The Ryen Russillo Podcast - Trent Dilfer, Plus Le'Veon's return and Notre Dame Watch | Dual Threat With Ryen Russillo (Ep. 6)

Episode Date: October 3, 2018

Russillo talks with Super Bowl champion and analyst Trent Dilfer about the red-hot Patrick Mahomes II, how to implement a rookie QB, and two fantastic stories from Trent's time in the NFL, before hitting on Le'Veon Bell's supposed return to the Steelers rotation, Russillo's trip to Penn Sate–Ohio State, and more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to Dual Threat with Ryan Russillo. I'm Ryan Russillo. What happens, Nephew Kyle, I'm going to ask you a couple questions here, so I want to make sure your mic is potted up. I don't think it's going to go well if I needed somebody to fill in for me, right? You know, week five. Here? Yeah.

I don't think so. They just say no. They're going to look at me, and I'm going to look at them, and we're just going to be staring. I'm not saying I want that to fill in for me, right? Week five. Here? Yeah. I don't think so. They just say, no. They're going to look at me, and I'm going to look at them, and we're just going to be serious. I'm not saying I want that to happen. I have a couple more trips coming up, but I'm already laying out the groundwork of using studios in other cities to do this.

So you and I will have to get on the same page there. Yeah, let's do it. And I'm not asking what the, hey, I just don't feel like doing the pod this week. I don't think that's really how we all agreed on this whole thing. But, you know, I guess I could say my name at the top of them, and that's week. I don't think that's really how we all agreed on this whole thing, but you know, I would, I guess I could say my name at the top of them and that's fine. And I think you might get one of those. You maybe get one of those.

You can pull out, but I don't know. I don't, I don't even want to do that. Cause that's not like, I'm not a calling sick guy. I've never been like, if I can't figure it out one week,

but you know, you never know. Cause we have this plan of these Tuesdays and then it drops Wednesday morning. And that's kind of what we're going to do. the playoff rankings come out we're going to tape this right when the rankings came out for college football and then all the NFL stuff so we're going to do a couple NFL I mean really the majority we're going to do is NFL because we're going to spend all sorts of time today praising Patrick Mahomes the Monday night performance was insane

so Trent Dilfer Super Bowl champ a guy I got pretty close with at ESPN used to have him on a radio show every week for years. He is going to join us. I was out at Penn State, Ohio State this weekend with Nissan. So I've got some stuff from that that I want to share with you. And so I think that's kind of the plan today. A long, deep dive, about 45 minutes with Trent Dilfer. But before we do that, I don't know if ZipRecruiter could help Pittsburgh Steelers. Well, it looks like the Steelers may not need any help. We'll get to Le'Veon in a second. Or James Franklin.

Not a huge anti-play call guy the next day. Sometimes people dial up a great defense. We'll get to that a little bit later. But Zip Recruiter, if you wanted to go that route, you could. We should actually talk to Zip Recruiter about actually, for real, putting together a job listing to be my assistant. See what sort of response we get. And I'm never hiring any of them, but we'll just read those.

That's a better shot than Twitter DMs. Right, right, absolutely. And I'm being harassed, physically harassed now on Instagram. Some guy's DMing me to challenge. I don't know if they're asking for a fight. It sort of seems like they want a fight, but I don't really. Maybe he just wants to wrestle. No, just Greco Roman. He's like, I don't really if they're asking for a fight. It sort of seems like they want to fight, but I don't. Maybe he just wants to wrestle. No, just Greco-Roman.

He's like, I don't really want to fight. I would just like to get in a couple singlets and just kind of just toss each other around the living room a little bit. Like, isn't there a site? Isn't there a dating app for that? 50 bucks an hour, I think. So we're going right. I'm sure ZipRecruiter's thrilled we got the Greco-Roman reference in there. But here's the deal.

You know what's smart? Going to ZipRecruiter.com slash Ryan, that's R-Y-E-N, to hire the right person. ZipRecruiter doesn't depend on candidates finding you. It finds them for you. We should just do the assistant thing. Have the people, the business people talk to them and say, let's just post something just to have fun with it. It's powerful matching technology, scans thousands of resumes, identifies people with the right skills, education, experience for your job, and actively invites them to apply so you get qualified candidates fast. That's why ZipRecruiter is number one.

That's why they're rated number one, not by just some websites, but the real stuff here. This rating comes from hiring sites on Trustpilot with over 1,000 reviews. So that's why ZipRecruiter is rated number one. And right now, for my listeners, you can try ZipRecruiter for free at this exclusive web address, ZipRecruiter.com slash Ryan, R-Y-E-N. That's ZipRecruiter.com slash Ryan, R-Y-E-N. ZipRecruiter.com slash Ryan, R-Y-E-N. ZipRecruiter, the smartest way to hire.

Super Bowl champ, Trent Dilfer. What's going on with Mahomes? What are we seeing here? champ Trent Dilfer. What's going on with Mahomes? What are we seeing here? You know, Ryan, I wanted to wait and see more before you make some big brash comment. But I don't know if I can. I think we're seeing a once in a generation type talent that also has a surrounding cast that is very good, a system that is five years ahead of everybody else. I see nothing but great things from Patrick Mahomes. And it's not just the physical stuff. Now, listen, I'm like everybody else where my jaw drops

when he runs left and contorts his body and scissor kicks and throws it back to the right. I thought his best play Monday night was when he scrambled to his left right after that and ripped fire in the back of the end zone and the receiver dropped it in his chest. It's not just the playmaking. It's the craft. It's how advanced he is at a young age as a passer.

It's the manipulation he does with his eyes. He dictates terms with his eyes. It's tying his feet to his eyes when he gets through a progression. So instead of moving his head one way and his feet that are falling late, it's his eyes and his feet move together. I call it married. They're married together as they get through progressions. It's his command at the line of scrimmage. He's changing protections. He's hand signaling to receivers. He's making audibles. Not everybody does that every day. It's playing fast and playing slow. When you play fast, high tempo, you have to process

information quicker. It's about a twitchy mind more than capacity. When you play slow, it's more about capacity. It's more about a ton of information and how much you got to digest and discern at the line of scrimmage. It's his poise, obviously he's sitting there in a very hostile environment. They're not playing their best football, tons of penalties. I know I used to get pissed with the penalties and it got to me.

It shook me. Cause you'd make four or five really good plays and, you know, you get penalties and now you're behind the eight ball and, you know, mentally you're kind of beat up. He doesn't get beat up by that stuff. I didn't go through the 30 layers of quarterbacking that I look at. And he's kind of checking the superstar box on all of them. OK, you said something.

There's a lot of things there that are really good. But you said something early that surprised me where you said he's in a system that's five years ahead of everybody. I mean, that can't be true. He can't be, I mean, what McVay's doing with golf. They can't like,

they may have a great system, but are you trying to tell me the chiefs are that far advanced than every other, like the second place team in advancement offensively is that far behind Kansas city. I'd love that. You always catch me in hyperbole. Thank you.

You do. I just want to make sure because that would be a big deal. No, you're absolutely right to call me on that one. I think there's a handful of teams that are five years ahead of everybody else. Okay, because you know that's not a call-out. That's me making sure that I'm following you. You know what I mean? I want to know.

I don't want to be telling some cocktail waitress at happy hour that they're five years ahead of everybody else. No, I remember saying it when Sean McVay was at the Redskins. I think it was on your show. I was like, that's the next young hothead coach. And here's why. He's doing things that forever the league said you can't do. And now you're seeing Nagy, Reed, Peterson, Reich, McVay, Norv's doing some new stuff. The one thing about the old curmudgeon Norv Turner, my best friend, is he will keep learning and he will keep innovating. And him and his son Scott have gone and studied a lot of these college offenses.

So there's a handful. I don't want to put an exact number on it. There's a handful of systems that are three to five years ahead of everybody else because they said a few years ago, we can do this. We're going to find a way to do this to the NFL. We're going to have a better bridge offense for young quarterbacks.

We're going to put more stress on defenses. We're going to create more space. We're going to make more plays. We're going to have more plays. We're going to have more possessions. And we're going to light the league on fire. And that's what these guys are doing. We're going to have more plays. We're going to have more possessions. And we're going to like the league on fire. And that's what these guys are doing. So we know that he had the arm.

We knew that part of it. And what I like about him, and I tweeted this out last night and talked a little bit about it, is that his athleticism is not the default setting. He uses it to assist in throws, but it's not, you know,

Randall Cunningham, you know, my little brother was like, hey, was he any good? And I'm like, pull up some of his YouTube clips, OK?'s not, you know, Randall Cunningham, you know, my little brother was like, hey, was he any good? And I'm like, pull up some of his YouTube clips, okay? And then, you know, Vic blew us away, but Vic, I don't think was nearly as accurate. And that's, I think, the scariest thing about last night is you go, okay, he's athletic, let's keep him in the pocket, let's try to collapse it on him. And then now I think everybody's going to be going, we have to get him, like Like we can't let him outside of the pocket at all because then he threw for more yards outside of the pocket than we've seen in an NFL game in like 10 years. So as you've watched him and I'm with you, like this is

really impressive. If you look at rookie and I know he's not technically a rookie, but first seasons of great quarterbacks, statistically, nobody's even close to this. And I went through all of them this morning and I was kind of laughing about it. And that's also a product of how teams are playing and the penalties. I mean, there's a million things we can factor in here. There's going to be that kind of bad game, but the bad game, like anybody that's the doubter doesn't get to point to that game and say,

see, I told you after what we've seen from this month. So this is, I don't know, scary because that makes it negative, but this is so incredibly impressive. I'm just wondering, is there anything that you see that a team, like what would be the game plans now from the smart defensive minds in the NFL as they get ready for this kid? Be great in the red zone and somehow try to create some negative plays

and put them in third and long. It's so much easier said than done, but you're not going to stop this team between the 20s. Not with the rules that are in place. Not without... In the old days, the way you would do it, the way the Belichicks did, the way the great defense coordinators did to the great offenses

that were ahead of their time was roughing them up with physicality, rerouting, not letting them get free starts. I had this discussion when I was on ESPN. You can't do that anymore. That's been a five- on ESPN. You can't do that anymore. That's been like a five-year thing that you just can't touch receivers anymore. So you can't do that.

You really can't blitz because they have too much speed and there's too much open space. And if you notice, and I wish they would have done a better job last night talking about this, if you notice, when they put Tyreek Hill in the backfield or when they have their skilled people inside, it's for blitz beaters. They have a blitz beater built into every single play to get the guy the ball quick in space. It's very Saturday offense.

See, in Saturday offense, you no longer teach quarterbacks protections and hots inside of jobs. Hots meaning if two guys rush from the side, you can't block them. You throw quick to a receiver that's looking and reading the same thing you are. Or side adjust, the safety comes out of the backfield, and we know we can't block them, so the receiver sees, and he runs a slant instead of a hook or whatever.

They don't do that anymore. What they do is they build in a blitz beater option that's always running a flare or a quick look or something that's going to put them in space and one-on-one or one-on-nothing if the defense decides to blitz. And Kansas City has that built into everything. And a lot of their run game is built around beating blitz. They're suckering into pressuring certain formations in certain situations, and then they gash you with these big runs. So you can't blitz them. I don't know.

I'm not smart enough to know what to do to stop them. I know that you have to force them to kick field goals. You've got to be able to keep it in front of you, tackle well, not give up the freebie big play, and force them to march the field, and then eventually get impatient and kick

the other ones. I was impressed with Denver. I thought, you know, this is one of those things as I was watching the first half, I go, I wish I tweeted this out before because I go, you know, if there's a spot where this guy's going to struggle it'd be his fourth game in and Denver, a Monday nighter. I like the talent on Denver's defense

and for the most part they did do a really good job. Like, let's just try to keep all this stuff in front of each other and try to get there and move the pocket without having to blitz a ton. Although Denver, I think statistically going into the game,

had blitzed as much as anyone. I don't know if I have that right. I think I saw that when I was going through the prep for it. But then when you talk about trying to keep them out of the red zone and not worrying about the 20s, I don't know that I love other than other than Tyree Kill. Like you can talk about Sammy Watkins going down.

I still don't really know what Sammy Watkins is other than a disappointment. And he got hurt and they gave him a ton of money. And that's fine. And he looked like he was going to be a lot coming out of Clemson. And he has not been that guy. But as far as like Chris Conley, I robinson was in last night in some of their formations and they're kind of doing this without that real number one threat even though tyreek is so unique so i don't want to say tyreek hill isn't a number one threat because i mean go back to week

one it's just he made the rest of the nfl players look unathletic around him. But is this something where you go, okay, there's a lot of stuff we can do by design, but with the rules, would you suggest if you were running a team, let's try to find some of these really versatile, smaller guys that can spread people out with just motion as decoys? Because I think I see a lot of that from Kansas City, where it's just these little speedsters everywhere, and you're going, dude, we've got to cover a lot of field even if they're not in the play. So, here's where I'll start

with that answer. And I tweeted this out. You mentioned a couple tweets you've had. I tweeted this out the first week of the season. The most important trait now in all of football has gone from strength to speed to what now I call twitch. There we go. It used to be strength when the game was played in a scrum. The strongest, the biggest, that was the best. Then it became speed when the game started expanding a little bit. Now it's expanded so much that it's Twitch.

It's how quickly can you, or in another term I've used before I stole from North Turner, suddenness, the combination of Twitch and speed. It's how quickly can you transition? It's that blink of an eye. Um, the average human looks at and go, wow, how did he do that? It's more important than speed. and here's why. Because these modern offenses have spread you boundary to boundary, because there is more space, and let's not forget, I always say this, the ultimate job of the offense is to create space. The ultimate job of the offensive scheme is to create space. The ultimate job of the defensive scheme is to take space away.

Okay, those are the scheme objectives. So now that there's naturally more space to work with, and we can talk about motion and shifts and concepts and all that stuff, but there's more space, then what can you do in that space? You're going to have one more one-on-one matchup. How do people make people miss? And that's Twitch. And that's what Conley has. That's what Robinson has. Kelsey has it for a big man.

Tyreek Hill has it more than any human I've ever seen on the football field. And that's what they're going to continue to do. And let's not forget, I think they stole the model from the Patriots because everybody forever criticized the Patriots model wide receiver. And all I kept seeing was interior players that had Twitch that could create separation,

change direction and make you miss. And you can throw it six yards in less than two seconds and get 15 out of it. If the quarterback is precise, obviously Tom is the most precise of all time. And you had guys that fit that mold. But everybody's still locked into this alpha perimeter outside the number 6'4", 215-pound guy that can fly and jump over people and catch the ball. Hey, that's awesome. If you've got one, use it. But those dudes don't grow on trees. But you know who does grow on trees?

Our 5'11", 192-pound dudes with massive twitch. I live in Texas, and I go to high school football games every Friday night, and I see two or three every week. And I'm like, if he goes to the right college, plays in the right system, he'll play in the NFL. And those guys do grow on trees. And those are the guys you can find in these college offenses. Why do you think the mid-majors started competing when the air raid and these different version of spread offenses hit the world?

Why couldn't Nick Saban defend them? Because they were in a model of power and speed. And this modern offensive mind said, no, space. Spread them out. Play fast. Get defined looks. And get twitchy guys on bigger, stronger, faster guys. And we'll win more battles than we lose in the middle of the field.

I do think it taps out when you get inside the 10. I've said this forever. The problem with the college offense, you've seen this with a lot of the spread quarterbacks come to the NFL. You see this every week in college football. And I'm like you. I like college football more than pro football. I watch it all. I record, I think, 13 games a week and watch them. So I'm watching all the college football. They all tap out when they get inside the 10 if they can't trick you anymore. So that's the Achilles heel to it.

But in the middle of the field, Twitch trumps all. God, I just learned so much. I might just hang up. I don't know if I can top this. But I'm not. But in the middle of the everything you just described was kind of the Houston gamblers approach with Jim Kelly. Jim Kelly originally, and I've literally just finished this book, he didn't want to go to Buffalo, ended up in Houston. They go, dude, we're just going to run four wide and we're going to get really small guys, Richard Johnson, Ricky Sanders, Gerald McNeil, all these guys. And Kelly hated the offense. So they brought in some guy and they're like, look, Jim's not picking up the offense. This sucks. And they go, all right, what do we need to do here? And somebody figured it out and they go, let's bring in a backup.

And they brought in a backup and the backup figured it out in two days. And Jim got pissed and then said, screw it, then learned the offense. And they absolutely lit people up and they were running this fun. Like, do you remember any of this? I'm probably telling you something you already knew, but I'm just sharing with everybody that it's, it's funny how this can become cyclical, but I cannot agree with you any more than what you just said. I mean,

I was looking at Patriots numbers of Julian Edelman coming back and he gets targeted twice as much as anyone else that lines up in the slot. I even looked at Switzer the other night with Pittsburgh, like they're there. And I mean, I guess I just lifted a leave Cooper Cup off of this to not go three white slot guys in a row, but there just seems to be something about the smarter teams going, if you can get free separation off the line of scrimmage, why aren't we just taking those yards

instead of trying to beat safeties in really good corners down the field kind of one-on-two? I think it's, you know, it's also the perfect storm. Now, we've taken tackling out of the offseason. So the tackling, you know, you talk to the defensive analysts on TV, many who I respect a lot and work with, their perspective is

always from a defensive standpoint. They used to say, well, we'll just tackle you. Well, they don't tackle as well anymore. Tackling's as bad as it's ever been across the board. One, players are scared of how to tackle, but two, they don't practice it enough. So again, it lends itself to this formula working where these kids are playing college football. You're not just going to Michigan and Iowa and USC and Alabama looking at talent anymore. You're looking at SMU as much as you're looking at Alabama because the mid-majors have these types of players that fit your system.

And another one, as you mentioned, Edelman. Edelman also, we did this for Solon Science, actually, on NFL Network. And that's what you're doing. Yeah, Brenkus and you were doing this. It's almost like the sports science thing from before, right? You're doing it. I don't want to, you know. Think of it as sports science 3.0

with me bringing it down a level. There you go. So minus 1.5. That's a good fill, Shava. We talked about how Edelman, you know, you look at what's the difference of Edelman coming back.

Yeah, he's a very good player. He's a great player. But Brady gets the ball in his hand 10% faster since 2015 when he's throwing the ball in his hands 10% faster since 2015 when he's throwing the ball to Edelman. Huh. Why is that? Because he's getting open quicker.

So it's Twitch. It all fits. I want to go back to one thing in my home. I feel like we're going to get going on this whole and I have a ton to say about it. Honestly, you can talk about Mahomes. You can do it uninterrupted for the next 10 minutes. But I want to just ask you about sports science at some point.

But go ahead. I mean, look, take it in any direction that I haven't been smart enough to lead you to. All right, Trent? So, you know, we do the Elite 11 stuff. Our hit rate's been incredible. It's my passion. The staff's incredible. Blah, blah, blah.

I'm not going to bore everybody with Elite 11. If you're interested, it's all over the internet. Patrick Mahomes is at a regional camp and all these, so we see about 750 high school quarterbacks every spring in regional, what we call camp competitions, half camp, half competition. They're competing to become part of the 24 finalists that then get pared down to the Elite 11. Patrick Mahomes was one of the kids. And we knew going in, I mean, we're not dumb. We watched all the films. I'm watching the film going, holy crap.

Like, this kid's unbelievable. But when we talked to him, he wasn't sure about baseball. You know, if he was going to be a baseball player, his dad's a great baseball player, football. We weren't quite sure, to be honest with you. And we missed. At the end of the day, his dad's a great baseball player, football. We weren't quite sure, to be honest with you. And we missed. At the end of the day, we missed because we didn't gamble on talent.

We were scared that baseball would be his first love. But my director of operations, Joey Roberts, who worked for PESA ESPN for years, who's now working for the American Alliance of Football, does a lot of the scouting for the Elite 11. He remembers the conversation he had with Patrick Mahomes and his big takeaway was this kid is so far, so mature beyond his,

beyond his years. It's scary. Joyce, I don't know if he's going to be a major league baseball player, major league football player, or a Senator or a president or a Lord, whatever he's going to be, he's going to be incredible at it.

And I hope that becomes the story of Patrick Mahomes as much as his talent, because what jumps out, even the stories last year from Alex Smith and from players in the chiefs, and you can now understand why they made the move to let Alex move on and go with Patrick. It was as much, it was as much about the person, the maturity, the focus, the capacity to learn, um, the willingness to learn the humility, the leadership, all the intangible stuff, which I believe makes the path to buy it's as much of that as it is the

talent. And that's kind of, I mean, I'm blown away by the skill, obviously, but I'm blown away by how he has no flinch. This kid has zero flinch in him. And at this age, most of the really good ones had some flinch in them at this age. I saw some people making fun of Kingsbury last night on Twitter going, you know, how do you only win so many games with this kid at quarterback? And it's like, okay, well, you clearly never watched Texas Tech because it had nothing to do with Patrick Mahomes. You know, it's a 60 point shootout with another team and losing in the big 12 it that that's that's not on patrick um you talked about his maturity i agree i've interviewed him a couple times anybody that i think everybody gets thrown off a little bit

because his voice is a little different when they first hear him and i don't know if having a father like that and then last night booger on the broadcast mentioning latroy hawkins as his godfather and maybe being around pro athletes, you know, just you're just maybe you're cut a little bit differently because it's not as weird to you

and you're expecting yourself to be that way. I do think that with the stuff you guys do at Elite 11 and the grooming for these kids, it gets them a little bit more ready. And that comes back to something

I'm pretty sure you and I have disagreed about in the past is that my theory is kind of this, is that if someone was going to be great, they're going to end up being great. And I'm afraid with Mahomes sitting out the year, everybody's going to think that this is what you're supposed to do. And that was a very unique situation is that Alex is good enough and it wasn't a team that was in a hurry to replace him. They were competitive last year, so they didn't have to go right away. But if he's this special, I think some people will argue he's this special because he sat and observed and Alex was great and Andy and the whole staff and these guys are

great. And my point would be, why couldn't he have just played in week eight or week nine last year? Are you really telling me he'd be a different guy? I think we overrate, and this is me telling a guy that played in the league, so I'm ready to be told how wrong I am. But I do wonder if we overrate the impact of certain quarterbacks observing when I think there's sort of a point of no return where eventually you can only learn so much by observing. And the quicker you get out there, the quicker you're going to figure the game out. I've pounded the drum since I, when I came out of league that I think fitting is better than playing right away. I know. And I'm going to, I'm going to tell you,

you're the first to hear this publicly. I now believe the opposite. What? I am on your side. I am on your side now. And I've had to, I've had, it's been a hard one for me because I spent this entire off season.

I did the last year's quarterback draft as thoroughly as anybody's ever done it because I'd coached every one of them to lead 11. So I wanted to be objective about letting my relational equity get invested in my evaluation of, of all those guys last year, Donald and Rosen and all that stuff. So I worked so hard on that draft and I kept communicating that I really believe that they need to set. And then right when we were done with the draft, I started looking into the NFL season and looking at trends and looking at what these offenses are going to become and talking to some coaches in the

NFL, what they're planning on doing this year. I'm like, Holy crap, I'm wrong. Because the modern day offense is more like what they did in college than anything else. So there it's, it's kind of like they're going, they're going to the NFL and they get to play better people, practice more, study more, be more professional about it and run a very similar system to what they ran in college. Why shouldn't they play? Because my paradigm was always, you go from college football that is used to be i'm going to start saying used to be used to be very simplistic and it used to be only had 20 hours a week the only practice the things you needed to do to win that game development wasn't the core principle it was

winning the game and then you went in the nfl and you were asked to be a professional you have to be a man you have to be the team spokesperson you have to be a politician oh and by the way you gotta learn 10x more plays you gotta learn protections which you didn't learn in college you gotta learn side adjust hot managing the game clock management you gotta deal with people you've never dealt with before you're in the same locker room as a 36 year old father of five like it used to be overwhelming not not overwhelming anymore. So I had to check myself at the door and just say, you know, I've been wrong. I think now with this, with the trend that you're seeing where I'll get into this too, but football innovation has worked its way from Friday to Sunday instead of the old days when it was Sunday to Friday with now football innovation being growing from the

bottom up. These kids aren't jumping into anything. That's that overwhelming. That's that different. They're actually more comfortable with it. Sam Darnold wasn't that overwhelmed when he went to minicamp for the New York jet. And I personally thought he would be, but Bates had done a great job of building a system that would seem very, very familiar to him so that he would integrate into it sooner.

And now I do believe that playing right away and learning some of the stuff by, by just doing it is probably better than sitting there and watching it. Now I think Patrick had the perfect storm of one of the all, one of the great pros in the NFL teaching him how to be a pro, and he's admitted that. Patrick said that publicly this year. But yeah, you know what? If he did play week eight last year,

we'd probably be seeing even a better version of him. So yeah, you're the first I'm telling you. I'm on your side of that argument now. That's great. Yeah, that's really, I'm really surprised because that lead up, I just remember all the, not like they were contentious,

but we just always disagreed. And then it was always when I was working with Danny for the most part. And I always kind of joke with Danny. I was like, you're literally the only pro athlete I've ever met that was okay not playing.

Like your goal was to not play. So he would sit there with Garoppolo and go, why does he care? Just sign the next 10. I'd be like, you know, man, eventually you want to play. And I wondered, I always wondered if you were motivated with your previous way of thinking by your own experience, you started what two games, your rookie year in 94 at 22 with Tampa. I'm, I wonder, and I think we've, I know we've talked about this probably

more on the air than we ever did off the air, but I do think there would have been a different version of you had you been groomed differently and not with such a disastrous franchise in the beginning? I think any person in my seat would be lying if they said their personal experience doesn't influence their thought process, their paradigm. Yeah. I try very, you know me very well. I try very hard not to let that affect too much of my analysis, but yeah,

this is probably the one that it affects me the most. Um, because I, and it's a lot, and this is 98% my faults. You know, I came out in 94, thought I was going to be the first pick and I'm going thick. I was married already. Everything being written about me and said about me was how mature I know I was physically really gifted, but also really mature beyond my years and could handle a lot of different things. And my coaches raved about me and the teams I played against raved about me. And inside I was so insecure. Inside I didn't know I wanted to stay my senior year,

but we were losing 20 offensive starters. Like seven of them played in the NFL. And I'm being told, go to the NFL. You guys are going to stake next year. You're going to get killed. That's what I was being told. So I went early, not because I wanted to, because I was being told

to. I had deep insecurity. I was overwhelmed moving across the country from California to Tampa, Florida, to the worst had deep insecurity. I was overwhelmed moving across the country from California to Tampa, Florida to the worst organization in football. My coach was very innovative. They tried to do it right. They had a great mentor

in place for me in Craig Erickson. They really did it right. And Sam Weiss was good? You got along with him? You got along with Sam? You got along with Sam? Yeah, Sam was, no, I treated him horrible because my insecurities, I blamed him and his staff for a lot of my failures.

But looking back, hopefully I'm, hopefully everybody's introspective enough to look back and realize where you're wrong. I was so wrong and I wasn't ready. And to be able to sit and watch and learn and have people teach me how to be a better pro and then use their discretion on knowing when I was ready would have been better for me. And my rookie year that was happening. Okay. So my rookie year was going great. And then they choose to trade Craig after my rookie year and just give me the job. So that's the second thing.

I didn't win the job. Greg Erickson was better than me. He made better decisions than me. He knew the playbook better than me. He was a dude in the locker room. The guys respected him. I was just way more talented. And then all of a sudden I had the most horrific second year in the history of professional football. Just so people know, can I just jump in here? You started 16 games and had four touchdowns and 18 picks. Yeah, I was the worst player in all of football. I say that, I've said that a hundred times on record.

I was the worst. And I just don't want to see it happen to other kids. Josh Allen is the one right now that's ripping my heart out. Donald should be playing. Rosen should be playing. Baker should be playing. I don't think Josh Allen should be playing. He comes up very similar background as me.

Central Valley, California, smaller school. I don't think he is ready for the bigness that is the NFL, and he's not surrounded by enough good stuff, innovation, talent, whatever, 10 other things that can make up for his lack of sophistication and experience. sophistication and experience. So I'm on your side now, but every year I will identify a kid that is like me, his background's like me. You can see the writing on the wall that we can ruin, the chances of ruining this kid are better than making him become a superstar. Now saying all that, it made me a better man. It made me stronger. It made me a better leader. You can go back and talk to John Lynch, probably the best person to talk to, because he was there when I was the worst player in the NFL.

He was there when we went to the Pro Bowl together. And he watched the whole thing. And he saw my match rate. And he was a big part of it, because he was a great friend. He was a leader. And he called me to the carpet on some stuff. And I had guys in that locker room that did it, but they suffered through that second year. And then Tony's first

year. So 90 was that 94, six where we should have been better. Like those players, those 51 other guys got cheated because the bucks were investing in my career more than the bucks winning. So luckily I was able to make up for it and we built something really cool there, but that's what, that's my, that's, that's where I come from. And that's where I look at every draft. I'm probably, I just don't want to see it happen to others. I want every single kid to succeed because they work their asses off. And now I know them all since they're 16 years old and I know their journey and I'm invested in their journeys.

And I just, it breaks my heart when I see Josh Allen get thrown out there when he's not ready and he doesn't have the pieces around him to help make up for some of that, not being ready. And just for that. No, no, that's horse or whatever so it wasn't it wasn't that's where it all comes from and then in year four and i don't know that people even know this in 97 because i think there were so many oh a trend deal for

trend over you know what i mean like that's how i thought of you when i didn't know you and i was just a dude finishing up college and then bartending and you know you actually were 21 touchdowns 11 picks in that fourth year you guys won 10 games in Tampa after being a disaster would you guys want a playoff game too right and then you had a pretty good year too the year you you had a pretty good year the year after that um what's what I want two versions of this story give me the best story of either a vet being good or terrible to you as you were a young guy. And then on the other side for you dealing with a young quarterback. So I kind of just asked you to, so let me just start with the first one. I always, usually the bad stories are the more entertaining ones, but was there one where you're like, this guy wants nothing to do with me when you were on a roster?

All right. So real quick, I'll tell a better story than this, but Craig Erickson would have been the ultimate mentor. He would have been

my Alex Smith. I just told the story they traded him after my first year. So Casey Weldon becomes my backup. Now, before I tell a story,

I want everybody to know Casey and I are still friends because you're not going to think we're going to be friends when I tell this story. Wait a minute. Casey Weldon's my backup. Did you guys get you guys get along? You guys were friends? Yeah. Cause I've heard some stories. We played a ton of golf together. Our families hung out. Uh, we were boys. Um,

we played cards together. We roomed together, but I could tell he was losing a lot of respect for me as he probably should have. Here he is. He was second in the Heisman coming out of college. He was a talented guy. Every time he got in the game, he did something kind of cool. He was kind of like the modern day. I mean, he was back then. He was kind of one of the first run around crazy athletic jump pass, no look path kind of guys are very exciting. Um, well, we're playing a ton of golf together and long story short, we played with a group of guys at the country club in the spring every day after practice and the gambling got pretty high and you know, the stakes became edgy. And one day I was saying

something about my partner walking down the fairway under my breath. And, and he tells my partner, he's like, Hey,rent's talking crap about you right now that my partner's name is ron harper's like 67 years old i'm like ron no i'm not man i'm just frustrated and we get up to the green and i start calling casey out across the green and we're exchanging unpleasantries next you know he starts running at me across the green and we're on we're at avala countryth hole, metal spike, with three other professional businessmen, with mansions surrounding the 13th green. And he's running at me, and he's hot. You can tell.

I've said something that's going to piss him off, that really pissed him off. So he's running at me, and I just hit him right across the jaw, drop him. Casey's a tough son of a gun. drop him. Casey's a tough son of a gun. Casey gets me kind of underneath the groin and flips me over and we're rolling around on the green and shirts have been ripped off and a couple elbows have been thrown and we roll over into a bunker and I'm on top in the bunker. I got my forearm on his throat. My other hand where it hurts some and, and ready to punch him.

And he's got me where it hurts, and we finally just give up. And adrenaline's flowing, and shirts are ripped off, blood's everywhere, green's ripped up. By the way, Pro Shop brought us new shirts, and we finished the round about. That's what I had heard. That's my best. I had heard that you guys were allowed to go to the Pro Shop after you beat each other up on the green.

It sounds like you won the fight, but that because your clothes were... I called a draw. To this day, I call it a draw. You got a lot of size on him, though. I'm looking at Weldon's measurements here, and I don't know. I mean, maybe these are the college ones, but it says 6'1", 206. That can't be accurate because you were always about like 230. Wirey.

Sinewy? Wirey tough, though. Wirey tough. wiry tough oh my god that's so good i don't think i've ever told that one public i've totally been speaking events and story time with friends i don't think i've ever did the staff probably did the staff fight like what happened when people did people have to like sit you guys down, we were practicing the next morning. It was in Golf Digest. I'm sure with the internet, somebody can go 1995 or 6, Golf Digest, early spring, back pages where they used to write that column.

Yeah, it was Rick Riley, wasn't it? Oh, not Digest. Yeah, I talked about it. Right, I hear what you're saying. Right, it was Rick Riley, wasn't it? Oh, not Digest. I hear what you're saying. Writing Golf Digest, not. So somebody in Golf Digest wrote it, not Rick Riley in Sports Illustrated. Yeah, and we were practicing the next day, and it was the running joke. I mean, we handled it. We've always been friends. We handled it great.

I mean, it just kind of happened. Were you guys drinking, though? Were you drinking? Nope. Zero alcohol. Zero. You fought sober and you got over it? happened now the best thing you guys drinking though were you drinking no no zero alcohol zero you fought sober and you got over it no i know you would tell me i would have thought that maybe if you guys were both pretty like feeling good after a couple sarsaparillas then you could kind of blame it on you know those on the course lights but no in fact later that spring later that spring we were we jumped on a plane in Tampa.

We had a, I think we got done on a Thursday, went to Friday, Saturday, Sunday, free. And we jumped on a plane and went up to the golf club at Georgia all weekend.

Just like a month or two later. I mean, we were buddies. You just golfed. All right. I like that. I like that. That's,

um, it didn't translate to the field necessarily, but you know, no, it did not. The fun is now I, I have a lot of good mentoring stories and how I helped young guys. And, you know, I was always kind of the senior guy in the quarterback room. But when I came to San Francisco, I was brought there with a very specific reason by Scott

McLuhan and North Turner. And that was to mentor Alex Smith, teach him how to be a pro, teach him how to do life, you know, every element of it. Honestly, you nailed that, by the way, Trent. You nailed that part of it with Alex. When I made it very clear,

I did not want to play. I was done. I just come off another surgery. I mean, physically, I was cooked. So I kind of wanted to be that coach player. So I, I invested a lot into Alex. Well, we're in spring ball, we're in OTA. And it was a very clear rep pattern, right? Alex Scott, let's, and these numbers aren't going to be exact, but if we had 10 reps in a seven on seven period or 10 period or a team period,

Alex was going to get seven. I was going to get three. Okay. And that was, and I, it was three was plenty and I was going to get three okay and that was and I it was three was plenty and I was having a good spring I was getting healthy again I was coming off the Achilles tear and the knee patella rupture and starting to feel good again so really love those three reps every day we're in the spring

and Alex one day is frustrated and he's pissed off and he does his seven reps and he kind of gives me the Heisman and says, stay back. I'm going to take your reps. Like, okay. He's sprouting his wings a little bit, show stuff and a couple of the veteran offense linemen are looking at him going, Oh no, you didn't. No, you did not just do that to Trent. But I took it. Well, not a big deal. Next day where I practice does the same thing. Like, okay, he's got to learn a lesson. So we had a, you know, every team has their security

guy or our security guy in San Francisco is the next FBI guy. So I go to him and we had done this one time in Seattle. So I was familiar with what I was asking. I said, Hey, when I was in Seattle, uh, one of our FBI buddies got me this clear powder that they use for money laundering. And this clear powder goes over bills. You don't know what's on the bills. And once you touch the bill, the powder gets on your hand. And once you sweat or get water on you, it turns you purple. I said, Hey, could you get hold of any of that? And he goes, what are you going to do? Use it for. And I said, well, I'm going to teach our young quarterback a lesson. He goes, absolutely. And the next day I had a little canister of this

powder in my locker. This was a Wednesday. I started planning out what I was going to do to teach Alex a lesson. So what I decided to do is Alex is the most regimented person you'll ever meet. And by the way, Alex, you're going to listen to this and get pissed that I told the story, but I have great relationship and I respect him as much as any human in the NFL, but he's going to be pissed. I'm telling the story. So that Thursday, you might not listen to the podcast. It's me. Remember? So, um, go ahead, go ahead. So go ahead. Back up to Thursday, Thursday morning, the last day of OTAs that week, as we get Fridays off, I know that Alex is going to get in at exactly 6 a.m.

And he's going to do the exact same thing. He's going to go to his laundry bag. He's going to lay out his clothes for the day. He's going to put his clothes on. He's going to go get a 25-minute lift. He's going to go to the shower. I know his routine because I've done it with him already for a period of time. And so I get there at 5.30.

And I get into his locker. I take out his laundry bag. I take out his girdle, his sock, his dry fit, everything. And I wipe this. I have plastic gloves on. I got cellophane around my forearms. I got sweats on. So if he gets on me and I carefully put this powder all over his stuff, put it back in his laundry bag, mix it up. So it doesn't look like anybody's messing with his laundry bag, put it back in his laundry bag, mix it up. So it doesn't like anybody's mess in his laundry bag, put it back on the hook and I go and I lay down in the bathroom stalls because from the bathroom stalls, I can see the locker room into the weight room and I'm laying there. Sure enough, he comes in at six, puts on his stuff,

goes in and starts lifting. You see him on the bench, keep doing some light bench. Next thing you know, he's doing some sit-ups. He's got some trap stuff. He's got some rear delt stuff. I'll never forget this. And he starts sweating. And you can see, he takes his hands, he wipes his face, and you start seeing these beads of purple coming

down his face. And he doesn't notice that. So now he goes to his locker. He's so tired. He takes his clothes off. He puts his towel on. He still has no idea that he's starting to his locker. He's so tired. He takes his clothes off. He puts his towel on. He still has no idea that he's starting to turn purple. He goes and he gets in the shower. As soon as he gets in the shower, I've now gone. I couldn't see the shower from the bathroom salt. Now I've stuck out of the bathroom salt and I'm watching him as he's soaping his hair and washing his face. He's turning purple everywhere.

And I run out in the locker room. So I'd hidden my keys. He doesn't know I'm in the building. So I go back out to the parking lot and enter as if I'm just getting there for the day. He walks out. There's seven, eight guys in the locker room. And he has purple streaks all over him. It's on his face.

It's on his hands his hands almost are completely purple his feet are purple his groin area is purple he is purple he looks like Barney now the best part of the story is that that weekend he's going to Yosemite with Sean Hill Sean Hill's girlfriend and his wife who now is his wife Liz they're going to Yosemite for the first time. He's just met Liz. And this is their big first weekend getaway as couples. And he goes out to the field and Coach Nolan, Coach Nolan was so mad at me. For the reason I ruined practice.

Because that whole day was just ruined because Alex was purple and that was the talk of the town. How long was he purple? For like 10 days. Oh, shit. Oh, my God. Again, I don't think I've ever told this one publicly either. But yeah, those are the two probably most dramatic backup quarterback stories i have

those are good okay before we let you go uh this has been a long-standing thing that whenever there's a picture posted of me you would immediately rip on my legs and my thing is always that like guys that are heavier throughout their lives end up having just naturally bigger legs and they want the rest of us just to have these python quads and calves. And I always feel like my legs are actually underrated. And the other day I was shooting around and I just was like, Hey, my legs felt pretty good. And I jumped up and I hung on the rim at 43. The irony is that I couldn't dunk when I was 22. So I was wondering if I could stop by the old sports science lab there with you and Brankus and try to figure out, am I just hitting my athletic peak or am I this genetic freak that did not

untap all this potential in my twenties? Well, are you spending more time on them? Cause my problem was always, you'd be so easy. So outspoken about your upper body lift day. And then if you know, your audience remember this,

you were wearing medium last two years, radio, audience remember this, you were wearing Schmedium last two years. All XLs. On radio. All XLs. So you were obviously showing off the upper body lifting, which I respect.

And you never really talked about the lower body lifting. And what got me, what really got me started on this, if you remember, is you played in the NBA celebrity game. Yeah.

And you didn't look bad. Your legs don't look bad. It's not a look. No, I'm not one of those guys that's all upper body. Like, I feel like you're trying to sell me as one of those guys that never does them.

And they're actually terrific. Okay. No, no, no. I will say if people have thought bad, then I'll take that. No,

I don't think you have a tiny upper body. Unfortunately, you just have heavy legs. You have dead feet. and i was shocked by how the lack of twitch that you had uh in that in that celebrity game and i felt like with a good plyometric workout a lot of ballistic training you know some of the new age stuff that we could really tap into some of your the twitch that could be in that body. Here's the thing. You just ignore it. You're satisfied being a big, heavy-legged, strong guy.

I was so out of shape for that game. I hadn't played in like four or five years. So the twitch is back now. And I feel great about it. And we're going to just hook me up to the EKG there and see what's going on. Because I can't. We're getting you in the sports science lab. We'll do a full stolen science piece on your brain kits and I will. Sounds good. Can we do this again sometime, man? It was awesome. I really

appreciate it. Anytime for you, man. I've always appreciated your thoughtfulness and how you approach these things and I can talk ball with you anytime. Awesome. We'll do it again. Thanks, Trent. All right. See you, buddy. Before I do some of the stuff from the road here, I want to remind you how great it was to come home from Penn State after two hours of sleep because I watched the games on Saturday night. No, I did not go out in town because I had a 4 a.m. wake-up call to get in the car and head out. Not complaining, just saying it was only two hours of sleep.

So when I got home, I go, you know what? I'm going to watch the NFL. And then when there's that little window between the late games and the last game, I'm going to take a little snooze on my Casper mattress. of time with three mattress models, the original, the OG Casper, the Wave, and the essential Casper mattresses are perfectly designed to soothe and create your natural geometry. I get the stiff one. Love it. Not to mention the breathable design helps you sleep cool and regulate your body temperature throughout the night.

And it's delivered right to your door in a small, how do they do that size box? That's the best part. Because I've done the mattress thing with other places before. And then you're like, are you going to be there? Is there a dude there? And the guy's like, everybody who just, maybe That's the best part. Cause I've done the mattress thing with other places before. And then you're like, are you going to be there? Is there a dude there? And the guy's like, everybody who just, maybe that's the problem. I know first world problems bought a nice house, but everybody's hustling me for a tip. You know, there's one furniture place came by and the guy's like, Oh, well, we'll move that. If you, you know, take care of us. I was like, what does that mean?

Explicitly said it. He said he just, he was in the house 30 seconds and he was shaking me down for money. And I just called him out on that. I was like, what do you mean? What do you mean if I help you out? What does that mean? What exactly? You want a back rub, dude? And then he freaked a little. He was like, well, you know, like a good review online.

Yeah, okay, that's what you're saying. Well, I'm going to leave a good review online and all the different stuff because the Casper mattress shows up in this little box. They drop it there. It's right there. It takes you, you know, it depends on kind of what your upper body routine is. Some military on the Smith. You bring it upstairs, you pop the box open, the mattress flops open and boom, it's done. You know what I mean? It's not this massive hassle that all these other places have. So that wasn't even in the read, but that's how I feel about it.

And the best part is it's delivered right to your door, as we said, and free shipping and returns in the US and Canada. But the best part is you can be sure you're purchased with Casper because they have the 100 night risk-free sleep on it trial. After all, you spend one third of your life sleeping, so you should be comfortable. And you can also get $50 towards select mattresses by visiting casper.com slash dual and using dual D-U-A-L at checkout. That's casper.com slash dual. Offer code dual for $50 off your mattress purchase. Terms and conditions apply.

I want to talk a little about Le'Veon Bell because here's the deal. If I'm going to sit there and say, well, Le'Veon at some point needs to figure this out. I think we're a little thrown off that the breaking news is that he's saying here, and he told ESPN in a report here, that he's going to come back week seven or week eight, week seven to the bye, they come back against Cleveland. And we thought he was probably going to come back with six games to go week 11, that'd be November 18th to get the credit for the year and then hit free agency. So I'm going to sound to like dumb people are going to think I'm contradicting myself, but I'm actually not. If I think it should try, and I've said this before, I almost feel outdated about it, but

this kind of thing where if you're on a team, what's really fun is trying to all go in the same direction as a team, respect each other, and achieve one goal, strive to get one goal. I mean, this is still kind of the point of all this stuff, I think. And that's why I thought the Earl Thomas thing was kind of funny, is that I felt like somebody in the media, and I think the fans that crush Earl Thomas like you're kind of lame but I also think the fans or excuse me the media members that blindly defend Earl Thomas after he breaks his leg in the game this weekend and goes well that's why he was trying to get all that extra money and you're like okay but the whole counterpoint to that position would be that's why ownership didn't

want to give him 30 extra million when they didn't have to when he was already under contract because he may break his leg just like he did so both things things can be true. And with Le'Veon, I haven't always loved it. This Le'Veon story, I've done the Steelers rant before where I just think it's a real weird collection of selfish dudes that are sometimes delusional. And yet, it's this amazing, talented team and this great fan base at Pittsburgh. I feel like the Steelers fans deserve better because I think this group should have done collectively more the last few years with all the talent on the roster, even though defensively right now, I'm a little worried about it. But if the same guys that ripped Le'Veon when he was holding out, which was really weird, and I think was a real hint of

this isn't just your average holdout. Guys are like, what are you doing? That if those guys are saying you need to do this for the team, then I think those same guys, and I'll say this, need to just bring them back with open arms and not hold any resentment and make sure, okay, look, you held out. You're coming back. Come back a little bit earlier than we thought. And you know what? Let's get out there.

Let's block for you. Let's get you the ball. We need you. Let's do everything we can so that you're comfortable in this. And let's make a run of this the second half of the season. And I think that's what professionals do. And I hope that's what happens for Steelers fans because, you know, I know it's impossible. I think the Browns or the city of Cleveland were really the only team that are group of franchises that people from, you know, there's people in Miami

going, you know, it kind of sucks, kind of sucks for what the Browns have gone through, but who knows? Maybe the Browns are awesome now with Baker Mayfield. One final thing that I wanted to get to, I was out of Penn State for Ohio State. Great game. It's my second year in a row at Penn State. And it is always interesting, and this speaks again to how tribal everybody is, is that people will come up to me

and I really appreciate it. Although it's probably the worst cheering crowd I've ever had when I was introduced. That was a real ego dimmer. Yeah, the DJ introduces me. But the DJ, this guy, Chris, is a great guy, but you would think I hold both the WWE World Championship belt and the Intercontinental, and not a And then Kajana Carter, who we all know who he is, right? So he introduces me. And I always feel like there's two very distinct fan bases.

I wouldn't even put Baylor in this one right now. But there's two fan bases out there. It's Penn State from all the stuff that they went through years ago, as we all know. And Ohio State with Urban Now, where they just despise national guys. And they really hate ESPN, even though Brett McMurphy doesn't even work for ESPN anymore. And he's the one that broke the whole story. Kyle, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter to anyone. You're right. No, it doesn't matter. It's like, cause Hey, who broke the story? The guy that's not at ESPN. Okay. Well now it's on ESPN nonstop. So you guys are all evil. So I'm sure. And I'm actually going to Michigan, Ohio

State, I think. And so when I'm introduced there, I don't know what's going to happen. It's probably going to be... Like when I go to LSU, I think I'm doing the speaking appearance thing at LSU. And I know that that'll be a crowd that, you know, it'll be really good. And it'll be a little humbling.

But when I was introduced to Penn State thing, people were like, huh? Oh, yeah, okay. All right, whatever. And then look, Kajana Carter comes out, you know, and you should go nuts. It's Kajana Carter. You should definitely go. I mean, I don't even need to say the most obvious sentence. So I'm just going to stop

myself on that one. And there's a lot of people that were great there. And I've met, I met this, this kid, you know, his father had been sick and I think his name's Jack. I hope I'm getting that right. And his father, and he sat down next to me at this diner and they ended up paying for my breakfast without even telling me. And they were nice as could be. And then I invited him and we all kind of hung out a little bit. And I actually regret not inviting him backstage this time around. But the Nissan Heisman house thing is just a really cool deal. Get to the point, Russillo.

The fans everywhere, because it was a whiteout game, and now they're five and six and they're all 11 whiteout games. And they go, hey, have you been to a whiteout game before? I was like, yeah, I think so. Last year in Nebraska. I'm like, dude, that wasn't a whiteout game. I'm like, what? And I don't want to sound racist here. Okay. There's a chance I may sound racist, but there's more redheads in Penn State's campus than anywhere I've ever seen. I don't know what the hell is that about? I don't, it's like Glasgow. I don't even know if that's the right pronunciation. It's just, I expected guys to start beating me over the head with a wooden mug of mead. I've never seen, I've never been to a campus. Now, obviously, that isn't racist.

I was kidding. It was people going, oh my god, we're still going to go down in flames at the end of Dual Threat here. Soundbite racism. Right, there we go. No, it's just a ton of redheads at Penn State. I don't know if there's a discount. I actually don't think this can be offensive, anything I'm saying. So, yeah, a lot of redheads there, but they'll go,

hey, is this, you know, I was lucky enough to be on the sideline for a good chunk of the first half. And then, you know, some Penn State people come up to you and they go, best experience you ever had. Best game to experience. And they're not asking if there's another one. They're simply making that statement for you to confirm. A little shoulder pat. Yeah.

And you just go, it's really good. And it is. It's really good. It's $100,000. They're super into it. It's on a quiet $100,000, which, by the way, Texas deserves more credit for changing that whole thing around. I think Andy Staples did a piece on that because when I was there a couple weeks ago, I go, dude, this is kind of a thing now. And by the way, the whole McConaughey, Texas plays it all the time, and only Texas should be playing it.

You want to know why? Because they're the only ones that have McConaughey in real life on the sideline. Not at Penn State. Penn State's doing it in the wrong key, by the way. I don't know who their band director is, but my ear is so tuned musically, I immediately knew, nope, wrong key. However, you feel bad like you don't know what to say. And this is not knocking anything about the Penn state thing.

And the only real bummer about Penn state, Ohio state was two fan bases trying to call out the other fan base for moral dilemmas of the last few years. And like, why don't both of you guys just shut up? But it isn't Penn state white out is really, really cool. And once again,

as anybody asks me, they go, the best thing you've ever seen. I go, it's not LSU on a Saturday night. But until further notice, that will be my answer forever. Real quick, look at the rankings here. Something to think about.

Notre Dame, who beat up on Stanford. Now Notre Dame is 6 in the AP and 7 in the coaches poll. Let's see if the coaches poll has Nebraska. Maybe you get no vote in there like they have for a decade. No, probably not because Nebraska hasn't won. I'm kidding. Notre Dame's sixth in the AP.

And their schedule at the beginning of the year looked impossible. And I always think everybody's going to lose a game or two. I don't care how good you are. I mean, that's just sort of

how I feel. And with Auburn sort of being all over the place, I'm not quite sure about that yet. So maybe Bama runs the whole table here. And I still don't think as good as LSU is on paper and the resume and all these things, I have a really hard time believing.

You never know. The Voodoo, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, the whole deal. I'll probably be picking LSU minus a touchdown once I'm there for three days. That's happened to me before. But Notre Dame had Michigan. That game was only a score, but it wasn't if you watched it. They beat up on Stanford, a Stanford team that just had beaten Oregon. And here's a little fun with rankings.

Because Notre Dame, again, as I mentioned, the schedule that we thought would be tough, they got to go to Virginia Tech this weekend. That's not easy, but it doesn't feel as daunting after Virginia Tech lost, what, to Old Dominion? So that's a real thing to to now pay attention to um i'm scrolling through a bunch of stuff here yeah that's right that was the stupid old dominion game well stupid if you're virginia tech but uh not if you're old not if you're old odu that was

verlander squad right back in the day god you can look that up right uh verlander was old old dominion i don't know what it was but like old dominion always had like, maybe they still do really good baseball. There's old dominion baseball fans. There's about four listening to this podcast right now. God damn it. He's getting it wrong. No,

he's getting it right. Uh, no, I know he pitched there, but I don't know how good they've been recently. No, I don't, I don't need any stats.

You've, you've done more than enough. Thank you. So again, Michigan, Stanford, Virginia tech at Northwestern, maybe Florida state. They stink. And then at USC. So, so Virginia tech, not Tech, at Northwestern, maybe. Florida State, they stink.

And then at USC. So Virginia Tech, not what we thought they'd be, right? Can we at least say that? Florida State, not even close to what we thought they'd be. Hell, Syracuse at home may be Notre Dame's toughest game the rest of the way, but I don't want to be saying at Virginia Tech is just some walkover, even though they lost Old Dominion. So we shouldn't do that.

At USC, not as tough as it looked before. So again, how are they going to go undefeated? How are they going to run this table? When it starts coming down to angst and everyone clinging onto their resume and spinning it any way you possibly can, and I've heard from all of you all over the country for decades, I know your game. I know

everything you try to do. Like, look at us versus the top 28. Like, oh, interesting how you cut it off at 28. But that win against Stanford, again, a Stanford team that came into South Bend ranked seventh in the country because why? They beat Oregon, who's better than them. Oregon is better than Stanford. They were better the entire game.

And they couldn't stop fumbling the football. It was a joke. And I'm not taking that away from Stanford. But I'm comfortable in saying they had no business winning that game. But that turns them into a top 10 victory for Notre Dame. A Notre Dame team that may, depending on how the rest of this thing shakes out, because we're not talking about a conference here with Notre Dame,

that will be a resume builder when, in fact, if Oregon finished out the game like most teams would have statistically and not just fumbled away the whole deal, the Notre Dame wouldn't have that top 10 win, and then people would start knocking them. So I'm just telling you that's a weird little thing with the rankings that's worth paying attention to, and I'm not knocking Notre Dame wouldn't have that top 10 win and then people would start knocking them. So I'm just telling you like that's a weird little thing with the rankings that's worth paying attention to. And I'm not knocking Notre Dame. I love that they went to Ian Book. I said it earlier. I didn't see it in Wimbush, excuse me, Wimbush, but he was so good at running the

football. It's just something to remember unless they end up losing to, you know, they lose to Virginia Tech. It won't really matter unless a bunch of other teams lose. That'll do it for the Dual Threat Podcast. We may have some special giveaways coming up. Not sure what they are yet. Oh, shit. Me neither. Kyle doesn't even know. Simmons doesn't know. He may freak out. Scotty doesn't know.

Please subscribe, rate and review, and really cool. Really cool. What we've been able to do. It's been top 10 and episodes every week since it's come out. So Google play coming soon and Google play coming soon. All right.

So, and I hope now for you, the you out there that give Trent deal for shit. Maybe you back off a little.