The Ryen Russillo Podcast - “Who’s Next?” Candidates for NBA Stardom, Elite NFL Units With Ted Nguyen, Plus Ole Miss Coach Lane Kiffin

Episode Date: October 14, 2022

Russillo examines the top tier of NBA players—questioning who will pass the torch in the coming years, and who will receive it (0:37). Then Ryen talks with Ted Nguyen of The Athletic about the NFL's elite offensive and defensive units, factors contributing to Russell Wilson's struggles in Denver, Geno Smith's success in Seattle, the 4-1 Giants, and more (15:41). Then Ryen is joined by Ole Miss Football head coach Lane Kiffin to discuss the team's prospects this season, QB Jaxson Dart, lessons learned about coaching the QB position over the years, his time at USC and Alabama, and more (36:22). Finally Ryen, Ceruti, and Kyle make their favorite NFL bets for Week 6 (56:10), before answering some listener-submitted Life Advice questions (1:01:34). Host: Ryen Russillo Guests:Ten Nguyen and Lane Kiffin Producers: Kyle Crichton and Steve Ceruti Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

today's podcast after just getting one 24 hours ago we've got ted winn from the athletic incredible nfl film breakdown stuff trends what he sees with elite defenses offenses a couple other stories as well a subdued and focused Lane Kiffin during Auburn week. We'll talk about his Ole Miss program, his career, and some of the coaching lessons along the way. We've got life advice and our picks where Cerruti should be 5-0. Thinking about something that I always think about, that's okay, who the top five are.

And the top five, is it really fair? I think it's kind of the top seven, top eight. Some years it could be eight. Some years maybe it could be six. And that list is probably even shorter when we think about the guys that truly show up to your team. And now you're a completely different team. You're actually a title contender. And again, nobody does it by themselves. And I've said these things before, but that's why I think every year with the draft, when you're like, okay, well, what can this guy be? Can he be a one on a good basketball team? And I'm not saying LeBron,

the number one on a team that's a perennial contender for a decade, which is what you get when you got LeBron. It's just somebody who can change the course of your franchise. And if we have 60 draft picks every year and 14 lottery, to suggest that we get two of those

every year in the draft isn't really the case. Although this exercise, it was a little bit more, I don't know if the exercise the way I did it was more forgiving, or maybe there's a little bit more depth there to the question I'm going to ask. And that is very simple because here's the parallel. If you look at NFL quarterbacks going back in the last couple of years, it was very clear there's going to be a changing of the guard, right? Breeze was on his way out. There's some years there where

like the numbers are pretty good. And then it took me a little while to go, you know what? It's actually, he kind of limits what you can do as an offense, despite a Hall of Fame career. Roethlisberger, we saw the decline, and at the very end, it was brutal, couldn't see it anymore. We thought Brady was going to move on. So there was a group of three to four. You can put Rivers in there.

I think Ryan was always in kind of that 7 to 12 range, certainly not in that top five5 range at any point, despite an MVP season. I just feel like it was clear there was going to be a changing of the guard, and that's now Mahomes, it's Allen, it's Herbert, who everybody loves from a physical standpoint. I thought Lamar's first month was incredible this year. Last game wasn't great.

Who cares? Not a big deal. But the names that we were used to for almost a decade, it was going to start changing out and changing out rapidly. And when I look at the top seven to eight NBA players currently, and I'm going to give you those knowing that going into the season, this is probably going to change. But I don't like changing these. Like power rankings for players, that's not really what I'm interested in doing every

single week. I think it takes a while for me to think you deserve to be considered that. And then I also think it takes a little while for you to be removed from it. And it's not necessarily just one bad season or one bad injury season. Now, multiple injury seasons is a different story. So if I look at it in no particular order, I'd go Giannis, Durant, Luka, Jokic, Embiid, Steph. And I still feel like it's worth putting LeBron 7th. That may be a reach at this point.

We'll see what this season's going to look like as he turns 38. The stats are still incredible. He knows how to impact a game at an age that it usually just doesn't happen. You look at the rest of his draft class. The fact that Melo's even kind of hanging on, hoping for an invite somewhere is pretty amazing, but the rest of the guys are all done. And we're talking about LeBron,

and that's, again, a credit to how special he is as a player. But that feels like the right group. If we were doing tiers, and that's why I don't always love top five, because it's like, well, what if I think five, six, and seven are all kind of the same? I don't really want to have to decide as if one isn't worthy of being in that group.

Giannis, still a lock moving forward. Luka, lock moving forward. Jokic, I think Embiid, same deal. But KD, 34, another injury season. LeBron, we're getting near the end. Steph, I think is always going to be really valuable just because the shooting is going to hold up. I just wonder if two, three years from now. So kind of the exercise is, all right, of the players that we're talking about now, how many names can we come up with in a

list that could be potential replacements two to three years from now as like that new group of the tier ones, the top seven or eight players? and other players that have been on here like Kawhi's out of this group, just too many injuries at this point, despite at one point me even wondering if he was the best single player in the NBA. Harden statistically was always kind of in that top five group.

Didn't feel that he was a top five guy necessarily, but still worth talking about like in the conversation. He's bumped out of that. but still worth talking about in the conversation. He's bumped out of that. If you look at ESPN.com, they actually moved Durant to eighth behind Tatum seventh. Maybe.

I'm not sure if I feel that. The rest of the.com is Ja ninth, and Devin Booker was 10th. That's just to round out some of the other thoughts and some of the other names. What I did is I went through all the drafts from 21 all the way down to 12 to give you perspective of who could be up next, come up with the who's next list,

but then whittle that down and let's come up with a defining line of where, okay, now we're going too far with it. Cade, it's too early. I actually think Anthony Edwards has a chance to be one of these guys, and that is pretty rare of me to go.

Yep. Two years in, I think he could be this special, which also means you better start winning like 55 games. You need to be the number one. You know, it's not always going to be 55 games. You get the point.

Like, like what Luca did, even if I don't think of the Mavs as a perennial Western conference finals team, which has more to do with, well, it's a combination of things. It's the Mavs roster.

And it's also how tough the West is going to be, although that can change. We'll see what happens here as we move forward. But that Luka had a run in his third year after putting up absurd playoff numbers in the first place, those couple series against the Clippers to get things started. So he's had his kind of coming out playoff run, beating a Phoenix team that was incredible in the regular season. I don't really think they had much of a chance against Golden State, but Luka has had that breakout moment at least where you're like, okay, this guy actually could carry a team this far by himself

because when you think about his number twos and some of the other guys' number twos, but a lot of that has to do also in the style of play that the Mavs have to have with a guy like Luka. So Edwards, I would put on the potential list. Keep track of this. Zion and Ja are real candidates. I mean, hell, like I said, Ja's ninth already on ESPN.com.

So if in two years, I mean, just to remind you what Ja did this past season, 27 points, six boards, seven assists, 49 and 34% from three. Those are his shooting splits. He shot 40% for three after the All-Star break. He had 47 in game two against Golden State, where you're like, okay, this is real. So I do think Ja belongs on the list. I think Zion probably checks a lot of different boxes

on what we would expect one of the breakout player, the tier one players to be in the NBA. He's got to be healthier first, but to be on the potential list, no problem. Luke is already there. I don't think Trey would ever be that guy. That's probably not super surprising to a lot of you who listen to me on these podcasts for years. He's really good and he's very productive. I don't think he's ever going to be somebody you're like, he's one of the seven best players in the NBA.

And again, that's not an insult. This is kind of back to like the Lamar stuff with the QB tiers that we did with Sandow. If people freak out about the Lamar thing, you're like, all right, so the NFL thinks he's like the sixth or seventh quarterback, best quarterback in the league with some really good ones ahead of him. All right, that's not really that insulting. To say Trey's not one of the seven best players, or I don't think he will be in two years, that's not really that insulting. Okay, next list, Tatum and Mitchell. That Tatum's even being discussed as one of them,

and as we saw with ESPN.com, they've already put him there. NBA Finals, some Western Conference Finals, where I actually didn't think the teams were all that great, and if they had gotten out of the, excuse me, Eastern Conference Finals, had they gotten out of the East, I would have thought it was kind of surprising. He's certainly on the list, if not already there. Donovan Mitchell, I think, is still a potential guy, but probably not.

Probably not. As his career has arced, and it's coming off a little bit more disappointment than some of the stuff we've seen before, it still would feel like a reach to go Donovan Mitchell's going to be the seventh best player in the NBA in 2024. So I'll put him down on the list. Don't feel it. Laurie Marketing. I've seen it argued somewhere. We're going to go ahead and cross that one off.

Brandon Ingram. Nice player. Big step up. Nice playoff numbers. I don't see it. Pascal Siakam. What I just said about Ingram. You could say, well, you know, he's got the ring and everything.

Yeah, sort of. Jamal Murray. Nice player. Don't see it. Ben Simmons. Really expensive role player. Don't see it. Ben Simmons. Really expensive role player. That's a no. Booker Towns from the 15 class.

Booker, as we saw on.com is 10. When they made their finals run two years ago, people were really flirting with the idea of how much they wanted to talk about Booker. When I look at Towns, to me, it's an emphatic no. The numbers are awesome. The shooting for a guy, that big, historic kind of stuff.

He's won three playoff games in his entire career, and he's about to be 27 in November. And I do think the Timberwolves are going to be good. But Towns is the seventh best player. Never going to see that. Although, to be fair, when I bring up that he's only won three playoff games in his career, Booker had won zero before Chris Paul showed up, but Booker feels like a better bet to be on this list potentially because he's already kind of right there. So I'm going to go ahead and put him down. I'm not going to put

towns down. Uh, Jokic is there and beat is there, you know, and beats 24th and games played in his class, in his draft class. Again, we know that he sat the first two years, barely played in the third. Giannis is already at the top of the list. And then in 12, you had two players from that draft class that actually have been in this group. Certainly Anthony Davis, that first Pelicans Portland series, where you're like, wait, is this guy a top five player? The bubble title? That guy was a top five player in the NBA.

It feels weird that I'm putting somebody that's already been in that group back on the list potentially because I'm not writing him off, although it just feels like a worse and worse bet. Lillard probably is in that Booker range with the best, the height of his deal, like some of those playoff shot against Oklahoma City and how we rushed to go, wait, is Lillard, you know, Lillard sitting there being like, I don't get any love. And like, how come people don't think he's a better point guards? Because the rest of the point guards in the West are fucking awesome. So yeah, back to the Lamar thing,

back to, you know, when we talked about Trey Young just moments ago, when Lillard was the third best point guard in the West, that actually wasn't some massive insult. It can be packaged as disrespect. We can pretend that. We can go on TV shows and say, oh, how come we're not talking about Lillard a little more? Well, we're talking about Lillard the perfect amount in relation to the other players that are actually better than him. But I did feel like Lillard in the Houston series, the OKC series, just some of the shit that he was doing during peak Lillard years, he was probably floating in that Booker range that Booker has been in the last couple of years. Okay, so I also need to point this out. Sometimes we can't see what we can't see.

We have two, maybe three, two of the best developmental stories we've ever seen in NBA history. And it happened kind of at the same time. Giannis becoming this, who, if you first watched it, it was exciting. It was almost a tease, though, at times. There were good video clips, but you weren't ever sure, like, is Giannis actually going to figure this thing out? And I think the first signs of it were in his third year, but it wasn't really until his fourth year. You're like, holy shit. This guy's going to be awesome. He is one of the great developmental stories in NBA history. Maybe the greatest because it feels like he's the best player in the world. And that's not usually where we get our best players in the world from.

Usually it's pretty clear. Usually it's like, no, that's going to be a guy. Kobe was a little different because we weren't accustomed or we didn't have any wings that were coming out of high school. So that was a little different, at least his model coming in. And we still were a little anti high school in the nineties and all that shit that was going on. But for Giannis to become who he's been, I don't know that we saw that. Hell, when the Bucks drafted him, they didn't expect this.

They've admitted that. And the other developmental story that's incredible is Kawhi because it wasn't really until his fifth year. We're talking about a role player coming in to kind of give you a defensive matchup and maybe hit a shot or two. Paul George would be the third one, but Paul George is interesting because at one point he was on this list. During those Pacers runs, Paul George was like, wait, is this guy actually with a two-way in the shooting and the handle and the size? Is he the second best player behind LeBron in the East? Is he the second best player in the league?

Again, you can act like that's crazy. As somebody who did the radio show every single day, we'd at least toss these things around, even if the answer wasn't yes. But the point that we were even talking about it was the actual point. George is not on that list anymore. even talking about it was the actual point. George is not on that list anymore. So there very well could be a player right now that's sitting in front of all of us, and I try to do it.

It's just so hard. Like, who's that player that's not scoring a ton that was drafted a little bit later than other guys that you go, hey, you know what? That guy could be the best player in an NBA title team and one of the clear six to seven best players in the NBA. That's a hard thing to figure out. And maybe I'm not good enough knowing who that is right now,

but that's kind of the point, is I don't think many people would be. So if we look at Giannis Hustain, Luka Hustain, Jokic Hustain, and Bita Stang, that's four. KD, I still think is going to be really good for a couple years. But if we're talking about in 2024, Steph probably starts to slow down at that point. LeBron, I would imagine heading into a 40-year-old season.

How many people can replace the three? Edwards, Zion, Ja. I mean, Ja's right there right now. Tatum, right there right now. I'm going to say no to Mitchell. I'm going to say no to Ingram. No to Siakam. No to Murray.

I'll put Booker down. No to Towns. Jokic and Beat, as we already admitted. I don't think 80 gets back into there. So I guess that's the list. Edward Zion, Ja. Tatum Booker. And I'm definitely missing a couple people

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is non-withdrawable free bets that expires in 14 days. Restrictions apply. See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com. Ted Gwynn joins us from The Athletic. He's one of my favorite NFL follows. The breakdowns are just another level. So thanks for joining us today, man. What's going on?

Doing good. Thanks for having me on. Okay. I know you've talked about San Francisco and their chances of being an elite defense. I know you hinted at the idea that perhaps Dallas could have an elite defensive unit. How many units do we know?

Well, not know. Or do you think possibly are elite units both offense and defense in the NFL today? today yeah this is a pretty interesting question after you know looking at these teams and seeing who truly is elite um i i think this year you know when you look at score scoring scoring has been down around the league and it's um one of the first time that defenses have been trending yet because you know the rules are so uh geared towards offenses that and we've seen so much um you know all these offensive records getting broken year after year but when you look at this year you know defenses are starting to catch up to

offenses and and when i you know really looked at who is that elite i think there are five elite defensive units and i think there's only three offensive units that I thought were really elite. As far as defensive units, I think the Niners are elite. I think they could be a historically good defense if they keep up. Obviously, the Manuel Mosley

injury, who is a really good corner, is going to hurt. I think Dallas has an elite unit. Buffalo has an elite unit. Tampa Bay has an elite unit, and the Eagles have a really good corner. It's going to hurt. I think Dallas has an elite unit. Buffalo has an elite unit. Tampa Bay has an elite unit. The Eagles have a really good defense. Okay. You want to talk

defenses first? Yeah, let's actually just stay on defenses because you mentioned, okay, scoring is down a little bit. I know I've asked you this before, but is there anything you're noticing in the film study? Trends? Whether it's personnel? And I know on offense, I'm going to ask you this as well, but defensive stuff where, hey, I know we all keep a million defensive backs

in the field now because you just have to, but have you noticed any part of this where the numbers would back up some visuals here of how the defense is catching up a little bit? Yeah, I think there are about eight teams right now and there's more teams that are influenced by Vic Fangio's defensive style. It's funny because

Vic Fangio's not even coaching this year because he got fired from the Broncos and he decided to take a year off. There's eight teams running his style of defense which tries to get two deep safeties to limit explosive plays. And they just try to keep everything looking the same right before the snap. And after they snap, they shift defenses.

It makes it a little hard on quarterbacks. They play with light boxes. And basically the premise is just to stop explosive plays, make offenses drive, make them call more plays. And the theory is that as they call explosive plays, make offenses drive, make them call more plays. And the theory is that as they call more plays, there are a greater chance of something going wrong, turnover, negative play that ends the drive. And just forcing offenses to play perfect and to play really good consistent ball has really limited them and brought scoring down.

Okay. That was a great answer. All right, so we've got five defensive units you think are elite or could be throughout the season. You only have three on offense. Who are they? Right now, I think the Chiefs have elite offense, the Bills have elite offense, and the Eagles have elite offense. All three have really good offensive lines.

Obviously, the Chiefs and Bills have two of the best quarterbacks in the league with Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen. But, you know, the Eagles have Jalen Hurts, who is playing very well right now. I think he still needs to be tested in the playoffs. And we'll see if a team could make him into a passer right now. That running game, that option running game is working

really well, and he has improved as a passer. But how much he has improved as a passer and if he can play at a high level in the playoffs is to be determined. There are about three other teams that are bordering on elite right now. The Seattle Seahawks with Geno Smith,

which is surprising. He's playing extremely well. They have a pretty good roster around him too. The Ravens with Lamar Jackson, but there's some question marks at wide receiver there. And the Dolphins. And obviously the question, you know, the question mark there is Tua and how much of an improved quarterback is he truly?

Yeah, your Geno breakdowns on some of these throws, like that slant to the back of the end zone to his left that he beats the corner on, like what the hell is going on here? Because this is some pretty impressive stuff. And again, like a lot of people didn't expect it from Geno Smith. Yeah, I think Geno has always been a really strong throw of the ball. And obviously, we didn't see a full sample size of it in New York

because a bunch of things happened. But I really think he's improved as a passer. Even last season, you saw signs of him improving at quarterback, but he just was terrible under pressure. But this year, he's been awesome under pressure. He's been able to navigate the pocket, buy time, make plays outside the pocket. And what's really stunning is how he's able to make some of these throws off his back foot. So I don't know how long this is going to last, but a lot of things seem like it's sustainable.

So it's really one of the more incredible stories in NFL this year. Okay, on the other side, and let's just carry that into the Russell Wilson stuff. This is a stat that I saw on your Twitter feed that you responded to. With Seattle, Russell Wilson ranked top five in completion percentage over expectation in all 10 NFL seasons. No other QB came close to over this stretch. In 2022, Geno's actually leading all quarterbacks

in completion percentage over expectation. All right, so that's been an unbelievable, it's an unpredictable thing that all of a sudden, okay, Wilson is this guy who's accurate all the time. Geno Smith's going to come in. People even wondered if he was going to win the job against Drew Locke. I would think so because we didn't really see it.

It's on him. But now on the other side, Russell Wilson can't hit anybody. I'm with you. I've seen you talk about this a little bit. I hope it's an injury because that would be something that he's too young to just now all of a sudden be physically shot. But give me the entire breakdown of what you've seen from him through a few games.

Yeah, I think he is missing a lot of easy throws that we've seen him make. And I don't think you just lose your accuracy out of nowhere. So I think the injury has affected him. But obviously, there's a lot of reasons for his decline of play that doesn't have to do with injury. He's getting away with a lot of bad habits. away with a lot of bad habits. For example, that interception that he threw, the final interception that he threw against Indianapolis in that overtime game, he got away with that same pass

with the Raiders, except for he actually threw a touchdown pass even though he made the wrong read technically. So he's getting away with bad habits. I think defenses know how to defend him now. He's the sideline thrower. He likes throwing two to sidelines. And he likes throwing fades. He doesn't throw in the middle of the field.

And the Seahawks kind of exposed a weakness, too. They just had specific pass rush plans to force him to the left. And when he's running to the left, he's a lot more inaccurate. So teams kind of know his weaknesses now. And yeah, they're just catching up to him. And, and he,

he, I think he thought he was going to get an upgrade in talent when he went to the Broncos, but the talent there is actually, you know, downgraded. He doesn't have DK Metcalf and Tyler Lockett. I think Sutton's a good receiver,

but he's not on that level with Lockett or Metcalf. And there are some injuries in that. Wait, so you don't think Sutton and Judy and KJ are at best even with them? Do you think Lockett and Metcalf are that much better than the front two guys? Yeah, I think Metcalf is going to be a little inconsistent at times, but his ceiling is elite. And I don't think the Broncos have a guy with a ceiling that DK Metcalf has. That's fine.

But you think Lockett's that much better than Judy still? I think Lockett's a really underrated receiver. I agree with that. But I just have a hard time. Like, I just don't think it's that much of a drop-off, especially when you throw in the slot guy. But go ahead. I think Judy hasn't lived up to his first-round billing.

I think we see flashes of it, but he's not consistent. And Lockett is the definition of a consistent guy. I think the Broncos have a little more receiving depth than the Seahawks, but when you're talking about blue chip, I mean, the ceiling of that receiving corp, I think the Seahawks, but when you're talking about blue chip, I mean, the ceiling of that receiving corp, I think

the Seahawks are better. Okay. Let's talk about the Giants. You're doing an extensive breakdown on them this week as well. What is it? What's going on? How are they 4-1? Brian Dayball and Mike Kafka,

their offensive coordinator, have done a really good job of adjusting what they know and just featuring Saquon Barkley, you know, and I think with the Bills and with the Chiefs, those guys had offenses that were high volume passing, obviously, because they had the quarterbacks to do it. They had Mahomes and Josh Allen, and they were a spread it out, air it out team. So when they got to the Giants, I think you kind of expect to see the type of offense, but they've been opposite.

They've run a lot of two, three tight end sets. They're running the ball at a higher rate, and it makes sense because they're trying to feature their best player, and they're trying to feature Saquon Barkley. I think that's just a really good sign for the future because they know how to adjust. They're not married to a system.

I think we've seen coaches in the past go into teams and try to implement their system no matter what, and we've seen it not work. But here, you know, you have two guys that completely threw away what they knew before and are just trying to create a system to feature talent on the team. And right now they're 12th in offensive DVOA. And when you look at the roster, it does not look like a team that's been close to top 10.

They're fourth in explosive run rate. And Daniel Jones hasn't turned the ball over. Saquon Barkley looks like a much better, more patient inside runner. They're second in play action pass rate, and Daniel Jones is fourth in EPA per pass on those type of plays. So I don't know if they're going to keep winning at the rate they are now, but I think it's a really good sign, Steve, that you have a coaching staff that knows how to adjust to the talent on the roster.

And for those wondering, on that 12th offense in DVOA, that's adjusted for schedule as well. Because, you know, prior to the Packers game, I'm like, I don't want to hear about this. Here's the other thing on EPA, the expected points added. I feel like almost every quarterback, you can find some version of something that they do where you'll look and be like, man, that guy's top five in EPA. I don't know if that plays out. Maybe the worst, like the bottom three guys wouldn't have something,

but I feel like most quarterbacks, you can find some category where it looks like on certain types of plays, especially five weeks into the season. Because the rest of the Daniel Jones stuff, I'll go with the Dable stuff, clearly Barkley. The O-line's better than we thought it would be. The receivers are not good slash disappointing.

Maybe the defense is good. All of these things. I guess I'm just having a hard time that it's a completely different Daniel Jones. Like Geno Smith, I'm seeing different things. Daniel Jones, I think they're just winning some games here. I think there's other statistical categories with Jones that they're pretty alarming still.

I agree I don't I'm not bought in in Daniel Jones um yet but they've created an environment where he hasn't been a disaster and the only reason why I brought up that uh fourth at EPA because they found something uh yeah where you know they could have Daniel Jones do really well which is play action uh because you know you draw up those linebackers, you create easy opportunities for him, and you create opportunities where he can run because, you know, you get him out on the edge

on those bootlegs, and he's athletic enough to gash the defense when they don't have him contained. Right. I think you had one clip where you showed like a three tight end personnel set, and it was basically all set up to sell Barkley. And it's like like it's not only a play action it's look at our formation look at the personnel and Jones was athletic enough on that rollout like he basically had I think a one route pattern you know it's only like

one route there was one guy that was even going out and and Jones is athletic enough to get away from it buy himself some time and get the angle on the throw. So athletically, I'm with you. Let's go back to Barkley real quick, though, because I think it would surprise people. Because you look at Barkley coming out of Penn State, all the speed, the strength, the body, all this stuff. He gets drafted high, which again, you know, whatever with running backs, he gets hurt. He's off the radar. But physically, he looks right. But you're telling us he's a different runner in his decision making, which, you know, difference on top of just getting that knee healthy again, because he probably got away with whatever he wanted to when he was in college.

Yeah, in college, the one knock on him was his vision. He would try to bounce plays out too early. And you saw that in the NFL, too, where he was getting explosive runs. But at the same time he had a lot of negative runs or no games because he would try to go outside outside too quickly but when you watch him this year he's super patient inside the tackles he's looking for that cut back inside um NFL next gen stats has you know has a way of ranking uh or or rating guys as inside runners, and he's a top guy right now. So I think that's a credit to Dayball and Kafka's coaching as well.

They are helping him improve in that area. Is there anything that you've seen now trend-wise with offenses? You mentioned the Fangio defense and how they're trying to disguise it right up until the snap, the too deep safety look. Anything that you're seeing on offense, more balance, or are teams looking at those light boxes and trying to counter that by saying, OK, maybe we run this a little bit more here. And again, it always feels like a running play is a wasted opportunity for pass, which I've kind of believed before we pushed it this far. But anything that you're seeing right now?

Yeah, I think with this Fangio type of defense permeating throughout the league, we're seeing teams that can rush the ball, especially teams that can run gap schemes, which is more north and south than the zone running schemes that are kind of popularized around the league, those teams could move the ball. And when you look at the Detroit Lions and the Cleveland Browns, they don't have great quarterbacks, but because they could run the ball so well and because they could run the ball right at you, they're explosive offenses.

So I think we're starting to see the league trend in the opposite direction now. I think we're going to start seeing more teams try to run these gap scheme runs. We're going to see more teams look for offensive linemen that can block these gap scheme runs because these defenses are playing with such light bodies. They're playing with light boxes. And they're playing a little more passively. They're not getting upfield. So they kind of leave themselves exposed to gap-to-keep runs.

And I don't know if it's going to trend too far in that direction because, like you said, passing is always going to be more efficient and running and more explosive than running. But we're seeing these teams that can run, have really efficient offenses with quarterbacks that aren't really top tier. There was something else that I saw going around, and you can tee it up better than I can

because you're the one that brought it up, but it was basically a versatility ranking of all 32 teams with the running backs, wide receivers, and tight ends, and then cross-referencing that with EPA numbers. And there's some groups that are really versatile and then cross-referencing that with EPA numbers. And there's some groups that are really versatile and super disappointing, and some other groups that aren't and are still somewhat rewarding.

I think we'd all want versatility. But can you tell us a little bit more of what this chart meant? Because I know you tweeted it out, and it was somebody who works in the NFL would have good data. Yeah, so I got that. I retweeted Andrew Patton, who worked for NFL,

and basically put up a chart that ranks teams by how versatile their offensive skill players are. And then next to it, he had an offensive EPA per play, which shows how efficient they are. And obviously, the Rams, we know Sean McVay likes moving his guys around. And he has a wide receiver playing fullback right now, Ben Skronick. So, you know, he obviously he's kind of taking advantage of the versatility or he's trying to take advantage of the versatility on his roster. But, you know, obviously the Rams have a lot of offensive line problems. The Chiefs are ranked number two.

We know how Andy Reid gets creative with moving his guys around. Surprisingly, the Seahawks are high up on that list. So yeah, I think in an NFL, you just try to find any advantage you can. And finding guys that can play multiple spots is an advantage. And we're seeing a lot of guys get creative with moving wide receivers into backfield, trading mismatches like that. So I think that's basically what the chart was trying to show. Yeah, it was really interesting.

Who's the most versatile? Top five, Rams, Chiefs, Seahawks, Vikings, Dallas, Cleveland's versatile. Washington, actually the seventh most versatile group among their skill guys. And then at the bottom, it's Houston, Carolina, Denver, Pittsburgh, New Orleans. So yeah, all right. Final thing here that I have for you. Would you have anything on one-dimensional quarterbacks? You know, like the Kirk Cousins thing is always like the classic,

hey, if it's not play action, he's not beating you. I hear it brought up. I don't know if it's entirely true. He always seems to put up good numbers, so something's clearly working, even though if I don't really... I wouldn't want my team to have Kirk Cousins if I wanted to win a Super Bowl. Very simple. Is there something that you see with a group where you go,

okay, this guy puts up numbers, but he is a little one-dimensional, and against this kind of matchup, it isn't that great for him? I think it has to do with the quarterback and it has to do with the type of offensive system they're in, too. I mean, when you look at a guy like Russell Wilson, who we talked about, he has some glaring weaknesses.

Like he throws inaccurately to the left and he doesn't throw in the middle of field and that's been his mo since uh the beginning of his career uh so teams are no they kind of know how to defend them now uh when you look at why did it take a real quick on the russell because you've said it's what why did it take 10 years i think i don't think it took that long but i ate i know but i think uh in his when he was healthier and when he was with the Seahawks, he was athletic enough to create plays regardless of teams knowing how to defend him. So he could escape.

He was so accurate. His arm talent was so good that he was able to fit passes into sideline where a lot of quarterbacks couldn't, which is why his CPOE was so high. But now you're seeing some of his athleticism decline. He's not able to do some of those things. But yeah, back to your question. I think when you look at Jared Goff, when he was with the Rams,

he was putting up huge numbers. And all of a sudden, you get to the Super Bowl, and Bill Belichick figures out a plan to stop him and the teams that start copying that game plan, taking away those explosive play-action passes, making him into a quick-game quarterback, which is his weakness. He wasn't great at quick game. That really kind of stifled him.

So just figuring out where a quarterback is weak and making him into that type of passer, I think there is something to say about that. Ted, awesome stuff. I can't tell you how much I appreciate all the work you put into it. You make it easier for guys like us that aren't breaking down the film all the time. So make sure you go out there and follow our guy at football.

So it's at FB underscore film analysis. That's Ted Wynn. Thanks, man. Yeah, no problem. Thanks for having me on. Lane Kiffin, Ole Miss coach, joins us here. Okay, so this team is up there in the rankings. You know, Jackson, who I love,

I want to talk about him at some point at quarterback. What do you know about your team right now as you're about halfway through? Yeah, we could be really good. You know, a lot of times you have teams, maybe you're winning, but, you know, you have, you know, glaring weaknesses that you're going to have to play around you know glaring weaknesses um that you're gonna

have to play around you know your defense isn't good that year or your offense isn't or rushing or passing and so um this team has really showed to be you know really elite at times in all areas we just haven't been consistent so we've played great defense we've played great offense in the ball and out through the ball last week. So that's a really good thing. And I do hope and have thought all along that this team could improve. I know every coach says that, but more than normal because so many players are late, you know, late portal guys and so many key players, you know, never been. Kind of compared to, you know, to free agency in basketball

when you put a team together, a lot of times that team shells midway to the end of the season, playoffs a lot more than they do, you know, at the beginning of the year just because they haven't played together. And I'm hoping that's the case here. Why do you think you're better with the transfer portal than other programs? I'm not sure that i mean i i do know we attacked it very aggressively and you know just like i said from the beginning of the role you know treat it like

free agency and you know the ability to build your team and you know kind of instant gratification you know like okay hey here's players you see them they can be impact players right away uh which a lot of times not the case with high school kids especially if you're not getting you know the five star top 100 player type kids so um and i think our guys did a good job of evaluating too you know to make sure that guys were good players, good fits. And, and we did a lot of research about who they were and not just, you know, what was on film. Is it different when you're going after somebody in high school and you're going after somebody who like has already gone through that entire process and then feels like they're 10 years older just because they've

gone through it. They went to a school and realized I needed to go somewhere else. Yeah. And they think differently the second time around, especially if they only have one or two years left. So, you know, and complete openness that's to our favor here, because to me that next time around, it's not as important of,

okay, well, I grew up being a fan of this team or that's the biggest stadium, you know, or the best facilities. Like they're, they're kind of out of that. They're more, all right, which is the place that is going to, you know, fit me really well right away from a football standpoint.

You know, and so I think that's favored us a lot too. You know, we're a premier high school guy coming out, already in his head coming out had these three favorites he grew up always wanting to play at you know or you know was on his list you know was important to be in you know 80 90 100 000 seat stadiums or something or close to home second time around they're not as worried about that yeah that makes sense i loved watching jackson when he played for uh usc uh watching him out here and then when you got him, I was like, okay. And I know it was a competition and all those kinds of things. First of all, I love his toughness. Sometimes I'm almost worried about how tough he is. What's it been like having somebody like that come in that was supposed to be the guy at SC and now has a team that's ranked here and has a coach that probably gets that position as well as anybody in the country? Well, we kind of had a similar

toughness, runner personality like you refer to that scares you sometimes in Matt Corral, even though Jackson's more built for it. So we've worked through that. It's a really good thing to have. It's a really good thing to have, you know, it's very difficult to work the other way, you know, to not have that personality, that competitiveness and create that.

So this is much better to get them to slow down and just play smarter. So, and you don't know that for sure in practice, whether they have it. So you got to get to the games and, you know, that's been really good to see, you know, we deal all the time, all positions, but games. And, you know, that's been really good to see.

You know, we deal all the time, all positions, but especially quarterback. Like you don't know until you really play. You know, that's why there's so many busting NFL first round, let alone in college, until you really play with the guys. And obviously some guys, when you get to the game, you know, here's where they were playing and then they go up a level. Some guys go down. And he has certainly gone up very fast from a game level where he was

at in practice. What, what's the best thing that you do? Like what helps you connect? I know you, you know, you play the position, you have been this person that so many staffs are going like, Hey, come in and fix our offense. And now you're running these programs and your team's just always score. What is it about you that maybe makes that connection work more? What have you learned about yourself in coaching that position that's given you this unbelievable

resume of success? I think that there's a lot of things we you know, we don't do well, you know, so that we work on. I think that we do a really good job of this is the player and not putting the player into our system at all skill positions, but especially quarterback. We build the system. We move the system around the player. And I don't think there's not any more evidence in the Alabama

because those were visual years that, you know, obviously people saw in three different quarterbacks, completely different players, the three seasons we were there. And the offenses, when you would turn them on year to year, people would say, man, this looks like a different coordinator, you know, like a different system. So I just think the ability to see how they, their talent, to see through them, how they think, how they work, how they play, and then not just adjust to it as a system, but then

in game adjust to them, where I think a lot of people kind of call plays, you know, based off of what's on the sheet, you know, not necessarily what exactly is going on mentally with the quarterback. Yeah. That's, um, I don't know the position clearly, uh, as well as you guys do, but whenever I, you know, I'd be on the sidelines all the years from ESPN and whether it was Bama, you know, a couple of Tennessee games early and now what you're doing now, I would stand next to guys that play it and be like, Lane is like so good at this. And I think it's just harder for us that didn't play the position to understand what it is that makes you. You know what I mean? I'm not asking, hey, how come you're so good?

But there's a level of respect that I've always noticed with you at all of your stops. It's something I always remember. You'd set something up, you'd show something, and then the third quarter, and then the guys on the sideline that would be just from ESPN watching the game would be sitting there being like, oh, man, Lane knew he saw all these different things. I guess it just is that rare, which isn't a question.

I've been told that I think that you do, you know, God gives you gifts in different areas, and I think that, you know, just like playing quarterbacks, some have that gift, like you say, okay, how can they think that fast? How like playing quarterbacks some have that gift like you say okay how can they think that fast how do they see things already running back you know has great vision and sees the guy and then we coach another guy and he just can't see it and so I do think that happens just

I've been fortunate to have that on games where it just seems like it's a little bit slower than what a lot of people describe to me when they're on the headset, watching the same thing. When I think about your career, which is obviously super interesting, and the Tennessee stop, head coach at 31 in the NFL, then SC, and now everything you've done in between, I think the Tennessee one is the one that jumps out because you go, okay, you showed up and you were like, we need juice. We need energy around here. And I think in the beginning, especially in the media, we didn't understand it. We're like, what the hell is this guy doing? And it was, no, no, no, we need this energy. And when you'll see new programs

go, well, not new programs, but there's a new opening. I'd be like, we need somebody that brings some energy, some excitement. Do you think that you've balanced that level of energy as you've gotten older, as opposed to like maybe in the beginning, that was more of a priority to you as a younger head coach where now you're like, okay, look, my resume is out there. I don't need to do as much of that stuff. but I also think that every job is different. Like I don't look at it as like, okay, this is the way we do things no matter where we're the head coach. You know, I think you have certain things about where's the program at, at the time, you know, like if you look at, you know, coming into Tennessee or they'd been down a few years and, you know, we had studied recruiting and stuff. I was at USC, you know, for the years and when we first got there tennessee was up here on every kid's top five and stuff and it kind of fallen off a little bit and florida was rolling and savings at alabama you know urban so georgia had been beating them and it was it was like all right we took the job said we've got to get attention we've got to build

confidence in our players our fan base so like you say the stupid thing about we're going to beat florida and all that stuff then you if you look at the usc job taking that i didn't do that like now say it didn't work because i got fired but i'm saying it wasn't like that was just me no matter what i can just say hey we don't need that attention if you really think back of it it wasn't this attention getting model you know to try to get our name out there to get usc out there because it was already there and had been winning for a long time so and then coming here there was a little more of the tennessee factor in it not as aggressive just out of maturity but also there is a lot of that because of where Ole Miss has been, you know, over the few years before we got here and, and what other programs are doing in recruiting

comparable. So, you know, that's why there still is some of that. And I think as you win and your name, your, your programs out there and the name of the programs out there, like Ole Miss is a lot different than where it was two and a half years ago now you do a little less of it no that's a really good answer because it wasn't always the best question and i thought probably some of it's just getting older but you know the come to the sip you know juice the dog and those things like they do pop up like you don't want to be invisible you know like there's value in oh hey that oh come to the sip and the gear and showing the jordans like it may not mean a ton but it also is a lot better than doing nothing which i think everybody has realized now where years ago the first reaction because it's just

you know things have things have sped up in a very short amount of time the first reaction would be traditional and be like what the hell is this guy doing yeah i, we deal in analytics, like the analytics of social media and how much attention comes in and the benefits in recruiting and what they see. I mean, we deal with it all the time. A recruits parent comes in here into the office and the first time, almost always what they say is over the last couple of years, I follow you on Twitter. It's so awesome. I feel like I know you. Well, that's pretty important. Now it's, where's Juice? We want to see Juice. So it does work and it does connect things and it's put Ole Miss football in the spotlight.

And, you know, so that does matter. Look, dog content works. Why the portal guys come and stuff. Well, that's part of why the portal guys come and stuff well that's part of it too i mean they certainly know you know the program's visual how do you deal with expectations for what old miss can be uh in what has been the most loaded division in college football here for a long time i don't really deal with it very much because i can't control what the fans think and and any of that so we really just sounds like today we really just work on the day and getting guys better and seeing what we can do today and then worry about tomorrow tomorrow but

um i don't really worry about the expectations as much and um you know because again sounds like our expectations are so my expectations are so high of what we should do you know like they'll be like oh well here's our press release we're at whatever 18 and 3 or something last 20 games 21 games or something and i'm like well man we should have won that game you know we had a bad horrible offensive game playing in the sugar bowl like that's how i think when you talked about at the beginning of you know trying to identify who your team was right like you're still you probably have an idea now but in the beginning okay we get all these new pieces you call that nba free agency do you

change your approach to how much love or criticism you give or do you have your style of doing it like how much do you alter based on the personalities you're dealing with like oh i actually get to prop this team up a little bit oh i actually get to kind of knock these guys down a little bit how much do you adapt that to the roster do you have a pretty steady approach at every stop you've had no i like just like we talked about our offenses i'm'm just always evolving, changing, and every team's different. Every year is different. Shoot every game is different. It's just always figuring out.

We have all these new guys, so we've got to be really hard on a lot of things because they're not going to know how we do things. They're not trained for years in what we do. It's always different. Carol, you had when you were younger nick a little bit older i know you get these questions all the time but you're so good at telling stories about all these guys that you've worked with in the past how much would save and change it year to year or did he have to anymore you know i've always said there's those are two hall of fame coaches and it just shows you can win different ways there There's not one way to win. I mean, there are polar opposites on almost everything and how they do things. You know, Saban's very military, very much like nothing changes for the most part. Now, to his credit, every once in a while, something like the evolution of the offense, you know, like, you know, saying, Hey, this is what's going on out there. I need to change. So he does do that.

But for the most part, I mean, every day, you know, whatever day, October 1st of last year, it was just like October 1st of this year. And just like it was 10 years, the coaches that have been there forever, 10 years ago, you can pull it out. It's the same note. Coach Carroll completely different. Like every day is new. Everything's new. You know, he's just, they're just totally different. What was it like when Saban called you to join the staff? I was excited.

You know, I mean, it was, you're going to learn from the best. And I kind of looked at it as like going back to school. You know, you've been out of school for a long time, not being an assistant coach, and you go back to get a different degree. And so you're going back to the best school there is to get a different degree in coaching. It feels like a lot of people try to take from him,

but every time I'll hear stories about it, it's like, nah, like they're just, it feels like it's the most dialed in thing. Can you take that or is that a personality thing? Take your system basically? Yeah. You can take some, but you got to have like, he is so trained, like years of training and like, you know, you can't, it takes a really unique guy. I think Kirby's wired

very similar. So that's why there's a lot of similarities there and what he took and how he does it. But not many people are like that. The way you, the way you answer that, you're like almost thankful in a way. No, I'm not saying that. I'm just saying saying it's just not many i'm saying it as a good thing to them not many people are that disciplined you know to be able to do the do the same thing every day like that oh they what uh what what makes pete different then not what they're not what makes them similar what made pete different it's just a totally different atmosphere everything's different and you know i've i've said it it's probably before i've said i struggled in a initial transition there because i was coming from such you know kind of like coming from one parent to the other as assistant

coach they're in charge of you know so um coach car Carroll's just, I mean, he's just, they're both one of a kind and completely opposite ways. Cause you were obviously, you know, a lot younger when you're going into it and you had given up what your final year of playing at Fresno. Cause you were just like, Hey, what, what went into that decision? Obviously, you know, we all know that your dad's history and everything, but when you're like, okay, this is pointless. I got to get into coaching as soon as I can. What was that like? I think it was just, you know, the ability to see down the road and just know, okay, this is what I was going to do. And, you know, instead of being third string quarterback, I was second. And then David Carr came in and I watched him throw a few times. I go, okay,

well, I'm going to be third really quick. So, um, so it was just, okay. I can. And it really was like, I would sit in the office with coach Tedford, like my coach all the time. And then I'd have to leave when they'd have meetings, like staffing his office means I'd have to leave. And I just wanted to learn more. So it was kind of like, well, that's the only way I can stay in there. So I just started coaching. Do you think you could do anything else? My daughter's in here laughing right now. I don't know that. I should reframe that question, Lane, because the way I said it,

it was like as if you're incapable of doing anything other than being a really good coach. So I should ask, what would you have done i should have asked it that way that was insulting no no that was that was fine um i don't know i've known it for so long i mean my mom says when i was little i used to say i was gonna be a vet veterinarian um you know because of love for animals but that's I just knew all along. Are you the most settled you've ever been then now? Because, you know, it all happened so fast, man, it was all happening so fast. And then you probably feel like, Hey, the USD thing is going to go great. It doesn't, you have to take a step back. And now you land it like, you know, look, you're at Ole Miss and the SEC West,

and I know everybody is a competitive business and all that, but I just wonder, you know, at 47, if you're just a little bit more settled than you've ever been before. Yeah, I mean, all those things. We had a coach the other day when I was talking about something, and it's like every day something new, you know, new challenge. When you're a head coach, you've got so many employees and players. and players and he said you know you can't have a testimony without a test i was like that's a really good saying and that's what i think about all those things that

happen that you thought were going to go this way and thought it was dream job usc and you'd be there forever and you know um live in manhattan beach and you know and all of a sudden you're in tuscaloosa and you're in boca and then you're in Oxford, Mississippi, and now you love it here. So you just never know why things happen. And, you know, and they do. When you go through things difficult, they do make you better. It's just hard to see when you're in them. I know you got Auburn this week.

I know it's a busy week. So thanks for taking the time out for us and good luck. All right. I know you got Auburn this week. I know it's a busy week, so thanks for taking the time out for us, and good luck, all right? We're going to give out our picks, our season-long FanDuel contest between Kyle Cerruti and myself. We all have different theories on this. I think Cerruti's in first.

Should be 5-0. I mean, yeah, I should be undefeated. I'm not. I lost again last week. I'm 3-2. But, I mean, listen, I had the Dolphins and, you know, Teddy Bridgewater goes off on the first series. We got a seventh string rookie quarterback in there for basically the entire game at the Jets.

It's a loss, but like, you know, I'm not, I'm, you know. No one cares. I'm not that bad about it. I won my fantasy league, by the way. Auto drafted baseball fantasy league. Top four picks were Trout, Harper, Franco, Stanton. So you're thinking, how the hell did you win, Russillo? With those four guys, all the injuries that you had to deal with.

Wander was out way too long. Came back from that Hammett bone thing. No power. Trout in and out. Fucking Stanton gone. Harper missed a huge chunk. Fucking guy still wins. Guy still wins his league.

Was it like a 16 league? No. 10 teamer. No, we're doing it. We're doing a two hour recap. It's a special. We're going to release it on Thursday. Three parter?

Three parter. Breaking down Rosillo's auto draft? July 1st. recap. It's a special. We're going to release it on Thursday. Three-parter? Three-parter. Breaking down Russillo's auto draft? July 1st, do I pick up George Kirby? The answer to that is yes. If he was on your waiver wire, what's wrong with your fucking... I think I dropped him

late because I needed to just pick up Kades. You're going, all right, how much whip and ERA can I sacrifice here by throwing more innings? Do I have the right arms because I need to pick up K's? And then I'm like all over the stolen base thing. I mean, I drafted Julio Rodriguez. All right. Excuse me.

I picked him up after the auto draft. They didn't even do it for me. I picked him up because I'm always locked in on some of the new hot prospects. Alec Manoa, Cease, those guys are my anchors, the staff. I didn't have a lot of closers. I had the Guardians guy, but then at the same time, I just had to piecemeal it together. I mean, just a constant fucking battle of checking the closer depth charts, who's hot, who's not. And I'm just mixing and matching

and i did a great job last year of my middle infielders like so yeah you'll get you'll get more of this this is saruti's fault for saying you should be five and oh isn't it this is what you get fucking roots it is yeah there'll be a two hour three part forward to it yeah should be great can't wait i don't't think Spotify is going to publish it. They want to do it under a different arm. Okay. All right. So Rudy, the board is yours. Back to the well, man. I'm going

to go with a home favorite. I'm going to tease it down. So give me the Packers. They're playing the Jets. Listen, I don't think the Packers are awesome, but I don't think the Jets are good, even though they're three and two. So I'll take the Packers minus 2.5. We're going to tease that down. We'll take over 34.5 and under 16.5.

So you get a little sweet spot there. That's about even money as well. So again, I said, how could it lose? I've lost two or three weeks, so I guess who knows at this point. Two or five weeks. Well, two of the last three. Yeah, I'm not on a good run right now.

No, none of us are. We were red hot out of the gates. And the crazy thing about this is every now and then, you're not red hot the whole time. All right, Kyle, go ahead. All right, I got another fathead bedroom poster parlay coming on.

It's going to be, I don't know, Mac Jones or Bailey Zappi. Turns out it doesn't fucking matter versus our old Fred Jacoby Brissett. And I'd like New England to win this game, so it's plus fucking matter versus our old Fred Jacoby Brissett. And it's, I want, I'd like New England to win this game. So it's plus 126 and I'm going to take the over. The Browns have scored, the over is

42 and a half. The Browns have scored pretty much 20 points in every game. And the Patches have too, except for the first two weeks. So I think we're in a groove. I think we're going to hit 42, 43 points easy. And I do, I'd like the Patriots to win this game. So that's plus 293. Easy. I'd like the Patriots to win this game. That's plus 293. Bam.

Okay, here we go. Public money. Public bets. Public bets. Okay, so the one that jumps out immediately, I don't know if I want to bet against Cincinnati again, although I think it's like the third time I would have to have done it. I'd have to take the Saints plus two at home against Cincinnati.

Only 13% of the bets are on New Orleans. That is a very low number. Every now and then it'll touch a 10-90 split on that. The other game that I liked a little bit was Carolina getting 10.5 at LA. That's actually a pretty public bet because everybody's thinking the same exact thing. Not the NHL coach was just fired. People rally around the new guy. It's just that why are the Rams favored by 10.5 points

against any NFL team right now when their offense is this much of a problem? But that's what everybody else is seeing too. So when I saw the lines and hadn't checked the public bets yet, I was like, okay, that might be worth it. But people are on it. But people are on it. So let's go back to the well. Let's take the Saints plus two along with 13% of the other people that are putting bets on New Orleans. Let's go. You want details? Fine. I drive a Ferrari

355 Cabriolet. What's up? I have a ridiculous house in the South Fork. I have every toy you 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. Life advice. Lifeadvice.rr at gmail.com. Okay. Doctor making 400K plus a year.

Can't get date. 37, 5'7". 140 pounds. Bench is 225. Squat's 225. Great shape. He says, great. Only do it to stay in shape. Asian. When I go out, I can easily pass my mid-20s or

early 30s. Okay. Jacked Asian guy. Doctor. Doctor. 400 plus k all right in my 20s yeah yeah looks younger in my 20s never really had confidence issues or trouble getting girls even though i'm considered short i've dated girls much taller than me no brad pitt but don't look like danny devito either by the way love danny devito and a blink of an eye i'm 37 and uh and now i've become that old

dude at bars that are annoyed of the younger, more energetic crowd. At least no one knows that you're old. I don't have the energy or charisma to meet girls in the bar anymore. In my younger days, I was the funny, energetic guy that shot outside of his league. Got rejected a lot, but also got a lot of girls too. All part of the game. Guy sounds like Omar over here. However, I just feel super creepy when pursuing a girl in her

20s and getting rejected i have no problem dating a girl in her 20s but just feel old and creepy when actively pursuing them at bars however since i'm not uh going out as much anymore i've tried online dating and it's extremely brutal yeah i don't think i've yet matched with one girl i would approach in real life this is not an statement. There has been actual stats saying that Asian men get the least amount of matches on dating apps. I think I saw that in college. Yeah.

I've never researched it. I'm also not an Asian guy on a dating app, so I'll take him at his word here. I hate social media and posting up self-indulgent photos that just make me cringe but at this point i can't even get dates my confidence is shot and it's slowly bleeding into real life so uh do i now start posting photos of myself showing that i'm a

doctor do i post shirtless photos yes do i post a photo of me in a nice car yeah what the fuck's wrong with that no how about a lab coat with nothing on under it? How about a boat? Oh, you stole my joke. Damn it. Suri, drop the joke. No, no, no. You did it. I was going to say,

have you heard about a boat? But it's all right. Yeah, as we know, the boat doesn't always work. Or am I not getting matches purely because I'm 5'7"? Laughing, crying emoji. Also, my ego will be hurt even more if I do post those self-indulgent photos and get no matches.

Struggle with that word twice a day. Should I just say, fuck it, be a sugar daddy? Let's start with the last part first. The sugar daddy thing. I hear about this stuff. I don't know what's real or not. It sounds so fucking weird to me because I'll hear it maybe from like, actually, I probably heard it from the female perspective far, I've probably heard it from the female perspective

far more than I've heard it from the male perspective because you're always kind of like, what's that guy doing? And what's she doing? And like, what's going on there? And whatever. And like, sometimes it's like,

oh, they just really connected or now that guy's a movie producer or it's like now there's sort of an arrangement. And then when you're the guy and you're paying for fucking shoes and trips and, you know, again, cool,

you're having sex with somebody that's attractive. It's younger. And there's no attachment there whatsoever. There's nothing about each other's personalities like that was enough for it to ever happen in the first place. Or you were wired that way with this detachment, which maybe some people would prefer. Or she is wired with attachment

because she's just getting something out of it. That usually means she's sleeping with other people and like the whole thing. And it's kind of fucking weird. And I don't know. I mean, that's a whole nother level of disappointment. And it sounds like that's not really what you want to do. I get where you're coming from, though.

But you're a doctor. You're successful. You're smart. You probably think about things too much or your brain works in a certain way that's made you successful. It's something that's really hard and complicated and that you had to be intelligent. So you're applying a lot of those same things to when you're out in the scene. And I'm telling you firsthand, as you get a little bit older and you're just out and about, you're just like, I don't really fucking care about this anymore. But then you're like, wait, how long am I going to continue to not

care about putting yourself out there? You're still 37. You're still young. You're really successful. You're strong. Okay. You got to get out of your own fucking head. And I don't know how to unlock it. All right. Only you can, but you have to start going out in a way, because this is still clearly important to you where you have to stop thinking about every single angle or, oh, I feel old or old. I feel creepy because honestly, 37 is, I mean, granted, it depends on where you're going. Like I went to a bar for alumni weekend with my buddy, who's older than me. Cause his daughter wanted him to meet up. And we were like there for one round. And I was like, dude, this is fucking weird. Okay. It wasn't, I mean, forget hitting

on anybody. You were just like, give me the fuck out of here. So I don't know if that's where you're living or where you're going, but maybe you need to change up the venue, you know, a few more road games for you, you know, stop, stop, you know, don't be one of these Southern schools that plays eight home games. So that would be the first thing that you have to figure out. Like you can do all the Instagram shit. You're probably not going to get that many bites from that. Cool. You have a nice car and there's four abs hanging out. Like, I don't really know if that's going to happen. You could just volume shoot like fucking crazy when you put the Instagram profile together if you want to, but I don't know. I don't know if you really want to do that. I don't know that that's the best

plan, but you need to unfuck yourself upstairs and stop overthinking everything about like, oh, now I feel this way or I feel this way, I feel this way. You ever see the kind of guy that is a little dumber that you see out all the time and he's got fucking sleeve tats and he's wearing some aggressive shit, maybe still some diesel jeans. That guy doesn't think about any of that shit.

He doesn't think about it. He's not overthinking about it and he might be a little bit dumber than you, but what he doesn't have all these hang-ups around 115 buying rounds for grades like he doesn't give a fuck anymore and you ever all of us that that are caught up in this granted like my age most people are like i'm trying to figure out if i have enough money for fucking college uh for kids but everybody that's there's this certain line of like a certain level of intelligence once you get past it you just start thinking about all the shit that doesn't even matter and you've already fucked yourself like my dad said to me that time when i lost

i was awful in some junior high basketball game and he goes you lost this game on the ride over you're losing the game before you even pay a cover charge or show your ID, which you clearly have to here. Nice. I think maybe the answer could be you're at the wrong bars, dude. I think that might be. Yeah.

I think like, no, like no where you can go to meet folks in your, in a, in the other age bracket, like Radisson hotel bars. I was going to say. I know exactly where to go.

If somebody was like, I need to meet women 35 to 50, I'd be like, great, I know exactly where to send you. I don't think this guy wants to meet anyone who's 50. I'm just saying, that's probably the bracket. It's not the bingo hall, watering hole, but it's before that. It's people that aren't going to... People that don't want to be around 20-year-olds either.

So I think there's plenty of places like that. Yeah, I don't know. I think you probably cringe at yourself. The fact that you are hesitating on doing this whole Instagram revamp thing, I think means that you would probably look at it afterwards and be like, what the fuck did I just do and then you probably got colleagues on there you got other doctors be like what the fuck is Johnny doing over

there he just like totally let me jump in like the guy that gets dumped on for doing that while he's having sex like who's actually winning the guys talking shit about him oh maybe they're not talking shit about him I don't know I'm just saying the guy's already in his head enough where he's like is this gonna be like a mic

it's like more of the professional colleagues i'm thinking about because like i mean and and how hold on how are you gonna even how is that even gonna add anything to you like the only way that other people like you're the people that already know you on instagram you just want them to look at you differently or is it gonna or is it just purely for tinder I don't even know. Right. I don't even know that it's realistic that you're going to grow enough of a following unless you come up with some sort of angle. Hey, look, you could join yoga, right? You start going to some yoga classes, go to different places, scope it out. Again, this sounds really old. I've thought about it. You get that weekly newsletter or the monthly on different activities through town.

Maybe you find something that makes sense. Now, I've thought about it. I haven't gone to one of those fucking things in four plus years. Who are we kidding? But I'm just saying you need to use whatever skills that you have. Clearly, you have them. You're smart enough to become a doctor. You're successful in all those things.

There's an intensity that you have, a single-mindedness. You need to take from that pile a little bit and apply it over these other things and put real, your own resources into fixing the fact that you clearly are alone. You're lonely. It's bothering you. You're emailing another fucking podcast. You need to take some of those skills that you actually have. I think all the people that ask for stuff, they may not have the skills. They may not think the right way. Like, you could do this, but you haven't. So, you know, we can't change that. Two-part solution here. One, have you thought about getting a dog?

Because you get a dog, one, loneliness, boom, out the window. And then get the dog and just go to a park and just hang out. It's like a magnet for girls, want to come up and talk to you. Typically younger girls as well. Um, so I'm very pro getting a dog and it also kind of reminds me of, you know, the, remember in super bad, the quote from, uh, from Bill Hader, when he's talking to McLovin, he's like, you don't want to meet a girl at a bar. Do you like, you want to meet a girl, you know, at a spin class, like a farmer's marker, like somewhere that's non-threatening, like a, like a, like a pumpkin patch, given the time of marker, somewhere that's non-threatening, like a pumpkin patch given the time of year.

Do stuff like that. Pumpkin patch? Solo? If you've got a dog at a pumpkin patch, you are going to be a magnet to attractive girls. You're not going to have to do a ton of talking because the dog is there and your confidence gets back up.

There's going to be a bunch of people coming up to you. I just feel like the dog situation and go to cool events and places that aren't bars, it's going to be very helpful to you. Maybe you could start going places in scrubs, but that will definitely distinguish you as a doctor and not a nurse. Go to Whole Foods. Yeah. Go to Whole Foods in scrubs.

It's a good call. Yep. Yep. Just a way to be like, I'm just a call. Yeah, right. He's actually a doctor too. Yeah. Right?

This is, I don't know about, Look, pumpkin patch with a dog, maybe. Pumpkin patch, solo cop's probably going to... Well, all right. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. The dog is pretty crucial there. We got to get a dog first. Okay, next one. Dating app height issue.

All right, here we go. A lot of height on the pod today. 6'2". All right, so it's not a... Okay. Yeah. Well played, Kyle. Well played.

6'2", 195. Bench, 190. Squat, 205. Okay. All5 okay all right coming back oh bulging disc in the back nerve pain could barely tie my shoes for an entire year so the numbers are way down always been a pretty athletic guy shout out big fan okay cool

so here we go Rudy's the man Kyle reminds me of the one friend I had who was street smart and always had something entertaining to say just like the last couple pods this week Kyle's been on fire okay here we of the one friend I had who was street smart and always had something entertaining to say. Just like the last couple pods this week. Kyle's been on fire. Okay, here we go. The email. I'm on Bumble. I matched with a girl who was fairly attractive, also looking for something casual. It was perfect.

It was the same guy from the south. She starts off by asking me for my worst first date story. I say, quote, honestly, everyone I've met has been pretty nice and I don't think I have any. What about you? Her response, which I'll write down verbatim, is, quote, you're lucky then.

Thought he was just short on line. Show up to the bar and he's at a high top table. Doesn't get up to greet me, which is a bit odd, but fine. Halfway through drinks, I notice his arms are abnormally short. He excused himself to go to the bathroom and boom, hopped off the bar stool, totally normal looking person,

but maybe 4'10". I left while he was in the bathroom. Couldn't do it. That's fucked. That was her text. Yeah, that's fucked. She's mean. So, the emailer continues here sorry hold on do you want to jump in no i mean like you know if i'm gonna sound like a dick like if it was the guy clear about his height situation when they met up no if that's the case like it was a non-starter

for her so i don't know i don't think it's a deal breaker it's not a good start though a couple of my friends did this to a celt. They're like, this is a Celtic. This is going to be awesome. You're going to get drunk with a Celtic. And then after like 30 minutes, this guy's like, this guy is such a fucking dork. And they left. I don't like that. I don't like the ghosting. I'd rather make it a big excuse.

I just don't like it coming back. Like coming back from somewhere with two drinks or a bathroom. It's like, oh, fuck. I guess you're just gone. That's just sad. That makes me really sad. It is. If she really thinks, though, of this false advertisement, it's still... Okay, all right, let's keep going here. The emailer writes, I was fucking horrified

that she had done that to another human being. This guy might be from Chicago. Every first date he's ever had, everybody was really nice, and he was this upset about this happening. First, she doesn't have to be into him, but she could have at the very least just made up some stupid excuse like quote hey i forgot to water my plants i actually think saying that would have been worse than just leaving yeah i get again but i get his point right but like okay what's the end game you're gonna string

it along a couple weeks just because you feel bad like no it's ending today it's over it's ending today but you still can't just be like, you can't just run away. That's so fucked up. All right, but that would have been, and I think it's not about the watering the plants, any kind of excuse like, hey, I'm out of here. That would have been, as the emailer says, 100 times better than what she did.

Here's my dilemma. I could have just gone along with the ridiculously heartless story of her just ghosting someone in the middle of the day because he was sure, all because I just wanted to hook up with her. But here's what I responded with. Quote, i'm not judging what kind of person you are i think we all end up doing shitty things to people at some point in our lives but what you did that guy was incredibly heartless nice dude real fucking hero nice man yeah uh she quickly unmatched me without another word should i have just gone along with her incredibly shitty story just the same of

hooking up uh or some kind of response not condoning that type of behavior warranted what would you guys have done it depends entirely on how hot she is who are we kidding yeah if we're already in the dating app mode right and we're in the right swipe mode instead of the read the bio mode I think yeah it's super shitty the amount of times that question is the answer every time to some of these life advice examples. Because it's true. Because it's totally true. Yes, there are some of you that like the standards.

That's incredible. I think most guys standards get blown out of the water on a certain scale. We're like, well, I think it's great what you did. I think it's cool. You know, I don't know if there's going to be's great what you did. I think it's cool. Uh, you know, I don't know if there's going to be a lesson learned and now she'll think about it differently. I mean,

if you think about that guy that's sitting at the table, you come out of the bathroom and she's fucking gone. It's pretty shitty feeling, you know? Uh, I don't know. I'm trying to think, did I ever have anything like that happen?

No, no. Cause it's so horrible. It doesn't happen that often but it's no i left a formal once like i was the date and i was like i'm out of here i i took a guy's car and drove back up to campus i just left here's that kind of stuff too and yeah but i had a reason she was dancing with like a million other and it was just like oh that's going on and i was like all right we're out you were pushed to it. I got it. Yeah.

I don't want people to think that I'm like some heartless tool, but, you know, because I don't think I would have done that. It depends on the details. Like, was the guy, did the guy say he was like 5'7 in his profile? Like, did he lie? If he lied, I think there's like more of a, you know, I think there's more of a lease there to be like, oh, well, screw this, I'm out.

You know, if she didn't know that was completely blind going in, it's 100% move i wouldn't have done that i just i don't know i'm willing to give it a pass i don't think you're like the worst person in the world just because you do that i guess is what i would say but to to volunteer that information maybe makes you even worse than the person yeah but sometimes like some sometimes when people are trying to break the ice like they just they kind of share too much or they're kind of weird and you're like you just it's impossible to get a full picture of what somebody really is and how good or bad of a person they are you know when you're just messaging a bumble so maybe she was just like a little bit nervous or whatever and said this story that shouldn't have shared like it doesn't matter because like obviously you're going your separate ways and nobody's

really hurting this but i don't think you played it wrong but i also don't you know i don't know i'm not fully blaming her here i'd like to know more details yeah i don't really even know what the question is like should you have not said anything so you can you already made the decision you already decided what was important to you and you didn't want to keep talking to or you wanted to let somebody know that they did something really shitty and it's a person who did something really shitty you were clearly pretty nice three clues you said that every first date you've been on everybody's been really nice you were upset about this enough to tell her directly, even though you barely knew her and hadn't hooked up with her yet. And you brought up an excuse of, hey, forget to water my plants, which tells me that you water your plants regularly. So there's three clues that you're probably nicer. Whatever the average line of nice is, you're a little bit above that. So cool. You win. Good for you. cool you win um good for you uh i don't know that you know again how depending on how attractive guys were to whatever the match was it would have depended on how far they were willing to go

was saying this uh but yeah what she did was really shitty and the thing is is she is capable of doing something like that right she's capable of doing something like that and you know i don't know what age we're talking about here because if you're getting closer to 30 then it's a real problem um she wasn't gonna go hey great point yeah let's get lunch this week yeah you know i think you knew that was a sunk cost when you did it you know i think you knew that i'm bumble i gotta be honest if i was at a bar probably i would have been like i would have had like like an, like an un, unstoppable reaction. Probably like Jesus fucking Christ. You said that,

but because you had the time to type it out, I can't say I would do the same thing. I love that you did it. If it was in person, I think I would have been like, what the fuck are you talking about? Because I just have to talk to you right away. But if I had time to think about it,

type it, I probably wouldn't have done what you did. I love what you did. And I love that you kind of stuck it to. So, you know, usually technically, usually women on these apps, I think have way more power. So i love that you kind of stuck it to so you know usually technically usually women on these apps i think have way more power so the fact that you kind of ended this you were like without unmatching you would kind of just be like

this is going anywhere take it for the dudes coming back full circle take it for the great job no i mean again like you know it's like you don't go to olive garden looking for like the best italian meal you've ever had like you don't go to you don't go on bumble looking for like the perfect Italian meal you've ever had. Like you don't go to, you don't go on Bumble looking for like the perfect girl with the metaphor. There's probably gonna be like red flags everywhere on Bumble for someone who is just looking to hook up. So I don't know, man,

like, I guess congrats. Like, thank you. I mean, as the shortest person on this podcast, like I'm not even, I'm the least mad about it,

which is so funny. I don't know. Anyway, four tens, five, 10, by the way, I'm five,

10, so I'm not four, 10, four, 10. It's a different neighbor... I'm 510, by the way. I'm 510. 410's a different neighbor. But 410, she probably was even making that up, too. She was probably making that up to make the story sound so much cooler. He was probably 5'5". Definitely. No, great call. This guy actually sounds cool. She should have stayed there. Okay. That's life advice.

Thanks to Suriti. Thanks to Kyle. Please subscribe. Ryan Russell Podcast. ringer Spotify. Thank you.