The Ryen Russillo Podcast - The Tua Story With Ryan Fitzpatrick, Plus Herbert, Burrow, Lawrence's Best Wins, and Ohio State vs. Alabama for Outrage

Episode Date: November 28, 2022

Russillo shares his five most important takeaways from the NFL weekend (0:45) before he is joined by Ryan Fitzpatrick to discuss his first year of broadcasting, Tua Tagovailoa’s growth as a QB, the two distinct phases of Ryan’s NFL career, stories, rapid-fire questions, and more (12:41). Next Ryen talks about Ohio State’s loss to Michigan, and what the polls will do with Alabama and Ohio State after the college football weekend (45:17), before answering some listener-submitted Life Advice questions (57:29). Host: Ryen Russillo Guest: Ryan Fitzpatrick Producer: Kyle Crichton Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

looking forward to this ryan fitzpatrick we're going to talk his career we're going to talk about tua in the beginning and then who he's become um the dynamic of being fresh out of the league to now working in the media this is going to be a lot of fun and we'll do five questions with him we're going to bring that back because I just thought about it today as opposed to all the other times I forget. NFL Week 12, five most important things and a recap of the TBD part of the

college football playoff committee with the losses and a couple teams that we're going to be looking at. Ohio State and Alabama. What are they going to do with them this week? And of course, life advice. This episode is brought to you by Uber Eats. Winner is here, so be prepared and get almost anything delivered with Uber Eats. What are they going to do with them this week? And of course, life advice. delicious crumb topping? Total yes. Get almost, almost anything delivered with Uber Eats. Order now. Alcohol and select markets.

Product availability may vary by region. See app for details. Week 12, NFL. Five most important things. Hanging out, watching football on a Sunday. Here's what we got.

A Heisman moment for Trevor Lawrence. A two-point conversion. A win against the Baltimore Ravens. Remember, since we said we liked Jacksonville when they were 2-1, they beat the LA Chargers. They went 1-6. Their defense is not

good. It's not the worst, but it's 21st after this weekend. Offense is kind of good. Close to being a top-10 offense, depending on what numbers you want to look at. But this is Trevor Lawrence's best game of the season against a Baltimore defense

that had kind of been feasting on bad offenses. Remember we said we liked Baltimore here on the podcast after 3-3. They went to 7-3. Now they're 7-4. Baltimore also had this absurd run of losing 10-point leads or more in the fourth quarter. So I just kind of felt like putting it all together and an easier schedule that

Baltimore was going to go on some kind of run here, and they did. But Jacksonville got them here. Look, it's Trevor Lawrence's, I don't know if it's a breaking out moment. I don't know if it's a writing the ship moment for Jacksonville because, again, I do respect Baltimore here. But let's go to those last two throws. They're trying to come back, go in the length of the field. They almost screw it up on a turnover. But the last two throws, a third and sixth is Zay Jones for 29 yards.

And here's what I loved about it. Zay catches it with 31 seconds left. They run up, no spike. In this spot, I hate the spike because you have no idea what's going to happen um the seconds that you're going to save aren't really saved in this moment and i feel like the spike strategy should be more malleable anyway so it snapped at 19 seconds that throw to his right to marvin jones for the touchdown was an incredible throw it looked he knew immediately what he was doing, but considering the coverage and that he's throwing against the sideline of the end zone, that ball had to be perfect and it had some real

torque on it and everything else. I loved that throw and catch. It's caught at like 14 or 15 seconds left. Of course, the home clock operator ran it down to like 12. They put time back on. So you're not really losing any time in that moment because even if you spike it at 19 and then you're snapping it and then you run the play, you're losing whatever seconds are going to be there in the first place. And sometimes you have to spike it because it's a longer play and everybody's running up and there's guys that just aren't around.

But I felt like considering where the catch was and then where the touchdown catch was, it was perfect execution. Really, what this comes down to as well is great communication with a guy like Doug Peterson, who knows the position, has coached in big moments, and everybody having a plan. That, I thought, was perfect execution. Then a little bit more Peterson on this as they're reviewing the touchdown catch. He sends out the kicking team to tie for the extra point. Then they run out the two-point team there late. A Zay Jones again.

Is it something to build on for Jacksonville? I don't know. It felt like it. It felt like a big moment for Trevor Lawrence, who we've had some times this season where you're going, oh, I thought they were going to take this step forward, but the offense is probably better than you realize, and I think that's a really good

win against Baltimore. Can I add something that seems irrelevant, but I just love it? Every time Lamar Jackson talks, every time he's doing something, I just love it. I was lucky enough to interview him twice. He's still one of my favorite college players I've ever seen, just throwing on Louisville games because he just embarrassed everybody all the time. When Jacksonville's driving, I think after they threw the touchdown, waiting the extra point, which ultimately ended up being the two-point conversion, they show Lamar on the

sideline laughing and kind of smiling. There's times where I'll see guys after a brutal loss with way too big of a smile on their face at midfield, yucking it up with a guy they played in college with. I'm like, man, you're really okay with this but as what i always kind of remind people like once you're once you're in it like they process losses much better than you do in your jersey on the couch okay they a lot of them do a lot of them do i don't even know that's a negative but in this moment i felt like with lamar he's just looking around being like, hey, this is fun and I'm having fun out here. And then hell, when Tucker lines up that kick, I think all of us would admit it for a small moment. We're like, is he going to bang this from

67 yards and Baltimore is going to pull this one out? The other thing I like with Lamar too is when he wipes out somebody on the sidelines, he actually cares how they're doing after he crushes them. The other guy I noticed that with was Stephon Diggs. Does it mean anything? Probably not. I just like it. Number two, Cincinnati. A game that could go either way in their win against Tennessee. Tannehill's clearly still hurt.

On the other side for Cincinnati, Jamar Chase is out of this game as well. Mixon's out, but P. Ryan's been pretty good. Burrow was only sacked one time. We remember watching Burrow going against the Titans in the playoffs. Revenge, clearly, I don't care what Tennessee said, you're the one seed, you lose at home to Cincinnati, goes on to the Super Bowl.

You've got to be thinking about that all week long. I know Jeffrey Simmons was. He's become one of my favorite players in the NFL this season. He might be the angriest dude ever. I think other grown men that are in the NFL are actually legitimately afraid of him, and they should be. Burrell only is sacked one time after looking like he was going to make it out of that

second quarter a year ago. An awful penalty on the field goal attempt that was going to put Cincinnati up a touchdown, but instead it allows them to run the clock. Shout out to Ian Eagle who was on it immediately. Immediately knew the clock math, was like, oh, the game's over, game's over.

Penalty for messing with the center, lining up on the snap there. So Tennessee's still third in the AFC seeding. Cincinnati is seventh today, so obviously a huge win against that front and the revenge part that we've already addressed. Cincinnati has a brutal stretch their last six games. It's against four playoff teams and New England, who's technically

an eight seed today as of this morning. It's the fourth toughest remaining schedule. Tennessee is now averaging 5.6 points in the second half of games this season, which is the second worst in the NFL. Guess who's the worst? We'll get to them a little bit later. They're

located in Colorado. Number three, Chargers' best win of the season. Let's run through them. Who are their wins against? Las Vegas, the Texans, the Browns. That was a close one. The Broncos, close one. Falcons, close one.

Man, all their wins are pretty close here. They haven't blown out anybody. You're telling me, okay, hey, Rosillo, seriously? The Cardinals, that's your best win? I don't know. It felt like it. Seems wrong, but I'm going with it. Arizona's first game with Hopkins and Brown in the lineup this season. Arizona takes a 24-17 lead to start the fourth quarter. Then six straight punts. On Arizona's last punt, Kyler took a sack to make it third and 16.

That put the ball at the Arizona four yard line. The punt return set up the chargers at the Arizona 38. You kind of just watch this going. Yep. I think it felt like maybe Arizona will have some nice moment and we can all watch it on Amazon together. Nope. Right down the field touchdown.

And then the two point conversion staying with the theme of Sunday aggressiveness. I do love how all the commentators after it works. It's like, I love it. I love it. Do you? I had no problem, especially Jacksonville. Who cares?

The Chargers, I felt like, would probably win that game if they tied it up. I don't know. if they tied it up. I don't know. The two-point play has to be maddening if you're in the film room for Arizona's defense on that one. Everett, number seven, the tight end for the Chargers, who I really like. They ran a bunch to the right side,

and Simmons, number nine, the linebacker, sort of everything position guy. Remember him? He just got confused as hell. Watched the wrong stuff, stepped outside Everett trails, clear out route in very short amount of space, and

Everett's just wide open. So Arizona now 4-8 with the 8th toughest schedule remaining. The Chargers are now 4-2 in games trailing by double digits, which seems crazy. All right, number four, the Matt Cainer Run Support Award.

Some of you were like, who? And some of you were like, wow. That goes to Derek Carr. I don't know what it is with Derek Carr lately. I'm just starting to feel for the guy. I'm sort of rooting for him. They win in Seattle in overtime. They were 2-7.

Yay. They've won back-to-back games now at Denver, at Seattle. You're going to get that excited about it, 4-7. Maybe it's because Derek Carr broke down recently and I felt bad for him. But the reason I bring up the Matt Cain run support deal is that

this is a team that's 28th on defense, which seems crazy with just one guy like Max Crosby who was just who could have had charges pressed against him yesterday. That's how violent he is. He's unbelievable. that are pretty good, but what does it really mean? They don't seem to win enough. It seemed like Gruden wanted to replace him a lot. But if you look at the expected points added thing that Sando uses all the time, which is just a good way of going,

okay, what does the quarterback do? And then what does defense, what does the special teams do? The Raiders are at 28th in EPA, the combination of what defense and special teams are doing this season. Not good, not good. But it gets worse. But wait, there's more. For his career, they tabulated this at the end of last season. For his career, for the 41 quarterbacks that qualified during that time,

if you added up how good or bad the defense and special team support is, Carr was 41st. 41 out of 41 that qualified. The worst supported, so that's why it's the Matt Cain rule. I'm not saying he's great. I'm not, but. Okay, lastly, this week with Wilson. Here's a stat for you. Going into this week

and their loss against Carolina with their third quarterback this season, if Denver had averaged or let's say this way, not averaged, scored 20 points in all of their games this season,

which a 20-point-per-game average would be the 23rd best-scoring offense in the NFL this season. So if they just were, again, average total points, we understand how math works here, but if they had just scored 20 points in all their games this season, which is something you probably thought

was going to happen with Russell Wilson, they would have been 8-2 coming in. 20 wouldn't have got it done against the Panthers this week, though. I know that they had three wide receivers that were undrafted in uniform, left tackle, center, on IR. There's a stat out there where they may have the most starters going to IR, which is some kind of hope, perhaps, that this Russell Wilson contract

that's like almost $15 million a year, the extension, isn't going to be the worst deal in the NFL and historically one of the worst because, again, I can't believe it. But Mike Purcell, defensive lineman, yelling at Russell Wilson on the sideline, I have no idea what happened there. I need to know. I'm going to work really hard to try to figure out what was said. To Purcell's credit, after the game in front of the locker, he was awesome about it. He was like, look, I was just wanting to get them fired up. I just got the penalty. I was so mad at myself.

We're all in this together. We didn't even get a stop. On and on and on. So I thought he handled it really well, credit to him. But the look on the faces in the moment just made me think like Wilson was kind of like, all right, cool. Nobody likes me because we're not scoring any points. right, cool. Nobody likes me because we're not scoring any points. Looking forward to doing this for a while. Ryan Fitzpatrick, NFL vet and now current part of the Amazon broadcast team joins us. What's up, man? Thanks for doing this.

Yeah, no problem. Happy to join you this morning. So the first year that you're really out, what's it been like for you when it's real? It's actually, it's been nice. I wasn't sure, you know, last year was kind of transition year for me because I got hurt week one and kind of, you know, got to see what retirement would look like a little bit. It's been nice getting to spend more time at home. it's been nice getting to spend more time at home. It's been nice still being involved in the game, traveling on Thursdays to go watch, to catch up with buddies on other teams and coaches.

But it's also nice not, you know, the grind, the taking the hits, the play and hurt, all that stuff. I'm at peace with my decision. And it's been fun to be a fan this year and to step back and watch and see all this unfold. I assume you got a call though, right? Like has anyone reached out this year? Did you have a moment where you're in the car going, I got one more, I got one more season in me another couple of weeks.

I told, I told my agents, I don't want to, even if anybody calls, I don't want to hear about it because I'm part of it too. I mean, had a pretty serious hip injury last year. I think I would be able to play, but I'm still not a hundred percent sure. I still have some issues with that. Now being part of the media this quickly, knowing that there's somebody, because whenever I'd work with somebody, if it was somebody who had just left, it was always a a bit challenging and then maybe you get a little bit more seasoned there's

less guys you know you might change your approach what's the approach been like for you having this be so recent that you're you know you're going from playing to being on a real prime time you know display there for the Thursday night game yeah I mean with with our crew I mean there's three of us that are right off the field. It's me, it's Richard Sherman, and it's Andrew Whitworth. Carissa Thompson has been a true pro and a vet, just kind of, you know,

allowing us to figure it out as we go. And then we've got Tony, who's worked for a couple different networks and is kind of the uncle at the Thanksgiving table that tells joke and jokes and says inappropriate things at times and you know has some maturity to them um but it's been a lot of fun i think the thing that i thought i would struggle with more is being critical being critical of friends being crew you know that i bring this story up a lot, but before our Denver game,

Nathaniel Hackett is a dear friend of me. He recruited Sherm to Stanford. I mean, there's some ties there where we we know him very well. Tony knows his dad very well. But I think as long as you're fair, as long as what you're saying, isn't coming from a place of attacking somebody because you don't like them personally, but you're fair about evaluating what has happened throughout the season. Um, that part hasn't been as challenging to me. I think I've very easily been able to, you know, make sure to watch film on a guy or a team and tell what I think and not necessarily worry about the feelings that much. I can figure this out without knowing it and I'll set this up a little bit better, but there are so many times where I'd have an opinion in the 20 years of doing this.

And then if I got lucky enough to know somebody a little bit later on that was involved with the team and they go, Hey, you know, that thing you said, this is actually what happened. And it's haunting, right? And I can't imagine how many times you as a player at all the stops where you'd see something or hear about some reaction, something happening. You're going, that's not even close to what actually went down. And it happens so much that it actually makes me sort of hate the job a little bit. What is it like now for you watching, knowing you've got to form these opinions? You're like, now I'm not in the, I'm not in the room all week.

I don't know what the hell, you know what I mean? Like that's, it's going to be frustrating, but at the same time, it's the job. Yeah. I mean, those, those things are very interesting because, you know, at one point being on the inside, you know, going back to even like when Flores decided to binge me and put Tua in, all the stories that came about from that, I was just sitting there like, wait a minute, I'm involved in this. And that's not what happened. But because one person says it, then somebody else picks it up, then somebody else picks it up. It sort of spins into the perceived truth of what's going on. So that part as a player is really frustrating. say to, I don't want to call to and say, Hey, what really happened? You know, I like, you never want to betray that trust or that confidence to figure out kind of what's going on on the inside. So, um, you know, you give an informed take, but, uh, it is weird being on the

outside looking in now. Um, and, and I said this, you know, when we had two in the dolphins, I was like hoping to sit down and get an interview with them, you know, which like, wow, how things have changed in the last few years. All right. I want to hit on that because I said after week one, I was like, I just, it was a carryover of everything that happened to it. And part of it was because I thought Tua was going to be so good coming out. And, you know, you're back and forth with him, his rookie year from the guy that you beat out in camp two years ago to who he is now. What has this been like for you to see these completely different versions of him looking like he's going to be the guy for a long time now? Yeah, it's awesome. And I think, you know, if you just look at that Miami organization, they almost tried to replace them every year since they drafted them, too.

There was the Tom Brady rumors, you know, there was trying to get draft picks to do all these different things. But, you know, he is a guy when you know him on a personal level, you know, meet him, get to know him as a human being, you root for him. You root for him because he's a great kid because he works hard. And, you know, there's, he's just very polarizing. You know, you can't be wishy-washy on tua you love him or you hate him that's kind of wherever he stands on him and the biggest thing

with him this year mike mcdaniel came in and immediately just he gave him so much confidence every meeting that they had every practice was about building up Tua, was about giving him confidence. And he's a guy that feeds off that and needs that. And he's been rewarded, Coach McDaniel has, because he has trusted the guy. He has put an offense around him and playmakers around him that play to Tua's strengths. And so it's been a great year, you know, for him, especially since, you know, the injuries and the concussion that we had on Thursday night, which was a really scary scene for him to come back and play as well as he has. And for that team to really be mentioned right now, it's, it's fun to watch. Can we go back to 2000 then and, and help us understand kind of what that dynamic was like where, you know, you win the job and then he gets his first start and then he gets benched and then you come in and then look, he ended up being the starter because you understand where he's drafted. He ends up being the starter the rest of the way. And I know it was weird too,

because you had done an interview, I think it was Robert Mays, where you had said, I was floored that I ended up not starting that last game. And it turned into like this weird thing it's like he can still like Tua and be surprised by the the decision but it's clear that Flores you know felt like he almost had to play him can you help us understand that dynamic a little bit better of what was going on in that first year yeah I think uh so you know with COVID going on too we had our bye week around. I think initially it was week 11, then it went to week seven. So I think all along the plan was, hey, let's, let's, you know, let Tua watch some of these games. Let's let Fitz play for a little bit. And then when this bi-week hits, let's go ahead and make the change.

Easier to transition. Yeah. So easier to transition a quarterback in the bi-week, you give them a few extra practices, get them up to speed, get him working with some guys. So when the when COVID kind of screwed up our schedule and accelerated that bye week to week seven, I think it accelerated the plan of what they were going to do and putting him in. And look, I, you know, I just wanted to be open and honest about how I felt. That being said, I was 100% supportive of Tua. You know, I was in those meetings trying to help them out and practice trying to help them out. Because that was my role. I knew that at some point that was going to happen. That's been my career. I've been the placeholder. They usually draft a young guy and I try to bring them along. guy and I try to bring him along. So I knew that was going to happen, which is kind of shock at the timing of when it happened. But you know,

now looking, looking at where we're at now with Miami, you know, that stuff, it was, he probably wasn't ready to play yet. Admittedly for him, probably a little early, it was an offense that was foreign to him, maybe didn't suit his strengths. But that experience and even those struggles that he had, I think, have helped him along the way and helped him become the player that he is now. Okay, let's go back to your start. I remember it was so funny when you started with the Rams because then it was like, do you guys know we went to Harvard? And it was like, I was annoyed for you without knowing you,

because it was just this idea that it was like. And then what? Did you win Offensive Player of the Week coming in, in your first start? Yeah, so it actually, I didn't start the game. Right, right. So 2005, Mark Bolger was the starter for the Rams. It was kind of the tail end of greatest show on turf. Mark got hurt.

A guy named Jamie Martin, who was the backup at the time, started against Houston. He ends up getting hurt. So I come in, we're down 21 points, throw for over 300 yards, three touchdowns. We win the game in overtime on a quick screen that went like 50 yards to Kevin Curtis. I threw touchdowns to Isaac Bruce and Torrey Holt in that game. I had no idea what I was doing.

And when NFC Offensive Player of the Week, the Harvard kid, first Harvard quarterback to ever throw a pass in the NFL. So that was a bit of a whirlwind. And then I started a few weeks after that and quickly came crashing back down to earth. Yeah, there was a four-pick game? No, it was five.

It was five? Yeah, it was five. I still, when I go to bed at night sometimes, that was versus Minnesota at Minnesota. I still hear that horn. You know, the... It was like... That was a tough one but uh okay but let's let's go you come into relief you light it up you win this game huge comeback were you because when i was

going back and looking i was like i'm gonna give you two were you like shit this is kind of easy or were you like oh my god i am not this good probably probably more of the first probably man this oh no this this nfl isn't what it was cracked up to be like this you know yeah it's harder to go against these guys on defense but now i've got better players on my side too but you know that that false confidence carried with me throughout my career. I mean, that was a lot of, you know, what made my career and who I was, there was such an inflated sense of self and, you know, my arm talent and everything else. Uh, but that also breeding that confidence helped me along the way and helped others that I was playing with, um, and got me into trouble sometimes too.

So that's what I always thought was really interesting about your careers. We know the Fitzmagic part of it. You'd be like, oh, here we go. And then there would be these runs. And then it felt like, and maybe you can correct me on this, like Buffalo, when you got the extension, it was like, okay, finally a landing place. This is going to matter. And then it doesn't work out.

New coach comes in. He wants his guy, moves on. It felt like fair or unfair that when you were the starter, that maybe it was a new staff, new regime, but it was always like, can we do a little bit better than this? And I don't know if that's how you felt about it. And sometimes you're like, maybe you're okay. And then maybe you should go ahead and replace somebody if you want to, if you feel

like you can raise your ceiling. What is that role like essentially for your entire career? Cause it's gotta be frustrating. Yeah. But I also embraced it, you know, and I think you can, you could almost draw a line. Uh, I had two different halves of my career. Uh, I think, you know, the first one was up until I got to Houston in 2014. And then 2014 and beyond was that second part of my career. And that was the start of,

okay, if I'm looking for these starting jobs every year, I'm going to go to a team that's not very good, but needs a bridge. They need somebody to try to write the ship for a year while they can buy themselves some time to draft a guy, develop a guy, whatever it is. And 2014 in Houston was my first experience with that. And I embraced that role. I ended up really loving it. The downside was my family was moving every year, every other year. downside was my family was moving every year, every other year. But the great part of it was I got to go to these teams. I got to 100% be myself. I got to play without fear. I just got to go out there and be and give other guys confidence. And then it was just, okay, you've done it for a year. Look, we're moving on. We think we can find better.

Okay, you've done it for a year or two. And it just constantly went in that cycle. But I really enjoyed it. I really enjoyed that role. Who's the best quarterback you were teammates with where you thought if he could ever figure it out, if he ever had the right system, coaches that we may not know about, who's the best player that you can think of?

I mean, the best that I ever played with was Carson Palmer. I mean, I sat behind Carson and played with him. And obviously, he had the career that he had, and he's a Heisman Trophy winner and number one pick. I mean, Jake Locker was always a guy that I loved, that injuries got in the way. Maybe it wasn't ever the perfect system for him. Uh, was an incredible athlete, human being and leader, but it just never really hit for him. And then I could say this now, cause he's playing great. Oh, Gino Smith. I knew it.

I knew it back in 15 and 16, that Gino was going to do what he's doing now. Uh, that's been, that's been remarkable to see, you know, the hiatus from him playing to what he's doing now. That's been remarkable to see the hiatus from him playing to what he's doing this year. He's always the guy that could spin the football. You just sit there and watch him in shorts and you're like, holy smokes.

How am I a quarterback in the NFL next to this guy and the way that he throws? But I think he's matured over the years and he's figured some things out and he's obviously having a great season.

I'm so glad you said Jake Locker because Van Pelt used to make fun of me and says because there was like a couple weeks where i watched him i was like i think he's actually i think i think we have something here because he was obviously we all know what a sick athlete he was and he couldn't be more like not the nfl rock star quarterback yeah yeah yeah you're right. I mean, just a great locker room dude. Didn't want any of the notoriety or the fanfare that came with it, but maybe it was a little bit ahead of his time. Some of this RPO stuff. If you look at what Jalen Hurts is doing right now,

I don't know that he was as big and physical of a runner as Jalen is, but Jake fits better in this NFL than he did eight, nine years ago. Okay, that's perfect transition. You're good at this. How much different do you think it is now where coaches go, why are we fighting with the talent that we have there?

Why are we trying to smash these squares into a round hole here, whether it's what they're doing with Jalen? I mean, when I look at what Mike McDaniel's doing with Tua now, I go, you know, can you clone this guy? Can, you know, should another team offer three first rounders for him?

You know what I mean? Like, it just seems like there's no longer, well, there is in some spots, but there's a shift towards helping the quarterback as much as possible where, you know, I've talked to enough guys. It feels like, as much as possible where you know i've talked to enough guys it feels like as absurd as it may seem from the outside that is not the norm yeah i mean we we had the game in chicago this year when me and richard sherman are banging our heads against

the desk like what you know luke getzey came from green bay and they are running Green Bay's offense with Justin Fields and trying to make him a drop back pocket passer. And you sit there and you watch how dynamic of a runner this guy is. I mean, he is, it is Lamar Jackson, Justin Fields, Jalen Hurts, and everybody else, basically. And Josh Allen's in there too, but he's such a dynamic playmaker with the ball in his hands. And it's drop back pass, drop back pass, drop back pass, get him out of the pocket, design some runs for him. And the bye hit when it did for them, which was after that Thursday night game, I believe. They went and they watched Lamar film.

And you've seen what Justin Fields has done in his last four games. He's setting records for running the ball and it just puts so much pressure on a defense that being said the downside of it is well now he's got a shoulder injury you know so these guys i think some teams are very uh hesitant to run the quarterback as much as they do because of the injuries you got to be smart it. You got to have a real durable guy. But that being said, the Justin Fields thing was a very obvious look, square peg, round hole. Why don't we just give in and play to his strengths? Because he has a few things that are absolutely elite and they have and you've seen where their offense has gone the last four or five weeks. Who was your favorite play

caller? I mean, I have to say Chan Gailey. I was with him in three different places. He was the guy that gave me the ultimate freedom. You know, when we talk about Mike McDaniel and Tua and confidence, you know, Chan was the guy that I just, as a quarterback, you can always feel the confidence of a play caller when the plays are coming in. So there's sometimes where the plays are calling in and you're like, oh my God, like, you know, they don't want me to touch the ball here. They want to take the ball out of my hands. Why are they calling such careful play? You know, that kind of stuff where Chan always gave me the ultimate freedom, always gave

me the ultimate confidence. So he was the guy that I'd love playing for. Do they, you know, when you're trying to figure out like, Hey, what are you like, right? You know, every time we'll hear the NFL mic'd up thing or the midweek re-air with some of the audio, which I still think the NFL should just do one of those games, start to finish, with editing all the different sound bites throughout it to tell a real story. It'll be like, hey, what do you like? What do you like?

They're like, oh, I like this. I don't like that. What goes into calculating, is it arm talent? Is it the looks? Because it's always fun when it works like we don't we don't really ever get that audio and the guy's like ah i like this i like he throws a pick six the other way but that that relationship of of truly understanding like okay in this moment third and whatever like we don't want to be predictable but i don't want to ask you to do

something you're not comfortable with yeah it's it's a really important relationship. And I think sometimes with young quarterbacks, they don't know what they like. You have to teach them. You have to show them the way. You have to design a play and show them why you're putting it in. Not just say, okay, progression one, two, three, but actually sit down and explain it to them. Look, these are the four looks I think we're going to get here. If we get pressure, I've got this built in for you. If we don't, we've got our best receiver one-on-one and just sit and explain, you know, why you like certain plays. And with some of these young guys, you can, you can kind of talk them into some of these plays and get them to love them. But there's

certainly as you get older, you know, when get them to love them. But there's certainly, as you get older, when you watch Aaron Rodgers play, there's stuff that he likes and doesn't like. And if there's a play call that he doesn't like, he's going to show some visible frustration. Whenever I looked at some of the dual threat guys, I would go, okay, but eventually, the analogy I would make is that it's awesome if awesome if you have a a great pool in the back with a sick deck and a little Cabana but at some point like your house has to work you know and that to me was was beating people from the pocket you know like the and when you look at some of the running quarterbacks you could see you know pretty quickly like okay those rushing totals start going down and down. Now, Lamar's kind of changed that.

Fields is special. Even like Allen on that big third down, he's like, I'm not sliding, and the defensive back's going to lose. Mahomes again yesterday, just so frustrating. And you were a guy that was really more of a dual threat, you know, than people realize, maybe going back. What did you run in the 40 by the way i ran a 488 so it was always because they're like man no way this guy's running he's a four okay all

right yeah so it was it was more nothing to do with athleticism a little to do with craziness in the head and a little to do with they either weren't expecting it or I snuck up on him. But with Patrick Mahomes, though, he's a reluctant runner. He doesn't want to run. He wants to make plays from the pocket. He wants to get outside of the pocket and throw that ball down the field. It's almost like, okay, they've taken away these options. I need to hurt them with my legs. And you can see him making that conscious decision.

And he comes up with some of these big runs. But Patrick Mahomes is not the most athletic quarterback in the world either. He's a guy that's a reluctant runner but can really punish you because when you give him certain looks, he knows that the best option is for him to take all. I think that's a really great way to say it because I think that's what I'd want. I want a reluctant runner who could still run. I don't want what I always feel like with some of the young guys,

because in college, you can kind of get away with it. And it was always one of my concerns with Hertz was the one read and then I'm comfortable running. I think Fields is probably still in that mode right now too. And I don't really blame him considering the talent and the O-line and everything that he's dealing with. But it feels the evolution of the position now is if you think you're just going to not pressure the outside and hold up our defensive ends with a little bit of eye magic here. If you're trying to win that way now, that almost feels outdated. Yeah. And with somebody like Fields, somebody that's still early in their career

trying to get past that first read in a progression the play caller can also help that out the play caller can get him outside the pocket give him more time to look down field to say hey one two no check down three and also use that arm talent. I mean, he throws the ball, the deep ball, he throws very well, you know, so give him, give him some stuff where he has more time to escape the pocket to set up and just easily go one, two, three, instead of having to make such quick decisions and process, um, which, which by the way, and I don't know if we need to get into this or not, but I just watched the Jets game this morning and Mike White, just because I was interested, you know,

why does the offense look so different when he's in the game than when Zach was in the game? Mike White can process. He is hitting that back foot. It's either one hit or two, and the ball is coming out. And he's making the right decision a lot of the time. He had the Buffalo game where he had the four picks picks but he is going to help that offense so much because the ball comes out all of a sudden the offensive line looks better all of a sudden garrett wilson all of a sudden elijah

moore is now a superstar again you know there's these things that happen when guys get back there and make the right decisions and throw on rhythm all all of a sudden, LaFleur is a better play caller with Mike White in there. It's pretty amazing to watch. What is the difference between seeing it all and not seeing anything? Goalies in hockey will go, hey, this is a certain night. The puck looks like it's the size of an aspirin. It doesn't mean you're different. It's just that night. What's that like with a quarterback? The difference like moments or a story that you have about, I'm in a rhythm, I'm feeling great. And then, you know, you hit the wrong matchup and all of a sudden it's taking you two, three quarters to figure out what's going

on. Yeah. I mean, sometimes, sometimes you go into a game, you know, New England's a great example. You go into a game versus New England and you know what you're going to get. There's not going to be a whole lot of confusion with the Bills, with a couple of these other teams. They're going to disguise some stuff. You're not going to be sure if it's a deep half safety or if he's sitting low in like a quarters look. There's some stuff post-snap that you're going to have to process. So it's not just you making the right throws, but it's you figuring out the scheme as the game goes on. How are they playing you? Whereas you go against a team like New England, and that is all almost predetermined. You know the four looks that they're going to give you all game. There's going to be very little disguise,

but they're going to challenge you. They're going to take away number one, they're going to take away number two, and they're going to make you beat them with players that aren't necessarily your go-to guys and so that's just a different challenge that they present to offenses um but it's it's a fun one too because you know it's fun going against somebody like belichick and you just know he's sitting in their scheming and uh you know you try to figure it out with your guys so you're actually saying it's not complicated against Belichick? No, the New England defense is not complicated. They're just very good at what they do, and they're going to challenge you.

So if you're throwing an in-cut and you throw the in-cut two yards behind your receiver, then that may end up being an interception. If you're not prepared when they come cover zero and they pop somebody out and you think you can throw it over the middle and the defensive lineman or backer jumps up and picks it off, you know, they're going to put stuff on you and they're going to challenge you to make sure you're making the right decision and making the correct throw.

Can you tell the difference between, because every now and then, like I'll be watching something and then like i'll you know be watching something i'd be like hey look at this guy he went 21 to 28 he threw for 287 you know touchdown no picks but he's getting his yards between the 20s you know there's like these some of these stats you'll look at and be like wow statistically that guy had a nice box score game. But when it came down to a few missed third downs or kick and field goals, he loses the game. Can you tell the difference between the QBs that kind of live in those in between the 20s and aren't really the guy? Yes. Yes. And also, the ones that really take advantage of, you know, being down two or three scores and just you know thinking about the stats

and knowing that oh completions checkdowns this yes there's there's definitely some guys in the league uh that that are like that that you always know their their stats are going to be padded at the end of the year but then look they're going to have their 4 000. They're going to have their 26 to 7 ratio. And when teams go to sign guys at the end of the year or make trades or whatever, then it's easy to hang your hat on. We'll look at what he did statistically. Yeah. We need to normalize down 14 touchdowns or down double digit touchdowns in the fourth quarter to see how many you have at the end of the year. Yeah. And I think you have the old quarterback rating and then you have the ESPN QBR thing. And I think the QBR tried to do that. They tried to specifically

look at situations and weight situations based on where you're at in the game so it's it's not a perfect system by any means but it's much better than the normal quarterback rating system did you ever do it where you were thinking about like closing the game out being like i want to get another 70 yards well i i always laugh i always laugh at like the you know hail mary at the end of the half uh and then the qB checks to the, oh, no, no, no, let's throw the quick one and get 30 yards. We didn't get it, but then you jog off with a smile into the locker room at halftime.

That's a great call. Yeah, that's kind of like the anti-Ray Allen, but sort of the same. Ray Allen would get the inbounds and then take an extra step waiting for the buzzer to go off to heave it so it didn't mess up the skill goal percentage. And I would argue like over the course of 82 games, granted, these guys aren't playing 82 anymore, but it's like, just what are we talking about? Seven attempts a season that you're going to miss? Like don't, or let's not inbound it to

you. Like we'll give it to the backup or something. He used to always take this extra step knowing the buzzer was going to go off and that it wasn't going to mess up his field goal percentage. I like stats. As you get older, you realize stats matter. Stats really matter. Just like in the combine. You can say, well, we drafted this guy because he ran a 4-4 instead of the

guy that ran a 4-6. It's easier to be able to back that decision up. All right, it's time for five questions. Okay, let's close this out. Ryan Fitzpatrick, five questions. Always shout out Craig Kilbourne for this because we know it's his idea. All right. Do you have any idea what the number one Googled question about Ryan Fitzpatrick is?

I would say, is he married? Just because all the ladies are always Googling. That's number two. How many kids does he have? Yeah, no, then that's that.

No one knows. There's Russian websites that are like, we do not have enough information, but he's very attractive and tall. I love those. I love those weird celebrity information sites they're written in like croatia they don't make any sense whatsoever like mine is like he is tall but not gay and i'll be like okay let's those are two quick hitters um so all right here we go

one question what was the number is he a Hall of Famer? That's great. That's just me searching it all day. Me and my kids just typing in, is he a Hall of Famer? I just like that it's even in the mix as a question. That's a huge honor. That's hilarious. Did you ever go to my favorite dive bar ever, the CanTab?

No. No? God, youvard got a tight ship over i know i'm sorry okay um what's the most awkward post-game handshake uh i think it was i think it was with Michael Vick. I had a terrible response to a question during the week. This is after the dog thing had happened with him. And I mistakenly said, just as a cliche, like it's going to be a dog fight and totally meant nothing by it. Like literally meant nothing by it.

I felt so bad. I went to the reporters after and I was like, look, that was not, it was not like a, you know, Wes Welker, Rex Ryan, foot fetish thing, total slip. Uh, I felt bad and awkward shaking his hand. That was, that was an unbelievable answer. I put you on the spot there. Okay. Uh, will you root for the bills over everyone? Yes, no doubt. Okay. Will you root for the Bills over everyone? Yes. No doubt. Okay. That's what I thought. All right. Last one here. Do you remember the

Wonder Look question you got wrong? I don't. And I get asked that a lot. But I left it blank and I don't remember. Left it blank. That's the old SA2 move. Just leave four or five of them blank, but guess on the rest of them. Thanks, man. I really the old SA2 move. Just leave four or five of them blank,

but guess on the rest of them. Thanks, man. I really enjoy you guys on Amazon. It's tough. You put that many new people together in the beginning of the season and to kind of see how it's evolved here in a very quick amount of time, you guys deserve some credit.

So thanks for the time today. Yeah, thank you very much. Okay, college football. Huge weekend, huge results. Congrats to Michigan. Incredible win at Ohio State. We're going to get to all of this. I'm not going to do my top 12 today.

I want to see what the committee does. Specifically, I want to see what they do with Bama and Ohio State. Just get ready, folks, in case that is an option. I'll get to that a little bit later, but I want to start with Michigan. Okay, a couple things here, a bunch of things. I thought Ohio State would win the game. Vegas thought Ohio State would win the game. Eight and a half point favorite.

I couldn't get past that. I didn't like J.J. McCarthy as much as C.J. Stroud. I don't think that's super controversial. Michigan's defensive number is incredible, but I went through it before the game and I looked at it. I was like, wait, let's look at who Michigan's played on offense this year. So 11 games in before Ohio State, eight of the 11 opponents had an offense that is going to finish

the college football season ranked 90th or worse on offense. All right. Of those 11 games, the average offensive output, like essentially like who those 11 teams are, if you add it up where they ranked on offense

at the end of the year, their average was the 96th best offense in college football. So I was like, man, are they really going to slow down Ohio State? Because I don't really have

a ton of sympathy for Ohio State on the injury front with the skilled guys because they just have so many more than everybody else in the Big Ten. So that's how I felt before the game. At halftime, Ohio State's up three. Like, okay, we've got a game here. And it's not, if you were to say, hey, Michigan's going to go in there and win, wasn't like michigan was ranked 23rd here or this isn't some ridiculous rivalry thing like hey you throw the records out michigan's really good okay and this is two years now of being a really good football team so this isn't some huge surprise even if i felt a certain way about it and at the half i felt like oh how's it starting to push them around a little bit a couple weird plays there are some big plays jg mccarthy like not really expense expecting this. You start breaking it open. I don't know what's going on with the DBs here.

You know, you got a 69 yard play, 75 yard play. Like, is that really what Michigan is going to do? And when I looked at the rushing numbers, Michigan 11 carries 10 yards.

Ohio State 20 carries 124. I was like, this thing's going to figure it out. And then that definitely didn't happen. J.J. McCarthy has the best game of his career, certainly this season. And then that definitely didn't happen. J.J. McCarthy has the best game of his career, certainly this season. And now he's a legend forever. He deserves it. His longest pass play, I believe, was against Hawaii this season of 54 yards.

And then he outdid that with three throws in this game. So I'm not surprised because the rivalry thing, but I guess on paper, I'm surprised. But unfortunately what happens is we go three months into this and then it's all of a sudden like, well, I'll state stunk. And I'm like, no, they didn't,

they didn't stink. They didn't stink. They lost again. And now all of a sudden you get to ask these like weird Ryan day questions about, well, wait, is,

is he the guy? And yeah, if you wanted me to do a segment on it, if I wanted to decide to be super critical of Ryan Day, I guess I could do that. I know what I would say. I know how I would carry it out. I don't know that it's entirely fair.

The same way, and actually not the same way, because what was incredibly more unfair was the fire Harbaugh crowd. You know, I am not a fire everybody guy. I think that's pretty clear. Because I don't, it just feels like an act and it doesn't feel as much like a solution as people believe that it will be.

And if I'm not around and covering team locally, I would defer to those people. I didn't realize that Scott Frost was apparently super difficult to deal with and had an awful staff, I guess. Or is that some version of events that we're hearing after the fact because it didn't work out, that we're playing the results and then saying all the things he did was wrong. But Harbaugh, who'd won everywhere and actually had Michigan rather competitive, wasn't beating

Ohio State, which this last two decades hasn't been a great run for Michigan. Maybe they're turning this thing around here. So I'm like, how different is it really? And by the way, when you fire the guys, it's not like it's some punishment because then they get to keep all the money and then you're going to pay somebody else. So, you know, they even reworked his contract because I felt like, hey, if Michigan's cool with him and he's cool with Michigan, then what's the big deal? Although that heavy, heavy flirtation with him potentially leaving for the NFL, which may pop up again made me wonder is it just him moving on because now he's been at michigan i believe twice as long as any stint that he's ever had at any other job um but michigan was never like whenever i look at somebody and go

oh they gotta get this guy out of there like this guy's not going four and eight like what the fuck and whether it's jimbo fisher now who's had a super disappointing season although we'll get to that one. Don't worry about it, folks. Just firing him and let him leave with like 90 million bucks. Like, all right, he's had a terrible year. He's had a terrible year. Like how many, like Mel Tucker.

Okay, yeah, you paid him all this money off of last season. I mean, the college contract thing is so out of control that it's like, what am I doing? I'm tacking on year 29 and 30 and 31 and you can just leave next week anyway? Like, what the fuck? So, yeah, the Mel Tucker thing was super disappointing this season coming off of what felt like,

hey, they got the guy and then he got paid all that money because there was some flirtation that, wait, will LSU go after him? I'm just not big onto, like, the idea that big program has disappointing season let's start asking some questions about the coach unless

you are boots on the ground going this is an absolute disaster and what must be done eventually must be done immediately so credit to Michigan now the score part of this is Michigan outscoring 28-3 to close it, right?

Ohio State, three punts, two picks in those last possessions. But would 45-30 make you feel better if you were on the committee? Because that seems stupid, right? Like, oh, what if they've got a pointless touchdown at the end and it wasn't a pick? 45-30. Now the committee can keep Ohio State a little bit higher. I think the committee does a much better job

than we do on social media focusing on the body of work versus the two minutes after the clock goes to zero. All right? And Ohio State needs some help, and they got some help. Clemson isn't good.

They're 10-2. They're number 10 in the AP. Don't care. But after six, you're kind of running out of teams to rank. The ACC's out. Oregon, they were up 31-10 at Oregon State, and they lost.

That was one of the all-time, like, wait, what's the score? As you start checking in and some other ones going, okay, Oregon's better than them. Plucky Beavers playing some good defense there in Corvallis. Nice season, great turnaround.

You're not going to beat the Ducks. No, you are. Dan Lanning may never go for it on fourth down in his own territory again for the rest of his career after what happened against Oregon State and then Washington a couple weeks ago. So, Oregon, who should have been playing in the Pac-12 championship game and a real chance to probably beat USC, will not be there. USC will get the rematch against Utah this Friday. Okay.

USC should beat them, but I don't know that that's some kind of lock because I just have a ton of respect for Utah. And we'll see that respect when I do my rankings on Wednesday. How about LSU getting in with two losses, but an SEC championship, which would keep Georgia probably in, in the committee's eyes,

because that was a very likely scenario. Not the LSU part winning, but I would say Georgia losing the SEC title game and still being in with everything that's happened around them. LSU, three losses, done. Do you want to hear about how talented A&M is, though? You don't?

Okay. Their last Power 5 win was September 24th. But they did lose by only four at Bama. And their quarterback, who finally is figuring some things out, was number two in his class. I'm just saying they are rather talented. LSU's 11th in the AP. Oregon's 15th. They dropped them down as well. Okay, so looking ahead to the conference championship games

and that big question about Ohio State and Alabama. So Georgia is in probably either way. Michigan's a 14.5 point favorite against Purdue. TCU's only a 2.5 point favorite in the Big 12 championship against K-State. TCU absolutely hammering their opponent within minutes this past week. than minutes this past week. USC, minus two and a half against Utah. So, Vegas respects Utah. I respect Utah. So, where does that leave us? Well, if they're all clean, then they're in. Then there's your playoffs, right? Georgia, though, oddly, they get up for the big ones.

Being down to Georgia Tech, you know, it's a bit of a freakout. Like, hey, what's going on? They seem to sleepwalk a little through some of their games. I don't know if Kentucky would fall into that. Missouri certainly would. One of their non-Power 5 opponents, pretty weak effort.

But they seem to get up for the big ones. I mean, they were so dominant against Tennessee that I don't know that I'm worried about Georgia. I'm just something to pay attention to. Okay, so what if SC or TC were to lose? Where does that put us? So that leaves us with the question that we have today, because when you look at both the AP and the coaches poll, irrelevant for the committee's exercise, Ohio State is five, dropping three spots. Alabama moves up two spots to number six. What is the committee going to do with Ohio State and Alabama

this week? Let's see what they did last week. Well, granted, Ohio State was still undefeated in number two in the committee rankings, but Alabama was behind SC at number seven, so LSU will be out of the way. Ohio State will probably be behind USC,

I would think. Never know, though. Boy, that'll piss everybody off, huh? But what really will piss everybody off is if Alabama is ahead of Ohio State today or this week in the committee rankings, which is kind of weird, too, because it's like, wait, neutral people are rooting for Ohio State? And really what neutral people are doing is rooting against Alabama. But as it stands right now, the way you would look at it, and you go, okay, what's worse?

Which brings us back to the beginning. When you look at the Ohio State final score against Michigan, you go, oh man, they got their doors kicked in 45-23. Okay, maybe. I mean, that's what it is, right? Why don't we keep a track of these numbers if that's not what it is? That's why the 45-30 thing would feel so fucking stupid. So you're saying what?

The irrelevant touchdown somehow makes that game seem closer and therefore a better argument? That's what we end up kind of doing. I'm not even saying it's wrong. I'm just pointing out how absurd it can all be. So you've got that Ohio State part of the resume against Bama, whose two losses are on last second plays to two top 11 teams in the country. The Tennessee field goal, the two-point conversion by LSU on the road. Both on the road.

So then you're going to go, wait, what's worse? Bama's two losses in those scenarios against those teams, against Ohio State, who, again, lost by 22 to what is going to be the number two team in the country. Strength of schedule, Bama's eighth, Ohio State's 34th. That's not that big of a deal. I don't think so. But people

are going to lose their minds about this one if Bama jumps Ohio State outside of the top four, because then we know what's setting up. TCU, USC, Michigan, would they lose to Purdue and still get in? Maybe.

But if Bama's back in this, again, I don't know there's going to be all sorts of sympathy for Ohio State. It's just going to be an anti-SEC thing. Here's a question I would ask. Can your dynasty be over and you're still in the playoff? We'll react to the rankings on Wednesday.

You want details? Bye. I drive a Ferrari. 355 Cabriolet. What's up? I have a ridiculous house in the South Fork. I have every toy you can possibly imagine. And best of all, kids, I am

liquid. So, now you know what's possible. Let me tell you what's required. Hope everybody had a great Thanksgiving weekend. What's up, Kyle? What's up, Kyle? How's it? Seems like it's been a while. We didn't do anything Friday. That's why it's been a while. That's why. Yeah. We took a day

off. How'd you guys do? We never do that. No, we don't. I feel like I can sort of Jedi mind trick you into maybe thinking about taking a day off more than I can, Bill. Bill was like, we'll bank one. So it's like, we didn't totally take it off, but I did have that day off. And you were just like, yeah, the day

after Thanksgiving sounds like it would be an appropriate day to not work so i'm glad you i'm glad you did that i wanted to work because then i was like oh i got all this stuff and then i i selfishly i'll admit i'll go hey kyle probably doesn't want to work so i'm going to start doing a better job with that as opposed to like when i had you work christmas because i just watched five games by myself and was like hey it'd be great crank out a christmas pot and then i can i can juice the podcast rankings and say i'm fucking number four in the world one day because nobody else is taping on christmas and i can screen grab it and tell everybody hey i have fourth biggest podcast i think i was at bills on fourth of july one year and he was like yeah so we'll just do like a quick hour and a half and I was like my whole

family was looking around like wait what's happening it's like yeah you know it's a privilege it's alright how about this if I want to release an episode on a Friday or a Christmas day moving forward I will they will do a life advice Christmas special

and then I'll release it on Christmas we'll see the ranking and we'll screen grab it we can say we're the best and that's not even work this shit doesn't even a life advice Christmas special. And then I'll, I'll release it on Christmas. We'll see the ranking and we'll screen grab it. We can say we're the best. And that's not even work. This shit doesn't even work. Life advice. Okay. What?

What? You're saying life advice doesn't work. I'm saying it's not even work. You know what? You ever heard that? Oh, it's not even work. I thought you were saying life advice does not work.

I'm like, man, we need to rebrand all of this. I, cause people, we thought we were helping people out. Anyway, uh,

email life advice, rr at gmail.com. Okay, man, we need to rebrand all of this because we thought we were helping people out. Anyway, email lifeadvicerr at gmail.com. Okay, here we go. Let's start with a little Thanksgiving love in here. 29, 5'10", 170,

scrappy wing defender. Thinks Thabo Cephalosho with less scoring. That means you're not good at basketball. I'm sorry. Like if the first way you describe your pickup game is crappy wing defender, just no offense. And Thabo could at least keep you honest. I think he developed into a decent.

Do I look that up right now? I don't think so. Yeah, I don't think so. Okay. Yeah. Keep it rolling, Kyle. Is that what you're saying? Don't get into a Thabo Cephalosha 10-minute wormhole, which I don't think so. Okay. Yeah, keep it rolling, Kyle. Is that what you're saying? Yeah.

Don't get into a thabocephalosia 10-minute wormhole, which I'm totally capable of. Okay, so recently spent Thanksgiving with my family and another family we were very close with. They have a son I've known since first grade. These are OGs, first grade OGs. We still see each other from time to time, but our parents are especially tight. Now, I didn't realize until we showed up that their daughter would also be there too. She's a year below us in school, but like her brothers, pretty even keeled. Always had a high approval rating in general.

When we were young, she was pretty modest, maybe even a little shy. I think knowing someone when you're that age can shape how you think, feel about them. Yes, I would agree with that. But now it's been five years since I saw her last, probably longer. And at dinner, I was totally smitten. What used to strike me as a nervous quiet has given way to a calm self-confidence and subtle sense of humor 14 year old me would have never seen this coming but hey maybe 14 year old me wasn't fucking nostradamus you know what you're right about that you know when you're 14 you're not going hey wonder what that's going to develop into yeah maybe not now actually it's awesome that you don't,

that 14-year-olds don't think that way. Okay. Anyway, do I tell a weird story about an older woman? No, we'll save that for later. Last I heard, she was living down south where she went to school and had a boyfriend. It turns out she's recently moved to, I'm not going to share the city

because what if the other guys listen and be like, whatever. Let's say Pacific Northwest. I'm 98% sure she's single. I play in a band that plays out. We have two shows booked in that area next week, and a big part of me wants to hit her up and see if she wants to come. up and see if she wants to come not really even sure if it's her thing but really the crux of my problem is that one she doesn't have social media so the only way to do that would be to ask her brother for her number all caps is that weird i would ask her mom before i asked her brother i think fucking kyle you just solved it immediately sorry no no i i'm i'm like giving you props i'm not upset sure just read the next email ask the mom more importantly too is there a better way to go about this i've never tried to court someone who lived in another city but seattle i just gave it up city pick it up there three two and one uh but the city she's in isn't a world away from the city that yes they are actually pretty close not like hey i'm going to be there this afternoon close but close and we

both have reasons to go back and forth my crazy thinking there's a chance here uh okay a couple things to do but i think kyle's right on it just ask the mom because then the mom will set you straight like the mom now who knows like what's the mom's approval rating of you? Are you unaware that you're the shithead neighbor or you're the whatever? But now, look, if the parents are really close and they've known you since you were a little kid and sometimes parents can get really excited. Remember the Sopranos? They get really excited about the families that know each other. And then it's like, you know, that's why that's how kingdoms were started. Like, you're going to marry that's why that's how kingdoms were started like

you're gonna marry that guy like why because we like the dad and he has a sick castle so in modern times there still is a real push by parents whatever year totally see it's like come on you like each other you know it no i should say right right, AD. I think parents still love this shit. They love the concept of what if our little guy married your little girl and then we're all just fucking, we're Gatsby-ing every weekend, you know? So that's a genius, genius call by you, Kyle. How would you handle it? I probably would, yeah, i'd probably ask the mom

if the if yeah that's exactly what i do or i could even yeah i would do that and back door the you back door the bro for the mom yeah i mean he's probably not my friend right he's probably like my neighbor guy who like yeah i haven't seen him in five years either you know what i mean yeah he doesn't sound like a core guy he's just an og guy he's probably like yeah his mom was probably like hey you know justin said he might be going to the bar's Thanksgiving night, see some of the old crowd. Do you want to go? And your mom's looking at you like, don't you want to go?

And you're like, I guess so. So it seems like if he hasn't seen the sister in five years, I can't imagine he's that much closer with the brother. Can you back up for a second? What was that scenario? Those lines you just played out there where it was the mom was telling her son to go out and drink with the buddies from grade school?

Yeah, it was just sort of like, oh, you know, Thanksgiving, everyone's coming back. And you know, Brian's coming back from his college. And I'm sure, I think he said that maybe he would be going down to Mahoney's tonight. And I thought, James, maybe James would want to go with you. You know, I'm looking at him. Okay, sure. I thought, James, maybe James will want to go with you. I'm looking at him. Okay.

Sure. I mean, yeah, you can tag along, buddy. I mean, it's just sort of like an insinuation. It's just parents trying to get everybody, get their kids out and about on the holiday weekend. Now, it could backfire. It could where the mom could tell because sometimes people just talk.

The mom could say, guess who asked for your sister's phone number? You know, if she's super close with that guy. But it is going to be awkward because like, I don't know what the dynamic is. Do you know what the dynamic is? Could you say to your friend who's not a core guy being like, hey, I want to invite your sister. Now, as a guy, he's going to be like, why do you want to invite my sister? Like, I already know why you want to invite my sister and whatever.

And then it becomes a dicey, like, what are your goals here? Do you actually want to date my sister like i already know why you want to invite my sister and whatever and then it becomes a dicey like what are your goals here do you actually want to date my sister because then if you do like okay fine but if it's uh you know you're the lead guitarist playing out a couple shows you'd be shacked up in tijuana with a goat and a you know i don't i remember one time one of my friends had a bit of a dicey background as far as the hookup resume went. And he was talking to a younger sister. And I tried to, because I was very close with both guys, I tried to vouch for my guy with the brother. And the brother looked me straight in the face, was like, hey, I love the kid. and the brother looked me straight in the face,

was like, hey, I love the kid. The amount of stories that I've heard of how weird that dude is that he has told in group settings where we've all had a blast laughing about his exploits, I actually don't want that guy to be hanging out with my sister. Not funny this time. Not funny this time, guy.

I was like, I don't have a counterpoint that was like that that was it that was the end of my operations i have um i had a scenario where i ended up hanging out with i wouldn't say a core guy but a guy i really liked uh there was a younger sister and I had like I knew it was going down that road I did care about this person it was somebody that you know I was spending time with but the very beginning of it made me feel like shit made me feel like I was

doing something that I wasn't supposed to be doing and it all worked out everybody's cool which means a lot to me but it was something where like you better get it right you know what i'm saying like you better get it right because a lot of times that person is off limits until she isn't right because then it just all sort of happens especially when we're talking about people that are attractive um i think there's a way to do this but i'm just warning you if you go with the kyle approach which i do love because you're going to find out if she's

single or not immediately from the mom you're going to avoid the awkward thing if this isn't a core guy if it's a core guy i would not say do it this way um you're going to get all the things that you need to figure out it is a little weird that she's this age and she's not on social media which either makes her awesome or a spy she had linkedin have you checked yeah there you go just start liking like oh my god you guys did the whatever workshop that sounds awesome like just endorse all of her skills wait you're you're certified in dos is that a joke anymore no so i got it i i would say go for it, but I go for it with caution, right? Yeah. Cause you could totally even just be like, Oh, you know, I meant to say that the

other thing I meant to tell her I was going to be in. I wanted to get some like recommendations. I really didn't know. I just got a kind of a hotel room in the city. Like I meant to get some info from her. And I just, I forgot to exchange numbers with her. I'm going to be there in the next couple of weeks weeks and you know whatever you can even try that unless you feel like the moms you'd be like come on I'm not a fucking idiot I don't know I don't know how close you are to the mom if she's just like come on you're handsome I know

you know you saw her come on I know what you want here so I mean if you don't think that's going to be the case you can also just be like ah shit I meant to I meant to exchange information with her I'm going to be there in a month or something you know you can try it that way. Yeah, you could. She's probably going to figure it out.

Probably. But good luck. Yes, best of luck. Okay, this one is titled, This Dude Sucks, all caps. Yes. Kyle, Ryan, 6'1", 195. Been slacking the gym recently, but hope to get back to a D3 linebacker like the Z.

D3 linebacker? Sounds attainable. Yeah. And also noticeable. Yeah, look at mcshay richmond he was a quarterback i don't know what kind of shit he was on i'm just kidding i'm not uh i'm 19 oh we get a young one here all right 19 first apartment i understand there'll be shitty roommates but i want your opinion on if this one is different four bedroom apartment i only knew one guy let's call him john just

barely before moving in so you're at wait is he is he at college i don't know i was at 19 without being college in apartments so that's why i'm saying could be very different roommates okay wait what no i've told you this it was when i got was kicked out so i did i got the apartment so i had like i had lived with guys that when i was in like 2019 and then also when i was kicked out i i had an apartment live with guys who were not in college so it's just a i think it's good to know it's very very different experiences different friends coming over you know what i mean yeah right right um so maybe that's the case i don't know well i don't think it is though let's let's see if we got more here so i guess my thing the flag that goes off is like you're at college and you didn't know anybody and you got a room

from guys that had three rooms covered in a four bedroom all right okay uh one room is filled by a random person who is fine the last room is occupied by john's friend let's call him jake all right so random checks out john's fine jake is the problem it was john and jake's apartment before i had moved in all right see whatever you think now that you're paying rent territorially there's still some ownership that they're going to lean towards especially at this age and it actually happens you're a little bit older too or you're almost looking looked at as like more of a tenant than their roommate because they got it first. I'm just saying that's something that's kind of unavoidable

and just happens, even though it's technically kind of bullshit because you're paying whatever you're paying, unless you're paying less. Okay. So I originally felt weird making any sort of requests. Okay. That makes sense. However, I'm starting to reach a breaking point with Jake. Exhibit A.

Never puts away oven mitts after using the oven. This is pure insanity to me. It takes two seconds to put it back in the drawer. Makes for a crowded kitchen when he doesn't want to do dishes either. His excuse is that he works while all of us go to school. Oh, okay. So three school guys and Jake here is the fucking nine to fiver. Got it.

This dynamic is already weird just a warning to the email exhibit B mansplains things the men that's also called just explain I think fundamentally it's not mansplaining this mansplaining thing

is like one of the most absurdly branded things of recent memory like just when a guy does it it's oh it's been what what happens when a woman tells me i'm wrong about something and what happens when there's just guys that are fucking annoying as hell constantly explaining to things to everybody all right so anyway when you watch games with them it's a nightmare one game a specific team was down by eight with less than a minute to go. No timeouts. After the trailing team scored a touchdown, he announced, looks like they'll have to go for two.

My response was, you think? This is far from a one-off happenstance. He also happens to be a, quote, your team is losing, so let's rub it in his face guy. Final straw. I made chicken Alfredo the night before that I wasn't particularly fond of due to its consistency. Who the fuck makes Alfredo chicken, chicken Alfredo 19 and is like, this guy been a top chef? I've had better. Yeah. all right therefore i packed it away and offered it to my roommates so you made shitty chicken alfredo and

then said hey who wants some as i was heading back to my humble abode the next day i received a text which read what seasoning did you put in this alfredo i responded listing the usual seasonings his response was quote little heavy on the Italian seasoning. Kind of like this guy. I think you guys all deserve each other. Yeah. Sorry. I think it's more than.

By the way, I have one roommate in college my last year. Shout out to 292 who would have done exactly that third thing would have exactly done that like i make too much of something else and then kind of gives me like he was the guy that i think at one point the entire roommate situation and i didn't mean to do this on purpose it was just a financial decision at the time where i think there was a house meeting where it the, the other five guys had come to the conclusion that I hadn't bought one house toiletry the entire year. Like not one thing of paper towels, no toilet paper, zero fucking soap, nothing.

And for whatever reason on our floor, the three of us that were on my floor, we were doing sort of a house share on the shampoo. And so guys were starting to give me the business and again they should have but I didn't like the way it was being done because none of us like being told we're doing something wrong when in fact clearly discussed before you got to tell I was like you guys would you guys

fuck because as I was heading to Hannaford's to stock up on some deli meat and bad steaks I go out in this one roommate was like, Hey, uh, we're still, uh, grab, uh, grab some shampoo or whatever. And I was like, what? He's like, yeah, grab some shampoo.

And I was like, what are you, what's this? And I just didn't like it. I didn't like it. I didn't like the tone. I didn't like, cause I was like going out to the truck. I'm like, what are you talking about? are you talking about what does he mean by that he's like i think you know i think it'd be nice if you grab some shampoo and i was like okay and then again i was like this is about me this is about me not pitching in and by the way we're 21 22 at that point buy your own shampoo

and then bring it into the bathroom with you like a real person. But for whatever reason, we left that bottle of shampoo. So I buy Pert Plus because it has both shampoo and conditioner. And it's huge. And it's a huge bottle too, right? But that technology was mind-blowing in the 90s. And I came back and they were on it. They're like, did you grab shampoo? Like seeing if I was going to be defiant about it.

And I was like yeah i grabbed a big bottle per plus i'll go throw it in the shower right now and he's like per plus i'm like you're fucking kidding me i was like what's the problem he's like oh pantines a superior product and i went okay all right fucking fabio the per plus will be up there it's the green bottle and then i probably sat and stood for a little bit yeah right i mean but that's like just living with guys now month six month seven where all right so our guy asked this uh i think it's fair to be pissed at such a slighting remark you grab something that someone else made then go ahead and reach out to critique what they made

hey man you kind of just want to know if you hit the Italian seasoning a little too hard. If I wanted to get lectured constantly, I would move back home and go to a community college. My question is, am I overreacting? Can this guy be classified as the worst? Should I say something either to one of the other roommates or to him directly? Should I try to get on his nerves? Do you have any ideas? Additional question.

How do you make longstanding friends as a college student? See, I think that brings us back to the original point that I was wondering about is you're at college and you rented a room from three guys you didn't know. Uh, ones preferably that would be better to live with for the next academic year. Love the show. So it kind of went from here's my living situation which i was worried about to how do you make friends at the end i think i'm sorry to say this man i think you're a little uptight about it i think you're all young guys now i don't know how old nine to five jake is and i'm not saying jake is sweet but there's a weird thing when guys watch games together, there's always going to be one guy that like doesn't do it perfectly. It doesn't do it the way you want. He's going to be fucking annoying.

I've never been in a setting. Like I don't watch games with anybody, anybody. Okay. Super bowl parties. No, I'm not doing it. I'm not doing it.

Cause somebody is going to go, well, you know, the thing about this and I'll know, I'll be like, that's not what it is. And I'm not going to fucking explain it to you. And I'm just going to sit there and go, okay. And it's like, oh, this conspiracy and this is fixed. And they do it because you're guy roommate, so it was already fucking weird. It was like, you have to prove to me that you care move and come to my house and have me

cook dinner. Then I ended up watching a Red Sox game with this guy. Meanwhile, I'm captain fucking Red Sox at this point in my life. Somebody gives up a hit and he's immediately turned into fucking I don't know uh tom tom house you know what i mean like throwing motion this is wrong all this different stuff tom amansky might

have been a very call and i was like yeah that's not really what happened i just said it to him and he was like it and then he was kind of like arguing with me and then finally i was like you know i do this for a living not to say that i can't be wrong but i'm just saying and then he was kind of like arguing with me. And then finally I was like, you know, I do this for a living. Not to say that I can't be wrong, but I'm just saying. And then I was like, yeah, fuck this. We broke up. So you're always going to have a guy as the numbers increase that's going to be difficult. I would agree with you.

It's annoying that you made something and then offered it up for free. But the reason you offered it up because you knew the meal sucked too. No offense. And the other one in there is the oven mitt. Sometimes I don't put my fucking stuff back. That's my house. Sometimes you're just like, whatever. I know I should put everything away immediately.

Sometimes I just don't fucking want to. Specifically the oven mitt for me sometimes. Sometimes it's specific. I'm like, oh, fuck. That's been out for a day. How'd I that buy a magnet buy a magnet hook i feel for you here but i'm just telling you welcome to life welcome to living with other people and especially living with other people you don't really know so could you say something to the other guy you're probably going to lose that one little mafia stuff there if If he and the other dude got the house and then you jumped in and then you go to the original guy, John, who you seem to be okay with and say, hey, Jake sucks, that could backfire big time.

I don't know about the neutral guy that's not around all that much. You start building some sort of alliance. I would say it's not about lightening up it's about understanding this is kind of the way it works and as far as like asking is this guy the worst have you listened to some of our other roommate emails this isn't even close like you got a bit of a know-it-all guy who doesn't put his oven mitt away all right he didn't ask your sister out or ask your mom to ask your sister out anything else um yeah i think the big i mean the truth is you're riding this out right this is this this is what's gonna happen if you can help it you're not signing back on with these guys next year i don't know how you ended up 19 with i mean i'm sure all schools are different but i don't

know how you're 19 that's tech that's usually a but I don't know how you're 19. That's usually a sophomore. I don't know how you're 19 in an apartment. Usually, your second year is supposed to be on campus. I don't know. At least that's SUNY policy. But I don't know. It's different in a lot of places. I'm sure it is.

So maybe you're a transfer. I don't know how this happened. But yeah, usually you take that first year. Usually the first year is when you have a roommate that it's a total roll of the dice that either you, you know, you know, instantly you're like, I got to find whoever I'm pairing up with next semester or next year, usually. So I don't know why you're doing this and what I would think is your sophomore year.

Maybe you transferred. I got suspended. I got kicked out. I came back and everybody that I was with had either transferred, got kicked out or they were gone, really. So I had to kind of start over again and that's hard, but you know, I, I don't know. I just, who are you hanging out with? I guess just try to, cause you're kind of in that mode. Like you're by, by the end of next year, by the end of this year, uh, dudes, your age, you might have to be the, uh, you know, the guy who's a year older than the other dudes,

but dudes, your age pretty much know their thing. So I think you kind of have to figure your shit out. Mine was weird. I've been over this. So it was sort of intramurals that I got invited to by a dude I was selling reservation cigarettes to. So that's obviously a unique thing, but I was lost. I didn't know what I was going to do. And I had a weird roommate. And this was one of our first life advice. So, you know, for any newcomers, that's kind of, that's how he said we needed one more. And when I went, I sold them two packs of brave cigarettes. They're basically like reds from, from an Indian reservation. And he was just like, Hey, do you want to come be our, our guy?

We needed one to fill out an intramural team. And that's who became my friends. So, you know, you just you just you know at the end of the year they were talking about who's doing what we've gotten closer and that's how we figured out who you know who was going to pair up with who but i think you should be really taking it like forget about all this stuff you know even as our good friends we came to blows over dishes like there's always when there's so many dudes that you know you produce so many dishes and there's only one small sink i'm sure so that shit's just gonna be that's gonna suck wherever um you know, you produce so many dishes and there's only one small sink, I'm sure. So that shit's just going to be, that's going to suck wherever, you know, people,

dudes were putting dishes in a bucket in front of other people's doors. Like I know these are yours. And it was just like, woof. So that's going to be bad wherever, but I think you should be focusing on this all this time on who your next crew is going to be, where are you going to live? Cause I don't think this is, I don't think this is it, especially if you don't really feel like you're in the original group and you know you need to feel like you can't really say much so i would just focus on figuring out who's your crew going to be for next semester yeah i mean look this none of this stuff is new we it got so bad our senior year with the dishes that i proposed the one cup one plate one spoon one, one fork, one knife rule.

Yeah. One bowl. And so every one of us had our own cubby and we put a name under it and it was a plate. It was a bowl. It was a cup. It was one utensil. And then everything was community. And, um, it worked for a little while.

And then we had the one, then we had the one roommate who like started like foraging for the community shit so he'd be like hey where's the spatula he'd be like well it's my spatula he'd be like okay so the other five of us are going to go without a spatula now he's like well you guys don't clean it enough like and it was like riscilla wanted one the one cup rule and i was like, I just want to come up with some solution. Because if you don't wash your own shit, you're out. And so somebody would grab a bowl, and then the guy would run over and be like, your bowl's missing from your spot. That's not your bowl. Your bowl isn't clean, and you grabbed a different bowl.

So he found the one thread to pull to unravel this shit. Yeah, it was working fine. And then one guy just went fucking psychotic about the whole thing. And I think he was mad that it was working and that it was my idea i don't i don't really know again there's a lot of processing that you think back on 20 years plus and you're like oh wait was that why that guy was doing that word and the one plate i stand by the one plate one bowl one cup one utensil rule it fucking works because if you're if you don't wash your own stuff there's no other stuff to go to so it keeps you accountable but then this guy

he destroyed it and it there was a moment there where i think sully looked at me my roommate was like you know you really were on to something there we were humming along it was hamsterdam it was hamsterdam yeah it was what a great call it was my own hamsterdam where it was like you know in theory this could work but yeah we tried the dish schedule but then there was dudes with girlfriends and he was you know they were making two so it was like how the fuck do you come down at like nine in the morning and the dudes with the early classes had there's 14 things in there you just hear the dude who's like wednesday like this one roommate he used to make fun of me and the other guy for sleeping in all the time because we just we became absolute weirdo nocturnal yeah and you know you schedule all your classes late whatever and he would just

always make fun of us and i'd be like dude you get up early you shower you eat you get dressed and then you fall asleep on the couch so that's no like i'm just eliminating the inefficiency of what you do i'm just keeping it rolling here until 11 right like when i have to be on campus at 12 30 i'll be there maybe but i remember freshman year first first semester, I was like, I want all my classes to start at eight and nine so I can have the day to myself. I did that for four years. Yeah, I nailed it. You did?

Oh, yeah. But dude, I was at... Did you go? I was at McDuff's at 330, meeting dudes at Maxfield. It's like, dude, you guys are late for happy hour. It's like, no, dude, you're early. I liked it. I really liked it.

And you made it to your classes? Like you kept that up? Yeah. Almost all the time. Yeah. That's not for the three, five in my major. That's what I tell people. Three, five in the major.

That's all right. Just say three, five. Sure. He's checking. What's the difference? Nobody's checking. Okay. Thanks, Kyle, as always.

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