Games with Names - The Bryce Young Game with Bill O'Brien | 2021 SEC Championship: Georgia vs. Alabama

Episode Date: September 24, 2024

Bill O'Brien is in studio! We're coming to you from our Nuthouse East studio. The current Boston College Head Coach is with us to relive an all-time SEC Championship game between the Alabama Crimson Tide and the Georgia Bulldogs from back in 2021. Billy O joins us in studio (1:40). We go back to December of 2021 (44:38). We get into the teams (50:10). We dive into this game (1:02:42). We score it (1:13:59). We wrap it up by hitting the ol' hotline (1:31:00). Support the show: http://www.gameswithnames.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Wake up with football every morning and listen to my new podcast, NFL Daily with Greg Rosenthal. Five days a week, you'll get all the latest news and the best analysis delivered by the time you get your coffee. The show hits every single game every single week, but I can't do it alone. So I'm bringing in all the big guns from NFL media like Colleen Wolf. Subscribe today and you'll immediately be smarter and funnier than your friends. Listen now on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. What's up y'all? It's Cam Jordan from the New Orleans Saints here to tell you it's going down on season two of my podcast, Off the Edge with me, Cam Jordan. Catch new episodes every Wednesday

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Right after the first Super Bowl, I interviewed with Bill. That was a very interesting interview. How? Why? Never forget it. The very first question he asked me. Welcome to Games and Names. I'm Julian Edelman, they're Jack and Kyler, and we're on a mission to find

the greatest game of all time. On today's episode, we're covering the 2021 Epic SEC Championship game between Georgia and Alabama. Roll tide. Roll tide. Roll tide. With former Patriots offensive coordinator and former Texans head coach and current BC Boston College head coach, Billy O'Brien.

Fun episode. We get into talking, what it's like working with both Nick Saban and Bill Belichick. Second time we've done that with a coach. When Bill would come to see you as an assistant coach, he would kind of stand in your doorway. You wouldn't even know that he was there. Coaching a Heisman winner. I will never bet against Bryce Young.

And then we drop into the process of drafting a slapdick quarterback and turning him into a receiver. I'll never forget this. It was right before the draft. Basically, Bill came down the hallway, he's like, hey, threw these beta tapes on my desk. And he's like, hey, watch this kid from Kent State. I've been waiting for so long for someone to answer this question the way he did. And then we wrap it up with the old hotline. You got to stick around some funny questions. Let's go.

Let's go. Games of Names is a production of iHeartRadio. December 4th, 2021. Mercedes-Benz Stadium, Atlanta, Georgia. A vaunted Georgia defense stands between Alabama and another SEC Championship. But, Billy-O and that Bama offense... Roll Tide! Bama offense, roll tie. This is the 2021 SCVC Championship game. Yeah.

Let's go. And you're the best. So is this, do you live here? This is my house. This is where I lived when I was playing. Oh, this is, really? Yes, I lived here. When did you, what year did you buy this?

I bought this in 15. 15. And then it took me a year to redo it. And then I still own it, but now I rent it out. We use it for this whenever I'm out back East. Yeah, most of your time you're in LA. I'm in LA. Lily's out there, she's seven.

Seven. Seven, we just had a soccer tournament. I see you on InstaChat and all that. Like, she's awesome. Don't say InstaChat, Billy-O. You ain't Bill with that. Don't be, you know exactly, if you're on it, you know what it is. No, Bill, Instagram.

There we go, there we go, there we go. I was saying it as a joke that we both know, like. See, I just wanna see where. He's chomping at the bit to bust my balls. I'm not chomping at a bit to bust anyone's balls. All not chomping at anyone's balls All right, let's go Welcome to games with names today. We are looking at the 2021 SEC championship game between the Bulldogs of Georgia and Roll Tide, Alabama and

Today we have a very special guest. We have Billy O'Brien welcome to games names appreciate it guys appreciate we appreciate you coming in the first question we always ask our guest is explain in one sentence why you picked this game underdog we were an underdog in this game and Georgia had an unbelievable defense that year they In college football, they had the best defense in college football. And offensively, we were very good, but they had a bunch of top draft picks on the defensive line, linebacker safety. And so it was a challenging preparation for that game. And to come out on top was just a huge accomplishment for that Alabama team at that time. That's awesome. Is this the greatest game of all time?

No, no this is not the greatest game of all time. I'm not gonna go that. We just had a good game. No, no. So Billy O's the head coach of Boston College now wearing the hat. Let's go. I feel thank you. I feel like I should be an altar boy at Boston College right now with this hat on. Just they're still talking about when you came to speak to the team. Are they? Oh, yeah, it was awesome. Yeah, it was good.

What was some of the messaging? I forget he I blacked out about, you know, just when he played and perseverance and his routine and then we fired some questions at him and it was cool. Yeah, I try to always emphasize routine to younger guys. No doubt. No, because if you get into a good routine and you watch the guys who've been around, yeah, and the badass dudes, they all have a very efficient and productive routine that in like their time is everything

Yeah, and those guys are dealing with families and other shit, you know when you're a young guy You have more time to do everything else So if you refine that routine and get it in a good routine you get good habits So enough about that house camp going Boston College good. We've had a good camp We we just finished camp a couple days ago. We started preparation for Florida State this morning It's been good. These kids work hard. They're, they're, they're good kids. They try to do it the way we asked them to do it. I enjoy it. We really love coaching this team. It's, it's been a good bunch of guys that

show up, you would enjoy them because they show up to work every day. They, they don't complain, they, they, they, they're ready to go. And you know, look, it's a challenging opener down at Florida State, but these guys, they're very excited for it. Yeah, I went and got to experience a little bit of the Boston College team. And I felt that in the room, in the auditorium when I was talking to the guys, they were hungry to be a part of something, but to like really learn football.

And that's tough for younger football players, especially I don't even know how it is nowadays with the NIL for guys to really put their heart into what we're believing as a team instead of, you know, like we always had on the wall, mental toughness, doing what's best for the team when it may not necessarily be the best for you. And yeah, no, it's a great point. I mean, a lot of these kids nowadays, not just our guys, I'm just saying overall are very, you know, results oriented, you know, you got to win, you got to do this and they, as you would be the and you told our team this, what's important is the process that that occurs before you when

the preparation to win. And I think our guys are understanding that a lot better than they did six months ago. It's a data. It's a daily process, though. Yeah, it's different. You know, you got to, that's, that's the understanding that a lot better than they did six months ago. It's a daily process though. Yeah, it's different. You got to, that's the time you use to learn your team. You got new players, you got new coaches, you got to add new everything every year.

And that's awesome. Now, what was in the decision-making process to go to Boston College? Yeah, I was at the Patriots and it was a rough year, Jules. You know that I mean, and, you know, we, we, we could have stayed there. You know, I felt like it was important for Jared to hire his own people, you know, I came there to work for Bill. And, you know, when you're a new head

coach, in my experience, you want you want your own guys underneath him. So Ryan Day called, I went to Ohio State Ryan days, a guy that's been a great friend of mine for a long time, awesome guy. And from New England from New Hampshire, and we've known each other a long time. So I took that job. And then this job came open a month into that job. And my wife and I my wife, Colleen went to BC. I have two sons, my oldest son, you know, I think you know, was kind of dealt a bad hand in life born with a brain malformation. He's 22 years old.

To move him again to Columbus, Ohio or do something probably wasn't really the right thing to do. So this BC job, my youngest son is at Tufts on the baseball team go Jumbo. Let's go baby. And so it was just it was it was actually a great opportunity, I think for myself, but really my family and the whole thing. And I love the job. I love the people there and it's, I have a passion for the job.

So it's been good. I mean, you should have a passion. You grew up here in Massachusetts. You went to Brown. Yeah. You coached at the Pats. I mean, it's a great, I think it's a match made in heaven.

What was it, what was football like in Massachusetts growing up for a kid that's playing football? You loved football. You know, I know what it is in California. I have no clue what it's like in the South. I saw how it was in Ohio. What's it like in the East Coast, especially Upper East, like up here? Yeah, it's, it's, look, I think it's very important here. When I was growing up, like the tradition of the Thanksgiving Day rivalries. Superbowl, right? Yeah, it's, it's, look, I think it's very important here. When I was growing up, like the tradition of the Thanksgiving Day rivalries, the Super Bowl, right? Yeah, the Super Bowls that used to be played, well, still are played in Gillette Stadium, but used to be played at Boston College and then Gillette Stadium over the years, used to be Sullivan Stadium. The tradition of high school football in Massachusetts is huge. Some of these coaches that I really know well now,

they've been at their high schools for 35, 40 years. They're people that grew up in the towns. I have one of my best friends as a head coach at Tookesbury High School. His name's Brian Elward. He went to Brown with me. He's been there since 1992 as the head football coach. Like it's a small town, tough town,

winning football program for years and years. His dad was the coach. It's a small town, tough town, winning football program for years and years. His dad was the coach, you know, so there's a lot of these towns outside of Boston that are made up like that made up of, you know, people that really take a lot of pride in their towns and coach collar. Yeah. So it's cool. It's a fingernail. Hard workers. Yeah, we and to segue that into BC recruiting a little bit, we wanna make sure that we do a great job of recruiting this whole area because there are a lot of kids in this area that can play at BC and we, you know,

you take a lot of pride when you're from Boston, you're playing from BC. So that's a big part of our recruiting philosophy. I mean, some of the all time greats of BC, Doug Flutie from NADEC. NADEC, yep. You know, there's a lot of those guys around here. Upper East, you know, it's who was on our team? Do we have any upper East Boston guys?

We had a tight end, I think. Didn't we have a tight end? Patriots? We had a couple. Or Wiggins. Well, Wiggins from East Boston. Yeah, he's from East Boston. Yeah, Wiggins is from East Boston, went to Georgia. I think he transferred from Marshall to Georgia. Yeah. When Jim Donah went to Georgia as a head coach. Wouldn't Nico Cudaviti is a CTA? Nico. He's CTA.

Connecticut. Yep. He was a great guy. The Lavantier in the locker room. You're probably friends with him. I'm very close with Nico. Oh, yeah. He was awesome. Special teams guy.

We saw him at the Brady Roast. You know what? I think I saw him at the Brady roast. You know, Nico, home court everywhere. What a great guy. Oh, he was. Talk about a glue guy. That's a glue guy right there. He keeps the guys sane in the locker room. Now, he was a glue guy. Oh, I know it, baby. We'll get into some of that. I can't believe we haven't told him any Moss stories. Oh, the Tiger Woods that. I can't I can't believe we haven't told any moss stories. Oh

The mother tiger wood story. I think that's been on here Tell them that telling the brain so tiger woods bill comes in to a meeting and Basically says, you know, you guys think you know about hard work and routine and things like that. You don't know anything boom here comes Stuff about tiger woods like this guy takes 100 sand shots a day You know 50 drives a day. He putts a thousand putts a day. This guy's like Early golf, you know early in the morning golf course late at night They got to use headlights to light up the golf course for he's got a presentation to use headlights to light up the golf course for he's got a presentation. Look, this guy's you guys go to

Vegas, this guy's in the sand traps just fucking practicing all the time. These other guys are out partying, blah, blah, blah. This guy's working. That's what work ethic is. So fast forward like four months to it was winter time winter December, Tiger, you know, gets in trouble. And so the way that you used to stretch at the Patriots was it was kind of like a union meeting. It was pretty interesting.

The receivers, if there were two fields, the coaches would be in the middle, kind of going over scripts, making sure. And the receivers were always, always like the farthest away they were by the stands. But Randy was never with the receivers. And Randy was like, he was with V always, Will Fork.

Yeah, he was with Will Fork, who was like, with the D line, yeah, it was like, that's what I mean. It was like, it wasn't like an organized stretch. And so everybody's walking out, and I actually happened to be standing next to Bill, and we're going over like the script, like, hey, yeah, Bill, hey, we should show him this, or whatever, and all of a sudden you hear,

hey, Bill Belichick, hey, Bill Belichick. And you look over, no one there, this is the middle of winter, right? Just a team and the coaches looks over. What's up, Randy? What you think about Tiger Woods right now? What you think about Tiger Woods right now? Wasn't working that hard last night. Was he Bill Belichick? Not that hard last night. I'm saying traps he was hitting out of last night. No, not too many. He kept it going.

He kept it going the whole time. Everybody is crying laughing. Dying, dying laughing. Oh my gosh. It's like a union meeting, but no one's talking to fucking Bill like that. And he goes, he's using that seven iron. Randy, what you think about him right now with the bill of change?

That's all time. Oh, here's what I mean. Now, you jumped in and you replaced a legend, Joe Paul, when you went to Penn State. And I remember that. When we were going into the Super Bowl, you found out and you were going in there and I could see your nerves getting into that.

Now, we're getting the kind, I mean, you're replacing a legend there. Yeah. And that's kind of what Jerrod Mayo is doing with Belichick. Now you met with Jerrod, you know Jerrod. How do you think he's been handling it? And what do you expect from Jerrod this year? I think he's done a great job.

He's himself. I think that's the key like in any of those situations, if you try to be somebody that you're not, like be true to who you are. And just in the short little things that I've seen on TV or his interviews or whatever, like I heard him on the radio the other day, he's being who he is, you know, he's a upfront guy is a former player, as you know, as a captain, great player. And, you know, he takes that type of

approach to the team, you know, the the player coach relationship is very, very important to him, like, let the players take ownership of the team if they deserve that ownership. And I think he's, you know, instilling that in the players. And, you know, that's who he is. And, you know, a lot a lot of people try to be maybe who they work for, whatever, like, that's really not the way to go. I think it's always important to be who you are. Yeah, I'm excited for them.

Yeah, it's a great opportunity. I think everyone just needs to, everyone needs to manage their expectation and realize what this is, what it's gonna be. Oh yeah, it's gonna be a long, long haul. I mean, you just drafted a quarterback, Drake May at number three, and you know this better than anybody.

It takes a while to learn how to play pro football. It doesn't matter where you play. And it's a big, big jump from college football to pro football. And then there's other roster challenges that they're probably dealing with. And they got a new coaching staff that are, some of those guys haven't worked together and all that.

So yeah, you have to give it time. I always say, Jules, you got to give it five years. You guys got to be given five years without a doubt. You do. And I like how you talked about college and pro. We'll get into that. But Gerard, he's dealt a crazy situation for his first year. I mean, and I guess most new head coaches get in bed with a young quarterback and they have the decision he's gonna have to make here in the next two weeks.

Like, how would you handle this decision? Would you start Jacoby and then be able to replace him with Drake when he's ready? Because you can't start Drake and then replace Drake. Because then you kill the confidence. Once Drake's in, it's Drake's show. Yeah, no doubt. No, that's a great point.

I think you've got to really be sure about who's surrounding Drake. Who's playing left tackle, right tackle. You got David at center who's awesome, right? One of the best Patriots of all time. Who's that guard? Either guard. You gotta be able to protect a young quarterback

because he might hold a little bit longer. He's used to the car session and you know who's playing, you know receiver who's playing tight end you got hunter there I think hunter might be injured right now, but I'm sure he's coming back He's a great player, but you know Ramon Dre in the backfield So who's surrounding Drake and you know, how is that going? Because I think that's a big deal to throw him in there You know they I've I was the head coach of the Texans and they used to talk about car when he was the rookie quarterback there, he got sacked 76 times. And it was imagine getting sacked 76 times in the NFL. It's not like, so you want to try to avoid that and I'm sure, so

to me I would start Jacoby. It's kind of like what we did in Houston. We started Savage. He didn't last very long, but we started Savage. We went to Deshaun pretty quickly, but we felt like Deshaun was ready and he had some mobility and ability to make off schedule plays, get out of trouble. So we started the veteran and then we went to the rookie.

And it's hard to see, all situations are different. And the guys that are really gonna know are the see that it's all situations are different and The guys that are really gonna know are the people that are there watching them day in and day out of practice Like everything we're watching right now on preseason doesn't mean it means great like you want to see execution But you know, they're getting the most vanilla looks. There's no game plan against the offense. They're playing against twos You know, you want to be able to see him in practice. Can he handle the huddle? Can he call out the protection? Can he see the disguise safeties? Like that's what you need to see day in and day out before you throw this kid into fire because until that he's gonna he's it's gonna be it's gonna be nuts. And that that's the thing and again you know there's better than most is the way that the way that we practice there, you know, in many ways, well, in

always prepared you guys for the games, right? The situation is the Patriots. Yeah, practicing at the Patriots and the, you know, the different things, the challenges that you had to deal with every day, just from going good against good ones on wasn't always against the scout team, right? So, you know, and then all the different situations, the the mental process that you had to have to approach Practice every single day like you're exactly right like they've they're the only ones that know how he's handling that

So we'll see how it goes. We'll see what he comes up with now Let's you know, you we have to ask this, you know you You've been a pro coach and then you jump back into college Yeah, like how crazy is it doing dealing with this NIL, the transfer portal, you got to recruit your own players each, you know, there could be a guy waiting in line for the next year, but then he's getting how is handling college football nowadays? It's got to be tough. It is it is but I do think like, and I know you would agree with this like because like,

for example, like your relationship with Chatio, right? Like you had a great relationship with Chatio, right? Like you had a great relationship with Chatio, right? He was a great coach for you and position coach. And you know, that's, we have to do a good job of BC when it comes to retaining players of showing them that we can develop them, that we we care about them that we want to establish a relationship with them, we're more about, you know, the whole person than we are just football.

And then money does come into it. At BC, are we going to be able to pay every kid on the team? No. Is it a pay for play type system? It's really not supposed to be. So at Boston College, we try to tier it. We have three tiers of players. The top tier are the oldest guys, the really good locker room guys, good, decent students, good players, obviously. And then the middle tier is kind of the same type of guy, but maybe a junior or sophomore and then the lower tier or younger guys that we think have promising futures. So that's how we do it. We have a great collective called the Friends of the Heights and

they handle all that. I don't really handle a lot of that. They do that and we also have a company that we deal with, Accenture, that guy named Doug Phyllis who really helps us on a day that he's kind of like the middleman. And so we have a process to how we do it and look, if you stick to your criteria of what you're looking for in a player, and that criteria for the player, that guy sticks to that.

He goes to class, he does what he's supposed to do. He's good in the weight room, good in the locker room, gives back to the community. We do a lot of that at PC. Then that's the guy that you want to reward in some ways at PC. That's how we do it. I get it. I get it. You know what you really should do?

I mean, you guys are a Catholic school. That's how we do it. I get it, I get it. You know what you really should do? I mean, you guys are a Catholic school. Hit up the old Pope, say, hey bud, fund us a couple. Pope? Yeah, the Pope, the Catholic Church, get him involved. I knew when I walked in here that this podcast was gonna go down a road that maybe I- What are you talking about? I mean, if Tim Tebow can circumcise kids in Philippines,

you could ask the Pope for $10 million to get your Catholic school very good. I don't think I can, yeah. Let's try this. I don't even know how to respond to that. I have to go to Father Leahy first. He's the president of the university. Then maybe we can approach the Pope.

Archdiocese, whatever it is, we'll figure it away. We'll figure it out a way. Now, let's jump into the pros. You start with the Patriots in 07. How did you first off get in the trust circle with Bill? How do you get this opportunity? Because usually Bill home grows his guys. And the reason why, you remember Chatty O,

he was kind of an out of towner.. Well I can tell you that story too. Well his, at Baltimore Colts, his dad, Chadio's dad was the trainer and that's where Bill got his thing. So there was some kind of connection. What's your connection Bill? My connection was I was at Georgia Tech and there was a guy named Jason Light who was a scout at the time, a regional scout for, he's the general manager of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers now, awesome guy. At that time, he was like a regional scout in the south for the Patriots, so he covered the ACC and the SEC.

And I dealt with scouts a lot at Georgia Tech. So when an NFL scout would come in, I was one of the coaches that would talk to him. And so we got to know each other and happened to be that he kind of lived near me too. And so once in a while we go out for a beer or whatever and talk about the Patriots. So at the end of the day, there was a quarterback opening right after the first Super Bowl. And Bill called and said, hey, I'm gonna interview you for this.

It could be this job. You know how Bill is, it might be for some other job, but I'm going to interview you. And so I flew up to Providence and I in 2001, right after the first Super Bowl, and I interviewed with Bill in a like a law firm in Rhode Island, a buddy of his had a law firm in Providence. And that was that was a very interesting interview. How? Why? I'd say the first the, I think the very first question

he asked me, we got there shook hands, hey how you doing all that? And then went right to the interview. It was in like a big staff room type setup, glass doors, I'll never forget it. And he said, all right, teach me the quarterback center exchange. So right off the bat I had to get up and teach

how a quarterback takes, we were shotgun offense. I was just like, okay, I had to get up and teach how a quarterback takes it. We were shotgun offense. I was just like, okay, I figured it was gonna be like, teach me about this read on this play because he had all of our tapes. We had watched a lot of games at Georgia Tech games. So just kind of like boom. So I taught him the quarterback center exchange to the best of my ability at that time in my career. And then it was like, okay, empty.

Tell me about your empty protection. And then it was like, okay, empty, tell me about your empty protection. And then it was like, hey, here's this situation with a player, how would you deal with it? Players that's giving you some shit or whatever it is, how would you deal with this? And then it was, hey, how did you evaluate this player at,

one of your opponents, I forget who it was, but there were some really good players in the ACC at that time. Hey, what'd you think about this player? So it was like a back and forth of, You know, some there were some really good players in the ACC at that time. Hey, how'd you what'd you think about this place? It was like a back and forth of, you know, a lot of different areas of football. That was one of the best experiences very early in my career. So it's fascinating.

So at that time, I he's hitting you with so many different situations. He's we want to see, hey, can this kid teach me the most remedial thing? I want to see how you teach is like a five year old this. Yeah, it was because a lot of these guys are fucking five-year-olds when we come into that locker room. Just really athletic five-year-olds. So at that time, I don't totally remember what happened, but I didn't go there.

I didn't take that job. So you didn't get the center of exchange very well. Yeah, I actually think I interviewed pretty well, but whatever, it didn't work out. Didn't work out but but then We kept in touch we kept in touch over the years and different jobs would come open and he would say like you don't Want this job, you know, this isn't a job for you or whatever and then I was at Duke And a quality control job came up at the end of the 2006 season

Which thank God because my two years at Duke were two of the worst years you could ever imagine. We were not a very good football team at Duke. So Bill had a quality control job. So I went to the combine, and at that time, I had like three interviews. I had an interview with the Saints, with Sean Payton for a same type of job,

interview with the Texans, Gary Kubiak for the same type of job, and then an interview with Bill and Josh McDaniels at the combine that year for that job and This won't surprise you at all, but you know, the Saints were gonna pay me like 120 grand Texans about 120 grand and Bill was like I can pay you 55. I was like I'll take that job I was the idiot that took the job for $55,000 at the Patriots or whatever it was. And my wife looked at me like, what? Because we were making better than that at Duke.

And I said, this is a great opportunity. We got to do this, Colleen. And she said, OK, we're doing it. So we we moved to New England. Wow. Moved to Boston. Nice. Wow. He doesn't just get to Boston. So you get let's talk about that that oh seven season. Oh, man. You

said dealing with the situations of dealing with the player. What was it like dealing with that receiver room when you were the receivers coach when you have Wes Welker, Dante Stallworth, Randy Moss, Jab. I mean you guys had a neglected crazy good group of receivers that probably, how did you like psychologically keep them all in? Is it just that year they were all? Yeah, so 07 Nick Casario coached them. And then Bill Josh stayed as the coordinator in 07

after he had a couple of job opportunities to go and he stayed at the Patriots. And Bill moved Nick Casario up to upstairs with Scott Pioli and made me the wide receiver coach in 08. So that was exactly what you said. It was Moss, it was Jabbar, Wes obviously. I mean, Dante, it was arguably like one of the best

receiver rooms, definitely in the NFL at that time, maybe of all time, you know what I mean? Just when you think about all those guys. But the thing that they were, Randy Moss right off the bat was like awesome. Like, you know, because quite obviously at that point in time, you know, this is a Hall of Fame player.

He's seen a lot more than I'd seen. He knew a lot more. Obviously Tom, you know, worked with those guys a lot and they told me one of the greatest early lessons in my coaching career was walkthroughs. So Randy was like, Look, man, show us some film, show us what you you know, what you think on film, maybe 1015 minutes, let's go walkthrough. And we would just we did that every day. I'd show him some tape. We talked to him

about DBs or coverages or route technique or whatever. And then we would go and we would go right outside the doorway to the, you know, to the field was then we would go and we would go right outside the doorway to the field was that tunnel. And we would walk through for about an hour. Just receivers, 45 minutes. So it was, and they loved that. Because it tested them and you could test them. And it gets you out the room.

It gets you out of the room. We're football players. You could have fun with it. Yeah, you have fun, but you also get a mental rep. And you get to do it and you can have fun with it. Yeah, you have fun, but you also get a mental rep. That's right. And you get to do it, and you get to walk through it. So you're transitioning from what you learn on the paper to the walkthrough, to the drill, to the seven on seven,

to the team. These guys design it where it all translates to that. And it's pretty cool. That was the coolest thing for me, because to this day, I use that as an example with any young wide receiver coach I ever have on like my staff or that i'm working with I'm always like hey man, tell them what you need to tell them Make sure you get their their questions answered and then go walk through and you know, hey, what are you going to do? Are you going to convert this versus this roll corner?

Are you are you keeping this on versus, you know all the different things as you know? Yeah, the leverage like how you attack this leverage. And that was one of the early lessons that I learned at the Patriots. Coaching the wide receivers was a great, great experience. Yeah. And it goes also to you can't use your athleticism or your knowledge of what the other team's doing until you know where to line up and what what you are in the goddamn formation and personal group. Right. Like that's half the battle for a lot of guys.

You know, if you can digest that quick, then you get to be able to study what's going on the other side that allows you to play faster. So when you do a lot of walkthroughs, which we used to walk through for the walkthrough for the walkthrough by the time, you know, Billy Oh was, you know, in Penn State, wherever he was in that time,

by the time I was getting up there, it was like, we walked through to walk through to walk through, guys getting mad, but you know, I look back on it and it's the best thing for you because it's a rep. Yeah, no doubt. Now, any fun Patriot coach stories? We had Mickey Dees in here last night and he was telling us that Coach Scar used to,

you know, what is it, narcolepsia? Where you fall asleep a little and then wakes up doing sit-ups in the middle of a coaching staff meeting. Well-rested with a sick core, bro. But doing sick, we already heard Ives, he falls asleep a lot. What have we got in the insides?

Fun stories, any competitions with the coaches? Oh, we got a lot of funny stories with the coaches. We would have, so I can remember early on and your your guy Chatty Oh, he loves this story. So we would come back in from practice in the regular season and we would basically watch film with you guys and then we would go immediately when you get we were done with you guys we would go watch with Bill. Yeah. And we watch both sides. We'd watch everything special teams the whole thing So by the time that was done, it was probably seven o'clock. So then we'd go eat dinner so we'd go in there and grab dinner and then we come back into the staff room and we

Listen to or get ready for a third down a red area whatever day it was right and Ernie whose whose office I know you and Ernie are close Some I love Ernie too and he would go into his office Which was right across in the staff room and he would call his wife and describe what he just had for dinner So every day every night he would say they had you know, they had turkey they had mashed potatoes There was some broccoli and then we had apple pie a la mode for dessert And so we would sit there every night and listen to Ernie talk about what he had for dinner. Ernie Bourdain writing the meal.

It was clockwork. And we would put that in, and Chatty O started to call our offensive staff room the general store. So we put the general store up on the door there. And now we had a lot of, there's a lot of good coach stories. I mean, I have many.

So I can remember like the quarterback meetings when I first got there so that was Tom Matt Castle who you know is one of the funniest human beings of all time up there with Matt light who Rich Ormberg are like those three guys outrage you like I was gonna buddy I but you're funny they're funny these are very funny they're funny guys great senses of humor and so we would meet as you know Bill would come in later in the week, meet with the quarterbacks and early in the week go over the DBs. I think this was an early of the week meeting and Bill would take his shoes off and build

it. As you know, Bill didn't wear socks. Yeah. So he took it. And at that time, before the new offices were set up, the quarterback meeting room was pretty small. So Bill, I would sit in the corner, I'd be like stuffed in the corner. Josh was in the back and Bill was running the clicker

and Tom was over here and Matt was there. Matt Gutierrez, remember those guys? Good, Kevin O'Connell. And so I remember this one meeting and Matt Castle was like, what is that smell? Like, what is that smell? And like nobody says anything and we're all like, Matt Castle, he was the very funny guy

who didn't care about making anyone uncomfortable. You know what I mean? Like he looked for it. He looked to make you uncomfortable. He loved it. He loved making you uncomfortable. And so he was like, no, no, seriously, like, what is that, Bill, is that your feet?

And Bill, I'll never forget this, Bill looked at him and goes, Castle, just shut the fuck up. And I was like, it was like my first year there. And I'm like, I cannot believe I'm witnessing this right now, but as time went on, you could believe it because, you know the thing is I tell everybody because people love my Patriot stories and I'm sure they love yours, but you spend so much time together in pro,

especially in New England. You're always together. I mean, it's rare, especially like pre-2011, before the new CBA, you guys always doubled, all those things, training camp, the season's long, you're a good team, you're going to the Super Bowl, you're going to the play, so it's not all just like, hey, on this play you're doing this,

it's a lot of like, you gotta have humor, and if you don't have humor, and you don't have the ability to laugh at yourself, you'd never make it. I've pitched it around so many times, the community, like an office style show for like the equipment room or like an NFL football team, you know what I mean? The equipment room guys, the training room guys,

the coaches, there's these little communities. And like Billy O said, we're always together for so long. You have to find the funny moments to help you get through the process. Cause it's fucking long, but have to find the funny moments to help you get through the process, because it's fucking long, but there's so many funny things and the camaraderie that you get to go. And when Brady's retirement, Tom's retirement thing that everybody was at, you guys were there.

The thing that I was reminded of there, and I tell this to people at BC all the time now, it was really look, you know We had Tom we had Julian we had Moss we had, you know, Rodney Harrison Mike Vrabel all these great players Will Fort You can name them all right, you know all these unbelievable players, but they were they were also like great people it's about the people and and the work ethic and the intelligence and the The the ability to be a great teammate and the humor and you know it was just it was a and that included the video staff and the training staff everyone

equipment staff there was just a teddy jarrett shout out and bill put put all those people together he really did he put all those people together during those years and i'm just a firm believer in that if you can if you get the right people together you got a chance to win You know that was that that that was a fun reminder. Yeah the Tom event You know just seeing everyone because we you see guys and you'll see I'll come back and see you know Teddy Jared Jimmy and all everyone in in the building, but it went to see everyone in the same area You haven't done that in a very long time. And it was, it felt like home again, and it felt comfortable. And it was all, you know, it was fun to celebrate Tom.

No doubt. How was it coaching him? Yeah, no, I, so basically I went from Oh wait wide receiver coach, Josh got the Denver job. And Bill, I'll never forget it, my wife and I were going out to dinner. We lived in Medfield and we were going to the mall to California Pizza Kitchen.

CPK baby. It was like a place we would go and it was pouring rain and my phone rang and it's Bill and he's like, hey listen, Josh is taking this Denver job. Listen, I'm gonna make you the quarterback coach. But you know, look, I'm not going to call you the coordinator, but you're going to do all that. Like you're going to do like, just so you know, like you're going to script and you're going to do this and you're, and I'm like, okay, great.

It was like a two minute conversation. It was it. I was like, Hey Bill, I appreciate it. All right. See you Monday. See you Monday. Hang up. Boom. Just keep going to California. See you Monday. See you Monday. Hang up. Boom. Just keep going to California. I turned to my wife and I was like, I think he just said, I'm the quarterback coach. So it was just a great, you know, that was a cool night for my family and to have the opportunity to coach, you know, obviously what we believe is the greatest quarterback of all time. When he, when he first,

he was out on the West coast and he came back for OTAs that year. Oh nine, the year we drafted here. Yeah. I'll never forget this. He came into my office, he said, look, I wanna be coached. He's like, look, don't waste my time, but I want to be coached.

And he was right about that. And I learned a lot about how he wanted to be coached, what he wanted to know. Like I can remember one of my first meetings, I was so prepared, I had this book of computer reports and I gave him this, I'm like, Tom, look at this book, and he's like, what is this?

I want one sheet. I want one sheet that tells me boom, boom, boom, first, second down, third down, boom, fronts, pressures, red area, backed up, the whole thing. And I was like, oh my God. But from that point, I did the one sheet and I used that one sheet to this day for quarterbacks

because he wanted to be able to think quickly. He didn't want a big computer report. He was a guy that if you showed him that you could work with him, like you could take in his input and show him that you could work together to formulate a really good offense. Like, then you were going to have a great relationship.

And I think that's why he and I got along so well, because we had our ideas, and then he would come in on Tuesdays with his ideas, and we would put those ideas into with ours and you know, I would put it all together. And then each night I would have to email it to him. And I don't know if Josh I think Josh probably do the same thing But like, you know, he went to bed early. So if it was like, you know Tuesday night for Wednesday morning Here's the game plan by 8 p.m. Here's the game plan for third down by 8 p.m. On Wednesday, you know Red area 8 p.m. On Thursday, you know, I mean for the next day But that forced you to work, get your work done,

and be prepared, and then he would email back with, hey, I love this play, I love this play, I don't really like this play, hey, what do you think about this play? And it was just that type of relationship, you know, and coaching them was, it was awesome. That's really cool to hear, you know, and people don't realize Tom loves being coached.

I mean, Billy O was probably so overwhelmed jumping into that thing, because when I got there, they already had three Super Bowls. They were already the Patriots, and that was like, and I remember seeing him throw for the first day, and I was like, man, this motherfucker can throw.

He hit every- That's a beautiful sight. You know what I mean? When he was throwing, he threw a two-hole shot to Randy or something and Randy He laid hand it like and like didn't even have his button Chin strap buckle Like and it just they look like a they look like pro a1 and to hear that he liked to be coached is awesome

I mean to the point where you coach where you guys are damn near fist fighting on the sidelines, you know Billy Oh Can we get into that? What happened there? No, hold on now. I mean, this fight, Ty Kwon Underwood, you were at practice, you know how practices are, once again, going back to you're really like brothers. Yeah, you really are with your with your assistant coaches. Sometimes you just want to slap the shit out of your brother. Exactly. So like, you

know, you can remember practices like when Bill would, you know, make us use the headsets or whatever, or we wanted to use the headsets to practice for the game. And so, you know, I'd be pressing the button and it wouldn't beep like it would be screwed up. And maybe I'd be yelling at Donnie Brochure and Tom would be out on the field like, you got to press the button. You're not pressing the button. You're not pressing the button. I took the whole thing and like, remember that day and threw it at him. I'm like, you've pressed the button. I'm pressing the button. The thing's whole thing and like remember that day and threw it at him. I'm like you you've pressed the button. I'm pressing the button. The thing's broken you know so these

little fights. Then they went to the intercom remember then they went to the walkie talkie. But I mean these little things would come up and so in that game we Deon had gotten hurt and like leading up to that game late in the week and we signed Taekwon Underwood who now is like the receiver or works with the receivers now. We signed game late in the week. And we signed Taekwon Underwood, who now is like the receiver, or works with the receivers now. We signed him late in the week, and we were driving the ball and somebody else got hurt. So Taekwon had to go in, and we ran branch.

And he had the end cut, he was the X. And he didn't run a great end cut. He kind of faded. And Josh, what's his name, the corner for the Redskins undercut it. Tom kind of looped it in there. So we come over to the sideline and Tom's ripping Taekwon. And I can remember Wes like, all right, man,

let's move on. Basically we all just got to move on. We were frustrated because we weren't moving the ball well that game. There's a lot of shit that goes up and on the sideline. So then it just became, I don't want to get into all that was said, but like, hey Tom, basically you need to shut the F up.

We got to move on now because Grossman's driving the ball. We're going to possibly go to overtime. And you remember who intercepted the pass to end the game was Gerard Mayo. Yeah, I bumped the guy. I was playing defense a god damn week. That's right. That's right.

That's my talk, what was in there? Gamma baby. So, but anyways, so he said, you want me to shut? You shut. And then it was just like two 15 year old's like, just yelling shut the F up back and forth to each other. And then Bill came over and was like. I'll tell you right now, that was the brilliance of Billy O

because he liked to fire guys up and we all knew Tom liked to be fired up because we all know Tom plays better pissed off. Yeah. Like that's the truth and you know, there's a lot of those Jedi mind tricks that I think that happened over there. Yeah. To piss him off because he played better pissed off.

Yeah. You know? We, it didn't, you know, you remember, right? The next day, no one, it happens. It happens. It was over. Game day is like a battle day. And I don't like making the comparison

to the guys that do it, but you know, shit happens. Next day, you go, you see him at the coffee line. I, how was your, how's wife? You don't even remember. You don't even remember. Move on. You remember the Brian, you remember our rookie skit

me and Hoyer We're it was me and it was it mean Hoyer being you and and Tom Yeah, is Billy Oh, no Billy. Oh love yelling at me The motherfucker loved yelling I had Julian Can I just tell this? So Julian basically bill came down the hallway one, I'll never forget this, it was the night, it was right before the draft and Bill had three beta tapes in his hand and he kind of like, when Bill would come to see

you as an assistant coach, he would kind of stand in your doorway, you wouldn't even know that he was there and you'd look up and go, oh there's Bill, you know, hey Bill what's up? And so he's like, hey, through these beta tapes on my desk, and he's like, hey, watch this kid from Kent State. He plays quarterback in these games. It was Ohio State, it was BC, and it was one other big team. Iowa State.

Iowa State, some other big school that he had played while he was there. And he's like, don't, and evaluate him, and don't come back and tell me he's a quarterback. Like, he's not a quarterback This is you know, just watch this guy. So we yeah, I know you anyways, perfect passer so you watch him and You know not to you know denigrate anybody but the offensive line wasn't always blocking for him and he's breaking five tackles

Just to gain five yards. He's got great playing strength very competitive So I wrote up that I thought he could be a safety, you know, obviously a slot receiver. And I thought he could play running back too. So then I wrote that up and Bill and other guys did too. I actually think Jason light was the one that kind of like was pushing it, you know, behind the scenes. And so so so then he sent Ivan out, and I think Scottie O to work you out. I even, yeah, came out,

worked me a third down, different times. Yeah, so, you know, Scottie O returned kicks, you know, see if he can catch upon all that. I think he did all, and then Ivan did running back drills. Little receiver drills here and there, but more, it was out of the backfield. Ivan put me up on the board, I thought I was, I had my coach come teach me about my scat protection just stuff

You know just to give me put me up there I was like yeah, they ain't coming to get me then then he and this is I tell this story all the time cuz I love This guy I mean, he's like incredible. So So then we get to the draft and it's you know, I think it was a three-day draft still at that time Yeah, three day and so it's a late and and so Bill's like, we're going to draft Edelman. I'm like, oh, and we're going to make him a receiver. So we're just going to keep him at receiver, teach him receiver, we're going to teach him how to return punts beyond special teams.

And so he showed up and it was, I'll never forget this. And Tom was hard on rookies. And I was hard on rookies too. I mean, I really was. But it was Welker in the in like when you did routes on air it would be Welker who was incredible, Julian who was learning and then Buddy Farnham. Wasn't it Buddy Farnham or wasn't he the third guy? Maybe. I don't know but there was another guy in buddies from my hometown. I just want to stick his name in there to get Andover mentioned a little bit. Yeah and so Wes would run the route and Tom would throw West the ball

Yeah, and Jules I mean you'd step up and run the route basically the same exact way that Wes ran the route and actually and Tommy would be like Jules, I mean Did you just see how Wes did it? You'd say I'm doing it the same way I'm doing it the same way. I'm doing it the same way. But you know what? Over time, he stuck with it and stuck with it and he got better and better and then returned punts. And he was hurt a lot. He had injuries when I was there.

So he became Julian Edelman kind of like after I left. But I mean, in the 2009 wild card game, we got drilled. He was the best player on offense I mean he made a bunch of plays in that game and we came in after that game and said like this guy's gonna be a Great player for us, you know, but I think you had like broken arm Maybe you know my arm and I had hernias hernias had the hernias a trading camp I played with them but just a great story of the resilience and just sticking with it and one day at a time all that You look you live that it you know, yeah, it was it and one day at a time, all that, you lived that.

You know, yeah, it was a grind. Yeah, no doubt. Like the coaches felt, like we heard from Josh and now Billy Oh, it's tough to coach there. You know, when you're a young football player and you're being evaluated at everything you do, you don't really know what's gonna, you're playing the numbers game.

I remember Billy Oh came up to me after I housed a punt. I housed my first preseason game. Billy, I had a pretty good game. I opened the game with the tackle on kickoff did house to punt and I had Tom's first catch did out of his ACL year. So there was a lot of nerves. Touchdown. Yep.

There was a lot of nerves going to that game because you know, it was the first time Tom was seeing live bullets. You know, there was a little of nerves going into that game because, you know, it was the first time Tom was seeing live bullets you know, there was a little extra going into it and The next week, you know, I feel like I got a little clout. I had I had a couple plays I Spray my ankle. Yeah, and then I was out for three weeks And so I didn't know and I didn't know if I met did enough to make the team And so it's cut time. Billy O comes up to me, he goes,

man, it's cut time. It's gonna be a tough one or something like that. But then he would give me a nugget in the meeting, he would say, now you need to listen up, we could have a four-wide package in here. You know what he knows. But then after, he would go, cut time's coming, man.

Just keep your phone on. There's something. Don't ever get comfortable as a coach or a player. But I do, like I do use, obviously, you as an example all the time of like staying with it, whether it's overcoming an injury or, you know, learning how to play a new position or resiliency or, you know, never feeling entitled.

Arguably, you have a shot to be in the Hall of Fame because of your playoff stats. And so, a lot of that, you played with a great quarterback, but most of that credit has to go to you and your work ethic and what you did. And I think that's something that young players, that's what I'm saying to the BC guys. That's why it was so important when you came

and talked to them, because those guys are all like, oh my God, that's Julian Edelman. And knowing you when you were a rookie and then what you became is, it's a great story. It was a hell of a ride. Yeah, no doubt. We'll be right back after this quick break. It was December, 2019 when the story blew up in Green Bay, Wisconsin, former

Packer star Kabir Vajabiamila caught up in a bizarre situation. Hey GB explaining what he believes led to the arrest of his friends at a children's Christmas play. A family man, former NFL player, devout Christian, now cut off from his family and connected to a strange arrest. I am going to share my journey of how I went from Christianity to now a Hebrew Israelite. I got swept up in Kabir's journey, but this was only the beginning in a story about faith and football, the search for meaning away from the gridiron, and the consequences for

everyone involved. You mix homesteading with guns and church and a little bit of the spice of conspiracy theories that we liked, voila! You got straight away. I felt like I was living in North Korea, but worse, if that's possible. Listen to Spiraled on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Do you ever wonder where your favorite foods come from? Like what's the history behind bacon-wrapped hot dogs?

Hi, I'm Eva Longoria. Hi, I'm Maite Gomez-Rejon. Our podcast Hungry for History is back. Season two, season two. Are we recording, are we good? Oh, we push record, right? And this season, we're taking a bigger bite out of the most delicious food and its history.

Seeing that the most popular cocktail is the Margarita, followed by the Mojito from Cuba, and the piñu colada from Puerto Rico. So all of these, we thank Latin culture. There's a mention of blood sausage in Homer's Odyssey that dates back to the ninth century BC. BC? I didn't realize how old the hot dog was.

Listen to Hungry for History as part of the My Kultura podcast network available on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Wake up with football every morning and listen to my new podcast, NFL Daily with Greg Rosenthal. Five days a week, you'll get all the latest news, previews, recaps, and analysis delivered straight to your podcast feed by the time you get your coffee. No dumb hot takes here, just smart hot takes. We'll talk every single game every single week, but I can't do it alone. So I'm bringing in the big guns from NFL media. That's Patrick Kleban, Steve Weiss, Nick Schuch, Jordan Roderig from The Athletic, and of course Colleen Wolf. This is their window right now. This is their Super Bowl window. Why

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Now, this is a segment where we go back in time around December 4th, 2021 and go over pop culture and stuff. We see Encanto. You ever see Encanto? No. We don't talk about Bruno. I don't. Yeah. Bruce Springsteen. I don't have time for movies.

Bruce Springsteen, you're Bruce Guy, the boss. He sells his catalog. Oh, I love the boss, yeah. You know? I read his biography. I did read that, which's a great book. You read that. What do you read? You like anything about the music back catalog though? Sorry, I apologize Paul Rudd is but like Paul Rudd he was a sexiest man alive good for him God placing Kelsey was that like last year wild right? It's a widespread. We got it. Go Kelsey They just signed did you see today? They signed a

hundred million dollar podcast. I didn't see that. I didn't see that. With Amazon for three years. Cut us in on that, bro. A hundred mil? Yeah. You guys have an awesome podcast. Billy-O. That's... Do you know anyone on Amazon? You know anyone on Amazon? No. We'll give you a finder's fee. Cut the check. Fifteen percent. Be Bezos cut the check, brother. What was life like for you in 2021? First year in Alabama, first year with a young quarterback, great quarterback.

Yeah, so I was at the Texans for about seven years and then got fired. And Coach Saban called me around Christmas time. They were getting ready to play Ohio State in the national championship game. Mack Jones was the quarterback of that team. And Starkeesian, Sark was getting the Texas job. So he said, hey, Sark's getting this Texas job, would you be interested? So I went there, hung around for a couple days while they got ready for Ohio State.

And I was like, yeah, this would be a great opportunity. And when you get fired as a coach, as a head coach, I'm sure Josh probably alluded to this a little bit. When you get fired, you think you have a lot of friends. You know what I mean? And then you get fired and you're like, you don't really have a lot of friends. You know what I mean?

By the same hand. And you figure out who your true friends are and coach gave me a shot to be the coordinator there and that was a great experience for me. And this team and coaching that guy, Bryce Young, was a great deal for me. And this team and coaching that guy, Bryce Young, was a great deal for me, it was awesome. And I like to call it Saban's Coaches Rehab Clinic. Yeah.

For like guys that need to get a little springboard back. Yeah, a little springboard, yeah. That's, you know, former Flash Kent State alum. Shout out. Yes. Nick Saban, you know, this is a big Saban podcast. What's the difference between working for a guy like Bill and working for a guy like Saban, you know, this is a big saving podcast what's the difference between working for a guy like Bill and Working for a guy like Saban probably a lot of crossover. But how are they different? Yeah, they're definitely is you know, there's some definite

Crossover as you want to imagine fundamentals situation football different things that you would be familiar to you, but very different people very different people You know Nick Nick's very very organized almost like I would say almost like machine like drill sergeant like like meetings are you know if this meeting is gonna start at 730 it's starting at 730 you know the next meeting starting at 1030 and then I you know the practice is gonna and in the practices are basically the same so the players know what to expect on a Tuesday on a a Wednesday, on a Thursday.

Like there's not a lot of deviation. I think that has a lot to do with why they won there. And then the recruiting philosophy was very like, Nick Saban recruited every single day of the year. He did something in recruiting every, 360, Christmas Day, he was doing something in recruiting. Wow. I think that's how he was brought up.

His dad brought him, he would talk about his dad a lot, owned a gas station in town and was very organized. And I think that is something that Nick learned at a young age and he carried it over to his coaching career. Bill, working for Bill, things can change. You got a schedule might change, a meeting time might get bumped. You just have to, you know, things can change. You got to, you know, a schedule might change. A meeting time might get bumped. You know, you just have to, you're going to work.

You know, you're going to work. But, you know, maybe not quite as like boom, boom, boom, structured all the time as Nick was. But there's a lot of similarities, you know, too, with both those guys. That's crazy. Now, you're coaching the SEC at this time in this specific game.

You're in the ACC now. What do you think about all this conference realignment? Yeah, I think- Where we going? Yeah, where we going, right? In five years. Yeah, the SEC and the Big Ten are definitely from a financial standpoint, they're the top two.

There's no doubt about that. The ACC is still in a decent position though. You get a shot at the playoff? The playoff. Teams, 12 teams? Exactly, 12 teams and we still have an ESPN contract through like 2030 I think or might even be 35. So we have you know there's still some good things for the ACC. Those two, I think eventually

Jules I really think that there will be what I would call like four I don't know if you want to say super conferences, but like for Division one conferences, you know based on I think eventually, you know BC pit Syracuse I would even say like Rutgers I don't know if this will ever happen But like these teams that are kind of regional rivalries They should all be in a in the same conference, you know If you could come up with 12 teams Georgia Tech, you know Duke like those teams should all be in the same conference the SEC would be the SEC and Because to have like in the ACC now you got Stanford at Stanford and Cal

We got you know, are you gonna recruit those Cali kids? Not the ACC we we do go out to California if there's a BC connection There's a lot of BC alums out there. We recruited California big at Alabama. That's you know, Bryce is from There's a lot of BC alums out there. We recruited California big at Alabama. That's you know, Bryce is from modern day and we recruited there, you know, recruited California a lot there. Man, a lot of good talent there. Jackie, let's break down these teams.

Start with the Georgia Bulldogs. Should we get into the dogs? All right. This was this was a heck of a Georgia team. Vaunted defenses we were watching earlier. In the grades. Insane. This was the sixth One of the greatest. Insane. This was the sixth year of the Kirby Smart era.

We got Todd Munkin who's now with the Baltimore Ravens. He was the OC. Dan Laning who was now the Oregon head coach. He was running that defense and the defense was allowing just 6.9 points per game running through their schedule. Winning every game by double digits except for Clemson back in week one, winners of the SEC East. And then I mean, just a team full of future NFL players. You got Brock Bowers, George Pickens, the Kobe Dean,

Jalen Carter, Jordan Davis, it was like the Eagles triple A team for a while. Just insane. You talked about Alabama being an underdog. Yeah, a lot of Alabama. Yeah, no, it we you definitely knew that Georgia coming into that game, they had a great team, you know, Jackie just read off all those guys. I mean, you know, a lot of those guys are in the NFL now. And, you know, I felt like going into

that game, we had a really we were at full strength. So we had two really good receivers Jameson Williams plays for the Lions now and John Metchi who plays for the Texans you would have loved Metchi Metchi was a Just a very tough good hands could play all over the place so we had good we had and they complemented each other really well, you know, J Mo was a shot guy and and Metchi was kind of the underneath guy and we had a good tight end in place for the 49ers now, Latou. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We had some good linemen and then we had Bryce.

So Bryce was obviously not the biggest guy. If you looked at measurables and things like that, he might not be the first pick. But when you watch him play and you coached him and you saw how smart he was and how he could anticipate and make great decisions and could signal a guy because he had a pro mentality playing the position. And he was a very, very fun guy to coach. And he was a big, obviously a huge part

of why we won that game. Now, we'll jump into Alabama's roster in a second, but talking about Bryce, kind of like what we were talking about earlier with Drake May, you know, you can't just put a guy in there that doesn't have the line, that doesn't have anyone to throw to. And I felt like that's kind of what he was thrown into

last year with the situation. Is there some hope for this kid if they get some guys around him? You still believe he could play in the league? Yeah, you know me, like I love the players that I've coached. I will never bet against Bryce Young. He meant so much to what we did there.

And we won 24 games there. We lost four games in two years there with him as the quarterback, three of those four on the last play of the game. Yeah. This guy, he threw for 500 yards in that game that we're talking about I mean this guy was awesome and you know, I think it's exactly what you said like for a guy like Bryce He's got to have good protection Look if he has to throw hotter he has to redirect the protection

He understands how to do that But he's got a he's got to have you know guys that can protect and then he's got to have you know At least two guys to throw to yeah and a tight end I think a tight end and then obviously like I always say for these young quarterbacks if they can have a decent running game man that can help you yeah where you don't have to rely on this guy to throw 50 times a game like you know if you can balance that off by being able to run the ball and throw the ball kind of balanced you know that's that's a that would be a huge asset to a guy like Bryce. Definitely. You talked about

tight end and they had the Brock Powers on Georgia. He was really good but they say they say he's Gronk 2.0 until you really did you see that photo of Gronk next to him? Yeah no no no no there's no I would never compare anybody to Gronk. Gronk's best tight end I ever play. Can you explain, we heard Gronk's version of his draft day visit. Can you give your side of the story? Can you give your side of the story? So we brought him in and he had had back issues. So Bill brought him in basically to get his back looked at and Stoops was the head coach at Arizona at the time, and Bill had a good relationship with him,

and Stoops was really vouching for Gronk. You know, like, hey, this guy. And so it was myself and Brian Ferentz, we took him into the team meeting room, and we were showing him some tape, and then we taught him a couple of plays, and then we had him stand up, and he was like, you know,

we were teaching him how to triple block, and, you know, block down on a six technique, and, you know, single block. I mean, we were teaching him all these blocks block and block down on a six technique and single block. I mean, we were teaching them all these blocks. By the time the thing was over, his shirt was like undone. His buttons ripped. Patriots draft interviews are pretty legendary stories. So then we taught him a play, like I said, brought him back in.

Hey, you're going to teach us this playback. So we taught him special. You remember special? Special seam, hitch. Special seam, hitch, the under and the in cut by the X, right? So when we got to the X, which I never should have asked him this question,

because obviously he's a tight end, but I said, all right, the X, now if the will and the weak safety hit it, what's gonna happen over there? Because we had said, hey, this is gonna be a sighted just when we taught it to him. And so he's looking at the board, I'll never forget this, he's like, sss, and I'm like, yeah, you're getting it,

Gronk, you're getting it, it's sss, sss, and he goes, sizzle? Sizzle? I'm like, sizzle? What did you eat at Sizzler last night? Like, no, it's a sight adjust, Gronk. But we loved him, you know what I mean? You could just tell he was the best guy.

I'm just guessing. So then a scout came in and took him up to another floor where Nancy Meyer was. Yeah, Ms. Nancy. And right across from Nancy Meyer's office, the old offices, there was a little room with a circle table. So no one for a while could find Gronk. So like, where's Gronk? Where's Gronk?

Because Bill wanted to see him before he left. So finally, Nancy's like, he's up here, he's asleep on the table. So Gronk is six foot, you guys know Gronk better than me probably. Gronk is a massive human. He's curled up on a circle table in this room across from Nancy Meyer.

Oh my gosh. Robbie G. Bill says, um, Rob leaves and Bill called, Hey, how'd it go with Gronkowski? You know, I'm like, you know, Bill, this guy's like, you know, great looking guy, great energy. Like, yeah, I just, you know, the big thing is he's going to be able to keep up with Tom, you know, like in a two minute drive and you know, all that is that, is that, you know, do you you and and I'll never forget this

Bill's like yep, he'll be able to keep up with them Stoops vouches for him. I talked to him He'll keep up with Tom very well, but I was like okay, then we should you know so we drafted him and Aaron and I mean You know those two guys together were and I know I don't want to get into the whole Aaron Hernandez thing But I mean talk talking about football, like two of the that might be the best tight end tandem in the history of the game, the history of the game and they they what we did when you were there and 10 and 11. We did a lot of no

huddle and you know, we could be in 12 personnel and you know, you could put either one of them out there as a receiver and then Josh took it to another level when he got there and It was awesome, man But grock grock the the best thing about grock and and really I would say you and a few like vrabel and the legendary patriot guys teddy bruski Rodney harrison william mcginnis all these guys that that I know like they had great energy when they came in the building Guinness all these guys that that I know like they had great energy when they came in the building like when they

Walked in the building like he would no matter what might be snowing raining hot didn't matter same great mood He would always like bang into you like jeez gronker You know you make funny, you know you bust your chops or you know like just a great dude every day You know what I mean? It was it was it was that's what I'm talking about When I said about people, you know, yeah a lot about he was like he's like the golden retriever, bro Yeah, he's just happy to see him. He's happy to be there. Yeah, ma'am Yeah, well Robbie G Jackie break down the crimson tie getting in this tide real quick winners of the SEC West Coming off a Natty the year before busted Ohio State in that game Only lost this year was the Texas A&M Got upset out there and then down the stretch had a tough stretch but won those late close games

Arkansas LSU then the legendary four over time. I know iron bowl. Yeah, that was great. That was crazy Anything could happen rivalry game. Oh my god, I know what they're ranked the Arbon wasn't even right there Forget it was like it was 10 to 3 in that game. And we had not done anything. Auburn's defense. It was at Auburn, which is a tough place. We got the ball back on our. Because Auburn screwed up the four minute.

Yeah. Kid ran out of bounds. So they had to punt. We got the ball back on our own two yard line. And Nick, I'll never forget, Nick on the headset was like, Bill, we got to do something here. And I was like, yep. Yes, we do.

It was about a minute and 10 left. And we went 98 yards through Bryce Young and sent it into overtime. And then we had a lot, you would have loved it because in college, after the first overtime, you have to go for two if you score. A 20. And so it was all of those Patriot bunch,

like boom, boom, boom. I saw that. And they were just. We hit like three or four of them. And then it carried over to this game where you guys used a lot of those patriot bunch like I saw that Yeah, they were just hit like three or four of them And then it carried over to this game where you guys used a lot of those bunches the Rams the rifles the Texas Yeah, Tulane Tulane to in which it it makes this Legendary Georgia defense have to communicate think fast Is that what were you doing in the middle? You were starting fast to try to slow down that D Lyman?

You were you guys were playing with tempo was that the game plan going in this thing? Yeah, I think I felt for us in this game You know we Nick did a great job of this team of his teams being in great condition We you know much like the Patriots there was a lot of conditioning in Alabama I felt like we were in better condition in that game than we were, than Georgia was. We were able to go fast and Georgia was very big upfront, very talented, but maybe we could get them huffing

and puffing a little bit and be able to sneak a couple of plays in there on them. And that was the game plan going in. Can you, can you, we gotta give the listener context. How different is it coaching football at Alabama in Alabama? Like the S, I don't know this world. So can you explain to me like I'm a fifth grade kid from Boston or situate or something like? Situate? South Shore. Yeah that's a great town. I don't know I would say yes I could be I would

love to tell you all the story but but I'll give you one example. For the spring game, which is basically a glorified scrimmage, right? We get on, Doug Marrone and I, Doug was the line coach and I was the coordinator. So this is our first Alabama. Yeah, he's helping me out at BC. I remember.

So anyways, we get on the bus to go to the spring game. This is our first Alabama spring game. So we've been head coach in the NFL. We we kind of seen a lot, you know We've never seen anything like this So we get on these buses and we were on the first bus and we're driving out and the way you go Have you ever been to a game there? You got it. You got to try to go to a game We gotta go you got to go to an Alabama. It's on the bucket list So you you just kind of go out and you bang a left and the the stadium is probably a half a mile

You know down on the left, but as you're going it is like probably just kind of go out and you bang a left and the stadium is probably a half a mile, you know, down on the left. But as you're going, it is like probably 20 deep on each side of the road of people all the way to the stadium. And then when you get to this is just for the spring game, forget the game for a regular game. And then there's probably at least at least for the spring game, 20,000 people outside what they call the Champions Walkway, like to greet you when you get off the bus to escort you basically into the locker room. I mean, that's just for the spring game. It's all about football there. It's an unbelievable football school. It's a great football job that Nick and Bear Bryant made legendary. And they do everything there to support the football team

in many, many ways, whether it's recruiting or even academically or weight room, training room, nutrition, it's a cool place. That's an A1 program right there. Yeah, A1. And it wasn't like that until Saban got there since Bear Bryant. Right, right.

There was a long time where Yeah, they long time where Bama wasn't Bama. Not mediocrity. The only reason they're Bama now is because, I mean, when Nick got there, I remember when I was a kid, Alabama was a second thought. It was always Florida State, Miami, the U was big, Texas was big, you know, and it was crazy to see the transformation.

Jack, give us the game. Yeah, just a little context on the lead up of this game. This was a battle of the two best teams in college football. The only two teams to have been ranked number one that season. So this was this was the game. And if Bama didn't win this one, the playoff was probably off the table. Yeah, it was. Yeah, definitely. After the one loss.

We had to win this game. And another storyline coming into it was, was Kirby smart against the tide? 0-3 in his career. Georgia hadn't beaten Alabama since 0-7. So like, Kirby wanted to get one. Which was another storyline in Atlanta, in their backyard. Early on, it starts out slow,

pretty scoreless first quarter. Georgia gets on the board first with a field goal. And then in the second, it really opens up. So it opens up in the second. But when you're the offensive coordinator, you put in the game plan, we're gonna A, you probably present to Nick, we're probably, we gotta go fast to slow this D line down,

make them communicate with a lot of our formations, our bunches. When it's a slow first quarter, are you making adjustments to the game plan? Or are you just sticking with the game plan you guys are executing better? Yeah, no, we had to adjust. It actually was 10-0.

They went up 10-0. But the second quarter, there was fireworks. Yeah, there was fireworks. We did adjust. We went to, my recollection is we did, we were gonna struggle to run the ball. So we put the ball basically in Bryce's hands and we had, like I said, two good receivers, good tight end

and even the backs out of the back four were good in the passing game. So you could check it down to them and they were gonna make yards. So we knew like, look man, we're gonna have to really throw the football here to win this game. We hit Taffy for like an 80 yard touchdown.

So we had to clear out with the toggle, with the free route, and we hit the free route I think for 80 yard touchdown to Jameson Williams I think it was. And then we came in at halftime, we said, hey, they're sitting on some of these ropes. Was that the taffy, is that the bunch? Yeah. Yeah, the cross.

Was he the second guy or the first guy? He was the toggle runner. Okay. He was the top guy. Wow. So then we- There's no one near him, they blew it. It was a communication thing once He was the top guy. So then we... There's no one near him. They blew it.

It was a communication thing once again with those bunches. We motioned to it. And then in the second half, we knew we could double move him. So we said if we saw cover four, we were going to give JMo a curl go because the safety was jumping the hell out of the curl. And so Bryce, he pumped them and he ran a curl go and he threw it and we had like a 60 yard, I think it was a 55 yard bomb to Jay in the third quarter.

I think that was the first drive of the second half and that kind of helped us a big, that was a big time play. Yeah. So how are you guys, what's the halftime like with the save in, are you guys in this? You know, hal in the in college is a little bit longer, you know Yeah, it's probably more like 15 20 minutes whereas in the pros, it's what a 12 12 So unless you're in the Super Bowl or 20, yeah, then where it's longer. Yeah, then you can take a nap. Yeah, but yeah, so Yeah, we we definitely came in and you know, he you know, Nick's very intense

So he was like look, what are we doing? How are we gonna do this? And but Nick also sees the game and I can remember distinctly he's saying like hey look We're gonna have to throw the ball to win this game And so we just made sure we had our best passes ready to go We had a couple new wrinkles we put in at halftime like hey We're gonna run this this way and these kids the kids that were playing for us were very, very smart football players, you know, so they could they're like, no problem, coach. We got that.

And that's kind of what halftime was like. And then once you guys go out and score and have that big play in the third quarter to start it off, that's when you that momentum started kicking over there. I was a play caller. How do you are you just like keep it going? Because you guys started, you know, there was a pick six. You guys are starting to blow them out. Now Now what was the mentality in the play calling?

Like are we trying to run this thing down or are we trying to fucking score? When you got into the fourth quarter of this game, like that pick six, after that pick six, that was Jordan Battle. Yeah, he took that back. I think after that when it was 38-17, I think, you know, Nick was in control of that. He would tell us like, hey let's, you know, milk the clock and hand the ball off and see if we can get, you know, at least run it twice and then try to get it on third down with a pass maybe. Now was the Heisman wasn't in yet for this.

No. So this is, this was probably a statement game for him. Big time Auburn. And then, you know, he followed up the Auburn game with this guy. And that's why he won the Heisman. I mean, I would say those two games were huge for him. How's that feel for you to be, your first year at Bama, for what you just came from, when you get fired,

I mean, every coach has been fired in national, or in football, any football, every coach has been fired, but it really says something to someone to be able to move, move on, turn the page page like Bob Seeger said and just get back on the road and then finds this down he's got a Heisman trophy winner as the play caller I mean that how do you feel after that's a that's a big year that's a big overcoming of something regardless no I appreciate I do appreciate that I look I think that coaching is like you know

like you like I described you playing there's a lot of resiliency that has to take place in coaching coaching you know when you know, like you, like I described you playing, there's a lot of resiliency that has to take place in coaching coaching. You know, when you get into coaching, you think everything's gonna be, you know, you're gonna win every game and you're gonna, that's just not the case, right? There's good years. Hopefully, there's a lot more good than bad. And I, in my career, I've actually had a lot of good years and not that many bad years, which so it's, it's been good for me. But, but there are times where you have to, you know, something you get knocked down, you got to pick yourself back up. And this was a chance for personally for me to

do this. And these guys, it was just a great team. Like you can see the picture there, like, Will Anderson, one of the best guys ever. And a great person, you know, Metchi. And then in this game towards ACO. Yeah. And so we and then in the tore his ACL. Yeah, and so we, and then in the, in the national championship game, which we lost, Jameson Williams tore his ACL on a pistol. Yeah. On a pistol, he kind of had twisted around and.

Go anywhere. And so we, you know, we struggled without those two guys and Georgia was good, so. Get on his toes. Yeah. Until he opens up, that's when you stick. It's a coaching point. Great route.

As you used to say. Great route. Now, Jack, sum up the game, and then we gotta score this bad boy. Yeah, picked off Stetson Bennett twice there in the second half, held Georgia scoreless in the third. I ended up winning this thing 41-24. This locked up Bryce Young's Heisman, first Alabama QB to ever win the Heisman.

And then, as coach alluded to, Bama would go on to lose the rematch in the Natty after those two brutal- A lot of injuries in the same team. Yeah, I mean, Georgia had a great team and they were ready to go on the next game. The national championship game was a good game, then we threw a pick six. In that game, the guy was supposed convert, didn't convert or whatever. We didn't win the next game, but that team, that's a very, just a great Alabama team.

Without a doubt, I mean. Matchy will you? I'm pulling for Bryce Young. Yeah, he's a great guy. You would love him. I've met him a couple times at some functions. Yeah, very nice guy. Like genuine.

Yeah. Very like, wasn't drinking or anything. No. You could tell he had his head on straight. Yeah, great parents, great family. He was a very fun guy to coach. And in many ways, relative to college, I coached him like Tom.

Like he studied a lot of tape. He was very prepared. So he had his own, you know thoughts and ideas and things like that and he was awesome to coach great kid Now does he go on the Mount Rushmore of Alabama guys? Oh, yeah. Yeah for a quarter man that who else well Joe Namath Bart star Tua Bryce Jalen Mac won a natty gotta put Mac up there. I don't know how many guys are on Rushmore But it's a big that's a big rush. Yeah, they've had some great quarterbacks here. Yeah, Kenny Stabler

Sorry, Kenny Stabler the snake. He was awesome. Can't forget that joker man. All right, let's score it any leftover questions, Jack Man, I got about a million but I know we got to get through this if Any leftover questions, Jack? Man, I got about a million, but I know we got to get through this. If can I get one quick one in? If can I get one quick one in? Yes. Can you explain rat poison to the people at home? Can you explain Nick Saban's rat poison?

Yeah, he thinks that, you know, and he's right. A lot of these kids, you know, they're on their phones or, you know, so they're reading, hey, Alabama's unbelievable. They're never going to lose the blow. They're going to, you know gonna run away with the national title, just pumping them up all the time. Don't believe that. That's rat poison.

They're putting, they're giving you rat poison. They're making your head big. And you're not gonna pay attention to the details and you're gonna lose. Ever use that in a staff meeting with you guys? I don't think he ever used. I don't think he ever used that rat poison. No, no, he never used that he he was his staff meetings were very

Were good he every staff meeting he was very prepared for and he gave you Thoughts and ideas to for that day or that game or whatever. It was good. His staffing's he's a machine They think with Bill Bill staff meetings you learn something and think about Bill Same thing with Bill. Bill's staff meetings, you learn something. And the thing about Bill, when I think about Bill and staff meetings, that's with, that's you as a coach, you learn the most in the team meetings and the staff meetings when you watch tape together. So some coaches will say, why am I watching the defense? Like I'm on offense. Can I go now and meet with it? No, if you watch the defense and you listen to what they're talking about, that's how you learn defense. Yeah. Then you can go apply that to with your players.

And I learned I learned that when I went to team meetings. Well, when I went to defense. Yeah. Oh, yeah, that's right. Yeah, no doubt. You know, like just like he with the guys that he grows from the ground, like Josh McDaniel, Billy Flows and all. He cross coaches him first before they get to go to the side of the ball they want to go to. No doubt. Which I learned so much more that year about a defender and

his technique. Now you hear it when coaches are coaching it to you, but to be taught the technique. I mean I credit that such a huge part of how I learned how to run routes and then obviously watching guys in front of me. Yeah. But like that was like huge and then like how they were trying to disguise things. If you learn the nuances of like what the DB is doing. No doubt. You know, it helped you. That's exactly right.

Let's name the game. Is this the roll tide role game, the Bulldog beat down or the Bryce Young show, Billy O? I got to go with the Bryce Young show. I got to go with the Bryce. Bryce Young. I think he threw for 460 in this game. 460.

Hung up over 500 yards on this Georgia defense. Yeah. Insane. 115 on the ground, 421 in the air. It was. 421. What a game. Jesus Christ.

What an offensive performance. Against one of the most legendary defenses. I mean, Jameson Williams alone had 184 receiving yards. Yeah. Insane. Yeah. How good did that feel afterwards, coach? It was great.

That was, yeah, my family was there. Uh, my son and my wife came to the game and, um, the locker room was that was, uh, yeah, because that was, we were definitely, as you guys said, like it was rare for Alabama to be an underdog and we were, and a lot of people picked Georgia to win and, and we, we won that game and that was a huge game. Wish we could have won the next one, but we didn't. But that was a great memory of that game. And that in the Alabama indoor facility, they have the years of the national championships

and they have the years of the SEC championships, which is a big deal at Alabama and our year will be up there. So it's a big year. Yeah. It's a big year. Yeah. We'll be right back after this quick break. It was December 2019 when the story blew up.

In Green Bay, Wisconsin, former Packer star Kabir Vajabiamila caught up in a bizarre situation. Hey GB, explaining what he believes led to the arrest of his friends at a children's Christmas play. A family man, former NFL player, devout Christian, now cut off from his family and connected to a strange arrest. I am going to share my journey of how I went from Christianity to now a Hebrew Israelite. I got swept up in Kabir's journey, but this was only the beginning in a story about faith and football, the search for meaning away from the gridiron, and the consequences for everyone involved. You mix homesteading with guns in church and a little bit of the spice of conspiracy theories that we liked.

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Season two, season two. Are we recording? Are we good? Oh, we pushed record, right? And this season we're're taking a bigger bite out of the most delicious food and its history. Saying that the most popular cocktail is the margarita, followed by the mojito from Cuba, and the piñuculada from Puerto Rico.

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Okay. The stakes of this specific SEC championship game. Well, the stakes at that time were huge for us because we had to win to be in the playoffs. So I would say for that time for Alabama, you know, it's a 10. I mean, we had to win it. We had to win. They had to win to be in the playoffs. So I would say for that time for Alabama, you know, it's a 10. I mean, we had to win it. We had to win. They had to win to get into the playoff. It was a 14 playoff. Had to.

I thought you were a listener. You know, you know, that's a rookie score. Is that a rookie score? Yeah, 10's a rookie score. I am a listener. I'm supposed to use a decimal? Should I use a decimal? You can do anything you want.

No, I shouldn't. I'm sorry. That was definitely a rookie score. No, I mean, just hearing how Billy was talking about how the SEC Championship is, that's a big thing. Like, they don't just look at the national championship. It's a lot of times the SEC Championship,

because it's such a dominant conference. I'm going to go with an 8.9. It's not the natty. So it's not a 9 or 10, but it's 8.9. It's not the Natty, so it's not a 9 or 10, but it's 8.9. Ooh, Jack. Give it an 8.9 as well. Same brain, baby. I did an 8.1. Let's go. We got star power, 0 to 10. We do have a Heisman Trophy winner in this game. We have a bunch of pros in this game. I mean, I think Philadelphia's whole team went to Georgia. And we're not even talking about Alabama

So the stakes of this are the star power of this game Billy Oh Sure, I think I have to I have to not be a rookie anymore I'm gonna go eight point six eight point six. There it is a good score. I think it's definitely above eight Yeah, I'm gonna go eight eight 8, 8, 8, 4. 8, 4. 7, 3, Jack. Man, too low, sorry guys. My goodness. Jack, 7, 3, me 7, 2. The Russian judge over here, man. Jeez.

It's still college yet, they're gonna be stars. Yeah, very true. But these guys are, they're pro guys. They're pro guys. They don't get it. They kinda look down their noses. Hey, it just means more than the SEC, baby. Okay.

Massive, massive Patriot fans. Let's go with the gameplay. The gameplay of the game, zero to ten decimals okay. This was a close game in the first quarter. Actually they were losing. There was a huge swing in that second quarter. Then it was just straight bombs over Baghdad on the second half. So fun to watch. Yeah, me? I would say 8.8. 8.8 it was a blowout. It was a blowout. I'm gonna go with the 7. 7 solid. Flat. I have to learn the score. All right we're in the same neighborhood. 6.8. You're getting back at me for all the times. What are you talking about? This is a great game to go to the National Championship. I mean, we've had World Cup finalists.

We've had World Series on here. We've had National Championships. I mean, this is a great conference championship. You know what I mean? The name of the game, the Bryce Show. Yeah, I think it's the Bryce Young Show. I know, but you gotta score the name that you came up with. Oh, I'm giving that a nine, nine five.

Shout out Bryce Young. We're rooting for you this year, brother. I'm gonna go with the I'll go with the 8.8. That's a that's a high score. I don't give fucking there's never been a 10 given. I Russian judge it again. I with a 5.6. You know, do the math. Tyler do the magic math. Calculating get all of our averages. So this is like Portnoy's pizza score. Like if he. It is.

Kinda. One nibble, everyone knows the law. 7.8. 7.8. Solid score. Where does that go in the games that we have done? That puts us just. Oh, the greatest.

28th, just ahead of Elway versus Montana, the 1994 week seven, cheese versus Broncos. That's not a bad spot. And just below. That's a good. And just below the 2005 NBA finals, game five Spurs versus Pistons. I mean, it's not a bad spot. The number one game is the 2000, oh, that was a great game, man.

That was a fucking great game. All-timer. That was freezing cold. It wasn't just that, it was just the storylines of it. Oh my God. The passing of the torch that kind of was there. From my homes. Yeah.

No, not yet. Not yet. Not yet. That's what I mean. That's what they thought it was going to be. Wait young fella. So the Malcolm Butler game. So we had a play in practice the other day that was basically exactly that play. But the.

Wait on offense or defense? The Seattle offensive play versus our defense. Versus the BC defense. And the guy didn't really, cause you know, can't remember the guy's name. Browner. Browner stuffed the point guy, which allowed Malcolm to play over the top.

Our guy didn't do that. So, you know, the guy, the back guy got picked and we ran the option and scored. And so I showed that play. Dude, heck yeah. This is why you have to, this is win Super Bowls, this play right here.

And you should show them, I think it was do your job. I remember being in Arizona, watching Josh Boyce score five fucking touchdowns on that same play. And the whole coaching point was, Brown you gotta blow up the front guy to make traffic traffic We got burned on that five times in practice on like the Thursday before the Super Bowl I'm blue and then we kept on practicing it and then you know They finally got it, but it was ingrained in their head and then once the game came in muscle memory you read it It was early while we're talking about this. I've got a two-part question. Yeah, one

What's the most in or useful Ernie nugget you ever got? And then second part, what's the most annoying Ernie card you ever had? Oh God. So Ernie, you know some of the smartest people I've ever met were at the Patriots. Coaches and players. Like that was the other thing too like there were so many there was a lot of You know intellectual capacity at the at the Patriots, which is a huge thing In football, especially so Ernie had an incredible memory and i've watched your guys podcast with him He's awesome on this like if you could have him once a month, i'm sure Because he he could remember so if you went to him and you said hey Ernie I'll never forget this I went to him and I asked him about what we call a toro situation which which before tools have

So it's third down to fourth down. The offense doesn't have any timeouts. They need a field goal to win They're in field goal range. Maybe it's like third and 20. There's 22 seconds. There's 22. This is the question I was like, hey Ernie What do you think's the the least amount of time that you would need to complete a 15 yard pass, be able to get up there, run the field goal team out and all that? So he said, in 19, so this is, I want to say, I was running the offense, so it's probably nine or 10.

2009, 2010. So he said, and Brady had another, I have a great Brady memory story too on the same lines but Ernie said in 1978 I was working for Chuck Fairbanks Love same situation came up. We were playing I forget maybe the Steelers I forget But it was third down going a fourth down and we did it with 19 seconds. And I was like, did you say 1978? I was nine in 1978. This guy. So you're talking, he remembered

the play the hash mark. And it's the same pattern, the wind pattern, which direct exactly which direction they were the old stadium. I mean it was just unbelievable. That's unreal. And then the card, do you know how the card stuff came up? So the card, so basically we would meet and then we would go walk through the cards for practice. So Bill was getting kind of pissed because the guys would go out and we'd have really good practices because they had already walked through the card.

Maybe there'd be a screw up here and there, but not many. There were a lot of perfect practices when I was at the Patriots with the good teams. No MEs. And so no MEs, things like that. Mr. Ayers. So Bill was like, you guys, you walk through the cards and then it's the same cards that they see at practice. I mean, this is ridiculous

So, you know what we're gonna do on Fridays me and Ernie got the cards So I'm like he started doing it with Josh. Yeah, he did it in in oh seven or eight I can remember Josh like oh my god, it's gonna be brutal so Ernie We would go out to practice and Ernie would have some defense on the card that was, you know, if you watched the last two years of the defense that we were playing, you probably wouldn't have seen that. So Tom would always go, Ernie, they don't do that. Ernie, they don't do that. And Ernie would go, they did it 10 years ago against the Giants in regular season week 10 or something. Like, what? Who did? Was the court?

But they did. If you went back and looked it up, they did some crazy exotic blitz. And in the end what it was was it was a lot about trying to keep, really keep Tom on his toes. Because Tom was so, you know, Tom was a brilliant player. So like, it forced him to like think about who he he was gonna make the mic and tell this guy to run that

You know, I mean, yeah, that's a lot of it had to do with challenging They wanted to put you in an uncomfortable situation in practice. So if it Came in it didn't matter if the play we were practicing was gonna be the play We're gonna do in the game if that situation came where we didn't see something we could still do something about it Yeah, exactly, and you wouldn't just shit your pants and say like, oh fuck, you know what I mean? So it was a lot of that, like I was saying, that Jedi shit.

The idea of Tom yelling at Ernie like, that's not fair, that's cheating Ernie, it's awesome. I love that, oh my gosh. But the same thing would happen like when Vrable would be on the scout team. Oh boy. Oh yeah, and Vrable, you gotta get Vrable on this. I know, give me some when Vrable Vrable would be on a scout team. Oh boy. Oh, yeah. And Vrable you gotta get Vrable on. I know. Give me some good Vrabe stuff. Oh, Vrable was

awesome. Vrable would be like, he would play safety on the scout team. And if he ever picked Tom off, he would take the ball into the backfield and just spike it right next to where nothing pissed Tom off. And they're like best friends, you know, so nothing pissed him off more than that. And Vrable would just be like, he would line up down in there, we'd be playing the Steelers,

so he would be playing. Pala Malu. Pala Malu. So he'd get down in there in the A-gap, and Tom would be like, Mike, they don't do that. And Mike would go, Pala Malu does it. Troy's gonna do it on Sundays, I promise you that.

Like it would be like this back and forth. Just antagonizing them. Just antagonizing them. Oh, it was awesome, man. Practice was, that was when practice was cool. Do you remember when you were there when Gronk pulled out the easy button on Friday? Yeah.

No, I told this story about Gronk the other day. Gronk was a rookie, and Bill would come in on Wednesdays sometimes and he would go, he would test the team. Quiz us. He would quiz them. And as assistant coaches, you had a 730 meeting, so you would alert these guys like,

hey man, you better know your stuff because he's going to test you today. These guys would all be like, oh my God, they'd be looking at the punter's range and averages and stuff. So Gronk, so they come in and I forget it we were playing and let's say we're playing the Jets or whatever and so he goes all right Gronkowski who's the Mike Linebacker and Gronk had his scout book

like between his feet and so he looked at Bill and he looked down and he was moving the pages Moving the page And bill goes Jesus Christ cronk But the best quiz story though that I just remembered Was my first year there Vinny testiverty was in training at Vinny testiverty is like one of the greatest guys ever Yeah Just a awesome guy and I actually spent a lot of time with him because I was working with the like the backup quarterbacks awesome guy. And I actually spent a lot of time with him because I was working with the backup quarterbacks. So Vinny, Vinny, we're in a meeting and we're getting ready for a preseason game. Vinny's like 40 something years old. Big guy, big dude, big, you know, just a big guy and great, was a great player. He's like the end of his career, right?

Big guy. Yeah, yeah. So anyways, Castle. So anyways, he, Bill comes in and Vinnie always had a briefcase Carry a briefcase like into the meetings and stuff. So Bill comes in. He's like, all right Vinny's gonna play in this preseason game All right, Vinny, who's the starting who are the two starting safeties? Takes out his reading glasses Flips to the scouting report, and gives Bill the two-starred and safetys. The whole team is in tears laughing.

Bill goes, Jesus Christ, man. He pulled his ring. Oh my God. I'll never forget that. Oh, fuck me. Maybe. Oh my gosh. Well, Billio, thank you so much for coming on everyone.

Get ready for the Boston college football season. Go out to a game, check it out. They're going to do some special things. Let's go Billy. Oh, you know the Billy is going to be developing these guys into great young men that can go out and compete at a tough high level. You know, that's why I always expect when I think of guys

that are coached by you, that's what you do with me. I love you to death. Thank you for coming on, man. Thank you guys. Thank you, coach. Yep, appreciate you guys. Man, that was another great show. He's the best.

Billy Oh, good storyteller. Great. A guy I've been waiting to have on the show forever since we met him at the Brady. And I love Billy Oh. Billy Oh, he loves, he watches our show. His favorite episode he said was what? Baron the Baron Davis? Baby, love BD.

He did come out with a bit of a rookie score. Rookie score. But he recovered. He recovered. He recovered. That's resilience. He was talking about that. Coachable, coachable.

You know, that's a coachable guy that listens to the heartbeat of what we need to do, what's best for the program or the team, which means BCs in good hands. Amen. We're Eagles fans over here now. Eagles. He converted us. Him and Doug.

Him and Doug. And the region. Amen. We should write a letter to the Pope, get them some more funding. Seriously, he'll papa. I mean, something. At least some of those red shoes, something, come on, man.

A Pope Mobile, anything. Or at least a come visit the campus. Run some rounds, something. I thought they gotta stick together, the Catholics, right? What position would the Pope play, you think? Quarterback, man. Only QB, baby, he's leading that thing.

Not a free safety. He's an option QB. Nah, he's calling the shots. Hail, he's he's calling the shots. Hail Mary's. He's calling Bryce Young action, baby. I've seen I've seen Angels and Demons. He's calling the shots or what is it Da Vinci Code? One of those. I've seen those man. Those shout out Dan Brown. Good good movies. Let's hit the old hotline. Let's hit it again. That number is 424-291-2290. Let's hear these again. That number is four two four two nine one two two nine zero. Let's hear these ones These are getting better and better

Combat a bull rush as a offensive lineman I know you truly that woman is obviously the best blocker in all of the NFL So he's probably lost qualified guy to ever answer a question like that All right. Bye. Oh good question technical question like that. All right, bye. Ooh, good question, technical question. Now, what is he, as an offensive lineman, you know, I'm not a lineman, but I always hear, anchor, anchor, you gotta anchor down on the bull rush

and use your hands, your length. That's what I always hear Scar say, and you gotta hit them so they can't, you know, they can't get up under you when they bull rush you. Pad level, use your length and then anchor. I don't know, I'm not a lineman, but I heard the best line coach of all time

say that a million trillion times. Scar Neccio. Shout out to Dante. We gotta get Scar on too now. What if they hit you with a Dwight Frene spin move? That's different. And you gotta drop set. Okay those guys I mean, there's a we got to get scar on to talk about I'm grilling you like

You know, we need we need Jackie Slater, oh yes, I remember one night he was famous telling me Slate get we need we need Jack on we need we need mr. Slater on you guys drink that Crown Royal Hey, I don't know if we're you know, so say that but I remember Jack was telling me what he used to do with LT I mean that he'll teach us how to pass it gotta get him on he's go. Let's hear the next one. Hey Jules question Is it true if you don't use it you lose it? Hey, I Mean, yeah Is it true if you don't use it, you lose it? Thanks.

I mean, yeah, it is definitely true. It goes with anything, your body, anything, your brain, anything, everything. If you don't use it, you lose it. I learned that like right when I retired when I stopped working out, my body just started feeling, I felt like shit You know and it was you know, I wasn't working out

You know you get so beaten down and and like my body was hurting even more and Then when I started, you know working out that's how you can mask your pain through strength So if you don't use it, you lose it muscle memory penny in the jar every day It adds up. Put it in the bank. That's something Bill you say all the time when we go to condition the run-hill. Just put it in the bank. I love that. We got to have someone to tally all our bullshit so when he gets on this podcast finally, hopefully soon one day, when he's not you know doing other people's podcasts. He's launching his own podcast. Oh, he's launching five podcasts.

We just gotta read off his quotes, and I wanna ask him to do his, Coach, can you give me like, oh, what the fuck? And he'd probably look at me like he wanna fucking kill me, like. What was it, what I just just said put it in the bank put it in the put it in the bank what's the program one huh like we're not on the program we'll make it like that that Simpsons meme like say the line hey coach can you just say asshole fucking asshole can you say fucking asshole like Fucking asshole. Can you say fucking asshole?

Like back in the E-bombs world days, have like a Bill Belichick soundboard. Oh, we need a bill. We need a soundboard. We definitely do. Soundboards are a death of a podcast. We cannot do a soundboard. No, I didn't know the soundboard is for Bill. We could. All right. Next question. Hey, Joel, I'm Jake from East Lusatialana.

My brother looks up the UTV 12 and Rob Gronkowski is one of the goats that ever played the game and his idols. So I know it says if you're seeking sports advice, hit the hotline. But like, I'm going to hit the hotline to ask you a question. So one, what made you and TV 12 have such a good connection on and off the field? And then two, why did you shave your beard? It looks so sexy on either Connection is a practice repetition

You know we To make it look good on a Sunday. You got to do it like a trillion times. I don't even know the number But we had to do it a lot and then cut in the beard You know My mom likes it cut Lily kind of likes it cut not to can't be too short because the stubble hurts her So, I don't know. I just get bored with the beard. It's a lot of work You can't even drink a like when I my beard gets long

I can't drink us like slam my morning smoothie then it's gets in my lip and you got a flax seed in your fucking stash the flavor saver You know anything like just a lot. It's a lot a lot of work Tyler the chime in on this beard. I'm yelling at people on Okay, I thought is the beardsman For beard Beard's been long beard. Well that sounds about right. That sounds about right. Hold on, I remember this question. For a beard, don't do anything. That's the whole point of having a fucking beard. Yeah, but. You gotta line it up and do shit

than just shave your face. Yeah, but when you cut your beard, you don't have to do shit when you do activity. When you have a beard, you may not do shit for your face, but then you have to do a lot of shit reactively because of your beard. Like what? When you eat, you gotta like, you gotta make sure there's no fucking sauce in your beard. When you drink a smoothie, when you put your chin strap, you know, the shit's all up in there.

You got, and then your shit's looking weird. You know, it may have a little jeef on there after like a day of work. Like there's a lot that goes into a beard. So like the whole I don't give a no guys that have beards they give a fuck. Tomato tomato. Well that was a great episode and thanks again to old Billy Oh that was a fun one. He's the man.

You know I love Billy Oh Billy Oh that's been another episode of games with names. Subscribe on Apple podcast, Spotify, wherever you listen to your podcast. Comment a game you want us to do and remember rate and review. Remember to follow games with names on YouTube, Instagram, X, Tiktok and Snapchat. Leave a message on the old hotline at four to four24-291-2290. Those have been awesome. We'll see you guys next week.

Games with Names is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. week, but I can't do it alone. So I'm bringing in all the big guns from NFL media like Colleen Wolf. Subscribe today and you'll immediately be smarter and funnier than your friends. Listen now on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What's up y'all? It's Cam Jordan from the New Orleans Saints here to tell you it's going down on season two of my podcast, Off the Edge with me, Cam Jordan. Catch new episodes every Wednesday and I'll have the biggest NFL stars join me to give a player's perspective of the biggest storylines, trends, and did that really just happen moment

from around the league. So tap in to Off the Edge with Cam Jordan podcast, your ultimate playbook for all things football and not football. Listen on the iHeart, radio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. History is filled with unexpected stories, and I'd like to tell you about them. I'm Aaron Manke, and for the past six years, I've been sharing history's most curious tales on my podcast,

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Listen to the Fantasy Footballers Dynasty podcast on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Kari Champion, and this is season four of Naked Sports. Up first, I explore the making of a rivalry, Caitlin Clark versus Angel Reese. Every great player needs a foil. I know I'll go down to history.

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