new audience we got to share this story and then you're sitting there i'm sure even chris is like i gotta tell the story again oh no i could i actually could tell i think that he was kind of like laughing about talking about it again because the bama game the bama game they put up the graphic and it's like okay i i was at home being like does he want to be working be working at 195? I'm like, I think I want viewers back to 205. All right, let's keep moving because we have a lot of stuff that we need to get to. Georgia. We know what Beck's numbers were. I'm telling you, I felt like I just saw something from him.

There was one specific throw. There was pressure to his left, and maybe he knew it all, but it wasn't a screen setup where we can see the quarterback just being like, I'm not worried about this pressure coming right at me. The pressure was right at him. He delivered the ball with so much confidence that it felt like against Kentucky, there may have been, and his numbers were actually pretty good this whole time,

but I felt like there was a couple throws. There was one specific to his left where I went, oh, wow. I'm like, okay, this feels like something here. And of course, the score reflected that. Yeah. And I said last week when we talked on last Monday, I said like, they don't have the weapons on the perimeter that you would expect from a number one team in the country. I don't know that they're as offensively proficient as they are. Like defensively, they're playing really well. I still don't think they're as dominant defensively as they have been the last couple of years but they're still one of the the elite defenses in the country but the the passing game and that's not just a

quarterback but the passing game was missing a beat like it wasn't consistent as consistent it didn't have the rhythm um that you you you know, you had for the previous couple of years. Stetson Bennett, obviously, he's gone. They're breaking in a new quarterback, and Beck obviously has talent, but he was missing throws that I was surprised he was missing. And there was kind of like, it felt at times like timid, like he didn't let it rip. And against Kentucky, he finally, to your point, he finally looked like, all right, I got this. Maybe it's as simple as the protection was a little bit better and he was seeing what he expected to see against a Kentucky defense.

Maybe it was just the prep was kind of lined up, the pregame prep lined up with what he saw on the field. But I've been there to a much smaller level, like in high school, college. When it clicks and the confidence is there, then you start to play like yourself. And I finally saw the guy that everyone's been talking about, highly recruited and the potential. And if you're a Georgia fan, it's great to see. I thought there was more consistency in the passing game. I thought the balance on offense was really good.

And ultimately, like, they're going to go as far as the quarterback takes. Truly. Like, their defense is going to be great, and it's really good right now. We talked about the schedule. It lines up perfectly. Like, this arguably was the toughest game. You know, one of the two toughest games that they have. Which is saying something.

Yeah, they just... So for a young team that had a lot of turnover, and they're always going to Georgia, just like Alabama has, and Clemson in certain years, and Ohio State, like, you're always going to lose a lot to the NFL draft, but these programs reload every year. But this, it felt like they lost more in the last two years than a program can just immediately rebound from.

And so this schedule is perfect for them. They're going to keep getting better. I'm going to say this right now, though. We're six weeks into the season, and I get it. Caleb Williams is out there, and Drake May is out there, and Penix Jr., Michael Penix Jr. for Washington, and Bo Nix. And it's a quarterback award. and Bo Nix. And it's a quarterback award.

But if it's not a quarterback, the best player in college football to me, and he's better in my opinion than some of the quarterbacks we're talking about, Brock Bowers, the tight end. He's blocking at a higher level than he has been, and I know no one's going to care about that, but he's blocking at a pretty high level. Most importantly, he is so hard to defend. The separation he gets, the late separation he gets,

the feel he has for the passing game. You look at him and you look at what he's done. This season throughout, he's been great, especially the last four games as the competition level has risen a little bit, considerably from the first game or two. And then especially the last two games against Auburn, when it was close. And then against Kentucky, which I would argue with going into the game is the best,

the best opponent they faced. And they obviously manhandled them. But in the last two games, 15 catches, 289 yards and two touchdowns in those games. I mean, this guy is special. He's different.

And I know, you know, you go back in the history of a two tight ends in the history of college football, one, the Heisman. And the last time was Leon Hart, 1949, over 70 years ago. So I'm not, you know, I'm not delusional, Ryan. I'm kind of crazy, but I'm not delusional. I know he's not going to win it.

And it's just not an award for tight ends. But my goodness, man. Like, he's got to be in the conversation. I just, like, I don't. Who are their wide receivers? Well, it's Rah-Rah and then. I know Ladd was back this past week, you know, and McConkie. And he's a good player.

But, like, yes, like, they have deep. But this is an offense that is built around the tight end. And really, Bowers carries them. And he has the last couple of years really yeah and jack saint came on a little bit too um yeah but i'm just saying like we're not talking about harrison you know marvin harrison june no no look yeah i mean the weird secret about georgia like you have like is um is the outside is the outside guys like people are gonna have a hard time ever naming the outside guys over over the run are going to have a hard time ever naming them.

The outside guys over the run when they were winning. And people can point to, like, Pickens. But, like, look, unless you were super locked into Georgia, you'd probably lose track of, like, when Pickens was losing. Yeah, and Pickens barely played his last year anyway. So that's always been kind of interesting with those guys. But it felt like, whatever, they put it on Kentucky. Okay, let's go out west, staying up late, watching get down big to arizona yeah that was that was interesting we always said it was they're vulnerable man yeah and then caleb williams puts the cape on again so this is the

same story we've already talked about caleb williams a million times here so let's let's just we don't need to do that again um but as far as the Pac-12 shakes out, I'm with you where I feel like Oregon and Washington have separated themselves from SC in recent weeks. Utah just could not keep it going without rising offensively. Yeah, I agree. So that's unfortunate because if rising's with them, I would probably have them in the group with Oregon,

who I still think I like their defensive talent better than Washington's, but it may not matter when you go up against Pennix and those receivers, because I probably like Pennix better than Knicks. So as we're recapping all of it here, you've got Oregon State and then Washington State even lighting people up. And UCLA, I was worried again because of the freshman. I'm like, another pick six here, which could have been the difference in the Utah game. But they take care of Washington State. And now UCLA, Chip Kelly, they've got the best defense in the country, which I think would surprise some people today.

So I just don't know how SC gets out of this clean enough to have a playoff. At one point during that Arizona game, I'm like, not only are you eliminating yourself from the playoff race, which could have maybe happened against some of the better teams, depending on who wins the Pac-12 championship. I don't know if they're going to hold that against Caleb on the

Heisman voting. It depends on who else is available and how clean their resume is. But the SC defense, and there's also a weird trend with Lincoln-Riley teams where the second half, defensively, that was the opposite this time around where they gave up early points to a young quarterback who really had it going for Arizona. But just every week we go by through this conference, you just look at SC going, I don't know how they get through this clean enough to be in the playoffs.

That's at least how I feel today. Yeah, it's going to be interesting. And that, I thought that last game, you can look at it and say, well, maybe they overlooked Arizona State. Maybe they weren't ready to play, all those things. But every week I feel like there's vulnerability because of that defense. And here's the thing. Like, the biggest takeaway I had from the Pac-12 this past week is, like, damn, UCLA's defense is legit.

Like, match them up in the country. With, you know, Michigan might be number one scoring defense, or maybe it's UCLA. They're right there. Georgia's great defensively. Like, you can go down the there. Georgia's great defensively. You can go down the line. UCLA's right up there. And you look at Washington State with Cam Ward, that's a high powered offense. They've put some big numbers up. They've been proficient. They picked off Cam Ward twice. And the most impressive thing was he averaged, I think, 5.7 yards per attempt in that

game. So not only were they making big plays, 5.7 yards per attempt in that game. So not only were they making big plays, but they were preventing big plays in that game. And they sacked him three times. And arguably the best defensive player in the country so far has been Liatu Latu. Liatu Latu. Right. So they're edge guy Latu. He's like a top 10 guy, right? Top 15. Potentially. Now, if he's not drafted in the top 10, it's because of neck injury. He kind of retired from football briefly, left Washington, wound up transferring to UCLA. That's a concern. But from a talent standpoint, you could put him up there with every edge in the group.

You know, like Jared Burst from Florida State, some of the other guys. He's up there. And his pressure rate, which I find to be more important than even like the sack numbers, his pressure rate is number one in the power five. He's got five sacks in as many games so far this season. He's just been all over the field. And it's not just Latu.

All three levels of that defense has been outstanding. Now, do they have the offenses to keep up in in a one game situation with an oregon or with a washington if they wind up in the pac-12 championship game i don't see it but defensively you know they're they're going to be present the best challenge the toughest challenge if they wind up in that game and the the uh the schedule lines up pretty good for i'm I'm interested against USC. Like, I don't know offensively that if you line them up, yeah, I got a true freshman quarterback versus Caleb Williams. You know, the odds makers are obviously going to favor Caleb Williams in that,

and so would I. But this defense is going to be different than any defense that USC has faced. And, you know, USC is so vulnerable on the defensive side that that might be a lot closer game than people think. I just want to make sure that I mention Noah Fita, the freshman who played for Arizona. He had five touchdowns in that game, and I just said the young kid because he had just gotten in. I was really impressed with him.

And then I'd already mentioned McMillan, the sophomore kid from Hawaii who's 6'5", was a nightmare out there. So one name faces in the crowd except for college. Okay, let's do some NFL here. I mean, good on Arizona. They gave it a bid, man. Yeah, they did. At one point, you're like, okay, a lot is on the line here.

Then Caleb finds a way. Let's transition to some NFL stuff here. I opened with brock purdy and the niners kind of that win where you know you can get a little caught up into it too much you're like hey who's on the niners level um you know there may be teams at the end of the year that are on the niners level but at least right now it's not happening and i was going through some of the next gen stuff with brock purdy it's like you know what he's not just turning sideways and throwing it in the flat every time here.

His completion percentage is up. His yards per attempt is up. He's not turning the football over. We all know that he hasn't lost a game that he started and finished. The difference that I'm seeing in Purdy, first of all, he's improved from a year ago. And everyone, you know, when you say that, it's like, well, of course he's improved.

Second year in the system. You know, he's got a better feel for his offensive weapons. McCaffrey's here full time now. You know, I get why you would think that that's an obvious. But a lot of guys take a step back in their second year because defensive coordinators then have an offseason to prepare and to look at what, you know, the tendencies are. And I think where, to me, Purdy has improved is he's making six, seven, six to ten throws, let's say, per game that I would call special throws, big play throw, whatever you want to call it, where it's not Shanahan scheming things up.

It's not an easy throw. It's not Kittle running open down the seam. It's not McCaffrey getting on a not, you know, Kittle running open down the seam. It's not McCaffrey, you know, getting on a wheel route where he just outruns the linebacker. He's making throws where it requires anticipation and layering the football. And he's doing that. I saw, I mean, just watching it and it meant like my mental clock, I would say like six to eight of them in that game. And i think the question was is it all shanahan scheming things up is it because they have you know iuk and debo and mcafree and kittle and all these weapons or is this guy just pretty freaking good and last year i questioned it now yeah now

now he's pretty freaking good like remember tom brady like you were here we were both busting guys and like we're around for they weren't winning despite him early on but they were protecting the hell out of him like they led the league and throws to their running backs throws within five yards and then he would have a great you know a great two-minute drive at the end of the game he would do something special special. But early on, like that first Super Bowl, it was defense and being creative offensively. And I think that's kind of what Purdy was last year. And now he's I'm not saying he's Tom Brady, but I'm saying you see the evolving of a guy that you draft late. You're not sure what you can get out of. And you wake up one day and like, holy shit, this guy's one of the 10 best quarterbacks in the league. And we got McCaffrey and Kittle and Ayuk and Debo.

Like, that's what's different to me. Like, they can lean on this guy when they need to versus we got to kind of manage things. And give it, I mean, he's blown my mind to it. Just like Brady did in his career in the development that he had because i went in with a third third round grade on brady and i thought i was you know i thought it was the best scouting job i ever did my first line in the sporting news that i wrote that time was he was the most underrated player in the draft i thought i nailed

it still had a third round grade on him he's the best quarterback to ever play like i missed two purdy i had a six round grade on so maybe i'm a round ahead where he gets drafted, but I still had a terrible grade on him. Right. And so what I saw at Iowa state and what I saw is a rookie was so different. And now I'm like, all right, let's see year two. Coordinators have time. They're going to, you know, figure out what he can and can't do. And it's going to be a lot easier to kind of evaluate him. And he's just gone to another level. And I'm like, all right, I was wrong. I was wrong like everybody else.

But like, I just didn't see any of this with Brady. I saw like, this guy's a lot better. The system he was in, the situation of quarterback, all these different things. I never, no one ever thought he was going to be great, but I thought he could be a good starting quarterback. I never saw a good starting quarterback at Iowa State in Brock Purdy, and here we are. One little tidbit, too, on this Niners roster when you talk about the weapons that they have.

I'm like, oh, wait, they got Ronnie Bell, too, from Michigan, who was hurt, went in the seventh round. I'm telling you, if he's healthy and develops, he was nasty in college. He's had some big first down catches. Even the other night as a gunner on special, you know, Sunday night, last night's gunner on special team and covering, bringing in the kick in inside the 10.

Like those are the guys you get and get in the, you know, day three of the draft that, that contribute. And they've listened. Everyone can go back to Trey Lance, but give, give Shanahan and the organization credit for,

for parting ways as quickly as they did and having a guy that they saw something out of and developed. And the rest of their drafting has been outstanding for the most part. All right, this is part two of the Fred Warner love fest here. Come on, man. Like, come on. You know, it's funny because— There's not a better linebacker in the league.

There's not a better off-the-ball linebacker in the league. And I knew that going into Sunday night. Off the ball? Wait. I mean, the thing is, it's like he's playing the traditional stuff. So I think the off-the-ball guys that are in this edge category get all the love because they get all the numbers here. But watching the amount, there has to be some way that they can track how much

ground he covers over the course of a game. I don't know if there's a linebacker that has ever done this there there's a lot of guys that can cover a lot of ground but they get there and they come in too hot as we say like it's hard to go 100 miles an hour and still be the best tackler and i think he's the best tackler in the national football league you You know, like the play that stood out to me, I know he had the forced fumble. I know he had the interception, like all that stuff. The play that stood out to me is when Dak tried to pump fake him. He's coming in 100 miles an hour.

Like how many guys in the league can go vertical, arms up to get Dak to either not throw or to just be like, ah, that's cute. And then come down and still be like, I'm here, and finish off Dak like he never even left his feet. Like, that's different, man. And he's just a pissed-off dude, angry. He's so, like, the attention to detail, his tackling skills, he just leaves nothing on the field.

He's like the perfect vacuum cleaner. I could watch him all night long i i thought he for a game with all these offensive weapons with all these pass rushers all these dominant players big name players stars in the league i thought he was the best player in the football field last night and i know when as i say like i'm losing track of linebackers and maybe it's a little too much hyperbole. And the fact that they ran the replay of him running with the receiver on that incompletion of the sideline. But, you know, Ray Lewis was all over the place. I don't know. I don't remember. I don't think they needed to ever have him turn and run the full length of the field with anybody. that I always felt like, God, Keeley's over there. Like how did he end up over there? And, you know, I'm going through the stuff I remember most recently. I just feel like Warner's used in a way, maybe it's because no one has used that. Like we're just not used to a guy lining up where he lines up and, and doing what he does. It's funny. Cause I was talking to a guy that used to play.

It was like, I imagine like, I can't imagine what like Fred Warner would be like against the dolphins because it'd be like, oh, wait, we get this guy that actually doesn't exist on all these other teams. So I wonder, but again, how fast those guys are. You probably wouldn't want to have Warner one-on-one running with these dudes all game long. We almost had it. We almost had it for CJ Stroud.

You and I were texting during that game, the comeback, the touchdown, the whole thing. But the numbers are the numbers. And you compare it to Bryce Young, who struggled. The team is struggling. There's a couple guys there, weapons-wise. I don't know if people still think Marshall's going to be a good receiver after dealing with Carolina, but it's not like the Texans are loaded with weapons. And CJ, we just have a ton of guys that are terrible that first month in.

And I know we've already covered it a little bit with him, so I don't even know if there's anything left unless you saw something new yesterday. I don't think you can write anyone off. You certainly can't write anyone off after six games. I don't think you can write anyone off after a season. anyone off after six games. I don't think you can write anyone off after a season, but it's funny in today's NFL. I feel like you, you can identify the guys that are going to be damn good in this league halfway through their rookie year. Now, again, like Bryce Young, Bryce Young is constantly under pressure. He doesn't have weapons who are separating.

He's made mistakes on his own, but he makes a handful of throws where you're like, he gets it. He's processing quickly, but he just doesn't have a lot to work with. I'm not making excuses for him. He should be playing a little bit better, to be totally honest, but I know it's in there. And I know that Carolina, this is a massive rebuild and they're a couple years away from putting a supporting cast around him. And Houston, as you said, they don't have great weapons either, but they're protecting him straddle a little bit better. I think we talked last week, he'd been sacked seven times, but it's not like a down in and down out situation where he's under duress, like massive duress, like Bryce has been. What I'm seeing though, is this guy gets it, he's processing it. And as I said, leading up up to the draft he's the best pure passer from

last year's class in terms of layering the football knowing when to drive it knowing the anticipation like where the ball needs to go and you're seeing that and it's some sometimes you see it on the college level especially when you have four wide receivers who are first rounders in the previous two years you know then it's like can i my eyes? Because he's got a lot of open receivers and he's got a lot of guys who go up and make plays. He's got some guys, you know, a lot of a Garrett Wilson who quick throws Marvin Harrison jr. Quick throws turns an eight yard completion into 40. But I, what you're seeing now when he has a supporting cast, it's not as good as some of the opponents that's going up against, most of the opponents so far, he's still the same guy. And that's what you want to see.

And so I've been so impressed. And then to see him in a moment where he drives him down the field and to have that success. And obviously it was mood. I texted like three minutes later and Atlanta kicked the field goal. I'm like, well, there goes that point. But the point isn't lost. He still did it in that critical moment you know late in the game when they needed him to step up and that shows a lot to me as a

rookie when you don't have a great team around you but I'll give D'Amico Ryans a lot of credit man like Sam Fran's still great on defense but what he's brought to Houston defensively the energy that he's brought the confidence that he's brought like this is a different Texans team that we're watching on Sundays than we've been accustomed to seeing the last several years where it just always felt disjointed. They weren't building in the right direction. I have no doubt Houston is building in the right direction, and Stroud's a huge part of that.

If you can wake up one day as a general manager and a head coach and be like, we've got our guy at quarterback, that's the biggest piece of the puzzle the biggest piece and houston's got their guy yeah nico's been pretty good at receiver and i've always loved robert woods like i feel like every team should want a robert woods uh at some point because i think it's so steady but you're right you're right like in comparison like this is where you hope the organization always goes okay we've got the discounted quarterback let Let's find somebody. Let's use an asset. Let's go the A.J. Brown route. We've got four more years after this year at this price. Right. And that's why I love teams that are aggressive with the flashy, fun receivers when they have the rookie quarterback. You're helping him out. You're getting an elite guy at that level.

And look at it like A.J. Brown with the Eagles by bringing in one guy, one guy. Okay. Um, this, this feels maybe cause I've already touched on like the worst loss and how bad this is going for Belichick and the unfathomable that wait, could they actually end up with a Caleb Williams or Drake may,

there's still a lot of work to do in the losses. I still don't know if that's possible, but it gets worse every single week. It's still a lot of work to do on the losses. I still don't know if that's possible, but it gets worse every single week. It's getting a lot more possible. Okay, so what would you... You're the owner. You own an NFL team. It doesn't have to be the Patriots.

Just say Team X, right? It's not a specific team here. What would you be looking to do with your own playing background, your evaluating background, decades on the job, but you ran into some money. I don't know. And invested well with you and Manhattan beach real estate.

Well, you know, it's, it's, it's, it's just depending on how patient you can be, Todd. You know what I tell you? So look, what would you, what would your fantasy fantasy lineup be around developing him if it's a Caleb or a Drake man? I'm building out. I want this drafted quarterback to have the best chance. So you're kind of allowed to go like, if I get this head coach, no. If I can make this guy a head coach, this is who I want as offensive coordinator.

These are the things that would run around him. What would you be seeking? Because you're not pitching it to anybody because you own the team yeah i mean first of all i need a system let's start with a system because that's i think the fastest path to success unfortunately like you look at the best offensive play callers in the league right now almost all of them are head coaches so i'm not getting successful organizations to like Kyle Shanahan, Mike McDaniel, Andy Reed, Sean McVay, Doug Peterson. Like I'm not getting those guys. Right.

But like, especially, but if we're just talking in general, like if I'm bringing in a Caleb Williams, I want a system that's going to fit and I want something that's proven. Like Ben Johnson from the lions has done a phenomenal job, right? And that's not a name that you think of when you're thinking of the Shanahans and McDaniels and the Andy Reeds and McPhays and Petersons and all those guys. But Ben Johnson, you look at what he's done in Detroit with Jared Goff. We talked a lot about Detroit last week.

It's impressive what they've been able to do with what they have. Brian Johnson now is the play caller for the Eagles, but it's like, you know, and I know Sirianni gave up play calling halfway through last year, I think it was, in Philly, and then, you know, Shane Steichen did a great job, and he's now the head coach of the Colts,

and so Brian Johnson steps in with the Eagles. Like, I don't know that that's the route. I would find someone in that, in one of those trees, though though that understands today's offense like someone who's coached with with mcdaniel or shanahan like shit brian greasy we never thought i were brian listen to me like someone like a brian greasy that i'm not even saying his head coach but bring him in as offensive coordinator under a head coach someone who now has worked two two years with Shanahan's offense is basically McDaniel's offense. McDaniel's put his own sprinkles on it.

Like two of the best offenses in the National Football League. And Brian Greasy's been in that family basically his entire career as a adult. You mean Mike McDaniel, right? Yeah. I just wanted to make sure people weren't thinking you were saying Josh McDaniels. No, no, Mike McDaniel. Sorry, Mike McDaniel. I. I just wanted to make sure people weren't thinking you were saying Josh McDaniels. But no, no. Mike McDaniel. Sorry. I thought I said Mike said Mike before. But my point is, you might have. I just wanted to make sure, you know, I'm just I appreciate it because I know I'd be getting it. But my point is, like someone who's been a part of it and knows it and understands it and can put their own wrinkle on it.

Like, I think that's the direction you go. Then I look Then I look at what San Francisco did and how they built it, and obviously the Eagles and how they built it. I know we get so enamored with the guys in the perimeter, but you've got to start with the trenches. When Seattle built its organization and won a Super Bowl, it was in the trenches. With San Francisco defensive linemen, offensive linemen. They, they solidified the trenches early. The Eagles keep drafting

offensive and defensive linemen, even, you know, but they, then you go make a move and you get a veteran receiver, a proven guy, you bring in a running back, you trade a guy this, but I would, I would load up to protect my guy and to get after the quarterback. I would bring in someone from the Shanahan tree and then I would bring, I would work free agency to get a weapon here, a weapon there, a running back there. And, and I would avoid paying big money at running back. Cause that's one of my biggest principles out there. So that's how I would build it. And honestly, in New England, it's starting to feel like a tear down, rebuild deal. Yeah. Oh, it is. Which is like, I can't have any more respect for, and I'm not even saying like Bill Belichick said it, but like something's got to change.

And you can talk, mac is part of the problem we we covered that ad nauseum last week i don't think he can be an elite quarterback in the league if you plug him in in san francisco can he win a lot of games absolutely absolutely but he's not going to transcend anything he's not going to make up for a lack of offensive skill players and let's face it with Brady, they never had great weapons outside of Randy Moss, right? For his brief stint. They always had the smartest receivers and the most reliable, consistent receivers. And they ran out every option route possible. And they just, if you're, if you're, you have inside leverage, we're going to work outside

leverage. You throw this coverage at us. We know what hole to pick. And the receivers were always in the right place. That's why they would draft first rounders, second rounders, get out of here. They would bring in high price, free agent wide receivers, get out of here. It'd be like a year or two stint, beat it. Randy Moss just did one thing. He ran vertical routes and they had the best offense, one of the best offenses in the history of the NFL. But it was all about the intelligence and the connection between Brady and his receivers. connection between Brady and his receivers. Well, Mack doesn't have that. Mack's a smart quarterback, but he's not Tom Brady. There's only one of them, and they don't have receivers who are on the same page. They can't do the same things. So you can't now win without elite, talented guys around Mack Jones, and they don't have that. In fact, I would argue that they're at the bottom of the league, if not somewhere in the bottom three or four in terms of offensive weapons in the entire league so they've got to tear this thing down rebuild and oh by the way they can't protect have you watched the last two weeks yeah like he's getting the ball out 2.8 seconds but like his fate he's getting his face

blown up if i wanted to defend that part of the problem. But this thing has to be ripped down and started over. If I want to defend him, I don't really want to, but part of my defense would be he's running when he doesn't even have to run because he's so freaked out now. It's so consistently getting after him. He's like a cat that had a bad owner. And then you're like, what's up with that cat? And the guy's a little fidgety, man.

Yeah. and then be like what's up with that cat like guys little little fidgety man um yeah i mean again it starts with you've got to get better in the trenches yeah and then and then you've got to bring in a difference maker too like you look like i don't want to do it they have to be i just we did it did it like i'm not i'm not giving you a hard time about it but we just start going down that road well you, you asked me the question. Yeah, but I asked kind of like, it's becoming too Pat specific, and there's really not much more new that we're going to say that we didn't say last week. Let's just do this for the last thing,

because I had it in the notes. You had it for me as well. It does play into this a little bit with the Drake May stuff, but some love for UNC here, where they made a bit of a statement beating South Carolina, but look, we thought they were going to be better than South Carolina, so maybe they didn't get enough credit. They had that weird close at-state game, and then I feel like they're just off the radar

entirely despite the fact they're undefeated. They're 12th in the country now. They moved up two more spots and they beat, you know, a Syracuse team that, you know, we're not going to say is like good, but they were, they were four and one coming in. You know, they'd lost to Clemson. Their non-conference wasn't great, but North Carolina just is complete in the way we're talking about the parody of the, of, of college football. I know you wanted to talk about UNC a little bit. Yeah. I listen, I don't think that they're unc a little bit yeah i listen i don't

think that they're one of the four best teams i don't think they're going to be in college football playoff i think florida state is better in that conference um but i think they're just as good if not better than than duke and louisville who are also undefeated in the acc and and unc i'm sorry in florida state and duke play each. So let's assume Florida State beats Duke in that game. It should be UNC versus Florida State in the ACC championship game. But I think Drake May has gotten better as the season progressed. I thought he was a little bit up and down. I think he's kind of getting into his comfort zone now,

and he's playing like a top three pick in the NFL draft. And I think he'll continue to get better. I truly do. I think the biggest thing, and I know he only had six catches for like 39 yards or whatever it was, but getting Tez Walker back, they now have a legitimate big play weapon. Like a guy with size, with length, who can get down the field, who has speed, comes in after dealing with the NCAA and and ridiculous amount of weight you know sitting around waiting before they ruled that he could play and it's a great story now but it was it was the worst story in college football for five weeks but anyway with Tez back he's going to get his sea legs underneath them he's going to get stronger as the season

progresses and I think like this team let's just put it this way, make it simple. They should be nine and oh, when they, when they face Duke on November 11th, and then they have Clemson the following week at Clemson. So they've got Miami this week, Miami tripped up. Miami is a good team, but they tripped up this past week in typical Miami fashion. Just don't know what to expect. They should beat Miami. That's the toughest game. Then they got UVA, who's terrible this season. Georgia Tech, kind of up and down. And then Campbell, which is just a scrimmage. So they should be 9-0 going into those two games late in November. And I think if Drake May continues to play at that level and Tez gives them a different element that they've had in the passing game, this is going to be a tough team to beat.

I'd love to see UNC with this talent level and playing better on the defensive side too to play Florida State in the ACC championship game. I think that that would be the best option in terms of competition in that game. Yeah, and we hadn't even really mentioned Louisville yet in this ACC thing, but when you look at the schedule stuff, you're like, wait, when's Louisville playing? Well, they're not playing Clemson. They're not playing Florida State. They don't play UNC either.

Yeah, UNC doesn't play Florida State. Yeah, yeah. So there's a lot of stuff when you kind of dig into the second half of the ACC schedule. Yeah, to be honest, I don't even know the tiebreaker and all that. But UNC, like you said, no FSU, no Louisville. Louisville obviously doesn't play UNC or FSU. So you could have three teams that are undefeated in the ACC when it's all done. Right, and I thought Louisville.

I mean, there was always a little hesitancy with me and Notre Dame, but I figured the defense was always something you could fall back on. I hadn't watched enough Louisville, to be honest. That was impressive the other night. Yeah, because if there's one thing you think is going to hold up with the Irish, it would be the defense. And I've always liked Hartman, but he's been pretty clean throughout most of the season. Look, just a little mention for Louisville.

I didn't realize that Jack Plummer wasn't related to Jake Plummer. No, dude. Yeah, no relation. I got on a FaceTime once with Jake the Snake. I was with him. Was he high or no? He was high on life. Okay.

That's his big thing now, right? Well, I think it's a little more complicated than that. I feel like you're kind of just lumping him in with everybody. That's not really what it's about. We could have a deeper conversation about that. He's doing very good medicinal things out there put it that way yeah right but uh the person we facetimed was like oh hey what's going on he's like i'm jake and i grow organic sweet potatoes and it was like the the funniest thing i mean it was it was a pretty raucous crew

it's it's one of these infamous nights in arizona but we were handing around the phone and he was everybody's like hey what's going on what's going on what's going on and it was jake plumber and he was like hey i'm jake and i grow sweet i grow organic sweet potatoes that's how he that's how he introed himself the person was like? Anyway. Poor Jack is not related. No, not related. All right, man. Good stuff. We'll talk to you very soon.

It's Todd McShay. Take care. I'll talk to you soon. They say money can't buy happiness. Look at the fucking smile on my face. Ear to ear, baby. 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. Okay, life advice advice the email address is lifeadvicerr at gmail.com uh what's up to the boys so here's the thing is we've had about 10 people write in saying i think that was my wife about the yell sneezer it's like i mean the thing is i don't think it was any of your wives but i wasn't going to sit here like index cards and match them all up and be like, wait, what, what is this? So a lot of yell sneezing out there. There's still people going back and forth on what we should or shouldn't be allowed to do to talk about when it comes to parenting. But we just appreciate all of it, to be honest with you. Like even, even the stuff that we would vehemently disagree with. We're just like, okay, thanks for chiming in. So again, Friday feedback, fridayfeedbackrr at gmail.com if you want to hit us up for that one. Because we'll have an episode of that before the live show at 900 Club in Manhattan Beach on October 20th.

Let's check in though. Let's keep it on theme here. Let's check in with a wife. 170 centimeters, 63 kilos but the resolution for new year's is 60 yeah why do you have to wait until new year's that's a great point but oh wait she's uh she's curling five kilograms. NBD. Love it. Okay. I know your podcast through my boyfriend that's a huge fan and listens to all your episodes.

He occasionally tunes me in on the life advice part as I do enjoy analyzing different life situations. We debate it together after. It was all great fun until the day he listened to your advice to the guy that complained about his girlfriend sharing her dreams with him too often. He finished the episode and immediately ran to me being so happy and excited, looking as if he found a solution to human mortality. Check this out. This is so

much just like you, he said. I got scared. What is this advice about and how will it affect my life? This man wouldn't trust a psychologist with advice as much as he trusts a group of three men in a podcast. Turns out as a girlfriend, we are no longer allowed sharing our dreams every morning with our partner. Maybe you can also write in your notebook and we read it once at the end of the week. Well, that's the advice out there.

Can't be a bad idea. She says, yes, it can. You need to understand as girlfriends our love language is is having someone who listens to us talk we need to download um our dreams onto our boyfriends before we can go on with our lives no one wants to think about it all day piling up all these strange stories in our head we got enough things to worry about and as a boyfriend who wants to digest seven weird stories at the end of the week when you can split them up. Luckily, some dream.

Is it me or does Kyle have like 17 mics going on right now? I feel like everything is just, I don't know, maybe it's just early for me. I don't know. Is the mic situation with Kyle hot as hell right now? He's got a, he's going on? He's rubbing. I think you were rubbing the microphone thing. It was a little... Oh, you know what?

Why don't I just change it to a different one? I could do that. Audio guy over here. No problem. No, no. You can continue. No, we're good. Leave it in.

Leave it all in. Leave it all in. I'm recording. Bummer. Let's just... Let's just... I like it. I think it speaks to Kyle's excitement.

The robbers in the pot. I don't want to defuse that. Yeah, yeah. Let's just, I like it. It just, I think it speaks to Kyle's excitement. I don't want to defuse that. Yeah. Yeah. So let me just recap what you said here as I find my place again. Um, why would you want to hear seven weird stories at the end of the week when you can split them up? Luckily, some dreams, you can only remember one detail.

Uh, so it will not be a long time suffering. But it goes like this, dreaming, telling your boyfriend about it, forgetting about it, and clearing the memory card for the new things. Not having those dreams waiting down on you is also a way for us to connect with our partner on a more intimate level, bringing us closer together through sharing and reflecting. Dreams can be just a conversation starter. Finally, when is my boyfriend going to apologize for all the things he's done in my dream at the end of the business week? Should I stay mad until then and not explain why? Totally a way to keep a healthy relationship. So instead of giving us a slot at the end of the week to talk about dreams we collected as if there are some boring tasks you push into the

end of the day, give us a little time every morning at the cup of coffee maybe. Can you pitch in for a good compromise for the both of both of us considering both perspectives he will do as you say anyway um did you listen to yourself did you listen to yourself you're admitting hey i'd like to tell 10 quick bad stories and you know like over the course like i'd like to break those up instead of just a much longer version of the same bad stories. It's clear. He doesn't want to. Can you imagine if I told my girlfriend or wife was like, Hey, is there any way I can recap my day and just tell you a pointless story? Like five 30, I walk in, give you a hug how was your day okay let me recap this and i know

that's kind of what it is anyway i mean i have been in relationships where you sit there and you're like do my only talking about work she only talking about work is any of this even real but you're admitting that he doesn't want to listen to anything any of these things and i don't i just don't know that i'm on your side yeah he's not looking forward to this at all and you're just like i just want the most efficient way for me to do this to you it's like you're doing it to him it's not like i know you're saying this is a thing for you but you're doing it to him like he like he he even felt comfortable like showing this like podcast about us us talking all the shit about it when, you know, he knew you weren't going to love it. And that's that's how much he hates this is he took that.

He went out on the limb and he took that chance to show you three guys that you don't know. We're talking shit about people like you. He doesn't like this. I will say not the best move by the guy here to be like, hey, that's that's you. That's you. Like, OK, as we're like shit talking, somebody talking about their dreams. I will say, I think,

I kind of feel like she solved her own problem in the email. It needs to be a one weekly like dream dump. And in that way, like if you have, if you had like, if you remember seven dreams,

say you remember one every single day. By that time, like say it's a Friday, you do it every week. You're not going to remember all of them. You're going to remember the important ones. So it kind of like whittles it down a little bit. And they're the ones that kind of matter to you. And you're not bothering your guy with, you know, seven sort of like pointless stories. But at the end of the day, I mean, this is like trying to convince somebody that they should like that they should

believe in astrology, like it's just never going to happen. Like stop trying to make fetch happen here. So your boyfriend's not going to be interested in this stuff. So I think the compromise here is you want to tell him stuff. You think it's a conversation starter. It doesn't have to be every day. Just do a once a week dream dump. And there's probably like instead of seven to 10, it's like three to four. Also, can you just keep it to ones that like really rock your world?

Like you don't have to be like, yeah, you lied to me yesterday in my dream. But if it's just like, you know, you and my dad were fighting to the death about something like that, that's actually a little interesting. You know, like I have dreams that I can't remember some I can. I think the one that I actually I think I may have told my wife about one dream in the last like six months. And like Obama rolled up and like tried to take her from me and it worked. And that was that was like my dream. And I was like, you're not going to believe this. And then that was it.

I was done in 30 seconds. She was like my dream and i was like you're not gonna believe this and then that was it i was done in 30 seconds she was like what she kind of liked that she liked that i was afraid of losing her to uh the 45th president of their 44th president united states and um i don't know that's like that's one that you can tell and i don't think like i think i thought you were lying to me in my dream yesterday i don't think that's worth it or you know me and my cousin got into a fight do you feel like obama's policies were taking from you i think he just showed up smooth he just rolled up smooth and was like here come here i want to show you something and she was just gone i was like what the fuck but uh that that was interesting you know that's that's something i think is worth telling but like something i agree stupid is maybe i i want to know like from the emailer do you care that he's not interested

do you care that he's not interested like do you care that he's not interested because i don't think you do so if you're willing to just do the dream dump like you have to offload all of this baggage from your roller coaster of the pre and you're right like what about the bad dreams be like oh i had a robo and the oars were missing and then i just was going in a circle in a circle it was forever and then your aunt was there it's like okay i'm gonna get dressed you know like is there any way right is there any way maybe when he showers just to make this whole thing more efficient if you're already okay knowing that he doesn't want to listen to these but you need to have them hurt they need to be said out loud is there any way he could just shower while you tell him the dream? And he's

like, okay, cool. Got it. And then you're clear for new dreams. And it didn't really get in the way of his routine. I'm all about efficiency. So I'm wondering if perhaps that's the compromise, but I would turn it back on you or anyone listening to this being like imagine going hey i know this story thing i do sucks but how can we schedule yeah it's a good point it's a good is it like a dude equivalent of because i mean obviously you know it's mostly i think i don't think i'm breaking breaking golf fantasy but i don't think they do it now i think they just do it to other guys like oh man i had i was sitting like it's like 160 hours i'm just trying to other guys. Like, oh man, I was sitting like 160 hours. I'm just trying to, I don't know, put it in

a little bit more better terms for us to understand. Because obviously, none of us are dream, I don't seem like, doesn't seem like any of us are dream guys. I don't really remember my dreams. I'm a big dream guy, don't share it. Absolute, absolute amusement park going on up there. The weirdest

shit all the time. And then I'm like, you are right. I just tell somebody. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Thanks. Just saying you got a lot of ideas,

you know. Let's spin it to golf. Ready for this one? OK, here we go. Basketball game similar to Al Horford. Max 295 bench. What's up, guys? Recently went golfing with three of my friends,

two of which have never played golf before. The course we went to was not anything special, which is important due to the following incident. As stated, two of my friends had never played golf before, so obviously they were absolutely awful. On the fifth pole, the manager drove up in his golf cart and stated the following, quote, the golf course

is not somewhere you practice golf. This has to be done at the driving range. This is not a playground. My friends and I were startled, uh, were startled because we were not doing anything disrespectful to anyone or to the golf course. There was no one behind us playing. Okay. This is really weird. So we're not holding holding up anyone and we basically played the best ball leading up to that point to keep up with the speed of play the manager and i got a heated discussion about how we were not doing any disrespect with the course or anyone to explain to him if he wanted us to leave we all wanted a full refund um oh this is for homa when we were going to do it this way i think we can still handle this one um yeah look when i i gotta be honest with you like

the whole idea you're gonna figure out how to play on the range is bullshit right but you can hit a million balls at the range but if you've never actually played golf like you've never actually teed it up on the first hole and then been like all right now i gotta pay attention and and you know the the position of the ball dictates everything I'm trying to do. Like, you're going to look terrible. You're going to be bad at it. I don't care. I don't care. Like, unless you're sitting there with a swing coach for six months, but you're, you're not going to be good. Um, my first thought was there had to be somebody behind you. I don't know if the course is nice enough to have members. Um, and golf can be really weird. It's kind of nasty and forgiving

i'll never forget i think like the second round i ever played i played with a guy that was pretty good it was vermont it was a bunch of like vermonter type guys like deep vermonters kind of hanging around us waiting for us to hit and i shanked an iron shot and they all started laughing at me and i just still remember the scene fat Fat fuck, his foot feet up in some golf cart being like, holy, you made me use a wedge, eh? Pull out an iron. Fuck you. Right.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, right. And then my buddy was like, hey, you know, it's like his second time ever playing golf. Why don't you guys relax a little bit? So, like, the golf world, as soon as they see somebody who just clearly has no idea what they're doing, it's not the easiest place. It just isn't. So I figured somebody had to have been behind you.

They see two of your buddies clearly look like they've never done this before. Yeah, I mean, back to the driving range thing. Like, sure, maybe you could put together something where you kind of like know what you're doing, but it's really intimidating. It's intimidating when you don't know what you're doing. You don't know the rules. You don't know the etiquette. You don't know who's supposed to go. You don't know, you know, fucking guys, different groups with the flag and what they want and screwing up the putting order and all these different things. So I would figure somebody had to have been watching you, but I don't know how the manager or somebody told on you that was driving by there. It feels like there had to have been something to initiate him doing this. But if you guys are playing best ball and you weren range and play. You're going to have to play for real, and it's not going to go well.

I mean, hell, I played two weeks ago, I think in Santa Monica, and I started off great, and guys were pissed about the strokes I wanted, and then I was like, don't worry about it. And then towards the end, on the 18th, I just couldn't get back on the fairway. I was fucking up every shot, and I'm'm looking back and I'm holding up guys. And like, I have, I've had a couple of decent rounds this year, just starting again. So it's an awful feeling. Um, but unfortunately this is kind of the golf world at times, like when you expose yourself. So I wonder if the guy just saw a couple of your guys hit balls off the first tee, looked at your pace of play or whatever,

or somebody else told on you, but I'm, I am on your side here because eventually at some point you have to go out there and it's going to be ugly. And it sucks if you're holding up a ton of people, not letting them play through, but it doesn't sound like that's the case. This is my worst nightmare. I mean, this would set me back years, PTSD trauma. This, this is the exact reason I've never scored a thing. I just pick up my, you know, I pick up my ball. I'm afraid of, of somebody behind me. Like, you know, it's not like people laughing. I'm afraid of like a group of old people. Like I'm looking back and they're like, you know, arms up, you know,

stuff like that. That's stuff that it's just, I don't, I don't want to be that guy. I've been the guy and I just, I don't like it. But this guy coming up to me or the manager on the golf course being like, Hey, you suck. And we know it. And you can't, you can't be out here doing that because normally in these situations, you're like, dude, nobody cares about as much as you do. Nobody cares about you as much. Like you're making this way too big. But then for the, for the manager to come up, like unprompted to be like, Hey, this isn't for idiots like you. Like that's exactly what I was always afraid of. And this would have, this would have put me back years. I mean, I don't know. I might have just stopped.

So do your best to get over this. I would have absolute trauma from this because I'm already so worried about doing it. I'm dropping balls with my friends wherever. I've never scored a card. I'm just like, let's just keep it moving here. You can't keep track of your ball. You know what I mean?

When you don't play a lot and you're playing and you're playing a course like you know you play with guys that's their home course even if they don't know where the ball lands they have a general idea where they are so they're going to be faster but I mean look I've made every one of those mistakes you kind of have to go through it I mean that's the thing is you oh hey that's not your ball oh shit you feel like an idiot hey where are you aiming the greens over there oh shit you know like it's it's a very very intimidating i mean it's kind of like surfing for less cool people like paddling out to the break and there's 10 other guys there that are except for they're not actually surfing they're just watching you surf for this moment and then they'll take their turn yeah right all right dog goes and then we'll go they're

letting you have the wave and as opposed to just knowing they're like this guy's not getting it um and there's there's a lot more gear to buy i may be on the asshole here um because i've kind of gone through this with my wife a little bit because she wants to get into golf i've golfed since i was like five years old. A lot when I was young. Tailed off and I'm getting back into it now. She wants to get into it too, but she's never been before. She's just like, why don't we just go to a course? I was like,

we're not doing that. We're not going to a course. Plenty of sitcom episodes about this, by the way. This is classic. She made me feel like a dick but i'm i just don't think you can so i don't if these guys are really like if this is their first or second time ever golfing i do kind of understand you don't just go to a golf course if you want to golf like there's a process to this you know i'm not saying

you have to take a lesson but like you should the first place that you hit a golf club or a golf ball should not be on a golf course you should be on on the range. So, like, yes, I know what you're saying, Ron. You have to make mistakes and you have to kind of, you know, but I think you have to work your way up. Like, there's at least like at least hit a couple balls at a range or go to mini golf and you're going to feel for that side of it before you go to a golf course. So, again, I don't know what this maybe these guys weren't that bad. And maybe this guy was being an asshole or maybe they literally were just like missing and just like you know maybe they're putting people in danger who knows they didn't talk about that um but i kind of feel like you saying like oh you have to go out there and make mistakes that's true but you can't just go out there blind so i don't know if it was really really bad well

we don't know the answer to that i mean did they ever have a golf club in their hands before this then yeah but i mean how would the manager know that? And I've seen plenty of guys, you know, hit warm up at the range a little bit and then be like, okay, I'm ready. And then you're just not. I've been one of those guys. So I don't, right. You know, sitting around with another group

of people watching you on the tee box and you're like, okay, here we go. The other thing too is in this situation, you feel like it can't be four dudes that are all terrible like one or two of those guys have to be like okay you know like if it's all if it's the whole but that's what it sounds like awesome it sounds like shanking left and right and yelling for here and there and even if you're being nice and you're keeping up with pace to play like i don't know i sometimes like i go with my buddy and then two

other buddies so basically two of us know how to golf and two of them are kind of learning. And it's just like a good balance because it's kind of like a teaching thing or whatever and not everybody looks terrible in the group. Because you're right. Golf guy is a judgy guy.

And a lot of times it sucks, especially on that first tee. I mean, Ryan, you've told this story, but everyone has an intimidating first tee story where they probably embarrass themselves if you've been golfing before. So I don't know. It sounds like the guy the guys that dick i'm just trying to think of examples

of why you know this guy would be such an asshole to you yeah if the if the emailer could take a real look and be like how how was it going um you know were these guys smashing smashing it uh you know to the next hole over and not yelling for or like like, was there stuff that I would forget to do too? Like how bad was it actually going, even if it wasn't slow? How nice was the course too? I don't know. He didn't really talk about that.

I mean, he said it wasn't that nice. He said it wasn't that nice. It was like a public course probably, right? Yeah. I don't know. If no one was behind them, if literally no one was behind them, I side with the email.

And you're not just taking massive divots out of the ground. Yeah. Okay. 22-year-old fired from first job. Hey, congrats. Been there. 22, 6'2", 193 pounds. Pro comp is Spencer Hawes on the Sixers.

Spencer's a friend and a neighbor and had nasty, nasty moves. Incredibly talented big man. I'm serious. I loved doing his draft tape. Yeah, yeah. There you go. There you go, Sir Rudy. Recently graduated from

ACC, former powerhouse and moved from my college town to the big city to start my career in sales this summer. Insert any wolf of Wall Street gif. Finding a company, let's just leave it out here. Through career fairs, the sales department in my school put on, I thought I'd found a company to grow and thrive in. After an internship during my last semester of school to learn the basics and quit my job at Panera, I felt ready to conquer the world

and make more money than I ever expected once I graduated. After 11 and a half weeks, I've been laid off due to performance. Showing up every day from 8.15 to 6.30, that's 8.15 a.m., 6.30 p.m., working my ass off while not being senior enough to have all the resources of my coworkers and being cut just like that has killed my confidence. Granted, the company went through

layoffs and hasn't performed anywhere near expectations. I have a lot to say about this company, but I'm lost in what I truly want to do and now have rent and expenses to pay. Any advice? Okay. Well, first of all, as many of our older listeners than 22 will tell you, kind of last one in, first one out deal whenever you're hired. That's not a very long time to be there 11 and a half weeks. I don't know what performance means, if that's in your head. It's a bit like athletes in their workout program. It's like, I know you tell me you work out all the time, but what are you actually doing? Plenty of guys are doing stuff and spending a lot of time. It's like, but are you actually doing anything that is helping you?

So you can show up and be at the office for 10 hour days, but were you doing anything? My chances are that it's probably not. I don't know. Again, I don't know. I'm flying blind here. Maybe you were great and maybe you were just the younger guy in that was the easiest one to move off from, but they were getting rid of all these other people. The other part of this is that this is what happens, man. This is what happens. And you will look back at this years later and laugh about the time. It's a lot like your first breakup. You don't have the scar tissue built up. So it freaks you the fuck out. You're like, whoa, what's this feeling? This totally sucks. Is this normal? Like, oh my God, I'm devastated. And you might feel that way the first time you're let go, fired, laid off from a job. At least in this case, you can kind of sell it as like,

all right, it's not like this one thing that I did and I did something completely wrong, although that could be its own learning experience. I think it's just welcome to corporate America, man. It'd be great if everybody had happy endings, but, um, that's not reality. And if anything, it should teach you that the next time you get a job, cause you will get one based on the resume stuff that I left out here. It seems like you're in a pretty specific world and smart enough to have gotten this job the first time around. But, you know, my biggest thing is always having like backup plans, always having a backup plan in my head. And now this should prepare you for the next time where you think everything's going to be good.

But like, you know what, though? What would happen if I show up Friday and they're like, hey, can we talk at the end of the day? Right. happen if I show up Friday and they're like, Hey, can we talk at the end of the day? Right? So if anything, this might be a great benefit to you because now you're prepared for something that you didn't think was going to happen. So it happened to you at such a young age. You don't have family. You don't have the kids. You don't have all that other stuff where you're freaking out. You're you're, you can pivot enough. You know what I mean? You're maneuverable enough at your setup right now to,

to adapt, even though, you know, look, I get it, the rent and all the other stuff, living in a big city and being like, how am I going to pay for all this stuff? But I would go, you know, maybe you go back and ask specifically, because the other thing too, is you never know. Like there could be somebody there that liked you, that hired you, brought you in, that ends up somewhere else, which is also part of the networking thing. So maybe reach back out to one of the people that was your contact there that you like, you have some trust in, be like, can you tell me specifically? So at least you have some closure on it, but it most likely was just a numbers game with this stuff. And you were a newer guy and it was easy for them to move on.

Yeah. I mean, a lot of times this is like a 90 day probation sort of thing, right? I mean, that's like 11 weeks is, is my math terrible on that? That's 77 days. No. How many? Yeah. Isn't it like seven times 11? Yeah. Yeah. No, you're not like totally off. I don't know that that's what it was though. I don't think he was hired. I guess what I'm asking is maybe you're not, but don't they, a lot of companies do this, have this probationary period. Like even, even if it's performance based or not, like it could be like it could be like uh you know you're not you're coming in late and you know your eyes are red or whatever like it could be a lot a lot of companies have like you know have a 90 day sort of thing i think it hurts because it says probation or because it said performance that hurts i think

uh like i've been fired several times but always on some like day off shit like it wasn't like oh you're not doing enough it's like oh you fucked up this thing that you shouldn't have been doing but it's not that you were doing your job bad so I think that that probably hurts more than anything um so uh I I guess you you're probably the easiest guy to let go like you said and also you're you're young and you're new there which means that like your client book is probably the smallest right if it's just talking about business, just watch the pride house. It's all about money with these guys,

right? How to keep Ralph around. Cause he earns, he means millions of dollars at stake for the Esplanade. So maybe your client book was just small, just, it was the smallest book, right?

And they were like, we got to free up some stuff here. Yeah. It was an earner. And so maybe the client book was just, it was too small. And it's like, why would we get rid of anyone else if we do have to get rid of

somebody? Yeah. I think to Ryan's point, like point like you know especially this young in your life like it kind of feels like it's the end of the world and you know you have every right you have every right to like be mad and sad and like kind of freaking out about what your future is but you know i'm not one of those big like everything happens for a reason guys i'm really not but i've told multiple times on the show like the the show that i was doing after i left dsbn getting canceled was like one of the better things that's happened in my life oddly enough even though it sucked for like the year that it happened so i don't know i did just be you know 11 weeks like you didn't really get it doesn't seem like you even got a fair uh fair uh you know shot at this

thing maybe you were just terrible and they were just like this isn't going to work out that's that's that's pretty unlikely it seems like a lot of the money like i have a lot of friends that work either in mortgages or work in finance, and they'll take risks. And as Kyle said, you're the easiest person on the shopping block because you just don't have the seniority built up. You don't have the client book built up. So I think ultimately, you'll be fine. In the short term, it's going to suck because you're going to have to figure some things out. But I don't know. I know everyone's going to tell you this, but don't let this be the thing that deters you from chasing whatever you're gonna have to figure some things out but um i don't know i know i know like everyone's gonna tell you this but like don't let this be sort of like a thing that sort of like deters you from chasing whatever you're trying to do like it's still very possible you have a very

successful career going forward this is just sort of like a you know a weird setback and again i talked about it before a lot of it just seems like a lot of these companies now like there's just so many more layoffs maybe it's just me as like a you know still thinking myself as somewhat of a young professional but it seems like this just kind of happens all the time. So getting laid off, actually, I don't feel like has the stigma that maybe it used to have 20 or whatever years ago. It just happens all the time now. So I wouldn't beat yourself over it too much. talking about all the different people that are going to stay or that are going to go. And, you know, I always felt like you need someone in that room that humanizes you as opposed to like, there's probably your name came up and they'd be like, oh, that guy works here. I thought he was an intern, you know, like there's a really good chance that happened when, when they get to like Ray and be like, what's up with Ray?

Like, dude, it's, they just had their third kid, you know, went to school with them. But Ray's fine, right? Ray's fine. This one's tough. Can we keep Ray? And look, you said the company was underperforming and everything else. There's other people who are going to be let go. So when your name came up, they were like, he's young enough.

It doesn't matter. So, you know, I don't know what the performance title necessarily means, but I know that in my own experiences, when there've been layoffs at places that I've worked, if you didn't have one person that felt like there was a real connection to when your name came up, think how much easier it is for them to just dismiss you and put him in the, he's got a go pile. All right. That's life advice. Thanks to Kyle. Thanks to Steve. And we'll be back on Wednesday. Run to the podcast. We'll be right back. in Colorado, Iowa, Kentucky, Michigan, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Tennessee, and Virginia. Call 1-800-NEXT-STEP or text NEXTSTEP to 53342 in Arizona, 1-888-789-7777, or visit ccpg.org forward slash chat in Connecticut, 1-800-9 with it in Indiana, 1-800-522-4700, or visit ksgamblinghelp.com in Kansas, 1-877-, or visit KS gambling help.com in Kansas 1 8 7 7 7 7 0. Stop in Louisiana, visit MD gambling help.org in Maryland, visit 1 800 gambler.net in West Virginia,

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