The Ryen Russillo Podcast - The Packers Are Fine, but Are the Bills in Trouble? Lakers' Struggles With Mike Trudell. Plus, Florida and More CFB Openings With Bruce Feldman.

Episode Date: November 22, 2021

Russillo shares his thoughts on some big NFL Week 11 losses, including the Bills losing to the Colts, the Packers losing to the Vikings, and the Titans losing to the Texans, Chiefs-Cowboys, and more (0:32) before talking to Lakers beat reporter Mike Trudell of Spectrum SportsNet about the on-court incident between LeBron James and Isaiah Stewart, the Lakers’ 9-9 record, injury setbacks, the Western Conference, and more (11:50). Then Ryen talks with Fox Sports and The Athletic’s Bruce Feldman about Florida firing head coach Dan Mullen, the coaching vacancies at USC and LSU, a look ahead to the CFP, and more (38:20). Finally Ryen answers some listener-submitted Life Advice questions (1:06:40). Host: Ryen Russillo Guests: Mike Trudell and Bruce Feldman Producers: Kyle Crichton and Steve Ceruti Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

today's podcast loaded week 11 to try to tackle what keeps happening to the good teams in the nfl mike trudeau covers lakers travels with the team what happened last night in detroit and what's up with the 500 lakers team getting their pieces back and bruce feldman dan mullen out at florida what went wrong and what's going to happen with allakers team getting their pieces back. And Bruce Feldman, Dan Mullen out at Florida. What went wrong and what's going to happen with all of the other openings at big-time programs at College Football and Life Advice. Every week when we did the radio show, we come in on Monday, especially in the beginning.

You're doing it every single day. You get through your Sundays, and then Monday morning in the pre-show meeting, you would sit there and be like, what is real? What are we supposed to do? And that's the league. None of that is insightful. No one's walking around going, you hear that Rosillo guy's podcast? Yeah, he says the NFL is a little tough to predict at times.

Yeah, he's pretty good. That's not why you're here. But let's try to dig in a little bit deeper on more of these results. For teams that we think are supposed to be some of the favorites in their respective conferences losing, and sometimes losing horribly. Now, the Packers losing to the Vikings is not a bad loss. The Vikings now continue their stretch of leading every single game this season by at least seven points or more. They've done it every single week.

Every single week, and we're talking about a 500 team that wins a really tough game against the Green Bay Packers. But when the Packers enter the season as a favorite, they have that week one result against the Saints. They're like, what is this? None of it mattered because look at some of these numbers. The Packers had won nine straight against the spread. The last team to do that in the NFL to go nine straight against the spread, the 92 San Diego Chargers. The

other part of this that's league-wide is through 10 weeks now, so going into this weekend, through 10 weeks every team in the league had at least two or more losses. So every team with multiple losses. The last time we had this through week 10, you're like, okay, that can't be that rare.

It actually is kind of rare. It hasn't happened since 2010. So, what does that mean? Well, let's look back at some recent Super Bowl champs because we can kind of glorify them after they win and forget what they were like at certain points in the season. Last year, Tampa Bay was 7-3, wins the Super Bowl. Two years ago, Kansas City was 6-4.

Remember, they had a bad defensive stretch again. You're like, who is this team? New England, back in 2018, they were 6-4. Remember they had a bad defensive stretch again. You're like, who is this team? New England, back in 2018, they were 6-4. So if your team is one of the supposed favorites and they're losing a bunch of games, let's not forget, like I do this sometimes where I glamorize these teams from

the late 80s and early 90s where I love those San Francisco 49ers teams and those Giants playoff games and some of the Broncos stuff, even though they made it to a million Super Bowls. But that Niners team, I'll look back and be like, you know, they went like 11-5 and won a Super Bowl. You know, they didn't win every single week. They didn't kill everybody.

They lost games, games they weren't supposed to lose, basically just like every other Super Bowl contender, except for the elite of the elite. And we're not blessed to see those teams very often, maybe once a decade. So you add all these things in where Green Bay's rolling against opponents. They're a team with multiple losses, but they're the number one seed in the NFC. And then they lose and they lose to Kirk Cousins. Now, Kirk Cousins was great in this game. I mean, you know what he's carrying right now? He's carrying a TD interception split right now of 21 to two. Now, I would tell you if you've

watched a lot of Kirk Cousins that the two actually can be, even though it's a great number, that can also tell you some other things about his lack of aggressiveness. But he was great in this game. And there's overall stats that are placing him as the top 10 quarterback in this league. We already know my point on what Kirk Cousins is. And it's not like he's incapable.

I mean, you go in and win that Saints game in the playoffs a couple years ago, like that's a really tough thing to pull off. I just would always expect the next game to not be that great. And I thought at the end of the third quarter, with as great as he had been, Justin Jefferson up,

starting to fall apart here a little bit, takes a bad sack, gets away with a double coverage throw that could have been a pick. And then it looks like once the Packers score to go ahead, he throws in a double coverage and the game is over.

That interception was ruled incomplete. They get the football down the field, kick the field goal, win the game. All right. So now when you look at the Packers, this defense getting lit up by the field, kick the field goal, win the game. All right, so now when you look at the Packers, this defense getting lit up by the Vikings, I don't know that you can really freak out about that one. I would look at that one as a loss.

They would probably do at some point division game. Division games, the opponent just knows you a little bit better. And Minnesota is better than their record is. They just are. They're 5-5, and they've had some awful luck. They've had some good luck as well, but I think anybody, if you're a Vikings fan, you look at 5-5 as a disappointment because you know you're capable

of hanging with some of the better teams in the league. So that loss, I'm not going to beat up on, even with as bad as it started. The Packers come back and it's like, oh, Aaron Rodgers is going to go ahead and win this thing, but they did get the ball down the field if the Vikings kicked that field goal. Now let's look at the Bills. The Bills, three weeks ago, were the betting favorite to win the Superills. The Bills three weeks ago were the betting favorite

to win the Super Bowl. So they were the best odds. They were favorite. You get the point, right? The worst payout, put it that way. They're a seven seed today. They got smoked by the Colts.

You realize in the old playoff format, you'd wake up today as a Bills fan and you'd be out of the playoffs. They're the number one defensive team. I'm going to see

what those metrics are once they factor in everything this past week. But going into the week, they were the number one defensive team. I'm going to see what those metrics are once they factor in everything this past week. But going into the week, they were the number one defensive team by a wide margin. It wasn't close. Number one against the pass, number three against the run. I was looking at some of their personnel stuff and their losses. There's a good piece on The Athletic about this, where basically when they lined up in shotgun around 90% of the time,

they've had three games around 90% with Josh Allen's shotgun. Those are all losses. So against the Jets, they changed up the personnel. You could also just say hey it was the jets but then the colts beat you 41 to 15 so formation wise shotgun under center none of that matters this thing was a disaster the right tackle was out star latula was out as well but you know what happens this time of season every team basically is missing a couple really good players. The other part of this for Allen is his numbers are not what they were last year because they were off the charts. Here's another thing about QBR. There were five quarterbacks that finished last season with a QBR above 70.

There are zero quarterbacks at that number so far this season. So I'm not ready to call it kind of the Cam Newton MVP fluke season where you're like, is this who this guy's going to be? And now that we look at Cam Newton's entire career, you go, yeah, that was a very fluky year for him. I'm not ready to say that kind of thing about Josh Allen. This year as a disappointment is still better than the year two years ago, but Allen was so insane last season. He's just not been the same guy. The only thing that you could point to here with the Bills where you keep trying to figure out, hey, what the hell's going on? You could do a little schedule stuff here.

Lose the first one of the Steelers. I actually thought they were the better team in that one. Whatever. Here are the wins, though. Dolphins, Washington, Texans, the Chiefs, week five where the Chiefs, from that point on, we're going to get to their defensive numbers, are still a mess defensively.

They lose a close one to the Titans. They beat the Dolphins. Lose to the Jags, as we know. Beat up on the Jets last week. Lose to the Colts. So the wins there are Jets, Dolphins, Chiefs, Texans, Dolphins, Washington.

Was it us? Was it Vegas? Were we all wrong about this team? Another quick one here, Tennessee. They were the one seed going into the week. And you know what? They are still the one seed at 8-3 ahead of the Ravens, the Pats, and the Chiefs. Tannehill's a mess without Derrick Henry.

It's not even debatable. In the entire Tannehill-Tennessee Titans run, four of his six worst Tennessee games have all been this season. And three of those were without Derrick Henry. It's just not the same. And they were a disaster yesterday, losing to one of the three worst teams in the league in the Houston Texans. Let's get to Kansas City.

There, as we mentioned, the fourth seed. It feels like everybody's kind of back on this. The defense, which was the worst defense in 21 years through five weeks, has been seventh across the NFL since that point. We know, hey, all weeks count. They were playing with a different level of energy against Dallas. Now, you could tell me that Dallas is a Mr. Bunch of starters. You'd be right.

They don't have Amari Cooper. CeeDee Lamb leaves the game. That's a huge problem. But there was an energy and a – like, this isn't BS here. They were playing with a kind of energy and rage at times that I have not seen them play with all season long. They were complete control. Dallas, I think, had five positions inside the 30 and came away with nine points. That was a really strong defensive effort for a team in Kansas City that offensively left some points on the board and still has not been as crisp as we'd expect them to be. But this defense has turned things around. Chris Jones is a monster. Ward is back in a corner.

And they're a team now that you have to kind of look at and go, wait, if I don't like the Titans with Tannehill, the Ravens defense is a mess and maybe further prove how much Lamar is the MVP this season. The Patriots, they have some really great numbers right now. If you look at what your peak and what your worst is, they're tied with the third best team as far as their peak performances, and they have basically graded out one terrible performance all season long. Cincinnati's back in the mix again.

But the point is, as we rotate through all these AFC teams every single week, the Chiefs at 7-4 feel like a real threat again because at least they figured out the defense, and it's still hard to believe that Mahomes is going to put together a stretch here

where they start to light it up. Now, let's end with this, the Colts. The Colts have now won 5-6. They're looking to be the 7th team to start 0-3 and go to the playoffs. Jonathan Taylor, speaking to MVPs,

ton of momentum for him. He now joins LaDainian Tomlinson as the only running back to go eight straight games with 100 plus yards from scrimmage and two or more touchdowns. He had five yesterday. I have no problem with the Jonathan Taylor thing. I have a problem with somebody saying it's Jonathan Taylor and it's not even

close. Lamar missed one game. I still think Kyler has a chance to get back in the mix here, but he's missed three, so it's tough for him to kind of argue that, but looking at the Ravens and everything around them, even with the win against the Bears, sorry to Bears fans about the joke about maybe you finally found your quarterback. I'm just so sick of hearing about it

all season long. Sorry, though. The Colts have won five of six, and here's the best number. Wentz, six turnovers through 11 games. He had 19 total turnovers through 11 games last year. The Wentz part of this is really funny. We touched on it last week. Because he had those colossal, like, hey, how does a gun work?

And just pointing it in the wrong direction type of turnover. You know? Like, they were so awful against Tennessee that a lot of it was like, oh, this guy, Wentz, can't trust him. Actually, you can trust him. He's been really clean this season. And Taylor, who's probably the most underrated offensive weapon, but now that's going to change because everybody will win fantasy games.

Awesome. You know, the Colts part of this, and they're still actually outside of the playoffs at 6-5. The other problem, going back to the Bills, they have four conference losses. They're five and four in the conference, which is worse than everybody other than the Chiefs, who actually, the Chiefs have a terrible conference record themselves

at two and four. Last thing, last thing. I know taunting is just bumming everybody out. I know the taunting penalties are just, they're bringing you down a little bit, right? But ask yourself this, are you taunting less in your life? I know I am.

I don't point at anybody hardly anymore. When I walk down the street, I don't say suck it to strangers as much as I used to. And I've been nicer to kids. I'm not pushing kids or anything like that. So I know it's frustrating when your favorite player gets a penalty in a big spot. I know you don't like, I've heard your voice, social media. I know you don't like taunting, but

ask yourself this. Maybe a little self-inventory. Could you be possibly taunting less and not even realizing the NFL is doing the right thing? Discuss. We'll talk hoops and college football coming up next. Mike Trudell covers the Lakers for Spectrum Sportsnet and does an incredible job. And he joins us now.

He's traveling with the team. So it's 9-9. It hasn't been great. But let's start with at least last night. What happened last night with LeBron and Isaiah Stewart? And give us kind of the rundown of everything that happened after the fact. So what's up, Brian? It's nice to see you. My vantage point here is I'm in the corner right next to the tunnel,

like where the players are running out. So I don't have the best view. I mean, I'm close enough, but I couldn't tell exactly what happened. I just saw sort of the initial arm flail from LeBron. So I thought Anthony Davis actually explained it best right after the game. And where he started was that 19 years in the league, LeBron, he goes, everyone knows that LeBron's not a dirty guy. He accidentally hits him. And clearly he makes legit contact with with his with the kind of with

the closed fist and then he looks over at stewart and starts saying my bad and it's kind of walking toward him like that all right i know i hit you apologies and we all saw what ensued from there so that was kind of where where davis had the initial problem and said he hasn't seen something like that in his years in the league he kind of corrected it it's like obviously we've seen some stuff on the court that's pretty bad but in his 10 years he he those guys seem to have a couldn't understand how stewart got to the level that he got especially where he's you know knocking over his own assistant coaches and coaches and all the security folk ryan so that was basically it i mean several other guys had the same version of that but but yeah with the with the blood coming out and everything it was quite a scene and it was it got a little guys had the same version of that. With the blood

coming out and everything, it was quite a scene. It got a little anxious in the building. I was glad that everybody kept their composure because it was starting to get a little gnarly in there. I don't think LeBron's a dirty player. I think we've seen enough of his career to realize he's not. I thought it was a dirty play. I think he knew what he did. I think the way

he reacted, where he stood over him, it was kind of like when you flagrant foul somebody and then you go to help them up hoping like hey if i help this guy up maybe i don't get the flagrant too um the stewart part of it i mean you start seeing your own blood i don't know if that's what enraged him later usually men seem to have a tendency of when you have a chance you don't take it and then when you don't have a good chance that's when you start losing your shit about the whole thing. Did Stewart look for him in the tunnel? Was there anything like that?

Was there extra security outside of the locker room or anything? Eventually, it did seem like there was extra security, for sure, in the back. So there were a lot of people on hand. And maybe particularly, Ryan, this being in Detroit, that's something that they certainly didn't want another incident to happen there. But I think you're right that LeBron, he clearly immediately knew that he hit him hard in the wrong place. So there was, whether it was a dirty play, I mean, he,

so the way that they're boxing out, and this was going on a little bit throughout the game, but Stewart gets the initial shot sort of into LeBron. And then he does the thing that you do where it's like, you're definitely wanting to get this guy off of you. But like I don't think you try to hit him in the face but he definitely tried to come down uh and make like a real a real physical push with that left arm for sure yeah and maybe we'll find something because you know it always seems like whenever you have these incidents you'll be like okay what did you see in the second quarter when this happened I mean basketballs that almost always happens where you go oh go ahead and check this part of it out.

All right, so we put that one in the review because that's not really why we want to have you on. I knew before the season started, okay, we've got all these bodies and we get a lot of guys with names and big resumes. I still can't believe there was like one night I was watching a game where Melo, Dwight, and Rondo were all on the floor together in 2021.

It's crazy. It's not an easy task for Vogel to figure out the rotation because I don't know that it always fits. And there's a lot of guys that expect to be getting minutes. And I think eventually, once everybody's healthy, there's going to be some really disappointed guys on the team. So I didn't think this was going to work right away. And then you have LeBron missing games, which leads to a 9-9 record with some bad losses,

blown huge leads. That Boston team hasn't been playing well, I don't think, and then they put it on them in the fourth quarter. So who are the Lakers right now? Well, yeah, they're definitely in the they-are-what-their-record-is situation here, Ryan. So I think the whole plan before the season was you're going to have LeBron and AD and Russ. And then the guys right

after that were supposed to be Kendrick Nunn, THT, you know, to an extent, Trevor Ariza, we're going to see how he was at age 36. And then you were going to get big contributions when needed from those super vets like Rondo. I don't know if the plan was for him to play much of it all. And then Dwight, you know, some minutes off the bench, but not many DJ maybe didn't even start. If you're healthy to start the season. And then you're really relying on the guys that are at the mini mid, which is none, as I mentioned, and then THC, who's the only other guy, that's not a minimum contract. And that was supposed to be the gist of the rotation. You're supposed to develop a certain style with that group. And instead, Ryan, it's just been whack-a-mole. It's been four or five guys are out,

so what can that nice rotation be? And yet, LeBron said this the other night, they still feel like they have not played well enough, even with that. And I think they're aware of that. So it's been a mix of a lot of things. But once those injuries start happening, it becomes a little bit tough to evaluate.

And it takes some time with Westbrook, too. We saw it last year in Washington. We saw it two years ago in Houston. And they've got to figure out how he plays and try to play around that. Yeah, like, there's no part of me as bad as it's looked, because it's looked awful some nights, some of those closing fourth quarters. I'm like, this is terrible.

I don't know that it ever meant anything, you know, especially when LeBron isn't there. So, you know, we'll get to some of that in a little bit. Since you brought up Westbrook, I like Westbrook for the regular season because of this team and being older. I thought he was going to bring an energy to the regular season that would help them coast if AD was going to miss time, which he's

probably going to, if LeBron was going to miss any kind of time, if they wanted to shut him down from time to time. Even that now feels like I was being too nice. The playoffs forget it. He doesn't fit on the floor with them. He's shooting less. The free throws finally turned around after the first month. The shooting numbers are abysmal.

And I just, I don't know what it is. Mike, I know that he will have moments where he knows how much he's pressing. You can see it on his face. But it's also, you's also a decade with this where I just don't think he sees the game the way you need to see a game at the end to make the right decisions. I don't think he does a good job with AD on entry passes, which he never really had to do ever before. I know how hard he plays, but I'm really worried about what this fit is and what his role might be if this team really tries to put together a run. Well, if you watch the game a lot,

and I certainly know that you do, Russ has shown us who he is for many, many years. So we already know. We know how he plays. We know how he plays in certain situations. And to me, the key with all of this was always still going to be LeBron James and that LeBron is going to be the guy that Russ looks at in a certain way that's even a bit different from how he looked at Kevin Durant, who he essentially

came into the league with and a bit different even from how he looked at James Harden when he was there and maybe Beal to an extent in Washington, where LeBron is that guy that he's totally kind of comfortable with, you know, seeding the ball to in late game situations, which we started to see a couple of times before LeBron got injured the first time. But again, the sample size is so small, like this has to play out over the whole year for it to really make sense. And once LeBron went out of the game last night, just because this is most fresh on memory, that fourth quarter, that was like peak Westbrook. That was 15 points, five assists, and six boards in the quarter. That was don't care that the team's down 15.

What you had mentioned, Ryan, a second ago, that Westbrook energy that kind of carries you through a late November night in Detroit when not a lot is necessarily it. That's the really good part of Westbrook. In Detroit, when not a lot is necessarily, like that's the really good part of Westbrook. How he fits in ultimately is still going to really depend on many games next to LeBron and then establishing some sort of way to play where he is not the first or the second option, but AD is coming up to set the screen.

Russ is maybe in the dunker spot or space somewhere else, you know, and that's going to be how things play out. Because if he's the one that's making those decisions, that, that has not been the way that, you know, that teams have won games in fourth quarters over the last several years. So I just, I know it doesn't, I don't want it to seem like a punt, but I do think that LeBron getting back to that level of peak LeBron is how this Laker, cause AD is a whole nother thing we can talk about, but that to me is still the key with all of this thing. Yeah, I'll admit when I, before LeBron went down,

Russ had had a couple of games where I almost thought it was funny how hard he was trying to get others involved, where it was almost like, you know, the grownups are here, so I want to do the right thing. And I mean, on drives, he was, you know, look, I know what the assist numbers are, but mean, on drives, he was, you know, I look,

I know what the assist numbers are, but I've always felt like with him, the assist or almost bailed attempts at his own offense more than they are him setting up other people. I'm not saying zero of them. Yeah. Part of the, part of the usage rate too, right?

Like he's got the ball. Right. Yeah. All right. 80. I bought buddies on the text thread again going, why do you like him so much? And then I'll look at the numbers and they're still really good. They're maybe not the peak version of AD.

I guess I'm just defensive of AD because I'll be like, all right. Yeah. Sometimes it's going to look a little soft. It just is. It's you know what I mean? Like that's what it is. Everybody would still want this guy. Your thoughts? Well, so my buddies on the Laker Film Room podcast, Pete Zayas and Darius Oriana, were making Street Fighter 2 references the other day, and it got me thinking about AD in that sense. Once you know all of the moves,

and you know you're doing Hadouken, Uduken, and then you're doing the whole thing. Once you learn all of them, Ryan, as I'm sure all your audience loves 90s Sega Genesis references, then when you learn all of them ryan um as i'm sure all your audience loves 90s um sega genesis references like then it's when you don't see them every single time and you're just doing like the the short punch like it's it's harder to accept sometimes but if you really do just zoom out with ad like just think about the possession with kate cunningham so kate cunningham

in the fourth quarter rises up to shoot a three he He's, what is Cade? 6'8"? 6'7"? 6'8"? Yeah. Yeah. And AD just packs it. So he swats him. Then Cade's like, all right, well, I guess I'll just take this guy off the dribble. Couple crossovers.

Nice move. Gets to the rim. And then Davis swats him again. I mean, maybe Giannis. Actually, yes, definitely Giannis. Giannis can do that too. I'm not sure how many other guys in the world do that. And Cade, if you look at his face when he gets down,

he's kind of like, well, damn, okay. So he was doing that stuff too in the fourth quarter, Ryan, in the bubble to Jokic. He was owning Jokic for certain parts of those fourth quarters when things really got going for the Lakers. So that completely unstoppable Anthony Davis, who then can also score at the rim. It's, it's there. Is it going to be, it's not there to the night to night, like it is for Giannis in terms of like the foot being on the pedal, but

it's, it's there. And that's still where it's so hard for me sometimes to, when I'm thinking big picture with this Laker team, ADs, like he like, he's shown that, that it's there. Like last year was sort of an exception. I called it the bubble tax where a lot of guys and a lot of teams just weren't going to be able to get through the two straight seasons completely healthy and with that peak energy, but he's still got it there. And his numbers this year are basically close

to what that standard was. So I too, like you, am an AD believer. And I think that it's just going to be back to lebron like we know what russ is he's that's what he's been this year we know what ad has reached and i think that he's back to that point and i just want to see now how lebron gets through the whole regular season and and how he can lead the team or not uh to it to that contention yeah that's a great point because k tried to get him twice, couldn't. And you're like, hey, do you understand it?

But your Giannis point is terrific too, because what I've always loved about Giannis is the personality. It's why the Ben Simmons comps drive me crazy. It's like, well, if you have him in the right system, Ben Simmons can be Giannis. I'm like, nah, there's not a day in Ben Simmons' life he's going to walk around ever feeling like Giannis.

Because Giannis is different that way. And AD, unfortunately, he's not going to look the way we all want him to look every single night. But he'll get shit on by people and then you look back at what he did in the game and you go, wait, this guy's a downer?

This is part of the problem? And so it all comes back to LeBron. Is there any concern with LeBron moving, at least the numbers showing us, free throws and rebounds. When you start to get older and the game starts to get a little tougher for you physically, and with LeBron, who knows, you know, it could be just him strategizing and coasting the way he can during a regular season. But I'm going to bring him up here again because I was looking at him the other

day and I can't imagine they've changed all that much. But when I see free throws and rebounds decline, that's when I'm starting to worry about you as a much. But when I see free throws and rebounds decline, that's when I'm starting to worry about you as a player. And again, this is not like, oh, no, he's not any good. Like when he brings up, oh, washed king, it's like, all right, dude, nobody thinks you're washed. Three free throw attempts per game, by far the lowest per game attempts in his career.

And rebounds, he is now at a career low five rebounds per game he's played eight games i'm not ready for this to say uh i'm i'm actually worried he's taken more threes and that's the old i don't know if it was mikhail or bird but somebody said hey the older you get the further you start moving away and we probably were always wondering when this was going to happen it's only eight games but it is at least something a monitor oh there's no there's no absolutely no doubt about that i mean with lebron he also only played two preseason games i guess it was three and i think that the way that he looks at a season he's thinking 365 days now at this point of his career right he's played more minutes than almost anybody ever except for carl malone i think if you combine Kareem,

if you combine the regular season and the postseason. So he's thinking, all right, where do I deploy the absolute peak resources? And for this season, it's back to 82 games now. Last year was 72. And Russell Westbrook is here. So in part, I would just think in his mind and part of it is all right russell is going to be able to do a lot more earlier in the season and like i so i am the

points on the free throws are absolutely valid but if you watch every game he's just not actually driving to the rim as much he is pulling like on his drives a lot of times he's pulling up and then maybe taking that where his foot touches the paint and then he does the short fadeaway. Right? Either off the glass or straight through. Or he is shooting a couple more threes. But I think that eventually as the season goes on, what I would expect to see

is that sometimes he's trying to finish at the rim a little bit more. And then by the time you get to April, then you're starting to see the full package. And that's, so I do think it's going to take time, though. Now, you'd love to see a game where he just does – here's the whole thing. Here's the full LeBron experience. But that's sort of the makeup of – the point of the makeup of his team in some ways, Ryan,

where that's what Russ and AD are there for. So he doesn't have to go to that point as much until it's really needed. No, no, I get it. But, I mean, the lack of drives is kind of the point you know because you're just like yeah i mean any any of this sounds maybe i shouldn't even make the analogy but i'm going to it's too late i'm too down in it but whenever you're tired in a game and you know the announcer's like you know get a drive more take it to the hoop more take the hoop more the reason guys don't take it to the hoop every single time is because it's exhausting it's hard as you get older you just rely maybe i'll just pull up from here and it's not like he's not hitting threes at a

pretty good rate uh rotation wise it it's mellows clearly one of the guys off the bench talon horton tucker now back uh trying to find his way dwight is limited minutes i know they started deandre last night but he was out of the game pretty quickly. I've loved some of the Austin Reeves minutes that I saw earlier. I know Ariza, he didn't sign there to not play.

How do you think this shakes out? If everybody's healthy and we're in the middle of the season, what do you think the Lakers rotation looks like? The Lakers this year have just shifted some from LeBron and AD with a bunch of guys who are more D than three in a lot of ways and this year there's a little bit more three than D so in the best representation of that would be like Wayne Ellington and Malik Monk who aren't going to give you as much defensively certainly last year as like a KCP a kuzma caruso like those type of guys that are that you can leave on the floor in all those situations so what does that

mean well then then you have to have you have to try to find the potential two-way guys within that and you just named a couple of them so it's tht it's ariza you know who you feel like can hold up on defense and still hit a shot or still create something? And then Kendrick Nunn, I don't think they're depending on him to come in and be a defensive stopper by any means, but can he give you a little bit more on that end than you can get from Monk physically, right? Or than you can get from Ellington just based on what he's at on this end. So that to me is the main key, Ryan, but it's a different setup

than LeBon and ad and everybody else sort of takes care of stuff so i'm glad you brought up austin reeves because he's another guy who holds up defensively he can shoot he can create a little bit off the dribble uh and or at least at least to get into the pain and kind of kick out so can a can an undrafted free agent that was originally on a two-way deal you, can he eventually supplant somebody that's on a guaranteed full contract that's a vet? Well, if he keeps playing this well, then sure. Then why not? So I'm curious. He's supposed to be back soon. And once the other guys come back, then we'll have a better idea. But perhaps the way that I had to meander on and ramble there shows you that

there's some work to do on figuring out what the actual rotation I had to meander on and ramble there shows you that there, there's some work to do figuring out what the, what the actual rotation is going to be. Yeah. My fear for the rotation part of this with Vogel is that, you know, in an Avery Bradley, I, from,

from what I've seen, I think there's nights where you're like, wow, you know, look at the defense. Cause they miss that with Caruso. They miss it with Pope. You know,

Pope, I think, I don't know if he was talked about enough outside of Lakers fans about how much he competed defensively. Yeah, always moving, always running. Right, right, right. So you lose those two pieces, and you're going, all right, how do we figure this out?

But I wanted to bring this up. I look at this Lakers front office office and it's really easy to go, well, hey, they just let Clutch do whatever they want. And that's how they got LeBron. And then they end up with AD, which, by the way, every other franchise would do like, oh, we're going to get LeBron and AD out of this. And I think when Rich Paul referenced Lakers as we at some point, but the staff, the scouting staff that I don't think under Palenka gets any credit, how good they are finding things like, I don't know if the phrase would be outside the margins or whatever, but whether it's a Caruso, it's an Austin Reeves, a couple other guys through the years, they've done a good job kind of sifting through

stuff and finding guys that aren't on the radar elsewhere. Yeah, there's no question. And so, you know, Palenka, of course, is at the top of that. And so he certainly gets the credit as well. But so Jesse Buss, the assistant GM and director of scouting, you mentioned some of the guys, Ryan. And then there's also Kuzma at number 27, Josh Hart at number 30. Zubats was early second round. Going back, Thomas Bryant, right, Guys that are, he's hurt now,

but guys that are playing elsewhere. Larry Nance Jr. was number 27. And on this specific team, not only Austin Reeves undrafted, they bring him in for summer league, but THT was the 46th pick when he was 18 coming out of Iowa State. He had an injury to his foot,

which I think helped him drop. So those are definitely super important, especially in a year like this, when you have three guys on the max. And so THT and Reeves could be two of their legit rotation pieces by the end of this season. And those are things that a lot of times you look at teams, and let me defer to you on this one. You're a better draft expert league-wide than I am.

But if it's not your first-round round guy you're probably not seeing that player almost like by the end of the season for whether it's for basketball reasons or just we need to develop our guy reasons so would you say that like you don't see that many guys that are even late first uh playing significant minutes on good teams a lot no i've been on this for years where and that's kind of what... And it was funny because Daryl Morey and I had our differences, but he was like, you know, you're right about that because that whole end of the first

round thing, like, cool, I'll trade you three picks in the 20s. Like, the league, it's very clear with the price tag associated with grabbing the guy that's mad and wants out. It's like, hey, here's five first rounders and a couple swaps because the team thinks, hey, we're going to be good,

which then can be kind of dangerous if a guy gets hurt, decides to bail three years earlier than your plan. But the Lakers do a really good job in that back third of the first where the numbers will tell you historically that you're lucky if it's 50-50. If you're grabbing a guy that makes your rotation, that's a win.

If you have a guy that actually makes money for five years, just drafted in the 20s, it's far more rare than I think people realize. I think teams have now come around on this going, all right, wait, that's why the pricing has changed so dramatically. Because if you think of the Kawhi deal to Toronto, if that deal was done today, San Antonio to Toronto, it wouldn't be DeRozan and Pirtle coming back. It'd be DeRozan

and Pirtle and like, hey, four picks and a couple swaps. That's just what you have to do. I mean, if Drew Holiday can get you that many picks for New Orleans, then certainly Kawhi would as well. And now the world as far as the basketball marketplace, not the world world, but the basketball world as far as the marketplace for what

trades are, people just demand those picks picks and i think the teams are willing to give them up because they feel like they're getting that kind of player that's going to make them really good so the point back to you with the lakers front office that i feel like that part of their story is completely overlooked and i'm glad you brought kuzma and larry nance because i mean that's the whole point it's not just hey cool reeves looks good and awesome job and carissa they they've added about five or six guys on a team, at least in the last couple of years, too, who's good enough to be a title contender.

And you're like, how does a guy like Reeves end up getting minutes? So they deserve a lot of credit for that. But I also understand around the league, there's always going to be kind of like, yeah, whatever. They just let Clutch do whatever they want. So, you know, why should those guys get any credit? And you're like, yeah, but those are two completely different things. And again, I think a lot of guys would let Clutch do whatever they wanted

if they got LeBron and AD out of the deal. All right. Let's do two things quick then. Title contender. I don't even really like asking it because it's kind of stupid. So maybe I should frame it a different way. Because I already know what you're going to say. Because you were smart.

You're not going to go, well, you know, I've totally changed my expectations. The Lakers are now this kind of team-wide. Like, what do you want to see from this team? Like, what do you want to see from them before you start either worrying about them or going, all right, because the West is not scary. It's not. Okay, so that was the point, right?

And I think before the season started, it was sort of like, well, we have to see how this thing evolves with Westbrook and everybody else, but there isn't another team. This is before we knew the Warriors were going to start 15-2. I thought the Warriors were going to be either second or third in the West. I got to see them in person twice in the preseason, which I think helped, and

I thought that they were great to end the season last year once Kerr went to his preferred way of playing, and they stopped playing Wiseman and Kelly Oubre. That's a whole other podcast you spent plenty of time on. But I look at it almost in chunks in the West. And so you've got Golden State and Phoenix and Utah, although Utah's slipping some.

Those teams, to me, have separated themselves in terms of who are going to be record-wise up there in the top three. Then you've got this next little chunk and you've got denver reeling right now you've got dallas reeling right now you've got the clippers who have had this great start with low pressure and a bunch of veteran players but you know pending some kawaii miraculous return um maybe they slip a little bit and then you've got the lakers in portland so i i just think they need to stay in that mix right behind those top three

teams in the regular season as they figure it out. And to sort of use the point that you just gave that I was going to give you, yeah, if you have LeBron and AD, you have some guys that are going to be able to fill in around them in a rotation and Russ can have a couple of months, not just for him to figure it out, but so they can really figure out him, which is what happened in Washington, which is what happened in Houston, then why would they not be right there with those teams in terms of a high-end result? I haven't really changed

my opinion at all, Ryan. Maybe I should have just said that to answer your question in three seconds. That's a good way to end, then, because you already threw in the Warriors part of this, because I was going to ask you who you saw, but I already know, because you've seen Golden State here. And they're rolling.

They're absolutely rolling. But, you know, just last week I was going, this is a great record. And, you know, I love Steph as much as anybody. Yeah, I definitely like them more than Phoenix and Utah. Like, I think they're – I do like them more, for sure. You like them with Klay more than Phoenix. Yes. I mean, this is assuming Klay comes back healthy.

But even right now in a playoff series, if they got down to it, what Phoenix is doing is Chris Paul, classic, get to the fourth quarter, he out-executes you.

I think that I'll take Steph in a series if those two are going back and forth. As much as I love how Chris plays, I just think that we have to acknowledge

how insane Steph Curry is in that kind of a series, and he would be. So I'm taking Golden State out of that mix. Wow, without Klay. Well, I mean, assuming Klay's coming back, but yeah, but even without him. How about you? I think Phoenix is really

good again, and I think they have more depth. I think the McGee thing was huge. I think actually Aiton would be kind of a problem for Golden State without Wiseman to give you any kind of minutes. You know, Looney probably get in foul trouble. But whatever, none of this matters because you're right. Clay looks like he just got cleared for full contact practices. So as of right now, you know, just going –

any of my Golden State breakdown, kind of like the Lakers breakdown through 18 games, none of it really matters all that much because we haven't seen the finished product. That's Mike Trudell. Check him out. Lakers coverage. He is terrific. Become a friend over the years. And I appreciate the time, man.

Thank you, Ryan. Appreciate it. Bruce Feldman, Fox Sports, big noon kickoff show. One of the best shows going for college football fans. Noon. Big noon kickoff goes from 10 to noon Eastern time before the kickoffs and of course from the athletic as well. So Bruce, Dan Mullen, fourth season, first three seasons, a New Year's Six Bowl competitive in the SEC title game against eventual national champ Alabama. Doesn't even make it to the end of his fourth season. I can't believe this guy got fired. This is one of those firings where I go, you got to tell me more to convince me of this. If you can't, with his resume,

I'm not saying it's the all-time resume, to be him and do what he's done, and as bad as it looked, because it looked terrible against Mizzou, it's looked really bad in a couple other spots, Kentucky not being able to score there late, getting run over by some other teams. I get it. The two LSU losses. But what happened here? not being able to score there late, getting run over by some other teams. I get it.

The two LSU losses. But what happened here? Because he did not deserve to be fired. Here's where it's fallen apart for him at Florida. So, Ryan, in Florida's last 11 games against Power 5 opponents, they are 2-9. Five of those losses have come against unranked opponents. That's pretty mind-blowing for Florida to lose those kinds of games.

A couple of weeks ago, it was after really they got run over by LSU. And by the way, that LSU team that smashed them, they couldn't run the ball on almost anybody at that point. And they had half a team. Florida was a double-digit favorite. They got embarrassed. So I've been working on a story with a colleague, Alan Taylor, who covers UF.

Around that time, we talked to a bunch of SEC assistants. They're like, what is up with Florida? Why have they fallen apart? And you start to hear a lot of things that were pretty damning. Everything from just the team is physically soft to it is so undisciplined and there's lack of accountability. There's no focus.

Mullen has not been a good recruiter at all there. And at that level, when Kirby Smart, the Alabama Machine, even Ogeron at LSU, those head coaches are all about recruiting. And Dan Mullen has not been. And I think he's always been the guy who felt like, I can X and O my way on Saturdays, which largely, look, he's had some good talent. Obviously, Dak was a big-time quarterback for him. Chris Jones, he's had a lot of stud D linemen that they actually beat Ole Miss on back in the day. But at Florida, it has been an appalling lack of getting top talent there. And so when you started hearing more reasons why things were really going down the toilet there, one of the things one of the SEC East coaches told me was, even when they lose, listen to how Mullen talks about it. He makes all these excuses.

That reflects on your team. That is part of the culture of your team when your leader talks that way. And so after that story came out, they turned around the next week and they got embarrassed by South Carolina. They got blown out 40 to 17. Yeah, yeah. Then he fires his defensive coordinator, Todd Grantham, and his longtime offensive line coach, John Hevesy.

Then the next week, they give up 42 points in the first half to an FCS team, Samford, that's under 500, right? So they barely win that game. And then this weekend, they lose to Missouri. I mean, these are not really good teams they are struggling with. And I think what it came down to

for Scott Strickland, the AD at Florida, was this program is falling apart. It is going backwards. We cannot keep him much longer. Recruiting would already been in the toilet. It wasn't gonna get any better to have a lame duck coach. And from that financial side of it, he has a $12 million buyout. To keep him another year, the buyout wasn't dropping. It was staying the same at $12 million. They're like, let's just get rid of this guy and start fresh because it's

not getting any better. The recruiting thing, you're right. You can't hang with Georgia, Bama, and even LSU if you're not into the recruiting part of it if you're at Florida. It's just not going to happen. I know the record and, look, the Sanford thing, I should have included in there because the way they celebrated that was probably more embarrassing than losing to Missouri and then South Carolina, which, you know, I mean, even though you could say you feel a little bit better

about the direction that they're going in. I guess I just look at it as bad as it was this year. The recruiting thing, though, you can't count. I can't come back at you with that one because I still feel like with a guy that's just a year ago competing with a national champion in an SEC title game, what do you want? I mean, I know you don't want what you got this past year.

I also wonder, too, if it's not... Even last year, Ryan, even last year, they did beat Georgia. They were 8-4 last year. They were 8-4 last year. They were 8-4 and they got beat by Oklahoma by like 40 in the bowl game. Not to mention they lost to a really crappy LSU team in the swamp playing a freshman quarterback with half a roster. I mean, I think that was the issue was this thing had really started to fall apart.

I mean, remember, they had a generational tight end talent in Kyle Pitts, a really experienced, good quarterback. They had another first-round pick, you know, the Giants took who's also on the offense. There's no, like, they should not have been struggling like that. Right. The bowl game, everybody checked out of that one. So I don't know, not saying that they would have beaten Oklahoma,

but I think that had as much to do with it as anything else. I also wonder, is it his personality? Because he didn't, I don't know, maybe in Florida they didn't give a shit. I guess it would be they wouldn't. But he was so dismissive of any of the COVID stuff, it felt like that even if you're not, however you're aligning yourself there, there almost is like a point as a leader where you're going to be like, can you be a little bit more delicate about this stuff?

And he just seemed as if he had zero interest. And I don't know. Look, they probably were way more about the recruiting in the Sanford, Mizzou, and South Carolina games than they were about his COVID protocols. But it just felt like his personality at times. I think he's a really good coach, but I can understand he's abrasive like a lot of these guys are. And when you start losing, the abrasiveness becomes a turnoff. Exactly. Look,

I honestly don't think it had anything to do with the COVID protocols. Look, it's in the state of Florida. It's all over the map and crazy over there. But I think when it comes to what you get from Dan Mullen, again, it was an interesting comment that one of the SEC coaches pointed out was, watch what happens when they lose. All you hear about are excuses from him left and right. And that, I think, rubbed people the wrong way. It also, I think, reflects the culture of, hey, this is a program that, yeah, they can turn it on and turn it off. And they can be, they basically play to the level of their opponents. They gave Alabama a really good game last year, but also they, you know, they've struggled against bad LSU teams the last two years. I think to some degree, you know, it felt a little bit like the Charlie Weiss thing at Notre Dame where Charlie Weiss best game was a loss against USC because he played USC really competitive. Another guy who, by the way, felt like he could X and O's his way out of everything. And in college football, especially, it doesn't work that way, especially when you're being measured against Georgia and Alabama and, you know, honestly, the rest of the SEC, which is so top heavy. If there's really,

and one other factor I thought was interesting in this, this is coming at a time where Miami and Florida State are going through rebuilds. You should be dominating if you're Florida and you have momentum. Not being the first one fired among the big three. I don't think anybody thought that two months ago he would be the one fired and not Manny Diaz or not Mike Norvell in Tallahassee. Yeah, no, that's a good point. All right, so Mullen's out. Now what does this mean for Florida, LSU,

and we'll get to USC as well. I think in the case of Florida, from what I've heard over the last 24 hours, they would really like to probably go offense. It's going to be a hard sell right now, though, because they've, a little like some other programs, they tried a bunch of different things and it hasn't worked since Urban left there. They tried Will Muschamp, who was the hot assistant coach and a defensive guy.

That didn't work because it just didn't seem like he was ready to be a head coach at that level. Then they went Jim McElwain, who was a proven group of five coach, who, by the way, had coached in the SEC under Nick Saban. And that worked a little and then it imploded. And then you got Mullen in there who was a proven SEC coach who knew Florida, but he didn't recruit at the level. I mean, Billy Napier at Louisiana has done a really good job there. He has been in the conference. He worked under Nick Saban. He knows what that model is like. He's 31-5 the last three years. I think he is different than Jim McElwain, although the profile is fairly similar.

Group of five coach, had a lot of success, worked under Nick Saban. I do think Billy Napier, he's more of a guy who's more of an attention to detail when it comes to recruiting and maybe Jim McElwain, probably just a different personality type, but I can see why there's some skepticism. Matt Campbell has done a really good job at Iowa State. Last year, they were top 10 for the first time. You know, they'd never finished this high as nine. Problem was they're six and five right now. His name is not as hot as it was two months ago. You know, he's a guy that a lot of people think really highly of, but we'll see if they go in that direction.

Then there's Mark Stoops, done a really good job. He's coached at Miami, FSU, and USF, so he knows the state. His teams play hard. He's a good evaluator. He really develops talent, but then it comes back to a little bit, hey, does Florida want to go defense again?

I'm going to be interested to see what Scott Strickland decides, because as you said, LSU is open and USC is open, among other places. Those are big jobs. Those are honestly probably bigger jobs than even Florida. All right, so Mel Tucker gets the new deal at Michigan State. I think we both, you know, you've been really great on this, that he was definitely a guy that was, I don't know if he was the number one guy, but give us a sense of handicapping, what's going on with LSU. And then also that weird

Lincoln Riley story that popped up for a day that you kind of put to bed pretty quickly. So take us through where the Tigers are at. Right. So I do think there were some key people around LSU and inside LSU who really wanted Mel Tucker. Obviously he'd been there. He coached under Saban multiple times. But again, this is going to be Scott Woodward's hire, right? So from what I had heard, Scott Woodward took a lot of swings at Jimbo Fisher, by all accounts, including Jimbo Fisher's own. And he was adamant about it the other day that he's not going. So then the talk of Lincoln Riley, from what I was told on that, Lincoln Riley, he's not going to go there.

And then you start getting into, well, would they hire Billy Napier at Louisiana? I mean, that is one that you talk to people inside LSU, they're like, man, that does not sound like something LSU leadership would sign off on. They just seem like that's something that politically LSU doesn't do. Billy Napier knows that state in and out. He's done a really good job. I'm not saying they have to hire him, but I think it would make more sense than, oh, wait, he's a Sunbelt guy. But again, you have a guy in Scott Woodward,

the AD there, who's made big, splashy hires, everything from getting Chris Peterson to leave Boise when he was at Washington, to getting Jimbo to leave FSU when he was the AD at A&M, even getting Kim Mulkey to leave Baylor, the women's basketball coach, to come home to the state of Louisiana. I mean, I don't know if he could get Luke Fickle to leave Cincinnati. He's the guy who came into the season hot and is even hotter. The only thing is Luke Fickle has six kids. And everything I've always heard is he'd like to raise his family in the

Midwest. He has never coached outside of the state of Ohio. I could see Woodward being strong enough to say, you know what? I like Matt Campbell. I think he's a really good coach. I'm not worried that he's six and five this year. Then again, Matt Campbell has never coached in the SEC nor recruited there. So that I think would be an interesting fit. I mean, what I feel like right now, there's not a lot of easy answers. I know some people say, well, what about Lane Kiffin? Because obviously Lane knows the SEC. My feeling is, when you talk to enough people around the SEC, there's a few jobs they don't think that the leadership would sign off on Lane because they're just a little concerned of the risk with Lane Kiffin off the field. Remember, he had a lot of drama when he was

the head coach at USC. He definitely had some drama that people inside the SEC knew about when he was the head coach at Alabama, when he was the offense coordinator at Alabama. And that wasn't that long ago. So I don't know if Woodward would sign off on that and make that move. You mentioned something there that I got to follow up on a little bit. The way you said I don't know if Woodward would sign off on that and make that move. You mentioned something there that I got to follow up on a little bit. The way you said Lincoln Riley wouldn't go there, was that a hint at any rumblings like eventually Lincoln would move on? I mean, he's a pretty young guy.

Yeah, the only thing I would think on that front, Ryan, is I could see at some point Lincoln Riley going to the NFL. Yeah, okay. The Dallas Cowboys don't look like they're going to need a head coach anytime soon, but it wouldn't surprise me if at some point, Lincoln Riley going to the NFL. Yeah, okay. The Dallas Cowboys don't look like they're going to be needing a head coach anytime soon, but it wouldn't surprise me if at some point he couldn't turn that down. But remember, in regard for this, for context, LSU's a great job, right? Great home field environment. You know everything about it there.

He's got a really good job at Oklahoma. He's led them to playoffs. He's got a lot of equity there in terms of like credibility, what he's done for the program. He also, by the way, works for the guy widely considered to be the best AD in college football and college athletics in Joe Castiglione.

He's got a young family. He's raised his kids there. They've come up there. I think, and this is not Lincoln Riley telling me this, but I think being realistic, you go to LSU, if you're from Oklahoma, you're going to be going into the SEC anyway, by the way. But if you go into LSU and you miss the playoffs three years in a row, they're firing you. You're going to walk away with a lot of money, but they're going to fire you. And keep in mind, Lincoln Riley, the

last time he coached against LSU, he lost by like 40 to Ed Ogeron in a playoff game. I mean, I think that that's a delicate situation. I mean, I think a lot of coaches know

they just fired the guy who won a national title for them and that guy was one of them or at least that's, you know, by all accounts, that's how they said it.

You know, he's like from the state of Louisiana. They fired him like a year and a half after he won a national title and that you know that was in a pandemic so don't think they wouldn't pull the plug if somebody doesn't get it going in a hurry there okay so how does james franklin play into all of this whether it's it seemed like he was a

hotter connection to usc i'm convinced that any booster or any decision maker, and Woodward's a pretty savvy guy, so he's been around. I don't know the USC situation clearly as well as I would know the LSU situation, but I've told everybody that ever asked me about it, I'm like, look, if you sit with James Franklin for 10, 20 minutes, you're going to want him to run your program. You're just going to. I mean, that's the kind

of vibe he gives off. So what's going on with him now? Because that seemed to kind of like, I feel like we've had some peaks and valleys in the momentum of what he gives off. So what's going on with him now? Because that, that seemed to kind of like, I feel like we've had some peaks and valleys, the momentum of what his future is. Absolutely. You know,

and, and mid season, they started to lose a couple of games. Clifford, the quarterback got hurt. And then he had a couple of really clunky press conferences, which didn't seem like, like him.

He seemed like he was a little bit, there was a lot of stuff going on. And I, my read on it is this would be the time to, if he's going to really stay at Penn state, they're going to, you know, it's not like they haven't committed to him before, but he's got a, arguably a top three recruiting class lined up there. Um, you know, his stock, I don't think is quite as hot with a lot of people at, you know, USC is one of these places that I feel like has a house cats kind of mentality

where it's like, ooh, there's the shiny object. They jump over to it. And I don't think right now, if James Franklin had Jim Harbaugh's record this year, it might be a really different story, but it's not. And so I think when they look and say, hey, Penn State could be eight and four, they had a bad season in 2020,

I think they can talk themselves out of it. It wouldn't surprise me if Scott Woodward made a really big run at James Franklin at some point. He knows he can coach in the SEC because he did really a great job at Vant. He knows he can recruit because he's seen what's going on. I don't know if, you know, it'd be interesting

if James Franklin really wanted to make that move because, you know, I always thought that, you know, he's from the state of Pennsylvania. That's a really good job. The thing is, you got a place that recruits an even higher level there at Ohio State with Ryan Day there now, and he's entrenched in the rolling. Not to mention other programs there now. It's like, you know, Mel Tucker's

going to get a lot of momentum off of this year, and Jim Harbaugh seems like he's straightening things out. That's a tough division. If you go to the SEC and you go to LSU, you got Nick Saban over there. And by the way, if Jimbo stays, got Jimbo, they're paying him an insane amount of money. They have great resources. It's not like they're going to fall apart. And so I always thought like, okay, USC makes a lot more sense because there's no Nick Saban in the Pac-12

South. But who knows? I mean, you know, if Scott Woodward could pull James Franklin out of Penn state, even if this has not been a great year and a half for him, I still think that would be a very big yet, because like you said, I mean, this is a guy who has a lot of presence.

He has proven he can coach in the SEC, and he is an elite recruiter. And those are the things that I think would really check a lot of boxes for anybody, especially somebody at that level. I could say I'm surprised, but I'm not surprised because the same thing happens in college basketball. Some guy gets his Sweet 16 from a program nobody's paying attention to, and it's like, all right, that's the guy. And you're like, all right, that's the guy?

Because he won two games in an 11 seed? Hey, you and I both have had some drinks with Andy Enfield out here. It's like I watched those games. It wasn't a sweet 16. I don't know how far Florida Gulf Coast got, but, you know. No, it was a great run, but it's my point. If Matt Campbell would have been everybody's number one choice 12 months ago, and now he sucks. Like, you know, James Franklin's our guy.

Oh, no. Penn State's had some injuries. They lost to some better teams. Like, you know, again, I still think I believe. They overthink it, Ryan. They overthink it. It's unbelievable. It's unbelievable that you could be in charge of this big of a decision and then be like, oh, shoot.

Matt Campbell lost, lost like two more games than I wanted him to. So now I can't hire him. That's that whole rationale is absurd. Ryan, if you think that's stupid, you should see how they run the CFP. I mean, it's just mind boggling the stupidity that sometimes happens in college athletics where college football is a great thing, but it survives and some degree thrives totally in spite of itself. And it's like, the more, you know, the more you just kind of go, Oh my God. Like the more I found out, you know, just like, again, I don't want to, you know, I mean, jump the sidecar over to, to the CFP aspect.

By the way, feel free. Give us a story on ineptitude. The floor is yours. So every week, ESPN, our former employer, which a lot of people there we think really highly of, puts on their CFP reveal show. And every week, Gary Barta, who this year has the fortune of being the CFP chair, gets trotted out. He should know exactly what the questions

Rhys Davis is going to ask. Not because Rhys is going to give them ahead of time, just because they're common sense things. And Gary Barta bumbles his way through it and undermines the credibility that's already kind of torpedoed of the CFP. At the root of this is the CFP has hired a complete stooge, Ari Fleischer, to be in charge of handling how this gets put out there. And so you have, whoever has been the chair has gone out there and been totally, seemingly unprepared and looks, you know, like I said, bumbling doesn't make any sense, contradicts their own thing where it's like, you guys are not helping yourselves. Right. And this is like,

I don't blame ESPN for this. This is like content that they are paid for because they're paying a fortune for the playoffs so they get the Tuesday night show. But some of the stuff where it's like, it just undermines the credibility of it. So when you're talking about what you just said, it's like, of course, because this is the other part of it.

And quite honestly, some of the same people who signed off on that said, hey, we're gonna, that makes sense to us. Like, really? That's the best you could do? Because you're not helping yourself. No, I mean, the show is simply, like, it's going to be hilarious how this all plays out and if it all works out because of everything that just happened this past weekend. I think those of us that watch Oregon Steadily all season long, when Anthony Brown played the best 45 minutes of his life at Columbus one Saturday afternoon.

And that's why Oregon got to stay ahead of him. And, you know, you and I talked to Utah probably two months ago. And even though I was a little surprised from a talent standpoint that Utah would be favored at home in that game, they were. And then it wasn't even close. And so now Oregon's out of the mix. Pac-12's out of the mix. Ohio State smashing Michigan State like that does a couple things because I was worried about Ohio State's offensive line at different points.

I don't know if that's all now fixed, but I don't know now that I'm going like, well, now it's just Georgia and Ohio State, and then it's everybody else. Georgia's done this to everybody else season long. Ohio State did it against what we think is supposed to be a pretty good team, but sometimes you want to run through and play the game in the Michigan State schedule, and you go, wait, and then should they have won the Michigan game? And we're still talking about a pass defense going into the Ohio State game that was 130 out of 130. They gave up 1,300 passing yards in the previous three games.

And that was before they saw the best receiver room in the country, by the way. Right. And Rutgers, I think, threw for like 260 on them. So I look at that result and you were very, I would say, on point about Ohio State at the beginning of the year. You're like, I'm not sure how the defense is going to play out. They switched from Kerry Combs. They switched out the defensive coordinator. We were led to believe it was going to be a little bit better.

The Penn State loss maybe. But the whole point is this is leaning towards all kind of working out here, and that would include Cincinnati getting in at 13-0. Ultimately, it depends on kind of what the Bama part of this is going to be but now Bama still could be alive I don't know if it'd be a two loss team that's alive so as I'm rambling through all of this let me just get back to this point because we get so you know Oklahoma State deserves at least to be mentioned as I ramble through all these teams um do you have Ohio State now after this week

is like, okay, it's them and Georgia and everybody else because that's what's happening at least on a Monday where I'm going, look, that was unbelievable watching what they did in Michigan State. But do we take that one result and now put them in the tier with Georgia and now everybody's looking up

at them? I think that would be a mistake. And that's saying clearly Alabama's defense, which was supposed to be a strength this year. They couldn't stop Arkansas when they needed to. So that's a, that's a problem. And I have no problem with Ohio state being ahead of Alabama today, if that's what you want to do.

Yeah. I, I, to me, I think Ohio state deserves to be number two, you know, look, that was,

that's a bad matchup for Michigan state. As you said, terrible pass defense against the most explosive offense and passing game in college football. And it was just like a recipe for disaster. And Stroud's calmed down too, man. I mean, it's really fun to watch. Yeah, and by the way, Travion Henderson,

he might be the best running back in college football, the most talented at least. So are they good enough on defense to be a national title team? I think they're definitely good enough in this, you know, on defense to be a national title team? I think they're definitely good enough on offense. You know, like, I don't know if right now, as we're doing this the week of Thanksgiving, if this is all signs pointing to, you know, the puncher's chance of Ohio State against Georgia in the national title game.

Because I think Georgia's offense has been pretty good. You know, it's like doesn't get enough credit because I think Stetson Bennett, people look at him as, hey, former walk-on, this is what we're at. They probably will get George Pickens back for the SEC title game. He's their most explosive offensive weapon. They have good running backs, a bunch of them. And so, you know, how will that play out?

I still think, and again, maybe this is me giving too much of the benefit of the doubt to Nick Saban, but I still think they would have a chance to give Georgia some problems just because Bryce Young is so good and they do have speed at receiver. And the one thing we're not sure of yet, because I know from talking to coaches at Georgia, obviously everybody raves about the front seven guys. It's not just seven in the front seven. It's like 20 guys were in that front seven. The secondary, I think, is the one part where they're like, yeah, we're pretty good back there. But this is the part where I think they still need to get it figured out a little.

And quite honestly, it hasn't been tested to that level yet. And I think Bryce Young and Jamison Williams and Mechie, I think those guys will be a formidable test. They're not Ohio State's group, but they're good. And the question is then, you know, Will Anderson, he might be the best player in the country. He's, you know, he'll get after Stetson Bennett and, you know, we'll see what kind of problems they have. And Nick Saban knows Kirby and he knows Dan Lanning and what they're going to do. So I don't think it's a foregone conclusion. Obviously, Georgia loses that game. It doesn't matter really because they're going to the playoff anyway.

But, you know, beyond those three teams, and let's say if Alabama doesn't beat Georgia, I think it's going to be a hard sell for Alabama, even despite Nick Saban's record and all those rings, to have a strong case to be in there. Because if you look at it, they have one really good win. It was against Ole Miss. They blew out Ole Miss.

But after that, you start going down the list. Arkansas gave them all they could handle. They only had six rushing yards against a really depleted LSU team. And that game was played in Tuscaloosa. They barely won that. They barely beat Florida. And we know Florida stinks.

That's three really like, eh, games. They're going to play the Iron Bowl. We assume they're going to beat Auburn games. They're going to play the Iron Bowl. We assume they're going to beat Auburn. Auburn's going to be 6-6. When Auburn played Mississippi State a few weeks ago, and they were winning big, and then all of a sudden, Leach and those guys came back to win,

it dawned on me. I was like, man, this win against Auburn for Alabama is not going to help them. If they're sitting there at, I guess, what would be 11-2, the question's going to be not just would they leapfrog Cincinnati, but who would be that fourth team? Because if it's a one-loss Big 12 title team, that's going to be an interesting debate, I think,

because I think it's a hard sell to say, wait a minute, Alabama lost to Georgia already. They're 11 and two. Are we going to have to make Georgia beat them twice? I don't know if the committee would even want to do that either. So to me, there's going to be a fascinating dynamic revolving Alabama if they don't win. Yeah, because and to clear up my point, like Ohio State rushing into tier one with Georgia and it's them and then everybody else.

That's the thing I resist. But Ohio State should be ahead of Alabama. And of course, AP got it right. The coaches got it wrong again. Coaches are terrible at voting on this stuff. They proved every single year. And Oklahoma State at seven, a 10 and one, an incredible defense, which, you know, they're putting up defensive numbers in the Big 12 we haven't seen in a decade. which, you know, they're putting up defensive numbers in the Big 12 we haven't seen in a decade. I love Gundy's honesty and just going like, look, this isn't the group that we had that maybe, you know, should have been in the mix for a national championship game.

Instead, we got Bama and LSU in the rematch. But he goes, we're finding ways. We're finding ways to put this together. And that defense has been incredible. I mean, just to see Texas Tech even shut out, despite all their problems this year. This is a team that, you know, if they get Oklahoma at home, and Oklahoma just isn't really what we thought they were going to be,

which is fine, you know what happens, that'll be the debate. Because if Bama loses that game to Georgia, which now tells you they're going to, and the Auburn win means nothing, and Bo Nix is now out too, so they got Finley in at quarterback, which makes it worse, because I thought we were getting a little bit better of a version of Bo Nix than just the super hyperactive one that was was just all over the place but you're right like that win that win against Auburn if it happens isn't even going to mean that much and it's it's smart to point out against some lesser opponents here I mean this Bama team is just basically Bryce Young and the receivers carrying them every single week so I'm happy to see Ohio State ahead of them in the AP poll,

but I'm not sure I'm ready to completely sign off on that. It's Georgia and Ohio State now because of one week when Georgia's been doing it the entire time. And to your point, we start looking at some of the quarterback efficiency stuff, even when I'm like, is Georgia really? And then you're like, oh, they're top seven. Like they're top seven. So they're actually putting up better offensive numbers than I think I've even given them credit for throughout this season. You can see Bruce every week, big noon kickoff.

Starts 10 a.m. Eastern till noon for the games. And, of course, you can read him on all the coaching stuff as well at The Athletic. Thanks as always, man. Always a pleasure, Ryan. Thanks for having me. You want details? Fine.

I drive a Ferrari. 355 Cabriolet. What's up? I have a ridiculous house in the South Fork. I have every toy you could possibly imagine. And best of all, kids, I am liquid. So, now you know what's possible. Let me tell you what's required.

Life advice. Lifeadvicerr at gmail.com. All right, let's get to a couple here. Wedding invite. 27, 6'1", 175, out of shape loser, if we're being honest. Biggest critic. Nice. Yeah, geez. Take it easy, man.

I would say the guy's name, but i just always loved that line from the office when and jim just started opening up to andy to be annoying it was kind of shitty because he was kind of shunning andy's friendship and he just wanted more buddies you know some guys just want more buddies man sorry i annoyed you with my friendship but uh he says to jim he goes hey you're nice to my friend jim and i've uh I've dropped that line every now and then, and I would do it here, but I don't want to use any names. Anyway, I'm getting married next year, and getting the guest list together has been challenging due to the size of my fiance and I's families. And with the limited space at our wedding venue, it's forcing us to make some tough decisions on who to invite

and who not to. My dilemma is that I have a once close friend from college who I don't really talk to that frequently anymore. However, in college, we were very close. We lived together one year during college fraternity brothers. We lived in the house together and we lived there for about a year and a half after college in the fraternity house.

That would be either the worst or amazing. My girlfriend, now fiance, never got along with him as he never really showed any interest in getting to know her um when she would come over he can be somewhat socially awkward with people he doesn't know but still he never made the effort needless to say she does not want him at the wedding my question is do i go out of my way to let him know he won't be getting the invite or do i just let it be and not say anything preemptively? We only occasionally keep in touch now, so we're definitely not as close as we used to be. Thanks.

This one's pretty easy. I like that there's no debate on whether or not he will be getting invited. The debate is do I tell him or do I just kind of let him figure it out? I may take confrontation on guy. I think some would argue I may enjoy confrontation, but in this case, I don't know. I mean, what weddings, especially when the size part of it's an issue when I didn't get invited to something, uh, there's probably a couple of weddings over my career where I'd be like, Oh, that was just kind of a, well, I didn't, I didn't get the call to that one. Huh? Uh, there's

one or two where I kind of was like, all right, I know I'm not getting invited to this one. When all your buddies are at him, and you're just like, this sucks. But in this case, either he's self-aware enough to know this already, but I mean, you kind of just already summed it up, right? I mean, Kyle, he doesn't even really keep in touch with him that much. So do you then need to tell a guy

who you don't even really talk to that much? Like, hey, cool, we were friends seven years ago and live together so you know yeah just so you know uh i don't i don't think this one i mean so rudy you're the only one that's planned a wedding out of this group i mean you could you could do the hey it's really tight i'm sorry but i don't even know that you have to do that here it's not like it's somebody who's really close if it were somebody close i think you do that here. It's not like it's somebody who's really close. If it were somebody close, I think you should do it and you should explain, Hey,

it's right. And if the guest or the non guest doesn't understand that you have some size limitations, then that person's an asshole. You know, there's been a couple of weddings where I was like, Hey, what's going on with this?

And they were like, dude, nobody's going to this one because it's just, it's just what's in. You just go, all right, you know, Hey,

I get it. And then you get older. You didn't want to get invited to him anymore, which is kind of the funniest part of the whole thing. So I wouldn't go out of your way to explain something to a guy you don't even seem to keep in touch with that nobody likes anymore. So I don't really see what the problem is here. I went through this issue because there's a couple of guys, one guy, ESPN, you know,

who I love, one of my favorite dudes. But I just didn't know him for that long. And the problem was I invited a couple other people who directly worked with us, but I didn't invite this one guy Nuno and then I got called out for it on the air on a show one time which was a bummer to add to like the awkward you know Nissa the entire thing but

I think you kind of understand man if you're gonna be are you gonna be really upset like this guy gonna be really upset that he didn't invite you to your wedding I'm sure he understands the numbers game like it's not gonna be that big of a deal so if you want to like be friendly and just give him the heads up I don't think it's that big of a deal but if you don't i don't think you're gonna be like this dick didn't give me a heads up either way you're fine yeah i don't think this matters i just don't think it does um all right let's do a kind of serious are the the only one thing i

would say is anybody else from college going i'm sure somebody else from college is going this guy was in a fraternity bro yeah oh Oh, right. That's right. Well, I just wanted to say one thing because I've got my big wedding coming up, right? And it's coming up in the end. Not your wedding. End of July. No, no, no. What kind of birthday weekend?

It's my first wedding. What happened this weekend? Still absurd. Yeah, we went to Vegas. No, but so it's literally my first wedding since I was 11 that I'll actually be coming through. Did you drink at that one? I'm very excited. I actually did.

That was the first time I tried champagne. Okay. Anyway. I hope he remembers that. Anyway, that's not in the story I'm talking about. So there's a couple people from college going. People know that this wedding was going to happen. And there's just a couple of guys that just aren't going to get invited.

And they're close. And it's like keeping it small thing, but they want to invite one of the brothers. That was our friends. They were like two years apart. They really want one of the brothers there. And they're really not interested in having the other one. And I, they asked me cause they were like, don't say you got an invitation, say nothing, whatever. I was like, yeah, I'm not going to say anything except for on this podcast. Sorry, guys. They can't invite the other brother. They can't invite one brother and not the other one, right? If we're all kind of friends and when we have functions, they all show up.

Yeah, that's a tough one. But you know what? It's like one brother or no brothers, right? Or it's two brothers or no brothers, I mean. The weird thing with wedding invites is I always think of it this way. Again, I've never had to go through the process. But why do I care about the feelings of somebody that I don't even want to be there?

But they don't want them to be there because they will start throwing around a football or something. Or they'll make a game with something that's not even like, like, like they'll, they'll like, or they'll make up a game. That's something that's not even a ball and start throwing it around. It's just, it's like, they're a great time, but maybe they're not wedding material is what they're saying. This younger brother is part of the group though. Like he's not just the younger brother that like hangs around and tries to be part of the group.

So they know the younger brother is the one he wants. He's the one that showed up two years after we were already there. And they were like, yeah, this guy, this guy's way cooler. We love this guy. Yeah. Yes. Kyle, is there any chances he you're gonna get back to these people no okay they don't care about me all right okay okay they don't listen to anything i do or anything it's fine all right just double checking uh yeah but as far as i know it's complicated you know i i've heard my friends complain about it.

Like, oh, this guest list thing, it sucks, it sucks, it sucks. And then you end up inviting people

that you're not close to, but you have to because of family relationships or whatever. I, back to Saruti real quick, did you invite anyone that was like

your superior at work? Uh, I'm trying to think. No, I didn't because I was going to, but well, I'm sorry, Netsche came

what up Ray Adnan was there but I guess that's not my superior uh but yeah there was a boss that was there or two yeah I guess but Ray you had a relationship with I always find it interesting when I'll hear about somebody inviting like one of the top execs oh just for that yeah just they could be nervous at their wedding no no because they want to make some sort of connection it's usually pretty much an ass kiss move i think and sometimes it's a necessity like certain worlds you actually have to do it so i wouldn't judge you but there's a couple that i've heard of where i go i think you know me well enough where i would that's not my style in fact i i would have had like five people at my wedding we had over 200 because i have a massive

italian family that stressed me the hell out. 200? Yeah, it's absurd. Who paid for that? Luckily, not me. Father of the bride, right? Still doing that? Yeah.

But that was another problem too is like, all right, yeah, there were a couple of buddies, some people from work that I would have liked to invite, but like you're kind of walking on eggshells because you're not the one paying for it, right? And I didn't want to like be like, oh, we have to have this person at the wedding. So I just kind of stood in the background. I was like, whatever you guys want.

It's fine. Yeah, that's probably the best way to go about it. I like how Kyle was like, we're still doing that father ride thing. He's been planning on it. You're a financial planner. You guys have been- Want to make sure he's still on the hook for that, right?

You're a traditionalist. We didn't change that yet? I can't believe that one hasn't been phased out yet. All right. Let's do this one. I'm going to hold off on the more serious one. Maybe I shouldn't do it on a Wednesday before Thanksgiving. This one's serious though too. It's kind of a bummer. All right. So buckle up. Early 30s, live about 10 hours from my parents

from a very rural hometown, making the trip back less and less over the last few years because each time I go back and stay at my parents' house, my mom has accumulated more junk. I recently made the trip with my wife and I fear this may be the last time I stay with my parents. Growing up, it was never like this. My mom, now in her early 60s, has always had high standards for cleanliness and kept things in really good order. Our home was a place to be proud of when visitors came by. My parents are great. They're not weird at all. They're generally successful physically, cognitively, still doing just fine. Dude, they're 60.

They're not, you know, come on now. I don't know why my mom has decided to progressively keep more and more crap around. This is the point where it's not a comfortable stay for me, let alone my wife. It grosses out both of us. Whenever I suddenly mention anything, my mom gets very offended. The sleeping situation is gross. The shower and bathroom situation is gross. The couches are gross. And there's so much random junk clutter throughout every room in the house that I can't even begin to describe it. Here's

the dilemma. My wife and I are expecting our first baby next spring. And we would like for the child to know their grandparents well, but we're to the point where we can't stay there anymore. And frankly, there's no room for a baby with all the junk. There's no hotels or lodging of any kind of within reasonable distance of my hometown. Siblings also live a couple hours away as well. How does your boy navigate this matter? All right. This sucks.

And I remember growing up, I was the oldest five, as I've mentioned, and we were all pretty staggered. So there was always a baby. There was literally always a baby in the mix. So when you have a kid, a very young kid, or perhaps multiple young kids, the house is never going to be in order. It's not going to look like a magazine there. That's why, you know, sometimes I'll see people do these design things and then you go, OK, but there's two young kids. Like, this is a terrible idea.

Like, what are you doing? That's me doing design. And we'll move on from that topic. But I remember not wanting friends to come over because I just always felt like it was a mess. So I feel your pain on that one. As far as the things getting progressively worse, which is a complete pivot and your mother had never really done this before. And I imagine you're talking about your mother here in particular because you brought it up. I don't know if something happened because there's, I don't

know how much you've watched or studied or read about the hoarding process but it's very easy for us that don't understand it just be like hey clean it up like what the fuck's going on here this place is a mess but when you do that with somebody that's already to this point all they're going to do is get into a very defensive uh i would say sometimes even rage And what you have to remember and what somebody told me was, hey, when somebody is hoarding, they see everything that they're keeping as something of value. And the idea that they would lose these things for nothing is just absurd to them. They couldn't possibly handle the idea of losing these items and just doing a cleanup. Now, I would agree with you, and I think most people too.

There's something about coming home when there is less clutter and things are clean and you do your spring cleaning, you get things, you start cleaning out the drawers and all this stuff. I think there's a real mental health aspect of that that can make you just kind of get through your day a little bit better.

I seriously believe in that kind of stuff. Hey, start cleaning your place out every six months. So what the hell, why do I have a receipt from this place in Tulum? You know what I mean? Like all these stupid little things that you go, why did I hang on to this? And in the moment, maybe you did, but then you kind of, most of us go through a process of being like, I don't need any of these things. And it feels great when you start to, it's almost like paying bills. Like when you're behind and you're kind of avoiding a couple things and you're like, all right, whatever. I'm just going to be a grownup and handle my shit today. And then you start paying off stuff. You start making calls, you check on your insurance, you do all these things and you get a bunch of stuff done in a couple hours. It makes

you feel better. It just does. That's how I always felt. Cause when I was younger, I used to avoid that shit because I was immature and I was stupid about it. I'm just telling you, cause I can understand both sides of it. But when it comes to this, I don't know if she went through something that's had her pivot towards this, but I can tell you it's almost a pointless conversation. It's almost intervention level stuff that you'll have to sit down with. And even then, I'd imagine there'll be a ton of fight back because they don't see the possessions the way you see them. You see junk, they see value. So the only solution that I can think of, because I mean, other than trying to get her to completely change direction,

which I don't, I'm not equipped to give you the tools to pull that off. And I think it's a really, really hard thing to do. But I would say if you're willing to spend the money to go travel and see her, is there any way that you could, you could get your parents on a plane to visit your kids? Cause you're right. Your wife's going to hate it. Um, if it's actually that not clean, it's not safe for a baby on top of everything else. Although babies are almost indestructible. Um, I just, I'd love to be able to tell you, Hey, here's the three steps of getting your mom to kind of change her ways. But I don't know her at one, and I don't feel super comfortable going into, hey, this is how you fix it. Because it's just a really, really hard thing to do.

The best thing you can do is try to understand why she's that way. But it's not going to solve the hospitality part of this. Suri, let's start with you because I think that's one of the things about marriage where you start to really learn about that other person. That's why I think you should live together before you get married. Some people think that doesn't make any sense. I don't know. I mean, I remember dating somebody who I thought I was going to marry and she's like, well, I'm not going to live with you until we're married. I was like, well, guess who's not getting married? Because that's when you really learn about each other. And I mean, you don't, you don't strike

me as a guy that leans towards hoarding. Are you? I wouldn't consider myself a hoarder. I mean, not at all in any way, but I do have like little things that I refuse to let go. Like, for example, I have from college, a, just like a box of shit. And it's mostly, I think a lot of dudes have this like cables that they, that they may or may not need and they've been like decades old so I have like the old is it RCA cables like the red the red the red yellow and uh and white ones from like

my original Xbox and I'm like you know what just in case I ever need to you know you know without World Cup 2006 um I want to have those cables ready to go even though no TV has that so I'll probably have some Ethernet cables in there that I don't use like a ton of HDMI's it's just like a lot of bullshit cables that I have that I refuse to have those cables ready to go. You know, no TV has that. So I'll probably have some Ethernet cables in there that I don't use, like a ton of HDMIs. It's just like a lot of bullshit cables that I have

that I refuse to throw away. But it's a box, right? It's a box of just shit. Yeah, there's like a broken... Everybody gets a box. Yeah, there's a broken Quinnipiac bobblehead in there for some reason. And Matty's like, why do you have this stuff?

You're never going to need it. I'm like, ah, because I have it in this box and I've had it for this long. I might as well just keep it going. It doesn't take up that much space. Yeah, one box. I've got some... I have my in this box and I've had it for this long. I might as well just keep it going. It doesn't take up that much space. Yeah, one box. I've got some. I have my minor league baseball demo tape that I've never listened to.

Ooh. Auction? Charity auction? Yeah, seriously. I have my beta. Come on. I have my beta demo reel from when I was sending it out. You know, you would actually pay somebody to take your,

like it was all on these beta tapes. Cause I guess they were just more durable. And, uh, I think they might've been easier to edit off of too, whatever it doesn't make it. So I had a guy make them and then make VHS tapes off of it. And I had a bunch of those left over that I was sending out to stations all over the place. And I thought I wanted to be an anchor. So I can't chuck those. Um, but I, you know, I know that I'm not a hoarder. There's definitely stuff I could clean out. I do have stuff, but I, it's a weird, it's a weird deal when you understand that somebody else that you're close to, you're like, Oh, you, you can't get rid of anything. Uh, I don't know. There's just usually, I think there was some rule that I read about once. It's like, if you haven't

touched it a year, then get rid of it. I was like, well, if I did that, then there'd be all sorts of stuff that I don't want to get rid of that I'd be getting rid of. But then there is, you know, some,

something to be said of just having a, you know, I had one buddy that literally could have thrown all of his possessions in a duffel bag up until he was about 33. Yep. And he was good with it. I mean, he didn't have,

I don't think he had a sheet on his mattress. He didn't have a TV in his bedroom. He was an early minimalist. Yeah, he was very much a minimalist. And now he's loaded and he's crushing it. And he's got a family. I think I said minimalist wrong there, but. Gotcha.

Yeah, I don't know. Now I feel like, are we being insensitive to the guy's email? Because it sucks that his mom keeps stuff all over the place and the house is a dump. But I'm just trying to get in the head of the hoarder i don't know yeah i think like it would have to be like an actual intervention you can't just be like hey ma like i'm gonna come up this weekend and help you clean up right that doesn't work

and i don't know how often that the intervention actually works well and then you know there's dumpsters involved and shit like that's probably not gonna happen right no he's he's not he's not feeling that you're gonna start putting stuff in a pile and she's gonna start taking stuff off the pile right it's it sucks it's it's pretty it's like a traumatic thing it is so my my wife is uh she does real estate commercial real estate she'll go in buildings of people and there was this one that i don't i don't know why i went with her but it was this old house of somebody who had passed away and they were hoarders. And there were just like newspapers from the eighties in there. And like, it's clearly there aren't trust me. And there's just, I mean, there's like old food. I can, you know, there's varying degrees, obviously, but I was just blown away. And it's, it's, it's terrible to see, like, it's a real problem. So, I mean, you know, you got, obviously you have to, you know, approach it with, you know, kind of delicately andately and you can't you're right you can't just go in there guns blazing be like let's just throw this shit out because it's not going to work it's going to create a problem so i know advice is probably the best is like you'd offer plane tickets to come see you i mean if you wanted

to if you wanted you can also try this where you could hire somebody tell them ahead of time and then you tell your mother hey i want to do this this. I know maybe you lost track of some things, so you go to a different angle, but then that may not work because it's you set up this thing, and then this person is going to be this organizer. They're going to come in, and they're going to start telling your mom she needs to throw these things away. And again, the value part of this cannot be overlooked. If she has this value attachment, she sees these objects that you see as garbage, it's worth something, then she doesn't care if some organizer comes in with all sorts of label makers and want to chuck stuff it's going to freak her out so not an easy idea crazy idea buy her the plane tickets hire the guys to go in while she's with you clear it out

it's done better idea bottle rocket this fly her out fly the family out hire local teenagers or early 20s and bottle rocket uh to steal everything and be like whoa all right now now i don't now i don't think we're being nice so all right we'll stop ourselves there enjoy the rest of your week we'll talk to you on wednesday that we're gonna have really cool podcasts coming up with terrell davis um so excited about that talk to you wednesday please subscribe. Thanks to Kyle and Steve. Thank you.