Will Cain Country - Are We Expecting Too Much From Relationships? (ft. Kayce Smith)

Episode Date: September 25, 2026

Are impossible dating standards keeping single women from finding real love? Will is joined by Barstool Sports’ Kayce Smith to dive into a viral Reddit thread debating whether women in their 30s need to drop the six-foot, six-figure requirements to find a genuine partner. From social media warping reality to Joe Rogan’s take on "performative empathy," the crew breaks down why so many people are struggling to connect—and why keeping your relationship off Instagram might actually be the ultimate flex. Plus, Kayce stays to preview a massive weekend in college football, including the high-stakes matchup between Texas and Tennessee, the battle over who is the true "UT," and what to expect from Arch Manning at Neyland Stadium. Subscribe to ‘Will Cain Country’ on YouTube here: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Watch Will Cain Country!⁠⁠⁠⁠Follow ‘Will Cain Country’ on X (⁠⁠⁠⁠@willcainshow⁠⁠⁠⁠), Instagram (⁠⁠⁠⁠@willcainshow⁠⁠⁠⁠), TikTok (⁠⁠⁠⁠@willcainshow⁠⁠⁠⁠), and Facebook (⁠⁠⁠⁠@WillCainNews⁠)Follow Will on X: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@WillCain⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Should single women lower their standards? Texas versus Tennessee. And Joe Rogan says empathy explains the rise of socialism. All today with Casey Smith on Will Kane Country. Welcome to Will Kane Country. It is Will Kane Country. Normally streaming live every Monday through Thursday at 12 o'clock Eastern Time at the Wilcane Country YouTube channel and Facebook page.

But you can always follow us at Spotify or on Apple. Who is Ohio State Place Weekend? Is Indiana? No, Illinois. Illinois. Oh, really? Mm-hmm. Oh.

Not a great game. Oh. Why do you say it like that? I was just, I mean, I'm done with college football. I'm done. Of course you are. Of course you are.

You lasted two weeks. You lasted the cupcake section of the schedule. Listen. College football for you is A&M against Northeastern Oklahoma State. Are we recording right now? That's when you're excited. Is this the show? I don't even care.

No, it doesn't even matter if this is the show. You are such a poppous app. To be an Aggie fan is like, it's preseason. Here we go. We're playing Sam Houston State. Smoked them 45 to nothing. And then you play Arkansas and get beat. All right.

This is called, I never knew these Reddits were A-I-T-A. Of course, I know what that means. Am I the asshole? All right, you ready? Ready. Am I the asshole? for telling my wife that her friends need to lower their standards if they're serious about wanting to settle down and start a family.

You already laughing, Dan. Because I did this with my wife a week ago, literally the same thing. You did? Yes. I'll tell you about that. I love this one. Go on. I'm very interested.

By the way, Will, I told Dan not to tell me what these were because I wanted to react like in real time. Okay. I haven't read this either, by the way. I had only read the headline I was like, in. My wife has two friends in their early 30s who desperately want to find a partner to settle down with. They are both conventionally attractive, successful with six-figure jobs, and a normal social profile, and not psychos. The point of contention is that they are looking for someone who is also conventionally attractive, near six foot or above, have a good job, never married, no kids, is in their late 20s or early 30s and is looking for a serious relationship.

What ends up happening is they'll meet someone who seems to meet all those criteria, but these men ultimately, don't want to settle down and just want to have fun. As a result, they and my wife come to the conclusion that all men are trash, and they become more and more jaded. As an outsider, I have no skin in the game, and I don't care either way. But looked at objectively and statistically, I told my wife that most men that meet all those criteria have likely already settled down. So her friends should lower their standards a bit. She got upset at me for even suggesting her friends lower their standards, and they deserve to find someone who meets all their requirements. The biggest example of this is her five-foot tall friend who met a guy who fulfilled all the requirements except he was only five-seven. So she broke it off after a couple of dates. Should I have just agreed with her that men are trash and her friends will meet the right person one day? Or did I do the right thing in laying out what I believe to be the objective truth and how her friends could have more success in settling down? Thank you. I'm going to give the floor to Dan first because I want to hear, Dan already tipped his hand that he had this

exact conversation with his wife last week. Then I will do cleanup. I will back cleanup after I hear what Dan has to say. Well, she has a friend that's in New York dating and the standards are very high. The six feet tall thing came up. The income came up and there's like a trifecta of what they're looking for. I was like, hey, well, she's worried about being a little older and not with anybody, no kids and all that. And I was like, maybe she needs to get rid of one of those things. You would have thought I called my wife a terrible word. It did not go over well. It was really bad. And I learned to shut my mouth and I'll never speak. It's like you would have thought I'd shatter in the shoulder. All right. If you're batting clean up, you're going forth. So you got the original poster.

Then Dan and the two hole. Then you. Then me. Yes. Batting third. And I'm going to back clean up. Yes. Go ahead, Will. The answer is you are not the asshole. You are the nice guy telling the truth to these people. And this is the truth. Absolutely. That's what I thought. People think lies and a lack of judgment are love. They are not. They are acts of hate because you allow people to continue to live in a world that is destructive to their existence.

The truth is love. And the truth is you need to lower your standards. And you need to lower your standards. And this is the hard part to meet your own. This is the world we live in. And this is the problem with Instagram. Is Instagram both male and female? This is not just about women.

It has made everyone think that they can and should have whatever is perfect, although it's fake, on Instagram. And I think that has become a real problem in relationship creation. Real problem. I think, first of all, when we grew up, the definition of hot was way different than it is today. So I grew up in Sherman, Texas. 30,000 people, right? We had a scale of 1 to 10, and the girls that were tens, we didn't know. Well, honestly, we didn't know other than celebrities that there were better versions,

and there were, right? In the whole grand scheme of things, they weren't tens, but they were to us. You know what I mean? And that's because we lived in that world. And you know what? Had we never left our small town, never had Instagram, we were. have settled down married and had a great relationship. We would have absolutely loved including their physical appearance. Now, we live in a world where everybody can be compared to whatever.

I know this is a silly one. I'm just going to throw it out there. Kristen Cavalari, right? Whatever. That's not silly. She's on Instagram all the time. That's just dope. Well, I don't know why she appeared. I think I follow Kristen Cavalier. I don't know why. I think we all know why. I think we all know why. I mean, I feel like that's a pretty safe bet. You don't have to try to hide it from us. We get it. But not everyone should look like Kristen Cavalari. And by the way, the more I follow her, the less she's a 10. Like, not because of her physical. What about Moira? But the Tinkin' cap. Moira. Moira from Traders? I say it's Mara, right? Am I?

Mara. Mara. Yeah. Listen, if we start talking traitors. we start talking hot people, all right? I know. I don't want to do that. No. We get into the whole rob conversation. But my point is, what has been robbed of us is the ability to sort and sort ourselves into where, honestly, sixes identifies sixes, seven identifies sevens, or whatever your range is. If you're seven, your range is six to eight, whatever it might be, right? We've lost that.

and I feel like, I'll just stick with dudes to make this not seem like a gender-based thing. Like, a dude who is a six right now thinks he should and can end up with a nine. I think that's where we are. And they won't settle down with the female equivalent of him, the six. Now, the last thing I'll say on this is the older that a woman gets, we'll go back to the woman in this particular poster, the one thing that she probably should be able to compromise on is physical attraction. Not attraction, physical requirements. You should not lower your standards on the quality of dude if he's a good guy, if he lies, if he tells the truth.

There's a tough one that we have to start talking about on his financial prospects. We'll come back to financial prospects in a minute. But at some point, you have to start understanding that you're not going to get robbed from traders. I'm not talking to you, Casey. I'm saying like everybody needs to say at some point, this is actually where I am and this is who fits me. And also, it should feel good. It shouldn't feel like settling.

That's what I think. So I think this guy is not the asshole. All right. So we're going to continue the baseball analogy here. Bases are loaded. And I'm just going to just go over the green monster. I'm going to bat this claim. We're hitting a grand slam.

You're a thousand percent correct. The one thing that I cannot stand when it is more. of a woman, and I can say this as just a girl, female woman, all the things, is that I always say, okay, you want a guy who, let's just say, you know, six feet, six figures, whatever the thing. What if the guy then said to you, okay, well, then I want to make sure you have a C cup, your X amount of this, you weigh under, you know, whatever the weight may be, you would be furious. So why do you get to have those standards for men? If then you turn around and a man said it to you, you would be the most offended person on the planet. You cannot have those standards

and expect to not have those standards put against you, which in lesser terms will, is finding your match. The one thing I do think as you get older as a woman, you start to realize that the physical attributes does not necessarily equate to being attracted to somebody, right? So when you're in your teenage years and you're looking at like the hot dudes online, you're like, oh, six-pack abs, I don't have to have a six-pack ab to be attracted to you.

It's how you treat me. It's how you talk to me. It's how you make me feel. And then, and we'll talk about financial stuff, then it's like can you add to my life in something that's going to make my life better, easier, and happier, or not? So when I meet women or have girls in my life now in our 30s, they're like, yeah, he needs to be six feet. I'm like, well, what if he said to you, you need to be under 130 pounds?

Like that's the equivalent of it. Why are we living in a world where it's okay for women and do it and not for men? And I've always been that way. It's like when girls are like, my husband needs to lose weight. What if he said my wife needs to lose weight out loud? You would flip your shit. We can't have this double standard because if you live that double standard now, it's going to be that way for the rest of your life. So I completely agree the guy is not wrong.

The issue is a guy can't say it. A girl has to say it. A woman has to say it. A woman has to be like, hey, maybe like tone it down on you needing a six five guy. But they won't though. That's the problem. No, they won't. And they're going to be lonely and miserable for a long time.

They won't say it to each other. I'll say it. I have no problem saying it. I saw this Instagram post. Tell me if you think this is wrong. And it said what people are attracted to? to, like what men are attracted to versus what women are attracted to? Like, actually, I cannot remember what it said men are attracted to.

Probably it was physical attributes in some way. I feel like that's pretty self-explanatory. But the women thing, it said the things that are most attractive are things like intellect, humor, wittiness, you know, that kind of stuff actually in confidence. The way you carry yourself. These become the most, which is a combination of all those things, right? kind of. That becomes the most attractive thing.

So the women, like your wife's friend, Dan, or in this Reddit question, it does presume or suggest they're actually not prioritizing those things, that they're prioritizing other things. Money, physical attraction, all that. I also feel like I would like to believe that as people get older and, like, have more dating experience or more life experience that you, you. I feel like the things that like when you say six figures over six feet tall, you go down that list. It's like you're looking for somebody that other people are going to find attractive immediately.

It's like you want somebody that like is found attractive as opposed to somebody who makes you feel like you're the most attractive person to them. Like you want to connect with somebody on that level. And then you spend a lot of your 20s and your early 30s, whatever. And you're like you have to have like the hottest guy in the room or the richest guy in the room or the tallest guy in the room. and then all of a sudden you look around and it's like oh now i have to lower my standards but i don't want to it's like well you were never actually looking for somebody you actually wanted to match with anyways you were looking for somebody that was outwardly meeting your expectations for what you know an interesting thing about this is with the way that people can manipulate themselves now

so so glp1s that's a great one right um we'll see what peptides how that all we'll see how we'll see how that shakes out the peptide thing um i mean i think it looks like I mean, I know GLP ones are a peptide, but the greater body of peptides and how they change people, not just by losing weight. But also, like, the filler and all the stuff that people can do, right? Botox. What's interesting is... We don't shame Botox on this program. And I know this is...

I know this is played out in real life. What happens when two sixes match up, get married, but then one of the sixes does, probably the female, but it could be the male. Becomes an... A lot of things to change themselves. Lose weight. maybe filler, maybe these things, and makes themselves essentially an eight. And then they're like, now I'm not a match for the six. They're gone.

And I know that happens. They go on. That happens. Like now they feel like they've got bigger options out there that they can go explore. Now there's eights that are accessible to them. It's all, well, the main thing with men in that aspect is like hair plugs, right? So like, and I'm all for both men and women doing whatever you want to make yourself feel more attractive, look more attractive, all those things. but hair plugs is a big one.

Like, you know, you see men who have the cul-de-sac hair and then all of a sudden they have a full head of hair. Great, do what you want. But that I actually think that it's more times when men get more attractive as they get older too and they look at their wife and they're like, oh, like, I can go get like a 25-year-old hot girl now because I'm hot all of a sudden. And like that to me. Well, go ahead.

That's, that's, I was going to say that is a very, that's a common tale. Right. And like the guy gets rich. Because that. all these things. That's right. That's what I was going to say. That changes his game. Now, see, so this is what I think. When you meet, so when I met my wife, I was young, and I didn't have money, right? But she bet on me in essence, right? In a lot of ways. Not because that was like, she said, I need to have these things. I think this is all subconscious.

Like, I think one of the reasons women would look at a guy and be like, intellect or this or that. I'm not saying I have those things. But it's kind of a bet. Because if you look at it at the end, women want security, right? All women. Yes. And the intellect, you know, curiosity, wittiness, all that is a bet that that's going to translate at some point into security. It's going to translate into, you know, resources, money. Not just that because it's stimulating and it's fun to be around somebody who is interesting and that kind of thing.

As the curve gets older, if you're single into your 30s, now though, you've had a chance to see if it actually, the bet has paid off. Do you see what I'm saying? So now the money becomes a bigger part of it and you're looking at somebody who's already done it. And that goes higher. Now, the thing I said about what happens when you improve yourself, interestingly, it works in the reverse as well, right? What happens when one of the two sixes lets themselves go and becomes a four? And that goes back to what I'm saying is that like I've had Guy friends over the years be like, oh my, you know, my wife thinks I need to lose weight and whatever. And I'm sitting there looking and being like, well, so does she. Like, but you can't say that. Like, this is, like, that's

where the double standard really comes into it. But I do think that it's going, you know, and I don't know, you know, the conversation between you and your wife, but I'm sure at some point she was like, I love you. I'll be there with you throughout whatever. Like, I feel like that's missing a lot with people where they're not like, I'm ride or die for this person, no matter what, no matter where the career goes, no matter what the finances look like, no matter what, it's like, you are my person and I'm going to stay with you. I feel like people say, oh, I'm going to be with this person. I like them now.

But in 10 years, if, you know, things hit the fan or he gets fat or she gets fat, like, I'm going to go try to find another option. I think that's more prevalent right now than ever because you can see your options. You just don't really love that person. Right. That's what I'm saying. That's insane. It's like that's, and I feel like the, like, going back to the Reddit post, it's like

these women, and I'm going to, I'll say women, and I can speak for them. It's like, they're not looking for necessarily like that true. love. They're looking for like the attractiveness, the lust, the flirting, all of that, and then hoping that translates into true love at some point. Right. And like that's, that's not a way to live. Like, sure, we're all human. We're all going to find like people attractive and be like, that would be awesome. But at the end of the day, like, that doesn't translate to real life. I have a UGov poll here of what men and women find attractive. Oh. Okay. Kindness is number one for both. Then with men, its physical attraction is number two. Honesty, sense of humor, intelligence,

loyalty, emotional stability, similar values, affection, dependability. It's number 10. With women, it's kindness, honesty, emotional intelligence, sense of humor, intelligence, reliability, confidence, ambition, work ethic, financial responsibility, number 10, physical attraction. All the way on the bottom for women. Let's take a quick break, but continue with KC. Smith of Barstall right here on Will Cain Country. Don't you wish you could just hit skip on the worst parts of your life? You know the same way you can skip an ad.

I get it. I'm Siaia and I live in Ice Cove. I've made some questionable decisions that didn't end up the way I planned. And today, I'm still figuring it out. Somehow things usually get worse before they get better. Apparently, that's how I roll. So bundle up and come along for the bumpy ride. Stream a new episode of North of North Tuesdays on CBC Gem.

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Whatever lies ahead, don't change your morning. Let your morning change you. Discover coffee plus on espresso.com. Welcome back to Will Kane Country. We're still hanging out with bar stools Casey Smith. Yeah, I also think, I don't know what the difference in the wording would be, but like somebody being physically attractive and me being physically attracted to that person are two completely different things. Sancho humor changes a lot too for women, I feel like.

Oh, 100%. There are some like, you know, just I don't want to say ugly men. That's not nice. But there are some just like traditionally unattractive guys that are incredibly funny that are hot because of that. But the one thing, and I will say, and maybe it is because of my age and as I get older, but like the one thing too, and I don't know where this would land on that list, but it's like, can a man make you feel feminine? Can a man make you feel like in your soft girl era? Like that's a huge part of this. Like you don't feel like you have to do it all alone. I've had this conversation recently. It's like if a man can put you put you in and be like, hey, like I'm going to take care of you, you don't have to do this by yourself. Like that's incredibly attractive. But in your like when

you're 22, a girl's like, oh, is he six foot five and does he have abs? Like that it's just an age thing. So the answer is the guy did the right thing. You just can't, it just can't come from a guy. That's the problem. Yeah. He did the right thing. All right, Joe Rogan recently spoke on the rise of communism and the role empathy plays. And I found this interesting. Last night, I gave a speech. I'm really not sure how well it went over. But I've been talking to the audience about what I believe is the potential in the very near future of the rise of right-wing socialism.

And I believe that we are very, very close to that being a real thing. I don't know, Dan. I don't know. It's the first time I gave this speech. I was curious. It was the first time I gave this speech. But in my defense, I believe everything I said, and I truly think this is a thing. Like, I'm being a bit of a canary in the coal mine on this.

I'm not the first. There are other people talking about this. But it's a warning. And then I heard Rogan talking about this, and it made me think about what I had to say last night. So let's listen to Rogan. People become accustomed to where they live. And I think this is normal, which is one of the reasons why. this push towards communism amongst young people so infuriating to me.

It's like I understand that it comes from this desire for empathy and kindness. I get that. The idea of socialism comes from an idea of empathy and kindness that you want, you think the world would be better if we all shared and that why are there's people that are so rich and people that are so poor. And you're right. But the solution is not to make the government decide who gets what. Because they never decide the right way.

Okay. So here's why I was interested in that. Dan is like he's our correspondent into the mindset of lefties with his Brooklyn brunch crew. And to some extent, Casey, because you still live in New York and you're surrounded by this well, I have gotten to this place. I totally reject the idea that the embrace of socialism and obviously to a larger extent communism is just, driven out of empathy. I do not think empathy plays a role. I think empathy is the thing that people say. I think it's like an Instagram post, right? I'm an empath. Your pose. Well, and it's like, you don't really look that way. You just pose that way and put a filter on it. That's what empathy is.

It's the filter and the pose. What I think is the real thing, the real driver behind us. And so the people understand I'm not being partisan here. I think that the real motivation is resentment. That it's a combination of resentment and entitlement. And I don't think anybody has a monopoly on that. And that's why I'm warning, I'm sounding this warning siren because that can apply to people who are purportedly on the right as well. Now, I will tell you, it overindexes on the left. Right now, most people who are resentful are on the left. and I don't think they're more empathetic. I think empathy is the life you live off of Instagram. I think empathy is how do you, what do you actually do out there in the world?

Not what do you post, not how do you vote, not what political system do you want. But what do you do? What kind of charity do you do? What kind of giving back do you do? And most people that do that stuff, do it fairly quietly. And that's real empathy, right? this stuff, the outward stuff, empathy is the pose. What's really driving people is they look at others that have more, look at what they have

and feel like what they're entitled to, and they feel resentment. And that's what's going on. You're granting them the pose by presuming the difference between the two sides is one's more of an empath. It's performative empathy because it's like under the guise of, look, I care more about the everyday person than you do. So I want the everyday person to have more because I care about them.

And I mean, it goes back to what we were talking about, like me doing your show. It's like, and not just you. Just in general, it's like when people are like, oh, well, how can you go on Fox News and, you know, look, they hate people. It's like, well, because I actually know who Will Kane is off of television.

Like, first of all, I don't disagree with what he's saying on TV anyways, but like, I actually know he's a good person. He's treating people well. He treats me well. So it's like when you say that, it kind of blows the doors off of things like, oh, well, I just see what somebody is saying online. So, like, that's what I'm parroting.

It's like, well, that's not how real life works. And this whole thing with, like, you know, performative empathy, especially from the left and from liberals, is that it's like, if you are not a liberal online, you must not care about people. And they can just say that and not actually have to back it up. Like, that's kind of what the world that we're living in. And unfortunately, social media is the echo chamber, right? Like, everybody's like, yeah, of course.

Like if you're a liberal, you care about gay people. It's like, well, that's just not, like, that's not real life. And people I know who do it, do it to make themselves feel better. Like, oh, I'm better off than a lot of people. So I'm going to feel empathetic for all these people who have less than me. But realistically, they're not looking inward at all anyways. And they're also not going to do anything to change it. Like, they're not going to, they're not going to, they're not going to, they're not going to.

They're not going to feel really bad for the people that can't afford their groceries. But I'm not going to stop shopping at Whole Foods. Like, I'm not going to stop buying expensive stuff. Better than. Right. I mean, and it's not just, you know, with financial stuff, but yes, it's like I live, if I'm living above somebody's means, well, I might feel bad for them and tell the whole world that they should live higher than their means, but I'm not going to change mine. But I realize my privilege. Yeah, like I'm not going to stop flying going on vacations because somebody else can't, but I'm going to preach that they should be able to. Well, then how do you fix that? Yeah, post you're going to Bermuda and not about. Yeah, it's crazy. But it's all performative. So I'm sure your speech was great. So back to the ugly part, back to the ugly part, like the, so we're all denying that empathy is the real motivation.

What I think is the real motivation is resentment. And, you know, this, I, I, I'm always in love with this line. And I actually asked AI, who said this? And it said, I think you're the only person that said this. So I don't know that I came up to it. I'm sure that I read it somewhere. It actually could be like a, for some reason now it's in my head, like Kevin Williams. and from National Review wrote this.

But it just, there is no greater resentment than that of the merely rich to the truly wealthy. And I think that is very, very true. So what I mean by that is the people who have done well in this life, who are upper middle class, who look at the people who have actually a lot, and they're the most resentful, because they look at it and they go,

why is that person better than me? What did that person do? How are they more educated? How are they more intellectual? How are they any of these things that made them truly wealthy? And the answer to that is a whole bunch of things. It could be that they're more risk tolerant than you. Maybe that they just took the chance.

All these things that it could be. But they're the ones filled with resentment. I also think that this stat backs it up to me that the, you know, majority, for example, the Democratic Socialists of America are people with master's degrees. 80% have a postgraduate degree. But they're also downwardly mobile. They're not making a lot of money. So they've got all these credentials and qualitative.

qualifications and degrees, and yet the world's telling them they're not as worth as much as a guy who maybe graduated high school and started a $100 million plaster paint and drywallers. So that guy must be on that. That doesn't make sense to that. They think that guy's on after school. Yeah, it doesn't make sense. And so they're resentful. But this is, and so, you know, what is it, fourth and long that listens to us who says he's a DSA member, whatever?

First round by. I would say, first round by. Close enough. Close enough. Sports analogy somewhere in there. Fourth and long is a great screen name though, a great username. It is a good name. Yeah, that's good name.

That's good name of Fourth and Long. But, by the way, how bad were the Packers last night? I can't believe how bad to Packers. I got to stop watching NFL. They are so bad. The fact that the Falcons had not gotten into the Red Zone up until last night and played the way they did. I didn't understand Michael Pennix Jr. was back.

That's fine. They had no business beating the Packers that way. That's embarrassing. It's the worst they've been in my entire way, Casey. And I watched because now Matthew Golden is on my fantasy team, and that was a great pickup. Thank you very much. I'm a very insightful sports analyst because he did well. Oh, we'll have a good football game.

But it helps when you're down 28 to 7 and they got to throw the ball every play. And they can't run the ball. He threw 312 yards. I know. I was like, throw it to number zero. Throw it to number zero every play. But they couldn't stop the run. Bejohn ran for almost 200 yards.

Jordan Love looked awful, dude. Awful. Awful. I know his offensive line was back. but Golden scored a touchdown. Dude, that's all Golden. Like, he had to reach behind him. That throw was so off.

Jordan Love was throwing him in the dirt everywhere I looked. I can't believe how bad they are. Sincerely. I was watching with the Packers fan, and he was just like, I cannot believe that this is this football team. I was like, I can't even like kick you while you're down. Listen, as somebody who just watched my team get just curb stomped last week, like, I get it.

When you see a team play that badly, you just know they're bad. Like, you can't even defend it. I might just have to become a Giants fan. Yeah, that doesn't look like they had a bad game. game. No, they're bad. They threw up a bad football team. Oh, no, they're bad team. You don't want to be a giant.

They threw up a stat last night about their win-lossed when Micah Parsons is playing versus not. I'm like, Micah Parsons ain't fixing this. No. This is horrible. I said this before even going into last night, they're a bad team. You could see it in the last game. They just have no cohesion, nothing. But that, I mean, to lose to the Falcons.

I mean, again, they had their quarterback back, but still. Will, I just sent this to Dan and I was going to send it to you, too, but this is going along with this conversation. So, like, you were talking about performative, like, things. So there's a liberal influencer that went to A&M, right? And so his whole thing is like, well, I went to A&M, but I care about people. You know. Oh, I've seen this guy.

Okay. I've seen this guy. Isn't he actually at A&M now? No, he's not there anymore. He's graduated. He's a graduate. But he, there's a quote that is now circulating. And you know, I mean, you know a lot of Aggies.

Like you're from Texas. Like I'm an Aggie. Like there's, first of all, 70,000 undergrad. We're talking about a pretty dynamic group of people. But like, even as a Longhorn, you can be like, not all Aggies are this way. This quote is going around right now. and said, I went to A&M or I go to A&M, I go hunting, I love NASCAR, but I'm also cool with gay people. Like that's an actual, like he said, a lot of people assume that just because you're an Aggie, you think a certain way.

I think it's important that we have different representation. Like, who are you performing for? Oh my God, you're so bog. That is a massive performance. It is insane. And I've seen this guy because he tries to check all the boxes of like a conservative Texas dude, right? and then boom, I'm also a lib in whatever big thing he's doing.

And it goes back to the performative empathy where it's like, I'm sorry, I'm an Aggie, do I not care about gay people? Like, what are you talking about? But these people eat it up. They're like, oh, see, he's different. And I'm just like, I just, like, as an Aggie, as an Aggie,

I'm like, that's kind of offensive, dude, that you're saying that hundreds of thousands of people that went to A&M just don't care about people because we went to A&M, that's a wild thing say. And I was like, I've, oh, I saw a post on this point, Casey, I saw a post last night. I guess it was an Ella Langley video. And she had she was like dancing with two like gay guys,

um, gay guys who are minorities of some kind. I don't know. I mean, honestly what I saw was like, are those her makeup artists or what is that like? Maybe they're just her friends or whatever. Minorities of some kind. Um, they must be makeup artists. Somebody said, somebody said, um, some, what did somebody say? They said, they said, um, some, what did somebody say? They said, they said, said, oh, the post was she's trying to push back on the MAGA rumors. Like she put this video out to push back on the issue MAGA, right? But then somebody else said, you've obviously never met a small town person. She will, whatever, hang out with gay people, have brown friends, date them or whatever,

but vote MAGA with all her heart when she goes to the booth or something like that. But the point is it was forcing her into all these boxes. Like, if you are conservative, oh, you can't have gay friends. Oh, you can't have, you know, minority friends. Like, you just forced her into a box that doesn't really exist. Correct. And like that's- She can be all of these things.

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And Tunnel of Towers is committed to eradicating veteran homelessness and helping America never forget September 11th. To learn more about the Foundation's mission, impact, and how you can support our nation's heroes, visit t2t.org. I had recently a makeup artist speaking of a woman who she said that and I never worked with her before she was she told me after the fact she was nervous to do my makeup because she knew I appeared on Fox News so she assumed that I would not be nice to her because she was a Latina and I looked at her when she and she said it straight to my face and I was like I'm really sorry you live that way like that is a crazy crazy thing to think she was like well that's just how we're conditioned I'm like but that's not normal life.

Like, do you just walk around assuming that if somebody's, you know, like for, in my example, like blonde hair, blue-eyed, you know, white Christian from Texas, I must hate you if you're different, but that's the way people live. Yeah. It's crazy. Like now my, now the new thing is like, I wear a cross necklace and it's like, oh, well, she must like hate everyone because she's wearing a cross necklace. Like, what?

Signaling like, I'm not tolerant. And you spent all those years wearing Nike dunks, carrying your Dunkin' Donuts around. I still do that. You spent all those years cultivating that image and you burned it up like that by going on Fox. I mean, when I tell you, you were safe before. You think it's a blonde Texas thing. It wasn't. You had perfected the northeastern cultural transplant.

You walked into every room and they were like, she's basically that A&M dude posting, you know. Do not put that on me. Do not put that on me. No, it is, it's really funny. It's like all these years, you know, I've, I've, I've, I've, I've, I've, I've, I've just really cultivated this like hard exterior of like, I can be everything. And all of a sudden it's like, oh, she's blonde with blue eyes and wears a cross. She's all maga.

The comments, again, I'd like to very much preface. I do not care. It does not bother me. It's not going to stop me. The stuff that I'm getting right now, just being on this very podcast as we speak, it's like you would have thought I walked in and just said I hate everybody. Like it's good. It is wild.

But you know what? I am who I am. I actually, I mean, I'm wearing, I had a full sweatsuit on and my. my Nike's coming in to the den. I put on jeans for your very program, okay? Because I'm trying to be more respectful. I'm still walking around with my Dunk and Donuts in my Nike's. Oh, yeah, you're still passing.

You're still lib passing. She's called Lib passing. She codes outwardly left. Yeah. What is the word we use, Dan? I'm not married. Coding, yeah. The thing we said, you code left, you code right.

Casey codes left. She thinks she codes right. You don't. You code left. Why? Because I live in New York. York? Style.

Style. Okay. But I also like, there's no... She's really thinking about that way. Well, no, because I like... We code New York City, which New York City codes left. I do. I do code New York City.

But then I also am, like, on Fox News now, blonde hair, blue-eyed Christian from Texas. Like that, you know what I love, though? Yeah, that's thrown... That's, that's correct. That's what I'm saying you. You undercut all your left-coding cred that you built up all these years. Well, but I... You've been intentionally.

You've been intentionally, Cody, left for about a decade. No. I'm guessing. You've been cultivating your left-coded image. You mean being cool? And you undercut it. Now, did I post the black Instagram box in 2020? Maybe I did.

Okay? Maybe I did post the black Instagram box in 2020. But I will say, I've always, I've always prided myself. And I feel like it is more of a thing like when you just have, you know, different groups of friends from all over the country and whatever. Like, I don't like being put in that box. Like, I don't, I never have wanted to try to be one thing or the other. It's like, I don't know, you can't actually be a human being that lives their lives in different ways in the middle.

The problem is, is that I'm blonde hair, blue eyed, and now we're across around my neck. So I must be just crazy maga. Like the amount of maga and then add like an expletive about a woman that I'm called on a daily basis because I'm on with you is hilarious to me. It's like, have you listened to anything I've ever said? Like I argue with Will about certain things on his show. People call me that just for working here. People I know. Well, I actually.

And you definitely code left. Yeah. I, well, I'm very, you really think I code that left, huh? No, no, not that left. Would you? You have, Casey, quit playing stupid. You have, you have, no, not that left.

Okay, if here's the spectrum, which I reject the spectrum. Project this, but I'm going to use it as an example. Okay. Let's take a quick break, but continue with Casey Smith of Barstall right here on Will King Country. New from Nespresso. Blend wellness into your coffee routine with the coffee plus range infused with functional benefits. Choose the coffee you love with added B vitamins, like coffee plus B12 to help support immune function,

and coffee plus B6 to keep your day moving. Or go with the flow and choose ginseng delight, our new double espresso with ginseng extract. Whatever lies ahead, don't change your morning. Let your morning change you. Discover coffee plus on espresso.com. Where some see heroes and others see egos. Bloomberg sees the era of billionaire athletes. A fad to some, the future of money to others. We see crypto's trillion-dollar swings.

The end of jobs, or the end of human struggle. We see the endless funds fueling the AI hype. While others follow the noise, we follow the money. Learn more at Bloomberg. Welcome back to Will Kane country. We're still hanging out with barstools, Casey Smith. Dan did it right. Like, in the Northeast, you, you intentionally cultivated a look.

No, not far left. You didn't go blue hair. You didn't do anything like that, but you went two degrees to the left because that's where the cool zone is. You left people wondering, but you know, you got the tattoo. You wore the sweatshirts. You wore the Nike dunks. You know, this all, this isn't, this is, this is two degrees left.

Intentionally. No, I didn't. I would like it very much on record that I didn't start wearing sweatshirts and Nikes because I was intentionally trying to look cool. That's just what I like to wear. That's just, that. That's just, down deep. All right.

Down deep. He thinks we're all influences, influenced by everything. We were not original. When I was living in College Station, Texas right out of school, I was still wearing that stuff. That's just what I like to wear. And then I moved to a place where everybody wears that. Everybody tells themselves. No. Okay. All right, here.

Well, what should I wear? I must start wearing cowboy boots every day. What should I wear? Casey, everybody says they're super original and just doing what they like. I didn't say I'm original. It's just so weird. It's just so weird that we all look the same now. We all do the same stuff. We're all individuals who just

ended up in the same place. We drive the same color cars. We eat the same food. Listen to the same music. This is wild how a society full of unique individuals making their own choices. Everybody else is the damn. All ended up the same. No, I'm not saying I'm original. I'm saying that you cannot put me in a specific box because I've also been accused of being

like a basic white girl. Like, oh, you have an emotional support water bottle. You wear leggings, all this. But then it's like, then I have like the ghettoest rap ever in my headphones. Like I don't fit and I don't want to fit. But I have a question for you. This will cane guide of. of how to be yourself.

By way, I'm not exempting myself, just for the record. So when I throw from this house, I know the walls are glass. So you. Dan, you complimented my belt yesterday. That belt could have been more Dallas. I am looking more Dallas by the day. Every day, I'm like, what are you wearing, dude? You have khaki shorts on, designer white tennis shoes, and a tucked in polo.

What is wrong with you? That is not who you were. There is a difference, but there's a difference in, doing it on purpose. I'm no individual either. And and and and being like a little bit of like self-aware of where you are. Like I have never worn more like dress slacks or pants in my life than I have over the last like nine months. Why? Because I have to for Fox News. Like that's just something that I'm doing. But I'm not being like, I have to look Fox News. So I get it's like, well, that's just what you do. You you fit in. I can't show up to your show in Dallas or on Fox

and Friends wearing like baggy jeans. You can't do that. him Will goes to his country club. He wants to look like all the other guys there. So it's fine. And I said this to you at one point when I was in Dallas. And by the way, Casey wants to move back to Dallas. If she moves back to Dallas, how much do you want to bet the sweatshirts and Nike Dunks will be gone with one year? No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, they would not.

No, they would not. By what, jeans and boots? Bet. I have never. You may wear them every once in a while, Casey, but they're going to go from 80% of what you wear to 10%. And you're going to maybe tell yourself, I still do what I am because I was in visual. but yeah, but the other 80% like all the other ladies.

And, okay, so back to my original question, this Will Kane custom menu of what would code right or left. What should I wear then to code more right, in your opinion? No, I'm not telling you you should do anything. You do what you wanted to do, but I'm just telling you

what you've done. Intentionally, intentionally code what would you recommend me where? Well, that depends on where you Like it's tough in New York because what is Code Right? What is Code Ride in New York? That's tough.

Or I also like I've like a suit. I don't know. When I was born in 1988 in Arlington, Texas, living in Dallas and Fort Worth and then College Station, Texas, all the way to now in New York, I have owned one pair of cowboy boots because my ex-boyfriend gave them to me in college. Like I never wore them growing up. I'm not going to wear them again. I just don't like them on me. It has nothing to do. Hold on.

The cowboy boot thing. Ladies don't wear cowboy boots all that much, even in Texas. The pointed boots, yes, you do. Yes, they do. You would think on social media that every girl goes to a country concert is wearing cowboys. Well, that's a crazy take. Like, my girlfriends that live in Texas. Outside of the girls, outside of small town girls that.

Do they really not? Small town girls. I don't know what he's talking about. No, I'm right. It's a costume. but they know how to wear the costume they'll wear it to they'll wear it to a concert

they'll wear it to a game day they'll wear it to you know a party maybe but it's not like everyday it's not everyday wear for women for women some guys it's not as I've got boots on right now but I'm not

as much as I used to but they're dress up for guys right it's like a dress shoe they don't have to be but I feel like like pointed toe boots that I don't know what the like I have girlfriends in Texas that wear them all the time with like dresses and when it's like hot out. Yeah. And not just, yes, you dress up performatively, but like everybody's dressing up in a costume. I think I'm going to adopt

this Texas style. I think I'm just going to start doing it. Cowboy boots every day in jeans. I just want to know what I'm supposed to wear to Code More Right in Will's mind. That's what I'm going to, I'm going to start doing that. Like when I'm going to, when I show up for his podcast, like slowly maturely, I'm going to wear something more Republican for Will. It's a pants suit. It's really tough for me to figure out what that is in New York. A bigger cross necklace? In New York. More like bigger hair?

Should I tease it higher? Like, you know, closer to Jesus. Is that what you want me to do? Yeah. No. Big hair feels 80s. I'm not sure it's anymore. What?

I just looked down the hallway and Herman is eating some soup or something out of a bowl. And Saint is sitting right in front of him. Just seated at attention waiting for something to drop. By the way, I did not know Herman, by side note, Herman, he's a watch guy and he complimented my watch when I was there last time and that meant a lot to me. I need him to know that. I've thought about it. Every morning I put on my watch. I'm like, you know what?

Herman's a watch guy. He likes my watch. Hey, let me finish my point. Because back to Mr. Fourth and Long, first round by. Resentment can exist within all of us. That's what I'm saying. So when I accuse the other side of allowing resentment to actually drive. their worldview, I am telling you that I am concerned as we speak today that resentment is on the

rise across the political spectrum. And what that means is the right will embrace resentment. And that's going to enable socialism. Everybody thinks that means I think they're going to start voting for a democratic socialist. That's not what I mean. What I mean is Republicans, still wearing the costume of Republicans, will start to embrace socialist tendencies just wrapped in a red, white, and blue banner. Saying I want. And that's what's going to happen. I deserve. I want, I want to take, that guy's got too much, policies that redistribute these kind of things.

You see what I'm saying? Yeah. That's what's going to happen. Hey, speaking of the performative thing really quickly, this takes us to another, am I the asshole? I like this one as well. Husband never posted about our wedding, but used to post long, sweet captions about his ex. Am I wrong to feel hurt? Another good one, right?

All right. You didn't read this one either, Casey? No, I love being, like, put on the spots. This one's a recent for me, too. All right. Oh, damn. Here we go. Hi, everyone. I really need some outside perspective on this.

I recently realized something that's been sitting heavy on my heart. My husband and I got married a couple of months ago. It was the happiest day of my life, and even though I don't expect social media to define love, I thought he would at least share something about our wedding or marriage. But he never posted a single thing about it. What makes it harder is that before me, he used to post about his ex all the time. Not just photos, but long, sweet captions about how much he loved her, how special their relationship was, etc. I've seen engagement pictures, sweet day memories, and really heartfelt words that he put out for everyone to see.

With me, it's silence. He promises sometimes that it'll post, but it never happens. When I bring it up, he goes quiet and avoids the conversation. I don't need validation from social media to feel loved, but I can't help but feel like I'm being hidden, or that maybe he doesn't feel as proud of me or us as he did with her. It makes me sad and honestly insecure. Am I overthinking this? Should I just let it go because social media doesn't matter?

Or is it a red flag that he can openly express love for his ex online, but he can't do the same for his wife? All right. May I lead off this time? No, I want to lead off this time. Oh, you want to lead off? Can I lead off? So this is one of those, which we see a lot with these Reddit posts, is that I feel one way when I read the headline, the title, and then I feel completely differently by the end of it. So the way I feel in general is that I do not think you need to be performative online about your private life, your dating life, your marriage at all.

Because that to me is nobody else's business. So in my life specifically, like I don't even post my son because I don't need the people that follow me to see my three year old son. You can, it's very hard to find who I've ever been in serious relationships with, who I've dated, because to me that is my private life. So I do not feel like someone else has to post me in order to. to validate that because I feel that way. Like my private life is really important to me. I don't need to share it. Then you read the rest of that and you're like,

well, at one point this guy felt that he needed to share all of this about somebody else and then just all of a sudden stopped without explanation for the next part. That would also confuse me. Now, maybe a conversation happens like, hey, I realized I didn't want a window into my life, whatever that may be. But it's very hard for me to rectify in my brain. like you loved this person so much you wanted the whole world to know it now you're married to me and you're avoiding a conversation of why you won't post it just in general i just don't think

anybody should be posting that stuff if they don't want to does that make sense like okay like i i'm all about privacy i've internalized i've internalized what you said um i don't agree 100 percent go ahead dan oh okay well i also think people who are actually happy don't post about and people who are unhappy post more about it i would agree with that too so that's one thing so I had an ex so this happened with my wife my wife makes fun of me because I don't post anything on Instagram anymore like just at all and so she's like why you used to post with your ex because it's still there but I was kind of pressured and I actually would do the thing we're like you're not posting me you're not posting me so I would and I was younger so I would acquiesce to

what she wanted and now I don't but I'm just happy and I don't need to I will do stories like our wedding I did stuff and I will do some things but she's like always nagging in the back of her mind She's like, why don't you post it? Are you trying to look single online and like jokingly? And so... Your wife says it. Is this from you? Did you post it?

Yeah. I felt like her. I felt like both of these were like she posted that and I posted the other one. No. So it is a conversation we've had like jokingly, obviously. She's not serious about it. But I just don't, I never liked the posting a lot about a couple because it makes me feel like you're trying to push that you're happy and you're not really.

Yes. You know, if I'm happy, I'm living offline. I'm happy and I don't need everyone to know that. Privacy is privacy. Right. Privacy. And also no one needs to see what goes on in your relationship. Exactly. Like the corny couple content, especially on Instagram.

I hate it. I'm not happy right now. It's like, ew, God, gross. And the weird thing about it is it gets a lot of likes and comments. Yes. It makes you feel good. Do you ever notice that? Well, that's because they, there's usually somebody at, like, wherever they are being like,

wow, look how happy they are because they've fallen into the trap. That seeing it online must mean it's real. and it's usually the opposite. The corneous couple content that I see on my feed that I know in real life are the most unhappy people. Like that is just a fact. Like it's very obvious. But I do think that there is some weight

when it's like if you are, I'll take this woman, for example, and you just see the difference if he had a conversation whether. That's what stood out for that with me in that Reddit post was that he avoids the conversation. If he just says,

hey, I don't feel like I have to do this with you because I'm happy and I wasn't happy before and she was forcing me, case closed he's avoiding the conversation that's literally me that to me is where that is different okay you you put more weight in that one line than than i did so i would say i'm bad in cleanup now i i'm closer to dan than i am to casey okay so the thing about privacy privacy is is interesting like you don't post your son i don't post my family either my commitment to doing this job the minute I got back into this, meaning I had a life doing other things for a living before I decided to do this was I wanted to be 100% authentic.

And that was the only way I was going to be able to relate to the audience, right? Just be real. But at some point that being real, I had to like decide I am being real, but there are parts of my life that are not for you. Right. They're just for me. Right. There are a couple parts of my life that are for me. And it's not just about me. It's about them.

I don't get the liberty to just do that. If it were me, I probably would post about my sons a lot more. And every time I mention that my son is a freshman at the University of Texas, I had this little thing in me that feels weird. Like, that's not mine to share. Be careful, Will, what are you doing? You know, like, that's not mine to share. That's his to share.

So I do feel this tension thing a little bit, right? So you're with me on that? You're with me on the privacy thing. I am with you on that. But like, I am not private about me. How about that? There's nothing about me that I'm private about. Pretty much.

I am pretty much wide open about me. But when the me intersects with some other people in my life, that's when I shut it down. Okay? And it's only a few people. Okay, so there's that. I do agree with you about that privacy part. But here's where I'm with Dan. The, I also think like, I mean, I don't.

I don't post about, I don't post about my wife really ever. And that's like the most sacred parts. And I don't even talk about her all that much on my stuff because that's the sacred parts of my life, right? Like that is, and I don't need the world. People get weird too. Right. I think we're all on the same page with that.

And I feel like my, and I feel like my default, okay, maybe I'm not debating you on this Casey, but I feel like my default that I'm describing, like we're all on the same page. I actually think everybody's kind of like that, mostly, right? Like, so I, this is where like with Dan, like, if you're doing it, I'm actually kind of suspect a little bit. Not always, not always, because I know there's a lot of people to do it and they'll be like, don't you indict my relationship? I'm like, okay, but in general, most people that have great relationships don't feel the

need to broadcast their great relationship. Because what are you getting out of it, right? You're getting selfishness. You're getting likes and you're getting attention for yourself, not for your couple, but for yourself. That's it. Yeah, that's, you. You said your ex-girlfriend, pressure to do it.

Yes. But even if she didn't, but even if she didn't, right? Like this guy in the Reddit, if he was doing it, just out of his own motivations, I think he's behaving in a manner now that is more honorable to the relationship than he did before. Do you see what I'm saying? Like, whatever he did with his ex, that's not actually, to me, a sign that he loved her. He could have been performative. Or she was pressuring him to do it.

But the, and this is where maybe I took that one sentence and held so much weight is that like he just needs to say that then. Because from what it looks like in that post is that he's avoiding. the answer of why he posted her and not the current. Like that's like that's an easy communication thing. I'm just like, hey, I didn't actually want to do that. She was pressuring me to do it. So I had to feel like I had to do it to basically make her shut up. I'm happy with you.

I don't feel like the world needs to see it. But I also feel like some people. Or let's carry it another step, Casey. Take the she pressured him out of it. What, what, and Dan, you use the word. This is so much of the world. This is a lot of what we're talking about today. Maybe the reason he gets quiet, Casey, is he can't rationalize this part of it.

she didn't pressure me I was just being performative right most people have a hard time I'm embarrassing I was just being performative that's embarrassing to admit and now I don't feel the need to be performative because this is true

because he wanted to be like the guy like oh he's such a good guy and it's performative and he gets that good feeling from it well there's also like and again our brains are broken in general whether you love social media hated or somewhere in between it's like I've had I've heard

and I've had it happen to me and that I've heard other people say it's like, well, if you don't post me, you're not proud of me. It's like, well, that's not true at all because I don't need to post you to be proud of you. I don't need, and maybe it's a little bit different for people like us and like we are public facing. I'm the same way as you will. Like, you can come after me all you want. I will say anything about myself. Like, I'll take every insult.

I don't care. You're not, you don't get a window into my dating life or my son because they don't deserve, they didn't put themselves in the spotlight. Like they are not a part of your window into me. but I do feel like the lines have blurred with, well, if you don't post me, you're not proud of me. If you don't post me, you're appearing single online and that's just not true. It's just not true at all. That's the other thing. Real security in a relationship is I don't need you to post me.

I know how you feel about me and what we have together. Spot on. But I also, I'm not somebody that wants to be posted. I never have. So it's like maybe my brain is broken too. It's like I don't understand that side of it. Like, I don't care if people know you're dating me or not. Like you're dating me.

Am, are we happy or not? Okay. Good stuff, good analysis. Before we end this Friday episode, let's do just a minute or two of college football, like real college football. Like not A&M. You know what?

You're talking a lot of shit for somebody that still has to play A&M this year. And listen, I am not, I'm not, now you've, see, now you've made me mad. You're right. I am super nervous about Marcel Reed. How's I going to go? Don't be hateful.

Don't be, you know what? Listen, you guys got the big win against Ohio State. Congratulations. Arch Maining has played like one really good quarter of football. Ohio State was the far better team. He didn't look. Congratulations to a great game last week, I guess. Who'd you play?

U-TEP, please. Let's take a quick break, but continue with KC. Smith of Barstall right here on Will Cain Country. Visit BetMDMDM casino and check out the newest exclusive. The Price is Right Fortune Pick. BetMGM and GameSense remind you to play responsibly. 19 plus to wager. Ontario only. Please play responsibly.

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like coffee plus B12 to help support immune function, and coffee plus B6 to keep your day moving. Or go with the flow and choose ginseng delight. Our new double espresso with ginseng extract. Whatever lies ahead, don't change your morning. Let your morning change you. Discover Coffee Plus on espresso.com. Welcome back to Will Kane Country.

We're still hanging out with bar stools, Casey Smith. Everything you said is true except Ohio State. State was the far better team. They were. They actually weren't the far better team. They were not. For three quarters, they were. But Texas, not the far better team. That's not accurate. I'm being objective. Arches had one good quarter of football. He was average against UTSA, not U-TF. Thank you. Excuse me. Sorry. One of those lesser Texas schools, my bad. I mean, the kind of plays that Ohio State was getting for three quarters were fluky. They were the better team. They weren't the far better team. Like an 80-yard bomb that

Cam Coleman drops when he hits the ground and then somebody intercepts it. That's fluke. That's not a perfect pass from Arch. But I'm just quibbling with you on the details of your adjectives right now. This will be a big tell this weekend. It will really be a big tell because I don't, I mean, I think every Texas fan acknowledges. This has not actually looked great like so far. Number one in the country?

I don't know. Only by resume, meaning only by beating Ohio State. but the actual product on the field doesn't look like the best team in the country. My brother-in-law is a Texas grad, by the way, and he said basically exactly what you just said. He was like, I think we're a good football team and like we obviously deserve to be talked about. The number one team in the country thing is like not overrated, but he actually doesn't like being ranked number one in the country. It's like I wish that we weren't because then it's like the pressure is there. But I do, I feel like, by the way, I don't know how you feel about this.

I know you're not going. I hate that this game is at noon. I understand TV contracts and all of that. But Texas at Tennessee is a 7.30 p.m. kickoff. Like that is what that should be. The first time Texas has ever played there, like you're, you know, you've got Archmanning versus a freshman. It has to be a TV.

MLSU. LSU A&M? Is that the night game? Yes. Oh, that's, yeah, that's goofy. It's goofy. And it's not, and it's not, Texas, Tennessee is not the big noon kick. off either. So it's, I don't know why it is that way. It's a shame. It really is a shame.

But it is, Tennessee hasn't played anybody. Like Tennessee has absolutely played zero teams that matter, but like they, they look decently good. And I don't, I don't really know which way it's going to go, but this is going to be a real test. And by the way, if this were at night, it would benefit Tennessee. Yes. Like, I think Neeland, Neeland is a great stadium, a great crowd, a great atmosphere. But I'm not, this is, this is true for everyone, including Texas. Like that atmosphere at night against Ohio State, it was, it got more electric the darker it got. Do you know what I mean? Oh, of course.

And the fireworks, the drone shows, everything. That's washed out in the midday sun and beating down on people getting tired. That's going to hurt Tennessee a little bit. Yeah. Well, you don't have the, you don't have, I mean, as much home field advantage. I mean, anytime you're playing in college football at a big stadium like that, you do. But I, it has to be, like I wish I really knew. the answer of why it's at noon.

But I think that, I mean, it's the ABC game. So I have no clue, but I hate that for both fan bases, by the way. And for like, it's great as like a college football fan in general because you have like a pop at noon and that's great. So like you get to watch a good game right off the bat. But I would hate that as a Texas or Tennessee fan. The first time ever, too, like this is. I'm not the best unobjective. I love this game for a multitude of reasons.

First of all, Donald Trump's going to be there. Peyton Manning's going to be there. Does Shane Gillis go to every big football game? Like, is that his life? Every weekend, he's at whatever the biggest game is. Yes, that is his life. He's going to be at this one. Do you schedule a tour that way?

Matthew McConaughey's going to be there. Will Kane will not. I will give you a little bit of a pass. That was a night game, and the first time Texas has ever played there, and you pass it up unless you have like an obligation you can't that would that's tough like that's one of those games you have to go to yeah well here's what compounds it so during covid i lived in tennessee just outside of knoxville and i made friends with a bunch of people in the area and they're all tennessee fans and they're part of the people that invited me to come and it would have been fun to

see those people again and do this and then you add on top and i love it by the way i love eastern Tennessee. I love Knoxville. I can't say as much about the University of Tennessee because I don't know. I didn't hang out the University of Tennessee and it was COVID. But I'm putting, not only am I putting that up there, I'm saying to you, and I says for Knoxville is in a, I would say Knoxville is a top 10 town. Really? In the country. Like I love Knoxville. Yes, because I have developed this opinion, Dan. I think the best sized towns to live are about 300,000 people. I mean, Dallas is gigantic. You're living in a gigantic city, right?

Dallas, New York, Atlanta, these are different types of things. But if you want to live in a town where you can do two things at the same time, kind of get to know everybody and still meet new people. That's where your sweet spot is. Oh, yeah. Food and not sure is great. Three to 500,000, you're going to have good restaurants. You're going to have concerts come to town. You're still going to make it.

It's going to be easy to make a community. It's gorgeous there. It's got enough of a downtown. Yeah, and in Knoxville itself is right there next to the Smoky Mountains. It's awesome. I love it. Yeah, no, it's one of my favorite places. Like when I was working for ESPN and we would get sent all over the country,

it was one of my favorite places to visit because of all things you just said. But also, I do feel like it's still an underrated gem of a city that people haven't figured out how great it is because normally people are going to go to Tennessee, they're going to go to Nashville. Right. Like that's just kind of what people do. So it's like people like, oh, well, if we're going to make a trip to Tennessee, we're going to go to Nashville. we're not going to go to Knoxville. Well, to your point, they haven't figured it out, Casey.

So people do figure out what I'm describing. I think people do. And then they grow like Charleston. Charleston would have fit this model I just described as well. But everybody figured it out. And people started moving to Charleston, and it became real trendy. And when that happens, you have a moment of like, it just got cooler. But then it turns, unfortunately.

And Knoxville still exists in this range where people haven't figured it out. And so, I don't know. We could come up with other towns like that. Honestly, and no one's going to agree with me on this. No one is going to agree with me on this. But Lubbock is this. The problem is it doesn't physically beautiful like Knoxville. But Lubbock is that size.

It's got a big college just like Tennessee in it. You can have a look at Casey's face already. I just had a visceral reaction. Like my entire body rebelled against that statement. Like that is. Everybody's does. My wife's from Lubbock, so maybe I'm biased. But even Texans.

You're a Texan. Why do you think it's bad? Texans feel the same way. It's disgusting. They all do, because it's flat. I know, I will say I get why it's fun in college. Like, I enjoyed visiting my friends that went to Texas Tech. Lubbock itself is ugly.

It smells bad. To get there is a nightmare. It's not an easy place to get to. Nothing fun to do there unless you're a college student. And Texas Tech fans are assholes. It's true. You have to learn to appreciate the beauty of West Texas for what it is.

You're literally, it's like standing on the beach. It's the ocean. It's not. The only thing is the ocean is not. It's the planes. You're literally on the planes. And you say it stinks. That's just the cows. And also the slaughterhouses when you're driving into Lubbock. There's a period

like there's a stretch when you're driving in a Lubbock. You're just driving through where they slaughter animals and it just stinks. It reeks. And then if you drive and then like all the windmills are like it looks like some sort of horror movie. Milles. Like post-apocalyptic town. I say when mills.

No, it is what they... I think you said win meals. I'm sure I did. Listen, I need more coffee. For a moment there, I remembered you were a Texan. Win meals? Oh, I coded more right in Will's book there. Oh, I said win meals.

By the way, you hunt. That's what you do out there. There are things to do. You can hunt. So I go hunting in Lubbock every year. Anyway. What squirrels? Lubbock is not in any type of danger of being discovered as a

It's a cool town. Not a single second of it. It's on the precipice of discovery. It is squarely safe and no one wants to go there except for Wilcane. It's all yours, buddy. The Texas Tennessee thing. This is not a rivalry, like by any traditional sense. I don't think they've played since the 50s or 60s, something like that.

I think they've only played three times. I mean, Texas has never played in Nashville. I know that. Yeah. And yet. And yet you can put a rivalry on this. And I think both sides feel it in a way that is totally undeserved of its history and totally divorced from football. It is, first, who is the real UT?

Casey, you grew up like me here. I didn't even know they called themselves UT over there. They have no right to call them UT. Like, that is the University of Texas. It's the same thing with USC and South Carolina. They believe that just as strongly and are more condescending. They're like, we've always been UT. What are you talking about?

I did 669. And they're so convicted in it. This is coming from somebody that would do anything to slander Texas. Like I have gone to bat online on shows. Like don't you disrespect the University of Texas? Like what are you talking about? You're Tennessee. Get it right.

It's like when South Carolina fans say they're USC. No, you're not. No, you're not. You are South Carolina and USC is in L.A. It's got that. It's got the orange thing. Who's got the real color of orange, the right color of orange, this and that. Which I love that too, which I like our orange better than.

their orange. By the way, I don't hate their orange. I just like ours better. Their's is better. Are you for real on that? Yeah, I really am. I really hate UT. No, I know I really am. I really think that. When you look at a football field, when you objectively step back and you look at a football field and you see dudes in bright orange or burnt orange. I disagree. You think the bright orange looks better? I think the text is better. Maybe, okay, you know what? I can hand up, I'm going to be the bigger person here. I think that that is such a biased thing in my brain that like I can't see it objectively. Because I think, like, when I see Matthew, I mean, I love Matthew McCona. The burnt orange is more intimidating.

Yeah. It's more intimidating. But I will say that I think that from a, maybe this word is too much of a girl word to use, I think that their color of orange is prettier. It pops more. It's a little more juvenile. It's a little more juvenile. Right. I don't, yeah.

Yes, exactly. Now, if I was going out, like if I was going to a store and I was going to buy a shirt, now I would never wear orange in general because it also doesn't good with blondes, that's a whole thing. I would think I would choose Tennessee orange over a burnt orange like t-shirt that would look Oh, I don't think you would. But burn orange matches more. Like just as a fashion, burnt orange with cowboy boots and jeans looks freaking great. Well, does it match my leggings and my dunks and my sweatshirt?

I probably not. If you go to Longhorn games on the weekend, the girls wearing burnt orange different combos, they look great. They do. That color orange that Tennessee has, it literally is a safety vest. that you don't dress that up into a good look. The overalls they wear. You're selling me.

You're selling me a little bit. But here's what they do have. And so if any Tennessee fans, I love the checkerboard. I think the checkerboard is cool. The mixture of the black with the combination is very cool. Their basketball uniforms are cool with the checkerboard. I love their, like, Smoky. Smoky, their mascot is just the cutest.

Cool. Not as cool as bevo. Bivo is ugly. Bivo is what I eat. You know, at night when I go to a nice steakhouse. Yeah. We also have the manning factor, which makes this game super interesting. Yeah. That is like Peyton versus Arch.

Who's Peyton rooting for? Tennessee. Not his nephew. I think he's rooting for his nephew. No, hell, no. I think he's written for Texas. No, he's competitive. I think he is.

Uh-uh. I think that it would be like head, heart thing. Like your heart is going to be with your school, but your head is like, well, I want my nephew to do really well. You're rooting for like Tennessee to win by a field goal. You want Arch to have He doesn't type. You want He definitely wants Tennessee to win. I did this last year.

And I'm not Peyton Manning to the University of Texas. But Clemson played Texas in the first round of the college football playoff. And my nephew was playing for Clemson. See? And I rooted for him to be awesome on every single play in Texas to win the game. Yes. That's kind of what I did. He wants Ars to throw for 350 yards and four touchdowns, Balloos.

He doesn't want it to be Arch's fault. He doesn't want them to be like, oh, my God, Texas lost because Arch didn't play well. It looks like crap. But he wants Texas to lose. 100%. Yeah. A hundred percent. So it's, oh, and then my final thing that I love about this is the history of the states.

Clay Travis posted this and Clay said, you know, we're the real UT and all that. You wouldn't even be, you'd be speaking Spanish if it weren't for us. So the whole Tennessee volunteers, they're literally the volunteers. They came to Texas. They fought in the Texas Revolution. Is that where that name comes from? There's a kinship between the... Yes.

In part. But they've got a history of volunteerism into other stuff as well. So I don't think it's totally about the Texas war. Some of it is, though, for sure. Right there outside of Knoxville, in Marival, which is right outside Knoxville, there's a Sam Houston statue. Because Sam, Dan, do you know who Sam Houston is?

Yes. No, I don't. For real, you don't know who Sam Houston is? No. By the way, side notes... Don't look anything up. Don't look it up. You don't need to. I'm your AI. Let it look it up.

The Sam Houston statue, by the way, in Texas, my son saw when we were driving back from Galveston, and he still brings it up. He's like, that gigantic statue. I'm like, it's crazy how at any age you remember that. I'm assuming Houston, Texas is named after him. He was, Sam Houston was a congressman. He was from Tennessee. He was the governor of Tennessee. He fought in the War of 1812 from Tennessee under Andrew Jackson. And then he immigrated to Texas. And he became the commander-in-chief of the Texas Army. He's the George Washington, in essence, of Texas.

So he tried to succeed. He ended up serving up as governor, senator, and president of Texas. He was president of Texas twice, the first president of Texas. You know, we were our own country for a decade. And he was, and so, yes, he's like the George, Stephen F. Austin is the, uh. Isn't that a college? Yes. Yeah

I'm trying to think of the American corollary of Stephen F. Austin Andrew Jackson? Oh, no, no. He's more like Thomas Jefferson or Benjamin Franklin. Maybe he's Benjamin Franklin kind of. Like he's the godfather of Texas, Stephen F. Austin. But Sam Houston is like a cowboy? He dressed like a cowboy?

I don't know how he dressed. Probably. He codes right, obviously. Yeah. Obviously. But he's a Tennesseean. We talked about this. Like Dave Crockett.

Yeah. David, yeah, we talked about this with, um, with Kansas, Missouri a few weeks ago, like when they put out the hype video about slavery and they were like arguing about who, you know, slavery and they were throwing that around. There is, that's why no matter where I am, no one can ever make the argument that the NFL is more heated than college football because even you bringing this up about Tennessee, Texas and like how deep this stuff goes. The passion is like, we got to talk about again.

But it's not hatred. It's weird. With Texas and Tennessee, for me, and I don't think for anybody, none of this. is hatred. It's almost like fighting your cousin. You know, you look alike. You've got the same mannerisms. You got the same last name. You know, the U.T. You want to win. You got a lot of history. The trash talk is, in my mind, mostly fun. And I'm, I don't know. Right? Like, it's not contrived. It's real. It just isn't grounded any historical football sense. Right. But I mean, it's like the, I, you know, as somebody who lives perpetually in the college football,

like online escape. It's like Texas and Tennessee respect each other. Like there's not like if you do see actual trash talk, it's not real. Like it's not like there's Alabama Auburn. Yeah, well, I mean, that's the number one. I truly feel like it's fighting your cousin. It's fighting your cousin. But and I hope if ESPN ABC has any sense about them, everything I just said should be in the hype videos. Yes. Yeah. And leading up and all over game day. Every bit of it. And Trump will be there. It'll be it's a whole thing. But we have to watch at noon. Texas by a million. I do think Texas is going to win. I do think that.

I think that. I think I took Tennessee on our show because I would rather die than admit that I think Texas is going to win a game unless they're playing UTSA or U-TEP or whoever they played last week. But I do think it's going to be close. I'm also very excited for USC Oregon. You know, Will probably doesn't like it because it's a West Coast game. No, I like that game. I'm not like LSUA and M. LSU and M, USC, Oregon.

Is that pretty much everything? Iowa, Michigan. Ole Miss Florida. and Ole Miss Florida is the big one because Florida is favored, which I mean, it's at home. It's in the swamp. But I don't know how you can bet against Ole Miss and Trinidad Chamble. You talk about like that game last week, the LSU game with there's a student photographer.

I believe her name is Abby Miller. She's the one who took the photo of all the players pointing it, Lane Kiffin, when he's like on the field. Just like that is college football hatred that you can never replicate that in any other sport in America because that's how much it is. But Ole Miss, like everyone's like, oh, it's the letdown spot. They're going to beat Florida. they're going to be Florida. I'm not, I don't, it'll be fine. And there's one more that we're missing.

Missouri Mississippi State. Missouri Mississippi State. Is there not a Big Ten game? Just Iowa, Michigan? Oregon, USC. Oh, yeah, forget their Big Ten. That's like an old, that's a Pack 12. Like that is just.

Let's not forget Notre Dame Purdue. Come on, let's go. Listen, I, you want to talk about Shane Gillis. I was praying that Michigan State won that game so I could talk shit. I cannot stand Notre Dame. fans. All of you. All of you. Hey. Here we go. This is the conference schedule's kicking off. So every weekend's going to have half a dozen good games. And we would be at Ohio State, Barstall would, if Ohio State had any

sense of decency. But they have kicked us out. I just want to, I want to repeat it. Bookend that insult. All right. Check her out at the college football football show at Barstall and the Gruden Family Football Show. Casey Smith of Barstall. Thanks, Will. You see you. Thanks, Casey. You see you too. I'll see you next time. Listen to ad-free with a Fox News podcast plus subscription on Apple Podcasts, and Amazon Prime members. You can listen to this show, ad-free on the Amazon Music app.