Throwbacks with Matt Leinart & Jerry Ferrara - Bruce Feldman Talks NCAA Football Coaching Madness, Plus Matt Loves Candy Corn and Annie Agar’s MVP Favorite

Episode Date: October 30, 2025

NCAA football insider Bruce Feldman joins the guys to talk all of the madness happening with the coaching carousel as another premier job opens up after LSU fires Brian Kelly. Bruce and Matt wonder if Lane Kiffin could be on the move soon, where James Franklin is headed and if big names like Jon Gruden and Ed Orgeron could be returning to college football soon.   Plus the guys talk about their Halloween plans, shoutout injured New York Giants running back Cam Skattebo and Matt reveals his love for candy corn. Finally they’re joined by Annie Agar to talk early favorites for MVP and Rookie of the Year, the best coach in football and a Halloween themed round of Twisted Trivia.   New episodes of Throwbacks drop every Thursday. Make sure you’re subscribed on YouTube and following on all podcast platforms. Also, make sure you’re locked in on social @ThrowbacksShow on all platforms for highlight moments, bonus content, and to engage with the guys & the Throwbacks community. (http://throwbacksshow.com/)      A big thank you to our sponsors:    Wendy’s Wake up with Wendy’s breakfast https://www.wendys.com/breakfast  Twisted Tea Grab a Refreshing Twisted Tea Today.  https://www.twistedtea.com/locations  DoorDash Win weekly with DoorDash Streaks! Order every Saturday, save up to $250 during College Football Season. Terms Apply.    NHTSA  When the stop-arm is out, lives are on the line. Stop Means Stop https://www.nhtsa.gov/road-safety/school-bus-safety?utm_source=sinclair&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=schoolbus2025&utm_content=fnr_custom#the-topic-stop-for-school-buses    DraftKings: Download the DraftKings Sportsbook App and use code TB. Bet five bucks and get 3 months of League Pass plus get $300 in bonus bets if your bet wins. In partnership with DraftKings - The Crown Is Yours.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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He got better as a coach. We know he loves recruiting. I know he left on really bad terms, but those people are gone. I would say, hey, can we get him on our staff? All right, welcome into a spooky episode of throwbacks. Everybody, please don't. forget to like and subscribe on YouTube throwback show and all social

media platforms at throwbacks show. Don't forget smash that like that subscribe button. Don't be afraid. I know it's hollow. Like, subscribe, follow. Let's go. But Maddie, it's Halloween, basically, as we air this episode on a Thursday. There's a lot of scary things going on in the NFL,

but also there's a lot of scary things going on in college football with some of the coaching stuff. We have a great guest to talk about that in a little while. He's your Boy, you want to do what's coming on. Look, the best insider in college football is Bruce Feldman. My good friend and colleague at Fox Sports, he's, I mean, he's as busy as you'll ever be in the world of college football right now with all the coaching fires and hires and who's going to go where and the fits and all of these things. I think 12 open spots right now in college football, almost 200 million in buyout money going back to these coaches.

I should have been a coach, honestly. I tell my wife that all the time. But yeah, it's that. It's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's, my, my, my, my second favorite holiday with little kids, but there's a lot of going on, there's a lot going on, man. This is like the greatest sports month in on our calendar. Well, that's my, I have two, those are my two questions before we bring in Bruce.

Number one is the best job in sports a fired coach. It's probably the best job outside of being a backup quarterback. Absolutely. Fired coach is up there in best. And then second, is this the best month for sports? of all time. We obviously had the sports Equinox.

Everything is in full gear. I haven't even begun the process basketball yet in the Victor Wemagnana conversations that we should have very soon, who jumped from like

12 to 1 MVP odds to now he's like the second favorite after four games. But this is by far the best month for sports. I mean, October, by far

in a way, the number one sport month on our calendar. I would have to say, I mean, I would have to say March, I mean, March Madness, April, like, January is pretty good with NFL playoffs, you know, like Super Bowl, I don't know, you know, like. I give a, there's a little, a good pop for the spring, like spring gets a good pop,

but March Madness, the Masters, NBA playoffs are getting geared up. Yeah, yeah, no, but October is is by far and away the great, I mean, we have World Series Baseball, my Dodgers, big one, the big one. We got NFL kind of in the middle. We got college football at its best right now. NBA just started with Wembe and all sorts of crazy storylines. It is. It's literally every man's dream.

Also joining us after Bruce Feldman. Of course, we got Annie Agar for our Twisted T segment, and we're going to do a little trick or treat for some burning NFL questions. But Matt, before we bring in Bruce, I had a realization, and it's kind of Halloween related about you and one of your takes. We all know how strongly you feel about grown men wearing jerseys. And I've tried to like see it your way. I don't fully, especially because maybe I played a character named Turtle who wore jerseys for his entire run on entourage.

And everyone dresses up as Turtle for Halloween. A lot of people send me their pictures of them in like a Knicks jersey. Cam Scadaboo, awful injury. We're all so sorry. But before the injury, which I'm devastated about, he was courtside. At the Knicks game, in a jersey. And there's no one who's got the public eye right now, quite like Cam Scadaboo. I feel like he ended your grown men wearing jerseys take.

Listen, I have no problem with, to each their own. I'm just saying, I'll give you a perfect example. Last week, I went to a Halloween party with my wife. I was kind of run. I ended up wearing the lepericon outfit that I wore on Big Noon because I lost the bet to Brady. I saw that. That was incredible. My wife goes, hey, why don't you just wear, I have?

have like a Savannah banana jersey. I have like an Otani jersey. Like daughters gave me a jersey with my name on. You know, like I have random jerseys in the closet. I go, I go, babe, not even for Halloween am I wearing another person's jersey as an outfit. So Cam Scadam can't even get you off that. She also told me to wear the baseball pants. I'm like, I'm not dressing up in baseball pants to go to a Halloween party. Get your treats. Yeah. Well, first of all, shout out to Cam. He, hope he comes back. That sucks so bad, man. That sucks so bad. He'll be fine, man.

That kid's an absolute warrior. It does suck, though. He'll be back, though. Last Giants thing, and then we'll get Bruce on. I kind of feel like the vibes were so high three weeks ago. The collapse against Denver. Now, the injury is like, we don't see Jackson Dark the whole year, right? That would almost be silly to, the Giants are going nowhere.

The season essentially competitive. What do I mean is, do you want to throw him out there with the injury luck that's going on. Obviously, he needs to play and develop. But by like week 13, if you've seen enough, like, hey, this kids. That is one of the dumber things that you've ever said. You're just going to... Protecting your franchise quarterback and bring them back next year and one piece with a healthy cam and healthy neighbors.

This is football. I get it. You don't just... Oh, hey, by the way, I just want to set out the last three games because this is the NFL, dude. It's the end. Well, the last time they did that, Mr. Tommy DeVito won a meaningless week. week 15 game and drop the Giants from the draft pick. He needs all the reps

he can get. He needs all the reps he can get. And that draft pick would have been Drake Mac. All right. I just don't want to see the guy. Oh, wow. Now you're talking shit on your starting quarterback. You wish you had Drake May. I just want to see my guy Jackson slide. I just want to see slide. But that's him. That's what they have to figure out. Slot. Well, maybe I don't have the faith in the coaching staff to

teach him the slide. All right. Enough giant stuff. It's time now for our Wendy's fresh take of the week. It's Halloween. So we got to talk about the thing that everyone loves to talk about. It's the Halloween candy. I know my kids are going to be separating their favorites and they're not so favorites. Matt, we're going to do our top three favorite Halloween candy. All right. I'm going to give my three first. And full disclosure, I'm not a candy guy, meaning to me, there's candy and chocolate. I'm not a gummy worm, sour patch. Well, chocolate counts as candy. It is. But like, I just, I do the chocolate.

So in no particular order, and this is a specific, I want the full-size Kit Kat Bar. That is in my top three. It's got to be full-size. Well, who doesn't want full-size? I put that right in the freezer. That's for sure in my top three. Number two, I like the Reese's pieces, not just the cup. I like the ones with the little pieces, not quite like an M&M.

There's a little, I'm a peanut butter guy. That's trash, but go ahead. Well, then you might hate this one. I ride hard. for three musketeers. I'm a, if I am one, are those even,

is, does that even exist anymore? It sure does. And that's a good bite size. See, I don't think you want a full-sized three musketeer. A fun size one is good. Oh,

the bite-sized one's better. I would have went Snickers and Milky Way way way before three musketeers. I don't like, all right. So this is where you and I differ. I am more of a candy, candy guy.

I am more of a sweet kind of shit. Like, so I'm going to go, this one also, this one doesn't necessarily fall. under the candy. But number three, I'm going tootsie roll. I only, here's the thing. Here's the thing. I only eat Tootsie rolls during Halloween. It's seasonal for me. It's the holiday for me. I won't eat another, I've had, I've had a few this week. I won't eat another. You might still have

last years in your teeth. It's possible. I will not eat another Tootsie roll until next Halloween. That's one. Okay. That's number three. Number two, I'm going Twizzlers. I, dude, I ravished about 15 bags of Twizzlers the other day. We had a, a, a Halloween golf cart parade. Again, Twizzlers. Straw? Did you ever do that? No, just, no. Twizzler, not licorish, Twizzlers.

Twizzlers, again, year-round candy, only eat it for Halloween. Am I number one? And by far in a way, the best Halloween candy that you can get is candy corn. It is, it is by far the number one Halloween candy out there

and I will stand on this hill and shout it from the mountaintops. Candy corn is my favorite Halloween candy I eat it once a year and when those bags come out dude and my wife thinks I'm disgusting apparently just like you

I should go get the jar I should go I should go get the jar I should go get the jar I should go get the jar should I go get it and I'll fill up some time while you go get it now that he's gone and can't hear me he criticizes my sports takes

all the time especially like oh you're going to sit Jackson I'm talking about sitting Jackson Dart like the last two weeks of the year if like the season's done. I'm not talking about benching him now. I'm not even talking about benching of him. Sitting him is much different than benching.

That is the worst list of candy for Halloween than I have ever heard in my entire life. Tootsie rolls that just like get up in your teeth for a year. He probably has lash of years tootsie roll in his teeth. Twizzlers, fine, whatever. Candy corn? Is it sweet? Is it salty? It looks like an earplug.

Where's the candy corn? Oh, too. Bro, don't worry about you. I was just going to make a reveal. I'll say, you like eating the candy corn? Candy corn looks like an earplug. It looks like you're walking around eating an earplug. So this...

Look at that jar. So this is a jar. This was full two weeks ago. This is all me. I'm the only... I can't in my little guy. Wait, this is about three quarters empty. You see also there's pumpkins in there, too.

Pumpkins, by the way. Oh, you're good. I have met a lot of people. No, people think they're discussing. I don't care. Are they sweet or are they salty? I don't even know. Are they even sweet?

Or they both? They're a little chalky. I think that's what people don't like about them. Chalk. You like the chalk. You like the chalk. Oh, my God. It's fire.

Maddie, I have met a lot of people in my life, and I've heard a lot of different quirks and things between acting and podcasts and athlete. By far, the weirdest thing I ever heard from someone I've been close friends with by far. But you, you live, live on that, live or die on that hill. Um, shoutouts to Wendy, Wendy's for a very polarizing. That is the freshest. That is a fresh. Here's my problem, dude. I'm a, I'm a fat kid at heart. So I just, I have to have like 50 of those right now once I get it. Like, you know,

like my, my, my taste buds are going right now. We need to end this now. It's over. Thank you, Wendy's. Uh, candy cord. Candycore for the dub. Who knew? Our guest is a New York Times bestselling author, a senior college football insider for the athletic and Fox Sports. He's a good buddy of mine and a colleague, the host of the Audible and one of the most

well-connected reporters in the game, the guy who knows who's going in the portal before they even know and where the coaching carousel stops, and that's exactly Bruce Feldman, why we have you on throwbacks today. Brucey, thanks for joining us, buddy. How you doing, man?

Good to be on with you guys. Is your phone a little busier in the last couple weeks than normal? Man, Sunday was wild. I thought Sunday was going to be like a easier day because we have a long day in the studio. And then it was crazy because it started out as like, okay, I'm hearing LSU is going to fire their offensive coordinator, Joe Sloan and heard it from inside the program.

And then all of a sudden, like an hour later, somebody was like, wait a minute, he may not be the one who's really getting punted here. And then it was just kind of all hell breaking loose on Brian Kelly getting the boot in Baton Rouge. It's that time of year, right? And it's been way more active this year than it was last year. For you, do you have to go into like a quiet room and all this is going down? Like when all the information is coming at you and then you have to break it for everybody, you know, you're not multitasking is what I imagine when this is all coming in.

No. And as Matt knows, like we have two 11-year-old twins and I'm not around, you know, that, you know, Saturdays or, you know, too much. And, you know, like, obviously, I was with Matt and Brady and those guys on the road, you know, for the last few years. So I wasn't around anyway. But when Sunday hits, I was like, okay, we can watch some NFL. We can do this. We can do that.

And then all of a sudden they come in. I'm like, I can't. And they're like, I can't. And they're like, who's that? I'm like, that's, you know, that's the athletic director at such insides. This is like, whatever. And I don't even, you know, my daughter doesn't really care. My son's kind of curious.

But, you know, you just, like, I barely saw them. I remember at some point, the end of the day happened. where I had to tape a video for the athletic on what had happened. It was like a 90-second clip, and I went up to the guest bedroom, and I'm, like, kneeling on the floor by, because it was the only quiet spot in the house, and I'm flubbing it. I must have had four takes, and I was just kind of fried.

So, not complaining. It was just like it was a day that I didn't think it was going to go in that direction, and it turned out to be, you know, the longest day of the season so far. There's a lot to unpack with all of this. And obviously, you're as dialed in as anybody, almost $200 million, I think, is reaching that point of buyout money giving back to these coaches. And you said, this is the time of the year. What is the underlying theme? Why is this happening now?

You know, it started with James Franklin was the big one. It's, you know, I think there's 12 openings right now and there's going to be more. What is the, why? Like, why is this happening now all of a sudden? Yeah, I think a couple of things are kind of tied together. One, it wasn't an active year last year. Yeah, North Carolina came up with Mac Brown, but it was like Purdue, there weren't the big jobs

were not coming to open. The other part of it that I think is playing a role in this is, look, Matt, you guys last week just saw one of the best stories in college sports in a long time in Bloomington, Indiana. Kurt Signetti wasted no time to turn around a three-win program, make them a playoff team, and they're even better this year. And I get it.

There's a transfer portal and everything, that means is what do you mean you you can't get this thing turned around in four years that guy over there indiana they would just you know they're they just made the playoff the the excuses are feel like they're kind of out the window the expectations are really high and then you add in the transfer portal piece of this um the other element of this is and i know you guys talk about this a lot on big noon is it is a different playing field now because back in the day maybe you had some SEC powerhouses that were there was some version of NIL, even though it wasn't legal, you know, that was going on. Well, now a lot of places, look at Texas Tech, they are throwing around money, some programs,

not all, but some programs that didn't have money before are now legit players. And I don't know if they're going to become like the next Oregon, but it had been kind of unusual to see, you know, like we all remember even when we were little kids, you know, USC was great, you know, back then and Ohio State and Michigan and those kind of blue blood programs and then you rarely got an upstart that stayed Oregon stayed maybe Texas Tech will stay maybe Indiana will stay and so I think that is kind of added more pressure and these ADs who do these contracts are super desperate like I remember this vividly I we rode over to Lincoln Riley's introductory press conference at the Coliseum I mean it was me Matt Josie I remember being in the

back and I remember reporting uh with my colleague from the athletic people Samson that Notre Dame's Brian Kelly was getting offered the LSU job that happened in that same like stretch you didn't tell me that Bruce you were too busy with whatever you were busy with I I kind of remember other parts of this conversation I do remember that about coal in the car and um but the point is it's just like the ADs are super desperate so they're throwing gobs and gobs of money and it's like throwing bad money after good or good money after bad whatever that expression is I've seen something on X from the fans and I'm actually, I'm curious of what you think is

there's so many, a lot of these deals are 10 year deals, right? 10 year, 100 million dollars. Are we potentially going to see those deals cut in half? Like, hey, here's, like what NFL guys, here's four years for 40 million so that they don't get locked into

this significant. I know agents probably won't negotiate that, but is that something that might help this in the future? It could help it. You go try to tell that to Jimmy Sexton, though. No, I know. The other thing that's crazy with this is there's really like two or three agents who have almost the whole industry.

And when it comes to coaches, Jimmy Sexton, Trace Armstrong. There's a few other guys who have some smaller parts of it. But it's basically when that happens, if you're CAA, Jimmy Sexton's company, why are you going to do that? because you're basically short-changing or leaving a lot of money on the table for your clients. And it's all connected to, I mean, because he has so many people who are in these searches. So I just don't see it going in the other direction. Is there a market now when you think about what James Franklin and Brian Kelly just went through? Or do you think we won't really hear from those guys, take a year off, maybe do some TV and then resurface?

What do you think currently for those guys? Yeah, Jerry, I think James Franklin wants to get back in as soon as possible. You know, he's also a guy who, by the way, doesn't really have a lot of hobbies. He doesn't golf. He doesn't fish or hunt or like a lot of football coaches do. I think he'll be back in, whether it's a Virginia Tech or somewhere else. He will, I'd be surprised if he was not coaching somewhere. Brian Kelly might do TV.

My guess is... He's getting thrown through the mud, though. He is. And the other thing with him is he likes to golf. He plays more golf than Urban does. So he's going to probably do a lot of that because he's 64 years old. And when you've been the head coach at Notre Dame

and worked up to Notre Dame and LSU, do you really want to jump back into it to be the head coach at like Memphis or USF? I don't know. You know, I talked to somebody about maybe, be a scenario where Jonathan Smith is struggling at Michigan State, Brian Kelly has like a lakehouse up there. Maybe that would be a fit. But do you really want to work that hard to go through it? I mean, you already have so much money. Like, do you really need that work? It didn't seem like

he wanted to do a lot of the work at this point at LSU anyway. So the question is, you know, and I don't know, we kind of game this out on our podcast, The Audible, like on Monday was, you know, maybe, you know, like Fox already has urban. ESPN, you know, isn't lacking, you know, they have Sabin. Maybe Brian Kelly goes to NBC. I don't know what they're, what they're, you know, obviously they have a connection with Notre Dame. I'm not sure how well they liked him when they had them.

Who knows? But my guess is he's less likely to be on the sideline next year. It's, yeah, it's, I agree. I think James will be back in coaching right away. And he's a really good coach. You know, you could, you could split hairs and dissect his tenure, Penn State any way you want. The domino to me is Lane Kiffin, right? He's the name. He's, he's been the first call for probably, I mean, Florida, we know, I'm sure LSU, Penn State doesn't, you know, that doesn't fit

Lane. I don't think they want him, but Bruce, like, what happens with Lane? I mean, put on your cap here. Where is Lane Kiffin coaching next year? Does he stay? I mean, he's got a great gig in Oxford, Mississippi. Yeah, I think, Matt, you don't remember this. We were in Columbus. I'm pretty sure it was like Thanksgiving weekend-ish, and Lane was the target at Auburn, and he decided to stay at Ole Miss. Now, quite honestly, I think Ole Miss is a better job now, and it's a better situation for him now than it was, you know, three years ago, even. Because now, I mean, unless the bottom drops out, I mean, they are a one-lost team with a really weak schedule the rest of the way. They're going to make the playoff, right? And so they may,

make the playoff now all of a sudden it messes up the timing potentially of florida and lSU um and his whole family is entrenched down there not just his family like his brother chris's family and their four kids you know both parents passed away within the last year or so and i think um it seems and again you know i don't know this for a fact but it seems like they have gotten really comfortable there and he can now he can get to the playoff for sure the question is going to be can he actually win it from old miss i mean the team last year was more talented than this one you know and they've never had a great defense that's the one thing right that's no he just never has put together a great defense there and a lot of that requires hey you know he had one big time

de lineman last year walter nolan was a first round pick um they don't have that this year so i don't know if he looks at and goes okay i can get more talent at florida i can get even more talent at LSU um it's the question if you're laying you know where do you want to live where do you want to be because clearly um he's going to have options i wouldn't be surprised if he stayed though because his job the difference between the job at old miss and LSU is as close as it's ever been LSU's still a bigger job you know it's got like this amazing home field atmosphere i've been to Vaught Hemingway where old miss plays it's nice it's nothing close to what tiger stadium is but But, you know, I think Lane has all, like, all the control right now.

He's got so much leverage. Yeah. It's wild. He could go back and get, hey, I want to renegotiate and get 15 million. Because he's going to get, what, 11, 12 a year, 13 a year for one of those schools. The thing that always stands out to me, too, when you see this, you know, a lot of coaches going, it's now the effect on the transfer portal, right? Like, that has to cause a little bit of a ripple effect, or is it, am I overthinking that?

Like if you're brought to a program with the coach in place that you want to play for now that coach is gone, when you're a young guy like that, does that really impact your future decision? I think it impacts it, but also what's different, Jerry, is now there's only one portal window. Right. So I talked to somebody at LSU yesterday who made this point about the timing of what do they do. And I was like, do you really take a coach that you're less confident in, a guy who didn't make. make his, get his team into the playoff, just because he's available. You could be in the same predicament if it's LSU three years from now. Yeah.

And just to chase whatever you're going to do in the portal. But that's, that's the risk of it now. The timetable is really screwed up. Um, and again, I think if you're, let's say you're Florida, let's say you're LSU. And you really feel like Lane Kiffin's the guy and wants to be here. You have to basically trust Jimmy Sexton and or Lane Kiffin to be like, all right. right, we're going to sit this out for whatever it is, an extra month and basically punt on our recruiting class and our portal class to try to go in this direction. And I don't know how that's

going to play it, to be honest, because there's just not a lot of great, great candidates. You know, if you don't get Lane Kiffin, if you're LSU or Florida, maybe you go after Eli Drinkwood's from the zoo, maybe you try to get Jeff Brom out of Louisville. He's done an amazing job. That's his alma mother. Nobody's better of these coaches against, you know, big opponents. I mean, Florida also, I think, has Jed Fish in play. He's a real candidate there. That's his alma mater. He broke in under Spurrier, done a really good job. You know, I don't think Jed's not in play at LSU, but he's definitely in play at Florida. So there's a bunch of dominoes that are going to be interested to see where they shake out. I want to throw two names at you, Bruce. And one is Gruden. Does Gruden, I mean,

you know as well as I know he wants back in and I feel like he'll take anything he wants back in and our buddy coach Ogeron I know he's willing to be a D-Line coach he's kind of doing the circuit right now I've talked to him do those two guys have a role in this whole domino this year do you think I don't know what the market on Gruden is I know his agent actually pretty well and for a while I didn't think he was ever going to be a college coach it just seems like he would be a much better fit in the NFL world than in the college world, where if you've never done it, like we're seeing a prime example of this in North Carolina with the greatest football coach in the history of the NFL. And now part of it was he made the mistake of aligning himself

with a GM that didn't know what he was doing. Well, he's made a lot of mistakes, Bruce. Yeah, he's made a lot. He's a lot of other extracurricular, you know. Yes. But, but again, you have a guy who had no experience in it and he jumped into it. He didn't and jump into the deep end of the pool. I mean, it's not like they're not playing any ranked teams, and they're still, whatever, two and five. But, you know, with Gruden, I'd be surprised if he ends up in college. I'm not saying I wouldn't ever expect it, but I would be surprised.

With Coach O, the curious thing to me is, I mean, he did win a national title. There's very few people who are, there's almost none who are active. I mean, it's Ryan Day, it's Dabo, it's Kirby. That's just a short list. he got better as a coach we know he loves recruiting and my my hunch is he will end up as somebody's the line coach assistant head coach because he's really good at that and i you know almost an ideal spot for him i don't i don't know if the you know you'll you'll get where i'm going with this like if i was USC where they're getting the ball run down their throats in south bend i'll be it by

you know really good team um i would say hey can we get him on our staff he knows usc better than anybody now i know he left after his interim on really bad terms but those people are gone from usc so i mean you know matt and i know this like lsu was special to him as in his blood but the one program he feels this you know like it's it's not just the u sc thing it's like it's marcus and ronnie and all these guys that, like, are, you know, I remember being at LSU when they were on the national title run, and Marcus was coming to all the games, you know, like. That's interesting.

Yeah, no. Yeah. And I don't know. Again, I have no idea if he would work for Lincoln. I have no idea. And, you know, they have a good, you know, a D-Line coach now, and Eric Henderson who worked with Aaron Donald with the Rams. It's not like he's not good, but like, you know,

let's say he goes back to the NFL. Again, if I was USC and we know USC has the money, I'd be like, man, what is Lincoln the biggest thing Lincoln's missing out there is that? But, you know, that's, that's, you know, I didn't even know if Ed would do that at, you know, at some point because I know he left on that term. I feel like Ed might do anything at this point to get back. He might, you know, the fact that he was open to the idea of caution at UCLA, you know, like, I mean, there's a story you probably know. I forgot. It was like, I want to say it was like Chad Brown's brother. Was he one of your teammates, right? Yeah. And I think he saw him wearing like a, what looked like a UCLA colored polo. And I think

the story I'd heard was he like walked by and almost like ripped it off without missing a beat, like ripped it off his body. Get that shit off you. Get that color off you. Yeah. So the fact that he was open to that. Van Brown. Van Brown. Last thing, Bruce will let you go. Appreciate the time. College football rankings come out next week, right? the first one. Is there anything you're excited to see, kind of interested in what the committee does with the week, the first week of the rankings? I'm curious to see how high they have Indiana. You know, they destroyed Illinois. Okay, that's, you know, it's not like Illinois is a top 10 team, but they've thumped whoever they should thump. And then they went to Oregon and held Dante Moore to one touchdown. They sacked him six times. He'd only been, he's only been

fact one other time all season you know like i get it indiana's not the big brand but just you look at what they've done resume wise i don't know i think they should they should get some legit number one consideration obviously m a and m deserves that the notre dame win on the road looks better and better every week so um you know if you ask me who i would pick as the best team i still think it's ohio state but i don't think they have the best resume because the texas team they beat at home hasn't been very good this year. It's just the way the schedule is set up for them, whereas that Oregon win on the road for me carries a lot of weight. Yeah, I wouldn't be shocked if Indiana's won. I wouldn't be shocked if A&M's one.

They'll do something at the top. At the end of the day, it always kind of works itself out. I think for me, BYU, you know, Georgia Tech, some of those undefeated teams that don't necessarily have the strength of schedule, be interesting to see where they fall. It's so funny because that's now such a great, like, content day for me to add to the sports equinox the playoff rankings coming out like you think about like we didn't have that that long ago and now that's like a major announcement that so many people are going to wait for just to hear x just or twitter just be just just in everyone is so pissed yeah you got to including bruce bruce is on there just you know somebody yeah i mean two years ago i was like i rate that how do

you snub 13 and no florida state i remember that yeah and it's like okay like i don't know i don't know last year who really felt like, you know, we had a bunch of three-lost teams from the SEC and, you know, Ole Miss had lost to Kentucky. It was like a hard sell. And I just remember there was a lot of, even after that, a lot of like sniping about when Notre Dame beats Indiana, how Indiana didn't belong. And, you know, I guess that's, I guess that's the fun part of the sport now. Well, I think this, this year more than ever, I think there's more parity in college football than we've ever seen going to NIL, all of all those things that you talked about earlier. there's probably eight, nine teams that you could realistically say they have a shot,

depending on their path, they have a shot to win a national championship. Brucey, we appreciate you, buddy. Yeah, you're the man. You're the best in the business, man. And I was telling Jerry before, do I admit we missed you on the road, man. I miss you, too. I don't know if I missed the 545 LAX. We're at the gate and all of a sudden Matt's like raises his long arm and has got his

cell phone out and I'm like, oh, it's too early for this, man. Wait, Bruce, you don't miss our flights home, just getting some wine? just talking to me playing come on brucey yeah my my favorite story from you and i think you'll remember what was we're sitting opposite row or whatever actually no there's a better story involving reggie which we were on the back of the plane what's story you got a great reggie do you golf do you golf with these guys or you're not a golfer no i'll golf i'll tell you what i got a good in bruce is like a college golfer we the uh we're in jerry we're at we're doing the colorado game And so it's me, Mark's dad

who played for the Giants was like a first round pick. I remember him well. So it's me and Mark's dad. And in the, no, it's me and Mark against Urban and Mark's dad. And Urban plays a ton of golf.

So I've heard. I'm yet to play with him. A ton of golf. You know, he does the belly putter thing, all the old man. Is that Urban's a belly putter guy? Oh, he has. That's huge.

So old school, yeah. You did break something on the show. Thank you, Bruce. So, yeah. So, but I'm going to break this. So we're playing at this sanctuary, this really, really nice golf course. It's obviously altitude. And the first hole, the first T, Mark gets up there, no lie, because we have, you know,

all the GPS tracking in the golf cart. His drive goes 406 yards. I believe it. In Colorado, I believe it. Yeah. And Mark, like, I don't know if it's ever come up with you guys, but like, Mark was a really good junior golfer. Like, so it's not like he's like this guy who is like, you know, like, like, all

all the quarterbacks, you know, are always good golfers. And relieve pitchers, yes. And hockey players. They're all good, right? So, but Mark played a ton of golf. Now, Mark was like starting to spray the ball around. But the 4006-yard drive, that was a real thing. We lost a bunch of money to those guys, too, that day.

So that hurts. It was a shame. I can't believe, coach, he's a belly player. Bruce has got the fastest back swing. Oh, I will take a big hard cut at it. It's a big duck hook thing. hour. This thing is just Eddie Hooks. Yeah. Bruce, Bruce, you played in college. Bruce was a great golfer. I did. I played one year in college. We had a funny moment. We were somewhere in Arizona. Do you remember this? Now we're playing. And we have a guy who is a producer on the, you know, he's like Arod's right hand guy, Bardia. Shout out to Bardia. And they were behind. And I remember I hit like a one iron or a two iron. And I'm like, I don't know. I was like 150 yards behind them. And they didn't get the card out of the way. So it's like a line drive coming right at them.

I mean, who fucking hits water irons? I didn't even know those clubs existed. Yeah. So anyway, I thought it was like they intentionally tried to limit the distance on my ball on the way in there. I'm going to be texting coach right as we hang up this meeting. And the belly putter thing is my, I just never would have. To mark off the tea in Colorado, it was not a fluky thing. Like, he gets some calves into it.

And that thing just. Mark can crush it. We did. We were at Illinois. a couple weeks ago, and we were golfing with the coach, and he was, he, I think he drove at, he had a 320 or 300 out there, just off the only bad golf for our group was actually Rob. Like, Rob was, Rob was, Rob was the worst. I'm the second, I'm the second, I'm the second worst by far. I wouldn't say by far, but I'm, but I think, but there's a massive gap

between me and Rob. So, like, there's like, coach is the best. Brady's pretty good. Mark's pretty good. But they all, like, sprayed around. Coach is the, our Joel. just doesn't spray it. Urban doesn't spray it around. Urban, he's the best by far. Those two, Mark and Brady will. Well, no, Joel's better than Urban. But Joel and Urban are the class. Yeah, those guys are great. All right. Bruchy, man. Thank you so much. See you guys. Later, bud. Later. As we do every week, Annie Agar joins the show, courtesy of Twisted Tea. Grab a refreshing

twisted tea today. Of course, we're going to do Twisted Trivia. Mr. Linerd could continue to pad his lead. He's got a good lead on your boy. What is he up? 6-2 right now. 6-2. Cherry, there's so much going on. This is literally like, well, shout-out to Twisted T, but just like playing this game with you.

Honestly, I don't really spend much time on it during the week because it really doesn't. So insulting. It's like that meme. I don't think about you at all. In the elevator? I really don't. I love you. I love you.

But I don't think about it much. Okay. That's good. because once we wind down with the football season, we're going to try to re-sign Annie and we're going to do Twisted T trivia movie business, and we're going to see how the hell you do. We'll start throwing random

actors up there and you have to get their name. That's easy. That's a great idea. We'll see. We should do it now. I love it. We'll throw it in there that could look like an NFL player and then have you guys trying to figure out. I can't wait to hit you with like a,

just like a rando actor who you definitely don't know, watch you squirm. That's like I'm in my wife my wife my wife plays this game with me all the time and I always I always get it right for the most fair well that'll be maybe coming up soon I Annie I thought before we get into the trivia in honor of Halloween and I love Halloween we talked earlier about Halloween for not only the kids and the costumes but like the sports of it all is an unbelievable holiday um you still don't I mean what's your costume party situation do you go to costume party we're old Matt and I're old Matt and I're old We go like, hey, you're still dressing up getting out. You still getting after it? I'm actually going to put out a video this week. But every year I've done some sports reference, obviously, joke type thing. And I have a, I think I have a pretty good one this year.

But I'm not going to say it yet because I'm going to do a reveal on social media. My lean is it's going to be something Bill Belichick and his girlfriend. That would be great. Probably my favorite. My favorite one I've done so far was two years ago when, right when the Harbaugh stuff came out. And it was, he had the hamburger thing with the recruits. and then he had the sign-stealing thing, obviously. I dressed up as the hamburger, and I had a Michigan hat on,

and I had a bag of, like, plays. It was always my favorite. Are you dropping that, like, tomorrow? I will, no, I think I'm going to do it on Halloween. I'll really say. But, like, in Chicago, people go out. We go out to bars and stuff, so. Oh, Chicago Halloween probably could be so much fun.

It's huge here. Every bar is like a pop-up Halloween thing. You're not some candy corn psycho, are you? No. Oh, no. Okay. I'm a reseat all the way. So, oh, see, I can't, what did you just say?

What do you mean? Oh, no, I said around. No, no, I'm talking about, Matt. Listen to this. No, no, no, Annie, this deserves to be disgust. Did I say it wrong? Resey. No, no, say it again, say it again.

You said it. Yeah, you said it wrong. It's Rises, isn't it? Yes. Everyone in the Midwest, everyone, my, every in-law I have calls it Riesies. So when I merely pointed out, it was Ries's pieces, like the name of the family, I got killed. It's Rises. And then I brought up a point.

It's Rises. You know, there's another candy that they made based off the peanut butter cup, blank Reese's pieces. They go, oh, no, no, it's Reese's Pieces. You're changing two words? It's the craziest thing. No, that's the craziest thing. That's how I check myself, because if I just say it, Recy, I think just Reesies,

but you have to do Reese's pieces and then remember how to say it. Like they say it and I just walk out of the room in front of my end. I just walk out because I can't deal. All right. That's funny. We're going to hit some NFL stuff. We're going to pose it in the way and I'm going to throw it to you. I'll jump in. Annie, obviously, you jump in.

It's just going to be trick or treat. Do you think whatever I'm about to say is a trick or a treat? Ready? Drake May MVP. Oh, Matt, you want to start with that or do I mean? Go ahead. MVP is it. He's third best odds.

Jonathan Taylor over Drake May right now. And I know it's a quarterback award, guys. But JT's having a heck of a year. He is. But if you don't give it to Sequin last year, how do you can't get? I think his numbers are like, trajectory-wise, are a little bit better than that's like one. 15 touchdowns, three interceptions,

over 2,000 yards, all in the top five outside of... Deep ball accuracy is through the roof and the Patriots are leading the NFC... And most importantly, they are six and two in the ASEC... Cake schedule. I can win that division. It doesn't matter. There's no such thing as a cake schedule in the NFL.

I do. All right, well, we're going to stick with the Pats. I think it's a treat. Right? Yeah. I think you can make... Hold, I think you can make a case that he's the best quarterback in the league right now. Ooh.

Not based on a resume. Jordan Love exists, guys. This year, Drake May might be the best quarterback in the league through... So it's a treat. We're not... For me, it's a treat. Okay. All right, ready?

Jackson Dart, offensive rookie of the year. This is zero chance. Trick. Trick. Who, wait, who... A meca, a meca, a meca, a buca. Yeah, but he got hurt, didn't he? He's hurt.

He's a little hurt, but he's playing through it. He's gutten through it. He's gotten through it. I would say him too. He's been great. I go. Plus without, like, I don't know how Jack. I mean, you tell us, Jerry, you're...

No, no, I agree with Matt. I think it's an 11 touchdowns. That's insane. I agree with Matt. I think it's a trick. And Dart also missed the first three games, so that'll impact his stats. And I don't, I think the Giants are going to get to a point where they have to

maybe pull the brakes on them before he gets and just say, hey, this season's over. Also losing scataboo, also losing scataboo for more than one reason, just morale, energy, moment, like, and a good player. That will affect all of it. Them as well. Even though he's a, Abuka, I think, is a lock if he stays, you know, plays enough games. I do think Jackson is a trick. But I will throw one other thing into the mix, though.

The numbers will not bear the value of him winning offensive rookie the year. But in terms of the rookie who's impacted a team the most, it's Tyler Warren, who's just impacted. winning and a T, like, he's not going to have the big enough stats to win it, but my goodness is that dude. All right. This one's my personal favorite, and I call it this for a reason. Last season of, as I like to call it, the tushy-pushy, last season of, I wanted to be, I want it to sound as embarrassing.

For that shit to get out of football. It's a terrible play. Yes. Thank you. Thank you. And now Green Bay doesn't look so stupid for trying to get it. I think we're going to get rid of it. That fumble.

That fumble. That fumble, steal the deal. Well, what's your question? Sorry. Is it the last season? Are we seeing the last season of the time? Well, I think it's the rules, too. Like, the guards flinch off sides every time.

Like, like, they're just, they're not, they're not leasing the play. And I don't know, dude. I just think it's bad for football. I used to be like, we'll stop it. It's football. But now it's like, come on, man. Like, that's not how football's played. When you can't rule how much for, like, they don't know when forward progress stops.

They have no idea about football. That's stupid. You can't, yeah. Okay. Couple more, and we'll do them quickly. Ready? Trick or treat, Ravens will make the playoffs.

I think they're going to pull it out. Really? Yeah. They're on the way back. Like, this is, if they had a drop to one in six, then we would have had a problem. But two and five,

I'm with any division. Well, yeah, let me tell you something really quick. They have the dolphins, trash. Vikings. Browns, trash. D. Browns at home are a problem. Browns at home are a problem.

But that's the next four games. If they win those four games, they're right back in it. Six and five. Yeah, they're in it. Yeah. They're in it. And then like the Steelers, I mean, I don't know. They still have the Patriots and Packers toward the end of the year.

Yeah, they're going to have to win a lot. I think they'll snake in. Yeah. I'm going to say, I'm going to say trick because I just don't think they'll win enough games. I'm saying treat. I think they get in with, I think they're looking at your seven seed Baltimore Ravens. Last one before we get the. Twisted T. It's a little twisted trivia.

Because we were talking off air about Zach Taylor and the fact that he cost me thousands of dollars by doing weird stuff with play calling and time management. Trick or treat? And this is a costume for some people out there. Trick or treat? Is Andy Reed the best coach in the NFL?

The best... Probably. Probably. I would say, yeah, I would say treat. Treat. I mean, Rabel's been really good. Rable's coming up the rear. He's coming up quick. Campbell is very good.

It's not Mike Tomlin. Andy Reid, year in and year out, man. Yeah. Different rosters. I mean, again, you have the greatest player of all time second, but like different rosters, injuries, turnover. I was going to say, the things he did with injuries, yeah. Yeah.

I call it a treat as well. All right. Treat. All right. I hate to say it. But now we go to the big time. Matt is up six to two in games. Matt has 22 total questions, right?

I have 14 total questions, right? Matt has won four. Matt has won four to one in each of the last two weeks. So, vibes are high. Vibes for the West Coast kid. Belt to ass. Stop, the belt to ass. All right, Annie.

All right, Annie, here we go. All right. We have a little theme with tight ends this week because it was National Tight End Day, in case you guys hadn't heard. And we have a little Halloween theme for those. So we're going to do three questions and then two pictures again.

Are you guys ready? Ready. First question. Who leads the league in tight end receiving yards? Tyler Warren. Yep. Wow. That was quick.

There's no hesitation on that. Well, I meant to follow up on our last thing about Tyler Warren who leads the tight ends and receiving, but I didn't say that. Okay, number two. Do your research, Jerry. Which tight end leads the league in receiving touchdowns? That's a tricky one. Kraft?

No, not my boy. He should. It's not an obvious one, I feel like. Not really. Oh, is it Ferguson? No, that was a really good guess, though. All right, I'm out. Oh, my gosh.

You're already out, so I could ask for a hint, right? Yeah. No, no, no. I get one hint. Same division as the person that Jerry just guessed. Ferguson? it's i know it oh uh is it goddard

yep jerry knew it right you narrowed it down to three teams for him of the whole nfl i'm so sorry yeah but you also you also just spit out random random those were two great guesses okay but that's your but that's your guess Tucker craft uh Tucker craft is not just an elite tight end he's the best tight end no bias

and he's hit just weeded out 90% yeah but maybe you don't blur maybe maybe maybe don't blurt out names and you wait for the hint, and then you have a better shot of winning. There's 32 teams. She reduced the pool down to three teams for you. I'm going to need Eddie to start giving me hints because my hints suck. Okay. Number three, which tight end has the most targets this season?

I'm scared to even speak now because Matt's just going to wait me out. Well, why don't you think about it first before you blurt out something, dude? The most targets. Most targets. That's a tough one. It is. It's not who you'd expect, I think, maybe. Maybe.

The tight ends have been so weird this year. Like, he's a well-known guy. Like, you know, one of the tap ones. Oh, oh, Trey McBride. Yes. Wow, Jerry. What was the thought process behind that? Just like, who's an awesome tight end we had?

He's the most target. Yeah, he's their number one. I feel like there's only so many tight ends that are like, oh, yeah, we know. Like, he gets targeted a lot. Are they? I should get double for not needing a hint, but okay, let's go. That's very true. Okay, picture time, ready?

For YouTube, let's go. Halloween theme, picture number one, who is this player? Aiden Hutchinson. Yep, nicely done. I can barely see that. I can barely see that, too. That's so far away. I just see, I can't even see that.

He's 11 from, do you guys watch Stranger Things at all? Of course. New seasons coming out. So excited. Okay, picture number two. I'm still having a hard time. Oh, that's Penn A, Sewell. Yes, wow.

I mean, I'm good I am good It does look very different there to me Why is that unfair It's just so unfair dude It's just so unfair You like I don't know Pennystool I don't know

You like go to weddings and stuff I've never met him That was another 4 to 1 Oh my God dude This is getting outrageous I feel like every week there's one Can we please do entertainment next week Can we please do that?

Just to give Jerry a shot No this is a this is an entertainment show in sports We have an actor let's do it I would love to do it I think we should do that Wiped, bro. You'll get wiped. I will not get wiped, but it's okay.

All right. I still call it to question. Annie, we do need to work on the hints. You cut out 90% of the NFL from Matt. He had three teams to choose from and he had to think about Dallas. I was banking on Matt. I remember. We've done that before, dude.

We've done that before. All right. It's not my fault. Annie, be safe on Halloween. Thank you. I can't wait to see the reveal. I'm so excited. I keep those videos coming.

And keep abusing the Jets. whenever you can. Absolutely. Even in a victory, it's fun. This is their one win a year. So, you know, there'll be more jokes coming. Thank you, Annie. And thank you, Twisted Tea. All right, thank you to Bruce Feldman.

Thank you to Annie Agar. Happy Halloween, everybody. Yes, happy Halloween. Have fun. If you see someone running the streets, stealing all the candy corn, and he's about six foot five with a rifle, left arm, rest of sure.

It's not like some... It's Matt liner. Call him out. If you see him, in the streets. You see him in an airport. By the way, candy corn for the W. If you love candy corn like me, comment on our pages, please. Like, let's go.

And join his Facebook group. They're a small group of candy corn lovers and they got to stick together. Happy Halloween, everyone.