The Ryen Russillo Podcast - The Chiefs’ Dominance Continues. Plus, New CFB Rankings, Texas Runs Into a Buzzsaw, and QB Breakdowns With Todd McShay

Episode Date: October 21, 2024

Russillo opens the show with high thoughts on the Chiefs and a look around the rest of the league (0:40) before sharing his updated college football rankings in the wake of Georgia’s dominant win (20:23). Then, he’s joined by Todd McShay to break down Georgia’s win, play another round of Heisman Eliminator, and break down the QB play in the NFL (28:50). Finally, Ceruti and Kyle join for Life Advice (75:46)! How do I handle a roommate who refuses to take responsibility? Check us out on YouTube for exclusive clips, live streams, and more at https://www.youtube.com/@RyenRussilloPodcast The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit www.rg-help.com to learn more about the resources and helplines available. Host: Ryen Russillo Guest: Todd McShay Producers: Steve Ceruti, Kyle Crichton, and Mike Wargon Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On today's podcast, we have a lot of football, the Chiefs win in San Francisco, Detroit's game winning field goal. Same thing for Green Bay. A decision to quarterback for Pittsburgh. We'll do that and my top 12 rankings. We'll get into Georgia, Texas deep dive with McShay and some other stuff around college and then his thoughts on the Darnold story and golf and then how this chief's defense has been built. Shaving tips if you're shaving your chest. We didn't have great answers for you last week. We have an expert and more on life advice. This episode is brought to you by Movember. The mustache is back with a vengeance. Look at Travis Kelsey before he rocked that Super Bowl ring.

He rocked that super soup strainer. Grow a mustache for Movember. You'll do great things too. You won't win the Super Bowl, but your fundraising will support mental health, suicide prevention, and prostate and testicular cancer research. And if you don't want to grow a mustache, you can still walk or run 60 kilometers, host an event, or set your own goal and mow your own way. Do great things this November. Sign up now.

Just search Movember. It's the Ryan Rosilla Podcast presented by FanDuel. Football is in full action, and FanDuel's highest rated sports book is the best place to bet it all. Here's why I love FanDuel. I love in-game odds. I love it.

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You can get a line on Ohio State, Michigan already. Like if you think the number just doesn't make any sense based on early season perceptions. And also Nico Iamaljava plus 1000 right now. He's behind a few other names there on the Heisman odds. So if you wanna get the hookup, visit fandel.com slash Ryan RYE to download America's number

one sports book. The ringer is committed to responsible gambling. Please visit RG dash help dot com to learn more about the resources and helplines available and listen to the end of the episode for additional details. Must be 21 and older and President select states gambling problem call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit RG dash help dot com. Week seven. Let's start in San Francisco. Kansas City gets the win, 2018.

You know that I love my homes. I appreciate it so much. I have so much fun watching them. This is not an original thought. It doesn't go, hey, you know who's podcast is really good? It's that guy that likes my homes. But if I didn't love my homes, I can't imagine what Sundays would be like. It'd be the worst. I mean, especially if you're another fan of a team in the AFC West, like watch your team. But Chargers defense is awesome this year. But I just, I want to dig into what's happening with the Chiefs to end this 6-0 record because you're watching them play every week and being like, they won again?

Mahomes hasn't even been great this season and they still just beat everybody? And we'll get to the San Francisco part about this a little bit here in the end. So Mahomes is 16-27 on the day for 154 yards, no touchdowns, two picks. First pick, definitely not his fault, tip ball. Second pick, receiver falls down. You can make an argument that maybe the throw, but he's expecting the wide receiver to beat a defensive back on the ball anyway. Um, so, you know, we don't have to run into all of his interceptions, which, you know, there's certain times with guys that are really good where I'm like,

well, even if he had the pick, like those are different, all interceptions are not created equally, right? He does run one in trucking Mustafa at the goal line, who if you've watched Mustafa play, is just a guy who wants collisions. Like I don't know if anybody's in Rodney Harrison's class where the play would be over and he would just smash into the back of somebody,

sometimes his own teammate, when the pile, like the whistle had been blown and Harrison's like, I'll just hit somebody. Mustafa is that kind of guy. Mostafa had a collision with Xavier Worthy where it looked like a car crash. And aside, with the receiver injuries the Chiefs are dealing with,

I don't know that I'd want Worthy on these end of rounds. They look great. He's maybe faster than everybody else out on the field, but because he's slight and he gets going so fast, one block that's missed and they collide, like I don't even know if it's worth the two looks. Um, and maybe the 15, you know, I know he had broke the really big one in the first game, but I'd be worried about keeping

them healthy because of his build on some of these. So you have Mahomes truck that dude at the goal line and run one in. But these aren't even vintage Mahomes performances and they're still undefeated. Yes, a lot of is the defense. They're really good. Some of the stuff isn't necessarily off the charts and it's not like he's running it more. We can sit here and pretend that he's just not.

It was his first rushing touchdown in two years in the regular season. The other thing I'd be looking at with Mahomes too too, we know that post-Hirey kill, there was, okay, well, they're not going to have the deep shot and take everything off. Then he's going to have to throw underneath. Okay, no problem. I'll just do that. All right, everybody's hurt. No problem. I'll just do that. The earlier years of having to probably be more aggressive and take more shots because the defense wasn't as good. No problem. That's fine. And now he has this defense and he can rely on it a little bit more. But there was something that I was looking at when I was looking at his stats last night and then again this morning, if you look at his average depth of target over his career, his first season, it was 9.1 yards. Now it's 5.3. It's gone down in

seven straight seasons. So again, the simple explanation is he's changed his approach, but the scary thing is that that's part of changing the approach based on personnel and who's healthy and everything. But like those numbers, when we first saw it, it's like this guy's just going to chuck it all over the place. Like he could probably just go back to that if he had the kind of personnel that you would hope to have with him. There was another couple of different numbers where he was the all-time leader in yards per game, net yards per attempt. Yesterday, before the San Francisco game, he was the all-time leader in yards per attempt. He's actually not now, I think, because I woke up and that number was different once I looked at football reference. So what does this all mean? Um, look, we can talk about again, him changing his approach based on the

personnel and the defense and all of that kind of stuff, it's really good as far as scoring defense, but I mentioned some of the other stuff isn't like, it's not like it's the most dominant defense in the league, I guess I just can't believe. That this is the homes that we've seen through six games and he's still so good. The moment you need him to be perfect on something keep a play alive figure it out I do worry about some of the traffic around him in the pocket like is this sustainable can he actually stay this healthy all the time like it'll look like he takes some really nasty shots or he's keeping the play alive like hoping to get this

this trailing tight end going across the field in front of him and he's like everyone's around his legs and it's like bent over, just kind of like about to fall down. He's throwing, there's just a lot of stuff that's around him all the time. All this chaos around his legs that it actually concerns me a little bit. But when you need that play, the dude always seems to make it. And then the big run down the left sideline, which again, for the defensive players in the league, this thing with the quarterbacks running

down the sideline sucks because the late flag, most of this stuff that's changed in the last few years, a lot of hand wringing was a massive waste of time. Oh, I like the NFL because guys are killing it. Now, you still watch it, right? Sure. There's a few hits every now and then from the past that were a lot of fun and really entertaining, but all of us have collectively gotten over it. We have not changed the channel because the lack of collisions. Some of it's overprotective. A lot of stuff that happens with the quarterback seems egregious in their favor, but it's all because of the greater good of the health of some of these players.

But the sideline stuff has been very reactionary in the way it's been called because a guy can be in bounds and about to step out of bounds. And if you plaster him, you're gonna get a flag for a late hit. Cause everybody's kind of conditioned now to like, oh, it looks like he's giving himself up so you don't have to take that shot. And what I've always told you all the time

is when Sean Taylor killed the punter in the Pro Bowl, and I remember thinking like, that was excessive. And Darren Woodson and I were talking about it on the air and Darren Woodson just changed my mind that day. He was like, he's live. Like, what are you doing out there? If you've got the ball and you're live, it's on now granted, that's a defensive back in his mindset, but he's right.

If you're on the field, it's on. And quarterbacks are now allowed to just kind of dance slowly dance to the sideline and it's expected that you're not going to hit them, even if they actually haven't stepped out of bounds at that point, because everybody's afraid of getting this flag and that's what happened down the left sideline. I saw a play earlier this year with Kyler Murray, where Kyler's going to go out of bounds and everybody stops because they don't want to get a flag and before he goes out of bounds, he decides to like take another step and

then dives forward at the sideline towards the legs of a defensive back. Like that would have been, if the defensive back was a quarterback, it would have been like roughing the pass. It was nasty, not just because he got the extra yards and everybody had given up. It was nasty because of the collision that he put into the legs of the defensive player, because the defensive player is pulling up and now he's thinking, okay, I'm relaxed the whole, that's when the the injuries happen I don't know how it's fixed I would like to see a few less flags for these borderline late hits because that lack of hit

yesterday and it looked like he may have gotten around Fred Warner I gotta check the all 22s I'm not sure if I want to admit that right now so he has the big run, longest run apparently of his career. So that's where we're at. San Francisco also lost this game because Purdy was terrible and they were down their top three wide receivers at one point. Iuk with the ACL, Debo three plays the illness, Jennings who I really like and has been good for them is out. Purdy, the picks were brutal. I don't know if the second one was a bad router and overthrow. That's the only one where I'd be willing to hear some kind of an excuse, but that's the other reason Kansas City wins this game.

I'm not really ready to do a reclassification of the Niners, but I just can't fathom not loving Mahomes and how frustrated you would be with him winning another game against a good opponent. Okay, the best win Detroit and Minnesota, both teams four and one are better. The first time they had matched up where both teams were four and one better since 1970. That's over a hundred games. I picked Detroit in this game this week. Brutal NFL stretch for your boy. And it's just because I think they're going to win the division and I think they're the better football team, but I'm not sure that the outcome of this game, it doesn't, I'm not sitting here going up definitively right.

Nailed it again. Uh, because both these teams are clearly really good. Down 10, oh, the fake punt. Minnesota is ready for it. Detroit fights right back. 21 straight points up 21 10 up-17, two different 11 point leads here. I think one of the best signs for Minnesota, despite how you feel today, is that Darnold

was only a second. The first pass attempt that he had had in this game, I believe, was the second pass attempt he had had all season when actually trailing. He was really good. They opened things up. It wasn't a game where Minnesota was just going to rely totally on its defense, even though the defense got a lot of pressure on golf. And, you know, this game really could have gone either way. So I think that that's a positive that you have the darned factor of like,

what's he going to look like in a spot where you really need it from him. No issues with him, really no issues with anything. I mean, we can go over a bunch of different things in all of this. I think Detroit's a little bit better. I may be wrong. Let's talk golf because at the start of the season and because golf is like in this new category of like, we're going to be a little more critical of you because our expectations are that much higher.

And I was certainly really late to it, but he's just been so good now for a couple, I would say like a year and I don't know if it's a year and a half or whatever, but the start of the season was slow. Games below the standard that we would have for him, which is actually a compliment, but he's been on fire the last three weeks. And in games against Minnesota with Brian Flores as defensive coordinator, he's completing 77% of his passes, five touchdowns, zero picks. He's three and O and he had the fumbles yesterday, not on the fumble that was the Montgomery fumble that that was the Montgomery

fumble that led to the go ahead touchdown by Minnesota, but he had two fumbles where I can't even believe he recovered both of them. So that was actually, even though he fumbled pretty impressive. So, um, Minnesota has, what have they got? The Rams with all their injuries, the Colts, Jacksonville, Tennessee, the next four games. So it'll be kind of nice after going up against Detroit. I think that's the best win. The other one you could throw in the category is Green Bay's game winning field goal now five and two with a 24 22 win over Houston. They held CJ Stroud at 10 at 21.

It's the second worst game I think of his career. There's another couple of games you can say statistically, or even in the conversation. So maybe it's the third. I think it's the second worst. Again, Stroud is good enough that now I don't think this is a real problem. It was a really weird game though. Houston had had what? Their first 13 points were on three drives of 6, 11, and then 23 yards.

So 40 yards of offense, 13 points. Kind of hard to do in the league, but it was the turnovers. You had an interception to start the game from love. He had another interception before the end of the first half, which led to another Houston touchdown. So that put him at like 19 points, but he stopped turning the football over. Green Bay is five and two. They're a six seed, but still third place in that division because the

teams that we just got done talking about the Stefan digs thing. I'm kind of sick of anybody having like a ton of sympathy for him maybe there isn't any I was surprised though this game was so spicy considering stop hate is still in the end zones worst loss it was last night Sunday night everybody hates the Jets just an aside the Rock is Santa Claus is personal trainer in alright so the Jets are two and aside, the Rock is Santa Claus's personal trainer. In. Alright, so the Jets are two and five since the two and one star where Rodgers had that game against the Pats. We're like, man, that kind of looked like Aaron Rodgers again. I

fell for it. I thought he looked really good. The second and 17th row where he's actually throwing to the sticks. Not a lot of guys doing that. He did it. I don't know that we all collectively realized how truly awful the New England Patriots are. We knew the roster was lacking talent, but at least last year, defensively, they were really good. Now they're just awful across the board. I don't know how many of you got up for that early one out here on the West Coast, but I watched a little Drake man. I wanted to see what it looked like. He looked all right. All right. So back to the Sunday nighter. So nobody likes the Jets, whether it's ownership, firing the coach. I don't think Roger's approval rating is the highest it's ever been. It's 37-15 to a Pittsburgh team. That's not exactly known for

its offense. Rogers may have also picked his nose and ate it, but I don't think that he did. And we may need to reclassify Bruce Hall. You know how I like to look at players who collide with cameramen, camera people on the sidelines. He took a guy out. He couldn't even just turn around and give him like a check in thumbs up. That's what I love about Lamar Jackson. If he smashes into somebody in the sideline, he checks on him.

I know that doesn't mean a lot to you. It does to me. It's something doesn't mean a lot to you. It does to me, it's something I continue to monitor. All right, but the real storyline about this wasn't about Rogers or whatever, because it's just a jet shit fest today. It was about the return of Russell Wilson, okay? And he needs this, he needs to come out into the tunnel.

It's all a part of the Russell Wilson experience. He needs to be doing the pregame interview. No one missed it more than him not being able to do it after the calf injury and seeing Justin Fields get off to this team start, right? Because Pittsburgh was four and two. So a lot of it was why would they do this? And based on the Russell Wilson, we saw in Denver, um, I think it's a really fair question, like what do you actually think you're getting out of Russell Wilson?

But you don't know what the conversations were like when they brought him in. I think a lesser franchise, you'd be like, well, they probably promised him something like Pittsburgh, I want to give the benefit of the doubt of like, Hey, you're going to come in here and compete. We're not going to promise you anything, but there may have been something or maybe Russell Wilson just looked at the opportunity and then the field's trade happens after it. So like, you know, I guess I was trying to wonder what they saw, but again, they have him in their facility.

They saw what he looked like before the calf injury. So maybe they saw something that they actually really liked because I can't imagine they like much that was on the film from Denver. Far removed from the get up segment of should we apologize to Russell Wilson? No, we should thank Denver's defense is actually what we should do. So I think it's worth digging into what the Steelers and Mike Tomlin were moving on from when they made the change from fields to Wilson. So going into last night, Pittsburgh's offense was 25th in yards for game.

They were 27th in yards per play. They were 22nd in points. They were 18th on third down conversions, and they were 27th in yards per play. They were 22nd in points. They were 18th on third down conversions and they were 20th in red zone, touchdown percentage. Fields, who I've liked more in moments, probably this season, that at any other point in his career in Chicago. Um, however, he really wasn't that good. It wasn't, he was 20th in QBR.

He had five passing touchdowns. Yes, I know he's run in a bunch more, but I always feel like that's when I see guys that like a running in a little bit, like it's a nice thing to have, but it also tells me that like when stuff gets weird around you, that's kind of your default and it's a little late in his career, still be going to whatever, you know, fine, maybe, um, but the defense was the number two scoring defense and their plus seven in turnover margin. That's why they were four and two.

It wasn't really because of fields. So if we're being honest about the change, like as much as I don't love Russell Wilson and that's been established, I could understand, like maybe we just take a look at this and see where we're at and maybe it's a little bit better and guess what? Confession. It was so bad. Those first two

series that I was chuckling. I wasn't obnoxiously laughing, but I was chuckled a couple of times where he wanted to run away from the pocket and he didn't. I was like, it looks pretty slow right now. That throw to the left side behind the wide receiver into the dirt. I was like, what is that? You know what I didn't do? Like everybody else, I didn't send a fucking tweet because it's like some of you have never watched games before. Because even if you can't stand Russell Wilson, like this is his first game action. We're towards the end of October.

This guy's barely played any real football. Like let him get warmed up. I thought the moon ball shot down the left side line was totally under thrown. But what we learned with the Pickens relationship last night with Russell Wilson, as he's just going to throw it to him over and over and over again and let Pickens win. And it kind of worked and Russell settled down and he got better. The total numbers looked pretty good.

Despite the fact those first few series looked awful. So I think it's worth being honest about what Pittsburgh was moving on from without any, like I didn't look at last night and go, well, they've got their guy. But as much as I was rooting for fields in this, because trust me, I was. I wanted to see earpiece there all season long. Just be like, I just want to do one sideline interview as the starter.

Well, they weren't moving on from John Elway. All right. Remember Tyree Kill? I do. Colts, Miami. Do you know where your Colts are today in the playoff seating? Well, they're four and three, and they're a seventh seed.

I don't have a lot on Miami and Indianapolis except for haircut awareness. I'm worried that eight games in your career for a makeover is early for Anthony Richardson. Yesterday was his ninth, but I think the full makeover, another injury. It's just a, it's a move that I feel like he went to a little too soon. The NBA is back and FanDuel, America's number one sports book,

wants you to catch all the action. Because right now, FanDuel is giving everyone three months of NBA League pass. All you have to do to catch every tip-off and buzzer beater is place any $5 bet on the NBA. Things I'm most excited about. Well, Anthony Edwards. See if we can have another John Collins dunk like we did that night in Salt Lake

City where it made me question everything about humanity. I'm excited to see what Denver does or maybe what they trick us into believing because clearly still in the mix last year lose another major piece in KCP. We've talked about the lack of depth, but with a lack of depth actually show us something in the regular season doesn't really mean anything in the playoffs. What do you have the world's greatest player in Nikola Jokic? OKC, maybe better than both.

The Celtics potentially repeating because what statistically would tell you that they're not going to repeat? Year two for Wembe and you know, like to see some of these draft picks because guess what? As bad as we knew the draft could potentially be in the lack of excitement around it,

math just tells us there's gonna be a couple guys that are still really good from this 24 class. So the next time you get a hunch on who's gonna win or how many points a player is gonna score, you can watch your picks come to life live. Just visit fanDuel.com slash Ryan, R-Y-E-N to get three months of NBA League pass courtesy of FanDuel. Make every moment more with FanDuel,

official sports book partner of the NBA. Must be 21 and older and present in select states or 18 plus and present in DC. After 3 month free trial, the full price of League Pass will be automatically charged monthly. Cancel anytime, no refunds, terms, restrictions and embargoes apply. Live at 1 pass per customer. See terms at Sportsbook.FanDuel.com. Gambling problem, call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit rg-help.com. College football top 12, reminder of the real ones come out Tuesday, November 5th. Okay, number one, Oregon. Off this week, they played Purdue 35-ZIP.

Number two, Georgia. Wow. Thought about putting them number one. That was a dismantling of the number one team in the country in Texas, so we felt like checked every single box. The AP moved Texas down to five. Georgia right now has a week one win, 34-33 against the number nine AP team in Clemson.

And then again, as I said, Texas being fifth in the AP and even the final score doesn't do it just what kind of domination is set in the game. So good luck stacking up against that resume. If you want to put Georgia one, even with the loss to Bama there ahead of Oregon, I wouldn't have an issue with it. I'm just keeping it as is. What we saw from their edge guys, number 11, Jovan Walker, who's probably one of my favorite, maybe my favorite defensive player in college right now. Number 10, Damon Wilson, who's technically a linebacker and now a healthy number 13, Mikael Williams, who missed all of September. What those guys did on Saturday night was a thing of beauty.

It's just, we are going to wreck you all night long against one of the best offensive lines in college football and against yours, first round, projected first round pick, although we can talk about some of these top five guys at some point. I don't know if we'll get to it with McShay, but I know we will eventually throughout the season, just across the board. Can you still be a top 10 pick when you get benched in a game? But Ewers did come back and he settled down a little bit.

I'm going to talk about him in a second too, so don't worry about it. One of the most, I think what we saw from that group, wrecking everything Texas wanted to do was the most impressive thing I've seen from a group all season in college football. Beck wasn't even good and it didn't matter. He could have had four picks in that game, although one was kind of directly related to the next one. So we'll keep it at three. All right.

Ohio State actually was off, did not play Purdue. They've got Nebraska this week, which went from, hey, maybe that'll be a little tricky game to know it is in Nebraska destroyed by the Hoosiers 56-7. So, you know, there you go. We'll all be looking ahead to 11-2 when Ohio State goes to number three, Penn State. I have Penn State four. Right now, Ohio State is a three and a half point favorite over Penn State. Will see. Am I really going to fall for the

Penn State momentum thing again? We'll see. See what happens. Alright, number five Texas. Same as the AP. I want to make this very good. I have zero issue with start going from yours to Archmanning for the last

two series of the first half, okay? As I was watching the game and it's ridiculous this pass rush was, I thought, you know, I wonder if Sark would actually do this. There's something I thought about as I was watching that first half because of Manning's running ability. What happens though, when this is potentially, and it's gonna happen now,

I've already read a couple of articles about it, it's like, oh, well, did you potentially lose Ewers? The first time that was said about a quarterback change. And then if you change from this guy, then you're going to lose them. It probably sounded really smart. I'm so sick of hearing it all the time because it is specific to who the people are. And you've got to give Sark the benefit of the doubt of this deal. And yeah, it looks weird if yours is first round pick, but like, if he is a first round pick, then this can't shatter him. Okay.

If he were shattered mentally from being benched or removed and isn't the same guy the rest of the half, then you just did an NFL team a favor if he can't get over something like this. Yes, it sucks to get benched, but a real competitor sits there being like, I can't wait to get back in this game. And I think that's what we saw from yours, despite the fact that didn't really seem like they had much of a chance. I just, I hear it over and over and over again,

whenever a team does something like this, as if it's this death sentence for the guy and it's just very clear, Hey, let's give it another look, see what happens, allows viewers a reset, brings them back out for the second half. And it was fine. Number six, I have Clemson higher than other people do. I'm not quite sure. Maybe it's just because I feel like if they played somebody who wasn't Georgia and they'd be undefeated, we feel a little bit better about them. Their loss is obviously looks better all the time here.

They're going to play Pittsburgh who we'll see if they're still ranked after Pitt plays SMU. I have Clemson with a 59 strength of schedule, which means I should probably put him behind Miami who's actually still undefeated. Of course, Miami will not play Pittsburgh, but there'll be, I don't know, their strength of schedule is actually better. I struggle with the Clemson Miami. I'm just telling you based on the whole thing and Cam Ward was terrific

again against a Louisville team. That's a tough out. They gave up a million yards, but Miami, I guess I just like Clemson better than them today. And it means I like both teams better than LSU, who I have at eight, but look out, alert, underlined next to LSU at number eight. Their defense is better. The Oregon transfer, Braden Swinson has been incredible off the edge and number 40 Whit Weeks is an absolute star linebacker. He looks like he's in on every single play. He also looks like he could be on the cover

of the Sooners media guide in 1984. His last two weeks he's had 27 tackles, 18 tackles against Ole Miss, two sacks, one forced fumble, one interception, and when LSU gets it rolling downfield, they have wide receivers and tight ends everywhere. Mason Taylor, who I still wish would get more balls, but all the receivers are awesome.

Then you bring in the six foot seven freshman trade as green when they had, it's just ridiculous. However, LSU a dog plus three and a half at A&M, who I had 12 last week. It was kind of a weird Mississippi State game. Wigman had the pick that made the score a little bit closer. A&M was in control that one. Mississippi State I think we look at as maybe the worst team in the SEC. But you know, when they got a Van Buren boy back there, it's, it's, it's, it's actually been a little bit better the last couple of weeks from a competitive standpoint, or at least moving the football. Let's say that.

All right. Number nine, Iowa State loved this game where they held on to the win against UCF. Beck's second pick wasn't his fault. It was tipped. They run it back for touchdown, except they don't number four for UCF pulling the old Deshaun Jackson, dropping the football before the goal line didn't matter because no one recovered the football. They run it in for the go ahead touchdown.

Iowa state has to go the length of the field that of course, like Rocco Beck's just one of those dudes where you're like, I like his chances. And that's exactly what happened. Runs in the go ahead touchdown. Iowa State has to go the length of the field that of course, like Rocco Beck's just one of those dudes where you're like, I like his chances. That's exactly what happened, runs in the two point conversion, I think they got to turn over there late. So they seal that one. You know what though? I'm putting Iowa State 10 and I'm putting BYU nine

because BYU has the better wins. The epic comeback Friday night against Oklahoma State who has a bad record but still is a game you to suit up for on Friday, 35 yard touchdown with 10 seconds left to win that one. They have the weird K-State win where it's 38-9, goes through the play by play log of what K-State's night was like with the turnovers and I think going 0 for 4 and 4, but whatever, it's a 38-9 win against maybe the second favorite team, despite all the Utah stuff.

I think it was Utah and the big 12, then it was K-State. So let's put BYU nine, Iowa State 10. Love for the Big 12 there. All right, Tennessee at 11. Still not the full Niko game. Maybe I should stop talking about it. But the plays that mattered at the end. It is, however, the third straight game for the Volsburg.

They haven't scored in the first half. Probably not what we thought when we started putting together this offense. But the defense is really good. Number two in opponents yards per play. Uh, and they beat a Bama team that continues to make mistakes. Personal foul flag at the end to move it back to fourth and 22. Millrow throws a pick.

I'm not going to say a lot about Millrow here. Maybe I'll just ask Mel again, if he's in the conversation with QB one for the 25 draft. It's Bama's second loss at the earliest point of the season since Nick Saban's first year at Bama in 2007, when he went seven and six and seniors that left the team were like, this Saban guy, I don't know. And then Saban went 15 straight years having Alabama ranked number one in the AP poll. Number 12, I can pick from Indiana who just stomped Nebraska. Quarterback at Hurt Rorick who's going to be 24 soon, but has been incredible.

But Jackson Davis, the Warriors' younger brother is still on the roster. I could go Notre Dame. I could go A&M, but maybe that Mississippi State game lingering a little bit here. Indiana has the 109 strength schedule. Let's put Notre Dame back at 12th because none of this matters. We've got him back on Monday, but we have him more than just Mondays. It's Todd McShay here on the show. We're going to talk some college ball, some NFL, but let's start

first with what you're doing. Now it's official, which we already hinted at a couple of weeks ago, but you got a new pod coming up. So I'm fired up for you, man. Uh, what do we got? I appreciate it. Excuse me. Good way to start. Cloudy voice. Um, yeah, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturday nights throughout the season, the McShay show is getting ready to launch tomorrow. And, uh, I've thanked you privately,

but I also want to thank you publicly for, uh, for being, for the assist in this and helping it get going and life has come full circle ESPN to Spotify, the ringer and, you know, two guys helping each other out and hopefully we can build something fun here. Yeah. I'm fired up for you, man. What's your advice, bud? I don't know what the hell I'm doing. Yeah, I don't know.

That's good. That's helpful. Yeah. Well, here's the thing. No matter what you do in six months, you're just going to be better. So you can stress about not being as good as you want to be in the beginning of it. But like, I remember certain TV things once I realized like whatever you want to put into this first one, this first week, these first few shows, it is unavoidable that

it'll just not be as good right now as it will be in six months. So if you go into that knowing that the stuff now versus what you'll build towards in the draft, you'll figure out all the different things. Just keep trying things and eventually you'll know what works. You've been doing content for two decades, so you have good instincts on it. So you don't really need my advice other than, um, it's a lot easier. I think it's good for people to hear too. You know, I mean, there's a lot of people starting their own podcasts and, but, uh, yeah, I'm excited, man. I'm excited. I got my guy, Steve Mench is going to be a part of the show. He's been with me for 20 years.

Um, he'll just be the kind of my sounding board and we'll have a bunch of guests. We're starting with Pollock, David Pollock tomorrow. And I'm sure Kuiper will be coming on soon and all, you know, all our people. I'm excited. I'm fired up, man. Yeah.

No, look, Pollock was my last guest ever on an ESPN pod. Speaking of Georgia, let's just get into it here. Let's do it. Look, I didn't go into Georgia, Texas thinking Georgia could not win, but based on what we had seen from them, the offense, the first half against Bama, some could say the Mississippi State game was a result that was concerning maybe the Kentucky thing.

But my God, for them to dominate the way they did with their edge guys, all those number 10, number 11, number 13 against that Texas O line. That was, as I said in the beginning, when I did my top 12, I think that's the most impressive performance I've seen from one single unit all season long in college football. And so they are where we need to start. It was interesting, right? Cause we were, we were taping a test show for the first like 10 minutes of the

game on Saturday night, just to peel the curtain back. Good timing. Yeah. Well, you know, life happens. Came downstairs and I think it was 17, nothing at the time. So I hadn't seen it. I didn't see exactly what happened, but viewers is benched and, and Karsten Beck is still in. And so I, but I got caught up on the, on what was going on. Then I went and watched the tape yesterday. I was watching the NFL games and just watching the tape. I wanted to watch yours and how he performed. I wanted to watch Carson Beck and how he performed getting ready for our first show tomorrow.

We got a lot of quarterback talk tomorrow, kick things off, get ready for the 2025 NFL draft, but also tying it into college football and what's going on. So I started with Carson Beck and with the understanding, obviously, that you were, you was got benched. And I was like, wait a second, why didn't this guy get benched? And then I watched her. No, seriously, why didn't Carson Beck get benched? If a quarterback in this game was to get benched, why wasn't the guy who's overthrown a post route and with the wide open receiver't the guy who's overthrowing a post route with the wide

open receiver, the guy who's making his receivers, as we've talked about all year long, work for it too much? The guy who, you know, the interception, the first interception, I think it was on him, the second interception, it was supposed to be flattened out, the receiver was supposed to flatten out and there was a miscommunication. The third intercepts are too high on that angle route. And so, and I'm going through it and I'm like, Hmm, this is interesting. But then when I watched yours, he was more confident, more accurate, more kind of in tune with how things were going. He just ran into a freaking buzzsaw. Like it wasn't, there were a couple drops,

there were, but as it went on and right before he got benched and I started to understand, you could see like he was feeling it, ghosts in the pocket, like he wasn't getting settled. And so I could understand, Sark didn't bench him to bench him for the rest of the game. It was very clear Sark wanted to just calm him down because he was, he was, yours was in control. He was doing all the right things for like two, two, three series. But then the series before he got benched, you could tell the pressure was affecting him.

Now he's making bad decisions. Now he's getting the ball out before he needs to. So like you could see it was Sark say, Hey, come over here, take a deep breath. Let's watch things for a minute from the sideline, which I've always said is, it's the most frustrating and you know, the worst thing in the world to be rotated or to get bench. But I learned the most in my career by sitting and watching others and how I would do things and how I wouldn't do things and all that.

And you can see when he came back in the second half, he was settled down and the offense had settled down and then started to move. And the second half was more representative of what Sark expected and what we kind of all expected. But at the end of the day, man, like you play that well on defense and as angry as they were and as, as disciplined as they were, that's, that's the secret sauce for Kirby smart. It always has been the disrespect card. Yes. But it's the disrespect card to, to get through to your every single player on that defense, the first team guys, the backups, whoever, whatever your role is to, it's not to get them where they're in a lather. Well, that's helpful. It's only helpful for so long in a game where it really benefits you. And I, I'm a big believer in this is during the week of practice,

when you tell these guys, they don't, no one believes in you. Everyone's going to pick Texas, all the same shit that they went through all, we, you know, that they went through and that we heard about post game. When you are driving and drilling that into your players, what you're going to get is a level of focus and then during practice and then a level of discipline and being in position and having the gap that you're supposed to be. And the linebackers one, like cat blitzes, the corner blitz is being in the perfect spot.

Like all of the plays that were made were made by great talents. Yes, but they were made because the scheme was dialed up really well and the players were in the exact position they needed to be. And that resulted in Jalen Walker, who was one of the most versatile defensive players in the entire country, having the three sacks, the force fumble and all the plays that he made that resulted in Michael Williams with the two sacks. That resulted, nobody's talking about this dude, and I gotta study more tape,

but my God, did he jump off the tape. Number six for Georgia. Everett. Dalyan Edwards, or Everett, sorry. Sack interception, fumble recovery. He was all over the field. So, you know, we're going into that game and you're like, all right, Texas checks all of these boxes and what I'm, you know, was we're caught up in every

college football season, way too carried away at the beginning of the year of like, these are the three definitive teams and then there's nobody else. And then it's like, okay, well then Georgia has this, like Beck just hasn't been good enough, um, even though he put up a million numbers against Mississippi state, but I think they're the worst defense in the NCC if they're not, they're in the conversation for it. Um, and look, Beck's not getting benched because we're talking about Gunner Stockton versus Arch Manning, the most heralded recruit.

So it's, it's slightly different. I had no issue with it. As I said earlier, I think it was just giving Texas a different look with Manning's legs versus yours because the pass rush was so out of control. I wonder. Yeah, and I had no issue with it. And for Georgia fans, and just so we're clear,

I'm not saying Beck should have been benched, I'm just saying having missed the live TV action and then going back and just watching it on tape, what occurred, it was kind of ironic, like, wait, if a quarterback was going to be benched, maybe it's really the guy who just threw three picks, you know? But I'm not saying he should have been benched by any stretch, I'm just saying, if one of the two,

I would have guessed that the guy with three interceptions. So what I'd like to do though, after that game, is it'd be really easy to fall right back into the Texas trap that we just went through because you could after that game, which of course I saw a ton of is well, why was Texas in it? You're like, dude, they're giving up six points a game. You're like, all right. Yeah. But they hadn't played anybody. Like, yep, you're right. Michigan's earning on its third quarterback. So 31 12 may not mean anything there. Then it's UTSA, Louisiana Monroe, Mississippi State.

That's nothing. Oklahoma, who I cannot believe Venables benched Arnold in the game against Tennessee. People down there said, no, no, no problem. And then you've got Hawkins, turn it over three straight possession to start that game. They go back to Arnold. So I don't feel like it's as easy as just saying,

well, Texas was a fraud because of all of the different stuff. Like I still think Texas is in this. I also wonder if, I also wonder if Sark would go, all right, this old line, that's like 320, 330 across the board. Like, do I have to change up the game planning here a little bit? I know Bond was probably dealing with some injuries in Golden who was, was certainly having moments there where it felt like he, he didn't love or no,

it was actually, um, on the other side for Georgia, one of their receivers that felt like he was, he wasn't really up for it. Um, number six, number six. Yeah. Yeah. Number six, a couple of different times. Yeah. Love it. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. I think it was love it. So he made some business decisions. I was surprised. Yeah. I think the point would be there's this shift of Texas is perfect all week long, which I was buying into, into Georgia unravels them. And then it's like, who can possibly beat Georgia?

And it's like, now we are just repeating the same thing over and over again, knowing that it's very week to week, I think Texas would game plan the rematch completely differently, considering what the edge guys did for Georgia and the one on one battles that they continue to win all night long. Like, why don't we let's's let's learn our lesson, right? Like Georgia came out at Georgia's performance in the second half against Alabama was more considerable or more, you know, eye popping than

than what we saw from Texas in the second half. But I think this there's some similarities in that that Georgia got ran out of the gym versus Alabama in the first half of that game and came back and had a lead for what? 13 seconds, but they had a lead. Texas didn't quite execute to the level that Georgia did in the second half against Alabama in this game against Georgia, but they still came out and it was a performance reflective of kind of what you would expect to see to a certain degree.

It wasn't to the level, but it was certainly considerably better than the first half. The other thing is, Georgia may never play that good of a game again on defense, and maybe they will. Maybe this is going to be the new standard we'll have to see. And I know, God forbid God forbid there's perspective and like rationale and reasoning with the college football fans. And, but like, take a step back and be reasonable. Texas just ran into a bus stop.

Game day is there, all the excitement, all the hype, all the attention. Where was Georgia all week? Like it wasn't the same level of like interviews and all. It was, this was the Texas show, right? And I think it would be a very different approach the second time around. And the second time around, like let's see where they are in five, six, seven, eight

weeks, how they, how Texas progresses, how they bounce back, how they recover from this. My guess is we're going to wind up seeing these two teams play again, because I look at this like, I know Oregon's your squad at this, like I know Oregon's your squad and I love Oregon and my goodness was I overwhelmed by Oregon and their performance against Ohio State compared to what I was expecting. But to me, like Texas is a better football team and Oregon is number one in the country right now. Penn State, I would take Texas every single time.

Texas against Ohio State, I probably would give the slight lean to Texas. So like, I know they've got to drop to the polls. I think in the AP they were down to number five, but I still think Texas is one of the three best teams in the country. And I can't wait to see, hopefully there is a rematch, Texas, Georgia, because I do think it will be different. in the country and I can't wait to see. Hopefully there is a rematch Texas Georgia.

Cause I do think it will be different. Yeah. I mean, the Texas pole thing like makes perfect sense. Okay. You're going to drop them because they're at home. Ohio state was on the road. That's fine. Same level of opponent.

We're talking about the number one and two teams. I mean, none of this really matters, but the coaches pole just weekly, weekly embarrasses itself. I mean, they draw, I don't even look at it. What did it do? They dropped Texas to six behind Miami. Um, but you know, I wanted to get on the coach's poll here for giving Nebraska a vote, so one voter still had Nebraska, but somebody in the AP actually had Nebraska getting a vote there too, as well.

Usually it's the coaches just never giving up on Nebraska. All right. Anything else from the college weekend before we get to the NFL that you think, like, I don't, I don't want to do a ton of Bama just because I feel like we've already done it. Um, you know, you and I were texting about Nico and he's missing the deep shots over and over again. That's the third straight half to start a game. Tennessee hasn't scored a point. So it's a really nice win. It's this rivalry third Saturday in October, but like I'm not, I mean, I think the AP has Tennessee ahead of LSU.

Tennessee at seven LSU eight. Yep. Yeah. I, I don't, I don't feel I would pick LSU against Tennessee right now. Yeah. I think, I mean, there's so many, there are so many takeaways. I think the two things are really the thing that really stood out for both teams in that Tennessee Alabama game based off their histories, based off their offensive systems, where are the weapons? You know what I mean? Like you just think about like the Jerry, Judy's, the Henry rugs, the Devante Smith, the Jaylen waddles, Jamison Williams, John Metchie, like, and you've got one guy, but it's like they missed a recruiting cycle

at wide receiver. And so now you've got an unbelievable freshman, but it's also some transfers out. I mean, Bond's running around for Texas and he was a nice player and Jermaine Burton. But my point is it seemed through transfers out and maybe missing a recruiting cycle with the wide receivers.

That really stood out to me. And Tennessee, the same. I get the quarterback's inconsistent and overthrowing guys. And a lot of that is on him. His head was spinning in the first half, played better in the second half. But without Dillon Sampson, and Dillon Sampson was MIA in the first half, he got injured. Molly McGrath had the report. He went into the tent. I think he had five carries at the time that he went into the tent. I think he had eight or nine carries the rest of the half, but the medicine kicked in the second half. He was back to normal and then that offense was functioning at a pretty high level against a really good defense. Not an elite defense, but a really good defense. Not an elite defense, but a really good defense. And so Dylan Sampson, we've said this for weeks now, Dylan Sampson is their offense. But Nico is going to have to

make significant strides, but do they have the weapons? Like do they legitimately have? They should. I mean, Thornton's good. Squirrel is good for a drop here and there. And I still love Brew. And I know he had a tough drop there, but I think McCoy is always somebody that you can kind of bank on. He's just a big physical. Yeah, no, he's give me a slant, you know, give me him a corner on his side on his own

and cutting in front of a corner. Like he should be able to win that every single time. I think Thor's the secret sauce. The secret sauce for Tennessee, let's just face it, when they were rolling offensively was that you had a quarterback in Hendon Hooker who wouldn't miss the deep ball because it's not like they run the football balance, run, run, run, short game, short game.

And then when they pop one, they were hitting it at a very high rate when Hendon Hooker was there with Jalen Hyatt. Now they're pop that when they go try to pop one, it's like one out of six, one out of seven that they're connecting on. And that's the difference. It wasn't about a lot of deep shots, a lot of vertical stuff. It was about when they did it, they had a high success rate. Now, right now they don't. But yeah, he was at one point after he missed, he missed the sideline shot down the right sideline, which he overthrew,

which is becoming a normal thing. I can understand the sideline shot down the right sideline, which he overthrew, which is becoming a normal thing. I can understand the sideline miss, the post missed, I have very little patience for it because I feel like the post, you have it open to that side. You can make it so much easier. You don't have to just nail the distance on the sideline throw.

The post throws an easier throw and you shouldn't be overthrowing it because you're just giving space to the receiver to run underneath it. So you don't have to like, you don't have to die. Brian Greasy and I used to talk about this a lot. He, you know, he would, he would laugh about it. Like sometimes it played to his advantage that he didn't have Josh Allen or Patrick

Mahomes arm because under throwing or putting it up for grabs is a hell of a lot more effective on the deep ball than overshooting the guy. Right? Because you got the chance for a pass interference, you get a chance for a 50-50 ball, you get a chance for DBs turned around and can't locate the ball, and so your receiver can come back. When you overthrow it, you overthrow it.

And so part of it, I don't wanna say it's coaching, but there's gotta be a level of drilling it in to Nico's head that like, it's okay to undershoot this thing, put it up, give it a little more air, you know? Okay. Let's do our Heisman eliminator here. As of right now, you've really got me pretty good here. I'll get you on the ropes, if I remember. I know we skipped it last week,

but I'm fine with skipping the rest of the season. Well, you have, your roster is Milro, Cam, and Gentie. You have your roster is Milro, Cam and Gentie. I have Travis Hunter, yours and Nico. The Gentie pick, if I had Gentie on my side, it'd be pretty good, but right now it stands, you have two of the top two favorites right now in Fandula, both plus 200 Gentie and Ward or plus 200. I have potentially you are still in the mix,

Nico, I don't really see that happening. I don't even have the numbers for it. So what would the story be that he surpasses everybody? So that feels like a drop here after I was so excited to pick him up. I forget who was supposed to go first. I think I'm going first. So I have Gentian Ward, is that right?

Yeah. So you've got me boxed out pretty good. All right, so I'm gonna go first here just to keep it moving. I'm going to drop Nico and I'll pick up Dylan Gabriel just because of, from an odds perspective, I need somebody with a real chance at this instead of getting Q. I was a little upset when I was looking at all of the options. I think Singleton from Penn State had odds, but the tight end for Penn State Warren didn't. Granted, a tight end is probably not winning the Heisman, but I just think for the sake of respect for Mechanicsville and what Tyler Warren has done this year, it'd be nice to put just a ridiculous

number in there just so he could show his friends, hey, look, I'm on the board. Yeah. Um, I, I feel like, I mean, I'm obviously hanging with, with Chente and ward. I'm, I don't keep Milro, keep Milro. He was in the conversation for QB one. I got, I watch yourself. I gotta get rid of, um, I'll never, I've got to get rid of Milro. You guys lost your minds that week. Yeah. Is that what you're going guys lost your minds that week. Yeah. Is that what you're going with?

All right. Call me in April. No, I'm kidding. Call me in April. I will. And be like, hey, sorry. I'll lose your number. I will, I'm going to take Milro out

and I'm going to go with Kade Clubnick just for fun. Yeah. I like it. I like it. He's putting up huge numbers. I've always liked him. You know, the Georgia game is always gonna be lingering, but since then, man, what a run they're on offensively.

I love the club nitpick. Maybe you're just better at this than I am. All right, so it is in. Do I drop anyone else? No. I mean, do I go back? Just Carson Beck? No, I'm just trying to think of like any possible storyline to play it out, like, hey, they end up being the one seed.

You know, you know what I'm saying? You don't want to go Curtis O'Rourke or Curtis Rourke from Indiana? I threw an O in there, trying to make him Irish. More Irish, I guess. Uh, I don't, I mean, more Irish, I guess. I don't, I mean, look, joking, maybe Diego Pavi, a sympathy vote. No one else. No favorites running away for Vandy ranked again at 25.

I love it. Ranking drought shorter than you would think with Vandy. Let's talk a little NFL. Okay. All right. Um, who would you rather have right now? Trevor Lawrence or Drake may. All right. Um, who would you rather have right now? Trevor Lawrence or Drake may. Oh gosh. Uh, given, I mean, it really doesn't matter. I was gonna say given current

circumstances, but what the hell does it matter? Um, it's a really nasty. Who's older? Trevor. I'm joking. Trevor's not as Trevor just turned 25 like two weeks ago. I was watching a broadcast of the game at two or three weeks ago. He turned 25 which is I mean Michael Pennex jr is 27. Check it out. Did I Google wrong? There's no way he's 27. That's not true. He's 24. Hold on.

Michael Pennex, Jr. is 24. He's turning 27, I believe. Michael. What? In three years? Yes. Pennex age. Oh, he's 24.

Yeah. He's born in 2000. Maybe I was thinking of somebody else. I don't know. Dude, what do you get some Winky Sc scattering report? He's turning 25 in May. Next year. All right. So I guess they're basically the one year difference.

My point is, what is Trevor in his fourth year right now? This is year five, isn't it? Is it year five? Yeah. So the- Four year, year four. Yeah, year four. So four years in the league

and Pennex hasn't taken a legitimate NFL snap. Penex wasn't the question, but are you telling me you'd rather have Penex than Trevor Lawrence? No, we went down a rabbit hole, sorry. That's what happens when I get on my phone. Gosh. I would still go with Trevor. I'm still gonna go with Trevor.

I'm hanging tough with Trevor. I see it, I get it, it's not working. I would like to see, there's going to be massive changes in Jacksonville. I think he took a step for a little while. I think they plateaued. I wonder, is he fully, like physically, he just, I don't know, he doesn't seem as comfortable and confident in what he's doing. He doesn't seem like his footwork is not the same. And so I wonder if he can get a reset next year, come back. But I'm not, I'm not, Drake may, I've seen promising things like, and I think unfortunately you'd like to send them a whole year, but at least now they brought them in and everyone, everyone in the league, everyone in

the organization realizes that this is one of the worst teams, if not the worst team in the NFL. So the pressure is not on Drake may. So I don't think it's going to be some kind of mental collapse or confidence breaking year for, for the rookie. But, um, but from a talent perspective and what they can be absolutely Trevor Lawrence, I don't really have much added. I thought may, you know, was, has looked pretty good considering the situation and dropping the football all over the place.

I mean, we want to talk about one of the worst self proclamations ever. Like I got the best hands in the NFL. Like we'll stop dropping the football when everybody knew that you did it anyway. Uh, there's confidence in just kind of times with other guys. I mean, the paths are a mess. The roster is a mess.

He doesn't have a ton of great options. And despite that, like some of the numbers against pressure for him, you know, it's like, and the thing is, is May is like one of those weird ones where the tape two years ago is so much better than the tape the year before, right? Is that fair to say? Absolutely. Right. So you're kind of like, man, it's like some of these guys that have this like one

good year, one bad year, then he's the reverse of the borough. He's the reverse of the Jaden Daniels, where at least it's going in the right direction with May. But I think that's still the right pick. I just still cannot believe the Jags, like this whole thing has been this bad post-urban and thinking Peterson had figured this out. But this is like, you know, this is such a carryover of where they were at last year where I was defending them. I was like, hey, they're fine. They'll be good. And then it would just, it just off a cliff. And it's been the same thing. So nice one in London, but the Pats aren't any good. Okay. Who are you more surprised about in the reclamation part of their thing? Cause an awesome matchup between Detroit and Minnesota. Goff now is somebody like I expect great things from.

Donald got some play now actually trailing in a game. And I thought he made some terrific throws on top of everything else. Both I thought were going golf, especially some of the pressure that we saw from Minnesota, just hanging in there. Um, even though he had, you know, the fumbles, you re that one fumble, he recovered with his left hand while he was on the ground. I saw that he came back up with. So between the two to be at this point where it's like the, Goff maybe feels more complete

because we've seen it now for a little while as opposed to Darnold just a month and a half in. But between the two, like, which is a better story for you? They're both great stories. And we're starting to see more of that in the league. Now with guys leaving their first spot or maybe their second spot and having success.

We talked about, you know, Baker, obviously, Baker and Goff are kind of the poster children, but Darnold is kind of the next in line. I'm still like, I never totally wrote off Sam Darnold, but I also felt like I was on a like an island alone. And I know it wasn't alone. And I've heard the Belichick clips about the Jets are the only ones who didn't believe. And part of that's the whole Belichick versus the Jets type of stuff. And I know friends in the league, people I've talked to, I know there are a lot of people

that continued to have support for Sam Darnold and believed he could be, you know, what, what he's showing here. But you just wonder after how many years and how many stops, like, is that just, unfortunately, this is just a case where it's never going to turn around. So for me to see Darnold and now we're in week, what was it? So five and what? So six, six weeks, seven. Yeah. So six, seven weeks in to see that he's still playing at this level, doing it against damn good defenses. And I just, it's here to stay is I guess the best way to put it. You worry after a couple of weeks, you know, is it the competition they're playing or teams haven't adjusted to him yet?

Like he is the best version of himself that we've seen in the NFL. He is the best version of himself, even going back to USC in terms of protecting the ball, being decisive, knowing where he's going with it, understanding the timing, understanding his role. He had to mature. And I'm not talking like, you know, as a human being, I mean, as a quarterback with his decisions and understanding like, yeah, it's great that you can do this every once in a while. You can create some plays and extend and all that. But if you don't cut all the crap out that comes with

that, it's just never going to work. And I think the time he's had with very effective coaching, including Kevin O'Connell this year, has really kicked all that stuff out of his game. And it's great to watch. So to me, like to answer your question coming out, I expected so much more out of Darnold than I did from Goff, just to be honest, at their lowest points, I still don't, Goff didn't reach the low point that Darnold did. You know, like the, the, the Valley was so much lower for Sam, with the organizations he was in, the failures he had, the turnovers, the ugly plays. Like his valley was way lower than

even the lowest moment for Jerry Goff. And so to see him now kind of, I'm not saying he's at the level of Jerry Goff or playing consistently like he does, but they're in the same neighborhood and that's awesome. Yeah, I think it's different. You're right. Like I'm not saying no, you're wrong because Darnold, you're like, is this guy ever going to figure it out? Whereas Goff, it stings differently

because you go, I made it to a Superbowl and now I'm out of here. So you can make the argument that they hadn't completely written him off because they traded him for somebody in Matthew Stafford. It works out. They win a ring and all that out of here. So you can make the argument that they hadn't completely written them off because they traded them for somebody in Matthew Stoutford. It works out. They went to ring and all that kind of stuff. But like it out to me, like the doubts that I had had about golf.

It's like, well, if you've traded him, then doesn't that kind of mean? And then I'll never forget, like Dilfer saying that McVeigh wanted a partner at the position. He wanted a partnership as opposed to like a mentorship with golf. And I thought that was pretty revealing. And yet here we go now. Like, yeah, but golf was a pop then. And like, and that makes sense. And that's exactly what Sean wanted.

That's exactly what Sean got. And it worked. It's crazy that it worked. It worked out for everybody, but you're right. I mean, at Darnold at one point you're wondering, although all of us nerds, all of us Darnold nerds, because I liked him better than I think anybody else in the draft, which, you know, looked between all of the different options. There's certainly between Lamar and Josh Allen.

Yeah. You know, Darnold's likely never capturing that. Um, you know, you can get into a bag of conversation and poor Josh Rosen. But it's funny though, like how bad of a, how bad of a class is that like three years in, right? You remember like that was, we talked about that with like, um, it was 83. I remember doing the draft and it was like going back to the Marino and all, you know, and Jim Kelly, that whole class. And, and then all of a sudden you're three years in and Rosen's dead to rights.

Darnal's done Baker socks. You know what I mean? Like, we get these two guys and even like Alan, Alan like played good and you saw the flashes, but like his first year, is he ever going to quite, you know, pull it all together? And so, no, I think we forget Lamar struggled the first couple of years and you ever, you wondered, is he ever going to be able to like get over the hump and become a good enough passer? So like the first few years of that class, it was like, whew, did we over hype and oversell that. But now you look back and Rosen's, Rosen's the

bust of them all, but you got four damn good quarterbacks, two of them elite, you know? So it turned out to be, you know, every bit is good. What was it? Tony Eason, Tony Eason was in that class in 83. He was better than, than Rosen, but I remember he was, he the outlet. No, there was somebody else. I think it was the Ken O'Brien ahead of Marino. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I can look it up here again, but I just remember it was Elway one and then it was Todd Blackledge and then it was Todd Blackledge. And then it was Jim Kelly. Then it was Tony Easton and then it was Ken O'Brien 24th and then Marino 27.

So Marino went behind all of those, all of those dudes. Uh, all right. Uh, a couple things that I want to get to here in the next five minutes and then we'll finish it up. Um, the decision to go, I don't know if you have anything on the Jets part of it. That loss last night, disastrous, the Sunday anything on the Jets part of it, that loss last night, disastrous, the Sunday night, the prime time multiplier, throw it in there because it makes it even worse and everybody's just dumping on the Jets. But I understood why the Steelers

went with Russell Wilson to see what it looked like. And it looked terrible at the start, but there was enough there to probably build on or talk yourself into. He's clearly more willing to raise the risk just throwing balls to Pickens there. I just think they're going to be a really good defense that is going to have a quarterback. I would imagine there's never going to be a moment where you feel like the quarterback question has been answered for the Steelers with their two options this year. I agree. I agree. I think Russell Wilson and the Steelers were aided by a secondary that was decimated last night, you know, um, the three, three starters or three, you know, significant contributors weren't even, you know, suited up last night.

I believe, um, you had, I think two, two or three injuries during the game, you know, so they were, they were down to like nuts and bolts. Like they didn't have much in the secondary. I'm not making excuses, but. No, but it is kind of funny that we've had two Steelers prime time games where like Dallas didn't feel like they could even put a defensive lineman out there.

Right. And then you have the jet secondary part of it. But yeah, go ahead. Yeah, so it's encouraging. There's no question about it. And does it add an element? I think, I think, you know, there was a good discussion about it on the broadcast. Like, I think it was a broadcast. I forget someone else, someone was talking about like, with Justin Fields, you add the numbers,

numbers advantage, right? In the run game. And so that, that can help create things in the run game. But by the threat of being able to stretch you out vertically and more consistency from the quarterback, that's gonna spread you out as a defense. It's gonna back you off as a defense. So there are two ways to accomplish it. Ultimately what Pittsburgh wants to accomplish. And so they're trying this out.

And the first go around was successful. And that is it more productive? Is it more effective? Because we're going to win with defense, we're going to win with special teams, we're going to win with running the football and controlling things on offense. That's how we're going to do it. And so is it more effective to back defenses off and have more of a legitimate threat and put more of a scare in the deep portion of

the field with Russell Wilson? Or is it more effective to have a running back type presence at the quarterback position to create a numbers advantage? So I get why Tomlin did it. Now here's the beauty. You've got both of them. And once everyone settles in and understands their role, and if they continue to have some sort of success

with Russell Wilson moving forward, then you bring in Justin and you have packages for him. And short yardage, goal line, different series, different points in the game. And also, if Russell goes down, something happens, there's not many better backup quarterback situations in the league than having Justin Fields come in. So I, I'll be totally honest. I didn't think they should have made the move, but after watching it, after

one, one game, I see why Tomlin wanted to. And I think he has to be pleased with what he saw, but I don't get the sense from Pittsburgh that they're absolutely mayor, like this is the only way. But he has said- They already said it. They already said like, we're not opposed to like going back to fields. But he also said if we go back to fields, that's it.

It's over. Yeah. So it'll be fun to watch. I do wonder if there's some kind of conversation there with Russ's agent and the kind of stuff that Russ would want because he's difficult is that I need to at least like you got it but I don't know I mean I don't know like that's an NBA thing sometimes where you have to do the agent the favor. I don't see Mike Tomlin doing anyone any favors. Yeah I don't know. Well maybe

he felt like he owed it to Russell Wilson as this veteran guy because you know Belichick there's all those old-school coaches used to have that deal about like how you don't lose your job to injury Until you lose your job. Yeah, cuz he did it You know that used to be a thing that was like very accepted back in the day Maybe it was more parcels that was Belichick But as soon as Belichick, you know blood so goes down and he's like, all right You lost can blood so couldn't believe it like blood Blood So couldn't believe it. Right. All the Super Bowl things later still, I mean, watch the, the documentaries.

I love, I love Drew Bledsoe. One of the most uncomfortable interviews I've ever done ever is I ask about the Brady thing and I was co-hosting and Will Kane was filling in that day. And then he's like, all right, well, you know, you lost your job to Tony Romans and he was like, Jesus Christ. The whole interview is, yeah, it's like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I. And then he's like, all right, well, you know, you lost your job to Tony Romas. And he was like, Jesus Christ. The whole interview is, yeah, it sucked because like Will was going with the Cowboys angle

of like, while we're on this topic of you losing your gig, let's do it again in another city. And I was sitting there like looking and I can blame Will for asking the question, but I'm just thinking like in the arc of the interview, like you can't do it to him twice in the same 10 minute hit. And then on the way out, we're like, Oh yeah. So what's going on with your winery? And he's like, yeah, dude, thanks guys.

Go believe yourself. It was the nicest go for it yourself. Goodbye on a radio interview that I've ever done. I didn't really blame him. Okay. Last thing that I want to touch on here. I spent some time talking about Mahomes in this version of him, but the reason this version of him is still at a six and O is because of this defense, man. And I don't know how you felt about like the different parts of it, but you know, the fact that they could move on from Snead. We know that Chris Jones now that Donald has gone as the best interior defensive lineman

in all of college football, but they're linebackers between Bolton being back and healthy, Drew Tranquil, Leo Chanel. Like this is a really nasty group to go with a couple of guys in the secondary that I really liked. So as they rebuilt this defense with youth and had the luxury of being able to do it because Mahomes seems to fix anybody's problems, what did you think about the pieces they were putting into place here, because I don't know that anybody would have thought the Chiefs have the best linebacker group

in this four three alignment, which doesn't really mean anything anyway, because it really plays more secondary guys. But I just feel like this group of linebackers is out there making plays and especially with Fred Warner not having Greenlaw to his side with his injury. There's a real conversation about this group, not just the D tackle and not just Mcduffie in the secondary. I don't, I don't think enough credit gets given to Brett Veach. Like everyone knows. He's incredible. The big name. And I worked with, I did the chief's preseason games for two years. So I got to know him a little bit, you know, and talk to him a little bit.

Not as much as I would have liked to be quite honest, because we had a job to do and all that. But like Not as much as I would have liked to be quite honest, because we had a job to do and all that. But like I had some good conversations with he and Andy Reed together. And like every organization, if you have a great coach, the great coach has a general manager who understands exactly what works and the pieces that are necessary. This organization worked together as a family, if you will, like in total lockstep, understanding this process, right? Veach is the one who came to Andy Reid like two years earlier, I think when Mahomes was a freshman or whatever it was, and was like, that's our guy. And remember, like his tape was all over the place. He was

a mess. He's like, this is the guy that will fit what you want to do to take your offense to the next step. And they started studying and they told me the stories of going back in the room and how Andy was like enough shut up. I got it. But that it's not for another year for the draft. I got it. He's like, but he was persistent. So it starts there, right? And then you go through the drafts and I'm not going to bore you and go there, right? And then you go through the drafts, and I'm not going to bore you and go down the whole list, but you go through the drafts after that, it was all about, okay, we got a young quarterback, sit them a year, we did handle the

process perfectly. But from a personnel standpoint on the back end, everyone talks about Alex Smith, developing him, giving him a year, giving Patrick Holmes a year to sit back and learn, Andy developing him, all those things. But from a personnel standpoint, it was all offense. Get them weapons. Bring in draft picks, early draft picks. Bring in guys that are going to be speed. We're going to take this offense and this West Coast system, and we're going to make it uniquely ours. We've got to do that with speed and difference makers to match up with what we have in this unbelievable arm and unbelievable playmaker. Right. And they did that. And what suffered the defense did, but they were shootouts.

Right. Now you got to pay Patrick. I'm just going with the mechanics of building this roster, this organization and keeping it at a high level, not just getting it there, but keeping it at a high level. Now we got to pay him. But in the meantime, in that five year span, four year span before we got to really pay him, we have developed him into the best quarterback in the league or at the time, the second best quarterback behind Brady. Right. And so in doing that, right, Ryan, we recognize now we can peel back some of that help a little bit, but we got to get good on the defensive side. And Chris Jones was earlier, that was bit, but we got to get good on the defensive side. And Chris Jones was earlier. That was 2016, right? The second round pick on Jones, who

had some character issues, fell to the second. They got him there. But drafting, developing, keeping has been the key. Nick Bolton, 2021, first round pick on him. Stud. Trent McDuffie, 2022, first round pick. Carl Loftus also the same year, first round pick and the defensive end. Leo, you just mentioned 2022, third round pick. I went through this defense. Nine of the 11 dudes were drafted. And all, like almost all of them, 2021,

starting with Bolton, Chris Jones was 2016, but 2021, 2022, 2023. That three year span, they said, all right, we've got to get great on the defensive side to support and not force the offense to carry us all the time. And they did it. They loaded up and they hit on their picks. It's one thing to use early round picks. How many times have we talked? Well, they spent seven picks on the defensive front seven in a four year span in the first three rounds, but only three of them panned out. Well, they're hitting on all these guys. And so you've seen this and then you've got the best defensive coordinator in all the NFL to match with it. And now Mahomes, like they're not having to put up big

numbers. He's going to continue to get better. He's not playing at the level that he wants to be playing. They've had all sorts of injuries on the offensive side, but we're sitting here going into what week seven, week eight, and they're undefeated and they look like a team that's absolutely going to make another Super Bowl run, right? Yeah. I forget if it was tranquil. You'll have to forgive me for confusing him with Leo, but there was a tackle on Kittle where I was like, you don't see Kittle ever get tackled like that. And it's just, dude, they've got an attitude. Yep, they're fast.

And they're a big part of the reason, as much as I love my homes, they're a big part of the reason. All right, we're gonna bounce, man. That was great. And again, your first episode will be out Tuesday. Tuesday. We're taping it. All right. So it's going live. I don't know what we're doing. All I know is I'm going to press a couple of buttons here. We're going to fire it up on Tuesday. It's our first show. I'm sure it will be an absolute

disaster. We're having David Pollack on Tux and college football. We're going to get into the quarterback class. I don't know what else we're going to talk about. I got my guy, cynical Steve men. She's going to be by my side for, you know, as he has been the last 20 years and we'll see how it goes. And I'm sure what we roll out tomorrow will be nothing like what we're rolling out in six months, as you said, but I'm excited to get it started. Been on the sideline way too long and I'm, I'm ready to go.

All right. And the great thing about having a new podcast is that the algorithm gets so weirded out by all of this traffic for something that's brand new. It'll probably go to number one overall in sports. So you can screen grab that and say, I have the number one podcast in sports. You can do that. I promise you one thing. I know you're the algorithm guy.

I know you've got all sorts of bitches, complaints, understandings, knowledge, everything else. I I'm going to leave that up to you. I'll, I'll text you like every few weeks. So like what I'm going to do it for you. I'm going to say, look at the number one podcast and you'll, you'll take that head space away from me where I I'm not good at that stuff. I stay in my lane. All right. Out Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturday nights,

The McShay Show with Todd McShay and others. Thanks, man. Thanks, brother. We'll talk to you. And now it's time for today's winning bundle segment presented by State Farm. There's something to be said about a strong coach-player relationship.

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him until he wasn't. I like to look at Popovich and Duncan because Popovich should thank Tim Duncan for being as boring as he is every day of the rest of his life. Because everybody that would talk to you about San Antonio would say, you know what? It starts from the top. We could get to ownership or the front office, or Popovich and all that kind of stuff. But Duncan didn't care about the stuff, it didn't matter.

And if a new guy showed up and Duncan, who is the best player on the team, and arguably what a top 10 player of all time. If he is buying into everything, Papa bitch is selling, then that means everybody else has to fall in line. Perfect. If Duncan has the same skillset, but a different personality, it doesn't work. And perhaps Papa bitch getting Duncan when he was so young, although a little

different for the young out of college because Duncan hung around Wake Forest a little bit longer than a lot of guys with his skill set. But getting him when he did, getting him to buy in and continuing that buy-in for the length of Duncan's career is something that is probably not going to happen again in the NBA. You know what else is better together? Bundling your home and auto insurance with a personal price plan from State Farm. The personal price plan lets you call the place so you can choose the right coverage at a price that's right for you. Talk to a State Farm agent today and learn how you can bundle and save with the personal

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Let me tell you what's required. Life advice. The email address, lifeadvicerr at gmail.com. We've got Kyle, we've got Steve, a lot of stuff on the docket for the Spotify gang. How are you guys managing everything? Because Saruti, you're flying out to LA tonight. Kyle has to eat up.

It could be a frolic room thing for the young guys on the show. What do we got? I'm doing some adult stuff. I'm going golfing with John Jaskremski and Tate Frazier today. So I'm gonna start off on an adult note. JJ, let's go.

JJ is, I love JJ. He's got one speed. Angel's national, man. We're doing it big. I decided to, no, it's gonna be an 18. I decided to, I downloaded the Golf now app. I decided to really commit like a hundred bucks ahead. Didn't see that one coming. I guess people have just been paying for my golf rounds at the local golf course. Now that I'm the guy booking it, it's like, wow,

I guess I owe you guys some money, but no one ever asked me and I don't know. Wait, this isn't free. This isn't like going to the park. No, I knew it wasn't free. I knew it wasn't free I knew it wasn't free, but I was like, oh, I'm the beers guy. And I'll bring the beers and whatever. But yeah, what I brought to the table is not even close to what folks have been spending on me. Again, we're playing the local Roosevelt 9 hole walker courses, but still, I haven't paid a dollar in greens fees.

So I had a bit of an epiphany last night when I booked this. Yeah. So who's been putting you on scholarship, Tate? Well, I go to Tate's club. I don't know how it works in the club scene, the country club space. But yeah, some of my frolic buddies have just been like, yeah, I booked it and I rent the $4 walking cart and I sleep my cooler of beverages on it and that's kind of what I've been bringing to the table. And I've been using their golf clubs too. I don't know, I'm a man. I have those tailor made for you.

All right, I gotta shit or get off the pot here. I'm gonna drive down to Manhattan Beach one of these days. All right, we'll do it. We'll just pick a time that you wanna come down because I thought I was, but you just go out early and I'm not gonna to go take an Uber to the frolic room at three o'clock on a Tuesday. I don't like, I don't like when we talk about this.

Let's just, I'll go down there. All right. And we'll just stop right there. Yeah. Cause honestly, you know, I'm flying out tonight and I don't know if I'm going to see Ryan. Like some days, you know, we talked about this out there without you, Ryan.

We're really not sure. Really not sure. I don't know that you are. I have a fancy dinner tonight that I'm trying to get in before the NBA starts. So- Oh, that's the greatest excuse ever. The NBA is back.

We're fucked, dude. Sarudy, it's just gonna be you and me and Wargs. We'll go to the frolic room, it'll be fine. I'm not worried about it. Wargs and roots, it'll be great. Yeah. When do you leave, Sarudy? I leave tonight. I'm not worried about it. Wargs and roots. It'll be great. I leave tonight. I don't get into late tonight and then I leave. No, I mean, when do you, Oh, Friday morning, first thing Friday morning. Friday's like the best rigor Exodus. Yeah. Yeah. I would've said,

maybe we could do daughter birthday. Maybe we do some apps and cold ones on Thursday, but it'd be a hosting thing. Well, Thursday night football action ever still less crib. I don't know. I'd probably be NBA main screen. And then I'll just, yeah, I'll just do a Friday morning, Thursday night football recap of like, Oh my God, what are you making this team now? Four and three.

Crazy. Uh, yeah. All right. Sounds like TBD. Yeah, all right. Sounds like. Tbd. Yeah, very Tbd. Doesn't feel good right now though, does it?

Monday morning, Thursday night hangout, we've got four days to think about this. I'm motivated. There's golf clubs at the end of this tunnel for me, so I'm motivated to get this figured out. I'll put it out there right now. I'll put it out there right now. That means I actually have to go to the storage unit

with a key, unlock it, get the clubs and set it up. That'll be there. I think Taylor made rocket balls. That sounds awesome. That sounds like it's really going to elevate my game. Yeah. I think they're the perfect club for you right now.

I don't know what the forgiveness rank are. How are the grips? Big grips? I'm a big grips guy. I used somebody's club with huge grips and I was like, this changed everything. They're not the super stroke, like oversized grips that I've seen some people rock. I mean, you're just, it's like the hammer of Thor

for some of those guys. Yeah, it's like remarkable. Like you have to, if you see it, you have to say something about like, look at those grips, man. Yeah, I've been told that I'm playing with like close to like single handicap irons and I've just been like, well, then I will have to work. That is a goal.

I'll have to work. I'm going to fit my weight. I'm going to buy the small shirt. Yes. Or buy the big shirt. Okay. Let's read a couple emails. Um, we did have a, a chest shaving followup from somebody who works at Gillette.

So I think this person's going to know. No gym stats, pick up cop is New Orleans Hornets era David West, hard screens, deadly pick and pop, probability from the elbow. Does that mean that post Chris Paul, you're an entirely different guy? All right. Quick follow-up to the chest shaving question. Do you ever shave your chest, Saruti? Because you weren't here for this. So something tells me no. I don't shave it. Again, like workout, he looks like he's got a lot to work with.

Well, yeah. Feels a little stereotypical there, Kyle, but okay. Well, before I answer, what were your guys? That was in Tampa, uh, last week over the weekend. So I missed everything. What, what did you guys, I can't, I could see Ryan doing it. Kyle now. No, correct.

The assumption was that I do it regularly. I've done it once in my life. I can't, I could see Ryan doing it. Kyle, no. No, correct. The assumption was that I do it regularly. I've done it once in my life. I don't shave it. Occasionally I'll just like trim it because it gets really long. I have very straight hair. It looks stupid, but It's like a five guard.

Chest bangs. And really kind of only in the summer when, yeah, just as you know, trim around the nipples a little bit, you know, just trying to clean it up a little bit. But no, I really only do it in the summer too, like when I'm going to pools and stuff, like in the winter, it just, you know,

it doesn't really matter, just let it roll. How does your wife, like, why don't you guys let me know? Cause you know, not every, not every woman likes the same stuff, man. So some think the chest hair is kind of like cool and some are repulsed by it. So. No, she likes it. she likes you having chest hair.

Yeah. I think, I think way better than if I was just like, here's the thing too though is like, I also have no pecs like shocker. I'm not very muscular. Like I kind of need chest hair to look manly. If I'd shave, if I shaved, I would look like a 12 year old boy. I think, I think I need the chest hair just for some, for a little bit of street cred.

That's a good point about the nipples. I got it Mike, I got like, like chandeliers of hair, it seems like it's just it's like way longer than it should be. Maybe maybe I should I can implement it was in a pool all summer not even thinking about what everyone else was seeing. So maybe maybe maybe I'll think about that. There's nothing like dudes, but you're not like there are dudes who literally just have nipple hair.

Like they don't have chest hair, they just have, and that is, that's- My dad's kind of like that. My dad's kind of like that. Yeah. Yeah, I think you should. I think we're all in agreement, but you gotta be a little delicate with that.

All right. Tassels, anyway. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Although you wonder if there's something about the science of that, where you get transplants from the nipple area to your head.

If it's that strong and grows that well and that long. Faster than everything else, right? Yeah, it's their chance. It just grows no matter what. Did you go to Turkey? No, this new thing from nipple cadavers. It's a little stringy. Yeah, it's long as hell though, and it's tense.

Is that a wire? Ponytail's going to be awesome. Yeah, right. It's like scrub a. Yeah, right. It's like scrub a cast iron skillet. All right, let's see here. So our guy works for Gillette. No way more than anyone should

about the science of razors and shaving. We defer to you, sir. The thing our emailer needs to realize is that shaving severely dries out the skin, which is the source of the itch. That's probably why Gillette's put all those nice little moisturizer strips on their blades. Shaving not only cuts the hair but also scrapes away the thin top layer of skin which contains natural oils and skin protectants.

The friction from the shirt rubbing against the freshly dried out skin on his chest makes the itch even worse. The biggest thing that can help is to moisturize after the shave. The skin needs to be rehydrated. I recommend an unscented moisturizer as scent can be a skin irritant to many people. Shaving is pretty tricky no matter what. To make it easier, trim the hair first if it's long.

Using shaving cream, this softens the hair, makes it easier to cut, and don't go cheap on the razor. You want something that cuts easily and doesn't pull on the hair. Godspeed. God, yeah, but you know what? We kind of nailed that cheap on the razor. You want something that cuts easily and doesn't pull on the hair. God's key. God, yeah, but you know what? We kind of nailed that by the way. He kind of just said all the things

like that we threw out there. Yeah, but he did it in like three sentences. I think he was just, yeah. I mean, we're flying blind. I'm not moisturizing the chest, trimming and getting through the whole thing. Like you know. I'm not moisturizing it.

Just going anywhere really. Yeah, that's a topic. Well, maybe we just do a moisturizing day bring in a couple extra just experts just put that in your subject line of your email yeah moisturize day alert sort of box delivery my apologies okay we haven't even read an email yet here let's go Burlington mattress dilemma let's see is this from, oh wait, it's my old stomp. All right, hope all is well, 21 years old, six four, 190 ish, handsome.

Fucking look out. Does anybody done that before? Has anybody done that non-prompted, like as a relationship thing where, you know, guys have been like, hey, I'm a seven, I'm an eight and a half. Before you ask, I am handsome. Yeah, this guy just throws it out there. Handsome

basketball comp, Dirk, the hair to match basketball. Nickname is, Oh, exclude this. No, well, he gives us his nickname, but I can't say it because it's actually his first. All right. So I'm a senior at UVM. All right. Living off campus. He tells me where he lives, but not to say it,

he lives right near where- He wants you to know, yeah. Yeah, that's fine, but like where you live is just legendary for where we used to just kick it. All right, the fact of the matter is my roommates and I need your help for the past three months have been plagued with a stray king size mattress. The beginning of this curse requires some context. I've lived with the same four roommates in all of

our off-campus houses since junior year. One of my roommates and myself took a semester abroad. I think he wants me to leave out some of this stuff. I don't know that any of this is nefarious enough to really worry about it. It's about a fucking mattress too. Some rooms in the house are more desirable than others and this meant that some room switching occurred amidst vacancies. My one roommate, we can call him George, chose to use my mattress while I was away in the fall. When I returned the spring semester, he then switched rooms and used my other roommate's mattress who had gone abroad in the spring. Where were you guys on mattress etiquette?

Because dudes sleeping in another dude's mattress was never really thought of as a thing, until the first guy that was like, oh my God, that guy slept in my mattress. And I thought, you care about that? And now that I'm older, I actually think it makes a lot of sense, like, but I think that's a developed awareness thing that might be mid-20s for most guys. Where you're like, yeah, I don't wanna sleep in your mattress and I don't want you sleeping in mine. When I was 19, I bought a used mattress and- I did that, yeah.

Yeah, I mean, that kind of got me over a lot of my, you know, icks about it is when I moved out for that year that year. My dad was like we can't take your mattress either. I was like, okay so I just bought a used mattress from like a Pretty gross place and that kind of got me over a lot of stuff Yeah, but it's not the mattress though. It's like the I it's stupid But it's like the idea of you just like a man sleeping in other man's bed, you know Like no putting a face to the... Yeah, like the mattress residue. Whatever.

The sheet, the whole thing, the setup, you know, it's just the pillow, using the pillows. It's not just... Because I did subscribe to that. I don't think like we would go on random trips and somebody was out of town. I used to sleep on the couch before I slept on somebody's mattress. So you would sleep on a couch before you slept on somebody else's mattress? But is that more because you don't like the idea of being where that guy's been or you don't want to put him in a position of being like, God,

Sarudy and his hairs in my bed. Come on. I think it's both. I think it was like, does this guy want me sleeping in his bed? And then also, do I want to sleep in that guy's bed? They both give you a little bit of uncomfortability. So you add up and you're like, it looks like the couch doesn't make a ton of sense, but like, you know, college Steve, but this wasn't just me.

Like this was what dudes, I don't know. Maybe you guys had different experience. We would, we would find other ways. I mean, dude, the other thing too is we joke about this all the time. Like when you go to visit like a buddy in college, like no one brought pillows, nobody brought blankets, nobody brought anything. Like I remember sleeping with my wet towel that I used to shower earlier that day as my blanket. And I think I had my head on an Xbox

with like a book to prop it up a little bit higher. Like guys, don't think- That's the most savage thing I've ever heard, buddy. I can't, I mean. Guys, just don't think about sleeping in the rain. That's, I was completely- Wait, so an Xbox with a book on top was a better option than-

Yeah, just like with my head up a little bit. Yeah, I remember doing that. It wasn't great. 18. People aren't gonna think that's true. I believe you. I don't think you're lying, but no one's gonna believe you. My friends in the group chat literally talk about it to's true. I believe no one's going to believe you. My friends in the group chat literally talk about it to this day.

It's like, you know, Keystone lights. I mean, you'll, you'll end up at some, you know, strange places. Yeah. Maybe I don't have a pillow. You guys have any hard plastic? My head up. We don't found that. I would have found the bread in the kitchen before I used an Xbox. Saruti's not a liar, but there's going to be a few he's a liar emails. I'm cool with that because I've got funny friends in the group chat that'll back that up.

All right, let's reach out. All right, so we still have a dilemma here with George. So guys sleeping on dudes mattresses. That doesn't seem the problem. George ordered a mattress online once everybody got back in the house in August. The mattress had not arrived once he moved back in so he needed to find a solution instead of using one of our very comfortable and convenient air mattresses. He decided to borrow a king-size mattress from his fraternity. I'm supposed to exclude the fraternity. I really wish I didn't have to because during my Pinehurst trip with 14 UVM guys, it dawned on us that I don't think one of us could

name a guy that we ever met from this set fraternity because it was actually a pretty good one too, but it was just sort of odd that I was like, did you ever know anyone there? And we were like, can't name one guy. It says a lot about those guys then, huh? I'm just kidding. Well, it was funny because I remember like, there was like the normal three sororities that sort of rotate around in events with us. And then they went to a formal or like some party at this fraternities house. And then they came back and all the girls like hated us after they got exposed to like these guys who were just a little more refined back then.

I mean, they were loaded and they were just, I don't know, like no, they were like a mystery, even though we had plenty of like just absolutely loaded guys in my fraternity that would like blow them. I didn't buy my first mattress until I was 27. And then I remember like guys just buying cars and shit. I'm like, you went to a dealership and just bought a car? Like what?

Doesn't compute, right? Yeah, like how does that happen? So this other fraternity, like everybody was able to do that all the time. And then I remember this one sorority in particular, they came back and they were like, we just went to an event at some place and like, they were so nice and it was catered and there was a shit and we're like, dude, relax. Here's your red cup.

All right. On the dreaded day, the mattress, um, he ordered arrived queen size. He simply moved the borrowed mattress into our narrow hallway. George is a great guy. I love him, but holy shit, can he be lazy? We know that once this mattress was moving to the hallway that we were fucked. After countless nights of running into the mattress

at night and telling him to move it, my other roommate took it upon himself to move the mattress onto our front porch. The mattress remained on our porch for two weeks until a landlord emailed us saying we have to move the mattress or we'd be fine for legal dumping. I want to be clear that we keep our house in good shape. So to have a complaint like this was not a normal thing.

By the way, dude, an email? You guys are tougher than that, come on. After bringing it up multiple times throughout the day, George and my other roommate moved the mattress into the garage. There it remains to this day. Now we must carefully maneuver our bikes around a giant obstacle.

My roommates and I are worried about this. We don't think George realizes this is his responsibility to take care of the mattress and are waiting for us to do something about it. How do we get him to understand he needs to take care of it without making him too upset with us? Make him upset. He doesn't get it. You're going to have to. Yeah. George is killing you guys. He's dominating. There's no way around this.

George isn't worried about anything. He laughs at your concern. He laughs at your inclination that you guys think he's going to do anything. Once that thing went to the garage, that is going to be their graduation week. Okay? There's nothing you can... Now, what could you do? You could call a place, junk removal, maybe 50 bucks, flatbed trailer, move it, but that's the loss.

Like, because then you just did everything for George. He's probably not giving you the 50 bucks. based on this return, he should be able to. Nothing like, I can't believe you guys aren't going code red because if this were happening in my friend group, we would have like six guys stand around the guy for 30 straight minutes saying move the mattress, move the mattress, and we'd push them. We'd be like, you have to move the mattress, you have to move the mattress. We would try to mentally break him to the point of such frustration he did it

or would just cry into a puddle. We would just haze him so fucking bad until he finally did what he was supposed to do. Because I'm telling you right now, I know who George is. I don't know him, but I know him. He doesn't care about you guys. He doesn't care about this mattress. Your concern is amusing to him. And if it got to the point of the fine,

he wouldn't get why you're asking him to pay it either. So you have to just stop this before it happens. This feels like a, one of those situations where you got to fight fire with fire. Could you just start leaving like pizza boxes around his stuff and his room and just, just trash. This is him off and he kind of gets like what everyone's mad about. And then you're kind of playing for the tie in the end.

He's like, all right, I'll move the mattress. You take the pizza box. Now that's pretty more work for yourself. You'll probably have to clean up some of that stuff too. But at least it does solve the problem and you kind of feel like you're getting back in a little bit. Yeah, it's kind of like, I don't know, like putting dishes in front of somebody's door that it's like that's it's actually not good.

Like even in this, even in that second that you do it that it's like, that's, it's actually not good. Even in this, even in that second that you do it and you're like, yeah, fucking stuck it to him. It's not good. So I liked the idea of like straight up, like, like just berating him and like, we're doing that. Come on, get up, get up here, put your shoes on, let's go. Come on. Like that sort of thing instead of like set of the mind games, just because it

sounds like you can't be too subtle. Like even, even like pizza boxes from like might be too subtle. You might be like, what's this about? He might just put it in his room, put it on his desk. Um, I love that Saruti, but I mean, George, George does not have a concern for others that you guys do. And in the younger years, George is going gonna win a lot of battles with that approach. All right.

All right, we got another listener who's wondering if they're becoming me. Probably worth doing one of these every now and then because we get a lot of them. 43 years old, recently divorced, 6'2", 240. Ryan, I have same hairstylist, beginner gym stats because I just started hitting it heavy the last six months. That's the accepted amount of time to prove to you strangers that I'm committed.

Scramble golf game is steady off the tee and above average putter. All right. Are you handsome though? As stated above, I'm recently back on the prowl. What a weird fucking world this is 20 years, uh, after 20 years of being with the same woman. I was completely faithful throughout our marriage because steak and titty night on the guy's annual golf trip doesn't count.

Oh, whoa. All right. I think we're talking about some steak and maybe a couple of dances. Just grew into a different, just grew to different people with different goals. I wish her all the best despite my random thoughts of bleep her, we could have made it.

All right, first date off made it. All right. First date off the dating sites is Friday. So I have no idea what to expect. I used up my mail grooming in case this shit is like the movies. Hit me up if you want the update on that potentially. The reason for this email is, man, I cannot explain to you how free and easy I feel. I have a great job and kept the house and dogs. I make great money in an AFC North city. I seriously have not felt this great in years.

Now that I'm living the Rossello motto, I'd rather be alone than annoyed. By the way, the follow-up to the comedian, I guess there was a comedian that said that in like 1993. So it's yours. There you go. I had no idea. Congrats.

Yeah. Yep. No, no, seriously. Like, it wasn't like such an original thought that I thought to anyone even in this lane before, but whatever, it's yours. What should I wasn't like such an original thought that I thought to anyone even in this lane before, but whatever, cheers. What should I do next?

Although I have access to a river, buying a boat seemed like an awfully large first step. River access is incredible, good for you, but river navigation, entirely different thing. So, might wanna get on the charts before you're thinking about launching a vessel. So, he wants to know, first dinner at a fancy restaurant solo movie alone, go up to three TVs in the man cave for my sports viewing pleasure.

I want to keep the good vibes going. I'm interested in know the gang's thoughts. Look, I'll just tell you right now. Movie alone, entry level shit. Okay. TVs downstairs, entry level, fancy dinner by yourself, everybody looking, you reading your phone, taking your time. That's when you'll know if you're built different or not.

Okay. Because that's the test. You want to sit at the bar? No, I want to sit at the table. Absolutely on display. Yes. What are your specials? Yeah. What are your specials?

Another solve. Why not? I, you know, I spent time in New Zealand recently. You will learn a lot about yourself when you just like, I don't fucking care. Like I love eating here. I don't want to go with anyone. And I'm going to read some NBA preview shit on my phone. Hopefully not from a team sponsored site by some guys whose analysis is based on

whether or not he's going to cry. So yeah, that's what I would say that. And then we can start talking about 15 days in Europe walking around in your forties, because that's like the final boss of a loan. Excited to see what happens to this guy. I got nothing to add. No notes. That's like the final boss of alone. Excited to see what happens to this guy. I got nothing to add. No notes.

Yeah, I think this isn't just a like, hey, I'm feeling good for like a couple months here. Like this is. Yeah, it's a lifestyle. Yeah, I don't even know that you're ever fully ready for it. I mean, I don't know, because he's gonna, is he completely out on meeting anyone ever?

Like, is he just like, hey, this is my life, this is the way I'm gonna live it and I'm happy? Because like, who knows, you meet some girl and you're gonna, and yeah, it could be like the post divorce, this is like the pre-workout of divorces, where instead of taking it before, you're getting that pre-workout boost

after. You might just be in this glowing mood because now you're experiencing this freedom that you haven't had. How long can you do this is the question. That's the thing. It sounds like you don't want to. By the way, you shouldn't. You shouldn't want to do this. By the way, hold on. Let me just clear that up. By the way, you shouldn't aspire to get a 40-year run of. But I don't know. I would tell everybody, don't do this. To every single person, don't do this. But go ahead.

Well, some people don't want it. I mean, you know, it sounds like he's trying to talk himself into it being like, hey, can I be like, so, which I think, you know, be your own man. But I do like, there is like a hundred percent like the honeymoon thing, because I don't have a ton of experience in this,

but like, yeah, like, you know, you break up with somebody, you're like, wow, I could play like all this Xbox and hang out with the boys and I'm betting on sports. I'm watching all this college football. It's great. And then life happens. You meet somebody else.

The I can't do that without a good reason. That's a tough thing. It's just a part of it. It's a part of it. And just the random text and it's just like, hey, we're all going to this thing. What are you doing tonight at like nine o'clock? And it's just the, I can't do that for no other reason

other than like, it's just a bad look for me. And so for that to go away, I think is probably pretty awesome for maybe up to a year. I think even up to and around a year, you're like, this is still great. And then I think, start feeling the pangs of loneliness. Yeah, I think we do. All right.

Good luck. Yeah, good luck. Yeah. Give us an update in like three months. He's already on the dating apps. He doesn't wanna be alone. He shouldn't be alone. He's also in an AFC North city.

So, you know. Get cold. Cincinnati, Cleveland. Get cold. Pittsburgh. I was just in Cleveland. Baltimore. Love Cleveland.

Did you want to be single there for the rest of your life? Nope, nope. They go to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame though. Not where you want to meet. I don't think that's not where you want to meet girls, but. It's a great Irish bar. Too soon. Quick aloes there.

All right. Thanks to Oregon. Thanks to Kyle. Thanks to Saru meet girls, but. It's a great Irish bar. Too soon. Quick and loads there. All right. Thanks to Oregon. Thanks to Kyle. Thanks to Saru. Ryan Russell podcast on YouTube. And of course, Ringers Smart. Must be 21 and older, present in select states for Kansas in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino or 18 plus and present in DC gambling problem, call 1-800-GAMBLER or visit rg-help.com. Call 888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org forward slash chat in Connecticut or visit mdgamblinghelp.org in Maryland.

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